The phrase 'wu wei' has been thrown about much lately, with proper usage I belive, and according surcumstances, but what does this mean?
It is rare to read any Taoist philosophical literature without comming across the term, but given the paradox of much of the daozang, and the term itself, many young travelers on the path may be confused by the concept of wu wei, however, if they were to contemplate wu wei using wu wei it would make perfect sense... Below are some deffinitions that I hastely copied from the internet using the search 'deffinition of wu wei', but for the most concise deffinition I have come across we must trvel outside of philisophical daoism to the west, in the Bahagvad-Gita. In the Gita Krishna has this to say, not verbatum but,'It is not enough for man to abstane from action in order to liberate oneself from the act, inaction alone does not lead to perfection, for man is condemned to act.' Then Krishna goes on to explain that one should fullfill the requirements of his situation yet remain unattatched to the 'fruit of action'. In this way, not driven to act because one desires the outcome of the act, one is freed from karmic law, and all actions arise from tao as opposed to will.
wu-wei
Pronunciation: (wOO'w?'), [key]
¡Xn.
(in philosophical Taoism) action accomplishing its purpose in accordance with the natures of things and events. Cf. yu-wei.
Wu Wei is translated as the law of "non doing".
Lao Tzu describes the action/nonaction of someone who has realized the Tao as wu-wei
But, ofcourse, this is all just a bunch of jumbled words, the realization of what has been said comes when one ceases to act with selfish intent, which is the supreme obstical to enlightenment.
wu-wei to me is acting free of desire, to persue the course and not the outcome. If you act without premeditation then your actions will always be suiting of the natural course of the moment. Does the bee premeditate the path he will follow as he collects pollen from the flowers, or does he simply go? To simply go is "nondoing" it is wu-wei.
Devils advocate for a second here... Who are we to determine that our desires do not arise from tao, that wu wei is superior to lustful intentions? Sure, they may ultimately bring suffering, but who among us can say that suffering is superior to...'enlightenment'? Perhaps enlightenment is the burden of the waise just as egocenticism is that of the fool. I prefer to be the hermit crab, a dangerous lieazon (sp?) between the universal mind and my own bodily urges.
do not misunderstand my use of the word "desire". I do not mean physical desire, I mean intent. If one steps into a situation with the desire for any given outcome to occur, then this gives rise to the oportunity for disapointment. If you never desire any specific outcome of any situation then you will never be disapointed and in turn always act spontaniously and correctly according to the situation. this is the occuring function of wu wie. The best I can do to put such a thing in to words is state its function. How many times did Li Zi say that so many things can not be put into words. And my dear Aku, to advocate the Devil is to give acknowledgement to a devils existance. Who is the devil? Is it me? Is it you? how do you advocate him? And if so how would he react to advocation?
The Devil is Tao, and encompases all the same functions one would attribute to the satanic seraphim. There is nothing to transcend, and no one to transcend it. People argue about tao, action, ideas, nothing, it's mu. I revel in my motives, so fully arriving from tao, in my deepest desire is the seed of the entire univers, and the manifestation is the seed aswell. The fool is tao as the wise, the dirty and the clean. What I don't advocate is monolateralism. I embrace every foul deed and thought as tao in it's fullness, in the bible it says, "Blessed is he who is poor in spirit."
Because I believe that such a one is better capable of a complete perspective than one who would deny his demons in the name of piety. This is not to say that yin is my only province, for I am a man who has wandered to the edges of the sea and beyond, touched the sky, looked down on the rightious and profane with mutual admiration, just for being, for not being.
Taoist Cosmology
Wu Chi.
According to Taoist cosmology, before the beginning of the manifested universe, there was a state of total emptiness. In this primordial state, nothing stirred. The relative concept of time did not apply to the primordial state, because there was nothing to measure time against. All was a void. The ancient Taoists gave it a name. It was called Wu Chi. Wu means absence, negation, nothingness. The Chi in Wu Chi (though it is spelled the same way in English), as the word that means life force is a totally different word in Chinese. The Chi in Wu Chi means "highest" or "ultimate". Wu Chi thus means "ultimate state of nothingness".
