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Buddha's Cave

Buddha's Cave
Originally uploaded by moonpointer.

Space is relative. This is not a huge Buddha image in an empty room. This is a small palm size Buddha image on a shelf.

Not A Diary

This is not a diary of fleeting worldly concerns, but of timeless truths and discoveries relevant to the general unenlightened one, especially myself.

Responsibility

It is irresponsible to bear too much responsibilities for the individual's salvation. Yet it is your responsibility to wake them up to their responsibility of bearing their responsibilities. This is called compassion.

Test

Had a nightmare last night of me taking a test and fretting I will fail it. Never thought I would face exam stress again. When I woke up, I wondered what that meant. Then it struck me that life still presents countless tests, though of the non-academic nature. Even the dream was a test of sorts - and I didn't do well. It was a measure of spirituality, even in handling the worldly. Nothing we experience does not pertain to the spiritual dimension.

Happy Birthday

Never had so many friends remember my birthday - not that my friends increased a lot. Maybe as we get older, we are more aware of dates, of the passing of days. Maybe that's why they remembered more readily. Star messaged to my phone "Hey! Happy recycling (rebirth) day. Yu are here to make a difference to yourself and all who are connected to you! With Metta." San messaged this, "How much have you cultivated today? And how much time or merits have you shared with your Mother, who suffered a lot to bring you to this world __ years ago? Happy birthday my friend."

Perfect Picture

Why are the white-washed walls of my big and spacious home bare without any decorations? So hard is it to put up even a single perfect picture that the best decision was to put up none... till I come up with a perfect picture, or when I am able to see perfection - by a change of mind, by perfecting my mind. The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra says, "When the mind is pure, the land is pure." When the mind and land are pure, will I need any picture to decorate the walls?

What Does It Mean?

But what does it mean?
Nothing at all.
Nothing specific at all.
There is no clear answer.
But learn what you can from it.
For what else can you do?

Trembling

I thought I saw the platform doors trembling
as the train rushed passed.
But it was me trembling at the rushing train,
which caught me unaware.

Laughed Enough

A life laughed enough,
laughed with wisdom and love.
Not too much or little, but enough.
I want such a life.
A light-hearted one,
a big-hearted one.
One with a lot of heart.

Self-Love

He was interested in her because she was interested in him. She also thought he was interested in her. And that aroused her interest. Sadly, neither he or she was mindful of that... of the truth that their mutual love for each other was based on self-love - it was not true love.

Results May Vary

I think Limp Bizkit's 2003 album "Results may vary" is a good title. The cover is a face of a man's face in green, screaming, seemingly going berserk - rock angst-style of course. Those are his "results" from the music? Why is that a good title? Because it rings true. In fact, results "will" vary. It's not just their music that may have results that vary to different audiences. Is it loud messy music or good music? Everything has results that vary for the individual perceiving it. Life - results may vary. How are you taking it? It's not life's fault you know? It's you and your perception.

Seaside

There is a sea on every side of you. The question is how far away and whether you want to go to the seaside. Likewise, the shore of liberation is all around. The question is which path of practice is the shortest for you and whether you want to reach it.

Financial Freedom

Will I have enough money to practise in peace or will I spend too much time making momey and not practising for peace? This is a classic Samsara versus Nirvana dilemma, as we fret about not making money fast enough to retire fast enough. I don't have an easy answer. All I know is we are running out of time, and that better spiritual liberation than merely financial freedom. One can be bought and the other not.

Thing

"The thing is..."

Idle Days

Some days are just whiled away without doing anything significantly meaningful. While many look forward to idle days, I find them wasted. Real "doing nothing" should be in meditation anyway. Idle days are usually filled with idle thoughts and actions - which are somewhat the opposite of the silencing of the mind.

Is Meditation Difficult?

Meditation is only as difficult as your mind is difficult. Its purpose is to make the mind "easy", to bring ease to your mind.

