SIMPLE WISDOM
By Dr. Michael T. Caley
Chinese Characters (Words)
Chinese writing is done traditionally with a brush and black ink on rice paper Each character is a concept -- not made from independent letters. Each character can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, and adverb, a gerundive, etc. etc., as need be. The order of the characters and the content of the characters alerts the reader to the grammatical aspect of each character in a sentence.
Chinese has, at least, two characters for expressing the English world “no” -- Bu and Wu. Bu generally means no or not, as in the phrase “Yes we have no bananas!”. “Wo bu hao” means, “I am not well. Wu has a different sense of negativism. It tends to negate another character by removing any concept of deliberation or intent.
Wei means to act, acting or action.
Bu wei means not acting or no action.
Wu wei means spontaneous, un-meditated, unpremeditated, unprincipled, non-coercive action. This is the action we see when we watch athletes, musicians and teachers who seem always to do “the right thing” without thought.
Daojia is perhaps the easiest and simultaneously the most difficult way to live. There is no creator god and hence there are no rules of behaviour given by any external source. Creation was not an event that happened in some distant past but is the ongoing processing of processes. Even the “Big Bang” from which our universe is supposed to have emerged, began as a process in some other milieu.
We are always aware that creation is an ongoing process that unfolds moment by moment.
Reality
The world is, as you perceive it. There is no hidden perfection behind everything.
Day follows night follows day, ad infinitum, just as the seasons flow throughout the year - endlessly repeating/recycling, but never the same. We are aware of the cycling of the world and attempt to be in harmony with them. Cycles are harmonic and being harmonic means moving to natural rhythms.
Learning and Teaching
Qigong can be learned but not taught. Qi can be experienced but not learned. The role of the ‘teacher’ is to demonstrate the methods (ways physical, mental, spiritual) that allow the experience of qi to unfold. The role of the learner is to use the methods to allow the unfolding of the experience. The western concepts of active teacher and passive student do not apply. Both, on the same path, share experiences.
Discipline
Qi gong is simultaneously the most easy and most difficult art. This is a fundamental aspect of all Daoist arts and is found in Taijiquan in the tension of opposites.
The basic stance of qigong imparts a sense of relaxation from the first attempt. Physical relaxation underpins mental relaxation, which underpins spiritual relaxation. But, no one can relax upon command. Relaxation is a processthat can be learned and maintained, effortlessly. The fundamental discipline of qi gong is to “just do it, purposelessly, on purpose”.
Alan Watts said, “Enlightenment is an accident. Meditation makes you accident prone.” Hautou is the Chinese for awakening and also is by accident. Qigong makes you accident-prone. All the mystical processes are found by accident.
The Great Questions
Western and other philosophical systems have been trying to answer the following questions for millennia.
1. Where did we come from”
2. Why are we here?
3. Where are we going?
For us, the answers to the first and last questions are the same -- the Dao. What is the Dao – it is ineffable, unutterable, unspeakable. The answer to the second question is: to live significantly. In order for each individual to live significantly they must “wu” the world.
Wu-ing the World
There are, in the Daodejing” seven Chinese characters that are explicitly paired with the character ‘wu’. Roger Ames and his colleagues, in particular David Hall, give the following translations:
wu ming (naming) = naming without fixed reference
wu shu (business) = non-interfering in daily life and business
wu wei (acting) = non-coercive action that is in accordance with the de of things
wu xin (thinking/feeling) = unmediated thinking and feeling
wu yu (desire) = objectless desire
wu cheng (striving) = striving without contention
wu zhi (knowing) = unprincipled knowing
The wu- forms are not rules of conduct. That is, they are not analogous to the 10 Commandments or even particular legislative frameworks.
A person cannot “follow” the wu- forms. Rather the wu- forms are descriptions, a posteriori, of ways for each individual adult human to interact with all aspects of life. So, the wu- forms cannot be learned, in the conventional sense of teacher-student interactions. They cannot be taught, but they can be embodied. Also, the wu-forms are a gestalt; that is you cannot pick and choose from a list. Each embodies the others and is imminent in the gestalt. Usually, we speak only of wu wei without explicitly referring to the others.
Embodying the wu- forms requires each individual to develop habits of deep contemplation. Contemplation is not identical to meditation. Meditation in its classical forms promises transcendence, a soterological end. Contemplation makes no such promise. It need not be soterological nor is there any perceptible end-point. Embodiment is making the wu processes of yourself real.
Becoming Wu / Embodying Wu
Meditation in most traditional forms has the goal of enlightenment and transcendence. Enlightenment is an AHA! - Eureka moment when the meditator breaks through to constraints of rational thought or, from another perspective, when rational thought yields to other mental/physical processes. Meditation has always had an aspect of salvation from the drudgery of life. Transcendence may be mental or physical, but in both forms it implies a freedom from cultural and physical boundaries.
Contemplation does not imply either salvation or freedom. Contemplation is the focused attention to all aspects of a thing or event in order to understand all of its aspects, without the pre-conception of changing the event or thing. Contemplation of self, physical, mental and spiritual inexorably leads to the embodiment of wu- forms. It is the opposite of enlightenment -- it is endarkenment. Rather than leading to transcendence of the world, it drops the contemplative directly into the moment-by-moment unfolding of everything.
For us, there is no desire, nor attempt to escape life. Rather, it is the deliberate physical, mental and spiritual immersion into all aspects of the individual’s life that eventuates in realization – making your life real.
