Teaching of the month - Sep 2017

PRACTISE WITH THE RIGHT ATTITUDE AND RIGHT MOTIVATION

03ChiJing GuanYin

OM MANI PADME HUM

Try as you may, there is no way that you can free your mind of other’s plight. No matter how difficult it is for yourself, you cannot turn your back to those who come for help. This is a kind of irreversible situation that you must maintain throughout life, throughout lifetimes.

The Bodhisattva Vows have been taken, there is no turning back, only the speed of progress is affected. This is the reason why you are sitting with your back turned towards the holy images while others face them directly. It has a great significant meaning and you know what it is, so you must act accordingly.

Be as you are. Be one with your prayers. Be well motivated and utter the words that represent your true feelings. Many people can teach you their methods of prayers, they have been teaching to others too, but how have such methods work for you? Even though the most complete and meaningful methods are taught, yet how many have made great in-roads to spirituality? It is true that many even become confused and disillusioned after a short period of practice. Does this mean that they have taught wrongly? It is important that one must learn to develop the meaning of worship that suits his own temperament and ability. It is easy to tell others to pray with concentration, with one-pointedness, with faith, with sincerity and with regularity. It all means nothing to one who has not learned to set his mind with the right attitude even though there is right motivation. When one has put his ‘full mind’ to see the world, he has no thought of success or failure, no thought of anything else but his true wish to communicate, and in his prayers he will speak as if the Lord is in front of him, he is communicating, he lays bare his heart and very often feels the contact, he hears in return, he becomes one with the Divine. But this is not an easy state to fall into. Strenuous efforts must be there and such great energy cannot come about unless there is a strong cause. This cause to reach the Divine is not easy to come by, it does not arise just because one wishes to pray, it comes about due to karmic consequences - it is mainly due to the causes of past good roots which has grown into a tree, and this tree is blossoming. This is a great spiritual experience. It is the culmination of lifetimes of practices, it has borne fruit!

Now think again, from where do such person learn how to reach the Divine? It is not by a method that others have taught, it came about spontaneously, it is a natural birth of event. Many great masters that you have heard of or come across, you will most likely not find them having developed themselves through the guidance of someone else’s method. Only disciples develop themselves by following the methods of masters; masters find their sources of spiritual growth within themselves, and then their ways become the ways for others to follow. For this reason, you must be yourself, always remembering how you discovered the great force with you, how Kuan Yin came into your life!

The developing stages should now be contemplated upon. Go back to meditation, and seek clearer understanding, after which, try to put the great experience into words for the future. Appreciating the Lords who came to your aid, remembering how they have trained you and knowing how feeble you are without their blessings, you will become a good and gentle guide for others. There is no greatness in what you are doing. It is just a task one must perform to help his earthly brothers and sisters, to share experiences that will bring about spiritual joy!

By the end of next year, this Order will have made a great stride forward. It will have developed a character of its own, and those who wish to utter the name of Kuan Yin will find a place to practise here. Those who know seek for no gains, ever striving to polish their characters from the coarse to the refine. There is no benefit in Kuan Yin practice outwardly, so those who have the wrong understanding and are full of expectations shall drop off. If only all would come, to practise humbly, thinking not only of themselves but others also, they will surely succeed!

Friday, 11th July 1986 (6th Moon 5th Day)

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