It is all about Your Attitude

Have you ever observed how your attitude towards a project pretty much decides the outcome? When you feel annoyed that you need to do something and you consider it a waste of time, guess what will happen, the anger and resentment will be building up until you ready to explode.

The magic is, as soon as you observe that you have an attitude, your annoyance and anger will disappear. Now you just focus on whatever it is you are doing. With this focus and awareness, anything that you are doing just flows through you. Activity now gives you energy instead of deflating you. Whatever we are doing can be a pure pleasure if we don’t contaminate with our thoughts and opinion.

Perhaps you can make a habit of asking before you start anything, "What is this for?" If you find - perhaps after a little soul searching - meaning in whatever you do the outcome will be a good one. Eventually a Tao traveler will find meaning in whatever comes her way, that's what the spiritual path is all about. But until you reach this stage it helps to step back from time to time and remind yourself what the symbolic meaning of your next task is. Chances are, a smile will come to your face and the job at hand will take care of itself.

By Christian and Su Zhen

Trust or Worry, Either Way You Will be Right

 Have you ever observed how different the world looks like dependent on whether you approach it with an attitude of trust or suspicion? We have discovered that when you trust, you work with Tao. The whole universe is going to cooperate with you and you are able to progress steadily towards what you believe deep down inside you already have. It is like if you hand over a wish list to a higher authority and She gets it for you in a way that works for everyone.

The same insight applies for all your relationships with colleagues, friends and family. When you trust in the people who are in your life you give them wings to fly. See how you can empower people just as the Tao has empowered you before.  Your trust boosts their confidence and brings out the best out of them.  They may have worried before, but in your presence they believe in themselves. Your trust is just like the light house in the dark stormy night, guiding the way for all the ships to return to the harbor safely.

On the contrary, when you don't really trust others they will constantly fall short of your already low expectation. Fact of the matter is, they can't achieve their true potential if you approach them with a suspicious mind. Observe for yourself, people who trust themselves trust others as well, while people who don't have faith in their own abilities also don't trust others very much.  It is very simple, either you know that you already have or otherwise even the little that you think you have will be taken away from you. Your mind set determines everything.  Either you figure that everyone is in one way or another out to get you, or you know that everyone is working hard to make you realize who you truly are. There is little in- between.

We call that trust in others the Christian Power of Positive Thinking. Anyone who has children knows that this is true. Yet, in the end it is the same circular thinking as the Power of Positive Thinking is. Believe and succeed, worry and run into difficulties. The choice is up to you. But sometimes when the going is hard it is difficult to keep this positive frame of mind. You probably already have read books on the power of positive thinking and you still struggle from time to time. So you still ask yourself so how do I do it exactly? Well, that's where the Tao comes  in. Discover that people are here for you independent of whether the going is tough or easy. Realize that if you raise others your Self guides the way. Recognize the truth in the saying that every dark cloud has a silver lining. The Tao is there for you always and with hat insight there comes a magnificent trust in everything that comes your way.

When the spiritual community tells you that we are all one you may think it is a beautiful, yet pretty meaningless phrase. The Tao can in fact prove it to you. Where you saw a friend and a foe before you now only perceive friends who help you find yourself. Sure, some "friends" can be a little annoying, but your mindset changes, you still only see people who are in their own special way lifting you up. Once you realize this, it will be quite easy to repeat this feat in others. The same is true for all challenges that you will face. The German poet Goethe once said, "Even with stones that someone put in your way you can build something nice." Discover this wisdom for yourself and you cannot help looking forward to everything that comes your way.

Your trust is a vision. This universe was created to get you back Home. Your trust decides how the movie will end. Don't worry, even if you were to keep on doing what you have been doing, your life will have a meaningful ending. But just imagine how far you can come if you let the Tao teach you the power of positive thinking. With the Tao guiding you and your soul siblings surrounding you, why would you ever worry?


By Christian and Su Zhen

In the Tao We Trust

Ori and Rom Brafman describe in their book 'Sway' an experiment in which students are given a placebo with the promise that it would boost their mental power. Indeed, students who got this 'wonder drug' at a healthy price performed better in a test than a control group without this drug. A funny twist in the experiment was that when the same students got the placebo with the information that it is available at a steeply discounted price, they performed worse - even worse than the initial control group. The only explanation of this finding is therefore that 'reality' is pretty much an outcome of your own expectation about it.

