Wu Wei: Intuitive Productivity (IT Live Recording)

So,

The question we are asking today is,

How can I be efficient,

Be productive without burning myself out,

Without stressing myself,

Without forcing myself,

Without getting into this state of stress,

Anxiety,

Burnout,

Which happens a lot of times when we work or when we are busy with our house chores,

With our work life,

With our corporate jobs,

With our business,

Even in our relationships and even in our other day-to-day activities.

So,

This way,

This ancient method of Wu-Wei comes from the Taoist tradition and is one of the most powerful practices or traditions through which we allow ourselves to align with the natural energy of the universe.

We align ourselves with Tao,

What Lao Tzu called the Tao,

T-A-O,

Tao.

And this alignment,

If that alignment is not there,

Then we will burn ourselves out.

There is a natural energy flowing through the universe and if we are not aligned with that energy,

If we misalign ourselves with that energy,

Then we burn ourselves out.

And this is what happens when we force ourselves to work.

This is unfortunately the case with most of the world today,

Because most of the world is working in jobs,

In things that people don't want to do.

There was a study done which talked about how,

I think the study was in 2019,

And it talked about how most of the people in the world actually don't like their jobs.

They don't enjoy their jobs.

And if someone doesn't like their job,

Doesn't enjoy their work,

Doesn't enjoy what they are doing,

They will tend to force themselves,

They will tend to not enjoy,

Not get into that natural alignment.

That is a misalignment with existence,

That is a misalignment with the Tao.

And no wonder we have so much of stress,

Anxiety and depression in the world today.

And this is not only about jobs,

This is not only about work,

But it is also about everything that we do in our day-to-day life,

Be it also showing up in relationships,

Be it also simply meditating or doing yoga or doing other practices like Tai Chi,

Qi Gong.

This can also be about traveling.

Everything that we do,

It will happen in a beautiful way when it is aligned with the Tao,

When it is aligned with the natural flow of the universe.

But when it gets against the flow of the universe,

Then we experience the stress,

Burnout,

Depression.

So,

Wu Wei is the practice to align oneself with the Tao.

Wu Wei means,

The literal meaning of Wu Wei is effortless action,

Or some people also call it action through inaction,

Which means that we are not forcing ourselves to do something.

We are aligning ourselves with the natural energy that is flowing through us.

And then we start doing things.

And when we do things with this natural alignment,

We do things with passion.

That's when we say that I am passionate about this,

I'm doing this with passion,

Or this is my dharma,

This is my purpose.

That's when you don't have to force yourself to get out of the bed every morning.

You jump out of your bed naturally.

You feel this natural energy,

You feel this natural passion for something.

But if we do something that we don't like to do,

If we do something that we don't enjoy doing and if we are doing jobs which we don't like to do,

Then there is a quote by Albert Einstein.

He said that if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,

It will spend its life thinking that it is stupid.

And that really applies here because that's what happens when we do things that are not meant for us.

When we do things that are not aligned with the Tao,

Then we are not good at them naturally.

And then we think,

Then we have self-worth issues,

Right?

That maybe I'm not good enough,

Maybe I will never be able to do good work,

I will never be able to be efficient or be productive,

I will never be able to get success in this area or whatever that is.

We have self-worth issues.

And see how many people in the world today are doing work,

Doing jobs,

Which are not meant for them.

And they're feeling this lack of sense of self-worth.

A lot of us,

We feel this and I felt that,

I am telling this from my own experience,

Because many years ago,

I was doing something that I was not supposed to do.

That was not for me.

And I did that just because,

You know,

The society expected me to do that.

And I was an engineer and that was,

I realized that was not for me.

And I was not good at it naturally,

Because,

You know,

That was not something that was supposed,

That was aligned with my dharma.

What I'm doing now is aligned with my dharma.

But what I was doing then was not aligned with my dharma.

So,

It was not aligned with the Tao,

In other words.

So,

When we align ourselves with our natural energy,

When we align ourselves with what is coming from our intuition,

Most importantly,

When we are aligned with ourselves,

That's when that natural flow happens.

That's when we start doing things from a place of this Wu way,

Effortless action.

And then everything becomes effortless,

Right?

You might have seen when you are passionate about something,

When you are aligned,

When you really know that this is something you want to do,

This is aligned with the Tao,

This is aligned with the dharma.

You don't have to force yourself to do that.

You see,

There is a natural energy that comes up in your body.

You just start doing things.

You are in alignment with the universe.

You are in alignment with the Tao and things start happening.

That is one,

You know,

If we have to talk about the success here,

Quote-unquote success.

In success,

I'm not only talking about worldly success,

But most importantly,

Inner success.

You know,

Basically living a good life,

Living a life of awakening,

Spirituality,

Transformation,

Abundance.

And that only happens when we align ourselves with this Tao,

With our natural energy,

With our dharma,

With our intuition.

And that's when things start happening beautifully.

That's when the energy starts flowing.

That's when we remove those blockages that block this energy from flowing.

So,

The question is,

The question we can ask ourselves today,

The question you can ask yourself today is,

Am I aligned with the Tao?

Am I aligned with my intuition,

In other words?

Am I aligned with my dharma,

My purpose?

Am I aligned with this natural energy?

So,

This alignment is key and the simplest term we can use here is intuition.

Am I aligned with my intuition?

Am I intuitive?

There is an intuitive way of doing things and there is a non-intuitive way of doing things.

Children,

For example,

Are very intuitive.

They do whatever they feel like doing.

They play,

Right?

They,

And when they play,

They play fully.

They are fully immersed in playing.

They enjoy that so much.

Whenever they are doing some other thing,

They are picking up a piece of object,

They are looking at it,

Studying it.

They are doing it with full passion.

Whenever they are hugging and kissing,

They are doing it with full passion.

That is the natural energy that we have lost touch with.

When they are dancing,

They are dancing with full passion.

When they are singing,

They are singing with full passion.

And that is the natural energy that we have misaligned ourselves with.

And when does this misalignment happen?

This misalignment happens as we grow up.

When our parents tell us that,

You know,

You can't do that.

This is not for you.

You know,

You shouldn't do that or do this,

Study more,

Don't play.

And if you are coming from a culture like mine,

Where there were even fixed professions for children,

That,

You know,

As you grow up,

You have to become an engineer,

Doctor or something like that,

Or lawyer,

Then the child is misaligned with the natural energies.

And as we grow up,

We are conditioned to do things which we don't want to do.

Especially this happens in the schooling system.

And that's why I believe the schooling system needs reforming.

It has to,

We don't have to align with the schooling system.

The schooling system has to align with the children.

And it has to realize that every child is different.

Every child is unique.

And every child will have its own way of learning and growing and doing things.

And hence,

The schooling system has to align with the child.

The children don't have to align with the schooling system.

And so this happens,

This conditioning we get in this misalignment,

When we are forced to do things that we don't feel like doing.

Think of how many children who are sitting in classrooms,

You know,

Those boxes,

They want to go out,

They want to play in the mud.

They want to connect with Mother Earth.

They want to hug,

They want to,

You know,

Do so many things which they are unable to do during their schooling time.

There is a,

There is this,

This natural energy is blocked.

Now,

Thankfully,

Schooling systems are changing.

Not,

Not at a good pace,

At least to a little extent in some areas,

Not everywhere.

But still,

We are far away from aligning the child with the Tao,

Letting the child flow,

You know,

Experience that Wu way and that natural energy.

This is what happens to us.

And today we find ourselves doing things which we don't want to do because that,

That's how we were conditioned.

We were maybe told by our parents that,

You know,

Even if you feel like playing or even if you feel like doing art,

Even if you feel like singing,

You don't have to do that.

Focus on your studies.

You have to earn.

That is the fear-based mindset.

We are still carrying that fear-based mindset.

That fear-based mindset is,

If you don't do this,

If you don't do this work,

Then you will not be able to survive.

Can you see how many of us today in the world are still carrying that fear-based mindset?

That if I don't do this job,

Which I don't like,

Which I hate,

In many cases,

I'm not saying all people hate their jobs,

But in many cases,

If I do,

If I don't do this job,

Then I will not be able to survive.

And that's what make,

You know,

That's when we are misaligned.

That's,

That's a fear-based thinking.

It misaligns with the Tao and then we push ourselves.

We push ourselves to get out of the bed every morning.

This again does not only apply to,

You know,

Jobs,

But it also applies to relationships.

If I am in a relationship in which I'm not experiencing love,

Then,

Then again,

I won't feel that passion.

I won't,

I won't feel that energy.

And that's why you will see in a lot of relationships,

People are together,

But there is no passion.

There is no energy.

There is no romance.

There is no deep connection.

There is no alignment.

There is no dance happening.

There is,

They almost like as if the relationship is dead.

And,

And all,

And this also,

And,

You know,

In work life,

People feel dead when,

When they are working in jobs,

Which,

And that's what we see when we are coming in the afternoon,

Right?

In the evening,

You come in a metro train or in the bus,

And you see people coming from their jobs,

You know,

Especially if that train and bus is coming from a corporate area,

You will see people so sad,

So sad,

So stressed.

You will see people,

You know,

They're,

They're almost dead.

This is,

And this is what,

You know,

Although I'm not a fan of Benjamin Franklin,

But he said something really interesting.

And he said that people die at 25,

But are buried at 75.

People die at 25 and are buried,

But are buried at 75.

And this is,

This is deep.

This,

This is true.

And this is true in not only in our work life that we,

You know,

Fix ourselves in the corporate world at 25.

And then we almost are living like,

You know,

Especially if we don't enjoy that job,

Or if we don't like that job,

We almost,

We almost are dead till the time we are buried.

But this also applies to relationships that even if we are in relationships,

Which in which we are not feeling that love and passion and connection,

Then we feel dead in our relationships.

If we are not in,

If our day-to-day activities are not aligned with who am I,

Who I am,

Then,

Then I will feel dead in my day-to-day activities because a lot of people don't even know who they are and what they want to do.

So this,

You see that this is a very,

This is a very misaligned way of doing things.

This is goes against the Taoist tradition.

This goes,

This is not Wu way.

This is not Tao.

This is not aligning words.

This is,

This is something that creates more and more problems in the world.

So Wu way is the,

Is the remedy for this,

This alignment with the natural energy of the universe,

Which leads to something called effortless action or action through inaction,

Which,

Which means that you don't even have to do anything.

That's the paradox.

It's Wu way is a paradox.

The paradox is that I am in a,

In a state of,

I'm,

I'm not forcing myself.

There is,

You know,

I'm,

I'm more relaxed,

Actually.

I'm more present.

I'm conscious.

I'm not forcing myself.

And some energy arises through me when I'm aligned with the Tao.

Some energy comes when I'm aligned with my intuition.

Some energy comes into my body,

Almost like a psychic energy that makes me do things.

It's almost like auto,

Things start happening automatically,

Right?

Automatically you start doing things.

This is when people talk about channeling or automatic writing.

They,

You know,

Their hand starts moving by the,

By itself.

This is when the dancer on the stage has,

Is completely lost into the dance that the dancer and the dance becomes one.

And there's just this movement of energy.

The person is not there anymore.

It's a egoless state.

It's a flow state.

It's a state in which the ego totally dissolves,

Right?

This is when the singer becomes,

This is when the singer becomes the music,

The musician becomes the music and the musician and music are one.

The musician is not there anymore,

But only music remains and only music is flowing,

Right?

This is when you immerse yourself fully.

This is when you are so passionate.

If you are a writer,

You are so passionate about writing that you are so engrossed in that you are so much into that,

That at some point of time,

You,

You lose a sense of self.

And it's as if only writing remains and the writer has disappeared and the hand is moving by itself and writing beautiful things,

Right?

This happens with poets.

This happens with painters.

This is,

This is almost like an egoless state.

This is almost like the transcendence of the ego.

An ego death experience in which you,

You know,

The,

The artist is gone,

But the art only art flows and only art remains.

So that is Wu Wei.

That is this effortless action because then you don't have to put effort,

Right?

In Japanese martial arts,

Like Aikido or Judo,

The martial artists are kind of taught to not force their energy onto the opponent.

In fact,

Just align themselves with the natural energy.

In fact,

Use the energy of the opponent to disarm the opponent.

And it's all about energy.

Daoism is all about energy.

It is about not wasting,

You know,

Not forcing yourself.

It is about aligning yourself with the natural energy of the universe.

It's a play of energies.

And if we understand this play of energies,

We will never force ourselves to do things.

Right?

And just look at what we have done to our society today.

Just look at how we function today.

We overschedule things.

We are burnt out.

We are stressed.

We are anxious.

We don't know how to align ourselves with this Dao.

So this is what this Wu way is.

And now,

You know,

I'll read a few comments here and see if there are any questions.

And then we'll go into the discussion that how can we get aligned with this Wu way?

How can we experience this alignment?

And how can we change our day-to-day activities,

Which will bring us in more alignment with this natural energy,

Which will lead to this intuitive productivity,

Which will lead to this effortless action.

And when that happens,

You will not only be efficient and productive,

But you will also be relaxed at the same time.

And you will not have to work 12 hours,

14 hours a day to do things,

To accomplish things.

You will work four hours,

Three,

Four hours in a day,

And you will be able to accomplish similar amount of work.

This is one of the profound things that I realized that it is not about time.

It is about it is not about hard work.

It is about smart work.

It is about energy work.

It is about aligning yourself with that passion.

There was a time I used to work eight,

Nine,

10 hours in a day,

But that has reduced to as I,

As I learned this,

As I,

You know,

That,

That reduced to almost four,

Four to five hours in a day now.

And the output is same.

The output has not,

You know,

Gone down.

Even the time has gone down significantly.

So how to do all that?

We'll talk about that,

But let's see what the comments are.

So my question,

First of all,

My question to you is,

Do you feel you are aligned with the Dao?

Do you feel that you are experiencing wu-wei?

Or maybe there are some areas of your life where you experience wu-wei and you don't experience wu-wei,

Right?

Maybe you,

When you are doing your hobbies,

Then you experience wu-wei when you are practicing art or practicing music or something like that.