Happy Birthday

Never had so many friends remember my birthday - not that my friends increased a lot. Maybe as we get older, we are more aware of dates, of the passing of days. Maybe that's why they remembered more readily. Star messaged to my phone "Hey! Happy recycling (rebirth) day. Yu are here to make a difference to yourself and all who are connected to you! With Metta." San messaged this, "How much have you cultivated today? And how much time or merits have you shared with your Mother, who suffered a lot to bring you to this world __ years ago? Happy birthday my friend."

Phone Haiku

A ring tone
That goes buzzing
Vibration mode

Few Duties

In the Metta Sutta, the Buddha said that

"This is to be done by one skilled in aims who wants to break through to the state of peace: Be capable, upright, & straightforward, easy to instruct, gentle, & not conceited, content & easy to support, with few duties, living lightly, with peaceful faculties, masterful, modest, & no greed for supporters."

Life when it is a string of endless worldy tasks (self-imposed duties especially) which keeps us from the nobler task of training our mind and helping others. We have to be careful not to be bogged down with stuff like worrying in excess especially about money matters and save and scrimp as we fret about the outcome of our investments. We must not forget that while we do that, other beings are suffering true and intense suffering. The real investment is always in compassion and wisdom.

Critical

Rather work hard and be criticized than do nothing but only criticize.

-Dharma Master Cheng Yen

Even the Buddha was criticised. What's critical is not to give up doing what is critical.

Plus & Minus

Hmmm.... Not right to do wrong at one end and right at another - plus and minus becomes minus in maths.

Vuja De

Vuja De: The uncanny feeeling that something has never happened before; the opposite of Deja Vu

What keeps us coming into Samsara?
What keeps us going in Samsara?
Vuja De experiences of pleasure in this life,
As we forget the Deja Vu experience of the pain of death.

But not pain really -
which comes from attachment,
refusal to let go when it is time.

Case by Case

The more I try to generalise, the more I realise it is impossible. It's a disease really, trying to stereotype the masses and in the process dilute the individual's needs. Case by case. Everything and everyone has unique causes and conditions. Compassion refined has to work at the micro-level.

Impatience

Your impatience does not make Enlightenment come any faster. It is an aspect of aversion that pushes it at bay. If impatience is not an attribute of the state of Enlightenment, why hurry impatiently? The perfection of diligence is to have optimum practice without increasing any impatience.

Time to Kill

When you kill time,
you kill youself,
you kill life.

My resolution not to surf aimlessly.

Piracy Karma

Video and music piracy presents a simple and compelling case of karma's vicous cyclic workings to me. When you support piracy, you do not support the very entertainment industry whose works you are stealing to enjoy. The more good works the world steals from the industry, less good works will be produced due to decrease of revenue. When you steal that you love, you might appear to get more for now, but you will eventually lose the equivalent and more.

Falling Short

We might always be falling short of perfection in our thought, word and deed at the moment. But we can fall short less and less. This is the meaning of "perfecting" - it is not perfection itself yet, but it perfects in good time. And what is "good time"? It is the rate of improvement which you are at ease with without any hint of regret of not being diligent enough.

Ripples

Sometimes, when strangers sit with a heavy thud on the seat next to me on the bus, I imagine ripples of air and dust radiating from the seat. A mild but definite disturbance to the physical universe and my mental universe, unnerving me slightly. When we are mindful, we send good vibrations of peace and loving-kindness to the world. When we are thoughtless, even in the little things we do, we send rude shockwaves to others. What ripples raditate from the epicentre that is you?

Identity Change

Just changed my identity card. Surprises me when I juxtapose the old and new cards and compare the photos. I have changed considerably. I did not just change my identity card; I changed my physical and mental identity, and it happens moment to moment. But some things change more subtly, probably inconceivably in this life time - my thumbprint and blood group printed on the cards. Funny that that's almost all that the country uses at the moment to recognise me as me. Our individual identity is so fragile. But I like it this way - the possibilities of infinite change is most welcomed. How else we we evolve to be better?

