TAOISM | The Power of Letting Go

Mastery of the world is achieved by

letting

things take their natural course. You cannot dominate the world by changing the natural way. Lao Tzu Our civilization is in a state of constant struggle, in which control seems to be the highest virtue. You don't have to look far to see this: in the workplace, for example, employees are increasingly controlled and supervised, especially now that we have the technology to do so. And governments are putting more effort into tracking their citizens, whether by monitoring cameras or proposing a so-called "social credit system." Ironically, the latter is a Chinese invention that goes completely against a philosophy that arose from the same soil: Taoism.

Unlike a control-obsessed society, Taoism revolves around

letting

go and letting go. At first glance, the act of letting go may seem like a form of weakness. But according to the Taoists, with a correct understanding of how the universe works, we can approach life smarter, more efficiently and go with the flow, rather than swimming against it. Therefore, the

power

of letting go is a form of strength that is based on sophistication rather than strength. The Tao Te Ching, the primary Taoist scripture, was written by a mysterious sage named Lao Tzu. There are countless ways we can interpret this text.

One way is to see it as a guide for a ruler. What characterizes the Tao Te Ching passages on governance is that Lao Tzu places emphasis on governing “not governing,” as he compared governing a country to frying a small fish: too much poking spoils the meat. He maintained that when a ruler tightens his control over the people, all kinds of negative side effects will occur. We see that people become distrustful of each other when the government is too condescending, and when it is too intrusive, people become rebellious. But when a leader is tactful and acts with integrity, people become whole as they are given the space to evolve naturally.

It is clear that Lao Tzu favors a passive form of government, which applies not only to governing a State, but also to our own government. Because letting things go is key to letting nature do the work, which applies to any level. In this video, I would like to show you several ways that Taoism shows us the

power

of letting go. The first is the art of... (1) Non-doing The Taoist concept of Wu Wei can be explained as "effort action", or the so-called "flow state", but also as "non-doing". or 'knowing when to act and when not to'. When we look critically at ourselves, we see that the need for control is prevalent in many areas of life.

We feel the need to control our pets, our children, our gardens, our video games, (in some cases) our partners and, above all, our future. Now, control is not always bad. To survive, we need to exert our influence on the environment to a certain extent. Especially self-control can lead us in a positive direction. Without control, human civilization would probably never have existed. But too much gets us nowhere. We seem to systematically underestimate the natural influences that underlie our daily lives. We cannot control everything and many things happen when we stop controlling them. Take a tree as an example.

We can plant it, we can water it, we can add some fertilizer to it and make sure it's exposed to enough sunlight. But any additional intervention would only harm the process because we interrupt the work of nature. Another example is attraction. The first step to attracting someone is simply showing ourselves, so that the person we want to attract knows that we exist. So, attraction happens or it doesn't. When the attraction is there, one can easily ruin it by taking too many actions. Attraction is a natural phenomenon that is out of our control. It is not enforceable at all.

Rather, it has to grow or burst spontaneously. And there is only one way to let the seed of attraction grow into a beautiful tree; which does not intervene, except for some occasional watering. Silence makes the heart grow more affectionate. That is why “letting go” is vital in relationships. Because by letting go, we give space for the forces of the universe to unfold. After a fight, for example. anger erodes naturally. And when trust is violated, restoration cannot be imposed: it has to grow back naturally. So letting go makes the difference between controlling and allowing. The second is... (2) Accept the change.

The Taoists were well aware that life unfolds in a constant movement between opposites: between high and low, light and dark, yin and yang. There's not much we can do about it, and the most efficient way to live is to simply follow the waves of existence. The flow of life and its transformations are inevitable. However, we see many people clinging to their circumstances. In the river current metaphor, they hold on tightly to a branch or rock, afraid to let go because they want complete control over their position. They just don't trust the universe. And the consequence of this is a rigid lifestyle.

