Wisdom Begins With An Empty Mind

“Focusing on status gives us pride, and not humility.

Hoarding worldly riches deprives us of heavenly assets.

An empty mind with no craving and no expectation helps us let go of everything.

Being in the world and not of the world, we attain heavenly grace.

With heavenly grace, we become pure and selfless.

And everything settles into its own perfect place.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 3)

You are in the world, but not of the world.

So, do not identify yourself with anything and everything in the world—the car you are driving, the neighborhood you are living in, the name-brand dress you are wearing, and among many others.

What is wrong with them? You become attached to them; they only enhance and inflate your ego, making you shackled to the material world.

With a deflated ego, on the other hand, you may become enlightened and see who you really are, and not what people think you are. Enlightenment opens the door to the TAO of living for life.

The reality is that many of us are not only in the world, but also of the world; so, we are living not for life, but for the world.

We are all somehow connected with one another, so focusing on yourself is not the Way of TAO, and not the TAO of living for life.

Human wisdom requires only an empty mind, not necessarily acquisition of knowledge. As a matter of fact, the more you know, the less wise you may become. The explanation is that knowledge previously acquired and accumulated often pre-conditions your thinking mind, and thus distorting your perceptions.

Human wisdom is already inside you. What you need to do is to search for it with self-intuitive questions.

Remember: less for more, and more for less; ask and you shall receive.

THE TAO OF LIVING FOR LIFE

Stephen Lau        

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

How to Change Your Perceptions

Wellness is feeling good about self with respect to the body, the mind, and the soul. Wellness may be synonymous with happiness.  Wellness comes from the mind – the mind’s perceptions of what the body  is experiencing in the physical world. Wisdom, surprisingly, can change the mind’s perceptions to make one feel better and happier.

Are you happy? What makes you happy? A successful career, satisfying relationships, good health, or material possessions? Which one, or all of those? No matter what, wellness is what makes you feel good about yourself, and what makes your life meaningful. If your life is without a purpose, and you are always drifting from here to there, you won't feel good about yourself or life in general.

Feeling good about oneself requires wisdom -- wisdom to know who you are and what you want in life. Without wisdom, you will not experience lasting well-being. Without wisdom, your living is like like chasing the wind, without any direction.

Wisdom is essential in the art of living well. It involves wisdom of the mind, the body, and the soul. They are all inter-related and inter-dependent on one another. For example, if you have satisfying relationships but your health is rapidly deteriorating, you will not feel well; or if you have a successful career but are emotionally distressed, you will not be in good spirit. Therefore, the overall wellness is contingent on the holistic wellness of the body, the mind, and the soul. To cherish and nourish this holistic wellness, your need wisdom, which holds the key to happiness and well-being of any individual.

Which is wisdom? Where does it come from?

Wellness begins with the mind first, and not the body or the soul. After all, you are what you have become by reason of your thinking. You are a summary of your thoughts, which make you who you are or what you have now become. Your past experiences and your perceptions of those experiences have "preconditioned" how you currently think. In other words, your background, and upbringing predetermine how your mind perceives your present life experiences. Given that your past exposure might not be telling you the whole truth, you, therefore, need wisdom to "empty" your mind and re-define your current mindset. That is to say, you must learn how to rethink your mind. Thinking is never easy and that is why so few people do it, according to Albert Einstein.

You are living in a physical world, and your life experiences are perceived by your body through the five senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching). But these sensations may be positively or negatively interpreted by the mind, which stores past experiences of those sensations of body in both the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The former voluntarily accepts or rejects those sensations, while the latter involuntarily includes whatever the subconscious mind is exposed to. True wisdom is the capability of the mind to know what is real and what is unreal. 

Tao wisdom is the ancient wisdom from China that shows you how to have an empty mind first to rethink your mind in order to separate the truths from the half-truths t Perceptionso Changeor myths.

