The action/no-action reminds me of somin Chopra wrote about in Seven Spiritual Secrets of Sucecess: The Law of Least Effort. You can find it online here:
Law of Least Effort
Its sorta like the path of least resistance. Sometimes you have resistance to the idea of things happening a certain way, so things just happen the next least-resistant way. Sometimes action really is the path of least resistance and sometimes there's nothing you can do physically, like ALG's examples. I was talkin to ALG about htis a little while ago, about how people create these artificial tests to test IM about things which they could obtain by simply doing it themselves physically (which is not inherently bad, as long as they're detached enoguh). They also become too attached to the idea of testing IM that it contaminates all their intentions, but that's a different story.
Its also very much like Yoda said. Do or do not, there is no try. The Tao Te Ching weighs in a similar way (Lucas wanted Yoda to be a Taoist sort of teacher anyhoo).
Eckhart Tolle writes about this state, too, where you do take action, but are totally detached from the outcome.
I've actually been reading up on the so-called "Protestant" work ethic that prevades our society. Some different perspectives on it here:
History of Work Ethic Seth's Blog: Labor Day