Foreigners' Interpretation of Laozi's Thought of "Inaction"

Many of us have been trying to impose our will on the world all our lives. Sometimes it works. After endless nights and new silver hair, we finally got the promotion we had been fighting for. We instinctively try to be feminine and get a wild and unrestrained night in the hotel, or our stubborn children finally give in to our ruthless demands-washing dishes and doing housework. We growled that the brazen manager took all the honors for himself; The plump girls in the bar laughed at our old-fashioned flirting attempts, and the noise-canceling headphones we paid for isolated our complaining teachings. ...

Life is like the fiery Italian football player gennaro gattuso said, "Sometimes it may be good, but sometimes it is shit". This is the most chaotic thing we will encounter, a huge, twisted ball, the most twisted and wonderful nonsense we can imagine, which even the most skilled circus performers can hardly tame. The world will do whatever it wants, no matter how hard we try.

Somewhere on the undulating green hillside of China in classical times, in an ancient time called Spring and Autumn Period, an insightful and prophetic figure saw the indifference of the world perfectly and clearly, and combined it with the idea that it was easier to live with the tide, thus producing the Taoist concept of inaction.

The idea of inaction is that every action we take should be carried out spontaneously according to the conditions at that time. At this moment in your life, an amazing number of events have created a series of situations that are almost completely out of your control. By following these inevitable conditions, you have given yourself the greatest chance of success instead of locking yourself in an unparalleled world. Frankly speaking, the world will not give you anything at all.

"Tao often does nothing and does everything. If Hou Wang can keep it, everything will change itself. If you want to do it, I'll make the town nameless, the town nameless, and my husband won't. If you don't want to be quiet, the world will decide. " -Lao tze.

Inaction can also be understood as inaction, which sounds like a lazy proposition, but it is actually an idea that becomes more effective without coercion. We can't expect to control a world that is addicted to doing what we want. On the contrary, we can improvise and take action according to the unique conditions of the situation. The opposite choice will be a gnashing road of frustration. The expectations we bear and the power we use to realize them are the sources of anger and resentment.

"[Unrealistic] expectations are premeditated resentment."

Swiss psychologist jean piaget found that children under 7 tend to believe that they will influence the outcome of the situation through thinking, as if the idea of pushing your little brother off the seesaw would actually lead to this situation. He named this magical thinking an adult, which is exactly what we do when we have unrealistic expectations. It makes no difference whether we expect something to happen or not. Keeping pace with the times is a more favorable attitude.

"I do my thing, you do your thing.

I don't live in this world to meet your expectations,

You don't live in this world to reach my level.

You are you, I am me,

It would be great if we happened to find each other.

If not, there is nothing we can do. "

Fritz pars.

Doing nothing is not an appeal to our reckless indifference. We are floating in the world like intoxicated ghosts, drooling without desire or desire, but inviting us to give up our expectations and seize every moment. Is to turn your boat around and paddle downstream, not upstream. We waste too much energy trying to shape the world into what we want. Although we have achieved some success, we often feel depressed. Although desire, ambition and action are still undeniable important forces in our lives, we must accept that our plans are often frustrated. We can consider the spirit of inaction to adapt to the development situation, instead of falling into despair, providing us with an effective and pleasant buoyancy, and we no longer need to participate in the futile battle with invincible opponents.

If you realize that everything is changing, you won't try to catch anything. If you are not afraid of death, there is nothing you can't do.

The concept of inaction is similar to the concept of "clinging" in Buddhism, which can be called persistence, attachment or grabbing. When we cling to our expectations, when we control and regulate our wishes, we will suffer. For Buddhists wearing orange clothes and baritone tenor, persistent cessation will bring nirvana, that is, the liberation of the soul, similar to what you may feel when you finally get rid of your troubles after a lifetime of troubles.

Similar inaction can also be seen in Greek Stoic philosophy. It is futile to try to control those things that cannot be controlled. Stoicism holds that you should live according to your own values, and be prepared for repeated and inevitable disappointments, because in most cases, the world will not follow our rules.

"Poverty is not having too few people, but longing for more people." Seneca

Cultivating inaction is to give yourself extra energy, not to waste it on aggressive and wayward thinking. Instead of going against the current, you use its natural energy to push yourself forward, which is conducive to enhancing your vitality in the process. Once you have eliminated the unnecessary need for confrontation, you can move forward with higher skills and abilities and move towards a brighter and less quarrelsome future.

There are many things worth learning in the East, and Taoism is the pioneer worth learning. Doing nothing emphasizes letting nature take its course, which includes the ability to release a lot of mental stress and move forward with an acceptable attitude, in which the hardships of life have been effectively dealt with.

Long live inaction!