Salvation God-given? Just believe and it is yours.

No 1296 of Living Life Series 1

Salvation is not on sale. If it is on sale, it is meaningless. We need to work for it. But this will put many off. 

So men with their ingenuity may offer it as free and want this to be so. They will say that someone has sacrificed himself and worked for your salvation. You don't have to do anything. Just belief. 

Men claim that a heavenly saint has worked for your salvation and therefore it is given - in a way God given. Yes this is the trend in many religions and sects. 

Salvation is God-given. Believe and you will be in Heaven and your problems before you go to Heaven is God's problems. So why worry? Salvation is God-given. Just believe. Is this for real? 

If this is for sure, then there will be no problems. But there are problems. The problems of men are many and plentiful. The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 would say. 

Some even say that if problems stay, it is God trying to test us. God creates or allows the problems to test us. But in reality, it is men not God who create problems and dig their own graves. 

So, why not face reality? If man is the problem, then man must know why he has problems. Man can get divine blessings. But man must help himself. God will help even more those who help themselves. 

Why would God want us to have problems? Even one problem is a problem too many. But if men chose to create problems, what can the good God do? 

It is ignorance that fuels the ego of man, makes him think of himself. This is the root of the problems. This fuels the vicious cycle and problems galore. 

Thus the simple answer is that man must free himself from ego and be pure and peaceful. 

But like it or not, religion is man-made and there are two faces of religion. Popular religion attracts the crowd. Just believe and be devoted. Leave God and saints to do the rest.

This is good but not good enough for the serious. There is need to cultivate godliness - be pure, simple, loving and humble. Clean and purify the spirit. 

If we don't do it now, we will need to do this in next life, even in a heaven. We will need to come down from heaven.

We will need to be resurrected in flesh as man to put into practice what we learnt in heaven. Don't wait for resurrection to do be serious about being pure in spirit.  

For many however, who cares? All they want is for salvation to be God-given. Just believe and have faith. Salvation will be delivered to them. 

Religions do cater for that. It is the way for the many and without it, many will stay clear of religion. But some cannot accept this and they either give up or go the mile.

Why not do away with ego-prone religious labels?

No 1295 of Living Life Series 1

There is no exclusive way to think and to live life. If there is, then we will be cloning the way to think and live life. There must be diversity otherwise there will be no learning from one another how to be better and avoid one another's pitfalls and mistakes. So we need to be inclusive and all embracing. Exclusivity is out and inclusiveness is in. 

In the old days of Chinese culture, the Chinese simply took on new culture and beliefs and they grow their culture. With the passing of centuries and the global concept of religion rather than culture, culture progressively cannot take on and integrate with other cultures. 

With the label of religion, you either belong or do not. You cannot believe in all religions or bits of various religions for then you will end up with no religion. So the concept of religion may end up disrupting the integration of various cultures or religious beliefs into the basic culture  of the people. 

We are expected to be exclusive and myopic in approach. That is not good. If we do this or believe in this, we cannot do that and believe in that. 

The ego of men have grown so big that it has taken over religion. Religion ends up becoming the ego front of men. 

When ego takes over, logic or common sense takes a back seat. Religion may end up divisive when one man tells another that if he believes in this, he cannot believe in that. 

Exclusivity is never good. Believe in this and you cannot believe in that. Then we will never learn and be better. The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 tells us that we need to embrace all kinds of people, learn from them, their good and their not so good. 

They cannot be us. We cannot be them. But we can be who we are and be better by learning from one another. They can learn from us and we can learn from them. 

Do not be exclusive and impose one's life or beliefs on others. Be inclusive, learn and share - give and take. Allow others to do their way. Lead by example. Others then will let you have your way even if they may not see eye to eye with you in many areas.

