"Wu Wei" (Non-Doing) and the Negativity of Depression

Author(s): Siroj Sorajjakool

Source: Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Summer, 2000), pp. 159-166
Published by: Springer
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 Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 39, No. 2, Summer 2000

Wu Wei (Non-doing)
and the Negativity
of Depression

SIROJ SORAJJAKOOL
ABSTRACT The anxiety of being drives us to the quest for security and certainty. The question
emerges, "what is the Way?" In an attempt to find the Way through cognitive process, we are
further removed from It. This parallel process takes place when depressed individuals struggle
with the negativity of depression. Wu wei is an invitation to return to the Way and to the self.
The self that embraces negativity is able to rest in itself.

KEY WORDS: wu wei; depression; negativity.

Introduction

This topic itself with mysterious

presents complexity. How can I talk about
that which cannot
be talked about? Who can comprehend the Tao? Chuang
Tzu writes, "If the Way is made clear, it is not the Way."1 If you were to ask a
Taoist what is Tao, the answer would probably be, "the bird is flying," or "a
bowl of chow mein." I do not plan to go as deep as a bowl of chow mein. My
aim for this paper is to take an aspect of the principle of wu wei and apply it
to the problem of depression.
This paper is built on the assumption that depressed people feel depleted and
are removed from themselves. My aim is to show that wu wei invites depressed
people to return to themselves in the same way it invites us to return to the
Tao. We need to return because the way we cope with the anxiety of being
removes us from the Tao. In a similar manner, the way depressed individuals
cope with the experience of negativity removes them from themselves.

What is wu wei?

Wu wei is literally translated non-doing. "Ww"means "not" or "no" while "wei"

means "to do" or "to act." Some others have translated this as "to do by not

Siroj Sorajjakool, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Religion (Pastoral Psychology) at Loma Linda
University, Loma Linda, California.

159 ? 2000 Blanton-Peale Institute

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 160 Journal of Religion and Health

doing" or "sitting down doing nothing." When I mentioned to a couple of peo

ple that I am doing a study on the relationship between non-doing and de
pression, many immediately responded, "That is exactly the problem. You get
depressed because you do nothing." Non-doing is not about doing nothing. It
is not passivity. Chuang Tzu illustrates this in the story of Cook Ting.

Cook Ting was cutting up an ox for Lord Wen-hui. At every touch of his hand,
every heave of his shoulder, every move of his feet, every thrust of his knee-zip!
Zoop! He slithered the knife along with a zing, and all was in perfect rhythm, as
though he were performing the dance of the Mulberry Grove or keeping time to
the Ching-shou music.

What is the secret of cook Ting? This is his explanation to Lord Wen-hui:

A good cook changes his knife once a year?because he cuts. A mediocre cook
changes his knife once a month?because he hacks. I've had this knife of mine
for nineteen years and I've cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the blade is
as good as though it had just come from the grindstone. There are spaces be
tween the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness. If you insert
what has no thickness into such spaces, then there's plenty of room?more than
enough for the blade to play about in.2

Cook Ting was doing something, but his doing was effortless. It was effort
less because he did not force things to happen, he followed its flow. Wu wei is
acting in accord with nature. It is spontaneous. It is moving along in the
changing stream of life. If it is doing something and not nothing, then why
call it non-doing? Because wu wei also implies the process of emptying. Before
one can act spontaneously, one needs to learn the meaning of emptiness. Why
should one practice emptying oneself? Because it is the way to the Tao.

What is Tao?

Tao consists of pictures of a head, a path, and a foot. It is the Way. What is
the Way? "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The Name that can
be named is not the eternal Name." We cannot come to a logical conclusion
regarding the Tao. It is beyond logic. It is beyond comprehension. But if it is
beyond, how can we get there? This is exactly the problem that Lao Tzu
wants to address. We think that we need to comprehend if we were to go
there. But we are already there without comprehending.

Chao-Chou asked, "What is the Tao?"

The master [Nan-ch'uan] replied, "Your ordinary consciousness is the Tao."
"How can one return into accord with it?"
"By intending to accord you immediately deviate."
"But without intention, how can one know the Tao?"