(In the modern Chinese spelling you write for this Chi (energy): Ji, for the other Chi (ultimate), Qi.)
Tai Chi.
The Primordial Tin and Yang.
The Wu Chi stirred through some unknown impulse, and the First moment of creation began. This first impulse manifested Chi through the primordial polarity of Yin and Yang, negative and positive. The interplay of Yin and Yang is the essential expression Of Wu Chi. The Taoists named this process Tai Chi or "Supreme Ultimate". All the multiplicity of phenomena found in the universe, visible or invisible, are the results of Yin and Yang interaction.
Chi.
The Source of all Movement.
Chi, or life force, is the foundation of all the Taoist practices, in the same way that electricity is the foundation of modern civilization. Without electricity, practically every aspect of our modern life style could come to a stop. Similarly, without Chi, one's life would come to an abrupt halt. Chi can be defined as bio-electricial, life force, vitality, or simply energy. Chi is all of these, but none of them exclusively. Just as electricity is still incomprehensible to scientists in its total breadth and depth, Chi is beyond intellectual understanding.
According to the ancient Taoists, Chi is found in the air we breathe, yet it is not just oxygen or any of the other gaseous components of the atmosphere. Chi is also found in the food we eat, yet it is not just a vitamin, mineral, or carbohydrate that we can chemically isolate. Chi is absorbed into the food we east through the process of photosynthesis, yet it is not sunlight or any other type of ray detectable by modem scientists' sensing devices. Chi is the essence of the food we eat and the air we breathe, the real nourishment of the body. When we breathe or eat, we are taking Chi into our bodies. Without Chi, there can be no life.
The Five Elements or Phases of Energy.
The interaction of Yin and Yang is expressed though five basic phases of energy behavior, often called the Five Elements. The Five Elements refer not only to the five physical elements we find all around, but also to the ways Chi expresses itself in the universe. The first phase is energy at rest, energy in an extreme state of quietness and concentration. This phase is named water, because water, if undisturbed, naturally becomes extremely still. The second phase is a development of the first; if energy is extremely quiet and concentrated, it bursts into activity at some point, just like the Wu Chi. This second phase is that expansion of energy. It is called wood, because trees burst into activity in the spring after their long period of winter rest. The burst of activity in the wood phase cannot last for long; it soon stabilizes into a period of sustained energy releases. This third phase is named fire, because fire is able to sustain a high level of energy release over a long period. As the high energy releases the fire begins to decline, it gives rise to the fourth phase, that of contracting energy. The fourth phase is called metal, because metal is a very condensed state of energy. The fifth phase of energy is that of central balance and harmony of all the other four phrases. This final phase is named earth, because the earth is the ground of all the other elements.
Yin/Yang is the root and trunk of all creation; the Five Elements are the branches that bear the leaves, lowers, and fruits of the universe. The result of the five phases of energy is the manifestation and activity of the sun, moon, stars, plants, and all life on earth. This view of Taoist cosmology may seem abstract and simplistic, but modem science has arrived at essentially the same view of creation. All matter throughout the universe is made of atomic particles. The atoms, once believed to be the smallest indivisible particles of matter, have proved under observation to be made of subatomic particles and waves, all propelled into motion by the polarity of the positive and the negative. Scientists have also arrived at a concept of an original explosion of energy, which they refer to as the Big Bang.
Taoists view the universe as a vast ocean of interacting energy driven by the fundamental interplay of Tin and Yang. Humans are one of the most complex manifestations of such interaction.
The universe as a manifestation of the Five Elements is self-sustaining. All living creatures are constantly interacting with all the elements of creation through the processes of eating, breathing, sensing, feeling, and thinking.
The Eight Forces
Like the Five Phases of Energy, the Eight Forces of Nature are also the result of the interplay of Tin and Yang. Together they form the power symbol of the pakua, and combined together they form the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. In fact, the Five phases of energy correspond with these Eight Forces of Nature. The eight forces are the basic energy formations of nature.
