Taoism | T'ai Chi as the Physical Embodiment of Wu-Wei

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“Suddenly Alan jumped to his feet and joyously danced a t’ai chi improvisation, shouting, ‘Ah-ha, t’ai chi is the Tao, wu-wei, tzu-jan, like water, like wind, sailing, surfing, dancing with your hands, your head, your spine, your hips, your knees…with your brush, your voice…Ha Ha ha Ha…La La Lala ah ah Ah…”

– Al Chung-liang Huang, Tao: The Watercourse Way



I sometimes practice T’ai Chi. T’ai Chi is about allowing, flowing, letting your body move of its own, which naturally keeps one in balance.

I think of it as physically embodying wu-wei. You’re not-doing, you’re allowing something to be done.

The physical practice of T’ai Chi helps me live wu-wei in the world.

As I study the traditions, some of the philosophies resonate with me more than others. Each tradition seems to contain the “meditative experience of the absolute”, and then the philosophical systems and concepts in which that experience is embedded. I resonate with the Theravada Buddhist ethical path, but not with the extreme emphasis on the world as dukkha. Or perhaps I resonate with the philosophies at different times and in different ways as I find myself experiencing different parts of life.

Wu-wei – not-doing – is one of those concepts that sticks. When we are living rightly, we aren’t thinking about it. We’re natural. In the philosophy of Taoism, We are letting the Tao, the creative ground, live through us.

Taoism | Living Artfully

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The Tao Te Ching is, at least in part, about living artfully.

Perhaps, after one does the hard work of moral and spiritual discipline, and has emptied themselves of their self-concern, part of the reward is to live artfully.




Taoism | The Pivot of the Tao

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“Tao is obscured when men understand only one of a pair of opposites, or concentrate only on a partial aspect of being. Then clear expression also becomes muddled by mere wordplay, affirming this one aspect and denying all the rest. Hence the wrangling of Confucians and Mohists; each denies what the other affirms, and affirms what the other denies. What use is this struggle to set up ‘No’ against ‘Yes,’ and ‘Yes’ against ‘No’? Better to abandon this hopeless effort and seek true light!

There is nothing that cannot be seen from the standpoint of the ‘Not-I.’ And there is nothing which cannot be seen from the standpoint of the ‘I.’ If I begin by looking at anything from the viewpoint of the ‘Not-I,’ then I do not really see it, since it is ‘not I’ that sees it. If I begin from where I am and see it as I see it, then it may also become possible for me to see it as another sees it. Hence the theory of reversal that opposites produce each other, depend on each other, and complement each other.

… Life is followed by death; death is followed by life. The possible becomes impossible; the impossible becomes possible. Right turns into wrong and wrong into right – the flow of life alters circumstances and thus things themselves are altered in their turn. But disputants continue to affirm and to deny the same things they have always affirmed and denied, ignoring the new aspects of reality presented by the change in conditions.

The wise man therefore, instead of trying to prove this or that point by logical disputation, sees all things in the light of direct intuition. He is not imprisoned by the limitations of the ‘I,’ for the viewpoint of direct intuition is that of both ‘I’ and ‘Not-I.’ …

When the wise man grasps this pivot, he is in the center of the circle, and there he stands while ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ pursue each other around the circumference. The pivot of Tao passes through the center where all affirmations and denials converge. He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point from which all movements and oppositions can be seen in their right relationship. Hence he sees the limitless possibilities of both ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’

Abandoning all thought of imposing a limit or taking sides, he rests in direct intuition.”


– Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu

Preserve Your Health

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“I am serious when I say that this work demands a relaxed, healthy, and vigorous disposition of both body and spirit. For the love of God, discipline yourself in body and spirit so that you preserve your health as long as you can.”

– The Cloud of Unknowing, 41


Preserve your health, not for vanity, but so that you can complete your work fully in the world.



Taoism | The Man of Tao

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“The secret of the way proposed by Chuang Tzu is therefore not the accumulation of virtue and merit taught by Ju, but wu wei, the non-doing, or non-action, which is not intent upon results and is not concerned with consciously laid plans or deliberately organized endeavors… If one is in harmony with Tao – the cosmic Tao, ‘Great Tao’ – the answer will make itself clear when the time comes to act, for then one will act not according to the human and self-conscious mode of deliberation, but according to the divine and spontaneous mode of wu wei, which is the mode of action of Tao itself, and is therefore the source of all good… For Chuang Tzu, the truly great man is therefore not the man who has by a lifetime of study and practice accumulated a great fund of virtue and merit, but the man in whom ‘Tao acts without impediment,’ the ‘man of Tao.’”

– Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu

On Not Having a Definite MetaNarrative

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Individuals growing up in traditional religious structures find themselves within a MetaNarrative. They are given a way of understanding the world which has been life-giving, or at least functional, for millions of people for thousands of years. A MetaNarrative gives one a structure of values and a structure of meaning within which to understand their life.

Some version of the traditional Christian MetaNarrative was my working understanding of the world for many years. I was made in the image of God, but fallen and sinful. I needed redemption by the work of Christ. When I accepted Christ’s sacrifice, my mission was to spread the Gospel and live for God to the best of my abilities through the power of the Holy Spirit. Life had eternal meaning, because, in the end, I (and others) would attain everlasting life. My values were rooted in Scripture and my action in the world had felt meaning.

I no longer find myself within that Narrative and losing it was a complete upending of my entire understanding of life.

Many young people today, especially those growing up in multi-cultural communities, are either never given a religious MetaNarrative, or find their tradition unconvincing in an absolute sense. We live in cities and rub elbows with people from an astounding variety of cultural and religious backgrounds, each with their own understandings of the world. If any one of these traditions is correct in some absolute sense, it’s hard to know which one. Scientific materialism, mixed with religious and cultural relativism, seems to underly much of modern thought.

And so we float. We do the best we can, because life keeps coming whether you have it all figured out or not. Many adopt some form of agnosticism about questions of Ultimate Meaning.

One can adopt a meditative path without strictly committing to a MetaNarrative or framework of thought. One can “taste and see” – by their direct experience – whether a spiritual path they have chosen is life-giving. One can make ethical decisions, live in a certain way, adopt a meditative practice, and see if it leads to greater real happiness for themselves and others.

For me, it helps to have a tentative understanding of what I am trying to achieve. A tentative understanding of the world and how I understand my practice. I still think in Theistic terms. I think about things like forming my soul toward the Good, the True, and the Beautiful and then handing it back to God. I think about developing Purity of Heart. I think about seeking and opening myself to a transformation that comes from God, the Source, the Absolute.

But I don’t know. Other metaphors and other images, perhaps from completely different systems of thought, might also strike me as helpful along the way.

A plant grows toward the sun because it has to or it will wither and die. Maybe we can just be plants growing toward the Sun, even if we don’t understand it all.