Begin Your Life Journey of Living Longer

One of Lao Tzu’s famous sayings is “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” The journey of the TAO of living longer is a great undertaking: every step is as important as the first; and each step is as firm as the previous one, given that the Chinese often like to say “feet stepping on solid and steady ground.”

It must be remembered that the TAO is about neither longevity nor immortality. Instead, it is about the wisdom of living life to the fullest in the physical world, making its final departure with grace and meaning at the appropriate time, whether it is 30 years, 60 years, or even 100 years and beyond. Having said that, the TAO may still enable you to embark on your living-longer journey through the all-inclusive and self-awakening lens of the TAO.

Your journey is the sum of all your steps. Before you take your first step, ponder on this reality: in life, all humans have two desires or pursuits—happiness and healthiness, which not only often come with many delusions and illusions but also always are unattainable and unsustainable. But the TAO may give you self-awakening and self-intuition to help you along your journey.         

The Step of Intent and Desire

It is your journey, and only you can take your first step. So, you must have the intent and desire to go on that journey of living longer.

The lifespan of humans is relative. In other words, your lifespan is related only to you alone—just as in nature some insects are born in the morning and die by nightfall, while other insects are born in the spring and live until the late summer.

Irrespective of your own lifespan, you may still want to live longer. To embark on your journey of living longer, you must, first and foremost, show your intent to live longer, especially if it is your steely resolve to reach the destination of your journey. 

So, what exactly is your intent?

Intent is your innate and yet inexplicable power that comes into play when you desire to move forward on your journey of living longer. With your focused intent, it may appear that everyone and everything around you are also playing a part in facilitating all your endeavors in your favor. Intent is your inner drive.

In addition to your intent to live longer, you must also demonstrate your desire for good health, driving your intentions and aspirations to take your first step on your journey of living longer.

But the desire for good health may be difficult to sustain for someone who is currently very ill or has many health issues; it may seem not only difficult but almost impossible for that individual to restore natural health and get well again. Worse, ill health may even make that individual forget to take care of the body, and thus allowing the body's functions to deteriorate further.

The bottom line: take your first step of intent with your desire for good health to change and overcome any attitude of despair and confusion related to any ill health you may currently be having. On this journey of living longer, always keep yourself moving forward with your intent and desire backed up with actual actions, and you will then go the distance on your journey.

THE TAO OF LIVING LONGER

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Be Your True Self

Knowing your true self can also make you re-assess your strengths and weaknesses, which may help you along your journey.

With acute body awareness and mind focus, you begin to train yourself to pay greater attention to what is happening in your body, in your mind, as well as in your perceptions of others and of the world around you. In other words, it is your deliberate and purposeful intention to bring more being into your own life experiences. According to research studies, mindfulness of your being is instrumental in helping you cope with your everyday problems, look after your physical health, let go of your undesirable patterns of thinking and behavior, and relate to others with better understanding and greater compassion.  In other words, awareness and focus may bring about the miracle of being, which is now your new perception of your true self—who you really are, and not what you wish you were. Your new being is the outcome of your becoming from where you were.

An Illustration of Becoming

There was ancient Chinese fable of a stonecutter who worked so hard cutting stones that he often felt stressed and depressed.

One day, while standing behind a huge stone where he was cutting his stones, he looked up at the sky, and saw the beautiful sun. Then, he wished he were the sun that could give warmth and sunshine to everyone on earth. A fairy came to him and granted him his wish, so he became the sun.

For a while, he was happy and contented. Then, one day, a big cloud came over, blocked out everything from his view, and he could not even see what was below. He became distressed, and wished he were the cloud, instead of the sun. Again, the fairy came to his rescue, and granted him his wish. He became the cloud, and began drifting and floating happily and peacefully in the sky.

After a while, a strong wind came and scattered the cloud in many different directions. Now, he wished he were the strong wind that could blow away anything and everything that stood in his way. Again, the fairy made his wish come true: he became the strong wind, blowing here and there. For a while, he was happy and contented.

Then, one day, he found that he could not blow away the big stone behind which he used to cut stones in the past. Worse, he was stuck there at the big stone, and going nowhere at all.

