Human Development
Quietism
Description:
This philosophy is typical of many schools but specifically of several schools in China in the third and fourth centuries before Christ. By stilling of external activity and of internal appetites and emotions one prepares one's self for self-perfection. Through working back through layers of consciousness until there is no more the things which are perceived but that which perceives, no more what is known but that by which one knows, through arriving at pure consciousness, there is stillness. This is the state of absolute joy and of power, a state which cannot be described but which can only be experienced by trying it out. In Quietism, the mind has perfect poise which manifests in perfect equilibrium of action through unity with the medium in which the activity takes place.