Trying Not to Try Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus Trying Not to Try

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Zusammenfassung von Trying Not to Try

Name: Trying Not to Try
Rating: 4.1 (70 reviews)
Author: Edward Slingerland

Edward Slingerland

Ancient China, Modern Science, and the Power of Spontaneity

4.1 (70 Bewertungen)

13 Min.

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Östliche Philosophie

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Trying Not to Try
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What’s in it for me? Discover an ancient path to happiness and inner peace.

Many of us live stressful, over-complicated lives that make us unhappy. We work long hours in jobs we hate, hardly spend any quality time with loved ones, and seldom feel a true sense of purpose.

So what can we do?

The secret to a life with purpose can be found in ancient China. The Chinese teachers and philosophers who lived millennia ago knew how to live effortlessly and in the present. And, although modernity and ancient China are worlds apart, these teachings are still valuable.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

why we should listen to our bellies;
which daily rituals will help you achieve happiness; and
why you should think of people as wounded animals.

Traditional Chinese philosophy teaches the concept of effortless work through total immersion in process.

Can you remember the last time you were completely engrossed in an activity like playing with a toddler or solving a challenging puzzle?

Well, Chinese philosophers have a word for this experience – wu-wei. Pronounced “oooo-way,” it roughly translates as “effortless acting.” In other words, it refers to being so wrapped up in an experience that you become one with the experience itself.

This idea poses interesting questions about the relationship between the body and the mind. People tend to think of the mind as connected to rational thought and the body as more instinctive. We separate them along these lines as different entities.

But for wu-wei, the goal is to bring these two “selves” together to work as one. The result of this marriage is an intelligent spontaneity that adds a certain fluidity to the act of working.

Just take the author, who experiences wu-wei when he writes. During these moments, he’s in a kind of writing zone, entirely absorbed by the process and overcome by a feeling of relaxation and pleasure with his work.

Or, for other examples, we can look to Taoism, the Chinese philosophy that celebrates living in harmony with the natural flow of the universe. In the Zhuangzi, one of the foundational texts of Taoism, there’s a story about a woodcarver who makes ornate bell stands.

Before he begins work, he fasts for seven days, bringing himself to a point at which his mind is so still that he forgets his body even exists. From there, he enters the forest to find the single tree in which he can see the bell stand. Once he has selected the specimen, he gets to work.

This story describes an essential aspect of wu-wei – it makes you whole. When experiencing this phenomenon, your mind stops seeing your body as a separate force. You don’t think, you just act, guided purely by instinct. Work done while in this state reflects the beauty, sincerity and ease of the process.

The Chinese concept of effortless work leads to great power and a path to becoming a perfect human.

So, wu-wei unites your whole being, but people who are in this state also have de, a concept that refers to power, virtue and charisma. De transports one into a perfectly spontaneous mind-set.

For a ruler, de is a source of power and influence. When leaders reach this state, they no longer need to threaten anyone because people are compelled to obey them. If you’re an average person, having de will make people like you, feel attracted to you and even stop wild animals from threatening or attacking you.

Confucianism relies on a more strict practice to attain wu-wei.

So, Taoism offered one concept of attaining wu-wei, but not every Chinese thinker got on board with it. The philosopher Confucius developed another strategy for becoming a perfect human being.

His school of thought, known as Confucianism, sought to diminish the natural aspect of our being, transforming it through education and effort in the service of attaining wu-wei. Confucius and his successor Xunzi believed that to reach wu-wei you need to work on your conscious mind. In other words, you had to improve your willpower, behavior and knowledge of the cultures that came before yours.

Another school of Taoism teaches its followers to attain wu-wei by not trying.

If Confucius thought the path to heaven was paved with proper social conduct, Laozi, the great thinker and founder of Taoism, originally thought just the opposite in the sixth century BCE. He believed that the best way to reach heaven was to forget what society had taught you and return to human nature.

In other words, he thought the Way of Heaven was to stop trying to be a specific way, to forget all you’d learned and connect with a raw version of yourself. To put it more poetically, Laozi wanted people to think more with their bellies and less with their eyes.

Wu-wei can be attained through a balanced and flexible mentality.

If Confucius and Laozi feel too extreme for you, you might be interested in the philosopher Mencius, whose thinking fell somewhere in between. His belief was that you don’t need to change anything since you’re already wu-wei. The only task is to realize this fact and nourish it.

So, instead of spontaneously discovering wu-wei, you find it under the guidance of a wise teacher who helps you until your wu-wei is strong enough to take over. Such a teacher would show you how to find a virtue you already have, focus on it, strengthen it, and expand it through a mixture of introspection, practice and imaginative extension.

To attain wu-wei, practice with sincerity and a higher purpose.

So, there are a few different schools of thought when it comes to attaining wu-wei, all of which urge followers to reach a state of complete spontaneity and unselfconsciousness. However, that’s easier said than done. The problem is honesty.

You can’t achieve wu-wei if you’re not sincere, both with yourself and with others. After all, if you don’t truly love The Way, there won’t be a powerful emotion propelling your practice. As a result, you won’t find the flow you’re looking for.

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Trying Not to Try (2014) is your guide to ancient Chinese philosophy. These blinks explain why you should allow life to manifest itself to you without forcing things to happen. They also introduce ways to live a less stressful life.

Bestes Zitat aus Trying Not to Try

De is like a halo that surrounds someone in wu-wei and signals to everyone around: Heaven likes me! You should too! Im okay.

—Edward Slingerland

Wer Trying Not to Try lesen sollte

Young people who feel burdened by the need to accomplish something in life
Readers with an interest in ancient Chinese philosophy

Über den Autor

Edward Slingerland is an academic and author who specializes in cognitive science and Chinese thought. He has previously authored What Science Offers the Humanities.

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