The Seba library treats Wu Wei in 7 passages, across 7 authors (including Watts, Alan, Tozzi, Chiara, Bly, Robert).
The Tao is accessible only to the mind which can practice the simple and subtle art of wu-wei, which, after the Tao, is the second important principle of Taoism.
Watts establishes wu wei as Taoism's second cardinal principle, defining it as the mind's capacity to operate spontaneously by trusting itself rather than clutching at reality through conscious abstraction.
, The Way of Zen, 1957thesis
Jung studied and commented on the Chinese alchemical text The Secret of the Golden Flower, he discovered that this has an equivalent in the Chinese language: wu wei. It's a type of active passivity: active in that it is a choice made by the awake subject (the ego); passive in that it means 'do nothing, wait'.
Tozzi identifies wu wei as Jung's primary technical reference for the ego-attitude required in active imagination, framing it as a paradoxical 'active passivity' structurally equivalent to Geschehenlassen.
, Active Imagination in Theory, Practice and Training, 2017thesis
The Taoists would probably say that changing your way of life means giving up having an effect upon the world. It involves 'wu-wei,' not playing any role. Wu-wei is also translated as doing nothing.
Bly interprets wu wei through the lens of shadow work, arguing that authentic psychological change requires relinquishing social role and worldly efficacy in the manner the Taoists prescribe.
, A Little Book on the Human Shadow, 1988supporting
wuwei (avoid/no purposeful action), 80, 228n8, 242, 257, 265n6, 298n7, 326, 355, 448, 452
Wang Bi's I Ching commentary establishes wuwei as a recurrent technical term glossed as avoidance of purposeful action, documenting its systematic role throughout classical Chinese interpretive tradition.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994supporting
He who wishes to be still must calm his energies; he who wishes to be spiritual must compose his mind; he who in his actions wishes to hit the mark must go along with what he cannot help doing. Those things that you cannot help doing — they represent the Way of the sage.
The Zhuangzi articulates the operative logic underlying wu wei — that sagely action arises from aligning with what is necessitated rather than from volitional imposition — providing the philosophical substratum for depth-psychological appropriations of the concept.
, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi, 2013supporting
He whose actions are in harmony with Tao becomes one with Tao. Therefore the perfected sage liberates himself from the opposites, having seen through their connection with one another and their alternation.
Jung's Psychological Types draws on Taoist sources to frame non-oppositional action — the attitudinal ground of wu wei — as the hallmark of the individuated sage who transcends the tension of opposites.
, Psychological Types, 1921supporting
Somehow the Taoist sages discovered how to develop the mind without losing touch with the soul.
Campbell's account of Taoism gestures toward the contemplative disposition that enables wu wei without naming the concept, locating it within the tradition's broader nurturance of the Divine Feminine and the ground of being.
, Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine, 2013aside