Practical Taoism: Non-Action & Empty-Mind

Yen Si (Taoist 'Immortal')

(Lao Tzu circa 500BC, from the Tao Te Ching)

The non-action of the wise man is not inaction.
It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything.
The sage is quiet because he is not moved,
Not because he wills to be quiet.

Still water is like glass.
You can look in it and see yourself clearly.
It is a perfect level;
A carpenter could use it.
How much moreso the liquid within man?

The core of the wise man is tranquil.
It reflects the universe around him as
The glass of everything.
Emptiness, stillness, tranquility, tastelessness,
Silence, non-action: this is the level of nature.

This is perfect Tao. People find rest here.
Resting, they are empty.
Silence and non-action are the root of all things.

There has been a good deal of misunderstanding as to what non-action or non-doing really means. I would say it comes down the adage “you can’t really listen while you are talking”. Life is the never-ending balance of motion to rest, and how can we realize the motion if we have never rested?

Non-action means appropriate action, an action which is not forced or out of synch with the surroundings. If I were to say what Taoism embodied in a practical sense more than anything else it would be the synchronization of the whole man, internal and external, with his experiential world, a world that he must LISTEN to before acting in accordance with. The reflection of this glass is the listening process. Man is the sum of his influences and environment, and that world is a mirror of the man who looks out onto it. To know the truth of ourselves is to know the truth of the universe.

Action is action UPON. Non-action is acting WITH. It is called non-action because the flow of ones doing is so embedded within the surrounding landscape in such a natural way that is isn’t evident to the observer that anything has really been done! This is why some call the Taoists lazy. They seldom appear to do anything! Taoists also don’t meditate in the same way others do. Thinking about non-thinking is still thinking, and acting UPON the brain rather than WITH the brain.

Taoist meditation is about emptying the effort of the mind into something that flows so naturally, lest say a talent or sport, that one forgets one has a mind! This is Taoist harmony. No forcing, no visible effort. You forget about time and space without any effort. In this harmony there are no breaks in the continuum between action and thought, because there really is no awareness of thought at all.

We may have had this happen to us. We are gardening (this is where I happily lose my effort-mind), and someone walks by and praises you for all your hard work. Gardening is definitely hard work, my back says so anyway, but you wonder what the hell they are talking about! This wasn’t hard at all. In fact, I enjoy it so much that I hardly remember doing it! Let alone suffering from it!

The best side effects of non-action and the non-effort mind are flexibility. If I am put into a situation that requires some ingenuity, and I begin to apply the Effort-Mind rather than the Empty-Mind, I will begin to search for answer outside the situation without any reference to the situation. The Empty-mind is not no-mind, it’s ‘in-synch’ mind, in coordination with what is in front of me, and finds the solution within the problem itself. This is referred to as the WU WEI, or the Uncarved Block.

The beauty of Taoism is that we ALL have experienced this empty-mind or non-action, though most likely without realizing it. We cannot DO anything to attain it, but rather NOT do the things that hinder it. Empty mind is the natural state of things, the squirrel does not fret about finding nuts; it just goes out and finds them. Too much explanation will kill even the best idea. If you don’t know what I mean, stop thinking about it and it will come to you while doing something else. This may have something to do with why when one falls asleep with a question one wakes up with an answer. When one ceases to impose thinking UPON the mind, then and only then can one think WITH mind.

Non-action and empty mind also help one lose their judgmentalism. One loses the sense of coulda, woulda, and shoulda, both regarding self and others. Guilt, vengeance, and doubt are but a few of the harmful traits that flow from the need to act UPON something. This is seen by man seeking to overcome nature and impose his will upon it and other human beings, leading to horrible suffering. “Mind over matter” they say, but that means that one isn’t considering the ‘matter’ at all, only ones desire to bend or break it to an arbitrary will.

Living/being is like any other skill or talent. We have to think about how it works, and then how we are going to do it. Yet, once we are doing it, we still spend way too much effort-mind thinking about it! If I am shooting a basketball, once I am proficient at shooting the ball, I don’t have to relearn the entire game all over again each time I play. I just play, that’s all.

Lao Tzu says more on the subject:

The master leads
By emptying people’s minds
And filling their cores
By weakening their ambition and toughening their
Resolve.
He helps people lose everything
They know, everything they desire, and creates confusion
In those who think that they know.

Practice not-doing and everything will fall into place.