All must be mindful of this. Do not play God for others when God leaves men to have their own way and learn. Freewill too is God-given and must be given space and leeway of sorts

Do not let religious labels stop people from inclusive approach of days of old. Religion as identity is a recent concept. Like it or not, it may lead people to be exclusive and think they are better than others, get carried away. They think it is their duty to change others to be like them - by hook or by crook. They think this is a God-given duty and that is never good.

Ego and ignorance tend to and can take over religion unless leaders are mindful and take great pains to avoid this. Religion as a ego label may then not be good. Men may end up upholding their way and thinking as exclusive. This will be divisive. There will be less or even no peace.

So why not do away with religious labels. Let us return to era when there is spirituality without religion. This may never happen but at least be mindful. This is the ideal. We must try.

Let us try by going to basics - purity, love and humility. Don't be loud. Be quiet, peaceful and accepting. Speak from the heart - not from the ego. 

Ego makes us think of ourselves. We end up self-centered and inconsiderate. We accept ourselves and not so accepting of others. 

We end up exclusive and intrusive. We end up cultivating the devil and not the God in us and yet project the image that we are godly - the God chosen ones. 

Control freaks demonise a temple in any religion

No 1294 of Living Life Series 1

How to live life is what religion is all about. Religion is all about how to live and not about giving up life. It is about learning how to do this in a temple and applying this in the life outside the temple. 

It is not about doing in a temple what we have been doing outside a temple. It is about creating peace by not feeding the needs of the ego and have no peace. It is not about controlling a temple so that others cannot have a say. 

But the temple of today be it of any religion may end up with control freaks. They make some who go to a temple for some peace freak out. 

Control freaks are unfortunately those who don't know what a temple saint stands for. Any saint would expect followers to go for peace. Subdue the ego and the need to be control freaks. 

Be at peace with others and with life. Don't end up going to a temple to control it. This is exactly what a temple should not encourage. 

But blame not the saint of a temple if a clique of members are doing that. If they do, they know not the saint and put the saint away in the background. They place themselves in front of the saint and claim they are the new subcontractors to till the land. They are like insects coming to a flower for nectar. This the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 did say. 

Many a temple end up with this problem due to lack of doctrine. When people are not doctrine-driven but ego-driven, their egos are bigger than any big image of the saint of the temple. The big image of their egos take over the image of the temple saint

Men should not end up nearer to their egos and far from the doctrine the saint stands for. No point then of having the image of the saint in a temple. 

If men are far from doctrine, they are far from the saint. The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 reiterates that the image of a temple saint is the doctrine and the doctrine is the image. Men must see the doctrine, not just the image.

Men who see not the doctrine may end up not only not devoted to the saint but devoted to their egos. They see only their egos and the need to be control freaks to meet ego needs. 

They end up putting lip service to mission and doctrine. Control freaks defeat the mission of a temple and want people to worship their egos instead of the saint of the temple. 

Control freaks ignore views of the many and end up doing what they wish. They end up not only breaking the laws of Heaven but also the laws of the land. They end up reaping what they sow. 

Control freaks can demonise a temple in any religion. Is this the fate of the temple you go to? God-willing, this should never be. But blame not the flower for insects coming to it. This the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says.

Why live and why life?

No 1293 of Living Life Series 1

In life we want to succeed. Indeed we need to succeed. But whither goes success once we end up in death? 

We still need to succeed somehow and in someway though but not in same way as others. We are no apes and no monkeys. It cannot be monkey says and monkey does. 

If so, when the cock crows, we have to start all over again and be what our neighbors are and go after the same things they go after. That would be sad. But indeed this holds true and isn't that pathetic? 

What have become of men? Are we chasing after the rainbow or the horizon which recedes ever the more when we try to reach it. What we go after should not end up as the rainbow or horizon. 

What we want is security and stability, a means of livelihood that best suits us - our abilities and our needs. Let the means be the means and not end up as the ends. Otherwise, where will be the end? 

Why live and why life? Life is a stepping stone to what life stands for - the purpose of life. Of what use if the purpose comes to naught at the end when death comes knocking. 

Well that requires us to cultivate our resilience and our insight of life. What can we have that will not come to naught with death? It is the peace within us that will ensure the peace stays with us regardless of what comes our way in life. 

It is about having enough and not have nothing. How can nothing gives peace? How can more gives peace when there is the more to the more we can have? 

Thus the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says that in life and in any religion, what matters is to be on top of life, its coming and going, it's ups and downs, it's ebb and flow - the yin and yang. 

The way to do this is to have peace of spirit, the inner peace that enables us to embrace life and not let life embrace, suffocate and decimate us. This is the inner peace that is talked about by all religions but referred to in various ways. 

To live is to die. To die to life is to be dead to life even before death. Why live and why life? Peace is all we need come what may. 

We still need to have means to have this end of peace. Let not the means be the ends. Be clear in mind and in life. 

Dying to life gives no peace. Living it to the sky is no way to peace. Know the ends from the means. Know why we need peace at heart and in spirit. 

This matters more than anything else. But many just don't get it, do they? 

Who comes first - we or others, Man or God?

No 1292 of Living Life Series 1

Who comes first Man or God? In eyes of men, upfront they say God comes first but what they do betray their real intention. Man comes first. Men are like that. 

But to God, all in Heaven and under Heaven comes first - even those in Hell. God loves even those in Hell and even have saints there to help those in the pangs of hell. 

Obviously men comes first and God being humble and pure will not put himself first. Only men will. 

Why? Men have egos but not God or heavenly saints. Those men who think they come first more so if they think their religion is the only true religion are ever the more ego-driven. They think they come first and worst still is that others do not have second or third place. They are the only choice. 

To make matters worse, though they hold God as first and above them, their actions betray their need to be first instead of God. They are near but yet so far from what God stands for. They are not humble, not pure and ever ego-driven - far from peace and purity that God and saints stand for. This did the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 did say. This holds true for all religions, doesn't it? 

If we follow what God stands for, we should approach life by thinking that others come first but this does not mean we deny ourselves and we come last. 

That would mean we do not understand God. God is first and yet to God, every being comes first even those in Hell. We must be like God - be capable and cultivated in purity and peace. We should place others first but to do that obviously we must be better than others in purity and peace to be able to help others to be so as well - to be able to place others as first before us. 

When Chinese worship and offer offerings to the poor wandering souls during the Seventh Month Festival, they place these poor souls first. This is taught to them by the ancestors.

But who is in better position, men or the deprived wandering souls? It is men. Tradition upholds the poor souls to come first and a whole month is dedicated to them.

To worship poor souls is to place them first. To do so, men must be better than these souls. So in Chinese culture, men worship these souls and place them first though they are better off than these souls. 

Thus this article or post is titled - Who comes first, we or others, Man or God? 

In any temple and any Bo Tien Temple is no exception, members must be good enough and better than others to know others who know less must come first. 

To think that they come first and others come second or last is indication they are not good enough and no better, perhaps knowing little or nothing. Then indeed, they may be near and yet far. The near and far and the far and near has been mentioned by the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨.

Man not God is the problem. Learn from this truth

No 1291 of Living Life Series 1

Religion never had it so good with advent of the internet. We can see the myriad interpretations of religions and nobody can stop that. 

Something that sprung forth from God and saints should be simple and one. But who, not even God can stop men from proliferating it in so many ways. 

Surely all cannot be wrong. All too cannot be right. 

The problem lies in men. Men thinks differently. That is the real problem behind. 

The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says that the problems of men are many and plentiful. This is it. We learn from this as well and be better off. 

The many religions, sects and schools are due to men based on the same God. 

God is not the problem. Man is. This can still be good. This opens our eyes to know better why man is like that, the nature of man and the lessons of life. 

Is there the need to label and divide?

