Verse 37: Doing By Not Doing

Verse Thirty-Seven
Dao doesn't ever interfere.
If people who had power over others could maintain that attitude, then all living things would transform by themselves.
They'd transform, and as desires arose they'd begin to suppress them due to some unknown sense of simplicity within.
So, they'd also begin to be satisfied with what they had.
Being satisfied with what they had, a sense of calmness would engulf them and all living things would become settled within themselves.
~ Nina Correa translation ~

In this verse, we again return to one of the concepts that western minds often have such a difficult time grasping -- wu wei. It tends to be so hard to grab hold of because, beginning almost at birth, we're educated and socialized to be people of action.

If you have a problem, tackle it straight on! Want to get ahead in life and realize your ambitions, charge up the hill! Want to date a particular guy or gal, let 'em no how you feel in no uncertain terms! Want to get what you want, don't take no for an answer!

So, what do we do? We run around trying to force our will on every aspect of our lives. We're a dervish of activity, hardly ever stopping to catch our breath. Charging here. Charging there. Charging, charging everywhere.

And yet, for all this charging around, few of us know contentment. We're consumed by stress, tension and, for many, self-loathing. As Lao Tzu aptly points out, forcing things goes against nature and frequently creates resistance.

Here are four explanations that discuss the concept of wu wei. It's my hope that at least one of them resonates with you.

from Nina Correa:

We all get tempted at times to try to "fix" other people. It's easy to look around and see so many people following what we think are disastrous paths - swallowed by the monster of greed, jealousy, addiction or any number of other "woes." When we hear of the idea that Dao doesn't interfere, it might sound strange - most of us were raised to believe in a stern yet forgiving God who's trying to redeem us from the evil lurking within our souls and encourages us to go out and "save" others as well. If Dao doesn't interfere (and neither do we), how would it be possible for the world to ever become peaceful?

When people are placed in positions of authority, they come up with all sorts of ideas and methods for making others do what they think is appropriate. However, they don't realize they're causing more turmoil for people by making demands on them to follow mandates they don't understand or feel in their hearts. If the people who had power over others could refrain from interfering in people's lives, that would take a big burden off everyone. If people weren't forced to act in certain ways to conform with society, they'd lose the desire to rebel against authority and become more comfortable with who they naturally are. If they were content with who they were, they'd find most of their desires just simply drifted away.

from The Tao of Pooh:

When you work with Wu Wei, you put the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole. No stress, no struggle. Egotistical Desire tries to force the round peg into the square hole and the square peg into the round hole. Cleverness tries to devise craftier ways of making pegs fit where they don't belong. Knowledge ties to figure out why round pegs fit in round holes, but not square holes. Wu Wei doesn't try. It doesn't think about it. It just does it.

from Simple Taoism - A Guide to Living in Balance:

Nonaction does not mean that people should literally do nothing at all. Nonaction means to not take any action that goes against nature. Do not fight against the current; instead, flow with it and you will travel a great distance without effort. For example, lifeguards advise that if you are caught in a rip current in the ocean, always swim with the current to shore, not against its pull. If a car begins to skid on a slippery patch of of road, fighting the skid by steering in the opposite direction may cause the car to whipsaw back and forth, and perhaps spin out of control. Instead, good drivers carefully and sensitively turn the wheels in the direction of the skid and take their feet off the accelerator. The car will straighten out and the driver remains in control.

from What is Tao?:

What I mean by forcing yourself is something like this: When children in school are supposed to be paying attention to the teacher, their thoughts will go wandering all over the place, and the teacher will soon get angry and say, "Pay attention." And the children will wrap their legs around the legs of the chair, and they will stare at the teacher and try to look frightfully intelligent. But what happens was expressed very well in a cartoon I saw the other day: A small boy is standing and looking at his teacher and saying, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you were saying because I was listening so hard."

In other words, when we try to be loving, or to be virtuous, or to be sincere, we actually think about trying to do it in the same way the child was trying to listen, tightening up his muscles and trying to look intelligent as he thought about paying attention. But he wasn't thinking about what the teacher is saying, and therefore he wasn't really listening at all. This is a perfect example of what is meant by blocking yourself or getting in your own light.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.