The Way Through Depression
Depression is not a mental disease. It is a dysfunctional mind condition in which an individual strives desperately to avoid the unhappy and the undesirable experienced in life. The antidote to depression is not an antidepressant drug, which is not the way to cure depression. TAO is the Way -- the way "through" depression by experiencing everything, thereby instrumental in helping the depressed individual accept and embrace all in order to fully understand why the mind dysfunctions.
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Anything Is Everything OR Nothing?
Monday, November 4, 2024
Believing in Yourself
Believing in yourself is self-efficacy. Believing in yourself is confidence in your own ability, knowing what you have to do to win or simply to get what you want in life.
In addition, you may also be comparing yourself with others. Remember, nobody is perfect. Others may also have their failures that you are unaware of. You see only their successes but not their failures. Surprisingly, seeing your own imperfections may be the pathway to future success.
Sunday, November 3, 2024
Money Wisdon
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Saturday, November 2, 2024
Losing Your Money
Making money is all about your being and your doing: being who you are and doing what you can with what you have.
Not knowing your true
self and not doing what you are supposed to do, and yet wanting your money, and
even lots of it, leads to your “money fantasies”, such as becoming a
professional gambler, lining up for hours to get your Power Ball, and even
engaging in burglary or bank robbery.
No matter what, you may lose your money at some point in your life, and that is a reality. Remember, the opposite of "gain" is "loss", and what goes up must also come down, and this is a universal truth.
LOSING
Even if your life is a bed of roses, it must also have some thorns to go with it. What goes up must also come down. Gains are followed by losses. That is the natural cycle of all things.
While pursuing your
careers, you might have encountered your discharge or unemployment, and while
making your money in your businesses or financial investments, you might also
have been overwhelmed by your money losses.
Freedom
Free yourself from “money miseries”—living from paycheck to paycheck; not making both ends meet; always seeing your lack and deprivation when compared with others.
Remember this: Even
wealthy celebrities went broke, and you are not alone. For example, Mike
Tyson, a boxing champion, earning over $300 million dollars, ended up in bankruptcy
in 2003; and Michael Jackson, a recording artist, dancer, singer, and
songwriter, earning over $500 million dollars, was heavily in debt when he died
in 2009.
So, fight the good
fight to recover, restore, and rejuvenate yourself from the bondage and
wreckage of losses.
Bondage
Money is emotional, especially when always feeling the lack of it. Yes, money can cause many mental problems, including depression.
With more
money, you can live rich. But even with less money, you can still
live richly, and free yourself from the bondage of lack.
But how to
live richly if you have less money? The answer is thrift, which is an
alternative lifestyle to consumerism, materialism, and over-consumption in this
material world you are living in.
Thrift may help you work less, and not more. Many people are not paying with their money; instead, they are paying with their time from their lives. Are you one of them? Are you doing two or more jobs just to earn that extra money to spend more?
Thrift may promote your positive consumption values. Are some or most of your purchases aimed at your instant gratification, or just enhancing your self-esteem, making you feel rich, such as wearing a designer’s dress?
Thrift may encourage your savings. It may give you
more space to save, thereby instrumental in protecting you from negative income
shocks, such as an unexpected unemployment.
Yes, living richly
with thrift may turn you from bondage to freedom.
FREEDOM with BONDAGE shows you how to free yourself from your bondage to the flesh that gives you the "freedom" to make the wrong choices and decisions in your everyday life.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
Friday, November 1, 2024
Adultery in Marriage
INFIDELITY IN MARRIAGE
Tiger Woods, one of the world’s most famous and wealthiest golfers, was caught with his dark secrets of infidelities and lies in 2009. At first, he vehemently denied and even concealed them. But, eventually, he was more forthcoming and apologetic to his fans and his family at several press conferences:
The reality
King David’s adulteries
In spite of his efforts in seeking God’s wisdom, King David also demonstrated his darker side of the sin of lust.
One night, King David saw Bathsheba, the wife of one of King David’s generals, bathing on the rooftop. Succumbing to his own sin of lust, King David sent for Bathsheba, and committed adultery with her. To gratify his lust, King David even purposely sent the general to the war front to have him killed so that he could marry the general’s widow.
King David eventually married Bathsheba. Although penitent for his sins, God punished King David, and their firstborn son died.
King Solomon’s adulteries
King Solomon, the second son of King David, despite his profound human wisdom, violated God’s standards of sexual purity. His decision to disobey God and marry foreign women with their different gods led to his own idolatry. As a punishment for his sins, God divided Israel, and Solomon suffered bitterness and emptiness at the end of his life.
The difference between King David and King Solomon is that King David always lived in the presence of the Lord. So, King David always turned back to God with remorse and repentance, while King Solomon only distanced himself from God with no contrition and remorse.
So, living in the presence of the Lord always reminds you of your own accountability to Him, without which you will do anything and everything, thinking that you can get away with it.
The reality
Always live in the presence of the Shepherd. Always let the Shepherd guide you in the green pastures. Always let the Shepherd overcome your enemies of pride, lust, and deceit. Always let the Shepherd use His rod and staff not only to protect you but also to restrain and discipline you. Always let the Lord be your Shepherd throughout your marriage journey.
Adultery is a conscious and deliberate act to do just the opposite of what a marriage commitment requires. Adultery is prevalent because it has become the new “norm.” According to many, adultery is just a sin, not a crime, and everybody commits sins of some sort anyway. But adultery is a sin directly against God, who creates the marriage, joining the two as one. So, committing adultery is lack of accountability to God, and is unforgivable without judgment and repentance.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
Thursday, October 31, 2024
You Just Don't Die!
