Lao Tzu & the Way

Lao Tzu and the Way

Lao Tzu points to the Tao, the Way, an underlying flow that runs through all things without forcing. His answer to life's striving is wu wei, effortless action: not passivity, but moving with the grain of things rather than against them. Like water, which yields yet wears down stone, the wise act by not forcing.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

Where this sits in the course

“Lao Tzu & the Way” is lesson 2 of 5 in Eastern Currents, a course about a parallel ancient path: suffering, flow, roles, and liberation.. The lessons are sequenced rather than a menu, so this one assumes what came before it.

Eastern Currents is itself one of 18 courses in thinkr. The set opens with what philosophy is, moves through the Stoics and the Eastern traditions, then into what can be known, what exists, how to act and how power works — closing on practical reasoning you can use in an argument this week.

More from Lao Tzu

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.”

In the app this lesson is followed by 3 exercises that check whether the idea actually landed — and every answer, right or wrong, is explained rather than scored. That is the part a written page cannot reproduce.