.

.
The Living Life Series is dedicated to Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨). The doctrine is in His image. The image is the doctrine. He who sees, understands and effects the doctrine sees and knows Him. He who does not see, know and effect the doctrine sees not and knows not the saint even if the saint or His image is beside him. The far may be near and the near may be far. Let the doctrine and the saint be part of our life. The lord saint in your life can be any heavenly saint of any religion, sect or school. The doctrine of truth is behind all and this is the Inner Truth that leads all (regardless of their religious affiliation or even if none) to inner peace and heaven on earth here and now and not just in the after life. The ideal worship and devotion is to know and effect the doctrine of God and the saints. The best gospel is the gospel of life. We learn from our life and the lives of others. The true temple is the world we live in. The sky is the roof of the temple and religions and sects are the pillars of the temple. All under Heaven are in the temple. Needless to say that all the saints we know are in this temple. Ji Gong Posat too is no exception. The whole wide world and web is the temple and must be regarded as a sacred place --- a temple for living and learning. It is more important that everyone that counts plays a role in this universal temple if due focus is to be given to the Mission of Heaven. Men must not be distracted by the agenda of men and end up serving the mission of man. That would be a far cry from the Mission of Heaven. We worship God and saints, not man however good that man may be. There should be no hero worshiping or idolizing of man whether he is a charismatic pastor, priest, monk, medium or lay leader. We don't even idol worship the image of any saint but reflect on what the image stands for. - the doctrine in the image. Omitofo 阿弥陀佛!.

Monday, August 31, 2015

To have more of peace in life

No 1019 of Living Life Series 1
Religion must revolve around life and not life revolves around religion. 

 When we revolve life around religion, we risk living in a world of make-belief. We end up living in the dream world of the life hereafter. 

 When we focus on life and life makes us understand religion better, we are rooted in the real world. The world here and now matters more than the afterlife. That is the difference. 

That is why life is the living gospel and the written gospel merely enhances our understanding of the living gospel. 

 We go for the life here and now. We try to understand why we have no peace and no contentment. 

 The more we have, the more we want. Often having less can be more. Many are happy even with less than what we have. Why can't we? 

 We must not get away from life and think that life here and now is not important and what matters is to prepare for eternity. We end up trying to have nothing in this life and give our all to the afterlife. 

 We must strike a balance as depicted by the image of Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 with feet astride the elements - denial of life and over indulgence in life here and now. 
Then we will neither let our dreams have the better of us, control us nor will we let life control us. We will be in control of life and dreams. Then we will have more with less. Then we have more of the peace in life. 

 To have more of peace in life, religion must serve us and not we serve religion. This may appear like an overstatement of sorts. The issue of who serves who is an issue we have all the time. 

 But it is a different matter altogether if we lord over a religion or a temple and undermine the purpose of a religion or a temple. We must not be like insects coming to a flower for nectar. This did Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 say. 

 The issue is not as simple as it is. What matters is to be pure in life and in purpose. Give this more thought. Meditate on this. Let us not lord or be lord over. There will be no end of this. Then how to have more of peace... 

 That is why even Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 is more a friend than a lord. He advises, does not lord over us and display his divine majesty to awe us into submission. 

 God and saints are all like that but men portray them the other way round. Somehow men are awed by them, and life revolves around religion more than religion revolves around life. 

 To have more of peace, let not religion take over life and humanity end up living for life beyond this world and losing touch with life. Living life must take over as the focus of religion though a bit of dreams beyond this world may be good to spice up life.

 We cannot just live life for religion, God and others. We cannot live life for ourselves either. There must be the avoidance of extremes. There must be the balance or middle way. 

 We must not be fixated, enslaved or enamored in any way to ego identity - our own or the universal ego projected as God and saints. But we must be at peace with both ego identities and be free to have more of peace of God and saints. We will then experience more of the pureness of peace of life. 

 To be enamored is to desire and to want - to have addiction and to have withdrawal at times. How can there be more of peace?

 That is why worship in form of fawning on God and saints and the manifestly excessive outward display of this in form of lorry loads of incense sticks galore is not in good taste to the many who are not involved and will put people off. Such practices do not help to bring more peace. 

 Ask Elder Ling and you will know better. He is right but many will not agree. But if this is what they think and want, let it be... even if there is less of peace - perhaps either way.
As what Ji Gong (济公) says what matters is what comes from the heart and not what one does or what goes through the gut. He walks the path of more peace in life - no indulgence in worldly trappings and no display of divine awesomeness. 

Though a lord saint, he does not lord. Many are at peace with him and able to have more peace of life. He is a friend. What a friend we have in Ji Gong (济公)!


Posted by at