Your Journey of Healing

Journey of Healing

One of Lao Tzu’s famous sayings is “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” The TAO journey of healing myasthenia gravis is a great undertaking: every step is as important as the first; and each step is as firm as the previous one. The Chinese often like to say “feet stepping on solid and steady ground.” Your healing journey is the sum of all the steps you are going to take.

It is your journey, and only you can take your first step. So, you must choose to take your first step to go on that healing journey.

To continue on your journey, paradoxically, you must show no desire to heal and no intent to reach your destination.

But why?

The desire for good health may be difficult to sustain for someone who is currently confronted with the many health issues related to myasthenia gravis. 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 feel depressed and forget to take care of the body, and thus allowing the body's malfunctions to continue and deteriorate further.

A wise traveler on a long journey has no fixed plans, and is not intent upon arriving the destination within a certain time frame. But that traveler is ready to use all the situations and all the people encountered to help him along the long journey.

           

Likewise, healing is a long, on-going process, and not a destination. With innate and inexplicable power, it may appear that everyone and everything along your journey are also playing a part in facilitating in your favor all your endeavors in healing your myasthenia gravis.

The bottom line: take your first step of no desire and no intent for healing so as to change and to overcome any attitude of confusion and even despair related to the trauma of your myasthenia gravis diagnosis. On your healing journey, with no intent upon arriving at the destination any time soon, you will continue to keep yourself moving forward, and you will then go the long distance on your long healing journey.

The TAO

According to the TAO, being free of desires is your path to detachment, and thus giving you clarity of thinking to start your own healing journey.

Paradoxically, if you have no desire to desire for change or healing, there is stillness, in which you may see yourself gradually changing for the better in order to slowly heal yourself:

“To live a life of harmony, we need letting life live by itself. . .

So, follow the Way.

Stop striving to change ourselves: we are naturally changing.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 57)

“Accordingly, we do not rush into things.

We neither strain nor stress.

We let go of success and failure.

We patiently take the next necessary step, a small step and one step at a time.

We relinquish our conditioned thinking. Being our true nature, we help all beings

return to their own nature too.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 64)

According to the TAO, a good traveler neither has fixed plans, nor shows any effort to arrive at the destination:

“The softest thing in the world

overcomes what seems to be the hardest.

     

That which has no form

penetrates what seems to be impenetrable.

That is why we exert effortless effort.

We act without over-doing.

We teach without arguing.

This is the Way to true wisdom.

This is not a popular way

because people prefer over-doing.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 43)

Begin your healing journey, and take your first step with effortless effort and humble simplicity:

“Those, who think they know, know not the Way.

Those, who think they know not, find the Way.

Simplicity is clarity.

It is a blessing to learn from those

with humble simplicity.

Those with an empty mind

will learn to find the Way.

The Way reveals the secrets of the universe:

the mysteries of the realm of creation;

the manifestations of all things created.

The essence of the Way is to show us

how to live in fullness and return to our origin.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 65)

So, begin your own journey of self-healing of any disease you may have.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

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Why Prayers Are Not Answered?

Why Your Prayers Are Seldom Answered?

Albert Einstein once said, “Thinking is difficult; that’s why so few people do it.”

Thinking is a process of self-intuition through asking relevant questions to create self-awareness and self-reflection. It’s the natural habit of the human mind to try to solve all problems by asking questions. Through the process of solving problems, the human mind may then make things happen.

So, asking all relevant questions is self-empowerment of the human mind to increase wisdom because it initiates the intent to learn, to discover, and then to change for the better.

Here are some of the questions you may want to ask yourself concerning why your prayers are seldom answered or not answered at all:

What’s a prayer?

Jesus said: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) Is a prayer just your way of asking for something that you want?

Is it a personal request to the Creator to make something happen or not to happen in your life?

Is it a conversation or communication with the Creator to further develop your relationship with Him?

Is it a way of seeking advice from the Creator to help you deal with your own life’s problems and challenges?

Is it a means of asking the Creator for His blessings you think you may be entitled to?

Or is it none of the above?

How often is a prayer said or offered?

Before you getting up, and before you going to bed?

Several times throughout the day, such as before your meals?

While attending a religious service?

Seldom, if ever, unless expressing with your condolences to someone you feel sorry for?

