July 2, 2026
Principle 7. Immediate Action. First Week.
If you pursue an end, you enchain yourself. If everything you do is realized as an end in itself, you liberate yourself.
Last time: A Look Ahead
This time: A New Way of Doing
Illustration by Rafael Edwards
This Week:
This week we will look at the basic structure of principle seven, the principle of immediate action. We will consider its general meaning, and broad implications. We’ll also consider some observations about, and illustrations of, the principle in general.
Along with our effort to delve deeply into this principle we are always trying to turn the principles as a whole into a dynamic and permanent meditation. That is to say, into a practice applicable at every moment of our lives. In that way we go on shaping a style of, or way of, engaging with life.
To help gain some new perspectives we will also play
The Game of the Week.
Find It!
The rules for week’s game are simple, and summed up in the name of the game, Find it! We are always looking for examples of the principles in our daily life and personal experience. In the game of Find It! we extend that to the cultural environment around us.
This week’s story, quotes, images might be considered as examples of what someone playing this game found. During this week keep your eyes and ears (and memory and imagination) open for things around you that illustrate the principle.
To get things going this week we’ve “found” two tales. Both are well known in various forms and cultures. But your search can be drawn from contemporary culture, and can include jokes, songs, movies, etc. The point is that the thing you have found captures or transmits aspects of this month’s principle.
General Considerations and Personal Reflections:
Here are some personal reflections. I offer them in the spirit of dialogue and exchange, and look forward to hearing your thoughts about, and experiences with, this principle.
it’s often said that the principles are a structure of ideas. That is, each of the principles needs to be considered in light of the others. It’s a very useful thing to keep in mind. And when considering the principles it also very soon becomes clear that particular principles seem more directly related to others. We’ve talked about this some time back when noting, for example, how the first few principles deal with our relationship to a process, or the balance of forces in a situation, others seem to be focused on relations within a structure. Continuing in that vein I found myself thinking about those principles which explicitly refer to “enchainment” and “liberation”.
By this criteria four principles stand out and they can be thought of as two pairs. First, this month’s principle (7, the principle of Immediate Action) and last month’s (the principle of Pleasure). As you know one is referred to the pursuing of pleasure, and the other the more general case of pursuing of any end. In the same way next month’s principle 9 (Liberty), and principle 10 (Solidarity) so closely related to what people call the Golden Rule. You can see how between these four the limits of our actions are mapped out.
That is, you liberate yourself as long as you:
-do not harm your health
-do everything as an end in itself
-do not harm anyone
-treat others as you wish to be treated
Or if you prefer, you enchain yourself when you:
-harm your health
-pursue an end
-harm others
- treat others as objects
Summarizing further I would say:
You liberate yourself when you remember that you, and all the others are subjects, and not things.
In any case let’s return to the principle in question.
Trying to implement principle Six made me realize how much I didn’t understand about it, and more generally about how to balance the fact that I need aims and goals but at the same time pursuing them, as if by definition, inevitably enchains me.
I found that this month’s principle offers me a way too resolve that question, and free myself from a difficult trap. More than that, it gives me a radically new way of doing things, that in itself is, and makes possible a path of liberation — “the path of the open hand”.
This principle can be seen as a more general case of principle six, the Principle of Pleasure. This time however the suggestion is not limited to the pursuit of pleasure, but rather the pursuit of ends in general. It is important to note that it does not suggest that we have no goals.
Planning any activity requires goals. Rather, the Principle of Immediate Action reminds us that we should learn to benefit from all the intermediate steps or situations that lead to our goals. It points out that whatever these steps or stages we should learn to enjoy them, appreciate them, or at least approach them in the most positive way possible. In any other way those steps become a burden, a bore, an irritant or a source of some other form of suffering. Once that happens then even if the goal is attained it loses meaning because of that loss and the suffering connected to those steps.
An Illustrative Tale:
In the chapter titled Nourishing Life of the Zhuangzi a story is told of A cook named Ting. Here’s my version.
Cook Ting was cutting up an ox for Lord Wen-hui. At every touch of his hand, each thrust of his shoulder, and every shift of his weight his knife seemed to effortlessly do its work. During an inspection of the grounds his master happened to see him working and thought it looked like someone dancing, as if all his movements kept perfect time to an unheard music.
Ah, this is marvelous!" said Lord Wen-hui. "Imagine skill reaching such heights!"
Cook Ting laid down his knife and replied, "What I care about is the Way, which goes beyond skill. When I first begun cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself and the task before me.
When I started, I changed my knife once a month -- my hacking away trying to satisfy my boss with my speed quickly dulled the blade.
As I gained experience and cut more skillfully, I only had to replace my blade once a year
But now I no longer see the task before me and at every moment I am just the edge of the blade."
“I’ve had this knife of mine for nineteen years and I've cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the blade is as good as though it had just come from the grindstone. There are spaces between the joints, and the very edge of the knife’s blade really has no thickness. I go along with the natural way: the knife itself glides through the openings big or small and follow things as they are. So, I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a bone.”
The ruler Wen Hui said, “Excellent! I have heard the words of my cook and learned from them how to nourish our lives”.
At our next meeting we will discuss our observations, thoughts, reflections, and questions regarding all this.
Consider:
Sometimes meditation requires you sit down and close your eyes — but that’s less than half the story:
“…It is clear that it isn’t a matter of indifference what actions one carries out in the world. There are actions that give one a register of internal unity, and actions that give a register of disintegration.”
Silo, Psychology Notes III
Worth Repeating:
The Principle of Immediate Action reminds us that we should learn to benefit from all the intermediate steps or situations that lead to our goals.
This Week’s Homework:
- Reflect on your basic understanding of the principle, it’s general meaning and implications.
-Play the game of Find It!
Coming Up:
This document is meant as a support for our practice of focusing on one of the 12 Principles of Valid Action each month. These principles appear in chapter XIII of Silo’s The Inner Look. Next week we will continue with principle 7 focusing on how it may relate to our present situations.
Note:
Mark L has agreed to host our next meeting. We hope you will be able to join us. Illustration by Rafael Edwards.
These notes have been posted on Facebook and sent to our email list, and, on my website www.dzuckerbrot.com
Don’t forget:
In some moment of the day or night inhale a breath of air and imagine that you carry this air to your heart. Then, ask with strength for yourself and for your loved ones. Ask with strength to move away from all that brings you contradiction; ask for your life to have unity. Don't take a lot of time with this brief prayer, this brief asking, because it is enough that you interrupt for one brief moment what is happening in your life for this contact with your interior to give clarity to your feelings and your ideas.
Silo_ La Reja, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2005