All About . . . .
In ancient times, many individuals were in quest of immortality, especially those in power.For example, Qin Shi Huang (259 BC - 210 BC), the First Emperor of China and the builder of the Great Wall, had made many futile attempts to discover and access legendary sources of immortality during his relatively short lifespan.
Another example, the ancient pharaohs of Egypt might not have been on a quest for immortality because they earnestly believed that they were already immortal; nevertheless, they had spent an enormous amount of resources into retarding the decay of their physical bodies, as well as into building spectacular pyramids and grand tombs in which they could preserve their wealth and riches for their immortality.
Realistic Realities
Nowadays, we all know the reality that all humans are mortal and that death is as inevitable as day becoming night.
“Is there anything we can do about our mortality?” This might be a question that many of us would like to ask ourselves.
First of all, man’s perceptions of mortality always change with age and time. If you ask a young adult if he or she would want to live long, probably the answer is “I don’t know” or “I just don’t want to grow too old and decrepit, like my grand-parents.” The young adult’s perspective of mortality also explains why many of the younger generation are living a reckless lifestyle as if there is no tomorrow.
Naturally, their perception of mortality would change over the years as they grow older with a family of children, or if they have a successful career with all the trimmings of a luxurious lifestyle that they would like to continue. A longer lifespan would then become an extension of their own legacy or continuation of their enjoyment of the fruits of their own accomplishments. The inscription on the tombstone of Bruce Lee, the Hollywood actor, reads: “The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” That says much about the hope of many to extend beyond the grave.
As aging continues, the fear of death or the unknown might also dawn on humans, driving some of the elderly into craving a longer lifespan in order to delay and defer the inevitable.
Indeed, many people may have different perspectives of their own mortality, depending on their upbringing, the life experiences they have gone though, their religious beliefs, as well as the meanings of death and dying to them. As a result of the differences, some may focus too much on death to the extent of creating death anxiety, while others may deliberately deny the existence of death, just like the ostrich burying its head in the sand.
The objective of this book is neither to convince you to crave longevity, nor to show you how to live to one hundred and beyond. It simply presents you with the consciousness of living the rest of your years as if everything is a miracle -- if you just don't die!
Click here to get your copy.
The Book Outline . . . .
INTRODUCTION
ONE: Consciousness Is Everything
TWO: Consciousness of Breath
THREE: Consciousness of Thinking
FOUR: Consciousness of Wellness
FIVE: Consciousness of Living
SIX: Consciousness of Changes and Challenges
SEVEN: Consciousness of Being
The above is what this book is all about. Click here to get your copy from AMAZON.
What is consciousness?
“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our aware-ness.” Lao Tzu
Consciousness is everything; if you are not conscious, you are not living your life, if not already dead.
What is consciousness? Being conscious is a "special quality of the mind" that permits us to know both that we exist and that the things around us exist too. Surprisingly, some of us may not have this consciousness.
Life is an inner journey that requires consciousness of the body and the mind, together with that of the soul, to continue to make its progress in the right direction in order to reach its final destination. Unfortunately, since the beginning of time, many people have traveled the same journey of life but without reaching their destinations because they simply lack their consciousness of the body, and the mind-not to mention that of the soul-to guide them along that journey.
Consciousness comes from the mind, which is created by the brain. Hippocrates (460 - 370 BC), the father of modern medicine, was one of the first scientists to observe and notice that people with brain damage tended to lose their mental abilities. He realized that the mind is created by the brain, and the mind crumbles piece by piece as the brain dies.
The human brain creates the consciousness of the mind, giving humans pleasures and displeasures, happiness and unhappiness, as well as many other positive and negative emotions and thoughts. They become our experiences which are stored in our minds, and these experiences also become our memories that generate our subsequent thoughts-they are the byproducts with which we weave the realities in our lives. Therefore, consciousness is the capability of the mind to see them as they are. Without consciousness, which is knowing what is happening in the mind, you just obediently follow what your mind tells you. That is to say, you have become a slave to your thinking, instead of being the master of your own thoughts.
Consciousness is probing deep into the conscious mind: asking meaningful and relevant questions, and then seeking self-enlightening answers to all the questions asked. After all, throughout one’s life journey, one has to ask many different questions at different stages, and seeking different answers from the questions asked. In order to reach the destination of one’s life journey. consciousness of the mind is a necessity, and not an option.
You Just Don't Die!
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
My Ingredients of My Recipe of My Living for Life
The “Complaint” Ingredient
How I deal with my complaints
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Develop Good Visual Habits
Blinking: Blink constantly to relax the eye. Blinking has to be soft and complete, not rapid, movement of the eyes. To relax your eyes, imagine you were using your eyelashes to gently open and close your eyes. Make sure your movements are slow, gentle, and complete.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Drinks to Heal the Immune System
Drinks to Heal the Immune System
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
Sunday, October 27, 2024
The Paradoxes of Life
Anything Is Everything OR Nothing?
Anything Is Everything Or Nothing? Living in this material world is all about struggling and surviving. The good news is that it is a hu...
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How to Pray Praying is never easy: often complicated, and even paradoxical. You’ve got to know what you want so that you can ask...
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Human existence is meaningless, if it is devoid of human happiness. Since time immemorial, man has been searching for happiness. Many ...
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The Bible says wisdom is everything. "Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding." ( Proverbs 3:13)...