Have you ever observed for yourself the difference between trust and doubt? Have you observed when you are starting to lose trust in your own ability or in other people's abilities, and just as this suspicion is creeping in, things tend to go from bad to worse? When we trust instead, we feel firm and strong; we experience apparently infinite power. Yet when we worry, our power base is eroding in front of our astonished eyes.

It seems very obvious that it is much better to trust if you can. You probably have heard Jesus' promise in Matthew 17:20: 'Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move. Nothing is impossible for you.' But these are empty words if you don't believe them. The question is, can you consciously upgrade yourself from a worrier to a believer? Run an experiment and see for yourself if you can succeed. If the outcome is good, you will have more confidence to do it again and again until you feel like that your life is blessed and your heart is always full of gratitude.

When you doubt, your ego is at work; you literally attack yourself. When you want things, your ego is at work too. It is both the same energy only worries are inward directed while desires are out-ward directed. Desires and doubts are the endless oscillations of the ego. You want something, you beat yourself up over the fact that you want it - often in the name of spirituality - and after that you doubt that it is in your power to get it anyway, and even if you could get it, you then fear that others will not allow you to get it, and on and on you go on this not-so-merry-ego-go-around. In contrast, when you trust, there is no ego involvement at all.

People who trust are blessed. People who trust know who they are and have no desire to prove themselves any more. People who trust see that everything that comes their way is a gift of the Tao. You do not have any goals anymore because you trust that if you just follow the flow, everything is easy and, in a weird way, everything is perfect as is. But please don't take our word for it, you have to try this out for yourself. Experiment with this concept and see whether this experiment of positive thinking works for you.

Have you even experienced that when you trust someone, you actually bring out the best in her. Because of your trust, she starts believing in herself and a positive cycle is about to start. The same is true along the Tao. When you trust in the Tao, you basically bring out the best in you and you have the energy and power to deal with every situation that comes your way. It is you who gives the power to yourself, to the people you are dealing with and you give a spiritual meaning to every situation at hand. You trust that you have the power to heal every situation that comes your way; you have the trust that all the people you interact with are your soul siblings who help you on this mission; and you have the trust that every situation that comes your way helps you along this healing course, helps you propelling yourself on the journey home to our Source.

The Tao is here to show you that everything you have is all that you really want. The Tao is here to show you the true worth of your soul siblings, and the Tao is here to show you that you can rejoice - you already are Home here and now. But don't just trust us on this - discover this positive cycle for yourself. The Tao is waiting for you with open arms.

By Christian and Su Zhen

The Secret Behind the Secret

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
(Matthew 6:33)

The Secret folks tell you that you can have whatever your heart aspires. They may be right; try it for yourself. What you should find out in the process is that this world of yours that you perceive as real today is not so real after all. The Law of Attraction states that you are the creator of your movie, with your conscious thoughts and desires, as well as your subconscious drives. Change your thoughts, bring your subconscious drives out in the open to the surface and cut out all the conflicts and see how your life and environment changes in the process.

I am a big fan of life coaching. The idea that you can clean up your preference structure, disentangling your conscious drives from your subconscious brakes and reservations is something that I have experienced for myself. If there is something in your life that you apparently can't get even tough you desire it so much, you should always be able find out what internal conflict is holding you back. Ultimately though, all Manifestors have to become spiritual if they like to perfect their mind game. If you like to realize your life's purpose, you will see how the Universe is rooting for you. Yet, when you try to manifest every whim that your mind comes up with, you will run into resistance. This resistance is coming from you. The ego will undermine you. This world and your perceived 'I' simply don't exist and that is hard for the 'I' to accept. 'I Am' exist and this state of consciousness is perfect. The secret behind the secret is that you have everything, you do not need to aspire anything.

Mental Manifestations

The other day I had to pick up family from the airport and I left early since I knew that finding a parking spot over there is such a hassle. Indeed, when I arrived I couldn't find anything and I was just circling on end. It started raining heavily and I was preparing myself mentally for a long night ahead. It was then when I heard U2's Beautiful Day on the radio and I thought to myself 'That's odd, after all, it is raining cats and dogs, so why would they play this song right now?' But as I had this positive mental association with this song, I suddenly wondered whether this could mean that I would find a parking spot soon. Indeed, when the last note of the song finished, I had one!


