OCT 1

1

Listen to your heart singing the most beautiful truth. Let your mind rest in silence otherwise it creates fear and negative thoughts that spoit your day.

2

Contributed by Carol Mickelsen 
I don't know if I am "all the way" awakened, because when things happen "close to home" that are painful, it still hurts a lot. But I do understand what it means on some level. And that understanding helps me, even though I still have the initial emotional reactions, I don't stay in them and stay in anger or sorrow for as long as I would if I had no understanding at

 all. So I can accept what happens and know that even the perceived or experience suffering is not permanent, and will in the long run be a help to me, rather than hurting me permanently. Does that make sense?
( Yes it makes sense, most people are always caught unaware of such situations and they feel horrible and painful. )

3

~ Muso Kokushi
Spiritual Malpractice.
One may enter into the sphere of influences of demons as a result of spiritual exercises and experiences.
When a person takes pride in spiritual practices or experiences, that indivual is certain to fall into the sphere of influence of demons. This is not the fault of the practice itself but of attitude of the practitioner. Those who undertake spiritual practi

ces with wrong ideas, or develop wrong views in the course of practice, and those who become conceited and oppose the doctrines or methods of others, enter states of mind and modes of being that may be referred to as "hell."
( Lord Buddha before he ended his last breath, told all his disciples to follow the precepts and all rules and regulations of his teachings so they would not go astray and fall into the traps set by demons. Hence we need to remind each other as we go along the rightful path.)

4

~ Muso Kokushi
Possession
People who undertake spiritual exercises with a sense of acquisitiveness, even with regard to " spiritual states, " are really doing the of demons, even if they feel they are being spiritual. Those who seek knowledge and extraordinary powers for the sake of personal gain and fame are also doing the work of demons.
When people are posessed by such inner demons, they may b

ecome receptors of external forces that artificially boost their intellectual or psychic powers for a time. Not realising that it is a false and deceptive condition, such people attribute this to themselves and become all the more conceited and possessed by the demons.
( Be aware of such masters who claim that they can make you rich and powerful. Please help to check with one other in the spiritual learning. Humility is still the best policy.)

5

Enlightenment does not, therefore, refer to academic knowledge of the various teachings of Buddhism. Enlightenment means having gotten rid of ignorance and attained unconditional liberation.
( In fact Enlightenment is already within us, due to our ignorance, we tend to seek it in the outer world. So a miss is a mile away.)

6

~ Muso Kokushi
Scholastic Learning
Scholastic learning can be a definite hindrance to real knowledge, especially when it is associated with self-importance. This applies both to literalists and to theoretical interpreters.
In Buddhist terms, to be learned in the real sense means to understand meaning. The real meanings of buddhism are beyond conceptual images and verbal expression.

( My master used to say that the true dharma can only be realised by closing up your five doors, remaining in silence and stillness and learn to transform the five poisons that followed you from the past into five wisdoms.)

6

The outer world provides you with the materistic, high-tech experiences and know-how for survival purposes and the inner world enlightens you to go back to the real peaceful source eventually.

Sep 30

1

Meditation is not a religion. Meditation is not some strange or foreign practice that requires you to alter your beliefs, reject your culture, or change your religion. Meditation is not a religion at all, but rather a practical, scientific, and systematic technique for knowing yourself on all levels. Meditation does not belong to any culture or religion of the world, but is a pure and simple method of exploring the inner dimensions of life and finally establishing oneself in one's own essential nature. The system of meditation promotes inner spirituality, not any particular religion. Meditation should be practiced as a pure technique, in a systematic, orderly way.
~ Swami Rama

2

~ Muso Kokushi
Virtue without wisdom
Virtue without wisdom is said to be an enemy for three lifetimes.
When the time is passed in ignorance, doing only contaminated good, virtue in hopes of reward, it is therefore not possible to clarify the true ground of mind. This is the enemy of the first lifetime.
As a result of contaminated virtue, pleasurable states eventually develop. Still in the realm of

 emotion, they occasion a deepening of mundane attachments. These attachments become influences toward greedy and possessive behaviour. This the enemy of the second lifetime.
When the pleasurable states are worn out, while the force of ignorance has not been diminished but rather increased habitual attachment to the rewards of virtue, the fall from the state of elevation of feeling produces negative reactions. this the enemy of the third lifetime.
( Be aware of doing good from the pure state of mind and using your wisdom to deliver it with no thinking of rewards.)

