The advice to practice “not doing” and trusting that all will settle into a perfect place may sound like a prescription for laziness and a failed society, yet I don’t think that’s what Lao-tzu is offering here. He isn’t saying to be slothful or inactive; rather, he’s suggesting that trusting in the Tao is the way to be directed by the Source of your creation and to be guided by a higher principle than your ego-driven desires.
Ego-fixated wants can get in the way of Divine essence, so practice getting ego out of the way and be guided by the Tao in all that you do. In a state of frenzy? Trust in the Tao. Listen for what urges you onward, free from ego domination, and you’ll paradoxically be more productive. Allow what’s within to come forward by suspending worldly determination. In this way, it will no longer be just you who is conducting this orchestration that you call your life.
Much of this 3rd verse contains advice on how to govern. I view this not as political or administrative advice, but as it pertains to our own personal lives and those we’re entrusted to guide—that is, our immediate family, and in a larger sense, the human family that comprises all of those with whom we’re in contact on a daily basis.
Encourage your relatives to empty their minds of thoughts about status and acquisitions, and think instead about serving others and contributing to the health and strength of all. Model the harmony of this attitude; after all, everyone has a calling to be inspired. The Source of creation is not interested in material possessions or status. It will provide what is needed—it will guide, motivate, and influence you and everyone else. Ego (and its incessant inventory of desires) probably needs to be weakened so that the beauty of the Tao can be sensed. Demonstrate this to others by being a leader who removes the egocentric temptations that foster envy, anger, and competition.
If Lao-tzu were able to view our contemporary world from his 2,500-year-old perspective, I believe that he’d offer the following advice based upon this 3rd verse of the Tao Te Ching:
Remind yourself daily that there is no way to happiness; rather, happiness is the way.
You may have a long list of goals that you believe will provide you with contentment when they’re achieved, yet if you examine your state of happiness in this moment, you’ll notice that the fulfillment of some previous ambitions didn’t create an enduring sense of joy. Desires can produce anxiety, stress, and competitiveness, and you need to recognize those that do. Bring happiness to every encounter in life, instead of expecting external events to produce joy. By staying in harmony on the path of the Tao, all the contentment you could ever dream of will begin to flow into your life—the right people, the means to finance where you’re headed, and the necessary factors will come together. “Stop pushing yourself,” Lao-tzu would say, “and feel gratitude and awe for what is. Your life is controlled by something far bigger and more significant than the petty details of your lofty aspirations.”
Trust the perfection of the eternal Tao, for it is the ultimate Source of the 10,000 things.
The Tao is working for and with you, so you needn’t remind it of what you crave or what you think it has forgotten on your behalf. Trust the harmony of the Tao. It took care of everything that you needed in your creation as well as your first nine months of life without any assistance from you, and totally independent of any desires you may have had. The Tao will continue to do so if you just trust it and practice not doing.
Inventory your desires and then turn them over to the unnameable. Yes, turn them over and do nothing but trust. At the same time, listen and watch for guidance, and then connect yourself to the perfect energy that sends whatever is necessary into your life. You (meaning your ego) don’t need to do anything. Instead, allow the eternal perfection of the Tao to work through you. This is Laotzu’s message for our world now.
Henry David Thoreau made the following observation in the middle of the 19th century as he wrote at Walden Pond, and I feel that it personifies this 3rd verse of the Tao Te Ching:
Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails. . . . If the engine whistles, let it whistle till it is hoarse for its pains. If the bell rings, why should we run? . . . I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.
Trust in your essential sageness. Don’t let desires obscure your eternal connection to the Tao.
Do the Tao Now
