The Essence of Tao Wisdom

The Essence of Tao Wisdom

The wisdom of Tao begins with the power of intention in the mind to know and to learn about self—after all, wisdom is about self, and about how it reacts with everyone and everything around. In the quest of wisdom, discovery of having no ego-self is the turning point, where one begins to embark on a different life journey with a different mission.

Your awareness of your diminished ego-self is life transforming, and transformation is discovering the wisdom of the divine within you: seeing goodness in all; nurturing of life; gratitude of one’s existence as well as that of others.

These are the attributes of life—the wholeness of experience that you, as an individual, perceive only in the present moment.

Once you are awakened to the truth that there is no ego-self, or your ego-self is gradually diminishing, you begin to see the world in a totally different way—just like a person, who was born blind, suddenly opens his eyes and sees the world for the first time.

For the first time, you see your own insignificance in the present moment, as well as your past folly and futility in identifying yourself with your past thoughts, and the uncertainty of your mental projections of those thoughts into the future. There is such profound wisdom in the knowledge of your own insignificance, or humility.

Reflective Thought

We are just nobody, who wants to be somebody through identification with our thoughts created in our own subconscious minds.

A Case in Point

Modern psychology expounds the theory of the power of visualization—seeing ourselves one day as the persons we wish we would become. How often it turns out to be no more than just a wishful thinking, totally divorced from reality.

Since there is no ego-self, there is no need to hold on to anything in life—or anything that will give you the false image or ego-self!

You suddenly realize that everything exists because of its opposite, and everything will ultimately become its opposite, such as youth ultimately becoming old age, and life becoming death.

The world looks different when you look at it in reverse. Reversing is thinking outside the box; reversing sets the motion of Tao, which is the power of letting go.

”Empty yourself of everything.

Let the mind rest at peace.

Everything under heaven rises and falls

while the Self watches its return.

It grows and flourishes and then returns to its source.

Returning to the source is stillness,

which is the way of nature.

The way of nature is unchanging.”

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 16

Letting go is the readiness and willingness to let go of all your attachments in life.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau