How it all Started

Whenever two or more gather in My Name, there I Am among them.
(Matthew 18:20; my edits)


I met Su Zhen in a spiritual discussion forum, the Personal Development for Smart People, which soon afterwards shut down because of some internal quarrels of the group owners. That was a bummer - it was a thriving community which had been in operation for five years, and  some of these participants were spiritually quite advanced. To see this all fall apart seemed like a waste. And even though I knew very little of Su Zhen who literally lived on the other side of the planet, I -  very much to my own surprise - said, "Well, that must mean that you and I now need to build a community of our own", as if that was the most natural thing in the world. "Sure", she replied, and at this moment our book was born (The Dance of the Tao, forthcoming).

In some way we couldn't have been any different. Su Zhen grew up in Taiwan but lived in Hong Kong at the time when we met. She represents Asia while I represent the West; born in Germany, but having lived half of my life in the US. I still pride myself that I introduced Su Zhen to Taoism, the ancient spiritual wisdom of China. This was around the time when I had just finished my first book, "The Magnificent Experiment - The Magic of Connecting with Your Tao". Su Zhen immediately opened up to this Force and soon connected with many mystic events herself. In fact, we discovered that we were connected by an invisible threat even though we were in a time zone 12 hours apart.

This Force - call it Tao, the Self or the Holy Spirit - is wherever likeminded people are.  Matthew (18:20) is coming to mind, "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them." Spirituality is not something you need to read in books. You don't need to search for enlightened Masters. You can discover the Tao just as we have along the way and hopefully our book can give you some inspiration to connect with this Force.

The Tao works in mysterious ways and once you are connected you will see for yourself that the Way is always just around the corner, ready to rush to your side. When we  started out writing this book I was living in Boston, Massachusetts, 7966 miles away from Su Zhen's Hong Kong. Soon afterwards Su Zhen's husband got transferred to Boston, MA and we had the pleasure living next to each other for a year which enabled us to write this book .That is how the Tao works, once you are a spiritual traveler, life really does become a fairy tale. We hope that our journey gives you some inspiration to live your own.

A Whole New World

As a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens,
ever the way he can follow grows narrower:
until at last he chooses nothing,
but does only and wholly what he must do.
(Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea)

What is there to say and what is there to do? You used to do what you did because you had to do what you did. Subconscious programs were running you, as was the magnetism of the world around you. Then came a first glimpse of an awakening and it dawned on you that you have a choice in all this. Exhilaration was sometimes followed by depression; hope was at times a bed-fellow of despair. So you realized that the yin and yang of life isn't you either. You learned to engage with life very much like an experienced surfer handles the waves of the ocean.

The Dance of the Tao is exactly that, the letting go, the submission to a higher Force that knows you a lot better than you yourself. You do this for a few years and will end up, in a weird way, where you started: driven by a Force beyond you and without really having a choice. You become a child again with powers beyond your understanding. It is a magic world, serene and beautiful. Creativity and love go hand in hand where She walks. One glimpse is enough and you will never go back to the way things used to.

Happy travels friend and don't forget to share your story with the ones who come after you. We bow before the Tao and we bow before you. May peace and love always be your travel companion!

Wholeness

What is your favorite letter in the alphabet?
Answer: W
It is double you
:)

I was contemplating yesterday's note on wholeness as I drove home, when my son asked me what is the favorite letter in the alphabet: W, he said, it is double you! Wow, isn't it amazing how connected we are. Yes, W stands for wholeness and it is the double you: the conscious part as well as the subconscious. A spiritual path is all about getting all the wisdom, beauty and spirituality out of the basement of our being while shining away all the dark matter that troubles our soul.

Let the Tao make you the wholesome person that you are.

The Journey Towards Wholeness

The greatest challenge in life is discovering who you are. The second greatest is being happy with what you find.
(Quote from Spiritual Networks)

There are times when we are greedy, there are times when we are selfish and there are times when we are horny. We are human, period. Sure, we can aspire to be divine, to be all-loving and as innocent as children. However, fact of the matter remains that we still will be "here", contemplating how it would be if we were "there". And that's typically where the problem starts. There is a voice inside of us that beats us up if yet again we failed to be "there".