Tao wisdom is the essence in the art of living well, It is the profound wisdom of the ancient Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, the author of the immortal classic Tao Te Ching, one of the most translated works in world literature. The book has been popular for thousands of years due to its wisdom, which is simple but controversial, profound and yet intriguing. To fully understand it, you need to get all the essentials of Tao wisdom. Click here for more details.

With Tao wisdom, you may live a much better life, without depressive episodes now and then.

Stephen Lau     

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Free Yourself of Depression

My Way! No Way! TAO Is The Way!

TAO Wisdom To Live And Survive In A World Of Depression

This book is perhaps one the few books with an unconventional approach to depression, a universal mind disorder. Instead of the conventional ways of avoiding depression with distractions, such as exercise, suppressing its symptoms with affirmations and visualizations, and elevating its depressive moods with medications, this 180-page book uses the ancient wisdom from China, what is known as TAO wisdom, to experience anything and everything in depression, that is, going through every aspect of depression.  

TAO wisdom may enlighten you so that you can ultimately free yourself from depression, or at least look at your own depression very differently.

Here is the INTRODUCTION to the book:

“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."

Click here to get your Amazon digital copy today!

Stephen Lau

Use Your Mind Power to Live a Stress-Free Life

According to the CNN health news “Learn to Live with It: Becoming Stress-Free” is enlightening in that it demonstrates the role of the mind in living a stress-free life.

According to the news:

“People the world over believe that stress comes from external sources.

One complains of a nagging wife or hysterical husband. Another finds fault with the demands of work or the exploitation of management. Someone else grumbles at summer being too hot or winter being too cold.

Everyone thus lives with the belief that factors outside themselves produce stress -- so their entire focus is on correcting the external world. Yet despite our best efforts to fix these external factors, the problems remain unsolved and our minds continue to be consumed by stress.

Pleasure or pain, joy or sorrow, peace or stress—these are not found in external objects or beings. They are found in the relationship you have with those things.

In life, be it with business or family, relationships matter. Lack of a proper relationship leads to frustration and builds up stress. Ironically, people take utmost care to choose the "right partner," but fail to set up the "right relationship" with that person -- and lose peace and harmony in the process.

It is not whom or what you meet in life that matters but how you meet it.

Your relationship with the world is entirely dependent on the nature of your inner personality. Your inner personality comprises two things: the mind and the intellect.

The mind desires and feels. The intellect reasons, judges, and decides.

When the intellect loses control over the mind's desires, you become disturbed. Stress is the mental agitation caused by unfulfilled desires. Thus the fundamental requirement for a stress-free life is to develop a strong intellect and control desires.

Intellectual strength is distinct and different from intelligence. Intelligence is mere storage of information—knowledge acquired from external sources and educational institutions, from teachers and textbooks. Any amount of intelligence cannot, per se, develop your intellect. The intellect is developed by individual effort through exercising one's faculty of questioning and reasoning.

With the lack of development of the intellect, people fail to understand that every human being is distinct and different from another—that each is governed by his or her own singular nature.

Therefore, we should assess the nature of each human individually. But few follow this practice in life. Without making individual assessments you are not able to relate to others properly. As a result, you expect one to behave differently from one's fundamental nature.”

The wisdom in living a stress-free life is to expect others to behave differently from your own perspectives, that is, always putting yourself in someone’s shoes. Remember, nobody stresses you, except yourself, because you have an ego and you expect others to gratify your ego. Let go of your ego to let go of all your attachments, which are the sources of human stress. NO EGO NO STRESS may show you how to use human wisdom to let go of your ego to live a stress-free life. 

Bottom line: use your mind power to let go of your attachments, which define your ego-self. 

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Why Good Posture?

If you wish to live long, improve posture. Good posture holds the key to longevity

Physical activity extends longevity; it is one of the closest things to an anti-aging pill for longevity. Physical activity invigorates the whole body system, keeping it in its optimum conditions. Unfortunately, there is often a dramatic decline in physical activity as aging continues. Partly, it is due to the onslaught of diseases and disorders, which incapacitate an individual. Partly, it is due to poor posture acquired by that individual over the years.

Why is good posture so important, and why is it often neglected?

If you have good posture, you have good body balance, which prevents falling—one of the most common causes of death in the elderly. As a matter of fact, falling is the 2nd leading cause of death in women aged between 65 and 85, and the leading cause of death for most individuals over 85. Improve posture to improve body balance to prevent falling, which is due to weak body muscles, aggravated and perpetuated by incorrect posture.

Another good reason for good posture is to avoid debilitating back pain, neck pain, leg pain, and even headaches, which often interfere with longevity living. Due to poor body posture, all the muscle groups supporting the crooked spine become stretched and strained, causing wear and tear, resulting in lower back pain. In addition, an arched lower back exerts undue pressure on the joints and nerves, causing joint pain and rheumatism.

There is yet another good reason to improve posture: enhanced breathing. Healthy breathing not only provides ample oxygen to your lungs for long-term longevity health, but also nourishes, in the form of qi (internal vital life energy), different parts of your body for maximum growth and rejuvenation. Good posture contributes to breathing right. Incidentally, rodents, with the shortest breaths in the animal kingdom, also have the shortest lifespan. Therefore, breathing correctly is an important component of longevity. But you cannot breathe right without correct posture.

Despite the importance of good posture for longevity, correct posture is often overlooked because there is no one constantly reminding you to improve posture. To successfully improve posture, you must develop an acute awareness for good posture at all times.

• Your head is directly above your shoulders.
• Your chin is tucked in.
• Your ear, shoulder, and hip are in a straight line from a side view.
• Your upper back is straight, not slouched.
• Your shoulders, relaxed and straight, are flat against your back.
• Your pelvis is in a neutral position.
• Your knees are unlocked.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Forward Head Posture Fix :  It fixes your ugly forward head posture to make you not only look younger but also feel healthier. Unlike other posture programs which focus on stretching exercises, this unique program focuses closely on the “sequential flow”. In other words, it isn’t necessarily about what exercises and stretches are performed, more about completing them in the right sequence in order to open up and “unravel” the neck so you can begin to fix your Forward Head Posture and restore balance to your body.

Letting Go of Attachments

Human unhappiness comes from the human attachment to the many material things in the physical world they are living in.

Attachment is only natural and instinctive, but too many attachments may become a burden to the mind and the soul—the human flaw that leads to depression, which is no respecter of persons. Letting go of all human attachments may help knowing the right way to finding both human wisdom and spiritual wisdom, which may ultimately point the right pathway to attaining true human happiness.

It is also important to know that we all have a body, a mind, and a soul living in the physical world. They are all inter-connected and inter-dependent on one another for their co-existence in order to live and survive in the physical world. The mind, the body, and the soul all work together as a system of life energy. The free flow or stagnation of this life energy is dependent on the “state of being” of the body, the mind, and the soul at each moment. It is this moment-to-moment alignment in the body, the mind, and the soul, as well as their alignment with one another, that creates the unique state of being, which is a miracle in itself.

On the other hand, the misalignment of the body, the mind, and the soul may stem from the human flaw of attachment, which may adversely affect the body; given the close body-mind connection, the mind contaminated by the body may ultimately infest the soul too.

According to Simone Weil, the French philosopher, “Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.” Attachment is no more than a safety blanket to overcome fear—fear of change and of the unknown from that change. To cope with that fear, all attachments become distractions. Attachment is basically your emotional dependence on things and people that define your identity, around which you wrap your so called “happiness” and even your survival. Attachment is holding  on to anything  that you are unwilling to let go of, whether it is something positive or negative.

