“The Tao does nothing, yet nothing is left undone.”
Tao Te Ching
So much of our culture is rooted in the need to achieve, accomplish, acquire and attain. It’s little wonder stress is the great pandemic of modern life.
We are conditioned from a young age to feel a sense of lack and limitation; the feeling that whatever we have and are is never enough. This compels us to take action in the world; to close the gap between what we think we are and what we believe we should be.
Indeed, karma, or action, is unavoidable in life. It’s impossible to do nothing. Even just to survive we have to constantly do; we have to eat and drink, move, sleep, and take care of our body. Just to maintain the simplest of lives takes effort, least of all the effort required to make a basic income.
However, action doesn’t have to go hand in hand with stress.
It’s possible to live in the world with ease and freedom; to engage with life without being overcome by stress, anxiety and heartache.
The greatest life hack I ever found for dealing with daily life is karma yoga. I have written about it in depth. Karma yoga is a mindset — a way of approaching life, action and the ever unpredictable nature of the results of action — which removes stress like nothing on earth.
Karma yoga is truly the mind’s salvation. It’s the perfect antidote to the stress of modern living. Together with an understanding of dharma and the gunas, I guarantee it will revolutionise your life.
Doing Without Doing
The Taoist notion of wu wei is another approach I highly recommend. It complements karma yoga perfectly.
Wu wei is often translated as ‘actionless action’ or ‘doing without doing.’ Like many things in the Tao Te Ching, it’s a delicious paradox.
To embody wu wei is to live in a state of alignment with the flow of life. It means to respond effortlessly to the needs of any situation without resorting to struggle and force.
As I wrote in my commentary of the Tao Te Ching:
“The teaching of the Tao Te Ching is really very simple. Stop trying to control and grasp. Instead of moving against life, let life move through you but aligning and surrendering to the Tao (the natural flow of life).”
The expression “going with the flow” is wu wei in a nutshell!
Although you are taking action, there’s the recognition that you — the ‘doer’ that you take yourself to be — isn’t really the one calling the shots. You are but an instrument through which the breath of life moves. As Rumi once asked, “The breath of the flute player; does it belong to the flute?”
This flow state is characterised by effortlessness, ease and allowing the right action to unfold at the right time in the right manner.
Again, from my Tao commentary:
“Everything in life has its own flow, its own pace and speed. If we can tune into and align ourselves with it, we can achieve without undue exertion and enjoy effortless ease in all that we do. We find that we instinctively know what to do and when to do it. This intelligence is the Tao at work within and around us. Relax into this flow and allow the Tao to direct your life.”
When we act from this state of wu wei, things tend to flow perfectly.
It also feels incredibly good! Wu wei is characterised by a relaxed sense of wakefulness, a peaceful alert attention that feels highly invigorating and joyful.
The art of wu wei is the art of alchemy. Even seemingly intractable situations can be resolved with minimal effort by adopting this mode of being.
Overcoming the Mind’s Need to Control
This is not something that may come easily to you, however.
It will likely feel counterintuitive and even threatening. The mind likes to think it’s in control of situations and is hesitant to let go of that illusion of control. In fact, the mind will fight tooth and nail to stay “in control”.
That’s why it’s unlikely you’ll that master wu wei all at once. Instead, you should see this as an experiment; both a skill and an art form that will take time to master.
It’s taken me years to have any great success at cultivating wu wei. Sometimes it comes easily, and other times the mind begins to contract and try to reassert control. I’ve found meditation and karma yoga are essential in laying the groundwork. The key is to relax the mind as much as possible.
It’s best to practice wu wei when things are going reasonably smoothly in life. Whenever things get on top of us, there’s the danger of slipping into stress mode. “I have so much to do, I don’t have TIME for ‘actionless action’ Gawdamn it!”
We have an unconscious assumption that responding to stressful situations with stress is the only appropriate and productive response.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. Stress helps nothing. It clouds and distorts our thinking, making it harder to view situations with objectivity and to, therefore, respond appropriately.