Accept these feelings inside just as they they are. Naturally, that doesn't mean you should take advantage of someone in order to advance professionally. It also doesn't mean that you need to stuff your face when you are hungry, or cheat on your soul mate when you have the opportunity to do so. All your acts can remain as spiritual conscious as they have always been, but still acknowledge the fire that burns inside; otherwise you are overlooking something on your journey towards wholeness.

I remember an interesting "aha moment" when I was in graduate school. I was playing a card game with my room-mate who was quite competitive. I remember becoming quite intense myself and always asked myself, "Why exactly is that? This is only a stupid card game!" I always blamed my competitive room-mate for igniting this reaction in me, but truth of the matter is that my interaction with her should have told me already then what I know today: a lion hides in that sheep that I had perceived. Today I see my life's mission in finding that wholesome personality that represents all aspects of my being. Just as it is described in the Garden of Eden, the lion lies peacefully next to the lamb.

Life makes you whole. Spirituality provides you with the mission statement but it is life that gets you there. Acknowledge all your inner tensions and do something creative and beautiful with it. This is the promise of your a Creator: suffering is meaningless; no matter what your conflicts, drives and desires may be, a door will always opens up for you designed to fulfill all your authentic needs. Life is here to show you who you truly are, and make you whole.

Perhaps the problem statement can be summed up that way: you have been on a quest towards holiness and minded all those reminders that you are human. Yet, when you look back and reflect on your past, you probably find that you have been on a subconscious journey towards wholeness all this time. Make it a conscious one by going after your authentic needs and discover that holiness is always near-by.

Opposites Attract

They seem to be on opposite sides of the spectrum. They shouldn't be compatible, yet fate has brought them together.  It very much seems that the Tao wants to give them company on their spiritual journey and a first taste of what wholeness is all about.

 She feels happy staying home doing nothing while he feels restless whenever he is not engaged in something. She can get discouraged with projects when they become too long-winded, while he finishes everything he starts on sheer willpower.  She loves meditating for hours while he can tolerate stillness for only so long. He is successful in his career while she is absolutely happy being a stay-home mom.  He is a creature of the light, while she loves to dance in the rain. He has been sick recently, apparently feeling the strain of his relentless strive, while she has never felt in better shape. He is guided by his thoughts and ideas of righteous living, while she is guided by her emotions and her spiritual intuition.

In a fairytale way they met each other and started a spiritual journey together.  There is a thread connecting them - they met along the Way.  Though they experience everything so differently, they are tied together just like the opposite forces of a magnet attract each other. Their love for truth, healing and the Way unite them together they help each other accomplish so much more than they ever could being on their own.

It hasn't been always easy though. They certainly had disagreements. The apparent success of their respective spiritual journeys makes them both wary of changing course. Yet both realize, the union of the two halves is so much more powerful than they could ever be on their own.  In the beginning, they pointed out the spiritual short-comings of the other, but soon enough they realized that it was the famous speck in the friend's eye while  overlooking the log in their own. Soon enough they both realized that fighting each other is just as productive as being unhappy with one's mirror image.

 They both have so much to give each other. The union of polar opposites is whole by design. When they reflected on their respective paths they realized that they had received many nudges along the Way for sone time, but chosen to ignore them. Now they finally met someone powerful, persistent and loving enough to do something about it. As they say, when the student is ready the teacher appears. They found both the perfect teacher and student in each other.

Opposites attract. Have a lookout for your soul sibling along the Way. Once you start looking you will discover that she walks nearby. True love brings healing and wholeness. It happened to us so it is likely to happen to you as well. Keep your magnet polished and see who you will attract.

By Su Zhen and Christian

Holiness and Wholeness

Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th century mystic from India, claimed that he couldn't associate with money at all, so his disciple Vivekananda decided to test him. He put a coin under his bed mattress just to see what would happen. Next day Sri Ramakrishna complained that he couldn't sleep all night.

