Quote of The Day (181)
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 for your contemplation.
The years ahead will require much strength and perseverance; there will be periods of greater activity and stricter discipline. You have to learn and practise patience; you will need to be even-minded first before you can develop other great virtues. (D-840113-2)
As the years move on, you will be introduced, gradually, to the ways of reducing desire, developing affinity, accumulating merit, examining the cause and conditions, understanding the Law of Karma, collecting knowledge, and so forth! This should explain why time is needed to impart these teachings to you if you are to grasp them well! (STQ-87-p3)
How you behave, in and outside a temple, at home or at work, with people or alone—is it really consistent? If it is so, then you are truly practising; if not, you are only cheating yourself and living a double-life. (D-840120-4)
One should act and respond spontaneously, be able to feel as those who are suffering, be ready to pray for their well-being, and be truly compassionate towards all creatures; that is the mental attitude to hold. Look at each situation calmly and without being immersed in the problems, just knowing that you are lucky to be able to do something to better a bad situation—that is the right attitude. (D-840317-1)
Be gentle with your mind, and you are being gentle with the self. Tension and stress are the causes of all kinds of sickness and pains in life. Those who do not spend time daily to understand themselves will become miserable in the future because they have no gentleness even to themselves. (D-840310-1)
(1) Life is meaningful, and life is real. Get on with the practice of goodness and see happiness and joy in the faces of those who are on the path of goodness! (D-840310-2)
(2) Life is good and happy for him who is able to live for the sake of others, aiding his own spiritual growth, and then the practice of Buddhism will not only be in the mind! (D-840120-5)
Merry Christmas!
Each meeting is a benefit for all, so you must not try to avoid meeting those whom you consider should be avoided because each meeting with someone can bring forth some meaning. Life cannot be a lesson if only selected people are to be met with. The good and the bad, the rich and the poor, the nice and the ugly, and all who have a place in this world, within samsara, must be met with. There must be no rejection, or grasping and clinging will come about; one must be even-minded. Keep the mind free from all kinds of likes and dislikes and avoid forming any kind of judgement. (D-840125-6)
Be gentle with all; be patient with those annoying ones; be ready to be forsaken and face the tests of life and watch how one reacts to each test. Whenever you are going through an unpleasant situation, be strong and learn from this situation and benefit by it. (D-840125-2,4)
Every bit of action and situation in life is for the purpose of self-awakening and self-improvement. Life is meaningful and exciting only when you can accept it to be thus, otherwise, there will only be dissatisfactions and unhappiness. (D-840120-2)
(1) Learn at all times. See things and situations with awareness and become wise to the ways of life. (D-840101-2-1)
(2) Only when you can conquer yourself may you be able to help others. (D-840101-2-2)
Many seem to find their way, but lacking the energy, they will get lost again. The journey to ultimate bliss is never easy. Throughout this journey, all must expect the process of purification of body, speech, and mind, and not until all negativities of the mind have been cleansed will anyone be able to realise the joy of being a purified being. (D-840101-1)
There is no need to follow the habit of seeking to know the future. It will not help in cultivation but will only excite the mind when good and bad situations are foretold. This is the habit of the ignorant ones, which practising Buddhists should not adopt. Just have faith in yourself and your Deity and live according to the doctrines, causing no harm to self and others but making every effort to improve your life - this is the way to advancement, whether spiritually or materially. (D-840120-1)
Try reducing the “ifs” and “should haves” in your current of thoughts for the negative emotions of regret and despair to be uprooted! Start doing what you have left undone with courage and patience, and the happier you will emerge! (STQ-1987-p2)
Kindness, patience, and compassion—these are the qualities that the Path shall be teaching you as you traverse it. Acquiring them will mean that you are well on the road to receiving the higher training of the Path, which speaks of selfless service to all without exception! (STQ-1987-p3)
(1) Mindfulness is about being aware that you are aware.
(2) Contemplation is the foremost practice for those who are in the esoteric Paths of Practice.
