HUMAN NATURAL GIFT
We were all born with a natural gift -- freedom from anxiety and fear, expectation and regret, ambition, and disappointment. However, as we grow older, we knowingly or unknowingly abuse or misuse that natural gift.
This is how.
We begin to develop our sensations and become affected by them. We
all have our five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting;
they then become our perceptions and sensations that are stored as memories in
our subconscious minds. Over the long haul, these accumulative experiences form
our beliefs and personalities, and make us who we are. In other words, these
memories become our bondage and we no longer have that innate freedom.
It is difficult to regain that natural gift once we have
relinquished it. To illustrate, if we experienced something unpleasant in the
past, we might have anxiety and fear that it would happen again. On the other
hand, if we experience something pleasant, we would expect it to happen again;
our expectations begin to precondition our minds to do certain things that we
think will enable us to fulfill our expectations; by doing so, we pick and
choose; any wrong choice or decision may lead to regret. By the same token,
disappointment may be the consequence of ambition.
How do we regain that natural gift?
Understand the natural cycle of things. Everything follows a
natural cycle: what goes up must come down; the cycle is like the four seasons,
or day and night. We, as humans, naively believe that we can change the natural
order of things, deluding ourselves into thinking that we can make things
happen the way we want them. Not following the natural order stems from the
human ego. Accepting things as they are is the pathway to true human wisdom.
It is by no means a passive outlook of life: we do what we can, and no
more, and with no expectation and no judgment,
“Good
fortune and misfortune are all in one.
Seeking
one and rejecting the other,
we become completely confused.”
(Chapter 58, Tao Te Ching)
“There
is no gain without loss.
There
is no abundance without lack.
We do not know how and when
one gives way to the other.”
(Chapter 42, Tao Te Ching)
FREEDOM with BONDAGE shows you how you can have your "freedom" and not "bondage" in your everyday choices and decisions.
Stephen Lau
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