Speaking from Stillness is a fun series transcribing unscripted thoughts while on morning dog walks in my jungle valley. I walk in stillness, then allow whatever arises to get recorded and transcribed. I try to keep them short. The transcript is lightly edited for clarity.
Wu-Wei is the Taoist term for Effortless Action…and it points to the proper way to live life.
Now Effortless Action is not no-action. Being either consumed by the busy-ness of the mind, and the go-go-getter, hustler-hustle culture of trying to do things, trying to achieve things, busy-busy-busy, always thinking, always acting, because you want to create something, you want to achieve something. That is one form of action.
The other, opposite, I guess, form of action would be a decision to do nothing. That is to be passive. And some people when they hear the term like Effortless Action, they think of it as, ‘Well that must be being passive, that is not making choices.’ But that actually, is a state of passivity, is non-action, which itself is a choice of an action.
The subtlety of Wu-Wei…it is that you allow Awareness, allow Consciousness, to act through you. You allow your body and your mind to act in accordance with what is required…in The Moment. To act, to either protect or preserve or nourish your body-mind or those around you, or reacting to the stimuli of nature that is around you.
But in a particular moment, you act. Now, what makes it Effortless…is that you act as you will, and as nature requires of you, in The Moment…but you have no-concern about the outcome.
You are not attached to what the result of the action is. You are just acting, as is appropriate, in that moment. There is no judgment. There is no worry. Once the action is passed, you don’t think about the action again. Or worry about ‘Why did I act in that particular way?’
The truth is, you could look at the action and go, ‘That was a bad action, or that was not something that I normally would do’. But the truth is, if you acted in a particular way, it is what nature around you required of you in that moment.
And so whatever happens, you acted in that way. And now you are on to the next moment.
Effortless Action, it’s very important, in that you are not worrying and planning for something in the future.
And this might be, in our hustle culture, one of the hardest things. You’re not constantly acting and measuring from a to-do list. You may create a to-do list in a moment of ‘These are things I want to do while I am out of the house. These are things I want to pick up or drop off.’
Sure, that can be helpful. If in the moment you feel drawn to create that list so that you can work from it later, that’s great. That is not trying to control the future, that is acting in the moment.
However, measuring yourself against the to-do list…’I failed because I didn’t get everything’. Or I am creating a to-do list that will allow me to compete with my neighbours, and if I do everything on this list…think hustle culture again…if I accomplish all these things on the list, then others will look favourably upon me.
Those actions are not-effortless.
Effortless Action is being in this moment, acting in this moment. It’s not hoping to act in the proper way, in this moment, because there is no proper way.
As you act, it is the right way, regardless of what it is, regardless of a judgment you might have of, ‘I wish I acted a different way’. There is none of that. That is why it’s considered Effortless Action.
Again, this is not passive. This is just non-attachment to an outcome. An action occurs in one moment, and the next moment will require another action.
And that is the subtle beauty of Wu-Wei. And in the Taoist tradition, that is The Way to live.
In today’s world, we might call it a Flow State.
A skilled tradesman, or woodworker, or cook, will just know what the next action (that) is required as they work on their project, will allow their experience, will allow their skill, will allow their perception to work through themselves.
They know as they’re acting, that they will create what they’re supposed to create. They’ll know that if a mistake is made, they will fix it. They know they have the skill, so they’re not worried about trying to control it, or worried about what the outcome will be ‘In that moment’, in that flow state.
And the Taoist Wu-Wei is living your entire life ‘In that moment.’
That requires surrendering outcomes,
It requires not being attached to any particular outcome,
It requires living your life simply, and
Acting according to what is in front of you ‘At that moment.’
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