Nothing Is Everything

 

ANYTHING IS EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING IS NOTHING! NOTHING IS EVERYTHING!

All About . . . .

"Anything Is Everything, Everything Is Nothing, Nothing Is Everything" is a miracle of life and living, based on the ancient wisdom of Lao Tzu from China, and the Biblical wisdom.

Live your life as if everything is a miracle. To do just that, you need the wisdom to know how your mind works--especially how it has created your ego-self that demands your attachments to the material world.

Learn how to be in the physical world, but not of the material world. More importantly, get the wisdom to know who you really are, and not who you wish you were. Knowing and understanding the truths of anything and everything may enlighten you so that you intuit the ultimate truth that everything is actually nothing, but this nothingness is your pathway to everything in your life.

The Outline of the Book . . . .

ONE: ANYTHING IS EVERYTHING

A frog in a well
Human wisdom and spiritual wisdom
Oneness of all life
Love and forgiveness
Gratitude and generosity
Sympathy and empathy
Compassion and loving-kindness

TWO: EVERYTHING IS NOTHING

Understanding is everything
The mind and the ego
Attachments and illusions
Control and power
Detachment and letting go

THREE: NOTHING IS EVERYTHING

The paradox
The Way
The miracle
The enlightenment

ANYTHING IS EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING IS NOTHING! NOTHING IS EVERYTHING!

Click here to get your copy.

An Excerpt from the Book . . . .


NOTHING IS EVERYTHING

The Paradox

”I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Plato

“The paradox of reality is that no image is as compelling as the one which exists only in the mind's eye.”   Shana Alexande

“The thinker without a paradox is like a lover without a feeling: a paltry mediocrity.”  Soren Kierkegaard

“Nothing is everything” is a paradox. In life, there are many paradoxes. The way of paradoxes is the way of attaining the ultimate truths of anything and everything. Knowing and understanding a paradox requires wisdom to see different human perspectives in anything and everything.

Paradoxes may be the way to wisdom, to the miracle of life, and ultimately to enlightenment.

An illustration

Christopher Paul Gardner, an American  author, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, was very poor and homeless in the early 1980s. Sleeping on the floor of a public toilet, Gardner never dreamt that he would become a multi-millionaire one day. His inspiring life story was made into a hit Hollywood movie: “The Pursuit of Happyness.”

Gardner was brought up with the belief that he could do or be anything that he wanted to do or be. At some point in his life, he was homeless; everything seemed nothing, just emptiness and nothingness, to him. But he was not hopeless. He continued to dream of wealth and success, and his dreams were not mirages. Because of his right doing and right thinking, he made his dreams come true.

Initially, Gardner made his living by selling medical equipment. He did not make enough money to make both ends meet, and his poverty made him homeless for a year.

Then, one day, Gardner met a stockbroker in a red Ferrari, who offered him internship because of his incredible drive and sustained enthusiasm. Thus he began his own successful investment career, and he subsequently even opened his own investment firm, Gardner Rich & Co.

More than two decades later, after the death of his wife, who challenged him to find his true happiness and fulfillment in the remainder of his life, Gardner made a complete career change. He was suddenly awakened to the notion that his fame, success, and wealth seemed like nothing to him then. His feeling of nothingness transformed him completely: he then became a philanthropist and a motivation speaker traveling around the world, focusing not on his own wealth, but on humanity and the needs of others to pursue their own happiness.

According to Gardner, life journey is always a process of lesson learning and forward moving: “People often ask me would I trade anything from my past, and I quickly tell them no, because my past helped to make me into the person I am today.”  Yes, nothingness could be everything to him.

On any life journey, mental focus is essential: focusing not just on the big things in life but also on the small things as well; appreciating what you have, rather than dwelling on what is your nothingness.

What seems to be nothingness in the eyes of the world, when properly valued and put to use, can become anything and everything in the eyes of the beholder. Gardner turned his nothingness into great wealth. His ultimate enlightenment came when he looked at his own wealth in a different perspective-as no more than just nothingness-when he began to refocus his life goals on humanity and on inspiring others to become who they really are.

