Act — or Not

無為而無不為 

To do anything do nothing

Am I done/acted?

— from the inside out —

道德經

《道德經》第四十八章

為學日益

為道日損

損之又損

以至於無為

無為而無不為 

取天下常以無事

及其有事不足以取天下。

Dao De Jing Chapter Forty-eight — Ronald Hogan

48.

Usually,

we try to learn something new every day.

But if we want to get right with 道,

we have to let go of something every day.

We do less and less

until we end up doing nothing.

And it's when we do nothing

that we get the job done.

Let events take their course,

and everything will turn out

in your favour.

If you act on your ambitions,

they will never pan out.

道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Forty-eight — Translated by David Lindauer

Chapter 48 

Act academic, daily gain

Act 道, daily lose.

Losing, again lose

It happens, reaching relating to the absence of acting

Absence of acting yet absence of being without acting.

Grabbing the world, an entire absence of effort happens

Liking entirely the presence of effort

Is insufficient to precede grabbing the world.

Dao De Jing Chapter Forty-eight — Translated by Chung Yuan Chang, Chapter 48

To learn,

One accumulates day by day.

To study 道,

One reduces day by day.

Through reduction and further reduction

One reaches non-action,

And everything is acted upon.

Therefore, one often wins over the world

Through non-action.

Through action, one may not win over the world.