The Sayings of Lao Tzŭ/Chapter 3
THE DOCTRINE OF INACTION
The Sage occupies himself with inaction, and conveys instruction without words.
Is it not by neglecting self-interest that one will be able to achieve it?
Purge yourself of your profound intelligence, and you can still be free from blemish. Cherish the people and order the kingdom, and you can still do without meddlesome action.
Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will gradually become dear of itself. Who is there that can secure a state of absolute repose? But let time go on, and the state of repose will gradually arise. Be sparing of speech, and things will come right of themselves.
A violent wind does not outlast the morning; a squall of rain does not outlast the day. Such is the course of Nature. And if Nature herself cannot sustain her efforts long, how much less can man!
Attain complete vacuity, and sedulously preserve a state of repose.
Tao is eternally inactive, and yet it leaves nothing undone. If kings and princes could but hold fast to this principle, all things would work out their own reformation. If, having reformed, they still desired to act, I would have them restrained by the simplicity of the Nameless Tao. The simplicity of the Nameless Tao brings about an absence of desire. The absence of desire gives tranquillity. And thus the Empire will rectify itself.
The softest things in the world override the hardest. That which has no substance enters where there is no crevice. Hence I know the advantage of inaction.
Conveying lessons without words, reaping profit without action,—there are few in the world who can attain to this!
Activity conquers cold, but stillness conquers heat. Purity and stillness are the correct principles for mankind.
Without going out of doors one may know the whole world; without looking out of the window, one may see the Way of Heaven. The further one travels, the less one may know. Thus it is that without moving you shall know; without looking you shall see; without doing you shall achieve.
The pursuit of book-learning brings about daily increase. The practice of Tao brings about daily loss. Repeat this loss again and again, and you arrive at inaction. Practise inaction, and there is nothing which cannot be done.
The Empire has ever been won by letting things take their course. He who must always be doing is unfit to obtain the Empire.
Keep the mouth shut, close the gateways of sense, and as long as you live you will have no trouble. Open your lips and push your affairs, and you will not be safe to the end of your days.
Practise inaction, occupy yourself with doing nothing.
Desire not to desire, and you will not value things difficult to obtain. Learn not to learn, and you will revert to a condition which mankind in general has lost.
Leave all things to take their natural course, and do not interfere.