Wei Wu Wei (Terence James Stannus Gray ) - Best Quotes Selected by ZeRo eBook

 

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-Gaming Channel: ... Wei Wu Wei From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search For the Taoist tenet, see Wu wei. For other people named Terry Gray, see Terry Gray (disambiguation). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Wei Wu Wei" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Terence Gray Born	14 September 1895 Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, UK Died	5 January 1986 (aged 90) Monaco Pen name	Wei Wu Wei Occupation	Writer Nationality	British Genre	non-fiction Notable work	Open Secret Terence James Stannus Gray (14 September 1895 – 5 January 1986), was a theatre producer who created the Cambridge Festival Theatre as an experimental theatre in Cambridge. He produced over 100 plays there between 1926 and 1933.[1] Later in life, under the pen name Wei Wu Wei, he published several books on Taoist philosophy. Contents 1	Background 2	Cambridge Festival Theatre 3	Taoism 4	Works 5	Biography 6	References 7	External links Background Terence James Stannus Gray was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England on 14 September 1895, the son of Harold Stannus Gray and a member of a well-established Anglo-Irish family. He was raised on an estate in the Gog Magog Hills outside Cambridge, England. He received a thorough education at Ascham St Vincent's School, Eastbourne, Eton and Oxford University. Early in life he pursued an interest in Egyptology which culminated in the publication of two books on ancient Egyptian history and culture in 1923. In the later part of his life he lived with his second wife, the Georgian princess Natalie Margaret Imeretinsky, in Monaco. He had previously been married to a Russian noblewoman, Rimsky-Korsakov.[2] Gray maintained his family's racehorses in England and Ireland and in 1957 his horse Zarathustra won the Ascot Gold Cup, ridden by jockey Lester Piggott in the first of his eleven wins of that race. Cambridge Festival Theatre In the 1920s and 1930s Gray worked as a theorist, theatrical producer, creator of radical "dance-dramas", publisher of several related magazines and author of two related books. His cousin was Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet.[1] In 1926, Gray, with no previous practical theatrical experience, opened the Cambridge Festival Theatre as an experimental playhouse.[1] He acquired the old Theatre Royal in the Cambridge suburb of Barnwell, and substantially rebuilt it.[1] The opening production was Aeschylus' The Orestia, with de Valois as choreographer, and he continued to produce non-naturalistic productions, emphasising movement over speech.[1] Critics were divided, with some praising his achievements, and others saying he sacrificed text and acting to clever trickery. Gray delighted in upsetting audiences but, despite controversy, audiences filled the theatre.[1] Many of Gray's collaborators left the project over his inability to compromise.[1] By 1933 he had abandoned theatre for good.[3] Taoism After he had apparently exhausted his interest in the theatre, his thoughts turned towards philosophy and metaphysics. This led to a period of travel throughout Asia, including time spent at Ramana Maharshi's ashram in Tiruvannamalai, India.[citation needed] Between the years 1958 and 1974, eight books and articles in various periodicals appeared under the pseudonym "Wei Wu Wei" (Wu wei, a Taoist term which translates as "action that is non-action").[4] His identity as the author was not revealed at the time of publication for reasons he outlined in the Preface to the first book, Fingers Pointing Towards the Moon (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958). The next 16 years saw the appearance of seven subsequent books, including his final work under the further pseudonym "O.O.O." in 1974. Wei Wu Wei influenced among others, the British mathematician and author G. Spencer-Brown, Galen Sharp, and Ramesh Balsekar.[citation needed] Wei Wu Wei is discussed in some detail in the book Taoism for Dummies (John Wiley and Sons Canada, 2013). Works Fingers Pointing Towards The Moon; Reflections of a Pilgrim on the Way, 1958, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul (out of print); 2003, Boulder: Sentient Publications. Foreword by Ramesh Balsekar. ISBN 1-59181-010-8 Why Lazarus Laughed; The Essential Doctrine Zen-Advaita-Tantra, 1960, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (out of print); 2003, Boulder: Sentient Publications. ISBN 1-59181-011-6 Ask The Awakened; The Negative Way, 1963, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. (2nd ed. 1974)(out of print); 1973, Boston: Little, Brown & Co. ISBN 0-316-92810-0 (out of print); 2002, Boulder: Sentient Publications. Foreword by Galen Sharp. ISBN 0-9710786-4-5 All Else Is Bondage; Non-Volitional Living, 1964, Hong Kong University Press (reprinted 1970, 1982). ISBN 962-209-025-7 (out of print); 1999, Sunstar Publications. ISBN 1-886656-34-7 (out of print); 2004, Boulder: Sentient Publications. 1-59181-023-X Open Secret, 1965, Hong Kong University Press (reprinted 1970, 1982). ISBN 962-209-030-3 (out of print); 2004, Boulder: Sentient Publications. ISBN 1-59181-014-0 The Tenth Man, 1966, Hong Kong University Press (reprinted 1967, 1971). ISBN 0-85656-013-8 (out of print); 2003, Boulder: Sentient Publications. Foreword by Dr. Gregory Tucker. ISBN 1-59181-007-8 Posthumous Pieces, 1968, Hong Kong University Press. Foreword by Wayne Liquorman. ISBN 0-85656-027-8 (out of print); 2004, Boulder: Sentient Publications. ISBN 1-59181-015-9 Unworldly Wise; As the Owl Remarked to the Rabbit, 1974, Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 0-85656-103-7 (out of print) (Note: this book published under the further pseudonym 'O.O.O.'); 2004, Boulder: Sentient Publications. ISBN 1-59181-019-1 Biography A biography was published in 2004.[4] References Harbin, B (1969). "Terence Gray and the Cambridge Festival Theatre". Educational Theatre Journal. 21 (4): 1926–1933. Cosgrove, Olivia; Cox, Laurence; Kuhling, Carmen, eds. (2010). Ireland's New Religious Movements. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 62. ISBN 1443826154. Nicholson, Steve (2016). "'Nobody Was Ready for That: The Gross Impertinence of Terence Gray and the Degradation of Drama". Theatre Research International. 21 (2): 121–131. Cornwell, Paul (2004). Only by Failure: The Many Faces of the Impossible Life of Terence Gray. Salt Publishing. ISBN 1844710041. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to: Wei Wu Wei The 'Wei Wu Wei' Archives "The Spirit Works : Wei Wu Wei Biography" by Gregory Tucker Wei Wu Wei Book Excerpts Articles in French Authority control Edit this at Wikidata BNE: XX1744698BNF: cb12646048r (data)GND: 114374260ISNI: 0000 0000 8161 838X, 0000 0003 6850 2835LCCN: n50033515NTA: 067471382RERO: 02-A003963220SUDOC: 118581015VIAF: 87525658WorldCat Identities: lccn-n50033515 THE 'WEI WU WEI' ARCHIVES This site is intended as a resource for those interested in or curious about Buddhist/Taoist philosopher and essayist Wei Wu Wei. It includes extracts from eight books originally published between 1958 and 1974. It also contains essays published in various periodicals during the same period. The material is primarily metaphysical speculation, and is not representative of any particular sect or tradition, though it draws upon many. It is doubtful whether this site would be of use or interest to those seeking introductory material on Buddhism or Taoism. CONTENTS OF SITE: INTRODUCTION - background information and quoted passages regarding objectives. BITS AND PIECES - a selection of quotes from the works of 'Wei Wu Wei'. PUBLISHED WORKS - BOOKS - a list of all books with details of publication, contents and extensive extracts. PUBLISHED WORKS - PERIODICALS - links to pieces also published in various periodicals. CITED WORKS AND RELATED READING - a list of sources cited by 'Wei Wu Wei' and a selection of related works. LINKS - links to cited works on-line, related web-sites, book sources, etc. TRANSLATE: to translate any page into French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish, copy the page's URL and go to http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en http://www.weiwuwei.mysite.com/intro.htmlINTRODUCTION Between the years 1958 and 1974 a series of eight books appeared attributed to the mysterious 'Wei Wu Wei'. In addition to these texts there were pieces contributed to various periodicals during the 1960's, including 'The Mountain Path', a periodical dedicated to the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, 'The Middle Way', the U.K. Buddhist Society's journal, and 'Etre Libre', a French-language periodical published in Brussels. These works draw on a variety of sources, including Taoism, specifically the texts attributed to Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, Buddhism, especially The Heart, Diamond and Lankavatara Sutras, and Chan Buddhism as taught by Hui Neng, Huang Po, Hui Hai, etc., as well as the teachings of Padma Sambhava and Sri Ramana Maharshi, among others. The identity of 'Wei Wu Wei' was not revealed at the time of publication for reasons outlined in the Preface to the first book 'Fingers Pointing Towards the Moon' (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958). This well-considered anonymity will be respected here, though a few background details may help to put the writings into context. 