I latched on to Wu Wei when I was in my 20’s but got it wrong. Well slightly. I knew it meant effortless flow, but also assimilated it with meaning being a little bit lazy! I walked around in a zen state thinking this was what Wu Wei meant. I meditated a lot and thought doing wu wei meant to be in a permanent state of tranquility, while not doing much.
I managed to accomplish this quite well for some time but it didn’t help me in some ways. Jobs, work, relationships would suffer because stress and anxiety would take me out of this tranquil state. I thought something was wrong and would often quit the situation completely, rather than using Wu Wei to deal with the problem as it occurred in the moment.
Wu Wei doesn’t mean dropping out of society and sitting under a tree your whole life, as I thought it did. It’s more a philosophy of living while maintaining a good inner state. A good analogy is that nature doesn’t strain to grow, but yet everything is accomplished.
We, as humans can easily create more problems out of small obstacles; making them bigger than they are by focusing on them or getting upset about them when they arise. But water will flow around a rock, rather than clash with it. This, I believe is the nature of Wu Wei. It’s apparent in the martial arts of course too and particularly in Wing Chun.
In chi sau, if you get upset and annoyed with your opponent/partner, you’ll tense up and this will block your flow. You’ll struggle to be as sensitive to the movements of your partner. I always thought how chi sau was such a great battle ground for the mind, and for wu wei also. In chi sau, you use just enough energy to accomplish the job in hand, no more. An over commitment of movement or energy would give an opportunity to your opponent to use that energy or strike down the centreline. But using more than you need is also bad advice for life and your health too. Overworking is an example of this because stress, fatigue and burnout can often mean your life comes to an abrupt end.
Ip Chun talks about using his Wing Chun to maintain a consistent state of mind and not getting emotionally upset. “Don’t let things in your day upset you”, he says. This, and his regular training regime, he puts down to his good health at 95 years old.
Of course, things in life will test and challenge you. So what of Wu Wei in challenging times? Well, my solution was to walk away from difficult situations but I don’t believe this is necessarily the essence of what Wu Wei teaches. Wu Wei is useful in difficult times too because it teaches you to find solutions rather than dwell in problems and remain static. Don’t worry, be still and the solution will come.
Wu Wei is particularly important today with the stress of busy life. Often, we can accomplish much more by doing nothing, rather than running around trying to keep busy to stop the endless talking of our mind. If you’ve ever had a particularly bad day you’ll know what I mean. Some days you create more problems by trying too hard.
Here’s a video I found on the subject of Wu Wei.