The notion of holiness can be a big struggle in our spiritual community. We don't want to be greedy, we don't want to lust after bodies, we don't want to be egoistic, but somehow we carry a shadow with us. Temptations pop up just when we think we have put them aside. We think Taoism can help you with that problem. The journey of the Tao is one of wholeness first and foremost, but soon you will discover that wholeness and holiness go hand in hand.

Think of yourself and life as one big magnet wrapped around you. Each moment you attract the people and situations that give your soul the ability to heal. Let go of your notions of good and bad, just embrace everything wholeheartedly that comes your way. In every situation there is the opportunity to grow spiritually, just as there is the opportunity to take a step towards your self, away from your Self. Don't lose sleep over this choice, for every spiritual traveler at each signpost the next step is literally a non-brainer.

The yin and yang of daily life is tailored just for you to come home, back to the Source. The Tao will make you whole, and yes, soon you realize that you are converging with your notion of Heaven on earth. It may mean sexual abstinence the way Sri Ramkrishna lived it, or it may be the celebration of divine love the way Lord Krishna practiced it. You are the divine creator who will tell us how Heaven on earth looks like.  Let the Tao show your idiosyncratic expression of holiness. One thing is for sure, along the Way the self will be absent while the Self will be radiating - that's the way the Tao is.

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.

Holiness versus Wholeness

I have always maintained that the path towards wholeness is also a path towards holiness. If you don't understand who you are deep down inside, you can't simply go by the  notions of the Self that others have. Your soul needs healing, and your path may go in a different direction than the one of the brother who walks next to you. We already had the Christ and the Buddha; we need you to show up instead. But once you get a glimpse of who you truly are deep down inside, the next stop in your journey will be holiness instead. Your path and your brother's will converge with the Way once you both have found your true calling. And wherever you tread now, love abounds.

So if you have reached this fork in the road, you can still follow the demands of the ego and sculpt the person you were born to be. But that's all. The engine has stopped running while the wheels are still turning.  The skin of the snake called ego has already fallen off, he just doesn't know it yet. Just do your thing and let love take you home.

Embracing Life Wholeheartedly

 When you walk a the spiritual path for a while, you  will be encouraged over and over again to open up to life. Suddenly every event and every encounter that is coming your way is perceived as a present, no matter what. So you realize over time that as long as you align yourself with the flow of life, the outcome will be good for everyone involved in the end.  You learn to say yes to life.  You naturally let go of your worries and fears as the Tao helps you transcending your own narrow agenda. It is the people you encounter and the events you face that help you understand who you truly are. Let the Tao mold you; we think you will like the way you turn out.

We all have a split mind.  We welcome friends, colleagues and family half-hearted, and most of the time we hide an agenda behind our smiles. Accept this split mind, what else can you do? You can't wish your agenda away. Repressing your desires is like trying to push a basket ball under water. They will pop up with a splash. What you can do instead is to embrace all people that come your way and learn over and over again that everybody has a present in hand for you. If you truly open up to them you have a priceless opportunity to let them help you transcend your agenda. True love will wash away all the schemes of your mind.

The Tao is the road towards wholeness. We spiritual folks tend to be one dimensional when it comes to our passions. We accept the good stuff, the love, the holiness. Yet we struggle when it comes to the - what we perceive to be -  not-so-holy desires. Yet the Tao doesn't seem to care about our value judgements. Whether we like it or not, temptations are coming our way. So let's deal with them as best as we can.  Whatever we resist persists. So let's embrace life and let the light that comes our way shine away the darkness we encounter. The Tao will only bring  challenges that we can master and the bigger the challenge, the higher our potential for spiritual transformation.

Walking the Tao is actually the way towards becoming whole.  You let go of your judgments, your agenda and your attempts to control anything. Experience everything as it is.  Let the people and events that come your way bring sunshine as well as thunderstorms. Like plants you require both to grow. The psychologist C. G. Jung once said before he wanted to be whole before he wanted to be holy. Yes, this is a step in the right direction. What the Tao has taught is is that wholeness and holiness are two sides of the same divine coin.


