No 836 of Living Life Series 1
Is there the basis for prosperity if we follow the teachings of a religion? Religion does go beyond the worldly life of men but this does not mean that followers are denied prosperity.
In fact, Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) the messenger of God for the oneness of all religions stresses that if the principles of religion enrich our spirit, the same principles if applied to spiritual life enriches us in mundane life.
These principles are present in all religions and sects. The teachings of religions enrich us in both ways - spiritually and in worldly sense. We may say that prosperity gospel is common to all religions as religions teach us how to prosper in spirit and in body.
In fact, Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) the messenger of God for the oneness of all religions stresses that if the principles of religion enrich our spirit, the same principles if applied to spiritual life enriches us in mundane life.
In fact, many cultures the world over deal with the need to prosper and invoke the blessings of God and saints so that all will prosper.
In Chinese culture, one central tenet is that we must prosper our neighbors regardless of their background and religion. Thus there is the call for prosperity for one and all during the Lunar New Year - the call of Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财. This supports the loving kindness religions refer to and is in all cultures.
In Chinese culture, one central tenet is that we must prosper our neighbors regardless of their background and religion. Thus there is the call for prosperity for one and all during the Lunar New Year - the call of Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财. This supports the loving kindness religions refer to and is in all cultures.
Well, the culture even brings to life the wish of prosperity for one and all in the form of a pair of prosperity or wealth gods - one to congratulate and bless - Gong Xi 恭喜
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and the other to prosper or give wealth - Fa Cai 发财
The pair embodies the spirit of Lunar New Year. This spirit of rejoicing and prospering must prevail beyond the festive season.
Wealth in wider sense is beyond material wealth. Chinese culture invokes God and saints to give us blessings and these blessings must transcend material gains.
The gains are beyond material and even beyond the wealth of merits. Most importantly, there must be gains by leaps and bounds of inner peace that money and good deeds cannot provide us with.
There must be abundance of inner peace. Then truly it is time to rejoice and congratulate people - Gong Xi 恭喜 and wish them more abundance of wealth and luck - Fa Cai 发财 .
The gains are beyond material and even beyond the wealth of merits. Most importantly, there must be gains by leaps and bounds of inner peace that money and good deeds cannot provide us with.
There must be abundance of inner peace. Then truly it is time to rejoice and congratulate people - Gong Xi 恭喜 and wish them more abundance of wealth and luck - Fa Cai 发财 .
Prosperity gospel is an age old teaching. It is nothing new or revolutionary. It is championed by the ancestors of old in China and in many other cultures and religions.
It is integral to the aspirations of humanity to scale the heights of success spiritually and mundane. In Chinese culture, we wish all to move up the ladder of achievement and progress - 步步高升. There again, there comes to life the success official or god of Heaven carrying the roll of honor.
It is integral to the aspirations of humanity to scale the heights of success spiritually and mundane. In Chinese culture, we wish all to move up the ladder of achievement and progress - 步步高升. There again, there comes to life the success official or god of Heaven carrying the roll of honor.
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| 步步高升 |
Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) adds that there is wealth of lessons we can learn from life, our own as well as the lives of others. Life can enrich us. Life is the prosperity gospel.
Prosperity gospel prevails from ancient past. In life itself is to be found the prosperity gospel.
God also reaches out to the masses to prosper the faithful through all cultures and religions. But they must believe and keep to the Word common to and basic to all religions and cultures.
What stops people from prospering is their inability to have faith in the Word and make the Word come to life in their lives. Central to the Word is the cultivation of peace through yin yang balance which can proper us spiritually as well as in worldly mundane life.
Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) stresses on the dual blessings of cultivation of spiritual values through any religion. If we cultivate spirituality, we reap both spiritual and mundane success as the very principles of spirituality if applied to mundane life bring peace and plenty to mundane life in more holistic sense - not just in money terms but in all aspects of blessings.
We are thus enriched in all aspects of mundane life when we enrich ourselves spiritually and be ever closer to God and saints. We achieve global prosperity through the prosperity gospel in life and in all religions.
No nation and no one can prosper without prospering together with others. Religions, nations and individuals must live as one and yet be distinct. This is the will of Heaven.
This will go a long way to alleviate the problems of beings, to elevate them, to enrich and bring out more saints in their midst and ultimately to save more souls. The world will be richer and more prosperous in all aspects - holistically and that is great. Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财.
While many do not find the prosperity gospel of Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 in Chinese culture to be out of place and far fetched, some do find the same prosperity gospel in religion to be far fetched. But frankly, what is wrong in wanting everyone to prosper even if it may be too idealistic.
The heavenly saints wish for every being to be saved but this too can be considered far fetched but we don't do think so. Isn't this true?
Isn't it the case that prosperity gospel has been with men all along from ages past and is the same way all along? There is really nothing new and exceptional?
The saints would rather provide the carrot of blessings of prosperity to as many as possible than to yield the stick of punishment to bring beings into the fold of religion and spirituality. This is the approach of all saints.
But when men started religions in their names, they somehow went overboard and make things difficult for fellow men. They ended up withholding and denying their fellow men the prosperity gospel approach that is captured by the phrase Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 in Chinese culture.
A good illustration of this is with regards to the mission of Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) to show that the same inner peace can be achieved through any religion.
Even if some who come to any of his temples are not focused on mission but on personal agenda, they will get blessings and prosperity even if they do good like welfare services for their own good and glory. This is because they have done good and no one can deny that. They will still prosper in their own special way and at their level.
But there are those who think they have erred in not doing mission proper and think they should not be blessed. They will still be blessed in keeping with the prosperity gospel for all beings. All will prosper if they are doing some good. This is stressed by the good lord Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨).
Elder Ling and all the pioneers of mission are well aware of this prosperity gospel approach. That is why all who come to the temple and do their part though not mission orientated and aware will ever be blessed as well. They will invariably prosper in some way. They deserve Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财.
The good lord Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) is all for the prosperity gospel of God and all heavenly saints. He is after all one of the saints.
All religions have the same prosperity gospel to begin with but how this is packaged and presented over the centuries may often differ and are indeed unique to the respective religions and communities. Sometimes, it is the men of religions who are less open about this. At other times, they are too open on the prosperity gospel.
Prosperity gospel prevails from ancient past. In life itself is to be found the prosperity gospel.
God also reaches out to the masses to prosper the faithful through all cultures and religions. But they must believe and keep to the Word common to and basic to all religions and cultures.
What stops people from prospering is their inability to have faith in the Word and make the Word come to life in their lives. Central to the Word is the cultivation of peace through yin yang balance which can proper us spiritually as well as in worldly mundane life.
Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) stresses on the dual blessings of cultivation of spiritual values through any religion. If we cultivate spirituality, we reap both spiritual and mundane success as the very principles of spirituality if applied to mundane life bring peace and plenty to mundane life in more holistic sense - not just in money terms but in all aspects of blessings.
We are thus enriched in all aspects of mundane life when we enrich ourselves spiritually and be ever closer to God and saints. We achieve global prosperity through the prosperity gospel in life and in all religions.
This will go a long way to alleviate the problems of beings, to elevate them, to enrich and bring out more saints in their midst and ultimately to save more souls. The world will be richer and more prosperous in all aspects - holistically and that is great. Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财.
While many do not find the prosperity gospel of Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 in Chinese culture to be out of place and far fetched, some do find the same prosperity gospel in religion to be far fetched. But frankly, what is wrong in wanting everyone to prosper even if it may be too idealistic.
The heavenly saints wish for every being to be saved but this too can be considered far fetched but we don't do think so. Isn't this true?
Isn't it the case that prosperity gospel has been with men all along from ages past and is the same way all along? There is really nothing new and exceptional?
The saints would rather provide the carrot of blessings of prosperity to as many as possible than to yield the stick of punishment to bring beings into the fold of religion and spirituality. This is the approach of all saints.
But when men started religions in their names, they somehow went overboard and make things difficult for fellow men. They ended up withholding and denying their fellow men the prosperity gospel approach that is captured by the phrase Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 in Chinese culture.
A good illustration of this is with regards to the mission of Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) to show that the same inner peace can be achieved through any religion.
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| Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) |
But there are those who think they have erred in not doing mission proper and think they should not be blessed. They will still be blessed in keeping with the prosperity gospel for all beings. All will prosper if they are doing some good. This is stressed by the good lord Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨).
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| The pioneers |
The good lord Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) is all for the prosperity gospel of God and all heavenly saints. He is after all one of the saints.
All religions have the same prosperity gospel to begin with but how this is packaged and presented over the centuries may often differ and are indeed unique to the respective religions and communities. Sometimes, it is the men of religions who are less open about this. At other times, they are too open on the prosperity gospel.
But when it is integrated as culture like Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 culture among Chinese, no one even will even think that this too is prosperity gospel.
Isn't the giving of red packets prospering one another? It is but this is not the usual norm beyond the Lunar New Year.
The prosperity gospel will always warm the hearts of men but it is only one aspect of life that men can fall back on. It is only one of the means to deliver hope to men.
That is why in Chinese culture, the call of Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 is in full steam only during Lunar New Year. For the rest of the year, for many it is on back burner but not forgotten.
There is need to fall back to reality and be grounded to the grind and toil that is daily life. Dreams are necessary but humanity cannot live on dreams, fresh air and sunshine. On the other hand, humanity too cannot live by bread, sweat and toil alone.
There is need for balance and this balance in Chinese culture is the yin yang balance. We need prosperity gospel to balance the grind of life. We need all to have hope and to believe in Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 but not to ignore reality of life. Religion is an advantage to enhance the spirit of Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 all the way in life and for that any religion will do.
With regards to religion, it is the godly saints at the lower levels of Heaven who can help us more directly than those at the upper levels for they are better able to empathize with us. For the same reason, God needs saints coming to us in flesh and blood to be one of us to enrich us spiritually - Jesus, Gautama, Ji Gong (济公) are some examples.
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| Ji Gong (济公) |
At human level, it is likely that those who are not rich who will be the ones who will help us to prosper than those who are super rich. This is a reality we have to live with.
Temples and churches may offer prosperity but it is more likely that the ordinary devotees who will prosper the temples more than the temples prosper the devotees. When the temples and churches grow in prosperity, more people are attracted to them. Mind you, this is good as surely a good number who come will one day climb the ladder to higher spirituality so long as they stay on in the temples and churches.