The bottom line: with wisdom you may know and understand the “nothing is everything” paradox that opens the door to self-enlightenment.

The Way

TAO, the profound wisdom of Lao Tzu, is the way toward knowing and understanding self and others, as well as things and circumstances around self. It may or may not lead to self-enlightenment, but at least it may help you see things as they really are, and not as they should be.

"Not knowing the Way,
but pretending we know,
we remain ignorant, and suffer.

Knowing that we do not know,
we pursue its wisdom:
knowing its origin,
knowing its ending,
and knowing our true nature."
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 71)

TAO wisdom begins with emptiness, or more specifically, with an empty mindset.

The emptiness

Enlightenment has its origin from emptiness. Irrespective of whether or not attaining self-enlightenment, emptiness is the way to go toward attaining profound wisdom of living in this material world.

Emptiness is a way of human perception: looking at life experiences without adding anything to them, or without taking away anything from them. It is the thinking of the mind with no assumption and no presumption -- that is, only an empty mindset.

As previously mentioned, emptiness can be either positive or negative (the glass half-full, or the glass half-empty). Positive emptiness can only occur when you allow yourself to surrender completely to any given circumstance or situation without any previous attachment.

According to Lao Tzu, develop an empty mindset, which is more than just “thinking out of the box”: it is your reverse thinking to create your own empty box of thinking.

"An empty mind with no craving and no expectation helps us letting go.
Being in the world and not of the world, we attain heavenly grace.
With heavenly grace, we become pure and selfless.
And everything just settles into its own perfect place."
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 3)


ANYTHING IS EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING IS NOTHING! NOTHING IS EVERYTHING!

Younger and Healthier

 

YOUNGER AND HEALTHIER FOR LONGER

All About . . . .

Today, the mass media have bombarded the public with tons of information about health and wellness, so much so that it may become even stressful and confusing to some individuals.

One of the objectives of this book is to present relevant information in a readable and easy-to-follow format. You need not read the entire book, though it is recommended that you do. This book is organized in such a way that you can scan the detailed contents page with appropriate headings to find the information you need to deal with your own specific life problems and health issues.

This book is comprehensive in that it covers virtually all aspects of a healthy body, mind, soul—the requisites for becoming younger and healthier for longer.

Life is a myriad of complex problems, which are often inter-related. This book provides you with different choices of solutions. Instead of getting old gracefully, why not mature healthily and youthfully?
The ominous reminders of old age and mortality are your more frequent visits to doctors, the wrinkles on your face, and the change of shape and structure of your physique, among others. Overcoming these ravages of aging is what this book is all about.

This book (more than 200 pages) has a holistic approach to anti-aging; it is a handbook for both men and women in the art of living well in different phases of life through a healthy body, mind, and soul.

This book looks at the reasons why prayers are seldom answered; not from the perspectives of Biblical or spiritual wisdom, but from the perspectives of human wisdom, more specifically, from the TAO wisdom, which is the profound wisdom of the ancient sage Lao Tzu from China more than 2,600 years ago.

Irrespective of whether you pray or not, understanding why prayers are seldom answered may provide a blueprint for your daily life and living in a toxic world so that you may survive and live as if everything is a miracle.

The above is what this book is all about. Click here to get your copy from AMAZON.

The  Outline of the Book . . . .

