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To Give In to Habit



SMS message from Lynn 2 days ago:
"Remember not to break your resolution- to sleep by 1.30am.
To give in to habit is reason to stay in Samsara."

Oops. Look at the time below.

May I add...
To give in to habit is reason to stay awake.
To give in to habit is reason to stay in cyberspace.
To give in to habit is to be unrepentant!

Hit the sack now!


84000 = 3



All 84,000 skillful means of the Buddha's teachings
are to lead you
to realise only the 3 Universal Characteristics.

1. Everything changes. (Anicca)
2. And because everything changes, there is no self. (Anatta)
3. And because we do not see the above, we suffer. (Dukkha)

The Dharma can be as "complicated" as all the 84000 teachings altogether,
and it can be as simple as 1,2,3.


End of the World



An article in "The Straits Times" reads,
"Big crunch likely when the world ends...billions of years later."
A modern scientific discovery;
A truth proclaimed by the Buddha more than 2.5 millenia ago.

But what does it matter...
when is the end of the world?
When the truth is that
we are always living in the end of days,
of this life.

Only the deludedly suicidal and spiritually mature
know when is their last day!
What do you know?
What are you going to do about your unknowing?


Tom, Dick & Harry- Who is the True Truthseeker?

Inspired by a late-night tele-conversation with Juan:

Tom, to himself:

Sometimes only you need to know what is right.
Others, such as Dick and Harry, might not be able to accept the truth.
Instead of arguing out of disgust,
have compassion that they cannot see the truth yet,
that as far as they are concerned, it is instead, a lie.

Dick, to himself:

Sometimes only you need to know what is right.
Others, such as Tom and Harry, might not be able to accept the truth.
Instead of arguing out of disgust,
have compassion that they cannot see the truth yet,
that as far as they are concerned, it is instead, a lie.

Harry, to himself:

Sometimes only you need to know what is right.
Others, such as Tom and Dick, might not be able to accept the truth.
Instead of arguing out of disgust,
have compassion that they cannot see the truth yet,
that as far as they are concerned, it is instead, a lie.
___________________________________________
Are you just like any Tom, Dick or Harry?
What makes you so sure you are sure? -zeph


Living Half A Life

I kept coming to Toa Payoh at at least 10pm... to take bus 105 home after work. You can understand how wonderfully fresh the view from the same bus-stop seemed when I came went there one early afternoon. For the first time, I see the neighbourhood painted in colours, instead of mere shadowy shades and streetlamp yellow. Upon boarding the bus, due to the seats being mostly occupied, I had to sit on the right side instead of the left, where I usually do. The fleeting window-seat view was a brand new live film show to me. Only after more than a year am I seeing this side of the "story"!

It hit me that I had been somewhat living half a life- at least this is so when it came to Toa Payoh. I had been missing it in colour. And I had been missing its "right" view. Intriguing discovery! Makes me wonder what other halves, or quarters, of fifths... of my life am I missing.

Am I living the essential aspects of my life fully enough? Is my Dharma practice missing any crucial aspect? Am I applying the Buddha's teachings in all aspects of my life? Friendship, family, work and play... Dharma practice is a lifetime 24/7 "job"- not a weekend hobby at the temple; definitely not for mere recreation after office hours! The first anniversary of 9-11 is coming... Do you find yourself praying for world peace, when there is war at home? How can we save the world with the Dharma if there is a heated war with Dad, and a cold war with Mum? How complete our Dharma life is not how much Dharma you know, but how much you put it into practice.


No Coincidence

"Suppose that this great earth were totally covered with water, and a man were to toss a yoke with a single hole there. A wind from the east would push it west, a wind from the west would push it east. A wind from the north would push it south, a wind from the south would push it north. And suppose a blind sea-turtle were there. It would come to the surface once every one hundred years. Now what do you think: would that blind sea-turtle, coming to the surface once every one hundred years, stick his neck into the yoke with a single hole? It would be a sheer coincidence, lord, that the blind sea-turtle, coming to the surface once every one hundred years, would stick his neck into the yoke with a single hole.

