Tao 3 - Wealth and Love

The following is what I learned from a Tao lecture...

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About Wealth

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During the days of the legendary Emperors in China, successors to the throne were not chosen based on bloodlines, but rather that the person had attained Tao. In old China, an Emperor was one who had the mandate from Heaven to rule. Heavens will bestow all the wealth of the land to the man who has attained Tao, as he will have the compassion and wisdom to manage the wealth for his people.

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However, as time went, due to the greed of humankind, successors to the throne became the sons of the Emperors, and sometimes the son who managed to survive the fights and assasinations.

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So if we want to seek wealth, we should only seek the wealth that is within. When we have attained Tao within, wealth will come, as we will then be wise and responsible enough to manage the resources to the highest good of humankind.

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In the Bible, it is said that "... those who have it, more will be added to you, and those who do not have it, more will be taken away from you...". This does correlate well with this Tao teaching.

About Motherly Love

Once upon a time in a village in Singapore where the Tao master used to live in, there was a mentally insane woman. Her husband had left her and she was alone to take care of her two kids. Her mind was so deranged that she would use the planks of her wall of her hut for the fire for cooking. Isn't that mad?

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However, while she was mad, she remained a fantastic mother. She knew how to feed the kids, care for and protect her kids. This is because loving her children and motherly love is an instinct, and not an action for calculated returns. If it is one of calculated returns, then all mothers will be running at a huge loss, as such repayments can never be fulfilled no matter how much the children would want to pay.

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The children of this mother were also teased in school. The other kids called them mad children, but that didn't upset them, because they were very young and at that age, their mother is the greatest person in the world - the one who love and cared for them most.

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Babies and very young children also would not say that their mother is ugly, even if she is deformed, untidy and unpresentable to many people. To them, there is no such thing as an ugly mother. The mother they know of is the most beautiful person in the world. When they are bullied by other children, they will run to their mother, no matter how ugly other people would perceive her to be.

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It is perhaps later when children 'grow up' and are subjected to external influences that they gradually feel ashame of their mother. Ashamed when they turn up in their college, or work place, since some mothers, by then, would have grown old and even haggard. By then, sadly, these children would have forgotten that it was their 'ugly mother' who loves them so much and brought them up. In short, these children have forgotten about their true nature, their instinct, which is to love their mother and love them unconditionally.