8 Ideas For Wu Wei

https://www.kokoroart.it/shiatsu-e-la-posizione-seiza/ sounds like a pleasant invitation to relax or worse, fall into laziness or apathy. Yet this concept is key to the noblest form of action according to the philosophy of Daoism -- and is at the heart of what it means to follow Dao or The manner. According to the fundamental text of Daoism, the Dao De Jing:'The Way never acts yet nothing is left undone'. It doesn't meant not behaving, it signifies'effortless activity' or''actionless action'. This means being at peace while engaged in the most hectic activities so that one can carry out these with maximum skill and efficiency. Something of the significance of wu wei is recorded when we talk of being'in the zone' -- at one with what we are doing, in a state of profound concentration and stream.

Wu wei is closely connected to the Daoist reverence for the natural world, for it means trying to make our behaviour as spontaneous and inevitable as certain all-natural processes, and also to make sure that we are swimming with rather than against currents. We are to be like the bamboo that bends from the end or the plant that adjusts itself into the shape of a tree. Wu wei involves letting go of ideals that we may otherwise try to force too liberally onto things; it invites us instead to react to the true needs of situations, which often only to be noticed when we place our very own ego-driven plans apart. What can follow would be a loss of self-consciousness, a new unity between itself and its environment, which releases an energy that is ordinarily held back by an overly aggressive, wilful fashion of thinking.

But none of this means we will not be able to alter or affect things if we try for wu wei. The Dao De Jing points out that we should be like water, that is'submissive and weak' and'yet which can't be surpassed for assaulting what's hard and strong'. Through gentle persistence and a compliance with the specific shape of a problem, an obstacle can be worked around and gradually eroded.

The thought of achieving the greatest consequences by a smart strategic passivity has been fundamental to Chinese notions of politics, diplomacy and business. From the manuals on intellect generated by Daoists, we are repeatedly told that rather than impose a strategy or model on a circumstance, we ought to let others behave frantically, then gently adjust ourselves as we determine the direction that matters have evolved in.

In China's Tang dynasty, many poets likened wu wei to the best aspects of becoming drunk. It was not alcoholism that they had been encouraging, but the decrease in rigidity and anxiety that comes with being a bit drunk, and that can enable us to accomplish specific tasks. 1 poet contrasted someone inspired by wu wei to a drunk man who drops uninjured from a cart -- such is their spiritual momentum they are unaffected by injuries and misfortunes that might violate those of a controlled and controlling mindset.

Theories of painting in the Tang period onwards made wu wei fundamental to artistic practice. Rather than laboriously trying to replicate nature reliably, the artist should find nature inside themselves and concede to its own calls. The painter's job isn't to imitate the external surface of things, but to exhibit the qi or'soul' of things such as mountains, trees, rivers and birds by feeling some of the soul in themselves -- and then letting it stream out through the brush on paper or silk.