They see life passing them by, including many opportunities for positive change, and they miss out on a lot of fun. As Lao Tzu wrote in the Tao Te Ching, and I quote: The living are soft and accommodating; the dead are rigid and stiff. Live plants are flexible and tender; the dead are brittle and dry. End of quote. There are also those who swim against the current. They are the biggest energy wasters of all. Perhaps they see honor and virtue in taking an extremely unpleasant stance in life. But exerting constant resistance to how the universe develops is not a very efficient way to live and will most likely wear you down and make you miserable.

This non-acceptance of “the way things are” is also the cause of people fighting against themselves. Due to certain social expectations, people engage in a battle against their inherent nature, instead of flowing with the attributes that nature has given them. We could say: “follow your strength, instead of trying to repair your weakness.” Accepting change also applies to uselessness and usefulness. The Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi observed that usefulness depends on the circumstances, as he spoke of a merchant who tried to sell t-shirts to a tribe, whose members were covered in tattoos and always showed them walking around shirtless. For them, shirts are useless.

But for us, at least for most of us, they are not useless at all. Usefulness and uselessness are relative and should not be treated rigidly. When you live in New York, for example, having a car is less useful than when you live somewhere in the countryside, where the next town is thirty miles away. Therefore, we must be willing to let go of things that are useless in a given situation and adopt instead what is useful. This is how we make change an ally and not an enemy. The third is... (3) Don't focus on results. Comparable to the Stoics, the Taoists observed that focusing on future outcomes has a negative effect on us.

Focusing too much on the future makes us anxious. Our current efforts are driven by the desire for an uncontrollable outcome, and the more we crave it, the less we value the only thing we have, which is the present moment. Zhuangzi goes a step further by telling us that the more we value something external, the worse we perform in the present. He tells us about an archer who loses his ability to shoot when he concentrates too much on the prize. I quote: He who competes for a piece of clay puts all his skill into it. If the prize is a brass buckle, he shoots timidly;

If it is for a thing of gold, he shoots as if he were blind. The archer's skill is the same in all cases; but (in the last two cases) he is under the influence of solicitation and he regards the external reward as the most important. Anyone who gives importance to the external shows in himself stupidity. End of quote. Now, this doesn't mean that people who want external things are stupid. It means that when our mind is in the future, we become paralyzed in the present. This principle is at the basis of the "flow state" we see in activities such as sports, art, and dance.

When we experience this state of flow, we are so immersed in the task at hand that we completely forget about the future. It's as if the dance dances itself. The last one for now is... (4) Let go of excess. In a society where status is a primary concern, everyone wants to be on top. Not because it's necessarily the best place to be, but because we've collectively decided that high status is preferable and low status is horrible. This also entails a collective pursuit of the former and a collective aversion to the latter. But the tallest trees are the ones that capture the most wind.

And when we are at the top, it takes tremendous effort to stay there, because everyone wants to take your position. It's stressful compared to the lower regions, where you live more privately, with less competition, fewer enemies, and generally less effort. The other extreme, however, is a place of deprivation. If we deliberately seek the absolute bottom, we become ascetics. Although in a different way, there is still a strong attachment; attachment to deprivation. The question we can ask ourselves is: what do we really need? Zhuangzi observed that a bird nesting in the forest wants nothing more than a branch.

And a mouse that drinks from the pond only drinks a mouthful. So by targeting what we need and letting go of excess, we prevent possessions from becoming our prison cell, allowing us to travel light. Epicurus also observed that the basic necessities of life are easy to obtain and that living in moderation is the key to happiness. It is an easy and sustainable path. As Lao Tzu wrote: “Those who use moderation are already on the path to the Tao.” End of quote. When we stop trying, we give nature room to develop. By trusting the universe and accepting that it is constantly changing, there is an opportunity to become flexible and flexible, rather than rigid and brittle.

The power of letting go means that we float along with the current, without holding on to rocks or branches, and that we let go of dead weight, so that we can navigate through life with minimal effort. Thanks for watching.