But maybe in your office,

You don't feel that wu-wei.

So let me know in what areas of your life you experience wu-wei versus where you don't experience wu-wei.

Let's see what the comments are.

Lloyd asked a question.

If we are at a job where it is absolutely necessary,

Wouldn't we in turn commit to our inner self and meditation to help us,

To help get us through the work life?

If we are at a job where it is absolutely necessary,

Wouldn't we in turn commit to our inner self and meditation to help get us through the work life?

Yes,

You know,

Definitely when we commit to meditation and inner self,

It helps us in our job.

But the point is that you will be even better at your job if your job is aligned with who you are.

If your job is coming from a natural flow of energy,

Think of things that you do naturally.

That come to you naturally,

That you enjoy doing or that you are naturally good at.

Right?

Those two things are usually the things that are aligned with the Dao.

Things that you enjoy doing and things that you are naturally good at.

This is your natural energy.

But a lot of people do jobs which are not aligned with that.

For example,

If you are more creative,

You are more right brained.

And if you are in a job,

Maybe if you are not very or if you don't enjoy finances and if you are in a finance job,

That is a misalignment with the Dao.

What's the point of forcing oneself when you don't enjoy that?

And secondly,

That is not your natural skill.

So that alignment with the natural skill is so important.

Yes,

Meditation and all that,

Those things help in our jobs.

But no amount of even meditation will help if I'm misaligned with what I'm doing.

Poorna has a question.

What if your intuition is leading you down multiple professional paths?

They overlap but are two separate paths in terms of who would benefit.

I feel my intuition wants to pursue many things,

Especially being a creative and spiritual person.

It's important to start somewhere.

There is a beautiful quote by Lao Tzu.

He said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

It's important to keep moving forward.

At some point of time,

Even if there are multiple paths ahead of you,

You will find your right path if you keep moving forward.

The energy gets stuck if we stop.

This is decision-making paralysis,

Which a lot of people experience,

Especially when they're in a career transition,

Especially when they have to do something new.

They have left their job or starting a new business.

You don't have to stay stuck in that point and keep thinking about what is right for you.

You start doing things which feel more naturally aligned.

And automatically,

As you keep doing,

Keep doing,

Keep doing,

You will come to this point where you will find,

Through the process of elimination and pivoting through different fields of work,

You will come into alignment with what you want to do.

This happened with me personally.

I started out as an engineer.

Then I went into marketing.

Then I left my marketing job and I did not know what to do.

And then I started a digital marketing agency.

And then I started a retail company.

And then I started working in a meditation center.

And eventually,

I came to what I want to love.

And so this happens through.

.

.

I came to this what I love right now.

This is my passion,

What I'm doing right now.

And so this happens through this natural alignment in which you keep moving forward.

You don't stay stuck.

And automatically,

Things that are not meant for you,

They start falling away.

And you start finding your path.

But the problem happens when we stay stuck at one particular point.

We don't move forward.

It's important to move forward.

It's better to go forward in the wrong direction than to stay stuck at one point.

Because if I'm stuck at one point,

If I'm not taking any decisions,

If I'm stuck at crossroads,

Then I will never know what is the right path.

But even if I've started walking on the wrong path,

At least I will realize that this is the wrong path.

And I will change my path at some point of time.

So that moving forward is very important.

When we are not moving forward,

It's a stuck energy that is not aligned with the Tao.

Moving is so important.

In terms of business,

There is a beautiful book that I read.

It's a quite popular book.

Some of you might have read that.

It's called The Lean Startup.

And it was all about creating this.

Basically,

This was a different way.

And it was almost like a revolution in the business world.

Because it was.

.

.

The Lean Startup talked about not investing too much in business and not putting so much of energy in one business that you don't even know will succeed.

Instead,

What you do is,

If you want to start a new business,

Excuse me,

If you want to start a new business,

Then you actually do at a very basic minimum level.

And it is known as an MVP,

A minimum viable product.

And you create a very small.

.

.

You don't invest too much of money,

Finances,

Energy,

Marketing resources,

Research resources,

And all that.

You simply take.

.

.

You just start.

You just go ahead and start that business,

Even if that business is at a very basic scratch level.

And as you move forward,

If you're supposed to do that business,

You will keep optimizing that business,

Right?

But if you're not supposed to do that business,

Then you will pivot at some point of time and you will do something else.

But that minimum viable product.

.

.

And this is.

.

.

It actually changed the whole landscape of entrepreneurship in the business world.

Because earlier,

What used to happen,

That first you have to do.

.

.

If you have to create a business,

First you will create a business plan.

You will do market research for one year.

You will do all kinds of research for one year.

You will invest resources.

You will get investors.

But.

.

.

And then you will start a business.

But what this did was,

It said that you don't have to wait for one year.

