wu wei?

[brymble]

help me to understand what this means.

[smckim]

It means without action, or non-doing. You will find alot of info re: this if you use Google:)

[Malcolm]

Its kinda like leading by example from what I understand...Like not engageing in activities you don't condone but respecting other peoples right to choose those actions, and not trying to convince them otherwise.

[fallingwater]

The Tao of Pooh explains this topic well.

But I'll try in my own words. It means doing things in the flow and not going against the current. Not forcing your will on everything. Say...you've got an afternoon of errands and there's a wreck and you're stuck in traffic. Instead of getting upset you turn on the radio and hear a commercial about a professional errand running service. You jot the number down. The traffic clears but instead of rushing around to get everything done in a shorter time. You go home and relax. You call the errand service. They happen to be in the neighborhood where your errands are, they complete everything on your list and give you the first service for free because they're running a promotion that month. It's like that.

[leaf-shadow]

actually, wu wei basically means non-action.
it doesnt mean follow the current, it doesnt mean not pressing ur ideas, it means not doing anything at all!!!
i dont remember the exact words in the translated version... but in Dao-de-jing (and yes that's the correct way to spell) there's a part that goes like:

Carrying the body and soul and embracing the one,
Can you avoid separation?
Attending fully and becoming supple,
Can you be as a newborn babe?
Washing and cleansing the primal vision,
Can you be without stain?
Loving all men and ruling the country,
Can you be without cleverness?
Opening and closing the gates of heaven,
Can you play the role of a woman?
Understanding and being open to all things,
Are you able to do nothing?
Giving birth and nourishing.
Bearing yet not possessing.
Working yet not taking credit.
Leading yet not dominating.
This is the Primal Virtue.

and there is also another part...

The Dao is an empty vessel; it is used but never filled.
Oh, unfathomable source of ten thousand things!
Blunt the sharpness,
Untangle the knot,
Soften the glare,
Merge with dust.
Oh, hidden deep but ever present!
I do not know from whence it comes.
It is the forefather of the emperors.

my understanding is that, one should do things to sustain oneself but never anything more than that. thus, "Bearing yet not possessing./Working yet not taking credit./Leading yet not dominating." and thus, "Blunt the sharpness,/Untangle the knot,/Soften the glare,/Merge with dust."

but then, that's jus my understanding.
the Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao, the name that can be named is not the eternal name......

[fallingwater]

Leaf Shadow...you do not understand the concept of WuWei. Don't talk of what you don't know. 'Tis far better to be silent.

Wu-wei refers to behavior that arises from a sense of oneself as connected to others and to one's environment. It is not motivated by a sense of separateness. It is action that is spontaneous and effortless. At the same time it is not to be considered inertia, laziness, or mere passivity. Rather, it is the experience of going with the grain or swimming with the current. Our contemporary expression, "going with the flow," is a direct expression of this fundamental Taoist principle, which in its most basic form refers to behavior occurring in response to the flow of the Tao.

The principle of wu-wei contains certain implications. Foremost among these is the need to consciously experience ourselves as part of the unity of life that is the Tao. Lao Tzu writes that we must be quiet and watchful, learning to listen to both our own inner voices and to the voices of our environment in a non-interfering, receptive manner. In this way we also learn to rely on more than just our intellect and logical mind to gather and assess information. We develop and trust our intuition as our direct connection to the Tao. We heed the intelligence of our whole body, not only our brain. And we learn through our own experience. All of this allows us to respond readily to the needs of the environment, which of course includes ourselves. And just as the Tao functions in a manner to promote harmony and balance, our own actions, performed in the spirit of wu-wei, produce the same result.

Wu-wei also implies action that is spontaneous, natural, and effortless. As with the Tao, this behavior simply flows through us because it is the right action, appropriate to its time and place, and serving the purpose of greater harmony and balance.

