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Wu-wei | The Art of Letting Things Happen


3m read
·Nov 4, 2024

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Once upon a time, a novice farmer indulged himself in motivational videos. He became familiar with ideas like the importance of ‘effort,’ the ‘hustle culture,’ and ‘work hard, play hard.’

After binge-watching for days, he walked onto his farm, fired up, and determined to make it a great success. He started with pulling one of the crops as a way to make them grow faster. But this didn’t work. Then he began to water the plants twice as much, hoping to make them grow faster, but he drowned them instead.

After trying to force his success, the farmer realized that no matter how much effort he puts in, acting in opposition to nature is counterproductive. Despite humanity’s technological developments and will to progress, we’re still utterly dependent on nature.

Human effort has its limitations and is always in conjunction with nature. We cannot grow a plant, for example, completely isolated from natural growth, even though we can influence and manipulate it. The reputed author of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, stated that the world governs itself. It doesn’t need our intervention.

As Lao Tzu wrote: “When you arrive at non-action, nothing will be left undone.” End quote. This idea resembles the basic understanding of the paradoxical concept “wu-wei.” But when we look for a definition of wu-wei, we quickly discover that there isn’t one fixed meaning.

Some translate wu-wei as “non-action,” or “doing nothing,” others as “actionless action,” and others as “effortless action.” We find out that Taoism offers several layers, if you will, regarding how wu-wei can enhance our relationship with the world.

And how this ancient art of “letting things happen” doesn’t necessarily make us passive, ignorant bystanders but can actually improve how we act, leading to better outcomes. This video serves as a humble attempt to make the depth of this philosophical idea clear and practical.

Probably the most common interpretation of wu-wei is quite literally aligning our actions with nature and not forcing anything, and acting when it’s suitable. Lao Tzu stated that using force always leads to unseen troubles. With force, he doesn’t seem to point to the literal use of force per se, but rather to “forcing the flow of nature.”

Nature has its course. It’s always working in the background. It lies at the root of our humanity’s existence and continually creates and recreates what the Taoists call the 10,000 things: everything under heaven and beyond.

But despite the immense propulsion of the universe, today’s society places the importance of conscious human effort above all. We celebrate effort, regardless of its actual effectiveness, as we aim to always be busy for the sake of being busy.

As modern Sisyphuses, we push rocks uphill, just for the sake of pushing. Making an effort is one thing, but intelligently making an effort is another. Yes, sometimes hard work is necessary, and action is appropriate, but on many occasions, it isn’t.

It depends on the rhythm of the game, on the cards you’re dealt, and whether or not it’s your turn. Acting out of turn means going against the flow of the game. Hence, we often experience that “forcing things” leads to ruin in the long run and that pushing our luck beyond nature’s constraints backfires.

On the other hand, situations often solve themselves when we don’t force or intervene. By letting things happen, things get done naturally. The novice farmer, for example, simply needed to leave his crops alone and be patient, and nature would do the rest.

But when it’s time to reap, the farmer should roll up his sleeves. “The Tao never acts with force, yet there is nothing that it cannot do,” Lao Tzu stated. If we’d just go along with nature, then everything runs smoothly.

The farmer’s task is to sow the seeds, the seeds’ task is to grow into crops, and then the farmer’s task is to reap the harvests when they’re ready. This is how nature works optimally. Lao Tzu believed that the world cannot be governed, as the world governs itself...

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