Wu-Wei 無爲 Non-Action
How to Live Your Life Without Trying
A Beginner’s Guide to Taoism
How to Live Your Life Without Trying
“…You’re in tune with everything that’s going on. You control the tempo, you control everything. It’s like you can do anything.” — Michael Jordan, 1992
No professional athlete knows what it’s like to be “in the zone” more than Michael Jordan: multiple 50 pts games and even 60 pts games. When asked what it is like to play those kinds of games by Playboy in 1992, Jordan stated the quote above. He would go on to describe that it seemed effortless. He could do everything and anything he wanted, and it always worked.
And it’s not just Michael Jordan who has noticed this phenomenon. Search for any dominating professional athlete, and they’ll tell you the same thing. It almost feels like they aren’t even trying. It was action without effort. A natural, automatic state of being flowed from them, which allowed them to perform incredible feats, and they weren’t even thinking about what action they were performing.
However, you don’t have to be a professional athlete to experience effortless action. Have you ever concentrated on an activity so hard that everything in your mind disappears?
How about during sex? What makes good sex? Is it not when you’re mentally switched on that nothing else in the world seems to matter except for your body touching?
If you’ve ever been so focused that everything else fades away, you lived Wu Wei.
Wu Wei is the practice of taking no action that is not in accord with the natural course of the universe.
How do we know that the action is in accord with the natural course of the universe, you ask? When you don’t think about it and when it flows out of you without having to concentrate actively. The significant part about Wu Wei is that it can happen more often than you think.
Here is an exercise you can perform to help you live Wu Wei.
In his book The Miracle of Mindfulness, Tich Naut Han tells a story about when he was washing dishes at a friend’s house. In it, he states that when you clean the dishes, only think about cleaning the dishes. Don’t think about anything else but doing the dishes. So let your day fade from your mind, and concentrate on each dish, plate, or bowl. Listen to the running water drown the noise of life away.
In my house, we divide chores between my wife and I. Dishes are my chore five days a week, but I love it! Over the past year, I’ve noticed a few things about the task.
The sound seems to match the pitch of my tinnitus and helps relieve the stress of the ringing
If I’m worried about the day or regretful about yesterday, those emotions fade away too
This result didn’t come quickly; it takes daily practice, but you can get there with anything action. After enough exercise, you can live your entire day this way! Please don’t think that I’m a master at it, but I am a pretty good dishwasher.
Another similar topic that I want to write about next week is Ziran. Ziran is the spontaneity aspect of living your life in Wu Wei. But we will wait until next week.
I hope I’ve been able to express how excellent Wu Wei can be and give you an example of how you can start to experience this fantastic state of living! Join me every Friday as I unpack new concepts and insights about Taoism.