There’s an old proverb that says: “He who cannot ask cannot live.” Life is all about asking questions, and seeking answers from all the questions asked.

By answering all of the above questions, you may be able to self-intuit why your prayers are answered or not answered at all.

Your self-intuition requires not only your spiritual wisdom, but also your human wisdom, in particular, the TAO wisdom of the ancient sage Lao Tzu from China, who was the author of Tao Te Ching, the ancient classic on human wisdom.

Click here to get Why Prayers Are Seldom Answered.

Click here to get The Complete Tao Te Ching in Plain English.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© Stephen Lau

The Importance of Happiness in Aging

 The Importance of Happiness in Aging

Are you happy or unhappy? If you are not happy, then why not?

Why is happiness important? It plays a pivotal part in the art of living well? The mind plays a critical role in shaping your personality, which is responsible for your happiness or unhappiness. In other words, your personality is all your own thinking, just as Descartes, the famous French philosopher, once said: “I think; therefore I am.”

Erik Erikson, the famous psychologist, also stated that the evolution of our personality is affected by different life stages of changes and experiences we have gone through, resulting in who and what we have now become. Understanding those life stages may help us understand how we have become happy or unhappy.

Trust and Mistrust

In this first stage, from birth to age one, we may  experience and develop trust or mistrust that affects how we feel about the benevolence of the world around us.

Independence and Doubt

In the toddler stage, we begin to develop our self-trust,  which leads to independence. With self-trust, we begin to learn how to walk. In this stage, however, we may also develop self-doubt that leads to shame later in life. This may be the underlying cause of failing to take risks in later life, missing some golden opportunities to improve our lives, and thus making us feel unhappy and unfulfilled.

Creativity and Guilt

In preschool years, we begin to exercise our minds to acquire initiative and express creativity. The capability to express freely our initiative and creativity helps us develop the playful and positive side of our nature. Under restraint, on the other hand, we may develop guilt, lack of self-confidence, and inability to get close to others.

Industry and Inferiority

From age five to eleven, we experience fulfillment in accomplishment or disappointment in failure. This is often a result of acquiring our society’s work ethics. We begin to believe in our abilities and feel motivated to work hard. On the other hand, if we become lazy, we develop poor work habits that may adversely affect our careers later in life.

Identity and Diffusion

In adolescent, we begin to explore ourselves, finding out who we are and what we want out of life. We may channel our energy into a field we love, and derive pleasure from seeing what we have accomplished. This growth in our sense of self determines whether or not we have an “identity crisis.”

Intimacy and Withdrawal

In early adulthood, we develop intimacy, which is a quality of an individual, and not the couple. The ability to develop and maintain a long-term relationship is an asset. However, many of us may experience difficulty in achieving closeness with others, or even maintaining a long-lasting relationship, resulting in inner loneliness that causes us to doubt even our own remarkable accomplishments in life.

Compassion and Selfishness

In middle age, we become more connected to future generations, as evidenced by being parents, mentors, and supervisors. However, we may also become self-focusing, alienating ourselves from the next generation, and thus creating the “generation gap.”

Ego and Despair

In old age, by letting go of the ego, we accept both our successes and failures, and thus have a healthy perspective on life. However, we may also look back at our own past experiences and the world in general with disdain and regret, and thus we become despaired and unhappy.

Remember, nothing is set in stone. Even if you have formed your own personality over the years, you can still change it to make you become a better and happier person if you have the wisdom and the know-how.

Human happiness or unhappiness is no more than a perception of the human mind, based on an individual's own life experiences. You think, and your perceptions then become your "realities"; with profound wisdom, you can change how your mind processes your perceptions. Change your mind to change your realities, and live your life as if everything is a miracle! Your life journey is uniquely yours.  Make your own happiness recipe from the happiness ingredients of ancient wisdom, conventional wisdom, and spiritual wisdom. Continue your life journey with your own happiness recipe.

The Happiness Wisdom

Stephen Lau 

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

My "ANGRY NO MORE" Commands

 MY “ANGRY NO MORE” COMMANDS

As I continue to grow older, I often look back into my past to find out how and why I can become “angry no more” through my daily "commands" to myself:

1. My “Thinkfulness” Command

On waking up every morning, my first command and instruction to myself is “thinkfulness”, which is thinking of thankfulness that I’ve survived yet another day. My mind is filled with thoughts of what I should thank the Lord for—giving me another day.

