The Way of No-Mindedness

The Way of No-Mindedness

The concept of wu-hsin does not mean an empty mind that is devoid of all emotion, nor is it simply quietness of mind.  As Bruce Lee explained the concept:

Although quietude and calmness are necessary, it is the "nongraspingness" of the mind that mainly constitutes the principle of "no-mindedness." A gung fu man employs his mind as a mirror - it grasps nothing, yet it refuses nothing; it receives, but does not keep. As Alan Watts put it, no-mindedness is a "state of wholeness" in which the mind functions freely and easily, without the sensation of a second mind or ego standing over it with a club." What he means is to let the mind think what it likes without the interference by the separate thinker or ego within oneself. So long as it thinks what it wants, there is absolutely no effort in letting go, and the disappearance of the effort to let go is precisely the disappearance of the separate thinker.

Still, to some of us, the question surfaces: but how do we "let go"?  Bruce Lee responded:


There is nothing to try to do, for whatever comes up moment by moment is accepted, including nonacceptance.  No-mindedness is then not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling is not sticky or blocked.  It is a mind immune to emotional influences, like a river in which everything is flowing on ceaselessly without cessation or standing still.


In other words, wu-hsin is a process of employing the mind to see the totality, and not the segments; it is looking at the whole tree, in all of its glory, as opposed to the individual leaf. According to Chuang-tzu, the disciple of Lao-tzu:

     The baby looks at things all day without winking.

     That is because his eyes are not focused on any particular object.

     He goes without knowing where he is going.

     And stops without knowing what he is doing.

     He merges himself with the surroundings

     And moves along with it - these are the principles of mental hygiene.

In other words, concentration should not have the usual sense of restricting the attention to a single sense object; rather, it is simply a quiet awareness of whatever happens to be here and now.  The condition of no-mindedness allows one's mind to be present everywhere because it is present nowhere.  According to Bruce Lee:


A gung fu man's mind . . . can remain present because even when related to this or that object, it does not cling to it.  The flow of thought is like water filling a pond, which is always ready to flow off again.  It can work its inexhaustible power because it is free, and be open to everything because it is empty.


This phenomena of wu-hsin has many other names - even within the Chinese language.  Phrases such as pen hsin (original mind), hsin hsin (faith in mind), and fu hsin (Buddha mind) are all variants of wu-hsin, or the non-segmented totality of our complete psychic faculty.  Bruce Lee made the observation that any arresting of our conscious awareness on only one thought, aspect, subject, object, or focal point created a condition of "psychical stoppage" - the antitheses of wu-hsin.  Such a segmented thought process, Lee believed, leads to a condition of hesitation or detachment from the now and hereby creates the potential for serious problems - particularly for those confronted with a life-or-death situation.  As Lee noted:


The basic problem of a martial artist is known as psychical stoppage.  When he is engaged in a deadly contest with his antagonist, his mind often attaches itself to thoughts or any object it encounters.  Unlike the fluid mind in everyday life, his mind is "stopped," incapable of flowing from one object to another without stickiness or clogginess.  He ceases to be master of himself, and as a result, his tools no longer express themselves in their suchness.  So to have something in one's mind means that it is preoccupied and has no time for anything else; however, to attempt to remove the thought already in it is to refill it with another something!


In other words, thinking about achieving a sate of non-fixatedness, or no-mindedness, entails an application of mental effort, or what the Chinese call wei (unnatural striving), which effectively prevents its attainment.  It is the equivalent of trying to relax by saying "I must relax!" In order to achieve this natural state of non-analytical observance and comprehension, a mental state of purposeless must be present, of which Lee had this to say:

Ultimately one should be "purposeless."  By purposeless is not meant the mere absence of things where vacant nothingness prevails.  The object is not to be stuck with thought process.  The spirit is by nature formless, and no "objects" are to be stuck in it.  When anything is stuck there, your psychic energy loses its balance, its native activity becomes cramped and no longer flows with the stream.  . . . But when there prevails a state of purposelessness (which is also a state of fluidity, empty-mindedness, or simply the everyday mind), the spirit harbors nothing in it, nor is it tipped in any one direction; it transcends both subject and object; it responds empty-mindedly to environmental changes and leaves no track.

A Feline Analogy

This quality of not being "tipped in any one direction," of not clinging to things or being off center, is observed quite readily in the behavior of most animals, and particularly in cats.  When a cat leaps from the top of a table, for example, the cat simply lets go of itself; it becomes completely relaxed and lands on the ground with a gentle thud and continues on its way.  The cat does not fill its mind with all sorts of thoughts as to how it shall land, where it shall go once it does, or - least of all - whether it is "safe" to make a leap in the first place.

