Read time 2 minutes. Progress inaction is a stand alone article in our continuing series, Addition Through Subtraction.
Let’s continue our exploration of the wisdom of inaction—what Eastern philosophy often calls not-doing.
When we think of progress, we usually picture cause and effect: If I study, I’ll get good grades, which will lead to success. Action → Result. That formula is deeply embedded in us. But from a Zen view, the path of progress unfolds quite differently.
When doing undoes
Say we notice arrogance within ourselves and decide we’d rather be more humble. So we try to act humble. Makes sense, right? But hidden in this effort is something less helpful: bias.
To emulate Tao, we must remember that Tao sees the equality of all things. But the moment we glorify humility and condemn arrogance, we’ve created a hierarchy—one trait raised, one trait lowered. That gap is bias. And in bias, Tao disappears.
The deeper issue isn’t arrogance or humility. It’s the identification. Humility becomes a badge, a role we play. Ego grabs it, owns it. We start trying to be humble people. But humility, like arrogance, just is. Neither trait defines who we are. When we stop inflating one and resisting the other, they begin to lose their charge. The distance between them shrinks.
In that narrowing gap—where labels fall away—we uncover something deeper: Absolute Humility. Not the opposite of arrogance, but the quiet unity beneath them both.
Not-doing as integration
Progress inaction means stepping back from effort itself. Not to abandon growth, but to let it happen on its own terms. When we stop trying to be humble, we stop reinforcing the split. And that not-doing—that resting in Tao—is what allows true transformation to occur.
This might raise questions: Why does the middle hold Absolute Humility and not Absolute Arrogance? What happens when the dualities dissolve altogether?
Good questions for you to ponder. Alas, they must be left for another day.
But for now, if today’s lesson makes sense—if it feels true—then we begin to glimpse a new form of progress. Not made. Not earned. Just revealed.
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Hubert Benoit was a French psychotherapist and author that helped to open up the landscape of eastern philosophy for the western mind. His influence strongly permeates the teachings on this website. The Self-Discovery Portal offers some additional information on the man and his work.
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