No 1290 of Living Life Series 1

Is attaching a religious label on paper to an individual necessarily a good thing? This is arguable and may be too rigid when in reality one's religious beliefs are ever changing and fluid even if one claim to be still in the same religion. 

It also may create misconception that if one is in religion A and in religion A, there are some with extremist beliefs, one too is likely to have extreme beliefs far from the mainstream. This will be discriminatory. 

So some argue that we go by race and not by religion. It seems alright to label one's race and go by ethnicity. But even then what happens to those born of mixed race marriages? 

Thus some have argued that we just go for the nationality. This refers to the country a person is living in or has adopted. Even then some are even more progressive then that and say that identifying the nationality can be divisive. 

They advocate that we identify the person as from a bloc or continent. But are people matured enough to make this work? A good idea never seem to work the way it should. 

The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says that all believe in Divinity they refer to as God or any other name. But the reality is that people are different somehow and will have different beliefs they refer to as religions and sects within religions. 

To deny reality is not good. To insist that all are one and there is no need for religions and sects is to be not in touch with reality. 

We can have differences even in the same sect or religion, and even in the same culture of a community. Is there the need to label and divide? The answer is not as simple as the question. 

Won't it be good to encourage the free spirit and to grow this as the way to promote goodwill among people across races, sects, religions and nationalities? But if we are too carried away by this, we are in the clouds. Surely how good will that be? 

Is there the need to label and divide. This is the big question. The big question has no big answer. There will always be problems and issues with men. 

Men are like that. The issues and problems of men are many and plentiful. The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says that God and saints are aware of this. 

We too must be aware. The root of the problems lie in ignorance and ego arising from this. When can people be not ego driven but be God-driven? Even many insist that they are God driven when they are ego-driven in the very name of God. 

This can happen anywhere and even in a temple of the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨. People in the name of God and lord can even come to 'blows' and this is to be expected but never nice anyway. Luckily good sense will prevail - otherwise one will question what a temple or religion is for...

At the cross roads of spirituality

No 1289 of Living Life Series 1

Many are attracted to religion like insects to a flower for nectar. But is it the nectar that is what is needed? Often the flower is forgotten and left to wither. 

Why did the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 refer to the flower and the insects? Why don't he be direct to the point? Perhaps many are not ready and there are many implications with regards to what he said. 

Many do come to religion to be spiritual and to have blessings of God and to be blessings to others in the process. They indeed are the blessed and there is no denying about this. 

They move along the path of spirituality, ever trying to be humble, to be pure and be at peace. But, their ego can have the better of them. 

They know they have made progress in spirituality and that is when if they are not mindful, their ego can have the better of them. They think they are better than others. 

They think they can judge others and they may end up lording over them and putting them down. Some become control freaks. The best part is that they insist they are not.

They may not be aware of it, often not mindful at all. They end up wanting to assert over others and this becomes a want that grows and grows. In the end, they create a crossroad for themselves and get sidetracked. They get lost at the cross roads of spirituality. 

They may even create a monster or a disaster out of religion. This is all because they grow the disaster of the ego in them - the very ego which they must subdue in religion. 

The ego get the better of them and devours the purity, humility and peace that are in any religion. Their ego devours the religious sense and the religion they stand for. 

This danger of the ego that creates the crossroad to side track us is not only in religion but also in life outside religion as well. Life is after all religion and religion is life. Truth is in life . 

We can learn from life, our own and that of others. This the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says. 

But to err is human and to correct oneself is divine more than to be forgiven. To be forgiven is simply not enough. We need to correct ourselves. Think over this. 

Additionally, please judge not lest we be judged. But to be aware and to learn from life even from others' lives is good but do not pass judgement and tell others off. 

Make them aware if we can but do not lord over them or hurt them. Empathise and be with them and not against them. To judge is to be against them and face the consequence of eliciting the counter judgement of us by them. 

There will be no end of this when we get sidetracked at the cross roads of life or spirituality. Whatever value that hold true for religion holds true for life outside religion. This the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says.