2. My “Complaint” Command

Throughout the day, I try to catch myself mentally complaining about anything, especially related to my thriving, such as the obstacles in my anticipated achievement. By not complaining, I try to avoid putting my mind in a state of unconsciousness that creates negative energy and denial of the present moment. If I’m still complaining, I’m in fact saying: “I can’t accept what is, and I’m a victim of the present situation.” Understandably, in the present moment, I’ve only three options in any situation that I’m complaining about: get away from the situation; change the situation; and accept the situation as it is.

I ask the Lord to speak to me and let me listen. Then, I’ll command myself to act accordingly. Acting, taking no action, or accepting the situation—I pray for the Lord to take away my fear, my regret, and my negativity.

3. My “Stress” Command 

Stress is inevitable in everybody’s life, including mine, especially while growing older. With that realization, I’ve learned to command myself to re-focus more on the present, and less on the future. Without any timeline for my goals, I’ve learned to enjoy doing anything without thinking of the consequence.

4. My “Past” Command

In my life, I’ve made many mistakes that might have changed my life—maybe for the worse, or maybe not. Who knows? And who cares? After all, the Lord is in control of my life. Right now, I’m where He has destined for me. I never let the past take up my attention. I don’t let my thinking process create any anger, guilt, pride, regret, resentment, or self-pity. But, just like everybody else, I might still have my own negative feelings and emotions, but they never last too long. I believe that if I allow those thoughts of mine to control me, I’d look much older than my calendar age, and, worse, create a false sense of self. Reminiscing what was good in the past would only intensify my desire to “repeat” a similar experience in the future, and thus creating an insatiable longing that may never be fulfilled. Remembering what was unpleasant in the past would only generate my own emotions of remorse and unhappiness.   So, I just walk with the Lord, and command myself to let my bygones be bygones.

5. My “Present” Command

To me, living in the present holds the key to stopping my mind from processing my past and my future thoughts, which is the instinctive and automatic output of my mental process. My mind is cruel and demanding, such that I may easily become its slaves, doing whatever it commands and demands me to do without even being consciously aware of it. So, the only way to free myself from that invisible bondage is to live in the now, even though just for a short while. Living in the now changes my mind for the better: it cherishes my mental clarity, my deep insight, and my internal peace. Living in the now has become a strong tool for my mental self-control. So, I command my daily mindfulness to make me live in the now with the Lord’s Presence in my mind.

6. My “Future” Command

As I grow older, I acknowledge that I’ve the propensity to identify myself with my thinking mind, projected into the future with imaginary images of myself living in a nursing home, being totally disabled, and thus creating my own imaginary anxiety, fear, and worry. But I’ve also learned that the projected future is unreal because it doesn’t exist. It becomes real only when it happens—but not before or even after it. So, waiting for the future is only my state of mind: I want the future, but not the present; I don’t want what  I’ve already got, but I want what I haven’t got yet. So, I command myself to acknowledge my present reality—who I am, where I am, what I am doing with my life. My daily acknowledgement is my obedience to the Lord.

7. My “Misfortune” Command

Life won’t be wholesome without misfortunes and tragedies, which enable my appreciation of what life has to offer. There is a Chinese saying: “A man’s destiny can’t be summarized and sealed until nails are put on his coffin’s top.” So, I command myself to trust what the Lord has destined for me until the last day of my life on earth. Anyway, I wouldn’t be the person putting the nails on my coffin’s top.

8. My “Right Conduct” Command

Right conduct is living in the right way, which is more than “not breaking the law.” To be right with the Lord is to do all the right and the righteous things in my life through the Holy Spirit, instead of through my mind in my flesh. So, every day I command myself to turn to the Holy Spirit for help.

