What Should We Strive For?

What do we want to accomplish as spiritual travelers? Sure, we want to experience God, but there is probably little we can do about besides meditating regularly and cutting interferences out to the best of our abilities. 

Should we strive for manifesting everything our heart desires the way the Law of Attraction folks encourage us to? Well, we can try to but having everything our heart desires is unlikely to make us happy either. We cannot visualize the missing God connection; we don't know what peace truly is and are thus unable to manifest it.

What we can do instead is to live life as a Tao master; that is, welcoming life moment by moment. Like an artist we can discover divinity in everything life presents to us. Like a mother we can recognize love wherever we are. God is next to us every step of the Way; all we have to strive for is to be open to the next moment and we can see Her.

Finding MySelf Every Step of the Way

I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or myself.
(A Course in Miracles)

That is a tough statement to accept. After all, aren't we all so enlightened, we the folks who dabble in spirituality? Yet, I have learned the hard way that people, problems and life's acts enlighten me and the outcome is often different from what I would have expected going into the situation. Jesus said in John (5:30): "By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me." Yes, that is the Way.

Walking the Way is a blessing for it nudges me to be mySelf despite myself. Once you recognize the beauty of this fact you have pretty much made it. The Tao connects you with your potential every step of the Way. All you have to do is to show up in every situation and face everyone who crosses your path whether you like it or not. He who sent you will do the rest through you.

I Am that I Am

God, the devil and Adam went for a walk on a beach. Suddenly God stopped, picked up a stone from the ground, smiled and turned to Adam, "Here it is, the stone of wisdom, forever yours." Adam turned to the devil and grinned, " What can you do now?" The devil rolled his eyes and said "Never mind, I will make an institution out of it."

How often have our prophets told us about God, have given us tips of how we can say no to the ego and say yes to the holy Now, but for some reason it never sticks. Moses once asked God for his His name and he responded "I Am that I Am", but we immediately got scared and mandated that His holy name should not be used in vain, or tried using it as some kind of power symbol to get something. The meaning of "I Am that I Am" is simple enough. The holy intersection of life flowing though us "I Am" gives us a glimpse of God. When life takes your breath away She is sure to walk next to you.

The Second Coming

Music or the smell of good cooking
may make people stop and enjoy.
But words that point to the Tao
seem monotonous and without flavor.
When you look for it, there is nothing to see.
When you listen for it, there is nothing to hear.
When you use it, it is inexhaustible.
(Tao Te Ching)

Try to squeeze the yin out of the union of yin and yang and you will violate the divine balance.Try to squeeze the human element out of the union of humanity and divinity and a wolf will scratch at your door. Yet, yin has moments when her essence is captured by yang energy, just as it is possible to experience divinity when you are here on earth. Taoism is the ability to perceive divinity in the holy Now. You do not negate who you are, yet you  merge with a higher dimension just by being open and by being present.

We are all so tired of the clash of religious styles, the way of the Buddha versus the way of Mohamed, Moses or the Christ. The Second Coming is the celebration of your Way. You don't need to make a jump of faith, all you need to do is to open your eyes. The Tao is as apparent as a red thread stretching out before you. Most people can't see it because they are too distracted by the gold that glitters on the horizon. Keep an eye on the holy Now -  it is staring right into your face. As you do, the Second Coming is completed.

Finding Zen along the Tao

You can read books about Zen philosophy and you will be captured by its divine energy and appreciate the poetic beauty, yet afterwards you will probably ask yourself, so how exactly do I get there? How can I fid Zen in my busy lifestyle? Well you can. You can consciously follow the Tao and She will lead you to a state of serenity that allows you to experience the Zen state no matter how hectic your environment appears to be.

You cannot really tell what is Tao, but you can live in it. She is the Force that drives your  everyday life without your awareness. Just as children grow up, adults age, flowers bloom and fade, seasons come and go, careers are made and destroyed, and yin and yang dance. TheTao is the Force behind every creature and event. She is like an invisible hand behind everything, magically rotating the wheels of life.

