The Wu Wei

About 9 years ago, when I began to study the work of Fritz Perls, namely gestalt psychotherapy, I discovered something called the Wu Wei - which changed my life. I was sifting through a book shop in the Blue Mountains in Australia, called Brian's Books - run by an old academic scholarly man, called, funnily enough Brian who spoke, hebrew, aramaic, greek and around 8 other ancient lanuguages and we used to talk for hours. He used to teach the classics at a Queensland University but had retired to look after his then deeply ill wife. He taught me the power of sitting still and quiet - lieing prone on my back with my knees in the air and the soles of my feet on the ground - its called semi supine in back talk - and said that if I did this for 30 minutes a day all my problems would be solved. I could not beleive what he was talking about. He said - try it! He also claimed to have invented a cure to the common cold - which he showed me, for which I am sworn to secrecy, less the drugs companies come knocking on my door with men in dark suits - suffice to say, I have not had many colds since - anyway, getting back to Wu Wei - its actually a chinese word - for which our translation is ''the fertile / silent void'' from which all creation comes - Being silent is often merciless painful and difficult for most people I ask about meditation and being quiet - why is that? and why is it so overlooked as part of life? In our insanely busy, doing packed lives - my sense is that many people simply do not have any more time, to just 'be' - no more tools, assists, processes, cultural norms, techniques to focus inwards and allow our souls to breathe. With the abolition of the sabbath - time and the pause is sacred nomore. In Eastern countries it is still common to spend a day per month in silence at the monastery - and monks still perform this function for the general populace - that of quiet surrender to the Wu Wei I guess - they appear to hold this space - their homes - the monasteries, quiet places of peaceful introspection and a chance to top up on the energy and nourishment which appears so lacking in everyday existence.