Makes sense! I remember myself being naturally interested in learning how to play the guitar. Spending 5-6 hours every day, without noticing it, very effective and easy. So this was carving and polishing, but with no effort. And then, when I could let myself play without thinking I could experience the Zhuangzi , for I could empty my head and just let spirits in me play and write songs. But now, when I realize I MUST do, I Must learn, I must move, everything became so much slower and harder. What if you know who you want to be, but you're not sure you are able to be?
lol, I actually took longer to process the first color blue because i didn't know what to expect (wanted to say white), since i knew what to expect i focused on the color not the word, so i immediately registered it as red. Maybe the test should be taken without the blue first, or shown after as a better comparison.
A metaphor I heard that sounds a lot like the third option (and also a bit like the fourth), is that Wu Wei is more like sailing than rowing. With rowing you need to constantly exert effort without building momentum, while with sailing you'll still need effort to get things going and go the right way, but you'll work with the wind (symbolizing the Dao) who gets you where you need to go.
@@Viv8ldi Taiji really helps me, but I believe any activity that you like works as well. Something simple, as preparing a cup of tea and taking your time to sip it...is meditation as well for example. Doing things in a metative way. Even taking a shower 😉
When i practice wu wei, I bring forth the idea in my mind: controllessness. I then try to feel controllessness of my hands, or ...of my feet, or ...of my mind. Etc etc. If i add enough things together i'll start to feel giddy and will smile. It feels very nice, refreshing and is a great way to kill time. I also add anything that is painful or tense and it just fades away.
Timely video. All semester I heaved SO much effort. Studying and stressing for hours. Sometimes 10 hours at a time. After work, etc... Neglecting my health and home. Trying so hard until I became exhausted and could not focus or retain info.... My only choice was to rest... After this (shameful feeling) 2 week rest period I know to keep my calm, stay grounded, and to study for less time... weird... but I only got to this point because I pushed myself to the max. It's crazy because the "miraculous balance" he mentioned that you just happen to find after pushing yourself so hard, I am currently experiencing. Very unexpected. The key is actually WANTING what you're working so hard to achieve. Sounds like Wu Wei is a process. Not an immediate occurrence. Also- many less mistakes are made when you are present, allowing, and in the flow of Wu Wei it seems.
Even though “de” is achievable through effortless action, it’s the reason why I DONT have wu wei. I have and idolize that “aura” that I have when I’m not trying, but as soon as I get around another person or do something that has potential consequences, I just THINK of myself with the “anxious vibe/aura,” which isn’t necessarily the anxiety itself, but the version of myself that I view as lesser, more passive, and less charismatic, so it changes the way I think of myself entirely. I even look different and have a different voice that I thought I did. That’s what makes it so hard to differentiate between what’s effortless and what’s not. I’ve been trying so hard to be the wu wei version of me, but the only way is to accept that that version isn’t really even me. I don’t think the anxious one is either; I’m not my thoughts or emotions, but the perspective viewing it.
Another definition of "Wei" is "govern", and "We" can mean "without", so another accurate translation would be "without governing". This meshes with "effortless action" well, but may be easier to understand for average people. To act without governing your actions would be to act without "self-control", which implies that your natural state is something to be fought against and changed through conscience effort. I think this can cause internal conflict or self-delusion. To act freely, without conscience governing of oneself, is the goal, and a very healthy one at that. ZERO STRESS!!!
The Art of Being: the dissolution of any sense of having an ego standing over one's shoulder who will beat you senseless with a club for any minor slip-up. I'm just regurgitating Alan Watts' words in more extreme terms to illustrate a point cause I'm too lazy to find the real quote. He put it far more eloquently, of course.
@@humanyoda It's not. That kind of desire is always artificial and based on the delusional belief that you're "isolated" or "individual", that you stand apart from the society you'd be hurting. Once you meditate enough to fully understand what you are, you realize you're everything (an inseparable part of the whole), and therefore that anytime you hurt something or someone you're literally hurting yourself.
Well stated. I will add only one thing and I believe we ALL misconstrue our fellow human beings. There is, no “average” person incapable of understanding the knowledge they pursue to possess. Only those, that pursue other things than that which you are in pursuit of. Thereby, if they should arrive in this place that you stand they will be fully capable of grasping the concepts that you have previously consumed and digested. Should they not, take the same road, their knowledge or ability in the given things with which they yearn for will be attained. When we see those that do not readily possess that with which we believe ourselves to possess we immediately lay judgement that they are lacking. We are all, lacking that with which we’ve not expended any energy towards gaining. Whether that be from the Wu-Wei or like bulls in a china shop. There are no “average” human beings.