Just start right now.

And as you keep moving forward,

Keep improvising.

And if that is not for you,

Then pivot and change direction.

So this is more.

.

.

This is a more efficient way.

This is a more.

.

.

You know,

This is the Wu way of business.

This is the Wu way of entrepreneurship,

In which you are not stuck.

You are moving in a flow.

You are moving.

.

.

Just moving forward.

And you are not afraid of failing,

Right?

You allow yourself to fail.

In fact,

You allow yourself to fail fast,

So that you can eventually arrive at what you want to do.

The more time you take to fail,

The more time it will take for you to get to what you love to do.

But if you fail fast,

Then you will eventually.

.

.

Quickly arrive.

You will naturally arrive to what you want to do.

So yeah,

That was a long answer to your question.

This is the Wu way of entrepreneurship.

Let's see if there are any other comments,

Questions.

I feel out of Wu way in my closest relationship.

Yes,

Wu way is also in relationships.

When there is love flowing,

When there is energy flowing between two people,

That is the Wu way.

But if that is not there,

Then it almost becomes a.

.

.

Yeah,

That is a blockage of energy.

Then we.

.

.

The relationship does not move in a natural way.

How do we become aligned to find what we are in flow in?

I have been disconnected for so long,

Currently meditating to return to myself.

Amber,

I think you answered your own question.

How do we become aligned with the flow?

Is first.

.

.

Is through self-awareness.

Is through going within ourself.

Is to.

.

.

By spending time in solitude,

Right?

How will we know that what is meant for us if we don't know ourselves?

Self.

.

.

You know,

The realization of dharma,

The realization of purpose,

The alignment with the Tao,

The alignment with this natural energy happens when we are self-aware.

When we go within ourselves and we realize who we are,

What do we want?

You know,

What is my shadow?

What does my shadow want?

What does my inner child want?

When we do all that inner work,

You know,

And then we know what is aligned with me and what is not aligned with me.

But what makes us misaligned with the Tao,

What is anti-Wu way,

Is social conditioning,

Is being affected by society,

Is not finding time for yourself,

Is to constantly listen to what others want out of you.

So many of us live life this way and this is the most energy draining way of living life,

Right?

If I am.

.

.

If I am constantly.

.

.

I don't.

.

.

If I am not sure what I want to do and my family,

You know,

Five different people in my family are telling me five different things to do and my friends are saying something else and,

You know,

My mentors are saying something else.

Now I will find myself almost torn.

I'm constantly listening to all these other people,

What should I do?

What should I not do?

And I don't know myself what I want to do because I have no self-awareness.

I have no,

You know,

I have not taken time and solitude to be with myself and to know who I am.

That is the first prerequisite to get aligned with the Wu way,

To get into the state of Wu way.

Self-awareness is key.

If I don't know myself,

How will I know what is my dharma?

How will I know what is my purpose?

How will I know what is what my intuition is trying to tell me?

So spending time in solitude,

Getting aligned,

You know,

Getting to know yourself,

Doing all the work,

Inner work that might include shadow work,

Inner child healing,

That might include active imagination,

Dream interpretation,

Meditation,

All these inner work that we do,

They align us with these different archetypes that live within us,

Different personalities because we are not just one person.

Who we are on the outside is a social mask in most cases and this is not our true authentic self.

But how we find our true authentic self is through that inner journey,

Right?

We connect with the,

We realize when we go inward that there is not just one person that lives,

That is my personality,

But there are infinite number of personalities that live within me,

Right?

There is an artist that lives within me.

There is a musician that lives within me.

There is a lover that lives within me.

There is a mystic that lives within me.

There is a warrior that lives within me.

There is a magician that lives within me.

All these archetypes we find in ourselves and then we realize that,

Oh my god,

There is so much I can do.

There is so much of energy and this is the psychic energy.

This is known as psychic energy.

There is so much of this psychic energy inside of me which I haven't explored yet and once I go within and find myself there and find these infinite number of personalities within me,

Then I find this energy flowing.

Then you have a lot of energy with you because the psychic energy is released.

Earlier,

When we suppress our shadow,

When we repress these inner personalities and when we are too attached to the ego,

The psychic energy is repressed.

But when you go within,

Transcend the ego and connect with the various archetypes and inner personalities that live within you,

Then what happens is a great amount of psychic energy is released and you feel like doing so many things.

There is no way that you can get bored then.

Boredom is anti-Wu-Wei,

Anti-Tao.

Someone who gets bored very easily,

It's not that other people are boring,

It's themselves that are in a stuck energy.

Because a person who is aligned with the Tao,

Who is in Wu-Wei,

Who is self-aware,

Who is aware of these infinite number of archetypes and personalities that live within them,

There is no way that person can get bored.

Just not possible.

