No Words
the silent language of acting
What is the use of running
when I am not on the right track?
〰 German proverb 〰
The Synergetic Language of Taoism
When I let go of what I am
I become what I might be.
〰 Lao Tzu 〰
In Taoism ~ born and nurtured at a safe distance from the influences of the Abrahamic religions ~ a cosmology emerged, which couldn’t be more different from the familiar creation myth in the Genesis account.
“There was something featureless yet complete, born before heaven and earth; Silent—amorphous—it stood alone and unchanging,” says Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching, and adds almost casually that “We may regard it as the mother of heaven and earth.”
Due to the suppression of Taoism in China over long periods of Chinese history, the Taoist cosmology known today is fragmented.
One creation myth originating from the ancient Taoist sources centres around a figure called Hundun 混沌, an amorphous primordial being, depicted here has a winged creature with an egg-shaped body and no face ~ the featureless something, mentioned in the Tao Te Ching.
Hundun represents the unmanifest potential and ultimate source of everything in existence. The name is translated as the primordial chaos, and described as a nebulous state of the universe before heaven and earth separated.
The Taoist ‘chaos’, however is nothing like the Western chaos, which is associated with confusion, disorder, and some terribly scary abysmal void. The Tao Te Ching refers to this as ‘the mother of heaven and earth’.
Another source defines Hundun (= chaos) as the state of pregnant non-being from which everything arises and to which Taoists aim to return.
Chaos [from Greek khaos = abyss, that which gapes wide open, that which is vast and empty] is also used for two another Taoist word:
Wu Ji ~ defined as the unmanifest aspect of the Tao.
And then ~ this is perhaps the biggest surprise ~ the word chaos can be used again for the Tao itself, defined as the ultimate cosmic principle of Taoism, usually translated as ‘the way’. (see translation of common Taoist terms here.)
In other words, Wu Ji is the unmanifest aspect of the way… In other words, another nebulous state…
If this is confusing, it’s not because of the words. It’s a whole other way of thinking, which has given birth to these words.
It is easy to think of words as symbols or carriers of a fixed meaning, because they are so familiar. The word and the thing it represents seem glued together. Everyone knows that chaos is chaos ~ the opposite of order, right?
Until you come across a language where the word for ‘chaos’ means something like ‘primordial principle’ or ‘primeval order’ ~ and all of a sudden the whole world seems to be turned upside down…
… or evaporate into a nebulous state where Hundun and Wu Ji merge into one unmanifest aspect of Tao ~ the unspeakable, since “The Tao that can be spoken is not the Tao,” as Lao Tzu tells us in the opening line of the Tao Te Ching.
Delving deeper into a very foreign language, you might find plenty of words which are unspeakable in English. If a concept itself doesn’t exist, nobody has thought about it, and therefore we have no word for it.
One such word is the Chinese Wu Wei 無為 often translated as inaction or non-action.
What is inaction?!
Is it a state of being passive, relaxed, lazy, stuck, useless, nonfunctional, broken, sick, paralysed, or dead?
The Interaction of Nonacting and Acting
Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing
〰 Lao Tzu 〰
In the Taoist worldview, everything in the universe arises from the unmanifest aspect of the Tao, called Wu Ji.
Wu Ji [Wu = absence + Ji = vital force, life energy] is the Tao-in-stillness.
Wu Ji contains the Tai Ji.
Tai Ji [Tai = motion + Ji] is the Tao-in-motion.
Tai Ji contains the Yin and Yang.
Yang is the active principle, also associated with day, light, and masculine energy.
Yin is the receptive principle, also associated with night, darkness, and feminine energy.
In the Tao Te Ching, Yang (= one) + Yin (= two) = Tai Ji ~ the Three that gives life to all beings.
Wu Ji is the wholeness prior to any distinction of polar opposites, while containing them all. The polarity of movement and stillness are not in opposition to each other. They are aspects of the infinitely turning Wheel of Life.
Cycling between Tao-in-stillness (the unmanifest Wu Ji) and Tao-in-motion (the manifest Tai Ji), polarized phenomena unfold and re-cycle in the Yin and Yang Dance of Life.
Tao = Wu Ji ♾️ Tai Ji = Yin ♾️ Yang is a neat summary of the holistic universe, as understood by Taoists for thousands of years.
Humans are part of this wholeness, brought into existence through the same principles, carried forward by the infinite flow of life. At the same time, every human is their own microverse. The fundamental forces governing all of nature apply to this microverse too.
Here’s a brief sketch of how these principles might apply to us:
Before conception, we are in Hundun, a state of ‘pregnant non-being’. At birth we leave the state of Wu Ji, stillness, and enter into Tai Ji, motion, the Dance of Yin and Yang.
Being ‘Children of Hundun’, we never fully leave the universal womb that gives us life. Our actions and destinies are forever embedded in the Wu Ji (Tao-in-stillness) and Tai Ji (Tao-in-motion) of the great universal mother.
The concept of Wu Wei ('non-action') can only be understood within this context.
Waltzing into Action
The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.
〰 Khalil Gibran 〰
The word action [from Latin actio = setting in motion] has been used in English since mid 14 c., originally in the sense of taking legal action, lawsuit, performing a public act. The use of something done, an act, deed is from late 14 c.
The noun act [from the same source] followed in late 14 c. in the sense of drive, setting in motion, impulse, continuation of movement, driving forward.
The verb to act was introduced in mid 15 c. ~ to set in motion, drive forward, perform, play a part.
Other members of the action family followed suit.
actual, early 14 c. ~ pertaining to acts or an action. Late 14 c. ~ real, existing; up to date.
active, mid 14 c. in the sense of engaged in worldly activity as opposed to a contemplative monastic life.
actor, late 14 c. [from Latin actor = driver of sheep, guardian] overseer, steward; accuser in law; performer.
actually, early 15 c. ~ in fact, in reality; actively, vigorously
activate, from 1620s ~ make active, intensify
actualize, 1810 ~ to make actual, real
Closely related to the active word family are all English words descending from the Latin verb agere = to set in motion, drive forward; to do, perform; keep in movement. Due to the volume of words in this clan, I list these in alphabetical order.
agency [from Latin agent = effective, powerful] 1650s active operation; 1670s a mode of exerting power or producing effect; 1861 a form of business acting on behalf of another; 2000s the highest level of personal competence, defined as a mindset + skillset to ensure success in life.
agenda ~ 1650s, originally in a religious context matters of practice, things to be done. 1750s, ideological or political plan or program (often hidden). 1880s items on a to-do-list to be covered at a meeting.
agent ~ late 15 c one who acts; natural force or substance which produces an effect; deputy or representative. 1916 spy, secret agent.
agile ~ 1580s nimble, active, able to move quickly
agitate ~ 1580s to disturb, shake up vigorously, set in motion, incite to action, stir up.
agitation ~ 1560s debate, heated discussion; a state of being shaken or moving violently, state of being mentally agitated. Arousing and sustaining public attention and restlessness.
agony ~ late 14 c mental suffering.
In addition to these two lists we have a number of composite words ~ the word act combined with a preposition.
counteract ~ 1670s act in opposition, hinder or defeat by contrary action.
exact ~ 1530s as an adjective precise, rigorous, accurate; very demanding. And as a verb to force or compel to be paid or yielded (demanding or collecting money)
interact ~ 1805 act on each other, act reciprocally
react ~ 1640s to exert, as a thing acted upon, an opposite action upon the agent
transact ~ 1580s to bring an action or movement to an end, settle a negotiated affair; carry on to completion, drive from one place to another.
Dancing with Wu Wei
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
〰 Rabindranath Tagore 〰
Wu Wei [Wu = absence + Wei = exertion] literally means absence of exertion.
Through the lens of Western perception this gets interpreted as taking no action; let nature take her course, which sounds like a laissez-faire attitude, taking the hands off the wheel so to speak.
Inaction and Nonaction are both listed in Merriam Webster’s dictionary as idleness, lack of action. Neither of these are an accurate translation of Wu Wei.
However, tracing our steps back to the original meaning of the word action, and the Latin ancestor agere, we can see that it’s all about setting in motion, giving an impulse, driving the wheels of movement.
This is not so far removed from the sense of Tai Ji ~ the Tao-in-motion.
In English, the polar opposite of active is passive, which originally means receptive. So here we have the same pair as the the Taoist Yin (receptive) & Yang (active).
The difference between the Western active mode and the Taoist Yang mode, is that Western activity assumes a supremacist attitude towards nature and the universe.
Taoist activity, by contrast moves in a synergetic fashion, in balance with and respect for the wholeness of which humans are a part.
On closer examination we can easily see that the second part of Wu Wei doesn’t neatly overlap with action or movement. If it did, perhaps it would be called Wu Tai(?)
Wei means exertion or power. In my understanding, the absence of exertion (Wu Wei) means that we are still actively engaged in whatever it is we have to do, but we don’t control the activity, or force the outcome of the action. We don't charge the action with an agenda, agony, or agitation.
In my experience, Wu Wei is a state where the inner space is receptive and open to receiving Tao-in-motion from the universal source itself, of which we are still part after all (no matter whether we believe in it or not). In Taoism this might be Wu Ji, or Hundun (?) I don’t know.
I call it the holorhythm ~ the universal rhythm that moves us and all living beings. The flow of life that guides the cycles of night and day, breath and heartbeat, stars and seasons, life and death.
The holorhythm is the stream of life, which has been known to many humans for millennia. Every so often it gets rediscovered and given different names, such as Tao (Taoism, ancient), or Holomovement (David Bohm, physics, 20th c), or Circadian Rhythm (Franz Halberg, biology, 20th c).
It’s been forgotten in the West, perhaps because we’ve never been taught how useful ~ or essential! ~ it is to tune into this rhythm. Or because it goes against the anthropocentric worldview, which continues to spread its propaganda that ‘humans are born to be control freaks’.
What I do know is that we all have access to the holorhythm ~ the unspeakable Tao ~ the river of life. We are part of it. We can drive it through our actions, which doesn’t necessarily mean doing something, no matter what.
Holding an intention is an action too. Sometimes it is best to hold an intention, and “let the right thing do itself,” ~ according to the teachings of F.M. Alexander, founder of the Alexander Technique. In my understanding, letting the right thing do itself carries the meaning and spirit of Wu Wei.
You have only to rest in inaction and things will transform themselves.
〰 Zhuangzi 〰
Humans have been acting as control freaks for centuries, not born this way, but learned, along with every other destructive habit. What was learned can be unlearned.
As a native Chinese woman, I am very heartened to see this interest in Tao in the west. Thank you Veronika for doing such a thorough and beautiful job of building the bridge. The way opposition or polarities were handled differently by western and Chinese mind has been fascinating myself for decades (yet another polarity arises with these meta structure of the mind). I see that this difference also corresponds to their manifestations in macroscopic, societal power structures.
Finally, also want to note that in Chinese traditions, philosophy is both an intellectual and embodied endeavor too. For example, Taiji, Wuji, or Wu Wei, they are not just intellectual concepts, but also parts of the psychosomatic practices of Tai Chi. When I practice Tai Chi, these concepts come alive in my body in ways that mind can not fathom.