9. My “Failure” Command 

Life is full of failures, big and small. But they shouldn’t have become the stumbling blocks in my life journey. For example, I failed as an antique shop owner when I set up my retail antique business; I still have many of the antiques that I like, but I couldn’t find enough customers for my business to survive. Also, I failed as an entrepreneur when I bought a franchised cleaning business; I’d problems finding workers and ended up doing the cleaning myself. I always look upon my past failures with positive attributes: a lesson of humility to show my own limitation and inadequacy; a lesson of never getting what I want in my life; a lesson of strengthening my character; a lesson of perseverance and survival from failures. If I’d succeeded in my previous endeavors, I’d have embarked on a totally different life journey heading toward a totally different direction. Would I really have been better off or worse off? Who knows, and who cares? I never ponder on the “might have” or the “would have” scenarios. In addition, I often recall what Bill Gates said: “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” So, I command myself to follow the Lord as my Shepherd.

10. My “Life Purpose” Command

I understand that life must have a purpose: an external as well as an internal purpose.

I realize that in life setting an external purpose is important, but not so important that it drives me crazy in pursuing it or giving it up altogether. As a matter of fact, there’s an external purpose that only sets me a direction for the destination of my life. In that direction, there’re many different signposts guiding me along the way. Arriving at one signpost simply means that I’ve accomplished one task; missing that signpost means that I’m still on the right path but simply taking maybe a detour or just longer time because of my misdirection or getting lost on the way.

My internal purpose is more important: it has nothing to do with arriving at my destination or not, but to do with the quality of my consciousness—what I’m doing along the way. That Jesus said: “gain the world and lose your soul” probably says everything there’s to say about the internal purpose of life for me. External purpose can never give lasting fulfillment in life due to its transience and impermanence, but internal purpose, because of its unique quality of being in the present moment, may give me inner joy and a sense of fulfillment. That’s how I feel about my internal life purpose.

No matter what I do in my life, I just command myself to do my very best.

Stephen Lau

Author of Angry No More

 

for the Lord to take away my fear, my regret, and my negativity.

 

3. My “Stress” Command

 

     Stress is inevitable in everybody’s life, including mine, especially while growing older.

  While working on my book, I often focus too much on the future and forget about the present. My mind may easily become preoccupied with getting to the next chapter or the completion of that book, such that I easily forget about the present. I realize that my stress is due to my “being here” but “wanting to be there.”

 With that realization, I’ve learned to command myself to re-focus more on the present, and less on the future. Without any timeline for my writing, I’ve learned to enjoy my writing and the writing process without thinking of the consequence.

 

4. My “Past” Command

 

     In my life, I’ve made many mistakes that might have changed my life—maybe for the worse, or maybe not. Who knows? And who cares? After all, the Lord is in control of my life. Right now, I’m where He has destined for me.

     I never let the past take up my attention. I don’t let my thinking process create any anger, guilt, pride, regret, resentment, or self-pity. But, just like everybody else, I might still have my own negative feelings and emotions, but they never last too long. I believe that if I allow those thoughts of mine to control me, I’d look much older than my calendar age, and, worse, create a false sense of self.

     Reminiscing what was good in the past would only intensify my desire to “repeat” a similar experience in the future, and thus creating an insatiable

 longing that may never be fulfilled. Remembering what was unpleasant in the past would only generate my emotions of remorse and unhappiness.

Enlightenment of Your ANGRY NO MORE

 Enlightenment of Your ANGRY NO MORE

Angry No More is never easy. You need to know how and why through your enlightenment.

So, what is enlightenment?

Enlightenment is an endless process of knowing and understanding anything and everything that’re simply there and that’re available to all since the begin of time. Enlightenment is just like “knowing” the presence of sunlight at sunrise while “opening” the eyes.

Li Ching-Yuan, a Chinese herbalist, martial artist, and tactical advisor, known for his extreme longevity of well over 200 years—which far exceeded the longest confirmed lifespan of 122 years of a French woman—gave his profound perspectives of “enlightenment”:

“Before I had studied Zen (an ancient Chinese philosophy) for thirty years,
I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters.

When I arrived with a more intimate knowledge,I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters.

But now that I have got its very substance, I am at rest.

For it is just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters.” (Li Ching-Yuan)

Enlightenment is an endless process of knowing and understanding anything and everything that’re simply there and that’re available to all since the begin of time. Enlightenment is just like “knowing” the presence of sunlight at sunrise while “opening” the eyes.

