FEB 16

~ unknown
I was in Hong Kong. My marriage was going badly, my youngest daughter had died from sudden infant death syndrome two years earlier, and in every way I was not happy. We returned to America and at Stanford Business School I saw a sign for tai chi and signed up. That began to calm my body, but my heart remained sorrowful and confused. I separated from my wife and tried various forms of meditation to calm myself. Then a girlfriend introduced me to her meditation master, who invited me to a retreat. The room was formal and silent as we all sat hour after hour. On the second morning, suddenly I saw myself standing looking at my daughter's grave, with a shovelful of red earth being thrown on it. Tears came and a wail rose from me. the other students nearby hissed and whispered " Shut up," but the master came over and told them to be still and held me for a time. And I wept and blubbered, filled with grief all morning. That was how it began. Now, thirty years later, I am the one holding those who weep.

The Persian poet Rumi 
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture.

Still treat each guest honorably,
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

(Please express your thought on this poem if you have some. )

these wandering distorted thoughts are like tidal waves, as they come into our mind, they eventually subside if we know of their presence. Trying to stop or build on them, we tend to suffer with regrets. Be aware of your awareness, nothing will hurt and harm us.

When mercury is dropped on the ground, its very nature is to remain intact; it never mixes with the dust.
The defilements and attachments that we have are like dust, so confusing and defiled that we have difficult to sort them out accordingly or to detach them. As long as you are able to identify your true self has a nature like mercury, you will able to see the reality of living. You are not that far from reaching the opposite shore. ( 2 cents opinion )

FEB 15

One day a blind nun needed to sew her clothes and she couldn't put a thread through the hole of a needle. She asked for help. All the monks and nuns had gone out their round of alms. Lord Buddha heard her. He came down from his seat and helped the blind woman. The nun was pleased and she asked," Who are for so kind to me?" " It is me." The nun got a shock, " Master you had completed you full enlightenment, why you bother to do such a small deed for me.?" Lord Buddha asked," There is no end to accumulate good merits, no matter at what level you have attained."
Hence we can see that to accumulate merits and cultivation our compassion have to be going on forever.

Learn to live a meaningful and fruitful life where all your friends can have you as an umbrella when it is raining and a key to open their doors of happiness when they feel depressed.

My master said," In life, 1) somebody con us.
2) we con somebody. 3) we con ourselves."
We con ourselves most of the time thinking we are the best person and we always doing good, we are honest and we are generous. Is it true? we make our own judgement.
We con somebody because we need them to help us, we want their love and we want them to be our good friends.
Some body con us most of the time we thought they are good to us, we thought they can help to make some money and we were not smart enough to know their tricks.
There are hundred reasons for us to fall into this situation.
So my master said," unless and until you can free and able to get rid of the five poisons; greed, anger, ignorance (naive), pride and doubtful, then none of those cons will happen to you." Please give your views if you think the about statement made by my master is not true. ( 2 cents opinion )

During my younger day, I was quite ignorant and naive and I don't much about life and I don't why enjoy every moment of my life. One day a friend gave me a card and it said," Sky and Earth are our teachers." I pondered for a long time. I couldn't understand the meaning this phrase. One day while I was walking in the reservoir, full of trees and fallen leaves. I sat on a bench and started to thinkwhy the trees were so green and alive. " Where can they get the 'food' from for them to grow?" Such a silly question. I looked at the fallen leaves again, I noticed these leaves were decaying and some of them looked more like soil. Suddenly I saw a flash in my mind. Oh! These decayed leaves were their 'food'.
After this incident, I realized that I can actually learn all of things from nature- " Sky and Earth are our teachers."

