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Hello every one,

I’m really sorry I have not posted the third story yet, I will do it as soon as possible.

I am reminded of a quote from Nietzsche that doesn’t really apply to me but I wish it did.

Quiet fruitfulness. The born aristocrats of the spirit are not overeager; their creations blossom and fall from the trees on a quiet autumn evening, being neither rashly desired, not hastened on, nor supplanted by new things. The wish to create incessantly is vulgar, betraying jealousy, envy, and ambition. If one is something, one does not actually need to do anything – and nevertheless does a great deal. There is a type higher than the “productive” man.”

By the way this quote is only one of many that make me believe that Nietzsche had read Ancient Chinese philosophy and in this case Lao Tzu’s “Tao Te Ching”.

Lao Tzu’s doctrine of wei wu wei, literally “doing not-doing” has often been seen as promoting passivity but nothing could be further from the truth. A good example is an athlete who enters a state of body awareness where the right stroke or the right movement happens automatically, effortlessly, without any interference of the conscious will. This is a paradigm for non-action. You could say, “The game plays the game, the poem writes the poem, we can’t tell the dancer from the dance”.

Lao Tzu said:

“Less and less you need to force things,

until finally you arrive at non-action.

When nothing is done

nothing is left undone”

Nothing is done because the doer wholeheartedly vanished into the deed; the fuel is completely transformed into flame. This nothing is, for Lao Tzu, everything. It happens when we trust the intelligence of the universe in the same way that the athlete or the dancer trusts the superior intelligence of the body.

Lao Tzu’s goal is a life in perfect harmony with the way things are. He wants to master Nature; not in the sense of conquering it, but of becoming it.

However, my life is far from harmonious at the moment. I would say it is more like Nature 5 : Ric zero. Chaos Rules

So while Nietzsche’s phrase “if one is something, one does not actually need to do anything” is quite reminiscent of Lao Tzu’s doctrine, I’m afraid Lao Tzu’s phrase “when nothing is done, nothing is left undone” certainly doesn’t apply to me. I have a ton of things undone. So I better go and do nothing. Er, I mean do something. Well you know what I mean, I hope :-)

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