I often feel a conflict between the desire to do something and the desire to do nothing.

"Wu wai" is often literally translated from Taoist literature as "do nothing," which is generally clarified by modern and ancient interpreters as something we shouldn't take too literally. For example some Zen masters will tell you that meditation and clarity comes from the mind doing nothing, and then turn around and tell you that their interpretation doesn't mean you have to do nothing with your life and you should also recycle and save the rainforests.

I guess my only original addition to the world of Taoist commentary is that I truly believe that doing nothing means doing nothing at all, and is good in it's own right.

I don't really mean "good" in a moral way, but I always remember the phrase from the Tao Te Ching, "do nothing, and nothing is left undone." Does the world really require your effort? Is everything depending on whether you recycle that can or not?

I credit Taoism with some of the strongest arguments against the statement that humans have free will. I tend to believe that they don't and that media is reassuring to them because it makes them feel like they do. The whole distinction between natural and unnatural is a false one in my opinion. "Man-made" objects like tools and cities are set up as distinct from "natural" objects such as rivers and birds. If that distinction is true, then man can affect his environment and somehow change the way that history and evolution is going.

Why do I think that's unlikely? It seems to me that animals and "natural things" can make things that are "unnatural" --- such as an anthill, or a monkey using a stick to knock down bananas out of a tree. (Have I lost all my readers yet? This sounds coherent to me only because I've had this argument w/ myself so many times before.)

To get back: whether I "exert my will" on the universe or not, it will eventually die a heat-death from entropy. Whether humans have free will or they don't, if I do nothing, eventually everything that needs to get done will.

And here's a key point I'll just add.

I often criticize religious believers because I believe they desire the reassurance that a concept of the afterlife brings. As for me, I believe that when we die we head to oblivion, and that the universe also tends towards oblivion. Eventually I celebrated this fact instead of fearing it - like the sage in Chuang Tzu who asks his friend four questions that the friend cannot answer. The sage jumps for joy because he realizes there are no answers to questions.

Perhaps this also goes a short way towards explaining why Yang Chu wouldn't sacrifice even one hair from his own head to save the universe.

If everything will get done and I'll end up in nothingness along with everything else, then I don't need to worry that I'm sinning or doing something wrong or ignoring my responsibilities. So in that way, perhaps even oblivion is falsely reassurring. Perhaps I put the same trust and faith in nothingness that christians put in their god, and rely on that mental construct for stability and reassurance.

I'd like to keep posting about this but I gotta get back to work as I have a lot to do....