can someone please explain this concept to me in a clearer manner than my friend was able to? i've been told it's something i should understand, but i find it confusing. thanks.
It literally means to "not have doing" or more properly, without action, to not do. It is probably one of the most important tenets of the Tao. By failing to interfere with the natural state and evolution of the world, it broadens the Tao which is already a balanced, natural harmony. By allowing this, you become closer to one with the Tao and more powerful of mind and spirit. Is that easier to understand?
isn't it "doing-nondoing"? Like, going with the flow, letting the flow do it for you, through you. That's my understanding, but don't take that as gospel, I may be wrong.
moving through life like the grain in wood, like the ripples in a flowing stream, like the wind through the trees... ~ it is not impossible that alan watts has discussed wu-wei... drawing, np doubt, on writings from the old guy himself, and from chuangtzu, even from lin yutang...
The action of non-action is how it was explained to me. As gnrm23 said, it is like moving through life as wind through the trees. It does not ask why it does so, nor does it hesitate or need any reason. It simply passes through, because that is what it does. The flow of all things, and the Tao itself, passes through all of us...and to practice wu-wei is to sit back, let go, and allow that flow to continue unabated.
ive always more understod it not as action of non action but To act when you act and that to relaize your actions are not against but with the way of life, because well you are life I know trying to understand this stuff can be mind boggeling, ive always discribed it as trying to grab smoke
It's ACTIVE non-action. As opposed to doing fuck all, active non action means that you have an INTENT to do your shit in such a way that it doesn't fuck with the Tao.
but can you fuck with somehting that you are of? because you are of the tao the actions of you are the actions of the tao?
so you act where it feels natural dont analyze or you have stopped to play with the monkey, if you think to alter or "fuck with the tao" your no longer of the tao, your on your own playing with your monkey
doing good by doing little (whatever else you can say for or against it the object is to minimize the harm done by doing too much). a western way of expressing what i personaly believe about it is that there is no greater good then the avoidance of causing harm. like hypocrates, first do no harm. and indeed so much of the harm being done in our world today we all contribute to with so much of our exertions, that would we not be as well or better off, without both the objects of those exertions and the side harm periferaly caused in persuit of them? something of the sort, i rather suspect may have been the case in lao tzu's own day. =^^= .../\...
wu-wei is a foreign concept in our common culture (yes, there is one), yet is a common experience in life. Have you ever been in an emotionally charged conversation with your boy/girlfriend and things are so intense that you don't know what's going to happen next? Then, suddenly you hear yourself saying the RIGHT WORDS -flowing out of your mouth is a meaningful, deeply personal expression of your being in relation to the moment, and you find yourself even having addressed concerns that you had not consciously been aware of in your partner. WU-WEI. Have you been at the park or somewhere where a child just darts out towards traffic or some other danger, and without thought for yourself or of some sort of plan you do the RIGHT THING (grab, shout etc...) WU-WEI. It seems odd that the West has been so slow to recognize this.
there is right action without thought perhapse there is bennifit of not making exertions that cause harm actualy i can see a connection but it seems to me more a 'western' vanity to want to dismiss the responsibility to do one's thinking. the time for acting is not the time for making thought but for already having done so. this is not the same as not making time to make thought when we can. again though by thought in this instance i am not refering to ceasless inner dialog =^^= .../\...
He sure did, in Chapter 4 of Tao: The Watercourse Way Outstanding book, I'm reading each night in it and it's really opened my eyes a lot.
The best way I can describe it (according to my own understanding of it, of course) is it's kinda like kayaking in a river. Wu wei would be letting the current move you while using your paddle to simply steer clear of rocks and other hazards.
