Attract Money (Without Chasing) - Lao Tzu (Taoism)

We spend much of our lives chasing money, trying to earn higher salaries, buy bigger homes, and grow our bank accounts. The belief is simple. If we work harder and keep pushing forward, wealth will eventually come. According to Taoism, the problem may actually be this consistent struggle. Instead of endless striving, it encourages living in balance with the natural The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu is often regarded as the founder of Taoism and the author of its central text, the Tao Te Ching. At the heart of this philosophy is the idea of the Tao, which simply means the way. The Tao describes the natural flow of life, the way things grow, change, and unfold when they're not forced. Taoist thinkers believed that when people push too hard and try to control everything, they end up working against this flow, which often leads to stress and imbalance. But when we learn to move with life rather than constantly forcing it, things tend to settle into a more stable and balanced rhythm. This way of thinking can also apply to money. Instead of constantly chasing wealth, the focus shifts towards living in alignment, choosing work that suits your abilities, making financial decisions that reflect your values, and building habits that support a balanced life. When those pieces start working together, money often follows more naturally, not because you're chasing it harder, but because the life you're building begins to attract it. So in this video, we're going to explore how to attract wealth without constantly chasing it from the philosophy of Taoism. 1. Find the direction of your river There was once a merchant who spent his entire life traveling from city to city in search of profit. Wherever he went, he bought goods cheaply and sold them for more. His carts became heavier with gold every year. But the merchant never stayed anywhere long enough to build a home, raise a family, or plant a garden. His life became a constant motion of counting coins and planning the next deal. One evening, he stopped at a quiet mountain village and met an old Taoist gardener. The merchant proudly showed the gardener his chests of gold and said, I spent 30 years chasing wealth, and now I have more than most kings. The gardener nodded slowly and asked, And where are you going with it? The merchant was silent. The gardener gestured towards the mountains. A river that doesn't know where it flows will wander forever through dry valleys. Wealth without purpose is the same. It moves, but it never arrives. The merchant had realised that he'd spent his entire life accumulating resources without ever deciding what they were actually for. The merchant's silence is a silence many of us carry today. We earn more than our parents ever did, yet we feel more stressed and less satisfied. We're taught to ask how to make more money, but we rarely ask why. Taoism suggests that this missing why is the root of most of our financial confusion. Lao Tzu says a river never struggles to be a river. It simply flows towards the sea, because that's its nature. Humans, however, often try to build financial lives without knowing where their sea is. To find your sea, you need to focus your attention from the number in your account and toward the life that number is meant to create. So instead of asking, how can I make more money? Ask, what kind of life would be more meaningful? The most simple way to answer this is by imagining that money is no longer a problem in your life. Your basic needs are covered and you have enough security to think clearly. What would you spend your time doing each day? What problems would you want to help solve in the world? What experiences would make your life feel rich? The answers to those questions reveal your purpose. Purpose acts like the compass of your financial life. It doesn't magically create wealth overnight, but it does ensure that every dollar you earn and spend moves you in a meaningful direction. 2. Respect your money In Taoist philosophy, there's a quiet law that governs nearly everything in life. What you ignore, what you disrespect, begins to disappear. This is true for friendships, for health, and especially for money. There was once a man who inherited a beautiful garden from his grandfather. The soil was rich, the irrigation channels were carefully designed, and the trees produced fruit every season. But the man rarely visited the garden. He assumed that because it had always been fertile, it would remain that way forever. Weeks passed, then months. Without attention, weeds began to grow between the plants. The irrigation channels are clogged with mud and leaves, and the fruit trees slowly stopped producing. When the man finally returned, the garden looked nothing like the one he'd inherited. He went to an old Taoist gardener and asked, how did this happen? The soil was perfect. The gardener smiled gently and replied, the soil was never the problem. The problem was the gardener. Just as a garden fades without an eye to watch it, money slips away when we stop paying attention. Think about how most of us interact with our finances. Salaries arrive automatically, bills are paid automatically, we avoid checking our bank accounts because it feels uncomfortable. Instead, we rely on rough guesses about how much money we spend each month. Money moves in and out pretty quietly, almost without us noticing. Small purchases are made with a quick swipe of a card, and while each one seems harmless over time, they add up to a much larger amount. So the problem isn't the purchases themselves, the problem is the lack of awareness of the bigger picture behind them. Financial respect begins when you pay attention to understand the basic rhythm of your finances. So where does your income come