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Tao Te Ching · 37 of 81
The Tao in its regular course does nothing (for the sake of doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do.
If princes and kings were able to maintain it, all things would of themselves be transformed by them.
If this transformation became to me an object of desire, I would express the desire by the nameless simplicity.
Simplicity without a name Is free from all external aim. With no desire, at rest and still, All things go right as of their will.
Asked of Guide
Why does Lao Tzu praise doing nothing as the way everything gets done?
Lao Tzu shows that the Tao “does nothing (for the sake of doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do,” meaning action that forces outcomes disturbs the natural unfolding. The ruler who preserves that effortless state lets “all things be transformed by them,” so transformation happens without coercion when desire and contriving are absent.
The chapter links nameless simplicity to freedom from external aims: “With no desire, at rest and still, All things go right as of their will.” Chuang Tzu develops the same thread by contrasting makers who keep doing with sages who allow processes to complete themselves, which yields results that forced action cannot match.
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