Master’s 2008 Message

On Vesak …

Master speaks: “Vesak celebration is over a very short period. But the preparation is long and physically taxing for all our volunteers and members. While we work towards another celebratory week, let us remember to cooperate and should any conflicts, misgivings or unhappiness arise, let’s park them aside and resolve them later.”

She went on to describe how we should devote our heart and mind. “We should devote whole-heartedly as individuals and as one people with one heart and observe this day that marks the birth, enlightenment and paranirvana of the Buddha.”

As she speaks to the volunteers, she reminds all: “Coming together in the Shrine, be it to seek healing or volunteering your time, it is similar to being on a boat.”

The basic principles of good behavior as we work together in the team include:

• Cooperate and work together as a team
• Harbour no jealousy nor pettiness of others because of their roles or responsibilities
• Harbour no ill will towards others
• Equality of all. Each of us perform what we are each best suited to do. There is no special preference, no ranking of tasks as high or low level
• Remember, we are here to devote our time to the Buddha and not to any individual

On Practicing Life ….

On common life misconceptions, she advises: “When we come to the temple, we are there to pay homage and devote our time to the Buddha. We are not there visiting relatives or friends. Yet it is not uncommon to have occasional miscommunications and conflicts among people. Should these instances occur during the time you are at the Shrine, one should not vent one’s anger on the Buddha. The Buddha did not invite you to come; we are there on our own accord. We cannot vent our anger and affect our devotion to the Buddha and affect our practice. We should not possess ego, nor seek privileges. We should devote to the Buddha with no expectations of rewards.”

On the “One Heart” theme …

On the One Heart theme, she explains by first asking “what do you do when you pay respect to the Buddha? What is on your mind? What is on your mind when you buy a fruit to make an offering to the Buddha?”

She explains: “One should not have any doubts, no multiple hearts/minds, we must simply be devoted and focused as we pay homage to the Buddha. When we make an offering to the Buddha, we shouldn’t be expecting some sort of return or rewards. That is “one heart”, the focused one heart.”

She further illustrates: “It is not uncommon to hear individuals after years of devotion, question why they still suffer. It’s doubtfulness. One must have faith, complete faith in the Buddha and his teachings. The Buddha instructions should be followed with complete faith.”

“We doll ourselves to look best when visiting the Shrine, but is our heart just as beautiful? We should not just prettify the body but the mind and the heart as well.”

“Everyone has a role to play in and out of the Shrine, but in the end, we come together in the Shrine and share the same objective “that of calming our mind, learning to walk the path, and understanding the Buddha’s teachings”.”

A new series of Ted Talks is currently underway in the US.

I don’t know if you’re familiar, but they’re a mind-blowing series of lectures by some of the world’s greatest thinkers, on a whole range of topics, from the environment to space. As they happen during the $6000 a day conference they’re posted online, so people like us can watch them for free.

I just wanted to draw your attention to a few I thought you might like.

Bob Thurman: Becoming Buddha — on the Web
In our hyperlinked world, we can know anything, anytime. And this mass enlightenment, says Buddhist scholar Bob Thurman, is our first step toward becoming Buddha. When we can know everything, we can see how everything is interconnected — and we can begin to feel compassion for every living being.

Matthieu Ricard: Habits of happiness
What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Buddhist monk, photographer and author Matthieu Ricard has devoted his life to these questions, and his answer is influenced by his faith as well as by his scientific turn of mind: We can train our minds in habits of happiness. Interwoven with his talk are stunning photographs of the Himalayas and of his spiritual community.

Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?
Psychologist Dan Gilbert challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our “psychological immune system” lets us feel real, enduring happiness, he says, even when things don’t go as planned. He calls this kind of happiness “synthetic happiness,” and he says it’s “every bit as real and enduring as the kind of happiness you stumble upon when you get exactly what you were aiming for.”

Rick Warren: Living a life of purpose
Pastor, philanthropist and author Rick Warren reflects on how the success of his book The Purpose-Driven Life triggered his own crisis of purpose. What should he do with this unanticipated wealth and attention? Warren uses his own story to explain the central tenet of his teaching: that the antidote to spiritual emptiness is recognizing what we have been given — wealth, creativity, talent — and using those gifts to make the world a better place.

Dan Dennett: A secular, scientific rebuttal to Rick Warren
Philosopher Dan Dennett thinks of religion as a natural phenomenon, a human feature that has evolved over millennia to meet each society’s changing needs. From this, he makes a brilliant case for studying religion — all religion — as rigorously as we do science. Dennett, who followed Rick Warren on stage at TED2006, then takes a few minutes to analyze Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life and dispute several of its claims — among them a belief that in order to be moral, one must deny evolution.

Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice
Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central belief of western societies: that freedom of choice leads to personal happiness. In Schwartz’s estimation, all that choice is making us miserable. We set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them, and blame our failures entirely on ourselves. His relatable examples, from consumer products (jeans, TVs, salad dressings) to lifestyle choices (where to live, what job to take, whom and when to marry), underscore this central point: Too many choices undermine happiness.

Daniel Goleman: Why aren’t we all Good Samaritans?
Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, asks why we aren’t more compassionate more of the time. Sharing the results of psychological experiments (and the story of the Santa Cruz Strangler), he explains how we are all born with the capacity for empathy — but we sometimes choose to ignore it.

You can watch them online if your broadband is broad enough, or download them to your computer to watch later. If you have any comments on any of them, please do post them here. It would be great to hear what you think.

Happy viewing.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Lunar New Year and warm wishes for peace, health and prosperity in the year of the earth rat.

New Year always feels like a time of new beginnings, and I wanted to share one of my favourite stories, from Thich Nhat Hanh’s beautiful book Peace Is Every Step: The Path Of Mindfulness In Everyday Life.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful river finding her way among the hills, forests, and meadows. She began by being a joyful stream of water, a spring always dancing and singing as she ran down from the top of the mountain. She was very young at the time, and as she came to the lowland she slowed down. She was thinking about going to the ocean. As she grew up, she learned to look beautiful, winding gracefully among the hills and meadows.

One day she noticed the clouds within herself. Clouds of all sorts of colors and forms. She did nothing during these days but chase after clouds. She wanted to possess a cloud, to have one for herself. But clouds float and travel in the sky, and they are always changing their form. Sometimes they look like an overcoat, sometimes like a horse. because of the nature of impermanence within the clouds, the river suffered very much. Her pleasure, her joy had become just chasing after clouds, one after another, but despair, anger, and hatred became her life.

Then one day a strong wind came and blew away all the clouds in the sky. The sky became completely empty. Our river thought that life was not worth living, for there were no longer any clouds to chase after. She wanted to die. “If there are no clouds, why should I be alive?” But how can a river take her own life?

That night the river had the opportunity to go back to herself for the first time. She had been running for so long after something outside of herself that she had never seen herself. that night was the first opportunity for her to hear her own crying, the sounds of water crashing against the banks of the river. Because she was able to listen to her own voice, she discovered something quite important.

She realized that what she had been looking for was already in herself. She found out that clouds are nothing but water. Clouds are born from water and will return to water. And she found out that she herself is also water.

The next morning when the sun was in the sky, she discovered something beautiful. She saw the blue sky for the first time. She had never noticed it before. She had only been interested in clouds, and she had missed seeing the sky, which is the home of all the clouds. Clouds are impermanent, but the sky is stable. She realized that the immense sky had been within her heart since the very beginning. This great insight brought her peace and  happiness. As she saw the vast wonderful blue sky, she knew that her peace and stability would never be lost again.

That afternoon the clouds returned, but this time she did not want to possess any of them. She could see the beauty of each cloud, and she was able to welcome all of them. When a cloud came by, she would greet him or her with loving kindness. When that cloud wanted to go away, she would wave to him or her happily and with loving kindness. She realized that all clouds are her. She didn’t have to choose between the clouds and herself. Peace and harmony existed between her and the clouds.

That evening something wonderful happened. When she opened her heart completely to the evening sky she received the image of the full moon – beautiful, round, like a jewel within herself. She had never imagined that she could receive such a beautiful image. There is a very beautiful poem in Chinese: “The fresh and beautiful moon is travelling in the utmost empty sky. When the mind-rivers of living beings are free, that image of the beautiful moon will reflect in each of us.”

This was the mind of the river at that moment. She received the image of that beautiful moon within her heart, and water, clouds, and moon took each other’s hands and practiced walking meditation slowly, slowly to the ocean.

There is nothing to chase after. We can go back to ourselves, enjoy our breathing, our smiling, ourselves, and our beautiful environment.

The Two Wolves

A Cherokee elder was teaching his grandchildren about life.

He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me… it is a terrible fight between two wolves.

One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, hatefulness, and lies.

The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, humbleness, kindness, friendship, generosity, faith, and truth.

This same fight is going on inside of you, and inside every other person, too.”

The children thought about it for a minute. Then one child asked his grandfather,

“Which wolf will win?”

The Cherokee elder replied…

“The one you feed.”

Not Moh Hong related, but I wanted to share this story. It comes from a lovely blog by a lady named Ronnie Ann here.