It's likewise a sheer coincidence that one obtains the human state. It's likewise a sheer coincidence that a Tathagata, worthy & rightly self-awakened, arises in the world. It's likewise a sheer coincidence that a doctrine & discipline expounded by a Tathagata appears in the world. Now, this human state has been obtained. A Tathagata, worthy & rightly self-awakened, has arisen in the world. A doctrine & discipline expounded by a Tathagata appears in the world. Therefore your duty is the contemplation: 'This is dissatisfaction ('Dukkha')...This is the origination of dissatisfaction...This is the cessation of dissatisfaction...This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of dissatisfaction." -SN/Chiggala Sutta
_________________________
Nope- not really a coincidence. All incidents occur due to cause and effect. We would be leaving our rebirth to "chance" if we do not practise the Dharma. Then, any human rebirth attained would seemed to be a sheer "coincidence", sheer "luck". But Lady Luck is just karma at play; nothing random at all. Are you the blind turtle? Not me! I'm keeping my eyes open! Aim for the yoke! Look for it! Look up! Wake up! What are the chances of human rebirth if you leave everything to chance? -zeph


Reply 1 : The Secret of the Buddha's Smile

The immortality of Smile,
For who but a Divinity,
Could mingle minds to that degree,
And melt them into Ecstasy...

-DodoZen


Ad 1 for Stonepeace.Blogspot.com!

"Do read more insightful bites from the website. Truly entertaining AND enlightening..." -10

About Zeph's doubts of publishing this blog successfully offline:

"Self-doubt must first be overcome, then everything good will work." -P

"You wrote excellent messages that are always worth tons of revision. Cheers!" -David


Open-Diary for Letting Go

David: Meditation, if it is a purification process, is like reading a very personal self-reflection diary. To make (cyberspace) a place a pureland for mankind, we may need open-diaries for the "letting-go" of attachments.

Zeph: Well, it can be a tool, but not a must. Open-diaries can be like public confession/ repentance booths. But letting go is just letting go- we don't really need to do something to let something go... though sometimes it seems to help. Ideally, it should be a case of "Just Do It!"... or it would be somewhat passing the baton of the object of attachment on and on- isn't it?

Tuesday, September 10, 2002
What is the Dharma?

David: Dharma is Law of Nature!
Zeph: Yes indeed! And to go against nature is unnatural!
Senseless and self-defeating!
It is like trying to stop the sun shining or the rain from falling.
So when we practise the Dharma,
it is not supposed to be something special-
it is only trying to be as natural as possible, as close to nature or Truth as possible.

Monday, September 09, 2002
Dirty Laundry

Inspired by accounts of inter-departmental office politics here, there and everywhere:

When you air dirty laundry of what you should not,
you become another piece of the dirty laundry.
When you wash your dirty linen in public,
you become public dirty linen.
A case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Let us speak to clean dirty laundry,
not to simply hold out dirty laundry.

What is the difference, you may ask?
Since sometimes laundry has to be aired to be cleared.

The answer is in your intention.
Do you speak of laundry only to air them,
or do you speak of it to seek a cleaning solution?
And do you speak of laundry with disgust,
or do you speak of it with compassion?


Gee Thanks :-]

I have printed your on line diary for reading and is a total of 22 pages. It contents is good enough to form BOOK 1 of your diary. Internet archiving is also a form of modern book which could reached a wider range of readers. With your unique view and the fluency in expressing your thoughts, you have a breakthrough in creating an online diary to benefit the readers at the moment of thought. Really enjoy reading your diary. I will be the one to buy a book of this nature if it is compiled. It is very refreshing after reading.

Zeph, Keep it up and benefit all your frens.
From Lighthut
___________
Thank you so much for your encouagement :-] See this email up online!


