Why We Don't Want to Let Go

Letting go is the art of living well. There is much human wisdom in letting go. Only true human wisdom brings about true human happiness.  With human wisdom, you may see why you are unhappy. Unhappiness comes from attachments to too many things in the physical world, such as emotions and memories from careers, relationships, success and failure, pleasant and unpleasant life experiences. They have become the raw materials with which you have created your own identity or ego-self. Over the years, they have become attachments that you are reluctant to let go of.

But you must let go of yesterday so that you may live today as if everything is a miracle; you must let go of the material world so that you may have the universe; and, most importantly, you must let go of all attachments so that you may have empty space to be filled with spiritual blessings and wisdom.

But why are we unwilling to let go of our attachments? All attachments come from the ego-self. We want to define who we are, and we want to separate ourselves from others. Driving a car more expensive than that of our next door neighbor makes us feel good.

Tao wisdom may help uslet go of all attachments. Tao wisdom focuses on clarity of thinking, which is essentially having an empty mind with reverse thinking. With that mindset, we may see that all things in this world are impermanent. Therefore, any attachment is no more than a distraction from the fear and the reluctance of losing what we have; the more attachments we have, the less our mind will be aware of the impermanence of all things. In other words, attachment is a self-delusion of the reality of all things.

“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)

To conclude, happiness comes from the mental awareness that the pursuit of worldly things is futile because nothing lasts. True and lasting happiness is made up of feelings of joy, love, hope, compassion, and gratitude experienced by the mind at the present moment.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Living in a Toxic World

We are living in a toxic world, very different from that of our ancestors. As a result, our minds, bodies, and souls have also become toxic to a greater or lesser extent.

First of all, our minds are toxic. In this age of advanced technology, we are often over-loaded with information and over-stimulated by sights and sounds that are mostly toxic in nature, although we may not be fully aware of it. There are simply too many stimulants that have made our minds become compulsive and restless. We have knowingly and unknowingly created undue stress for ourselves.

While growing up, many are facing different challenges and struggles that come in many different forms, such as being too tall or too short, being skinny or overweight; being too rich or too poor, and the list could go on and on. On top of these, many need to belong to or be a part of a group in order to find their true identities, without which they always feel that they are insecure and worthless. Toxins in the many forms of stress corrupt the mind. Indeed, growing up in a toxic environment is not for the faint of heart.

Stepping into the adult world does not make life any easier. Pursuing a career, finding a love relationship, starting a family—many are, more often than not, filled with hurdles and obstacles in the form of anger, betrayal, bitterness, competitiveness, envy, frustration, and many other toxic emotions and thoughts that further stress the mind.

Growing old is even more stressful. Time is running short as well as running out. Adding insults to injuries are frailties and infirmities of the body and the mind, both of which may have become over-toxic by then, and thus devastating the soul.

The reality is that life comes in different stages, and each stage is full of its own challenges and problems that often turn into toxic thoughts in the mind, which create toxic emotions leading to toxic actions and reactions, and they have become toxic memories, haunting the mind, stressing the body, as well as staining the soul.

A toxic mind is responsible for a toxic body. The human body is connected with the mind in the form of biochemical reactions in the body and nerve impulses in the brain. This invisible and intricate communication is subtly responsible for the alignment or misalignment of the flow of life-giving energy between the body and the mind; hence, if the mind is toxic, the body is also naturally vulnerable to its toxicity. In addition, you are living in a physical environment that in itself is very toxic and polluted; therefore, your susceptibility to body toxins increases by multi-folds. Your toxic body only further poisons your toxic mind.

A toxic mind produces a toxic body, and their toxicity taints the soul, ultimately making the soul become toxic too. A toxic soul is incapable of guiding and directing behaviors, actions, and reactions in their physical forms in the mundane world.

NO EGO NO STRESS

This book is made up four parts.

PART ONE An Introduction to Stress

It explains how and where stress comes from, and the damage of stress to human health.

PART TWO Conventional Wisdom:

Stress comes from career, money, relationship, adversity, and time. Conventional wisdom offers many strategies for stress relief, such as exercise, herbs, medications, meditation, and psychotherapies, among many others. Conventional wisdom may reduce stress levels, but it does not eradicate stress completely. Conventional wisdom only complements the ancient Tao wisdom for ultimate stress relief.

PART THREE Tao Wisdom:

This part not only explains what Tao wisdom is all about, but also contains the complete translation in simple English of all the 81 short chapters of “Tao Te Ching” which is one of the most translated works in world literature. Going through the whole script, interpreted and translated by the author, will enable you to understand the essentials of Tao wisdom for stress-free contemporary living.