'Wei Wu Wei' was born in 1895 into a well-established Irish family, was raised on an estate outside Cambridge, England, and received a thorough education, including studies at Oxford University. Early in life he pursued an interest in Egyptology which culminated in the publication of two books on ancient Egyptian history and culture in 1923. This was followed by a period of involvement in the arts in Britain in the 20's and 30's as a theorist, theatrical producer, creator of radical 'dance-dramas', publisher of several related magazines and author of two related books. He was a major influence on many noted dramatists, poets and dancers of the day, including his cousin Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet (which in fact had its origin's in his own dance troupe at the Cambridge Festival Theatre which he leased from 1926-33). After he had apparently exhausted his interest in this field to a large extent, his thoughts turned towards philosophy and metaphysics. This led to a period of travel throughout Asia, including time spent at Sri Ramana Maharshi's ashram in Tiruvannamalai, India. In 1958, at the age of 63, he saw the first of the 'Wei Wu Wei' titles published. The next 16 years saw the appearance of seven subsequent books, including his final work under the further pseudonym 'O.O.O.' in 1974. During most of this later period he maintained a residence with his wife in Monaco. He is believed to have known, among others, Lama Anagarika Govinda, Dr. Hubert Benoit, John Blofeld, Douglas Harding, Robert Linssen, Arthur Osborne, Robert Powell and Dr. D. T. Suzuki. He died in 1986 at the age of 90. 'Wei Wu Wei's influence, while never widespread, has been profound upon many of those who knew him personally, upon those with whom he corresponded, among them British mathematician and author G. Spencer-Brown and Galen Sharp (see 'Links'), as well as upon many who have read his works, including Ramesh Balsekar, whose account of this influence may be read here. It is apparent from his writings that 'Wei Wu Wei' had studied in some depth both Eastern and Western philosophy and metaphysics, as well as the more esoteric teachings of all the great religions. It can also be understood from the writings that he regarded himself as merely one of many seeking so-called 'liberation', the works themselves being seen in part as a record of this quest. The attitude adopted towards the writings is perhaps best indicated by the following quote from an introductory note to 'Open Secret' (Hong Kong University Press, 1965). 'The writer of these lines has nothing whatsoever to teach anyone; his words are just his contribution to our common discussion of what must inevitably be for us the most important subject which could be discussed by sentient beings.' A more comprehensive 'statement of intent' is found in the Foreword to 'All Else Is Bondage; Non-Volitional Living' (Hong Kong University Press, 1964 and Sunstar Publications, 1999). 'There seems never to have been a time at which sentient beings have not escaped from the dungeon of individuality. In the East liberation was elaborated into a fine art, but it may be doubted whether more people made their escape from solitary confinement outside the organised religions than by means of them. In the West reintegration was sporadic, but in recent years it has become a widespread preoccupation. Unfortunately its technical dependence on oriental literature - sometimes translated by scholars whose knowledge of the language was greater than their understanding of the subject - has proved a barrier which rendered full comprehension laborious and exceedingly long. Therefore it appears to be essential that such teaching as may be transmissible shall be given in a modern idiom and in accordance with our own processes of thought. But this presentation can never be given by the discursive method to which we are used for the acquisition of conceptual knowledge, for the understanding required is not conceptual and therefore is not knowledge. This may account for the extraordinary popularity of such works as the Tao Te Ching, and in a lesser degree for that of the Diamond and Heart Sutras and Padma Sambhava's Knowing the Mind. For despite the accretion of superfluous verbiage in which the essential doctrine of some of the latter has become embedded, their direct pointing at the truth, instead of explaining it, goes straight to the heart of the matter and allows the mind itself to develop its own vision. An elaborately developed thesis must always defeat its own end where this subject matter is concerned, for only indication could produce this understanding, which requires an intuitional faculty, and it could never be acquired wholesale from without. It may be doubted, however, whether an entirely modern presentation of oriental or perennial metaphysics would be followed or accepted as trustworthy at present. Probably an intermediate stage is necessary, during which the method should be a presentation in modern idiom supported by the authority of the great Masters, with whose thoughts and technical terms most interested people are at least generally familiar. Moreover the question is bedevilled by the use, which has become a convention, of terms, mostly of Sanskrit origin, the colloquial sense of which, accepted by the early translators, is still employed. Often this sense is considerably different from the technical meaning given these terms in the Chinese texts, and it occasionally implies almost exactly the opposite. These misleading terms are still used, which is a matter of no importance to those few who understand to what they refer, and for whom any word whatsoever would suffice, but are a serious hindrance to the pilgrim struggling to understand. The inadequacy of the short paragraphs that follow is due to the insufficiency of their expression. They are offered in the hope that the verity which underlies them may penetrate the mist of their presentation and kindle a spark that shall develop into the flame of fulfilment. Please be so good as to believe that there is nothing whatever mysterious about this matter. If it were easy, should we not all be Buddhas? No doubt, but the apparent difficulty is due to our conditioning. The apparent mystery, on the other hand, is just obnubilation, an inability to perceive the obvious owing to a conditioned reflex which causes us persistently to look in the wrong direction!' W.W.W. (1964) From 'Fingers Pointing Towards The Moon': It is less what one is that should matter, than what one is not. * * * The qualities we possess should never be a matter for satisfaction, but the qualities we have discarded. * * * It is not for us to search but to remain still, to achieve Immobility not Action. * * * There is no becoming. ALL IS. * * * The Saint is a man who disciplines his ego. The Sage is a man who rids himself of his ego. * * * It is only the artificial ego that suffers. The man who has transcended his false 'me' no longer identifies with his suffering. * * * We ourselves are not an illusory part of Reality; rather are we Reality itself illusorily conceived. * * * Are we not wasps who spend all day in a fruitless attempt to traverse a window-pane - while the other half of the window is wide open? * * * Detachment is a state, it is not a totalisation of achieved indifferences. * * * The notion that human life has greater value than any other form of life is both unjustifiable and arrogant. * * * Wise men don't judge: they seek to understand. * * * How many of the ways (disciplines, exercises, practices) recommended as helpful, or even necessary, for the attainment of Satori are not in fact consequences of that state erroneously suggested as means? * * * There seem to two kinds of searchers: those who seek to make their ego something other than it is, i.e. holy, happy, unselfish (as though you could make a fish unfish), and those who understand that all such attempts are just gesticulation and play-acting, that there is only one thing that can be done, which is to disidentify themselves with the ego, by realising its unreality, and by becoming aware of their eternal identity with pure being. Click here for more from this book. * * * * * From 'Why Lazarus Laughed': Living should be perpetual and universal benediction. * * * Doctrines, scriptures, sutras, essays, are not to be regarded as systems to be followed. They merely contribute to understanding. They should be for us a source of stimulation, and nothing more... Adopted, rather than used as a stimulus, they are a hindrance. * * * Of the many earnest, and how earnest, people we may observe reading, attending lectures, studying and practising disciplines, devoting their energies to the attainment of a liberation which is by definition unattainable, how many are not striving via the ego-concept which is itself the only barrier between what they think they are and that which they wish to become but always have been and