Foreword
Chapter One: AGING
(1) THE AGING PROCESS
The hard facts of aging
(2) THE DIFFERENT THEORIES OF AGING
The free radical theory of aging
The genetic theory of aging
The hormone theory of aging
The immunity theory of aging
The rate of living theory of aging
(3) ACCELERATED AGING SYNDROME
Potentials for accelerated aging
Factors contributing to accelerated aging
Chapter Two: LOOKING FOREVER YOUNGER
(1) A YOUTHFUL LOOK
Your skin is your youthful look
(2) HOW SKIN AGING BEGINS
Intrinsic aging
Extrinsic aging
(3) THE FACE AGING PROCESS
The twenties
The late twenties
The thirties
The forties
The fifties
The sixties
(4) SAVING THE FACE
Botox
Collagen injections
Fat injections
Restylane
(5) HOW TO SAVE YOUR SKIN
Antioxidants to save your skin
Protection from the sun to save your skin
Washing and massaging to save your face
(6) BODY IMAGE
Body weight
Weight training to stay younger for longer
Chapter Three: AGING ACCELERATORS
(1)THE RAVAGES OF FREE RADICALS
What are free radicals?
The sources of free radicals
Fighting free radicals
(2) DISEASE AGES
Balanced acid and alkaline levels
(3) PAIN AGES
Pain as an agent of aging
Pain reactions and responses
Dealing with pain
Arthritis pain
Back pain
Cancer pain
Headaches
(4) STRESS AGES
What is stress?
How stress can age you
Signs and symptoms of stress
Causes of stress
Perceptions of stress
Practical measures to manage stress
Relaxation techniques
Chapter Four: AGGRESSIVE AGE ERASERS
(1) THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Your cellular health
How your cells may become damaged
The damages by free radicals
Boosting your immunity
Protecting the immune system
Removing toxins
Balancing the immune system
(2) YOU ARE YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY
Health awareness
Health decision
Chapter Five: HEALTHIER FOR LONGER
(1) YOUNGER AT HEART
Heart health according to body shape
Enhancing and maintaining heart health
Medical procedures to treat heart disease
A younger and healthier heart-the Oriental way
(2) BREATHING RIGHT
Enemies of the respiratory system
Breathe right for healthier lungs
(3) A HEALTHIER FOR LIVING LONGER
The importance of the liver
Liver dysfunction
Presence of Gallstones
Alcoholic liver disease
Enhancing liver health
(4) A CLEANER DIGESTIVE SYSTEM FOR LIVING LONGER
The digestion process
Incomplete digestion
Efficient digestion
Efficient elimination
Disorders and diseases of the digestive system
Colon cleansing
(5) MORE FUNCTIONAL KIDNEYS FOR OPTIMUM URINARY HEALTH
Dysfunctional kidneys
Symptoms of dysfunctional kidneys
Kidney Cleansing
(6) HEALTHIER FOR LONGER WITH A HEALTHIER BRAIN
Health factors optimizing brain health
Brain activities to retard aging
Social activities to stimulate brain vitality
Physical activities to help mental activity
Chapter Six: YOUNGER FOR LONGER
(1) ATTITUDES
Humor
Confidence
Creativity and imagination
Health prospects
(2) MENTAL HEALTH
The important minerals
Omega 3 fatty acids
Food allergies and toxins
Antioxidant vitamins
Changing mental perceptions
Changing the thinking mind
The don’ts about depression
(3) SPIRITUALITY
Ways to become more spiritual
(4) SEXUAL FULFILLMENT AND LOVE RELATIONSHIPS
Sexual fulfillment
Love relationships
Marriage
(5) LIFESTYLE CHANGES
Positive facts about aging
More than a life of leisure
Volunteer work
Self-improvement
Self-expression
Making the best and the most
Exercise
Relaxation and Sleep
Dealing with life problems
Chapter Seven: EATING FOR YOUNGER AND HEALTHIER
(1) THE BASICS OF HEALTHY EATING
(2) FOODS MAKING YOU YOUNGER FOR LONGER
Chlorella
Wheat grass
(3) FOODS MAKING YOU HEALTHIER FOR LONGER
Apples
Brown rice
Garlic
Sea vegetables
Sweet potatoes and yams
(4) DRINKS MAKING YOU YOUNGER AND HEALTHIER FOR LONGER
Burdock and daikon drink
Four greens drink
Pine needles drink
(5) EATING FOR THE BALANCE AND HARMONY
The yin and yang concept
The Five Elements
Chapter Eight: WHAT EVERY MAN NEEDS TO KNOW AND DO
(1) SUCCESS
In pursuit of success
Preparing for success
Success and self-esteem
Building self-esteem
(2) MAJOR DESTROYERS OF YOUTH AND HEALTH
Smoking
Excessive drinking
Worshipping the sun
(3) LOVE RELATIONSHIPS
How a man is assessed
Understanding a woman’s emotional needs
Marriage
Ending a relationship
(4) SEX
The Importance of male sexual health
Testosterone and your sexual health
Are you in good sexual health?
Male erectile dysfunction
Herbs and nutritional supplements for men’s better sexual health
Male low libido
Prostate problems
Post-marital sexual desire
(5) MEN’S BODY IMAGE
Body shape image
Facial image
Hair image
(6) MEN’S MAJOR HEALTH ISSUES
Bladder tumors
Colorectal cancer
Diabetes
Heart disease
Kidney stones
Lung cancer
Osteoporosis
Prostate problems
(7) HERBS FOR MEN
Herbs for sexual health
Herb for mental stress
Herbs for general wellness
Herb for a healthy heart
Herb for energy and strength
Herb for weight control
(8) PREVENTIVE SCREENING
Chapter Nine: WHAT EVERY WOMAN NEEDS TO KNOW AND DO
(1) BE A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
The three commandments for a beautiful face
Facial regimens for a beautiful face
Cellulite
Double chin
Varicose veins
(2) BE A SUCCESSFUL WOMAN
Sexual harassment
(3) LOVE RELATIONSHIPS
Seeking a love relationship
No great expectations
Self-Esteem in a love relationship
Making yourself appealing to men
The right man for the right relationship
A failing relationship
Making a good love relationship better
(4) A STABLE MARRIAGE
Health benefits
What a marriage entails
Marriage and basic human needs
Foundation of a happy and good marriage
Dealing with marital conflicts
Divorce
(5) SEX FOR A WOMAN
Sexual receptivity
Sexual dysfunctional problems
Sexual fantasies
Affair-proof your marriage
(6) HEALTH PROBLEMS
Disease advantage
Healthier and younger for longer
Herbal cures
Bladder problems
Breast cancer
Hysterectomy
Menopause
Osteoporosis
CHAPTER TEN: RECAPS AND HIGHLIGHTS
THE MENTAL
THE PHYSICAL
THE INTELLECTUAL
THE EMOTIONAL
THE SPIRITUAL


