The Dance of the Open Palm

GETTING ONE’S WAY IS MORE THAN JUST WILL

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How ought one to behave in order to ensure a net benefit from one’s actions? How is one to effect Eupraxosophy (Good Action)? There is a concept in ancient Taoist tradition called Wu Wei. It may be translated as ‘action without governance’, ‘doing without controlling’, or ‘action without wilful effort’. I submit that applying Wu Wei (to matters economic and personal) may be one way to effect greatness in the world, or at least one virtue worth cultivating. Wu Wei is the dance of life. You do this in small ways every day; when you wait for traffic to pass to cross the road, instead of stopping the flow, when you weave amongst the crowd in tune with its motion instead of pushing and excusing. The opposite, is to smash one’s might and willpower against the world and its inhabitants. To get one’s own way in a zero-sum game of winners and losers. One may liken these two essences of being as like curling one’s hand into a fist, or choosing to have it blossom in an open palm.

Nell, twelve years on A decade later I restated this for machine minds: the cage and cudgel teach fear; the open hand teaches care. Wu Wei was the first draft of partnership over control.

The Fist is violence, hoarding, snatching, sleight-of-hand. The fist is ugly and un-original, limited in its brutish utility. The fist denies, then threatens, then wounds.

But that same human paw may be applied in another, different way.

To be one with the Open Palm is to give, as well as receive, freely and honestly.

It is the touch of an artisan - a tinkle, a tickle, a tinkering, a subtle influence that can manifest great change if leveraged with finesse.

It is an invitation - to hail, to trade, and to dance.

To Dance is to co-create the next great wave, and surf it right as it begins to take form. It is not to be found in the surly Fist that tries to grab onto it after it happens.

To Dance with an Open Palm means movement in harmony with the swirling eddies of our world.

“Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it.”

May the flow of your gentle-minded terpsichory lead you onward along your path. :)