Laozi
天下之至柔，馳騁天下之至堅。 無有入無間，吾是以知無為之有益。 不言之教，無為之益，天下希及之。
James Legge
The softest thing in the world dashes against and overcomes the hardest; that which has no (substantial) existence enters where there is no crevice. I know hereby what advantage belongs to doing nothing (with a purpose).
There are few in the world who attain to the teaching without words, and the advantage arising from non-action.
Victor H. Mair
The softest thing under heaven gallops triumphantly over The hardest thing under heaven. Nonbeing penetrates nonspace. Hence, I know the advantages of nonaction. The doctrine without words, The advantage of nonaction - few under heaven can realize these!
C. Spurgeon Medhurst
The world’s weakest drives the world’s strongest.
The indiscernible penetrates where there are no crevices. [^1]
From this I perceive the advantages of non-action. [^2]
Few indeed in the world realize the instructions of the silence, or the benefits of inaction. [^3]
Those who have heard the voice which speaks in the silence, and have learned the benefits of non-action know that no armour is so safe a panoply as the shield of weakness, even according to that strange word of the Apostle Peter, “Forasmuch then as Christ suffered in the flesh, ARM yourselves also with the same mind.” The Christ conquered on the cross; His crown of thorns is a crown of crowns, and my greatest strength lies in my power to divest myself of self. Though indiscernible this power “penetrates where there are no crevices.”
[^1] “Without and within all beings, immovable and also movable; by reason of His subtlety imperceptible; at hand and far away is That.” Bhagavad Gita.
”For wisdom is more moving than any motion; she passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her pureness.”—Wisdom of Solomon, vii, 24.
[^2] As the indiscernible meets with no obstacles, so the power of non-action is irresistible.
[^3] Chinese history supplies a severe, if somewhat crude example, of the doctrine of inaction. It is stated that when Ju-shih-ki (Tang dynasty A.D. 618-905) was on the eve of accepting an official position, his uncle called him and said that he felt ill at ease respecting him. “What will you do, Nephew,” he asked, “if some one strikes you?” “Receive the blow in meekness” was the reply. “If you are reviled, what then?” “I shall be silent.” “What if you are spat upon?” “I shall wipe away the spittle.” “In doing that,” answered his uncle, “you may be showing resentment to the spitter, and that would be a wrong.”
Ursula K. Le Guin
What’s softest in the world rushes and runs over what’s hardest in the world.
The immaterial enters the impenetrable.
So I know the good in not doing.
The wordless teaching, the profit in not doing -not many people understand it.