Nothing is Undone

I had a very strange experience Thursday. At some point during the day, I picked up my iPhone to make a call, and staring at me were the words “Nothing is undone” with no attribution to a sender of this text message. I quickly unlocked the phone to see who sent it and what else, if anything, they wrote. I found nothing – no message, no sender. I called a friend who had recently sent me a text to ask if she had sent it. She hadn’t. Goose bumps.

This passage from the Tao te Ching flashed across my mind’s eye, especially the lines “When nothing is done, Nothing is left undone.”

In the pursuit of knowledge,
Every day something is added.
In the practice of the Tao,
Every day something is dropped.
Less and less do you need to force things,
Until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
Nothing is left undone.

True master can be gained
By letting things go their own way.
It can’t be gained by interfering.

Tao te Ching # 48

While I am careful not to jump to conclusions, I could take this message as a reminder that, while doing is necessary to getting things done, being and not-doing are even more essential, especially if the doing is done with pushing or forcing. Things have a mysterious way of working, without us having to “make them happen.” We can participate in the process (watering plants, adding fuel to fires, providing useful information, etc), but we don’t need to make them happen.

And, in a larger sense, in some way, everything is perfect the way it is and nothing really needs to be done, but that’s another story!