Comment on the Qigong Forum
Back to Home Page
Chinese Characters (Words)
Chinese writing is done traditionally with a brush and black ink on rice paper Each character is a concept -- not made from independent letters. Each character can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, and adverb, a gerundive, etc. etc., as need be. The order of the characters and the content of the characters alerts the reader to the grammatical aspect of each character in a sentence.
Chinese has, at least, two characters for expressing the English world “no” -- Bu and Wu. Bu generally means no or not, as in the phrase “Yes we have no bananas!”. “Wo bu hao” means, “I am not well. Wu has a different sense of negativism. It tends to negate another character by removing any concept of deliberation or intent.
Wei means to act, acting or action.
Bu wei means not acting or no action.
Wu wei means spontaneous, un-meditated, unpremeditated, unprincipled, non-coercive action. This is the action we see when we watch athletes, musicians and teachers who seem always to do “the right thing” without thought.
Daojia is perhaps the easiest and simultaneously the most difficult way to live. There is no creator god and hence there are no rules of behaviour given by any external source. Creation was not an event that happened in some distant past but is the ongoing processing of processes. Even the “Big Bang” from which our universe is supposed to have emerged, began as a process in some other milieu.
We are always aware that creation is an ongoing process that unfolds moment by moment.
Reality
The world is, as you perceive it. There is no hidden perfection behind everything.
Day follows night follows day, ad infinitum, just as the seasons flow throughout the year - endlessly repeating/recycling, but never the same. We are aware of the cycling of the world and attempt to be in harmony with them. Cycles are harmonic and being harmonic means moving to natural rhythms.
Learning and Teaching
Qigong can be learned but not taught. Qi can be experienced but not learned. The role of the ‘teacher’ is to demonstrate the methods (ways physical, mental, spiritual) that allow the experience of qi to unfold. The role of the learner is to use the methods to allow the unfolding of the experience. The western concepts of active teacher and passive student do not apply. Both, on the same path, share experiences.
Discipline
Qi gong is simultaneously the most easy and most difficult art. This is a fundamental aspect of all Daoist arts and is found in Taijiquan in the tension of opposites.
The basic stance of qigong imparts a sense of relaxation from the first attempt. Physical relaxation underpins mental relaxation, which underpins spiritual relaxation. But, no one can relax upon command. Relaxation is a processthat can be learned and maintained, effortlessly. The fundamental discipline of qi gong is to “just do it, purposelessly, on purpose”.
Alan Watts said, “Enlightenment is an accident. Meditation makes you accident prone.” Hautou is the Chinese for awakening and also is by accident. Qigong makes you accident-prone. All the mystical processes are found by accident.
The Great Questions
Western and other philosophical systems have been trying to answer the following questions for millennia.
1. Where did we come from”
2. Why are we here?
3. Where are we going?
For us, the answers to the first and last questions are the same -- the Dao. What is the Dao – it is ineffable, unutterable, unspeakable. The answer to the second question is: to live significantly. In order for each individual to live significantly they must “wu” the world.
Wu-ing the World
There are, in the Daodejing” seven Chinese characters that are explicitly paired with the character ‘wu’. Roger Ames and his colleagues, in particular David Hall, give the following translations:
wu ming (naming) = naming without fixed reference
wu shu (business) = non-interfering in daily life and business
wu wei (acting) = non-coercive action that is in accordance with the de of things
wu xin (thinking/feeling) = unmediated thinking and feeling
wu yu (desire) = objectless desire
wu cheng (striving) = striving without contention
wu zhi (knowing) = unprincipled knowing
The wu- forms are not rules of conduct. That is, they are not analogous to the 10 Commandments or even particular legislative frameworks.
A person cannot “follow” the wu- forms. Rather the wu- forms are descriptions, a posteriori, of ways for each individual adult human to interact with all aspects of life. So, the wu- forms cannot be learned, in the conventional sense of teacher-student interactions. They cannot be taught, but they can be embodied. Also, the wu-forms are a gestalt; that is you cannot pick and choose from a list. Each embodies the others and is imminent in the gestalt. Usually, we speak only of wu wei without explicitly referring to the others.
Embodying the wu- forms requires each individual to develop habits of deep contemplation. Contemplation is not identical to meditation. Meditation in its classical forms promises transcendence, a soterological end. Contemplation makes no such promise. It need not be soterological nor is there any perceptible end-point. Embodiment is making the wu processes of yourself real.
Becoming Wu / Embodying Wu
Meditation in most traditional forms has the goal of enlightenment and transcendence. Enlightenment is an AHA! - Eureka moment when the meditator breaks through to constraints of rational thought or, from another perspective, when rational thought yields to other mental/physical processes. Meditation has always had an aspect of salvation from the drudgery of life. Transcendence may be mental or physical, but in both forms it implies a freedom from cultural and physical boundaries.
Contemplation does not imply either salvation or freedom. Contemplation is the focused attention to all aspects of a thing or event in order to understand all of its aspects, without the pre-conception of changing the event or thing. Contemplation of self, physical, mental and spiritual inexorably leads to the embodiment of wu- forms. It is the opposite of enlightenment -- it is endarkenment. Rather than leading to transcendence of the world, it drops the contemplative directly into the moment-by-moment unfolding of everything.
For us, there is no desire, nor attempt to escape life. Rather, it is the deliberate physical, mental and spiritual immersion into all aspects of the individual’s life that eventuates in realization – making your life real.
Comment on the Qigong Forum
Back to Home Page
