Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Chuang Tzu, the Tao, and wei wu wei

In order to 'undo' the knot of wrong understandings- i.e. to unknow ourselves and everything- to dissolve into the Mystery so as to return to both the unmoved witness and also to the moving ecstasy of being- this is not an active, effortful procedure, but is completely effortless; it means simply to neither think, nor 'do', but only to feel and to 'be'; to have nothing between you and reality- to have no thought of 'what is', nor action within 'what is', between you and 'what is'.

Regarding this conviction, Chuang Tzu states: "To have no thought and put forth no effort is the first step towards understanding the Tao. To go nowhere and do nothing is the first step towards finding peace in the Tao. To start from no point and follow no road is the first step towards reaching the Tao."^{^[1]}

And Clarice Lispector declares, “One way of obtaining is not to search, one way of possessing is not to ask; [but] simply to believe that my inner silence is the solution to my- to my mystery.” (The Hour of the Star, p14)

From these statements by Chuang Tzu and Lispector, we recognize that the desire to strive, to understand, to find truth, or God, the Tao, or what have you, ends up paradoxically as the functional inability to finding such, for the mind which is doing the seeking is still as deluded as before (because it is seeking within the false paradigm), and therefore is not open to finding that which cannot be looked for; no matter what the mind is seeking, it will never find that which cannot be sought.

As Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj instructs, "To want nothing and do nothing- that is true creation! To watch the universe emerging and subsiding in one's heart is a wonder."(I AM THAT, p140)

"And if you have really come to that state in which there is no effort," claims Krishnamurti , "then you will find that energy, being still, has its own movement that is not the outcome of society's compulsion or pressure. Because the mind has abundant energy that is still and silent, the mind itself becomes that which is sublime."(talks in Bombay, Feb 27/1955)

[1] Wei wu wei, action without action: the ‘doing-without-doing’ paradox of the orient- this is the 'way' we shall live through our unknowable doings- by discarding the 'whey' of our doingless beings. This paradoxical aspect of actionless action is reminiscent of Christ's description of the Kingdom of Spirit, in the Gospel of Thomas, where, he says, simply, "It is of movement, and of rest."(Nag Hammadi Library).