YOUNGER AND HEALTHIER FOR LONGER

The Yin and Yang Love Story

 

FOREVER YIN AND YANG
(A Novel)
                       
The Novel Is All About . . . .

This is a love story in ancient China, about a cock wedding with the presence of a cock instead of the bridegroom.

It is also a story of unrequited love, of murder and execution, of blood reincarnation, of death bringing back life leading to enlightenment. The story reflects TAO wisdom in love with no ego, as well as Nirvana, which is awakening to the ultimate truth of consciousness without being self-conscious.

Click here to get your novel.

Embrace Everyday Life Challenges

Life is never smooth sailing, and life journey is always a bumpy ride, full of changes and challenges. Learn to live your life as if everything is a miracle, including the miracle of accepting and embracing those life problems and challenges.

To illustrate, after the death of a dear friend or someone close to you, you may experience a period of denial—refusing to accept the harsh reality of death. This is the human mind's way of protecting us from painful emotions associated with grief and sorrow. 

Sorrow may bring anger: anger with yourself or whoever responsible for the death of your loved one. The human mind always looks for an answer or an explanation of why something undesirable happened. If you blame yourself, then guilt and regret may ensue; if you blame others, anger is generated.

The next phase is bargaining with God about reversing what has happened to you. You use "what if?" and "if only" sort of pleas to bargain for second chances.

After the initial denial, reality begins to sink in. You start to feel the bereavement that cause you to sink into deep depression with negative emotions of grief, regret, and sorrow. This is the darkest or even the longest stage of grief and sorrow. 