By embodying wu wei, however, you begin to dance with life.
You never get completely pulled in by stressful thoughts and the mind’s projections. You remain grounded in the simplicity of present moment and align with the creative intelligence of life.
Solutions often appear as if by magic. Insights happen. You feel prompted to move in a certain direction and to try things you’d perhaps never considered before. By allowing action to happen as it wants to happen, you surrender to the flow of life as it gently moves through you and around you.
Here are some tips on living from this state of effortless ease. It might take a leap of faith to be able to step back a bit and be willing to loosen up the reins…but experiment with it. Be brave. You might be amazed at what happens.
4 Secrets to Cultivating Wu Wei
1. RELAX!
Tension constricts not just the body but also the mind and emotions. It’s not a healthy way to exist, especially when it’s consistently sustained and becomes our normal mode of functioning. I’m sure you’ve noticed that when you’re feeling light and at ease, the world, situations and people seem so much easier to deal with.
A state of relaxed alertness enables us to deal with situations simply and with ease, and it’s also contagious. When we’re stressed out, tense and frustrated, no one wants to be around us and we tend to get other people’s backs up.
But when we’re relaxed, peaceful and at ease, people are more likely going to want to hang around us and work with us rather than against us. Meditation and karma yoga really help in this respect. In fact, in this stressful society of ours, some form of meditation or relaxation practise is pretty much essential to our wellbeing. It should actually be prescribed by doctors!
2. Know when and how to respond appropriately.
When you’re feeling peaceful and balanced, your mind is relatively clear and you can more accurately see, gauge and respond to situations.
The answers are usually there, or will present themselves when you step out of the way and stop creating obstructions to the flow. In this state of effortless effort, all you need to do is look, listen and respond in the most appropriate way using all the knowledge, experience and resources available to you.
Another essential component of wu wei is knowing when not to act.
Sometimes holding back is the most appropriate response until we feel truly moved to take action. In traditional Chinese painting, the artist is trained to remain still and silent before they make a mark on the paper. Instead of rushing in and splashing ink everywhere, they remain patient, abstaining from action until they truly feel and know what mark is to go where.
Life is all about a yin-yang balance of action and inaction.
3. Alternate work and rest.
Observe the ebb and flow of life. It’s a perfect balance. Don’t work on something until you’re absolutely exhausted. Take regular breaks to recharge and refresh. It’s been shown that we work best when short, intense bursts of activity are followed by periods of rest. When you come back to whatever you’re doing, your mind will be fresher leading to greater insights, productivity, ease and enjoyment.
Also, whatever it is you’re doing try to keep the enjoyment alive. Find some aspect of it that you enjoy (however tiny) and focus on that. The mode of enjoyment is energising and invigorating, whereas the feeling of drudgery and boredom constricts and dampens. If there’s nothing you particularly enjoy about what you’re doing, then at least maintain an attitude of acceptance. That’s also helpful for neutralising bad feelings and keeping the flow alive.
4. Let go of the results.
Do your best and let go of the results. We are responsible for our actions but not for the results of our actions. Why? Because every result in life is dependent not on a single cause, but on a multiplicity of causes that are outside of our control.
It doesn’t make sense to worry about what we don’t and can’t control. That’s a recipe for a life of misery. Just accept that there’s a greater whole in life; a field of potentiality that ultimately takes care of everything anyway, even if the immediate results are not what we might have wanted. Whatever happens in life happens because it couldn’t have been any other way.
This single understanding, if fully realised, is almost all you need to live a stress-free life. It’s the essence of Karma yoga. Do your best, and let life take care of the rest.
As I concluded in my article Taoism 101, “There’s a natural order to life, and when we come back into balance with that, life becomes simpler, more peaceful and harmonious.
The basic message of Taoism?
Let go, let it happen, keep it simple, be kind, and enjoy life.”
Have fun experimenting with the art of actionless action, and let me know how you find it!
