Sep 19

1.Many people who practice the dharma think of serving and helping others with good intention. However, they just practice using their mind and they believe that they have done good. My master used to say if you don't act, it is of no use, soon whatever thoughts which are in your mind will soon be rotten. When more cabbages stored in side you, will one day effect your mood badly.

2.

We are housed inside this shelter, not knowing that the real me is boundless and spaceless. We change from shelter to shelter going through all four seasons of hardship and pains not realising how to move away from the cycle of birth and de

ath. We remind ourselves we must do something to avoid such continuous struggles. But the moment, we have good food, better house to live in, with more money coming to our bank account and so many luxurious items coming, we quickly forget the pains and struggle. Merrily we still go on with the tide of up and down of this samsara cycle

3

In order to have the clarity to view and understand our true self is to unload what we have accumulated through the years of collections of knowlege and information that come from books, lectures and seminars. Those talks and articles which

 we have read or heard are just a guide line for us to see our own light and not for storing it or use what we know as gossips during a party or have a meeting among our friends. Only through the silence and stillness in our meditation will one day help us to go deep inside to realise our true nature.

4

Contributed by Pema Yangzom 
It is important to realize that there is nobody else who can wake us up and save us from samsara. There is no such thing in Buddhism. That may be Buddhism’s biggest drawback, and at the same time its greatest ad

vantage. This view shows us that there is nobody else in control of our lives, our experiences, our freedom or our bondage. Who is responsible? Who is in control? It is us. We are in control. We can bind ourselves further in samsara or we can free ourselves from it right now. It is all up to us. We are the ones who have to keep looking at our thoughts, looking for the nature of our mind. There is no guru, deity, buddha or bodhisattva out there to look for it for us. Although they would happily do this, it would not help us; it would only help them. We have to do it for ourselves. That is the key point.

–from Mind Beyond Death, by Dzogchen Ponlop

5

A master who has learned Reiki messaged to me from oversea sending me regards. I was quite please with her politeness. She has a beautiful soul. So I wanted to test her level in Reiki by asking her to send me her energy. Before her energy r

eached me, my own internal energy responded. So she could my energy hovering over our crown chakra. Actually I wanted to help her to clear her blockages in order to tune all her chakras in alignment. However the cosmic energy can not penetrate her crown chakra. So I told her that she needs to let go all her defilements and attachments.
I explained to her all these methods of sending energy like mere toys in the eyes of Lord Buddha and all the Tao grandmasters. Lord Buddha once said he himself could not change the karma of anyone, he could teach them the skillful means to accept the karma accordingly.
If you start sending energy to heal someone, you are trying to interfere with someone's karma. Then as a result, you may have to face certain bad consquences. Once you find your true self, you will know the reality of living here and the use of energy.

6.

Contributed By Fenny chong and Mam Kanyaphat 

The correct understanding of Buddhism and its true meaning of offerings and worship
A statue of the Buddha with its hands resting gently in its lap and its compassionate smile reminds us to str

ive to develop peace and love within ourselves. The perfume of incense reminds us of the pervading influence of virtue, the lamp reminds us of the light of knowledge, and the flowers, which soon fade and die, reminds us of impermanence. When we bow we express our gratitude to the Buddha for what his teachings have given us. This is the meaning of Buddhist worship.
~ Ven S Dhammika.

7

I was having a conversation with one of Tai chi members just now. She was so concerns with older people working in the canteens or coffee shops collecting plates and cups and wiping the tables. Why they had to work at this age, about 65 years old or more. She felt pity for them because she found most of them were so old that they could be tired easily. There was no one to help them. 
I told her th

at many people, eating there also, took pity on these older people. But they just kept this thinking in their mind by not doing any thing to ease their jobs.
Is it the real compassion and loving-kindness these people are showing to the older folks? This is not because this kind of thinking will rot in their minds.
I told that every morning without fail, I would go down for my breakfast and sometimes lunch at the same coffee shop for a few months. One day this older lady, more than 70 years old, looking so weak came to my table to collect the bowl. She told me I was the only customer who was neat in my eating and that I put all my unwanted pieces of bones and food back into the bowl for her to collect. Other customers will dirty the whole table by throwing pieces of unwanted food all over the table and she needed to clean up the whole table and collect all the cabbages.
This is what I mean showing compassion and loving-kindness by action and not just thinking about it.