According to Lao Tzu, ‘act without doing’ and ‘no engagement’ simply implies that there are actions that one can partake without necessarily doing anything. These abstractions of the Confucianism or that Taoism are non-monolithic but very complex Chinese thoughts. Lao Tzu based his thoughts on a naturalistic perspective whereby he coined the term “Wu Wei,” which involved the actions of people that remained authentic, and performed without acting. As much as acting without doing has a general implication, Lao Tzu uses it to the non-engagement or action by the Tao, transcendental. This means that there are things that one can do without necessarily doing and the best example is providing all the essential conditions for plant growth, and thereafter do nothing but still, the plant will grow.
According to Lao Tzu, the above notion justifies “non-engagement” largely. In essence, the idea of non-engagement is justified because Lao Tzu postulates that the entire process entails a metaphorical account of reality (Chia & Huang, 2005). For instance, Tao convinces a man to just follow the course of nature without resisting anything, which is simply the action taken in conformity with nature. This explains the present-day events taking place in the world where there are natural phenomena, the sociopolitical institutions, and the spiritual world. These are situations that occur and no one attempts going against them, which defines the flow of forces of reality.
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I could not agree more with Lao Tze’s argument because there are things that are to some extent beyond human control. It would be sensible to let them be and focus only on what you can control. For instance, this is a great example of technological advancement, which can be considered as vanity because it can be valuable today and loses its value tomorrow. Not anybody living within their means can struggle fighting injustices since they sticks to their true being and nature eventually seeks solitude and creativity, which is followed by action based on freedom and desires of the heart. When one steals a pen, he is arrested and jailed for 20 years but he who grabs land worth billions of dollars goes scot-free because he can buy his freedom. The initial thief cannot buy his freedom and serves the jail term without acting in any way because he lives in action-less engagement.
References
Chia, M. & Huang, T. (2005). The secret teachings of the tao te ching. Simon & Schuster Digital Sales Inc.
Lao Tze. Tao Ching
