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.
