Wei Wu Wei
Encyclopedia
Terence James Stannus Gray (14 September 1895 – 5 January 1986), better known by the pen name
Wei Wu Wei, was a 20th century Taoist philosopher and writer
.
, a Taoist term which translates as action that is non-action). The identity of the author 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). Eventually it was revealed that the author had been Terence Gray.
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 Irish
family. He was raised on an estate at 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. This was followed by a period of involvement in the arts in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s 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 origins in his own dance troupe at the Cambridge Festival Theatre which he leased from 1926–33).
He maintained his family's racehorses in England and Ireland and in 1957 his horse Zarathrustra
won the Ascot Gold Cup
, ridden by renowned jockey Lester Piggott
in the first of his eleven wins of that race.
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 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 Natasha Imeretinsky 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, as well as upon many who have read his works, including Ramesh Balsekar
.
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).
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Wei Wu Wei, was a 20th century Taoist philosopher and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
Background
Between the years 1958 and 1974 eight books and articles in various periodicals appeared under the pseudonym "Wei Wu Wei" (Wu weiWu wei
Wu wei is an important concept of Taoism , that involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Another perspective to this is that "Wu Wei" means...
, a Taoist term which translates as action that is non-action). The identity of the author 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). Eventually it was revealed that the author had been Terence Gray.
Terence James Stannus Gray was born in Felixstowe
Felixstowe
Felixstowe is a seaside town on the North Sea coast of Suffolk, England. The town gives its name to the nearby Port of Felixstowe, which is the largest container port in the United Kingdom and is owned by Hutchinson Ports UK...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
on 14 September 1895, the son of Harold Stannus Gray
Harold Stannus Gray
Sir Harold William Stannus Gray, KBE was an Anglo-Irish landowner, horse breeder and politician. He served a brief period as a Member of Parliament during which he pressed for more help for agriculture....
and a member of a well-established Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
family. He was raised on an estate at the Gog-Magog Hills
Gog Magog Downs
The Gog Magog Downs are a range of low chalk hills, extending for several miles to the southeast of Cambridge in England. The highest points are marked on Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps as "Telegraph Clump"Telegraph Clump, at , Little Trees HillLittle Trees Hill, and Wandlebury Hill,Wandlebury...
outside Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He received a thorough education at Ascham St Vincent's School, Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
, Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and Oxford University. Early in life he pursued an interest in Egyptology
Egyptology
Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...
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 1920s and 1930s 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
Ninette de Valois
Dame Ninette de Valois, OM, CH, DBE, FRAD, FISTD was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of classical ballet...
, founder of the Royal Ballet (which in fact had its origins in his own dance troupe at the Cambridge Festival Theatre which he leased from 1926–33).
He maintained his family's racehorses in England and Ireland and in 1957 his horse Zarathrustra
Zarathustra (horse)
Zarathustra was a black thoroughbred racehorse, born at Graymount in Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1951.Owned by Terence Gray , it was first trained by Michael Hurley in Ireland, becoming the winner of the Irish Derby and the Irish St...
won the Ascot Gold Cup
Ascot Gold Cup
The Gold Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 2 miles and 4 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in June....
, ridden by renowned jockey Lester Piggott
Lester Piggott
Lester Keith Piggott is a retired English professional jockey, popularly known as "The Long Fellow". With 4,493 career wins, including nine Epsom Derby victories, he is one of the most well-known English flat racing jockeys of all time....
in the first of his eleven wins of that race.
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 Sri Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi
Sri Ramana Maharshi , born Venkataraman Iyer, was a Hindu spiritual master . He was born to a Tamil-speaking Brahmin family in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu. After experiencing at age 16 what he later described as liberation , he left home for Arunachala, a mountain considered sacred by Hindus...
's ashram
Sri Ramana Ashram
Sri Ramana Ashram also known as Sri Ramanasramam is the ashram, which was home to modern sage and Advaita Vedanta philosopher, Ramana Maharishi from 1922 till his death here in 1950...
in Tiruvannamalai
Tiruvannamalai
Thiruvannamalai is a pilgrimage Temple city and special grade municipality in Thiruvannamalai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Thiruvannamalai district. Thiruvannamalai is home to the Annamalaiyar Temple located at the foot of the Annamalai hill and...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. 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 Natasha Imeretinsky in Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
. He is believed to have known, among others, Lama Anagarika Govinda
Lama Anagarika Govinda
Lama Anagarika Govinda , born Ernst Lothar Hoffman was the founder of the order of the Arya Maitreya Mandala and an expositor of Tibetan Buddhism, Abhidharma, Buddhist Meditation as well as other aspects of Buddhism...
, Dr. Hubert Benoit, John Blofeld
John Blofeld
John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld was a British writer on Asian thought and religion, especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism.-Early life:Blofeld was born in London in 1913...
, Douglas Harding
Douglas Harding
Douglas Edison Harding was an English mystic, philosopher, author and spiritual teacher. He was born in Lowestoft in the county of Suffolk and raised in the Exclusive Plymouth Brethren, a Christian sect, which he apostatised at the age of 21.Though he never thought of himself as a guru Harding...
, Robert Linssen
Robert Linssen
Robert Linssen was a Belgian Zen Buddhist and author. Linssen wrote in French, but many of his texts have been translated into other languages including English...
, Arthur Osborne
Arthur Osborne (writer)
Arthur Osborne was an English writer on spirituality and mysticism, and an influential disciple and biographer of Ramana Maharshi. When one of Osborne's books, Ramana Maharshi and The Path of Self Knowledge, was first published in 1954, it contained a foreword from Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, at...
, Robert Powell
Robert Powell
Robert Powell is an English television and film actor, probably most famous for his title role in Jesus of Nazareth and as the fictional secret agent Richard Hannay...
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
G. Spencer-Brown
George Spencer-Brown is a polymath best known as the author of Laws of Form. He describes himself as a "mathematician, consulting engineer, psychologist, educational consultant and practitioner, consulting psychotherapist, author, and poet.".-Life:Spencer-Brown passed the First M.B...
and Galen Sharp, as well as upon many who have read his works, including Ramesh Balsekar
Ramesh Balsekar
Ramesh S. Balsekar was a disciple of the late Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a renowned Advaita master. From early childhood, Balsekar was drawn to Advaita, a nondual teaching, particularly the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and Wei Wu Wei...
.
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).
Quotations
- 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.
-
- — Ask The Awakened
Works
- Fingers Pointing Towards The Moon; Reflections of a Pilgrim on the Way, 1958, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London. (out of print); 2003, Sentient Publications, Boulder. Foreword by Ramesh Balsekar. ISBN 1-59181-010-8
- Why Lazarus Laughed; The Essential Doctrine ZenZenZen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
-Advaita-TantraTantraTantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....
, 1960, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London. (out of print); 2003, Sentient Publications, Boulder. ISBN 1-59181-011-6 - Ask The Awakened; The Negative Way, 1963, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London. (2nd ed. 1974)(out of print); 1973, Little, Brown & Co., Boston. ISBN O-316-92810-0 (out of print); 2002, Sentient Publications, Boulder. Foreword by Galen Sharp. ISBN 097 1078645
- 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 188-665-634-7 (out of print); 2004, Sentient Publications, Boulder. 1-59181-023-X
- Open Secret, 1965, Hong Kong University Press. (Reprinted 1970, 1982). ISBN 962-209-030-3 (out of print); 2004, Sentient Publications, Boulder. 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, Sentient Publications, Boulder. 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, Sentient Publications, Boulder. 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, Sentient Publications, Boulder. ISBN 1-59181-019-1