A company is undergoing layoffs and two of the assistants of the director are listed in the laid off list. One is known as 'Destiny' and the other is 'Chance'. They were notified in advance that this would be their last month. However, both of them are known to have great working etiquette as their abilities are acknowledged by their fellow colleagues. Moreover, both of them get along well with everyone in the office, hence, the colleagues felt sorry for them.
After being notified, 'Destiny' was emotionally affected. She was unstable and started to show her temperamental side by shouting and yelling to her colleagues. Furthermore, she thought to herself, 'the company has decided to fire me anyway, what difference it makes if I put in more effort?' Since then she did all of the work-related tasks hastily and eventually caused her fellow colleagues to dislike her.
In contrary, after receiving the news, 'Chance' thought to herself, I only left one month to bid farewell to my working life and I don't think it is possible for me to seek another job in the future. I have to cherish the remaining time I have by working diligently without causing any future problem to my colleagues and also spend more time with all the fellow colleagues that have been through thick and thin with me.
One month later, 'Destiny' left the company as planned. However, 'Chance' bright and positive attitude has brought all the colleagues to pledge for her stay and eventually the director decided to let her stay and promoted her as his personal assistant.
You can only grant yourself the 'chance' to truly change your destiny by changing the value of your attitude.
Have you ever tried playing Monopoly? There are both chance and community chest (destiny) cards in it. I would decide and embrace my destiny with the 'attitude' that I opt to create 'opportunities' in life. How about you? Are you still thinking of being controlled by destiny? Are you still going to be the coward who surrenders to all the obstacles in life?
How are you supposed to totally chance the value of your attitude? There's only one way, never ever live your life by solely relying on 'the senses of your physical body'. Remember to ponder your life with your 'spirituality' by allowing your soul to entirely embrace destiny and at the same time create opportunities to change your destiny.
You would only be able to fulfill the soul's mission to mortal by doing so and eventually granting your soul freedom.
Now I have revealed everything about the universe and life, if you are still stubborn and insist on your own way, all I can say is "Suit yourself because you're on your own now!"
What does it mean to enjoy the feelings that are brought by the 'mentality of differentiation' with the soul that doesn't possess the 'mentality of differentiation'? We are human and as a human I know it is impossible to live life without any feeling or emotion.
If that's the case, we can just approach things in another method! Go ahead and 'enjoy' all the feelings that the good and bad, fortune and misfortune and happiness and pain bring.
Precisely like the aforementioned assistant 'Chance' as she enjoys every given moment. We are not supposed to determine our lives with the amount of successes and failures in life. If you have never experienced the feeling of falling out of love, how would you have the 'opportunity' to experience the elated feeling of falling in love once more? If you have never experience any pain in life, you would never have the chance to truly know the feeling of happiness.
The 921earthquake in Taiwan has also taught us the same lesson. If you have never tasted a rotten apple, you would not appreciate a fresh apple. You have to experience life to understand life. If misfortunes never happened, how would you have the chance to realize how happy and perfect your life was.
All the misfortunes in life are here to make you realize the existence of happiness, but on the contrary, all the happiness in life awaits you to discover. The only way to eliminate all the pains and misfortunes in life is to embrace them with love.
If you would live solely according to the feelings that the physical body tells, you would never ever know the true value and essence of life. Only people who live with their soul could wisely utilize the feelings that the physical body gives to live in the World with Ultimate Bliss by embracing all fortunes and misfortunes as happiness.
A true devoted monk devotes through his heart. One who knows how to enjoy life from the sou;'s perspective would be able to combine his/her heart and soul and subsequently combines it with the physical body as one. This person is truly enlighten as he/she is fully developed in the aspects of body, mind and soul. Heaven or the world with ultimate bliss is not only restricted for monk, nun or god's disciples, however, one can easily go to the 'mortal heaven' when one truly comprehends how to merge both soul and body as one.
You are helping yourself when you assist others to succeed,
You perceive yourself lowly when you look down upon others.
There's a rich minister who has a daughter. His daughter fell in love with a local farmer but he is strongly against their relationship because he despises the man's occupation as a farmer.
One day, the farmer went to the minister's house to ask for his permission to marry his daughter. The minister rudely replied, 'This is ridiculous! How would my daughter marry to a person from the lower class? Get lost and don't forget to take your dowry that doesn't worth a penny when you leave!"
The farmer went home feeling humiliated and depressed. One year later, due to natural disaster, the country was in famine. All the farmers who were able to harvest hid all their supplies, because they themselves were afraid that it wouldn't even be sufficient for them to sustain hence causing some civilians starved to death as there were no food supplies. The minister's family has also fun out of food supplies as they have been starving for days.
The situation left the farmer with no choice, so he turned up to the minister's house with buckets of rice to help the family. At that moment, the minister felt terribly ashamed and sorry, he thought to himself, "Couldn't have imagined someone who I regarded as a lowly person to save me and my family lives." The minister sincerely apologized to the farmer and consequently gives his full consent to allow the marriage between him and his daughter.
Monday, 28 April 2014
Thursday, 24 April 2014
'Self-Cultivation' Means to Cultivate Your Soul With 'Love' and Hence Embracing Your Spirituality
Never define 'self-cultivation' as something too specific or shallow as it encompasses all. Since we were born, we were bound to face every single obstacle in life. Therefore we have started cultivating ourselves since the day we were born.
The only difference between monks/practitioners and laymen is they are able to view life in more thorough and transparent manner thus their lifelong priority is to transform and cultivate their spirituality.
However if you have thoroughly understood self-cultivation, you would realize that everything in life could pose as an ordeal for us to cultivate ourselves. In fact, the places that we can truly cultivate ourselves are at home, office and in our very own lives.
Thus we are all practitioners. Learning how to do good instead of evil, learning how to forgive instead of keeping in the anger, learning how to fulfill your filial piety duties instead of being irresponsible and learning how to sacrifice instead of being selfish. All these practices are cultivated through your thoughts, hence these are all known as cultivated practices.
You're letting go worries and pains once you have let go of the 'mentality of differentiation'.
What you did wrong today most likely would become something right tomorrow. Things at this instant might seem bad but bad things wouldn't last forever. If things were so bad and you couldn't do anything to better the problem or you wouldn't accept the fact, think again, is it really THAT terrible?
What differences do they do to your soul with a successful career, happy marriage or relationship, loved ones are still healthy and alive and you're in good health or an unsuccessful career, unhappy marriage or relationship, losing loved ones and when your body is giving in? Think carefully, all these things have never exited before we set foot into the world. Let's say if it would to happen, all these people and things regardless whether if is good or bad would eventually come to an end when you bid farewell to the world. The same applies to your happiness and unhappiness that the 'delusional you' experienced as it would never come along when death tears you apart.
Destiny is unpredictable.
To be frank, a person who thoroughly comprehends cultivation wouldn't even bother about 'destiny'. Because they clearly know that 'destiny' merely serves as a 'tool' that poses as an ordeal to test their spirituality.
Life is merely the universe's examination hall. Those who fare badly would be doomed to the hungry ghost realm, animal realm or hell; those moderate achievers would be sent back to the world again; those who fare well would be sent to heaven to serve as deities; those top achievers would leave the rebirth cycle and become a free soul that stations at the highest realm.
Remember don't go differentiating good or bad destiny. Destiny merely serves as a tool to truly seek for your true self (soul).
What we really need is a 'chance' to change our destiny, being attached to our destiny doesn't provide us chances. We can only provide ourselves opportunity by changing 'the magnetic filed of your state of mind', thus providing you 'chances' to change your destiny.