When we don’t experience this Force, when we think that life is random, we try to create the environment that we think will make us happy. We mostly get what we want but sometimes run into walls. We are mostly stressed and can experience serenity and peace only now and then. But once we see this Force, even if initially we just see glimpses, we will try to spend a lifetime with Her. We drop our psychological guard in all interactions because we know where She walks we are well protected.  We stop aiming for things because in Her presence magic happens and we know that no matter how hard we work, no matter how much scheming we do, we could never create this beauty for ourselves.

Once you are connected you can very much experience this Force in action. Once you hold Her hand you will never let go. Zen is a way of living. You can experience the life's magic here and now while being serene, joyful and curious. As a Tao traveler you learn to respect of every event, every encounter and every emotion. No task is too small for you, just as no task is too big. Your ego is simply washed away by the magic unfolding in front of your astonished eyes. Find Zen in whatever you do today and join us on this magnificent journey.

By Christian and Su Zhen

When Serenity Meets Flow

Why do you feel stressful and anxious?  Have you ever tried to observe yourself while this is happening?  Is it because you lack the confidence that you can achieve what you set out to do? Isn't it true that when you are looking at all the interferences that come your way, you are in fact getting signal after signal to take it a little easier? Perhaps the problem is that you try to do it your way and not the Tao's way? Try to observe everything that is going on inside of you and in your environment. You will find the answer.

As a Tao traveler, most of the time you accomplish things with ease.  You tune into the flow of the Now and do whatever needs to be done at that special moment. Faced with the divine Now, your own agenda is simply washed away.  You surrender yourself to the Tao and totally trust Her arrangements.  You don't worry and you are at ease. So if you already have reached this spiritual maturity, what are all these stress attacks about? It is the self trying to eclipse the Self with some lingering worries and irrelevant mental conjectures. Perhaps you can think of these situations like you would of a cold. Somehow you must have undermined your psychic immune system, otherwise the strength of the Self would never have allowed this situation to happen.

Along the Tao everything happens for a reason. So even your stressful periods are here to help you. When you develop a sniffle you have some orange juice in order to strengthen your immune system, don't you? In the same way, when stress and worries creep up in you, ask how you may have undermined your Self and change directions accordingly. The Tao is always here to help you. Lose your self along the Way. Be  alert to your environment, heighten your sensitivity responsiveness to the people around you, while being mindful of everything that is going on within yourself. With this alert, with this sensitivity, with this timely response, you become Her instrument again. You harmoniously merge yourself into the flow of Now. Your mind becomes quiet in the moment and everyone benefits from your actions, especially you. Where serenity and flow meet there is just not enough space for stress to develop. Try and experience this for yourself.

By Christian and Su Zhen

The Holy Now is Here For Everyone

A colleague commented this morning - seemingly out of the blue - that breakfast cereal is so smooth when you eat it, yet, when you let it sit for a couple of hours, it becomes hard as stone. Yes, I thought to myself, it is exactly as the holy Now. When you are part of the flow, the holy Now becomes so mendable. Yet, if you resist it, or put your own filter over it,  the train has left the station.

All spiritual writers ever do is to talk about the holy Now. The irony is, when Eckhart Tolle tried publishing his book, "The Power of Now", he was turned down by one publisher with the correct remarks that this idea is as old as spirituality itself. Yet, what spiritual bestseller it turned out to be! Everyone has access to the holy Now, spiritual or not. Psychologists, athletes, song writers, poets, sages, everyone has soon the holy Now in action. Some call it flow, one moment in time, Tao, synchronicity or holy spirit.

While I believe that everyone has access to the incredible creativity and power of the holy moment, we spiritual folks are especially receptive to the love that is in the air. As Jesus once said, "wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be"! The holy Now is there for everyone, but only you can make it the present it is meant to be, an encounter with Her now - and thus eternal.

Energy and the Tao

Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings
but contemplate their return.
Each separate being in the universe
returns to the common Source.
Returning to the Source is serenity.
(Tao Te Ching)

Our spiritual community loves reflecting on the Self.  Everyone in one way or another has experienced this divine connection, has received a glimpse of what life could be if only we could have an ongoing relationship with God. So we keep on reflecting how it would be if we were "there", but the problem is, it is the ego that does the thinking. The ego loves looking ahead or analyze the past. But somehow the present moment always gets lost in the process.

Thinking about the ego is not helpful. Analyzing the ego is the ego's favorite activity, it is nothing but a convoluted mental merry-go-around, but there is something you can do if you want to advance spiritually. You can be aware of the voice in your head. In the same way, you can reflect on the mood that you are in, be aware of the chemicals in your brain that get activated, the hormones that are rushing through your body, the beating of your heart, the breathing, etc. You can very much observe your interactions with others, your responses to events and people, as well as realizing how your environment reacts to you.  When you are mindful of everything that is going on, you have established a God connection already.

You can observe your energy state and observe it very much like the voice in your head.  Your energy state changes as you do different things, when you operate in different environments or talk to different people.  When you read spiritual books you will naturally have a different energy frequency than when you work. When you play with children you have a different energy than when you go on nature walks. When we are aware of everything that goes on within ourselves, the voice in our head, our agenda, our emotions, our energy state, as well as our environment, then we have established a God connection.
Unfortunately, this feat is hard to accomplish.  But that is ok, practice mindfulness whenever you can and let your environment - the Tao - catch you instead. When you step out of your slumber, it is impossible to miss Her.

The missing connection in our God discovery is energy. We have learned the hard way that it is good for us to stay away from dark energies, like colleagues who love to gossip, alcohol, bad food, violence, porn or stress. We have learned as well that we need exposure to good energy fields to stay sane, like nature, serene music, or good books. All these activities simply put new life into us. We want to have exposure to good energies all the time but alas, the pendulum always swings and we are back to our routines and the dark energies start eating away at us.

 This is the Law of Karma.  You are following the path that you have subconsciously set out for yourself.   You can in fact study this force in action. If you keep on exposing yourself to good energies, the positive momentum will get stronger and stronger. In the same way, once you expose yourself to a negative energy field, and you will be carried along into the opposite direction. The truth is, no one can move completely in one direction or the other, there will always be a dance of yin and yang. Let life - the Tao - be the great healer and take you by the hand. The truth is that is what has been going on all your life, and every path is designed to lead you home. Yet, it has been a subconscious journey thus far, but hopefully with the help of this book you can make this process a conscious one instead. Have no fear, experience life as it is, the "good" as well the so-called "bad". Everything that happens to you is designed to take you home, back to the Source.

What you can do today, start experiencing your life with a new perspective and become aware of everything that is going on.  It is not about just experiencing the good stuff all the time, it is about becoming more aware of what you are experiencing.  When you are mindful, when you observe everything that is going on inside of you and your environment, something magic happens. You become one with life, you submerge into what Ekhart Tolle  calls the divine Now.

As a spiritual traveler you can learn to be in tune with your energies. You can feel how your impatience is rising, you can hear when you speak too fast. In this journey you  always have the Tao to lean onto; the way life interacts with you. The Tao is a constant feedback mechanism, the signs and symbols that come your way. When now and then you lose access to your spiritual energy, your friends and your so-called foes will be happy to tell you so. "Slow down brother", or "speed up a little"; everywhere and in every occasion will your soul siblings be happy to tell you what's in store for you.

Let us give you a little example that may illustrates this point. Christian went with a colleague to play some golf.  His colleague was complaining about some management decisions when he heard how their golf bags kept slamming into the door of the SUV, but when he changed the direction of the conversation towards more agreeable subjects, the drive suddenly became much smoother. And as they pulled into the golf course parking lot Christian was saying how much he enjoyed working with a younger colleague as he observed that the clock had just moved to 12:34, a feat that was totally lost on his colleague whose mind had already moved on the golf game instead.

