Finding Wisdom in Non-Doing
Passage 4 from Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
When I heard the words “Practice not doing and everything will fall into place,”
I initially felt they were counterintuitive.
I mean, how does it make sense that inaction leads to clarity and success
Well, it depends how we view inaction.
We first have to understand what inaction is.
Action is always essential and our futures are made through the choices we make,
so maybe Lao Tzu is not talking about “not taking action” as our minds might initially lead us to believe,
rather he means surrendering effort.
So what is effort?
Effort is the idea of trying to attain or achieve something as a result of the action.
When we approach action with this mindset, we are contradicting the reality of nature
which is to be committed to the process so that the process itself masters us
and we become transformed through the actions we take.
Instead of trying to bend things to our will; non-action allows us to flow with what is happening
and we can respond in a pre-meditated way to create new realities.
In today’s Western society, we are taught to constantly strive for success and react before being present with ourselves.
This can create a pressure within us (and those around us) that crowds our time
and presence for anything or anyone else in our lives.
Doubling down on pressure to perform or succeed may foster feelings of unfulfillment,
unhealthy competitiveness and exhaustion.
The key to embodying inaction is to pause before acting.
Giving ourselves room to take a conscious break for a moment of reflection, mindful movement,
and being present helps us reclaim our birth-given place in the world as nature.
Once we resume our position as nature, we open ourselves up to unlimited possibilities and miracles.
Once we relinquish our perceived control over outcomes,
we are able to appreciate the things that come our way as things that were meant to be.
And even more powerfully, we can actually steward these outcomes because our desires no longer control or drive us.
Rather, presence does.
By being receptive to the ebb and flow of these states, balance is restored between our efforts,
our path unfolded, our reflection, and our peace by trusting that what we are given was meant to be,
all our desires aside.
To put it bluntly, doing-not-doing does not mean to not take action;
rather, it means to become the action in the same way we cannot tell a dancer from the dance or the wind from the blowing.
To be honest, this isn’t something that comes overnight.
It cannot be reasoned either.
Because as Lao Tzu points out, “non-action” is a practice of being which requires embodying
a disposition of contentment (being okay with whatever is).
This is something that comes with time as we encounter the reality that we are only in control of the actions we take
(and not the timing of the results or the direct results themselves).
If you’ve ever worked with business coaches, this is probably very contradicting to what you’ve been told.
But I hope this gives you permission to release the tension in your body and your heart,
so you can begin detaching your worth, your identity and your success from results.
After all, inner stillness is the force that invites all things to itself.
By Arabella Davis
