Line by Line - Verse 48, Lines 3-4

He diminishes it and again diminishes it, till he arrives at doing nothing (on purpose).
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Loss and more loss
Until one reaches unattached action
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

We do less and less,
until we end up doing nothing.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

These lines are not about laziness. Lao Tzu is not suggesting we sit around all day to meditate. The person who truly does nothing will die soon because it takes effort to breathe as well as to clothe and feed ourselves.

The point I think Lao Tzu is driving at has to do with contrived action. So much of what we undertake originates from our ego and it too often involves scheming to get from life what we desire.

It is when we leave our over-sized egos at the door and do what is necessary for the situation -- no more, no less -- it has a tendency to feel as if we're not doing much at all. We are so used to swimming against the current that, when we simply go with the flow, we're surprised at the fluidity of our actions.

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