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

Three Paths of the Tao

Most of us experience Heaven on Earth only subconsciously. The Zen masters keep on telling is, "it is as it is", but we have a hard time to make the jump to "it is as it is, and as is, is good". The other side of the spectrum is even harder to accomplish: in the presence of God, the Daughter of God makes the Kingdom whole as well. Yet few of us are equipped to fill these divine shoes. But there is a simple way to realize Heaven on Earth, you in fact only need one thing that comes naturally to you, love!  If you manage to sort out your convoluted preferences and desires and manage to live a simple and innocent life in which you surround yourself with people and projects you love, you experience Heaven on Earth as well. In the presence of the Holy Trinity, love creates Heaven on Earth.

 So how exactly do do get there? Well, start with one good intention at a time, and let life guide you to bliss. When you want to love or want to be good know that you are unfortunately not quite "there". Wanting is always of the ego, no matter how good your intentions seem to be. When you love, you love, wanting to love is different. But then, if spirituality is what you want, life will always present with yet another opportunity to choose love. You can surround yourself with love that way, one friend and one project at a time.

If you are into numerology you can symbolically represent the three paths with numbers. All you have to know that the number of the Tao is Five:
Zen philosophy: 5 = 5
Daughter of God: 4 (God's Number) + 1 (Daughter of God) = 5
Bakti (Love) Yoga: 3 (The Holy Trinity) + 2 (Symbol of Love) = 5

A Little Zen Humor

A spiritual aspirant went to a Zen monastery to find God. It was a special monastery, the rule was not to talk for 10 years and even then only to say two words to the Zen Master to reflect on the lessons learned. The aspirant spent 10 years in silence and when the Zen Master came and asked him about his experience he said "Bed hard!" Ten more years were spent in silence and when the Zen Master again asked him for his reflections he said, "Food sucks!". Ten more years went by and before the Zen Master could ask the man anything he only said, "I quit". Responded the Zen Master, "I am not surprised. All you ever do is complaining."

On Separation

There is a yin and yang to the Tao, an up and down, a rhythm that underlies everything. Everything moves back and fro. Like in skiing, you have to keep moving to the opposite side to keep moving down-hill and stay balanced. You find the rhythm of life in day and night, birth and death, and in connections as well as in solitude. This rhythm can be long or short. Planets can travels with each other for 3 months or for 30 000 years.

Life comes in cycles, but you tend to prefer one side. If you are male, yin is probably your favorite; we tend to favor spring over winter, birth over death. We all know that it causes pain to move into the opposite direction of life. It is hard for us to just appreciate the rhythm of life and sometimes we are out of tune.

Take relationships for example. We crave connections; to exist we need to give love and receive love, we need to feel appreciated and cared for; we need to listen and to touch. Unfortunately, whether you like it or not, it is very possible that the Tao will take some of these precious connections away from you. Friends may come and they may go, colleagues you care for may be hired and fired, people you love may die. She may take these connections away from you to let you understand that your happiness shouldn't just depend on others; you should be able to be happy even when you are alone.

Separation will make you more mature, more self-sufficient and self-reliant. Go out and gather new nutrients and then come back together and share an enriched life - it is to make your life more colorful and wonderful. It is very much like after the rest of long winter, after the gathering of important nutrients, nature is ready to share its joy by coloring the world with beautiful flowers!

Don't mind the separation with your loved ones. Using this precious time to enrich yourself, and let your dear friend gather his new life perspective, so when you reunite you both feel refreshed and recharged. Your relationship is getting sweeter even in separation very much as as grapes get fermented in order to get the good wine. You enrich each other's life whether you are together or live apart; you become whole together. No matter what happens, the Tao always has good a plan for you. Accept the rhythm of life and embrace whatever comes your way, it is all good.

By Su Zhen

 

Mindfulness and the Tao

If you like to follow the Tao and get away from the control of your ego, your ability to be mindful of everything that is going on inside of you is key. So what exactly does it entail to be able to observe yourself?

Observation is the ability to detach yourself from everything that you are doing and, at the same time, be able to observe everything that is going on within you and in the environment that you are operating in. It is very much like you are watching a movie of yourself, but you are sitting in the audience at the same time. In the beginning you will probably get involved quite frequently, so you will be the actor on many occasions and the spectator in others, but that is ok too. Never try to force anything or your ability to observe will disappear.

You probably spend time analyzing how other people behave; you analyze their mistakes, or why they behave the way to do. But at the same time, have you ever thought that you can apply the same methodology to yourself? If you observe yourself carefully, you will realize many things about yourself, know the reason why you are getting stuck in some cases, find out why you experience these emotional swings and understand why it is so hard to quit some of your habits.

When you are observing yourself, you actually get in touch with your spiritual consciousness, and you will discover a universal healing power. Under your observation, you will learn how to step back and will have a shot at overcoming your robotic responses to your environment. Once you reach that stage, 'karma' will no longer stick to you and you will learn how to set yourself free. Awareness is a very powerful healing force.

When you observe, naturally, you will realize many things. For example, it is very common that we are triggered to react in a certain way when we are interacting with other peoples or when we are in special circumstances. We get mad when people say something that doesn't meet our expectation. Without this understanding, we are just carried away by our emotions without the ability to grasp what is behind all these dramas. We think that we have good reasons to be mad at others and blame them for our suffering. In doing so, we cut into our own power base - by losing control, we become the slaves of our emotions. The good news is that we can spot these points when we lose control and respond before the emotional train risks leaving the station for good. In fact, if you can transcend these moments, you will see for yourself that you can save a lot of money on antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills that way.

There are little tricks to get to this level of mastery. For example, you can look out for the moments when you have a strong emotional reaction to something and you can literally hear a voice kicking in and saying 'Hey, I am being emotional again - what's going on here?' In these cases, give yourself a time-out. Go to a quiet place and be with that emotion; feel how this emotion is influencing your body and what kind of thoughts you have. If you are really able to connect with your inner state, you will be surprised to realize how mechanical your emotional reactions always are in response to some pretty straight-forward triggers; you will be also be surprised to see how your emotions are transformed under your observation. Once the shock of the emotional swing has been digested, you will see for yourself that all you are left with are joy, love, peace, and understanding.

There are some ways to train yourself to raise your level of awareness:

1. Meditation: Regular meditation can really help you practicing your observation skills. Set a time every day aside for 10 minutes, sit still and watch whatever thought or emotion arises, the noises, the aches from the body, the thoughts rising to the surface. It is an observation without judgement. In the same way, learn to receive whatever comes your way in life without judgement.

2. Mindful living: Observe how you eat, what is the smell of the food, how does it taste and how fast or slowly you eat. Notice how your system digests the food and how your energy level is changing in response. Observe how you walk. Can you tell how your leg and feet coordinate when you walk? Observe everything that comes your way in that fashion.

3. Doing exercise might be a good practice as well. Just as you build muscle strength when you exercise, you can develop mind power when you do your awareness exercises. Can you be aware of all your body parts as you exercise them?

Once you are very skilled in observing yourself, it will be very easy for you to understand what is going on inside yourself. It is a process to get to this level of mastery, but every situation and interaction that comes your way is a new opportunity to practice. You have a chance to say good-by to the robot inside, and you will quit being a victim of your environment. At this point you will become a creator of your reality and stop being a follower. Soon you will learn that along the Tao there is nothing really that can give you an excuse for being grumpy about. Instead, you are grateful for whatever it is that is coming your way - your life is blessed after this realization.

By Sue Zhen

Is That So?

There was once a Zen master who fine day opened the door and an outranged man handed him a baby, accusing him of having fathered the child of his daughter. 'Is that so?', he responded without protest. Everybody was outranged when the news traveled in the town and they took it as yet another poor example of a fallen guru. Our Zen master now found himself completely isolated with a baby to raise. A year later the family showed up at his door apologetic. It turned out that the daughter had fabricated the whole story because she was too embarrassed to admit the true identity of the father, but now decided she wanted to raise the child herself. So they asked whether she could please have the baby back.'Is that so?', the Zen master said as he handed the baby over to the mother.

When I first read this story I felt a lack of emotion on the part of the Zen master, which is my prejudice about the Asian spiritual philosophies in general. Yet, when I reflected back on the story it occurred to me that the Zen master would probably reply 'Is that so?' here as well.The story doesn't describe the emotional state of the Zen master at all; he may well have been dismayed at the loss of his social contacts, or confused about what to do with a newborn baby, and he was probably sad when one year later he had to return the baby after all that. What his 'Is that so?' attitude indicates instead is a complete openness to the Tao. You accept everything that comes your way and trust that it will have an important spiritual meaning. In my experience you don't need to have faith, you can find meaning in everything that happens as long as you are open to life. Open or not, you will still be emotional along the Way.

Positive Speaking

A spiritual aspirant went to a Zen monastery that practiced silence. He was told by the Zen master that every ten years he was only allowed to say two words. The spiritual seeker decided he would give this Zen philosophy a shot and signed up. Ten years later the Zen master asked him what his two word reflections were and he said 'bed hard'! Another ten years went by and as the Zen master approached him he shouted 'Food sucks!' Ten more years went by and the spiritual aspirant ran to the Zen master and said 'I quit!'. The Zen master looked at him, smiled and responded 'I am not surprised. All you ever do is complaining.'

The Power of Positive Thinking is hard to master, yet, I hope you will agree with me that you have the power to only say positive things. Why don't you start with that? I made this change a couple of years ago and found it actually pretty straight-forward. Only say nice things and when you don't have nice things to say, you monitor very carefully what you say.  You will find that you can always rephrase everything and put it in a more positive light.This way you will learn that hardly anything is ever black and white, often it is your interpretation that defines the result. Your version of the story makes it so. If you have so much power, why not to make the script a positive one. I am not asking you to negate reality, I am asking you to make reality a positive experience for all parties involved.

Appreciate the Spiritual Journey

I have a friend who is Zen. She wonders right now whether to quit her job or not in order to live a more peaceful life and get more in touch with her beautiful spiritual nature. This may be the perfect choice for her, but it certainly wouldn't work for me. I am the opposite. I certainly have my Zen moments and my spiritual insights that I enjoy sharing with you, but I only get them along the way towards my spiritual core. A fire is burning inside of me and if it wasn't for my demanding job as an investment strategist, the challenges of raising two young boys, my physical sport outlets and my hobby as a spiritual writer, this energy would likely become restless pretty fast.

It would be nice to be enlightened, wouldn't it? You probably have read books like I have of those who seemed to gave reached that stage. You can feel the peace and you can appreciate the wisdom and while you certainly feel connected when you hear their message, you unfortunately soon discover that nothing really has changed in your real life. You return to the same restlessness, the same irritations and the struggles. Try to find the solutions to your problems in your real life instead. Square the circle, it is possible. For every challenge there is a creative outlet that defines you.  Arjun found Lord Krishna and peace on the battle field in the Bhagavad Gita; you can do the same. Appreciate your spiritual journey, it is as simple as that.

The Happy Bystander

Some spiritual folks want to change the world, some want to withdraw from it, I just want to be a happy bystander. This world is nothing but a projection of your inner being, as you change your perspective, the world changes with you. You can't change the world, and you can't run away from it would be my conjecture. What you can do, however, is to change your perspective and your attitude about the world and see with amazement how your outer world is changing in proportion to your inner one.

You can be a happy bystander because the world you see is not real. This may sound like a cliche to you, but it is true, you can experience this yourself. I see the law of oneness even in the corporate world, heroes are born, villains fall, but eventually everyone is getting back what they have put into the game of life. You can sidestep this eternal struggle and people will leave you mostly in peace. Sure, you still have to draw the sword once in a blue moon, and often you are given the opportunity to lend a helping hand. You are still part of this movie because you yourself need the opportunities to throw some remaining psychological baggage overboard. Your spiritual promotion is that you now understand that you are an actor in the game of life while everyone else thinks they are for real. After the movie is shot you leave the set and let the story develop a life on its own without being attached to you anymore.

Finding Zen in a Dog-eat-Dog World

Some people are driven by their agendas and have little concern for others who stand in their way, so how can you find Zen in this dog-eat-dog world? The question is what meaning do you give these people  in your daily interactions? What do they have to teach you about yourself? The others do whatever they have to do, you can't really do anything about this. But perhaps you have the opportunity at work to create a Zen like atmosphere despite them. Chances are these screaming and bullying characters can assist you somehow in your spiritual growth and will probably help you with the psychological homework you still have to do. I have been there, I remember the time when I perceived some colleagues as my enemies who were out to steal my place in the sun. In the meantime, however, I can honestly tell you that I no longer perceive it that way. I see every voice out there as an opportunity for me to get better at what I do. Every conflict I view as a creative opportunity to transcend the tension. What point does it make to classify some voices as friendly and others as bothersome. All interactions are an invite of the Tao to dance with and to create.

My transition probably happened despite myself; often it was the others that changed their attitudes towards me rather than the other way around. To give myself a little credit though, at least I managed to accept their invite to heal. Now I consider my former adversaries as my friends and try to replicate this happy transition day by day with others. I am not here to heal the world, the world is here to heal me, and I try to put my best foot forward to accomplish this every day.

Yes, you can live a Zen life at work and be enormously creative and happy in the process. Of course you will have to embrace change because the Tao is change, moment by moment. The one advice that may jump-start your healing process, please do not spend any time  analyzing your colleague's motives. Jesus advice comes to mind: " First get rid of the log in your own eye, then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye." Understand that it is your agenda that analyzes the agenda of the fellow next door and both agendas are mistaken. The healing comes from the space within, the inter-person sanity that connects you. You don't have to be naive about your relationship with the fellow next door either, just follow the clues of the Tao and if your motive of this relationship is healing, healing it will or you both will part ways.

Should We Always be Zen?

There is that notion in our spiritual community that a successful spiritual path traveler should always be even-keeled. Well, perhaps some Tao masters reach this stage, but I would question that we spiritual aspirants should swallow up our emotions. Just accept what you experience and don't wish your emotions away you have no idea what role they play in your spiritual journey and your interactions with others.

I am an economist by training and am reminded of the famous Austrian economist Schumpeter who developed the idea that you need a business cycle to make the economic expansion a lasting one. In the same vein, I would say that you need to experience the emotional lows to open up sufficiently which then allows you to trow your psychological baggage over board.

The one Zen element I believe in is the idea that everything is perfect as is, that is, from your spiritual development's point of view. No matter what happens, it is a perfect stepping stone for your spiritual evolution. And once you make this fact of life a conscious insight rather than a subconscious learning process, life does get easier fast. Suddenly the eternal ups and downs present opportunities for transcendence that allow you to ride these ways like an experienced surfer.