What do you make of 'The Secret', the promise that the world would be your oyster if only you believe that it is? I can't say that I live by it, the path of the Tao is a different one, but stories like my parking lot experience should make us aware that mental attitudes matter a lot in your day-to-day interactions. How easy is it to start on the wrong foot and then have your mind race from one negative outcome to the next until you can't see the sunshine anymore. I think it is possible to accept every situation life presents to you as is, accept the feeling that it causes in you and then ask yourself the question 'So where is the upside from here?' The Power of Positive Thinking is to understand that every cloud has a silver lining. Visualize the next open door no matter what happens and chances are you will find it.

Success and Failure

'Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss in enthusiasm' (Sir Winston Churchill)

Who is afraid of failure, it is your ego, the psychological 'I', isn't it? Wandering along the Tao you have learned over and over again to just react to the invite of the Tao to dance with you. You interact with people, you react to situations. Sure, you have your agenda but you leave its implementation up to a higher authority, not because you want to deny yourself, but because you have learned that when She gets Her way, everybody benefits. The concept of failure doesn't make any sense, so you keep your mojo either way because even when you dislike an outcome, you cannot wait to see what lies in store at the end of the tunnel. There is only one occasion when you can get depressed, and that is when you chose your agenda over love. Well, don't sit there being depressed, go and apologize, backtrack your steps and your enthusiasm will return before you know it.

The Power of Positive Thinking

I was once on a business trip in Frankfurt and was standing in line to get a taxi when two people passed by and I overheard how the one was saying to the other " There is one thing I have figured out in the meantime, sometimes a lot is put on your plate, but life has its ways that you will never be given more than you can handle." I thought to myself that this sums up my thinking pretty well. What I would add though, through all the joy as well as pain that life brings your way, you have a perfect opportunity to heal yourself and your environment and take a step closer to your center of wholeness in the process. 

Don't hope that as a spiritual path traveler your personal agenda will always be satisfied, after all, you are here to learn that you are not your agenda. Yet, the power of positive thinking is that every cloud has a silver lining if you so chose. Life hands out problems that allow you to define and find yourself.The power of positive thinking I live by is that everything is just perfect as is - let the flow of life happen as it does. There is very little for you to do, just compliment, mentor, heal and love the people who surround you and and everything will be delivered to you on a silver platter. And if a problem comes your way, try to see it as a stepping stone to the next spiritual level.

How can you even say which development is good and which is bad?A CEO of a large Fortune 500 company said that his worst mistake was that he once hired an alcoholic for a key position early in his career. When he realized that he made a mistake he immediately did what he could to have him removed from this position. What seemed like a costly error then, may in hindsight have been the reason why he got the CEO job. The upper management was impressed with the way how he handled the situation and how he fessed up and corrected it.

A spiritual path gives you mojo, joy and peace of mind. Like the traveler in the famous Psalm 23, you feel you are equipped to handle any situation life throws at you whether you travel in the sun or the valley of darkness. This attitude is not a religion, it is an experiment. See if it works for you as well. In my experience, the Tao invites you to show up for life, and if you do, will demonstrate over over and over again that everything that comes your way is a chance to heal, transcend and discovering your spiritual core. In that world, why shouldn't you be positive?

The Power of Positive Thinking (Continued)

A CEO of a large Fortune 500 company said that his worst mistake was that he once hired an alcoholic for a key position early in his career. When he realized that he made a mistake he immediately did what he could to have him removed from this position. What seemed like a costly mistake then, may in hindsight have been the reason why he got the CEO job. Management was impressed with the way how he handled the situation and how he fessed up and corrected it.

If you think that positive thinking means that everything will happen the way you expect it, you probably will be in for a negative surprise. But if you believe that there is no good or bad outcome, but that every occurrence will just be a stepping stone towards getting your vision implemented, then you will probably be right. Where there is Mojo there are no closed doors, there are only new open doors. Yes, your will can move mountains, but always remember that the Tao is your friend and there will be much less heavy lifting if you accept reality as is.

A Christian Power of Positive Thinking

In an experiment teachers were given a list with students who were destined to do especially well at the beginning of the school year. And indeed, at the end of the school year these pupils performed better than average. There was only one problem with the list, the choice of students was absolutely random.

Isn't this result amazing? If you believe in someone, your good-will lifts this person up. Unfortunately the corollary has to be that if you mentally trash someone, your bias will become self-fulfilling as well. Reality is a choice - your perceived reality is a mere reflection of your state of mind. As many of us know, the power of positive thinking works. Why don't you also try the Christian Power of Positive Thinking: Lift people up mentally and see how you allow them to realize their destiny.