No 266 of Living Life Series 1
God and lord saints can by their blessings transform our life from a muddy pool into a blessed sea to wash away the mud of our life. In this way, the mud of ill fate will not surface as readily but be washed away to the depth of the sea of fate. If this is not the case, the mud of ill fate would invariably surface more often.
Effectively, an otherwise big issue in our life will then end up as small issue even if it cannot be no issue. Fate may be such that we cannot avoid having the mud of ill fate but at least divinity can make it a lesser issue. This will be the case when we call upon the grace of God and saints. This did Lord Bo Tien elucidate to us from time to time.
Many amongst men have by the grace of God, the gift of the divine guidance and shelter of heavenly saints like Lord Bo Tien.
In this way, the candle flame of our life will be in less risk of being extinguished but instead will glow and grow.
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| Painting by SBP |
A heavenly saint is like the flower which attracts ants to its nectar.
Ants come to the tree for their own agenda but they can still serve some of the interests or agenda of the tree and its flowers.
God is represented by the tree and flowers represent the saints.
You cannot blame a heavenly saint, the flower of divinity when ants amongst men come for divine nectar. It is God's wish that all be saved and saints are not there for the few goody two shoes but for all - even the insects and ants amongst men.
Some of these insects amongst men might even become leaders in institutions more so in spiritual institutions. The consequences are not all bad but both good and bad though alas there will somehow unfortunately be some illwill, mal-management and tarnishing of God's good name. Men must however learn and learn fast...
This is what men need to learn. As long as men are men and not saints, every man will have both good and not-so-good. To be saved and enlightened, every man must cultivate spiritually so that he will be able to overcome the conflicts of the two sides the yin and yang and be able to rise above and balance the yin and yang. This balance is depicted by the pakua.
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| Pakua |
☰ ☱ ☲ ☳ ☴ ☵ ☶ ☷
Trigrams
Each trigram is made up of three lines
of yin (broken line) and yang (unbroken line)
Some may argue that man must get rid of the bad and have the good but amongst the good attributes, there will be the more good and the less good. That is even if the attributes in him are so cultivated that there are only good or yang, then the lesser good or yang will be relative yin to the greater yang. Thus man will need to rise above the yin and yang by being atop and balance the various yin and yang contingencies of life. The best good is purity and is done not out of gain at others expense. Purity is not denial of self, not ugly indulgence in self and not prospering others at one's own expense but the balance approach. Win-win situation is one of the outcomes of this approach.
We must be above yin and yang that is above mere good and bad. We must balance the polarities as depicted by the feet atop the elements in the seated pose of Lord Bo Tien in His image
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| Lord Bo Tien |
Meanwhile every man in life gathers mud of not-so-good fate that may cause him more problems than solve problems. Whatever good he could have will bear good fruits but these may often be buried and swept away by the mud of ill fate. Thus, in this way, man will have difficulty in saving himself in this life let alone in afterlife.
Many religions say that man cannot be saved by good deeds alone but by the grace of God and saints. The great oceans of merits of a heavenly saint, if bestowed to a man, can sweep away the mud of ill fate in the small sea of man's life. This will go a big way to sink the mud to the depths of the sea of fate with lesser chance to surface and to take effect in life of that man.
We must call upon the grace of God and saints to provide us blessings of merits to make our life to be like the sea and not a pond. The water of merits stays above the mud which settles down at the bottom of the sea of life.
To be effective, man must be calm and peaceful, practice mindfulness and virtues. If he fails to do so but instead is carried away by his grievances with life and with other people, he will be stirring up the mud and his sea of life will be sea no more but a pond as he depletes his merits. The pond or even if still a sea of sorts will be muddy at the surface, especially when storms are created by the earthquake and landslides created by ill will.
On his own, man's life is not big enough to be a sea to let mud settle at the bottom and not pollute his life at the surface. Thus saints like Lord Bo Tien provide the water mass to enlarge the pond of his life into a sea of merits.
But even with a sea of merits, man must not cause storms to churn up mud of past life to come to the surface. Then he will have ill fate and he will lament why God and saints have forsaken him when in fact he is the one who has forsaken God and saints.
But even with a sea of merits, man must not cause storms to churn up mud of past life to come to the surface. Then he will have ill fate and he will lament why God and saints have forsaken him when in fact he is the one who has forsaken God and saints.
Lord Bo Tien is one of the heavenly saints who can turn our life from a mere pond to a sea but man must learn to be peaceful and cultivated so that the mud settles and has no chance to surface to make the water of life muddy.
Also when our fellow men decides to throw mud into our life, do take refuge in a heavenly saint and let him make our life to be like the sea so that any mud thrown to us will settle and be lost at the sea floor. But do not be disturbed when some one maligned you and worst still if you try to retaliate. For then by being ruffled, you would be stirring the mud that has settled in the sea of your life and the ill fate (mud) which otherwise has been buried at the sea bed will come to the surface with the force of a storm at times. Do not stir up the storm of ill fate. Also do constantly pray to a heavenly saint like Lord Bo Tien to turn your life from a pond to a sea of merits.
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| Saints in picture Back row from left Yellow Jambhala, Lord Bo Tien, Ji Kong Posat Front row: Kuan Kong Posat, Ji Kong and Tua Pek Kong |
We need to be saved by the grace of God and saints and not depend only on our finite good deeds for every good deed we do, somehow we may have a not-so-good one in past and present to offset the good. That is indeed somewhat pathetic.
Man is saved by grace and not by deeds alone. With divine grace, our life will not be a pond but a sea of blessings. But even then, we must not stir up the mud of ill fate which will pollute our life. When others throw mud at our life, do not retaliate and stir the water of our life and churn up the mud from the seabed of our life.
By God's grace, our life can be a sea to let mud settle. Do be wise not to stir up the mud and create a storm of mud as in a tsunami. That will be counter productive and will undermine the goodwill and compassion of God and saints.
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