The Dao of Letting Go (or Not Trying)
Dr. Edward Slingerland on "wu wei," the Confucians and the Daoists' key to political and spiritual success. Slingerland's is the author of Trying Not to Try: The Art ...
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Wu wei is an early Chinese term that means literally no doing or no trying. But I think a better translation is effortless action. And it's the central spiritual ideal for these early thinkers I look at. So the Confucians and the Daoists. And what it looks a little bit like flow or being in the zone as an athlete. So you're very effective. You're moving through the world in a very efficient way -- social world and physical world. But you don't have a sense of doing anything. You don't have a sense of effort. You don't have a sense of yourself as an agent. You kind of lose yourself in the activity you're involved in. And you're not only efficacious in terms of skill in the world. You also have this power that the early Chinese call -- unfortunately th...
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Wu wei is an early Chinese term that means literally no doing or no trying. But I think a better translation is effortless action. And it's the central spiritual ideal for these early thinkers I look at. So the Confucians and the Daoists. And what it looks a little bit like flow or being in the zone as an athlete. So you're very effective. You're moving through the world in a very efficient way -- social world and physical world. But you don't have a sense of doing anything. You don't have a sense of effort. You don't have a sense of yourself as an agent. You kind of lose yourself in the activity you're involved in. And you're not only efficacious in terms of skill in the world. You also have this power that the early Chinese call -- unfortunately th...
