A description of the book:
This book shows you why and how you should become a believer in order to live in reality.
You are living in a world of
infinite information distributed through multiple media. Unfortunately, some of
the information can be biased, distorted, and misinterpreted. As a result, you
may have become misinformed, and thus negatively affecting how you think and
what you believe.
The purpose of this book is to separate the truths from the half-truths or the myths; that is, separating the sheep from the goats. Why is this important? Because “living in reality” holds the key to not only living as if everything is a miracle but also to surviving and thriving in a material world with too many attractions and distractions.
A sample from the book:
Your belief journey is long and
winding, with many detours and sidetracks that may distract and even prevent
you from reaching your destination.
No matter what, it is important to take your first step—just as Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China, once said: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”
So, take your first step to begin your belief journey. This will change your life forever.
Before any journey, you need to prepare yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Your preparation determines how far you may go on your belief journey and what stumbling blacks you may encounter on the way.
(1) Intent to Believe
Belief seldom begins with going to a church or reading the Bible.
Belief always begins with the mind of an individual to believe the unbelievable.
An empty mind
To believe, you must have an empty mind with no pre-conceived ideas about God. If need be, ask yourself how and why you might have those ideas in the first place (what is known as reverse thinking). An empty mindset originated from Lao Tzu:
“An empty mind with no craving and no
expectation helps us let go.
Being in the world and not of the world, we
attain heavenly grace. With heavenly grace, we become pure and selfless.
And everything settles into its own perfect
place.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 3)
There
was the story of a professor visiting a Zen master to find out more about Zen,
which is an Eastern philosophy. In the beginning of the visit, the professor
kept on talking nonstop while the Zen master served him tea. At some point, the
Zen master kept pouring tea into the teacup held by the professor even though
it was already brimming over. The moral of the story is that you must have an
empty mind first before you can accept any new and unconventional ideas.
Likewise, you cannot come to God with ideas about what you want God to do for you. So, surrender yourself with an empty mindset before coming to Him.
Humility
God is above, and we are below. To believe, you must come to God with humility, and not pride.
Humility is the opposite of pride, which is the first of the Seven Deadly Sins. Pride comes from the ego, which, unfortunately, we all have.
Yes, 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 pride often leads to sins.
An Illustration
“The College Admission Cheating Scandal”
On March 12, 2019, the United States federal prosecutors disclosed an ongoing conspiracy aimed at influencing some students’ 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.
Apparently, these parents with “good intention” to help their children’s education had committed “a crime with no victim.” But it was all about selfishness, self-centeredness, and pride to satisfy the ego that their children could go to those prominent colleges and universities.
The antidote to pride is humility, which opens the door to God.
An Illustration
Ann Russell Miller was a celebrated socialite from San Francisco, also known as Sister Mary Joseph. She, who had ten children and nineteen grandchildren, had been living a life of incredible wealth and luxury that she had been so proud of for years. Instead of shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue as she used to do for the past several decades, she suddenly decided to give up anything and everything to become a nun devoted to living in poverty for the rest of her life.
That unbelievable event happened more than two decades ago: one day, she held a celebrity party in which she announced her incredible decision, and her announcement was widely reported over the United States.
Why did Ann Russell make such an incredible decision to drastically change her lifestyle?
She was letting go of all her attachments to the material world. She said she had a calling from God that was difficult for the world to understand, and even for the close members of her family.
Humility is living in simplicity with an empty mind without any pre-conditioned thinking and expectation. But only with humility, will you be filled with God’s grace and wisdom.
Becoming and transforming
Humility opens the door to God, who never changes Himself, but who forever changes those coming to Him.
At some point in your life, you may begin to sense your incompleteness, your loneliness, your limitations, your disillusions with human vanity, and you may then begin to turn to God to truly fill and satisfy your inner longing. Yes, your past wayward pursuits in life were all in vain—much like “chasing the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 2:11)
Now, your belief becomes your becoming, which is self-transformative.
Change is external, and transformation is internal. Change requires you to look outside of you; transformation is looking inside of you. Change may have a negative impact in that you want to get rid of something undesirable; transformation is enhancing something which in good and which is already innate in you. Transformation is the rediscovery of what is already there inside you, but might have become invisible to your naked eye, imperceptible to your mind, and unintelligible to your soul.
The miracle of becoming and transforming is to provide you with new perceptions of your true self—that is, who you really are in the eyes of God, and not who you wish you were.
No comments:
Post a Comment