Story of a mouse

It's quite funny sometimes to read blogs that I wrote previously ( http://ramblingsfromabird.blogspot.com/). It gave me an idea on what was my state of my mind at that time, and at times it also gave me some idea on how much I have changed, or I have not changed since that time. 

Since this blog has not been updated for quite some time, just thought of writing something in this peaceful Saturday.

After my Chinese tuition this morning, I enjoyed my weekly tea session with my family. Today, I just anyhow made up a story of a mouse which I shared with my brother.

Here it goes: 

Long time ago, there is this small mouse. His name is "Nobody". Just like many other mice in this world, Nobody was born in a house that he didn't even have idea who the owner is. After a while, all his family member left him due to some illness and from then on Nobody was left alone, occupying small holes in this big house. However, life seems to be quite comfortable for him. Although Nobody is alone, nobody to talk with, he has all Four Requisites available for him to be used. He has small hole as his house; When he is hungry, all he needs to do is go out of his hole and find some food out there; When he is sick, he also is able to go out to find some medicine to cure his illness. (Come to think of it, I have to revise that actually he only has Three Requisites. After all, mouse do not need Clothes right? =P). 

Anyway, to summarize Nobody's life. Nobody is lonely, has little friend, but Nobody has no issue with fulfilling his basic needs. 

One day, a friend comes to visit Nobody. Then he asked Nobody, are you happy with your life? Nobody answered, "Of course not!" Then this friend further asked him, "What will make you happy then?" "Oh, I will be happy, very happy if I have my own house. See? this hole is not a house and in fact this house belongs to other person right? And in the new house that I own, I want to stay with Prince Charming, my 偶像 mouse."

One fine day, when the mouse is 11 years old, in the horse year, Nobody felt that it's his lucky year, and so he used all the money that he has to go and buy TOTO. Of course, Nobody is smart. He purposely bought TOTO that will be opened after CNY because he knew that that TOTO has bigger prize. Guess what? He won the TOTO and all the money that he got is just nice enough to buy a small house. At that year, he too is able to attract Prince Charming to stay together with him. "What a year!" Nobody thought," This is the pinnacle of my life! Beyond this, there is only everlasting and abundance Happiness. All my wishes have been fulfilled by The Great One!"

Seven years past since then. In this ox year, Nobody is now 18 years old. One fine day, the old friend that used to visit Nobody in the hole, came to visit him again. This friend that asked him," Hey! Your life must be very good! Many years back you shared me your dreams, your wishes, and as far as I know, you have got EVERYTHING. You wanted a house, you got a house. You wanted to stay together with Prince Charming, Here you are, Prince Charming is here. What a life! I congratulate you for having such a Great Luck." Nobody's friend said. 

Upon hearing that, Nobody just grinned, "How I wish to have back the life in the Hole last time. Life was so much simpler at that time. Although, I lived alone, I do not have to worry about ANYTHING at all. If I want food, I got food. When I am sick, I got medicine. NOW? You see? This house actually belongs to me you know? There is no human being lived in this house. And since there is no human being living here, How am I able to get my food? Nowadays, I have to travel very far, to just find food to eat. Not only that, sometimes, after searching food for hours, I still come back empty handed. Then, don't you see it when you came to this house? This house is in a big mess. Since there is no human being stayed in this house, No one takes care of the house. How on earth a mouse can clean a house? Of course can't right?

Prince Charming? Yah... Prince Charming used to be very charming back then. Nowadays, Prince Charming always complained of this and complained of that. Prince Charming is not charming at all nowadays, and how I wish I can live alone like last time, away from all nagging and complaints." Nobody answered.

Upon hearing that, Nobody's friend just shacked his head and left, wishing all the best to Nobody.  

Purpose of life

The first time I really realized that all human beings would eventually die, I was still a teenager, probably around 12-15 years of age. I remembered very clearly, at that time, I would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with cold sweat, being reminded with the fact that I would die one day, the fact that I would lose all the people around me because they too would die sooner or later. 

I did not talk to anybody on this, probably because I was introvert by nature (especially when I was younger), and continued to feel very scared, hopeless, not knowing what to do. I remembered that this went on and on for quite sometime: Woke up in the middle of the night with cold sweat, and pondered what is the purpose of life, why am I being born at the first place, while at the same time, all the things and people that are deemed important to us, would disappear sooner or later. 

One and half decade has passed since that time. If you were to ask me the same question, what is the purpose of life? What's the meaning of life? Why are we being born? I probably will be able to give all sorts of answers, probably starting from Buddhist point of view, from humanistic point of view, etc etc. However deep down, I am still unsure as I am still searching for THE  answer. True enough, I have experienced much more things in life compared to 15 years ago. I faced with more problems in life. I experienced deaths of my love ones. I saw greed, hatred, and delusion popping out from my own mind. I saw expressions of greed, hatred and delusion in the inhabitants of the world, but yet, when I was alone, and started to think more deeply, I have to be very frank with myself, that I have not found the answer yet, and I am not even sure whether I am closer to the answer that I am looking for compared to 15 years ago, when I was still a teenager, knowing for the first time that I would die one day.

Sometimes life is really very very strange. I desired a lot of things, and because of those desire, I became attached with a lot of things. Through this desire, it has brought some suffering in me, especially when I failed to get what I want, or the thing that I love went away. 

I hated quite a few things too. There are certain practices that I would not be able to accept. There are certain characters in people that I don't like. There are certain situations that I hate to be with. All these things too, contributed to my unhappiness, especially when those things refused to go away. 

But yet, when I am alone and contemplate on the impermanence of all things, I will have to agree that those things are not important, my like, my dislike are not important, since I, and all human beings will die one day, just a matter of time. So what's the point of chasing all the things that are just transient? Getting angry with people, or conditions while those things are also just transient? 

But then, after reflecting on these things. I still continued to have likes, and dislikes, and unable to be free from those likes and dislikes. It is funny, isn't it?

People who tend to think like me (I wonder whether are there a lot out there), probably will search for the answer in the religion. But have religions really provided the answers to these questions? 

If I looked at Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), the answer seems to be that if one has complete faith to the God (or messengers of God), the conclusion that I got (well, it's obvious that I don't subscribe to this, and therefore pardon me for being too prejudice) seems to be that it offers an easy way out, and comfort to people. As long as one believe, there is no worry, because the kingdom of heaven will be waiting for the people who have faith. The kingdom of heaven is an ETERNAL place, with only happiness. It's very comforting isn't it?

But with Buddhism, thing is very different. Buddhism (and many Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Jainism, etc) believe in the concept of karma, and rebirth. To many people, probably this provides comfort as well, especially to people who are afraid and not able to accept the fact that they will die one day. Don't worry, there will be life after death. And this rebirth will be endless. 

However, there is more to it. The purpose of being a Buddhist is not only to get better rebirth, but as oppose to it, the final goal of being Buddhist is to be enlightened, in other words, to be free from cycle of birth and death - to end rebirth once and for all! How comforting is that? I think it is not, as until today, I am still quite skeptical how many lay Buddhists really put enlightenment as their final goals (as opposed to getting better rebirth). 

How about you? Have you found the purpose of your own life? 

Devas (gods) and Asuras ( demigods)

In Buddhist cosmology, the lower section of devas are consistently having a war with asuras. Most of the time, the devas are winning the wars, and at the result they always seem to enjoy their life most of the time (some said it's due to their good kamma). The asuras are always jealous with the devas because they always enjoy their life, and as the result, always wanted to topple the devas so that they can enjoy their life too (and probably make the devas suffer). Unfortunately, asuras most of the time, will lose the war against the devas and always suffer as the result. Each time they lose the war, the more jealous and hatred will develop in their mind towards the devas, while the devas continue to enjoy their life, sometimes unknowingly that the result of this act, cause more jealousy and more hatred that asuras have towards them.

