Overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.
That without substance can enter where there is no room.
Hence I know the value of non-action.
Teaching without words and work without doing
Are understood by very few." 43
"Tao abides in non-action,
Yet nothing is left undone.
If kings and lords observed this,
The ten thousand things would develop naturally.
If they still desired to act,
They would return to the simplicity of formless substance.
Without form there is no desire.
Without desire there is tranquility.
And in this way all things would be at peace." 37
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In a typical fist-fight, he who knocks his opponent down will win. This is because, it is believed that such act of punching out the hell of your nemesis will eventually make yourself kind'a higher than the latter's level; you are then considered to be the stronger, faster or braver one. But as the usual excuse-response goes: "He who doesn't give a damn in a fight is the bravest/strongest". Why? Is it because he knows that he is strong enough not to care about his opponent because no matter what, he will definitely win in such pewee fight? Or is it that a true strong person is mature enough not to respond in such a childish activity?
Another example, a recent one, which involves the President of the Philippines, Pres. Benigno Simeon Aquino III, being metaphorically "slapped" in public during his speech in a public meeting with the PNP-SAF Commandos who were the allied forces of the forty-four (44) officers who died in the mis-encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last January 25th of this year. Although, honestly, I don't know why the President was giving a speech to them or even of what kind. The thing is, when he asked the troops if there have anything they wanted to talk about, he was not responded by the said policemen (Yes, you can see it is a little awkward in this part). The silence deafened the surroundings as the President ask again and was still left unanswered. As what my mother said, upon seeing the said speech: "Right there justifies that sometimes, silence is the wildest and loudest scream". Indeed, I got her point, that sometimes in our lives, to not to say anything is to shout at the very top of our lungs that it is so fed up that it cannot even produce a single sound. Yes, in a literal sense, the policemen didn't say nor do anything, but that act of not doing anything is an act of sending a dreadful message that perhaps even any word cannot give justice to its unscrupulousness.
Thus, as how it was mentioned above in the said chapters of the Tao Te Ching: Yes, there is no action that happened, but still nothing is left undone. Here we can understand that no-action is indeed an action where one can really perhaps address a message more than that of the visible actions. In the case of the fist-fight, no one requires another to fight back, because somehow, in not fighting-back there is an implication of being strong enough or mature. While on the other hand, in the PNP's case, even they didn't say anything, the message was technically loud and clear, and to be honest, you don't want to talk about it. Nevertheless, all of these are validations to that of the Tao of Lao Tzu: That nothing is the primordial element of all the things and from nothing, comes something, then eventually everything.
Although there is this question: How can one create something out from nothing? Well, what else can I say, it's the Tao.
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