Changing the environment is merely treating the symptom but not the cause. Treat it by changing your attitude and viewing life through your sou;, only then you would be able to face all the challenges that the destiny brings!
The only difference between monks/practitioners and laymen is they are able to view life in more thorough and transparent manner thus their lifelong priority is to transform and cultivate their spirituality.
However if you have thoroughly understood self-cultivation, you would realize that everything in life could pose as an ordeal for us to cultivate ourselves. In fact, the places that we can truly cultivate ourselves are at home, office and in our very own lives.
Thus we are all practitioners. Learning how to do good instead of evil, learning how to forgive instead of keeping in the anger, learning how to fulfill your filial piety duties instead of being irresponsible and learning how to sacrifice instead of being selfish. All these practices are cultivated through your thoughts, hence these are all known as cultivated practices.
You're letting go worries and pains once you have let go of the 'mentality of differentiation'.
What you did wrong today most likely would become something right tomorrow. Things at this instant might seem bad but bad things wouldn't last forever. If things were so bad and you couldn't do anything to better the problem or you wouldn't accept the fact, think again, is it really THAT terrible?
What differences do they do to your soul with a successful career, happy marriage or relationship, loved ones are still healthy and alive and you're in good health or an unsuccessful career, unhappy marriage or relationship, losing loved ones and when your body is giving in? Think carefully, all these things have never exited before we set foot into the world. Let's say if it would to happen, all these people and things regardless whether if is good or bad would eventually come to an end when you bid farewell to the world. The same applies to your happiness and unhappiness that the 'delusional you' experienced as it would never come along when death tears you apart.
Destiny is unpredictable.
To be frank, a person who thoroughly comprehends cultivation wouldn't even bother about 'destiny'. Because they clearly know that 'destiny' merely serves as a 'tool' that poses as an ordeal to test their spirituality.
Life is merely the universe's examination hall. Those who fare badly would be doomed to the hungry ghost realm, animal realm or hell; those moderate achievers would be sent back to the world again; those who fare well would be sent to heaven to serve as deities; those top achievers would leave the rebirth cycle and become a free soul that stations at the highest realm.
Remember don't go differentiating good or bad destiny. Destiny merely serves as a tool to truly seek for your true self (soul).
What we really need is a 'chance' to change our destiny, being attached to our destiny doesn't provide us chances. We can only provide ourselves opportunity by changing 'the magnetic filed of your state of mind', thus providing you 'chances' to change your destiny.
Changing the environment is merely treating the symptom but not the cause. Treat it by changing your attitude and viewing life through your sou;, only then you would be able to face all the challenges that the destiny brings!
Dont be a Soul Who gets Contaminated by 'Cleanliness'
We have always been saying how we must cleanse and purify our soul and how to prevent your soul from the contamination of 'cleanliness'.
One who has obsessive disorder loves things to be clean and free from germs. It would pose as an emotion 'obstacle' for them whenever there's some dirt. Especially, when they put on white outfits they would be afraid to touch every single thing around them because they are 'afraid' to dirty their clothes. You might say they are really clean, but don't you think their 'heart' has been contaminated by 'cleanliness'?
Once there's a Brahman believer who went to the Ganges River to bathe early in the morning. The Brahman believes that the Ganges River can cleanse and purify him. After bathing, he headed to the market for breakfast, while walking he accidentally bumped into a beggar. He was disgusted and shrieked, "See where you're heading to! I need to go all the way back to the Ganges River to bathe again because you made me dirty!"
The beggar replied, "All I did was briefly brushing up against you as I walked by. If the Ganges River can cleanse and purify you and I am able to de-cleanse you, then I supposed I'm even greater and more powerful than your great Ganges River."
The Sakyamuni Buddha says, "There's nothing absolutely contaminated or neither pure." The differences are made up by mankind. Bear in mind that the pristine water lily raises from the depths of a murky pond.
Many who seek to live a perfect life tend to live in an imperfect life because they want every single thing in their lives to be perfect.
They put too much emphasis on the matter to be cleansed and purified at all times hence their soul is severely polluted by everything.
A master monk and his apprentice monk are meditating in a room. Suddenly a visitor accidentally barged into the mediation room, the apprentice said, "Why did you act so heedlessly? You have interrupted our tranquil meditation." However, the master didn't move an inch when the visitor came and left. After the meditation, the master asked the apprentice, "Who interrupted you just now?" He replied, "An imprudent visitor:. The master said, "I assume it's not the visitor who has interrupted your peacefulness, instead it was the tranquility of the environment that has interrupted you."
True peacefulness can never be interrupted. There are two types of peacefulness, one is the 'environment" and another is the 'state of mind'. The appearance of the visitor proves the true peacefulness within you.
There were two monks at the river bank. One of the monks is tall and well-built whereas the other is short and petite. While they were about to cross the river, there was a young lady struggling to cross the river due to the rapid water current. The young lady noticed the well-built monk and requested the monk to help her over. The well-built monk lifted the young lady and crossed the river without any hesitation. The young lady showed her appreciation and left. For the remaining of the journey, the petite monk glared at the well-built monk in disgust. On the following day, the petite monk couldn't hold it in anymore and questioned him, "Master told us that we're not supposed to have any contact with woman! But you just lifted the lady without much thought and crossed the river yesterday!"
The well-built monk smiled and said, "My little junior! I have already 'put down' the lady once I crossed the river. But why are you still holding on to it after a whole night? I suppose your 'heart' is still not able to 'put down' the lady.
You can only seek for true tranquility by changing your state of mind.
The soul doesn't know how to differentiate; the differences come within your heart.
Being attached to everything in life itself is contamination. Because all pains in life root from attachment, when there's attachment there's the thought of gaining and losing in life, when there are gains and losses there's when pain entails.
Let's get back to the point, pain stems from gains and losses, gains and losses stem from attachment and why are we attached? Precisely! Attachment stems from differentiation.
To be frank, the culprit behind human pain is the 'mentality of differentiation'.
Since young we were being brought up to differentiate what's good and what's bad; what's long and short, what's big or small and what's good or evil.
Our society and culture have implanted the concept of women being fully responsible on household chores whereas husbands and male are responsible to make a living. The Chinese society still practices the same old belief where they perceive men to be more superior than women. When the husband cheat on the wife, she would be asked to be more open and embrace the fact because it is acceptable for man to go cheating around. However when the wife is caught cheating on the husband, the consequences are daunting. She would not only suffer from being called names, such as immodest woman, slut, whore, and countless other terrible names, besides she also suffers from being discriminated by the society due to the standard of perceiving woman.
When man checked-in to a hotel it is known as socializing, however when woman do so they would become a total immodest whore. Above all the irony, man is good for nothing if they're unsuccessful in their career, but it is a virtue when women is unsuccessful in their career.
Moreover, you expect and hope your daughter to be treated well by the in-laws after marriage, in contrary, when you have a daughter-in-law, all you think of is how she can treat you well and how must she fulfill her task as a daughter-in-law. Besides, you would expect your son to live under the same roof with you after his marriage but the irony is when you have a son-in-law, you would also wished that he would stay with you after marriage.
