I went to The College of St. Teresa, in Winona, MN, an all women’s Catholic facility. One of our buildings was Tao Center, a guest house run by the nuns. That was the first I’d heard Tao and no clue what it meant. What I knew is that I loved being in that building because it was extremely peaceful, even simply walking in the hallways.
Generally stated, Tao is the flow of energy through the Universe. It is a big word with many uses and even more understandings. It is that way on purpose. The Tao is experiential, thus making it impossible for two people to have the same understanding of it. In short, defining Tao is the language version of nailing jello to a wall.
For purposes of our discussion today, Tao, is the flow of chi (life energy).
Understanding Tao is fundamental to the concept of manifesting. I’ve discussed manifesting before and feel strongly that it has become largely a business buzz word now. However, it still is an important concept to thoroughly understand. The biggest problem I encounter with my clients is their focus on manifesting.
“How do I manifest a better life? A car? Winning the lottery? A better job? More money? A successful business?”
Manifesting is not a process so much as it is an outcome…a result of the process of Tao.
The process of Tao is like breathing. The outcome of good breathing (and yes there is bad breathing) is fully oxygenated blood. The outcome of bad breathing is not fully oxygenated blood. No one ever thinks about oxygenating their blood when they are breathing, in fact, most of the time no one ever thinks about their breathing at all. Yet they are doing it all the time.
When we are conscious of our breathing we can change the chemistry of our body. We oxygenate our blood fully, we relax our muscles and affect the hormones produced. Our experience is heightened by merely breathing more consciously. So it is with living and manifesting. When we live consciously we affect the energy of our life, our chi, and this affects the things around us. When we raise our chi vibrations, the lower chi vibrations in the Universe become uncomfortable and move further away from us, while the higher chi vibrations of the Universe resonate with us and move closer. Thus our experience is heightened by living more consciously.
The converse is, of course, also true when we do not live consciously and lower our chi vibration.
The focus needs not to be on what we wish to manifest, but how we live our lives. The mere intention of doing something with the purpose to manifest a specific desired result is ‘forcing’ and not allowing Tao to work.
Tao is like water. If Tao is flowing South with the intention of landing you on a particular beach you don’t even know exists, but your intentions are set on landing at a Northern dock you do know exists then you are then forcing and not going with the flow.
This is where the pop culture teachings of manifestation go astray. Some teachings tell you to be so specific in your intentions, down to the last penny on a manifestation check, or the exact color of the make of the car you desire. This is teaching you to force, not allow.
By the same token you cannot be so lax that you put no effort into the journey. Consider yourself afloat on a river. You go the direction the river carries you, but you must steer to navigate through the rocks and rapids. And there will be rocks and rapids, I assure you. Even when you are doing everything ‘right’ (and of course there really is no right or wrong, but just for today, let’s use it) by allowing flow and living consciously. The rocks and rapids are put there on purpose to give us challenges, because only through challenges do we discover things about ourselves that we could not discover otherwise.
The balance is to go with the flow and not get caught in the undertow.
There are times the river will run high and fast. Often this is when the undertow of doubt, fear and overwhelm can capsize you and suck you under. This is sabotage. You might tell yourself ‘this is too easy’ or ‘I am not worthy of this’; these are the beginnings of the undertow tugging at you. ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘I won’t be able to handle it’, tugging even harder. ‘This can’t work’, ‘this isn’t working’, ‘this is coincidence’ etc…you’re going under.
Similar thoughts will occur when encountering rocks and shallow waters. ‘This is too hard’, ‘I don’t deserve this’, ‘I can’t do this’, ‘I won’t be able to handle it’ etc… This is how you know they are misnomers, because you can’t have the same thoughts about two different experiences right? If you are not ‘content’ with high waters and fast flowing and also not satisfied with shallow waters and rocks then what is REALLY going on? Sabotage. That’s what’s going on.
These thoughts are SYMPTOMS of beliefs that lie deep within you. It’s the BELIEFS not the mere THOUGHTS that are the problem. Thoughts are a result of beliefs. Control the beliefs and you control the thoughts.
Your beliefs, not your thoughts are what raise your vibrations. Your thoughts are based on intention, your intentions stem from your beliefs. Consider the person who does nice things when people are looking, but not so nice things when no one is. What is the intention there? From what belief is it originating? What vibrational level do you think exists there?
Judith Klemos 
Leave a Reply