A
Taoist story tells of an old man who accidentally fell into the river rapids
leading to a high and dangerous waterfall. Onlookers feared for his life.
Miraculously, he came out alive and unharmed downstream at the bottom of the
falls. People asked him how he managed to survive. "I accommodated myself
to the water, not the water to me. Without thinking, I allowed myself to be
shaped by it. Plunging into the swirl, I came out with the swirl. This is how I
survived."
One
of Taoism’s most important concepts is wu wei (无为), which is sometimes translated as
“non-doing” or “non-action.” A better way to think of it, however, is as a
paradoxical “Action of non-action.” Wu wei
refers to the cultivation of a state of being in which our actions are quite
effortlessly in alignment with the ebb and flow of the elemental cycles of the
natural world. It is a kind of “going with the flow” that is characterized by
great ease and awake-ness, in which - without even trying - we’re able to respond
perfectly to whatever situations arise.
By
Elizabeth Reninger
But
“go with the flow” can all too easily become an excuse for apathy and
indifference.
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