Displaced from the Present

When you gaze at the stars in distant space, you are looking at a universe of the past. For the stars' light can take up to thousands of light years to reach your eyes. The very stars you see might already be cosmically snubbed out by now. If you think of it more immediately, everything you see with your physical eyes is delayed light reflected from whatever they are looking at. Our senses thus always betray us to some extent by receiving and processing belated input. We are thus physically displaced. This worsens when we are not mindful of the "present." We displace ourselves mentally too. We are already losing too much. Come back, come back... to the present.

Falling Into Place

There is only falling into place,
even when things are falling apart.
Because nothing is out of place.
A place for everything and everything in its place -
both the physical and the mental.
Cause and effect.

It's For The Best

"The power of certainty is without limits. In life there will be many tests you have to face. You must hold on to the belief that everything that happens is for the best."

-Eli the wise old man in "The Adventures of Abdi" (By Madonna)

The power of uncertainty is also equally powerful. In fact, it can give boundless hope. Interestingly, one can also see what happens in life not as tests, but simply as situations, neither meant to test or not test, but faced squaredly and dealt with appropriately. Because each situation lead to alternations of "good" and "bad" situations, you can see each situation as empty of any fixed characteristics. In this sense, each situation need not happen for the best - yet each situation is appropriate as your just karmic deserts here and now. Yet in another sense, everything does happen for the best since given enough time, experience and practice, we will all become Buddhas. In the mean time, ours is an open-ended universe of experience till we are enlightened.

Micro-Novels

Too many good books to learn from. Just tell me the storyline and the learning points. I'm running out of them to relish the novel. Maybe more micro-novels should be written of actual ones.

Oneness of the Universe

I offer this food to the Buddhas,
the ones who realise oneness (and emptiness) of the universe and teach all.

I offer this food to the Dharma,
the universe itself and its manifested phenomena which teaches all.

I offer this food to the Sangha,
the ones on the path to realise oneness of the universe, who teach all.

I offer this food to all other beings,
the ones yet to be on the path to realise oneness of the universe, who teach all.

A World Without You

Read the following from a book excerpt, "A Pain in the Neck", written by a recently deceased blogger, Grace, who blogged during her last days:

"The world was going to go on without me. It is a strange thought. Echobelly sings, "I can’t imagine the world without me." They’re right. Try imagining the world without you. You can’t. As Descartes realised a couple of hundred years ago, the world exists because of you. That is the only certain knowledge that we can ever hope to have."

Her blog: www.dyingis.blogspot.com

My thoughts on the above:

I can't imagine a world without me - because the world revolves around me. This is not a heliocentric or geocentric universe; but a egocentric one. I think, therefore I am... trapped... by my ego, trapping the world with it, making it ever so small. The bigger my ego gets, the smaller the world - because of the way my limited and inaccurate perception force-fits it into my world view. The world does not exists because of me alone; the world exists because of everyone. But my faulty world exists because of my faulty perception... of my self and the world. To imagine the world without me, I need to displace, or rather, remove 'me' from the centre and be one with the world, and let the world be its own centre.

In your end of days, what can you do, but to let go, when it is all you can do? Before your end of days, what can you do? Hold on to everything tightly? But that will only make the end of days so much more unbearable, when you are forced to loosen your grip of attachment - gradually or suddenly. May I be able to live life lightly, but not unseriously. Properly, but not uptightly. Graciously, not grudgingly. A matter of grace from moment to moment. Yes, grace. Thank you, Grace. I trust you will have a good rebirth... if any.

Greatest Magic Trick

Ladies and gentlemen!
What you are witnessing is the greatest magic trick ever.

Everything is here in the moment
but not really here in the moment.
Because everything is changing,
so quickly that everything looks real,
so quickly that everything looks solid.
But it's all fluid motion!

Clear

On a clear day, you can see forever.
With a clear mind, you experience forever.