Spiritual Transcendence

But Moses supposes erroneously ...

(Gene Kelly, Singing in the Rain)

When Moses went to Mount Sinai to receive God's commandments, it took him a long time to come back. The Israelis were afraid and wanted guidance from Moses' brother Aaron. Aaron asked all Israelis to melt their jewelry into one big golden calf. They worshiped the calf, they celebrated and "made merry", as it is said in the Bible. You probably also remember from Sunday School that this story didn't end so well. When Moses finally came down from Mont Sinai, he broke the tablets that he had received from God on the floor and had many Israelis executed. From his perspective the Israelis performed idolatry, though all they really did was to reconnect with their pagan roots. They weren't quite ready for the more abstract notion of God, "I Am That I Am", while Moses felt they had to be dragged by their hair to the next spiritual level.

Every activity, no matter how loving and pious its intention, is always somewhat tainted by the human touch. But there are certainly degrees of spirituality. Killing a cow for consumption purposes is less pure than harvesting ripe apples from a tree that would have fallen on the ground anyway. Teaching children or helping homeless people in a shelter is more spiritual than making money on Wall Street, or putting criminals behind bars.There is no wrong or right, however. There is only a behavior that is right for our soul development. Who knows why stuff happens the way it does anyway. Seeing the suffering of animals on commercial farms may make us convinced vegetarians as it happened to me. Or experiencing the madness of an inhumane work environment may stir the yearning for a more spiritually fulfilling professional life.

There is no wrong or right, there is only the stuff that happens to us to help us in our awakening process. Who knows what will happen to humanity and societies in the aggregate. Maybe there will be a day when humanity embraces vegetarianism en mass to protect our animals. Maybe one day all societies voluntarily interact professionally within in a commonly accepted socialistic mindset. There are sometimes trigger points in history when societies are ready to move to a new, more spiritual life expression. It would be nice if 2016 is such a point in time. However, gone are the days - as in Moses' times - when some leaders make these decisions for us. Let's leave the evolution of societies, ecologies and economies up to the grassroots movement, and ultimately to God. What we personally can and should do is to find our idiosyncratic God connection, and  history will thank us for it.

When the Dragon faces Tina

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

G.K. Chesterton

Erich Fromm once said that the Bible version of Moses, when he raised his magic staff and the Red Sea just parted at command, was slightly off. According to his sources, Moses raised his staff and nothing happened; it was only when he took the hand of his sister and after they both had jumped in, the waters started to part. What other choice did Moses have! The Jews had no weapons while the Egyptian soldiers were armed to their teeth and probably outnumbered them as well. There was simply no other choice for Moses but to move forward, ridiculous as it must have looked to his people.

TINA - There Is No Alternative! There is beauty and perhaps even fearlessness in this concept. Strangely, a spiritual traveler will often face this step in the apparent abyss only to find - not always, but often - the invisible bridge that you had somehow been hoping for against all odds. Many describe the spiritual awakening as beautiful, joyful, full of love and peaceful. Yes, it is, but few mention the dragons that pop up along the Way. But in the end all of this doesn't matter. In contrast to Moses's dreadful experience, our dragons are merely repeated ego deaths. Eventually it dawns on us that there is nothing really to do and nothing to fear, just be! Until that blessed day, however, trust in TINA. She looks out for you.

How it all Came About

Some of you may know the book "A Course in Miracles", a 700 page channeling exercise of Jesus' spirit. Whether you believe in channeling or not, the work is a philosophical and spiritual classic. I obviously don't know who Jesus truly was and what he really said, but if I had to project what he would say to us today, it would be the Course in Miracles indeed.

It all started in a psychology department with lots of frictions and tensions among the colleagues. One day the boss couldn't take it anymore and demanded "there must be another way!" A group was formed to improve relations and Helen Schucman volunteered to help out. This was the period when she started hearing voices; the first one said, " This is a Course in Miracles, please take notes."

Our spiritual community always claims that we can manifest Heaven on earth and they are of course right; this is indeed what you should aspire to do. Yet, please let it up to life - the Tao - to lead you there. There is still so much psychological baggage that you carry around, let life wash it away for you. So if life throws challenges at you, don't despair. Embrace them to the best of your abilities instead. Your problems are here to make a Moses out of you. Raise your staff, part the sea and let your soul siblings lead you to the land of honey and milk. You could never do that without them, so thank every problem and trouble-maker who comes your way for jump-starting you on your holy mission.

Perhaps you can take travel notes just like Helen Schucman did and as we do. When everything is said and done you will marvel at the apparent impossibility of your holy mission. Let your miracle inspire others to perform theirs so that we can all snowball into freedom together.

The Journey Home

The Tao is a homecoming journey. To what exactly only those who have finished the journey can tell you and few of them are around. So you have to find out for yourself what walking the Way is all about.

The Tao is a journey of healing, of undoing all the cuts from the past. Do not regret these little injuries, do not blame those who inflicted them. They made you the person you were born to be. You couldn't have reached this point of departure if it weren't for them.

Life is a web that pulls you up. You thought that it could pull you down. I can but only if you believe that it can. The Tao is here to teach you otherwise. Everyone you meet in fact cheers you on. Where you saw enemies before you only saw ghosts of your own making. No one has the power to hurt you, only you can.

Start your journey back to the Source today. Many paths lead you there, ours is that of the Tao. Along the Way everyone roots for you because you make it your premise. Enjoy the healing, the fun, the laughter and the boundless love.

Stop thinking about your final destination. By traveling the Tao you are already there. Many have seen that divine connection. Moses discovered I Am when he saw the burning bush, Arjun discovered the Way on the battlefield in the Bhagavad Gita. King David's Psalm 23 describes the magnificent web of life. Be part of it and be Home already.

Be Aware of Your Idol - Don't Fall under its Spell, and Don't Fight it Either

Seek not outside yourself. For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls.
(A Course in Miracles)

When Moses returned with the 10 Commandments after a 40 day retreat on Mount Sinai, his people had lost faith and built an idol - a golden calf - and were busily engaging in some pagen festival in celebration of life and fertility. Moses was so distraught by what he saw that he shattered the stone tablets with the 10 Commandment on the floor; he also had 3000 Israelis executed as punishment.

What an irony that the First Commandment states "Thou shall have no idols before Me" and the first thing Moses' people did was to worship an idol of power and fertility. Your idol can be everywhere, money, looks, fame, degrees, professions, important friends or colleagues, sex, etc. I am sure you know who or what your personal idol is. The trick is to be aware of its charm and to be able to feel the dark energy it bestows on you. It is as if a cloud hangs over you whenever it touches you.  If you fight it, you are not getting rid of its influence, you are just re-distributing the dark cloud to your perceived holy part. Just recognize the idol for what it stands for, acknowledge its appeal and then choose to step out of its dark shadow into the sun.

Moses didn't help his divine cause by killing his brothers and sisters. He also didn't help our spiritual journey by making a taboo out of idol worship. What you fear and detest, you only attract. The only way to deal with an idol is to understand that you can do much better by keeping its sphere of influence at arms' length. Moses did what he was capable of 5000 years ago, but we have come a long way since. Today it is very much in our power to move past the idol's spell without condemning it and without being afraid of it either.

The Magic of the Moment

Walking the Tao is all about energy. A Tao master is an alchemist who knows the secret of energy and knows how to transform it dependent on the situation. She doesn’t exclude anything, she accepts everything that comes her way and handles the divine connection moment by moment.

The Tao master doesn't have a personal agenda anymore. The divine connection is her path and she simply surrenders to the Way. With this surrender comes power - the same power that Moses commanded when he parted the sea just in the nick of time to protect his people from the incoming Egyptian army. At this magic moment you are in fact the Tao.

Christian remembers a time when he read A Course in Miracles and for the first time and kept on asking himself, so how exactly does on acquire the power to perform miracles? Well, if you look for the power you will not find it. The power grows with your ability to fade into the background. When you observe the magic of the now, your self vanishes in the beauty of the moment and that is when you have that energy connection that gives you the power to transform the situation. As your self vanishes the real you shows up and at that point the situation handles itself. Just as the Bible says, "For wherever two or more gather in my name, there am I among them."

If you are interested in merging with Tao, you can foster this connection by accepting whatever comes your way. With this acceptance you will experience that your energy system is changing. Be alert and be aware. If you feel that you are resistant to the situation at hand and to your emotions, accept this fact - accept your resistance, that is all you can do anyway. With this acceptance you can feel that harmony arises in you. You will also feel how your energy system is changing. It is very subtle. You need to be very sensitive and very quiet to experience this change. If you are not able to sense it yet, that is fine too. Just accept who you are right now.

Walking the Tao is a process, you will get as many cues as you are able to handle. The more you are in tune with the energy exchange of the situation, the more power you will command because the more your self will be drowned out by the magic of the moment. Masters aren't born overnight, keep on looking for the divine connection and soon enough the magic of the moment will take over. Have fun!

By Christian and Su Zhen

The Miracle Worker

There is no miracle you cannot do when you desire healing.
A Course in Miracles

When Moses led 600 000 Jews out of Egypt he reached the water with the Egyptian army approaching rapidly. He needed a miracle or otherwise all hell would break loose. He raised his magic staff and nothing happened. He then reached for the hand of his sister and they both jumped into the water. Behold, the water parted.

You probably find the Moses story hard to believe. The story also leaves a bad taste behind; after all, the Egyptian army was destroyed in that miracle. It doesn't matter whether this Moses miracle was fact or fiction, what really matters is that you accept your role as a miracle worker. The life you see is not real, it is a virtual reality play. Do you really want to know the magic sauce of how to become a miracle worker? Believe with your heart and soul that you have been put into the situation you are in for a reason. Understand what your true desires are, understand what you truly want to get out of a situation. Accept all that and then turn your attention to your soul siblings who stand by your side extending their hand to you. Use this golden opportunity life brings to you to heal; heal the situation you are in, help the people you love and heal yourself in the process. Life and this world exists so that you can accept your Moses role. Choose love and no matter what happens, the miracle of healing will take place.

Moses and the Golden Calf

When Moses went up to Mount Sinai he fasted for 40 days and nights and he received the 10 Commandments. Forty days is a long time; the people of Israel got anxious and pressured Moses brother, Aaron, to provide him with an idol. They chose a golden calf, an image of fertility in Egypt, which they produced from their jewelry. On the day when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, there was a fest of singing, drinking and (most likely) group sex. Moses was so outraged that he destroyed the stone tablets of the 10 commandments and he had 3000 people executed to pay for these sins. The golden calf he melted in and had the remnants ground to powder; the people of Israel had to drink it, mixed with water.

What an irony! Just as the prophet delivered the 10 Commandments, the people reverted back to the olden practices of idol worship and indulging in Pagan behaviors. While this set-up and Moses gruesome response seem obviously outdated today, the problem statement remains the same. The conflict between what each spiritual aspirant wants to accomplish versus the secret longings of the subconscious and the often openly expressed idol worship. Our golden calf can be everything, the sexual urges, the hunger for status, the cravings for security or material abundance. I hope you agree with me that a society that allows people to express their desires within some moral and legal backstops is a step ahead of the one that stops at 'thou shall not want'. Luckily, we have reached that stage more or less, but what will the next step entail in our conscious evolution?

The simple answer is transcendence. You can have a fulfilled sex life and celebrate true love with it. You can be gainfully employed in a profession that has social status, yet, let it be one that expresses your passion, creativity and care for others. You can have material abundance and discover the joy of freely sharing it with others. You can discover that you are the Daughter of God and understand that everything is already taken care of for you so that your worries become meaningless. In short, you express the longings of the 'I' in perfect harmony with the state of Heaven on earth and find that in this blessed world there is no need for God's Commandments and there is certainly no need for a golden calf.

I Am

You are not an ego, there must be more than an ego in you.
A Course in Miracles

The other day I tried explaining the holy 'I Am' mantra to my boys during our Sunday School session and I unfortunately couldn't really get the point across. Yet, the 'I Am' experience is not that hard to understand. Every Tao traveler experiences it every day. The 'I' is the ego but when the 'I' meets the fellow next door, or the situation that comes along just at the right moment, something magic happens. The 'I' gets lost in the decision, in the opportunity to choose love. Sure, sometimes wrong steps are taken, but this insight of having wandered off the red carpet that lies so plainly in front of you also manages to dissolve the 'I'. As long as you honestly put your best foot forward towards life, the holy now will prevail. Use the Power of 'I Am'; let life show you that you are as potent as Moses in conquering life's challenges.

The Moses Challenge

What a daunting task: you have led your people in freedom. 600 000 souls trust you, have accepted you as a savior and there you are, trapped by the water and the incoming Egyptian army. When Moses raised his magic staff, nothing happened. It seemed as if his magic powers had left him for the first time. Moses put his staff down,  took the hand of his sister and they both jumped into the water. Behold, the water parted.

If Moses was able to perform a miracle, why wouldn't you. How much easier is your task, because you can create instead rather than destroy as he had to. I wouldn't have had the faith that God is on the side of the Jews and that He stands ready to destroy the Egyptian army. I have however the faith that I have the creative powers to heal, to become whole, to be mastering any situation the Tao brings my way. I have the faith to be lifted up by my brothers and sisters as I lift them up. Stepping out of slavery is a bloody business, I am happy that this journey has already been completed for so many of us. Now comes the much easier task, the task of accepting our Sonship. The task is to show that we already have, that we are all one. To show this is not really a miracle, it is just showing reality as is, rather than remembering the twisted perceptions we once had. Accept the Moses challenge, you can do it.

I Am the Tao

What is the Self? It is everything, the conscious as well as the subconscious. Everything that comes your way is the way (Tao) and is attracted by you and has to be fully absorbed and digested. You are the one who attracts everything and everyone into your life. Perhaps this was Moses insight when he stood at the burning bush, the feeling of "I Am". It is ok to define a few parameters of what you consider your idiosyncratic footprint, but besides the small travel bag you are taking along, welcome everything and everyone that comes your way, because it is you. Have it your way, the Tao is you.

When Moses Raised his Magic Rod ...

At the moment when the Egyptian soldiers were approaching and the Jews were trapped by the Red Sea, Moses raised his magic rod and commanded the sea to part. Alas, for the first time since his magic trickery had started, nothing happened. Moses felt fear creeping up in him, but he regained composure instantaneously. He took the hand of his sister and together they plunged into the sea. Behold, the waters parted.

You may say a son or daughter of God does not deserve pain or fear, and of course you are right. The problem though, you are on a transition path to a higher spiritual plane, and as you remove your personality skin there will be a few rips and tears along the way. Feel your fear and do it anyway as Susan Jeffers says in her book, there is just no alternative as your spiritual path will lead you on a collision course with your ego.

There are two types of heroes, the dare devils and the ones who need a kick in the bud to do their life's mission. Michael Jordon was the kind who always took the ball from his fellow players to shoot the buzzer-beating hoop in the final play off game. Dare devil or ordinary mortal, everyone has to overcome the fear of not delivering at the crucial moment. Unfortunately, fear is part of the game, the sooner you accept it the better.

I am in the forecasting business and most of the time I enjoy a pretty relaxing working environment. But there are these moments when your investment idea is just one step away from ridicule as well as glory. One advantage a spiritual path traveler has is to get little nudges along the way. My Tao mostly puts me in a position that equips me for pretty much everything I face. Yet, the fear to be caught on the wrong side hasn't gone away. I believe if it did I would just become arrogant and no longer look for these priceless treasures my sisters and brothers offer me along the way.