When your friend fell out of love, you would console them to move on; when you yourself fell out of love, everything seems to fall apart and it's like the end of the world to you. You like butterfly but you're afraid of the hairy caterpillar. You would complain how messy and filthy it is to eat ice-cream, but still you can't resist it. The very same candy looks disgusting when it's spitted out by someone else, but it is nothing close to disgusting when you salivate while eating the candy. Other's booger is extremely gross but at times you'd swallow your own booger. Why would all food become disgusting when it comes in contact with the saliva? Is it because saliva is filthy? If that's so, what are those slimy liquid in your mouth? I reckon you're filthier.
Stool sickens and disgusts you, but before it was excreted, it is inside your body and wouldn't that make you even more sickening and disgusting? Visiting the gastrologist is fine, but visiting the urologist or gynecologist makes you feel all embarrassed. Both are body organs but why would you feel this way?
I threw my fist to you in order to protect my family, consequently I became a bad person to you; but if you are one of my family members, I would become a good person. In other words, if you to become one of my family members, I would be the person who gives someone else a lesson.
Why? Precisely! All of these are all because of your 'mentality of differentiation'.
At this moment, can you feel your soul is imprisoned in your body? Your physical body has nerves, arteries, feelings, and preconceived notions that you have accumulated throughout your life that misled your soul and eventually causing you to have the 'mentality of differentiation'.
Once you have the 'mentality of differentiation', all trouble and pain would entail naturally. I like this person, I hate that person, this is delicious and that tastes awful. Even a mere outbreak of a pimple could affect your day.
Why is it so difficult for human to live through a day? This is because the world is filled with 'temptations'. 'Temptations' can only take effect when there's 'feelings' and 'feelings's stems from the 'mentality of differentiation'. If we couldn't tell the difference, we would have the same feeling at all times, hence 'temptations' can't take effect on us.
Normally when we mention about 'evil', our 'mentality of differentiation' would naturally tell us that these are bad things that bring bad luck.
Conversely, if there's no encounter of any 'evil' ordeal in life, what are the things that you can do to transform your soul? If the jerk didn't dump you, how would you have the chance to enjoy happiness as it is right now? What is good; what is bad; what is right and what is wrong?
For instance, when you're meeting someone sincerely and in terms of faithfulness you felt like you have invested all our feelings into it. However after some time, the significant other realized that there are differences in belief and perspective between both and decided to end the relationship. At this instant, you might be able to take it easily as you might swear and call him a jerk of thought of revenge and create nonsensical dramas.
But have you ever thought of putting yourself in someone else's shoes? One day if you would have to experience the same exact thing when you realized there are so many dissimilarities that you can't take the relationship anymore or if you have met a better and more suitable person and decided to end the relationship. Cast all dramas that you would have done when you were dumped to yourself, I bet you wouldn't think that you are a jerk instead you would reply by saying "You're crazy" "You're ridiculous" or "That's the reason why I want to end this relationship". this is how ridiculous human are, when they're dumped they'd call someone a jerk, when they dump someone they'd call it as a a choice.
Here's another example. A driver ran over one of your family members which caused your loved one to be paralyzed or in worst case scenario, passed away. At this very moment, you might be agitated like how those family members would do on television as you might swear, curse or beat the person up. But what if you or one of your family members is the one who did the mistake? Would you stand from the victim's family point of view and apologize by saying, "I'm sorry! I'm truly sorry about what has happened! It wasn't my intention" Although your family might be apologizing earnestly from the bottom of their heart and repent for what they have done, the victim's family still insist in swearing, cursing, or applying brutal threats. How would you feel? Wouldn't you feel the other party was being too much and you were being treated unfair? Wouldn't you feel aggrieved for you and your family members?
There's no way to clearly determine what's yes or no and what's right or wrong in life. There are two sides to every coin. If you could have used your soul to calmly and correctly to view these two sides without being influenced by any of it and embrace everything with love, you would achieve the ultimate self-cultivation and you would see the cultivated practitioner in you.
One who has obsessive disorder loves things to be clean and free from germs. It would pose as an emotion 'obstacle' for them whenever there's some dirt. Especially, when they put on white outfits they would be afraid to touch every single thing around them because they are 'afraid' to dirty their clothes. You might say they are really clean, but don't you think their 'heart' has been contaminated by 'cleanliness'?
Once there's a Brahman believer who went to the Ganges River to bathe early in the morning. The Brahman believes that the Ganges River can cleanse and purify him. After bathing, he headed to the market for breakfast, while walking he accidentally bumped into a beggar. He was disgusted and shrieked, "See where you're heading to! I need to go all the way back to the Ganges River to bathe again because you made me dirty!"
The beggar replied, "All I did was briefly brushing up against you as I walked by. If the Ganges River can cleanse and purify you and I am able to de-cleanse you, then I supposed I'm even greater and more powerful than your great Ganges River."
The Sakyamuni Buddha says, "There's nothing absolutely contaminated or neither pure." The differences are made up by mankind. Bear in mind that the pristine water lily raises from the depths of a murky pond.
Many who seek to live a perfect life tend to live in an imperfect life because they want every single thing in their lives to be perfect.
They put too much emphasis on the matter to be cleansed and purified at all times hence their soul is severely polluted by everything.
A master monk and his apprentice monk are meditating in a room. Suddenly a visitor accidentally barged into the mediation room, the apprentice said, "Why did you act so heedlessly? You have interrupted our tranquil meditation." However, the master didn't move an inch when the visitor came and left. After the meditation, the master asked the apprentice, "Who interrupted you just now?" He replied, "An imprudent visitor:. The master said, "I assume it's not the visitor who has interrupted your peacefulness, instead it was the tranquility of the environment that has interrupted you."
True peacefulness can never be interrupted. There are two types of peacefulness, one is the 'environment" and another is the 'state of mind'. The appearance of the visitor proves the true peacefulness within you.
There were two monks at the river bank. One of the monks is tall and well-built whereas the other is short and petite. While they were about to cross the river, there was a young lady struggling to cross the river due to the rapid water current. The young lady noticed the well-built monk and requested the monk to help her over. The well-built monk lifted the young lady and crossed the river without any hesitation. The young lady showed her appreciation and left. For the remaining of the journey, the petite monk glared at the well-built monk in disgust. On the following day, the petite monk couldn't hold it in anymore and questioned him, "Master told us that we're not supposed to have any contact with woman! But you just lifted the lady without much thought and crossed the river yesterday!"
The well-built monk smiled and said, "My little junior! I have already 'put down' the lady once I crossed the river. But why are you still holding on to it after a whole night? I suppose your 'heart' is still not able to 'put down' the lady.
You can only seek for true tranquility by changing your state of mind.
The soul doesn't know how to differentiate; the differences come within your heart.
Being attached to everything in life itself is contamination. Because all pains in life root from attachment, when there's attachment there's the thought of gaining and losing in life, when there are gains and losses there's when pain entails.
Let's get back to the point, pain stems from gains and losses, gains and losses stem from attachment and why are we attached? Precisely! Attachment stems from differentiation.
To be frank, the culprit behind human pain is the 'mentality of differentiation'.
Since young we were being brought up to differentiate what's good and what's bad; what's long and short, what's big or small and what's good or evil.
Our society and culture have implanted the concept of women being fully responsible on household chores whereas husbands and male are responsible to make a living. The Chinese society still practices the same old belief where they perceive men to be more superior than women. When the husband cheat on the wife, she would be asked to be more open and embrace the fact because it is acceptable for man to go cheating around. However when the wife is caught cheating on the husband, the consequences are daunting. She would not only suffer from being called names, such as immodest woman, slut, whore, and countless other terrible names, besides she also suffers from being discriminated by the society due to the standard of perceiving woman.
When man checked-in to a hotel it is known as socializing, however when woman do so they would become a total immodest whore. Above all the irony, man is good for nothing if they're unsuccessful in their career, but it is a virtue when women is unsuccessful in their career.
Moreover, you expect and hope your daughter to be treated well by the in-laws after marriage, in contrary, when you have a daughter-in-law, all you think of is how she can treat you well and how must she fulfill her task as a daughter-in-law. Besides, you would expect your son to live under the same roof with you after his marriage but the irony is when you have a son-in-law, you would also wished that he would stay with you after marriage.
When your friend fell out of love, you would console them to move on; when you yourself fell out of love, everything seems to fall apart and it's like the end of the world to you. You like butterfly but you're afraid of the hairy caterpillar. You would complain how messy and filthy it is to eat ice-cream, but still you can't resist it. The very same candy looks disgusting when it's spitted out by someone else, but it is nothing close to disgusting when you salivate while eating the candy. Other's booger is extremely gross but at times you'd swallow your own booger. Why would all food become disgusting when it comes in contact with the saliva? Is it because saliva is filthy? If that's so, what are those slimy liquid in your mouth? I reckon you're filthier.
Stool sickens and disgusts you, but before it was excreted, it is inside your body and wouldn't that make you even more sickening and disgusting? Visiting the gastrologist is fine, but visiting the urologist or gynecologist makes you feel all embarrassed. Both are body organs but why would you feel this way?
I threw my fist to you in order to protect my family, consequently I became a bad person to you; but if you are one of my family members, I would become a good person. In other words, if you to become one of my family members, I would be the person who gives someone else a lesson.
Why? Precisely! All of these are all because of your 'mentality of differentiation'.
At this moment, can you feel your soul is imprisoned in your body? Your physical body has nerves, arteries, feelings, and preconceived notions that you have accumulated throughout your life that misled your soul and eventually causing you to have the 'mentality of differentiation'.
Once you have the 'mentality of differentiation', all trouble and pain would entail naturally. I like this person, I hate that person, this is delicious and that tastes awful. Even a mere outbreak of a pimple could affect your day.
Why is it so difficult for human to live through a day? This is because the world is filled with 'temptations'. 'Temptations' can only take effect when there's 'feelings' and 'feelings's stems from the 'mentality of differentiation'. If we couldn't tell the difference, we would have the same feeling at all times, hence 'temptations' can't take effect on us.
Normally when we mention about 'evil', our 'mentality of differentiation' would naturally tell us that these are bad things that bring bad luck.
Conversely, if there's no encounter of any 'evil' ordeal in life, what are the things that you can do to transform your soul? If the jerk didn't dump you, how would you have the chance to enjoy happiness as it is right now? What is good; what is bad; what is right and what is wrong?
For instance, when you're meeting someone sincerely and in terms of faithfulness you felt like you have invested all our feelings into it. However after some time, the significant other realized that there are differences in belief and perspective between both and decided to end the relationship. At this instant, you might be able to take it easily as you might swear and call him a jerk of thought of revenge and create nonsensical dramas.
But have you ever thought of putting yourself in someone else's shoes? One day if you would have to experience the same exact thing when you realized there are so many dissimilarities that you can't take the relationship anymore or if you have met a better and more suitable person and decided to end the relationship. Cast all dramas that you would have done when you were dumped to yourself, I bet you wouldn't think that you are a jerk instead you would reply by saying "You're crazy" "You're ridiculous" or "That's the reason why I want to end this relationship". this is how ridiculous human are, when they're dumped they'd call someone a jerk, when they dump someone they'd call it as a a choice.
Here's another example. A driver ran over one of your family members which caused your loved one to be paralyzed or in worst case scenario, passed away. At this very moment, you might be agitated like how those family members would do on television as you might swear, curse or beat the person up. But what if you or one of your family members is the one who did the mistake? Would you stand from the victim's family point of view and apologize by saying, "I'm sorry! I'm truly sorry about what has happened! It wasn't my intention" Although your family might be apologizing earnestly from the bottom of their heart and repent for what they have done, the victim's family still insist in swearing, cursing, or applying brutal threats. How would you feel? Wouldn't you feel the other party was being too much and you were being treated unfair? Wouldn't you feel aggrieved for you and your family members?
There's no way to clearly determine what's yes or no and what's right or wrong in life. There are two sides to every coin. If you could have used your soul to calmly and correctly to view these two sides without being influenced by any of it and embrace everything with love, you would achieve the ultimate self-cultivation and you would see the cultivated practitioner in you.
Sunday, 20 April 2014
Change the State of Mind Instead of the Environment
There's an old woman who leads a very unhappy and worrisome life. This is because she has two sons; the elder sells straw hats and the younger sells umbrella. If today's weather is good, she would be worried about her younger son who can't make profit on a sunny say; if today's weather is bad, she would be worried about her elder son who can't make any profit on a rainy day. Hence there's always a frown on her face.
One fine day, a monk passed by the old woman's hose, seeing her distress, the monk asked, "Grandma, it seems like there's something bothering you. I might be able to help you if you would like to share your problem." The old woman gladly shares her problem with the monk.
Upon listening, the monk smiled and said, " Don't worry! Let me teach you a trick. From now on, during the days when the weather is good just think about your elder son, in contrary, when it's rainy day think about your younger son. By doing so wouldn't you be happy everyday?" At the very instant, the old woman showed her smile that has been absence since ages.
It is very important to change one's state of mind. Everyone wants to make a difference in their life, but everyone would think - "things don't change if I am the only one who puts in the effort, the world can't be free from evil people!"
However if everyone could change their perspective to - "I'll just practice good starting with myself regardless of what others do, and eventually I believe that it would be a better world to live in!"
There's nothing impossible and impossible is nothing. Beethoven was deaf but still he is a renowned musician.
President Sun Yat-sen's belief - "The world belongs to all, a world with universal harmony." So what does "the world belongs to all" and "a world with universal harmony" mean?
Before civilization, there's no difference between human. The young an capable ones hunt, the others sought foods are all shared among everyone and it doesn't matter about who will take the credit for gathering the food. Moreover, no hierarchy existed as there's no difference between the tribal chief and the tribe. No surname existed as they bring up their child together and take care of the elderly together. There's no difference between whose child, parent, wife and husband are, because all they strive to do is to bear the responsibility together in the continuation of human race.
If we could have just possessed half of the mentality of the indigenous, do we still need to lock our doors when we leave the house? Do we still beed to be afraid of pickpockets and snatch thieves? Do we still need to worry about our food supply if we have lost our job?
The question is - Would "the world belongs to all" truly be realized? Impossible! Why would I say so? Because how can it possible happen if everyone believes it is impossible! Hence impossible doesn't stem from others but from your 'heart'!
If you have been failing again and again for the same thing in life as relationships never work out for you and your career life is miserable because it seems like you're never acknowledged by anyone. At the very moment, try to think whether there's a problem with your attitude and mentality.
Remember to embrace the 'bright side' of the destiny with positive energy. When sunlight shines upon you, there's only one way to see your own shadow, which is to turn your back against the sunlight.
Precisely! All you need to do is to turn yourself around and face directly into the sunlight. Remember to embrace life's 'bright side' with your soul as if would ease away most of the pains in life.
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. You are not here to change the world. The world is here to change you.
One fine day, a monk passed by the old woman's hose, seeing her distress, the monk asked, "Grandma, it seems like there's something bothering you. I might be able to help you if you would like to share your problem." The old woman gladly shares her problem with the monk.
Upon listening, the monk smiled and said, " Don't worry! Let me teach you a trick. From now on, during the days when the weather is good just think about your elder son, in contrary, when it's rainy day think about your younger son. By doing so wouldn't you be happy everyday?" At the very instant, the old woman showed her smile that has been absence since ages.
It is very important to change one's state of mind. Everyone wants to make a difference in their life, but everyone would think - "things don't change if I am the only one who puts in the effort, the world can't be free from evil people!"
However if everyone could change their perspective to - "I'll just practice good starting with myself regardless of what others do, and eventually I believe that it would be a better world to live in!"
There's nothing impossible and impossible is nothing. Beethoven was deaf but still he is a renowned musician.
President Sun Yat-sen's belief - "The world belongs to all, a world with universal harmony." So what does "the world belongs to all" and "a world with universal harmony" mean?
Before civilization, there's no difference between human. The young an capable ones hunt, the others sought foods are all shared among everyone and it doesn't matter about who will take the credit for gathering the food. Moreover, no hierarchy existed as there's no difference between the tribal chief and the tribe. No surname existed as they bring up their child together and take care of the elderly together. There's no difference between whose child, parent, wife and husband are, because all they strive to do is to bear the responsibility together in the continuation of human race.
If we could have just possessed half of the mentality of the indigenous, do we still need to lock our doors when we leave the house? Do we still beed to be afraid of pickpockets and snatch thieves? Do we still need to worry about our food supply if we have lost our job?
The question is - Would "the world belongs to all" truly be realized? Impossible! Why would I say so? Because how can it possible happen if everyone believes it is impossible! Hence impossible doesn't stem from others but from your 'heart'!
If you have been failing again and again for the same thing in life as relationships never work out for you and your career life is miserable because it seems like you're never acknowledged by anyone. At the very moment, try to think whether there's a problem with your attitude and mentality.
Remember to embrace the 'bright side' of the destiny with positive energy. When sunlight shines upon you, there's only one way to see your own shadow, which is to turn your back against the sunlight.
Precisely! All you need to do is to turn yourself around and face directly into the sunlight. Remember to embrace life's 'bright side' with your soul as if would ease away most of the pains in life.
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. You are not here to change the world. The world is here to change you.
Accept the Pain and Misfortune in the Past
You needn't try to forget it, instead choose to embrace it. If you want to forget a person, the more you thing of forgetting the person, the more you will think about the person. When you are about to forget the person, you have to remind yourself again that you have to forget him/her. Forgetting is remembering, because you remember you have to forget someone or something, when you constant;y remind yourself to do so, the shadows of the person of incident would reappear. Therefore the thought wouldn't disappear, instead the feeling grows stronger.
Once upon a time, a Taoist priest entered a small village and he has the power to turn sand into gold. All he need is to place sand into a normal bowl and recite a 10 minutes charm. Magically, the bowl of sand would turn into a bowl of golden sand.
Hence the locals pleaded the priest to teach them how to turn sand into gold and surprisingly the priest happily agrees to their request. The priest said, "All you need to do is not to think about gold while reciting the charm, after 10 minutes I will assure you that the sand would turn into gold." Next he taught the locals the charm and reminded them to not think about gold while reciting.
The locals joyfully recite the charm. However, they just couldn't keep their mind free from the thoughts of gold, the harder they try, the harder it is to not think about it and eventually no one could make it through for even 30 seconds. Don't believe it? Try to recite Amitabha and don't think about gold for 1 minute. I assure that you wouldn't succeed!
Therefore, don't try to forget pain and misery instead accept and embrace it! Pain and misery are merely thoughts, because they don't have any power to break you.
Life i just like a beautiful stalk of rose. Under the beautiful blossom, it is filled with thorns and these thorns are just like the people and things around us as there's always something that we're unsatisfied about others. This is known as the "Life of a Rose".
Why not open your heart to enjoy this beautiful life? For instance, some might feel their parents of their significant other is very long-winded. However, have this crossed your mind if one day they are no longer around and ll we can do is to miss and longed for their long-winded nags? There are two sides to every coin, thus use your wisdom to make out what is right and wrong in order to lead a life of a thorn-free rose.
Never ever let the cycle of life to affect yo! What does this really mean? For example, love for one that has changed things that went bad and health that deteriorates. I might be alive today but dead in the very next moment, this is so called the cycle of life. If we couldn't accept the gains and losses in life, life would be filled with struggle. Hence we must know how to let things be and understand sometimes things are not meant to be, only then we can appertain the different stages in life and eventually understand the true happiness in life.
Accept all the past misfortunes. If you still have the time and strength to complain, don't forget, this is only possible for fortunate people. Live in the moment, embrace the past misfortunes, enjoy the life as it is with obstacles and through it you would be able to vision your true happiness.
Once upon a time, a Taoist priest entered a small village and he has the power to turn sand into gold. All he need is to place sand into a normal bowl and recite a 10 minutes charm. Magically, the bowl of sand would turn into a bowl of golden sand.
Hence the locals pleaded the priest to teach them how to turn sand into gold and surprisingly the priest happily agrees to their request. The priest said, "All you need to do is not to think about gold while reciting the charm, after 10 minutes I will assure you that the sand would turn into gold." Next he taught the locals the charm and reminded them to not think about gold while reciting.
The locals joyfully recite the charm. However, they just couldn't keep their mind free from the thoughts of gold, the harder they try, the harder it is to not think about it and eventually no one could make it through for even 30 seconds. Don't believe it? Try to recite Amitabha and don't think about gold for 1 minute. I assure that you wouldn't succeed!
Therefore, don't try to forget pain and misery instead accept and embrace it! Pain and misery are merely thoughts, because they don't have any power to break you.
Life i just like a beautiful stalk of rose. Under the beautiful blossom, it is filled with thorns and these thorns are just like the people and things around us as there's always something that we're unsatisfied about others. This is known as the "Life of a Rose".
Why not open your heart to enjoy this beautiful life? For instance, some might feel their parents of their significant other is very long-winded. However, have this crossed your mind if one day they are no longer around and ll we can do is to miss and longed for their long-winded nags? There are two sides to every coin, thus use your wisdom to make out what is right and wrong in order to lead a life of a thorn-free rose.
Never ever let the cycle of life to affect yo! What does this really mean? For example, love for one that has changed things that went bad and health that deteriorates. I might be alive today but dead in the very next moment, this is so called the cycle of life. If we couldn't accept the gains and losses in life, life would be filled with struggle. Hence we must know how to let things be and understand sometimes things are not meant to be, only then we can appertain the different stages in life and eventually understand the true happiness in life.
Accept all the past misfortunes. If you still have the time and strength to complain, don't forget, this is only possible for fortunate people. Live in the moment, embrace the past misfortunes, enjoy the life as it is with obstacles and through it you would be able to vision your true happiness.
Don't Hurt Anyone. "It Only Takes a Few Seconds to Hurt People You Love and It Can Take Years to Heal or Never".
Up until this point of the story, some might say if she didn't steal for the very first time, things wouldn't have blown up like this. Others might say who has never done wrong in their life? The teacher could have just told the students that although Lyn shouldn't have to steal, it is still not nice for all of you to tease her family's financial status as you could have just shown some compassion and love by helping her out. Think about it, if you're Lyn's shoes, would you like to be teased?
If the teacher could have just asked the classmates to gather some money to buy Lyn a pencil case after she was asked to apologize, Lyn would not only feel grateful as she would understand what is sacrifice and gratefulness. Besides, it might also change her life, in the future she would influence others on what she has learned about spreading love around. Furthermore, the teacher might educate students on what does love means. Imagine this, if all the students are taught what love is, how much influence can it brings to the society?
This is the reason why our current education system is a great failure. Parents are busy with earning big bucks and hence they have no time to keep track of how their children are doing in school. Teachers only know how to fulfill the entire required syllabus and judge the students based on their academic performance; they're not even a little bothered about the importance of personality shaping.
Education is supposed to develop one's personality. However our society values success with the achievement of status and quality of life. Everyone focuses on children's academic performance rather than educating them to properly develop their personality and to live life in the correct way.
Now some might say, it would be great if someone could just let May know Lyn's past, she would probably forgive Lyn's mistake. This is exactly the message that I want to convey!
To err is human, to forgive is divine. People tend to forgive themselves easily but find it difficult to forgive others. This is because you know what's happening inside yourself but you don't know someone else's side of story.
Buddha says, "There's no person who is truly bad or evil, there's only people with 'bad habit'". Everyone is born as blank sheet or tabula rasa as there are no evil in nature, our surroundings are the ones who shape us who we are today.
In the story, the reason behind why Lyn is always the scapegoat and she has never gained any trust from others is due to the environment that she was exposed and that shaped her personality.
For instance, if you were to be brought up in the red light districts, your dad lives by drinking and visiting prostitutes daily and your mum earns from selling her body. Under this environment your values in life would be deviated and in addition to the people that you would meet under these circumstances would severely affect your behavior. As a result, your 'bad habits' that you have cultivated while growing up would be perceived as rude and improper.
This is why Buddha said, there's no person who is truly bad or evil. The so-called bad people are the ones who are severely affected by the environment that they were brought up from which caused their kind-hearted nature went bad. Eventually, they perceive things in the wrong way and do wrong. I believe everyone has 'bad habit' but most of us have no idea how it became a habit, because habits are formed unconsciously regardless they are good or bad.
If you have completely comprehended this idea, when someone did wrong to you, all you need to do is by letting down your pre-judge mental thought and try to touch the person's heart with a forgiving heart. Treat people by holding on to the belief of 'returning good for evil' as we can help people by changing their lives and we can also do ourselves a favor by eliminating hatred that brings pain and misery.
So far, what is the truth behind the story? Don't assume that Lyn's past explains the truth. We are not God, we would never know the relationship between an individual with another and it is also impossible to find out everyone's past. What I would really like to convey is - everyone makes mistakes. Making mistakes it doesn't mean you have sinned if you don't even know you have done wrong due to your bad habits.
The fact is everyone makes mistakes and everyone wishes to be forgiven. It is inevitable and you're not excluded from the joys and sorrow of meeting and departing with your loved ones and the cycle of life.
Here comes the highlight. Truth to be told all these are known fact, but why can't you just control your temper at that moment? This is because you have wasted all your strength on the thoughts of not being the one who was benefitted in the process. Thoughts are merely thoughts; it couldn't harm nor threaten your life. As if the person would really die if you hated the person so much, it doesn't actually turn out this way, isn't it? Thoughts are merely thoughts, you need not to eradicate the feeling because all you need to do is to be bystander, quietly observe the thoughts and allow it to come and leave naturally.
Not a single person could hold onto their thoughts forever, when it comes all you need to do is to be a soul of a bystander. You would come to realize that the thoughts would only affect your emotion and the time interval between transmitting the thoughts to emotion is extremely short that you wouldn't even have the time to think from the perspective of a bystander. Thus your emotion was reflected without any deep thoughts which result in incorrect judgements. This is just like a small quarrel that blows out of proportion which eventually turns into hate.
What does 'calm' mean? When others are in the midst of a fight, you would ask them to calm themselves down but why can't you do the same when you're the one who is involved? This is because you're viewing things from a bystander perspective when you asked others to calm down. You would be very objective in analyzing the problem because you're not emotionally affected, this is known as "lookers-on see most of the game".
The physical body is like a machine that specifically brings obstacles for you in life as if misleads you in perceiving that this is your true self by constantly producing various emotions. Karma! Karma! That's what we always say. Let me tell you what Karma really means. It comprises the meaning of "building up" and "obstacles". Simply put, Karma means your life is to be filled with obstacles due to the terrible habits that are developed.
For instance, your relationships always turn sour, hence in order to protect yourself from being dishearten once more, you would raise your guard by being extremely suspicious and possessive. Thus in the future even you have the chance to meet someone great, you would still mess things up due to your over suspicious and over possessive trait. These two traits are the habits that cause your life to be filled with obstacles and this is what we call Karma!
If you could have changed your habit, try to observe things wisely, clearly understand to let things be as it is and embrace the joys and sorrow of meeting and departing with your loved ones. This is because all these obstacles in life would instantly disappear into thin air if you practice perceiving things in this way. While analyzing a problem with your true self (soul), you would realize all these thoughts are nothing close to being harmful, this is provided that you're not as foolish to be concerned of it.
The only difference between saint and layman is that saint can perceive things with their true self. Laymen always perceive things negatively because they only distinguish things through the physical body. Having the thought of revenge is karma, because you're trading your happy moments with hatred.
I have never seen anything that could resolve well with an eye for an eye but I have seen many cases that end well with forgiving and embracing others' mistakes.
"Fate brought us together, fate also tear us apart." Meeting and making great ties require us to change our bad habits in order to cherish the given fate whereas bad encounter allows us to learn how to develop good habits and virtues because no pain no gain.
Just remember to let your true self (soul) to be in charge while handling problems and calmly observe the emotions or thoughts that are stirred up by your physical body. By doing so you would be able to lead a happy life.
The first line of the Heart Sutra says, "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing the Prajna-paramita, clearly saw that the five skandhas (senses) are all empty". This is to convey that the form is no other than emptiness and emptiness is no other than form. Form is exactly emptiness and vice versa. It tells us to perceive things through soul with emptiness (like Bodhisattva) and make use of your wisdom (practicing Prajna-paramita) to perceive thoughts that are produced by the five skandhas are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. Ironically, you would come to realize the culprit behind the unhappiness is because of your own emotions, not from the person that you thought that he/she has harmed you. Hence we should keep calm at all times, regardless it's a good or bad incident. You wouldn't want yourself to get carried away and eventually end up with a sting in the tail.
You ought to be calm if you're ought to take control over your thoughts. However you have to constant;y practice. IT is acceptable to get overwhelmed with good news but remember to seek your true self when you're going through difficult times. Seize the moment before your reckless thoughts are expressed through your emotions and regain your calmness before that moment as time goes by, you would be able to seek the Bodhisattva in you.
If you want one to change for the better, praising is the best punishment.
I have never seen one truly change for the better with punishment. Most of the people refrain from doing wrong because they are afraid of the punishment that entails; it is not because they sincerely want to strive better. Especially younger children, their evil roots still exist, they are afraid of punishment hence they follow the tule. After punishment, there are indeed people who change for the better; however it is because they sincerely want to be better, and it has nothing to do with reprimanding or punishment.
Many have this mentality - "If you judge for what I have done, I'll show you what I am capable of doing." If this is what's happening, wouldn't the student behave even worse after the teacher publicly deemed him/her as bad student? The fact is many students are just less bright when they don't excel well academically which is not because they are lazy. However, once we deemed less-bright students as lazy students, they would think that it doesn't matter if they try harder since everyone stereotypes them as a lazy student. This is as if you want river water to be crystal clean despite polluting it by dumping rubbish into it every day.
