Buddhism beyond religion

Buddhism is actually beyond religion.

Even Lord Buddha started His Teaching without the intention to declare His Teaching as a kind of religion.

Lord Buddha actually taught us to know what are the problems inside us that makes us trapped in the realms of sufferings.

When we could see our problems, we need to overcome them. He taught us the way to overcome them by introducing the Noble Eight Fold path in the guidance of the Middle path. He Himself saw that the extremes of both good and bad ways of living and practices are very difficult to lead to the solution of the problems. He found out that by following the Middle path, we can eventually discover our non-self which is the true nature of Truth and liberated ourselves from the sufferings. That self-liberation is what we known as the state of Nirvana. 

We might not know what exactly the state of Nirvana.

We might not know what is it feel like when we got liberated from the sufferings.

But,

We could feel how is the feeling within us when the sufferings take full control in our life.

We usually let the defilements of greed, hatred and ignorance to choose decisions for us in our daily life.

Results?

We kept making mistakes and get trapped in Samsara (Sufferings) cycle endlessly.

The Buddha made His efforts tirelessly to make sure His students could attain the same state as His.

His Great Compassion, Great Wisdom and Great Determination are really our directions to learn on His teaching.

The Teaching of Buddha, is known as the Dharma. (The Truth of Nature)

The Dharma shows us that the real problems lies inside us which is our innerself.

When they are inside us, it is us ourselves need to solve our own problems.

Buddha, Dharma and Sangha (Triple Gems) merely show the way to the cessation of our problems.

It is us ourselves to work out and walk the practice ourselves to the destination.

This is the beauty of Buddhism.

No one, no things, no Gods and not even the Buddhas would replace your place to complete your journey of liberation.

We can not throw our problems to others and ask them to help us to cease the problems for our parts. 

In Buddhism,

Praying is good.

Being religious is good

But, the Teaching of Buddha is beyond religion

Being religious brings help for us to strengthen our confidence to walk in the journey of liberation.

Let us not just stop in being religious,

we need to extend the practices of The Teaching and combine it in our daily life.

To the extend that, 

there are no separated Buddhism and life in our daily life.

At that time,

We do not recognize Buddhism as a particular religion,

What we know is,

Even in every breath which

we are breathing in and out,

there is Dharma in it.

Mind full or mindful

Am I mind full or mindful?

"Letting go"

Craving, greed and ignorance the roots of Suffering,
That is why in Buddhism,
We practicing to let go and selflessness,
Craving and greed desires could make us restlessness,
making us afraid that the things we get might be gone.

Afterall,
the practice of letting go and selflessness to curb the desire of craving and greed,
doesnt mean that we should be a walking corpse
who does not give any care of what is happening around us
does not want anything
or gives everything away without concerning ownself
And we think that these are the good ways of curbing our craving,
They are very far from the meaning of practising letting go.

The nature of this universe is change
Things keep changing
Means that the things we have today will not be in the same condition tomorrow.
so does what we used to have yesterday are not the same as what they appeared today.

"Letting go" doesnt mean we should not accept the things we got
or ignore the things we having
It is basically remind us that we accept things and use them in the right ways BUT with the understanding of the  impermanence nature.
It also telling us that we should be ready all the time to be willingly giving them out for others who are in more needy conditions.

So,
when the things come in our hands,
We should be able to welcome and appreciate the moments of having them
Take good care of them
When it is time for the things to leave
Let them flow away without heart attachment

In "Letting Go"

We know how to accept it

how to appreciate it

AND

how to let it go.

The 5 Wonderful Precepts (PART 1)

First of all,

I am a Buddhist.

I am proud to be a Buddhist.

then as a Buddhist,

I am committed to follow the Buddhist precepts..

THE 5 PRECEPTS

Usually people ask about the 5 precepts that a Buddhist keep:

There are non other than:

1. Learn not to kill

2. Learn not to steal

3. Learn not to commit sexual misconducts

4. Learn not to tell lies

5. Learn not to take intoxicants

Tonight, after I attended a Buddhist talk

I learn about these 5 precepts in another new level~

The new level of the precepts are explained as below:

FIRST PRECEPT

Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of lives, I vow to cultivate compassion and learn ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.

SECOND PRECEPT

Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I vow to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.

by Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh

(PART 2 TO BE CONTINUED)...