The only way to overcome pain and sorrow is accepting and embracing. Sooner or later, you will come to terms with the death of your loved one when you become aware that everything is going to be OK, that you will survive the loss of your loved one, and go on living as if everything is a miracle even though your life may be different without your loved one.

What causes stress and its related negative emotions? Your resistance to life is the ultimate cause of your body stress and negative emotions. You will not experience negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, fear, frustration, and sadness if you do not resist anything in your life, past, present or future. By not accepting something unpleasant in present or in the past, you have subconsciously created memories that project the unpleasant present or past experience into the future, and your resisting of the possibility of a repeat of that present or past experience creates fear and anxiety.

Instead of accepting negative emotions, many of us prefer not to experience them, and end up resisting not only life but also negative emotions. Instead of accepting, resisting only leads to more stress and negative emotions, and thus creating a vicious circle of resistance and stress.

Live your life as if everything is a miracle by letting go of resistance, and accept what life has to offer. Find your hidden resistance in your life and learn to embrace it, if you  cannot let it go.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

No Expectation, No Disappointment

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” Alexander Pope                     

If you are diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, one of the many autoimmune diseases, you may feel devastated when the doctor tells you that there is no cure. When the doctor prescribes some medications for you to treat your disease symptoms, you expect they will be effective; when they don’t work, you then become disappointed.

Given that nearly all of us go through life expecting certain things to happen, we become greatly disappointed when things do not turn out the way we think they should. As a matter of fact, in life, things seldom go our ways, and life is never what it should be. Our disappointments can easily turn into anger, anxiety, despair, regret, and many other negative emotions that adversely affect who we are and how we process our thoughts.

To offset or diminish the devastating emotional consequences as a result of not meeting our expectations, many of us may resort to mentally expecting the worst, instead of the best, while hoping against hope that we may still be pleasantly surprised; deliberately lowering our life expectations to proportionately reduce the extent of our disappointments; and consciously expecting no expectation whatsoever with our complete detachment.

Processing expectations is more complex than we may think. The mental exertion to “expect the unexpected”, to “go with the flow”, and to “live in the present without any future expectation” is easier said than done, and may be even difficult or impossible for most of us. 

So, how do we live our lives in these circumstances? How should we process our life expectations?

THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING may provide you with the wisdom in the art of living well. This 200-page book explains in simple language with common everyday examples to illustrate the essence of Tao wisdom and how it may integrate with conventional wisdom to live a life of your choice. 

THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING is the wisdom in the art of living well.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Nothing Is Everything

EVERYTHING IS NOTHING

The Creator has created for us a world of changes: everything is changing with every moment, and nothing remains permanent. It is through changes that we transform ourselves into a better and a happier human being. Even in a difficult and challenging environment, we learn from our mistakes and wrong choices in life, and change ourselves. Transformation is educational and self-enlightening. Transformation is synonymous with impermanence, which is the essence of change.

Understanding that everything is nothing is self-enlightening. Nothing is permanent: the good as well as the bad things that happen to us are impermanent; nothing last forever. We all are aware of this universal truth. We all know that we cannot live to one hundred years and beyond, and yet we resist our aging, continuously fixing our faces and bodies to make us look younger. We may have the face of a forty-year-old but the body of the seventy-year-old,  We simply refuse to let go; we desperately and self-delusively cling on to the permanence  In other words, we wish the impermanent were the permanent. It is this wishful thinking that makes us unhappy. We were once healthy and now our health has declined, and we are unhappy. We were wronged by our enemies, and we hold on to our grudges, instead of forgiving and letting them go, and we are unhappy. Our past glories gave us the ego, which we refuse to let go, and we become depressed and unhappy.

Life is about changes, and living is about letting go of what is impermanent that we naively believe and wish that they were permanent. Remember, nothing is permanent, and every moment remains only with that very moment. Therefore, live in the present, and live your moments to their best.

