Wu Wei. The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
“Wu wei is an important concept ofTaoism (Daoism), that involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Another perspective to this is that “Wu Wei” means natural action – as planets revolve around the sun, they “do” this revolving, but without “doing” it; or as trees grow, they “do”, but without “doing”. Thus knowing when (and how) to act is not knowledge in the sense that one would think “now” is the right time to do “this”, but rather just doing it, doing the natural thing.
Wu may be translated as not have or without; Wei may be translated as do, act, serve as, govern or effort. The literal meaning of Wu Wei is “without action”, “without effort”, or “without control”, and is often included in the paradox wei wu wei: “action without action” or “effortless doing”. The practice of wu wei and the efficacy of wei wu wei are fundamental tenets in Chinese thought and have been mostly emphasized by the Taoist school. The aim of wu wei is to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium, or alignment with the Tao, and, as a result, obtain an irresistible form of “soft and invisible” power.”
In our culture the misperception with wu wei or ‘without effort’ is that it implies that you are doing nothing, but when things are looked at through the lens of yin/ yang theory, yang or the action energy fundamentally evolves because of the yin, the introspective, still energy. You don’t have the active energy without the inactive or still energy. ‘Without effort’ is intimately connected to ‘with effort’.
People are becoming increasingly aware that meditation, wu wei, getting centered and grounded isn’t just being lazy. It is a matter of productivity and efficiency.
Learning the art of wu wei will make you more productive, not less so. It will reduce unnecessary energy expenditure, result in less illness, help you see things more clearly, help reduce impulsive and compulsive behaviors, both very action based. And of course it will help you be more chilled out and happy.
