Quote of The Day (184)
This section contains short teachings extracted from the messages that Sifu Kuan Ming received over the years, since 1979. The quotes contained herein are a collection of the daily quotes there were automatically posted on the front page.
When attending to others, treat them with brotherly love, without taking into account their race, religion or status in society. (#3258-p143)
Rendering service to others should not be confined to the poor, the sickly and the destitute, but to all who need it. Also, it should be performed with a genuine spirit of love and concern. If such feelings are not present, then such service has little value. (#3257-p143)
Be one whose only joy is wanting to cultivate Divine Love, spreading Divine Love, offering Divine Love, receiving Divine Love and doing in Divine Love. Then you will be one who is living to generate Divine Light in you, a light so bright that its brilliance is bright enough to light up the whole world. (#3255-p143)
Do you want to be good or do you just want to want to be good?
It is difficult for worldly beings to understand the mind of a spiritual person, only who is willing to give up everything to gain nothing. (#3254,3256-p143)
It is not really wise to place your faith in the rich or your trust in the powerful.
When your sights are directed to the accumulation of wealth and power, name and fame, you will have little time for such mundane things as developing friendship and worshipping the Divine. (#3252,3253-p143)
Only in action, knowledge and wisdom is gained. Only with wisdom is life well lived. (#3251-p142)
Mantras give birth to mudras, whilst mudras energise and add power to the mantra. Mantras and mudras combined can bring forth another new area of development, that of deep concentration that enhances the practice of visualisation. (#3249-p142)
Mudra is a mystical gesture of the hands to produce psychic responses. Mantra is a sacred sound utilised to produce psychic effects. The appropriate mudras therefore have their ways of energising the mantras that are being recited within the mind. So too has a mantra its ways of causing the birth and continuous flow of mudras to one who seriously cultivates it! (#3248-p142)
Couples should know that although they are joined together in marriage, they are still individuals. They must therefore give freedom to each other so that they may fulfil their own destinies. More than that, they should always encourage the other to pursue their goals of life. This is how a happy marriage is promoted and how two souls have come together to evolve their consciousness. This is the real purpose of the marriage. It is for the learning of how to develop a good relationship with each other, to control their physical and emotional selves. (#3246-p142)
Married couples who have children should not divorce for they have taken on this life to fulfil the responsibility of bringing them up so that they may grow in love and in knowledge. But if the marriage is so terrible and painful, then they should bear the pain and sacrifice to remain together until their children have reached their teens, when their souls are better developed to fend for themselves. (#3245-p142)
Your friends and enemies are not new to you and they do not come into your life by accident. Everything is planned. Even your spouse, your children and parents and relatives were chosen by your soul before you took birth. Therefore you must do what you can to live in accord with those who have come into your life. Then you will be following your path of destiny! (#3244-p141)
If you have been uncaring, cruel to others, lazy, irresponsible, misused powers or harmed others, then you have to repay these karmic debts. That is why, as you proceed along your path of life, you will meet certain people, to pay the debts that are owned to them. (#3244-2-p141)
Why have you taken this earthly life? The reasons are many in the first place, it is to fulfil the destiny that you have decided. Therefore life must have its many lessons to be learned. These lessons may be the ones you are learning for the first time or those which you have failed to learn in the past. (#3244-1-p141)
Man must learn that nothing ever happens by chance and that there is no such thing as luck. Nothing happens without a cause... and what you do will always have an effect. That which you do to others will come back to you, if not in this life, then in another. (#3243-p141)
Why are there so many unloved children in the world today? It is simply because most of them born today are unplanned. Mankind has distorted the original purpose of the sexual act and is using it for pleasure instead of for procreation.
Since true love and meaning was not involved in the union, how then can the parents love those whom they had no thought of wanting in the first place? Then there is also the karmic reason behind the whole scheme. The parents and the children are together to settle karmic debts. (#3242-p141)
Soul levels are many and its development upwards can take quite a number of lifetimes to achieve. You will be able to judge how evolved is a soul as times goes by. For the time being, you should know that the more evolved ones are those who are gentle and helpful in nature, and are quick to learn and ready to fulfil their responsibilities. (#3241-p141)
The further you advance along this Path the more will you be willing to make sacrifices for your loved ones, for your friends, for your community, for your countrymen and for humanity. (#3240-p141)
Always remember that the purpose of establishing this Order is not for the purpose of converting anyone but only to share with them the Teachings when they are here to seek them on their own.
Keep on promoting wholesome and happy activities in this house to build up its beneficial energy so that others may come to experience it. (#3239-p141, #3238-p140)
To know yourself you must first discard your self - that self which is not your true self, that false self which is selfish and incapable of showing kindness and love to others, which has no interest for spiritual progress and is full of worldly attachments. (#3236-p140)
If you are really serious about getting to know your true self, of gaining a true view of the Real World, then you must commence with the great practice of exploring the depths of your mind because it is there that you will find the clue that will lead you to that Encounter! (#3235-p140)
What is Enlightenment? If it is explained as having attained the state of a Buddha, or having attained the omniscient mind and the perfection of character, how could this be rightly understood by an ordinary being? It is better to describe it as an encounter, a coming face-to-face with one’s true face, of gaining the knowledge of truth of one’s own mind. (#3234-p140)
The greatest power on earth is love. That is why love has no enemies, as no enemies may try to stand in the way of love. Try bringing love to your life and see how its light enriches it and those around you! (#3233-p140)
Welcome New Year 2021! May it be peaceful, stable and safe throughout the year!
“What must happen will happen” These are words that are familiar to you. It is to say that there is no way for anyone to avoid certain pains and sufferings of life, and that you must learn to accept all eventualities of life. Though there will be times when such pains may rob you of something precious, yet it can be compensated by the gain of something most precious - a greater awareness of life and Niang’s love as well as Niang’s presence in your life! (#3231-p140)
Be warned that once in a while unhappy events can surface in your life. Treat them as tests of faith and these karmic blows will not be so hurting! Passing these tests, you will be purified. (#3230-p140)
Be content to live a simple and quiet life, engrossing in our hobby of reading, reflecting, writing and praying. That way, karmic tendencies that are evil will not be acted upon. (#3229-p140)
There are two ways of eliminating such karmic tendencies. The most common way is by way of pain and suffering that teaches the lessons that must be learned. This explains why life must have its fill of pain and suffering. It is only when that lesson is fully learned that your character will change and your bad karma wiped out.
The other way is through surrendering to the Divine, which brings redemption. Surrendering your life to the Divine helps you to find your true Nature, and brings a quick change of character that wipes out all evil tendencies. This is how negative tendencies and the tendency to act on them is wiped off. (#3228-p139)
Pay close attention to the deep-lying tendencies in your character. They are what you have inherited from your past lives; they are the result of your actions and lifestyle of your former incarnations. Though your tendencies may appear to be inherited from your parents, they could still be karmic, in the sense that your parents were chosen specially for the transmission of such tendencies that are inherent in your karma when you took birth. (#3227-p139)
When an illness is karmic, and the inner change necessary to eliminate whatever is left of the karma cannot be brought about, the Divine will not cure it. (#3226-p139)
To succeed in the Path, there is much work to do with regard to the development of personality and mind control as well as the cultivation of will power. (#3224-p139)
When are you ready to pass your remaining days peaceful in spiritual pursuits, away from the fret and fever of the world?
The more you reflect on life, the more strongly you will be drawn towards a simple life, free from thirst for worldly greatness. (#3225,#3223-p139)
When you have attained a certain measure of success in your practice you will develop a new view of life. You will, for instance, want to lead a life of peace, away from worldly fervour (attractions) and free from quarrelsome strife. You will gradually lose the taste of setting your heart on things which you must ultimately relinquish. Instead, you will be content to live a simple life with just enough to fulfil reasonably the few needs to live comfortably by. (#3222-p139)