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Siroj Sorajjakool 161

"The Tao," said the master, "belongs neither to knowing nor to not knowing.
Knowing is false understanding; not knowing is blind ignorance. If you really
understand the Tao beyond doubt, it's like the empty sky. Why drag in right and
wrong?"3

What is the Tbo? The Tao just is. I really like the answer Zen masters
offered when asked what is Zen. "The oak tree in the front garden!" replied
Chao-chou. "Three pounds of flax!" said Tung-shan.4
The Tao just is. You do not have to go away to find it. What is the 7ho?
Dogs chasing cats. Cats chasing rats. I am hungry. She is skinny. The sun is
shining. The Tao just is. It is here, Nansen (Nan-chuan, 748-835 A.D.), a Zen
Master writes, "The ordinary mind is Tao."5

Departing from the Tao

While the Tao is right here, we are not contented. We feel the urge to go
elsewhere to find the Tao and we start by discriminating. We discriminate
because we want to know, we want to comprehend, we want to grasp, we
want to capture truth. We have a problem accepting that the Tao just is. It is
too simple, too ordinary, too uncomplicated. We have to go in search for this
source of life. As a result, it is not good for dogs to chase cats and we need to
protect rats' rights to be rats. It is alright for you to get hungry, but you
should not get hungry all the time. Skinny is not as pretty and too much
sunshine can give you skin cancer. In trying to comprehend the Tao, we drag
in right and wrong. What is, is no longer good enough.
This process of discrimination is the result of the way we cope with the
anxiety of being. We cope by trying to grasp and capture reality cognitively.
Why do we want so badly to capture reality, capture life? Because we want
certainty, security, structure, and meaning. Why do we crave for certainty,
security, and structure? Because, existentially, we experience the anxiety of
being. We experience the anxiety of being because we are faced with the pos
sibility of non-being which threatens to take away security, certainty, struc
ture, and meaning. Hence through the use of our rationality, the quest be
gins. This is reflected in the struggle of Descartes. In describing Cartesian
anxiety, Richard Bernstein writes:

Descartes' search for a foundation or Archimedean point is more than a device to

solve metaphysical and epistemological problems. It is the quest for some fixed
point, some stable rock upon which we can secure our Uves against the vicissi
tudes that constantly threaten us. Either there is some support for our being, a
fixed foundation for our knowledge, or we cannot escape the forces of darkness
that envelop us with madness, with intellectual and moral chaos.6

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 162 Journal of Religion and Health

This same anxiety is reflected in the thought of Heidegger. Heidegger's da

sein strives to overcome the threat
of being-toward-death through care.
Through conscience, one exercises one's choice in order to move toward es
sence, toward Being.7 In religion, the Upanisad teaches the concept utat tvam
asi9' which means, "That thou art." This too reflects the quest for the perma
nence which is not found in things but in the quiet bliss. Buddha's quest for
the permanence led him to the concept of anicca (no-self). Nothing is perma
nent. Everything changes.
I want to suggest that the experience of negativity among depressed indi
viduals also evokes the same desire. The empty self longs for security, cer
tainty, and identity. And in this quest we seek to comprehend ourthrough
rationality and here is precisely the problem.
A story was told of a man who went fishing. A bystander noticed something
very interesting about this man. When he caught a fish he would measure the
fish and if itwas bigger than 12 inches he would throw it away. Not being able
to contain his curiosity he asked, "Why do you throw away every fish that is
bigger than 12 inches?" "My frying pan at home is only 12 inches," came the
reply. This is what we do sometimes. We try to fit life into our logic. We try to fit
the Way into our way and instead of allowing ourselves to be caught in the Way,
we get rid of everything that does not fit and divinize our rationality.
What emerges out of this attempt is a dichotomized life. We start to dis
criminate or as Chaung Tzu suggests, we create the "this" and the "that."
"This" is "this" and "that" is "that." "This" is not "that," and "that" is not
"this."8 This is good and that is bad. This is right and that is wrong. This is
black and that is white. This is beautiful and that is ugly. This is subject and
that is object. This is good and that is evil. Why do we discriminate? Because
in the quest for certainty and security, we want to be right and not wrong,
beautiful and not ugly. As a result we are removed from Tao.
In the process of moving toward the Tao through logic and comprehension,
we are further removed from the 7bo. We become alienated from the Way
because the Way consists
of yin and yang, good and bad, right and wrong but
rationality cannot
tolerate opposites. When we get rid of they in, we get rid of
a part of ourselves. When we get rid of the yang, we get rid of a part of
ourselves. Every time we try to overcome or escape that which we perceive as
bad in us, we move away from ourselves. And the more we try, the further
removed we become. The Tao just is.

Returning to the Tao

How does the principle of wu wei help us return to the Tao? In Tao Te Ching
chapter 3 Lao Tzu writes:

The Master leads

by emptying people's minds

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Siroj Sorajjakool 163

and filling their cores,

by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.

