stirling

Demons and voices are "makyo": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makyō They are distractions that come from the thinking mind. If your mind is still, they aren't there by definition. The stillness is the deeper reality of these experiences - the thing that is ALWAYS there when the mind is allowed to stop. Many experiences of all kinds occur during meditation. Most of them are blissful. Some people have supernatural experiences, some don't. It's good to have recourse to a proper teacher to check in with who has seen and understands these experiences, so that when things like this happen they can be framed in their proper perspective and there is some tuning of your practice where problems arise. @Cadcam, if you are continuing to experience anhedonia you should really be in contact with a mental health professional.

The Tao isn't knowledge in a book and is inexpressible in language, thus an intellectual understanding of it is NOT it.

The Tao.

Aren't they all from translations? Experience. There aren't any positive or negative outcomes. Things are as they are.

Volition is a delusion we carry around with this idea that we are separate beings in the world with agency. It is actually a simple misunderstanding that is entirely clarified with the dawning of realization, though it is very possible to get a taste of it in meditation IF you are looking and it has been pointed to.

I have read many definitions. One that I would say is closest to what is being described is: effortless action. Where there is the living experience of the Dao, there is no "I" to "interrupt the course of nature", instead what there is happens as the "effortless action" of reality.

I think I see the disconnect... while conceptual understanding is helpful, it is only the permanent experiential knowledge that gives you the full depth of the realization. For example: I read the recipe for what is supposed to be a truly exceptional cake. I memorize the ingredient list, the proportions, the step by step instruction. This however is nothing like actually having baked the cake - totally understanding the process as an experience you have had, and being able to actually hold the still warm cake in your hand and taste it in this moment, not as an idea but as something you can sink your teeth into right now. The Tao de Ching isn't the experience of the Tao, it is a document that POINTS to the experience. An intellectual understanding of riding a bike ISN'T riding a bike. Earlier in this thread you asked me: I understand because it is my experience in this moment.

So, you are saying you read the Tao De Ching and after thinking about it came to a conceptual understanding?

Do you yourself understand it? How about this: Wu Wei arises is the understanding that enlightenment and the world of separateness occupy the same space, though one of them is a "deeper" reality. To a person who experiences the world as a "self", there is a world of separate objects, and a "self" with agency that interacts with them. From the experience of enlightened mind it is obvious that the separateness is a delusion, and that the unity of things takes care of itself. The way this appears is from the same perspective, but with two ways of seeing - there is still the appearance of a body that interacts with the world, but from the enlightened perspective this action is not the product of volition but the action of reality itself acting as a wholeness. No amount of reading or pouring over translations and commentaries will ever yield an understanding of the non-dual nature of reality, of which Wu Wei is only a single intellectual perspective. The broader realization isn't an intellectual understanding, and the reality of it will never match an intellectual idea about its nature. The only path to understanding Wu Wei is in having it become your permanent experience through realization.