To follow through with our illustration, if that same cat, in the midst of leaping from the table, decided that it did not want to leap at all, it would instantly become tense in trying to change its course and would end up in a rather sorry state once it hit the ground.  And so in the same way, wu-hsin is the avoidance of such mental tenseness, of paralysis by analysis.

In this respect, the philosophy of wu-hsin, or no-mindedness, as espoused by Bruce Lee can be likened to the natural response of the cat leaping from the tabletop.  That is to say, the moment we are born, we can be said to be, metaphorically speaking, placed in a state of hurdling from a position of existence - in which we are secure in our surroundings - to one of non-existence and there's nothing that can stop us.  Granted, some of us are given a greater heights to fall from, which prolongs our descent somewhat, but we are all falling nonetheless.  However, instead of our going into a state of tension at the thought of this fact and attempting to mentally cling to all sorts of things during our descent (such as our memories of the past or hopes for the future, which have no existence in our immediate reality), we should endeavor to be more catlike in our perspective on life.  This is a perspective that is perhaps best illustrated in the Zen poem:

     While living, be a dead man.

     Thoroughly dead.

     And then whatever you do,

     just as you will, will be right.

In other words, attempting to arrest your fall (reality) by attaching yourself to objects that are themselves impermanent will, ultimately, yield you nothing.  It must be remembered that there is nothing that does not change (move) in order to be permanent (to live) - which in itself is a Yin/Yang statement.  It is also a case of the law of inversion, or what the great Zen teacher Alan Watts called the law of paradox.  That is to say, in one sense, the more dead you become, the more alive you become.  The more soft you become, the stronger you become.

This, in essence, is the principle of "bend and survive," and it's perfectly illustrated by Bruce Lee's image of the two trees.  In the snow, the trunk of the firm tree stands rigid, and as the snow piles up and up, the branch doesn't give an inch - until finally it snaps under the weight of its burden.  The willow, however, bends instantly when even a little bit of snow accumulates on its branch, thereby effectively removing the burden of the snow and allowing the branch to spring back up again, fresh and renewed.  This is not, then, a case of weakness or limpness.  It is not softness in the sense of being just limp and flaccid, but of being springy, of having give.  Thus, the willow's example reveals to us that we can only achieve what we want to achieve through a process of yielding with adversity - of letting go.  This, after all, is the easiest possible course and, some might observe, the very height of intelligence.  As Lee once wrote:

Nothingness cannot be confined;

Gentleness cannot be snapped.

And so the question is posed, what type of person are you?  Do you choose to be the strong, stoic type - like the firm tree - who allows personal problems to pile up one upon the other until you, too, snap?  Or are you more like the willow:  one who does not resist the weight of problematic burden, or who endures it but rather gently bend by dealing with each problem as it presents itself so that you can spring back stronger than before and, by so yielding, live a life that is free of compound emotional turmoil?  Bruce Lee was the latter type of person, and he taught his students that the best way to tackle adversity was first to learn to yield to it:

A good JKD does not oppose force or give way completely.  He is pliable as a spring; he is the complement and not the opposition of his opponent's strength.  He has not technique; he makes his opponent's technique his technique.  He has no design; he makes opportunity his design.

To attain a state of wu-hsin, however, requires a special type of action, or rather, a special type of non-action, that known in Chinese as wu-wei, and in Japanese as mui.

Non-action

The principle of wu-wei (literally, "non-striving") indicates that harmony - either within or without - cannot be obtained by going against the grain of things, which only promotes conflicts and extreme reaction.  When one allows one's self-consciousness, or ego, to yield to the natural flow of things, the highest action is obtained - the action of no action.  Bruce Lee described the process thusly:

Wu means "not" or "non," and wei means "action," "doing," "striving," "straining," or "busying."  However, it doesn't really mean doing nothing, but to let one's mind alone, trusting it to work by itself.  The most important thing is not to strain in any way.  Wu-wei, in gung fu, means spirit or mind action, in the sense that the governing force is the mind and not that of the senses.  During sparring, a gung fu man learns to forget about himself and follows the movement of his opponent, leaving his mind free to make its own counter-movement without any resistance, and adopts a supple attitude.  His actions are all performed without self-assertion; he lets his mind remain spontaneous and ungrasped.  As soon as he stops to think, his flow of movement will be disturbed, and he is immediately struck by his opponent.  Every action, therefore, has to be done "unintentionally" without ever trying.

