The Wisdom to Let Go of Mind Disorder

In 2015, gunman Vester Flanagan gunned down reporter Alison Parker and Adam Ward in front of the TV camera; this vicious slaughter was witnessed by thousands of TV viewers.

Many viewers, including some interviewed psychologists, tried to explain why the murderer would do such a horrific act.

Maybe the wisdom of Lao Tzu, also known as Tao wisdom (The word "Tao" comes from the ancient Chinese classic "Tao Te Ching" the only book written by Lao Tzu, which has become one of the most translated works in world literature) can explain why the killer has a mind disorder. As a matter of fact, we may all have a mind disorder to a greater or lesser extent, if we don't follow the wisdom of Lao Tzu.

This mind disorder is a result of not "letting go." In life, we all have to learn how to let go of everything, including life itself (when we have to confront imminent death as a result of health or old age). Throughout life, we have to let go of our children (when they go to college, get married, or die ahead of us); we have to let go of material things, such as career, money etc.); we have to let go of our memories (memories of the unpleasant in the form of anger, bitterness, or vengeance, as well as memories of the pleasant in the form of desires and expectations). If we do not and cannot let go of our emotions, we develop mind disorder that may lead to anything, including a horrific crime, such as the one committed by the gunman Vester Flanagan. 

This is how the mind disorder of a killer is developed. An individual is fired from his job. His perceptions of disappointment, dissatisfaction. injustice, racial prejudice and discrimination, among others, become registered in the mind as memories. Without the power of letting go, that individual's mind will continue to generate more negative thoughts in the subconscious mind until the breaking point. If that individual has an aggressive or a violent nature, then killing may seem to be the last resort.

It is all about letting go, which is the essence of Tao wisdom. To learn how to let go, begin with letting go of material things (Are you living a simple life? Is your closet cluttered with clothes that you have not worn in the past few years?); with the letting go of time (Are you always on the go? Do you talk or text while driving? Are you living in the past or the future, except in the present?); with the letting go of the memories (Do you easily forgive or do you always bear grudges?). If you don't let go, you have anxiety, depression, and other mind disorders that may culminate in tragedies.

Get Tao wisdom, and read the entire script of "Tao Te Ching" in The Complete Tao Te Ching in Plain English. To learn more about Tao wisdom, click here.

To live well as if everything is a miracle, you need wisdom—more specifically, the Tao wisdom of letting go.  

Mind disorder can easily lead to depression.

Stephen Lau 

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Why TAO Is the Way to Biblical Wisdom

The interpretations of Tao Te Ching (道德經) by Lao Tzu (老子) are as many as its translations.

My translation of Tao Te Ching is based on my own interpretation of Lao Tzu’s masterpiece with respect to the Holy Bible.

Here are some of my thoughts on my literary endeavor.

Tao (道) or the Way is a means to an end, but not an end itself. That is to say, we follow Tao to some destination, but Tao is neither a destination nor the destination.

Tao is above and beyond human wisdom, but it is not divine wisdom. Simply, Tao may be the Way between human wisdom and divine wisdom. It helps us understand the true nature of man and his role in the world of creation, and thus connects us directly or indirectly to the Creator.

Tao is about the thinking mind. We are humans, and it is human nature to follow and cling to human wisdom as a beacon of light to show us the way. As a result, we have developed a conditioned mind of thinking, which only further impairs human wisdom, already frail and fragile as it is due to human imperfections. In contrast to conventional human wisdom, Tao is about reverse thinking that renders the human mind more receptive to spiritual wisdom.

Tao is not a religion, although it has been associated with religions, such as Zen, Buddhism, and Taoism. Tao was never meant to be an object of human pursuit or worship; that is why Tao is also called “the Way” to show us a direction or pathway to divine wisdom. It is just a means to an end, and the end is the wisdom in the Word of God, expressed in the Holy Bible.

Tao is not God’s wisdom; at best, it is only distilled human wisdom that may lead to the ultimate understanding of Biblical wisdom.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Human Wisdom to Cope With Depression

Depression is all about the mind—the “thinking” mind; more specifically, how the mind functions. The human mind plays a pivotal role in depression: it could be the underlying “cause” of many problems related to depression; on the other hand, it could also be the “antidote” of depression. That is to say, the human mind is a double-edged sword: it could create many “problems” for depression, as well as provide many “solutions” to depression. 

The thinking mind plays several major roles in your life, especially in relation to depression.

Life is about experiences, which are composed of thoughts of those experiences by the human mind. According to James Allen, the author of As A Man Thinketh, men are “makers of themselves” and the human mind is the “master-weaver, by both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance.” Accordingly, you may have become who you and what you are by way of your thinking mind over the years; in short, you are the sum of your own thoughts. Therefore, your thinking mind plays a pivotal role in your life.

To understand how the mind thinks, humans need profound human wisdom to understand the major roles of the human mind in their everyday life and living, and how it may work for or against them with respect to their depression.

Remember, your “thinking” mind is responsible for creating not only your so-called “realities” based on your perceptions of your life experiences, but also your personality, which also plays a pivotal role in your living in a world of depression.

It is your human nature to identify yourself with your thoughts created by your own thinking mind. This identity begins to relate to more thoughts, both past and present, as well as their projections into the future as desires and expectations. These accumulative thoughts begin to take shape and form your ego-self, which all of us have, because it is the identity that separates and distinguishes us from others.  But the ego-self may also become the human flaw that is ultimately responsible for your depression.

My Way! No Way! TAO Is The Way!

TAO Wisdom To Live And Survive In A World Of Depression!

TAO wisdom is the way to go through depression—experiencing every aspect of depression, instead of avoiding it with distractions or drugs—and thus the only Way to get you out of depression while living in a world of depression.

It provides many examples from news and everyday life to show you  how TAO wisdom can help you live as if everything is a miracle.

Don’t deny or stigmatize your depression! Go through it, and you may or may not get enlightened, but you will look at your depression differently.

To get your digital copy, click here; to get your paperback copy, click here. 

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Tao Wisdom to Deal with Anger

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

So, how do we take care of our 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: what is the original purpose of driving your car—to get to your destination, or to get angry?

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 to your destination is much more important than getting angry.

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.”

My Way! No Way! TAO Is The Way!

TAO Wisdom To Live And Survive In A World Of Depression!

TAO wisdom is the way to go through depression—experiencing every aspect of depression, instead of avoiding it with distractions or drugs—and thus the only Way to get you out of depression while living in a world of depression.

It provides many examples from news and everyday life to show you  how TAO wisdom can help you live as if everything is a miracle.

Don’t deny or stigmatize your depression! Go through it, and you may or may not get enlightened, but you will look at your depression differently.

To get your digital copy, click here; to get your paperback copy, click here. 

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

No Judgment No Preference

“The Creator has no judgment, no preference:

He treats everything and everyone alike.

Every manifestation attests to the mysteries of his creation.

So, we, too, embrace everything and everyone with no judgment, no preference.

His grace, never depleting and forever replenishing, shows us the Way.

Judgment and preference separate us from his grace, causing attachment.

Only with his grace do we find renewal and rebirth along the Way.”

(Lao Tzu,Tao Te Ching, Chaper 5)

The above is taken from Lao Tzu's immortal classic Tao Te Ching, one of the most translated books in world literature. Lao Tzu was an ancient sage from China, who lived several hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Lao Tzu's profound wisdom is known as Tao wisdom, or simply Tao (also known as the Way).

We all have a physical body, living in a physical world often filled with toxic desires. Do not let the body become toxic too. In the physical world, our bodies with their five senses (seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, and touching) are constantly exposed to sensual sensations around us that may create desires in our bodies. For example, when we see something that pleases the eye, such as an expensive Rolex gold watch, we become desirous of it. That perception can be voluntarily rejected by the conscious mind, but it may be imprinted involuntarily on the subconscious mind, which, unfortunately, controls and directs the conscious mind. So, if the conscious mind does not even voluntarily reject the perception, it may become a toxic desire. Ideally, the mind should control the body, but if the body controls the mind, that is, letting the toxic desire get out of control, the mind will do just anything and everything—even to the extent of breaking the law—to gratify that desire of the body. That’s how toxic desires in a toxic body come into being.

In addition, we all have both a conscious and subconscious mind that process and interpret our physical sensations, leading to thoughts that may be positive or negative, depending on our mental input. The mind plays a pivotal role in changing negative thoughts into toxic desires in a toxic body.