Musicians go through this all the time they overcome difficulty by practice their music and therefore the music sounds effortless because it becomes effortless by overcoming the effort effortlessly.
The obvious answer is flowing between those four strategies. Wu-wei is essential for meditation and at the same time wu-wei is the result of meditation. You gave meditation some wu-wei and meditation gives you back more of it. (Almost like a perpetual-motion machine)
This is a great video. What's great about the final strategy is the little amount of emotional effort you are putting towards things, and in Western culture, it's more likely that failure will bring negative emotions. You can work on your emotions, but at the same time, learning to work in a flow state can help you realize the things that are actually important.
I'm Singapore Chinese. English is my native language (but I'm so bad at it) and Chinese is my mother tongue. I major in Chinese Language and Literature (and culture of course). Making connection between Wu-Wei and Confucius is totally unscientific. Wu-wei is the practice in Dao/Taosim (philosophy Taoism to be precise and not to confuse with religious Taoism), Wu-wei was never a practice in Confucius. Same as 'De'. There's a saying in Chinese 儒家入世，道家出世. Meaning Confucius is a 'practice' that brought people into the society and make it a better place, whilst (philosophy) Taoist or its teachings is a total opposite. Tao made people 'leave' the society and be focus on individual wellbeing, not under a society level or context like the teachings of Confucius.
I'm thinking that if wu wei appeals to you, and "makes sense" to you, then you're probably already a taoist. I'm thinking taoists are born. We (society) often prescribes things to people as a way to help them, but I think things are the other way around. Recently there was a study saying that if you learn more than one language that it'll improve your brains health - but my point is that if you're able to learn more than one language (as an adult) *that* is a sign that you already have a healthy brain.
Wu-Wei ... When wandering around the world of complexity I'm always conscious of the proximity of the mystical woo. At the edges of understanding the odors and conmen can ply their trade: you know the kind, those ones that can put you in touch with your inner self!! In the wu-wei there is something splendid, ancient that predates cognitive science as we know it, so the rationale is occasionally bonkers, but there's something correct about tapping into the situation you find yourself in and acting positively. That's complexity!
It's just different. Western philosophies tend to be asserting oneself and doing stuff, while eastern is about going with the flow and going with nature. Which is why Western society has developed more individualism, while Eastern societies are more about conformity.
Boil down whatever you would love to do to a simple emotional sensation you feel in your body and then return to it over and over again until it becomes compulsory to PHYSICALLY do it
I didn't have any difficulty getting the colour. I just told myself to look at colour and not look for anything else. I dont even know what the word in red said. I didn't find the issues He talked about, it's just about how you tell yourself to look, what to look for and what to ignore.
For the Stroop Test, if one uses peripheric vision, instead of focusing on the letters (center of the screen), the confusion might not appear... Color is vibration. It dissipates. No need to look exactly into the center of the screen. This is compliant with the test objective - namely, to say the color present on the screen, as fast as possible. :)
circuntance is always changing, that why people change strategy. there is no general formula that solve all problems. not yet knowed. the paradox of all powerfull, omnipotences. and the science is also, fragmented.
You wouldn't become an alcoholic unless your goal was to die of intoxication or you were actually trying too hard to not try too hard. Love Bukowski's writing, though.
@ 00:56 - The feeling of having to stop yourself, is also known as "applying a Thalamo Cortical delayed response" - for convenience normally referred to as a "cortical pause" i.e. allowing time to engage your cortex. For more on this see the INSTITUTE of GENERAL SEMANTICS. The title is somewhat misleading but another meaning for semantics is evaluation. The importance of that is the difference between a "sane" person & an "insane" one is NOT a difference of KIND , but one of DEGREE i.e. in the accuracy of their evaluations. It helps to know that G-S is THE NON NEWTONIAN SCIENCE OF EVALUATIONS which uses scientific methodology to solve life problems. Founded by ALFRED KORZYBSKI of whom it has been said that he did for our inner world what Einstein did for our outer one. - Learning it certainly changed my world :) - HTH?
it is the simple but the hardest Buddhism idea of all time, which is the disparity between the knowing agent of yourself and the other who is able to know the knowing agent. When you start to observe yourself able to differentiate them, you will see and feel yourself as the knower and all other objects, one of which is" the thought that you are trying hard." When you have no sense of describing anything tangible to yourself, you have managed to make the two become one, which is the true efforts without efforts, living in the presence, or see God come.
