The Short of It:
Solve the world by letting the world solve itself.
37. The Practice of Government.
Tau is ever inactive; and yet leaves nothing undone.
If [an heir] or a [sovereign] could keep it, all things would be, of their own accord, transformed (to [their] likeness).
If during the process of transformation, there should be any manifestation of desire, I would restrain it by the nameless Simplicity.
The nameless Simplicity would also produce an absence of all desire, which would again result in quietude; and the world would rectify itself.
37. ‘The Exercise of Government.’
37.1 The Tao in its regular course does nothing (for the sake of doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do.
37.2 If [heirs] and [sovereigns] were able to maintain it, all things would of themselves be transformed by them.
37.3 If this transformation became to me an object of desire, I would express the desire by the nameless simplicity.
Simplicity without a name Is free from all external aim. With no desire, at rest and still, All things go right as of their will.
37. Administration of Government.
37.1 Reason always practices non-assertion, and there is nothing that remains undone.
37.2 If [heirs] and [sovereigns] could keep Reason, the ten thousand creatures would of themselves be reformed. While being reformed they might yet be anxious to stir; but I would restrain them by the simplicity of the Ineffable.
37.3 “The simplicity of the unexpressed Will purify the heart of lust. Is there no lust there will be rest, And all the world will thus be blest.”
The Long of It:
Nature (Tao) acts inaction. We cannot outmaneuver it. If those in power want peace, they should let the world rest instead of constantly trying to solve what is inherently self-resolving.
-TB