In this life, I happened to be born in a not-rich Indonesian Chinese family. After becoming more adult and reflecting back to their situation in Indonesia, I thought that there is something seriously wrong with the culture and system in Indonesia. Why? To many Indonesian chinese the year of 1965 and 1998 is a nightmare to many. These are the years when the poorer Indonesian prosecuted the Chinese, and as the result many chinese are being killed, or raped. From the surface, it's easy to say that the chinese did nothing wrong and they are the victims and therefore we should blamed the people who committed mass murder or mass rapes against them.
But is this really the case? Frankly, I don't believe it is, because for something to happen, the condition must be right and most the time, the condition is ripen due to the action from both sides, chinese indonesian and non chinese indonesian.
Most people know that the chinese are a more well off than the non chinese, and tends to enjoy life much more (and sometimes to the extremes). You may think this group as the devas. The non chinese on the other hand, most of them will have a chinese towkay (boss) but has a very low salary, to the point that it's difficult to  just to live. When economy crisis came (like 1998), they would lose the job and as the result don't even have food to eat and maintain his life. And that time, what do you think they will think? Probably something like "the chinese is just a guest in this land. This is our land, but they are the one that is richer... somemore very proud and like to show off... " and gets very very angry, and jealous to this group of people... The result is of course tragedy that happened....Seeing in this way, things happened because there are faults in both groups and it is unfair to blame one group. (eg. if we blame the asuras for having a lot of hatred and anger towards the devas? we can also blame the devas for showing off and enjoying their life, while being insensitive to the asuras right?)

The story of asuras and devas, the story of indonesian chinese, is not the only cases around. In the history of mankind, these stories are being repeated again and again and again in similar forms in on way or another. Of course, from Buddhist point of view, the root of the problem is of course as what the Buddha said as "greed, hatred and delusion". But from political point of view, in terms of society, this is being aggravated by a very large income gap, and unequal opportunities that existed in the particular society. For the chinese indonesian case, do you really think that all the richer chinese are really better than the non chinese? If there is a more equal opportunity, if there is a fairer system, will the result still the same? Personally, I don't believe so. To me, a healthier society should learn from the tragedy that happened in Indonesia in 1965 and 1998 so that all the people will work towards less income gap, a more meritocratic system regardless of races, or groups, or in other words a fairer society.
This can be a very difficult think to achieve in certain society. A more recent example is probably Thailand, between the red shirt and the yellow shirt, between the privileged Bangkok and southern thailanders and poor rural northern thailanders....
Some said history tends to repeat itself. But, to me, we SHOULD learn from history so as to prevent mistakes that we as mankind committed in the past so as not to repeat the history again....

Final note: This blog expresses my own opinion. You may agree or disagree but would love to hear ur opinions...

Upagupta and Mara

I first heard about the story of Upagupta a few years ago during a Dhamma talk by Ajahn Sujato. Somehow there is something magical about this story that it is always in my mind from the first day I heard from Ajahn Sujato until today.

The story goes like this....

Upagupta is basically a Sarvastivada monk, born a few hundred years after the Buddha passed away (Parinibbana). He is one of the most famous Sarvastivadian monk, well known for his ability in teaching the Dhamma as well as his magical power. One day, Mara became jealous of Upagupta (probably because of Upagupta, many people became enlightened, and these people became outside the jurisdiction of Mara), and decided to distract and manage to do so for three consecutive times. In the last time, Mara, using his magical power, created a performance just besides the place Upagupta teaching the Dhamma. As the result, many people became distracted and started to enjoy the performance instead of listening to the teaching given by Upagupta. After the performance, Upagupta then went to Mara and offered a flower garland. Mara became very happy, thinking that he is able to win not only his disciples, but also Upagupta himself, decided to accept the flower garland. However, as soon as the flower garland touched the Mara's body, the flower garland suddenly became dead snakes, dead dogs and skulls sticking to Mara's body. No matter how hard Mara tried to disengage himself from these disgusting things, he failed to do so.
And then suddenly, the Mara thought of the Buddha (that has passed away for hundreds years by then). Mara taught that comparing the Buddha with his disciple, Upagupta, the Buddha was so much more compassionate. No matter how much Mara tried to do so many terrible things to the Buddha, The Buddha never did such a disgusting things.
Mara after that then conceded defeat and said that he would do any things if Upagupta agreed to release him for all these disgusting things. Upagupta, knowing that he has managed to make Mara realized the Buddha's compassion, agreed to do so.
Upagupta then asked Mara to transform himself to become the Buddha. It is because Upagupta was born hundreds years after the Buddha and never saw the Buddha's physical body but always been wanting to see the Buddha (Mara on the other hand, saw the Buddha many times). Mara agreed with condition that Upagupta should not pay respect to him, because no matter how much similar he is to the Buddha, he is after all not the Buddha, but Mara the evil one himself. Upagupta agreed to do so. But when Mara transformed himself to become the Buddha, Upagupta then pay respect by bowing to the Mara. Upon questioning by Mara, Upagupta simply replied that he was not paying respect to Mara, but the Buddha himself!

