The TAO in Everyday Life
STEPHEN LAU
The TAO is in every aspect of life: growing up; receiving education; seeking careers; getting married; raising children; connecting with others; staying healthy; growing old; and facing life challenges.
DEADLY SINS
All About . . . .
The Seven Deadly Sins—pride, envy, lust, wrath, greed, gluttony, and sloth—have their origin from the Bible, even though the Bible doesn’t have any specific reference to them.
This book is not about the Bible; it is not about God—whether you believe in His existence or not. Neither is this book about the TAO, which is the ancient wisdom from China more than 2,600 years ago.This book is all about you—how you should live and survive in this secular material world. It’s your blueprint to live in this world as if everything is a miracle through your self-intuition of all the questions and answers with respect to the Seven Deadly Sins.
This book is all about asking many questions and seeking answers regarding how and why real people in real life commit the Seven Deadly Sins. Charles Proteus Steinmetz, a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer, once said: “There are no foolish questions and no one becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.”It must be pointed out that we all have committed the Seven Deadly Sins in our lives. But looking at examples of real people in real life may help us not only reflect on our own Seven Deadly Sins, but also avoid them, instead of continuing to indulge and wallow in them.The fact of the matter is that the Seven Deadly Sins make us live only n fancy and fantasy, instead of living in reality.
The Outline of the Book . . . .
ONE: The Seven Deadly Sins
TWO: The Attachments
THREE: The TAO Wisdom
FOUR: The Spiritual Wisdom
FIVE: The Letting Go
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS AND THE TAO
Click here to get your copy.
All About . . . .
The Seven Deadly Sins—pride, envy, lust, wrath, greed, gluttony, and sloth—have their origin from the Bible, even though the Bible doesn’t have any specific reference to them.
This book is not about the Bible; it is not about God—whether you believe in His existence or not. Neither is this book about the TAO, which is the ancient wisdom from China more than 2,600 years ago.This book is all about you—how you should live and survive in this secular material world. It’s your blueprint to live in this world as if everything is a miracle through your self-intuition of all the questions and answers with respect to the Seven Deadly Sins.
This book is all about asking many questions and seeking answers regarding how and why real people in real life commit the Seven Deadly Sins. Charles Proteus Steinmetz, a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer, once said: “There are no foolish questions and no one becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.”It must be pointed out that we all have committed the Seven Deadly Sins in our lives. But looking at examples of real people in real life may help us not only reflect on our own Seven Deadly Sins, but also avoid them, instead of continuing to indulge and wallow in them.The fact of the matter is that the Seven Deadly Sins make us live only n fancy and fantasy, instead of living in reality.
The Outline of the Book . . . .
ONE: The Seven Deadly Sins
TWO: The Attachments
THREE: The TAO Wisdom
FOUR: The Spiritual Wisdom
FIVE: The Letting Go
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS AND THE TAO
Click here to get your copy.
THE DEADLY SIN OF PRIDE
What is pride?
Pride is your feeling good about who you’re and what you’ve done.
With no exception, we all feel proud of ourselves at some points in our lives: being a mother; seeing the grandchild stand up and start walking; graduating from school or college; joining the army and serving the country; finding a profitable profession; getting married in a church; retiring from work after decades of hard work and accomplishment; and so on.
But the brightness of life could turn itself into darkness, and that’s the reality in living.
An illustration
The College Admission Cheating Scandal
On March 12, 2019, United States federal prosecutors disclosed an ongoing conspiracy aimed at influencing some student college admission decisions at several prominent American colleges and universities.
In the college admission cheating scandal, some wealthy parents paid as much as $75,000 per test to help their children get a better score. It was reported that at least 50 people, including some famous Hollywood stars, allegedly had participated in that scandal.
From the perspective of the some of the participants of that scandal, it might just be a “crime with no victim” in that the wealthy parents with “good intention” to help their children’s education by lavishing their money on those who were more than willing to receive the money and to help; it was quite different from a crime of robbing a bank or a stranger in the street. But it’s the deadly sin of pride.
Getting a good education is a right-minded goal for any young individual; there’s nothing wrong with that. But if the heart is on satisfying one’s pride or the ego-self, instead of focusing on the education itself, the treasure then turns the pride into other deadly sins, such as deceit and dishonesty. These parents had to teach their children to lie about their own so called “academic achievements” to their peers.
Worse, the pride of these parents had led to serious crimes of greed and control committed by others associated with the college admission scandal. The “illegal money” obtained might also cherish and nourish the pride of those culprits and their respective families. In short, the sin of pride has domino effects on others as well.
Worst, those wealthy parents were so self-centered, not to say selfish, without thinking of the impact of their selfish act on those who were potentially denied of their admissions to those colleges and universities.
Why do those wealthy parents want their children to go to those prestigious colleges and universities? Pride that their children are going to receive a “good education”; pride that a good education will guarantee a “successful career”; pride that a successful career will lead to a “happy marriage”: pride that a happy marriage will mean “living happily ever after. It is pride that has created all these implicit assumptions and predictions that aren’t living in reality.
With pride, which is not living in reality, humans begin to commit other deadly sins. That explains why pride is the “first” deadly sins.
Another illustration
The Harvard University Admission Lawsuit
In 2012, a Chinese couple from Hong Kong filed a lawsuit against an education consultant in the United States for $2 million dollars, who promised that he could-but ultimately didn’t-get their two sons into Harvard University.
The couple had obviously used “improper” but maybe still perfectly “legal” means to get their two sons into Harvard University. Instead of regretting and recognizing their own guilt, the couple focused only on their anger and frustration-“expectations not fulfilled”-that they would even go public with their own shameless act. But they didn’t see their shame, and only their pride-the pride that they had the money to do whatever they wanted, including filing the lawsuit.
An enlightening illustration
Several years ago, a pastor from Hong Kong was invited to give a sermon in China.
A woman from the congregation asked the pastor if it was “right” to give money to get her son into an elite school in China. The pastor replied by saying: “Your son getting into that elite school would also imply depriving another child of that same opportunity you’re seeking for your child.”
A year later, the pastor met the same woman, who told him that her son had got into that elite school but without using her kwganxi or financial connection. The pastor then said to her: “See, God is in control; if you would just let Him.”
The bottom line: Pride is the deadliest of all the seven deadly sins, because it’s the root of all evils. Pride is a means of “controlling” how people perceive you. The opposite of pride is humility. The only way to conquer pride is to live in reality through humility.
The TAO is The Way
Pride gives humans an inflated ego-self that demands many attachments to life in order to sustain that ego-self.
Any attachment is basically your emotional dependence on things and people that define your identity, around which you wrap your so- called “happiness” and even your survival in the material world. Your attachment is your holding on to anything that you’re unwilling to let go of, whether it’s something positive or even negative.
You’re living in a world with many problems that confront you in your everyday life, and many of these are not only unavoidable but also insoluble. To overcome these daily challenges, if you just turn to an attachment as a means of distracting yourself from facing your own problems head on, you’re not living in reality but in illusion and self-delusion. According to the TAO, you should always adapt and change yourself in an ever-changing environment. All of your struggles in life, from anxiety to frustrations, from anger to sadness, from grief to worry-they all stem from the same thing: your attachment to how you want things to be, rather than relaxing yourself into accepting and embracing whatever that might happen after you’ve put forth your best effort. That is the TAO of living in reality in the real world.
“We accept all that is simple and humble.
We embrace the good fortune and the misfortune.
Thus, we become masters of every situation.
We overcome the painful and the difficult in our lives.
That is why The Way seems paradoxical.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 78)
But to do just that, you need the humility of the TAO.
Humility is the essence of the TAO, which is living in simplicity with an empty mind without any pre-conditioned thinking. An example of pre-conditioned thinking is that a good education will bring about success and happiness, but nothing could be further from the truth in living in reality.
Letting go of all human attachments is the way to go. It begins with clarity of thinking to let go of the ego that generates all the attachments in the first place.
“We need a still and composed mind
to see things with greater clarity.
Because trouble begins in the mind
with small and unrelated thoughts.
So, we carefully watch the mind
to stop any trouble before it begins.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 64)
Detaching is the pathway to humility, which shows you who you really are, and not who you wish you were, as well as what you really need, and not just what you want in your life.
“Knowing our true nature,
we know who we are,
and what we need.
We accomplish things
without taking credit or reward.
We cherish ourselves
without separating us from other beings.
We nourish our external identity
without forgetting our inner reality.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 72)
With humility, you may get all your blessings in your life.
“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)
Of course, letting go is never easy, but it’s not impossible.
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS AND THE TAO
What is pride?
Pride is your feeling good about who you’re and what you’ve done.
With no exception, we all feel proud of ourselves at some points in our lives: being a mother; seeing the grandchild stand up and start walking; graduating from school or college; joining the army and serving the country; finding a profitable profession; getting married in a church; retiring from work after decades of hard work and accomplishment; and so on.
But the brightness of life could turn itself into darkness, and that’s the reality in living.
An illustration
The College Admission Cheating Scandal
On March 12, 2019, United States federal prosecutors disclosed an ongoing conspiracy aimed at influencing some student college admission decisions at several prominent American colleges and universities.
In the college admission cheating scandal, some wealthy parents paid as much as $75,000 per test to help their children get a better score. It was reported that at least 50 people, including some famous Hollywood stars, allegedly had participated in that scandal.
From the perspective of the some of the participants of that scandal, it might just be a “crime with no victim” in that the wealthy parents with “good intention” to help their children’s education by lavishing their money on those who were more than willing to receive the money and to help; it was quite different from a crime of robbing a bank or a stranger in the street. But it’s the deadly sin of pride.
Getting a good education is a right-minded goal for any young individual; there’s nothing wrong with that. But if the heart is on satisfying one’s pride or the ego-self, instead of focusing on the education itself, the treasure then turns the pride into other deadly sins, such as deceit and dishonesty. These parents had to teach their children to lie about their own so called “academic achievements” to their peers.
Worse, the pride of these parents had led to serious crimes of greed and control committed by others associated with the college admission scandal. The “illegal money” obtained might also cherish and nourish the pride of those culprits and their respective families. In short, the sin of pride has domino effects on others as well.
Worst, those wealthy parents were so self-centered, not to say selfish, without thinking of the impact of their selfish act on those who were potentially denied of their admissions to those colleges and universities.
Why do those wealthy parents want their children to go to those prestigious colleges and universities? Pride that their children are going to receive a “good education”; pride that a good education will guarantee a “successful career”; pride that a successful career will lead to a “happy marriage”: pride that a happy marriage will mean “living happily ever after. It is pride that has created all these implicit assumptions and predictions that aren’t living in reality.
With pride, which is not living in reality, humans begin to commit other deadly sins. That explains why pride is the “first” deadly sins.
Another illustration
The Harvard University Admission Lawsuit
In 2012, a Chinese couple from Hong Kong filed a lawsuit against an education consultant in the United States for $2 million dollars, who promised that he could-but ultimately didn’t-get their two sons into Harvard University.
The couple had obviously used “improper” but maybe still perfectly “legal” means to get their two sons into Harvard University. Instead of regretting and recognizing their own guilt, the couple focused only on their anger and frustration-“expectations not fulfilled”-that they would even go public with their own shameless act. But they didn’t see their shame, and only their pride-the pride that they had the money to do whatever they wanted, including filing the lawsuit.
An enlightening illustration
Several years ago, a pastor from Hong Kong was invited to give a sermon in China.
A woman from the congregation asked the pastor if it was “right” to give money to get her son into an elite school in China. The pastor replied by saying: “Your son getting into that elite school would also imply depriving another child of that same opportunity you’re seeking for your child.”
A year later, the pastor met the same woman, who told him that her son had got into that elite school but without using her kwganxi or financial connection. The pastor then said to her: “See, God is in control; if you would just let Him.”
The bottom line: Pride is the deadliest of all the seven deadly sins, because it’s the root of all evils. Pride is a means of “controlling” how people perceive you. The opposite of pride is humility. The only way to conquer pride is to live in reality through humility.
The TAO is The Way
Pride gives humans an inflated ego-self that demands many attachments to life in order to sustain that ego-self.
Any attachment is basically your emotional dependence on things and people that define your identity, around which you wrap your so- called “happiness” and even your survival in the material world. Your attachment is your holding on to anything that you’re unwilling to let go of, whether it’s something positive or even negative.
You’re living in a world with many problems that confront you in your everyday life, and many of these are not only unavoidable but also insoluble. To overcome these daily challenges, if you just turn to an attachment as a means of distracting yourself from facing your own problems head on, you’re not living in reality but in illusion and self-delusion. According to the TAO, you should always adapt and change yourself in an ever-changing environment. All of your struggles in life, from anxiety to frustrations, from anger to sadness, from grief to worry-they all stem from the same thing: your attachment to how you want things to be, rather than relaxing yourself into accepting and embracing whatever that might happen after you’ve put forth your best effort. That is the TAO of living in reality in the real world.
“We accept all that is simple and humble.
We embrace the good fortune and the misfortune.
Thus, we become masters of every situation.
We overcome the painful and the difficult in our lives.
That is why The Way seems paradoxical.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 78)
But to do just that, you need the humility of the TAO.
Humility is the essence of the TAO, which is living in simplicity with an empty mind without any pre-conditioned thinking. An example of pre-conditioned thinking is that a good education will bring about success and happiness, but nothing could be further from the truth in living in reality.
Letting go of all human attachments is the way to go. It begins with clarity of thinking to let go of the ego that generates all the attachments in the first place.
“We need a still and composed mind
to see things with greater clarity.
Because trouble begins in the mind
with small and unrelated thoughts.
So, we carefully watch the mind
to stop any trouble before it begins.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 64)
Detaching is the pathway to humility, which shows you who you really are, and not who you wish you were, as well as what you really need, and not just what you want in your life.
“Knowing our true nature,
we know who we are,
and what we need.
We accomplish things
without taking credit or reward.
We cherish ourselves
without separating us from other beings.
We nourish our external identity
without forgetting our inner reality.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 72)
With humility, you may get all your blessings in your life.
“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)
Of course, letting go is never easy, but it’s not impossible.
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS AND THE TAO