Along the Tao you cannot really make a mistake. Good or bad, light or shade, every state is accepted as is. If you are completely in tune with yourself and your environment, the Tao always stands ready to guide you. We are driven by our desires like everyone else, but we can experience Heaven on earth whenever we hold Her hand. Bliss, love and joy is ours to experience when we are connected. Every moment is yet another priceless opportunity to capture this magic moment.

Christian and Su Zhen

The Dance of Creation

You probably have seen a symbol of Shiva in His cosmic dance position. You can think of the Tao in the same way. Everyone and everything you encounter is dancing with you. In this holy Now divine energy flows through you. Sure, you always carry your persona around; your ego defines your perspective, the stuff you want to get out of life, the way of looking at things and people, but all this gets completely absorbed in the interaction with life. And no matter how crooked your view might be, know that the sister who dances with you right now will straighten you out.

How different are things when you just sit there and stew over events that might have been, or when you fantasize about finally having it your way in the future. Thank life for the problems you have to solve right now, the weight you have to carry, and the infinite upside you can manifest. It is this activity that keeps you connected with your Self. For most, life's healing forces are subconscious, but you can make this process very much a conscious experience. Life reacts to every thought of yours and you can become aware of the yin and yang that happens.That is the way of the Tao and from that point on the journey home is short and sweet. Life becomes an ongoing waltz once you connect with the Tao.

Water flowing in a river, a stream or a brook is beautiful to behold and is a spiritual phenomenon; stagnant water withers away. Participate in the dance of creation and be grateful for everything that comes your way today. Sure, there are times to be active and engaged with others and there are times to be still and by yourself. Yet, this rhythm will be set by the Tao as well and all you have to do is to follow Her lead. Soon you are about to realize that you are the dance of creation.

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.

I Am, That I Am

The ego is the psychological institution that builds armor around you to protect you from what is. Most of this job was done for you; by your parents, by your friends and foes, by the country you are living in and the epoch you are born into. But then as you get older, you start building your own castle in the sky. The person you have to become; the goals you have set for yourself to finally be happy. And then there is the stuff under the surface that you don't really want to be aware of. And when it finally pops up you wonder what all that is about.

"I Am" is the realization that you are either happy now or never will. It is the observation that no matter where you look and turn, you are always perfectly protected and loved; you need no armor at all to deal with life. "I Am" is also the nod towards your shadow; the understanding that all your drives and passions are bubbling up from this source. Let the Tao remove all the armor from you and connect you with your energy source while cleaning up the clutter  in your basement. The holy Now guides you home, all you have to do is to open up to life. I Am - That I Am!

Selective Storytelling

Can you imagine giving a retirement speech, celebrating the end of an important professional chapter? Just think  how you will interpret events that happen to you today in this light. So-called obstacles  will in retrospect be viewed as opportunities that have guided you into a new direction. A while back a colleague had to leave the company I work for and asked me how to share this news with others. I advised him to present the story he is likely to tell during his retirement speech in a couple of decades. Don't you think he will have quite a different interpretation by then?

History lives, just as the future depends on how we approach it today. Everything is connected with that holy center of power, called  Now. Spirituality is the insight that everything we experience is just a veil except for one thing which is real,  love. I know it is hard to believe but your life has only one purpose, to guide you home to the  Source in the fastest way possible. Most undertake this journey subconsciously, while you have the potential to make it a conscious one.

 Everything is perfect as is from this perspective of bringing you home and once you live by that rule you can actually have so much fun along the Way. So no matter what happens to you, be always be on the lookout for love, be open to heal the past in the same way as you are always open to new opportunities to express yourself creatively, passionately and lovingly in the future.  Discover how with this new perspective "history" will heal magically for you.  People will give you belated reasons why they separated from you or mistreated you which will put the past in a completely new light. Or people may reveal to you that they have completely forgotten events that you still feel bad about years after they transpired.