[leaf-shadow]

falling water, the dao is beyond ur understanding. dont attempt to explain what u dont understand.

daoism is a chinese religion, and like the chinese civilization, it is old. u need to know that the world at that time and that place is defferent from the world we live in, and the people are different too. wu wei doesnt mean "follow the current" or "go with the flow", that's exactly what daoists are against. wu wei actually means to disappear from the "flow". master Li HongZhi defined the ultimate law of the universe as Truth Compassion and Tolerance. the buddhists are concerned about most compassion, the confusians about tolerance, and the daoist about Truth. the daoist term for an enlightened person, is Jen-ren, or truth-person. the spiritual cultivater in china also speak about fan-ben-gui-zhen, "going back to the self, returning to truth". "the flow" is viewed as corrupted, people in the "flow" wants nothing but fame and money. lao zi's wu-wei means to disappear from this flow through non-action. while the flow goes after the wealth and glory, u stay silent, plant your fields and chew ur rice, and look inside. cultivate the spirit and let the body be wu-wei (literally non-action). this wu wei concept is the reason why many daoist lived in seclusion, that kind of practitioners of the wu-wei concept no longer exists today, probalbly because they can find a place for seclusion, =p, lol.
but basically, im trying to make this point:
wu-wei doesnt mean "do what every one else does, and follow the flow". daoists talks about yin-yang balance. if the flow becomes unbalanced, the person practicing wu-wei must keep his heart in balance despite the pressure from the society.

... urg, i would write more, but my mom's calling me to dinner....... gtg

[plumedsnake]

Falling leaf and Shadow Water. First T/D-ao is a chinese word originally written in chinese characters so there is no correct way to spell it in English. The english writing cannot capture the tonal inflections of Chinese, plus Chinese is not written phonetically and there are so many dialects and ways of pronouncing Chinese words. So neither Dao or Tao is right, nor wrong. In the Tao teh CHing there is a section about how stupid people are who go on about the fine distinctions between oo and aa. Just keeping with the Insulting flow/mood of this thread.
I don't think falling shadow meant do what everybody else is doing when he said go with the flow. The flow he meant (i hope) is the tao itself. It expands and contracts. If I felt like exerting myself, then I ought to just go ahead and exert myself. If it would require more effort/action to sit still than to run around, then I'm better off running around. Wu Wei doesn't mean doing nothing. doing nothing can be stressful sometimes. Wu Wei means doing what comes naturally. If I want to run for president and all my energies are pushing me in that direction, plus circumstances and events are pushing me in that direction too, then I ought to just go along and run for president. That is what going with the flow means.
Keeping silent, chewing rice and planting fields might not come naturally to me. Would you force me to do these things?

[Zurtok]

falling water, the dao is beyond ur understanding. dont attempt to explain what u dont understand.

daoism is a chinese religion, and like the chinese civilization, it is old. u need to know that the world at that time and that place is defferent from the world we live in, and the people are different too. wu wei doesnt mean "follow the current" or "go with the flow", that's exactly what daoists are against. wu wei actually means to disappear from the "flow".

... urg, i would write more, but my mom's calling me to dinner....... gtg

Umm, Leaf Shadow, everything I've ever read on Daoism would lead me to conclude that you're wrong on this point, but let me go through a few things.

Yes, Daoism is old, but what is age to a philosophy? How were people different? People are people, we have different cultures, genders, etc, but people at their most basic are...people. The place is only somewhat relavent to culture, but people are still people.

Wu Wei in my understanding means neither to go with the flow, nor to disappear from it. Though, I will be the first to admit that my understanding is quite limited. Wu Wei is preforming actions in a way that that they are essentially effortless, by joining the body and mind in purpose and in doing, and through that union acting in a way that is not acting. When the mind is quiet and we have removed preconceptions and simply DO, that is Wu Wei.

I don't think I can put it any clearer then that, and I certainly do recognize the fact that that's not terribly clear. For something that might help you have the experiance of Wu Wei, I recomend Tai Chi (though, I would also caution that it needs to be with an instructor who is more of a traditionalist, and doesn't practice the current "health" Tai Chi that the Chinese Government has put in place).