(3) The greatest good you can do is to help others find goodness in themselves. (STQ-2006-p100,102)
Taking happenings to be coincidences, the opportunity to express your gratitude to grace received is lost! Be more aware then of the regularity of meaningful or happy ‘coincidences’ that shall be following your life! Understand that when two things happen that seem beyond chance, a wish is met, and an opportunity to enhance your faith in the Path is given! (STQ-1987-p2)
In this Path of Spontaneity, there is no need for you to go looking for things to learn or teachers to meet. What must be learned will be learned, and who must be met will come your way, as long as you have surrendered yourself to the flow of life! Have you not noticed how things have just happened? (STQ-1987-p1)
(1) Only the knowing can truly be humble, and only the humble can be truly knowing.
(2) The purpose of gaining experience is to gain knowledge, insight, and wisdom.
(3) To live your dreams, you need to wake up first! (STQ-1996-p100x3)
Being in this Path of Service, be prepared to learn, to renounce, and to serve at all times. Know that it is through attending to the needs of others that you are filling your life with a treasury of capabilities and enriching your life with experiences! (STQ-1987-p1)
(1) Only those who are pure at heart may know that Light and Love are with them wherever they go and whenever they are doing whatever is expected of them!
(2) It is only when your interest is not earth-bound that you may be rewarded with the perception of the higher worlds of the more evolved ones! (STQ-1987-p1)
It is the Way that will make richer and fuller your life as you go inwards to connect with your heart, or essence! This explains why time must be given for sitting—not so much to learn meditation but to gain insights and inner seeing! And, in doing so, uncover and discover what you have learned before in the distant past! So must you sit if teachings must flow into your mind and record them as you are doing even right now, for the good of many in the future! (STQ-1987-p1)
Be not in a hurry to learn, but learn as much as you can! Be glad that no one is there to teach you and yet learning is ever happening in your life! Learning through seeing, hearing, and experiencing—this is a unique way that is reserved for some! Be glad that you are amongst them and know that this is the way to show that the Path of Contemplation is not an ordinary way! (STQ-1987-p1)
(1) You may be looking at things or people with your physical eyes, but you are also, at the same time, looking at them with your inner eye!
(2) Don’t lose the smile on your face; it has taken you many lifetimes to acquire it. (STQ-1996-p14,44)
Live the simple life if the demon of desire is to be rid of.
It is through letting go of excess desires and attachments that contentment is won. (STQ-1996-p101,102)
Even after death, we continue to be. Rebirth must take place for us to continue the process of evolving for that succeeding life to the next. We die because we have lived and because we are alive. Living means birth and death. Creation and destruction signify life. Such is life.
When we can clearly understand this fundamental principle, we will not be so anxious about our life and our death, but more of how we have lived our life and how to live the rest of the life that is before us. Then each day is looked forward to with joy, even though life’s problems are there. (STQ-1996-p53x2)
It is impossible to stop the process of change, which is occurring at each moment of life. Even though life seems to be completely dull and uninteresting, yet changes are happening at all times. Vast changes within our body and mind are taking place at each moment, and we are ageing all the time, and each day will present us with new opportunities or problems. So, until death, the changes must go on and on. (STQ-1996-p52)
The Teaching says, “Death is certain, but the moment of death is uncertain.” Since this is so, you must be determined to live your life rightly and preciously and with awareness that Heavenly Law must be respected and adhered to. You must make sure that you do not create karmic relations that will cause you to be what you do not wish to be. (STQ-1996-p51)
One always dies at an appropriate moment. This is when his karmic conditions decree that death must happen. One is reborn when his karmic relations impel him to be reborn. Nothing ever happens to anyone by chance. So, a person is killed in an accident when his karmic relations lead him to be killed in such a manner. (STQ-1996-p51)
With good karma collected, with good karmic relationships generated through right living, you will be reborn through affinity to a higher realm and into a happy home with loving parents. This is simply because karma is inevitably linked with birth or rebirth. If you have lived a good life and your thoughts at death are to continue pursuing practising goodness, then the life ahead will surely be good. (STQ-1996-p51)
Once you are able to live in accord with the Law of Karma, then every day, every week, every month, every year, and every lifetime will be well lived with vast opportunities to learn and to grow and to move on to the enlightened state of being. Then even death will not be feared since you know that this will lead to a better rebirth. (STQ-1996-p50)
As human beings, none can avoid pains and disappointments in life; they are there not to punish you for the wrongs you have committed but to even out your karmic balance and to help you to grow. If you could change your thinking and feel grateful, then even difficult times can become blessings and help to increase your faith! (STQ-1996-p50)