Water

"Water is the softest and most yielding substance. Yet nothing is better than water, for overcoming the hard and rigid because nothing can compete with it." - Lao Tzu

Fun fact, it is debated whether or not Lao Tzu even existed, yet his work the Tao Te Ching is the second most translated work in the world. What an accomplishment for someone who may not have even existed. Now that we've gotten our fun fact for the day let's talk about water and how cool it is, the philosophy of wu wei in connection with water, and finally, what it means and an argument for being like water.

Water is a compound made from two hydrogen atoms stuck onto an oxygen atom in the shape of a Micky Mouse head. You have likely seen water referred to by its chemical formula H2O. Now, I'm not sure if this is just me, but I've heard water referred to as "hydrogen dioxide." Even after taking chemistry in tenth grade, I continued to believe this until one day, it hit me... Hydrogen Dioxide would have the chemical formula HO2 that's not water it's actually H2O2 which is commonly known as hydrogen peroxide, the stuff you put on your cuts if you're not cool enough to put rubbing alcohol on them. The action aural chemical name of water is Dihydrogen Monoxide. Moving away from the crisis that I had a few months ago, water is absolutely amazing. I mean all living things need it, it is one of the most common compounds on Earth and yet is one of the weirdest compounds known to man. There are many rules that have been written into Chemistry because water exists, what a terrific compound, who needs rules? Not water. Water is extremely powerful too, it makes canyons, it can exist in three states of matter, gas, liquid which makes up over 70% of the Earth, and Ice, and well... Have you ever seen a glacier? They're enormous, there was once an iceberg the size of Zimbabwe. I guess these days they're melting though... That's a damper, stupid global warming. That's some superficial cool stuff about water, let's move on to the less, factual stuff, also known as philosophy. Wu wei. From the philosophy of Taoism, wu wei roughly translates into non-action, effortless action, or action of non-action (that's not paradoxical at all). This philosophy speaks on water and being like water which is always flowing. The philosophy says the be way to move or to accomplish things is to flow. As stated previously the flow of water can carve canyons. There is also the famed flow state which is the peak of human performance. A state of complete focus which, through wu wei, can be attained by letting go. Rather than trying to focus and putting in a hard effort to focus, just let go, stop trying and just do, simply flow, like water.

To begin my argument of being like water, I bring Bruce Lee to the stage: "Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. Now, you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." As Bruce said, you should be like water. Being like water means you would be flexible, like water. When put into a situation you can fit into the situation, you become part of the situation. Water is helpful, water flows, and water is clear and calm. Water flows in rivers and when an obstacle is put into water it simply flows around the obstacle. When something is thrown into the water, it quickly returns to an immaculate state. If you attempt to block the flow of water completely it will somehow find a way to destroy or get around the obstacle. So, in the words of Bruce Lee, be like water, my friend.