Letting Go Is Like Breathing Out

Letting go is wisdom in living. In this day and age, humans have a tendency to hold on to anything and everything they can get hold of. Just take a look at your basement: it may be cluttered with junks that you don’t have the time to sort out or to get rid of. It is human nature to attach to anything that identifies them or they can identify themselves with. Attachment can be material, such as the clothes you wear or the car you drive; it can also be mental and emotional, such as the feeling of being successful or the toxic emotion of regret and bitterness. Letting go is the key to living a happy life as if everything is a miracle.

Letting go is like breathing out, which has to be deep and complete. Learn how to breathe correctly; many people don’t breathe right because they are not conscious of their breathing. Breathe right to help you in your everyday life and living. Remember, a healthy mind always has an easy breath, giving a relaxed body. Humans tend to focus on breathing in—which is akin to holding on or refusing to let go of any attachment—to the extent that they may completely neglect what happens when they breathe out, as if it were not that important. This discrepancy needs to be corrected, in order to create a free-flowing breath. Concentrating on breathing in may fill up the lungs with air all the time, such that the breathing becomes quicker and shorter, and thus stressing both the body and the mind. This may, ironically enough, lead to “feeling out of breath.” The wisdom of correct breathing is, paradoxically, to empty the lungs of air so that it may be filled completely with air.

Remember, in optimal breathing, the breathing out should be longer than the breathing in; without emptying first through breathing out, there will be no room for filling in by way of breathing in. Likewise, you need to let go of any attachment before you can receive new things in your life. After all, life is forever changing, and nothing is permanent. So, just let go to let God

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Spiritual Wisdom Is Daily Living Wisdom

Spiritual Wisdom Is Daily Living Wisdom

You have a body living in a physical world. Your body is controlled by your mind, which is supervised by your soul. Everyday living in balance and harmony requires the alignment of the body, the mind, and the soul. To have this perfect alignment, the help of spiritual wisdom is necessary.

Where does spiritual wisdom come from?

The Bible is the Word of God. Through the Bible, God speaks to each and every one of us. But God's wisdom is often beyond the understanding of man. Jesus often uses parables to explain Biblical truths because it is not readily available to the human mind; God's wisdom is always profound and unfathomable to many.

To pursue God's wisdom in the Bible, understanding human wisdom is the "first" step. 

It is true that if we diligently and fervently pursue God's wisdom, such as reading the Bible, God will use the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and our minds. However, we may require human wisdom to overcome our disbelief first before there is further understanding.

To seek God's wisdom, first and foremost, we need to know who we really are. Unfortunately, many of us do not really know who we are, let alone what we want in our lives. 

Why is that? It is because human thinking is imperfect. According to the famous statement "I think, and therefore I am" of Descartes, the great French philosopher, we think and therefore we become what we think we are, that is, the product of our thoughts. However, that statement is only partially true: due to flawed human thinking, we may not be the sum of our thoughts, because our thoughts are only partially true. Therefore, we are not really  who and what we think we are.

"True" human wisdom is an endeavor to understand who we are and what we need. Understanding the self helps us understand the true nature of things, or the laws of nature. Without understanding the natural laws of this world, human sufferings and ordeals in life often become stumbling blocks to understanding spiritual wisdom. Indeed, many of us find ourselves often asking the questions: Why me? Where is God?

Lao Tzu's immortal classic Tao Te Ching explains the essentials of human wisdom, which involve "reverse" thinking from the "conditioned" mindset of conventional wisdom. He explains how to acquire "true" human wisdom, without which it there is little or no intent to seek God's wisdom, let alone understanding the wisdom of God expressed in the Bible.

Understanding human wisdom begins with the mind -- an empty and inquisitive mind with the intent to ask questions to find out who we are and what we want. Asking questions enhance awareness, which is an important ingredient of human wisdom. With acute awareness, we develop clarity of mind. Heroes in movies often know the right thing to do because they have clarity of mind. In life, no amount of training can compensate for clarity of mind, which enables you to separate the truths from the half-truths or myths

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Cancer and Mint

Cancer and Mint

Mint is a fragrant herb that contains important ingredients with potential capability to cure cancer. As a matter of fact, mint has become an important herb due to its ingredients, which promote digestion by stimulating the flow of bile to your stomach. Mint has been called “the plant of happiness” for a good reason.

