In my ongoing search for something to give people to call me besides "Godless Heathen" and "Communist Atheist", I have, for the last couple years, spent significant time looking into Taoist philosophy. In my usual fashion, I can't swallow the full shtick. Some of it is just a little too mystical for me to really grok, but there is one concept that makes rock solid sense to me. In fact, I'm making every effort to pattern my every action on the concept. Seriously.

Wei Wu Wei is a Chinese phrase that translates literally into "do without do" and loosely into "action without action" or "effortless action. It's the kind of action represented, in Taoist thought, by the movement of the planets around the sun, or of a tree growing, or maybe of a stream flowing downhill. It is a natural action, in keeping with the actor's inherent nature and in harmony with the environment. This is in opposition to unnatural action, in conflict with one's own nature and the surrounding world, or even "inaction".

It is emphatically not the same thing as "letting yourself go" or "being lazy" or "doing whatever you want to". That sort of thing is unsustainable and leads to degradation and death. Self destruction is not, at least for me, simpatico with natural action.

I tend to think of Wei Wu Wei as a sort of psychic judo, using the energy of the forces that work against us, and redirecting it down channels that achieve our purpose. It attacks problems at oblique angles, rather than head on, using minimal force to deflect them rather instead of brute force to stop them. It's a hip toss as opposed to a karate chop.

In application to the activities of an individual, imagine getting a job doing your hobby, marrying your best friend, exercising when you feel most energetic, eating only when hungry, and avoiding people who tend to annoy you. Add to that things like standing up from the dinner table when you feel full, not finishing a book that bores you, and never laboring to present a false facade. It all sounds so simple and obvious, and yet how often do I exercise when it matches my schedule (if at all), eat until my plate is empty, try to maintain relationships that I think are good for me, finish books because other people seemed to like them and present a personality to please other people? Too often.

Guilt and identity

One might wonder why I'd be jumping on the trendy new (ancient) bandwagon, and the answer would be as plain as the wrinkles on my face: I'm putting on the years. As I get older, I think it's a natural progression to move from "trying to find yourself" to "coming to terms with yourself". Old folks are not, as rule, much in to putting on airs and attempting to mold themselves into being the people others want them to be. They know who they are, for better or worse, and are resigned to make the best of it. Old folks don't pull their trousers up to their nipples just because all the other geezers are doing it. They do it because the no longer have hips. And they don't care if it amuses you.

I believe that a lot of the unhappiness we have in our lives is because we feel guilty for not living up to our potential. For not eating as healthy as we know we should, or for not excising like the books suggest, or for not becoming as successful as our father's might have hoped. However the problem is not in our grasp, but in our reach. We fail because we are judging ourselves by alien measures. To eliminate this silly and ultimately valueless emotion, we must first understand who we are, what we stand for, and what truly matters in our lives. And then, we should simply do what comes naturally.

A Practical Application

We are all such a tangled web of promises, rules, expectations and such, it's sometimes hard to know where amongst all that the the outside world ends and we begin. We must make a concerted effort to analyse our own motives ask ourselves "For whom did I just do that?" "Who's values am I attempting to satisfy?" "Precisely why should I eat more vegetables?" Take none of our understandings of the universe at face value. Assume none of our habits to be "natural". We should pattern our actions not on "what we want" but upon "who we are".

In my mind, a practical application of this concept entails doing things like evaluating that which makes you feel shame or guilt and asking yourself why. Really, nothing should have that effect on you, if you have truly embraced the concept. Either you shouldn't even want to do something outside of your true nature, or you should feel no guilt for simply acting according to your nature. I think that, in any "normal" life, there is probably a lot of both going on. Either we do things outside our nature because of a misplaced sense of duty, obligation, propriety or even simple bad habits, or we do what comes naturally but feel bad about it for the same reasons. The root causes are external, not of ourselves, and we can choose to internalize them if they harmonious with our intrinsic values, or reject them if they are in conflict.

So where from here? Well, Wu Wei is not like a New Years resolution - some radical departure from what you've always done in order to become someone better. That sort of change is nonsense and never works. You're probably closer to your natural self, however imperfect, before embarking on that bit of self-delusion. No, like any change that sticks, Wu Wei is realized gradually, as you come to know yourself and how you most effortlessly fit into the universe.

So the first thing to do, of course, is nothing. Simply be still and listen. Then just go with the flow.