“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.”
― Lao Tzu
Huston Smith (1919-2016) was an author, professor, and renowned American scholar of religious studies. He was born in 1919, in Suzhou, China, to Methodist missionary parents and remained there for 17 years. He then emigrated to the United States for his studies and received a BA from Central Methodist University in 1940 and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1945.
Smith's long academic career was marked by a deep interest in the world's religions, and he dedicated most of his life to the study and exploration of various spiritual traditions.
Like Alan Watts, Smith committed his life to bridging the gaps between various faiths and encouraging a deeper understanding of the world’s religious traditions. He once reminded us that “the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.”
The following passage is from one of his most celebrated books — The World's Religions. Smith gives us a brief philosophical introduction to the Taoist tradition and how we can live in balance with the Tao — that ineffable and transcendent principle that underlies and unites the universe. In other words, “a life lived above tension.”
I hope you enjoy it.
The object of Philosophical Taoism is to align one’s daily life to the Tao, to ride its boundless tide and delight in its flow. The basic way to do this… is to perfect a life of wu wei (Non-Action or Effortless Action). We have seen that wu wei should not be translated as do-nothingness or inaction, for those words suggest a vacant attitude of idleness or abstention. Better renderings are pure effectiveness and creative quietude.
Creative quietude combines within a single individual two seemingly incompatible conditions—supreme activity and supreme relaxation. These seeming incompatibles can coexist because human beings are not self-enclosed entities.
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