Trying Not to Try: The Ancient Chinese Art and Modern Science of Spontaneity
Written by Edward Slingerland
Narrated by Marc Cashman
4/5
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About this audiobook
A deeply original exploration of the power of spontaneity-an ancient Chinese ideal that cognitive scientists are only now beginning to understand-and why it is so essential to our well-being
Why is it always hard to fall asleep the night before an important meeting? Or be charming and relaxed on a first date? What is it about a politician who seems wooden or a comedian whose jokes fall flat or an athlete who chokes? In all of these cases, striving seems to backfire.
In Trying Not To Try, Edward Slingerland explains why we find spontaneity so elusive, and shows how early Chinese thought points the way to happier, more authentic lives. We've long been told that the way to achieve our goals is through careful reasoning and conscious effort. But recent research suggests that many aspects of a satisfying life, like happiness and spontaneity, are best pursued indirectly. The early Chinese philosophers knew this, and they wrote extensively about an effortless way of being in the world, which they called wu-wei (ooo-way). They believed it was the source of all success in life, and they developed various strategies for getting it and hanging on to it.
With clarity and wit, Slingerland introduces us to these thinkers and the marvelous characters in their texts, from the butcher whose blade glides effortlessly through an ox to the wood carver who sees his sculpture simply emerge from a solid block. Slingerland uncovers a direct line from wu-wei to the Force in Star Wars, explains why wu-wei is more powerful than flow, and tells us what it all means for getting a date. He also shows how new research reveals what's happening in the brain when we're in a state of wu-wei-why it makes us happy and effective and trustworthy, and how it might have even made civilization possible.
Through stories of mythical creatures and drunken cart riders, jazz musicians and Japanese motorcycle gangs, Slingerland effortlessly blends Eastern thought and cutting-edge science to show us how we can live more fulfilling lives. Trying Not To Try is mind-expanding and deeply pleasurable, the perfect antidote to our striving modern culture.
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Reviews for Trying Not to Try
48 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent... although it's not discussed by Slingerland, it actually tied into my understanding of Ezra Pound's use of of wu wei in some of his early poetry, in opposition to his more Confucionist tendencies. I read it at a time when I was loosening up--enjoying myself, letting go of control and expectations, while I was living in Florida and experimenting with new kinds of writing. I will return to the book with a certain romance, to be sure.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The best job you will ever have is the one where you don't feel like you go to work every day. Achieving this type of employment is much like trying to live an effortless life that fulfills all of your needs and desires, even the ones you didn't know existed. This type of life, achieved through reaching wu-wei ("...dynamic, effortless, and unselfconscious state of mind..." pg 7), and the de ("...charismatic power..." pg 8) that it ultimately produces is what Edward Slingerland successfully explains and demonstrates using early Chinese philosophy and modern science. The simpler a thing appears to be, the more complex it is to actually produce. This could have easily been a difficult-to-understand, confusing book, but Slingerland explains everything in a way that will make the reader believe that Trying Not to Try is achievable. This is an excellent book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I casually ordered this book because I had read an article in Nautilus magazine of Butcher Ding and his effortless and unselfconscious way with a meat cleaver, having dispatch an ox smoothly and efficiently for the emperor. I thought this was an eastern spin on the idea of flow, a concept that Mikaly Csikszentmihalyi established in western psychology literature. While Csikszentmihalyi approached it from a strictly western way, using neurosciences and psychology to try to teach how to get flow in all that we do, Slingerland took a decidedly eastern route, and I found his approach completely satisfying and indeed, I found it inspirational. Slingerland is a professor of Asian Studies in the University of British Columbia, it is not surprising that he would take the Asian route. He is in fact a very astute scholar and teacher. Slingerland tells a great story, with a scholarship and attention to detail that is rare to find these days, especially given the immediate gratification oriented ethos of our culture. He does, however, have a sometimes unfortunate and sometimes welcomed quirky propensity to use slang terms in certain portions of his explanation. It was sometimes distracting, yet also is a sometimes welcomed digression. The book is broken up into eight chapters, each of the first two chapters set the stage for explaining flow, or wu wei as well as de. The next four chapters explains how each of the major Chinese school of thoughts, divided between the Confucian and Daoist schools. We are introduced to Confucius, Mencius of the Confucian school; with Laozhi Zhuangzhi presenting the Daoist schools. If this sounds kind of long and boring, be warned, it isn't. Slingerland has a wealth of understnading of Chinese religious and philosophical schools. More importantly, he is quite at ease explaining these convoluted and coupled approaches to the idea of wu wei. In fact, it is almost as if he was demonstrating how to work in a wu wei manner while explaining the wu wei concept. The last two chapters explains the contradictions embodied by wu wei and finally, what do we do with the concept and how do we can attempt to reach a state of wu wei ourselves. The entire idea with wu wei is very strange, or shuen, in Chinese. Slingerland was able to encircle the vast amount of tendrils that makes up the idea, sort and separate each one, and present the essence without making it dumbed down or diminished. It is, in fact a bravura performance and fascinating. In a way, as a Chinese person, I felt almost ashamed that it took a Canadian academic to show me the essential philosophy of