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Those who seek knowledge,

Collect something every day.
Those who seek the Way,
Let go of something every day.

They let go and let go,

Until reaching no action.
When nothing is done,
Nothing is left undone.

Never take over the world to tamper with it.

Those who want to tamper with it
Are not fit to take over the world.

Let Go

Letting go is a recurring theme in the Tao Te Ching. It’s brought up in

severa chapters, for example the 19 th, where I mention the similarity
to Zen in this respect. In Zen, you let go to reach empty mind, a
mental state of clarity, where nothing disturbs you or pulls you way
from the soundness of the simple thought. There are many similarities
between Zen and what Lao Tzu argues for.
Knowledge is a risky thing. It clogs the mind and makes it
prejudiced. Those who seek it carry a load that gets heavier every day,
and the chance of processing it to come to any conclusions
diminishes. It’s hard to be wise when you have too much to think
about.
Following Tao, the Way, you learn to trust that it will reveal the
true workings of the world and everything in it. By leaning back and
opening yourself to it, you watch Tao unfold in front of you, revealing
itself from behind everything that happens. The chains of events have
patterns, and these patterns show the fabric of Tao.
 Letting go is also to become detached. It’s not the same as
indifference. You care and you have wishes, but you don’t hurry to
act before you are certain about the consequences of your actions.
Otherwise you are very likely to do more harm than good.
Only do something when you really have to, and then only do
that something. It will suffice.
Lao Tzu has so much fate in the perfection of Tao that he
expects the occasions to be few, when action is needed. Mostly,
things correct themselves, because they are governed by Tao. In Lao
Tzu’s mind, only people can at all deviate from the Way. Neither
plants nor animals or any other things in our universe can.

Our Odd Nature

Actually, that’s pretty much how modern science sees it, too. Dead
things behave according to the laws of physics, plants and animals
according to biology. They follow their nature. Only mankind has the
nature that makes it possible for us to deviate from it. We shouldn’t.
We are odd creatures, indeed. Not only can we deviate from
nature, but we have a tendency to believe that we can improve it.
That’s absurd, especially since we are far from understanding it
completely. Still, we want to take over the whole world and change it
to our liking.
It’s not only an ambition among the self-appointed dictators of
which we’ve had far too many. It’s almost a reflex of ours, existing in
all of us. It starts as soon as we settle somewhere. In our children, it
starts as soon as they can move their arms and hands at will. We want
to make our marks, and we want to control the world down to every
little detail.
That’s exactly why we are not fit to rule the world, but that’s
also why we keep trying.
Even when we set out to correct our own mistakes and the
misfortunes they created, we start again by seizing control of our
surroundings and forcing changes on them. If we have damaged the
world when taking power over it, we should not try to fix it with that
same power, but lean back and let the world repair itself.
It will if we let it. Tao is the Way by which that comes about.

Tao Te Ching The Taoism of Lao Tzu Explained

Stefan Stenudd