This is a very fascinating story to me. Just as the Buddha is symbol of Deathless, Mara is the symbol of Death (and probably in particular the Death of spirituality).
Traditionally, this story is used as a teaching that Buddhists do not paying respect to statues (Mara), but rather Buddhists pay respect on the Buddha, particularly the quality of the Buddha that we wanted to have.

However, my questions to all Buddhists are.

1. How many of us are in fact worshiping Mara in the form of Buddha's statue, and how many of us are really worshiping the Buddha? Although the action from outside is different, the difference are huge. On one hand, one is paying respect the bringer of light, to the path to the Deathless, while on the other hand, one is paying respect to the Death, to the Mara himself!

2. How do we know when we are paying respecting to the Buddha's statue, are we really paying respect to the Buddha, or are we paying respect to the Mara?

3. Why Buddhists created the Buddha's statue at the first place? Is this because they longed so much for the Buddha and refused to believe that the Buddha passed away (Mara)? Or is it because they wanted to find  places to remind them the positive qualities of the Buddha (Buddha)?

Forgiveness

One of the things that I enjoyed the most about teaching is that I tend to get inspiration myself. The time when I used to prepare the materials, the time that when I sat quietly pondering what to say, and the actual time when I am teaching, at times, I realized that strangely I have learnt things myself. Below is the reflection that I had while preparing today's material:

This morning, the topic of this morning's lesson is about Maha Mongallana, the left hand man of the Buddha. He is of course traditionally known as someone that is exceptionally strong in spiritual power. If you have known Superman, you will definitely compare between Maha Mongallana with him, and somehow felt that Maha Mongallana's power is even beyond Superman (at least in the story). Some of them are:
1. He has the ability to see things far away, like Superman but even more as he can see even to other realms (1-0 for Maha Mongallana)
2. He has the ability to listen to sounds from far away, just like Superman, but even more as he can listen to sounds from other realms (2-0 for Maha Mongallana)
3. He has the ability to do mind reading, (well Superman can't so 3-0 for Maha Mongallana)
4. He can teleport (Superman can only fly, so 4-0 for Maha Mongallana)
5. He is exceptionally strong (I don't know how to compare so I decide to make it a tie with Superman =P).

However, to me, the most moving story of Maha Mongallana is not about the story that he is stronger than Superman, but it is about his background. From both canonical sources as well as non-canonical sources, we can gather that Maha Mongallana did many wrong deeds in the past, two of the most terrible of those are:
1. He is Mara, the evil one himself during the first Buddha's dispensation (our current Buddha is the fifth in this  kappa/aeons). - This is story is canonical, found in Majjhima Nikaya sutta no. 50 (I guess Mara is the Buddhist version of Devil/ Satan).
2. He killed his own father and mother before. - I guess this story is non canonical, found only in commentaries as a justification that he lost his power leading to the fact that bandits managed to kill him.

Contemplate on these two facts more carefully. Have you ever heard from other religions that Devil can be in Heaven? Have you ever heard that Satan can be in Heaven? To me, I have not. But this is the real beauty of Buddhism from philosophy from of view. Everybody has the capacity to be enlightened even Mara, the evil one himself. Not only did Maha Mongallana did enlightened, he even became the chief disciple of the Buddha!
Similarly, someone who killed even his own father and his own mother, if he realized his mistakes and changed, he also has the capacity to be enlightened.

I am not suggesting that it is okay to do wrong deeds. From the story, Maha Mongallana suffered greatly because of these two deeds. Due to his wrong deeds of becoming Mara the evil one and killing his own father and mother, he had stayed in hell for very very long time. However, this does not end his capacity to be enlightened and to be Arahat.
In summary, in Buddhism, there is no bad person, only person doing bad deeds. eg. Osama bin Laden is not bad person, but he do commit bad deeds. Saddam Hussein is not a bad person, but he do commit bad deeds, etc.

This is a very positive way of looking at the world today, and it is the greatest expression of forgiveness. Similarly, no matter how bad someone has treated us (even to the degree of killing our beloved ones), it is refreshing if we can forgive that person, though we will not forgive the deeds.
And if more and more people able to practice this, I believe the world will be a more peaceful and less hateful place to be. (Otherwise vicious cycle like this might happened. If someone killed our loved ones, we killed that person. And as the result, that person's loved ones will kill us, prompting our loved one to killed that person, and so on...)

Therefore, as a Buddhist, contemplate this. Maha Mongallana has enlightened, though he has done many bad deeds many lives before. Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, or anyone that has did many terrible deeds to us, just like Maha Mongallana, has the capacity to become enlightened, and therefore forgive them!

Why the Buddha's relics are dangerous

Because of my obligation as voluntary Sunday school teacher, I recently re-studied Maha Parinibbana Sutta (D16). The more I studied Maha Parinibbana Sutta and history of Buddhism after the Buddha's passing away, the more I felt that there are something wrong with relics.

Firstly, what are relics anyway? Relics are basically remains from a person. In the case of the Buddha, it is mentioned that after the Buddha passed away and being cremated, the remaining of the Buddha, called relics are then being venerated by some people.

So far so good right? What is wrong with relics then?
Firstly, let us see what happened after the Buddha passed away and cremated as recorded by Maha Parinibbana Sutta. It is mentioned that the Mallas of Kusinaras (basically the tribes in Kusinaras, where the Buddha passed away), more or less in charge of cremation of the Buddha's body, decided to install the Buddha's relics in an enclosure (cage) of spears, surrounding it with wall of bows in their assembly hall. And of course they also honoured, served, respected, esteemed and venerated them with dancing, music, singing, garlands and fragrances.
Why do you think they do that then? Why do they treat their teacher's remain who they have respected so much and who have well known for its renunciation to violence, surrounding it with weapons (spears, bows?).
I guess, probably, it is because they foresaw what might happen next in the near future.

True enough, not long after that, after the news of the Buddha has passed away spread, many kings, republic leaders and brahmins namely King Ajatasattu Vedehiputta of Magadha, Licchavis of Vesalis, Sakyas of Kapilavatthu, Bulis of Allakappa, Koliyas of Ramagama, brahmin Vethadipaka, Mallas of Pava, all sent their messengers to Mallas of Kusinaras, asking for the relics using various reasons justifying why they should be the one who have the rights to keep the Buddha's relics.
Obviously, the Mallas of Kusinaras rejected by saying that since the Buddha passed away in their place, the relics belong to them and they will not give away any portions of the relics!!!

Luckily, there is one brahmin with the name of Dona proposed to divide the Buddha's relics equally into 8 portions and distributed to all of these people and they somehow agreed with the proposal.

What do you think might happen if Mallas of Kusinaras insist to keep the relics by themselves? Noone knows for sure, but I guess that the possibilities that war will erupt just to fight over the relics are very possible. This is the worst case scenario right? Having war just because of the teacher's remains, while the teacher's instruction is loud and clear, renounce violence!

The next question that we should ask ourselves are why all these politicians want the Buddha's relic so much?
If we study carefully about power, one will know the answer straight away. The physical remains of the Buddha in the form of relics offer its owners power and authority. (eg. since I have the Buddha's relics, the Buddha is WITH ME, and therefore it is better for all of you to be with me also. My words are representing the Buddha...). In other words, relics promise power to its owner, and with power, the person can do a lot of things such as to build kingdom, to build country, to govern people, to accumulate wealth, etc.

Let me give further two examples of how relics can be very useful to its owners:
1. Sri Lanka. It is well known since old times that whoever possesses the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha possess the divine right to rule over the land. And because of these, of course many people would start wars in order to possess the relic so that they can become the kings of Sri Lanka.
2. In the modern days, big temples that possess or claim to possess many of the Buddha's relics are generally very successful in accumulating money.

