Today I celebrate Sunflower Seed Day.

Exactly seven years ago I woke up in the middle of the night with a determination to write a book about religion and philosophy. It was the seed for what a few months later became the Gamma Tao.

It was a moment of exaltation. I was full of ideas and felt an urgency like never before to put them out to the world. I thought my ideas could contribute to interfaith harmony, restore wisdom traditions that had fallen into disrepute and even make the natural world a little sacred again.

Nothing of this happened.

The world seems more divided than ever. The reputation of wisdom traditions has not improved at all and our relation with nature is turning more and more into an existential crisis.

I also did not write a book (yet). Instead I built a website that on a day to day basis does not receive many visitors. I am not actively promoting it either. Only occasionally I find the time to post something.

So, what is there to celebrate?

A lot, actually.

Since that 27 December in 2012 the Gamma Tao has been an almost magical journey for me.

In little more than three months my ideas for a book merged into one unifying symbol. I am still amazed by the way the Gamma Tao developed itself in my mind. And it continues to evolve to the present day.

The Gamma Tao started as one unified theoretical symbol. A few years later it also got a practical form. This year the Gamma Tao expanded even further, going beyond itself with a vision on the lights of higher spiritual paths (the “Gamma Trinity”) on the one hand and the shadows of excessive behaviour (the “Lambda Path”) on the other.

I still believe that the Gamma Tao can be useful to others. It is basic, open, visual, non-dogmatic, practical and easy to understand. It is compatible with wisdom and scientific traditions. I cannot think of a better tool to start a wisdom journey.

Compared to other attempts to integrate wisdom traditions, it is also unique in its modesty. It is only a lower path. The γ is like a silent consonant. It is seldom pronounced. The Gamma Tao does not replace anything and yet it can support everything.

Anything loud and new would only create more division, while we just need a basic connection that underlies our flourishing diversity.

While there has been limited resonance from the outside world, the Gamma Tao now really flourishes inside of me.

The Gamma Tao has turned out to be exactly what I need for my own personal development. Its values and principles are a daily source of inspiration and, more than that, it continues to lead me to new sources of inspiration. The Gamma Tao even helps me to go through difficult moments.

In religion and philosophies of life I have always been a free spirit. I grew up as an Atheist. As a student I started to consider myself an “Epicurean Stoic”. After a spiritual awakening during a study year in Italy I became a “spiritual humanist” and later, when I started to explore Eastern traditions, I often called myself a “Socratic Buddhist”.

All these traditions still resonate with me, but the Gamma Tao has opened me up to so much more. My aversion for the Abrahamic traditions has disappeared and the wisdom of Indigenous traditions inspires me more and more.

Thanks to the Gamma Tao I am open and better prepared to leave the intellectual comfort zone of sceptical rationalism and freely explore spirituality.

 At the same time my interest in the natural sciences has grown.

The Gamma Tao supports all this. It is a perfect way to develop spiritual, emotional and rational intelligence.

Thanks to the Gamma Tao, my personal wisdom journey has become more interesting and profound. I have read more books, listened to more lectures and attended more events on religion, science and philosophy than ever before.

Two highlights were my visit to the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto in 2018 and the Science And Nonduality (SAND) Conference in San José this year. I am also very glad to have discovered the HowTheLightGetsIn Festival. I attended the last four editions of this philosophy festival in Hay-on-Wye and London. I am already looking forward to the next edition.

As I try to absorb all the information I receive during these activities, I become more and more aware of how little I know and how much there still is to discover from the limited perspective of a free spirit in a gigantic universe.

My wisdom journey may seem very eclectic and superficial. It is a kind of criticism that is often used against free spirits that do not stick to a particular tradition, but I do not just pick and choose what I like. The Gamma Tao and its values are coherent and dynamic. They give me direction and strengthen my commitment to explore in depth various spiritual and philosophical paths.

The Gamma Tao offers me a stable common ground to keep my balance while I climb the heights of multiple wisdom traditions.

In these seven years the Gamma Tao has really become my basic personal religion or philosophy of life. In the end religion is something deeply personal. My own inner wisdom journey is at least as important as any external success the Gamma Tao may or may not have in the future.

Apart from this, I think that any personal religion or philosophy should always be grounded in universal values. It is something different than a set of opinions.

The Gamma Tao is both personal and universal. Tailor-made for me, ready-made for others. Its values set a standard that also challenge me. I am often not grateful enough, my compassion still needs to grow and sometimes my behaviour is excessive. I am not a saint, nor a guru. I am not perfect.

The Gamma Tao is also not perfect. “Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in” (Leonard Cohen). And yet, the way it came to be was some kind of magic.

Enough reasons for a celebration.

The Gamma Tao needs a few rituals. Apology Week has become a meaningful tradition and I observed it also this year. Gamma Day on the April 1st remains the most important day to celebrate the Gamma Tao, but without a seed no sunflower.

This website remains open like a temple. Visitors and fellow travellers are always welcome.

Happy Sunflower Seed Day!