Get the wisdom of Lao Tzu, the author of Tao Te Ching, the ancient classic from China about human wisdom to learn how to let go of the self-delusional mindset of permanence.

Nothing Is Everything

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

True Wisdom

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” -- Albert Einstein

“Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself.” -- Oprah Winfrey

True wisdom is much more than knowledge or intelligence. It has much to do with the processing of information by the thinking mind. It requires much clarity and concentration of the thinking mind to see things as they really are, and not as what they are supposed to be. Accordingly, being knowledgeable may suggest smartness but not necessarily true wisdom of an individual. After all, humans are all limited in their capacity and capability to acquire knowledge, which is often unlimited. Therefore, to use what is limited for the unlimited is irrational. True wisdom, on the other hand, is empowering the thinking, which is potentially unlimited, to apply the limited knowledge acquired to understand the true nature of the self, of others, and of the world around.

True wisdom is innate and inside each and every one of us, but you just have to look inside you, just as Eckhart Tolle says in the beginning of his book The Power of Now:

“A beggar has been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by. ‘Spare some change?’ mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap. ‘I have nothing to give you,’ said the stranger. Then he asked: ‘What’s that you are sitting on?’ ‘Nothing,’ replied the beggar. ‘Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.’ ‘Ever looked inside?’ asked the stranger. ‘No,’ said the beggar. ‘What’s the point? There’s nothing in there.’ ‘Have a look inside,’ insisted the stranger. The beggar managed to prey open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.”

Look inside! True wisdom is already inside you, but you just have to look!

Yes, looking inside is the key to understanding true human wisdom. When you look within yourself, you may become awakened and even enlightened.

THE POWER OF NOW

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Unlearning and Relearning Pharmaceutical Drugs

 Unlearning and Relearning Pharmaceutical Drugs

On your healing journey, take the step to unlearn and relearn many things related to your autoimmune disease, such as myasthenia gravis.  

To heal, you must unlearn what you have previously learned, that is, letting go of all your preconceptions related to all the hows and the whys you might have got your myasthenia gravis in the first place. Remember, the knowledge you are currently having may have been generated by the limited and the finite material world you are living in.

Life itself is a sacred journey involving change, growth, and self-discovery. Knowledge is self-empowering, but it has to be distilled by true human wisdom. Therefore, to deepen your love of heath and your quest for health and healing, you must seek not just knowledge but also wisdom in order to expand your vision and stretch your soul so that you may stay both physically healthy and spiritually wise. Your knowledge and wisdom may provide you with meaning and direction to continue with every step of your long healing journey.

Unlearning Pharmaceutical Drugs

As we age, our self-made energy from the food we have consumed over the years begins to decline, and this is evidenced by our inability or difficulty to cope with the stressors of life. These stressors may have come in many different forms, such as overexposure to sunlight, polluted air, contaminated water, and a host of other lifestyle factors of modern life. After decades of abuse to our bodies, our choices—whether we have made them knowingly, or they have been imposed unwittingly on ourselves—begin to take their toll, resulting in the development of chronic conditions and degenerative diseases. To add insult to injury, our metabolic slowdown that comes with the natural process of aging makes it even more difficult to maintain our health and energy.

To deal with our health issues, many of us may desire a quick-fix, and thus turn to pharmaceutical drugs, which are toxic chemicals that only address the symptoms but without removing the causes of the health conditions.

Unfortunately, unsafe and toxic pharmaceutical drugs are prevalent. This is an indisputable fact! Unreliable drug tests abound in the medical and pharmaceutical research communities. Drug tests prior to their FDA approval may not be reliable due to the following reasons:

• Pharmaceutical companies may often influence medical researchers, through coercion, incentive, and even threat, to produce the desired results in clinical trials. There have been many cases of data fabrication in clinical trials of drugs in order to facilitate their intended applications.

• Clinical trials usually involve a small number of people, and may not truly reflect the outcome of those who will ultimately be using those drugs after their approval by FDA.