In the same spirit, if you have to face confrontations today, contemplate what this event will likely stand for. Of course you should never fight anyone for that would mean that you are only fighting yourself. But then, there are opportunities to stand firm with  others just as there are times when you stand firm with yourself, right? If there is conflict, already start telling yourself a story that explains the "happy ending" for everyone. Sure you will make mistakes, sure you will be naive at times, but keep on interacting with the Tao and She will show you the signs that tell you how the story-line is connected and how it is changing for all parties involved. So keep on telling your story and stand ready to revise and edit it along the Way until everything finally makes sense. You know when you are done. It is when you see love no matter where you look.

 You may think this is a strange theory and that it will make you susceptible to self-deception. Well, give our healing theory a shot and see for yourself whether the evidence is lining up for you. Life is a fairy tale if you believe that it is. All the monsters are transient while the Hollywood-ending is guaranteed. Why? Because it is your story and you have the most resourceful movie- director behind you, the Tao. Start telling your story and start living it!

Better Than I Used to Be

I ain't no angel
I still got a few more dances with the devil
I’m cleaning up my act little by little
I’m getting there
I can finally stand the man in the mirror I see
I ain’t as good as I’m gonna get
But I’m better than I used to be

(Tim McGraw)

The problem that we spiritual travelers have is that we want to improve, very much as Tim McGraw envisions his journey in his song "Better than I used to be". We want to be "enlightened" but feel that we are not, so that means that we need to improve, right?
But hold on a second, if you want to disassociate yourself from the scoundrel called "ego", by setting up this self-improvement goal you are still very much under the ego's spell. That's what the ego does day in, day out; thinking and scheming how one could possibly advance. So it is the same struggle only wrapped in holy clothes this time around.

There is only one way to deal with this problem. Let go of the steering wheel. Let the Tao do the driving and you will find that everything is suddenly "better than it used to be". You encounter fewer problems, you experience Grace no matter where you look and where you go and you discover that you already have everything someone possibly could ask for. Actually, Tim McGraw can even aim higher in his already pretty uplifting song using this insight. Once you stumble upon the divine Now you realize that you already are as good as you gonna get - ever.

By Christian and Su Zhen

11:11

When you are a Tao master you have your way of communication with the Source. Christian tried describing a few glimpses of this communication channel in his book, "The Magnificent Experiment", but these can at best be pointers. This communication is a highly idiosyncratic experience. Many path travelers report seeing 11:11 when they are connected as just one example.   You will have your own channels and when you are connected the message will be blazing as the sun so that you cannot overlook them; yet, very much like the 11:11 symbol,  when you try to communicate it to others it will feel somehow childish.

After this communication channel has been established you will certainly know when you are not connected. When you are in that stage, most of the time you will feel very unstable. The voice in your head will be in overdrive and you literally will be too busy to observe what happens in your environment. From time to time you will bump into things, a subtle reminder of the Tao to stop everything and just observe. You  probably will wolf down food when you are excited or not eat at all when you are depressed. The food will be tasteless anyhow. You will literally not perceive it, just as you block out everything that happens outside of you.

When I am at this state, even I walk in a beautiful park full of different species of plants and flowers, I cannot appreciate a bit.  I cannot see the beautiful scenery, the lake, the mountains, the trees, the flowers; I cannot hear the birds sings and bugs hum; I cannot notice the people walk by and say hello.  Hence I am not able to receive this wonderful present that mother earth has prepared for us.  I am not able to resonate with nature at this moment and be lifted up by its pure energy.  Connection means you are "here", you experience the divine Now that Eckhart Tolle described in his book The Power of Now.

 Have you observed yourself that how often you become disconnected?  This is a state of mind when you just get lost in some external energy that isn't you. If you are very busy with your work, your family, your daily activities. In fact, you are so lost in it that you simply forget being mindful. You don't realize that your mind is run by a force outside of your Self.

The life run by the mind is unstable because that is its nature. Thoughts pop up like bubbles from seemingly nowhere and the only choice you have is to pop a few while letting the others become in a creation of your Self.  If you observe your mind, you will find that it is a little bit like the wind. Thoughts seemingly come from nowhere and disappear into nowhere.  However, when you have no idea how your mind functions you will take your thoughts for real and will try to solve all the problems that your mind comes up with. What a waste of time and energy! Reflect for a moment. How often has it happened to you that life took a very different turn than all the scenarios you stewed over in your head?

 All you really need to do is to recognize that your mind is in action again. Let it run its course, observe it, but stay in the Now. At some point, when you engage with your life, your daily activities, the voice in your head, the endless back and forth  will suddenly stop.  At this moment, you can suddenly sense a void, something so vast that is able to include everything.  You are then able to sense the nature, the songs of birds, the rain, the smell of your environment, the people around you.  It is like you suddenly wake up from a dream.

Your state of mind state is can be quite surreal and unrealistic.  It keeps you from being in touch with the beauty of Now. The people, the lively energy the Tao puts you in touch. Let special symbols like 11:11 remind you of the state you belong to. Embrace the Now and learn to disconnect from the energy that isn't you. Wake up friends, sleeping is easy but will keep you from experiencing something wonderful!  Join the world, join the Tao, join the lively vibration, excitement, you will find life is lots of fun!

By Su Zhen

Spending a Moment with your Self

What do you associate with summer?  For some strange reason summer reminds me of boredom.  As a student I was always looking forward to my summer vacation. You probably remember the stressful time towards the end of the school semester as well, with all the tests coming your way, so you  intensely looked forward to the relaxing summer break.  When all the tests finally finished, what a relief.  But soon, the boredom comes with the peace.

Boredom can actually be a sign that your life is going well and there is nothing to worry about.  Can you be thankful for this moment?  It sounds weird, doesn't it? Few can stand the feeling of boredom.  Christian's boys always ask him "What can we do?", and he routinely responds back, "just be bored" and they always get very upset when they hear it. But believe it or not, the ability to be open to your emptiness inside is a sign of spiritual maturity. Just sit there and perceive the emptiness and boredom in yourself. Do it now and just see what happens.

Soon you will go out and look for excitement, but if you are really honest with yourself, you know that you are just plastering over the emptiness inside. Doing means you don't have to deal with stuff that wants to come to the surface.  No matter how many fun rides you line up, sooner or later your inner self will catch up with you anyway. Yet, this is how most of us are living our lives.  We cannot really be at peace with the moments we are in.  We always have opinions about life when it wants to interact with us.  Perhaps you have seen the movie "Clicks"?  We are pretty much leading our lives like that.  When we are "here" we want to be "there". And while we experience the divine Now, we are always looking forward to the next moment or evaluate the past.

I am not saying that you shouldn't try to make your life better. I am not saying that you can't have fun.  I am inviting you to take a deep look at yourself at this holy moment called Now.  Are you really dealing with the issues that bother you deep down inside? Could it be that you are in fact running away from your Self? Are you even able to live a peaceful life? Just try, spend this precious moment with your Self and see what happens.

By Su Zhen and Christian

You Gonna Miss This

Two colleagues of mine are retiring this year. They both have been successful members of the financial community for around 30 years, and they even left on a strong note in their career. Had you asked them a few decades ago how they would feel with an accomplishment like that, they would probably have told you that they will be really, really happy and that they would now look forward to their retirement in affluence. Yet, their body language says others. They look tired, worn out and don't seem to look forward to their coming years at all.

Ask a parent when they are sandwiched between the generations,  raising children, taking care of their aging parents while working all at the same time, and they would probably tell you that they kind of look forward to the their children's college graduation. Yet when it actually comes it dawns on them that their golden years have in fact passed. Life is crazy that way.

There is only one secret of happiness, live the moment now, no matter how tiresome and sometimes even scary it seems to be. "You gonna miss this", Trace Adkins concludes in his song and he captures the entire theme of this note in one phrase. Your goals, your desires, your aspirations will never make you happy, the holy Now does.