3

~ Muso Kokushi
Quelling Demons 
A simple method of quelling demons is to refrain from clinging to anything mentally. this is illustrated by an ancient story, in which a strange person used to roam around the grounds of a hermitage of a certain meditation master. Sometimes he would appear as a Buddhist saint, sometimes as a celestial king, sometimes radiating extraordinary light, sometimes uttering

 strange sayings. This continued for ten years, and then it sstopped.
The meditation master told his disciples, " A celestial demon had beec coming here to bother me, but no matter waht appearance it created, I dealt with it by not looking or listening. The demon's manifestation had an end, but my not looking and not listening have no end."
( Meditators, please bear in mind, whatever you see or hear in the form of Buddha are not true. So just ignore it- Diamond sutra said.)

4

Living beings " become" enlightened beings in one sense when they realise their true nature and find that many feelings about living are implanted by conditioning and not part of the real individual. But becoming an enlightened being does not mean becoming a zombie, or having no personality. It does not even mean having no emotion, thoughts, or afflictions. it means being free in the midst of it all, being master of yourself, able to use or not use at will whatever elements of possiblility are available to you as individual.
Therefore becoming enlightened means consciously making cause and effect work and not to be enslaved to any of these elements.

Sep 29

1

My master used to say that meditation is simple if you can take it like drinking a cup of tea, noticing its warmth, taste and fragrance. You are already using much of your senses. Whether you sit down, stand up, walking or lying down, you should feel the differences of these actions. Ask yourself why you keep on changing from one posture to the next for the whole day. What kind of feelings to you

 have and the reasons why you do it. By following all these actions your mind is preoccupied with your whole event for a day and you will experience lesser thoughts running in your mind. So in fact you are cultivating your awareness and mindfulness with such actions performed by yourself for the whole day. If you can add a bit of reflection using your mind every night before you sleep, you will not miss to do only wholesome deeds for a day. So you can see that by this means of meditation, you also accumulate a lot of merits for yourself. ( 2 cents opinion )

2

My master used to say," Don't seek enlightenment through me and I can't help you. The special gem is in you. He can talk, eat and sleep. He is the true one you must pay attention to. You can't find Him because you are covered by layers and layers of your defilement. This defilement is like clouds. On some occasions when the clouds move off, you begin to see a glimpse of Him like sun shining so brightly. However the time for you to see Him (Buddha nature) is too short and the clouds again covered up the sun. The only way is to enhance your awareness and a long span of comcentration and mindfulness and of course accumulate more merits as you go along "

3

~ Swami Rama
" You are a citizen of two worlds," he began," the world within and the world without. To be a successful person you will need to understand how to build a bridge between these two worlds. Extreme views are not helpful to the world, nor are they helpful in your own life. It is best to gain control of your thoughts, sensations, emotions and urges."
" Control does not mean stopping these things entirely, or over-indulging," he continued. " Control means balance. To achieve it, calm down parts of the mind that are running so fast. You will need to rest the entirety of your mind, and for that you should learn a new way of knowing yourself. That method of inner knowing is called meditation."

