The Healing Journey of the TAO

Millions and billions of people worldwide are suffering from autoimmune diseases, including myasthenia gravis which is only one of the many different autoimmune disorders that are causing anxiety, fear, pain, mental confusion, and even suicidal thoughts in some of those afflicted.

According to Western medicine, there is no known cure for autoimmune diseases due to the complexity of their causes. Understandably, patients afflicted with autoimmune diseases are seeking healing from many different healing modalities, such as the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the Ayurvedic medicine, and among many others. In addition, they are desperately looking for help from herbs, fruits, and all kinds of natural nutrient supplements, as well as from physical exercises and spiritual practices, to rejuvenate their failing health due to their weakened immune systems.

The TAO may play a pivotal role in the healing process of any autoimmune disease, including that of myasthenia gravis.

“Myasthenia gravis” is Latin and Greek in origin, which literally means "grave muscle weakness."

Myasthenia gravis is one of the many autoimmune diseases that afflict humans, and there are over one hundred of them.

The occurrence of an autoimmune disease is a result of the breakdown or malfunction of the immune system. There are more than one hundred immune disorders and diseases.

The immune attack can target any area, such as the joints, causing rheumatoid arthritis, the thyroid gland, leading to an overactive or an underactive thyroid, and nerve cells, resulting in multiple sclerosis, among many others. Very often, the immune attack may have several targets; that is, if you have one autoimmune disease, you are also at risk for a second or even a third disease, especially if you have not taken good care of your immune system. In addition, an attack may have remission, followed by worsening of the symptoms. Therefore, the battle against an autoimmune disease is not only challenging, but also difficult and devastating.

 Autoimmune diseases are becoming more rampant. By and large, women are more vulnerable to them than men are. Men have a higher incidence of mellitus diabetes and myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) than women; other than those, women are 3 to 6 times more prone to autoimmune diseases than their opposite sex.

Modern medicine is unable to explain or specifically identify some of the underlying causes of autoimmune diseases. Despite the advancement of modern science and technology, frustration and disappointment are part of modern medicine in the area of immune dysfunction. Without the capability to identify the exact causes of autoimmune diseases, there is no known cure to date. Accordingly, modern medicine focuses solely on addressing the symptoms rather than the causes.

Healing begins with the mind, and not with the body. But the mind can both heal and harm. Therefore, wisdom plays a critical role in the healing process—more specifically, the TAO wisdom of Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China more than 2,600 years ago.

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.

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

Your healing journey requires a compass and a roadmap: the former to show you the direction of your journey; the latter to tell you where you are right now.

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.

The TAO makes you see who you really are, and not what you wish were. Seeing the truths of the self, of others, and the surrounding around will make you understand why you are sick in the first place.

“Knowing others is intelligence.

Knowing ourselves is true wisdom.

Overcoming others is strength.

Overcoming ourselves is true power.

Understanding that we have everything we need,

we count our blessings.

Identifying with our own true nature,

we hold fast to what endures.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33)

You are where you are right now by choice and not by chance. That is, the onset of myasthenia gravis is your choice. You may not like where you are, but you will continue to remain there unless you are willing to change your thinking mind and to accept the notion that you are where you are for the specific purpose of learning how to grow and transform yourself so that you may get away from where you are right now—that is, experiencing the symptoms of myasthenia gravis. Without that profound wisdom, you will continue to remain in your status quo, that is, being unhealed of myasthenia gravis.

With the profound wisdom of the TAO, you may begin making changes in your lifestyle. More importantly, you may begin to seek knowledge to heal your myasthenia gravis. Your healing journey is a long and continual one with no destination. You need a compass and a roadmap—the former to tell you the direction you are going, and the latter to tell you where you are right now. The TAO provides you with both on your healing journey of myasthenia gravis.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau