Wei Wu Wei

Terence James Stannus Gray (born September 14, 1895 , † January 5, 1986 ) was a theater producer and founded the Cambridge Festival Theater as an experimental theater in Cambridge . There he produced over 100 pieces between 1926 and 1933. Later in life, under the pseudonym Wei Wu Wei, he published several books on metaphysics , Tao, and Chinese Ch'an .

background

Terence James Stannus Gray was born on September 14, 1895 in Felixstowe , Suffolk, England, to Harold Stannus Gray and a member of an established Anglo-Irish family. He grew up on an estate in the Gog Magog Hills near Cambridge , England. He received thorough training at Ascham St. Vincent's School, Eastbourne, Eton and Oxford University . Early on he devoted himself to Egyptology , which culminated in 1923 with the publication of two books on the history and culture of ancient Egypt.

He was married to the Russian nobleman Rimsky-Korsakov. In the later part of his life he lived in Monaco with his second wife, the Georgian Princess Natalie Margaret Imeretinsky .

Gray knew Lama Anagarika Govinda , Hubert Benoit, John Blofeld, Douglas Harding, Robert Linssen, Arthur Osborne, Robert Powell and Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki , among others .

Gray maintained his family's racehorses in England and Ireland. In 1957 his horse Zarathustra won the Ascot Gold Cup , which was ridden by jockey Lester Piggott in the first of his eleven victories.

Cambridge Festival Theater

During the 1920s and 1930s, Gray worked as a theorist, theater producer, author of radical "dance dramas", editor of several magazines and author of two books on the subject.

In 1926, Gray opened the Cambridge Festival Theater as an experimental theater without any practical theater experience. He acquired the old Royal Barnwell Theater and essentially rebuilt it. Aeschylus' inaugural production 'The Orestia' with de Valois as choreographer, and he subsequently produced abstract performances in which he worked more on movement than on language. The critics were divided, some praising his achievements, others were of the opinion that he sacrificed text and plot for showmanship. Gray deliberately provoked the audience, but despite the controversy, he reached full audience seats. Many of Gray's employees left the project because of its unwillingness to compromise. In 1933 he finally gave up the theater.

spirituality

After apparently exhausting his interest in the theater, he turned to philosophy and metaphysics. This led to trips across Asia including a period of time spent at Sri Ramana Maharshi's Ashram in Tiruvannamalai , India. Between 1958 and 1974, eight books and, as excerpts, essays in various magazines appeared under the pseudonym "Wei Wu Wei" (a Taoist term, translatable as "acting as non-acting"). He did not reveal his identity as an author at the time of publication for reasons outlined in the preface to the first book, "Fingers Pointing Towards Towards the Moon" (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958). In the next 16 years seven more books appeared, including his last work under the further pseudonym "OOO" 1974. Wei Wu Wei influenced, among others, the British mathematician and author George Spencer-Brown , Galen Sharp and Ramesh Balsekar .

Works

(All works have been translated into German.)

• 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 - Zen-Advaita-Tantra
  • 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, (out of print)
  • (2nd ed. 1974) (out of print)
  • 1973, Little, Brown & Co., Boston. ISBN 0-316-92810-0 (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. ISBN 1-59181-023-X
  • 1994 in German: "The simple knowledge." Translated by Ernst Schönwiese, Verlag Bruno Martin ISBN 3-921786-85-1 (out of print)
• 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
  • 1998 in German: "The Open Secret." Translated by Wolfgang Höhn, Lüchow Verlag ISBN 3-925898-82-4 (out of print)
• THE TENTH MAN - The Great Joke
  • 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)
  • 2004, Sentient Publications, Boulder. ISBN 1-59181-019-1

    Note: this book published under the further pseudonym 'OOO'

Biographies

• Tucker, George: The Spirit Works
• Cornwell, Paul (2004). Only by Failure: The Many Faces of the Impossible Life of Terence Gray. Salt Publishing. ISBN 1-84471-004-1 .

Web links

• The Wei Wu Wei Archives
• German translations