Because there is so much to explore,

There is so much to do.

Hence,

The sign of a person who is aligned with the Wu-Wei is who is not bored in solitude,

Who is not bored when they are alone.

A person who gets bored when they are alone in their solitude and people who are constantly checking their phones,

People who are constantly eating,

Constantly keeping themselves busy with other things even when they are in solitude and not able to sit with themselves in silence,

Not go within,

Not able to meditate,

They are not connected with this,

They are not aligned with the Wu-Wei.

But someone who enjoys solitude,

Someone who knows there is so much to explore in solitude,

They will release this infinite amount of psychic energy that will make them do things.

You will never get bored,

You will never even feel less of energy.

And that's why people like Albert Einstein or people like Buddha,

Lao Tzu,

Rumi,

People like Nikola Tesla,

All these people,

Socrates,

All these people who were passionate about what they were doing,

They would never get bored.

In fact,

Einstein once,

I don't know who that person was to whom he wrote that letter,

But he once wrote a letter and in that letter he wrote that people like Einstein said that people like you and me,

We can never get bored because there are infinite number of universes to explore.

How can we get bored?

If we are getting bored,

Then we haven't explored ourselves,

Then we haven't explored the infinite universe that lives within ourselves,

Right?

Because if you turn inward,

There is a vast cosmos,

An infinitely vast cosmos inside of you.

How can you get bored?

There's so much to explore.

So this is a sign of a person actually,

A person who gets bored when they are alone,

They are misaligned with the Tao,

They are misaligned with wu-wei.

But a person who enjoys solitude and they can stay not only for days,

But months,

But years in solitude,

And still enjoy that solitude is totally aligned with the Tao,

Is aligned with wu-wei because they are letting,

They have so much of psychic energy that is released from the infinite universes,

Infinite archetypes that live within,

That lives within that person.

So this is the inner wu-wei.

This is when we align ourselves to the wu through,

You know,

With this wu-wei,

Through this inner work and connecting with this inner universe.

Let's see what some other comments are.

Can you please repeat the book title one more time?

I'm not sure if I mentioned a book.

I'm forgetting maybe if I mentioned a book.

If you can tell me the context of,

Maybe I have mentioned something,

But I don't remember,

I forgot that.

If you can tell me the context in which I talked about that.

The Lean Startup,

Yes,

Yes.

So for entrepreneurship,

Right?

The Lean Startup.

Thank you,

Purna.

Okay.

So now let's talk about a few modern ways of aligning ourselves because,

You know,

This is what we talked about right now,

Till now.

It is more of universal and general alignment with the wu-wei.

But there are things happening in our modern world which are making us more and more actually misaligned with this wu-wei,

With this effortless action.

We are actually,

You know,

We might be thinking that all this technology,

This AI and everything,

It is actually making us more smarter.

But we might be actually deceiving ourselves in many ways.

I'm not judging these technologies.

I'm simply saying that there has to be a balance and there has to be a very conscious way of using technology,

Using the modern technology.

Now,

Let's take a very basic example of calendars.

Let's take this example of calendars and let's take this example of scheduling.

If I am,

You know,

Let's take an example of this person.

There is this woman,

You know,

I'm taking an example,

A hypothetical woman.

Let's say named Alice and she wants to,

You know,

Move from one country to the other country.

And she's going through,

She has two months to move because her lease will end in two months.

And she is,

You know,

She just experienced a breakup with her ex-partner.

And she's also going through some stuff that was there in childhood,

Some childhood trauma that she experienced.

Now,

She has to move in two months and there's a lot of work to do because she's also going through a job transition.

Now,

There are two ways of approaching this situation.

Either Alice can,

You know,

Over-schedule things.

And this is what we are doing.

A lot of people are doing today.

Their calendars are full,

Over-scheduled.

And in fact,

There is a certain sense of ego,

A pride,

Vanity around full calendars.

You know,

Someone with due respect to that person,

Someone was showing me their calendar and feeling the sense of pride.

See,

My calendar is full.

Everything is scheduled from morning to evening.

Everything is even scheduled on my weekends.

And,

You know,

All this colorful calendar and all those full calendars.

This is actually a problem.

This is actually a disease because think of this person,

Alice,

Who has to move,

Who has to experience this transition,

But is also going through emotional stuff and emotional issues.

If she over-schedules herself and all the work that she has to do in the next two months,

She is almost treating herself like a robot,

Right?

It's almost like we have started because we are developing artificial intelligence and robots.

We have also started treating ourselves as robots.

In fact,

We started treating ourselves as robots with industrial revolution,

Actually,

A long time back.

But this treating ourselves as robots is when I'm so much scheduled that I don't have to do,

You know,

I don't have time to do things intuitively in a natural way.

I'm so much over-scheduled.

This over-scheduling is burning me out.