Therefore, punishment doesn't work. Look at the prisoners, what did they learn from being locked up in the cell? All they have learned is to not get caught net time for the same offenses, eventually when they are released they are still the same old person who doesn't learn from mistakes and change for the better.
What should we do if others have sinned? Are we supposed to praise them for their deeds? Precisely! We should praise and encourage them, I was a chatterbox when I was in elementary and I would talk all day long regardless how much my teacher reprimands and punishes me. However everything changed when I was being elected as the disciplinary monitor, since then I have never uttered a single word during class. I strongly agree on this teacher's method of approaching, people normally heed encouragement but not punishment. Praises and encouragements drive one to perform well, because it makes them eager to perform what you are expecting. Hence don't forget if you want your loved ones to change the for the better, please praise and encourage them!
If the teacher could have just asked the classmates to gather some money to buy Lyn a pencil case after she was asked to apologize, Lyn would not only feel grateful as she would understand what is sacrifice and gratefulness. Besides, it might also change her life, in the future she would influence others on what she has learned about spreading love around. Furthermore, the teacher might educate students on what does love means. Imagine this, if all the students are taught what love is, how much influence can it brings to the society?
This is the reason why our current education system is a great failure. Parents are busy with earning big bucks and hence they have no time to keep track of how their children are doing in school. Teachers only know how to fulfill the entire required syllabus and judge the students based on their academic performance; they're not even a little bothered about the importance of personality shaping.
Education is supposed to develop one's personality. However our society values success with the achievement of status and quality of life. Everyone focuses on children's academic performance rather than educating them to properly develop their personality and to live life in the correct way.
Now some might say, it would be great if someone could just let May know Lyn's past, she would probably forgive Lyn's mistake. This is exactly the message that I want to convey!
To err is human, to forgive is divine. People tend to forgive themselves easily but find it difficult to forgive others. This is because you know what's happening inside yourself but you don't know someone else's side of story.
Buddha says, "There's no person who is truly bad or evil, there's only people with 'bad habit'". Everyone is born as blank sheet or tabula rasa as there are no evil in nature, our surroundings are the ones who shape us who we are today.
In the story, the reason behind why Lyn is always the scapegoat and she has never gained any trust from others is due to the environment that she was exposed and that shaped her personality.
For instance, if you were to be brought up in the red light districts, your dad lives by drinking and visiting prostitutes daily and your mum earns from selling her body. Under this environment your values in life would be deviated and in addition to the people that you would meet under these circumstances would severely affect your behavior. As a result, your 'bad habits' that you have cultivated while growing up would be perceived as rude and improper.
This is why Buddha said, there's no person who is truly bad or evil. The so-called bad people are the ones who are severely affected by the environment that they were brought up from which caused their kind-hearted nature went bad. Eventually, they perceive things in the wrong way and do wrong. I believe everyone has 'bad habit' but most of us have no idea how it became a habit, because habits are formed unconsciously regardless they are good or bad.
If you have completely comprehended this idea, when someone did wrong to you, all you need to do is by letting down your pre-judge mental thought and try to touch the person's heart with a forgiving heart. Treat people by holding on to the belief of 'returning good for evil' as we can help people by changing their lives and we can also do ourselves a favor by eliminating hatred that brings pain and misery.
So far, what is the truth behind the story? Don't assume that Lyn's past explains the truth. We are not God, we would never know the relationship between an individual with another and it is also impossible to find out everyone's past. What I would really like to convey is - everyone makes mistakes. Making mistakes it doesn't mean you have sinned if you don't even know you have done wrong due to your bad habits.
The fact is everyone makes mistakes and everyone wishes to be forgiven. It is inevitable and you're not excluded from the joys and sorrow of meeting and departing with your loved ones and the cycle of life.
Here comes the highlight. Truth to be told all these are known fact, but why can't you just control your temper at that moment? This is because you have wasted all your strength on the thoughts of not being the one who was benefitted in the process. Thoughts are merely thoughts; it couldn't harm nor threaten your life. As if the person would really die if you hated the person so much, it doesn't actually turn out this way, isn't it? Thoughts are merely thoughts, you need not to eradicate the feeling because all you need to do is to be bystander, quietly observe the thoughts and allow it to come and leave naturally.
Not a single person could hold onto their thoughts forever, when it comes all you need to do is to be a soul of a bystander. You would come to realize that the thoughts would only affect your emotion and the time interval between transmitting the thoughts to emotion is extremely short that you wouldn't even have the time to think from the perspective of a bystander. Thus your emotion was reflected without any deep thoughts which result in incorrect judgements. This is just like a small quarrel that blows out of proportion which eventually turns into hate.
What does 'calm' mean? When others are in the midst of a fight, you would ask them to calm themselves down but why can't you do the same when you're the one who is involved? This is because you're viewing things from a bystander perspective when you asked others to calm down. You would be very objective in analyzing the problem because you're not emotionally affected, this is known as "lookers-on see most of the game".
The physical body is like a machine that specifically brings obstacles for you in life as if misleads you in perceiving that this is your true self by constantly producing various emotions. Karma! Karma! That's what we always say. Let me tell you what Karma really means. It comprises the meaning of "building up" and "obstacles". Simply put, Karma means your life is to be filled with obstacles due to the terrible habits that are developed.
For instance, your relationships always turn sour, hence in order to protect yourself from being dishearten once more, you would raise your guard by being extremely suspicious and possessive. Thus in the future even you have the chance to meet someone great, you would still mess things up due to your over suspicious and over possessive trait. These two traits are the habits that cause your life to be filled with obstacles and this is what we call Karma!
If you could have changed your habit, try to observe things wisely, clearly understand to let things be as it is and embrace the joys and sorrow of meeting and departing with your loved ones. This is because all these obstacles in life would instantly disappear into thin air if you practice perceiving things in this way. While analyzing a problem with your true self (soul), you would realize all these thoughts are nothing close to being harmful, this is provided that you're not as foolish to be concerned of it.
The only difference between saint and layman is that saint can perceive things with their true self. Laymen always perceive things negatively because they only distinguish things through the physical body. Having the thought of revenge is karma, because you're trading your happy moments with hatred.
I have never seen anything that could resolve well with an eye for an eye but I have seen many cases that end well with forgiving and embracing others' mistakes.
"Fate brought us together, fate also tear us apart." Meeting and making great ties require us to change our bad habits in order to cherish the given fate whereas bad encounter allows us to learn how to develop good habits and virtues because no pain no gain.
Just remember to let your true self (soul) to be in charge while handling problems and calmly observe the emotions or thoughts that are stirred up by your physical body. By doing so you would be able to lead a happy life.
The first line of the Heart Sutra says, "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing the Prajna-paramita, clearly saw that the five skandhas (senses) are all empty". This is to convey that the form is no other than emptiness and emptiness is no other than form. Form is exactly emptiness and vice versa. It tells us to perceive things through soul with emptiness (like Bodhisattva) and make use of your wisdom (practicing Prajna-paramita) to perceive thoughts that are produced by the five skandhas are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. Ironically, you would come to realize the culprit behind the unhappiness is because of your own emotions, not from the person that you thought that he/she has harmed you. Hence we should keep calm at all times, regardless it's a good or bad incident. You wouldn't want yourself to get carried away and eventually end up with a sting in the tail.