The antidote to attachment is letting go. Get the Wisdom of Letting Go.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Time-Related Problems

Now, in your golden years, how do you perceive time?  You may think that you still have many life goals you want to achieve, and that time just flies. If Santa Claus has 31 hours to finish all his chores, do you have another 31 golden years to finish all your life goals? If not, how are you going to cram everything into the limited time frame ahead of you? But the fact of the matter is that you don’t even know how much time you have left. Having said that, don’t create time-stress for yourself even if you think you have a lot to do and you are running out of time!

On the other hand, your perception of time may be such that you think you have little left undone, and that time just drags along. Remember, an idle mind is an enemy in the golden years. So, set some new life goals and find something to do to while away your idle time.

Avoid Time-Related Problems

Whatever your perception of time may be, avoid the two most common behavior and personality time-related problems: time-stress and procrastination.

Forget about time-stress

In everyday life, time-stress is a stress factor detrimental to both physical and mental health. Do not let the constraints of your life mold your time. To be able to do this, you need to change your perception of time. Everybody has only twenty-four hours a day. Come to think of it, time is really an equalizer of man. Do you really have more work that needs to be done than everyone else? Do you need to be a "thief of time" by sleeping less than others so that you may have more time than everyone else to do what needs to be done?  No! Time is all in the mind—your mind as a result of your own thinking.

How can you overcome time-stress?

The solution is surprisingly quite simple: deliberate non-doing. Yes, you simply do nothing. It’s just that simple!

Deliberate non-doing gives you a sense of inner calmness that enables you to re-consider the importance of doing only what is the most important, and to see in perspective all the things you consider important in your life. Only when you start doing what is the most important to you, then you will begin to have enough time for everything else. This may sound stranger than fiction, but this is the only way to overcoming time-stress in your golden years.

This evening, when you get home, you may feel you are overwhelmed and hard-pressed for time, such as there is a TV program that you want to watch, a dinner that you need to cook for yourself, some laundry that you need to do, some phone calls that you need to make, or your grandchildren’s homework that you need to supervise and attend to.

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” Mohandas K. Gandhi

At that very moment, when you think you are going to go crazy, stop short of doing anything—that is, do nothing! Be mindful of only that very present moment.  Live in that now. Sit down, close your eyes, and meditate for fifteen to twenty minutes: you just have to sidestep the flow of time. If you don't know how to meditate, then just close your eyes, and pay attention to your breathing. If thoughts come to your mind, do not deliberately dismiss them, but just continue to concentrate on your breathing and let your thoughts come and go; do not strive to stop them.

After that brief mental relaxation, you may have a totally different perspective of your needs and wants in life. If you have missed your favorite TV show, so what? If you haven’t made your dinner, go across the street and grab a hamburger that you’re not supposed to eat. If you haven’t done your laundry, just let the pile of dirty clothing stack up. If you haven’t made those phone calls, that’s not the end of the world. If you haven't helped your grandchildren with their homework, it doesn’t mean that they would never go to Harvard or Yale. What is the most important to you is your inner calm, which is the absence of time-stress. Maybe you have just avoided a heart attack due to your time-stress. Just think about the possible alternative!

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Overcome Memory Decline

As you continue to age, don’t let your memory decline affect your quality living. Improving memory skills can maintain and sustain quality living.

Your mind holds the key to the wellness of your whole being. You are the sum of your thoughts, and your mind is the creator and interpreter of your thoughts. So, for quality living, improving memory skills to boost your mind power is important. To do that, you need to keep your brain active and in good shape. Improving memory skills can keep your brain in optimum conditions for quality living.

Improving memory skills means sharpening your awareness of and attention to your senses, such as sight, sound, smell, and touch. How your brain collects, stores, and processes information holds the key to a powerful memory. If you sharpen your senses, you also sharpen your brain power. Memory is no more than a learning skill, which has little to do with aging. As long as your cognitive skills are functional, improving memory can be achieved through acquiring memory skills.

