Politics today

Politics in Great Britain is going through interesting times at the moment. I often talk in these posts about how Taoism is relevant today world, so I thought that it would be timely to remind you of chapter seventeen of the Tao Te Ching:

 

The highest form of government is what people hardly even realise is there.

 

Next down is that of the sage, who is seen, and loved, and respected.

 

Next down is the dictatorship that thrives on oppression and terror.

 

And the last is that of those who lie and end up despised and rejected.

 

The sage says little – and does not tie the people down.

 

And the people stay happy, believing that what happens, happens…..naturally.

 

Who says Taoism is NOT relevant.

Suppleness – Wu Wei

The term “Wu Wei” (pronounced ‘woo wee’) is similar to “Qi” and many other Chinese terms, in so far as there is no direct translation into English, thus the word remains open to Western interpretation.

I have already posted on this subject and suggested that Wu Wei could be considered as ‘a state of readiness‘. English translations of Wu Wei typically used are ‘emptiness’; ‘non doing’; ‘inaction’; ‘non judgemental’; ‘passive’; ‘no meddling’; ‘no worrying’; ‘no striving’; ‘not going against the flow’  etc.

Although these interpretations do give you a sense of Wu Wei they are still misleading because they portray Wu Wei as a neutral or somewhat negative state of being which is far from the truth.

To get a deeper and more accurate understanding of Wu Wei perhaps we could consider the following definition:

 

‘The understanding, or truth, of being supple’

 

So what is suppleness?

Firstly we need to acknowledge that suppleness is an aspect of our true authentic nature. This still remains a difficult concept for Western society to understand.

Lao Tzu in chapter 43 of the Tao Te Ching states:

The very softest thing of all

can ride like a galloping horse

through the hardest of things.

Like water, like water penetrating rock.

And so the invisible enters in.

That is why I know it is wise to act by doing nothing,

And how few, how very few understand this!

People teach in the world what I know to be true:

if you live violently,

 that is how you will die.

Many associate the word ‘suppleness’ with something that is not strong and therefore somehow weak or deficient. We are indoctrinated as children to ‘be strong’ and ‘show no weakness’, and told ‘the strong will survive’, etc. 

These teachings are sold to us as encouraging a state of mind and readiness which is advantageous and beneficial in all situations and something we should always strive to achieve; failing to do so will somehow make us less of a person compared to others.

The truth is that this state of mind encourages fear, stubbornness, and an entrenched and blocked state of being, all of which are states of weakness!

Weakness or deficiency is the absence of what is necessary, whereas suppleness is an aspect of our true nature and therefore a very necessary and natural state of being. For example, have you ever observed the suppleness of a baby or infant?

Another representation of the suppleness to which Wu Wei refers is the suppleness associated with athleticism. Think of the supple and toned gymnast or the kung fu fighter: there is power in their movement yet they remain flexible through a whole series of different moves, adapting to different situations. There is no weakness or deficiency in their actions.   

The same is true of Wu Wei, where a positive state of being can be derived from openness, flexibility, adaptability and responsiveness of our actions.

Wu Wei refers not only to the suppleness of our body and our actions but also the suppleness of our thinking. Tremendous benefits can be gained from being ‘supple’ or flexible, open and non-judgemental in our thinking, although it does take a tremendous inner strength and courage to place our faith in ourselves and the Universe (Tao).

 So in summary Wu Wei refers to a state of mind, body and spirit where suppleness allows you to be flexible – physically, mentally and emotionally, and to understand and connect to your authentic self and to reach your true potential.

 

Consider the following:

Do you recognise the feeling of being stuck, blocked or unable to move on with your thinking and emotions? 

Have you noticed how you feel when facing a fearful situation? Do you close off and become defensive or do you remain open and flexible? What has been the outcome of these different responses?

How would you describe your natural daily state – hard or soft? 

Have you ever noticed that when you relax things get done much easier?

Being Special

What is ‘being special’?

‘Being Special’ is a term I use to describe a corruption or misunderstanding in an individual’s core or root thinking and, as a result, their belief system.

When an individual is ‘being special’ their belief system is programmed such that they think they are somehow exempt from, or above, the normal events and rules of life and the Universe; either because they are better or worse than everyone else, or because life and its challenges are somehow harsher on them compared to others, or should be fairer and kinder on them compared to others.

This belief represents a simple but fundamental misunderstanding of the both individual, the way of life/the Universe and the interaction between the two.

How can it affect us?

If allowed to go unchallenged, the belief that they are ‘special’ allows an individual to avoid facing up to and dealing with life’s difficult situations and learning experiences in a balanced and rational way. The belief that they are ‘special’ effectively gives them a magic ‘get out of jail card’ which means they do not have to face their fears and confront challenging situations authentically and honestly, and in effect allows them think and operate by a different and exclusive set of rules to everyone else!

Rather than being authentic, they will instead run away from or dismiss life’s challenges and learning opportunities or, conversely, become overly confrontational and aggressive in their response to such situations.

Either way no learning or positive self development occurs and the individual will undoubtedly be faced with the same challenges time and again until they break the habit of thinking and being ‘special’.

Learning experiences are a vital part of our development as human beings and are a part of everyday life. How we react to and deal with those new experiences will impact on us and our thinking profoundly, and will ultimately dictate the extent to which we reach our own true human potential.

So where does the ‘being special’ belief come from?

First we misunderstand our physical emotions and ‘feelings of fear’ and therefore fail to authentically confront learning situations…

For the ‘being special’ belief to become ingrained in our psyche, a corruption or misunderstanding in thinking will have occurred.