always will be? * * * Play your part in the comedy, but don't identify yourself with your role! * * * On the phenomenal plane we seek pleasure and the avoidance of pain. On the noumenal plane we know the absence of both - which is Bliss. * * * When you give a shilling to a beggar - do you realise that you are giving it to yourself? When you help a lame dog over a stile - do you realise that you yourself are being helped? When you kick a man when he is down - do you realise that you are kicking yourself? Give him another kick - if you deserve it! * * * Reality alone exists - and that we are. All the rest is only a dream, a dream of the One Mind, which is our mind without the 'our'. Is it so hard to accept? Is it so difficult to assimilate and to live? * * * Even the intellectual understanding of the inexistence of our 'selves' is a rare and bitter attainment which few even attempt. And that is only the elimination round which qualifies us for access to Reality... Intellectual understanding should be not indispensable to a 'simple' mind, but, with our conditioning, it would seem to be an almost inevitable preliminary. * * * Past and Future are a duality of which Present is the reality. The now-moment alone is eternal and real. * * * Spontaneity is being present in the present. Spontaneity by-passes the processes of the conceptual (aspect of) mind. Reintegration with Nature, which we are, is the recovery of spontaneity. * * * What we know as 'life' is the analytical realisation in the seriality of time of our eternal reality. * * * We have only to eliminate the ego-notion by succeeding in the difficult task of understanding that it does not exist except as a notion. Click here for more from this book. * * * * * From 'Ask The Awakened': Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 per cent Of everything you think, And of everything you do, Is for yourself - And there isn't one. * * * What is your trouble? Mistaken identity. * * * Truth is that which lies in a dimension beyond the reach of thought. Whole-mind has no 'thoughts', thoughts are split-mind. * * * Realisation is a matter of becoming conscious of that which is already realised. * * * A man who is seeking for realisation is not only going round searching for his spectacles without realising that they are on his nose all the time, but also were he not actually looking through them he would not be able to see what he is looking for! * * * It is necessary to understand that I Am, In order that I may know that I Am Not, So that, at last, I may realise that, I Am Not, therefore I Am. * * * We do not possess an 'ego'. We are possessed by the idea of one. * * * All the evil in the world, and all the unhappiness, comes from the I-concept. * * * This 'real' nature with whose revelation the Chan Masters are primarily concerned, or the Atman-'I' of the Vedantists, is not the far-off, unreachable will-o'-the-wisp we are apt to imagine, but just the within of which we know the without. It is just the other side of the medal, and it lies wherever our senses and our intellect cease to function. * * * The only real service we can render to that which we perceive and interpret in phenomenal existence as 'others' is by awakening to universal consciousness ourselves. * * * The Void is not of the nature of a black abyss or a bottomless pit. Rather is its nature 'vast and expansive like space itself'. It is apprehended as 'serene, marvellous, all-pure, brilliant and all-inclusive'. Above all does it partake of the nature of light. And it is not anything. For Void is Mind Itself, and Mind Itself is Void. * * * One must know that one is not in order to be able to understand that we are. * * * A myriad bubbles were floating on the surface of a stream. 'What are you?' I cried to them as they drifted by. 'I am a bubble, of course' nearly a myriad bubbles answered, and there was surprise and indignation in their voices as they passed. But, here and there, a lonely bubble answered, 'We are this stream', and there was neither surprise nor indignation in their voices, but just a quiet certitude. * * * Go to the Awakened Masters - and leave all your baggage behind. Click here for more from this book. * * * * * From 'All Else is Bondage; Non-Volitional Living': TAO The Doctrine is the doctrine of non-doctrine, The Practice is the practice of non-practice, The Method is meditation by non-meditation, And Cultivation which is cultivation by non-cultivation. This is the Mind of non-mind, which is wu hsin, The Thought of non-thought, which is wu nien, The Action of non-action, which is wu wei, The Presence of the absence of volition, Which