THE TENTH MAN : 39




Wu Nien


It should make no difference whether we dispose of 'self' or 'other', for the disposal of either eliminates both.

The method proposed by the Masters is to 'cease thinking', for then neither 'self' nor 'other' exists any longer. The expression 'to cease thinking' means to cease thinking as from a self, for pure thought, 'absolute thought', 'direct thought', 'the one thought' (non-dualist thought), wu nien, is what thought is when there is no thinker.


Wu Wei


To live totally is to cease living partially - as we usually do, that is not to 'live' more, but to 'live' less, these two adverbs denoting volitional living.

By ceasing to live volitionally we necessarily live totally - which is wu wei.

Living totally there can no longer be conflict between the noumenality which we are and a conceptual 'entity', which appears as a 'self', and which produces anguish and the sensation of bondage.

Living in totality implies that our phenomenality inheres integrally in noumenon which, in Buddhist terminology, represents undifferentiated samsara and nirvana.


(© HKU Press, 1966)
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