Do not end up in the church or temple of man

Learning Point No 117

All who are weary of life and the problems and issues of men must take heart that they are not alone. They can open their hearts to be with God and one or more of his saints. They can find solace in a temple or church.

But in many temples or churches where men congregate, there is the human obstacle. Men need other men before they think that they can be with God and saints. They lack confidence and feel the need to lean on other men, sometimes to the extent of following the alfa leader as in a pack of animals.

Alas, in a temple or church of men, opportunists or insects of men abound and you cannot blame the flower if insects come to it. You cannot blame God and saints if insects amongst men come to a temple or church and proclaim that others should follow their bidding. Cults abound and men are blinded to hero-worship men when they want to worship God and saints.

The solution is simple. Understand what is the true church or temple. The true church or temple, Lord Bo Tien said is the world or universe.

The sky is the roof of that temple or church and all who open their hearts to God and saints are in this universal temple or church. Religions are the pillars of this church or temple.

But those who do so through other men who proclaim that they represent God may end up blinded and end up in the temple or church of man instead of God and saints.

Do know what is the true temple or church. Do not mistake a concrete building as the true temple or church. Have heart in God and you will be in the universal church or temple of God and saints anywhere and anytime

Do not belittle God

Learning Point No 116

Whosoever believes that one, be it church, temple, religion or sect, is enough to reach out and meet the needs of all beings and men are mistaken. God has plans not just for some but for all. Only the myopic think that one is enough.

Similarly, for any one way, there must be many different applications of that one way to fit the needs of differing individuals and for the same individual, the changing scenarios in  his life.

So never say that this is better and there is no other. That would be bordering on bigotry.

Man may be myopic but not God. Do not belittle God and his magnanimity. Praise God and lord.

Many a squabble in a church or temple is no less due to the myopia and narrow mindedness of men. No wonder men may fall short of the glory of God.

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Be like God and saints and not just like them.

Learning Point No 115

Whilst it is applaudable to love God and a saint of God, God and saints reiterate that men must go beyond love of God and a saint of God.

Venerable Ananda the close and daily attendant loved Gautama Buddha but his emotional attachment resulted in his being the last of the 500 monks to attain sainthood. He attained it in half standing and sitting pose just before the first council of the sangha, the holy order of monks of the Buddha.

Lord Bo Tien is aware that those who love and adore him may be near to him but he reminds that those who are far and not part of the physical temple in his name may be far from him if they know not the doctrine and are not able to make the doctrine come to life in their lives.

Worse still they may not even love him but act like insects coming to a flower. But blame not the flower for the insects that come to the flower. Lord Bo Tien said.

In fact, those who know and live in the doctrine even though they do not know him are near to him even though far from him.

Love may be good but to be with God and saints, we need to be like them and not just love them. Love alone is not enough.

Wisdom and insight must take precedence. One must eradicate ignorance and be free from wrong views, ill will and  clinging so as to have peace and be like the God and saints so as to be with them. We need to be like them and not just like them.

Do not end up worshipping the devil in man in a religious institution

Learning Points No 114

Men always want to be heard and to be seen as better than other men. When they take on the cudgels of spiritual leadership, they may loose insight on their strengths and weaknesses.

Often they see the glory of God and saints and project this glory on themselves and their following identify with them in the name of God and saints.

Thus this will potentiate cult culture and they become the chosen ones and their congregation become blind to their mortality and tend to immortalise them.

Men in immortalising men make devils out of them. This explains why Buddha says that his teachings will succeed him when he is gone and even Jesus never appoints a successor.

But the institutions of men must have leadership. So long as there is no cult or hero-worshipping and  so long as there is due separation of administrative leadership from spiritual to enable checks and balance, all will be well.

Otherwise, men will end up worshipping the devil in man rather than God and saints. Often the leaders are fallible , more so when they are in the limelight and they get carried away.

Their charisma blinds the congregation and have hypnotic effect on the congregation to see them as the gateway to God.

Less can be more and more can be less.

Learning Points No 113

How can there be peace and joy that last if we live on future earnings, if we have to loan to have what we want to have. Many end up buying a house based on 30 to 50 years of future earnings. Many end up in debt for ten years for a car in Singapore that can be the price of a bungalow in Malaysia.

Whilst Gautama Buddha advised us to save for the future in the Sigalovada Sutra, modern men go into debt and one wonders how they are going to provide for a family and their parents.

This is due to attachment and greed --- to live the good life  even before they could earn enough for the good life. With bad times or unforeseen events, woe and behold the sky appears to collapse on them.

Even if they could cope, they would be strained and stressed out and in seemingly unending war and strife with life. Peace and ease will be far removed from their lives. This is indulgence which is camouflaged as the need to arrive and live up to life before they be more unaffordable.

The economic ills of the world in 2012 and perhaps the future are due to going for more than we could have here and now.

Isn't this modern temptation of life in 2012 an entrapment for more woes to come?

When will men learn that less can be more and more can be less?

The far can be near and the near can be far. Lord Bo Tien wants us to contemplate on this and be wiser.

The more we have and the nearer we think we are closer to having arrived and satiated, the further we are from having arrived. We just create a mirage that evaporates the moment we arrive at it.

The rich will be poor and the poor will be rich. This is what Lord Jesus wants us to realise as well. At least the poor will have no debt and are not living on future earnings.

Who is more likely to be at peace and ease --- the poor with some savings or the well-off with loans based on future earnings and with a life time of instalments to pay?

Many will not agree for what is right is often a spectrum.

But do be modest and live within your means and ensure you will not create problems down the road of life.

There will always be problems and issues in life but at least do not create the fertile ground for more problems than we could ever want to have. Do not create the rainbow of life that is there one moment but not there when we arrive.

Let us cultivate the peace of the saints

Learning Point No 112

Even Gautama Buddha the perfect one is not spared from the ills of the flesh. He had diarrhea from contaminated food and had to lie down on one side to pass on to final bliss.

Jesus the son of God and the King of the Jews had to suffer the indignity of being crucified on the cross.

But one thing that stands out was that they were at peace. How many of us could be at peace at our final moment?

We can only do so if we have cultivated the peace of spirit in our routine day-to-day life.

We have to still the mind from bad habits of dis-ease, ill will, attachment and false views.

How often we sulk when someone irritates us or if others are more better than us? How often do we live with the thinking that sickness can affect others and not us, that others can die and death will not knock at our doors?

Cultivate the peace of the saints by stilling the mind. We need to have mindfulness and to be exact moment-to-moment mindfulness.

There are many ways. One way is to call upon the saints and sing incantations to invite them to be in our spirit whilst we go about our moment to moment life.

Then there will be less space in our minds for bad habits and thoughts. Chinese Buddhists do recite or sing repeatedly and habitually "Namo Omitofo".

But you can choose any others to still and purify the mind from being defiled by bad mental habits.

We can put on a good exterior but our mind are full of unpleasant thoughts which we must minimise but not feel guilty for them.

Guilt is itself an unpleasant thought being ill thinking of oneself for one's misdemeanors or transgressions.

Jesus had no unpleasant thoughts on the cross and Buddha was a picture of peace even though he had diarrhea at time of passing on to final bliss.

Heed the divine call

Learning Point No 111



Do not forsake the call of the lord for your own. So long as you heed the call, you can go for your own as well. The lord never requires you to renounce life but to live the good divine life. If you can do so, more you can have as ''good-to-have''. These are however not ''must-have''. The call of the lord to lead the good life is a ''must-have''. Worship the lord and not the self but deny not the self. On the contrary, do value self.