1. Perform any activity that is out of the ordinary, that is, something that you normally do not do. For example, learning a new musical instrument not only demands reading music notes, concentration and mental focus, as well as coordination of hands and fingers, but also involves general sight, sound, and touch. Alternatively, you can do small tasks using your non-dominant hand, such as writing your name with your left hand, if you are right-handed. According to Professor C. Katz Lawrence of Duke University, performing several non-dominant-hand tasks in your everyday life will enable you to tap into a certain part of your brain you seldom use, as well as to force your brain to concentrate on doing something that you would normally breeze through. Genius Brain Power keeps your brain fit and enhances mind power for quality living..

2. Improving memory skills can be achieved through relaxation to remove undue stress and to rejuvenate brain cells for optimum performance. Deep Zen Meditation is the effortless way to recoup your mind power through total calm and peace of mind, which are the ingredients of quality living.

3. Aromatherapy activates your mind and harnesses its potentials through the scents of herbs, such as basil and rosemary. Research shows that inhaling these scents increases beta waves that heighten mind power through the awareness of the brain. For hundreds of years, healers from all over the world have applied aromatherapy to stimulate the nervous system to boost mind power or improve memory skills.

4. Improve your mind power with your green thumbs. Gardening is a good exercise for the brain: knowing the plant names and their growth characteristics, the soil conditions, and abstract spatial thinking, among others. Why don’t you start your own Organic Food Garden to enhance both your physical and brain health?

If you wish to increase your mind power through improving memory skills, you can. If there is a will, there is a way. Don’t let forgetfulness get you down as you get older! Your brain has over 100 trillion cells, and you use only five to ten percent of them. So, the more connections you can make between your brain cells through seeing, hearing, touching, and smelling, the better and more efficient your brain becomes in collecting, storing, and processing information. Aging cannot slow down the brain, but non-doing will. Always increase memory skills for quality living.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Wisdom and Longevity

Longevity has a lot to do with wisdom. If you wish to live longer, get Tao wisdom of the ancient sage Lao Tzu.

Tao wisdom is based on "Tao Te Ching," which is an ancient classic from China. The book was written thousands of years ago by Lao Tzu, a sage born with all white hair (a sign of wisdom). According to the legend, the great philosopher was forced to put down his profound wisdom in writing before he was permitted to leave China for Tibet. Reluctantly, Lao Tzu concisely and succinctly expressed his unique wisdom in eighty-one short chapters with only five thousand words all told. As a testament to the significance and timelessness of his profound wisdom, "Tao Te Ching" has been translated into many languages; as a matter of fact, this ancient classic has become one of the most translated works of world literature.

What has made Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching" so popular and lasting?

First and foremost, the language is extremely simple and easy to read. His ideas are intriguing and thought-provoking, and capable of multiple interpretations. His wisdom is not only timeless but also universally applicable. Most importantly, it holds the key to longevity.

Despite the simplicity and conciseness of the language, many people find it difficult to understand Tao wisdom expressed in the short text; especially, it seems to have so many different interpretations of the text. Actually, understanding Tao wisdom is not that difficult; all it requires is an empty mind. In other words, we must first and foremost empty our minds of any pre-conceived thinking before we can fully and truly intuit its profound wisdom. Just be prepared to expect the unexpected.

Here is a summary of Tao wisdom in living a long life.

"Tao" means "the way" to wisdom -- or "the way" to achieving just about anything in life. As opposed to conventional wisdom, the wisdom of Tao is all-inclusive but very subjective. It is all-inclusive because it includes every aspect of life and living. But, at the same time, it is also very subjective. In other words, "the way" is unique to each individual -- something like "one man's meat is another man's poison." That is to say, each individual has to discover or look into the self to find out what "the way" may look like; unlike conventional wisdom that often provides a blueprint for many, if not for everybody. For this reason, wisdom cannot be acquired through knowledge, which is merely an accumulation of know-how from experts, let alone be taught or guided. Wisdom has to be self-intuited, self-assimilated, and self-internalized by an individual based on that individual's unique life experiences.

The key to intuiting the wisdom presented by Lao Tzu is abandoning or letting go of the ego-self.