After describing how relics are being used, let me come back to Maha Parinibbana Sutta. The main themes of the Sutta is basically on the Buddha's advice and instruction to the future Buddhists.
One thing that is very relevant here is of supreme worship. The Buddha mentioned that there are many ways to worship him. One can do all kinds of rituals, all kinds of methods to pay respect, venerate him, but those all are of little meaning, as the supreme worship is done and completed simply by practicing his teaching. (eg. realizing for himself the truth that the Buddha's proclaim that life is full of impermanence, suffering, and non self, and if one were to practice diligently based on the method that he taught, one will be able to reach his state, the state of Enlightenment (Nirvana/'Nibbana). When one became enlightened, one has in fact done a supreme worship to him, there is no need to do all sorts of useless things anymore!
In short, if you practice the Buddha's teaching diligently, there is no need to even pay respect to the Buddha's remain! Be it physical remains (relics), a tree (Bodhi tree), wheel (the symbol of Dhamma), the Buddha's statue or anything at all! Simply because when you are practicing his teaching, you have worship him much more, in comparison to the people who worship just his physical presence.

The problem with relics is the problem of externalization of Buddhism. To the pious (well, I should say fool) Buddhists, the relics represent the Buddha himself, and they are willing to do everything unconsciously when requested by the owners of the relics especially when he/she claims authority based on the relics.
To me, the story of relics much of it, is a story of human greed and human delusion. Politicians, or anyone who have desire for power/ money/ authority, will desire relics especially when he/she is being surrounded by fool people. Fool people who have much ignorance thought that those who possess relics are always right, will do everything as wanted by the relic's owner.
This is the reason why I thought the Buddha's relics are dangerous. The Buddha's teachings are clear. One should abandon greed, hatred and delusion, uprooting latent tendency of lust, aversion, and ignorance. But, somehow ironically, the Buddha's remains, the relics have proven to me in the past 2600 years, have done the reverse, increasing greed and delusion of many!

Closing note: From other perspective, we can also see that relics are just earth element, and it does not have any problem on its own. It is human beings' greed and ignorance that purposely misuse relics for their selfish gain. When one sees from this perspective, it is not relic's fault, since it is just a stone. How can we blame a stone (right?) =P

Happiness

Every beings in this world yearn for happiness. All beings will do all sorts of things to fulfill so that they can be happy, or rather they will do all possible things that they thought will lead to their happiness.
In the case of Buddhism, the Buddha puts it beautifully in three words: Gratification, Danger and Release, to describe happiness that we obtained or try to obtain through one of our sixth senses.
It's possible to reach the state of gratification, whatever things joy and happiness that we seek through our senses, and because of that beings continue seeking this happiness in order to "gratify" themselves. However, the Buddha warn that all these happiness have its danger. The danger is because whatever things it is, it is always have impermanence with it, meaning that it will not last forever although we are trying to so hard to protect so that we can always have that happiness in us all the time. And lastly, there is also release, in the sense that if we are able to let go from our attachment of that very gratification, then we will be able to be released from it.
These in a way are the essence of Buddhism ( or at least Early Buddhism), a religion (or whatever you call it), that put no meaning in prayer, ceremony, rituals, etc and focus on how teaching beings on what is the wisest way to achieve and obtain happiness, the highest possible happiness achievable from human beings.
(Note: Do note that unlike Early Buddhism, later form of Buddhism may deviate significantly from the early teachings. Some of them may become even closer to other religions than Early Buddhism - just to compare how close Tibetan Buddhism is closer in practice to Hinduism, and Catholicism in terms of its system. How close it is for Chinese Zen Buddhism to Taoism, etc).

As of most of beings in this world, I too have been trying to find various forms of happiness through one of sixth senses. The funny things of it is that when we do have that, the gratification tends to make me felt that these things will last forever and make me take things for granted that it will always be there. (Without remembering the "danger" that the Buddha advised us). And suddenly, when these things gone, disappear forever, then the mental suffering, lamentation, will be so overwhelming that sometimes I can't take it anymore.
One of the best examples in my life are probably three events that happened in my life two years ago. Every single things of the events (upon looking back), indeed remind me so much how much I have taken things for granted, thinking that those things will last forever. And indeed, when all these three disappeared from my life only in the space of one year, the me that left are the me that is feeling dejected. It seemed like someone that are being thrown to hell without knowing how to get out of it. It is like walking in the place of complete darkness, when I tried to walk further and further trying to find the light, no matter how much I tried to find, I can't seem to find it and I continue walking in darkness.
Those things are just the reflection of my state of my mind in the past of course. Thinking back, although the light is probably is not as bright yet, indeed in the end I have found some light. To put in the advice from the Buddha, it is simply that Release. When I am able to accept the fact that those things are impermanence, and will not last forever, and it is lost now, then somehow, magically it is not as painful anymore. Slowly, the wound is getting smaller and smaller and the light that I have been trying to find turn out to be just beside me all the time. It is just because I am so engulfed with darkness that I don't realize it. If I were to pause a while, and not focus on the darkness, probably I have realized it long time ago...

Money Talks

Loving kindness meditation always starts like this. Meditator will start by reflecting happy moments that he experienced in the past and wish himself to be well and happy. When this feeling is strong, then the meditator will start to radiate the loving kindness slowly out, to people that that close to the meditator, and slowly out until covering the whole world.
The idea that happiness should be started from oneself is very important, because unhappy will not be able to make other happy. In order to make other people happy, one should make himself happy first! This is not lofty idea like in the film, in which the hero will sacrifice himself or his happiness just to make other people happy. In the case of Buddhism, or rather in the case of wise people, he will ensure that he is happy first before extending his happiness to more and more people.


I think this is also related with the issue of money. When I first learnt about Buddhist concept of money management, as per below I found it quite startling and a little bit difficult to be understood:

The big question is of course, why the Buddha advises his lay disciples to put big chunk of their money, not to help people but for investment? (note that helping people is one of personal enjoyment). It doesn't make sense  at first if we were to consider the Buddha as someone that is compassionate. But then, upon further contemplating on this issue, it might make sense after all. The Buddha is probably advising that in order to help other people, we have to help ourselves first. In other words, if we do not have excess with money, how can we help people who need help? As the result, it becomes important to save the money for rainy days (savings) and invest it (eg. start your own business, etc) so that one does not have worry on money, and in the future that person is in the strong position to help other people (do note that the advise to the ordained (monks and nuns) are opposite as they are not supposed to have any money at all.


From this point of view, money is not evil or noble, but it is just a tool. In a way, it is something like amplifier. If one has the tendency to do good and help people who need it, having more money will increase the capability of that person to help more people. In the other hand, if one is occupied by anger, then money will amplify that anger to make many more people suffering in this world. 


This comes to the point that unlike popular stigma that Buddhists do not value money, and at times seem to see money as the source of evil. This is not true. The Buddha's view of money to his lay disciples is a positive one, it's a tool that if were to be used correctly has the capacity of helping many people (think of Anathapindika, and Visakka, the two wealthiest lay disciples of the Buddha who consistently help needy people). 
But then, the advise is also a simple one. One should not be attached with money. When one has more, one should learn to be contented with it. And when one has little, one should also be contented with it. In a way, having little or money do not and will not have any impact on the state of happiness that one has. 

The power of Memes

This is the first blog that I have ever written after many years. To kick start my blogging activity, I would like to share on my reflection on memes.

When I was having holiday in Medan one week ago, my cousin, Sophia Liauw, lent me a very interesting book with titled "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell.

This book discusses certain phenomena on the world, how certain event in the world, for some unknown reason start to change and affect majority of society. In the opening of the book, Malcolm Gladwell gives example of Hush Puppies. Hush Puppies is a footwear company which footwear was almost forgotten by 1990s. For some reasons, some sub urbans people start to wear Hush Puppies, and somehow more and more people start to find it cool and start to find Hush Puppies shoes. In short times, Hush Puppies fever started all over the world. This is what Malcolm Gladwell called "Tipping Point", the exponential increase of certain phenomena affecting many people. ( For Hush Puppies case, it is even more interesting, because the company does not even invest in advertising at all. )

Malcolm Gladwell, then discusses three rules of epidemics, causing this to happen:

1. The law of the few.

This is about people. Certain people has the characters, ability and influence to convince other people that certain message is good and worth following.

2. The stickiness factor.

The specific message is able to make people who receive it able to remember it for long time.

3. The power of context.

Basically the environment at that time favors this message.

There are many things to say on the content of this book and I would recommend you go and pick this book and read by yourself.

http://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0316346624/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258804865&sr=8-1

Being someone that are very interested with Buddhist Psychology, and Early Buddhism, as I'm reading this book, I can't help but recalling an essay, written by Piya Tan on this topic "Memes: How religion imprisons and spirituality liberates"

http://pali.house.googlepages.com/26.3Memespiya.pdf

Probably some of you might not even heard about the word memes before. In wikipedia, you can find out more on this topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

Upon pondering further, I started to realize that power of memes are encompassing our life much more than we think. My view, my idea, my habit, most of it in fact are imposed by other people to me. For example, I have similar idea of beauty as majority of guys in this world. Girls that I considered pretty and beautiful, are someone that are not too fat, and have certain complexity, certain looks. But, in fact, the idea of beauty in fact was very different in the past. I was informed that there was society in the past who think very fat girl is beautiful, and skinny girl as ugly because they are malnourished. See what I mean? even the idea of beauty that seems personal like this is in fact imposed by society and not comes from our own.

As I reflect on this, memes becomes more and more scary. As Buddhist, I know theoretically from long time ago that human beings are conditioned beings, in a way that we are conditioned by many things around us. To put it in another words, human beings do not have free will as our actions are conditioned from things that happened in the past, things that happened around us, and it is possible, as Malcolm Gladwell showed in his book, to influence the society to perform certain things. (Even crimes can be memes because by changing certain things, somehow crimes in one city like New York, can be exponentially reduced to a level that are much lower compared to the past). To put it into questions:

1. Does this mean that human being like myself has such a limited control on our thoughts, our speech and our action?

2. Does people suffer because of bad deeds (or Kamma) that they did in the past, just because they are conditioned to perform that bad deeds (and not really his free will to do so)?

3. More importantly, is there a way to be free from memes, free from conditions around us?

Luckily, spirituality path of Buddhism always offer possibility of liberation, as western psychologist, Susan Blackmore put it beautifully as follow:

It may seem strange to end this book [Consciousness: An intro­duction] with what looks like a religious doctrine, when ancient dogma or doctrine cannot be what we are after. It is true that, like all religions, Buddhism has accumulated a vast super­structure of memes, including texts, rituals, beliefs, beautiful build­ings, sculptures and statues, music and liturgies. Yet what the Buddha saw is not a meme. It cannot be spoken of directly, and can only be transmitted by tricks of pointing or showing, or doing something to provoke another mind into letting go. This is known in Zen as “transmission outside the scriptures.” (Blackmore 2003:402)

http://www.amazon.com/Consciousness-Introduction-Susan-Blackmore/dp/019515343X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258806701&sr=8-1

How do spirituality path of Buddhism ends Memes then? It is by realizing Enlightenment by ourselves, the time when we are not a conditioned being anymore, but a free, liberated being. In the closing of his book, Piya Tan quoted as follow:

915 I ask the kinsman of the sun, the great seer,

about solitude, the state of peace.

How does a monk, when he has seen,

become quenched, not grasping anything in the world?

916 Being a thinker (mantā), he would uproot

all perception-based mental proliferations about “I am,” said the Blessed One.

Whatever internal cravings there may be,

ever mindful, he trains himself to dispel them.

917 Whatever things he may understand,

whether within himself or outside,

he would not be stubborn about it:

for, this is not called “quenching” by the wise.

918 Because of that, he would not think he is “better,”

or “inferior to,” or “equal to,” or such like,

when touched by various forms,

he would not let his thoughts remain within himself.

919 Only within himself he seeks stillness,

A monk would not find peace anywhere else.

For one who is at peace within,

there is no self, not to say of what is not self.

920 Just as in the middle of the ocean,

no waves arise, it remains still—

even so, he would stand still, unshaking,

a monk swells not in arrogance about anything. (Sn 915-920)

Closing note: In Business, memes are very useful and highly sought because this is how corporate able to makes money. If one company is able to turn its product to be liked and attached by many people in the world, the corporates will earn a lot of money because people do not mind paying money to get what they like (think of IPhones, Hush Puppies, Louis Vuitton, etc). Religion especially God religion do loves memes because it is tools that make people be converted and turned to them, and even donates lots of money, efforts, etc to them. (think of Evangelical religions). BUT, spirituality path of Buddhism (please exclude organized religion of Buddhism), have the final goal of destroying Memes, to liberate being so that they become truly unconditioned, truly liberated, and truly free.