is Tao. * * * The seeing of Truth cannot be dualistic (a 'thing' seen). It cannot be seen by a see-er, or via a see-er. There can only be a seeing which itself is Truth. * * * There is no mystery whatever - only inability to perceive the obvious. * * * THIS which is seeking is THAT which is sought, and THAT which is sought is THIS which is seeking. * * * As long as we are identified with an object: that is bondage. As long as we think, act, live via an object, or as an object: that is bondage. As long as we feel ourselves to be an object, or think we are such (and a 'self' is an object): that is bondage. * * * The purest doctrines, such as those of Ramana Maharshi, Padma Sambhava, Huang Po and Shen Hui, just teach that it is sufficient by analysis to comprehend that there is no entity which could have effective volition, that an apparent act of volition when in accord with the inevitable can only be a vain gesture and, when in discord, the fluttering of a caged bird against the bars of his cage. When he knows that, then at last he has peace and is glad. Non-volitional living is glad living. * * * Let us live gladly! Quite certainly we are free to do it. Perhaps it is our only freedom, but ours it is, and it is only phenomenally a freedom. 'Living free' is being 'as one is'. Can we not do it now? Indeed can we not-do-it? It is not even a 'doing': it is beyond doing and not-doing. It is being as-we-are. This is the only 'practice'. Click here for more from this book. * * * * * From 'Open Secret': Are you still thinking, looking, living, as from an imaginary phenomenal centre? As long as you do that you can never recognise your freedom. * * * What do you have to do? Pack your bags, Go to the station without them, Catch the train, And leave your self behind. * * * We are required to cease looking at objects as events apart from ourselves, And to know them at their source - which is our perceiving of them. * * * The practice of meditation is represented by the three monkeys, who cover their eyes, ears and mouths so as to avoid the phenomenal world. The practice of non-meditation is ceasing to be the see-er, hearer or speaker while eyes, ears and mouths are fulfilling their function in daily life. * * * The identified man takes part: the unidentified looks on! * * * What is non-objective relation? Wherever there are others there is a self, Wherever there are no others there can be no self, Wherever there is no self there are no others, Because in the absence of self I am all others. That is non-objective relation. Click here for more from this book. * * * * * From 'The Tenth Man': I have only one object in writing books: to demonstrate that there could not be anyone to do it. * * * What we appear to be is a fleeting shadow, a distorted and fragmentary reflection of what we all are when we no longer assume that we are that phenomenal appearance. * * * It is only with total humility, and in absolute stillness of mind that we can know what indeed we are. * * * Humility, metaphysically, implies the absence of any entity to be either 'proud' or 'humble'. * * * Everything cognised is just what is called 'mind', And what is called 'mind' is just the cognising of everything. * * * Fear, desire, affectivity are manifestations of the pseudo-entity which constitutes pseudo-bondage. It is the entity, rather than the manifestations thereof, which has to be eliminated. * * * As long as there is a 'you' doing or not-doing, thinking or not-thinking, 'meditating' or 'not-meditating' you are no closer to home than the day you were born. * * * Having found no self that is not other, The seeker must find that there is no other that is not self, So that in the absence of both other and self, There may be known the perfect peace, Of the presence of absolute absence. Click here for more from this book. * * * * * From 'Posthumous Pieces': If we clearly apperceive the difference Between direct apprehension in Whole-mind And relative comprehension by reasoning In mind divided into subject-and-object, All the apparent mysteries will disappear. For that will be found to be the key Which unlocks the doors of incomprehension. * * * 'Sudden Enlightenment' means precisely the immediate apperception of all that in fact we are. 