Clarity and Stillness: The Spirituality and Politics of Meditation
Or, how to fix the world the Daoist way.
In the popular talk about Daoist practice and way of life, the most widely known term is wúwéi (無為). It literally means non-action, and can also be understood as effortless action, or doing everything without pushing it. Wúwéi is characterised by ease and calm confidence.
Some might be tempted to use the idea of wúwéi to justify laziness and indulgence, and call it “going with the flow”. The truth is that there is no true wúwéi without some sort of restraint on desire, because the Dào is desireless and free from concerns of the ego. If you want to “go with the flow”, you should make sure what kind of flow you are entering into! In my own personal experience, that flow is all too often an hours-long binge of YouTube videos. That is not wúwéi, and the reason is that it is based on a desire to gratify the ego.
However, if we go to the other extreme, we will have a restless pursuit of achievement or moral perfection. Christians call it legalism, or the desire to earn God’s love and favour by working super hard on your holiness. It could also take place on a secular level in the form of pressure to high performance in school or work. For many, the pressure to perform goes too far, and this leads to stress and all sorts of ills. There is a sense of tightness, tension and restlessness in how the person carries themselves, and that is the opposite of wúwéi as well.
Many thinkers, such as Aristotle and the Buddha, have taught the notion of a middle way between these two extremes. From a Daoist perspective, I think the middle way of wúwéi is achieved on the foundation of clarity and stillness, or qīngjìng (清靜).
Change the world inside out
In the Dàodé Jīng, the term clarity and stillness appears only once, in chapter 45:
“Clarity and stillness are the rectification of the world.”
When people want to fix things in society that are not working, they first turn to the external circumstances and conditions. They are thinking about the laws and regulations and taxes. They are thinking about governments and businesses. Contrary to many people’s ideas about Daoism, the Dàodé Jīng does discuss these topics. For example, in chapter 10: “Cherishing the people and governing the country, can you abide in non-knowing?” As a candidate in regional and municipal elections this spring, I have found this passage to be an important piece of advice to keep in mind in order to face the challenges ahead. I understand non-knowing to avoid giving the arrogant impression that I have all the answers. Studying the topics related to the elections has shown me how little I know about many topics. The need for the practice of non-knowing is real. Instead of seeking personal gain and status, I want to do politics as a way to cherish the people, so I want to do it with diligent care. This is the Daoist way.
The Daoist approach to “fix the world” (if that’s even possible) starts from the inside of the individual person’s mind and personal virtue. But does meditating in a hut really fix anything? The purpose of meditation is to still the mind so that you could examine and purge the mind of its distorted desires and bad tendencies. The first step to do that is to clear the distractions out of the way.
“Returning to the root is called stillness;
This means returning to life-destiny.
Returning to life-destiny is called constancy;
Knowing constancy is called illumination.
If you do not know constancy,
You will be disordered and act recklessly.”- Dàodé Jīng 16
Daoism is not about progressing without first returning to the most basic thing. This is the pure awareness of the mind, consciousness without obstructions. When you get familiar with that pure awareness through meditation, you will develop a kind of anchor, or constancy. You become less reactive, and more capable of not being carried away by hurdles and hardships.
Life-destiny is a special term that is translated from the Chinese word mìng (命), which means life, fate, order or decree. It implies a belief that your life is a kind of calling or duty. In the Daoist dual practice of xìngmìng (性命) or innate nature and life-destiny, the mìng is often identified with health, longevity and movement practices like qìgōng and diet, so it is associated with bodily health, where innate nature is associated with the mind.1 Spiritual practice and meditation is linked to taking care of our bodies as well. Daoism has a positive view of the body, instead of seeing it as a mere prison of the soul, or an aggregate of clinging as in Buddhism. A deteriorating body is not a sign of a healthy spiritual practice, but instead your practice should be a nourishment both for your mind and your body. Stillness must be balanced with movement.
The absence of constancy and calmness of the mind will lead people to be disordered and act recklessly. What motivates people to act is inside of us. If people are obsessed with owning a lot of money and stuff, being famous and recognised and so on, those obsessions will lead to actions, and the consequences of those actions will make a difference in the world. It is a sort of chain reaction from the mind to the society. In the end, “structures” are created by people, they don’t magically exist apart from individuals.
This is the inside-out logic that explains how Daoism starts by calming the mind, then adopts the lifestyle based on wúwéi, and then leads to results in the outside world. The sage is a model of the world that teaches without words. It is only from this foundation that a healthy and lasting change can take place in the world.
Sources
Komjathy, Louis & Townsend, Kate
Entering Stillness. A Guide to Daoist Practice.
Square Inch Press 方寸書社: Ravinia, Illinois, United States of America. 2022.
Komjathy, Louis
Dàodé Jīng 道徳經. A Contextual, Contemplative & Annotated Bilingual Translation.
Square Inch Press 方寸書社: Ravinia, Illinois, United States of America. 2023.
See Komjathy & Townsend 2022, 99–119, for more on the topic.