Wu wei · 無為 · non-doing

Not idleness — effortless action: doing by not-forcing, like water finding its way downhill, like the sage who governs by getting out of the way. The Taoist perfects himself by subtracting — dropping ambition, cleverness, the will to control — until action arises of itself, in tune with the grain of things. Here the cousins part most cleanly. The Kabbalah perfects the world by adding: the mitzvah performed, the spark lifted, the vessel mended by effort. One tradition says stop striving and the Way will carry you; the other hands you a broken cosmos and a job. The nearest Jewish echo is only partial — ratzo va-shov, running and returning, which at least knows the value of the return to stillness.