![\"\u7121-oraclebone\"](\"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/\u7121-oraclebone.jpg\")
\u00a0![\"\u70ba-bigseal\"](\"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/\u70ba-bigseal.jpg\")
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Wuwei is probably the most inspired concept in all of human history.\u00a0 Laozi coined this term in the Dao De Jing, and it is indeed the central theme of the text.\u00a0 Laozi did not develop the basic cosmogony of Daoism \u2013 the waxing & waning of yin & yang was already well understood long before, and numerous other Daoist theories & practices are not necessarily inspired by Laozi.\u00a0 What Laozi presented was wuwei \u2013 how the Dao functions in the world and how the sage conducts himself.\u00a0 Although this term is important in all Daoist traditions, different traditions have different interpretations of what it means.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the old characters* from the perspective of our tradition.<\/p>\n
The old character for wu (\u7121) shows a person (\u4eba) holding wood (\u6728) in either hand.\u00a0 Perhaps because of the homophones for shaman (\u5deb) and dancer (\u821e), it is often understood as a dancing shaman holding ritual sticks. \u00a0I also see a person in the forest \u2013 a homeless hermit with nothing to his\/her name, or a person holding \u201cthe uncarved block\u201d \u2013 grasping unmanifest simplicity.\u00a0 I also notice the entire character conveys the image of fire (\u706b), and the modern traditional character places the radical for fire (\u706c) at the bottom, so the image of burning wood (i.e. transformation) may be important to understanding the meaning of wu.\u00a0 Finally, some observers\u00a0note the modern character looks like bundled crops with seeds in the ground, suggesting an empty field after harvest, full of potential.\u00a0 Taking the gestalt of these images, I see a shaman-sage conducting a ritual dance on the edge of existence & nothingness\u00a0–\u00a0transforming something from one state to another.\u00a0 This ritual represents what Hindus call the dance of Shiva.\u00a0 What Brahma creates, Shiva destroys.\u00a0 Shiva is not a devil; Shiva is that aspect of Dao that moves things along \u2013 transformation through destruction.\u00a0 So wu means emptying things out, purging and moving them along, sending spirit up and leaving only ashes below.\u00a0 It can also mean having nothing \u2013 no home or belongings, no agendas or delusions.\u00a0 Wu is commonly used to denote nothingness or the lack of something.<\/p>\n
The old character for wei (\u70ba) shows a claw above an elephant.\u00a0 I’m not sure about this, but whereas hand (\u624b) represents skillful activity, claw (\u722a)\u00a0seems to imply exertion of force. \u00a0I\u00a0believe\u00a0elephant (\u8c61) symbolizes strength and intelligence.\u00a0 This makes sense, as\u00a0wei means cleverly wielding strength \u2013 deliberate, intentional activity undertaken in order to achieve some result.\u00a0 Leading the elephant where you want it to go.\u00a0 The character for elephant also means form or appearance, so another meaning could be to claw at appearances, which also implies exerting force to get something.\u00a0 Most of Daoism throughout history has indeed consisted of undertaking intentional methods in order to achieve specific results.\u00a0 Interestingly, when the character for person is added to the left, it generates another character wei (\u507d) that means false pretense, artificial, or contrived.\u00a0 I think wei also suggests the magical \u201cgetting what you want\u201d practices that exist within Daoism.<\/p>\n
What does it mean when we put these two words together?\u00a0 The Dao De Jing has no punctuation marks and the language is very terse, so terms like wuwei can be read separately as wu & wei or together as a single concept.\u00a0 Some schools interpret wuwei as using emptiness (wu) in order to achieve certain results (wei); others interpret it as using intention (wei) in order to push things along to another state (wu).\u00a0 In our tradition, we view wuwei as a single concept that describes the way nature functions.<\/p>\n
Wu is our state before birth.\u00a0 Before our mother & father were born, what were we?\u00a0 Long after our children pass away, what are we?\u00a0 In our practice, we become intimate with the nothingness that precedes, underlies, and outlasts our lives.\u00a0 Our tradition notes that no matter how much effort (wei) we apply in shaping the world to meet our desires, wu always comes along and transforms our creations back into nothingness.\u00a0 Even if we make some huge mark on the world, eventually that mark passes away.\u00a0 Wuwei invites us to try something different.\u00a0 What would it be like to apply wu to our wei?\u00a0 Extinguish all effort.\u00a0 Abandon strength and cleverness.\u00a0 This shift opens up the possibility of relating to the world (and to our practice of meditation & qi-cultivation) in a different way.\u00a0 Relating without struggle & strain.<\/p>\n
Wei is based on wanting things to be other than they are.\u00a0 Wuwei is accepting things as they are, and adjusting to the continuous transformations of nature.\u00a0 Laozi\u2019s practice is not about getting what we want but relaxing into\u00a0the way things are.<\/p>\n
Wuwei is how we come into the world and how we grow and change and return.\u00a0 Wuwei is how water flows downstream, how clouds form and break apart, how trees grow and blow in the wind.\u00a0 Nature functions through wuwei \u2013 the birth, growth, maturation, decline, & death of myriad worlds & creatures is not driven by intention and effort.\u00a0 It just happens.\u00a0 Like good art.\u00a0 The ritual image of wu suggests personal engagement in this natural process.<\/p>\n
Laozi said: \u201cwuwei but not buwei\u201d \u2013 wuwei is not \u201cdoing nothing\u201d as a direct translation might suggest.\u00a0 Daoism includes\u00a0various active practices of hygiene, meditation, & ritual.\u00a0 But Laozi\u2019s tradition does not focus on practicing particular methods so much as on how<\/em> we practice whatever we are practicing.\u00a0 Wuwei invokes a qualitative shift away from struggle & strain, finding natural ease in our conduct moment-to-moment.\u00a0 Retract the claws and dance with Shiva.<\/p>\n *image source: Richard Sears – thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Wuwei is probably the most inspired concept in all of human history.\u00a0 Laozi coined this term in the Dao De Jing, and it is indeed the central theme of the text.\u00a0 Laozi did not develop the basic cosmogony of Daoism \u2013 the waxing & waning of yin & yang was already well understood long … Continue reading “What is Wu-Wei (\u7121\u70ba)?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}