ULTIMATE REALITY– GUO XIANG (cont'd)

Now we come the crux of it…if Tao is the self-transformation of things and their interrelatedness and interdependency, then we too are contingencies of that matrix of reality. If one item were missing, we might not exist at all. We and the world are in effect mutually defining. The message is clear, into this matrix we are born and so we too must be careful that our actions do not unnecessarily disturb it. Nonetheless, Guo Xiang does not advocate strict determinism, rather something more like the appearance of novel effects explained by complexity and chaos theory. Recognition of our co-dependency with the world is our ultimate ticket to freedom – “Let everything be what it is, and then you have peace.”⁶

Wu wei is now explained: one must not try to intellectually solve the riddle of correct action, but instead ‘go with the flow.’ Non-action is not no action, but natural, spontaneous action. Consider Guo Xiang’s commentary:

“Without-action (wuwei) does not mean doing nothing. Let everything do what it does, and then its character will be satisfied.”⁷

In brief, the question is not what one does, but how one does it, meaning without external influence or confromity to conventional standards. This applies to the individual as well as society; since everything changes, it is natural for us and society to change. We should not imitate past sages, nor attempt to return to historical norms.

This takes us to a paradox; human action is, in a sense, always artificial, but artificial action is natural for humans. Practicing Taoism then is acting without excessive deliberation of what is natural versus artificial, and by ‘remembering to forget,’ one may enter the mysterious oneness of heaven and earth.⁸A related paradox is that wisdom is not the acquisition of knowledge, rather the sage is wise because it is his or her character to be wise. And imitation of the sage is contrary to the Tao unless it is the spontaneous behavior of the individual.⁹

We end with Guo Xiang’s description of the sage:

“There has never been a person who has roamed over the transcendental world to the utmost and yet was not silently in harmony with the mundane world, nor has there been anyone who was silently in harmony with the mundane world and yet did not roam over the transcendental world. Therefore the sage always roams in the transcendental world in order to enlarge the mundane world. By having no deliberate mind of his own, he is in accord with all things.”¹⁰