Your Death and Your Destination

The Book Description:

This is my last book, and I think my “best book” to date.

Of course, most authors think that their current publication being their “best” so far. But I think that this is my “best book” because I earnestly believe that I was “inspired” to write it.

Many months ago, I started to notice my inspiration when I was sleeping. Unlike some writers who’re more creative at dark hours, I never wrote anything at night due to my poor vision. But many new ideas just popped up into my nightly dreams as if someone was speaking to me while I was sleeping, telling me what to write and what not to write. My bursts of inspiration continued for many months, and during some nights I even woke up and had to jot down some key points before I could go back to sleep again.

I noticed that my inspiration also began to happen during the daytime. Sometimes as soon as I turned on the television or switched the channel I was watching, I became instantly inspired by a word or a phrase that was said at that very moment. I believed that God was inspiring me. So, through my daily prayers, I also began to ask God to continue to inspire my writing.

When I began to tell those close to me that I was writing a book on “your death”, their immediate response was: “How gross!”

If my book were to focus on “how” you’re going to die, it could indeed be “gross” because you’re living in a world rampant with natural disasters and physical violence. But my book focuses on your “positive” aspects of living before you die: WHO you can become—a person of love and connection with others; HOW you can live longer—if you wish to extend your existence; WHAT you can do with yourself—before you exit from this world; WHERE you will go when you actually die—somewhere or nowhere.

Your “death and dying” is a fact of your life—not something “gross” to avoid or to talk about.

This is my last book because I’m growing older. If I continue to survive, I’ll spend the rest of my life reviewing and revising some of my books published decades ago.

Stephen Lau

A Sample from the Book:

Your Existence

Is “your death” the destination of your life? Well, maybe or maybe not.

Do you want to die? Probably not. 

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the final destination we all share.” Steve Job

 

“As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
    so no one has power over the time of their death.”
Ecclesiastes 8:8

Life and Living

Like everybody else, you exist in this world because you were given the breath of life. If you’re a believer, your existence is a result of the Creator’s unfathomable plan and destiny for your life and living in this world.

“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7

According to the Chinese, all humans are given a certain “number of breaths” at birth that determines the length of their life and living in this world. That explains why Chinese exercises, such as Qigong and Tai Chi, focus so much on extending the breathing in and prolonging the breathing out. Even Western science has now attested to the fact that rodent, the animal in the animal kingdom with the shortest breaths, has the shortest lifespan, while tortoise, the animal in the animal kingdom with the longest breaths, has the longest lifespan. So, having “longer breaths” may extend your lifespan.

On the other hand, if you’re an unbeliever, your existence comes from your parents.

No matter who you think you are—a believer or an unbeliever—you don’t have much of a choice, you were given your life and living to exist in this world for a certain time.

Realistic Realities

You know the reality that you’re mortal and your death is as inevitable as day becoming night.

“Is there anything I can do about my mortality?” This might be a question that you’d like to ask yourself, especially as you continue to grow older and more senile.

First, your perception of your own mortality changes with age and time. If you ask a young adult if he or she would want to live long or longer, probably the answer is “I don’t know” or “I just don’t want to grow too old and decrepit, like my grandparents.” A young adult’s perspective of mortality also explains why many of the younger generation are living a reckless lifestyle as if there’s no tomorrow.

Another reality is that your perception of mortality will depend on your life experiences, such as having a family of children that you’d want to take care of, or being successful in your career with all the trimmings of a luxurious lifestyle that you’d like to continue to indulge yourself in. A longer lifespan would then become an “extension” of your own legacy or a “continuation” of your enjoyment of the fruits of your own accomplishments. For example, the inscription on the tombstone of Bruce Lee (李小龍), the Hollywood Kungfu actor, reads: “The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” That says much about the hope of many, maybe including you too, to extend beyond the grave.

As aging continues, the reality of your fear of death or of the unknown ahead of you might also dawn on you, driving you even into craving for a longer lifespan to delay and to defer the inevitable end.

Indeed, like many others, you might have developed different perspectives of your own mortality, depending on your upbringing, your own life experiences, your religious beliefs, and the meaning of death and dying to you.

