S:There are no weird people; just people yet to be understood.
J: Yah, I’m still waiting… for myself to understand myself :’p
S: Haha yes, we are our immediate weirdos! Hopefully, when our friends see this, they will think about further understanding us. May we also think about further understanding others who seem ‘weird’ to us :-]

J: I think the point should be to better understand ourselves first, for how can we expect others to understand us, if we don’t first understand ourselves with self-acceptance too? And if we really understand ourselves, does it matter anymore how others label us?
S: Ok… Haha… How about we all just try harder to understand one another, including ourselves? Cos it’s not totally true that we can understand another only when we understand ourselves totally and vice versa. It’s usually in bit and pieces.
J: True. Sometimes we see in others what we try to hide from ourselves.

One who makes trouble for others unmindfully,
can become indignant
when mindful that others retaliate for their troubles.

I hope I never become
any one of the two trouble-makers above -
to always be a peace-maker.

S: A relative commented of another relative being very traditional, of waiting to first wear recently bought new clothes during Chinese new year (CNY) celebrations. I commented that I’m more ‘traditional’ – because I usually buy clothes only when old ones are torn, whether it’s a new year or not.

A: I guess it depends on which tradition you keep. Tradition – one word, various meanings.

S: I prefer the tradition of frugality and simplicity, of getting only what I need when needed. Struck me that the tradition of buying new clothes for CNY is similar to the spirit of excess consumerism during Christmas, when increasingly more consumers feel obliged to buy presents for gift exchanges between people who don’t really need anything extra. The lights of Christmas at Orchard are nice but are terrifying too – because they represent another level of consumerism – a huge waste of energy, that furthers the climate crisis. Lights that spur people to buy and buy more, that further consumes resources.

To be poor is not to be lacking in wealth and possessions,
but to be lacking in contentment,
to be missing compassion and wisdom.

- Stonepeace

A Tit for a Tat (347)

Tit: You can never win a seriously deluded person in argument – even if you have good reasoning!
Tat: I just hope I am not the deluded one, who imagines myself having good reasoning!
Tit: Most of us alternate between being the more deluded and the less deluded one!

Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2012/01/tell-that-to-the-pig
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2012/01/the-compatibility-paradox
About aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/logo-for-a-tit-for-a-tat-series

Since we are all one another’s parents due to many rebirths,
parents should also practise filial piety to their children,
who were their past parents,
by nurturing them well,
and heeding their Dharma advice!

A Tit for a Tat (346)

Tit: Look! They look perfectly incompatible for each other!
Tat: If so, they are also equally compatible for each other!
Tit: Huh?
Tat: Think about it!

Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2012/01/more-or-less-deluded
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2011/10/i-wouldnt-know
About aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/logo-for-a-tit-for-a-tat-series

He believed her to be hopelessly stubborn,
not knowing that it is he who is hopelessly stubborn
in his opinion about her.

Since people can change, and people do change,
let’s be less conclusive about one another,
and more enthusiastic in helping one another to change for the better.

She believed him to be very open to change,
not knowing that he is stubborn.
But what follows remains the same…

Since people can change, and people do change,
let’s be less conclusive about one another,
and more enthusiastic in helping one another to change for the better.

If you look for things to buy, your window-shopping will take a long time.
If you look for what you need to buy, your shopping takes just a short while!

P: Consumerism and surplus choices are the pitfalls of modern society.
B: Strictly speaking, window-shopping shouldn’t buy anything.
S: Haha ya, though many window-shop on and on in the hope of bumping into something they want to buy!
B: I thought its like 画饼充饥 when the wallet is tight.
J: Or is it 望梅止渴？
S: 本来走马看花，却变选花买花！
V: It takes discipline…don’t bring wallet la.
S: Haha it’s not me… just a general comment from observation of shoppers :-]

May those who wield the power of truth dispel doubts.
May those with doubts wield the power of wisdom to resolve them.

At the beginning of the movie ‘Cracks’, the song ‘All Things Bright And Beautiful’ is sung in a boarding school. And from movie-going experience, this sets the tone for the ironies to come, when some things dark and ugly are going to surface. The first two stanzas of the song went -

All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful:
the Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
each little bird that sings,
God made their glowing colors,
and made their tiny wings.

If everything and everyone is truly bright and beautiful, a reflection of wisdom and wonder, as created by a creator who is likewise so, then why is there so much of the opposite – the dark, ugly, deluded and horrible, especially in human-nature, when humans are supposed to be made in this creator’s image too? For every little flower, there are a thousand thorny weeds, for every little bird, there are a hundred predators. For each glowing colour, there are many shades of darkness… So many cracks in the sung…

Fret not, for the simple answer is that there was no perfect creator in the first place. We are our own creators, karmically speaking, individually and collectively. We can take charge. We can create. We can recreate.

A funny dialogue from the movie ‘Ghost Writer’

Teacher: Focus!
Student: I can’t! I’m distracted

What is the cure for distraction?
Focus itself.

What keeps the cure at bay?
Distraction itself.

Related Article:
How to Increase Focus & Peace By Buddha Mindfulness?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Amituofo/message/371

A popular refrain asks,
‘Where is the love?’

The answer is simple.
‘Love is in the loving.’

The others definitions, however ‘lovely’,
are mere thoughts and words.

If you do not drive to drink,
you will not drink and drive.

To not drink and drive,
don’t drive (or drink).

菩萨畏因，众生畏果。

Bodhisattvas fear planting ill seeds.
Unenlightened sentient beings fear [reaping] tasting ill fruits.

A good student is always learning.
A good teacher is always learning too,
more in fact, to keep ahead of good students,
so that one can offer more to one’s students.

A master is one who has mastered both learning and teaching.

An ironical problem with Buddhist academia is that it often assumes study of limited ‘facts’ as the path to objectivity, while it is practice that leads to realisation of the truth. The Buddha was not a Buddhist academic after all. Due to the above, I decided not to further academic studies after receiving my MA in Buddhist Studies some years ago. Life is too short to be buried in research, to neglect practice. Even more ironically, truths realised via practice might be rejected academically due to academia’s limited means of measure.

Also, recently, I’ve disappointingly come across some supposedly Buddhist academics publicly stating their incredibly narrow views, which are clearly results of lacking the spirit of Ehipassiko – to come and see by enquiry AND practice. Never ever assume academics of Buddhism to definitely be experts – not even if they have been studying for a long time. Sometimes, they are spiritually the worst, with the least open minds, with the most mental blockages – the direct opposite of what the Buddha envisioned of those who study AND practise the Dharma. Sad but true.