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About EHW
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Lao Tzu on The Path to Happiness The Tao leads humans to happiness, to true happiness. Those who seek the fulfillment and satisfaction of their five senses is not truly fulfilling their happiness. They are only satisfying their temporary sensual pleasures. However, the satisfaction of those senses will disappear as quickly as they arise. Let me give an example of this. Imagine that you are famished, and finally you sit down for a meal and you order the most delicious dish you have been craving for during that period of hunger. In this case, it may be your most delicious steak. As you are eating this steak, you are truly enjoying each and every bite, and your appetite is getting satisfied and so are your oral senses. During that ingestion of that steak, you are in a very satisfying period. What are you one hour later? Are you still in that heightened sense of physical and sensual satisfaction? I do not believe so. In two hours, that meal will appear as a dream. This ephemeralness of happiness extends beyond the most basic needs of eating. It can extend to relationships as well. Imagine the time that you were so in love with your mate, and you felt that you have experienced the ultimate love and happiness. For the period of time when you are truly in love, it appears that there is nothing that your companion can do to upset this state of happiness. It appears that nothing anyone can do would break up this state of happiness. Yet one day your companion cheats on you, and all of a sudden that pristine sense of happiness and fulfillment come crumbling down in one instance like a stack of cards. Then you must ask yourself: Is this true happiness if happiness can so easily be blown away and crumbled within an instant? If we look into this issue of happiness even deeper, we will see that most people define their happiness not through themselves, but through things outside of themselves. External gratification may come through stimuli of their five senses or through the acquisition and grasping of things outside of themselves, whether that be the love of their object of affection or whether that be an attainment of a goal, tangible or intangible. These things all exist external to oneself, and this of course, is the nature of ego. Ego sees itself as separate from the rest of the Tao, from the rest of the universe. Therefore, for the ego to feel fulfillment and wholeness and see itself as the guardian of its egotistical universe, the ego must create situations that allow it to satisfy itself by things outside of itself, outside of its dominion. It must acquire through desire. This desire is like the fuel that propels it to acquire more territory and dominion in the universe outside of itself, in this case, the physical universe. Whether it is obtaining more physical riches and objects or whether it is eating more delicious foods or whether it is having the most beautiful relationship, it is constantly motivated by the primary drive of the ego and its quest for reunification with the Tao through acquisition of things external to oneself. The folly of this is precisely the opposite of happiness and how true happiness can be obtained. True happiness can be obtained only through abandonment of the ego's desires and acquisitions. It is the abandonment for the search of satisfaction and fulfillment from things outside of oneself. In the Taoist way, we teach inner cultivation as the true path to happiness. For through inner cultivation, one is able to return to the true nature of humans, which is in sync and in the flow of all the forces of nature. Therefore, there is no separation from man and nature nor man and heaven. In the Taoist teachings, heaven, man and earth (the three truths), man is a synthesis of the heavenly and earthly powers. However, when man is not able to synthesize that then he will feebly go forth trying to search the truth in things outside of himself. When he sees that he is an integral part of heaven and earth, and within himself he is able to synthesize those forces so that he becomes in sync with the Tao, he can then find true happiness. In this inner state and calmness reside an unmovable bliss that knows no fluctuations due to outside disturbances. This does not mean that he goes to the cave and meditates and leaves society, for this was a requirement in the past, but in today's modern society, it is an impossibility. In that sense, it is even more difficult for the modern man to obtain this enlightened state of happiness. It means that one has to cultivate nonattachment in everything he does. He may be involved in relationships, but if they change (that is the true nature of the universe which is in constant change), then he will not be disappointed. His bliss will remain constant. If he eats a certain dish, he feels as fulfilled as he drinks a glass of water, for he does not differentiate. Through the nondifferentiation of mind, one achieves the nonattachment to things outside of oneself. And through the nonattachment of things outside of oneself, one then is able to unify the heaven and earth within oneself and feel one is forever a part of the eternal present of the higher and greater forces of the Tao. To fulfill one's destiny, one must first know himself, his true nature. It is only by that realization of his true nature will he know his own individual destiny. While there is a collective destiny for mankind, which is the type of path in life we propagate through Taoism, there is also the individual path in each individual. Although the true nature is the same, the manifestation for each person on this earth is different for each person has a different destiny. If people follow the path laid out in Taoism, they will quickly come to the realization of their own individual destiny, and through that fulfillment of their individual destiny in accordance with the Tao, they will then find their true happiness. As I have spoken in my book over 2,000 years ago, I tell it to you again today, as it has not changed. For the path to happiness is by going within to cultivate oneself to achieve a state of inner quietude so that the ego is subdued and the true self of man can be realized. In that realization of the true self, man unifies heaven and earth and then becomes an integral part of that greater whole for which he shall find his eternal bliss. Channeled information for the newsletter. |
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