Wu Wei is not Hedonism

Wu Wei, the Daoist concept of "going with the grain, rolling with the punch, swimming with the current, trimming sails to the wind, taking the tide at its flood, and stooping to conquer"* is easily misunderstood. I guess especially by Westerners, as it originates from a very different culture. I myself feel like I certainly misunderstood this concept in some ways. It's important to note however, that with my interpretation of wu wei, which is about to follow, I do not claim that that is the right way to understand it. It's just how I personally feel about it right now and what I feel I have misunderstood previously. First, let's get an idea of what wu wei is about, so that afterwards it will be clearer what it isn't about.

*Alan Watts in Tao - The Watercourse Way

Realizing Purposelessness in Martial Arts and in Life

Purposelessness doesn't really sound like anything anybody would want to realize in their lives, does it? Particularly to western ears - I know this because I myself happen to possess a western pair of ears -  the first connotations might be that if there is no purpose in something, it's something useless and terrible which is to be avoided. Further this may lead to accusations of laziness or hedonism because if you do something that has no use you are not productive. Taking a look at the Martial Arts with this in mind, it may seem even wronger. Every move you make in a fight fulfills a purpose and going into a fight with a carefully worked out gameplan has proven to be effective for fighters at all levels, including the highest. Maybe though, just maybe there is something to be learned from accessing a state of purposelessness, at least sometimes.

Mountain Presence with Nietzsche, Lin-Chi and Conan the Barbarian

Lin-Chi

This text can probably be described as one step further from the last one. In the last text (Let the Thunder Rumble: Natural Movement with Thoreau and Chuang Tzu) I wrote about how moving in accordance with nature, which means constantly adapting, may reduce some of the suffering most of us live through (caused by the refusal to accept nature/change). Going further, it seems to me as if embracing this chaos of change, also makes for a special kind of person. "The torch of chaos and doubt, that's what the sage steers by.", is how the Daoists put it.*

Let the Thunder Rumble: Natural Movement with Thoreau and Chuang Tzu

Alan Watts once called change a synonym for life. For if something does not change anymore, does not move anymore, it is dead. Movement is life. Nothing stays in one place forever, as Heraclitus put it, "everything flows". The nature of reality seems to be dynamic rather than static. Everything moves, grows, is in decay, wins, loses, inhales and exhales. It is an up and down that is often hard to accept. Almost by design we as humans seem to want things to be permanent. We want to keep things the way they are. Change provokes insecurity and monotony in change presents us with familiarity. These, however seem to be unrealistic expectations. Reality doesn't work that way*. Taking a look at it usually confirms this: The movements of waves, tides, birth and death all point towards an impermanent reality. It may be argued that all of this is part of a huge cycle of coming and going, yet it is evident that most things do not last, at least not in the form in which they are perceived at the moment. 

Dan Hardy, Zen and Dancing with the Dionysian Goddess

Martial Arts and combat sports can teach you self-defense, grow your self-confidence and provide you with friends for life. Yet there is something more to be gained which will be today's topic. There is something that happens in the midst of battle, in the midst of chaos that can hardly be recreated in any other circumstances. It is the moment in which you have to trim your sails to the thunderous winds that try to tear you apart. In the midst of battle you lose yourself, because there is no time to think about what you're doing, as there often is not even enough time to act properly. Hence, often times you are left simply reacting.

In Zen Buddhism 'simply reacting' is an important concept. Of course this does not mean to just do anything, it is rather rooted in the belief that there is a form of intelligent mindlessness to be accessed. Often times, when Zen students would ask their masters heavy questions the answers would seemingly be completely out of context and leave the students confused. Not knowing how to deal with such a response they would often leave again in order to reconsider. Just about to be out of sight, the master would shout their name and in an instant they would answer "Yes?", to which the master would say "That's it!". Not concerned with coming up with the correct response, not rambling on about the best way to frame something, their mind was at peace and therefore instantly reacted appropriately. If you are in a race and you anticipate the next turn to be a left turn and it turns out to be a right, you have to first let go of getting ready for the right turn and then consider the left. If, however you do not expect anything and just react when the turn is actually happening, you can react faster and more adequately.*

If We shake Hands Wrist to Wrist..: The Warrior-Code of Brotherhood

Often times the warrior archetype is associated with rigid discipline and uncompromising loyalty. Though there always is a downside to being too rigid or too stuck to rules, there is something to be taken from the warrior's determination and rock-solid decision-making. If he says yes, he means yes. If he says no, he means no. If he has once pledged loyalty, then so it is. If he is your friend, he is your brother (or she is your sister for that matter).* That's what this will be about.

Dostoyevsky, Zen and Attachment to Anticipation

Often times during pre-fight interviews one can hear fighters state how they are not concerned with what the opponent is doing and rather want to focus on themselves. Upon closer examination this strategy, born out of the most intense situation a mortal can find himself in, seems to also be a valuable approach to everyday life. It might not seem as too much of a problem to focus on anticipation, yet fighting as the most extreme scenario shows that when taken to the extreme, strong attachment to anticipations can backfire hard. If there is attachment to what the opponent might do and then he doesn't do it, one may be lost. Thinking about what he may do takes the place of looking at what he is doing and as BJJ world-champion Saulo Ribeiro once said: "If you think, you're late. If you're late, you muscle. If you muscle, you're tired. If you're tired, you die. You die when you tap, we die everyday."