Effortless Doing

"If you want to be a good boatman,

stop trying to control the boat."

Chuang Tzu

"Stop trying to control;

let go of fixed plans and concepts

and your life will unfold by itself."

Lao Tzu

We experience the Tao (the effortless unfolding of the Eternal Now), by letting go of our fruitless attempts to control the direction that Life is moving in, and instead, 'go with the flow', allowing it to carry us to exactly where we need to be (right Here). The easiest way to feel this 'effortless flow' is through the Taoist practice of Wu Wei, which means 'doing not doing', as in having all of your needs met while exerting the least amount of effort and energy as possible.

From another perspective, it's getting our mind (the thoughts in our head), with its resistance and worry; out of the way, and allowing divine Intelligence (the Tao) to do the heavy lifting. Of course, this runs counter to the prevailing wisdom (madness?) of the world, which tells us we need to sweat, worry and do 'something, anything' to make things work out the way we think they should. In this constant state of tension and unease, we cut ourselves off from the creative energy that we need to bring our goals and plans to fruition. We also deplete ourselves of the very joy and enthusiasm that make life worth living in the first place.

The good news is that, when we drop our exhausting attempts to force Life to go in a particular direction, and instead live in harmony with how it's unfolding, it begins to show us exactly where we need to go and what we need to do. As we begin to trust this inner-direction, we discover an effortless 'doing' that always leads us to the perfect circumstances for our happiness. With struggle now gone, we also rediscover the joy and enthusiasm that is always at the heart of all creative activity, and in the process actually begin to enjoy our lives once again. We also find that the more we stop our compulsive 'doing', the easier it is to find the path we are looking for; which is always right under our feet. All we have to do is walk it.

"Less and less do you need to force things,

till finally you arrive at non-action.

When nothing is done,

nothing is left undone."

Tao Te Ching