Throughout history, the concept of “doing nothing” has sparked debates, suggesting that our efforts are futile against destiny. In China, many call it wu wei. It argues that weighing benefits and harms, or right and wrong, is pointless since the outcomes remain unchanged regardless of our actions. It also leads to a sense of fatalism that we don’t usually find in Chinese thought and philosophy. This argument serves as the central purpose of this chapter. What the Book of Lieh Tzu, along with my interpretation, does to dismiss ideas of fatalism is to take the concept of “doing nothing” and turn it around, suggesting that it encourages spontaneity aimed at fostering moral behavior.
When I began writing over thirty years ago, it was the concepts of “endeavor and destiny” that captivated and intrigued me the most. What did they truly signify, and what was their historical importance? How can success and failure be understood when they are given equal weight and an equal chance to prevail? Seeing things as they are without understanding why captures the essence of destiny, contrasting it with the blind or unconscious flow of nature or the Tao.
Sometimes a paradox, or even something seen as hypocritical. What may be good for one may in-turn be bad for another. Who can decide the proper way? The stories below in this chapter are meant to uncover and explore human nature that define the underlying currents or meaning of our actions. Lieh Tzu reveals our efforts by challenging or even rejecting conscious choice, emphasizing the need to cultivate the ability to respond naturally without considering alternatives, engaging in actions that are spontaneous and unplanned.
We should act naturally, allowing our presence to create effortless outcomes without needing to deliberate on the right response or other options. What happens next is that we decide to refrain from taking any actions that are not aligned with the Way of the Tao. Aligning with the Tao becomes our primary endeavor or focus, ensuring that our destiny is secure.
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter Six – Endeavor and Destiny
91. Introduction… Shaping events along the Way
Keeping to the refrain of doing nothing. While letting the spontaneity of each situation come forward as the ultimate 
invitation to remain at peace and as one with nature. Life’s events either streaming forward of themselves spontaneously or as the end results of one’s efforts or endeavors. Who can say which will lead the way?
Where is the dividing line between what can be considered as heaven’s intent and where a man’s actions will begin and end?
The Confucians tell us that whether our actions are right or wrong depend upon ourselves. But whether they lead to wealth, poverty, a long life or early death is only for heaven to say.
While the Mohists claim that wealth and long life also depend on us since they are heaven’s reward for righteous and moral conduct. Both having their own designs on what should become of our destiny’s moral endeavors.
However, should you not remain free of questions of destiny knowing all efforts of endeavor are useless in determining one’s fate? What can benefit and harm, right and wrong come to if all have the same results in the long run. 
The sage knows to take the road to spontaneity. That the Tao teaches to act instinctively.
To know without knowing. To see without the need to see. To hear without needing to hear. To touch without needing to touch. To know what needs to be said but remain silent. Simply to be. Remaining lost to space and time.
Be the first to respond without conceiving alternatives. With your actions natural to the events swirling around you. Commit to your own essence of an unpremeditated oneness through simple acts of kindness and virtue.
What can then come forth, but your own predictability? Training yourself so as to allow your actions to be so of themselves as to happen without conscious thought. Conscious choice and endeavor becoming one so that any destiny is assured. So that there becomes no choice only our natural response. 5/30/95
Number ninety-one of one hundred fifty-eight entries
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