Sucess by Doing Nothing

There are many facets of the art of non-doing. Taking no action when no action is called for is one.

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who was extremely impatient.

While it was a delight for him to see the young shoots in his rice field breaking through the soil and growing a little bit taller day after day, he found the process just too slow.

“There must be a way to get the rice to grow faster?” he thought. It then hit upon him that he could ‘help’ the plant grow by elevating the shoots. Off he went, and before dawn he was at the field to get it done.

One by one, he pulled up each of the young plants by half an inch. Having accomplished his mission, he straightened his back and said to himself in a triumphant tone, “What a marvelous idea! Look how much taller the plants have grown in just a few hours!”

By noon, however, his heart was broken! All the plants that he helped to ‘grow’ had died!”

Is the farmer silly? There is no doubt he was!  Not only was his interference did not help, he stifled the growth

Is he alone?   To think deeply about it, we’re guilty of the same stupidity more often than we want to acknowledge.

Many a time, we want things to move fast, forgetting that they need time to develop, just like a seedling needing time to mature into rice.

We forget the importance of patience and non-doing.

There are many facets of the art of non-doing. Taking no action when no action is called for is one.

Observing this practice alone would be sufficient to help you accomplish more by doing nothing!

“Mastery of the world is achieved
by letting things take their natural course.
If you interfere with the way of Nature,
you can never master the world.”

Tao Te Ching quotes, Verse 48

Thanks CIFOR for the picture.