You ought to be calm if you're ought to take control over your thoughts. However you have to constant;y practice. IT is acceptable to get overwhelmed with good news but remember to seek your true self when you're going through difficult times. Seize the moment before your reckless thoughts are expressed through your emotions and regain your calmness before that moment as time goes by, you would be able to seek the Bodhisattva in you.
If you want one to change for the better, praising is the best punishment.
I have never seen one truly change for the better with punishment. Most of the people refrain from doing wrong because they are afraid of the punishment that entails; it is not because they sincerely want to strive better. Especially younger children, their evil roots still exist, they are afraid of punishment hence they follow the tule. After punishment, there are indeed people who change for the better; however it is because they sincerely want to be better, and it has nothing to do with reprimanding or punishment.
Many have this mentality - "If you judge for what I have done, I'll show you what I am capable of doing." If this is what's happening, wouldn't the student behave even worse after the teacher publicly deemed him/her as bad student? The fact is many students are just less bright when they don't excel well academically which is not because they are lazy. However, once we deemed less-bright students as lazy students, they would think that it doesn't matter if they try harder since everyone stereotypes them as a lazy student. This is as if you want river water to be crystal clean despite polluting it by dumping rubbish into it every day.
Therefore, punishment doesn't work. Look at the prisoners, what did they learn from being locked up in the cell? All they have learned is to not get caught net time for the same offenses, eventually when they are released they are still the same old person who doesn't learn from mistakes and change for the better.
What should we do if others have sinned? Are we supposed to praise them for their deeds? Precisely! We should praise and encourage them, I was a chatterbox when I was in elementary and I would talk all day long regardless how much my teacher reprimands and punishes me. However everything changed when I was being elected as the disciplinary monitor, since then I have never uttered a single word during class. I strongly agree on this teacher's method of approaching, people normally heed encouragement but not punishment. Praises and encouragements drive one to perform well, because it makes them eager to perform what you are expecting. Hence don't forget if you want your loved ones to change the for the better, please praise and encourage them!
Thursday, 17 April 2014
Let Go the Past, Live in the Moment and Lead A Happy Future
Observing calmly leads you to the truth, live happily without sorrow.
When you feel as if your emotions are taking over your senses, all you need to do is to view things from the bystander perspective because everything would look so simple and clear when you do so. Emotions are merely the very instant and natural physiological responses that are carried out with only going through the brain process as it doesn't in involve the heart and soul.
What's truth? Let me share a story with you.
May and Lyn are best friends. There's an incident where Lyn was caught red-handed while stealing May's favourite watch, as expected, May was extremely mad and asked the police to handle this incident. Later, May went around spreading the news with all her friends as she wants to ensure that Lyn can't live her life holding her head up high.
For now, let's put down all your opinions and judge mental eyes on this incident as I would like to share Lyn's story.
Lyn's father passed away due to liver cancer when she was in elementary, since then her mother is the family's breadwinner for 3 of the siblings inclusive Lyn. They led a very difficult life. The classmates would tease about Lyn's rag clothes and her poor family.
One day, one of the classmates brought the latest and coolest multifunctional pencil case to school, everyone gathered around with amazement while discussing about the pencil case. Lyn thinks that the pencil case is absolutely beautiful since she doesn't even own one. She asked her friend, "May I have a look at your pencil case?" The friend glanced and said, "You're so filthy! I'm not going to let you touch my pencil case!" When the friend blurted out, everyone teamed up and started to tease Lyn as she is so poor that she's not even able to afford a pencil case.
After some time, one of the classmates' money went missing and eventually the money was found in Lyn's bag. The teacher questioned her, "Why are you stealing your classmate's money?" Lyn said, "I wanted to buy pencil cases for both of my siblings and myself, because everyone teases that I'm so poor that I couldn't even buy a pencil case!"
The teacher was furious and said. "You shouldn't have stolen your classmate's money even if you can't afford to buy one!" In order to punish Lyn's deed, the teacher asked her to be on the pedestal and asked every single classmate to come forward and shout "You're a thief!" " You're a thief!" to humiliate her. Furthermore, the teacher asked Lyn's mother over to notify Lyn's behavior. Her mother was extremely sad and she reprimanded Lyn for what she has done. Things didn't just end at this point, since then as long as anyone lost their belongings, Lyn would be the one to blame. Some who like to make fun of others would intentionally place unimportant things into Lyn's bag to make her look as if she's a thief in her blood. Lyn's mm was utterly broken-hearted as she gave up upon her because she thinks Lyn is such a terrible kid.
All these growth experiences have planted a deep scar on Lyn, as time passed she became the regular scapegoat for all the bad deeds. She thought to herself, "Although I didn't steal, I would still be the one who take the blame and since everyone insists that I'm a thief, I'll just be one!"
3 lessons to be learn from a Pencil.
When you feel as if your emotions are taking over your senses, all you need to do is to view things from the bystander perspective because everything would look so simple and clear when you do so. Emotions are merely the very instant and natural physiological responses that are carried out with only going through the brain process as it doesn't in involve the heart and soul.
What's truth? Let me share a story with you.
May and Lyn are best friends. There's an incident where Lyn was caught red-handed while stealing May's favourite watch, as expected, May was extremely mad and asked the police to handle this incident. Later, May went around spreading the news with all her friends as she wants to ensure that Lyn can't live her life holding her head up high.
For now, let's put down all your opinions and judge mental eyes on this incident as I would like to share Lyn's story.
Lyn's father passed away due to liver cancer when she was in elementary, since then her mother is the family's breadwinner for 3 of the siblings inclusive Lyn. They led a very difficult life. The classmates would tease about Lyn's rag clothes and her poor family.
One day, one of the classmates brought the latest and coolest multifunctional pencil case to school, everyone gathered around with amazement while discussing about the pencil case. Lyn thinks that the pencil case is absolutely beautiful since she doesn't even own one. She asked her friend, "May I have a look at your pencil case?" The friend glanced and said, "You're so filthy! I'm not going to let you touch my pencil case!" When the friend blurted out, everyone teamed up and started to tease Lyn as she is so poor that she's not even able to afford a pencil case.
After some time, one of the classmates' money went missing and eventually the money was found in Lyn's bag. The teacher questioned her, "Why are you stealing your classmate's money?" Lyn said, "I wanted to buy pencil cases for both of my siblings and myself, because everyone teases that I'm so poor that I couldn't even buy a pencil case!"
The teacher was furious and said. "You shouldn't have stolen your classmate's money even if you can't afford to buy one!" In order to punish Lyn's deed, the teacher asked her to be on the pedestal and asked every single classmate to come forward and shout "You're a thief!" " You're a thief!" to humiliate her. Furthermore, the teacher asked Lyn's mother over to notify Lyn's behavior. Her mother was extremely sad and she reprimanded Lyn for what she has done. Things didn't just end at this point, since then as long as anyone lost their belongings, Lyn would be the one to blame. Some who like to make fun of others would intentionally place unimportant things into Lyn's bag to make her look as if she's a thief in her blood. Lyn's mm was utterly broken-hearted as she gave up upon her because she thinks Lyn is such a terrible kid.
All these growth experiences have planted a deep scar on Lyn, as time passed she became the regular scapegoat for all the bad deeds. She thought to herself, "Although I didn't steal, I would still be the one who take the blame and since everyone insists that I'm a thief, I'll just be one!"
3 lessons to be learn from a Pencil.
- Pain always sharpens you!
- Everything you do leaves a mark!
- What's inside you is useful, not what's outside!
If you want to feel rich...simply count the things you have that money cannot buy!
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