Wu wei 無為
Moving, not moving. Doing, not doing. Wu wei is the heart of Daoism and the hidden heart of tai chi.
Moving, not moving
In tai chi we say "seek stillness in motion" (動中求靜). The body flows while the mind rests. The form is a moving meditation, a way of practising wu wei with the whole body.
Doing, not doing
The Daodejing describes the sage who "manages affairs without doing anything" (ch. 2) and "acts without thinking of acting" (ch. 63). The work still gets done, but there is no forcing in it.
Water
"The highest excellence is like water" (ch. 8). It nourishes everything, takes the low place, yields, and still wears away the hardest stone (ch. 78). Push hands is the study of water.
Emptiness
Thirty spokes share one hub, "but it is on the empty space that the use of the wheel depends" (ch. 11). Practice makes room, and it doesn't add clutter.
Stillness clears the water
"Who can make the muddy water clear? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear" (ch. 15). This is the heart of sitting practice (zuowang, 坐忘, "sitting and forgetting").
Try it now
- Stand or sit comfortably. Let the shoulders drop.
- Breathe in through the nose without pulling. Let the breath arrive.
- Breathe out and let the belly soften.
- Lift the hands slowly as if they were floating in water. Don't lift them so much as let them rise.
- Let them sink again. Notice the moment when effort turns into ease. That is a taste of wu wei.
Go deeper: Daodejing ch. 37 · ch. 48 · ch. 8 (water) · Philosophy index · Qigong sets