So think about this.

You know,

Let's say I have to you know,

I have scheduled myself to do something at 3 p.

M.

Today.

When 3 p.

M.

Comes and I have scheduled myself to do that.

I have scheduled this work three days ago for working at 3 p.

M.

Today.

And now it is 3 p.

M.

And now I feel like doing something else.

But I will force myself to do what I promised myself to do.

This is actually misalignment with the DAO.

This is actually not alignment because in that moment there might be a different energy flowing through you.

So even if we are scheduling,

We have to see that what how our energy flows,

Right?

We have to see during what times of the day what do we feel like doing?

Maybe,

You know,

That is and that becomes more aligned.

But think of also this that maybe at 3 p.

M.

Something has come up,

An emotional issue.

Something has come up.

And I'm not I'm not feeling like working anymore because something has happened.

Maybe I had an argument with my,

You know,

Maybe Alice had an argument with her ex-partner.

And maybe something has come up.

Some emotion has come up which is troubling Alice.

What will happen that again,

Alice will not be able to work properly at 3 p.

M.

Because these emotions are arising.

Rather,

What should Alice do is at least take some time off to sit with these emotions and to observe these emotions.

And this is the problem which is there in the job world,

In the corporate world,

Right?

We have,

Especially those corporates who are still making people work according to time that you should do this at this time.

We are sitting in our office and I feel like doing something else.

I think,

You know,

I'm experiencing these emotional issues right now.

I have to cater to my emotions,

But I'm not able to do that because my boss or my supervisor has told me to do this.

And so,

And that's why you will see in offices,

In jobs,

In corporates,

There is a lot of emotional suppression.

This is not a natural way to work.

This is the misalignment with the DAO.

We are almost treating ourselves as robots.

In fact,

There will come a point of time,

You know,

With this development of AGI,

When we will create humanoid robots,

Merged with artificial intelligence,

We will be able to schedule these robots.

You will be able to,

Let's say,

You know,

Tomorrow you'll have a robot at your home who does your house chores.

You will be able to schedule that robot to do house chores in different times,

Right?

For example,

At 11 a.

M,

Wash the utensils.

At 12 p.

M,

Do the mopping and cleaning,

Right?

And so you can schedule all the robots.

But the question is,

Are we robots?

Why are we over-scheduling ourselves?

Why are we so dependent on these external calendars?

Right?

Why are we so dependent on these external calendars?

Why have we over-scheduled ourselves that we are almost functioning like a robot?

And this is precisely when people experience stress,

Anxiety,

Burnout.

There are two ways of approaching this.

Some people say,

If you want to be successful,

Which I don't subscribe to at all,

That if you want to be successful,

And if I can tell you whether you will be successful or not by looking at your calendar,

And then there are people or coaches who kind of push this idea that you have to over-schedule yourself.

And this is a very harmful way.

In fact,

I go for the opposite.

I say that if I'm looking at your calendar and if you are over-scheduled,

Then there are high chances that you are experiencing stress,

Anxiety,

Burnout.

That is not a natural way to work.

That is not aligned with the Tao.

And hence,

We have to be very careful of this over-scheduling.

What we have forgotten is that there is an inner calendar within us that we have disconnected ourselves with.

This is very important.

There is an inner calendar within us that is there that tells us what to do at what time.

Does that make sense?

You know,

What has happened with technology is that with technology,

We have developed so much of technology,

Starting with,

Let's say,

The calculator.

You know,

We thought that calculators do help us with calculations,

But what calculators did was they took away our power of calculation.

And someone who is too dependent on calculators will find it difficult to do calculation themselves.

Then we gave our power away to maps and navigation and GPS.

A lot of people have lost sense of direction.

Today,

Many people don't even know the way from their home to downtown or to the place because there is so much of dependence on these navigations.

Just imagine what will happen if all the GPS in the world is turned off simultaneously.

There will be chaos on roads.

So we have given away our power of direction.

People have lost sense of direction now with this GPS.

And now what we are doing is we are giving away our power to artificial intelligence.

We are giving away our intelligence to artificial intelligence.

If we become now too much dependent on artificial intelligence,

Then we will give our own intelligence away to artificial intelligence.

What we don't realize is that by developing all these technologies,

And by,

For example,

With smartphones,

We give away our smartness to these smartphones.

By developing so much of these technologies and becoming overly reliant on these technologies,

We are actually disconnecting from the inner technology.

We have forgotten that human being is a technology.

We are already a technology.

There are technologies within us that are to be explored.

There is an inner calculator within you.

There is inner intelligence.

There is inner navigation.

There is an inner compass.

There is an inner calendar within you.

And so when you are,

In the case of this scheduling thing,

When you are aligned with your inner calendar,

Then what will happen is that when 3pm comes,

You will not force yourself to do something that you have scheduled yourself to do.