She was starin' out the window of their SUV
Complainin', sayin', “I can't wait to turn eighteen”
She said, “I'll make my own money and I'll make my own rules
Momma, put the car in park out there in front of the school”
And she kissed her head, and said, “I was just like you”

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days
Hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

Before she knows it she's a brand new bride
In her one bedroom apartment and her daddy stops by
He tells her it's a nice place, she says, “It'll do for now”
Starts talkin' about babies and buyin' a house
Daddy shakes his head and says, “Baby, just slow down”

Cuz' you're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days
Hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

Five years later there's a plumber
Workin' on the water heater
Dog's barkin', phone's ringin'
One kid's cryin' and one kid's screamin'
And she keeps apologizin'

He says, “They don't bother me
I've got two babies of my own
One's thirty-six, one's twenty-three”
Huh, it's hard to believe

But you're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days
Hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

You're gonna miss this
Yeah, you're gonna miss this

(Trace Adkins, You Gonna Miss This)

Finding Your True Self

Hope and fear are both phantoms

that arise from thinking of the self.

When we don’t see the self as self,

What do we have to fear?

See the world as your self.

Have faith in the way things are.

Love the world as your self;

Then you can care for all things.

(Tao Te Ching)

 There are so many things that we identify with, our body, something our parents may have said about us when we were young, our perceived attractiveness or lack thereof, our role as parents or children, our social status or profession, the emotions that come and go, the endless chatter in our head, and so much more. All these identifications will change as life goes by. The young beautiful girl will eventually become old and lose her physical attractiveness. The powerful manager will one day be over the hill. Your status will vanish when you get fired or someone else becomes the new hot shot in your company or your community. You work hard to keep your position, but the fear that you one day might lose it all will remain. People with low confidence and perceived weaknesses might fall into the trap that their lack of confidence makes the negative outcome self-fulfilling. They might keep looking for evidence to prove that they are victims of life, or they might with hard work and the help of positive psychology turn their life around. But all along everyone identifies with some role, be it that of a loser or a rising star.

Sooner or later every role will be transformed. While the mother will always identify with her role, it will still be hard for her to accept when her children grow up and move out. All ego roles are fleeting in nature and we are here to learn that we are not any of that. We  are not our changing emotions, no matter  whether it is happiness or sadness, whether it is exuberance or depression. We are  neither child, nor an adult, nor a granny. We are not our thoughts, not our fantasies or desires. You may ask, so who exactly are we? In meditation you get a glimpse of who you truly are. When the thoughts come to a standstill we can liberate ourselves from all the mind prison and merge with the Source.  At this blissful moment we get a taste for who we truly are.

 We can be in touch with our Self always, even when we are at the peak of our performance. The Tao reminds us moment by moment of who we truly are. When we identify with something we put blinders on and see life from a particular point of view. Let life – the Tao – take these blinders away. Let's open up to every moment, welcome change, embrace our adversaries as much as our friends. Everyone and everything is just our Self reminding us of who we truly are.

As you open up to life without hesitation you can find that you will never be over the hill, all you ever encounter is beauty, peace, joy and love.

By Christian and Su Zhen

 

Peace

Buddha allegedly once said "The good stuff, do it. The bad stuff, don't." That is indeed it. When you have reached that stage, peace is yours. When every action, every word and even every thought and feeling you experience is in harmony with the Way, peace, bliss and love are yours forever.

Unfortunately, Buddha's insight is exactly why so many in our spiritual community struggle. You want something. You want to be peaceful, you even try convincing yourself that you are peaceful and happy. Yet you are not. You are "here" even though you want to be "there". You want so much to be "there"  because deep down inside you know how miserable you are.  You mind that your "ego" is in the way to experience the "True Self" and that is why you are not peaceful.

Well, perhaps you can read the previous paragraph one more time. Do you now see the way out? Stop trying to be "there" and start accepting the here and now and you actually have a shot at being peaceful. Make peace with your "ego", make peace with everything that is hidden deep down inside, everything that wants to come out to the surface, ugly and crazy as it may look to you. Accept the here and now, accept everything life brings your way. The "I" that you experience, the subconscious urges that you can recognize in the Freudian slips. Know that with every loving gesture just as with every frown you see, you are looking at yourself that moment. When you can accept everything life brings your way, when you accept what is, the "here"  merges with the "there". You never have to do anything to live in the world the Buddha describes. Just drop everything right now and appreciate the "here". That is all really.

