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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with environmentalist and theologian Martin Palmer.

Daoism – Finding the balance

A key idea of Daoism, the ancient traditional belief of China, is wu wei. It means actionless action. It is about being, and through the nature of being, making things change but without forcing that change. The word Dao means Way, a Divine, universal Way. If we can be quiet long enough we can hear and see Nature guiding us. For example how a river will slowly yet surely wear away a giant rock that falls into it. Through this Daoism has been able to work with nature rather than against it for millennia.

The Daoists are one of the major groups working to stop the illegal wildlife trade that threatens to wipe out species such as tigers and pangolins. First of all they point out that real Traditional Chinese Medicine never used animals just plants and then they set up nurseries to grow organic herbal medicine plants. They have also created eco-towns where the balance between human needs and those of the rest of nature can be ensured. In other words, they have created the Way of Life, the Dao of Life that enables all of life to find a space to live within.

This is captured in this reflective prayer from chapter 11 of Daoism’s key text the Dao de Jing:

Thirty spokes on a wheel
Go towards the hub that is the centre
But look, there is nothing in the centre and that is precisely why it works! It you mould a cup, you have to make a hollow: it is the emptiness within that makes it useful.
In a house or room, it is the empty spaces – the doors, the windows - that make it usable. They all use what they are made of to do what they do but without their nothingness they would be nothing.

Chapter 11 Dao de Jing