Wuji: Beyond Good and Bad

This post is about something I was trying to talk about in class the other day.

When we meet a realized teacher, we see that they are living beyond good and bad.  We observe that part of their liberation from suffering is that they are not constantly a slave to the mind’s grasping after good things or avoiding bad sensations.  So they operate out of the game, in a kind of field of freedom and play. This is a kind of samadhi of play, or yugizammai.  They are living in the the same world as us, but the rules of their game are not the same.  Theirs is a liberated open field, and ours is a complicated obstacle course we are attempting to skillfully maneuver through.  So a big part of the teacher’s role is to try to help us become free of this dualistic thinking, and achieve a freedom of functioning in our lives.

Now of course, this freedom from good and bad does not mean that the person has no moral compass, or is free to do bad.  On the contrary, a type of clarity and compassion floods through and saturates a person not bound by the chains of likes and dislikes.  So by not reaching out to do good or to avoid bad, it is as if the person is constantly reborn, and does what is immediately appropriate in this liberated state of mind.  They become simple and foolish and joyous for no reason.

When we do the wuji and non-directed body movement, we see that in order to have the chi/ki flow through our bodies, we have to give up any idea of how that should happen.  We may have an idea of how we think the ki should move.  For instance, we may think of techniques like the microcosmic orbit, or we may thing that sinking the chi is the the most beneficial way to function in the body.  But the way the body opens up is often completely counter intuitive.  It often opens in shocking ways, or in ways we never could have imagined. So in order to allow that opening, we have to let go of the good/bad head we normally live in to allow the energy to flow.

It is as if our bodies unify as well as our minds, as we merge with the trees around us.  Letting go of control, we allow the universe to shape us.

Wuji and the Non-directed Body movement, over the years, have basically become the same thing for me.

So the standing, the chi, teaches us through our bodies how to get out of our good/bad head. It is a visceral, somatic, embodied direct teaching to not be fixated in the world of good and bad. Our cells gradually shift through this process, and a great faith emerges.

People who really begin to get a lot out of the standing start to see that it changes not just their bodies, but their entire way of being.

So in that sense, the universe is guiding us how to open up to it at all moments, through our bodies.  Oneness is our natural way of being.  It does not have to be sought after, but is trying to happen all of the time.  This physical teaching of the universe has been the driving source for my life since I discovered it in my twenties.  Like some secret, being bathed in it, rather than my shortsighted ideas about life, has shaped who I am.  From a confused idealist young person trying to figure out life, to one guided how to open up to life, beyond mental understanding.

I hope this is helpful to someone out there.  Please share it if you think it might be helpful or interesting to others.  Lots of love!