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Teaching of the month - Oct 2018

HOW LIFE IS TO BE LIVED!

– Part 2 of 2 – Stop Going In A Circle, Move Inward, Look Within and Make the Journey ‘Home’

 16 Yan De Guan Yin

OM SARI HUM

Life is like the passage of the moon in a lunar month. Birth is taken and maturity is seen, this is the period of the first fifteen days of the lunar month, moonlight is seen to become brighter and brighter. After this, its beauty, clarity and size shall diminish until it is no more to be seen.

At the maturity of our life, we must already be set on our ways of life, knowing which direction to take. All that is to be learned must be learned and then put to practice. It is at the middle age of life that the realities of life are understood, if one has the wisdom, then time becomes really much more precious because, upon reflection, one will realise that much time has been wasted, much actions have been unwholesome and many things pertaining to a happy life should have been pursued. The road in front may not be very long, one’s life span is on the wane. Then day dreaming is forsaken, the search for the right direction in life will have to be pursued; signs of miseries are clearly perceived and life’s impermanence becomes very real as one’s parents and relatives begin to pass away. Just like the moon that was once ever glowing, radiantly bright and then beginning to wane and loses its mark in the sky, so too is every life on earth. Death must come and all must learn to face it without fear but with the knowledge that one has done one’s best, has earned the right to rest a little, and then to come back to learn some more in the future! Then where is there the possibility of fear and anger at death when it becomes an opportunity for the ‘self’ to take on a new, fresher and stronger body in the next cycle? Just by being virtuous, one is able to live a life that brings abound a fearless death. What about those who really know the way to walk? They are the skillful ones, the great and fortunate ones who can and will create a much more beautiful next lives!

Just as man is always trying to search for the unfindable, when he knows not what he is actually searching for, one is like a dumb animal trying to chase its own tail, like a silly donkey who is treading the mill without knowing it, but thinking that he is chasing after the carrot that is dangled before it!

This is how the worldly man lives, in a state of great ignorance! Struggling throughout life, what does one really seek? Entering into a path that leads to a goalless goal, one moves in a circle. This is the same as being caught in samsara, knowing not how to get out of it. In a circle where is the starting and end point? If that cannot be found, how is one to get out of it? The larger the circle the more one gets confused and continues, thinking that it is but a straight line.

But reduced to the smallest, where is that circle? It becomes but a point, a starting point, the goal, the source, the great escape, the Tao! Therefore do not continue to move outwards, going away from this ‘one point’, stop looking outwards, be wise, move inward, look within, go against the normal route that man usually traverse. Do not live as others would live, striving for worldliness in the belief that name and fame are the true purpose of life’s achievement. The wise man rejects what the worldly ones are being attached to, isn’t this going against the trend of the normal? It is, and it is wise.

Remember the very early days when you received teachings and how silly was the ‘code words’ that you have been given which was to represent the ‘silly monk?’ I came to you with a laughter, whenever you were unsure, depressed or in fear, this laughter brought you rest and hope and understanding. It is the same way that I will come to each and every heart or mind, into mediums and even those who are able to receive my messages through automatic writing! Recall the chart that I drew for you, how from a point which is the beginning that begins to move in a circle, even widening, from a point to a great circle which filled up the whole page so that it had to make sudden turn, upwards? It has great significant meanings and you must meditate on, every once in a while. It can lead to great wisdom. Know that the path, back to where one comes from can be reached once realisation is there. Do not continue going in a circle, in an ever expanding circle, that would be leading one farther and farther away from the Source, and as one moves on, during each lifetime, more and more useless attachments are developed, more and more memories will be created and all these will cloud the way, the remembrance of the beginning. Make it a point, now, move backwards, turnabout, and make the journey ‘home’. The world of life and death brings on too much pain and confusion. Transcend pain, clear all the confusion that are within the mind, begin to meditate in earnest, immediately discard all that are non-virtuous that will lead one to travel in an expanding circle; reduce this circle, heading for home, one will eventually reach the origin!

While one still has the energy, the wisdom, the right condition to move, back to the right direction, which to the worldly, is the wrong direction, do so. Soon old age will come, illness may further weaken one’s determination, then fear of death will shatter the resolve for when it draws near, frightful will be the thought and clarity of mind will be lost! To prevent taking yet another birth into a world where the four great sufferings are once again experienced, begin now, head for the way, there is only One Way, the Way of Truth that has been pointed out by the Buddha, that Kuan Shih Yin P’usa, Who is the Buddha, is trying so hard to prevent people from not knowing it and therefore the great many manifestations throughout all periods to time, to encourage and to show all how life is to be lived!

Attain this truth and practise it so that recycle can be broken! This has been one of the most fortunate of cycle that one has ever lived, to be with the conditions of learning and practice! If this one rare opportunity is not grasped, like a sailor whose boat has been sunk in the great sea and there is a raft afloat near him, all may be lost because the next cycle could be anything! Stubbornness and stupidity do not lead one back to the cycle of a human, and even so, the same great opportunity of having found Kuan Shih Yin P’usa may not be there! Remember that each moment brings us nearer and nearer to old age, to feebleness, away from the chance of practice!

Look back a bit! How many years have passed away! Have they been fruitful or beneficial to one’s spiritual growth? It all seemed to have passed as quickly as a blink of the eye. It will also be the same for the future as in the past! Life will fly as swiftly as an arrow! The opportunities of today may not be there waiting for one to grasp even tomorrow. Do not take life as a play thing. That would be extremely silly, extremely careless! *The pleasures of youth can lead to great pains in old age. Being with the wrong company, how can one live rightly? It is easy to see the faults of others but not oneself’s weakness. When we do not smoke and drink we wonder why others do so. Then it becomes quite clear, smokers and drinkers have friends who enjoy the same habits. What about one’s own faults and weaknesses? Know them and correct them! Avoid the company of those who sway us to be like them if they are not travellers of the Path! Being with those who are virtuous, one too has the tendency to become so. Each must help himself to turn back. All efforts must be self-expanded! Only then may the help of Kuan Shih Yin be felt and bear fruit.

Monday, 22nd September 1986 (8th Moon 19th Day)

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