By Christian and Su Zhen

The Path of Darkness and Light

When Maharishi Mahesh Yogi traveled in the Unites States, an aspiring young spiritual traveler saw him standing with a number of disciples at the airport. She mustered all her courage and went up to him and introduced herself. They talked for a short while and at the end she asked him if he had any advice for her. He smiled and replied "As a matter of fact, I do". He took a piece of paper and wrote one word on it. Enjoy! She immediately understood what it meant. When she returned home she tabled her holy mission and started embracing life instead.

If your heart is attracted to activities that our society or spirituality looks at suspiciously, what will you do? You struggle to stay away, but it seems that there is an invisible force that is driven you towards it. Don’t be afraid if this is happening to you. Follow your heart and engage in these activities with an open mind. What choice do you have anyway. Just let go of the notions of good and bad and do what is right for you and your spiritual path.

An Aghori master - this is the discipline of studying the not so holy activities - once gave three pieces of advice for embracing the darker aspects of life: Never hurt anyone, don't keep any secrets, and never regret.The reason behind it is pretty straightforward. If you engage with the not so holy activities you in fact do what your ego tells you to do. But the capricious fellow will soon beat you up for following his advice. However, if you follow these three rules your ego will have no ammunition. After all, you don't hurt anyone's feelings and he can also not accuse you of keeping secrets. Of course he will tell you that you jeopardized your spiritual path forever, but if you felt that you were following Her cues, just ignore the chatter in your head.

Trust in the good intention of Tao; She must have some plans for you if you try your best and still can't shake these temptations. Follow your heart and Her cues; let yourself experience them with courage and consciousness. You might get on a rocky path but that may just mean that the ego wants to sent her on a guilt trip just as it has sent you on this dark alley in the first place. Whatever you do, just get done what you have to. If you follow Her path, you will always be offered an outcome that leads to liberation, wholeness and love. At this moment, you will be amazed by the Tao’s wisdom and foresight.

A spiritual path is a journey designed to discover that you are so much more than who you currently think you are. These so-called dark experiments are there to open your eyes and understand that you are not your desires. Where is the harm in that? Moreover, if you accept that you are driven like everyone else by subconscious forces beyond your control, it will be so much easier to tolerate the journeys of your soul siblings. "Been there, done that" is a holy mantra for all of us. Break free from your self-imposed limitations and patterns. Understand that there is a good seed in every bad thing just as there is a seed of destruction in every success and you will be whole.

By Christian and Su Zhen

The Tao Makes You Whole

Why do you go out and conquer the world? Is it because you were once humiliated by a coach when you wanted to make it into the college basketball team? Now you are minting money at work, you have objectively made it, but you still push yourself hard and you objectively walk over others - you simply can't stop. Why?

Why do you stay away from success? Why don’t you join the world? Why don’t you get a meaningful job and manifest the material abundance the Tao has prepared for you? Is it because your mom's value system has become part of you?Marry somebody rich and be good at ordering your domestic help around, wasn't that how she always pictured "having made it"?

Why do you have these violent images inside of you? Is it because your domicile nature encourages others to walk all over you, while you have internalized the Lord's mandate that if someone slaps you, you need to offer the other cheek?

Why do you constantly worry? Is it because your father screamed at you whenever something quite didn't work out? Is it that you are now reliving the fears he never could handle himself?

A spiritual path is a soul searching journey. It is a path towards knowing yourself, a journey towards overcoming your past with the goal of reaching wholeness. When you reflect on the four characters we have presented to you, none of them are completely happy. All of them are restless deep inside because they can feel that something is missing and unless they manage to heal this psychological wound they once incurred, they will never truly experience who they were truly born to be.

The Tao leads you on a path of discovering who you truly are. Along the Tao you will learn how to uninstall everything that is artificial and external to you. You will stop doing things based on other's expectations and you will transcend the little psychological cuts from the past.

If you look carefully you can observe that everything that drives you is a result of your upbringing, your conditioning, the expectations of your parents and society and the belief systems that you have created for yourself. So many of us have chosen careers to live out the dreams of our parents. And then are the rebels who do exactly the opposite, but they have a chip on their shoulder too. You probably have reached mid-life as we have. Well, today is a perfect opportunity to turn this boat around and start sailing in a direction that will make you whole. Do not regret the journey that got you here. Everything that has happened thus far in your life prepares you beautifully for the spiritual journey home.

Knowing why you are wired the way you are is an important psychological break-through, but it is not an be all and end all. Your drives are still "you", whether you head agrees with them or not. That's where the Tao comes in. If you want to change, the Tao will show you how. The aggressive executive from above is given opportunity after opportunity to be kind to those he cares for, while the spiritual aspirant is encouraged to become a little more assertive in his day-to-day interactions. The stay-home mom is gently pushed to become more entrepreneurial, while the worry-ridden business woman is shown how to feel the fear and do it anyway. The Tao has already mapped out how to bring you home on the fastest route possible, all you really have to do is to show up in life and put your best foot forward.

The Tao shows you step by step how to get back your natural freedom. We all come from different starting points, but along the Tao we all join life, live our life to the biggest possibility and make ourselves a present to the world. Were we walk there is joy, love, abundance and serenity. If this is what you want to experience, please join us in our journey! It is lots of fun. Be curious about yourself. Ask how you have come here and how to proceed and all the answers will be given to you. That's what the Tao does, day-in, day-out. All you have to do is to join.

By Christian and Su Zhen

When Wholeness Meets Holiness

Buddha once said, " The good stuff, do it, the bad stuff, let it be!" This is true but you have a long journey ahead before you realize what is "good" for your homecoming. The Tao will lead you Home but you will probably be encouraged to question your spiritual value system.You will find that over and over again the Tao encourages you to follow your desires. This is what you were born to do, discovering who you truly are by embracing who you think you are and by encountering life. We don’t get this realization by listening to anyone. Life teaches us day by day who we really are.

We have been taught what is "good" and what is "bad" since our childhood. These values have effectively become our super-ego and so we will experience extreme struggles if a voice inside us is telling us that we should deveate from these norms. Yet we feel intrigued by whatever is prohibited. Crossing that line at times feels right, and at times has a demonic attraction. As Tao travelers we can't tell you anything about your path. Get in touch with yourself and become your own guru. By exploring life and by not avoiding anything your heart desires you will certainly make mistakes; will experience pain, but at the same time you will experience the complete spectrum of life and and you will become whole in the process. You will have so much more compassion for the fellow next door that way and you cease being afraid. If you have met your shadow, if you face your pure ego-driven desires without repressing anything there is nothing you can be afraid of anymore. At this moment you internalize all spiritual rules and perhaps you can even teach society a thing or two. You will learn to let your heart talk no matter what.

Along the Tao you will differentiate between"useful" and "not useful" instead. God in Neale Walsch's Conversations with God talked often about this concept. When you want to drive north, it just doesn't make much sense to drive south instead, right? But how can you say that going north is "good", it is not for someone who is going south. In the same matter, let the egomaniac CEO do whatever he has to do and the Hollywood star go for her 7th plastic surgery. It doesn't make sense to put any value judgment on driving north, for your soul siblings who drive south are as special as you are.

You have to decide what homework you still have to do. As long as you think something is missing in your life, go after it. Woo that dream partner that you lust after, go after that promotion that you aspire, try to become the bestselling spiritual author that you always wanted to be and manifest that body of your dreams. You will have to wrangle with life a little to get what you want. The Tao will send you plenty of feed-back along the way. Let life - the Tao - show who you truly are and let your choices define you and make you whole.

Being a Tao traveler is not something you can just do as a hobby. When you are chosen you will no longer really have a choice as it is probably dawning on you already. Further and further will you walk up the staircase towards the light and every step in the opposite direction will literally hurt you - taking a few consecutive steps in the opposite direction will suck the life out of you, so upwards you have to go. The reason for that is energy. Along the Tao, higher and higher energy centers are opening up and they will transform you. Any exposure to old energy fields will literally hurt you.

As you mature spiritually and as some of your ego-driven desires drop off naturally along the Way, you will converge with the religious notions of "good" and " bad". The high energy centers all converge in the end and the Tao will lead you there. Eventually you will find divinity in your sexual partner, you will eat only purified food and you will put your life in the service of humanity. The way towards holiness is wholeness and wholeness is acquired by embracing life fully. After a decade or two of dealing with life as a Tao traveler you will probably echo Buddha's sentiment, "The good stuff do it, the bad stuff, let it be!" But you have to let every Tao traveler find this insight out for herself.

By Christian and Su Zhen

Love Yourself

Most Religions practice Atonement - a time and scheduled process when you can let go of your perceived  sinful acts; a time when your higher authority forgives you for all your misdeeds. Wouldn't it be nice if you could let go of your guilt every day, or perhaps even better, not accumulating anything to start with? This doesn't mean that we expect you to be an angel, but rather that you accept all personalities about yourself.

Love has to start with loving yourself, even the darkest part. It is so easy to love our good part, just like it is easy to love a good person, but it is so difficult to love all the aspects of yourself that appear to be a little darker. It may be lust, it may be greed, it may be the hunger for social and professional recognition. Often these guilt programs run subconsciously since you are not always willing to face them. The psychological fact is though, whether you acknowledge these drives in you or not, you will punish yourself over your perceived misdeeds. Can you imagine that you are in fact cruel to yourself? Where do you think your illnesses come from - it is you beating yourself up over something. We are mad at ourselves and want to punish ourselves for our mistakes. Isn't this violent and aggressive?

When you are greedy, psychological programs are running that have been in the making for eons. Have you ever noticed how a soccer dad is spurning on his boy during the game and afterwards, when the team has won, tabs him on the back and says that the game is just about having fun. How can you criticize yourself for having competitiveness inside you, how can you blame your father or coach? How can beat yourself up for hormones running through your body, or society telling you subconsciously as well as openly that you should conquer women? Accept everything that is going on inside. Love all aspects of your being.

Every day we experience lots of different kinds of energy which we identify with and think that it is us. No, these energies are not you, they are just flowing through you. A personality wheel is spinning with different aspects shining through dependent on the energy centers that are activated inside of you and the triggers that are activated by your environment. Whenever, you identify with all the characters you create a false self for yourself. You probably realize yourself how these false selves are often in conflict with each other. The saint in you has an opinion about the devil in you. The truth is neither the saint nor the devil are you. The devil is your ego, as is the voice of the saint. This is how you fragment yourself. We are not saying that you should go and live out all your urges and desires, but we are saying that it is possible to integrate all aspects of your personality in a wholesome way. Acknowledge first all the drives in you and then do something creative with them.

Being in peace with yourself is the first step to building a peaceful society. Peace, love, and kindness should start with yourself. Stop attacking yourself and accept every part of you; to experience them as they are without judgment is your key to your peace and to becoming whole. Love every part of you, then you will be able to love every person who comes your way. Jesus says you should love your enemy - you should certainly be kind with yourself as well, right? May peace be with you!

By Christian and Su Zhen

Accepting Life As Is

Most of us are driven by fear without realizing it. Most of people strive for more money because they are afraid that they might end up financially miserable; some work very hard and run after status because they are afraid that otherwise no one will love them; some people eat healthy food and take really good care of their body because they are scared of getting sick; some people do lots of charity because they are afraid of going to hell after they die; some meditate all the time because they are scared to experience turbulence.

I am not saying that you shouldn't eat well, work hard, strive to be successful, or experience material abundance. Meditation, helping others, all of these activities are of course good. Just try to be aware what drives you and why you do things. Do these things out of love, not out of fear. Eat healthy because you love your body; work hard because you love your job; help people because you have so much love to share; meditate because you want to understand yourself and connect with your True Self.

Fear often drives our behavior, but unless you break free from it, you cannot experience love in it fullness. Fear always causes struggle and it drains your energy. Fear makes you zoom into the wrong aspects of life. You pay lots of attention to the goals you want to achieve and you shy away from all the emotions that you are afraid of. You want to control life, but you can't. The emotions you try suppressing come back to haunt you.

Instead, take life as it is - accept whatever comes your way and you and the Tao will be in harmony. Try to face every occurrence in your life; experience it without any fear or attempt to control anything and you will find out all the bad things you try to escape from will disappear like a passing dream.

The problem is that we always aspire to have sunshine but life doesn't work that way. We need the rain for our vegetation and our water supply. At home you may enjoy a rainy day with a good book, sitting next to the fire place. Likewise, if you truly accept your emotions, you will find a silver lining about everything. Also, remember that the emotion that gets you down sets you up for your next high.

Have you ever noticed that you accept happiness wholeheartedly?In contrast, your sadness and anxiety tend to stay longer because you never accept these emotions from the bottom of your heart. Experiment with this concept. Take everything as is, then you will taste the flavor of life. You will discover that your life is always blessed if you wholly accept it.

By Su-Zhen

Closing the Circle

A friend said to me 'Why don't you guys get a life coach?' when I told her that my wife and I were really buried these days by the demands from work, home and parenthood. I had to laugh because that weekend I had contemplated how to design the business cards displaying my next career as a spiritual writer. Should it be Author, Life Coach or Author, Spiritual Coach instead? Well, it is very simple really. A life coach helps you to accomplish what you want to get out of life, while a spiritual coach helps you on your journey home.

Actually, a Tao traveler would point out that the expression 'life coach' is an oxymoron for everyone who has the desire to come home: life coaches you already, all a Tao master would tell you is to keep your eyes wide open, listen to everyone and keep an open mind about everything, and stand ready to be coached moment by moment.

So if you still have a mission, have something to accomplish, you have to be ready to battle with life. Getting a life coach might be a good idea to get a little further ahead or to avoid some pain in the process. Having both feet in life is spiritual too; there is only one way to overcome desires and that is by outgrowing them. You can't yet close the circle just because you still have to make it bigger. Perhaps the job of the spiritual coach could be to help with that soul searching process. There are spiritual seekers who after a long period of drifting realize that they still have a job to do in the real life just as there are driven people who suddenly realize that they have outgrown their desires and happily start the journey home. Otherwise I don't think a spiritual coach has to do much, at least not if she is a Taoist like me. We strongly believe that there is not a better spiritual coach than life itself. Observe the signs that come your way and close the circle for once and for all.

The New Christian Way

When a brother acts insanely, he is offering you an opportunity to bless him. His need is yours. You need the blessing you can offer him. There is no way for you to have it except by giving it. This is the law of God and it has no exceptions.
A Course in Miracles

Many of us, consciously or subconsciously, mind the part of the New Testament in which Jesus advocates to turn the other cheek. Yet, all His message really is, is to show us that it doesn't really matter. As the the Course in Miracles states, when your brother acts insanely, you can do what he says just to show that it is not important. The New Christian Way is about healing and becoming whole. You heal yourself and make yourself whole by interacting with everyone who comes your way. The solution that works for your brother and your sister is the one that works for you. This is the promise of the Holy Ghost. And if the situation tells you to stand firm instead, then it will be in the best interest of your brother and your sister as well. It is so much fun to figure out a creative solution to each and every problem. Along the New Christian Way there is only joy, laughter and love.

You may ask and what if I am taken for a ride while I look out for the agenda of someone else? You don't. You are a problem solver who finds the solution that works for everyone, yourself included. As the Bible says 'By their fruit ye shall know them, and they will recognize themselves.' Your meaning of success will likely differ from the way society sees it, so if you think you still have to prove something to others, your journey will likely lead you astray. Yet, you will know your meaning of success and even if once in a blue moon you make a mistake, you will recognize that this too propels you along your spiritual path. The New Christian Way brings joy and happiness for everyone, especially you.