The reality is that if you focus too much on death, then you might create your death anxiety. On the other hand, if you deliberately deny the existence of death, you might then become the ostrich burying its head in the sand.

Since the beginning of the 20^th century, the life expectancy of Americans has significantly increased from 47 to almost 80. So, how long do you wish to live if you just don’t die? And what would you do with the rest of your life if you just don’t die?

The Wisdom of Letting Go

 The Book Description:

To live well, one must ask questions about life; after all, life is about asking questions and finding answers throughout one’s life journey. True human happiness comes from human wisdom to ask the right questions and spiritual wisdom to get answers to the questions asked.

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 and everything that is impermanent in the material world.

You are a two-in-one person: your ego-self and your spirit. They always co-exist and are in constant struggle with each other. The more attachments you have, the more assertive and dominant your ego-self is over your spirit, which provides spiritual wisdom to help you live in the material world.

The human flaw comes from attachments of the ego-self. To overcome this flaw, human wisdom alone may be inadequate; it requires the complement of spiritual wisdom, which is turning to the Creator with trust and obedience—that is, letting go to let God control the uncontrollable in life.

THE WISDOM OF LETTING GO

A sample of the book:

Human unhappiness comes from the human flaw, which is human attachment to the many material things in the physical world they are living in. Attachment is only natural and instinctive, but too much attachment may also become a burden to the mind and the soul—the human flaw that leads to asking the wrong questions and thus receiving the wrong answers. Letting go of human attachment may help knowing the right way to finding both human wisdom and spiritual wisdom, which may ultimately point the pathway to attaining true human happiness.

It is also important to know that we all have a body, a mind, and a soul living in the physical world. They are all inter-connected and inter-dependent on one another for co-existence in order to live and survive in the physical world. The mind, the body, and the soul all work together as a system of life energy. The free flow or stagnation of this life energy is dependent on the “state of being” of the body, the mind, and the soul at each moment. It is this moment-to-moment alignment in the body, the mind, and the soul, as well as their alignment with one another, that creates the unique state of being, which is a miracle in itself.

On the other hand, the misalignment of the body, the mind, and the soul may stem from the human flaw of attachment, which may adversely affect the body; given the close body-mind connection, the mind contaminated by the body may ultimately infest the soul too.

The body is like a wild horse, unbridled, running here, there, and everywhere. The mind is like the horseman, riding on its back, trying to rein it in and bringing it back on the right track; to do just that, human wisdom is required of the horseman. The soul, existing in a totally different dimension with its inherent spiritual wisdom, supervises both the horse and the horseman, providing the latter with a compass and a roadmap so that both the horse and the horseman may continue the journey on the right track and reach their final destination.

What role does the human flaw play?

The human flaw may negatively affect the behavior and personality of the horse, and thus challenging the skill and horsemanship of the rider. This may lead both the horse and the rider onto the wrong track and get lost. 

The bottom line: without the wisdom to know what true happiness is, we will never find it no matter how hard we may try; without the wisdom to understand who we are, we will never be happy because true happiness comes from the true self with both human and spiritual wisdom.

 THE WISDOM OF LETTING GO

The Chines Wisdom to Succeed

The Chinese Proverbs

"Do today's work, today." Traditional

"A kind man sees kindness, the wise man sees wisdom." Book of Changes

"Practice makes for true knowledge." Tuotuo

"Failure is the mother of success." Traditional

"Wanting to know everything is the worst of follies." Zhuang Zi

"To fare well, a man must trust in his feelings." Zhuang Zi

"Better to display your ugliness than to hide your ignorance." Traditional

To succeed, you must set your goals and then take your appropriate actions with no delay and no procrastination. Your knowledge must be focused, instead of diversified, while your emotions must be positive due to anticipated failures.

 Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Why People Commit Suicide?

Committing suicide has much to do with the mind. As a matter of fact, living in this material world has much to do with the thinking mind: how it perceives and interprets life experiences 

The death of Robin Williams, the Hollywood actor, some years ago had shocked the world. Why did he kill himself? The media had been trying to figure it out what drove him to committing suicide.

Apparently, Robin Williams had everything that most people would wish for: career, fame, money, and success. He was diagnosed with depression and Parkinson's disease, but that might not have driven him to end his life so tragically. So, what was on his mind?

The brain is one of the most important organs in the human body because it controls what we do, and, more importantly, how we think. The mind is the storage place for our thoughts and memories that determine our actions and reactions in life.

People kill themselves because they are unhappy with their lives. Unhappiness has to do with mind focus. People are unhappy because they focus on what they don't have -- which in itself is negativity, creating negative energy that leads to negative thinking. In pursuing happiness, many of us focus on career, money, and relationship, and we end up being unhappy because we are focusing on what we don't have, rather than what we already have. In other words, we may want what Robin Williams already had, because we don't have them, just as Robin Williams would want something else other than those things that he already had. This is the reality of life.

But what did Robin Williams want that he did not have? It could be anything -- such as freedom from addiction and shame. Who knows?

At one time, Robin Williams did admit that he was "shameful" of his addiction and substance abuse. Shame is a more devastating and destructive emotion than guilt. The reason is that guilt may make us feel bad about ourselves but may prompt us to take remedial action, while shame makes us feel unworthy, humiliating us such that it may be recover to recover from self-inflicted low self-esteem.

But if our mind focus is on what we have, instead of on what we don't have, then we may be happier. In the case of Robin Williams, if he were to have his mind focus on what he had -- fame, money, success -- he would not have felt so shameful and worthless because of his addiction and substance abuse. Indeed, mind focus on what one has creates gratitude and thankfulness, instead of envy, remorse, and shame that are often associated with mind focus on what one doesn't have.

The tragic death of Robin Williams may shed some light on the importance of mind focus.

"Rethink" your mind to help you live a life as if everything is a miracle.

Overcome your depression with TAO wisdom.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © Stephen Lau

Myasthenia Gravis Healing

 

MYASTHENIA GRAVIS HEALING

The healing of any disease begins with the mind first, and not the body. So, the mind is everything in your life, including your myasthenia gravis healing, one of the many autoimmune diseases affecting the immune system.

Modern Western medicine has led many to believe that healing is a complex and complicated process, involving high technology, complex drugs, and state-of-the-art procedures.

But using drugs, such as steroid medications, does not work. They may temporarily control some of the symptoms, but at the expense of causing many adverse side effects. Drugs can never heal myasthenia gravis.

To heal any autoimmune disease, you must have an empty mind to receive any unconventional information to heal naturally.

Find out more information about ancient wisdom in healing, such as meditation, energy-flowing exercises, natural foods and drinks, and natural herbs.

MY MYASTHENIA GRAVIS

Stephen Lau

Is Anything 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 human race in which there are really no real winners and losers in the end. But no matter what, we all have to finish that race somehow, with no exception. Just do your very best, and let the Creator do the rest to help you finish your own race with grace and dignity. The wisdom of your body, your mind, and your spirit may awaken and rejuvenate you along the rest of your life journey.

Living is always a discovery process. Life is a journey of self-discovery—finding who you are, why you are here, what you really need, and how you may meet your basic needs, so that you, like every one else, can fulfill some of your life goals and purposes that are exclusively designed for you. But to do just that, you need profound human wisdom and spiritual wisdom to continue that journey as if everything is a miracle.

Albert Einstein once said: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle.”

Indeed, life is a miracle in itself. Being alive is a miracle. Having your breaths is already a miracle. Everything in life is a miracle.

To truly believe and appreciate the miracle of life, you need the wisdom to grasp the full meaning of anything is everything, everything is nothing, and nothing is everything—they may all ultimately lead to your self-awakening, without which you will continue to live as if nothing is a miracle.

What is meant by “anything is everything”? It may have different meanings and different interpretations to different individuals.

First of all, human perceptions are subjective and individualized: they are affected not only by the five senses, but also by the unique experiences of an individual, as well as by the indelible memories of those experiences retained in the mind of that individual. Therefore, what is important to you may not be as important to others, and vice-versa. For this reason, anything could be everything to you, but not to others.

An illustration

Near the end of 2016, a road rage occurred in Arkansas that ended in the tragic death of a 3-year-old child. 

A woman, with her 3-year-old grandson sitting at the back of her car, stopped at a stop sign. A man in the car right behind honked her for not starting her car immediately, but the woman honked back; thus the road rage began with the man firing a gun shot at the back of the woman’s car.

Stopping too long at a stop sign,  or wanting to get to a place on time might be everything to the man. Having the right to remain where she was might also be everything to the woman, so she naturally honked back.  

Unfortunately, that anything-is-everything incident ended in tragedy—the death of the woman’s three-year-old grandson being shot dead while sitting at the back of her car.

In real life, anything could be everything to real people—it all depends on their respective perspectives of anything is everything.

A frog in a well

In many ways, many of us are just like a frog in a well, looking up at the limited sky above, in that we see only ourselves, and no one else, and therefore anything is everything to us. In other words, we see only our own needs and desires that have to be fulfilled and gratified no matter how, but without seeing those in others.

Just like the man in the car rage who saw only his own need to get going, but without even considering why the woman might be stalling her car at the stop sign and not moving ahead right away.

To get your paperback copy, click here; to get your e-book, click here.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Breathe Well to Increase Mind Power

According to Buddha, we all have a "monkey mind" which is forever riddled with anxiety and worry. The human mind has a tendency to shuffle between the past and the future, except the present, which is the time that is real, and that is why it is called “present”—a   a gift in itself. Most of us not only plan for the future, but also worry about its outcome. Accordingly, we often go back to the past to look for clues to help us fulfill our hopes and expectations in the future, as well as to avoid errors and mistakes made in the past. In the process, we not only create undue stress for ourselves but also deprive ourselves the opportunity to live in the present mind. A mind that stays in the present moment is calm and relaxed. Living in the present is moment-to-moment mindfulness of breathing. Mindfulness of breaths increases mind power.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t live in the present moment, especially in this age of speed and technology. With so many daily chores and life goals to accomplish, we find little time for ourselves, let alone time to remain in the present moment. Even if we are fortunate enough to have some time for ourselves, we may spend it to go online or to watch our favorite TV programs. Living in the present moment is a gift that is often ignored and rarely appreciated.

But things don’t have like that. We can always find time to do little things that enable us to let our minds stay in the present moment. Learn to focus your breaths on the present moment, which is no more than awareness or mindfulness of your breaths. Focusing your breaths on the present moment makes you become more aware of what is happening around you at that present moment, thereby instrumental in releasing stress from your body and mind, as well as enhancing your clarity of mind. 

Practice diaphragm breathing to help your mind stay in the present moment. Diaphragm breathing is using your diaphragm muscle -- muscles between your lower lungs and your abdomen -- to fill your lungs with life-giving oxygen, and to push toxic carbon dioxide from your lungs to achieve the complete breath. Diaphragm breathing is achieved through your nose, and not your mouth. Practice diaphragm breathing by placing one hand over your chest, and the other over your diaphragm muscles: you should feel the hand over your chest not moving, while that over the abdomen moving up and down as you inhale and exhale. Diaphragm breathing gives you complete breaths. For thousands of years, Chinese physicians have believed that an individual is given only a certain number of breaths during his or her lifespan. If the breaths are shorter, that individual then has a shorter lifespan. Therefore, the key to longevity and anti-aging is to prolong the breaths. Breathing right makes you live longer and look younger.

When you focus your mind on your breaths, you breathe better. Remember, your breaths are vital to your health, especially your brain health because your complete breaths bring more oxygen to your brain cells. Mindfulness of breaths plays a pivotal part in meditation, which is critically important to your mind power..

Read my book publication: As If Everything Is A Miracle. Learn to rethink your mind through your breaths to live your life as if everything is a miracle.

Also, learn Chinese exercises, such as Qi Gong and Tai Chi to enhance your breaths to increase your mind power.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau