THE SIX SENSES 23 April.

See with your Eyes every sight.
Hear with your Ears every sound.
Smell with your Nose every smell.
Taste with your Tongue every taste.
Feel with your Body every Feeling.
Think with your Mind every Thought.

Function pure untrained by Greed or Hatred.
Penetrate deep and mindfully into your experience.
Relish every sensation.
But do not become attached.

Your six senses ---
Be forever liberated by learning best you can from them,
Or be forever trapped by indulging worst you can in them.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING 22 April.

I would think the world is a case of “much ado about nothing.”

Wars are fought and forgotten. What we want we get sometimes, and we soon forget we have them or wanted them… Nothing is ultimately important. This is an aspect of emptiness, things come and go, our desires and hates are fickle. Nothing is concrete enough for you to hold on to give you lasting happiness. And nothing is concrete enough to hold on to you to give you lasting suffering. Letting do leads to True Happiness. Life is then easy and tolerable for the average Buddhist who understands his personal roots of suffering… Then, why is there a “need” to aspire towards the ultimate fruit of countries other beings out there who understand not, that their craving and hatred, out of their delusion, are much ado about nothing. This need in you that you will feel, to become Buddha’s, arises out of Compassion. This is the preciousness of Compassion. It creates Buddha’s --- that creates countless more Buddha’s. It is not much ado about anything at all! It has to do with everything that is precious.

RATIONALIZATION 21 April.

nWe all rationalize here and there, now and then, to the world and to ourselves, to get away, bending, stretching and “re-interpreting reality” to excuse ourselves front the unpleasant aspects of reality about ourselves. This is actually breaking the Fourth Precept, which is about respecting the Truth. All rationalizations “serve” to explain away our negatively thought thoughts, spoken words and deeds. Rationalizations, when done quickly and habitually, become a great enemy of spirituality as it becomes a powerful form of subtle self-deception that is difficult to keep in check in the lack of mindfulness.

There is perhaps no rationalization as dangerous as that lying to oneself --- one can actually lie to oneself without consciously knowing it. One could think one is the light of Wisdom, which is actually the darkness of ignorance. Rationalization is not rational at all. Always keep honesty to oneself and the world in check.

PROFESSIONALISM 20 April.

I realize that these days,
there is much talk about professionalism,
being truly professional in work and related services.
People are impressed by professionalism.
We are even impressed by professional killers in the movies!
There is even this movie on a hired killer called “The Professional!”

I realize that the senses professionalism is
generally “twisted” because we sometimes
see it as an act --- not really sincere,
just a good act.

True professionalism is sincere.
We also tend to see it applying to work only.

SICKNESS, AGEING & DEATH 18 April.

It is amazing that only yesterday, I was thinking about how curious it was that I have not been genuinely sick for a long time, I was wondering if I was fit as a fiddle, such that viruses can’t take over me. And today, most ironically, I started to feel feverish. Wow! I was humbled by the law of karma. In the sense I really can’t tell what my karma entails ahead. I was trying to imagine last night about how sickness felt like and the possibility that I might never feel it again! How vain!

Today, I’m reminded that:

Sickness is sickening! --- (Remember that it feels terrible and can strike anytime)
Ageing is crippling! --- (Old age cripples body and mind bit by bit and this is a process that happens all the time)
Death is deadly! --- (Life is a deadly disease we all die of!)

I feel it in my bones.
Our body will lose the battle someday.
Even the Buddha was no exception.
He advised, “The body can be sick, but the mind should not be.”
This is Samaras,
no matter how advanced technology will be;
there will be sickness (there are always new viruses appearing),
ageing (can be slowed down but still happens) and death.
There is no cure except spiritual cultivation.
I’m saying all this to remind ourselves the reality of sickness, ageing and death.

One who lives without keeping them in mind is most likely to live life in vain.

BAD MOOD 19 April.

Don’t think you have a valid excuse for “bad” behavior when you are moody (in a bad mood). Don’t think you can just say something offensive, followed by, “Sorry, I didn’t mean that, I’m in a bad mood today.” You can’t just walk away like that. Do you expect others to understand that and forgive you --- again and again when you do it again and again? We can control our moods --- we are our master.

Master your Mind
Or be
Mastered by Mind

Not a single angry word slipped out of the Buddha’s lips even when the party He was talking to cursed and swore at HIM. Nope --- no moody blues for He who is ever mindful and is a master of His mind. Don’t want any excuse from you again!

IS-NESS 13 April.

The sky is blue.

The grass is green.

The sky never said it is blue.
Neither did the grass say it is green.

So is the sky blue and the grass green?
Neither did the sky say it is sky nor the grass that it is grass,

So what is the "sky" or "grass" really?
The "sky" and "grass" just IS.
IS-NESS.

The moment you define it, you are wrong --
that is conceptualisation.
Reality is to be experienced -- not conceptualised.

THOUSANDS 11 Apr.

Here are verses hard to find amongst thousands of others-

Better than a thousands hollow words
Is 1 word that brings peace.

Better than a thousand hollow lines
Is 1 line of the law, bringing peace.

It is better to conquer 1-self
Than to win a thousand battles.

- The first four verses of the chapter
"The Thousands" of the Dhammapada (The Buddha)

潘美辰 - SO EASY [如此容易].

潘美辰 - SO EASY [如此容易]
当你对生活感到疲倦
你必须做些改变
许多从来没有做过的事
不妨就尝试一遍
日子会变得新鲜
当你对爱情感到危险
你需要时间考验
或许暂时离开他的身边
给自己换个空间
也不要苦苦相约
SO EASY
只要你放开自己
把一切当作游戏
不要说什么道理不要怀疑
FOLLOW ME
唱一首快乐的歌
来一段轻松摇摆
给心情一个彩旗把烦恼全部抛弃
SO EASY。。。。。
FOLLOW ME。。。。。
.
This is very nice song.

INSIGHT 5 Apr.

Never assume, or be proud, when you realize a certain truth, that you alone had arrived at a unique spiritual insight. The Truth is not presented. There is only one reality and there are countless Buddha�s who had realized it already.

Be glad that you are one step closer and continue stepping forward. Do not think that you are one step ahead of others --- that is your ego playing tricks --- you are not out to win others in attending Enlightenment first. Your Enlightenment is for the others --- we are all one body. Your one big step to your personal Enlightenment might be just a small step to the Enlightenment of all.

FAULTS 4 April.

I realized only recently how easily I dismiss my own misgivings. The major misgivings I tone down, telling myself inside, “Nay --- it’s not that bad --- get over it, In no time, I forgive myself. It is so easy to fool myself that that is being compassionate to myself when actually it is a spiritually unhealthy suppression of healthy conscience. When roles are reversed, our attitudes often reverse. When someone lets us down in some way, we might magnify this misgiving and hang on to it, grumbling and cursing then inside. Forgiving, not to say forgetting, becomes hard. It seems that he who forgives himself the easiest is sometimes one who forgives others the hardest. This twisted attitude pivots upon the ego. It makes us too quick to judge others and too slow to check ourselves. The path to perfection would be to give ourselves no excuses when we go wrong while keeping an open mind, “giving reasonable excuses” to why others go wrong.

This reminds me of the often quoted Dhammapada verse 50: “Look not at deeds left done undone by others; but look at the deeds left done and undone by oneself.” This means holding a mirror to oneself, constantly reflecting on one’s conduct; not holding it out to face others all the time to show then their misgiving. I feel that there is much meaning in this verse because we are already too often unmindful to check our own thoughts, words and deeds. The more time you spend having your vigilant eye on others, passing unconstructive judgement of contempt, the more you are not being mindful of yourself. Then are few ways to go off track so easily.

If we already have trouble holding impure thought about others? So do we keep quiet when others are “obviously wrong?” Not necessarily, the moment someone else presents before us a misgiving, we should reflect whether we make the same mistake before correcting him. And any “correction” should be apt and constructive, compassionately offered with no hatred or grudge. Remember --- no one is faultless (as long as unenlightened). It is the continual seeing of faultless on others, missing one’s own, that become a fault in itself.

BOWING 3 Apr.

Why do some Buddhists not bow when they come across a Buddha image? Do they not remember the significance of bowing? It is to pay our homage to the Supreme One while humbling ourselves so that we can be more willing to learn. We all know well that that is just a block of wood, ceramic or metal. However, in the moment of bowing, the Buddha image is envisioned to be the Buddha Himself. It is taken to represent Him because the Buddha is not visibly around now, and humans are creatures that need images for remembrance. Why not bow when it takes only a little time and a little effort? There are the two common causes (besides sheet laziness) why one does not:

One is attached to the ego and thus detaches from ceremony, as bowing helps to reduce the ego.

One is already detached from the ego and thus sees no point in bowing.

Don’t ever overlook this simple gesture of devotion. It is often not enough for us to just understand the observances in Buddhism; we need to do them to truly benefit from them.

It should be noted that it is still possible for a Buddhist to bow with lots of pride in his bowing, bursting with ego!

Which category do you belong to?

KNOWING 1 Apr.

The Truth is what you know. If you do not know, you only choose to believe in something that might, or might not be the Truth. Be without choosing. Why play the guessing game? A correct guessing is still only a guessing. To the Enlightenment is to be "choicelessly knowing," with no alternative knowledge or doubt. Be in the light. Know the Truth. Don't just agree with the Enlightened: become Enlightened.

Angels [天使].

I spotted this short mandarin blurb in my friend’s
blog and thought it was really meaningful.


世间每个男同志都是天使 ,
生活在天堂 , 无忧无虑
当他决定去爱一个人 ,
便会折断翅膀 , 堕落在人间
所以不要让爱你的男人伤心 ,
因为他已没有翅膀再回天堂 …..

Here’s my wimpy translation.

It is said that all gays are angels
who led a carefree life heaven with no worries
Once they decided to love a human,
they will lose their wings to be on earth
Remember not to hurt the man you love.
Without his wings, he can no longer return to heaven...