In the sixth century BC, a Chinese scholar named Lao Tzu wrote 81 short essays, the Tao Te Ching. Rather than a word, each Chinese symbol represents an idea. Thus Lao Tzu was able to express great wisdom in brief passages. You might say that the Tao Te Ching is the earliest book to fully explain the Law of Attraction.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

How to Totally Control Your Reality!

Te Tao can be translated as The Universal Energy or The Flow of Nature. So when I mention Tao, feel free to choose the word that works best for you, whether God, the Great Spirit, Universal Energy, or some other expression. By whatever description, it’s the force that drives the Law of Attraction.

Once again, I rolled a die to select which essay from the Tao Te Ching to write about today. This time, the essay that I attracted was #14. After a deep breath and some eye rolls, I calmed back down. This is the mother essay, the one that goes to the core of what the Tao is, of what Universal Energy is. Don’t get me wrong, I love this essay. But at first, I couldn’t see how to make it understandable and most of all practical. Here goes.

What God is Not

Lao Tzu begins by saying what the Tao is not, what God is not. It can be “looked at but not seen.” As we look at the beauty of a tall tree, we can certainly see the tree, but we can’t see God, as much as we may be aware of the essence of God-in-the-tree. It can be “listened to but not heard.” When we listen to children laughing, or a bird singing, we aren’t hearing God, though we may be feeling His presence. It can be “reached for but not touched.” We can pray and meditate and feel, but we can’t hold onto God. We can’t through our senses ‘know’ what is the Tao, what is God.

This may sound like a contradiction of the knowledge that each of us, and everything that exists, is in fact God. We are certainly all connected, all the same Giant Spirit, all the Tao. The beauty of essay #14 is that it clarifies the distinction between form and essence. Yes, I am God, but the molecules in my body do not define what God is. Physical manifestations are evidence of the Tao, but they are not the Tao itself.

The Tao itself is “formless,” “soundless,” and “intangible.” Furthermore it is timeless. “Endlessly, the nameless goes on, Merging and returning to nothingness.” And it is without duality. “Its rising is not bright; Its setting is not dark.” How is all of this useful? A bunch of words about what God, Tao, Universal Energy, is not?

How Is This Helpful?

Actually, it’s incredibly helpful, and explains exactly how to use the Law of Attraction. The Tao doesn’t know the difference between a junker and a Ferrari. The Tao doesn’t see any difference between a job that pays $100,000 a year and a job that pays $10,000 a year. If you are trying to attract a Mercedes, picture the Tao shaking its head and saying, “What’s a Mercedes?”

The Tao is what you feel when you look at a towering tree, listen to children playing, sink into a peaceful meditation. The frequency of the emotion is what the Tao is. Putting the Law of Attraction into the simplest possible example, the Tao feels the resonance of your pleasure in the tree, and immediately sends you more opportunities to feel that resonance. It’s the pleasure that the Tao ‘gets,’ not the tree.

What does this tell us about the Law of Attraction? Whatever emotion we feel, whatever vibration or frequency we put out, we are going to get more of it back. LoA guides tell you to focus on the emotion you will feel when you have what you want, to feel as though you already have it. That’s great advice, but I’ll go one step further.

Keep Your Eyes Open

As you are pumping out the high vibes of having a new and happier job, the Tao is reading the high vibes and sending you back more and more opportunities for joy. The catch is that the Tao doesn’t know you want a new job. It only ‘knows’ to send you more happiness. If you get frustrated when the new job doesn’t appear, guess what you’ll start receiving? More and more frustration!

There’s a way around this seeming contradiction, and that’s to keep your eyes open. The Universe, the Tao, the Law of Attraction always delivers. If you are feeling joyful, more joy is available to you. It may not come in the form you thought you wanted, but it does come, and quickly. We only get in trouble when we expect the Tao to deliver WHAT we want, instead of HOW we want to feel.

When my truck died, my Soul wanted trouble-free transportation, the lightness and joy of not worrying about getting around. What I manifested was friendly, cheap taxis. I could have ignored the solution in front of my face, and become more and more frustrated that I couldn’t afford a new vehicle. Because I was tickled by the taxis, reveling in fun conversations with taxi drivers, within a couple of months I manifested my dream house a block from a large taxi stand.

How To Totally Control Your Reality!

The idea is to keep our eyes open and our minds available to ALL the possible manifestations of our desires. The easiest way to manifest abundance is to absolutely love everything about our lives. The final lines of essay #14 make this clear.

“Hold on to the ancient Tao; Control the current reality.” Whoa! How powerful it that! Once we understand that our emotions are being reflected and multiplied by the Tao, that this is what the Law of Attraction is all about, we truly do ‘control the current reality.’ Want more happiness? Be happy! Want more abundance? Be appreciative! “This is the essence of Tao.”

Thank you for accompanying me on this journey of discovery. I look forward to reading your thoughts. Warm hugs, 

Mary Carol






6 comments:

  1. Another wonderful post Mary Carol! And I totally agree. The Tao is talking about the essence, and this totally jives with what I teach - that the feeling is the most important thing.

    I'm really getting into this Tao thingy. yay!

    Huge hugs!
    Melody

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    1. Hi Melody,

      Thanks for joining me here. I always knew you were a Taoist in LOA clothes. Hee hee. Lao Tzu is the coolest dude, and funny too, like you.

      Warm hugs,

      Mary Carol

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  2. Mary Carol, if you ever decide to teach a philosophy course, let me know... I'll be first to sign up... ;-)

    "it clarifies the distinction between form and essence... I am God, but the molecules in my body do not define what God is"

    I love this. When I first came across this concept in my LOA reading, I immediately thought of the ocean. If we take a single drop from the ocean, it is still ocean. You can take that drop anywhere in the world and it is still ocean. It's in all ways still ocean, except you would have no idea of the kind of awesome power ocean has by looking at that one drop. And if you put that single drop back into the ocean, it will meld seamlessly with the whole again -- no matter where it's been, or what it's seen or done -- and become completely part of the ocean (and it's power), again. Hard to explain what I mean... I understand it in my own mind but trying to convey that picture in words is hard. But that metaphor helps me to understand this form/essence distinction better.

    And thank you for the part about only getting into trouble when we expect the Tao to deliver *what* we want instead of *how* we want to feel. This really helps clarify what I've been reading about LOA and focusing on the feeling behind what you want to manifest (know I understand *why*!). I think my problem has been with focusing on particular (though still general) outcomes, and not making it a point to look around at what else may be showing up (and thus perhaps missing it).

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    1. Hi Nathalie,

      I love your ocean analogy! We are totally on a wavelength. And thank you for the compliment on the philosophy class - maybe I'll put the idea on the wish wall by the bed! (as in the post I guested today on Deliberate Receiving)

      Trying to imagine the Soul as part of the Tao and yet also part of me, I came up with an ocean analogy too. It's like the ocean is the Tao, and my Soul is the part of the water that touches me. The water/Tao is the same, but my awareness of the part that touches me/Soul is heightened.

      Look around you for wondrous manifestations every day, and you are guaranteed to find them. Life is so cool!

      Thanks for writing! Warm hugs,

      Mary Carol

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  3. Great Mary Carol,

    This was perfect. I had never thought of it in quite this way, and it makes so much sense. And the lines:
    'The Tao doesn’t know the difference between a junker and a Ferrari. The Tao doesn’t see any difference between a job that pays $100,000 a year and a job that pays $10,000 a year. If you are trying to attract a Mercedes, picture the Tao shaking its head and saying, “What’s a Mercedes?”'

    Like a brick upside the head. A dim little light hidden behind all the clutter, until the brick cleared it away!

    And yes, making a comment is not very easy. Mostly because I couldn't understand all the options, or more correctly which option to use and how. But I tried a few times and finally figured one out that works the way I wanted.

    Thanks again!

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    1. Hi Nay,

      Thanks for persevering and getting a comment through! I do apologize and will sort out how to make it easy asap.

      I'm glad the light bulb brightened for you! It's a floodlight! The LoA just picks up pure vibration/emotion and mirrors it back amplified. The words and pictures are only to help us feel the emotion, which the Tao then reads and sends more of. Once you wrap you head around the concept, the whole process is beautifully simple. We get more of whatever emotion we feel. Ta Da. Done.

      Thanks again for joining the conversation, Nay! Hugs,

      Mary Carol

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