Practice not-doing,
and everything will fall into place.9

What is this practice or non-doing?

of wu wei And how is it related to nega
tive and positive, yin and yang, right and wrong? How can it help us return to
ourselves? Wu illustrates by using the image of "drunkards trying to get on to
the horse they call the Chaung Tzu"

The Confucian and the religious Taoist jump too far and fall on the other side,
while the hedonist, the Buddhist, and the recluse fail to get on it at all. Chaung
Tzu would smile at this situation and say, "You folks are too drunk with all those
ism' of yours. Just be yourself in the world, neither trying {wu wei) nor not
trying (wu pu-wei), and then you will find yourself on the horseback. For the
liorse' is none other than yourself-in-the-world."10

Whenever we try too hard to get to where we think we should be or avoid

where we think we ought not to be, we move away from ourselves. Because
when we try, we discriminate. When we discriminate, we eliminate parts of
ourselves. We feel depleted. Lao Tzu invites us to come back to ourselves and
discover the Tao. In describing the Tao he writes:

Look, and it can't be seen.

Listen, and it can't be heard.

Reach, and it can't be grasped.
Above, it isn't bright.
Below, it isn't dark.
Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it, but you can be it,
At ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
This is the essence of wisdom.11

"At ease in your own life," this is the way to the Tao. This is wu wei. This is
non-doing. ease in the experience
At of negativity. Embrace it. Because life is
both good and bad, right and wrong, being and non-being. Tao embraces all
and wu wei is indeed an invitation for us to return home to ourselves. Wu wei
invites us to come and rest in this home. It may not be totally secure or
structured but there is enough meaning in this finiteness. There is no resting
place like home.

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 164 Journal of Religion and Health

Wu wei and depression: Departing from the self

In depression we see the same

process. In their attempt to cope with the
experiences of negativity such as emptiness, hopelessness, guilt, and the
sense of worthlessness, depressed individuals try to find something to hold on
to. In trying to find something to hold on to, they start comparing. This pro
cess of discriminating is explained by personality theorists Shelly Duval and
Robert Wicklund using the term objective self-awareness. Objective self
awareness refers to the state of self-focused attention which "involves taking
the self as an object."12 Here consciousness does not become conscious of ob
jects outside of itself but the self becomes the object of consciousness. Accord
ing to this theory, objective self-awareness is triggered by external stimuli.
As a result, the self focuses on itself. "Focusing attention on the self inevita
bly leads to comparison of one's current state with one's standards."13 The self
will evaluate the aspect of the self that is of importance at the time of self
consciousness. If morality is the context, the moral ethical aspects of oneself
will be evaluated. For example, if while
trying to lie to my wife about my
weight I see myself in a mirror, reflection
the of myself (self-focused atten
tion) will make me think twice about lying and my conscience will be acti
vated. There are affective and motivational consequences to this comparison.
Because standards are usually set at the level which is higher than what
people can normally achieve, self-focus would produce negative affect. This
negative affect will motivate individuals to try harder to reduce the gap.
Whether self-focus attention will produce positive or negative results depends
on whether an individual can or cannot achieve the goals. If, for example,
after resisting craving for cakes and ice cream for a month
my I am still four
pounds overweight, I will continue to focus on myself and experience negative
affect and self-blame.14
This is what happens to depressed individuals. The experience of negativity
makes depressed individuals focus on themselves and in this process of self
focusing, they compare themselves with standards. Am I good enough? I
should not be this quiet. Why am I not assertive? Why can't I snap out of this
depressive state? Why can't I be active? They make comparison and more
comparison. A female physical therapist writes, "(there was) a lot of self-mon
itoring, and a lot of self-doubt, and at its worst, self-hatred, sort of self-blame.
If I was only such-and-such, then I wouldn't be feeling this way."15
And just like the way we move away from the Tao through the process of
discrimination, depressed individuals move away from themselves through
the process of comparison. Depressed people become further removed from
themselves when they seek to get rid of all the negative aspects of them
selves. They seek to overcome that which they perceive as bad within them.
"Why am I feeling empty? I don't want to feel empty. I want to get rid of this
feeling of emptiness. I'm going to go out, watch a movie, and enjoy myself."
The movie is over and emptiness remains. "Something is really wrong with

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Siroj Sorajjakool 165

me." With this internal realization, one strives even harder and one comes to
grasp Kierkegaard's "sickness unto
death" existentially. A female college pro
fessor states, "(I was) thinking all the time, trying to figure out what was
wrong and what Iwould have to do to make things better." Similarly, a house
cleaner describes this process, "I'm such an analytical person that I tried to
figure out what was going on. I tried to analyze it, which made me even more
miserable because I couldn't figure it out." We try to fix and overcome the
negative and we depart further from the Way.
For depressed individuals, it is not just departing from theWay. It is being
trapped in a vicious cycle because every attempt at closing the gap, at fixing
oneself, is accompanied by negative self-schemata. Depressed individuals' eval
uation of themselves is affective based. Their feeling determines how they feel
about themselves. And they are filled with negative feelings. On top of the
negative feelings, they also are known to have negative memory bias, negative
perception, and negative evaluation of themselves. A male therapist writes:

