Compassion Devil

Asked a Venerable to the question, "How to generate boundless Compassion for all beings?" His answer was to "Cultivate Equanimity." That means, to realise the ultimate equality of all beings-I'm not superior to anyone, just as no one is inferior to any other. We are all one body.

That reminds me of the simple but important parable of the two-headed bird. A bird had two heads that shared only body. One day, out of spite, one tricked the other to eating poisonous fruit, and the whole bird died as a result. Likewise, "others" and "I" share one body. Who we are and our survival depends on others-no food, no clothing, no friends, no parents, no jobs... without "others"-we are interdependent. One guy gone astray might begin the downfall of his society.

The Venerable said, "Be careful not to become a Compassion Devil." A Compassion Devil would be one who truly thinks he is compassionate when he sees himself exclusively separate from others-that "they" undeniably need help from him. This causes the ego to rise and get fat! A truly compassionate person never feels that he is being compassionate-he simply functions the way he sees as the most natural way in the world. While we should praise the kind, no big deal should be made out of being kind.

Resits - Dont Enlist

Whatever we resists, persist. The Buddha never resisted Mara-He let him arise to wage a storm against Him. He faced His inner demons upfront, unflinching.

What's important is not to get carried away by it all. Stay centered-we are already at the centre, the eye of the storm, the point of peace. One wrong move and you get swirled and caught up in the storm. If we simply resist our inner demons each time, they will only get suppressed, and be revived, again and again. May you face your persistent inner demons today.

Dana Barrett believes in Magic

There seems to be less and less magic that we can experience as we grow older and older. I guess it is because we have this nagging feeling whenever we wake up to this world in the morning that we have seen it all.

Nothing is really interesting anymore. Even close relationships can become unbearably lifeless. Best friends and lovers can even run out of subjects of interest. I figure the point is not to seek more new exciting experiences, but to realise that the same old stuff is mostly good enough.

Yes, that might be "boring." But if we live each day reborn, cleansed of yesterday's prejudices and unnecessary judgment, this same old world becomes anew. Magic is abound. Watch out for that rainbow you haven't seen for years. How many of you guys really saw the full moon last night? Isn't it still as magical as when you first saw it? An old heart is one without the magic of awareness-are you feeling old? The mindless babbling of a baby on the bus is magic to my ears. And to babies, everything is magic-even this guy who is me, who is standing looking mindlessly at a baby, is magical to him. I'm not trying to mystify anything-the path of Enlightenment afterall is a journey to clarity. The point is many of us haven't really seen "anything" yet ("seen" referring to "having realised the essence").  The Buddha's Enlightenment is like magic-so much so that He cannot explain it to us. But He knows the "trick"-how everything is conjured. To all you guys out there feeling old and tired-remember that the Buddha was ever young at heart, from His search for Enlightenment to His last moments. We haven't uncovered the truth of the trick behind all things yet. Till then, cease not to be amazed by everything. Nothing is what it seems. The age increases, but the magic remains. Don't get bored, get Enlightened!  

Forgiveness is not forgetfulness

A friend realised something rather amusing yet enlightening. He became a more forgiving person when he realised that he had been letting himself off again and again, readily forgiving himself for his own misdeeds to others big and small, while being easily unforgiving and grudge-bearing towards others for their little mistakes. He realised how fat his ego was. It was as if he alone had all the right in the world to be wrong and forgiven, while the rest of the world should do him no slight wrong.

Being a forgiving person is part of the path of practice towards Enlightenment. Forgiveness liberates both pain and guilt. It unties knots of tensed negative karma, stops ill seeds from growing into greater hatred. Being unforgiving is nurturing our sense of hatred - which is no less than one of the three poisons that keep us swirling in Samsara's vicious cycles.

However, forgiving another does not mean we allow the same wrong to be repeated. We have to realise that while it could be our negative karma that we are wronged, we should put in the effort to prevent the person who did us wrong from doing more harm, creating more negative karma for himself.  By being complacent, we could well be creating more negative karma for ourselves! Remember - forgiveness is "for giving".  It is a gift of reassurance - it sets both parties' hearts and minds at peace.

The Daily Enlightenment - Ambidexterity

Perhaps all enlightened beings are perfectly ambidextrous. To be ambidextrous means to have equal efficient ease of using both hands. Most of us are only either right-handed or left-handed. This physical bias of ease in control and strength comes from habitual one-sided mental biasness.

There is the belief that right-handed people tend to be more one-track-minded and rational while the left-handed are more creative and emotional. How does an enlightened being come into the picture? He is evolved spiritually, and thus physically (as "mind over matter"), to perfection. So, His rational and emotional aspects are equally perfected as Wisdom and Compassion respectively. He is a balanced individual with no unhealthy biasness in body or mind. So He is ambidextrous!

We all have our personal particular "handedness" or biasness mentally and physically. Being a right-hander does not mean you are more "normal" than a left-hander. In a sense, both are equally unbalanced. We should learn to be more and more balanced mentally, without any form of prejudices. The attempt to balance is the practising the Middle Path itself.

Sean'ice in Chains

Is there something that binds you?
Or is the thought that you are bound
that which binds you?

You are not bound by any chains now.
Only your thoughts bind you -
there are no metal chains, only mental ones.

Any mental chains have to be broken,
let go of, by mental effort.

Die Young

How do you train yourself to truly live your life?

Train your "self" to die
before your actual death.

With the death of the egoistic self,
comes freedom in this very life.