What is Wu-wei (Nondoing)
| Aikido is a living illustration of the nondoing concept. The practitioner is moving along with his opponent instead of resisting his attacks. |
In Tao Te Ching,
nondoing is one of the characteristic of the Tao, or the
Great Originator. It is also a model of conduct in the world.
In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired.
In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped. Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. The world is ruled by letting things take their course.
It cannot be ruled by interfering. (chap. 48, translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English)
Nondoing (nonaction) is thus the way of ruling things without interfering with their
course.
| A water-course - another symbol of nondoing |
But the best explanation of this basic concept in philosophical Taoism comes from Alan Watts:
...wu-wei, meaning not to force, refers to what we understand of one's acting accordingly to the nature, of one's moving in order to avoid a stroke, of one's
swimming downstream, sailing before the wind, rolling like the waves or one's bending in order to win. (From Alan Watts - "Tao: the Watercourse Way").
The well-known parable about the pine and the willow tree perfectly illustrates the concept of nondoing in Taoism. Being covered with snow, the pine falls down as it
is rigid and resisting, whereas the willow, being pliant, bends to the ground and this way, the snow falls down from it. To sum up, nondoing is not pure absence or refrain from interfering with things (as in
Tao Te Ching), but a way of acting in accord with the very course of the things. In other words, we have here what was called the line of minimal resistance. |
