In this day and age, to live well is not easy. Contemporary
wisdom may provide a blueprint for living, but that may be too inhibiting
without giving you true freedom to live the life you want to live. You are not
free so long as you indulge indiscriminately in your inclinations to succeed in
your life at any cost. You must understand Nature's natural laws and abide by
them in order to attain true freedom. Ancient wisdom in the oneness of all life
was founded on basic realities of human nature itself. To pursue these
realities is the essence in the art of living well.
Contemporary wisdom is exclusive—even to the extent of
wishing others fail so that one may succeed in life. In addition, it states
that one must do this or do that in order to succeed and live well. Ancient
wisdom, on the other hand, focuses on doing whatever one has to do but with a
sense of true freedom—the recognition and realization of the wisdom in the
oneness of all life.
Wisdom in the oneness of all life is based on one of the
basic laws of Nature: that is, we are all inter-connected, just as the famous
poet John Donne says:
"No man is an island." This universal moral principle leads us to
true and lasting freedom and wisdom in living. Once we understand that the life
flowing in our veins is the same as that flowing in the veins of others, we
will learn how to show love and compassion towards others. After all, we are
all created in the image of God, and we are no more than expressions of God.
Wisdom in the oneness of all life frees you from the
bondage of anger, competitiveness, disrespect, discrimination, envy, ridicule,
and many other negative attitudes of the mind, which adversely influence how
you live your life. Jesus'
saying of "Love thy neighbor as thyself" and Mahatma Gandhi's
advocacy of non-violence must be understood in subtle ways. If you
"kill" the enthusiasm of someone, you are "harming" that
individual because you are in fact taking away the life within that individual.
Remember, love and compassion are expressions of the oneness of all life—a
mental attitude that liberates human bondage from self-centeredness and gives
freedom in the art of living well.
For more information on wisdom in living, read my books: The
Book of Life and Living and TAOThe Way to Biblical Wisdom.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
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