No 235 of Living Life Series 1
What is the purpose of this and that? Why must it be this and not that way? Did this go wrong? Should it be that way? Why us and not them? Where do we go to? Have we arrived ? What will we be? Why must there be new interpretation and rewriting of the religious texts? Won't that be an aberration of the original? Why the many versions? These and many more are at times daunting questions and often, there will be no easy answers.
The truth is that life can be complex with twists and turns? You may think that you know your loved ones but for some inexplicable reason, your loved ones at times surprise you and appear distant and a stranger or worse still your foe out of the blue or for some trivial matter?
The truth is that life can be complex with twists and turns? You may think that you know your loved ones but for some inexplicable reason, your loved ones at times surprise you and appear distant and a stranger or worse still your foe out of the blue or for some trivial matter?
The issues of life as man are plentiful and often trivial. This is a reality for man to reconcile but why must this be so? The question begs further questions and we end up diverging and may even get lost in our humanness or rather human weakness. Life will always be a question mark and this is the very nature of mortal life. Uncertainty and change lurk at every corner and from minute to minute. No one can be sure and can guarantee.
It is easy and tempting to say let's give up and go for the wilderness and go easy with life. This only opens up another area and dimension of human life. The wilderness is no bed of roses and the same issues of man will still be there in other ways. Men will always have problems and the issues of men are plentiful indeed whether you are rich or poor, whether you have family, friends or none, whether you have job or none and the list goes on ad-infinitum. This was commented on by Lord Bo Tien though not in exactly in these words, phrases and context.
Yet man can have what other beings and animals cannot have. Man will be envied by these other beings. Man has brain and can make use of resources, innovate, make do and create wonders. Man can send objects into the sky and space. Man can do that much more than other beings like animals and spirits. Men are like gods to them. Beings would immortalise men just like men would immortalise the gods above.
Because of the abilities man, the being, is endowed with, many men are carried away and go more and more for material gains. You can say there is no end to wants.This is ambition and ambition can be good to have but must not be over done. For many, the more the better, be it money, houses or for that matter anything that matters. Man tends to be carried away, over involved or over divergent till they are lost in their wants.
Go for the sky by all means but know when to pull back and return to earth, otherwise you will be lost or fall badly. Live we must and life we must have. Value life. Know our priorities and have out-of-bound markers for everything we do. Set down-to-earth goals and go step by step. Be convergent on such goals and then diverge for a while and re-converge at new point again. Be progressive and yet pragmatic.
Look not at the garden of your neighbour and be green with envy and jealousy. Learn from others, their strengths and weaknesses and learn too from your own life. This simple reality and truth did Lord Bo Tien reminded us. Life then becomes a gospel -- the living gospel to be exact. This truth of life is so simple and provides simple fixes for all issues of life. Yet, we often see not the simplicity of truth. We often do the darnest things by moaning and groaning over problems and issues. We end up creating more problems rather than solving problems. Small wonder, the late Senior Brother Philip Png reminded us that truth is so simple and yet appear profound and difficult to perceive.
Religions are doing a good job in addressing how man should live. But the founding spirit and enthusiasm of the founders are often diluted, derailed or even hijacked to focus on downstream agenda of later day leaders and their adherents. This is one reason for more sects to proliferate. That is also why men or rather modern men may not find life as peaceful as some of our ancestors who had less and yet had appeared to be more at peace with life. You may say they had no issue to be somewhat closer to God and to be at peace than present day men.
Modern men tend to take the initiative and innovate. This is laudable. But in the process, they are likely to over do and stick not to the pure original fundamentals, spirit and fervour of the pioneers. As a result, they distort and the sad part is that distortions become the prima facie jist of the doctrine. That is in a way sad but still serves useful purpose to bring on some light to those modern men otherwise lost in the web of worldliness and far removed from light of God. On the other extreme, die-hard fundamentalist fanaticism to the extent that modern day realities are ignored too is a mistake but yet fundamentalist drive in moderation serves as brake to slow down erosion of the original pioneering spirit and fervour. In either cases, man ends up taking the mantle of God-head and decides for God. Then it would be not impossible for cult to flavour religion with men taking the lead over men and not God and heavenly saints.
Thus modern men take over mantle of leadership and the cloak of the prophet and speak out in the name of God and saints. Initially, they stressed allegiance and give credit to God and saints. As they shepherd their flocks, they soon have a following. The credit and allegiance to God and saints inspired by them, later go through them. In time there is risk of these leaders who are often charismatic and over-powering being identified as one with God and saints. Their own thoughts and personal principles become added on to the founder's fundamentals to expand the fundamentals. Soon, these become equally important as the fundamentals of the founder prophets and in time somehow take precedence as they are somehow more accomodative and acceptable. They are ever supportive and will never put you down but say you have arrived even before you even embarked on the spiritual journey. They say belief alone is the only way and embracing and cultivating beautiful attitudes are just subsequent options and may even be optional. They put the cart before the horse or worse still cart without the horse. When these do happen, can the cart move?
All these are natural and often unavoidable and are in a way to be expected. Changes come in bits and pieces, often lauded as necessary to keep with the times and in that sense are of no concern and may be desirable but over time, they do affect the original fervour and spirit of the founding pioneers. They change the orientation and recognisability. They alter the original message and change the focus to man rather than to God. They meet more the needs and wishes of men rather than of God and saints. They may even make God appear to have man-like attitudes rather than God-like and above the ways of men. The ways of men become portrayed as the ways of God. They make men out of God and saints. The leader or priest calls the shots and speaks out for God and not God speaks out for Himself. They usurp the attention of the flock from God to themselves all in the name of God and saints.
If these continues, obviously a second coming of a prophet in any religion is the only way out but that second coming will be not easy. How is the prophet going to be accepted and how can he reconcile the diversions and proliferations of style even for one particular sect and religion, let alone the many sects and religions we have in the modern world? Obviously, the solution lies in having not one forerunner but many
Thus modern men take over mantle of leadership and the cloak of the prophet and speak out in the name of God and saints. Initially, they stressed allegiance and give credit to God and saints. As they shepherd their flocks, they soon have a following. The credit and allegiance to God and saints inspired by them, later go through them. In time there is risk of these leaders who are often charismatic and over-powering being identified as one with God and saints. Their own thoughts and personal principles become added on to the founder's fundamentals to expand the fundamentals. Soon, these become equally important as the fundamentals of the founder prophets and in time somehow take precedence as they are somehow more accomodative and acceptable. They are ever supportive and will never put you down but say you have arrived even before you even embarked on the spiritual journey. They say belief alone is the only way and embracing and cultivating beautiful attitudes are just subsequent options and may even be optional. They put the cart before the horse or worse still cart without the horse. When these do happen, can the cart move?
All these are natural and often unavoidable and are in a way to be expected. Changes come in bits and pieces, often lauded as necessary to keep with the times and in that sense are of no concern and may be desirable but over time, they do affect the original fervour and spirit of the founding pioneers. They change the orientation and recognisability. They alter the original message and change the focus to man rather than to God. They meet more the needs and wishes of men rather than of God and saints. They may even make God appear to have man-like attitudes rather than God-like and above the ways of men. The ways of men become portrayed as the ways of God. They make men out of God and saints. The leader or priest calls the shots and speaks out for God and not God speaks out for Himself. They usurp the attention of the flock from God to themselves all in the name of God and saints.
If these continues, obviously a second coming of a prophet in any religion is the only way out but that second coming will be not easy. How is the prophet going to be accepted and how can he reconcile the diversions and proliferations of style even for one particular sect and religion, let alone the many sects and religions we have in the modern world? Obviously, the solution lies in having not one forerunner but many
Thus Lord Bo Tien in 1974 dwelt on these issues and why there is need to revive the founding spirit and fervour of the pioneers and reapply these to modern day society. He said that this is the Mission God sets out to do and He is the messenger of God or if you may say one of the many messengers, for surely there will be more. This way to revive the founding spirit and pioneers' fervour is necessary but has to be done judiciously and in balanced way to (a) avoid distortion or loss of originality and (b) at same time the inapt and stubborn adherence to every letter of the original text and that in many scenarios will likely fail to deliver the purpose for which it was set.
This approach has to be the way to better bring insight and foresight of life to men. This is the way to go and the rest is up to you to make it. Dare to live life in God the pioneers' way and yet move on and be there with life and for life. This is the way to go but still the second coming is a foregone conclusion.
This approach has to be the way to better bring insight and foresight of life to men. This is the way to go and the rest is up to you to make it. Dare to live life in God the pioneers' way and yet move on and be there with life and for life. This is the way to go but still the second coming is a foregone conclusion.
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