my culture. But that shame went away quickly, as my joy of having finally understood the idea made me overlook the discretion.Another fortunate characteristic of this book is that it does not promise a quick and easy formula, something most popularizing books try to accomplish. There is a belief that what the reader is looking for is not a deep understanding but a quick application. In this case the loss that would have been incurred on the body of knowledge would have been too great and take away from the richness of the history and philosophy. What Slingerland did was to be quite Confucian: carving and polishing the topic for us.But this is not just an exercise in aimless pedagogy. The idea is to draw parallels between Asian history and philosophy with the latest in neuro science and mind research. I feel that goals was also met successfully. Slingerland pulls ideas from Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow, Mikaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow, as well as many other western research in mind psychology to round out an excellent presentation of wu wei.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We live in a chaotic, hectic world. The ancient Chinese philosophical concept, wu-wei (ooo- way), preaches mindfulness and spontaneity. How do these two mesh? Trying Not to Try is the synthesis of the aforementioned concepts. Edward Slingerland uses a combination of well-documented Chinese history and philosophy and modern science, illustrating how to have a happier, mindful and fulfilling live, living spontaneously despite the chaos of modernity.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm seriously impressed by this book. Edward Slingerland does a phenomenal job at presenting rather complex ancient Chinese philosophical ideas in a modern way. This book is really insightful, but more importantly it's funny and relatable. I'll admit there were times where some of the ideas were so abstract and over my head, but Slingerland does a great job at tying abstract, initially hard-to-grasp concepts together with relatable, modern day examples. I never realized the importance of spontaneity before reading this book. At first, it was really hard for me to grasp the initial concept, but by the end of the book I was enlightened to say the least.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is an excellent book in presenting the major threads of Chinese thought and religion in an understandable way. The concept of Wu-wei and its illusive nature were enlightening. Because it's inherently impossible, the book is not a "how to" book but rather a presentation of possible approaches in any given situation which is sometimes frustrating.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity" by Edward Slingerland attempts to explain why we struggle to find happiness in our lives and it may be related to our lack of spontaneity. Using early Chinese philosophy, Slingerland uses examples like jazz musicians and motorcycle gangs to make a case for this. It's definitely more of an academic book than I was expecting and you'd have to dig deep to find applications to your own life, but it was still an interesting read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I struggled a bit to get through this book. I found it more academic than I was expecting and I believe I was expecting something a bit different based on the word spontaneity in the title. While the discussion was interesting at times, it was also difficult to follow because I do not have a background in any of the subjects discussed. I was frustrated that the discussion also seemed to go in circles however that is understandable considering the nature of the Chinese texts under consideration.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book takes a look at the psychology that makes Ancient Chinese philosophies work. It made me think a lot about how to find the balance between too much effort and not enough effort so that I can relax and be successful. The authors writing style was also humorous with some of the modern examples that he used, which made it an enjoyable read as well.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Humankind has been on a neverending quest to enhance performance with the ultimate goal being flawless execution coupled with no obvious effort. So how does one go about striving without appearing to? Author Edward Slingerland looks to his field of expertise, ancient Chinese philosophies, to answer just that question.To make a fast and dirty summary - early schools of Chinese thought can be divided into two main camps. Confucianism, which concerns itself with highly ritualized and precise thought and action. Training and discipline is paramount; the belief is to so ingrain every detail that correct and perfect behavior is automatic and thereby effortless. In contrast is Daoist thought, where the idea is to go with the Flow. Flow is understood as unadulaterated Nature being innately good and that artifical constructs pervert it. Removing these constructs causes things to fall into place as they should be and perfection is achieved.Slingerland does an excellent job of explaining these philosophies and all the offshoots thereof. In some ways he explains it a bit too well and I began to suspect that this book evolved from a dissertation. A little research and my suspicion was confirmed. Frequently a book coming from that venue has a distinct 'academic paper' feel to it and this book is no exception. I will say that Slingerland's attempts to make this book more layperson accessible are far better than many I have read (I imagine he is a very interesting, informative and, dare I say, entertaining, professor). That said, the subject matter is difficult - the Eastern mind operates on a different level than the Western one - and the concepts can take some work to grasp and assimilate. I found the going to be slow on several chapters. Until I reached the final one - Learning from Wu-Wei. In short, this chapter is brilliant and beautifully done. All the ideas from the previous chapters are combined and applied with impressive result. For me personally, I found the application of the ideas to conservative/liberal political thought most enlightening. I would come very close to saying just read the final chapter and skip the rest but what comes before does deepen and enhance understanding (just don't expect it to be an easy go). Recommended (but with reservations).