One day humanity will live in such effortless spontaneity life. By then we have fully realized that all the over creativeness we added to our lives are destructiveness.
delusionnnnn So I guess we should throw out Plato and Aristotle too, right? People should never try to learn something from the thinkers of the past. It's all just useless "woo". No. What's "woo" is thinking human beings were dumb merely because they lived in a different time period, when we know that the structure of the human brain hasn't changed in hundreds of thousands of years. There may be some silly quasi-religious aspects of Lao Tzu's thought, but that doesn't mean we can't learn anything from his thoughts and contributions to philosophy. Many brilliant secular philosophers from the 20th century started studying people like Lao Tzu and built upon some of his ideas. Crying "woo" in this case is a textbook example of a straw man.
delusionnnnn I have a degree in philosophy; I know what straw man means. "Had we 'thrown out' Aristotle very early on, the history of intellectual investigation would have probably been much better off." You seem to be the type that values evidence. Do you have evidence for this claim? Because if you have no evidence for this claim, you're the one spreading "woo". Just because Aristotle's ideas were misinterpreted and abused by the church doesn't mean that Aristotle contributed nothing of value to the history of intellectual thought. All of propositional logic was built upon Aristotle, so there would literally be no science without him. Besides, what's to stop us from appreciating his work the way we appreciate the works of Homer or Shakespeare, even if we believe he was wrong at times? He was a critical thinker in an age of scientific ignorance. So... saying that it's possible for one to approach an activity with a sense of effortlessness is "woo"? What do you think happens every time you drive a familiar route, like your drive to work everyday? You're not consciously thinking about driving, nor the route. It's second nature to you. This is something we know scientifically to be the case about the brain. This happens to people who are very familiar with the activity they're engaged in. What's "woo" about that? There's nothing remotely magical, supernatural, or pseudoscientific about that at all. "Woo" is a straw man. Its purpose is to reduce an opponent's argument to something laughable, thereby making it easier to defeat. It's not always a complete mischaracterization of an argument, especially if the opponent is committing a fallacy worthy of the title "woo," but in this case, it is a complete mischaracterization.
Just what I wanted to say. If you want to make good music you have to try first, get the skill. But when it comes to playing/composing, you have to forget all you learned, or better said, don't think about it. Let you senses guide you, let your spirit be the only tool you use. And people can recognize it and feel it. That is the beauty of music, just forgetting about all the trouble and making your mind empty.
Yeah, I play guitar and I play best when I just let the music happen without thinking. It's true for all art I assume. And it's also true for the usual way we live, as in when you're driving a car you totally forget about driving the car; when you're hammering a nail, you totally forget that you're doing it - you become absorbed in the activity and forget about yourself, and this is basically the same as what the philosopher Heidegger talks about, so check him out if you're interested in this kind of thing :) He says it is only when you start to 'think', and therefore break the usual absorbment in life, that you start viewing the world as 'other' than 'you' (you get the subject/ object distinction like this). This is where things like science and philosophy usually start from, yet this is not the usual way we live and understand reality. Pretty interesting stuff.
@miguel Gonzalez You actually don't have to pay to be educated Theses days, You can educate yourself easily on the Internet All of M.I.T. courses are online for free Its ONLY the CERTIFICATE your actually paying for to say you have learnt it, That's the tragedy of Western education right there Its ONLY about the CERTIFICATE getting the CERTIFICATE Paying as much as they can get out of you for a CERTIFICATE, and it's only design was to keep the uneducated or lower education people in thier place, BELOW the upper classes , this is also why you can't get ALOT of jobs that will pay well without a CERTIFICATE to keep the most BELOW the so called higher classes (notice the word here 'class') I know many many self educated people that could do the jobs much better & more efficiently than thier mangers/board members etc These people are designed to CARRY the higher up educated with CERTIFICATES, its the 1s under the bosses that do all the work have the better ideas & ways of doing things, are much more practical & efficient The Bosses managers board members are just the 1s that get the credit for it, It's all about the CLASS system & keeping people down in thier place, ... Most also don't know that they trial new ideas on the lower classes if they fail & mess up the kids down there, they don't send it up the ladder to the higher education folks What's wrong messing up poor kids if it could make it better for those up the ladder This is also why as just happened in USA celebrities/mega rich folks got caught BUYING thier kids thier CERTIFICATES because it's only about getting the CERTIFICATE, not the actual learning & being Competent in your job The CERTIFICATE is everything the CERTIFICATE is now just a Status symbol & nothing else, nothing matters but getting that CERTIFICATE Hope this helps in answering your question ✌
@@azaleaslightsage1271 You seem to be hellbent on education as a certificate. There's many forms of education that don't cost a fortune but still get you credential - a certificate - or even get you credential along with experience. Apprenticeships and community colleges, to name just two. Several European countries even have free university tuition. It appears your perspective has been compartmentalized inside the American paradigm.
