Do Nothing and Get Everything Done!

Confucius was hiking with his disciples to visit a majestic waterfall. Even before they arrived at the waterfall, they could sense the power of it from the distance, first the rumbling sound and then the breathtaking sight of a tall and wide waterfall. It may be comparable to Niagara Falls.

They could see the mist from the fall reaching miles away. As they approached the fall, they knew the powerful current would not allow even fish or turtles to survive. But suddenly, they saw a man dive into the water. Confucius thought he might have fallen accidentally into the water, so he asked his students to try to save him.

The man disappeared in the water and reappeared about a hundred feet away. He jumped back on the shore and sang aloud with joy as if he just had a great exercise. As he walked by, Confucius stopped him, saying,

“Gentleman, I thought you were a ghost because I didn’t think a man could swim under this waterfall. How did you do that?”

The man answered, “Oh, it was a piece of cake because I followed the current. As I jumped into the water, I sensed the spinning torrent pulling me down to the bottom of the river. I didn’t resist it. Instead, I went with the current, knowing it would turn the other way around when it reached the riverbed, pushing me back to the surface.”

Confucius asked, “How do you know the nature of the current? Can you teach us?”

The man said, “I grew up near this fall and have been playing and swimming under here since I was young. I discovered that, by resisting the current, I would run out of breath and strength to swim. It naturally takes me to the other side when I don’t manipulate the current. I can’t tell you more than that because I learned by experience.”

(End of the story.)

That is an allegory by Zhuangzi, depicting the core Taoist philosophy of “Do Nothing” (无为). It’s counter-intuitive to our overworked society. We believe we must strive and scrape to achieve success. So, the concept of “Do Nothing” is often misunderstood, ridiculed, and ignored by most people.

According to the story, “Doing nothing” doesn’t mean doing nothing at all, but it means not manipulating or disobeying the Tao. What is the Tao? (I mentioned it last week.) The Tao in Chinese means the Word, or the Logos, in Greek.

The Chinese translation of John’s Gospel says,

“In the beginning was the Tao, and the Tao was with God, and the Tao was God.” (Jn 1:1).  

In verse 14, John said that Jesus is the Tao became flesh, or Jesus embodies of the Tao.

In the story above, “the current” symbolizes the Tao, the Word, or God. In the Bible, we notice that Jesus doesn’t go against the current but goes along with the current and accomplishes his mission on earth—to save humanity from sin.

Please note that by current, I am not talking about the popular trends of society, but God’s Current or God’s Word. It’s like surfing the wave, not the wave of the world, but of God. Jesus frequently mentions that everything he says or does is guided by God.

The only time he wanted to go against God’s current was when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking God to let him pass the bitter cup, meaning he would rather not go to the cross if it was God’s will, but he went to the cross with obedience.

Today, we will learn from Jesus how to obey the current of God and swim to the other side, accomplishing our mission and having a great deal of fun doing it. Let’s begin!