Change is


2004 10 01    |    etc    no date    2024 +    2025    entries    home

Taoism teaches the concept of wu-wei, or non-striving. It means that one should not interfere in what are the dictates of the Tao, that one should not attempt to alter the natural state of something, its natural flow. To put it another way: All things are as they already are, and that is how they are supposed to be. Being is. It's sometimes difficult to reconcile this concept of wu-wei, difficult not to attempt to affect change when we think it needs to be affected. I won't go into the intricacies of why wu-wei is so important, because it can turn into a very lengthy explanation - and no good Taoist would go for that. Words, as both Chuang Tzu and Lao Tzu taught, are traps, distractions, inadequate, and unnecessary. Suffice it to say, that it has to do with the fact that all things in the universe are part of the Tao, which means that, in a sense, they are all the same.

That said, here is a question:

If I am already in my natural state, the way I am supposed to be according to the dictates of the Tao, would my - for example - taking up Yoga for self-improvement not be somehow contrary to the dictates of the Tao? Would I not be interfering in the natural order of things?

That's an over-simplified query, and the answer to it would probably be no; no because my natural state would be directing me to take up Yoga, which would - if not by the Yoga itself - increase my attunement with the Tao. It would have nothing to do with the Yoga itself; it would be because I had done something that increases understanding of the self, which increases understanding of the nature of man and being, which increases understanding of the Tao. The specific activity isn't important, it's activity that is, and my awareness of that activity.

The oversimplistic way of viewing Taoism is, I think, "go with the flow" and "this too shall pass". Like Buddhism, it recognises the fleeting nature of being, and embraces the changeable nature of all existence. Change is.


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