Wonderful article, thank you! Wondering if you can expound on the distinction between Wu Wei and Wei Wu Wei and any specific guidance on practicing Wei Wu Wei?
Thank you, great question. In simple terms, wu wei is effortless, unforced action, while wei wu wei points more to the practice of “doing not-doing,” or consciously cultivating that state. I may write a follow-up on how to practice it more specifically, but the short version is: create space, relax unnecessary force, and act only from clarity instead of compulsion. It is not the absence of thought or emotion, but a quieter, less forced way of being present.
Women became fishes and Birds on Venus where they became fishes and birds till they collapsed as the last tree branch drowned in water… The Men went to Mars as they gave them life that became a Gobi Desert sandstorm.. Noah watched 2 planets combine as the moon quit focusing on Earth when the Snakes ate all the Goats who ate all the greenery on Australia.. The garden of Eden… It is the center of a planet from NGC 1961 where the dragons died and careened to earth… The land we live on combined in space as the moon super heated it when it was burning out.. as the planets combined we had a new draw onto our planet and the sun was created… We came back to earth from Mars in Mind over Matter formed pyramids… which are strewn from Egypt to Sudan.. we appeared around our inner lights like mushrooms appear around mycelium.. we have been fishing women out of the ocean and have waited till we had enough souls that we could be in godly union of the right light with the right light.. and yet we cannot act godly and righteously and have gods respect goddesses and vice versa.. such is life in the solar system we are wanting for the human frequency to have the energy to create the age of Aquarius where the sun doesn’t evaporate the ocean in vain because we have the mindfulness to make the air full of mist and make atmosphere and stop the rain so we can inhabit Mars and Venus again… where we can become the water we are and move thru the air and become water and elements on another planet… its how life is meant to be… The Animals already filled up all the planets in the solar system but alas we retreated back to earth and one has to have an incredible faith if to believe we will ever get our atmosphere back to other planets again!
“Back into flow” was meant in the practical sense of returning to a more natural, less forced way of living, not suggesting someone was ever fully outside the Tao. And yes, you’re right that the idea of wu wei predates the Tao Te Ching; Lao Tzu helped crystallize and transmit a much older current of thought.
Wu Wei (traditional Chinese: 無為; simplified Chinese: 无为; pinyin: wúwéi) is an important tenet of Taoism that involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Another perspective to this is that "Wu Wei" means natural action - as planets revolve around the sun, they "do" this revolving, but without "doing" it; or as trees grow, they "do", but without "doing". Thus knowing when (and how) to act is not knowledge in the sense that one would think "now" is the right time to do "this", but rather just doing it, doing the natural thing.
Wu may be translated as not having or without; Wei may be translated as do, act, serve as, govern or effort.
The literal meaning of Wu Wei is "without action" and is often included in the paradox wei wu wei: "action without action" or "effortless doing". The practice of wu wei and the efficacy of wei wu wei are fundamental tenets in Chinese thought and have been mostly emphasized by the Taoist school.
The aim of Wu Wei is to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium, or alignment with the Tao, and, as a result, obtain an irresistible form of "soft and invisible" power. There is also another uncommon interpretation of wu wei ("action that does not involve struggle or excessive effort").
In this instance, Wu means "without" and Wei means "effort", so it follows that Wu Wei is not ("non-action"). It can be argued that this error propagated widely in English publications as a result of translations made by academics who are non-practising Taoists. The concept that Wu Wei means "effortless action" is clearly exemplified in the Taoist Internal martial arts such as Tai Chi, Baguazhang and Xing Yi. In Zen Calligraphy, Wu Wei has been represented as a circle.
Brilliant! Thankyou so much 😘
Wonderful article, thank you! Wondering if you can expound on the distinction between Wu Wei and Wei Wu Wei and any specific guidance on practicing Wei Wu Wei?
Thank you, great question. In simple terms, wu wei is effortless, unforced action, while wei wu wei points more to the practice of “doing not-doing,” or consciously cultivating that state. I may write a follow-up on how to practice it more specifically, but the short version is: create space, relax unnecessary force, and act only from clarity instead of compulsion. It is not the absence of thought or emotion, but a quieter, less forced way of being present.
Some Ancient Wisdom
Women became fishes and Birds on Venus where they became fishes and birds till they collapsed as the last tree branch drowned in water… The Men went to Mars as they gave them life that became a Gobi Desert sandstorm.. Noah watched 2 planets combine as the moon quit focusing on Earth when the Snakes ate all the Goats who ate all the greenery on Australia.. The garden of Eden… It is the center of a planet from NGC 1961 where the dragons died and careened to earth… The land we live on combined in space as the moon super heated it when it was burning out.. as the planets combined we had a new draw onto our planet and the sun was created… We came back to earth from Mars in Mind over Matter formed pyramids… which are strewn from Egypt to Sudan.. we appeared around our inner lights like mushrooms appear around mycelium.. we have been fishing women out of the ocean and have waited till we had enough souls that we could be in godly union of the right light with the right light.. and yet we cannot act godly and righteously and have gods respect goddesses and vice versa.. such is life in the solar system we are wanting for the human frequency to have the energy to create the age of Aquarius where the sun doesn’t evaporate the ocean in vain because we have the mindfulness to make the air full of mist and make atmosphere and stop the rain so we can inhabit Mars and Venus again… where we can become the water we are and move thru the air and become water and elements on another planet… its how life is meant to be… The Animals already filled up all the planets in the solar system but alas we retreated back to earth and one has to have an incredible faith if to believe we will ever get our atmosphere back to other planets again!
“back into flow?”
how did you get there with out tao practices like wu wie to begin with?
also the concept of wu wei predates the tao te ching
“Back into flow” was meant in the practical sense of returning to a more natural, less forced way of living, not suggesting someone was ever fully outside the Tao. And yes, you’re right that the idea of wu wei predates the Tao Te Ching; Lao Tzu helped crystallize and transmit a much older current of thought.
Wu Wei (traditional Chinese: 無為; simplified Chinese: 无为; pinyin: wúwéi) is an important tenet of Taoism that involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Another perspective to this is that "Wu Wei" means natural action - as planets revolve around the sun, they "do" this revolving, but without "doing" it; or as trees grow, they "do", but without "doing". Thus knowing when (and how) to act is not knowledge in the sense that one would think "now" is the right time to do "this", but rather just doing it, doing the natural thing.
Wu may be translated as not having or without; Wei may be translated as do, act, serve as, govern or effort.
The literal meaning of Wu Wei is "without action" and is often included in the paradox wei wu wei: "action without action" or "effortless doing". The practice of wu wei and the efficacy of wei wu wei are fundamental tenets in Chinese thought and have been mostly emphasized by the Taoist school.
The aim of Wu Wei is to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium, or alignment with the Tao, and, as a result, obtain an irresistible form of "soft and invisible" power. There is also another uncommon interpretation of wu wei ("action that does not involve struggle or excessive effort").
In this instance, Wu means "without" and Wei means "effort", so it follows that Wu Wei is not ("non-action"). It can be argued that this error propagated widely in English publications as a result of translations made by academics who are non-practising Taoists. The concept that Wu Wei means "effortless action" is clearly exemplified in the Taoist Internal martial arts such as Tai Chi, Baguazhang and Xing Yi. In Zen Calligraphy, Wu Wei has been represented as a circle.