Now, finally, he realized that was where he belonged, and where he was supposed to be.

He made his one last wish to become the stonecutter that he used to be. The fairy granted him his last wish, and now he was contented to be the stonecutter again.

The moral of the fable: comparison and contrast between the self and others is often a stumbling block to self-contentment, without which there is no self-discovery, which is the ultimate enlightenment. Self-acceptance is self-love—accepting yourself as who you are in spite of all your shortcomings and imperfections, without comparing and contrasting with others. Letting go of your ego-self is detaching yourself from all your attachments that may ultimately become the sources of your miseries and sufferings in your life.

Remember, all human attachments come in the form of many different stressors in life, and are often the stumbling blocks in the human quest for true human wisdom because they create many delusions and illusions for the thinking mind.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Non-Judgmental

Watch But Judge Not

“The Creator has no judgment, no preference:

He treats everything and everyone alike.

Every manifestation attests to the mysteries of His creation.

So, we, too, embrace everything and everyone with no judgment, no preference.

His grace, never depleting and forever replenishing, shows us the Way.

Judgment and preference separate us from His grace, causing attachment.

Only with His grace do we find renewal and rebirth along the Way.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 5)

To pursue the wisdom of the Creator, you must think like Him.

He has no judgment; He is fair to all.

So, why should you judge others? Nobody is perfect, including you.

To think like the Creator, be all inclusive and all embracive.

“The Creator seems elusive amid the changes of life.

At times, He seems to have forsaken His creations.

In reality, He is simply observing the comings and goings of their follies.

Likewise, we watch the comings and goings

of our likes and dislikes, of our desires and fears.

But we do not identify with them.

With no judgment and no preference,

we see the mysteries of creation.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 7)

         

We are living in a world of war and violence.

How could the Creator permit such evil to persist? Has the Creator forsaken those who are just and righteous?

If you choose to ask the Creator the above questions, maybe you should also ask yourself the same questions.

The bottom line: never ever judge; injustice in the physical world is one of the many mysteries to be resolved by the Creator, and not be you, because you are in the world but not of the world.

Stephen Lau        

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

                            

The First Chapter of "TAO TE CHING"

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu is one of the most translated books in world literature. TAO wisdom—the wisdom of Lao Tzu—is profound human wisdom that is intriguing, perplexing, and paradoxical.

To illustrate, the first chapter of the book is short, but is capable of many multiple interpretations and translations.

"The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

As nameless, it is the origin of all things; As named, it is the mother of 10,000 things

Ever desireless, one can see the mystery of all things.

Ever desiring, one sees only their manifestations.

And the mystery itself is the doorway to all understanding."

(Lao Tzu,ally  Tao Te Ching, chapter one)

If we could understand the Creator or explain His ways, then He is no longer infinite and eternal.

What it really means is: Human wisdom is limited and therefore we can never completely understand the ways of Nature or the Creator.

Mankind, once given a name with an identity, is only the source, but not the creator, of all things.

What it really means is: Man invents but does not create something out of nothing; only the Creator, who is nameless with no identity, creates everything out of nothing.

Ever humble, we see the mystery of all things in the Creator's realm of creation.

What it really means is: With humility, we may understand why certain things were created.

Ever boastful, we see only the manifestations of all things created.

What it really means is: With pride, we see the wonders of our own inventions, but not the mystery of the Creator’s creations.

And the mystery itself is the pathway to attaining greater spirituality and further understanding of the Creator.

What it really means is: Not knowing everything leads to further understanding of the purpose of creation by the Creator.

TAO TE CHING IN PLAIN ENGLISH

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Non-Doing Is TAO Wisdom

According to Lao Tzu, the famous ancient sage from China, everyday something is dropped; therefore, less and less do you need to force things “to happen” until ultimately you arrive at “non-doing.” When nothing is done, nothing is left undone—this is the essence of “doing without doing.” It may seem paradoxical to many, but there is so much truth about that statement; in Tao, the profound philosophy of Lao Tzu, “nothingness” is paradoxically everything. The wisdom is that when you are in the middle of nothing, you are actually in the presence of all things.

The explanation is that everything originally came from nothingness, that is, before the Creation—the nothingness is God. That also explains why Tao (true wisdom) is beyond words because God is infinite and man is finite.

The problem with people in the Western world is that they are so “action-oriented” or so preoccupied with the “doing”—usually out of fear, worry, or doubt of the outcome—that they fail to understand the power of their thought (Never underestimate your mind power; it is often mind over matter!). As a result, ironically enough, their “over-doing” may hinder the progress of their efforts, and hence creating a reverse result. That is to say, they are striving to force their desire through action into manifestation of their expected outcome; and, by doing so, they mess up what they are trying to do because they have unduly created stress for themselves.

The Book of Life and Living: is a book about ancient wisdom, contemporary wisdom, and spiritual wisdom, and how their interaction may serve as a recipe for modern living.

Also, visit my website: Wisdom in Living.

THE TAO OF LIVING FOR LIFE

Stephen Lau

Copyright © Stephen Lau

TAO and Money

Tao Wisdom and Money

Money does not bring happiness.  

As an illustration, Barbara Woolworth Hutton was one of the wealthiest women in the world. She endured a childhood marked by the early loss of her mother at age five and the neglect of her father, setting the stage for a life of difficulty forming relationships. Married and divorced seven times, she acquired grand foreign titles but was maliciously treated and often exploited by several of her husbands. While publicly she was much envied for her possessions, her beauty and her apparent life of leisure, privately she remained deeply insecure, often taking refuge in drink, drugs, and playboys.

Her son died in a plane crash in 1972, at the age of 36, leaving her devastated. Dying of a heart attack at age 66, at her death, the formerly wealthy Hutton was on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of exploitation, as well as her compulsive generosity and spendthrift ways.

What does TAO wisdom say about money?

According to TAO, money is neither positive nor negative; it is all in the human mind.

But how you make your money and how you spend your money may turn money into something either positive or negative.

To increase your wealth in a positive way, focus on doing what needs to be done, and no more. On the other hand, the more you do to make money, the less focused you become, and the greater are your expectations of the outcome. That may ultimately create not only undue stress but also internal disharmony in your life, turning money into something negative.

Increasing your wealth, however, does not necessarily mean spending your money proportionately. That is to say, an individual making more money does not have to buy a much bigger house than what that individual actually needs. To illustrate, Warren Buffet, the billionaire, has set an excellent example: he is still living in his $31,500 home he bought some decades ago.

Another classic example is Ann Russell Miller, a celebrated socialite from San Francisco, also known as Sister Mary Joseph, She, who had ten children and nineteen grandchildren, had grown up in luxury and privilege, and had been living a life of incredible wealth. Instead of shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue she used to do for decades—she suddenly decided to give up everything, and became a nun devoted to living in poverty for the rest of her life. That unbelievable event happened more than two decades ago: one day she held a celebrity party in which she announced her incredible decision, and her announcement was widely reported in the media across the United States. Why did she make such an incredible decision to drastically change her lifestyle? She said she her had a calling, a true vocation that was hard to understand for the general public, and even for the close members of her family.

Excessively increasing one’s wants often leads to unduly inflating one’s ego as well, and thus creating many negative attachments that are often packed in one’s own bag and baggage.

NO EGO NO STRESS

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The TAO of Aging

There is much wisdom in aging. Wisdom may not make you live longer, but it may make you live better as you age. Aging is difficult to define, but you will know it when you see it or experience it yourself. In brief, aging is a steady decline in health, which is instrumental in shortening lifespan; and the aging process is the duration during which such changes occur. Aging occurs throughout most of lifespan. Such a process is an accumulation of changes, which may be subtle or even drastic, that progressively lead to disease, degeneration, and, ultimately, death.

Whether you like it or not, your biological clock is ticking, and this will happen to various systems in your body: your heart will pump less blood, with your arteries becoming stiffer and less flexible, resulting in high blood pressure; with less oxygen and nutrients from the heart, your lungs will become less efficient in distributing oxygen to different organs and membranes of your body; your brain size will gradually reduce by approximately 10 percent between the age of 30 and 70, often resulting in loss of short-term memory; your bone mass will reduce, making it more brittle and fragile; your body size will shrink with your loss of muscle mass.