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The thing about ancient Chinese philosophy is, it's ancient. As relevant as the core teachings might still be, the original context and many of the metaphors suffer from such an enormous time gap that many modern-day folks (myself included) simply can't relate, and therefore miss the message. These days one typically isn't faced with dilemmas such as how to most elegantly butcher an ox for ceremonial offering, or what to do with a crop of comically oversized gourds.And from a Western point of view, the other thing about ancient Chinese philosophy is, it's Chinese. That is to say, it's incredibly foreign. Many Westerners (myself included) sometimes struggle to understand even modern Chinese culture, simply because Western and Chinese cultures differ so greatly. The two take radically different approaches even to something as fundamental as language: non-tonal pronunciation versus tonal, a phonetic alphabet versus a complex logography, etc.These represent two considerable hurdles for the modern Westerner interested in ancient Chinese philosophy. However, Edward Slingerland overcomes both of these hurdles seemingly with ease in his book Trying Not to Try. With an extraordinary understanding of ancient China and its great thinkers, Slingerland excels at "modernizing" their teachings — explaining the original meaning and context in ways that instantly click. He then goes one step further, backing up these ancient teachings using examples from modern science, focusing on fascinating topics such as charisma (bombing an interview versus nailing it), high-level performance (being "in the zone" versus choking), happiness (why trying to be happy usually fails), and many others. Slingerland's fluid and engaging writing style held my attention all the way through, and even though I'm not particularly interested in philosophy or ancient China, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slingerland explores Asian thought and contemporary science in an attempt to see how spontaneity can improve our lives. Asian thought shows that it can. Contemporary science shows it can. Now, on to share these ideas with the modern world. And that is this book. Edward Slingerland is a professor of Asian Studies, but do not set this book back on the bookstore shelf because of that; Slingerland is knowledgeable but he also is readable. (Whew!)I thought I knew a lot about Confucius and Zhuangzi and Wu-Wei, but, it turns out, I really knew only a tiny bit. And I love the idea of spontaneity and I certainly want to be happier.What did I take away from this book? Here’s a nice summary: “You can carve and polish: subject yourself to rigorous, long-term training designed to eventually instill the right dispositions. You can embrace simplicity: actively reject the pursuit of goals, in the hope that the goals will then be obtained by themselves. You can cultivate your sprouts: try to identify incipient tendencies of desirable behavior within you, and then nurture and expand them until they are strong enough to take over. Or you can just go with the flow: forget about trying, forget about not trying, and just let the values that you want to embrace pick you up and carry you along.”I’m happy I read this first over spring break. The ideas I took away from the book worked nicely into each relaxing day. Now let’s see if I can work these into my life when I return to work.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The essence of the great Chinese philosophers is their approach, as opposed to their theories. Edward Slingerland looks at the four biggest of them in an attempt to show us how two ways of being, wu-wei (“oo-way”) and de (“duh”) define the difference between success and failure, east and west, and satisfaction and frustration.Wu-wei is an approach. It can mean going with the flow, internalizing some process so you can do it without any conscious thought, or suppressing all outside irrelevance to focus unconsciously on what is before you. This is the approach to, in Slingerland’s best example, a baseball pitcher who used to throw strikeouts without a thought, struggling to stay in the game when he thought about what he was doing. The more he tried to refine his actions, the worse the outcome. Another example would be tightrope walking. You don’t want to look down. Better blindfolded than looking down.De is a state. It is commanding presence. When you exude the non-arrogant confidence of someone who knows, people respect you and flock to you. You get the girl, the job, the meeting – whatever. It just comes to those with de. Noam Chomsky has de. Gerald Ford did not.The essence of both wu-wei and de, is being as far away from striving to achieve them as possible. So Trying Not To Try examines how different Chinese philosophers backed off from them in order to achieve them. Retreat to advance.Slingerland, who lives and breathes Eastern culture and philosophy, takes us on an expert guided tour, edited so we get the essence of each philosopher’s approach. They are Confucius, Laozi, Mencius and Zhuangzi. Confucius is the most neurotic of them, insisting on ceremony, ritual, tradition and caution. The others take him as their starting point and go off in their own directions.There is no magic solution to achieving these two Ways. The key word throughout is try. Slingerland has done a fine job of instilling the virtues of them in an easy-reading, entertaining little book.David Wineberg