Unlike conventional wisdom, which puts much emphasis on "self," such as "self-esteem" and "self-confidence," Tao suggests quite the opposite: the "non-attachment to self" because the "self" goes hand in hand with the "ego"-- together they create the "identity" of an individual. Once the "identify" is created, there comes the need to "preserve" or "protect" that "identity" due to the presence of the "ego" Thus, a host of other problems will subsequently follow.

Therefore, the first and the most important requirement is to have "no ego-self"-- which is, however, most difficult to attain, because we are taught to be proud of who and what we are.

With "no ego-self," you then have "no expectation" in life. To illustrate, if you have created an ego-self, such as "I am a doctor" or "I am a mother," then subconsciously you have to, or you are "expected" to, live up to that image or the ego-self that you have unconsciously created in your mind's eye.

With "no ego-self," you will not be too concerned with material things that often qualify or attach to the "identify" you have created for yourself. In other words, you will become "non judgmental"-- which is essentially not having to choose what you want and to reject what you do not want, or rather desiring what you think will enhance the ego-self, and avoiding what you think may damage your identity or image of the ego-self.

If you have "no expectation," you need not exert extra effort to meet your expectations. With less effort, you have more time to yourself, and so you can live in the present moment, which is the essence of Tao wisdom in living. In contemporary wisdom, we are expected to do more in order to get more of what we want; in the wisdom of Lao Tzu, you do "less" for more -- it is all about the spontaneity of things; you make nature work things for you, instead of working against the forces of nature.

To conclude, Tao wisdom in living is to have no ego-self so that you can live in the present. With no ego-self, there is no expectation; with no expectation, you become non-judgmental, which is accepting and embracing the desirable as well as the undesirable in life; being non-judgmental, you appreciate no overdoing; with no overdoing, you can live in the present and in harmony with nature. So, Tao recommends no ego-self to live a no-stress life with no worry, no expectation, no judgment, and no overdoing. This is the summary of Tao wisdom in living.

With wisdom in living, you have longevity.  

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Signs of Dementia

As we continue to age, we all become forgetful. Memory lapses are not uncommon, but it doesn't mean we all will have dementia.

The symptoms of dementia may be gradual, and sometimes even insidious. When signs of dementia begin to surface, some patients may try to "cover up" or even blatantly deny that there are problems; others may blame others. No matter what, ultimately, the early signs of dementia will become more serious and obvious, and they include the following:

(1) The person is uncharacteristically negative and suspicious. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if it is dementia or not, especially if that person is also suffering from anxiety or depression.

(2) The person is negligent of his or her personal care and grooming, such as not bathing or shampooing. Again, an individual with severe depression may also neglect his or her personal hygiene.

(3) The person has difficulty in conversation, such as repeating the same thing, or talking vaguely without any specifics.

(4) The person has lost his or her motor skills, such as displaying uncharacteristically illegible handwriting, or inability to type or use the computer.

(5) The person is unable to make a phone call, even if he or she remembers the phone number.

(6) The person eats improperly, such as eating only sweets when there is a proper meal.

(7) The person keeps the house badly cluttered and disorganized.

(8) The person shows poor judgment in spending. Again, an individual suffering from anxiety or other mental disorders, such as bipolar depression, may also demonstrate the same behavioral problems in over spending.

(9) Other more dangerous signs of dementia may include: consistently forgetting to turn off the stove; wandering around outside at night; acting inappropriately in response to "paranoid" suspicions, such as calling the police based on paranoia.

If a member of your family demonstrates some of these obvious signs of dementia, be more observant of the behavioral patterns or conditions to see if medical or professional help is needed.

Anyway, it is important to keep your brain healthy through diet and exercise. Your brain has billions of cells, and only a fraction of them are used. Despite the degeneration due to aging, you can still harness your brain power; use it or lose it. 

Stephen Lau
Copyright © by Stephen Lau