How it all Started

Whenever two or more gather in My Name, there I Am among them.
(Matthew 18:20; my edits)


I met Su Zhen in a spiritual discussion forum, the Personal Development for Smart People, which soon afterwards shut down because of some internal quarrels of the group owners. That was a bummer - it was a thriving community which had been in operation for five years, and  some of these participants were spiritually quite advanced. To see this all fall apart seemed like a waste. And even though I knew very little of Su Zhen who literally lived on the other side of the planet, I -  very much to my own surprise - said, "Well, that must mean that you and I now need to build a community of our own", as if that was the most natural thing in the world. "Sure", she replied, and at this moment our book was born (The Dance of the Tao, forthcoming).

In some way we couldn't have been any different. Su Zhen grew up in Taiwan but lived in Hong Kong at the time when we met. She represents Asia while I represent the West; born in Germany, but having lived half of my life in the US. I still pride myself that I introduced Su Zhen to Taoism, the ancient spiritual wisdom of China. This was around the time when I had just finished my first book, "The Magnificent Experiment - The Magic of Connecting with Your Tao". Su Zhen immediately opened up to this Force and soon connected with many mystic events herself. In fact, we discovered that we were connected by an invisible threat even though we were in a time zone 12 hours apart.

This Force - call it Tao, the Self or the Holy Spirit - is wherever likeminded people are.  Matthew (18:20) is coming to mind, "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them." Spirituality is not something you need to read in books. You don't need to search for enlightened Masters. You can discover the Tao just as we have along the way and hopefully our book can give you some inspiration to connect with this Force.

The Tao works in mysterious ways and once you are connected you will see for yourself that the Way is always just around the corner, ready to rush to your side. When we  started out writing this book I was living in Boston, Massachusetts, 7966 miles away from Su Zhen's Hong Kong. Soon afterwards Su Zhen's husband got transferred to Boston, MA and we had the pleasure living next to each other for a year which enabled us to write this book .That is how the Tao works, once you are a spiritual traveler, life really does become a fairy tale. We hope that our journey gives you some inspiration to live your own.

The Secret Along the Way

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew (6:33)

There is no wrong or right, there is only your way. If your soul is hungry, go out and get them tiger; the success, the sex, the beauty, the partner of your dreams, the wealth, the power, the status, the creativity and connection. We all need meaning in our life so find whatever is meaningful to you. In the end though, nothing can really satisfy you unless you are experiencing God's love. And unless you travel God's path there will always be a primal fear in the background that you simply can't shake no matter how good you are at manifesting things and events.

The Law of Attraction is one side of the coin, your spiritual path the other. Both sides matter and both necessitate each other. If you try to find love, peace and joy by searching for God but your soul is still hungry, the restlessness will not leave you either. You can meditate, sign up for spiritual retreats and yoga classes, yet, somehow you always feel that something is missing. Yet, life has an answer in hand for you no matter what your starting point: the Secret will sooner or later lead you to God, while your spiritual path will sooner or later show you what repressed desires you still have to work off.

You deserve to live in abundance and you deserve to feel God's love and peace every step of the Way. The Secret is a life philosophy that shows us that we shall be as Gods, yet it is an empty promise unless we walk next to Her. Abundance and love go hand in hand. Discover Matthew's Secret for yourself and please share it with whoever is ready to receive it.

Only Your Life Makes You Complete

The ordinary folks have an advantage over you, they don't aspire to be holy, they just are as they are, and they know it. You aspire to be holy, but you often can't be. The truth is, no matter how advanced spiritually you think you are, you always carry your personality around. Wanting to be loving and spiritual is good, but it is still your ego wanting to be somewhere or accomplish something. You only experience the Self when your ego is sidelined; the good news is, this can be done.

 Your life makes you whole here and now. Every second of your life, the same movie presents itself: the Tao gives you the priceless opportunity to transcend your ego when you merge with life. The holy Now makes your ego a bystander. Impressions hit you so fast that your ego can only watch the unfolding events; your personal agenda is washed away by your divine counterpart.

Matthew's 18:20, "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there I Am in the midst of them", is the Christian version of the holy Now and is certainly a nice state to be in. But the Tao is more general than that. Even if your brother doesn't meet you in the name of Christ, he still can put your ego on ice if you let go of your internal resistance. Everyone you meet has been selected just for you and holds a key in her hands to catapult you into the holy Now. Honor your life, value the many challenges as well as the priceless opportunities, the friends as much as the foes. Each and everyone of them makes you complete. All you have to do is to show up.

The Secret of the Universe Revealed

Actually, I have to start this note with a few disclaimers. The secret I am talking about is much less ambitious than the one offerered in the recent bestseller book The Secret. For those of you who haven't read the book, I recommend it. It offers a true orgy of spiritual and material promises by a handful of impressive authors. Essentially, these people are saying that this universe is your oyster as long as you have the faith that it is. Personally, I have some reservations about the way their message is delivered (see my blog Willpower, 11/12/07), but I do think they are on to something.

The secret I am talking about is much less ambitious in nature. Actually, it is also not really a secret because it has been one of the most quoted phrases in the western civilization over the last 2000 years. I am talking about Matthew's (7:7)

Ask, and it shall be given to you
Seek, and ye shall find
Knock, and it shall be opened to you


You can take this phrase literally. As I stumble along my path of self-discovery, I often reach cross-roads where I really don't know in which direction I should proceed. I just ask the question and receive the answer pretty promptly. The only requirement is you need to have your ears and eyes wide open. The answer can be in a song, in a book, in a movie, in a painting and then of course can be provided by the network of people you are connected with, your friends as much as your foes. Try it, it works. When it comes to spiritual growth, the universe is your oyster after all.