Awareness Meditation

Attended a meditation practice recently that is quite enriching, hence quickly drop down some pointers as reminders.

Fixed point 定 Meditation verus Awareness/Mindful 觉知 Meditation.

Unlike Fixed Point Meditation, Awareness Meditation does not focus on a single point. The awareness can move from one's breathing to movement of the body, awareness of the thoughts and emotions that arises as well.
For example, one's aware of what one is doing at the moment, ~ I am aware of I am typing right now, I am listening to a song, etc.
The constant awareness of what one is doing will help reduce wild thoughts from arising and drifts one along.

Venerable likes to use the illustration of cleaning a table.
One can focus on using a cloth to clean the table, and do a good job on it but that is still an external view, thoughts can arise that there is a corner spot that needs more effort to clean, why didnt the earlier cleaner do a better job?

Awareness is more internal in that one realises and is aware of one's movement in cleaning the table and the arisen of such thoughts. One continues to do as per normal speed what one is doing but at the same time, one is aware of the movement and thoughts that arises. For a thought that: "Oh, I had done a good job!" . One realises that such a thought arises.

Constant consistent awareness of thoughts and emotions arising will thus cause less drifting by the thoughts as awareness causes breaks in the thoughts and hence reduce continuation of any bad thoughts ~

For an anger that arises, one is aware that one is getting angry. 1st awareness I am angry with 1st thought of anger, continue with angry thoughts, then 2nd awareness, I am still angry, continue, but broken with constant awareness breaks the angry flow/cycle, one gets out of the situation faster than in an unawareness state that one drifts along with the flow of anger and creates more negative karma.

We can practise this constant awareness meditation anytime, anywhere.
A recommendation is always to refocus on one's breathing when one has lost it.

Tried the awareness meditation this morning when I am brushing my teeth.
Generally, I am very mechanically or unmindfully just brushing my teeth but with the awareness practice to work on, I believe I did a relatively good job in comparison to normal days.
I brushed more thoroughly in & out, left & right, front & back. Hopefully, I could always maintain this awareness.
Aware, Aware I am brushing, I am typing, I am reading, I am breathing...

Practice, practice until it becomes part of me, so that whenever any unwholesome thought arises, I will be aware and bring myself back to present moment and refocus on completing my tasks.

Amituofo.:-) 感恩

PKFT will be holding their next English Basic Meditation class from 2 Mar 2013 to 18 May 2013 (Sat nites). Registration has already started, you may visit the temple at 21 Shunfu Road, S'pore 575741 (beside Shunfu mkt) to register.

Their weekly activities include Friday nite chanting on 观音普门品 Pumenping .
Abbess will generally conduct an hour's of Dharma session from 7.30pm before the chant. Their last Fri session for the year is 14 Dec 2012 and and their monthly Dabeichan held on 1st of each lunar month nite will have their last session on 12 Jan 2013, then it is holiday til after Chinese New Year in Feb 2013.
(so sad, have to rely on oneself to chase away blues til then)

Medicine Buddha Repentence Liturgy

Another annual event of Pao Kwang Fo Tang (Bao Guang Fo Tang) at 21 Shunfu Road, just beside Shunfu Market. 
Their offering altar setup for the Medicine Buddha Repentence Liturgy is simple and non elaborating but their chant is as usual, nice and motivating.

There are Best Wishes cards of variety purposes for one to write one's names and wishes, there's also light offering for 49 days per sutra.
Really like their chanting...Traditional yet Modern & Compassionate

An extract below on the important pages of the Medicine Buddha Repentence Liturgy text used. 

Important extracts on the advices by the Buddha to cure ...
Putting up as a constant reminder...

The Abbess ended with a brief teaching on the extract of above and important reminder that we must not only ask for forgiveness for the wrong that we had done, but also we in turn, should develop the BIG Heart to forgive others.


May All Be Well...
May All Be Happy...

Planting of seeds

This recent trip to Teochew brought back some old memories of seeds planted during my younger days...

One interesting concept that the Teochew people have is that they believe Oysters are vegetarian food because there is no blood outflow from it. So, we discussed if the shell products are vegetarian, it was then that I recall of my early encounters of reading picture books on advocating vegetarian and avoidance of killing from the library of S'pore Buddhist Lodge. There are several stories advocated of kind people who after rescuing the lives, even yes, shell lives from being killed from cooking and releasing them back to the water, dreamt of the shell lives transforming into human/deity forms and appearing in the kind persons' dreams, thanking them for saving their lives.
 
It led me to recall that I had always thought that I was influenced towards pro-vegetarian because of watching Ven. Hai Tao's DVDs advocating vegetarian a couple of years ago but they are actually intermediate compared to the young days when I visited the corner Picture book section at the library of S'pore Buddhist Lodge.

Those are the days when I will go there to study for exams but getting tired of studying, I will relax by reading the picture books at the corner. Back to the library recently, there had been some changes, but the corner is still there, the familar titles on the stories of Buddha & Bodhisattva and yes, books advocating vegetarian and life releases are also there.

Gratitude to S'pore Buddhist Lodge, for the conducive environment to study & read.
Amituofo...

Pureland Dharma Talk at S'pore Buddhist Lodge

 

 

Saturday Pureland Dharma Talks at S'pore Buddhist Lodge by Ven Yan Xu

Good!!!

A pity I missed the earlier talks...   

 

 

S'pore Buddhist Lodge is located at 7-19, Kim Yam Road S'pore 239329

Don't Wash Fruits With Salt

More tips received from email...
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Don't Wash Fruits With Salt

Using salt to wash fruits and vegetables is worse. Salt is sodium chloride. Therefore, washing fruits and vegetables with salt will make pesticides more stable. Fruits and vegetables should be washed with water first, then clean with water again by adding a little low gluten flour (or starch). This will remove the pesticides. A test done in the Inspection Agency pointed out: salt compound will stabilize pesticides. It is better off to let the vegetables sit at room temperature for half a day, then rinse with water. The advertisement "Washing vegetables with salt is healthy" is incorrect. A teacher at the Food Engineering Department said: salt makes pesticides more stable due to chemical bonds. Pesticide residues in vegetables will be locked in. Therefore, pesticides in vegetables should be removed by rinsing with water several times. Do Not add salt to wash vegetables ......! In one nutrition class, Professor of Medicine in Taipei (now also a hospital clinical dietitian), has strong criticism of the misleading ads and wonder why no one ever stop it. Disclosure of such inaccurate information happened quite often, but no action was taken to stop it.... She hopes the public can have accurate medical knowledge. ============================================================= Little Secrets In Daily Life 1. Hot and spicy to tears, what to do? If you accidentally eat the hot food that makes you shed tears, your first thought will be probably a glass of water. However, hot water is not a solution, it will make it more spicy. In fact, the best solution is to drink hot milk. 2. Keeping tofu firm Soft tofu in the cooking process is very easy to break into pieces. If you want to maintain the integrity of tofu, you can soak it in salt water for about 30 minutes before cooking. 3. Soup is too salty Making soup with too much salt, the subtle taste of the soup will be destroyed. If this happens, the remedy is to add cooked potato pieces for few minutes. The potato will absorb the salt. When soup is served, then remove the potatoes. 4. Soak a little vinegar before cutting taros Cutting taro can make your hands itching. Soaking your hands in vinegar before cutting taros will prevent your from itching. 5. How to remove the wax from an apple If you often eat apples with their skin, then you would need to remove the wax first before eating.... (a) place the apple into hot water, the apple's wax will vanish. (b) Apply toothpaste on the apple to clean out the wax. 6. How to slow down potato germination? Potato buds contain toxic alkaloids which can cause abdominal pain and dizziness. Placing an apple in potatoes can significantly delay thier germination time. Ethylene gas produced by apple has hampered the effectiveness of potato development. Putting apples together with papayas or kiwi will make them ripe faster. Further, apples can make persimmon astringency disappear but sweeten after a week. 7. How to make good rice After washing rice in water, add a few drops of lemon juice, (or a few drops of oil), cooked rice will turn out good and fragrant. 8. How to keep biscuits crispy When storing biscuits in a container, put a sugar cube in it at the same time. As the sugar absorbs the moisture in the container, biscuits or cookies can remain crispy and delicious. 9. What can be done if clothing stains with ink If ink gets on your clothing or fabric, you can use cooked rice or paste with a little detergent to remove the stain. Use your fingers to smear repeatedly on the spot, stain can be removed quickly. Then soak it into fresh water with ordinary cleaning agent for a period of time before washing. 10. How to treat smelly shoes Put a small amount of baking soda directly into the boots, sneakers or shoes, that are obviously smelly due to dampness. Baking soda powder has the effect of absorbing moisture and odor. 11. Ring around the collar, or spotty under the armpit area of the clothing First brush some shampoo, shaving cream or lotion on the dirty area for five minutes. Then wash off the stain. 12. How to keep flower fresh Adding a little beer in the vase can keep house flowers fresh for an extended period of time. This is because beer contains alcohol which is both antiseptic and disinfectant. Beer also contains sugar and other nutrients for the leaves. 13. How to sharpen scissors Stacked three aluminum foil together, then cut them with the scissors to be sharpen. You will see surprising result. 14. How to remove annoying gummed labels It is quite annoying when comes to remove the price tags on merchandise. To remove the gummed labels neatly, all you need is to use a hair dryer to apply heat on the label before taking them off. 15. What can you do with beer beside drinking Most people know milk is good in cleaning foliage plants. In fact, use leftover beer to wipe plants is even better! Dip a cotton ball into beer, lightly wipe leaves to remove dust and keep them lustrey. Furthermore, this method also prevents ants from coming to the plant. 15. What to do with unwanted perfumes Before throwing them away, unwanted perfumes could be useful. You can use unwanted perfume to clean indoor light bulbs with cotton balls. When the bulbs light up and warm up, the whole room would be filled with the aroma. 17. Remove crayon graffiti from wooden furniture. If you have kids at home, wooden furniture are subject to crayon graffiti. Crayon stains cannot be removed with water. Although the use of paint solvents can do the job, the paint on the surface could be damaged. The most suitable method is to use toothpaste. Not only it cleans, it does no harm to the furniture. 18. Use vinegar to help mopping the kitchen floor. The kitchen floor is often easy to get greasy. Before mopping the kitchen floor, pour some vinegar on the mop. This will enable easy removal of grease. 19. How to remove stains from tea cups Stained tea cups can affect their appearance. To clean up the stain with a man made loofah cloth the cups would have scratches in the long run. Just spread a little toothpaste and hand-wash the cups, stain can be removed easily. If the stain is too thick, wait a few minutes after applying toothpaste before washing. 20. Improved floor sweeping The unused stockings can be attached to a broom to clean the floor. Stockings can help sweeping up cotton, hair and other particles that are difficult to sweep with an ordinary broom.

“I am sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you, I love you.”

Thanks to bro E who lent me the book~ "Zero Limits" by Dr Joe Vitale & Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len.

From the book, it reinforces the awakening that

“I had to take complete responsibility within myself for actualizing the problems outside myself”

~ I should take responsiblity for not having sufficient merits and wisdom to handle the situation that I am caught in.

My prayers should be to be praying for myself, asking for forgiveness for whatever was going on in me that causes what I am experiencing now instead of blaming the parties involved.

“I am sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you, I love you.”

Clean. Clean. Clean.

“The purpose of life is to be restored back to love, moment to moment.

To fulfill this purpose, the individual must acknowledge that he is 100 percent responsible for creating his life the way it is.

He must come to see that it is his thoughts that create his life the way it is moment to moment.

The problems are not people, places, and situations but rather the thoughts of them.

He must come to appreciate that there is no such things as “out there.”"

“Cleaning helps reduce the mortgage on your soul.”

                                                                                ~ Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len.

 “It’s not your fault but it is your responsibility”

                                                                                ~ Dr. Joe Vitale
 

I am sorry,
Please forgive me,
Thank you,
I love you

Clean, Clean, Clean


(A good book to read to help you out of situations based on the ancient Hawaiian teachings of Ho'oponopono)

May All Be Well

May All Be Happy!!!

聖嚴法師著作《放下的幸福》

Received this Dharma sharing sms from a Dharma friend:

禪宗有一個故事，是初祖菩提達摩和他的弟子慧可禪師之間的對話。慧可禪師老是覺得心裡問題很多，希望菩提達摩能夠幫他安心。于是菩提達摩問他：「你的心在哪裡？把你不安的心拿出來讓我看一看！」結果他找不到自己的心，這時菩提達摩就告訴他：「我已經替你把心安好了！」

人之所以內心不安的原因，歸結起來不外是
嫉妒心、擔心、瞋恨心、憤怒心、貪心，以及種種矛盾衝突。
這衝突包括自己與自己，或自己與他人之間，以及現實和想象或期待之間的落差。

譬如嫉妒心，有時我們看到別人的表現好，心裡就會不舒服，其實別人有好的表現應該要讚歎歡喜，感同身受。而且對別人的成就，我們也可沾一份喜悅，甚至起而效法。
與其嫉妒別人，不如去瞭解他人能夠成功的原因，並且看看自己要怎么做才能夠像他一樣優秀。
但是，有時別人能得到的，也許自己付出了同樣的努力還是得不到，這時就要想到可能是因為自己的因緣福報不夠，只要再努力，然后加上因緣福報的促成，自然就會成熟了。

所以別人的成功，一定也是辛苦努力來的，即使不是這一生的辛苦，也是過去生累積而來的。有的人會對別人生來有錢、有地位，感到不服氣，覺得自己辛苦一輩子，既沒有錢，也沒有福氣。這時我們就要想到，這是別人過去世努力修來的結果，不用羨慕，也不需要嫉妒。

另外，貪心也是常使人心不安的原因，能夠得到的不叫貪，得不到的卻想要，這才是貪。貪得無厭是很痛苦的事，其實能夠得到的自然會來，所謂水到渠成，根本不必挖空心思去想、去和別人爭，只要努力去經營，自然會開花結果。
如果成果沒出現，表示因緣尚未成熟，也不必為此難過。能夠這樣想，就可以消除因貪而產生的痛苦了。

事實上，內心不安，多半是庸人自擾，自尋煩惱。當覺照到心不安的時候，可以先瞭解心為什么不安？找到原因之后，就會發現很多煩惱都是沒有必要的。例如參加聯考，有的人考完試，每天等着放榜，心裡等得很不安，一直在擔心會不會上榜？究竟考上哪裡？這時如果能轉念想：「反正都已經考完了，擔心這么多也無濟于事。至于放榜以后究竟會怎么樣，到時候再來打算，現在擔心也沒有用。何必自尋煩惱？」這樣一想，馬上就會心安，覺得自己的胡思亂想真是無聊！

所以，人不安心的時候，可以反思，問問自己不安的原因是什么？如此一反問，很容易就會發現往往只是自己想太多，事實上，沒有什么值得煩惱和難過的。經過這樣的省思，心就會安定下來。
此外，內心不安的時候，也可以念「阿彌陀佛」或「觀世音菩薩」聖號，將心、念頭安住在佛號上，不再去想那些煩惱的問題，心自然會慢慢安下來。
   

                           －－－摘自：聖嚴法師著作《放下的幸福》