The Ancient Practice of Wu Wei
“Do that which consists of no action and order will prevail.” - The Tao Te Ching, China 600 BC
This concept that was written about in The Tao Te Ching is known as Wu Wei.
It is the act of allowing the spontaneous, divine action of all things. Rather than trying to force life to bend to our ideas of how we think things should go, rather, we allow life to spontaneously unfold of its own accord.
For the highly motivated, restless or ambitious soul, this concept would feel like madness. It’s like, Seriously? So I just sit around all day and do nothing?
Of course not.
Is that how your life has unfolded up to this point? No. We could no more stop the natural flow of life if we tried. Yet our minds jump in - they’re so tyrannical, aren’t they?! - and tell us, sometimes on a continuous basis, to do more!!!…do this!!!…do that!!!
This inner tyranny is supported by an entire fleet of belief systems that remind us of the following:
If we are to be good enough, we would be doing more…achieving more.
If we are to be capable, smart, accomplished, we would be producing more.
If we are to be contributing members of society, we should be contributing more.
Don’t be lazy.
Get off your ass.
Make more money.
DO MORE!!!!!!
You get the picture, lovely human.
We all have some version of an army sergeant barking orders at us inside of our heads all day long. And the bottom line belief that upholds this near constant barrage of inner ass kicking is that we’re never quite good enough as we are.
And yet….
When Consciousness begins to take up more and more space within the experience we call ourselves, we come to see that there is, indeed, a great Divine Order in all things. That we could not be separate from that Order if we tried. That, at the deepest level, there is actually, surprisingly, no separate person at the helm directing anything.
It has all been decreed by a spontaneous, Intelligent, Divine hand.
Even our forcing of life has been written into the script.
Yet at some point, that too will be seen through. That illusory bubble will burst.
So what exactly is this practice of Wu Wei?
It is the relaxing into Presence. It is trusting that you are a piece of art that has been animated by God. It is the realization that you are a beam of sunlight that could not possibly be separate from the central sun of which it has shone forth.
But in its simplest form, it means that you are not the doer and as such, do not force life.
So all of the inner hysteria around your worth, your ‘next best steps’, your contributions to this lovely planet, are all for naught. They won’t actually move the dial in any direction it wasn’t going to go in, in the first place.
In fact, an enlightened or awake teacher will tell you that when they finally let go and fully opened to life’s spontaneous movement, that the whole of their lives took on an entirely different sheen.
Life moving through an unbound, unclenched, open hand and heart, pours through much differently than through the clenched fist.
You never had the control you once wished you did. That would mean you had truly been cast adrift from the whole of Life and that is simply not possible.
The enlightened Indian scholar, Krishnamurti brilliantly stated: When you are free, you have no choice.
Take that in for a moment. Read it twice.
Your mind might scream and yell, that’s absurd!!!
But your heart will bow to this sentiment. It will take a giant exhale and whisper, thank God.
As someone wise once said to me, be courageously relaxed.
Let life guide you Home.