Our conscious minds voluntarily control our mental input (that is, what we want to remember and what we want to forget); but our subconscious minds involuntarily absorb all physical sensations we are exposed to.  The subconscious mind is the master mind behind all actions that the conscious mind takes; therefore, it is important to have the wisdom to understand better how the subconscious mind works in order to have better control of the conscious mind, lest the subconscious mind create toxic desires in a toxic body.

Remember, the toxic mind is often created by human judgment and preference. Many of us have a tendency to judge others (the Bible says "Thou shalt not judge."); judgment may create a toxic mind. By the same token, many of us tend to pick and choose -- picking what we like, and choosing what we think may bring success, while rejecting what we don't like and avoiding what we think may cause failure. The wisdom is to "embrace" everything that happens in our lives, because we can learn from both the good as well as the bad. Live in the present moment, and stop being judgmental. 

Read my book: The Complete Tao Te HYPERLINK "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E76JP1C"ChingHYPERLINK "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E76JP1C" in Plain English to learn more about Tao wisdom to let go of all attachments that may prevent you from living as if everything is a miracle. This book also includes the complete text (81 short chapters of Tao Te Ching)

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

     

The Happiness Mindset to Live Long If You Just Don't Die!

Reverse thinking is what the ancient Chinese sage, Lao Tzu (老子), suggested in his immortal classic, Tao Te Ching (道德經), a book of poetry on human wisdom.

According to Lao Tzu, reverse thinking begins with an empty mindset, which lets go of any implicit assumption so that there may be room for clarity of thinking to understand how your implicit assumptions can create predictions and expectations in your assumptive world that never become your realities. Reverse thinking is the antidote to any pre-conditioned thinking, which is implicit assumption based on subjective predictions and expectations.

Consciousness of the happiness mindset

 Consciousness may free yourself from the shackles of any automatic assumptive thinking that might have enslaved you, keeping you in bondage without your knowing it. Are you the master, or just a slave of your own life? Often times, we think we are masters of our lives and we are in total control, but in fact we are no more than slaves. You are the master only when you have complete control over your life, or rather over your way of thinking. Remember, your subconscious mind controls you with all your implicit assumptions. They make you act, react in different situations and circumstances in life. With reverse thinking, you may see more exceptions to whatever your pre-conditioned mind sees and says.

Happiness is the essence of life and living. Therefore, almost each and every one of us is always in quest of happiness because it is the meaning of our existence. In addition, advertising, consumerism, and the media have all mesmerized us into believing that happiness is one of the basic human rights we are all entitled to.

The reality is that Americans are becoming poorer, and many are living from hand to mouth. Scientists have been asking for decades the exact same question about the degree of personal happiness to an individual, and those who say they are happy are only getting fewer.

The different perceptions of happiness

Happiness is all in the mind. You have to be conscious of why you are happy or unhappy.

You have both a conscious and a subconscious mind. Simply put, your conscious mind does all your active thinking: selectively recording whatever data and information you want to remember, while purposely discarding whatever you consciously think is irrelevant or inapplicable to you. Your subconscious mind, on the other hand, absorbs everything indiscriminately that you are exposed to, and stores it at the back of your subconscious mind in the form of assumptions, emotions, feelings, and memories—they all have become the raw materials with which you weave the fabrics of the realities of your life, making you happy or unhappy, depending on how you perceive and relate them to your personality and life experiences. That is why you have to be conscious of your thinking in order to change your mind in order to change your perceptions of personal happiness—whether it is a glass half-full, or a glass half-empty.

The bottom line: according to Lao Tzu. you must have an empty mind to have totally different perspectives of what happiness really is. If you wish to live to 100 and beyond, you must reverse your thinking to have an empty mindset to look at happiness very differently.

"You Just Don't Die!" shows you just that -- how to live a long life, if you just don't die, and be happy with Tao wisdom.

Stephen Laua

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Tao Wisdom to Let Go of Attachments

“We usually don't realize the thing that is defining our identity until that thing is taken away.” Tim Hiller

All human attachments are the raw materials with which one both consciously and subconsciously creates one’s identity through a period of confusion and uncertainty that inevitably leads to the identity crisis. Without human attachment, there will be no identity crisis.

Tao wisdom may be the solution to an identity crisis Tao wisdom focuses on letting go of the ego-self, which is the source of all human miseries. The ego-self is defined by our attachments that define who we are, or rather who wish we were—such as the car we drive, the clothes we wear, the neighbor we live in, and the career we have. We use our attachments to control how people think of us, or how we think of ourselves to give us the security we crave.

Tao wisdom is the ancient wisdom from China more than two thousand and six hundred years ago. It originated from the ancient classic Tao Te Ching, (道德經) the only book written by Lao Tzu, the Chinese sage, who was born with white hair—often considered a sign of old age and its related wisdom.

Letting go begins with the ego-self, whose main task in life is controlling.

Indisputably, life is forever changing, whether we like it or not. We must learn to accept the fact that we are sometimes powerless to stop any unwelcome change in our lives. Paradoxically, accepting that unwelcome change in our lives may surprisingly bring us not only clarity but also peace of mind. Yes, life is full of paradoxes that often confuse the human mind.

“With the human flaw, good cannot exist without evil.

Man is born with virtues, but grows up with vices.

Likewise, life and death complement each other.

Heaven is eternal life; hell is everlasting death.

Human existence is therefore dualistic:

it can make heaven out of hell, or hell out of heaven.

Faith and lack of faith go along with each other.

The first will be the last, and the last will be the first.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 2)

Without clarity of thinking, many of us simply choose to avoid any perceived change in our lives by controlling people who, we think, may either cause or steer us clear of any unwelcome change. Control stems from our fear and worry, which are projections of our minds into the future about what may or may not happen, and which are the major factors of stress in our contemporary living.

Controlling is not Tao wisdom because it is an unnatural way of running away from everyday problems, instead of embracing them. Controlling is a direct or subtle way of exerting our influence over others so that we may have power over the turn of events in our own lives. In other words, we delude ourselves into thinking that we can make things happen the way we want them to happen in our lives through control and manipulation of others. Of course, it is only a wishful thinking that we can have total control of what happens or does not happen in our lives. Controlling only leads to over-doing.

“The Creator does nothing,

yet nothing is left undone.

The ordinary man is always doing things,

yet there are always many more to be done.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 38)

Controlling is holding on to all attachments in life. According to Tao wisdom, any attachment is the source of human pain and suffering, and we must learn to let go of controlling.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Spiritual Wisdom for a Successful Marriage

The rate of divorce is skyrocketing in the United States, and the U.S. Census estimates about half of marriages end in divorce.  According to relationship experts, the number of long-term relationships heading towards separation is now becoming more frequent with a longer life span and a growing acceptability of divorce by society. What some experts are saying is that people divorce because they have a longer lifespan, and that divorce is no longer a social taboo.

The following is taken from my book THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING; it explains the pivotal role of spiritual wisdom in the success and survival of a marriage:

Marital relationships are complex and difficult.  due to the complexity and difficulty of interpersonal relationships.

To illustrate, when you take your marriage vows, you solemnly promise to love and care for your spouse “for better or for worse.” But that is a tall order in a marriage. Your marriage partner owes you a debt (or so you think!) if he or she falls short of your expectations. As a result, you become angry and resentful. Without God’s saving grace, you only see yourself as unforgiven and unacceptable to God; in turn, you become unforgiving and unaccepting towards your spouse. The outcome may be a divorce or, at best, an unhappy marriage.

Reflective Thought

Relationships are difficult and unpredictable: many prefer to wet their feet first before they jump into a marriage.

Case in Point

According to a recent study by the University of Denver, about 70 percent of couples co-habit before getting married.

Nowadays, many are afraid of getting married because they do not have sufficient faith either in themselves or in God.

Faith in marriage and living in faith hold the key to a successful marriage.

Not Knowing Self

Self-esteem is an important factor in a healthy love relationship. You must believe that you are “good enough” for your partner. True self-esteem stems from who you are, and not from what you do. If self-esteem were based on success, then many would indeed have low self-esteem because they would not be able to overcome the many hurdles of failures in their lives.

From the Christian point of view, self-esteem comes from the fact that you are made in the image of God.

  

“and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one Who created him.” Colossians 3:10

Therefore, God loves you, and you are as good as you can be.

From the TAO's point of view,  self-esteem means loving yourself completely for who you are, irrespective of what you like or dislike about yourself—or else you cannot love another person wholeheartedly. According to TAO wisdom, if you cannot accept something unpleasant or incomplete in yourself, you cannot accept something that you think is unpleasant or incomplete in another person. It is just that simple! If you reject that person, you are in fact rejecting a part of yourself that you do not like. In a love relationship, you often begin to “mask” what you do not like about yourself, hiding it from the person you love. You are afraid of opening yourself completely, and accepting yourself just as who you really are. If you don't take off that “mask” of yours, you will only make that love relationship difficult to last.

