Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Wuwei (vô vi) is a very high art of leadership, written intensively in the Tao Te Ching (Đạo Đức Kinh) by Laozi (aka Lao Tzu, Lão Tử) as the fundamental book of Taoism (aka Daoism, Đạo học hay Lão giáo).

The problem is that the word Wuwei is misunderstood by most people as “doing nothing”, so they simply miss the art.

First, a true Wuwei person, called “the sage” in Tao Te Chinh, cares a lot about his people, so he constantly works a lot for them.

Second, the way the sage works is to go along with the natural orders and movements of things – which are natural movements of Tao (Đạo).

Third, by moving along with Tao, the sage only needs to make a little movement but may achieve a very hight result, such as when you work with a strong wind, you may be able to use a little bit of your own force to uproot a big tree.

Fourth, so the sage works a lot but always “looks like he does nothing” – that is the true meaning of Wuvei.

The sage understands all things but looks like he knows nothing,
Creates many things but does not own anything,
Quietly leads but does not interfere.
When his job is done, he withdraws himself from the scene.

That is Wuwei.

With compassion,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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