Living in a Grateful World

Be grateful to those who have hurt or harmed you,

for they have reinforced your determination.

 

Be grateful to those who have deceived you,

for they have deepened your insight.

 

Be grateful for those who have hit you,

for they have reduced your karmic obstacles.

 

Be grateful to those who have abandoned you,

for they have taught you to be independent.

 

Be grateful to those who have made you stumble,

for they have strengthened your ability.

 

Be grateful to those who have denounced you,

for they have increased your wisdom and concentration.

 

Be grateful to those who have made you Firm and Resolute

and Helped in your Achievement.

 



My daughter broke her precept of not lying

My wife, Wendy, was upset with our daughter this morning for not doing her abacus class homework. So upset that she threw the homework into the rubbish bin and told me that our six year old daughter had lied to her that she had finished her homework when she did not.

Two things came to my thoughts when Wendy told me that- compassion and wisdom, in order to act in this matter.

Compassion
I began thinking back when I was younger at my daughter's age and recalled my wife telling me how she detest going to school and homework. Both us, as parents, were once like that and realised how I had made my parents concerned about me to grow up without the academic skills. This must be our karma due to the causes we sowed (letting our parents concerned) which resulted in such consequences (having to be concern about the well-being of our child).

There must be a reason for our child for not doing her homework and having to break the precept of not lying (one of the Five Precepts).

Wisdom
With compassion in mind for both my wife and daughter, I decided it would be wiser not to tell my wife that we were once like that when we were a child for now. I then woke my daughter up and told her to pick up her homework from the trash and go to mummy to apologize, promise not to do that again and quickly finish up her homework. I offered to be there while she does her work and she could ask me if there is anything she needs me.

My daughter did as she was told and her homework was done before the afternoon class.

At home, we are often faced with issues like this and I can usually apply what I had learn from Buddhism. Things could have been different without the compassion and wisdom to think calmly and deeply, even little things like this. For now, I would work on letting my daughter know how to keep her three precepts (I did not tell her about sexual misconduct and ingesting intoxicants yet) and their importance.

Filial Piety is Key

Five ways one should minister to one's parents:

• Having supported me, I shall support them.
• I shall do their duties. 
• I shall keep up the honour and the traditions of my family.
• I shall make myself worthy of my heritage.
• I shall make offerings dedicating the goodness of my practice to my parents after their death.

- The Buddha (Sigalovada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 31)

My dad and mom are 76 year old and 70 year old, respectively. Both of them are retired and stay couple of blocks away from me. During weekdays, my children will be there from around noon till 7pm in the evening when they will be brought back home by my domestic helper.

Although it seems so wrong to have such thoughts, I know deep inside that the time will come for them to leave this world. As I think about impermanence of our life here, it saddens me to know that the time will come. There are times that I want to share with them what I have learned from Buddhism with the hope that they can be Buddhas themselves. They do listen attentively to me at times, but as the Chinese saying goes that they had "eaten more salt than me having rice" (or crossed more bridges than me walking on paths), usually my mom would share her personal views about the subject. Nevertheless, they are a contented couples with minimal desires on luxury items who believe in karma. I guess I'll have to share more stories and examples about karma with them with the hope that they will do more good and no evil.

Filial piety 孝  (beauty of Chinese character that the top is "old", the bottom is "son" put together) is an important practice we should all be aware of as it is something we must start with, after which follow by Compassion, Wisdom and Practice. This is because for someone who is disrespectful to parents (elders and teachers), it would be impossible to have the compassion and wisdom to execute the practice towards enlightenment.

Six Paramitas- The Giving of Teachings

The Giving of Teachings

The second form of giving brings us wisdom, intelligence and skill. Generally, it falls into two categories: Buddha's teachings and worldly teachings. To enthusiastically impart all of our knowledge to others, who are interested in learning, is the giving of teachings. It is not limited to the teachings of Buddhism. It could be teaching others cooking, engineering, etc. It is the unconditional and free imparting of knowledge or skills in any field.

A school teacher who instructs out so the sincere desire to help others is also practicing the giving of teaching. A teacher who does so just to earn a living or prestige is not. A genuine practitioner of the giving of Dharma is very enthusiastic and is never weary of giving. When we give for self-benefit, we will become disappointed upon failing to obtain prestige or other benefits and will thus loose our enthusiasm. On the other hand, a Bodhisattva is always compassionately working for the benefit of all sentient beings and never attaches any conditions to what is given.

In the Infinite Life Sutra, the Buddha told us that of all the kinds of giving, what the teachings is foremost. Worldly teachings do not get to the heart of the matter. Buddhism is a perfect education, which can help us to attain the boundless wisdom, virtue and skill to enable us to be free of all worries, leave the cycle of birth and death, put an end to reincarnation and ultimately to attain Buddhahood. This giving is perfect and remarkable, and it is only found in Mahayana Buddhism. All Buddhas praise this giving. In Buddhism, the most important form of giving is that of books, audio and videotapes, CDs, as well as that of accepting other's invitations to lecture and thus, to crate opportunities for them to learn the Buddha's teachings.

However, many currently circulated Buddhist materials are printed with copyright warnings. These are not the giving of Dharma but are commercial endeavors. Some Dharma masters, when requested to speak, ask how much they will be paid. These are not true giving of the teachings. The act of a Bodhisattva is to benefit others, not self. If a person truly wanted to learn of Buddhism a Bodhisattva would simply go to them to fulfill their wish. They would never do anything that would make it difficult for any person willing to learn, as long as the person could receive the true benefits from Buddhism.

Source: Buddhism The Awakening of Compassion and Wisdom (page 112-114) by Venerable Master Chin Kung, Edited by Silent Voices

What it takes to be Saved

Image this:-

A group of children's lives are at stake. A PhD professor in a well known university is given a task to explain Einstein's law of relatively to his children from a neighborhood kindergarten in a playground that is in fire.

In the event that the child gets to understand from the professor's teaching, the children will be spared from being burned alive.

Question:
1. What is the likelihood that the child be saved?
2. What are the 2 main qualities that the professor must have in order to succeed?

The knowledgeable professor in quantum physics is not sufficient to impart this knowledge to a child. I am sure you may have been taught by teacher in school who are very knowledgeable and yet failed to impart the knowledge to you.

It takes wisdom and compassion by the professor to save the child. By the way, wisdom does not equal knowledge. To answer what is the difference in a sentence is that: knowledge will have to identify the problem while it takes wisdom to solve the problem.

The professor must be wise to use the correct methodology and know that the level of understanding from the child is not the same as his. In addition, professor must also have the compassion to save the child to the other shore of safety (to be enlightened for the child, be a profession himself/herself and save other children).

Likewise, we sentient beings are like a child while the Buddhas are the professor in the above scenario (with Bodhisattvas as the child's senior students and alumnus).