Your mental capability to see “mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters”—which is the enlightenment itself—may or may not come to you now or even for the rest of your life. Enlightenment may still be important to you, but not that important. After all, many people pass through life with only some understanding but without really attaining the absolute truths of anything and everything in their lives.  Having said that, it’s important that at least you see “mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters”—which is already your profound understanding or your conscious intent to know the truths and to separate them from the half-truths or the untruths.Yes, delusions and illusions may go on indefinitely, but enlightenment may take only a moment. It’s the very moment of your consciousness without being self-conscious.

Universal Truths

Enlightenment is instrumental in “opening” your mind to your understanding of some universal truths:

 Impermanence is one of the universal truths. Everything changes with every moment, and nothing lasts forever.

 Nothingness is a universal truth derived from impermanence. Death will come in the end for all and sundry. This is the way of all flesh with a built-in mechanism in the genes to ensure the mortality of all humans.

Spontaneity is another universal truth. Everything in life follows a certain natural cycle: what goes up must also come down—just as life is inevitably followed by death.

Knowing and understanding universal truths may also change some of the perspectives of your anger:

Disappointment and frustration: Nothing lasts forever, and everything is changing. So, be positive and optimistic about your negative emotions and feelings.

 Abundance and lack: Everything becomes nothing. So, let go of all your attachments to accomplishments, fame, and wealth that only  inflate your ego.

Failure and success: Everything follows a natural cycle. So, your failure may be well on its way to success.

Stephen Lau
Author of ANGRY NO MORE

Letting Go to Let God

THE MIRACLE OF LETTING GO TO LET GOD

Spiritual wisdom facilitates the process of humans’ letting go, and spiritual wisdom comes from faith, which is belief in God.

“Belief in God” means complete trust in Him that has to be expressed and validated by obedience; in other words, let go to let God.

Does the wisdom of letting God sound simple and straightforward?

According to Albert Einstein, knowing and understanding are the essentials of wisdom—they are also critical to attaining the wisdom of letting go to let God.

The mysteries and the manifestations

Have more knowledge of the invisible and the inexplicable that is happening to you and also around you, as well as have better understanding of the mysteries and the manifestations of all things created by God, who is the origin of all things. His Creation has been one of the most controversial, profound, and unfathomable mysteries since the beginning of time, while all the things subsequently originating from His creations are only further manifestations of the mysteries of His Creation.

God-given image and man-made identity

Letting go to let God begins with believing in the mysteries and manifestations of human creation: we are all created in the image of God.

“So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”

(Genesis 1: 27)

                  

What does that really mean, and what is the wisdom in that?

You may never know why you were created in the first place, but one thing you know for sure is that not only you are different from all His other creations but also all humans are uniquely different from one another in that respect—just like the uniqueness in humans’ fingerprints. The wisdom is that you, just like everybody else, have His image, and this is indeed a blessing. That also means you  have a spirit within you that not only defines who you are, but also connects you somehow and somewhat to and with Him in a uniquely individual way, because your image is a reflection of Him. In other words, we all have a unique identity of our own, which is composed of some of the attributes of the Creator.

Living in the material world, you may also have consciously and subconsciously created another image of your own—a man-made identity, or an ego-self. If you are more aware of your man-made identity, you may then become less conscious of your God-given image. Your attachments that have created your own man-made identity may then slowly and imperceptibly detach and distance yourself from your God-given image.

The bottom line: letting go of some, if not all, of your attachments to your man-made identity may enhance your God-given image within you. Do you always identify yourself with the car you drive, the neighborhood you live in, the social circles you belong to, and the career you have taken up? All these attachments in the material world may have created your own man-made identity, but not your God-given image. Just think about that.

Let go to let God define your own identity.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

"Books By Stephen Lau"

BOOKS BY STEPHEN LAU

A New Blog about the 43 Books Written By Stephen Lau in the past three decades.

His books include books on Chinese Wisdom and Spiritual Wisdom, as well as books on Learning English, American Idioms, and English Slang and Colloquial Expressions.  Some of his books also focus on health, such as Autoimmune Diseases, Vision Health, and Longevity Living.

The Blog gives a brief Book Description and a Sample from each of the 43 books to help you see if any of them is suitable for you.

Go to: BOOKS BY STEPHEN LAU.