[Synopsis]
A messy wool ball, a smelly sick cat, a cranky corpse - unrelated images coincide to bring the author’s family to a threshold of make or break. He faces the legal threat of colossal corporate fraud while his daughter wrestles with a life-threatening eating disorder. We walk with them to the edge of life’s mystery, where dreams and our living are interwoven in coincidences. We venture into a liminal realm where traumas are healed, sufferings are remade, and symbols sacred and profane are brought to their manifestation.
Social scientist and author Manny Mak explores spiritual experiences with an anthropological rigor rarely seen in spiritual books. Written with the sophistication of a veteran researcher and the naïve sensitivity of a spiritual seeker, this book offers a unique combination of first-hand testimony and a rigorous examination of dreams and meaningful coincidences. The captivating prose and paintings cultivate a sensibility in readers - one that is healing, dream-awakening, and spiritually enlightening.
一個打結的毛球、一隻奄奄一息的病貓、一具暴躁的屍體——毫不相干的影像，巧合地把作者的家庭推向崩潰的邊緣。他自己面對詐騙案的訴訟，他女兒面對厭食症的致命威脅。我們與作者一起走進人生刦難，在此迷離之境，苦難得以重構，創傷得以治療。退休教授馬傑偉運用人類學的研究方法，探討你我生活中那些不尋常的巧合現象，以學者的嚴謹與修行者的初心，引領讀者走進夢境、靜觀及療癒的靈性旅程。
[Author]
Manny Mak 馬傑偉
Manny Mak, PhD, columnist and retired professor. His PhD in communication and politics is from Goldsmiths College, the University of London. For more than two decades, he had taught qualitative research methodology in general, and ethnographic research in particular, for MPhil and PhD students. He is the author and editor of more than 30 books written in Chinese on collective memory, cultural identity and social changes. Awakening to Coincidences is his first book written in English for the general readers.
馬傑偉為前中文大學教授，研究文化認同多年，自2015年開始修習靜觀，研究夢境及心理治療，近著《七情上面》、《人生走到初秋》及《Wool Ball, the Smelly Cat and the Cranky Corpse》
[Reader Reviews]
This book has a lot of scholarly information but it reads like a novel: at the end of the read I am most impressed by the author's depiction of his loving relationship with his family, especially with his daughter, and his daughter's character: the way she talks to trees is for me, one of the most moving scenes in this book, it made me want to go and try to talk to trees too! In fact, I don't think I've ever read a piece of local literature which portrays the lifestyle and the mindset of our intellectuals so well.... The whole discussion about the multifarious methods by which spirituality can be pursued -Focusing, dream-work, meditation, I-Ching, Jung is amazing and pioneering.
作者對家庭、特別是對女兒的情感描寫令人印象深刻，也是我讀過最生動展現知識分子生活與心態的本土作品。
- Ann Hui, Movie Director / 許鞍華 電影導演
The author surpasses conventional academic research of the social sciences, and connects more with the body, feelings, subconsciousness, dreams, synchronicity and nature. These explorations are a dialectical repositioning of us humans by softening the ego that is oftentimes too big, and by returning to the ecological self that is an integral part of everything there is. When the author talks about nature in his book, he is not just talking about other species or existences, nor is he talking about a "nature" that is external to humans. Instead, he is realizing the interpenetration between himself and all things and thus gaining the power to transcend egoistic pursuit.
書中關於作者及其女兒的轉化，既與他們自身的努力有莫大關係，又與大自然的力量、超越理性的探索、集體夢境與潛意識環環相扣，這也許是書名中「awakening to coincidences」所要指出的奧義。
- Sunfai, From Ego to Eco: Reading Manny Mak's New Book on Multi-Transformation and Enlightenment (in Chinese), Ming Pao Daily News. May 17, 2025. / Sunfai《明報》
I do not often read a book a second time, let alone just a month after the first. In the first round, I felt like I was reading a thriller about someone I have known for years and always looked up to as a kind of role model. I have long been aware that he has been going through very difficult and challenging times, yet the details are still far beyond my imagination. The rollercoaster ride the family has been on was surreal at best and abhorrent at worst. Over the past years, many things have fallen apart. Personal or collective, the unconscious is engraved with new memories and bound to be transformed, one way or another. The author embraces the transformation with humility, care, and love. No one has ever promised an easy path for enlightenment. This beautiful book shows us how to start the journey by making peace with ourselves and moving on with compassion.
自然真摯，讀來常有行到水窮處，坐看雲起時的豁然，他用英文書寫如此幽微的心事，依然是那麼流暢，讀者走進那橫風橫雨的世界，最終不驚不怖，不畏不懼，因為我們都得到轉化的機會，親近了讓身心安頓的法門，人生誰不在修行，唯以文字修行的善人，說得這麼清楚，想得如此明白
- To Hei, Columnist, Mingpao Daily News / 陶囍《明報》
This beautiful book conveys a view of the world in which our living is vividly interpenetrated by a second life of dreams and synchronicities. The author writes with intelligence, grace and insight. His words are like a path. A path to the edge of mystery. Where you meet, not only his heart, but your own.
- Rob Foxcroft, author of Feeling Heard, Hearing Others (Antonine Books, 2018)
With his keen ethnographic mind, the author revealingly examines his profound dreams and synchronicities. His many deep analyses demonstrate that active engagement awakens deep psychological and spiritual growth.
作者運用細膩的人類學視角，探索自己深刻的夢境與各種巧合現象。他的分析指出，主動參與這些經驗，有助於激發心理和靈性的深層成長。
- Bernard Beitman, MD, Founder and President of The Coincidence Project and author of Meaningful Coincidences (Park Street Press, 2022) and Connecting with Coincidence (Health Communications, 2016).
The author uncovers the mystery of human experience by sharing his personal and poignant stories. As a social scientist fascinated by ethnographic research on vulnerable groups, he delves into his own struggles with anxiety and fear, loss and grief, and the illness of his daughter. Through painting, dreams, meditation, and narratives we are invited on a journey of enlightenment and recovery with, at the same time, a glance at synchronicity and coincidence. This is a courageous project embracing all ways of knowing in his writing about intricate relationships with the self, family, friends and nature.
透過繪畫、夢境、冥想與敘事，我們被邀請踏上一段啓悟與療癒的旅程，同時也一窺共時體驗的奧秘。這是一個勇敢的計畫，作者的文字擁抱上述各種認知方式，探討與自我、家庭、朋友以及自然之間錯綜複雜的關係。
- Eddie Chiu, PhD, Clinical Psychologist and Professor at Alliant International University
This book is a profound revelation of reality as an intricate multi-layered complexity where sensing, dream symbols and implicit knowing are available to be formulated into a new understanding of life. We re-experience our own reality in order to make sense of it, as well as re-experience others’ experiences to understand theirs — just as readers re-experience and dip into the intriguing reality articulated in this book.
這本書深入剖析現實的多層結構，整理感知、夢境和隱性知識，帶來對生命的新理解。
- Akira Ikemi, PhD, Professor, Kansai University / 池見陽，日本關西大學教授
