{"id":8030,"date":"2010-11-24T23:16:37","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T15:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=8030"},"modified":"2010-11-24T23:16:37","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T15:16:37","slug":"self-other-reliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/11\/self-other-reliance\/","title":{"rendered":"Self &#038; Other-Reliance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8031\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/145.jpg?resize=146%2C179\" alt=\"\" width=\"146\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/145.jpg?w=202&amp;ssl=1 202w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/145.jpg?resize=78%2C96&amp;ssl=1 78w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 146px) 100vw, 146px\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Question:<\/strong> I was having a practical test  and there was a candidate who did very badly. Immediately, I chanted  silently, dedicating it to him, hoping it will help him calm down  and do better. But no matter how hard I tried, I just could not  focus. My thoughts strayed, and out of the blue, two words appeared in  my  mind &#8211; \u81ea\u6551 (self-reliance) I realise then, that he has to do it on his  own. The  lecturer had showed us how to do it, and all we had to do is to follow.  Just like the Buddha had showed us the path, we need to walk  by ourselves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Answer:<\/strong> Yes, but actually, it is possible to  chant to share blessings with someone to help calm the person down. If  not, the purpose of the practice of sharing of merits would be severely  limited. But  in cases where this doesn&#8217;t seem to work, it can be either because our  practice is not strong enough yet, and\/or the person lacks the positive  karma to be helped sufficiently. A case similar to helping another is  when the Buddha radiated his Metta (Loving-kindness) to Nalagiri the  enraged and intoxicated elephant, which was powerful enough to calm him  down from his anger and rashness. This in principle is similar to the  power of the sharing of merits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I was having a practical test and there was a candidate who did very badly. Immediately, I chanted silently,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[200,255],"class_list":["post-8030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mix","tag-loving-kindness","tag-merits","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}