from? Where does it usually go? Which expenses truly improve your life and which ones are just habits you stop questioning? When you begin observing these patterns, many wasteful behaviors disappear on their own. Psychologists sometimes call this the observer effect. The act of observing something changes the behavior itself. When you become aware of your spending, your mind naturally begins asking better questions before each purpose. Do I actually want this? Will this improve my life? Or am I just reacting to boredom, stress or impulse? For the next week, track every place your money goes. Every time you spend money, write it down. Not to judge yourself, not to punish yourself, just to notice. And at the end of the week, take time to read the list slowly. Another helpful practice is to pause briefly before spending money. Just a few seconds of awareness can break the cycle of impulsive behavior and ask yourself one quiet question. Is this purchase aligned with the life I'm trying to build? Sometimes the answer will be yes and you can enjoy the purchase without guilt. Other times the answer will be no. And so you'll choose differently. And this is what it truly means to respect money. It's not about hoarding it or about fearing it, but treating it with the same level of awareness you'd give to anything valuable in your life. 3. Repair the crack One of the greatest obstacles to wealth is not a lack of opportunity, education or even resources. It's a quiet inherited fear at the back of our minds that sounds something like this. Money is hard to make. I'll probably never have enough. I'm just not good with finances. According to Taoism, this hidden fear is one of the most powerful forces blocking financial growth. A young man once inherited a tea bowl from his father who'd inherited it from a long line of poor laborers. The bowl had a deep, jagged crack running down its side. Every time the man filled it, the tea leaked out before he could take a sip. He worked twice as hard to brew more tea, hoping that if he poured fast enough, he could finally enjoy a full cup. But the bowl always stayed half empty. Finally, he took the bowl to a Zen master. The master looked at the leaking vessel and said, You're so proud of this bowl's history that you've forgotten its purpose is to hold tea. Repair the crack or buy a new bowl. Your father's thirst is not yours to quench. Most of us carry this ancestral shadow, a set of hidden financial rules and burdens inherited from our parents and grandparents. If your family history is defined by struggle, debt, or the belief that money is the root of all evil, your subconscious mind often stays loyal to that suffering. You might feel like a traitor to your family if you become wealthier or more comfortable than they ever were. To avoid this feeling of guilt, you might unconsciously sabotage yourself, making poor investments or overspending just to stay at a financial level where you still feel like you belong to your tribe. To break this cycle, you must realize that your parents' financial struggles were their journey, not your destiny. To heal your ancestral shadow, try a simple permission ritual. First, identify a comfort. Choose a form of security or luxury your parents never had, something they might have considered wasteful or not meant for people like us, such as eating organic food, investing in a business coach, or even owning an electric car. Then, affirm your success. When you choose to invest in it, remind yourself, I honour my ancestors by going further than they could. My success is their legacy, not my shame. When you view your prosperity as a continuation of their efforts, rather than a betrayal of them, you begin to repair the crack in your own bowl. When you stop worrying about outgrowing your family, you can finally use your resources to build the life you want, rather than the life you were taught to expect. 4. The Yin and Yang of Wealth Taoism teaches us that the universe moves through the dance of two complementary forces, yin and yang. Yang is the active force, the energy of effort, movement, and creation. Yin is the receptive force, the energy of rest, preservation, and nourishment. When these forces stay balanced, life flows smoothly. When one overwhelms the other, harmony begins to fade. Financial life follows the same pattern. Many money problems come not from a lack of wealth, but from imbalance. Some people live almost entirely in yang energy. They work constantly, chase promotions, and focus only on accumulating wealth. Life becomes a relentless pursuit of achievement. Others lean far too into yin. They spend freely, avoid responsibility, and hope things will somehow work out without discipline. Both extremes create problems. Money works best when it moves through a balanced cycle. There's a story from an ancient village where four wells supplied water to the people. The first well supported farming, the second stored water for dry seasons, the third served daily living, and the fourth was reserved for helping neighboring villages during difficult times. For generations the village prospered because the water flowed naturally between these four wells. But one day a new chief decided that storing water was the most important goal. He ordered the villagers to stop using the storage well and focus only on filling it. At first he felt proud as the water level rose higher and higher, but slowly the village began to change. Farmers could no longer irrigate their fields, crops started to fail, and families became hesitant to use the water. Because the village stopped helping its neighbors, trade and friendships started to fade. Soon the once thriving village grew tense and unhappy, even though the storage well was completely full. An old Taoist traveler eventually passed through and said to the chief, you've mistaken accumulation for prosperity. Water that never flows becomes stagnant. So in your financial life, true prosperity lives in the balance of these four wells. Earning the yang energy of creating value through effort and work. Saving the yin energy of preserving resources and building security. Spending the ability to enjoy the rewards of your labor. And finally giving, allowing wealth to flow outward to support others. When these four forces remain balanced, money becomes a tool that strengthens life. Just as the body needs both inhaling and exhaling, financial life needs both growth and enjoyment. Number five, trust your peace. One of the most important lessons in Taoist philosophy is that everything valuable grows slowly. Lao Tzu says that nature never rushes, yet eventually everything reaches completion. Once in a small village, a farmer decided to plant bamboo. After preparing the soil and planting the seeds, he watered them carefully every day. Weeks passed and nothing happened. Months passed and still nothing. His neighbors laughed at him and told him he was wasting his time. But the farmer continued watering the soil patiently, trusting the process. For nearly five years, the ground looked exactly the same. There were no visible signs of growth. Then one spring, the bamboo finally broke through the soil and within a few weeks, it shot up nearly 90 feet into the air. To the villagers, it seemed like the bamboo had grown overnight. But the farmer knew the truth. For five years, the plant had been developing a vast underground root system, quietly preparing itself to support that sudden burst of growth. This reflects a Taoist idea known as wu-wei, often translated as effortless action or non-forcing. Instead of trying to rush success, you align your efforts with the natural rhythm of growth and allow results to unfold in their own time. Similarly, lasting wealth often grows in exactly the same way. It's rarely the result of sudden luck or dramatic breakthroughs, and instead is usually built through steady growth over time. But modern culture often teaches the opposite lesson. We often hear stories of overnight success, viral businesses, and people who supposedly became wealthy in an instant. These stories make rapid wealth seem normal, even expected. The problem is that when we hear such things, we try to copy it and often make poor decisions, risky investments, impulsive ventures, or shortcuts that eventually collapse. Taoism teaches that instead of chasing sudden riches, focus on gradual growth. The key is patience. Start by adopting habits that support long-term progress. Invest consistently, even if the amounts are small. Continue learning new skills that increase your ability to create value in the world. The more adaptable and capable you become, the more opportunities will appear. At first, these efforts may seem slow, but just as the move money and life together. We work at jobs that drain us so we can afford lifestyles that don't truly satisfy us. We buy things to impress people that we barely know. We chase income increases without asking whether those increases actually improve our lives. From the outset, everything may look successful, but inside it feels slightly out of tune. Harmony resolves this tension. In Taoist philosophy, harmony doesn't mean perfection or constant happiness. It simply means that the different parts of your life, work, time, relationships, and resources are aligned rather than fighting each other. Once in a growing city, two men set out to build successful lives. The first builder focused only on expansion. Every year he worked longer hours, took bigger contracts, and accumulated more property. His income grew quickly, but his time disappeared just as fast. His house became larger, yet he rarely had a moment to enjoy it. But the second builder took a different approach. He accepted fewer projects and chose work that interested him. Yes, his house was smaller, but he filled it with friends, music, and quiet evenings. Years later, both builders were considered successful. But when asked how he felt about his life, the first builder said, I have everything I worked for, but I rarely feel at peace. The second builder smiled and replied, my work supports my life. It doesn't replace it. The difference between them wasn't wealth. It was harmony. Achieving this harmony requires simplifying rather than adding more complexity. Start by looking for areas where your financial life feels unnecessarily heavy. Too many accounts, subscriptions, debts, or commitments can create constant mental noise. Simplifying these structures often restores a surprising amount of clarity. Next, consider the relationship between your work and your interests. Not everyone can immediately choose their ideal profession, but even small shifts towards meaningful work can make a difference. Over time, aligning your income with your strengths and passions brings greater satisfaction than just chasing the highest possible salary. Finally, step away from one of the greatest disruptors of harmony. Comparison. Modern culture constantly encourages people to measure their lives against others. Larger homes, higher incomes, more impressive lifestyles. But comparison creates a financial path defined by somebody else's values. Whereas harmony requires building a financial life that fits your priorities, rather than competing in somebody else's race. And that's our video. What did you think? Let's get into it in the comments below. And as always, I've been Dan, you've been Awesome, and if you enjoyed this video, please make sure to check out our full Philosophies for Life playlist. And for more videos to help you find success and happiness using beautiful philosophical wisdom, don't forget to subscribe. Thanks so much for watching.