Tao wisdom is human wisdom, and Biblical wisdom is
spiritual wisdom. The art of living well in this contemporary world
requires both. But neither is easy to come by. Why? Because Tao
wisdom requires an empty mind with no preconditioned thinking of conventional
wisdom, while Biblical wisdom requires the suspension of disbelief. That is to
say, both require clarity of thinking, which is not easy to attain, except
through meditation and concentration, that is, focusing the mind on the present
moment.
Your mind is incessantly alternating between the past and
the future, going back and forth without consciously knowing it.
Say, if you are watching TV at the present moment, your
compulsive mind is continually retrieving both conscious and subconscious
thoughts and memories from the past directly or indirectly related to what you
are now watching on the television screen, as well as projecting them into the
future. Your mind never really stays in the present moment, although you think it
does because you are watching the TV.
To illustrate, you are watching a CNN report on an
accident on the freeway involving many cars due to poor visibility. A
subconscious thought from your own past experience of driving under
similar poor visibility immediately comes up and is projected into the future,
to be stored in your subconscious mind to warn you in the future to drive more
carefully if a similar situation occurs. Your body is presently watching the
television screen, but your mind does not stay in the present moment. That is
the reality. It is only a mental illusion that your mind is staying presently on
the TV screen. Other subconscious thoughts may also occur at the back of your
mind: “I am a more careful driver than those people”, “I hope that will never
happen to me” or “I would not know what to do in a similar situation.” All
these thoughts are stored in your subconscious mind.
Remember, you compulsive mind is thinking non-stop without
your conscious awareness.
Because your mind does not voluntarily stay in
the present moment, constantly shuffling back and forth between the past and
the future, the only way to stop the thinking mind is to direct it to the
present moment. When your mind stays in the present moment, it stops its
thinking process of the past or the future—at least for the time being. To make
your mind remain in the present moment—even though for just a short moment—you
need acute awareness and deep concentration. To do that, you
need constant and regular practice to focus or re-focus your mind on the
present moment.
Once you can stop, at will, your mind from thinking, you
have control over your thinking process, you are no longer a slave to your
thoughts, and your mind becomes once again your friend, instead of your enemy.
Learn to switch your mind on and off, just as you do with your computer.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
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