Lack of self-esteem leads to fear of rejection—fear that the love relationship may not last. Subconsciously, you “anticipate” the inevitable rejection, picking fights and testing the other person constantly in fits of anger and jealousy, even though deep down you want the love relationship to last. Ironically enough, it may eventually become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  

Reflective Thought

True love always risks rejection.

Case in Point

When God created men, He hoped for a loving relationship. However, love is only real if it is unconditional and freely offered. Accordingly, God made human beings capable of both loving and choosing. Living in faith, you can then love and choose in spite of your innate fear of rejection. 

Not Trusting in Spiritual Wisdom

Any relationship—whether it is the relationship with your family, with your co-workers, or just anyone you just met—is not easy, because it involves people. However, through the spiritual wisdom of grace, all things are possible. Jesus said: “With people, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

Marriage, for example, is not a short-term option: it is for life. Nowadays, many people are afraid to get married. Trusting in spiritual wisdom means taking the first step, just as Lao Tzu once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” If you really love someone, take that first step to get married, and put your trust in spiritual wisdom to guide you along the way.

But understanding the spiritual wisdom, without work, is not enough. You need to embrace it and put it into practice.

“You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” James 2:24

Living in faith is a tall order because you need work, which is marriage commitment. Marriage is a contract, requiring you to honor it “for better or for worse,” which is the commitment in a happy marriage.

Marriage commitment means marriage life is never plain sailing: there will be storms along the voyage.

“And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Hush, be still.’ And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?’” Mark 4:39-40

Marriage commitment means you listen to God's voices for answers to your marriage problems. God always wants to talk to you.

“My sheep hears my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” John 10:27

If you are His sheep, He will point the way ahead of you.

“Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” Isaiah 30:21

Marriage commitment means you humbly surrender yourself to God. You acknowledge your own weaknesses and problems in your marriage; instead of going your own willful way to deal with them, you choose the spiritual wisdom that is innate in each and every one of us.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

When you have humbly surrendered yourself, God will speak, and you will hear His voice—which is the spiritual wisdom. You will not hear your own voice, or that of the devil.

Marriage commitment means you make yourself and your partner spiritual through worship, prayer, the Word of God, and service to others in His name. Above all, you make yourself open to forgiveness, and cherish togetherness through acceptance and respect for each other.

So, take the leap of faith to marry someone who is prepared to walk with you in this journey of spiritual wisdom. Remember, God gives each of us the capability to love and to choose. Your choice should not be based on physical appearance: all that glitters is not gold.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Knowing the Basics in Life

In addition to the basic human need for food, clothing, and shelter, there are some basics in life, which are fundamental to the art of living well.

Feeling Good About Oneself

In life, there are generally three things that most people want and desire: abundant wealth; good health; happy relationships.

Indeed, they become the life goals of many. Success in their pursuit of these goals makes them feel good about themselves, not to mention satisfying their basic need to feel self-important.

Ask yourself these questions: What are the things you desire most in your life? Why are they important to you?

Forming Good Life Habits

Living is about processing experiences in life. Living life to the fullest is contingent on how you process your experiences, which are the consequences of your choices in life, rather than due to your circumstances. Good life choices stem from good life habits. Your habits, good or bad, control you more than anything else does, in particular, your thinking mind. Given that your life is the sum of your thoughts, forming good life habits is critical because you tend to become a slave to your habits, once they are formed.

Ask yourself this question: What are some of the life habits that you must form in order to help you process your experiences in life?

Good life habits include: living in the present moment; developing body and mind awareness; embracing right conduct and positive thinking.

According to Aristotle, we are what we repeatedly do; therefore, excellence is also a habit that can be cultivated.

Being Who You Are

If you wish to create a better life for yourself, you must do it all by yourself; after all, it is your life and you must live it yourself. In other words, it is all up to you.

Be yourself: who you are, and not who you want to become. Being who you are means you must stop blaming others, who have nothing to do with who you are or what you have become for that matter.

Remember, no one else is to blame for your experiences, which are uniquely and totally yours.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau