Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Each of us has effects on his/her village, town, city, country, and world. The way you live affects all the small and big communities surrounding you. The effects can be good or bad, but there is no such thing as “neutral living without any effect.”

When you live well – gentle, humble, charitable, loving, responsible – you generate positive energy to better all your communities. Continue reading Your effects on your communities →

Continue reading Đạo Đức Kinh – Chương 50 – Sống chết →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Standard is chuẩn in Vietnamese. Whatever we do, we automatically have a standard for that task – it can be “I will do the best job I can possibly do,” repeating “can” twice or, at the other extreme, “Whatever is OK.”

The people with the highest standard for themselves in each task are greatly successful in life, however you define success. That is a matter of course – if you always try hard to produce a product, that would probably be the best product in the market and would sell very well.

The ones with “whatever is OK,” we all know they are always losers. Continue reading Raise up your standard →

Continue reading Đạo Đức Kinh – Chương 49 – Lòng Thánh nhân →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Probably everyone has heard more than enough about environment – too much dust particles in the air, to much exhaust smoke in the air, to much plastic waste in the rivers and the sea, too much noise pollution…

Our environment directly affects our health, and in some cases our life and death.

But we cannot talk only about physical environment. There are other environments affecting our mind, our heart, and our soul – educational environment, cultural environment, and spiritual environment. Continue reading Environment →

Continue reading Đạo Đức Kinh – Chương 48 – Vô vi nắm thiên hạ →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Even though I talk about national policies in this article, the substance of the writing is for each of you individually, because while national policies are usually determined by political leadership, the thinking and feeling of the people, especially of the intellectual class, are the foundation of such policies.

With so much disruptive commotion around the world today, “chaotic” is an understatement. In every country, every kind of value is being challenged, and … shaking. Continue reading Build your policies on your culture →

Continue reading Đạo Đức Kinh – Chương 47 – Mắt trời →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We can be lousy at one hundred things, but we need to be supergood at only one thing to be successful, be it singing, cooking, engineering, teaching, doctoring, lawyering, or soccering…

But so many people are so insecure that they spend all day worrying about the long list of their weaknesses – I am not good in English, public speaking, math, management, dieting, staying calm, socializing, footballing, teamwork, customer supporting, writing, logic, blah blah blah… Continue reading Focus on your strength →