Published by All things have a natural course which is fit for them to follow when they act naturally as ziran. Tian, nature, has ziran zhi dao, a naturally occurring path, which it follows. If we are to act with nature we too should have a ziran zhi dao. The question is how do we act with nature naturally? Daoists say that this can be achieved through wuwei, directly translated as no or non action. The problem with this method is that it can be understood incorrectly very easy as being told you can be natural by doing nothing, literally. This is not the real interpretation but it is better understood to either not act in society or by taking control of what is artificial, including things like technology and government which are human constructs and should not be acted upon. In reality this would almost be impossible for an entire society to do all at once so steps can be taken to enact this process to return to being natural through wuwei. But can wuwei still help our society to return to a natural balance within nature?
One person can take action to remove themselves from the social constraints we are all tied to in simple ways such as minimizing the technology we use or the foods we eat. This would help to become more natural but is this all that is needed, just to remove non natural things from one’s life? By non action and by not creating conflicts one can also become more natural. Conflicts in our society such as wars are very unnatural and thus by removing these through other actions we can become more natural. For example by diverting a river so that more people would have access to it there would not be fighting over the access. It would not be natural for the river to be diverted but this is just one step moving back to become more natural as a society. Also by non action and removal of conflicts it would allow for other opportunities to reveal themselves so that we could see, as we become more natural, further ways to return to zira zhi dao. In this case, by not fighting, non action will naturally come from seeing the direct benefits. The people affected will be able to take steps towards being more natural after seeing the benefits of avoiding conflicts and in this it would open them up to accepting new ideas which may be revealed to them though the peace of wuwei. This may be the process that is needed to return to being natural because by non action we would remove conflicts and when other paths are opened up to us we may only be able to see them if we are, so to say, not looking for them. In not acting on these paths we will follow them because they will be open to us after removing conflicts and barriers formed from our society.
