This is a summary of Alan Watts and Aldous Huxley on the backwards law or law of reversed effort including 10+ examples.
This page is intended as a learning resource for educational purposes and only meant to offer an overview/introduction. Short quotes aren’t a substitute for source material, so if this page sparks your interest, explore more deeply by checking out Alan Watts’ books (Amazon) and Aldous Huxley’s books (Amazon).
The Backwards Law or Law of Reversed Effort (Alan Watts & Aldous Huxley Summary)
What is the Backwards Law or Law of Reversed Effort?
“I have always been fascinated by the law of reversed effort. Sometimes I call it the ‘backwards law.'” — Alan Watts
From Alan Watts:
- The backwards law or law of reversed effort is the law of paradox that runs through Taoist and Zen philosophy—that contrary, unexpected things come from actions (the harder we try, the worse we do the thing).
From Aldous Huxley:
- “There is a Law of Reversed Effort. The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed. Proficiency and the results of proficiency come only to those who have learned the paradoxical art of simultaneously doing and not doing, of combining relaxation with activity, of letting go as a person in order that the immanent and transcendent Unknown Quantity may take hold. We cannot make ourselves understand; the most we can do is to foster a state of mind in which understanding may come to us.”
Examples of the Backwards Law or Law of Reversed Effort:
From Alan Watts:
- When you hold your breath, you lose it.
- When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; but when you try to sink, you float.
- When you would be strong, very often the best course is to be weak (the more soft you become, the stronger you become). When you would be powerful, the best course often is to withdraw.
- When you learn to love solitude, you’re better able to get on with others.
- The more dead you become, the more alive you become.
- We find life meaningful only when we have seen that it is without purpose.
- Insecurity is the result of trying to be secure; salvation and sanity consist in the most radical recognition that we have no way of saving ourselves.
- We discover the ‘infinite’ and the ‘absolute,’ not by straining to escape from the finite and relative world, but by the most complete acceptance of its limitations.
- We know the ‘mystery of the universe’ only when we are convinced that we know nothing about it at all.
From Aldous Huxley:
- If you look for the Buddha, you will not see the Buddha.
- If you deliberately try to become a Buddha, your Buddha is samsara.
- If a person seeks the Tao, that person loses the Tao.
- By intending to bring yourself into accord with Suchness, you instantly deviate.
- Whosoever will save his life shall lose it.
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