Rather,

You will ask your intuition,

What is flowing through me naturally?

What does my intuition want me to do right now?

What do I feel like doing right now?

We rarely ask this question,

But this is really important.

And especially with these calendars,

We have stopped asking this question.

What does my intuition want me to do right now?

Maybe my intuition wants me to sit with my emotions.

Maybe my intuition,

I have promised myself to kind of do this project.

But right now,

Maybe my intuition wants me to spend time with my loved ones.

Maybe my intuition wants me to draw something,

Create art or create something else or music.

Whatever that might be.

But if we force ourselves to do something that we don't want to do,

That does not mean that discipline is not important.

We have to create a balance.

Yes,

Discipline is important,

But we don't have to force ourselves too much to do things that we experience stress,

Anxiety,

Burnout.

And this is what I have noticed that people when they become very much,

Too much scheduled or too much scheduled,

They actually experience more stress,

Anxiety,

Burnout.

And the easiest remedy is,

I'm not saying that scheduling is not important.

It is important.

That's why through scheduling,

We are able to meet at the right time,

Right?

We are able to do these sessions at the same time.

But we don't have to overschedule.

Yes,

Schedule your meetings,

But don't schedule too much of your work that you will force,

You will have to force yourself to do something that you might not feel like doing at that time.

Because that is misalignment with the Wu way.

Alignment with the Wu way is when you feel this intuition,

Your intuition is telling you there is this natural energy flowing through you.

Your intuition is guiding you to do something.

Maybe your intuition is guiding you to read a book right now.

And then when you read that book,

You are so read it so passionately that it becomes one of the best reading sessions that you ever had,

Right?

But if my intuition is telling me to read something and I'm forcing myself to,

For example,

Let's say do some finance work or some other office work,

I will struggle through that work,

Right?

It will not be natural.

I will force myself.

It's almost like then moving like a tortoise,

Forcing and not being able to do it properly.

It's almost like I'm flowing against the current of the river.

But Wu way means to align yourself with the current of the river.

And in that moment,

If you feel like reading and if you are reading,

That is the alignment with the current of the river.

And then you will read so passionately,

Right?

It will almost become like a meditation.

And those insights will be life transforming.

Maybe at 3 p.

M that reading session actually was to be life transforming for you.

Some insight had to change your life.

But you forced yourself to do some other work.

And that did not happen.

So Wu way,

Effortless action happens when we are deeply aligned with our intuition.

And we allow ourselves to do work,

Do things that are in alignment with that intuition,

Natural intuition.

And this is not only in our work life,

But also in relationships,

Also our day-to-day lives.

And this is what Wu way is.

So let's see what the comments are.

Maybe my intuition wants me to sit on IT all day.

Again,

We don't have to go on extremes.

If your intuition wants you to sit on IT,

That means that there may,

There might be,

You know,

IT is a short form here for insight timer.

If your intuition wants you to sit on insight timer all day,

Maybe your intuition wants you to experience more wisdom,

Transformation,

Meditation,

Healing,

Right?

What a beautiful thing that is.

So yes,

Maybe not all day.

If you have to do some other work,

You don't,

You don't,

We don't have to go to extremes,

Basically.

We have to create a balance.

But at least then you can allow yourself more time on insight timer.

And that's wonderful.

Maybe,

You know,

That will lead to some profound transformation.

So,

So why not?

Insight timer is wonderful.

It's beautiful.

So anyway,

I hope that you found value in today's session.

I hope you get a sense of what alignment is,

What Wu way is,

What does it mean to do effortless action.

And if I have to give the gist of this session,

Whenever we are aligned with our intuition,

And whenever we are doing things which are coming from self-awareness,

From this inner psychic energy,

This intuition that speaks through us,

Then we,

Then things become very easy.

Then you will not burn out yourself.

Then you will actually,

Things will become more and more beautiful.

This is when the dancer becomes one with the dance,

The musician becomes one with music,

Right?

The writer becomes one with writing.

This is when the ego dissolves,

And only the art remains.

But misalignment with the Wu way,

Or with this natural energy,

Is when we force ourselves to do things which our intuition is not aligned with.

When we force ourselves to do things out of fear,

When we are doing jobs,

Which we don't like to do,

When we are in relationships,

Where we don't experience love,

Right?

When we force ourselves to do things,

That is misalignment.

And that leads to stress,

Anxiety,

Burnout,

Depression.

So let's make an intention to listen to our intuition.

The first step is to do inner work.

Turn inward.

Spend some time in aloneness,

Solitude.

Get to know yourself.

Do that inner work.

That will release the psychic energy that will make you feel more connected to your intuition.

And automatically that intuition will become your inner compass that will guide you in the right direction in life.

And that is what Wu way is.

Effortless action or action through inaction.