On Not Doing

The philosophy of Wu Wei has often been criticized as being immoral and promoting inactivity, but to me the obvious meaning is not that I shouldn't do good deeds - it just means that I should not do the bad ones. Almost the entire evil on the world is brought about by humans, and the latest peril we have produced is the looming global environmental destruction. Now how does Wu Wei fit into the picture? For example recycling: recycling is generally seen as something very positive, yet it is just a way to cope with a problem that already exists. The Wu Wei approach would be not to produce garbage in the first place. Wu Wei means to avoid problems instead of inventing ever new half-hearted solutions to unexpected new problems. Wu Wei means not-polluting instead of cleaning up. It means to interfere with the world around us as little as possible and only if necessary. This goes along nicely with the more scientific precautionary principle: We should not interfere with nature since we cannot possibly ever now the effects it has because ecosystems are far to complex to be fully understood. Wu Wei therefore is a cousin of the precautionary principle. If we find an unknown mushroom in the forest, we will not eat it, because it may be poisonous. We would never say "Well, lets eat it - after all it may be harmless". In other words: not doing certain things is just common sense. But this common sense fails us in the case of the global environment since we have no natural intuition (or lost it) for natural complexities, let alone our planet as a whole. But Wu Wei points the way. Not doing, not needing, not desiring mere things. We more and more live in a dead, electrified plastic world, bombarded by the messages of the consumer machinery. We feel obliged to continuously obtain new things, yet despite all of our possessions many of us are never contented, never happy, never at ease with themselves. In my own case the happiest moments of my life had nothing at all to do with my purchasing power. I remember, for example, relaxed moments, sitting alone in the spring sun and studying or reading on my parents farm. The Skylarks are flying, singing their songs of life and joy. Lizards are playing on the ground and the trees are sprouting. I sit there and do nothing. And then this feeling comes from somewhere deep within, this feeling that I am a part of all things around me, that I am very small and yet an integral aspect of nature - of the universe - of the Tao. The feeling says that in this moment everything is all right. There is no desire. There are no wishes. There is nothing I have to have or I have to do - I only am. Wu Wei brings us into harmony with ourselves, the world around us and therefore with the Tao. In this sense Taoist philosophy is not only deeply spiritual but also deeply ecological. Wu Wei leads to mental quietude and is the beginning of all happiness. It must be admitted though that the dominant lifestyle makes it difficult to achieve good Wu Wei since we are continuously under pressure to do something - and mostly something completely pointless and artificial. Everybody must find ways for her and himself to break down these walls of outside pressure - or rather to grow beyond them.