Such unintentional, effortless action was a trademark of Bruce Lee's.  Watching Lee in action, you note that the one central, fundamental thing in his technique is that he responds to any attack without interval.  This principle is also observable in dancing (in which Lee was also well versed, having won the cha cha championship of the Crown Colonies in 1958).  good dancing partners typically move as if they are but one single organism; there is no interval between the man's lead and the woman's following.  When a man is accustomed to a partner with whom he's worked for some time, she almost feels to him as if she were part of his body because she moves so completely responsively to his initiative.

In much the same way, the leaf on the bough of a tree responds to the initiative of the wind; the wind blows and the leaf simply goes along with it.  The same is true when you see a ball floating upon the water.  It responds instantly to the slightest modulation of the waves.  And this attitude of there being no interval is the real meaning, to Bruce Lee's way of thinking, of wu-wei.  It entails a high degree of mental or spiritual balance, of not being tipped in any one direction or inclining toward extremes of any nature.  this attitude of being emotionally and spiritually centered, or in balance, is one of the core tenets of Bruce Lee's philosophy and, indeed, the fundamental precept of Yin/Yang.

The Role of Balance

Balance is one of the primary - almost axiomatic - concepts of Taoist philosophy as the philosophy of the Tao has a basic respect for the natural balance inherent in all things.  In the realm of nature, for example, you wouldn't volitionally opt to upset this balance; rather, you would try to adapt yourself to its flow.  In other words, you should always try to go along with it and avoid, say, the kind of mistake made in the 1950s by the World Health Organization (WHO).  In its attempt to eliminate malaria in northern Borneo, WHO employed the pesticide Dieldrin on the local mosquito population, which was known to carry the disease.  At first, the people at WHO believed they had solved the problem, since the use o the chemical had significantly diminished the abundance of mosquitoes (and even flies and cockroaches) and, along with them, the incidence of malaria.  But then a strange thing happened:  the roofs of the villagers' huts began to collapse on top of them and a typhoid epidemic broke out.

The reason was that local lizards began eating the insects that were laden with the Dieldrin.  The lizards, full of the toxic chemical, were eating by the cats of the village, and that effectively wiped out the cat population.  With the cats gone, the local rat population sky rocketed, and they ran unchecked throughout the villages, carrying with them typhus-infested fleas.  The roofs then began collapsing because the Dieldrin, in addition to killing the mosquitoes, cockroaches, and flies, also killed the wasps that ordinarily wold have consumed the caterpillars that, left unchecked, were now eating the villagers' thatched roof.  Through such an interference with the balance of nature, the WHO, for a time, found itself in some difficulty.

The philosophy of balance, or rather the respect for balance, is perhaps best illustrated by squeezing a rubber ball.  However or wherever you squeeze it, the ball will yield, but it never loses its balance.  It's safest form in the world, completely contained and never off center.   To be completely contained, never susceptible to being put off center or phased by anything, is what is aimed at in the philosophy of Bruce Lee.

Similarly, those of us who wish to cultivate a stress-free existence have to be possessed of this same sense of balance, never being put off center no matter how hard we seem to get squeezed.  We have to learn how to flow with life in the same way that the ball responds to the movements of the water, that the leaf travels with the wind, and that the martial artist cultivates a state of harmony between himself and his opponent.  When we can accomplish this, we need never again be snared by conflict - of any kind.

Be Blessed

Be Balanced

Some words of wisdom by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

in his book ~ "Living the Wisdom of the Tao"

The Complete Tao Te Ching and Affirmations

~1st Verse~

The Tao that can be told 

is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named 

is not the eternal name.

The Tao is both named and nameless.

As nameless it is the origin of all things;

as named it is the Mother of 10,000 things.

Ever desireless, one can see the mystery;

ever desiring, one sees only the manifestations.

And the mystery itself is the doorway to 

all understanding.

I choose to enjoy living the great mystery

The Tao that can be named is not the Tao.

~2nd Verse~

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty,

only because there is ugliness.

All can know good as good only because there is evil.

Being and nonbeing produce each other.

The difficult is born in the easy.

Long is defined by short, the high by the low.

Before and after go along with each other.

So the sage lives with apparent duality and paradoxical unity.

The sage can act without effort and teach without words.

Nurturing things without possessing them,

he works, but not for rewards;

he competes, but not for results.

When the work is done, it is forgotten.

That is why it lasts forever.

When my work is done, it is forgotten.

That is why it lasts forever.

