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 Voice

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be.
(Luke 12:34)

A colleague showed me the other day a photo in a local newspaper that displayed someone who made it into the Guinness Book of Records with the biggest biceps in the world. When I looked at the arms I didn't really know what to think. I find body building attractive myself, but he looked a little like Popeye on steroids. They also had an interview with his wife who said, 'Well, it took me some time getting used to this size, but I now consider it normal and when I look at the arms of all other men I think to myself, are they sick or something?'

A spiritual path starts when you realize that there is a voice in your head which has little to do with you. The voice telling you that you are not loved, or that you will never make it. Or the voice that tells you that you need to be CEO, or that you need to have the biggest arms in the world. The good news is that once you have experienced only for a single moment that you are not this voice, you have reached the beginning of the end of an ancient journey. Reading others who tell you about your supposedly evil ego doesn't do it; you have to experiment this disconnect for yourself, at least once. But then you will learn to disengage more and more, and as you do, you experience joy, happiness and peace along the way.

You may ask how does one reach this magical moment of disconnecting with the voice in your head? Observe your feelings and see how they are sometimes at odds with what is going on in your head. Realizes how this voice is driving you into a wall over and over again. Experience the inconsistencies in your life - the disconnects of what you want from what the world reflects back to you. A spiritual path is very simple really: figure out who you truly are and what you truly want independent of what the voice babbles.

One thing is important though, never let anyone tell you what you supposedly have to do in the name of spirituality. Our spiritual community is very confused on this point. Who knows, perhaps the man with the biggest arms in the world follows his destiny to show others what we can accomplish with our bodies. Perhaps Steve Jobs followed his spiritual mission to start Apple to let the world experience the wonders of technology. Only you know what is your destiny and what the ramblings of 'the voice' are. Separating the two is really not that hard: 'the voice' tells you where your treasure is supposedly  hiding while your heart knows where your treasure is. All you really have to do is to listen to your heart; that's all.

Confidence

Two colleagues of mine are polar opposites. One is brimming with confidence and drive, but unfortunately borders sometimes on arrogance, while the other lacks confidence. I do whatever I can to support my colleague who lacks confidence, either by building it in our interactions, or sometimes, by sending little energy waves whenever she seems down. Curiously, while I care as much about my self-assured friend, never, ever, do I intervene with her energy flow. If your friend is on a mission, why to stand in her way. I find this bias interesting. Perhaps it explains why in the long-run the tortoise always wins against the hare.

How to Believe in Yourself?

Don't get me wrong, I happen to have a good opinion of myself, especially when it comes to spirituality. However, recently I noticed a lack of confidence at work. Professional success is certainly something I do expect, but it isn't something that I would ever take for granted. How can we just decide that we are destined for success?

I would be happy if somebody could give me an answer to this question, but in the meantime I have found a good alternative. I separate my colleagues in two groups: those that are actively trying to lift me up with their kind words and generousity, and those brothers and sisters that challenge me along the way. I see them saying to me in reality "Sorry brother, but we have to jumpstart your mojo a little so that you can really be all you can be". Who can stop you if the entire world is rooting for you?