The complexities in mind

it looks so close, yet it also looks very far...

it looks so same, yet it turns out to be very different...

it looks a success, yet it turns out to be a failure...

the complexities of mind

the ups and downs

i watched them during my portrait drawing

for more than 5 hours

realised that i still have a lot to learn~

Flows like a boat~

flows like a boat...

the real life, we need to sail on the river of causes and conditions..

if we put our craving on one of the causes and conditions,

we would put our stop at the particular situation..

as we do not understand that every situation will changes~ ignorance,

we will eventually lead ourselves to have the worries and make our life miserable,

because the nature of each situations and things is changes and impermanence

flows like a boat,

a boat does not cling on with particular waves of water

even if we tied it up or anchor it up,

we will still find it float up on the water and letting the waves pass by it naturally

even though the boat still keep in contact with the water but the boat does not cling to particular waves or parts of the water...

if it does, we wont find any particular ways to tie the boat as the boat will hold on to the particular waves and goes where the particular waves heading to..

just like our life,

the waves of water resembled the waves of causes and conditions of our life,

there are many challenges, joys, sadness, and so on..

but these things are just waves of the river

they will come and they will go

they will be born and they will die

if we try to cling to particular situation,

we are trying to act like a boat trying to cling on a particular waves of water

it is naturally impossible to cling on

but we trying to act against the nature

and at last we brings suffering to ourselves as our efforts do not pay off...

so,

flow like a boat

everyone has his or her water to sail on...

some might sailing on the lake

some might on the sea,

river maybe,

big longkang,

maybe the water is calm,

maybe the water is as fierce as the tsunami,

no matter which and where you sail on,

much much waves will come

and they will certainly go

there is impossible act that we want to cling to one of them

when we can be like a boat,

we will find the joy of living in the moment

we will not put ourselves in the future to the coming waves

neither we will also not put ourselves in the past of the past waves

what we are living on is the current state which in the moment of each waves keep in contact with us

if we can live up to every moment,

there is no doubt for us to feel the true and real happiness...

the true happiness,

is not the external happiness which we usually feel from doing things we like...

it is actually from our inner heart and gives us the energy to make our life more meaningful

it also gives us the feel of stability of the big and strong mother earth ground..

flows like a boat in your water, my friends...

It just the Balance Scale...

Last week I heard a wonderful sharing by a reverend during his talk

the talk was held during the 7 days of meditation retreat

he actually brings out the point of our life links together with a balance scale...

Do you ever noticed that,

in our life,

we always struggling so hard to balance our balance scale of our life...

mostly our way of balance the scale is to add more load to the scale...

when one side is heavier,

we add weight to the other side of the balance to balance the scale...

when we accidentally add more weight,

the balance become unbalance again

then we repeat adding more to the other side

and adding here and there...

what will happen if the load is too overweight for the balance???

ya...the balance will eventually breaks or spoils...

don't you think it is very similar to our lives??

when we unhappy,

we finding ways, buying things, searching outside to find us the happiness..

when we have enough,

we want more than the enough...

we keep holding and accepting more responsibilities,

but we do not know how to manage them

when here we feel lack of something,

we find something there to add into the part we missing...

actually what is the correct way to balance the balance scale???

it is actually taking away the load from the scale...

when one side is heavier,

we taking the weight from the side...

if another side is more heavier,

we take the weight from the side...

eventually there is no weight on the balance scale when all weight is taken out...

and this time, the balance scale would be at its most balanced state. ( if the balance scale is in good condition)

most of us scared to let go....

our craving is too strong

we do not dare to give out and let go...

and thats why we feel very uneasy all the time..

many thinks of being self-centred is very good...and do not want to contribute out

actually the joy of giving out and let go the selfishness we had is the very very beautiful joy...

when we learn to be more and more easy to let go,

we would find ourself in a more and more relax state..

because we know we can slowly overcome our craving on material and emotional parts of us...

In the meditation practice,

if a person do a meditation with his mind full of craving here and there,

he will relax himself well in the meditation and would feel very very suffer in his meditation..

just like the balance scale..

to do well in meditation practice,

make yourself as the balance scale

balance yourself by slowly letting go the thoughts of craving,

you would find yourself in a more and more relax state

in meditation itself would also acting as the weight removal for your balance act

where much unknown things hidden in our inner mind which we would't realise them in our disturbed state of mind, would slowly surfaced in the your meditation...

by watching and let go of the unknown things and thoughts, we eventually taking out the 'trash' inside us...

that is why people who practice meditation in a correct manner would find themselves in very relax and focus state.

so, empty your balance scale, my friends...