~3rd Verse~

Putting a value on statue will create contentiousness.

If you overvalue possessions, people begin to steal.

By not displaying what is desirable, you will cause the people's heart to remain undisturbed.

The Sage governs by emptying minds and hearts, by weakening ambitions and strengthening bones.

Practice not doing...

When action is pure and selfless, everything settles into its own perfect place.

I know that there is no way to happiness.

Happiness is the Way.

~4th Verse~ 
The Tao is empty but inexhaustible, 
bottomless, the ancestor of it all.  
Within it, the sharp edges become smooth; 
the twisted knots loosen; 
the sun is softened by a cloud; 
the dust settles into place.  
It is hidden but always present.  I do not know who gave birth to it.  It seems to be the common ancestor of all, the father of things.  

The all-providing Tao is empty, yet inexhaustible.


~5th Verse~
Heaven and earth are impartial; they see the 10,000 things as straw dogs.
The sage is not sentimental; he treats all his people as straw dogs.
The sage is like heaven and earth:
To him none are especially dear, nor is there anyone he disfavors.
He gives and gives, without condition, offer his treasures to everyone.
Between heaven and earth is a space like a bellows; empty and inexhaustible, the more it is used, the more it produces.
Hold on to the center.
Man was made to sit quietly and find the truth within.

I work at eliminating all of my judgments of others. 


~6th Verse~
The spirit that never dies is called the mysterious feminine.
Although she becomes the whole universe, her immaculate purity is never lost.
Although she assumes countless forms, her true identity remains intact.
The gateway to the mysterious female is called the root of creation.
Listen to her voice, hear it echo through creation.
Without fail, she reveals her presence.
Without fail, she brings us to our own perfection.
Although it is invisible, it endures; it will never end.

I pay attention to my inner callings and apply my own uniqueness to everything I undertake.


~7th Verse~

Heaven is eternal - the earth endures.
Why do heaven and earth last forever?
They do not live for themselves only.
This is the secret of their durability.
For this reason the sage puts himself last
and so end up ahead.
He stays a witness to life,
so he endures.
Serve the needs of others,
and all your own needs will be fulfilled.
Through selfless action, fulfillment is attained.

It is through selfless action that I experience my own fullfillment.

~8th Verse~
The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It flows to low places loathed by all men.
Therefore, it is like the Tao.
Live in accordance with the nature of things.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
Stand by your word.
Govern with equity.
Be timely in choosing the right moment.
One who lives in accordance with nature
does not go against the way of things.
He moves in harmony with the present moment, 
always knowing the truth of just what to do.

I live in accordance with nature and therefore never go against the way of things.

~9th Verse~

To keep on filling is not as good as stopping.

Overfilled, the cupped hands drip, 

better to stop pouring.

Sharpen a blade too much and its edge will soon be lost.

Fill your house with jade and gold

and it brings insecurity.

Puff yourself with honor and pride

and no one can save you from a fall.

Retire when the work is done;

this is the way of heaven.

When my cup is full, I stop pouring.

~10th Verse~

Carrying body and soul and embracing the one,

can you avoid separation?

Can you let your body become as supple as a newborn child's?

In the opening and shutting of heaven's gate,

can you play the feminine part?

Can you love our people and govern your domain

without self-imprtance?

Giving birth and nourishing;

having, yet not possessing;

working, yet not taking credit;

leading without controlling or dominating.

One who heeds this power brings the Tao to this very earth.

This is the primal virtue.

I suspend my belief in opposites by seeing myself in all.

~11th Verse~

Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub;

it is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges.

Shape clay into a vessel;

it is the space within that makes it useful.

Carve fine doors and windows,

but the room is useful in its emptiness.

The usefulness of what is depends on what is not.

~12th Verse~

The five colors blind the eye.

The five tones deafen the ear.

The five favors dull the taste.

The chase and the hunt craze people's minds.

Wasting energy to obtain rare objects

only impedes one's growth.

The master observes the world but trusts his inner vision.

He allows things to come and go.

He prefers what is within to what is without.

I choose to ignore the seductive lure of acquisition and fame.

~13th Verse~

Favor and disgrace seem alarming.

High status greatly afflicts your person.

Why are favor and disgrace alarming?

Seeking favor is degrading:  alarming when it is gotten, alarming when it is lost.

Why does high status greatly afflict your person?

The reason we have a lot of trouble is that we have selves.

If we had no selves, what trouble would we have?

Man's true self is eternal, yet he thinks, I am this body and will soon die.

If we have no body, what calamities can we have?

One who sees himself as everything is fit to be guardian of the world.

One who loves himself as everyone is fit to be teacher of the world.

I see myself as everything.

I love myself as everyone.

~14th Verse~

That which cannot be seen is called invisible.

That which cannot be heard is called inaudible.

That which cannot be held is called intangible.

These three cannot be defined;

therefore, they are merged as one.

Each of these three is subtle for description.

By intuition you can see it, hear it, and feel it.

Then the unseen, unheard, and untouched are present as one.

Its rising brings no dawn, it's settling no darkness;

it goes on and on, unnameable, returning into nothingness.

Approach it and there is no beginning;

follow it and there is no end.

You cannot know it, but you can be it, at ease in your own life.

Discovering how things have always been brings one into harmony with the Way.

Discovering how things have always been brings me into harmony with the Way.

~15th Verse~

The ancient masters were profound and subtle.

Their wisdom was unfathomable.

There is no way to describe it.

One can only describe them vaguely by their appearance.

Watchful, like men crossing a winter stream.

Alert, like men aware of danger.

Simple as uncarved wood.

Hollow like caves.

Yielding, like ice about to melt.

Amorphous, like muddy water.

But the muddiest water clears as it is stilled.

And out of that stillness life arises.

He who keeps the Tao does not want to be full.

But precisely because he is never full, he can remain like a hidden sprout and does not rush to early ripening.

The place of my origination is stillness, from which all creation originates.

~16th Verse~

Become totally empty.

Let your heart be at peace.

Amidst the rush of worldly comings and goings, observe how endings become beginnings.

Things flourish, each by each, only to return to the Source...

to what is and what is to be.

To return to the root is to find peace.

To find peace is to fulfill one's destiny.

To fulfill one's destiny is to be constant.

To know the constant is called insight.

Not knowing this cycle leaves to eternal disaster.

Knowing the constant gives perspective.

This perspective is impartial.

Impartiality is the highest nobility;

the highest nobility is Divine.

Being Divine, you will be at one with the Tao.

Being at one with the Tao is eternal.

This way is everlasting, not endangered by physical death.

Amidst the rush of worldly comings and goings, I observe how all endings become beginnings.

~17th Verse~

With the greatest leader above them, people barely know one exists.

Next comes one whom they love and praise.

Next comes one whom they fear.

Next comes one whom they despise and and defy.

When a leader trusts no one, no one trusts him.

The great leader speaks little.

He never speaks carelessly.

He works without self-interest and leaves no trace.

When all is finished, the people say, "We did it ourselves."

I fully trust that others do know what is best for them.

~18th Verse~

When the greatness of the Tao is present, action arises from one's own heart.

When the greatness of the Tao is absent, action comes from the rules of "kindness and justice."

If you need rules to be kind and just, if you act virtuous, this is a sure sign that virtue is absent.

Thus we see the great hypocrisy.

When kinship falls into discord, piety and rites of devotion arise.

When the country falls into chaos, official loyalists will appear; patriotism is born.

I act virtuously.

I do not need rules to be kind and just.

~19th Verse~

Give up sainthood, renounce wisdom, and it will be a hundred times better for everyone.

Throw away morality and justice and people will do the right thing.

Throw away industry and profit and there will be no thieves.

All of these are outward forms alone; they are not sufficient in themselves.

It is more important to see the simplicity, to realize one's true nature, to cast off selfishness and temper desire.

I am moral, profitable, and a genius extraordinaire, regardless of what any transcript or bank statement might say.

~20th Verse~

Give up learning and you will be free from all your cares.

What is the difference between yes and no?

What is the difference between good and evil?

Must I fear what others fear?

Should I fear desolation when there is abundance?

Should I fear darkness when that light is shining everywhere?

In spring, some go to the park and climb the terrace, but I alone am drifting, not knowing where I am.

Like a newborn babe before it learns to smile, I am alone, without a place to go.

Most people have too much; I alone seem to be missing something.

Mine is indeed the mind of an ignoramus in its unadulterated simplicity.

I am but a guest in this world.

While others rush about to get things done, I accept what is offered.

I alone seem foolish, earning little, spending less.

Other people strive for fame; I avoid the limelight, preferring to be left alone.  Indeed, I seem like an idiot:  no mind, no worries.

I drift like a wave on the ocean.

I blow as aimless as the wind.

All men settle down in their grooves; I alone am stubborn and remain outside.

But wherein I am most different from others is in knowing to take sustenance from the great Mother!

I am doing nothing.

Rather, I am being done.