A Lesson About Letting Go to the Universe, in a Joke.

There is a well known Jewish joke I first heard while living in Israel:

A man finds himself in serious financial troubles after his business goes bust. He’s desperate and worried and goes to the synagogue to pray for God’s help.

“God, please help me, I’ve lost my business and if I don’t get some money, I’m going to lose my car as well. Please let me win the lottery, just this once.”

Lotto night comes but someone else wins.

The next day the man goes back to the synagogue. “God, please just let me win the lottery. Things are getting worse. I’ve lost my business, my car, and I’m going to lose my house as well.”

Lotto night comes again, but the man still has no luck. The next day he goes back to the synagogue.

“My God, why have you forsaken me? I don’t often ask you for help and I have always been a good servant to you. Now, I’ve lost my business, my car, my house and now my wife and children are starving. Why won’t you just let me win the lottery this one time so I can get my life back in order?”

Suddenly, there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open up a booming voice speaks: “My son, you have to meet me halfway on this, at least go buy a damn ticket.”

There exists much advice, particularly in Eastern philosophy, about not trying to impose one’s will on the universe, about ‘going with the flow,’ about following nature. This idea, Wu Wei, is one of the central concepts of Taosim, and there is much of wisdom in it — as long as it is properly understood. The best translation of Wu Wei is “not forcing” but it is sometimes misleadingly translated as “not doing.”

This poor translation has led to a misinterpretation of the idea which has become prevalent in the field of self-help and self-development. It is most often seen in more mystical forms of advice about “manifesting” what you desire. Extreme forms of this line of thought emphasize allowing/expecting the universe to bring to you what you want or need.

What must be recognized is that ‘not forcing,’ that ‘letting go,’ does not mean doing nothing and simply waiting for fortune to fall in your lap, as in the joke that opened this post. To not force or impose or interfere does not mean to not act.

Just as you cannot force a plant to grow by pulling on its stem, you also cannot expect it to grow if you have not provided it with water, pulled out the weeds that would choke it, or ensured that it has sunlight. You cannot force the things you want, but you also cannot expect them to appear unless you are shaping the conditions to allow for that, or shaping yourself to be able to recognize them around you.

For a man sitting in a boat, letting go, having faith in the universe, and going with nature means to not row furiously fighting against the current. But it also does not mean simply sitting in the boat and drifting wherever the waters may take him. What it actually means is putting up a sail using nature’s energy to move him along.

Or as Alan Watts puts it:

“When we speak in Taosim about following the course of nature, following ‘The Way’ what it means is more like this: doing things in accordance with the grain. It doesn’t mean you don’t cut wood, but it mean that you cut wood along lines where wood is most easy to cut.”

All the talk of “manifesting” what you want is contingent upon that kind of thinking — that intention — causing changes in one’s doing . Even those who talk of manifesting recognize that the thinking without the doing will bring nothing. The universe does not reward hope, expectation, or desire. The universe cannot bring what you want or need unless you place yourself in a position to receive it.

The universe rewards neither fearful clinging nor careless drifting. It rewards being in the right place, at the right time, with the right mindset.

So…at least go buy a ticket.