@@RickC--fn5om if you read it properly I'm actually saying a certificate is worthless you DONT NEED ANY TYPE OF CERTIFICATE to get ahead, I didn't finish primary school I'm totally self educated I hold NO CERTIFICATES of any kind & yet I earn well over few hundred thousand per year with that rising yearly I own property Am a Multi Millionaire with NO CERTIFICATES So you see holding a Certificate isn t a requirement for A Happy Successful forfilling life, Self Belief is the only requirment you need all follows self Belief 🤔
Its written green, but the color is red. I think twice at once, hehe mastered wu wei. Its likes "dilemma" but you understand what you just think and understand what is the situation.
"Confucius, the stresses of life are overwhelming me! Should I just stop trying so hard at the less important stuff and focus on that what is important?" DUH! Err, I mean 'de'!"
Its quickness of reaction, relies on logical analysis, therefore you don't have to think when It occurs, colors stuff, bad articulation, Hence effortlessness, It means you don't have to deliberate, figure out or think when it occurs, given problem, dealing with situation, you just react, respond, according to set rule. You'd know how and where to pay attention, and just react. Integration, meaning what is It about. This should be with respect to individuality next time, mutual understanding between two or other intelligent people, cause It would be not a game anymore. Just about more, fast, or quicker.
I must be an alien, because I didn't pause. Or maybe I guessed the nature of the exercise and cheated by letting my eyes go out of focus so my mind could easily process the color, while not being distracted by the word. (i love using mental tricks like that) ;p
I have come to realize that I do not know! I do not know if knowings is possible. I have never meditated I only thought I was meditating. Thinking does not abate. I see silence as impossible because knowing silence negates it. It appears that there is only thinking the controller or the one aware is just another thought. I am not in control of my own thinking. Is it my own thinking? Or is thought saying "thinking' that there is a me that is thinking ? Can all this stop, without death? I am aware of thinking that I am aware! I am beginning to suspect that there is only thinking. If there is something beyond thought I am not aware of it. I also think and feel that if there was really something to meditation to all this Eastern philosophy that it would have delivered humans to a deeper understanding. Really if there is something for humans to give us meaning it appears to be beyond esoteric. I don't know. Someone once told me to' stay there" in not knowing. More thinking!
Just as athletes are competitive I wonder if if these guys feel the rush of knowing they are recognized for being most zen. If any one knows how Buddhist are about competitive nature enlighten me.
That described in this video is not WuWei, WuWei is the management of the 4 different energies you can come across with in any activity you do, and they are: derived, positive, negative and still energy. So for example if you have a let's say negative energy or energy against you, like a guy wants to fight you for sth you did then the best thing to do is making his ego happy by saying, yes you are right it was my mistake or whatever you say to make his or her ego happy. You don't fight against negative energy. Just look at it in a macro way. For example the fight against the drugs. The fight against cancer, etc It just makes it grow So WuWei it's an elaborate way to handle any giving situation
Are they really going to put the rest of these videos behind a pay wall? I know it's a free trial right now but is this the plan for the future model of this channel?
i didn't pause or say the wrong thing at the second word. i just unfocused my eyes so everything was blurry and said red when i saw it. Is that cheating?
How this world is set up, it's hard to practice Wu-wei. I feel like I just wanna go and live in the countryside in some province and live a peaceful life but I wanna fulfill some of the my people's wishes and desires first before I go :)
The hard part is living in the countryside, not practice. Practice is something you do with your mind ... or something you do by not doint and not doing things can be so easy.
Not necessarily, a Taoist might criticize society for being unnatural and therefore not with the flow of things, but really everything is natural and is in the flow of things. We're doing what humans do, we're playing a game and we are so invested in that game that we believe it is serious and that it is all that matters