Written Forever

"What you write in ink in small black letters
may be completely lost, through the action of a simple drop of water.
But what is written in your mind, stays there for eternity."

-6th Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso

"What you blog in in your blogger
may be completely lost in the reaches of cyberspace... but... "

-zeph

Everything blogged lasts forever- locked in your mind.
Be careful of what you blog! It may cause a mental block!
Everything you write, read, say and do starts from your mind.
It is mentally written before it is physically or virtually written (blogged)!


About "About A Boy"

It is highly suggestive in the movie, that life becomes hollow and meaningless if individuals were to live like islands, like Will Freeman (what a name!) (played by Hugh Grant), disconnected from each other. The movie begins with him disagreeing with John Donne's quote that "No man is an island.", saying that some men are islands, only needing to visit the mainland once in a while- in his case, for socialising and shopping! Will thought he was a happy swinging bachelor, till he realised his spiritual emptiness from not relating deeply to others, from living a shallow self-indulgent life that did not extend his worldly happiness to others. Towards the end of the show, he begins to realise the meaning of selfless love through friendship with a boy.

How does the Dharma relate to this? "Meaning" is derived- from something or someone. As everything is interdependent, nothing means anything in itself, by itself. Compassion, for example, has no meaning when there are no beings to help, just as there is no true meaningfulness to Wisdom when it is not utilised or applied beyond itself. In fact, Wisdom in action is Compassion, and Compassion is the guide principle of Wisdom. With either out of the picture, either loses its meaning.

Incidentally, the Buddha uttered the following on living like islands.

"Be ye islands unto yourselves,
be ye a refuge to yourselves!
Take no other refuge!
The Dharma be your island,
the Dharma be your refuge!
Take no other refuge."

-Mahaparinibbana Sutta

This is the only right way to live like islands!
Living with the Dharma, Compassion and Wisdom will be there!

Sunday, September 08, 2002
World Without Nouns ; Verbland Pureland

Zeph,

Your diary is marvellous: we share countless same thoughts,
only that you have expressed them into living words.
I especially like "there is no river, only rivering".
I once had a dream where I live in world where there are no nouns, only verbs!
I hope you will publish your thoughts: you will be famous.

Sukhi.P.
_______
Verbland Pureland! Thanks for your encouragement! But i doubt anyone will buy a compiled book of these entries :-[


To Give Up or Not

"It all seems so stupid, it makes me want to give up.
But why should I give up, if it all seems so stupid?"

-Depeche Mode ('Shame' from 'Construction Time Again')

Sounds like an angst-ridden existential question.
The first line is about wanting to give up.
The second about whether it is necessary.

The answer? The Middle Path of the Bodhisattva.
There is no urgent need to relinquish the world,
there is instead the urgent need to renounce suffering by ridding our defilements
and helping the world do the same.


Choicelessness

Inspired by Lynn:

About decision-making about the path of action on samsaric matters...

When you are enlightened,
you have no choice-
for there is only 1 Truth.

When you are not,
you will have choices to struggle with-
for there are 84,000 delusions to deal with.

How easily do you make your choices today?


Life is Meaningless

Oh! What relief it is...
to realise that
life is utterly meaningless.

There is absolutely no obligation to do anything.
This means we are totally free already.
What's left...
is for us to fully realise this Truth!

(Haha... this is trickier than it sounds.)


Magic

Everything when seen for the very first time, is magic.
Zen mind, beginner's mind.
Beginner's mind, magical world!

Mindful living is living every moment anew.
The magic of mindfulness
is that it makes Enlightenment possible,
that it makes everything magic!


The Spiritual Artist

The path of the spiritual artist is not to create art,
but to realise that everything already is fine, perfect as it is- art.

Realising this is Enlightenment.
The path to Enlightenment is learning to see more as art,
learning to create less art.

The perfect artist does not create;
the artist who creates is imperfect.

The spiritual artistic process becomes one of silencing the mind of likes and dislikes,
a meditation of watching,
of realising insight into the true nature of all things.

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