Your “prayers not answered” means your “expectations not fulfilled.” The TAO wisdom explains why: your attachments to careers, money, relationships, and success “make” but also “break” you by creating your flawed ego-self that demands your “expectations to be fulfilled.”

Thursday, June 30, 2022

FREE BOOK - Living in Reality

 

"Living in Reality" is accountability.

Here is a hypothetical illustration of "accountability":

You were one of the last two persons at a bar. You were sitting close to each other. The person finished his drink and left the bar, leaving some cash for the bartender, who, at that moment, was away with your credit card. You grabbed the tip left on the table by the man who had just left, and then placed it toward you. The bartender returned with your credit card, looked at the money right in front of you, and said: “Thank you.” 

Did you do anything "wrong"? 

If you had intended not to give the bartender any tip anyway, what you did had not "changed" the scenario—the bartender would still have said: “Thank you” with or without your tip, and she would have received the same amount of tip. 

What is important in that hypothetical illustration is the accountability. The reality of one minor misbehavior with no accountability will often lead to many more serious ones with no accountability. 

The "No-Accountability" Mindset 

In this world, many have developed their own “no accountability” mindset based on their own beliefs, their own justifications, and their own rationalizations. They simply have no accountability to the law and order, not to mention to God. 

For example, the laws are made to be broken because some of the lawmakers themselves do not comply or even obey the law they have created. That explains the prevalence of crimes committed in society. For example, the police are not to be obeyed, because the police are corrupt, and often racially biased. For example, the Church is not to be trusted because there are so many sexual scandals among priests. So, pastors and priests are not to be trusted and accountable to. For example, God is neither fair nor just: there is so much discrepancy between the abundant and the lack; between the good who suffer and the bad who prosper and are seemingly blessed. So, why should there be accountability to God? The thinking mind: “I am not the only one with no accountability; I am just one of the many. So, what is wrong with that?”

But, if you are a true believer, you will believe in your accountability to God, and you will live your life quite differently from an unbeliever.

Get this FREE BOOK to find out how to become a believer.

Stephen Lau