Daoism and LaoZi

Among the "100 philosophers" during between the Spring Autumn and Warring State period, Lao Zi was known for "Dao De Jing" (Classics of the Way and its Power). His works was the beginning of "Daoism" or "Classical Daoism" (philosophical side). Though Daoism and Confucianism share much similarity in its history (developing a political system to bring harmony to the Warring States) and philosophies (cultivating oneself and finding harmony between heaven and people), Daoism shifted its focus towards "Nature".

One main idea of "Daoism" is "non-action"; the way to become a sage and find harmony is to live in society as a "natural being" and blend into nature. Another way to understand this is that humans should not act "outside of the box" and recklessly that would bend nature's flow. Daoism believed that to achieve "non-action" harmony, one should not try hard (or try at all) to adjust his/her life to live along with nature. A good analogy to describes "non-action" is improvising in jazz. A musician tends to play better with more feeling and naturally if he/she does not try as hard to harmonize with others or think too much about the melodies. This way allows the musician to improvise along with the natural flow of the progression and groove in the background.

However, a contradicting side of this is that a musician must spend countless hours of practicing and playing to achieve this. Without a solid foundation of music theory, scales, and a sense of rhythm, it is hard for a musician to improvise naturally and play along with the flow. Similar to sports, it takes countless hours to achieve a "muscle memory" state for a player. This contradicts the idea in "Daoism" that it takes no practice to achieve "non-action" or a natural state.