Sunlight

Verse by 心培和尚。

As motivated by sis Shuyin, and thanks to her, I get to read this verse which I have missed out.

Only with light, life can happen and so does hope.

Only with light, warmth can be felt and so does love.

Only with light, eyes can see and so does our path towards the truth.

That's how I see light. And that just go to say how much we need light.

We can of course be the light to others around.

Flipping through the papers, you will be amazed how almost all the headlines are on tragedies and bad news.

Turning on the TV programme, you will be amazed by how much are sad dramas.

Tuning to the radio, you will be amazed by how much are songs for the broken heart.

Let us be the sunlight in people's life :)

Don't have to perform miracles, riches or power and authority.

Just wear a smile and don't let negativity be the language to greet each other .

I personally like the sunlight very much. I will always make sure my lunch is not packed back to office and I just like to laze on the beach chair at the pool side. My parents told me my chinese birthdate coincide to the birthdate of Sun 太阳公公. And maybe that explains why I love sun so much :D

Movie: Chronicles

Went to watch Chronicles with my argue-mate !!

http://movies.insing.com/movie/chronicle/id-c54f0000

Its a film which I call a very bland taste when you eat it but left a deep after-taste. Very draggy and the camera-view perspective of the scene can make me feel irritated. But the after taste is nice enough to make me blog. haha!

Its about a teenager that has problem in socializing with other people probably due to serious home violence and frequent assault by school bullies. Later on, gained superhuman power and the movie shows how this new found power made him and destroyed him.

This film shows how actually even when we have much more power (wealth) than we previously had, it doesn't change our life for the better. Maybe initially things might seem nice enough but its just a brief moment if the mind is not the one that has improved.

Andrew (male lead) with his new power, the destruction he inflicted on others and himself is multiplied and his outward display of his new power does not change his world for the better but made him more angry and merciless. He starts to blame others more and he gets trapped in his negativity stronger by the day.

In one of the scene where he mentioned about going to Tibet to find peace shows that he is well aware of his mental stress but quite sad that this wish of his could only be fulfilled by his cousin (Matt- not sure I got the name right).

Matt also developed this superhuman power but he was mindful of the destruction that would cause to others and thus initiated to create rules to regulate the use of their powers. His mindfulness of his action prevented him from becoming as evil as Andrew. This make taking of our Buddhist precepts so important, and in fact should be taken as early as one could start developing perceptions of the world (teenage years). Precepts feels like tieing up out hands and leg, losing our freedoms. But precepts actually sets us free even more when we developed the right habits to things.

Most often than not, especially for the younger generations, we often wish to be identified, stand out of the crowd, being seen as being more capable and all. It's never wrong to keep improving our capabilities but more importantly to be comfortable with who we are.

Nobody creates our world but we create our world. With these in mind, we should always allow ourselves to be in the company of righteous and our mental states to remain healthy.

Being Alive and Loving It!

Its the 30th anniversary "Sharing the Dhamma Series" of Buddhist Library. The talk was delivered by Ven Tenzin Priyadarsi. Venerable was one of the founding director of Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and see this link for more about this teacher. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzin_Priyadarshi

Love his talk very much in how he speaks like a University professor than a monk. Very technical yet detailed and easy to absorb in his discourse. Shall share with you the wonderful tips he shared on how to lead a happy life. Of course, take my writings with a pinch of salt, since it has been stained with my own perceptions.

This is one of the nice analogy or experiment Rinpoche shared with us. Consider for the next 48 hours, thinking of nothing but negative feelings, not even a slight thought of positiveness. Most likely you end up with a fatigue mind. And then try for the next 48hrs, think of nothing but positive ideas, you end up rejuvenated, heightened perspective to things and a clear stable mind.

Another analogy that talks about our desires are like running on a thread mill trying to bite the chicken leg dangling in front. Life seems to be chasing after goals that are created by us or the surrounding. And also explained that living a religious life is not about having no or low goal, and suppressed expectation. Problem is not about the expectation but about how we come to terms with the outcome. It's the attachment to the outcome that traps us. Making a Buddhist vow and working towards saving all sentient beings are lofty goals and work.

We also tend to "compartmentalise" our roles in life. When we are a worker, husband or father, we use different way to interact with the world. That is a main problem when we separate our normal life and times where we are in a temple. Further more, we compartmentalise our Buddhist practice by choosing to major in certain practices. Example would be someone would prefer to spend more effort on Samadhi than Sila. Rinpoche mentioned that it can not work and both our normal and spiritual life will not grow. Buddhism is marvelous as it allows "integration". These 3 pillars of practice should be balanced in effort. The insights we got from meditation should enhance our Sila and Panna growth. And with that, we should use these insights in our normal life. With such, we grow as a person holistically.

Rinpoche also shared that we need to live an intentional life. Main problem to our practice or life is when we take life as it comes. We just drifted around by situation. When we have something we enjoy doing, we can't wait to wake up. We need to live a purposeful life, and not live a life of regret. Wake up everyday with a goal in life. Rinpoche shared that everyday we went to sleep with a leap of faith. We never know we could wake up again in the morning. Waking is not a natural process actually.

Life is like a flash of lightening. This was mentioned by a very old monk before he passed on. The episodes of life will pass the mind just like film stripes. The worst is to live life of regrets. Happiness should also be something natural and one should not let their happiness be dependent on external objects. Example will be like trying to expect happiness only when you manage to have how much money or assets.

Something interesting when we do our prostration when Rinpoche left. He mentioned that in Tibetan tradition, people do not prostrate the teacher in hope that the teacher will come back to teach again! And I sincerely to meet with Rinpoche again to receive his teaching.