synthesis between wu wei and focus

[Pietro]

Wu wei, non doing, and nothing gets undone.

 

But then for creative people there are plenty of things that you would naturally do. And the result is that you end up lacking focus.

 

We cut the useless branch in a tree to strengthen the ones that will bear fruit.

But the Taoist natural farmer Fukuoka would not do so.

 

Any suggestion

[Marblehead]

Any suggestion

 

Just for starters, your word "naturally" is the key word.

 

This should be a good discussion.

[Taomeow]

My brother-in-law is not a taoist, not "spiritual" at all in any recognized shape or form, has never practiced anything if you don't count tennis, but I sometimes think he is a reincarnation of Farmer Fukuoka or some such. (He can sit in full lotus naturally, e.g., without a day of training in his life, just because it is a comfortable pose for him.) His favorite motto: "Trouble trouble as soon as it troubles you, but not sooner." He does nothing about anything until pushed. If pushed, he never resists.

 

I don't know if it has anything to do with the question, but he popped in my mind as soon as I read it.

[Ish]

My brother-in-law is not a taoist, not "spiritual" at all in any recognized shape or form, has never practiced anything if you don't count tennis, but I sometimes think he is a reincarnation of Farmer Fukuoka or some such. (He can sit in full lotus naturally, e.g., without a day of training in his life, just because it is a comfortable pose for him.) His favorite motto: "Trouble trouble as soon as it troubles you, but not sooner." He does nothing about anything until pushed. If pushed, he never resists.

 

I don't know if it has anything to do with the question, but he popped in my mind as soon as I read it.

 

Wow, I know quite a lot of a women who can do full lotus without any training but have not heard of any men.

Is it the male nature to be inflexible? :)

 

That's a very true and beautiful motto to live by.

[mYTHmAKER]

Wu wei

I remove the I and i am.

[zanshin]

I have so many projects have started and not finished, but not really undone since it's about the process. A project that fizzles out isn't really useless, although it might not have an immediately practical result.

[hagar]

My brother-in-law is not a taoist, not "spiritual" at all in any recognized shape or form, has never practiced anything if you don't count tennis, but I sometimes think he is a reincarnation of Farmer Fukuoka or some such. (He can sit in full lotus naturally, e.g., without a day of training in his life, just because it is a comfortable pose for him.) His favorite motto: "Trouble trouble as soon as it troubles you, but not sooner." He does nothing about anything until pushed. If pushed, he never resists.

 

I don't know if it has anything to do with the question, but he popped in my mind as soon as I read it.

 

Wonderful!

It made me recall a few of the people I recall from my childhood. This one old friend of my dad skied across the North Pole. Not to brag, just because it he felt like it. He said it filled him with peace.

 

h

[9th]

A certain carpenter Shih was travelling to the Ch'i State. On reaching Shady Circle, he saw a sacred li tree in the temple to the God of Earth. It was so large that its shade could cover a herd of several thousand cattle. It was a hundred spans in girth, towering up eighty feet over the hilltop, before it branched out. A dozen boats could be cut out of it. Crowds stood gazing at it, but the carpenter took no notice, and went on his way without even casting a look behind. His apprentice however took a good look at it, and when he caught up with his master, said, "Ever since I have handled an adze in your service, I have never seen such a splendid piece of timber. How was it that you, Master, did not care to stop and look at it?"

 

"Forget about it. It's not worth talking about," replied his master. "It's good for nothing. Made into a boat, it would sink; into a coffin, it would rot; into furniture, it would break easily; into a door, it would sweat; into a pillar, it would be worm-eaten. It is wood of no quality, and of no use. That is why it has attained its present age."

 

When the carpenter reached home, he dreamt that the spirit of the tree appeared to him in his sleep and spoke to him as follows: "What is it you intend to compare me with? Is it with fine-grained wood? Look at the cherry-apple, the pear, the orange, the pumelo, and other fruit bearers? As soon as their fruit ripens they are stripped and treated with indignity. The great boughs are snapped off, the small ones scattered abroad. Thus do these trees by their own value injure their own lives. They cannot fulfil their allotted span of years, but perish prematurely because they destroy themselves for the (admiration of) the world. Thus it is with all things. Moreover, I tried for a long period to be useless. Many times I was in danger of being cut down, but at length I have succeeded, and so have become exceedingly useful to myself. Had I indeed been of use, I should not be able to grow to this height. Moreover, you and I are both created things. Have done then with this criticism of each other. Is a good-for-nothing fellow in imminent danger of death a fit person to talk of a good-for-nothing tree?"

[doc benway]

Wu wei, non doing, and nothing gets undone.

 

But then for creative people there are plenty of things that you would naturally do. And the result is that you end up lacking focus.

 

We cut the useless branch in a tree to strengthen the ones that will bear fruit.

But the Taoist natural farmer Fukuoka would not do so.

 

Any suggestion

Wu Wei can also be to not interfere... so what needs to get done, gets done, and with the necessary degree of focus.

The feeling of lack of focus is a symptom of interference perhaps.

[deci belle]

Wu wei, non doing, and nothing gets undone.

 

But then for creative people there are plenty of things that you would naturally do. And the result is that you end up lacking focus.

 

We cut the useless branch in a tree to strengthen the ones that will bear fruit.

But the Taoist natural farmer Fukuoka would not do so.

 

Any suggestion

 

So many good posts!❤

 

Creative people are their own worst enemies.

 

The knowledge that equality is complete is the same as nothing to do. Living wholeness in perpetuity on the brink of volition yet never having acted, is mind basically open. What can never be left undone? This can, because this has never been undone. Therefore the Completely Real does nothing and completely real humans have nothing left undone. Therefore they do not act according to convention which reflects thoughts of self and other.

 

Naturally do? Like naturally die? One must then practice broadening one's focus spherically 360˚.

 

Mr. Fukoka was a very scientific guy. His selfless desire to find out what really happens when one is whole within unity of one's purvey, is what allows one's own complete reality to activate complete reality in everyday ordinary situations. In our uselessness, we do not remove what is useless, only that which is habitually identified as useful. So in action habituated to self-reflection identifying usefulness, thoughts and feelings come to the fore, obscuring naturalness.

 

Naturalness dictates response. Did he insist that others also not do so? Who could ever visit Mr. Fukoka, who never wore a path to leave non-doing and enter into doing. In this way we find out what happens without exercising selfish habits, in which knowledge is immediate and void of self. Eternity waits on itself; immortality knows itself. That which knows itself has a way to do nothing that never leaves anything undone.