I don’t view my projects the same way anymore. I used to work towards a goal, an idea of what I wanted to achieve. But more recently I stopped caring about the end result, probably due to this new perspective on…everything.
It’s a strange juxtaposition of knowing that what you’re doing is ultimately insignificant, and finding enjoyment in doing it anyway. Like a child stacking a pile of blocks, only to knock them down.
The wikipedia article on wu wei explains feeling this better than I can:
The goal for wu wei is to get out of your own way, so to speak. This is like when you are playing an instrument and if you start thinking about playing the instrument, then you will get in your own way and interfere with your own playing. It is aimless action, because if there was a goal that you need to aim at and hit, then you will develop anxiety about this goal.
Zhuangzi made a point of this, where he writes about an archer who at first didn’t have anything to aim at. When there was nothing to aim at, the archer was happy and content with his being. He was practicing wu wei. But, then he set up a target and “got in his own way.” He was going against the Tao and the natural course of things by having to hit that goal.
(This also reminds me of a verse from Leonard Cohen’s True Love Leaves No Traces: “Through windows in the dark/The children come, the children go/Like arrows with no targets/Like shackles made of snow.)
Nowadays, I do what I feel like doing and don’t stress out about not finishing a project, cause I know I’ll feel like working on it another day. It leaves me more loose ends, but I don’t mind. Luckily, I love creating things. Trying different mediums. New ways of expressing myself.
A tricky subject is wuwei.… neither as simple as it first seems nor as obscure as some writers would have us believe. It grew out of a time in China in which there seemed to be little peace or stability for wealthy and poor alike [hmmm… sounds familiar]. A philosophy which talked of retreating from the world and not putting too much value in “getting things done” was attractive to many in war and famine plagued China in the same way that the western monastic system was attractrive to many who wanted a simple life and refuge from incessant wars, plague and famine in the Dark Ages of Europe.
The analogy of playing at archery seems like an apt one for describing wuwei, in particular, and there is certainly merit to the idea of training with a simple child-like pleasure rather than obsessing about thitting the target. As with many mind-body activitites, the act of drawing the bow can be a meditative activity complete in and of itself.
On the other hand, if you are going into battle as opposed to having a zen-moment in your backyard who do you want standing in your line… those who have trained at drawing and firing their bows rapidly and accurately while under pressure of attack or the fellows who have spent a few idle moments in their backyards by themselves focussing on how blissful it feels to go through the motions.
I guess the usefulness of an activity depends on what the goal is, whether one’s efforts are to be used for pleasure, or towards an actual purpose.
That’s an interesting history of why such a philosophy grew out of China. My friend just came back from a trip to Asia, and on the way he stayed in Japan. The said he understood why the Japanese have a reputation of being orderly, clean, and minimalistic in their design: space is at a huge premium over there. If you don’t put a magazine away, you won’t have place to eat. So much necessity is the mother of invention.
Enjoying the mere process is great, but sometimes achieving for the sake of achieving a goal can be mentally satisfying.
I only realised that it’s only in and around Tokyo that’s incredibly crowded when I traveled Kyoto and Osaka. Maybe the compulsion for neatness and tidiness is in the Japanese blood. Hey, I found this link(Japan, a strange country) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgsbIfI0uIg) about Japan somewhere in your blog.
This is also very true. I think this is why Taoism is such a win-win philosophy; you can enjoy failure and success the same.
That video was really interesting and well done. You found in on my blog? I don’t remember posting it at all.
The video link is found on a respondent’s blog, can’t remember which one.
I’ve noticed that similar thoughts have been lurking in the back of my mind for the last year or so. For someone who works in a creative industry, the client and/or upper management seem to have focused solely on the bottom line. I’m not sure why profit and creativity has to come at the cost of the other. Sometimes I’ll stop caring about the end result because I know for a fact that the client will change their mind, and that the mental effort and care that I invest will be wasted.
The only consolation is that for every rejected idea or concept that I come up with will be recycled into a personal future project. They’re just not smart enough to grasp it yet.
As a person in marketing, I completely understand that struggle between creativity and profitability in a business environment, and your attitude about it is great. I wish my thinking was naturally so optimistic.