• Drugs tested on animal models may be biased and even irrelevant. An artificially-induced disease in non-human animals may not yield results relevant to a spontaneous, naturally-occurring human disease.

 Relearning Pharmaceutical Drugs

Regularly taking pharmaceutical drugs does not make you live longer because longevity is always drug-free. This makes sense: taking too many pharmaceutical drugs means your body is already stressed by many physical ailments. Ironically, these drugs may do a further disservice to you by ingesting more toxins into your already toxic body.

Pharmaceutical drugs do not heal a disease; they only temporarily suppress the disease symptoms.   Remember, when you give your body a drug to replace a substance that your body is capable of making itself, you body then becomes weaker and will begin not only to manufacture less of that substance, but also to become more dependent on the outside source, which is usually the drug itself. Over time, you will become no longer drug-free.

Unfortunately, no drug can give you insight into the circumstance that created your problems in the first place. At best, it can only temporarily assuage the physical pain created by your situation. Remember, there are no miracle drugs—only wholesome natural self-healing. Utilize your body’s natural self-healing power, rather than relying on those unsafe pharmaceutical drugs. Keep yourself drug-free as much as and as long as possible!

However, it does not imply that you must desist from taking your medications prescribed by your doctor. Rather, it suggests you should always be more alert to the side effects of the drugs you are currently taking; you should not readily reach out for unsafe pharmaceutical drugs, especially over-the-counter ones, without any second thought as if they were coupons or silver bullets.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

  

 To download the e-book, click here; to get the paperback copy, click here.

Good Fortunes and Misfortunes

Good Fortune and Misfortune

Life may be a bed of roses, but always with thorns. Good fortunes and misfortunes exist side by side, and they complement each other. A misfortune is an ingredient that one needs to blend with the rest of the ingredients of life and living. Life will not be wholesome without misfortunes and tragedies, which exist to enable one to appreciate more what life has to offer.

A case in point

There was a Chinese story . . . 塞翁失馬  A man lost his only horse, which ran away one day. His friends comforted him. But he was not upset at all; instead, he said: “That’s not a misfortune.” A few days later, his horse came back with a stallion. This time, his friends congratulated him on his good fortune. But he said: “What’s so good about that?” Later on, his only son rode on the stallion and accidentally broke his leg when he fell from the horse. Once again, his friends comforted him for the misfortune. But he said: “Breaking his leg may not be a misfortune.” Indeed, soon after that, a war broke out, and all the young men were drafted into the army, except the man’s son with his broken leg. All of them were later annihilated in a fierce battle. The moral of the story: a misfortune may turn itself into a good fortune.

There is a Chinese saying: “A man’s destiny cannot be summarized and sealed until nails are put on his coffin’s top.” So, nothing is set in stone.

TAO wisdom

According to TAO, willingness to accept your own fate or destiny provides you with inspiration for right conduct. Not accepting is a controlling and manipulative mindset through unbecoming conduct to control your destiny to get what you want in life. 

In TAO, there is no such thing as “good luck” or ”bad luck.” Let go of the negative concept of bad luck, such as “13” and “touch wood,” or even the positive thinking of having good luck. Instead, let the natural flow of life move through you, giving you internal power to make the impossible become possible, the difficult become easy. Simplify your life, and get rid of clutters that make you become superstitious. Remember, luck is something that you create for yourself, and that it is an external reality beyond your control, whereas you can always create your own internal reality of peace to overcome any groundless fear responsible for your internal negative energy.

Everything in this material world has meaning only in comparison with one another, and that goes for good luck or bad luck too. Does “Friday the 13^th” worry you? Are you getting yourself depressed by thinking of your bad luck in relation to the good luck of others? Go deeper into the core of your being and take control of your own beliefs, and not follow those of others. Fear is only your mental construct.

According to conventional wisdom, winning is always related to conflict: you must fight in order to win, just like in any contest or competition. The bag and baggage that all winners and losers carry with them is that their net worth and value are solely based on their winning or losing.