This ‘corruption’ in thinking can happen if we react with an inauthentic or inexperienced way to the strong emotions and feelings we have when faced with major new learning experiences and situations. This often first occurs when we are young, i.e. between the ages of 6 – 12 years old.

A corruption of thinking or misunderstanding is more likely to occur when we are young as when we do not have the benefit of being able to use our honed core skills or broad life experiences. It is these skills and experiences that would otherwise provide us with the expertise to respond to a new learning experience and event, and the intense and unfamiliar physical feelings that they create within us, in an appropriate and authentic way.

It may be argued that, at this stage of our developing lives and personalities, it is the role of our parents or guardians to provide us with the appropriate support and guidance on how to deal with these new learning experiences and the feelings they create within us.

Throughout our lives all new situations and learning experiences, and the resulting feelings they generate, can be challenging to deal with. This is truer in our formative years, when as young children we feel the full intensity of our maturing and powerful emotions when confronted with difficult learning experiences for the first time.

Instead of moving forward on a positively expanding path towards our true potential, the nature and severity of the emotional reaction encourages us to withdraw back into ourselves for reference.

If we have the emotional maturity to reflect authentically within ourselves we should find the peace, balance and rational thought that will help us embrace the experience we are encountering, understand the learning being presented, confront appropriately, and then continue on our life journey.

Sometimes when we look inside ourselves for guidance the ‘authentic way’ may not however immediately present itself and unfortunately, over time, we may have also wrongly learned how to think and react to such situations, often based on the incorrect teachings from others such as our parents or peers.

In response to the strong feelings we get when facing a new or challenging situation (adrenalin pumping, palpitations in chest, stomach or both, mind racing, sweating palms etc.), a common incorrect teaching is:

• that this situation is something we should be fearful of or presents a danger to us
• ·        that we should therefore react with ‘flight or fight’

A more authentic teaching of the situation would be:

• that this situation are presents us with an opportunity for learning
• that we should respond with calm, balanced and appropriate action (not ‘flight’ or avoidance)
• that we should confront the situation (not ‘fight’ or ‘confrontation’).

When faced with new or challenging situations, if we keep misunderstanding and reacting negatively to our powerful (and helpful) physical feelings and acting with ‘fight or flight’, we will inevitably reinforce the imbalance between our corrupt core beliefs and the Universal forces/laws.

The result is if we fail to correctly confront a situation, we may never benefit from it’s learning that would otherwise allow us to move on and grow to reach our potential.

We are still left with the emotions and ‘feelings of fear’ that we were seeking to avoid, so we try to justify and reconcile these feelings within our mind to in order to get some closure….

Instead of feeling a sense of relief and release, by failing to confront a challenging situation authentically, we are left with an intensification of the same negative physical and emotional feelings associated with the situation – the very thing we were trying to overcome!

These feelings are so uncomfortable that we have to somehow find an alternative (inauthentic) way to deal with them and get rid of them.

We then have to adapt our ‘core belief’ system to rationalise and cope with any painful feelings. We ease the hurt by telling ourselves that we must be a ‘special’ case, different to everyone else in the Universe, and that is why and why we still feel so bad. And so it follows that we tell ourselves that it is only us that is encountering the unfairness/injustice of the situation and that we deserve better or fairer treatment.

This thinking is misunderstanding that is at odds with the Universal ‘model’ that I call ‘Authentic’. By creating a new belief of ‘being special’, that our unwelcome feelings can ‘fit’ with, we have constructed our own unique, imbalanced ‘model’ or ‘inner world’ which I call ‘The Ego’.

The ego model that we create works to strengthen our belief that we are special but does not allow us to confront, learn and grow…

This Ego thinking which tells us we are somehow ‘special’, allows us to wrongly label the intense feelings of fear (and other associated negative emotions and terms including  ‘inadequate’,  ‘scared’, ‘anxious’, ‘ stressed’, ‘trapped’, ‘helpless’, ‘useless’, ‘unlovable’) in order that we may avoid or be confrontational, rather than embrace and use the learning experiences for what they are: a chance to explore what your life potential offers.

Through our Ego based thinking we deal with and justify the persistent negative feelings by making powerful and corrupted core/root intention statement to ourselves….something like:

“I must be inadequate!”

“I am NOT good enough”.

“The world is against me!”

“Everything always goes wrong for me”

“I am not lovable”

When we make statements such to ourselves in our formative years they have an incredibly powerful impact on us, our thoughts and actions; they become the basis of a lifelong corrupt misunderstandings in our belief system and therefore a limiting influence on our true potential.    

Despite their limiting impact, it is ironic that our natural human reaction to feel the need to justify and protect our core belief of ‘being special’ with all our strength, stubbornness and determination and so it becomes more difficult to break the habit of thinking and re-programme the belief.

In an effort to bring ourselves internally back into a balance and to a place where the incorrect belief and its associated feelings will sit more comfortably, we have to create our own ‘perfect inner world’ (based on the misunderstanding in our core intention), which I call the ‘Ego Circle’, which the belief will fit with.

The resulting misalignment between our ‘perfect inner world/ego circle’ and the Universe creates a constant sense of deep unfulfilment, hurt and feelings of isolation.

This ‘out of balance’ experience then reinforces and increases the core misunderstanding which in turn means the physical emotional feelings intensify.

Unfortunately this only moves us even more ‘out of balance’ with our authentic self and the Universal flow, thereby increasing the powerful physical emotional feelings, sometimes to unbearable levels.

The solution?

The key is to grasp the feelings as an opportunity. By changing your thinking, intention and actions you will dramatically change your life for the better as you follow your path to your authentic potential.

This is something I will cover more deeply in future blogs.