Where do we derive our Life Force?
The basic source of human energy, according to Taoists, comes from our parents. The Yin energy of the mother in the egg and the Yang energy of the father in the sperm provide the initial sparks that ignite the fire of life. This energy from the parents is called prenatal energy or Original Chi
A second source of our energy is the air we breathe and the food we eat and the Chi we absorb. We call .this postnatal energy.
Chi is radiation from the stars in the form of light, electromagnetic waves. and subsonic vibrations. The most prominent stars in this process are the sun. the North Star, and the stars in the constellation known as the Big Dipper.
Humans in particular depend on the Chi radiated through space by the stars and planets for sustenance. The air we breathe is charged with cosmic energy in the form of extremely fine particles of cosmic "dust." This dust is the residue of exploded stars, planets and asteroids. It rains constantly onto the earth, forming an essential component of the soil.
Plants are the only living organisms that can directly transform light into nourishment. Humans absorb light energy indirectly by eating either vegetables or the flesh of other animals that feed on plants.
The interaction of light, cosmic dust in the soil. and air, together with water, forms the basis for photosynthesis in plants. All life on earth depends on plant life, either directly or indirectly. The great majority of organisms feed directly on plants, and a small minority feed on other animals that eat plants.
Chi is life, and abundant energy is abundant life. If our energy supply is low due to illness or excessive emotions, we experience low vitality and lack of drive. Living ceases to be an enjoyable experience: we feel disconnected from the environment, from society, and from ourselves. Taoists therefore place extreme importance on cultivating and maintaining a high level of energy to strengthen one's connection with the universe and oneself.
The ultimate goal of Taoist practice is attaining a state of complete union with the source of the universe. All life emerges from Wu Chi unconsciously. Through Taoist practices, one can attain immortality and return to he Wu Chi consciously to dissolve into oneness. Taoists actively encourage any practice or point of view that helps strengthen our connection with the universe. The most direct way of sustaining our links with all creation is by cultivating the energy that is the foundation of life.
.........teachings of Mantak Chia
are we really strenthening our connection to the universe, or merely our awareness of it? Are we ourselves seperated from the source, and must swim up stream to find our origins? Am I not here, in the center, at every moment? I am of the idiology that one cannot exscape perfecion, that one cannot help but be submerged in the essence of existence. That for all of our chanting and austerieties there is little room for improvement. The birds, merely performing their functions, their chirping, can we say that they are confused and need to realign themselves with tao? How, then, can we say man is any different? Perhaps we have yet to realize our own functions, the god manifest within. And say one truly knows and understands all that you've said, then what? Is there some perverbial secret that we're now in on? Does this knowledge grant us an endge over the competition, is it better to suffer in ignorance, or a fools bliss of "understanding"? I would like an answer from the depths of YOURSELF! This is where the 'secret' lives, recount for me again the timeless wisdom of the ancients, I've heard it all, I've read and read, I've talked at length, I've posted, I've understood and been struck blind countless times, just for some one to reply from the heart, not the head, not the books. To embrace the folly of being human, instead of shunning oneself for the sake of high ideals. Who can find the balance without the denial? I seek to deny nothing, only by affirming that which is I come to know that which may be, in myself, in the ten million things.
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Below are some deffinitions that I hastely copied from the internet using the search 'deffinition of wu wei', but for the most concise deffinition I have come across we must trvel outside of philisophical daoism to the west, in the Bahagvad-Gita. In the Gita Krishna has this to say, not verbatum but,'It is not enough for man to abstane from action in order to liberate oneself from the act, inaction alone does not lead to perfection, for man is condemned to act.' Then Krishna goes on to explain that one should fullfill the requirements of his situation yet remain unattatched to the 'fruit of action'. In this way, not driven to act because one desires the outcome of the act, one is freed from karmic law, and all actions arise from tao as opposed to will.
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