PART FOUR No Ego No Stress:

Stress originates from the human mind: how it perceives and processes life experiences. What is stress to one individual may not be stress to another. This part explains in detail how having no ego can eradicate all stress related to career, relationship, money, adversity, and time.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Letting Go to Stop Aging

Aging is difficult to define, but you will know it when you see it or experience it yourself. In brief, aging is a steady decline in health, which is instrumental in shortening lifespan; and the aging process is the duration during which such changes occur.

Aging begins as early as from young adulthood (around age 20 to 40) to middle adulthood (around age 40 to 65), and continues to old age (beginning at the age of retirement, approximately at age 65). Aging occurs throughout most of lifespan. Such a process is an accumulation of changes, which may be subtle or even drastic, that progressively lead to disease, degeneration, and, ultimately, death.

The hard facts of aging

Whether you like it or not, your biological clock is ticking, and this will happen to various systems in your body:

Your heart will pump less blood, and your arteries will become stiffer and less flexible, resulting in high blood pressure—a health problem that often increases with age.

With less oxygen and nutrients from the heart, your lungs will become less efficient in distributing oxygen to different organs and membranes of your body.

Your brain size will gradually reduce by approximately 10 percent between the age of 30 and 70. Loss of short-term memory will become more acute.

Your bone mass will reduce, making it more brittle and fragile. Your body size will shrink as you lose your muscle mass.

Your biological clock is ticking, whether you are conscious of it or not. Your mortality has been pre-programmed into your biological organisms and you body cells. Theoretically, you may have an indefinite lifespan through their division, rejuvenation, and regeneration—if they are still healthy and functional. Although your genes may have pre-determined the speed of your biological clock, you can still slow down the speed of aging—if you still have good health.

Slow down, if not stop, your aging process with good health. So, what is good health? Is being healthy synonymous with absence of disease?

According to the United States Public Health Service, good health is “preventing premature death, and preventing disability, preserving a physical environment that supports human life, cultivating family and community support, enhancing each individual’s inherent abilities to respond and to act, and assuring that all Americans achieve and maintain a maximum level of functioning.” This statement probably sums up what you need to do in order to be younger and healthier for longer; it says everything about aging.

The truth of the matter is that you age, just like everyone else. The point in question is how you can delay that aging process, making you younger and healthier for longer—or, at least, not making you age more quickly than you are supposed to.

To live a longer life and to defer, if not totally avoid disease, you must live a stress-free life. Living in a complex and compulsive world, stress-free is difficult but not impossible. Stress originates from your perceptions of what you are experiencing; it is all in the mind—your mind. Stress stems from your attachments in the physical world that define who you are, or rather your ego-self. Let go of your attachments, and you have no ego and no stress and live as if everything is a miracle.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

My New Book Published on Amazon

I have just published my book on Amazon:

EnglishWords and Phrases Frequently Confused and Misused

Words are neither effective nor ineffective; they just impart different meanings to the sentences in which they are used. It is the writer's effective use of words and phrases that makes sentences effective or ineffective.

The English language is made up of nearly a million words and phrases. A writer, especially one whose English is not his or her first language, may face two major problems in writing: not knowing "enough" words; and not knowing how to choose the "right" words. 

Writing is made up of words. Effective writing requires having a good stock of vocabulary, as well as selecting the most suitable words and phrases to express the  ded ideas.

There are many English words and phrases that are frequently confused and misused by ESL learners. This book provides hundreds of those words and phrases with examples to show how they should be used correctly, such as: advance and advancement; acceptance and acceptation; accountable to and accountable for; acquirement and acquisition, etc. 

Stephen Lau

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Spiritual Wisdom to Let Go to Let God

Human unhappiness comes from the human reluctance and refusal to let go—letting go of the past, which has become human attachment, and which is no more than a distraction of the human mind from living in the present, which is the only reality in life. Letting go requires human wisdom to see the reality of all things. Due to the human flaw of attachment, human wisdom is often inadequate, and has to be complemented with spiritual wisdom, which is Biblical wisdom.

God’s omnipresence is a manifestation of His creation. Seeking God means we see His presence in everything around us, both visible and invisible. God’s mystery, on the other hand, is manifested only in His wisdom, expressed in the Bible.

In the Bible, Jesus is the personification of God’s wisdom. Only through Jesus can man come to know God’s wisdom.

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way,  the truth,  and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)

The Bible is the Word of God, and therefore a source of God’s wisdom through reading its verses. Reading the Bible can provide spiritual wisdom to many, which is necessary for their spiritual growth in order to understand and appreciate God’s wisdom.

The human intent to seek God’s wisdom

First and foremost, the human mind must demonstrate its intent to seek God’s wisdom through specific knowledge of the Bible. In other words, the mind must be in a seeking-and-learning mode in order to grow in the knowledge of God.

"And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13)

How Tao wisdom may help seeking spiritual wisdom

Tao wisdom is the wisdom of Lao Tzu (born some 2,600 years ago), the ancient sage from China, who authored the ancient classic Tao Te Ching. one of the most translated books worldwide.

Lao Tzu believes the desire to seek the wisdom of the Creator begins with self-discovery, which s understanding true human nature.

“The ancient prophets follow the Way to the Creator,

the Way to re-discover our true nature,

which is being one with the Creator.”

(Chapter 21, Tao Te Ching)

“Living is but an expression of the life given by the Creator.

Our true nature is a reflection of that expression.

Those who are with the Creator, the Creator is also with them.”

(Chapter 23, Tao Te Ching)

Knowing the origin and the nature of things, we may begin to perceive the purpose-driven life God has created for each and every one of us.

“Seemingly intangible, and seemingly elusive,

the Way leads to the origin of all things,

both visible and invisible.

           Since the beginning of the beginning, 

           this has been the Way

to the life force of all things,

both past and present.”

(Chapter 21, Tao Te Ching)

Therefore, Lao Tzu urges us to remain faithful to our true nature, which is fundamental to seeking spiritual wisdom.  With spiritual wisdom, we just let go to let God.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The Mystery of the Human Mind

Letting go holds the key to unlocking the mystery of the human mind. Very often we are the slave and not the master of our own mind. That is to say, we are dominated by our thoughts which control how we act, react in the physical world. In other words, we are controlled involuntarily by our mind because our mind has too many attachments in the physical world, such as careers, relationships, material comforts, and among others which we hold on to as our security blanket. Human attachment is an addiction to control. We think we can control our fate through attachment, which is no more than our emotional dependence things and people that define who we are and that distract us from fear and uncertainty of the future. 

I have just published my book: The Wisdom of Letting Go.

The human ego is composed of different attachments to the physical world, such as careers, emotions, memories, money, and relationships, among others. The human ego is unreal; it is only a distorted reflection of the real self. The human ego not only confuses the mind but also prevents it from finding out the realities about the self, others, and what is happening around. True human wisdom comes from knowing who you really are, not who you wish you were, and what you really need, not what you want or desire. Attachments are just emotional distractions in the mind from confronting changes in an ever-changing world. Let go of all attachments to see the absolute truths of all things.

The ancient Tao wisdom from China provides a blueprint for nourishing human wisdom: an empty mind with reverse thinking, mindfulness for clarity thinking, living in the present with no expectations of the future, no picking and choosing, accepting and embracing everything that comes in the natural cycle of change—what goes up must always come down. True human wisdom is the ability to understand that attachments are no more than distractions of the mind from letting go of anything that is impermanent.  

If you think this book is right for you, click here to get the digital copy and here to get the paperback edition from AMAZON.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Going Beyond Life

Live your life as if everything is a miracle. To do just that, you need enlightenment—which is going beyond life. Knowledge is different from wisdom in that the former is acquisition of knowledge, while the latter is the intuition of the knowledge gathered. Knowledge may make you smart, but not necessarily wise. Only true human wisdom may lead to enlightenment, which is an endless process of knowing and understanding that is simply there for all, and its existence is natural and available to all. It is like knowing that at sunrise you will see sunlight as long as you open your eyes; you don’t have to know anything else about the sun other than its presence—but you have to open your eyes to see its presence.  It does not require strenuous effort to attain enlightenment; it is simple there.

Enlightenment often comes as a result of a conscious self-annihilation of anything that is “myself” or the ego-self. It delivers you to another dimension of life. It begins with being not satisfied with what you are seeking in your life.  No matter how hard you make yourself to be, in the end, it is frustrating and not enough. No matter how wonderful you make yourself, still it is not enough. Only when you “disappear”—that is when you let go of all your attachments that have become “myself” then everything become wonderful in your life—that is enlightenment. Human basic longing is to live better. Ultimately knowing that living better is not going to get you anywhere, then you understand that you have to go beyond life—that is enlightenment.

As If Everything Is A Miracle

This 125-page book is about how to live your life as if everything is a miracle, instead of as if nothing is a miracle. To do just that, you need wisdom to "rethink" your mind, which may not be telling you the whole truth about your thoughts and life experiences; you need wisdom to "renew" your body, which lives in a toxic physical environment; you need spiritual wisdom to "reconnect" your soul, which is the essence of your spirituality. Most importantly, you need wisdom to "realign" your whole being because the body, the mind, and the soul are all interconnected and interdependent on one another for your well-being to live your life as if everything is a miracle. Your mind is the roadmap and your soul is the compass; without them, your body is going nowhere, and you will live your life as if nothing is a miracle.

With enlightenment, you will become a better, happier, and healthier you. With enlightenment, you will live a stress-fee life. Learn how to overcome your stress by letting go your ego-self. No Ego No Stress!

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau