THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING

 A description of the book:

Life is short, so make the best and the most out of it now! Live your life as if everything is a miracle. To do just that, you must know who you are and what life is all about. Most importantly, you must have the wisdom to live your life to the fullest. 

Living your life is a learning process. Real learning, however, is not just the acquisition of knowledge. True wisdom is the ability to penetrate deeply into the meaning behind superficial knowledge, to integrate related thoughts, facts, and experiences into a structural framework that reveals a deeper, more synthesized meaning than what an ordinary person perceives. 

Wisdom is internal; it comes from the inner self. Focusing on so-called goals in life, many of us lose our true selves in the pursuit of our dreams. If you are one of them, you must re-direct your life. If you wish to re-discover your "new" self, or never want to go back to your "old" life, THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING is right for you. Now is as good a time as any to live your life on your own terms, instead of someone else's terms. Now is the time not just to think out of the box, but to create your own box. THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING was written just for that specific purpose to inspire you with the wisdom in living, based on conventional wisdom, ancient wisdom of Tao, and spiritual wisdom. Have an empty mind, and rethink your mind! Albert Einstein once said: "A human being is part of the whole called by us 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts, and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison . . . . " 

One of the objectives of THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING is to free yourself from the self-imprisonment of self-delusions created by your self-consciousness, as pointed out by Albert Einstein. This book not only explains in simple terms and plain language how you may unconsciously create your self-limiting thoughts that prevent you from truly understanding who you are and what you really want from life, but also shows you how to create a substantially new manner of thinking through the integration of both conventional and ancient wisdom. In particular, this book is about the art of living well through understanding and embracing the wisdom of TAO—the wisdom of Lao Tzu succinctly expressed in TAO TE CHING, one of the most translated works in world literature. However, Tao wisdom is simple but difficult to understand. THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING explains in simple language with common everyday examples to illustrate the essence of Tao wisdom and how it may integrate with conventional wisdom to live a life of your choice. 

This 200-page book is full of wisdom based on the author’s extensive research and personal experience. In this book, you will learn the following: (1) Eliminating unproductive thoughts, and overcoming chaotic struggles in your inner world and outer life to enhance health and performance, master stress, and deepen appreciation of life. (2) Understanding the essentials of contemporary wisdom and ancient wisdom to help you contemplate and internalize their respective meanings and values in your daily life (3) Harnessing mind power to operate your mind to integrate the acquired knowledge into your daily activities THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING is the wisdom in the art of living well.

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A sample from the book:

The Dark Side of Life

The Bible calls the dark side of human nature “sin.” None of us is exempt from sin. Life is always an inner struggle between what is perceived in an individual’s moral system as “right” and the dark opposing force inside to do just the opposite. To make matters worse, most of us are really quite good at self-deception. Either we deceive ourselves into thinking that the dark opposing force does not exist in ourselves, or we simply inflate our own personal virtues to overshadow the dark force within us.

Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous Scottish novelist, calls this dark side of human nature the duality of man. In his famous story of “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” he presents Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde both having a dark side within them, where evil is lurking to surface anytime. Both of them hide their evil away, pretending it never exists. In the end, it turns out that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are actually one and the same person.

If the darkness of life is deemed as something “evil” as depicted by Robert Louis Stevenson, it may immediately lead to self-denial and downright rejection. The dark side is ideally described as a “not-so-good” quality, or just human flaws and weaknesses that we see in others as well as in ourselves. Whatever the definition may be, the darkness of life, ironically enough, makes life wholesome, without which life is incomplete and unreal—at best, a self-delusion. Human darkness is part and parcel of human existence. Denying its existence only leads to more pain, regret, and resignation. But understanding the dualistic human nature offers a way to return to wholeness, which is an important ingredient in the art of living well.

Thinking Question

What is my dark side that I am afraid to reveal to anyone, or do I have my own darkness that I may not even be aware of?

Darkness is dualism of human behavior—the shadow as opposed to its bright side. The voluntary action of the conscious mind to do good may be held back or even suppressed by the action and response of the subconscious mind to do something quite the opposite. In other words, your voluntary acts to do good may, ironically enough, also demonstrate involuntary features that undermine or even suppress the good intentions, just as aspects of your involuntary functioning are influenced by your conscious choices, your habits, and your own perceptions. Simply put, your conscious mind tells you to do good, but your subconscious mind tells you to do quite the opposite.

Dualism creates the dilemma that you are somehow responsible for the consequence while at the same time you may also think you are a helpless victim of a meaningless accident or cruel destiny. Dualism is debilitating because it creates the paradox, although the paradox is the natural state of human condition. Simply put, your subconscious mind tells you that you are both the aggressor and the victim.

Understanding the dualistic human nature may be illuminating and enlightening in that it opens a door to understanding the true nature of the human mind.

The Domino Effects of Human Darkness

The darkness is forever contending with the light. By the same token, the subconscious mind is constantly at odds with the conscious mind; the former is trying to dominate the latter, while the latter is striving to free itself of the control by the former. In other words, there is a constant conflict between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, creating delusions and deceptions in the subconscious mind. It is, therefore, important to unmask these self-imposed deceptions, and free yourself from their bondage.

The dark side of human nature has domino effects on an individual as a person by confounding understanding and undermining the ultimate truths of things in life, and thus creating illusions and self-deceptions for contrary thinking; they become the roadblocks in the pathway to intuiting wisdom in the art of living well.

Reflective Thought

The domino effect of human darkness can be devastating on the human mind.

Case in Point

Say, you have a drinking problem. The truth is frightening. Like most alcoholics, you may outwardly show secrecy and inwardly internalize the fear into denial and deliberate self-deception.

Deep down, you feel shame and guilt because of your secretive behavior of drinking behind closed doors.

To mitigate your shame and guilt, your mind readily dispenses judgment of others for self-justification of your darkness as well as for relief of your emotional pain from the shame and guilt.

Your own judgment naturally leads to blame and accountability. Someone or some event in your life is responsible for your alcohol addiction. Your drinking is no longer your problem, but someone else’s problem. You have now become only a victim.

Your drinking problem continues unimpeded until it becomes out of control, and turns itself into an addiction, spiraling down the road to self-destruction.

All alcoholics and addicts express their denial and deceit, guilt and shame, justification and blame, and unaccountability.

The dark side of human nature may come in different forms and shapes; they are just the demons inside you who will turn you into a demon yourself.

THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING