Who is Lord Bo Tien?

Learning Point No 223
For more go to, Who is Lord Bo Tien?

Lord Bo Tien is a heavenly arahat or saint. The 13th day of the 9th lunar month is the anniversary day of His descent. He is a Divine messenger of God for the Inner Truth of life and the oneness of faiths. He is neither here to start a new sect or faith nor to be worshipped as a household saint. "Who is He ?" and "How to know him?" are not concerns. What He represents is more important and of greater impact. Those who see and perceive the Inner Truth see, know Him and are close to Him even if far. The far may be near and the near may be far. Thus hath He said time and again.

 

 

 

 

 

The flower and the 2nd coming

Learning Point 222
Extract from Richness in life

 

 

A flower is a beauty to behold but not the different parts of flower on their own. Each part of the flower serves a purpose and contributes to the wholeness and beauty of the flower.

The creation of nature is however never perfect. For example however beautiful a flower is, it will wither. 

Religions like the parts of a flower and like the rest of nature and world of man will wane and wither. New flower and forms of religions will arise from time to time. New ways of worship, new sects, new meanings and even new prophets (e.g. second coming of a buddha or messiah) will come to the fore.

All these were as reminded to us by heavenly saints and Lord Bo Tien did so in 1983 anniversary message. Lord Bo Tien's 1983 Anniversary Message 
  
Incidentally, the second coming of a buddha or messiah must require the prophet concerned to reconcile the diversity and yet oneness of sects and faiths. Inner truth netizen 2 is of the impression that the mission of Lord Bo Tien has to do with paving the way for the second coming because in the modern world, with modern globalisation, a new prophet has to address global concerns and ramifications.

 

The inner voice

Learning Point No 221 
Extract from The inner voice of God in us

Cultivate and nurture the inner voice of God. Make sure it is a loving one and has to do with peace and ease, not fear, displeasure and dis-ease. How? The answer lies in how we love our self and want to make good what we have and can have, how we can accept our lot and move on. Be nice to our self and God will be nice to us. Be nice to our self and somehow, the world suddenly will be nicer to us even though there is no miraculous change from the immediate past. A few have wrongly conceived God as wrathful and jealous God and they encourage fear and guilt within themselves. They fear to think, to do more and to want to love themselves ever more for they fear to hurt God. Is there the need to do so? Is God not perfect and beyond hurt, jealousy, anger, greed and need to control others? On the contrary, we and not God and saints are the ones who are liable to be hurt, jealous, angry, greedy and we often want others to please us as we want to control others. Isn't this an example of doctrine in life and an evidence of God speaking to us through our life --- the inner voice of God in us.

 

Pride goes before a fall

Learning Point 220

Many hopefuls in a temple or church in time will deteriorate or backslide because they focus on men and not God and saints. Some of them may even be undoing the good they have done, not from lack of faith but from lack of embodiment of doctrine. They think that only they are right and they want to act for God.

 

They may unfortunately be far from being correct, all because they worship doctrine but do not effect it in their lives, in their thinking, in their actions and in their speech. They claim to champion Heaven --- to champion God, Truth and saints.

 

But they are championing their pride instead. In the battle of pride, everyone is loser. They throw a spanner or two into life, not only into others' lives but invariably their own as well. They hope to right the wrong but how right are they in the first place?

Pride goes before a fall. Many a pride cover those who seek spiritual truth. Only the handful wise reach fulfilment of wisdom. The truth of life is simple but difficult to perceive for those with pride and egos too big for their shoes. 

Blinded thus by pride, how can they see the truth in life? How many falls must they have before they rid off the burden of pride? Men of faith are like "pharisees" and often blinded by pride, all because they think they know better and keep their noses high. May God help them and save their souls. But God can only help those who help themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guilt and fear in life

Learning Point No 219
Extract from The Inner Truth

Guilt can be bane of life. Do not wear ourselves away with guilt and fear

Do not take issue with upsets and brood and harbour guilt and fear for this will be sure way to cultivate and harness more frustrations.

We should not drain away our life energy that way. We should learn how to improve our lot and move on, not brood and lament, not feel guilt and castigate our self. There will always be better ways of doing things and this does not mean the ways we did things in past are not right but they can be more right. They can be better handled .

Lord Bo Tien in 1975 advised us not to live in guilt but to be positive to want to improve. (Lord Bo Tien's 1975 Anniversary Message)

We move on and do not lament. We do not live in the past. The past is history. The present is a present (and to be harnessed as blessing). The future can still be a mystery (though we can modulate our future by taking care of the present).

 

Fear as a tool to coerce submission

Learning Point No 218

Extract from Freewill but not Freewheel :-

"But men being men will at times not agree that others can go their own separate ways. They will want others to be like them even if this means they need to instill fear and inject coercion to point of being near authoritarian or dictatorial. This is one extreme of the spectrum when men insist that they have the right to interfere and restrict others lives. They threaten others with fear, death, pain and hell fire if others do not see eye to eye with them."
 

"This is not the way of God and saints but the way of demons and ignorant men driven and intoxicated by pride, bigotry and ego under the cloak of religious fervour or crusades. This as a trend may go awry to give rise to terrorism or bring about such in those at the receiving end."

  

Let us reflect on what Lord Bo Tien said in 1975 anniversary message.

In 1975, Lord Bo Tien referred to the danger of fear and intimidation in hampering learning and spiritual progress.

He said, "Everyone will come to know more and will not want to refer to word SIN or WRONG. Rather as they progress, and emancipate themselves from fear (due to lack of grasp of inner truth), they will then progressively not view life superficially but more correctly in depth and width to understand that all need to learn and progress. Thus it is important to know that brethren are not WRONG but less right. This disposition removes fear and guilt and motivates brethren to improve and learn."   Lord Bo Tien's 1975 Anniversary Message

No freewheeling with freewill

Learning Point No 217

Freewill is good but must have boundaries. We cannot have freewill to manage the lives of others and to force our beliefs down others throats even in the name of religions. That would be sheer bigotry. Thus the universal precepts introduced by Lord Bo Tien has as the second precept the need to respect what all saints preach in words, thoughts and deeds and all that are written. This refers to the teachings of the various religions and sects. We must respect the principles and values of the various religions and sects even if some of these may be very different and at odds with our own. For more, go to series 1: Freewill but not Freewheel