For those who're curious, the ancient pictograms from which the characters 為 (wei) and 然 (ran) evolved are also interesting to consider. The oracle-bone script and seal script forms of 為 depicted a hand above an elephant, thus representing the meaning of taming a wild animal, and later becoming used to represent "work/accomplish/do". For 然，the oracle-bone script and seal script forms showed animal meat above fire, thus representing the meaning of roasting/cooking/igniting, and later becoming used to represent "proper/correct". Hence, when the earliest Daoist cultivators coined the terms Wuwei (無為) and Ziran (自然）, they likely had those ancient meanings in mind as well. So Wuwei did not simply mean "non-doing" as it does now, but also had the connotation of "not imposing your will on the animal (i.e. the life process in inner alchemy)". As for Ziran, though it's often used to refer to Nature nowadays, its literal meaning (even nowadays) is actually "self proper", which is likely what the ancient Daoist cultivators really meant with this word, along with the connotations of "self correct" and “self-ignite (i.e. the inner alchemy transformation)".
Thank you! This reminded me of a bit from Dr. Yang Jwing Ming's Taijiquan Theory: "The deepest stage of regulating is regulating without regulating. That means you have developed a habit of regulating and your mind does not have to be there to regulate it all the time."
I've understood this intuitively through observation of both myself and others particularly when it comes to breathing with a Yogic context. I learned the most by studying the nature of my breathing functions and then exploring what I call participating with the innate qualities of the breath.. I've seen alot of immature practitioners imposing their intentions on their breath without understanding the nature of it (primarily the diaphragm). It appears these people believe that their ideas are superior to their nature (cause some "teacher" told them to inset their intention) to the extent that they see no point in trying to understand the nature of what they are imposing their ideas on, which strikes me as absurdly ignorant and egoic.
Thank you. I see now that over contrivance is the effort we are making which is the forced error. I sometimes fall into this trap when meditating but also in life generally. It's silly I know and this video really helped.
I find wu wei is so much easier to understand when you acknowledge the entire line containing this phrase in the Dao De Jing. Wu wu, er wu pu wei....do nothing, but leave nothing undone.
LoL 😆I've been getting a ton of help from your descriptions! They help me develop good questions for my instructor (I live in a Longmen monastery with Zhicheng Shifu, and also study the Hunyuan method). ...And I'm learning how to be a better instructor from your easygoing teaching style. I dig it!@@LotusNeiGong
attention is very old "animalistic" mechanisem that happens when animal is in danger or is seeking pray. you become attentive of segments of your body (breathing, muscles etc..) only when there is disorder in the body. did you ever considered that maybe you are reverse enginering when paying attention to parts of the body and their functions (ingraining dysfunctions in your body)?
No, I don’t have such concerns as attention has many other aspects to it other than just survival + I train under teachers within a lineage that have developed their method over many generations, therefor I have the benefit of their experience and instruction :)
To do "Not Doing", is to have attention for our natural tendencies we have on the inside. So it is a right mindfulness. What it does, is make you save up a different kind of energy, which alters perception to the higher states of consciousness. (Bodhi mind, Krishna consciousness). Or you could say that once our normal reactive state is observed, automatically it will stop certain reactiveness (like tempering our emotions and or other reactive patterns) to a degree so that saving energy starts happing and this culminates to higher states of consciousness. You are basically stopping your energy leakages.
