What is Wu Chi?

[Wells]

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Edited August 8, 2016 by spacester

[Wells]

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Edited August 8, 2016 by spacester

[Daeluin]

In the five element theory, we have water, wood, fire, earth, metal.

 

In the 10 celestial stems, these are broken into yin and yang:

yang water, yin water, yang wood, yin wood, yang fire, yin fire, yang earth, yin earth, yang metal, yin metal

 

Their Chinese names (in pinyin) are:

ren, gui, jia, yi, bing, ding, wu, ji, geng, xing

 

wu and ji would be wu and chi in wade jiles, and represent yin and yang earth. 

 

Earth is the element which is most related to the center. In taiji or internal work it can refer to different things with varying degrees of specificity, but generally relates to the state of centered emptiness.

[Michael Sternbach]

For a scientist for example, Wu Chi could be probability waves and virtual particles.

Virtual particles are already on the threshold to manifestation though. Rigorously, Wuji is the Nothing that lies beyond it. Then again, there seems to be no true Nothing.

 

I see a parallel to the vacuum or empty space. Then again, Wuji is beyond space and time. Gotta think about this some more...

[Wells]

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Edited August 8, 2016 by spacester

[Wells]

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Edited August 8, 2016 by spacester

[Daeluin]

You seem to be using wuji and wuchi as different terms. It might help if you could share the chinese characters for these terms.

 

From what I can find, the sources on the internet that speak of wu chi and empty force also use the wade jiles romanization of chi instead of qi, tai chi instead of tai ji, and so on. As far as I can tell the empty state and empty force are the same thing, simply leveraged to different purposes.

[Wu Ming Jen]

Wu chi is the mother of yin and yang, interactions of form and non form. Wu chi has no form So words are useless to describe that which is beyond the mind caught in duality. When form and non form become one in ones awareness we return to our divine nature and the realization of never leaving the eternal with or without form (our bodies) we are all immortal.

 

This demi physical aspect of the universe has a direction. Nature can answer all the big questions just do not let mind get in the WAY. 

[zerostao]

on Valentines day 2011 Taomeow provided an elegant response to a friend of mine.

 

http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/17389-wuji-and-tao/#entry242851

[Wells]

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Edited August 8, 2016 by spacester

[Apech]

I think wuji and wu chi may be the pinyin and Wade Giles transliterations of the same word - i.e. the limitless (lit. without pole.)

[Michael Sternbach]

I think wuji and wu chi may be the pinyin and Wade Giles transliterations of the same word - i.e. the limitless (lit. without pole.)

 

I think you are right.

[Michael Sternbach]

Virtual particles are already on the threshold to manifestation though. Rigorously, Wuji is the Nothing that lies beyond it. Then again, there seems to be no true Nothing.

 

I see a parallel to the vacuum or empty space. Then again, Wuji is beyond space and time. Gotta think about this some more...

 

Okay, I thought about it some more. And although this may come as a shock to some, I found that there must actually be two kinds of Wuji. (Any connection to what Daeluin has shared about wu and ji above perhaps?)

 

One is point like, infinitely small, zero-dimensional - the center of a circle, a centered Nothingness, yet the origin of all there is. The other is infinitely expanded - in it, all opposing forces are balanced, reconciled, cancelling out one another: The circumference of a circle.

 

Nirvana is samsara, samsara is nirwana.

[Michael Sternbach]

I should probably add that in a circle (or sphere) of infinite expansion, its centre is everywhere...

[Junko]

It's like sneezing.

[Daeluin]

This helps a little: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuji_(philosophy)

 

Feels to me like all of these meanings share the same root, which goes so far back that several variants have been born.

 

As for the characters of the celestial stems, wu 戊 and ji 己 I don't know their origin or how they might be connected to wuji 無極, but they all seem to point to the same concept.

 

In class the other day we heard about the wuji that would be considered empty force, but more in terms of ming jing, an jing, and hua jing: obvious power, hidden power, mysterious power.

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Wu means non, Ji means extreme,

so the literal translation of wuji is non extreme.

 

I think you will find that throughout Daoist history, there is not one common understanding of Wuji.

Early texts like Ling Bao Jing said that Wuji is the emptiness before the beginning of the world, and certainly the Neo Confucian scholar Zhu Xi agrees with this point.

 

In later Daoism, for instance the book qing jing jing tu zhu (the mapped explanation of the quiet tranquility classic) it says that Wuji is the state when yin and yang are not polarized, so in every year it is the period from October to December and every day it is between six and ten pm or so.   The same book also says that Wuji is hun dun, or the chaos state and that Wuji is the real Dao.   Of course I can't attest for the correctness of any philosophical statement, but I do think that Tu Zhu presents a fascinating evolution of the concept of non polarity.

 

Quanzhen Daoism tends to view wuji as a state between the absolute stillness of tai yin and the movement of yang energy from its depth.    Wuji in a sense is that "mystery gate subtle portal" that huang yuanji talks about in Dao De Jing Chan Wei.

 

This is as you can see a reasonably complex subject and isn't something that can be just given one answer to, unless of course your school happens to follow a specific criteria for wuji and you want to define it as such. 

[Brian]

Okay, I thought about it some more. And although this may come as a shock to some, I found that there must actually be two kinds of Wuji. (Any connection to what Daeluin has shared about wu and ji above perhaps?)

 

One is point like, infinitely small, zero-dimensional - the center of a circle, a centered Nothingness, yet the origin of all there is. The other is infinitely expanded - in it, all opposing forces are balanced, reconciled, cancelling out one another: The circumference of a circle.

 

Nirvana is samsara, samsara is nirwana.

Sounds kinda familiar -- almost like you are describing an energetic "something" which manifests as both a particle and a field.

[Marblehead]

Hehehe.