But can mint leaves really cure cancer?

It is still a controversy among research scientists. In 2004, researchers in the United Kingdom found that an extract in the leaves of mint can combat cancer. This groundbreaking medical discovery initiated the developing of drugs to see if mint can fight human breast and lung cancers. Research is still ongoing.

The important finding is that mint herb has the medicinal potential of destroying only those blood vessels that promote the growth of cancerous cells, but without damaging the blood vessels of normal cells. This selective targeting of cancerous cells may be a groundbreaking discovery for scientists to use mint leaves to target cancerous cells without damaging normal cells. Conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, are invasive in that they indiscriminately target both cancerous and normal cells. According to researchers from the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research of the United Kingdom, the extract (scutellaria barbata) from mint leaves has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries to treat tumors.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © by Stephen Lau

Dealing with Daily Anger

Dealing with Daily Anger

Do you easily get angry over trivial things? Do you find it difficult to control your anger, even in public?

Anger or rage is an ineffective and inefficient way to resolve any daily issue or make any problem go away. It is a negative emotion that may lead to depression, if it is not properly gaddressed. According to scientific studies, strong negative emotions, such as anger, can create destructive mental energy that is health damaging.

So, how do you take care of your negative emotions?

Conventional wisdom is to use distraction to defuse and dissipate the sudden anger or rage.

Thomas Jefferson famously said, “When angry, count 10, before you speak; if very angry, 100.” 

According to Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China, whose profound wisdom is known as TAO, we should do the following when we are angry:

Take a deep breath, review the situation, and ask yourself one simple question: why are you here in this situation?

Don’t hold your anger in; instead, let it go, by breathing it out. Don’t let it go as pain; instead, let it go as your acceptance. Don’t let your acceptance be viewed as a sign of your own weakness; instead, let it be a statement of your own communication to yourself that getting angry will not resolve the situation.

Remember, anger is always present to serve a purpose to release some deeper issues, problems, and internal conflicts that you may be carrying in your own bag and baggage all these years. It is always better to release anger than to turn it around to destroy yourself. Suppressing anger, on the other hand, is also self-destructive, as the negative energy redirects itself back into your own body. Anger in itself is always a path of destruction no matter what. Resolve anger by developing habits that may release internal conflicts in a constructive manner before it can be released as rage.

Remember, the world always reflects your actions. If you lash out in rage, then the world lashes back at you with that same rage causing pain or grief that still has to get resolved. There is no true “release” of anger, except by resolution.

TAO teaches that peace is the true warrior’s path. The sword while an option is never used with anger, or you may have lost from the start. According to Lao Tzu, “The best fighter is never becoming angry.”

Learn the wisdom of letting go -- letting go of your anger, your attachment to anything that defines your ego. When it comes to choosing between two things: being right, or being nice; always choose the latter.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

The Bright and the Dark Side of Life

Look at Both the Bright and the Dark Side of Life

Life is always imperfect, and living is forever a bed of roses with some thorns. We are imperfect human beings living in an imperfect world. As such, the art of living involves the wisdom of knowing who you really are, and how things happen and work in your life. This wisdom may let you see the bright side of life. Without this profound understanding, you will forever be haunted by the awareness of only the darker side of life.

The Bible calls the darker side of human nature “sin.” None of us is exempt from sin. Life is always an inner struggle between what is perceived in an individual’s moral system as “right” and the dark opposing force inside to do just the opposite. To make matters worse, most of us are really quite good at self-deception. Either we deceive ourselves into thinking that the dark opposing force does not exist in ourselves, or we simply inflate our own personal virtues to overshadow the dark force within us.

Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous Scottish novelist, calls this darker side of human nature the duality of man. In his famous story of “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” he presents Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde both having a dark side within them, where evil is lurking to surface anytime. Both of them hide their evil away, pretending it never exists. In the end, it turns out that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are actually one and the same person.

If the darker of life is deemed as something “evil” as depicted by Robert Louis Stevenson, it may immediately lead to self-denial and downright rejection. The darker side is ideally described as a “not-so-good” quality, or just human flaws and weaknesses that we see in others as well as in ourselves. Whatever the definition may be, the darker of life, ironically enough, makes life wholesome, without which life is incomplete and unreal—at best, a self-delusion. Human darkness is part and parcel of human existence. Denying its existence only leads to more pain, regret, and resignation. But understanding the dualistic human nature offers a way to return to wholeness, which is an important ingredient in the art of living well, which is seeing also the light at the end of the dark tunnel. Remember, darkness and brightness co-exist, just like day and night.

The bottom line: look for your own imperfections, instead of denying them; be the imperfect you, instead of striving to be someone else that you are not. Being your true self is the art of living well, which is looking at both the bright and the dark side of life.

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.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Letting Go of All Attachments

We are living in a material world in which there are too many things we have become attached to, such as material comforts, wealth and riches, among many others. They become our attachments because they give you joy and happiness, as well as identify who we are, that is, our ego-self. Unfortunately, they are not permanent, and do not last. That means these attachments may eventually become a source of our own miseries and unhappiness.

So, we must learn to let go. Take the following as a role model:

Ann Russell Miller was a celebrated socialite from San Francisco, also known as Sister Mary Joseph, She, who had ten children and nineteen grandchildren, had grown up in luxury and privilege, and had been living a life of incredible wealth. Instead of shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue, and degocorating herself with jewelry from Tiffany, she suddenly and surprisingly decided to give up everything, and became a nun devoted to living in poverty for the rest of her life.

That unbelievable event happened more than two decades ago, and was then widely reported in the media across the country. Why did she make such a drastic and incredible change in her life? She said she had a calling, a true vocation that was hard to understand for the general public, even for the close members of her family.

Ann Russell Miller just wanted to live a simple lifestyle, deleting all the trimmings of life and living, as well as all the attachments that she wanted to let go of

Do you have a lot of attachments to the material world you are living in right now? Take a look at your garage and basement. If they are packed full and loaded with many disposables, then probably you still have many attachments you are unwilling to let go of. Attachments are clutters that bring memories you are unwilling to let go of—memories that are reminiscent of your past accomplishments.

If you wish to be happy, just live a simple lifestyle.  

Epicurus, the famous Greek philosopher, had this advice on how to lead a happy life: avoiding luxuries, and living simply. The explanation is that luxurious living may make you into a “needy” person whose happiness always depends on things that are impermanent and easily lost. When they are lost —because nothing is permanent—you naturally become unhappy and even depressed.

Stephen Lau      

Copyright©  by Stephen Lau

Why Wear Suspenders

Gentlemen, if you wish to be healthy, wear suspenders, and not belts for your pants!

Why?

Health has a lot to do with your breathing, which has a lot to do with your posture, which has a lot to do with your spine. Optimum breathing provides oxygen to your lungs and henceforth to the rest of your body. Breathing, however, can be compromised or even disrupted by poor posture, which will result in an unstraight or crooked spine.

How does wearing suspenders help?

Irrespective whether you have a flat or bulging tummy, you tend to push your tummy forward when you are wearing a belt for your pants--this disfigures your posture. A correct posture is to tuck in your tummy, slightly squeeze your buttocks and push them forward in order to align your spine. If you do this while wearing a belt, your pants tend to drop; psychologically and unconsciously, there is a tendency to push the tummy forward.

Wearing suspenders, on the other hand, enables you to tuck in your tummy. At first, you may find it straining to do just that due to weak abdominal muscles; however, through greater awareness and more practice, you will be able to overcome it.

Remember, good posture means in any standing position, you body posture should be as follows:

• Your head is directly above your shoulders.

• 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.

Wearing suspenders is not only a statement of fashion but also an expression of posture health.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Tao Wisdom is Daily Living Wisdom

Wisdom is an important aspect of living because we need it not so much to make a success of living as to live well. In order to live well, understanding the ancient Tao wisdom plays a pivotal role, especially in its application in contemporary living. Understanding the ancient Tao wisdom is to live well.

What Is Tao Wisdom?

Tao wisdom is the ancient wisdom from China based on the the sage Lao Tzu who was born a few centuries before Christ.

Lao Tzu was the author of the immortal ancient classic "Tao Te Ching" which has become one of the most translated works in world literature. The word "tao" literally means "way" or "pathway", and hence "the Way" referring to Tao wisdom, which is the wisdom of Lao Tzu. It must be pointed out that Lao Tzu was reluctant to write "Tao Te Ching" because he believed that true wisdom must be intuited and therefore could never be expressed in words. But he was told explicitly that he would be permitted to leave China for Tibet until he had finished his book. Very much against his will, he deliberately put down his wisdom in exactly 5,000 words, without any punctuation mark. As a result, his profound wisdom was concise, intriguing, and even controversial.

Tao wisdom plays a pivotal role in wisdom in living. For one thing, Tao wisdom enables you to live a stress-free life, which is almost impossible in this day and age. For another, it shows you how to have an empty mind, giving clarity of thinking without any conditioned mindset. The essentials of Tao wisdom provide a blueprint for living a life of balance and harmony, which is the prerequisite of self-healing or recovery from any autoimmune disease.

The Book of Life and Living is a 190-page book on wisdom in living, based on the integration of conventional wisdom, the ancient wisdom of Tao from China, and the spiritual wisdom. The art of living well is holistic living with harmony of the body, the mind, and the spirit.  Life is short. Make the best and the most out of your life. Learn how to use your mind to control your thoughts to live the life you want.

Also, visit my website: Wisdom in Living.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The Happiness Wisdom

“The Happiness Wisdom” is a 161-page book on human wisdom based on ancient wisdom from the East and the West, conventional wisdom, and spiritual wisdom, which may all provide guidelines for choosing the happiness ingredients for your own happiness recipe. In addition, the book also provides real examples taken from real life, illustrating how these real people perceive their realities, and thus leading to their happiness or unhappiness.

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.

Click here to find out more about the book.

Click here to get your digital copy, and here to get your paperback copy.

Stephen Lau

Wisdom in Living

Wisdom in Living

Learn how to live your life as if everything is a miracle.

The journey of life is long and unpredictable. We all need wisdom to guide us along the way so that we will not get lost; even if we do, we may still find out way back to where it will eventually lead us to our final destination.

This website may provide you with wisdom as your compass and roadmap on your life journey.

Wisdom in living comprises seeking God's wisdom through understanding human wisdom in order to live a meaningful and purposeful life, even in the golden years. The ancient wisdom of Tao holds the key to applying these principles of life and living in this modern world.

Stephen Lau

Live in the Now

Daily living wisdom is living in the now, not the past. Yes, we all have a past; some of us may have a pleasant one, while others a less pleasant one. No matter what, the past was gone, and no longer real, except the memory of it. Only the present is real, and that is why it is called "present" -- a gift or present from the Creator.

Letting go of the past may hold the key to living a stress-free life. It is the wisdom of living well in this day and age. In this material world, many of us believe that more is always better. Why do we want more? The explanation is simple: we tend to identify all material things with our ego: the car we drive, the house we live in, the clothes we wear, the career we have. But they are all in our minds, and they don't last. Knowing this ultimate truth, we still hold on to everything in our possession, refusing to let go. This is how we have created stress in our lives.

According to the ancient wisdom of Tao, which is the profound wisdom of Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China, who was the author of the immortal classic Tao Te Ching, one of the most translated works in world literature, letting go begins with the mind first:

"Letting go is emptying the mundane,

to be filled with heavenly grace.

Blessed is he who has an empty mind.

He will be filled with knowledge and wisdom from the Creator.

Blessed is he who has no attachment to worldly things.

He will be compensated with heavenly riches.

Blessed is he who has no ego-self.

He will be rewarded with humility to connect with the Creator.

Blessed is he who has no judgment of self and others.

He will find contentment and empathy in everyone.

Letting go of everything is the Way to the Creator."

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 9)s

To find out more about the essentials of Tao wisdom, click here.

Life is about mind over matter. To fully harness your mind power, first of all, you need to fully understand the role of the mind and how your mind works, so that it may work for you, instead of against you; and then learn the strategies to fully utilize your mind power. You think and your thoughts become the raw materials with which you weave the fabrics of your life, including your choices and decisions, your actions and reactions; your thinking is based on your perceptions of your past experiences, and the memories of those experiences.

According to Lao Tzu, an empty mind means you let go of all your memories that are responsible for inflating your ego. Without your ego, you have no stress.

Stephen Lau 

Copyright© by Stephen Lau