“The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make
heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven.” John Milton
It is the mind that
makes the body and the soul—the being of
an individual. Unfortunately, the mind also has its own darker side, which creates
the darkness of life, and its negativity affects the real self involuntarily.
The darker side of life is a reality, not a myth, and
that everyone has a darker side to his or her being. The darker side does not
necessarily mean that it is something evil. Any connotation of evil may lead to
denial, instead of acceptance.
For example, the
sexual abuse of children by Jerry Sandusky and the pedophilia in the Roman
Catholic Church, as well as the Ponzi scheme of Bernie
Madoff and the
scams and rip-offs by some of Wall Street executives are just some of the many
examples of the extreme darkness of our society and culture.
But, in spite of the
human inclination to be good, we all show our own darker side every now and
then—such as not expressing as much compassion and loving-kindness as we should
to our fellow human beings, or telling a white lie—because we are imperfect,
and, as such, all human behavior is imperfect.
Robert
Louis Stevenson in his famous story of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a classic example of the darker side of human
existence. In the story, both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have a darker side of
life, and each tries to hide it from the other; it turns out that Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hide are just one and the same person.
The Bible calls the
dark 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 very
opposite. To make matters worse, most of us are really quite good at
self-deception. Either we deceive ourselves into believing 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.
The Book of Life and Living: This book provides a blueprint for the art of well, based on the conventional
wisdom, the ancient Tao wisdom, and
the Biblical wisdom. We all have the
darker side, but we still have to live as if everything is a miracle.
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 unconventional 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
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