Wu Wei

One is by nature neither good nor evil. Selfish, non-contrived action is what makes one good or evil. Both "good" and "evil" are but CONCEPTS; a concept, not an objective. If one is naturally good, then he or she must also be naturally evil. If good exists then too must evil; they arise mutually through relative distinctions that we create. Good is no "better" than evil, and so is evil no "better" than good.

Happiness is a state of mind that we experience from time to time; it is an integral part of certain situations, such as being with a friend or eating a good dinner. To mentally abstract this condition of happiness, as if it were something in itself, and then make it an object of desire is a fatal mistake. BUT THAT'S WHAT WE HUMANS DO ALL THE TIME. "Happiness" thus becomes an external object, as it were - somethjing to be attained - just as "unhappiness" is a thing to be avoided.

The problem with seeking to be the prefect, ideal person is in the very seeking itself. One can only seek that which is external to oneself. Fullfillment in life is not to be found by SEEKING it or trying to GRASP it. The result of an ongoing effort to control one's environment is ultimately DOOMED to failure. The effort to grasp and control life creates a kind of bondage to one's concepts of what the "good" is, and the desire to achieve it. Fulfillment is to be found, not through seeking it, but through NOT-SEEKING, through letting go of the SELF (ego) altogether. Only by letting go of our precious, but fake/phony, conceptual world do we discover real freedom.

All of us acquire a set of values as we grow up. Ordinarily, these are the "conventional values" of the society in which we live, values that were first taught to us when we were children. Having such values seems to be an important part of a successful life; our values shape our goals. HOWEVER, these are CONCEPTS only; they have no corresponding reality in nature. What is bad is only bad because we recognize it as such. Something is "bad" and therefore makes us unhappy not because it really is bad in some objective sense, but rather because we have decided that it is bad.

If, at some deep level, we decide that having lots of money is good, then it must follow that having very little money is bad. Of course, neither one is objectively good or bad (nothing is objectively good or bad!). But once the decision is made and the concept is formed, it follows that we will SEEK to achieve the concpetual reality that WE have defined as "good" and thus, hopefully, be happy.

Ills are only ills because one recognizes them as such. If one would once forsake his or her habit of labeling things good or bad, desireable or undesirerable, then the SELF-MADE ills would disappear and no longer be seen as ills.

Not attempting to control one's world, one can relax and allow himself or herself to be a FREE and spontaneous EXPRESSION of the movement of the natural world. In doing this, one will intuitively come to see the magnificent unity of nature. "Things" have no independent existence or meaning, including the "thing" I call "myself".

There is no special relationship between person and nature. We have to liberate ourselves from the self imposed isolation of being some kind of god-like VISITOR in the universe, surrounded by the natural world, and essentially not part of it. In freeing oneself, one doesn't have to prove anything. One is free to live simply and modestly and has nothing more to prove than does the grass. Each is splendid just as it is.

Inspired by one's vision of the unity of nature, one is thus free to live as a natural human being. Nature is so beautifully regulated, that once in accord with it, essentially one doesn't have to do anything, in the sense of pushing it around. Just go with it, like the grass grows. Of course, the nature of grass is very different from the nature of human beings, and therefore this "non-action" is expressed differently in human beings.

The movement of water reveals the way of nature. Water is powerful, yet it is also the most yielding thing in nature. Water is a wonderful example of "non-action". It flows and accomplishes all within it's very nature yet ultimately does not ACT.