On Wholeness

My assistant gave me a little plant about ten years ago. She was going back to graduate school when she entrusted it with me. I watered it dutifully, but it slowly withered away. Whenever a colleague passed by my office she would encourage me to just throw it away. It turned out that I wasn't doing very well professionally around that time so one day when I looked at the poor plant the thought crossed my mind that it may be a symbol of my career: half past dead. I was born a fighter, so on that day I took on the challenge, smiled at my little plant and said "Let's turn this thing around, shall we?"

I planted all the shoots anew and have many offsprings of this plant at home now. At work I have one single plant left to remind myself of the contrast between then and now. It turns out that this plant has become a symbol of my professional career. My career has prospered very much in the meantime as did the plant. A couple of years ago we changed buildings and I carried the plant in the freezing winter from the parking lot into my new office. This journey took a toll on the plant and it lost many leaves afterwards, but when they regrew, I discovered a new overall pattern: the plant was suddenly growing in the form of a circle. When I saw it I figured that it had become a symbol of my approaching spiritual wholeness.

Fact of the matter is that I am no longer working in order to be successful; I am working day and night to become whole instead. My professional job as a financial strategist provides me with the monetary means and the material to tell others about the way of the Tao. Have a look at my office plant below, wouldn't you agree with me that the circle is almost complete? There are a few more steps to take, but the lion share of my journey towards wholeness is behind me. I hope you can take some inspiration from this story. Take a good look around wherever you are, perhaps your personal symbol is already waiting to connect with you.

The Union of Two Opposites

Do you remember the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde? The respected member of upper London society never faced up to his dark side, so the neglected part of him ventured out at night and committed horrendous crimes and finally won the upper hand over Dr. Jekyll altogether. This story is a classic in describing the two opposing natures that can live in a person and the more proper a spiritual path traveler aspires to become, the louder the voice of the demon becomes until one finally fesses up to the other voice inside.

The union of two opposites is possible. Every marriage is a union of yin and yang, so I hope you would agree with me that with a lot of hard work and a little good karma you can bring out the best of both forces. So figure out what forces are burning deep down inside, accept and embrace them and then find out how you can unify your drives and aspirations. This is your mission statement, as a matter of fact, you assigned yourself this little puzzle long before you were born so surely a solution to your challenge exists. Be creative, be flexible and be determined that your idiosyncratic solution will be found. Have a look at the in and yang symbol below. The union of yin and yang exists - both forces live happily ever after.

On Wholeness

Imagine a circle that is sliced in four quadrants. To the upper right is intellect, to the upper left is wisdom. To the lower right are the emotions and to the lower left are the feelings. Wisdom and intellect are conscious dimensions whereas feelings and emotions lie in the subconscious realm. As you go to the right in the circle you are expressing yourself via thoughts and emotions, whereas as you go to the left you are going inside. Wisdom and feelings emerge from within.

You experience wholeness right  is the center of the circle. You feel and intuitively understand the environment you are operating in. What you feel overlaps with the emotions that you express. Similarly, you express intellectually what you intuitively know. Inside and outside overlap as do consciousness and subconsciousness. You are finally home and whole.

On Wholeness

Imagine a circle that is sliced in four quadrants. To the upper right is intellect, to the upper left is wisdom. To the lower right are the emotions and to the lower left are the feelings. Wisdom and intellect are conscious dimensions whereas feelings and emotions lie in the subconscious realm. As you go to the right in the circle you are expressing yourself via thoughts and emotions, whereas as you go to the left you are going inside. Wisdom and feelings emerge from within.

Wholeness is the middle of the circle as there is no longer any need to express yourself. You feel and intuitively understand the environment you are operating in. You have emotions, but they are stable and you just express what you feel. Similarly, you know and only use the intellect to express what you know. The yin and yang of absorbing and expressing, intuition and intellect comes to a rest in the center point of the circle of life.