If at all we know that we have long way off to subdue the ego in us, at least hold our tongues even if we cannot have get hold of our mind to have the peace - to be pure and humble. 

Remember what all saints of religions said. Lord Jesus put it pointblank when he said that the humble will be exalted and the exalted humbled. So humble ourselves. 

Don't think the world of ourselves and have pride. Pride begets a fall. But we can pick ourselves up. However is it necessary to fall in the first place and to have many falls? One fall can be one fall too may. 

In spiritual life, go for the straight path of humility, peace and purity - never create crossroads of spirituality to snag us and be sidetracked and lost. This is just logical. This is Tao 道 - common sense. 

Religion should not be advertised.

No 1288 of Living Life Series 1

It has become a new trend of late in 2016 that a religious website must advertise in order that it reaches a wider audience. This from the worldly viewpoint may seem logical. But the doctrine of God and saints should have nothing to do with money. It is beyond dollars and cents. 

To demand money to allow a religion to reach out to more people is to hold God and saint to ransom. To foot the bill for doctrine to reach out to more just don't sound right. It may enable Satan or the Devil to have the upper hand if money talks. 

Commercialisation has intruded into the realm of religion. Is this right? Should religion advertise and pay for the advertisement to reach a wider audience? Should the mission of God or a heavenly saint be advertised? 

The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 certainly don't want and do not need men to pay to spread his Word. The Word is God and saint. To pay for the Word to reach out to more on the world wide web runs counter to what God and saints stand for. 

Truth and divine peace should not orbit around money. But this is a money world. So what do we expect? Religion ends up making money and paying money to reach out to the many. 

Religion sells its religious wares in the open market. Since religion does so, people will want religion to pay for its spread through advertisements.  

The Devil will welcome this and make capital out of this and undermine the spread of the Word of God and saints. To relate God and saints with money is to cheapen and demean God and saints. The Devil will be grinning from ear to ear. 

So will the men who want money and have no qualms at exacting money from religion. Why have some men stoop so low and even better than the Devil in making mockery of religion and God. 

Men are more at this than the Devil. So who is more devil - Satan or unscrupulous men? Who is more horny with more horns - the greedy men or the Devil? Such men may end up locking horns with one another and with the Devil. They can be better than the Devil in what the Devil is best at. Who then is the real Devil?

Money will always be the issue. Money talks. Logic takes a back seat. Religion will then go into advertisement and be more adversarial. Money is used to buy and win support. 

But like it or not, advertising religion is here to stay and will catch on. Anyway, religion will not stay upstream where there is clear water but will be swept down stream where the water is polluted. 

The message of the need to go to the upper source and stay there for clear water is emphasised by the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 and this holds true for people of all religions.

Whatever will be will be but is this true?

No 1287 of Living Life Series 1

Whatever will be will be. Is this true? 

If this is something good but we do not work for it, it will not be. If this is something bad and we do nothing to correct it, mitigate or moderate it, it will be. Our destiny is in our own hands. 

For the not good that comes our way, the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 has given us this advice. 

Seek the help of God and heavenly saints. Those who pray in earnest, God or heavenly saint will hear and if they have the sincerity, God or heavenly saint will come to us and do what they can. 

This is the only precondition. Otherwise those who have problematic life due to their low spiritual rating will never have chance to better themselves. They will get stuck in mud and sink further. By divine intervention, this should not be.

With help of the divine, small issues will be no issues and big issues will be small issues. But there is the element of fate which we must understand. 

However even if some big issues cannot be small issues, they can still be lesser issues. At the end of the day, it is what we learn from having issues in life. This is what many fail to do. 

But even if they understand not why, God and saints will not forsake them. All that is needed is to seek divine help. Seek and ye shall find and knock and the doors will be open. This goes some way to level up life more so for the many who are blind to the Tao or Way of life - the logic or common sense of life.