It's been few weeks this thing bothers me. The thought of people have to go through a lot of sufferings during their meditation practice. What I have gone through was, in one day I may be in peace, but in another day I may be in a bad mood. It seems liked my emotion can go up and down quite fast. Honestly, I think the way is hard. One question comes to me, will it be better if I didn't start the practice at all? How different will it be to be like people who just live the regular life, without meditation, seems liked it' s better??? Is this what Buddha said the hindrances that one may face during meditation.
This thought kept on bothering me, until I have a chat with friends talking about my current work. I can say that my work is a good one. No Over Time, very flexible hours.... I can leave work at 4 pm, if I want to, as long as I can maintain the 42 hour work during that week. A lot of my friends always say how good it is if they can have that kind of job. From there, I remember the hard time I had to go through during my graduate studies. Not easy, and pretty tough.... But, if I can choose again, will I choose the same path? The answer is YES. Those hard time bring the good job that I have now. This give me an insight! It's the same thing as the meditation practice. We have to go through the suffering. A lot of emotions, or past things whether they are good or bad, they can appear, and I honestly think it's a suffering to experience all those things. But, I know the suffers worth the suffering.
Thursday, 5 February 2015
Good deeds
So, no more waiting, let's start now. Today, take a 5 mins time, whether it's in the morning or in the night, watch your breath. As time goes, we can probably increase it to 10 mins, 20 mins, 30 mins... This is actually doing a good deed, and we don't even need money, energy or anything, but just 5 -10 mins of our time. Why it's said as "a good deed"? What we call "good deed" is probably just like:
1. saying good words to make people happy, not saying any words that could harm others - yes definitely those are good deeds which we do with mouth (speech).
2. Any action that we do to help others, not doing any action that could harm others - of course, those are another type of good deeds that we do with our body (action/deed).
But, there is one more that we probably forget, that's "thought".
Thought may lead to speech that we say and action that we do. There is one quote which says:
Therefore, if we could train our mind, by watching our own breath just for 5-10 mins, we would have a strong base. When thought arises, we have the awareness of it; when we speak, we have the awareness of it; and when we do any action, we have the awareness of it. If our mind was trained that way, automatically, our awareness to things that should be done or shouldn't be done will be under controlled.
1. saying good words to make people happy, not saying any words that could harm others - yes definitely those are good deeds which we do with mouth (speech).
2. Any action that we do to help others, not doing any action that could harm others - of course, those are another type of good deeds that we do with our body (action/deed).
But, there is one more that we probably forget, that's "thought".
Thought may lead to speech that we say and action that we do. There is one quote which says:
True observation of the precepts in thought,
leads to their instant observation
in speech and deed too.
~ Stonepeaceleads to their instant observation
in speech and deed too.
Therefore, if we could train our mind, by watching our own breath just for 5-10 mins, we would have a strong base. When thought arises, we have the awareness of it; when we speak, we have the awareness of it; and when we do any action, we have the awareness of it. If our mind was trained that way, automatically, our awareness to things that should be done or shouldn't be done will be under controlled.
February 6, 2015
Have you ever complain about how other people do this, how other people do that?
Have you ever thought that It's so difficult to stay with people who don't have the same way of thinking as you have. Then you start to ask, why they do this, why they do that?
But, have we ever thought that the other person may think that way as well? My mom ever told me about this. We think it's difficult to be around with people whom we don't like, but, do we think that we are so good that everybody may like us to be around them? It could be the same way as well. They may think that it's so difficult to be around us.
We always want others to change like what we want them to be, but is it possible? No!
Even to change our own behavior, personality is difficult. It's hard! Believe me. A person comes to this world by bringing his own personality that he had in his past lives. Such personality may have been with him for few lives. A person then grows in a family with a personality that he learns from his parents. He will learn things from his parents for 20 over years. Such personality will then also blend with him. I have ever heard a story from my mom, about one family who likes to say "bad" words in the family, even though when their kids are around. When the kids were still little, they heard the bad words, and they thought it's ok to say that. As their children grow older, saying bad words has become a personality to them. Can they change it? Yes, they could, but again it's difficult.
Realizing such bad personality is already hard. But if one can realize that, there is chance for him to change that eventually. From the story, we know it's not easy to change our own personality, then, why we always think to change others? That's almost impossible!
Then, I remember about this teaching. What others do, is their problem, we can't do anything about that. But, what we do is important to know. Taking care of our own thought, our own speech, and our own action is our job. This remind me about a talk that I heard from Bhante Pannavaro, regarding how one should carry a light on his hand while walking in the dark road, to be safe.
As he walks with the light, car will know that someone is walking, and therefore, it won't bang on him; as he walk with the light, he knows where to go so that he won't bang into any livings and hurt them; as he walks with the light, he will be able to avoid holes on the road; as he walks with the light, he may save others who are also walking in the same road but without any light on his hand. Just by holding a light on his hand, he could save himself from danger at the same time also saving others from danger.
From this story, the message is to ask us to take care of our own self. Because by taking care of our own self, we are not only saving ourselves, but at the same time saving others.
Have you ever thought that It's so difficult to stay with people who don't have the same way of thinking as you have. Then you start to ask, why they do this, why they do that?
But, have we ever thought that the other person may think that way as well? My mom ever told me about this. We think it's difficult to be around with people whom we don't like, but, do we think that we are so good that everybody may like us to be around them? It could be the same way as well. They may think that it's so difficult to be around us.
We always want others to change like what we want them to be, but is it possible? No!
Even to change our own behavior, personality is difficult. It's hard! Believe me. A person comes to this world by bringing his own personality that he had in his past lives. Such personality may have been with him for few lives. A person then grows in a family with a personality that he learns from his parents. He will learn things from his parents for 20 over years. Such personality will then also blend with him. I have ever heard a story from my mom, about one family who likes to say "bad" words in the family, even though when their kids are around. When the kids were still little, they heard the bad words, and they thought it's ok to say that. As their children grow older, saying bad words has become a personality to them. Can they change it? Yes, they could, but again it's difficult.
Realizing such bad personality is already hard. But if one can realize that, there is chance for him to change that eventually. From the story, we know it's not easy to change our own personality, then, why we always think to change others? That's almost impossible!
Then, I remember about this teaching. What others do, is their problem, we can't do anything about that. But, what we do is important to know. Taking care of our own thought, our own speech, and our own action is our job. This remind me about a talk that I heard from Bhante Pannavaro, regarding how one should carry a light on his hand while walking in the dark road, to be safe.
As he walks with the light, car will know that someone is walking, and therefore, it won't bang on him; as he walk with the light, he knows where to go so that he won't bang into any livings and hurt them; as he walks with the light, he will be able to avoid holes on the road; as he walks with the light, he may save others who are also walking in the same road but without any light on his hand. Just by holding a light on his hand, he could save himself from danger at the same time also saving others from danger.
From this story, the message is to ask us to take care of our own self. Because by taking care of our own self, we are not only saving ourselves, but at the same time saving others.
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