ChiDragon

It is 從 "無" 到 "有", from the "invisible to "visible". You have to interpret it philosophically. Tao, sometimes, is formless and sometimes not. LaoTze told us that in Chapter 1 to begin with! 1. 有物混成 … 1. A thing formed; Did you see something was add to form Tao in line 1? Perhaps the English translators thought it about the same way as you do. That was why they added chaos to blend in with Tao.

Experience is different from the true definition of Wu Wei. At least, not by interpreting the characters by themselves anyway.

Chapter 25 1. 有物混成 2. 先天地生 3. 寂兮寥兮 4. 獨立而不改 5. 周行而不殆 6. 可以為天地母 7. 吾不知其名 8. 強字之曰"道" 9. 強為之名曰"大" 10. 大曰逝 11. 逝曰遠 12. 遠曰反 13. 故道大 14. 天大 15. 地大 16. 人亦大 17. 域中有四大 18. 而人居其一焉 19. 人法地 20. 地法天 21. 天法道 22. 道法自然 1. A thing formed; 2. Before heaven and earth were born; 3. Soundless and formless; 4. Independent but unchangeable; 5. Orbiting but never exhaust; 6. It may be the mother of heaven and earth. 7. I don't know its name. 8. I'm reluctantly calling it "Tao". 9. I'm even more reluctant to have the name "Big" for it. 10.Big but dynamic; 11.Dynamic but far; 12.Far but reciprocating. 13.Therefore, Tao is great. 14.Sky is great. 15.Earth is great. 16.Human is great. 17.In space, there are four great's; 18.Thus human is one of them here. 19.Human follows Earth. 20.Earth follows Heaven. 21.Heaven follows Tao. 22.Tao follows its own nature

It was a copycat. I am revising it now to read: 1. A thing formed

Show me chaos in that version. PS In the Guodian version, I found Chapter 25 1. 有狀混成 1. A thing formed. No chaos!

Never mind. As long we and all understood the principle of Wu Wei the same way, I'll be happy. The rest is insignificant. Peace!

That is the principle of Wu Wei. If it was understood in the first place, then why are we still going back and forth about it?

Chapter 25 1.有物混成 1. A thing formed There was no chaos. I don't see it in the first line. You are reading too many mistranslated version with misinterpretations. The translators wanted to add some extra ingredients to contaminate Tao.

That would be the effect from the intervention. It could be prevented by not having an intend to manipulate someone.

You are not controlling the rain falling from the sky. You are only controlling the water on the ground. If you are falling from a building, can you reverse the falling and go back up the building?

Dead wrong! Please reread Chapter 1. 道, Tao comes in this order: 1. 道理: principle; reason; reasoning 2. 道德: morality 3. 道路: road; path; way

Yes, that was partially looking at it. Did Tao create all things and the universe? BTW "Regulating" is not a good choice of word here wie wu wie.

Your conditioned self nature may be causing harm to Nature too. You will be ended up dealing with Nature after all. You are speaking for yourself other than 为無为，Wei Wu Wei.

Did you read or understand the TTC?

Are you a teenager? How often do masturbate. Do you ejaculate often? You should stop all this kind of activity. You are having a biological problem. No one can help you but yourself. Do ask I tell you here. Try this procedure it should work for all kinds of pains due to this kind of situations: I had helped few guys here for your kind of problem sometimes ago. It seems worked for them from their response. Two of them came back and thanked me for it. If you have any questions, just come back and let see what I can do for you. Good luck!

There was a second party intervention that cannot be ignored.

The TTC says that to you ? Can you control the rain? Can you extinguish the sun? Can stop the tiger from running towards you? Can you stop a spider building a web? Can you move a mountain? Can you stop gravity? Can you... and....? Do I need to read a book to tell me that? I grok it.

Chapter 5 3.聖人不仁， 4.以百姓為芻狗。 3. Sages have no mercy, 4. Treating people as straw dogs. The straw dogs were used in ritual ceremonies. They will become not useful after the ceremony. Then, they will be stashed way in a dirty storage. It become useful again for the next ritual ceremony. The sage, actually, means ruler. Straw dogs is just a figure of speech. It is only simply suggesting the higher authority should be impartial to handle all matters regardless.

Excessive control over something is doom to failure!

Yes, Nature do provide me with foods to eat. Perhaps to eat is not intentionally. I don't eat when I am not hungry. When I am hungry, I feed myself is because it is a natural thing for me to do. If I don't feed myself and resulted in death, then I am violated the law of Nature. If it is because you are making that statement about eating carrot and bok choy signifying that I should not eat in violating the conscpt of Wu Wei. Then, you are too is because have an intention of some kind. Let me give you a good example for the violation of Wu Wei. There is this couple desperately wanted their son to be a doctor. Sadly, the son wants to be an artist. It was just because the son wanted to please the parents. So, he spent few miserable years to get a medical degree. As soon, he got his degree and handed over to the parents. The next day, he committed suicide. The result was that the parents did not let nature take its course on its own and caused the tragedy. Sorry to say, I am related to the family.

The lines are implicating that Tao is unselfish by not interrupting with the course of Nature. The hidden message is about Wu Wei and Tao is being virtuous.

Chapter 51 - 玄德的無為1.道生之，2.德畜之，3.物形之，4.勢成之。5.是以萬物莫不尊道而貴德。6.道之尊，7.德之貴，8.夫莫之命而常自然。9.故,10.道生之，11.德畜之。12.長之育之。13.亭之毒之。14.養之覆之。15.生而不有，16.為而不恃，17.長而不宰。18.是謂玄德。 Chapter 51 The Divine Virtue of Wu Wei1. Tao engenders it,2. Te rears it.3. Matter forms it,4. Environment grows it.5. Hence, all things respect Tao and honor Te.6. The dignity of Tao,7. The value of Te.8. They do not interfere but let them be natural.9. Therefore,10. Tao engenders it,11. Te rears it.12. Grow it and nourish it,13. Let it grow to maturity,14. To foster it and protect it.15. Engenders it but not possess it.16. For it but not restraining it,17. Raise it but not controlling it,18. It was called divine virtue.

By the definition of Wu Wei, any human intervention to Nature is not Wu Wei. BTW There is a term for the opposite of Wu Wei is You Wei(有為).

First of all, I knew something like that will be coming from you! Let me cover myself with some preliminary philosophical back ups. I am strictly going by the book of the TTC. In a human environment, anything that is uncontrollable by human is Nature. Since I have my S covered, now, I can speak freely. The bird building a nest that is nature. I have no control of it. I have no intention to remove the nest or destroy it. It is because of Wu Wei. If I become naughty, and disturb the bird or remove its nest, then I would be accused of being not Wu Wei. It is because I had interrupt the course of Nature. To you, the building a bird nest may be a modification to Nature. However, to a Taoist, it is only the course of Nature. The bird needs a place to live by building a nest on a tree is completely natural! Don't you think?

These two lines are saying that Tao is eternal. It cannot be named with any name. You can't talk about it just with words. Tao, here, is a thing that is indescribable. In the later chapters, Tao was not just a thing. The actions of Tao will become the principles of Tao. An intellectual understanding has to go more deeper into reading the TTC. Reading one line or two do not give the whole picture of the TTC. One will see Tao, sometimes, is a principle tao(lower case). When Tao is capitalized, it is Tao itself. Ofc, in Chinese do not have the luxury to capitalize the characters as in English. However, it was done mentally in a native mind.