The Short of It:
The Universe is self-correcting. Push hard at your own peril.
29. Non-Action.
When one who wishes to take the world in hand tries to make it (according to [their] wishes by active measures of [their] own), I perceive that [they] will never have done [it]. The spiritual vessels of the world must not be made. [Those] that [make, mar. Those] that [grasp, lose]. For in the nature of things, while one goes ahead, another will lag behind; while one blows hot, another will blow cold; while one is strengthened, another is weakened; while one is supported, another falls. Therefore the wise [person] (simply) puts away all excess, and gaiety, and grandeur.
29. ‘Taking No Action.’
29.1 If any one should wish to get the kingdom for [themselves], and to effect this by what [they do], I see that [they] will not succeed. The kingdom is a spirit-like thing, and cannot be got by active doing. [Those] who would so win it [destroy] it; [those] who would hold it in [their] grasp [lose] it.
29.2 The course and nature of things is such that What was in front is now behind; What warmed anon we freezing find. Strength is of weakness oft the spoil; The store in ruins mocks our toil.
Hence the sage puts away excessive effort, extravagance, and easy indulgence.
29. Non-assertion.
29.1 When one desires to take in hand the empire and make it, I see [them] not succeed. The empire is a divine vessel which cannot be made. One who makes it, mars it. One who takes it, loses it.
29.2 And it is said of beings: “Some are obsequious, others move boldly, Some breathe warmly, others coldly, Some are strong and others weak, Some rise proudly, others sneak.”
29.3 Therefore the holy [person] abandons excess, [they abandon] extravagance, [they abandon] indulgence.
The Long of It:
The world as a vessel (or vessels) is a running theme throughout the Tao Te Ching.
Lao Tsu warns us against overfilling it (Chap 4), because its usefulness depends on it being empty (Chap 11). But he takes things a step further in Chapter 29. Active consumption of the world will only result in one thing, a consumed world.
“Coercive interventions from ‘above,’ while perhaps temporarily efficacious, are, in the long term and in the big picture, a source of destabilization and impoverishment” (Ames 123).
-TB