'Enlightenment' is 'sudden' only because it is not in 'time' (subject to sequential duration). It is reintegration in intemporality. * * * The seeker is the found, the found is the seeker - as soon as it is apperceived that there is no time. * * * The Buddha forbore to specify: as long as there is any 'one' to suffer - he will. * * * Whoever thinks as, from, or on behalf of, an entity which he believes himself to be, the more so if he tries to work on himself, by, with, or for such an entity - which is only a concept in mind - has not yet begun to understand what it is all about. * * * In order to be effective truth must penetrate like an arrow - and that is likely to hurt. * * * Affective fixation on the personality of a master, teacher, guru, is a serious obstacle to 'liberation': the person of the liberator becomes the gaoler ... The Chinese Masters told their monks to kill the Buddha if by chance they met him. * * * Destroy 'the ego', hound it, beat it, snub it, tell it where it gets off? Great fun, no doubt, but where is it? Must you not find it first? Isn't there a word about catching your goose before you can cook it? The great difficulty here is that there isn't one. * * * 'Nearer my tail to thee', the kitten remarked - as with a final desperate leap she overreached herself and fell head-over-heels into the pond. Wei Wu Wei was born Terrence Gray in 1895. He came from a aristocratic Irish family, grew up near Cambridge, England, and studied at Oxford University. During the First World War, he served as an ambulance driver. He travelled to Egypt to study the ancient pharoahs, and produced experimental theater and theater magazines in England. He quit theater to manage a vineyard in France, race horses, and marry a Russian princess. He died in 1986. Despite this priviledged and fantastic life, and like many European intellectuals of his generation, he became a seeker. He could afford to travel, and he met Ramana Maharshi, Anagarika Govinda, Hubert Benoit, John Blofeld, Douglas Harding, Paul Brunton, Robert Linssen, Arthur Osborne, Shunyata, and D. T. Suzuki. “We have a basic conditioning, probably in some form of Christian religion, of which little remains today but its ethical content, or in one of the modern psychologies, that of Freud, Adler, or Jung, or in some scientific discipline, all of which are fundamentally and implacably dualist. Then the [seeking] urge manifests, and we start reading. Every time we happen on a statement or sentiment that fits in with our conditioned notions we adopt it, perhaps with enthusiasm, at the same time ignoring, as though they did not exist, the statements or sentiments which either we did not like or did not understand. And every time we re-read the Masters or the sutras we seize upon further chosen morsels, as our own jig-saw puzzle builds up within us, until we have a personal patchwork that corresponds with nothing on Earth that could matter in the least. Not in a thousand million kalpas could such a process produce the essential understanding that the urge is obliging us to seek.” from Ask The Awakened, 1963 In 1958 he published Fingers Pointing Towards The Moon under the pen name, Wei Wu Wei. The paradoxical pen name comes from a Taoist classic, the Tao Te Ching. “The highest attainment is non-action (wei wu) and action (wei).” He wrote in the Preface that he used it to emphasize the personal unimportance of the writer. grey Harding LinssenOver the next 16 years he wrote seven more books, and they are available here, in our SHOP. The books draw on a wide range of Advaita, Taoist and Zen sages, as well as the language of German Idealism. The Open Secret was written in 1965 and includes a substantive interpretation of the Buddhist Heart Sutra. Ramesh Balsekar remembers the powerful impression it made while he was still working at the Bank of India this way, “I cannot describe the innumerable intellectual frustrations I went through between Nisargadatta Maharaj and Wei Wu Wei… as I realized some time later it was to bring about a sudden awakening in this body-mind mechanism called Ramesh.” “It is less what one is that should matter, than what one is not. To acquire knowledge should not be our first aim, but rather to rid ourselves of ignorance – which is false-knowledge. The qualities we possess should never be a matter for satisfaction, but the qualities we have discarded.” from Fingers Pointing Towards The Moon, 1958 Wayne Liquorman wrote, “I love Wei Wu Wei. In an age when Enlightenment is being crudely packaged and sold like toothpaste, Wei Wu Wei demonstrates that deft touch which is so essential when dealing with the absurdity of trying to express the inexpressible.” “Disputation and discussion are both futile. Why is that? Because nothing either party could say could possibly be true, And whereas dispute picks out the false, Which is too easy to see, Discussion seeks the truth which is being pointed at, Which is too difficult to describe.” from Posthumous Pieces, 1968