Last year, I stumbled across a copy of the Chinese version of The Secret in a university book store. Having never read The Secret, and being curious to know what exactly it's about, I bought the book. Later on, I stumbled across it again in the Self-Help section of a book store in Singapore, and upon opening it and finding out that The Secret is mainly just about positive thinking, my first thought was "This is just an example of very, very good marketing." Back home, curious as to whether people really believed stuff like the "Law of Attraction," I googled reviews of The Secret. Apparently at the end the whole book really does boil down to Byrne's commandment that we all "Feel good now," or something, which is all nice-sounding and stuff, but the truth is, I don't believe that we have that much control over how we feel, though we can control how we handle our feelings. I wanted to see what that looked like in the Chinese version, but on the last page (before the summary and background information on people referred to in the book), I instead found an even more egocentric passage. I couldn't understand all of it at first, but what I could understand made me raise my eyebrows until they'd practically rocketed off the top of my head (gee, I'm glad that my thoughts aren't going to manifest such an occurrence in real life). By the way, the emphasis is not added: the word "你" is actually written in bold print, just to drive the egocentric message even further.
地球为你而转动，海洋为你潮涨潮退，鸟儿为你唱歌，太阳为你朝升暮落，星星也是为了你而出现。你所看到的一切美丽事物，所体验到的一切美妙经验，都是为了你而存在的。看看周遭的一切，没有你，它们没有一个能存在。不论过去你认为自己是谁，现在，你知道真正的自己的真相了。你是你自己宇宙的主宰，你是你自己王国的继承者，你是生命的圆满。现在，你知道这秘密了。
Now, I'm not sure if I've translated this right, so I'll post my translation here just to make sure that I'm not imagining things (or "attracting" things!) and that this really is one of the most egocentric-inspiring passages that I've ever read.
"The world turns for you, the ocean tides rise and lower for you, the birds sing for you, the sun rises and sets for you, the stars also appear for you. Every beautiful thing that you can see, every wonderful experience you have had, all exist for you. Look at everything around you- if you didn't exist, these things also would not be able to. No matter who you thought you were in the past, now you know who you truly are. You are the master of your universe, the ruler of your kingdom, life's satisfaction. Now you know this Secret."
I don't know about you, but I do not necessarily want the birds to sing specifically for me. Let the birds sing for themselves, or for whoever they choose to sing for.
And that is my two cents into the matter.
EDIT: Wow, I was pretty much right about the translation. From http://www.shiningthelightonthesecret.com/whatpeoplearesaying.htm, the actual ending of the book is:
The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there, for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret.