FEB 14

I seek permission from this person before I began to write this message asking for help.
"Stepping out of my comfort zone as the realization of needing help is clear. Wondering what it would take to receive the help? Humbly requesting information regarding the health of my physical body and the advise to proceed. Recent night sweats are allowing questions to surface about the health of the physical body. Would a consultation be possible?"
I check on her photo, I saw green patches appeared on her forehead.
" I can detect your head has some problem. Do you do any sort of healing for somebody or you learning some kind of a spiritual healing? " I asked her.
" Thank you! Yes, been feeding the mental body with loads of information Most recently Divine Healing Hands practitioner, Access Consciousness Facilitator. Previously studied Pranic Healing...but have not gotten entrenched or disciplined. I do not have a clear path. much gratitude! mma
ps biggest pain is in the emotional body regarding my 4 daughters who are choosing something other than their mom... " She replied.
So I advised to take sun bath, salt bath and flower bath.
" Surrender everything you have learn to God and learn to forgive youself. Please don't do or learn healing anymore. Leave thing to God. Buddha said he couldn't help anyone. Only you yourself can help yourself. Can I write your story out to warn others. I will not mention any name."
I have many friends who practice any form of spritual healings got themselves and family ino trouble. She has a beautiful soul and a kind heart. It is dangerous to deal with the unknown forces.

Until and unless you know what forces or karma that hit such a person, you can not teach them the mantras. Most of friends who did spiritual headings have themselves and family members badly hit by unknown sicknesses and financial problems. Just learn to be a good person will do. Please don't meddle yourselves with unknown forces even though you have a kind heart.

FEB 13

The world is an acting stage. You act different roles at different time. Just be it will do. Don't take thing to heart and remain still and silence if you can. Nothing from external and internal can effect your true self. Sometimes stand like a rock to resist the wind blowing, and sometimes flow like a river with love and kindness to harmonise the world.

See the faults of others are like seeing yourself altogether. Use these as a mirror for your own reflection. Bravely identify all your mistakes made and transform yourself entirely and you will onlysee the good of others.

For young students, you need to work hard to earn a degree and contributed back to society when you can earn an handsome salary. At the same time to learn to balance your internal self and have a peace of mind, you need to look for your own spiritual path. There is no contradiction in learning physical and spiritual knowledge and wisdom at the same time. Earning more money is not evil. Abuse the using of money is evil. With more money that you have earned, you can help to build schools, hospitals, home for the old and the orphans. You can do a lot of wonder if you can make full use of the money for the society, nation or the whole world. Spiritual learning helps you to create a balance and harmornised life. With the clear and powerful mind, you can move on to build a Pureland here for everyone. ( 2 cents opinion)

When the wise one wrote the verses that move our minds, words that compel us to think, thoughts that shame us to change and ideas that crystallise our feelings and if all these remain ink and paper if unapplied, we have just lost our souls to the other demonic world

Can learning how to meditate help me improve my everyday personal performance skills and interpersonal relationships?
Meditation is an attentive art. When we train our attentive capacities through regular meditative practices, we begin to develop enhanced degrees of emotional clarity and stability. These in turn help us to identify our own emotions and to realise how we can modify our behavioral responses in ways that are more adaptive.
Moreover, meditation is increasely linked with a variety of health benefits. Examples include an improved ability to relax, lower blood pressure, and enhanced antibody responses to an influenza vaccination.
~ Meditating selflessly

FEB 12

On the eve of Chinese New Year, someone called me to give treatment to her sister who was suffering pain on her right shoulder and head. Her son came to pick me up to the house. As usual this kind of patient had already seen a western doctor and a chinese physician. Her sickness was quite serious that she might get a stroke. I gave some tips to prevent her from getting a stroke.I am always the last resort to see such patient.
After the treatment, she gave me a few fifty dollars notes. I told her she had given me too much money. I just took a fifty dollar from her.
My students found me very strange. For some patients I would recieve payment and for some others, I did it free for them. I always did free for all my students. At time I gave them some money to take a taxi back home.
So I explained to them. Most of them whom I recieved payment came from very rich families. Before they came to see me they had already spend so much money on so many other doctors. Those who are poorer than me, I gave them free treatment. I told them that there is skills which I had learnt from my master to read a person's mind whether he is rich or poor. I take money from the rich to maintain my daily expediture and I help the poor by providing them a free service.

The pureland is within us. There is no coming or going. The moment of death is the moment of rebirth unless we are totally liberated. We only leave our shelter( body ) of no more use behind. We will meet each others again if our karmic affinity is present.

How deep is your mind? And how deep is your heart? I don't know. But I can explain how deep and spacious we are. Think about how many books we have read and our mind can store a whole library of books in it. We can store how many cart-loads or lorries of rice, meat, vegetables ,fruits and many other edible food in our body. Now you realise why we say our heart and mind are boundless and spaceless. So is compassion, kindness and love are also abundance which can share with all the people of the whole world. Aren't we great?

FEB 11

Contributed by Evelyn Leonard Wright 
Now consider this: Life is the tea; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life. The type of cup one has does not define, nor change the quality of life a person lives. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the tea. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly...... And enjoy your tea.

Lord Buddha mentioned that doubt or scepticism is one of the poisons. Most people are doubtful by nature due to ignorance or lacking of knowledge or wisdom. At the same time people made use of your ignorance to con you especially most advertisments are not truthful nowadys. As a result people are more careful with things happening around them. If you have the confidence with someone or something, you need to clear your doubt, and trust him and follow your practice faithfully. For instance, if you want happiness, you make others happy. So if it is true, then you need to practice it. If you find the path of Buddha or Jesus is true and suitable for you to practice, you need to follow it through and get rid of our scepticism together.

Accumulate good merits and cultivate compassion will lead you to where wisdom is. Wisdom which is like a bird will fly high once the wings of merits and compassion are strong and enduring enough.

The pride that Lord Buddha was saying is quite subtle. The moment you feel that your teacher's knowledge is questionable, you already have a pride in you. When you choose what to hear from your friends and ignore them, you also have the pride. So as a spiritual seeker, you need to be cautious about your own attitude towards your friends and also reflect upon yourself. I always prefer to read whatever my friends are posting carefully and pick up all the gems. Once my feeling thinking I could write better and my posts are more meaningful than others, I will fall into a pit of prideness and may lead me astray. This subtleness of being proud needs to be checked and reflected all the time.

FEB 10

There are too many intellectualls in this world
Who studied far and wide and know a lot of things.
But they don't know their original true nature
And thus are wandering far from the way.
Even if they explain reality in great detail
Of what avail are all those empty formulae?
If in one instant you remember your essential nature
The Buddha's insight opens up to you.

~ Hanshan

Lord Buddha listed five main poisons, greed, anger, ignorance, doubt and pride. Why he put greed at the first on his listing? Greed can be meant desires. There are many types of desires, good, bad, selfish, big or little desires. However any form of greed will lead us to suffering eventually.
Even like a subtle good desire to study Dharma and seek wisdom will lead us to suffering if we can't achieve it. Of course greed like having a lot of money, a beautiful car and a good career will lead us to greater disappointment and suffering.
Hence the wise after gaining something will detach and let go of it. Their heart and mind remain light and blissful. As Lord Buddha always said, " The moment you reach the opposite shore, you need to let go the raft that brings you across." He also taught us how to convert or transform our greed by being generous and give and share with those who are in need and unfortunate.

' The fire of anger can burn away all the merits you have accumulated in the aeons of many past life.'
There are many ways in which a person can get angry. Those who suffer from liver problems, those who overwork themselves with the date line to meet the targets, whose who are in constant stress and are not able to sleep well and also those who have very bad and hot temperament. In order to overcome anger one needs watch one thought and let it to subside back to its source. If one follows and build up the force of anger, one can lead oneself into bad consequences and unforgivable regrets. Lord Buddha had taught us how to overcome our anger.The best method is to watch our thoughts and develop loving-kindness and compassion. Spend time with family members and shower our love and concerns to them. First we have firmly established our kindness and compassion, then we can move on to share such values with our friends and others. ( 2 cents opinion )

The next issue on ignorance that Lord Buddha was talking about is not easy to understand it fully. Intelligence is a great different from wisdom. Ignorance can meant not knowing deep enough on any subject. For example when someone told me that Tai Chi is meant only for the older folks or say that Tai Chi can cure sickness or cancer, I will just keep quiet and walk away. I have a relative who believes that eating sour-sop, a kind of tropical fruit can prevent cancer, is now suffering colon cancer. I heard another story about a young child who was sick. The parents refused to let the child to see a doctor. They just prayed to God and believed that God would come to save their child.
Hence Buddha advised people to sit quietly and do good deeds so that their wisdom would open up one day so that they can adapt themselves to different kinds of situations and able to find the right sources to handle their problems. Ignorance is breeding ground for superstition!