 Cancel all self-improvement classes. Stop reading what notions others have about spirituality for a couple of years. Make peace with yourself first. What is self-improvement? It is your mind telling you how things should be. Believe it or not, there is actually violence in this approach since you neglect where you are coming from. You neglect your psychological demands, the unresolved struggles of your parents that you still have to live through. You neglect your unique personality which may well have been an outgrowth of some previous lives. And you certainly have demands from your manliness or your feminine side that needs to be expressed, not to mention the hunger of the selfish gene - the stuff that got you here over the last couple of million years. But you know what, despite all that you can experience peace here and now. Buddha found his way, now you find yours!

The Way is the realization that life is a mirror reflecting all your tensions, aspirations, hope, desires and struggles back to you. This Matrix knows who you are. More than that, the Matrix knows that you already are "there", so it puts the world as you experience it in front of you so that you can backtrack your steps. Accept who you are and then embrace life and always put your best foot forward. When you open up to everything life brings  you with an open mind, the Way - the Tao - will lead you back to the Source. Sometimes you run fast, sometime you stroll in a beautiful park, sometimes you barbecue with dear friends and sometimes you fight with contractors to get the home improvement you paid for. But in all that you can experience incredible peace because you know that you are walking the Way. May Peace be with you!

Let the Tao Answer Your Prayer

Osho has a very interesting observation about how people pray to God.  He said when people pray, they often try to change God's Mind about what they should get. God should fix the problems they have. Isn't that how we all are? We have opinions about life and think that things should be otherwise.

God is outside of us as long as we run after our illusions, just as a magical world is opening up to us when we start recognizing God's loving messengers. But there is even something magnificent about the troubles that we have created for ourselves. These challenges are subconsciously designed to bring as back into God's arms. There is only one requirement, let go of your expectations and deal with, even honor everything that comes your way; independent of whether you think it is a blessing or a nuisance.

Why don’t we switch our mindset instead?  Instead of seeking our notion of happiness, success, and stability, we take life as it is.  Let’s face and accept the fact that life is never an centrally controlled air conditioner; life is wild and mostly out of our control no matter how hard we try. This is actually the fun part.  Let’s welcome life as it is and drop the idea of changing or controlling it.  Let’s go downhill skiing while it snows and let's go surfing or boating in the summer; enjoy the flowers blooming in the spring and float with the drifting beautiful leaves in the autumn wind.  Let’s tune into the rhythm of life and be in peace with it!  When you do that, observe for yourself how your expectations and opinions are swallowed by the Now.

God is always there for you and every single prayer of yours is answered. Yet there is one requirement to receive Her messages, let go of the manufactured world that you created for yourself. If you truly want to meet God we have good news for you. Let life - the Tao - bring you to Her. Embrace life and get lost in it. Without your grandiose expectations you will start seeing glimmers of love that you have never noticed before. A small opening to this divine parallel universe is all that is needed. Soon you will be bathing in a blazing light that shines away the small and stale world of yours. Life wants to give you so much more. Go out, face the music and dance to your heart's desire. The secrets and the mystery of the Tao are waiting for you. Take the first step and you will have a lot of fun.

By Christian and Su Zhen

Honor Your Mission

There is a lot of respect in our community for the so-called enlightened folks. The difference between you and them is that you still need the world you live in to advance spiritually. If you found a gini in a bottle and could get everything you aspired to have, you would end up being miserable indeed. So honor your mission, respect the constraints that you perceive in your life and know that it is these challenges that propel you on your path.

Our "enlightened" folks have everything they ever needed. So they don't need aspirations, challenges and missions like you do. Yet in front of God there is perfect equality. In the holy Now you are as "enlightened" as they are. But to reach that stage you have to face life with everything you got. So honor all your challenges as much as you enjoy your pleasures. Along the Tao you are as much "there" as anyone.