Wisdom may slow down your biological clock, although your mortality has been pre-programmed into your biological organisms and you body cells by your genes. Yes, you can still slow down the speed of aging—if you have wisdom to live your life. Tao wisdom may play a pivotal role in how you age, as well as the speed of your aging process.

Tao wisdom—the ancient wisdom of Lao Tzu, the author of the Chinese classic “Tao Te Ching” on human wisdom—may show you how to live a stress-free life with no expectation, no over-doing, focusing on the present moment, instead of the past or the future. More importantly, Tao wisdom helps you let go of control of the self, others, as well as the world around; what goes up must also come down, and everything follows a natural cycle.

Living with Tao wisdom is anti-aging. Live your life as if everything is a miracle.

THE TAO OF LIVING LONGER

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The TAO of Depression

Can TAO help your depression?

TAO is neither a religion nor a philosophy.

TAO is simply a way of life about the Way of life, that is, a general way of thinking about everything in life. It is a pathless path of humanity to live as if everything is a miracle.

TAO is the Way through anything and everything in life in order to fully experience them and live in balance and harmony. TAO is not about avoiding or getting out of anything unhappy and undesirable in everyday life, such as depression; rather, it is about going through depression by experiencing every aspect of it in order to become enlightened, if possible, with the profound human wisdom to continue living in peace and harmony in a world of depression.

TAO is looking at life not as a series of both happy and unhappy episodes, but simply as a journey of self-discovery and self-awakening to the real meaning of life existence. You are defined not by your words and thoughts, but by the ways you act and react, as well as the impact you may have on others around you. You exist not because you are simply here; you are here in this world to love and to learn how to live, as well as to help one another do the same.

TAO is formless, shapeless, and inexplicable in words; after all, it had existed long before there were even words. TAO is infinite human wisdom, which is a pathless path to the infinity and the origin of all things.

TAO is not about making your life any easier; it is about acceptance of all aspects of your humanity that need to be fully experienced, embraced, and then to be let go of in order to become wholesome at other times of your life and living—that is the essence of TAO wisdom, which is true enlightenment of the human mind.

Living in a world of depression, you might want every-thing your way or no way. But TAO is the Way through your depression, enabling you to understand how and why you might have your depression in the first place.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Let Go to Receive

We all want abundance, not emptiness. We all desire abundance in education, family, relationships, profession, and wealth; nobody wants emptiness—one thing nobody wants in life. Abundance often becomes attachments in our lives. Ironically enough, we need emptiness to attain the ultimate truths of life and living, which is wisdom in living. To attain this wisdom, we need emptiness. First of all, we need an empty mind with reverse thinking to think differently, not according to conventional wisdom. Then, we need to become empty consciously, which is letting go of all attachments. Attachments are emotional distractions of the mind that prevent  clarity of thinking, without which there is no access to the ultimate truths of life and living. Knowing these ultimate truths enable you to live as if everything is a miracle.

Before we can receive, we must let go first. Letting go of all attachments to the material world is the first step we must take. It is more blessed to give than to receive. But many of us don't believe in that: instead, we think we will give out or let go after we have received. Letting go is difficult because it requires the profound human wisdom of Lao Tzu.

AsIf Everything Is A Miracle

This 125-page book is about how to live your life as if everything is a miracle, instead of as if nothing is a miracle. To do just that, you need wisdom to "rethink" your mind, which may not be telling you the whole truth about your thoughts and life experiences; you need wisdom to "renew" your body, which lives in a toxic physical environment; you need spiritual wisdom to "reconnect" your soul, which is the essence of your spirituality. Most importantly, you need wisdom to "realign" your whole being because the body, the mind, and the soul are all interconnected and interdependent on one another for your well-being to live your life as if everything is a miracle. Your mind is the roadmap and your soul is the compass; without them, your body is going nowhere, and you will live your life as if nothing is a miracle.

Emptiness leads to enlightenment. If spiritual wisdom has to enter you and manifest itself within you, it will need empty space. With enlightenment, you will become a better, happier, and healthier you. With enlightenment, you will live a stress-free life. Learn how to overcome your stress by letting go your ego-self. No Ego No Stress!

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau