FEB 9

" Why you don't talk about or teach spiritual knowledge to some of your friends whom you meet? And many of your friends don't know that you are teaching Tai Chi and meditation?"
" I can't cook the rice without the water" I replied.
Some of my old and childhood friends are all struggling to find a living and some of them are jobless. What I can do is to look around to find jobs for them and encourage them to work harder for their family. My master used to say," If a man is hungry, feed him with food or teach him how to look for food. It is a waste of time teaching them the spiritual matter. Until they are well fed and have a urge to learn, then you can teach them more. Then you can cook the rice if the water is there."

" What is constant?" Someone asked me.
" Change is constant."
" What else is constant, beside change?"
" The truth is constant, our true self or buddha nature is constant."
Once we realise our true self, this is just the starting point to walk onto to our spiritual path. One great master Hui Neng said," If you can't realise your buddha nature, all your time spent in prayer or chanting the mantra or reciting the name of Buddha is of waste of time." This sounds rather serious but what he said is a true fact. For those who wish to reach the final liberation, try your best to realise your own buddha nature. Let us use this as our New Year resolution to realise our own Buddha nature.

Most buddhists are advised by their masters to 修行。The meaning of 修 is cultivation; learning , reciting and reading the sutras, scriptures and writings left behind by great masters, performing offerings and rituals, attending talks given bymasters and so on. 行 means to carry out the practice, gaining experiences, helping the poor and the needy, performing social services in old age homes or hospitals, taking care of the victims who had suffer from natural disasters and so on.
Hence we can see that walking a real truthful spiritual path is not that easy. We need to be truthful ourself and ask ourself whether have we perform some of the items mentioned as in the above.

FEB 8

To realise yourself and the truth do not just come from reading the scriptures, sutras or books. Neither can you learn the truth from hearsays, listening to dharma talks nor other ways. All these are experiences of others. You need to open up the senses together to walk your life may it be difficult or plain sailing. The heart is the one that can realise the truth. When you see the reality and truth, you will be like a person who sips the tea and knows its taste and yet you can explain such experience or truth to anyone. This is really wonderful!

My student told me that a few months ago, when she closed her eyes, I put my hand on her forehead, she saw a blue lotus appeared in her third eye. Then I asked her whether the blue lotus still remained with her. She said she could still see it clearly.
That is what my master used to say said, " When a dragon find the pearl in the sea, he can ignore all the fish swimming by."
This is another good method of meditation to arrive at the stage of stillness. Only when one is able to reach this stage of stillness and practice further on insight meditation, one's wisdom will able to emerge. It is also means the running or defiled thoughts will not effect the meditator. I praised her to be able to understand this concept.

One day an old man with a bit hair appeared in my thought. I tried to erase him from my mind but he kept appearing in my mind. Then one afternoon, I went into a shop which sold incense and candles, I saw his photo. So I asked the shop keeper who was this man. He told me that he was a famous forest monk who had passed a hundred year ago. He was very powerful at that time.
So whenever my mind is disturbed, I just think of him, the diluted running thoughts would stop and I can find my peace and my mind can become still. So anyone can pick an object, a round crystal, a flower, a picture of a Buddha or any item and focus on it till your mind come to rest in peace and stillness. When you have mastered it, you need to let go of it and do insight meditation or you can do both at the same time. ( 2 cents opinion )

FEB 7

Our mind creates our own world. Hence we can transform it to be a better and proper dwelling place for ourselves in such a way, we can embrace happiness and peace and provide skillful means to guide and help others using our compassion and wisdom. When our mind ceases, we end up with satisfaction of our accomplishment like our Lord Buddha.

" When we are in bad shape, most of us will pray to Bodhisattvas for help. Whom shall the Bodhisattavas ask for help if they are having some problems? " Asked one of my students. It is not an easy question to answer.
During Lord Buddha's time, his own tribe, all of them were related to him were killed and wiped out completely by the enemies. Lord Buddha couldn't save them. Karma overruled everything, no one could help, not even Lord Buddha with all his supernatural power.
It means to say that when our bad karma is ripened, we have to face the music.
However Lord Buddha taught us a very good method to overcome the bad karma. He said," Plant good seeds everyday and to allow the good seeds in our consciousness to ripen quickly so that there is no time or chance for the bad seeds to ripen. Should one of the bad seed is about to ripen, try to stop it by not allowing a reason or a course for it to ripen, then this bad will die a naturally death."
Take for an example while drinking with your friend, your friend picks up a hot argument with you. This karma that is going to happen is your friend will kill you with a knife. As a meditator,and you don't feel too good over such situation, you simply said sorry to your friend and walk away. So you don't allow a reason or a course for your friend to kill you. This means you have stopped this bad seed for ripening. ( 2 cents opinion )

Feb 6

One fb friend wrote to me after a long period of time to ask me how am I. I said that I am living a plain life with no more excitement. I knew her about one and half year ago. She is some kind of a tutor teaching people how to live their life, life skills. From her photo that she shown me, i could read her character very well for the first encounter. She was full of energy and striving very hard with her career. She has a strong ego. To have a strong ego does not mean bad. If we use this strong ego to achieve something good is marvellous.
I read her post yesterday and told her that she had great improvement in her seeking on the spiritual path. She was writing about her own reflection. I told her that reflection is also a form of teaching to her readers.
"We are also travelling on the same path, only some of them are ahead of us and some are behind us. It does not matter as long as we persist to move on, we will reach the final end." i told her this. And i also said i am still walking the same path with her and also with all my readers and I am not moving ahead of them.

" If someone or your boss makes full use of you and takes advantage of you, don't take it as a bad thing. It means that you have the intelligence and sufficient knowledge and strength to do a task. Make this opportunity to gain extra experience and know how for your own future. Accept it fully and let it sink into your boundless and depthless ocean of your heart. Don't let the abuse to touch the surface of your ocean of your heart. Then it starts to erupt like tidal waves where the anger started to emerge. You may start to use abusive words or actions against your boss or friend. Then the result can be fatal." Said my master.

One day, many years back during my retreat, I was doing my walking meditation. My master was doing his walking meditation too. He was a Thai monk. When he noticed me, he pointed at a chair and asked me to sit there. He pointed at my heart and I understood him. He couldn't a word of English and also I didn't able to speak Thai language. He just stared blank at me for a short while as if he was downloading something into my mind. I could only felt his warmth and saw his brightness coming out from his body. (Only now I understand that this method of staring at my eyes is known as mind transmission) I immediately found myself meditating deeply. After sometimes, I got up from my chair and opened my eyes and found that the whole world had changed. When I looked at the flower, it seemed that the flower was myself. There were no two objects, but only one, the flower is me and I am the flower. I lost this sensation after half a year and went to my old self suffering again.

Someone who is able to realise his own true existence will live a happy and meaningful life and his influence to others is great.

Feb 5

If your compassion can be compared to the edgeless ocean, so great, you will leave no being alone is this present plane. You are the awakened one.

If anyone wants to go beyond the law of karma, you just need to watch each thought that comes into your mind,each word that you say and each action that you take. Then you are the only sole winner in the path you are walking through.

To let go attachment is the wiser choice to have for it gives you a complete joy of freedom.

FEB 4

When you come across a teaching and if you don't analyse it and follow it, you are blind to see the reality. Lord Buddha used to say pondered over what I said and dropped away those that were not suitable for you and pick up the gems that would help you for your progress. I noticed a lot followers blindly follow their teacher and not the Buddha Dharma or Buddha's teaching. To me this is very sad. I always wish that they could wake up one day to realise the reality and have themselves liberated.

Wanted to learn is an human natural instinct. We wanted to know more and intented to explore the whole world, the space, the ocean and many more. So much understanding had gone into the mind to invent so many objects which are useful and destructive to human race at the same time. What we had forgotten to explore the real beautiful world is inside us. How many of us have really sit down quietly to explore into our inner realm deep down in our heart?

A lot of masters give us blessings. Sometimes some fb friends ask me to give them blessings. We don't need any blessings from anyone and I can't give any blessings to anyone. I can only wish them well.
However how great is our heart and how compassionate we are is how great the blessings will come to us from all the Buddhas of the ten directions. And this is the true blessings we can get.

FEB 3

When we come to the end of our life is similiar to a sunset needs to be brighter and vivid. That is where most of the enlightened masters show or point out the right way for us to follow. Don't become older and sadder in the end of your journey but become happier and wiser. Put in your effort now, your sun set will be bright and beautiful for others to appreciate.

" Why you can repeat the same story to us all the time and there is no error in your story? " asked one of my students.
" If someone tells a lie to you, he can not repeat the same story again. He needs to tell another lie to cover the first lie. As time goes by he needs to keep repeating lies to cover other lies. And one day he does not know whether he is telling a truth or a lie. There is nothing wrong to tell a naked truth or mistakes made by you as long as you admitted your mistakes and are willingly to confess and ask for forgiveness."
One of the 5 precepts of Lord Buddha teaching is not to tell a lie.