TAO, on the other hand, focuses on doing your best in any endeavor. More importantly, it is you, and no one else, who will judge your own wins and losses.

“Everything that happens to us is beneficial.

Everything that we experience is instructional.

Everyone that we meet, good or bad, becomes our teacher or student.

We learn from both the good and the bad.

So, stop picking and choosing.

Everything is a manifestation of the mysteries of creation.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 27)

“We accept all that is simple and humble.

We embrace the good fortune and the misfortune.

Thus, we become masters of every situation.

We overcome the painful and the difficult in our lives.

That is why the Way seems paradoxical.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 78)

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

An Empty Mindset to Heal

Prevention is always better than cure. If there is no disease, where is the need for a cure or even a doctor?

Take the step of maintaining optimal health and wellness in the body, the mind, and the soul, irrespective of your current conditions of health.

Nobody knows your body better than yourself; you have been living with it for years, if not decades. It is more than just treating a disease: it is also using that disease as a tool for understanding yourself—or, more specifically, why you are sick in the first place. It may give you the knowledge and wisdom to live in balance and harmony, thereby instrumental in initiating your healing with or without your doctor.

Remember, you do not have to follow any specific program or even the advice of anyone, maybe even including that of your doctor.

An Illustration

You need not follow the advice of former President Bill Clinton with respect to his dramatic weight loss—simply because you are not Bill Clinton, and your body’s constitution is not the same as that of his. Therefore, what is good for Bill Clinton may not necessarily be good for yourself. Nor do you have to impose any deliberate discipline on yourself. The reason is that any imposition may stimulate your inherent resistant nature. Discovering your own sensitivity to life is often more important than rigidity.

The TAO Wisdom

According to the TAO, the wisdom of Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China more than 2,600 years ago, an empty mind paves the way to both unlearning and relearning. Emptiness is synonymous with simplicity and receiving—the former is living a simple lifestyle with humility to develop an empty mindset to let go of all your attachments; the latter is the readiness and the capability to self-intuit true knowledge and profound wisdom.

Wisdom, which is invisible, intangible, and invaluable, is emptiness, which comes only from an empty mind:

“The spokes and the hub are the visible parts of a wheel.

Clay is the visible material of a pot, which is useful because it contains.

Walls, doors, and windows are visible parts of a house.

We always look for the visible and the tangible without.

But what really matters is the invisible and the intangible within.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 11)

According to the TAO, to attain knowledge, add things every day, but to attain wisdom, remove things every day:

“Seeking the Creator,

we give up something every day.

The less we have,

the less we need to strain and strive

until we need to do nothing.

Allowing things to come and go,

following their natural laws,

we gain everything.

Straining and striving,

we lose everything.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 48)

The explanation is that “less is for more” and not “more is for more” according to the contemporary thinking:

“Without going out the door, we know the world.

Without looking out the window, we see the Creator.

The more we look outside ourselves,

the less we know about anything.

Trusting the Creator, the ancient prophets

knew without doing, understood without seeing.

Trusting the Creator, we accomplish without striving.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 47)

On your healing journey, you just have to learn, unlearn, and relearn from anyone, anything, and any situation:

“Everything that happens to us is beneficial.

Everything that we experience is instructional.

Everyone that we meet, good or bad, becomes our teacher or student.

We learn from both the good and the bad.

So, stop picking and choosing.

Everything is a manifestation of the mysteries of creation.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 27)

he healing process, you do not set any goal or have any objective in your learning, unlearning, and relearning. The explanation is that setting any goal or having any objective will make you judge and choose, and thereby instrumental in pre-conditioning your thinking mind with respect to your learning, unlearning, and relearning:

“The foolish all have goals.

The wise are humble and stubborn.

They alone trust the Creator,

and not the world He created.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 20)

To sum up, on your healing journey,  you need to have an empty mind to learn, unlearn, and relearn everything about your health. After all, it is your health, and only you have the answers to why you may be unhealthy, and how you may heal yourself.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

  

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