The Dao of Letting Go (and Not Trying)

Dr. Edward Slingerland, author ofTrying Not to Try: Ancient China, Modern Science, and the Power of Spontaneityon “wu wei,” the Confucians and the Daoists’ key to political and spiritual success.

Wu wei is an early Chinese term that means literally no doing or no trying. But I think a better translation is effortless action. And it’s the central spiritual ideal for these early thinkers I look at. So the Confucians and the Daoists. And what it looks a little bit like flow or being in the zon...