Was writing detailed notes for a Dharma@Cinema session
for NTU Buddhist Society’s anniversary celebration
when I came up with the below (as part of the notes):

We too are like wandering spirits
in the flesh, with flesh,
lingering in Samsara
with attachment,
which if we do not relinquish in time,
will bind us here,
or to be wandering spirits in our next lives.

Importance of Communication in Relationships

The movie (The Sixth Sense) is about the need for communication in various relationships and the lack of it on many levels. Without communication, there would be no meaningful relationships. But most of all, the story is about how earnest communication heals all involved.

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In ‘A Scanner Darkly’, undercover cops wear a ’scramble suit’ which covers them from head to toe. Now, this suit does not just make you look like someone else – because it can endanger someone who really looks that way. Instead, it has the ability to let its wearer look like anyone and everyone – by constantly ’scrambling’ everything on its surface, which changes appearance is every aspect – from the hairstyle to face, and from clothes to shoes.

It becomes impossible to identity who is the one in it. Put two or more of these cops side by side and it becomes more confusing as to who is who. Sounds clever and high tech? Suddenly, it struck me that we all already wear scramble suits. This is not so apparent because our appearance scramble or change more gradually (in this life and from life to life) than readily observable! This is just the truths of Anicca (constant change) and Anatta (non-self) at work!

Related Article:
A Scanner Clearly
http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/a-scanner-clearly

Question: My company was asked to give a quotation for a project in a resort with a casino. Would I create bad karma if I get involved?

Answer: It is ideal to stay clear from supporting gambling in any way, as greed and loss of wealth via gambling is a potential great source of suffering for many. But perhaps you might want to check if the work needed is at the casino area. Could it be somewhere near but not exactly there? Some might view this issue this way… Since someone will be employed to do the job, it might as well be you, as you can use part of the earnings to do charity to benefit those in need and create positive karma instead. This is better than someone else taking up the job and not doing any charity at all. However, we need to note that this applies only to where there is no direct harm of any being. For example, it would be wrong to open a live seafood restaurant on the pretext of using its earnings for charity, as such profits are based on the opposite of charity and compassion; being based on cruelty instead. The direct killing involved in the business means the ‘charity’ based on it is very spiritually hypocritical.

We also need to note that the Buddha advised against trade involving weapons, humans (e.g. slavery), meat, intoxicants and poisons as unskilful or Wrong Livelihoods. However, this list of five unskilful trades might not be exhaustive as times change. As a general guideline, our occupation should be as disconnected to harm of any being as possible. Although gambling is not listed above, the Buddha did advise against gambling, saying it is a source of downfall. (See http://moonpointer.com/index.php?itemid=2184) From this, we can infer that just as the Buddha does not support gambling, he would not support gambling or related trades.

Related Article:
Gambling or Investing?
http://moonpointer.com/new/2008/11/gambling-or-investing

The 1994 classic ‘Bodhisattva Vow’ by Beastie Boys:

As I develop the awakening mind
I praise the Buddha as they shine
I bow before you as I travel my path to join your ranks,
I make my full time task
For the sake of all beings I seek
The enlightened mind that I know I’ll reap
Respect to Shantideva and all the others
Who brought down the Dharma for sisters and brothers
I give thanks for this world as a place to learn
And for this human body that I know I’ve earned
And my deepest thanks to all sentient beings
For without them there would be no place to learn what I’m seeing
There’s nothing here that’s not been said before
But I put it down now so I’ll be sure
To solidify my own views and I’ll be glad if it helps
Anyone else out too

If others disrespect me or give me flack
I’ll stop and think before I react
Knowing that they’re going through insecure stages
I’ll take the opportunity to exercise patience
I’ll see it as a chance to help the other person
Nip it in the bud before it can worsen
A change for me to be strong and sure
As I think on the Buddhas who have come before
As I praise and respect the good they’ve done
Knowing only love can conquer in every situation
We need other people in order to create
The circumstances for the learning that we’re here to generate
Situations that bring up our deepest fears
So we can work to release them until they’re cleared
Therefore, it only makes sense
To thank our enemies despite their intent

The Bodhisattva path is one of power and strength
A strength from within to go the length
Seeing others are as important as myself
I strive for a happiness of mental wealth
With the interconnectedness that we share as one
Every action that we take affects everyone
So in deciding for what a situation calls
There is a path for the good for all
I try to make my every action for that highest good
With the altruistic wish to achieve Buddhahood
So I pledge here before everyone who’s listening
To try to make my every action for the good of all beings
For the rest of my lifetimes and even beyond
I vow to do my best to do no harm
And in times of doubt I can think on the Dharma
And the enlightened ones who’ve graduated Samsara

A passage from Philip K. Dick’s science fiction (graphic) novel and movie ‘A Scanner Darkly’, which I arranged into the following stanzas:

What does a scanner see?
Into the head, down into the heart?
Does it see into me? Into us?
Clearly or darkly?

I hope it sees clearly,
because I can’t any longer see into myself.
I see only murk.
I hope, for everyone’s sake,
the scanners do better.

Because if the scanner sees only darkly,
the way I do,
then I’m cursed and cursed again and will only wind up dead this way,
knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.

Yet, however clearly a scanner does see,
so long as we do not see what it sees clearly,
we still cannot see into ourselves clearly.
It will still be murk.

What matters more, then,
is that we be the key scanners who see clearly first.
I hope, for everyone’s sake,
we scanners do better, by minding our minds.

Related Article:
Our Scramble Suits
http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/our-scramble-suits

A Tit for a Tat (92)

Tit: I don’t like him.
Tat: How well do you know him?
Tit: Not very well.
Tat: Then what you don’t like is just your incomplete and possibly wrong perception of him.
Tit: So?
Tat: Since you don’t like your perception of him, why cling to it?
Tit: Huh?
Tat: Why not keep your mind open to know him better?

Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/come-go-on-time
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/01/supposed-to-be-enlightened

Some believe that horror or violent films should not be seen as they will be imprinted onto the mind such that they will be fleshed out accordingly if one goes to hell. Here are some alternative views:

1. If one watches horror films to rejoice or relish in suffering of others, despite them being fictional, there is negative karma created. Conversely, if one watches any film to learn from it, despite it being fictional, there is positive karma created. Any film is essentially empty of any inherent characteristics and the result of watching it pivots upon one’s intention.

2. Good horror movies present extreme situations which offer extremely valuable lessons to – especially on the ugliness or darkness of human-nature and how it can be conquered. As a general guideline, those who feel they are not ready should not watch horror films – lest it disturbs peace of mind too greatly instead of having any positive effects.

3. Horror movies can present reality too. E.g A good semi-fictional film on World War II can convey the atrocities of war, to remind us not to go to war, lest we forget the suffering it brings. From experience, there are no films as horrible as stories based on real-life war incidents.

4. It is better to cultivate courage and conquer fears than to be squeamish or shy away from them constantly. Fear is a form of aversion that springs from delusion. Of course, one should also not cultivate the opposite – attachment to the fearsome, for that will be a delusion too.

5. When we shut ourselves from scenes of suffering, it is hard to cultivate compassion. As Stonepeace put it, ‘The sight of blood and gore is only good for one thing – to prevent further blood and gore.‘ For modern Buddhist teachers to relate to modern times, it is also important to know what popular culture is about, and to use them as skilful means to relay the Dharma.

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In one of the stories within the movie ‘New York, I Love You’, we see a very old couple bickering all the way as they made their way towards the beach – just to see it. At first, the audience is likely to have empathy for them. Well, it is more sad to see the elderly couple quarreling than to see a young couple doing the same. It is sad because we wonder where all the love has gone to, and why they stay together after all these years if the love is really gone. However, when they reach the beach, as they stood side by side gazing at the vastness of it all, the wife hugs her husband’s arm and rests her head against him in heartwarming silence. What a paradoxically accurate portrayal of commonplace worldly love!

Sometimes,
how much aversion we have towards someone
is a hint of
how much attachment we have towards someone.

Sometimes,
there is no clear line
dividing
attachment and aversion.

Sometimes,
we love our loves,
and other times,
we hate our loves.

Sometimes,
we call this a love-hate relationship.
Yet it is from this that we will learn to truly love,
to truly rise above attachment and aversion.

Related Article:

How to Fall in Love in the City of Love
http://moonpointer.com/index.php?itemid=1649

In ‘Highlander: The Search for Vengeance’, Colin the ‘immortal’s’ attachment to his lost lover drives him on a vengeful streak to stalk and kill her ‘immortal’ murderer… over the course of 2000 years. In the process, he fights in various wars of many eras in different lands to pursue him. Too blinded by hate to see love, he almost misses someone else in the present, who cares for him, who is likened to his past lover ‘reborn’. His was a case of literally undying love with undying attachment transformed into undying aversion for an undying enemy. While we might fantasize about ‘immortality’ being a blessing, it becomes a curse to him because he deludedly believed that the search for peace is via vengeance, which is its opposite.

An immortal with immortal pain. The real enemy was hate. With his gift of being hard to be killed, he still could and should do his best to curb evil, but there was no need to suffer from nursing a tormenting grudge while doing so. 2000 years is way too long not to realise the foolishness of hate, to not vanquish the enemy. As Stonepeace put it, ‘The fastest way to curb an enemy is to curb your enmity.’ The story was simple enough – one guy loves one girl, who fights one enemy for her. But… what if we could suddenly recall all our past lives, and our astronomical numbers of lovers and enemies? That would be a horror story, one with anguish unimaginable.

If we are to remember,
the countless loves lost
in innumerable previous lives,
of the immeasurable pain we felt,
will we still love anyone with the slightest attachment?

If we are to remember,
the countless enemies gathered
in innumerable previous lives,
of the immeasurable pain we felt,
will we still begrudge anyone with the slightest aversion?

Recently, there is a ‘method’ out there in the market, that claims to use Buddhist principles for recollection of past lives for healing purposes. Below are points of consideration about this method. (Yes, there is money involved in learning the method.) Please send this link to your friends who are involved. In the long run, it is negative materially (due to forking out too much money) and spiritually (as it doesn’t really help advance towards enlightenment). It’s possible to be addictive too.

1. Many Dharma concepts mentioned are sound, but when it comes to the ’science of the regression method’ used, it seems shaky…. The Buddha recalled his past lives only on the brink (night) of enlightenment in samadhi, which suggests it is not easy to realise 宿命通. The mind must be very calm and very clear to recall past lives – which takes much spiritual practice. 宿命通 is considered a 神通. To easily attain a 神通 is too good to be true.

2. Even Arhats can only recall around 500 past lives, while the method suggests the ability to recall countless past lives.

3. Conscious recollection without meditation actually allows self-created, self-visualised and self-rationalised stories easier than via hypnosis or deep meditation. Note that all the participants already believe in rebirth and karma to some extent before participating. They are thus highly auto/self-suggestive. Hypnosis for non-meditators is also probably much more accurate.

4. Neither the facilitator nor the participant has actual 他心通 or 宿命通, which makes it impossible to check the accuracy of all the ‘regressed memories’. A case mentioned a past life as an alien lifeform. How can this ever be verified? Are the facilitators to accept whatever is ‘remembered’ blindly, just as the participants are too? As more and more stories might be spun, layers of delusion are built upon one another, that can lead to more confusion and assumption. One’s present life then becomes built upon a stack of self-created lies.

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