4

~ Swami Rama
" What is meditation, after all?" we seemed to be asking.
Swami Rama frequently referred to meditation as a channeling of consciousness. By this, of course, he did not mean psychic channeling. " Like the banks of a river," he said, " meditation channels awareness to be aware of itself. As with other actions you perform, meditation is a systematic process. When you understand the proce

ss, it becomes more reliable and leads to deeper experiences." The approach to meditation is organised so that it focuses first on the body, next the breath, then the senses, and finally the mind. " No jumping! Follow the plan in a systematic way. and it will bear fruit in its own time. If you are performing the method correctly, then it cannot fail to help you."

5

~ Swami Rama
" Practice regularly every day," he reminded students sitting with him near his ashram along the banks of the Ganges. " Make your ego travel toward the center of consciousness. Know that you are peace, happiness, and bliss. Freedom is your essential nature. Experience this again and again so that it becomes assimilated."
He added," Meditation and its practice is an introduction to a w

ay of understanding life's journey and the mysteries of existence. It is timeless. The techniques are systematic. Its subject, of course, is your own self-transformation. I hope that your interest in meditation will blossom, because with this practice, despites the occasional blows delivered by daily affairs, life does become tranquil."

6

Very little of the mind is cultivated by our formal educational system. The part of the mind which dreams and sleeps, the vast realm of unconscious which is the reservoir of all our experiences, remain unknown and undisciplined.
We are taught how to move and behave in the outer world, but we are never taught how to be still and examine what is within us. At the same time, learning to be calm and s

till should not be made a ceremony or religious ritual. When learn to sit still, we attain a kind of joy that is inexplicable. The highest of all joys that can ever be experienced by a human being can be attained through meditation. All the other joys in the world are momentary, but the joy of meditation is immense and everlasting. This not exaggeration; it is simply stating a truth supported by the long line of great sages, both those who renounced the world and attained truth, and those who continued living in the world yet remained unaffected by it.
~ Swami Rama

7

The mind does not really know how to be in the present, here and now. Only meditation teaches us to fully experience the now, which is our link with eternal. When, with the help of meditative techniques, the mind is made one-pointed and inward, it attains the power of penetrating into the deeper levels of our being. Then the mind does not create any distractions or deviations, and fully achieves t

he power of concentration, which is a prerequisite for meditation. How fortunate are those who become aware of this fact and begin to meditate. Even more fortunate are those who continue to meditate, and the most fortunate are those few who have determined that meditation is the top priority in their life, and practice regularly.
~ Swami Rama

Sep 28

1.

Happiness wakes us up amd makes us aware of even the smallest details, in life and in the world around us. Claude Monet said that he found his true inspiration in nature and instead of keeping it to himself he shared that inspiration through his painting, a true gift to all of us. There is so much inspiration for happiness to be found in nature- look at the generosity of the honey bee. The 
honeyc

omb is a thing of engineering beauty; how could such a small being create such a masterpiece? And then as bee goes about its day collecting nectar to make honey, it helpfully transfers pollen from one plant to another; what an act of generosity. Many crops in the world are still pollinated by the humble bee. I think this gives so many people great happiness and inspires them to do all they can to help save the bees, which are so precious.
~Gyalwang Drukpa

2

~Gyalwang Drukpa
Replace ego with humility
The key characteristic while practising non-attachment is humility. Before we we can learn anything and recieve knowledge we need to first lessen our pride and then become humble. This humility is developed through non-attachment. If you are still attached to your body, your looks, youth, wealth or whatever, there is no way you can be humble.
If you lack

 of humility, your pride is like a big round balloon. Everything slides off; it can't hold on to anything. And because there is no substance, even a little needle can pop it. Pride is always the same: it's big, sometimes huge, but without solidity. It boasts ' I am this, I am that,' enlarging its self-image. If someone says something our pride doen't want to hear, either it falls apart under the merest pressure or puffs up and declares ' I am better than this person, who do they think they are anyway?'
Because of pride, you close the chance of receiving, while humility makes you open to everything. Whatever you want to know, whatever people say to you. you listen and accept.

3

Everyone has a key on his own. It is whether you wish to open your heart with your key or your rather still wanted to lock up yourself. No one can help you. Opening your heart will give you the boundless happiness and joy with a bright future waiting for you. Closing up yourself only provides you with misery and sorrow and your future is alway dimmed.

4

The moment of death is another moment of rebirth. This cycle just goes on. Attached to this cycle there is six realms of existence. If you have done a lot of good deeds, the next rebirth will a king or a rich person and if you have hurt lot of people even if you are a high monk or president or a rich man, you next rebirth could be a hungry ghost or animal. the cycle will go on and on and your karma will decide where you are born and what existence of life you will be facing. In order to jump off this cycle of rebirth, the Buddha's Noble Eightfold path is a correction solution that helps to get rid of this ocean of samara and get yourself the real freedom.

5

When the light in your heart is dimmed, you can't see your own defilements and lust. It takes years of metta ( loving-kindness) mediation to help you to see that your heart -light been brightened up. It is just like awakened from a deep, long sleep. Then you have a glimpse of your true nature. However when your luck turns to be good, you start all your nonsense again. At this moment you fall back to sleep again. So there is no end to the sleeping and dreaming. Poor souls!

6

" Master, I don't want to detach from my family, my friends, my job and things like house, car and so many of my personal belongings."
My master replied, " Your understanding of detachment is wrong. You only need to detach unwholesome actions, speech and thinking. You need to detach things like anger, jealousy, greediness, taking advantages of others, scheming to hurt and harm others, bad and viol

ent temperament. Only when you can slowly detach all these negative defilements, wrong desires, lust and so on, you will find you living more and more happy. All your friends will like to come near you and show you their respect and gratefulness especially if you have spend time helping and guiding to the right path. You will be a lighthouse guiding all the ships coming to shore safely."

7

Sep 27

1

My master loves to tell me stories. One day while Lord Buddha with his disciples was walking past a village, the village head immediately asked Lord Buddha to stay at his house for a few days to give talks to his villagers. When the people nearby heard about the news, they quickly loaded with barrels of oil to offer to Buddha. The rich ones came with carts load of barrels of oil and the less riche

r ones came with a few barrels.
One poor woman begger also heard about this news. She who wanted to have a glimpse of Lord Buddha would like to offer a light to him. She was too poor and had no money to buy some oil. She cut away her beautiful long hair and sold it for a few cents just enough for her to get some oil to light up a little lamp for Buddha. That night everybody was happily lighted up their lamps and offered them to Buddha while listening to his talk.Suddenly a gust of wind blew in and all the lamps were blown off except the begger's lamp still lighted up brightly. They were wondering why? Buddha started to explain to the crowd. He said," This woman came to me with a deep faith and a sincere devoted heart. She sacrificed her most precious hair just to get the money to buy a bit of oil to offer to me with no thought of having any return. That is why her lamp is lighted on."

2

Expecting nothing, you got everything. Everything is within you.

3

To be able to share what you have is the greatest joy on earth. Sharing of happiness, wealth, knowlege and wisdom bring the friendships and the world closer. However there are people out there for self-gains create problems, chaos, distractions and false views to separate people's unity and disallow them to have harmony and a peaceful life. You know who they are. I am so worry that in the end of their life, these selfish people will have to pay a tremendous debt for the bad karma they have created for themselves.

4

'Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on your self.' Ralph Waldon Emerson

Happiness is what bond us together. We all have the equal desire to have happiness and at the same time we don't want to feel the pain or sorrow. And yet this is something we rarely think about or truly understand. By remembering that every single person wants the same thing, we can b

egin to understand happiness as something full of compassion and generosity, rather than a selfish search for pleasure, for fullfilling our own desires.
As the Buddha said, " Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never ceases by being shared." Happiness makes you a good human.

Sep 26

1.

~ Jack Engler
Madhuri who had mild developmental delays, went to Dipa Ma, and Dipa Ma gave her the basic instructions ( to plce her attention on the rise and fall of the abdomen with each inhalation and exhalation and) to note herself" rising, falling,rising,falling."
Madhuri said," Okay," and started to go home, down four flights of stairs and across the alley to her department. She didn'y get ha

lfway down the stairs before she forgot the instructions. So back she came.
" What was I supposed to do?" She asked.
" Rising, falling,rising, falling," said Dipa Ma.
" Oh, yes, that's right."
Four times, Madhuri forgot the instructions and had to come back. Dipa Ma was very patient with her. It took Madhuri almost a year to understand the basic instruction, but once she got them, she was like a tiger. Before she begin to practice, Madhuri was bent over a ninety-degree with arthritis, rheumatism, and intestinal problems. When I met her, after her enlightment experience, she walked with a straight back. No more intestinal problems. She was the simplest, sweetest, gentle woman.

 

2

Cultivation to know oneself needs patience, persistence, forbearance, deep reflection, beginner's mind, zest and the knowing. Don't anticipate for the harvest, but plough the field and sow your seed. Water it everday and as it started to germinate, clear the weeds with a lighted-heart. The full bloom of your bodhi plant ( buddha nature) will come along soon.

3

Nowadays, people are less tolerant with one and another due to the fast pace of the society that we are living in. There is less tolerance among the politicians and the people believing in different religions. Every day what we see in the news are chaos, fightings, burning down of religious places, killings, bombings and so many more. There isn't much peace and harmony. Human race, lacking of awareness , may bring in more sufferings for many others and cause the destruction of this supposed to be a beautiful 'heaven.'
We need to wake up from this distorted world and rebuild a trustworthy, harmonious and peaceful world again. I think most of us want happiness and peace and we don't want suffering.

4

I started off as an incense follower thinking that I am a buddhist. I went to the temple every day to light up the incenses and candles and pray to the Buddha. Soon I became a blind faith follower joining a big group and worshiped a master thinking that this master would protect me from evil and help me to improve my stardard of living. Later I began to follow a group of people to study and read s

utras like a parrot. I just kept on reading more and more profound sutras and could quote many phrases here and there without knowing the true meaning of the teachings. I still regarded myself as a buddhist. Next I followed another group of people who liked to visit many old distanced temples to collect power and energy.No one could tell me whether I was doing right or wrong.
Then one day I met my master who told me that what I had been doing was all wrong and that I could not consider myself as a buddhist. I was so disappointed after spending so many years and doing so much work, thinking that I am a buddhist. Nowadays I still see so many people doing such silly things. What a pity! May Lord Buddha guide these people to move on the right path.
( 2 cents opinion)

Sep 25

1

Is it true that a meditator needs to be a vegetarian diet? 
~ Dipa Ma answered:
The question of vegetarian or non-vegetarian does not matter. What matters is the mentality. Even if you take a vegetarian diet, with a mind polluted with greed or hatred or delusion, your vegetarian diet will become a non-vegetarian diet. This is what the Buddha taught. If your mind is free from greed and hatred, your non-vegetarian diet will become a vegetarian diet for you. For any action- physical, verbal, or mental- the Buddha gave the importance to intention.

2

What is the use of mindfulness? ~ Dipa Ma answered:
Let me tell you an example. If I told you there was some jewelry hidden somewhere and I asked you to go and collect it, you would leave your house and go to where it was hidden. On the way to find the jewelry, you might see a fight break out, and you would stop and watch. But after a while, you would proceed. You might see a marriage party going 

by with their drums, and you would stand there, but again, after a while you would proceed. You might see a street rally, and you would stop and later proceed. If you are not mindful, you cannot reach your destination to collect the jewelry I have asked you to get. But whenever there is mindfulness, even if there are interruptions, and obstacles you will not get lost, you will proceed. Mindfulness allows you to reach your goal. It is the " great vocation " in life which leads to the end of suffering.

3

Greed, anger, ignorance, doubt and pride are formless and have been followed you all the time like shadows. Once you realise them and mindful about their non-forms, then they have no power to rise up in you. Due to your care-free manners, they take the opportunity to hunt you down and they become your masters and then will forever pull you down to the ocean of suffering without your knowing. The Buddha always says," Be aware of your mind, your speech and your actions. Once you overcome your five poisons, you will see your true self immediately."

4

Now I fully understand why the buddhas and bodhisattvas need to come back to this samsara again and again. Even they have the full compassion and loving-kindness to share with the human race. I discover that most people choose to live in a distorted and illusive world. Only a very few of our beings would accept the teachings and fully committed themselves to move on to the path liberation. It is sad that nowadays, I could feel a special pain in my heart when I walk around in places where I used to go. Kwan Yin is crying in me.

5

Does your body belong to us? We can't even control our heart beat. That means nothing belongs to us. So why are we so attach to things. Only our mindfulness and wisdom belong to us to handle all kinds of rough situation. So just cultivate on the wisdom by doing more merits and doing more reflections. Once we start to detach things one at a time, we will find that what remains in us is just peacefulness and happiness. Chant and recite just the name Kwan Yin. She is listening to us all the time and will come to our help if we cannot manage our problems. 

5

Is karma like an accounting record that is stored? If so, where it is stored? ~ Dipa Ma 
Everyone has a wheel of karma. It is in your own hands; nobody can store it. As you act, it is stored. It flows on with the stream of consciousness. The day you take birth, this karma comes with you. Others can only show you the way; they cannot change your karma. No one can willfully take on the karma of anot

her. You have to do the work. Because of karma, some people progress quickly, and some progress slowly in meditation. Some have a lot of pain and some don't.
( My master always advices me to do good and accumulate more merits to let the good karmic seed to ripen first before the bad karmic seed from surfacing. Should the bad karma emerges, try not to give it a secondary cause for it to be ripen, the seed of such bad karma will not be germinated and it will wilt. This requires your sensitive awareness to check the coming of the bad karmic seed. This needs you to do all lot of meditation.)

6

his talisman is designed by me. When my Tai Chi students who have some difficult problems or sickness or attacked by charms, they will write a small note requesting for help from the nine buddhas and bodhisattvas printed on this. Then they will burn it to ashes after chanting OM sound 108 times. They treasure the talisman a lot and it works for them

7

" Let go of thinking, and your faith will come from within."
~ Dipa Ma 
Dipa Ma thought that the mind is all stories, one after another, like nesting dolls. You open one, and another is inside. Open that one, and there is another story emerging. When you get to the last nesting doll, the smallest one, and open it, inside of it is- what? It's empty, nothing there, and all around you are the empty s

hells of the stories of your life.
Because Dipa Ma was able literally to see through the stories of the mind, she did not acknowledge personal dramas of any kind. She wanted her students to live from a deeper truth than their interpretations of, and identification with, the external events of their lives. Dipa Ma knew all about life's dramas. She had personally suffered chronic illness; grief at the deaths of her husband, and two children; and crushing despair. Only when she had gone beyond indentification with the stories and dramas in her life did she begin to live as a free person.

8

Dipa Ma developed her supernatural powers under Munindra's tutelage. Such powers are achieved not through insight meditation, but through concentration practices, in which the mind enters a deep state of absorption practices, in which the mind enters a jhana practice. In the deeper jhanas, bodily processes can sometimes slow almost to a standstill, so it is not necessary to drink, eat, sleep, move

, or urinate.
When she left Burma, Dipa Ma stopped practising these powers, insisting that they involve ego and are therefore a hindrance to liberation. Munindra concurred. " These powers are not important," he said," Enlightenment is important. You need wisdom to use these powers. You don't want to use these powers with ego, because they are not yours. You can't use them and think you're the one who is powerful. This is not wisdom."