The Taoist practice of wu wei is about “doing without doing” or living your life in alignment with the flow of life, literally “going with the flow.”
This becomes possible when we accept that:
“Everything in life has its own flow, its own rhythm and speed. If we can tune in and align with it, we can achieve it without undue effort and enjoy effortless ease in everything we do. We find that we instinctively know what to do.” . do and when to do it. This intelligence is the Tao at work within and around us. Relax in this flow and allow the Tao to direct your life.” (The Unbreakable Self)
We are raised to believe that we get what we want in life as a result of what we do, of the actions we take. However…
This belief makes us create in reverse.
The underlying reason for this is that we do not understand the power of our energy. As a result of this, we often end up “chasing our tails” to offset the impacts of our unintentional negative energy.
In the Tao Te Ching, the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tsu said:
“In the practice of the Camino, every day something falls. There is less and less need to force things. until finally you arrive at non-action… When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.”
In other words, do without doing.
The problem we all face is that we are obsessed with doing, and that inevitably involves some form of struggle. Those of us with a Western-influenced background are culturally conditioned to be action-oriented and therefore automatically place a high value on activity. Unfortunately, what we don’t understand is that we are creating in a “reverse” way.
Most of our actions are out of fear, worry, or doubt because we truly believe that nothing will happen unless we do something. Therefore, instead of going with the flow, we end up trying to force our intentions and desires to manifest through our actions.
Here’s the secret to going with the flow
It is not your action that makes things happen, it is your state of energy.
It took me countless years to understand this dynamic of going with the flow! Years and years of working so hard, trying so hard…always pushing, pushing…yet the harder I pushed, the further the results seemed to go.
Eventually I came to understand that I needed to reduce my actions and increase my focus on managing my energetic state until I could feel the positive energy beginning to move within me. In contrast to my repeated efforts over so many years, this was not an energy based on doubt, fear, anxiety, worry, or need. I learned to apply the following truth:
If you focus on the energy, the feeling, of what you want instead of what you don’t want, you will know when it is time to act and what action to take.
And when you do, it will be effortless. The doors open and it will seem that the whole universe is on your side.
I once described a personal experience of this as having a huge red carpet roll out in front of me and all I had to do was keep moving fast enough to keep up with it!
What I have learned the hard way over many, many years, and without question or reservation, is that we need to use the leverage of energy, the same energy that creates everything in the universe, the energy of life.
You may have noticed that some people seem to wear a “charmed life” or have “the midas touch”. It may seem like they have an advantage over others.
At the other end of the spectrum there are so many people who try so hard and yet achieve so little despite all their efforts. This may not seem fair, but in all of my lived and observed life experience, this really does seem to be how The Energy of Life works.
That doesn’t seem fair, does it? But all the evidence seems to suggest to me that this is how the universe works.
We are culturally conditioned and educated to believe that it exists.”no gain no pain“And while there is truth to that, it’s not the whole picture. What matters is the energetic state applied to all that effort.
Actions are necessary, but they are the last component of the creation processes.
Actions alone cannot be used effectively to initiate results, because initiation is the function of your internal energetic state, then it follows thought, then action.
So the creation of whatever we apply ourselves to is through our energetic state. We live in an energetic universe that is held together in The Energy of Life and it is through the exercise and management of our energetic state, going with the flow, that we harmonize and attract experiences towards us.
So before you act or do anything, check with yourself and ask yourself: “What is my energy state?”
What is the easiest way to say? You can tell by how you feel. Your feelings show you your state of vibration/energy.
How you feel, your energetic state, determines what you attract.
When you do it this way, you will find that The Energy of Life will provide a different set of circumstances for you that requires much less action.
“The Tao never does anything, but through it all things are done.”
Read more: Go with the flow