108 Gems - Words of Wisdom - Snippets & Thoughts
I have decided to do myself a big favour. I have decided to return to embrace buddhism yet again. And apply what I am learning in my day-to-day life. I have been drifting in-and-out of following the buddha's ways - just like how my exercise plan, dieting plan went. But, I think it is time to improve myself and not be lazy. Eversince I started blogging, I have learnt to put more things into perspective. My health, my weight, my social well-being and my religious beliefs.
My mother-in-law passed me this book - 108 Gems, Words of Wisom (for peace, happiness and bliss) last weekend. I thought that there were a number of thoughts and phrases in the book that we can really apply to our daily lives. I am not too sure how well I can keep up with this, but if I have inspiration and strong feelings about some of these phrases, I will talk about them in my blog.
Here's the first phrase.
"A positive perspective of all matters alienates suffering and brings bliss."
"凡是胜解, 就能离苦得."
People tend to like to look at their own perspective first when they analyse certain situations. In other words, it is very easy to be quite selfish and think about yourself first. Thus, they forget about other people's perspective and circumstances when judging others. I must say from this phrase, what's most significant to me are the words "胜解" - in Mandarin it means to seek understnding of the situation in a positive manner and to also to try to understand the positive rationale of others.
I think this is important because we may not do so all the time...in fact most of the time. Have you heard of this story about a man and his three children who were crying and shouting, creating a ruckus, passengers around them were frowning and whispering "What kind of a father is he? Why is he not disciplining his kids?". But little did they know that his wife just passed away, he had hefty medical bills to pay and his children were rowdy because his maid just left them. I think it is important to keep a positive perspective. Instead of blaming or chastising another person for something, calm down and think through first - is it worth the while being so angry?
I despise people that flare up without thinking. I despite people who back-stab, lie, and make use of other people's innocent admiration to climb the corporate ladder or protect themselves. I think people who shout at others without thinking through are obnoxiously impolite and will one day get their karma. Since these people will get their karma, why be angry with them and make ourselves feel terrible.
Again, I have decided to do myself another big favour. I am not going to bear grudges on people who treat others in an unfair or unreasonable manner. In fact, I will seek to forgive them and sympathise with them. I will be sympatathic because they will get their retribution in the future - with no/little friends to live through their old life. They will only have their money and power accompanying them but will feel that there is little meaning in their lives. People who knew them before, and know that they retired, will find this people of little use to them, as these are people that only made use of others just to climb the ladder, they are not sincere, they do not know the value of true friendship, they tend to be selfish and insecure.
The buddha teaches me to be benevolent. To hate someone is truly tiring and detrimental to one's long-term well being, even if it is only for a short while. I feel that I wll feel better if I let go of hatred and embrace buddhism to find peace and harmony within me so that the external environment is not able to harm me in such a negative way.
与佛同在．
CC
My mother-in-law passed me this book - 108 Gems, Words of Wisom (for peace, happiness and bliss) last weekend. I thought that there were a number of thoughts and phrases in the book that we can really apply to our daily lives. I am not too sure how well I can keep up with this, but if I have inspiration and strong feelings about some of these phrases, I will talk about them in my blog.
Here's the first phrase.
"A positive perspective of all matters alienates suffering and brings bliss."
"凡是胜解, 就能离苦得."
People tend to like to look at their own perspective first when they analyse certain situations. In other words, it is very easy to be quite selfish and think about yourself first. Thus, they forget about other people's perspective and circumstances when judging others. I must say from this phrase, what's most significant to me are the words "胜解" - in Mandarin it means to seek understnding of the situation in a positive manner and to also to try to understand the positive rationale of others.
I think this is important because we may not do so all the time...in fact most of the time. Have you heard of this story about a man and his three children who were crying and shouting, creating a ruckus, passengers around them were frowning and whispering "What kind of a father is he? Why is he not disciplining his kids?". But little did they know that his wife just passed away, he had hefty medical bills to pay and his children were rowdy because his maid just left them. I think it is important to keep a positive perspective. Instead of blaming or chastising another person for something, calm down and think through first - is it worth the while being so angry?
I despise people that flare up without thinking. I despite people who back-stab, lie, and make use of other people's innocent admiration to climb the corporate ladder or protect themselves. I think people who shout at others without thinking through are obnoxiously impolite and will one day get their karma. Since these people will get their karma, why be angry with them and make ourselves feel terrible.
Again, I have decided to do myself another big favour. I am not going to bear grudges on people who treat others in an unfair or unreasonable manner. In fact, I will seek to forgive them and sympathise with them. I will be sympatathic because they will get their retribution in the future - with no/little friends to live through their old life. They will only have their money and power accompanying them but will feel that there is little meaning in their lives. People who knew them before, and know that they retired, will find this people of little use to them, as these are people that only made use of others just to climb the ladder, they are not sincere, they do not know the value of true friendship, they tend to be selfish and insecure.
The buddha teaches me to be benevolent. To hate someone is truly tiring and detrimental to one's long-term well being, even if it is only for a short while. I feel that I wll feel better if I let go of hatred and embrace buddhism to find peace and harmony within me so that the external environment is not able to harm me in such a negative way.
与佛同在．
CC
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