(It was) the inner self critic. The inner self-hatred. Depression is a lot about not
having energy. (But) one place in my life where there was loads of energy was in
the self-hatred. There was endless energy for that and it was a powerful energy.
I couldn't make contact with people. I was blaming myself, re-evaluating my
whole life in the most negative kind of context. There was endless energy (for
self criticism). Iwould just wake up doing it (and) I would spend ten hours a day
at it, just blaming myself.16

Hence every attempt, every trying, every striving, every doing that seeks to
fix theself and overcome the negative is negated by the inner self-critic and
self-blame which is so intense that one actually feels worse about oneself.
When one feels worse, the gap gets bigger. When the gap gets bigger, one tries
even harder and the cycle continues. We strive to be good and to overcome the
bad and we keep walking further and further away from ourselves.
When I went through depression, I remember feeling very empty. I tried to
get rid of this feeling of emptiness. I did not realize that this emptiness sym
bolizes the fact that I journeyed away from myself. I journeyed from myself in
search for myself not realizing that in this pursuit, I slowly got rid of myself
until it was empty. I did not realize that this emptiness is not something I
need to or can overcome. It was, rather, a voice or an invitation for me to
come back to myself, to return home. Kuang-ming Wu writes, "authenticity
lies in coming back to oneself."17

Returning to the self

How does one come back to oneself? Through the practice of wu wei. Wu wei
invites depressed individuals to return to themselves, to stop analyzing them
selves, to stop tying to fix themselves. Wu wei invites them to stay right

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 166 Journal of Religion and Health

where they are even in the experience of negativity. This is where the Tao is.
Good and bad, right and wrong, light and darkness, silence and speech, wis
dom and ignorance. This is home. To go elsewhere is to betray oneself. When
negativity is embraced, there is no discrimination. When there is no discrimi
nation, the self needs not strive. Where there is no striving, the negative
schemata have nothing to negate. When there is no negation, the negative
affects lose their intensity. Lao Tzu writes, "When nothing is done, nothing is
left undone. True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way. It
can't be gained by interfering."18
One day during the course of a conversation, a lady with chronic depression
expressed her despair, "I don't know why I'm so sensitive. Little things really
bother me. I know I should not be so sensitive but I can't stop it. I try and
everything just goes in circle. I really hate myself for being so sensitive." So
in the spirit of wu wei I said to her, "It is ok to be sensitive. Depressed people
are sensitive. If they are not sensitive, they are not depressed. Why don't you
give yourself permission to be sensitive. Enjoy being sensitive." There was a
little pause. Then I saw a smile on her face. "I feel so relieved," she uttered.

References

1. Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings, trans. Burton Watson, New York, Columbia Uni
versity Press, 1996, p. 40.
2. Ibid., pp. 46-47.
3. Cited by Watts, Alan, Tao: The Watercourse Way, New York, Pantheon Books, 1975, p. 38.
4. Abe, Masao, Zen and Comparative Studies, ed. Steven Heine, Honolulu, of Ha
University
waii, 1997, p. 25.
5. Ibid., p. 26.
6. Bernstein, Richard, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis,
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1983, p. 18.
7. Grene, Marjorie, "Heidegger, Martin," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 3, ed. Paul Ed
wards, New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1967, pp. 459-65; see also Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Act
and Being, trans. Bernard Noble, New York, Harper and Row, 1961, pp. 51-53.
8. Chuang Tzu, op. cit., pp. 34-35.
9. Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, trans. Stephen Mitchell, New York, NY, HarperCollins, 1988, p. 3.
10. Wu, Kuang-ming, Chuang Tzu: World Philosophy at Play, New York, Crossroad Publishing,
1982, p. 21.
11. Lao Tzu, op. cit., p. 14.
12. Pyszczynski, Tom, and Greenberg, Jeff, Hanging On and Go: Understanding the On
Letting
set, Progression, and Remission of Depression, New York, Springer-Verlag, 1992, p. 14.
13. Ibid., p. 14.
14. Ibid., p. 14-15.
15. Karp, David, Speaking of Sadness: Disconnection, and the Meanings
Depression, of Illness,
New York, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 47.
16. Ibid., p. 48.
17. Wu, op. cit., p. 23.
18. Lao Tzu, op. cit., p. 48.

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