Abide by teachings and not be disgrace

No 971 of Living Life Series 1

It is a sad sad day indeed if the people running the temple of a lord saint behave as though the teachings of the lord saint meant little to them and they end up doing the exact opposite from the teachings of the lord saint. 

One such teaching is the teaching of love and love must be extended to those who are ignorant or have done wrong. Another is to respect elders and those senior to them. 

There is no hurt to God and saints when one has not been right. The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says God and saints are not hurt by the wrong of men and will not retaliate but instead welcome them to stay on in the house of God to better themselves. 

There is no sin as God is never affected or hurt and will not have anger for those who have done wrong even in the house of God and saints. They did wrong to others and themselves but not to God and saints. Men can never hurt God and saints so long as indeed they are God and saints.

Other men at the wits end of such men must be like God and saints by not harboring anger for such men and wanting to seek redress. This is more so in any house of God. 

It is unthinkable to even harbor ill-will and for the very men who run the house of God to do so is wrong, let alone act with disdain towards such men. Not tolerating such men is bad enough and to actually act against such men with ill-will is even worse. 

Surely God or the saint of that house of God would not want the men running the house of God to stoop so low. Never mind if there is no love but to have hatred for such men is really disturbing. 

It would be tantamount to the teaching of God and saints falling on deaf ears. But the reality is that they have heard but having heard and understood, they think there is no need to live up to the teachings. Well, that is men. 

When they run a house of God and saints, they think they can be the exception. Once they are at the rostrum and run a house of God, they get swollen headed and act as though they speak and act for God and saints. 

God and saints must back them up and not they back up God and saints to uphold the good name of God and saints. They are no longer humble servants of God and saints. It seems that God and saints must listen to them and be at their beck and call. 

What do we expect when men come to a house of God for agenda other than spirituality? Blame not the flower for insects coming to it for nectar. This the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says. 

In a house of God and saints, at least uphold the teachings and not be a disgrace. At the very least, there must be respect and love for elders and pioneers even if they are not exemplary. 

But alas there will ever be insects coming to a flower for nectar. Blame not the flower. 

To be this is to be that. To be or not to be ?

No 970 of Living Life Series 1

To be this is to be that. To be or not to be. That is what we need to know.  

To live is to die. To die is to live. To work is to ear. To earn is to work. To be happy is to be sad. To be sad is to be happy. We cannot have one without the other. There will always be the opposites of sorts in life. 

The sages of old in China refer to this as yin and yang. But this will only be exclusive and excludes from the purview of the masses and only for the elite. Then what is the worry? Well, let's see.

To be elite is to be outnumbered and be unnoticeable. To be ordinary is to stand out and be noticeable. Numbers count. There is strength in numbers. 

Gone are the days when religion is so elitist and for the thinker and philosopher. The trend is for religion to be ordinary and sort of dull dull to the thinker but readily acceptable and within the mental range of the masses. 

Religion is about dangling worldliness and attachment to the senses instead of trying to showcase the better alternative of out of this world goodness and detachment. Humanity has become wary of more talk and yet more talk along this line.

But after sometime, what is of the world is no different from what is not of this world, or is there? Let us see and seeing is believing they all say.

There is underlying life in this world and the next the same nature of life. There is the play of opposites and how we handle the opposites determine how we feel and what will become of us. 

The poor can be rich if the poor is happy with his lot. The rich is poor if he is unhappy with his lot. 

He who is in heaven may think he is in hell. He who is in hell may think he is in heaven. 

But make no mistake. The man of God and saints go not for heaven or hell but for peace and release. He is at peace with heaven and with hell. To him, there is no difference. 

He is Godly and at peace everywhere and in every situation. He is atop heaven and hell like depicted by the image of the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 with feet on the elements. 

He is a picture of composure come what may. He is with God and saints and God and saints are with him for like them, he is all peace. 

He is a pillar of strength like the religions of the world which provide strength and support to all humanity. Religions are the pillars of the universal house of God with heaven as the roof. The man of God too is no less a pillar of sorts. He shows what it is like to be a man of God so that others can emulate him. 

He is enlightened like the Buddha. He can be the Buddha.

Which comes first - happiness or necessities?

No 969 of Living Life Series 1

Going to a house of God for the very things that irk us outside the house of God seems to be trendy. 

People cannot find worldly joy and good company in society and turn to religion when they find there is no sincere love in society for fellow men. At least in the house of God, there is more warmth and better display of love. 

In the house of God, love for life is not the goal but the driver of life. In the world outside, love for life is not the driver but the goal. 

People insist that they cannot have life unless all things fall in place. But in a house of God, life must be there for things to fall in place. 

So it seems that it is just a matter of chicken and egg. The egg comes first or the chicken. Whatever is the case, egg comes before the chicken and the chicken before the egg. 

Thus life in the house of God is similar to life outside but the emphasis in the house of God is to start with optimism and joy of love for life. This should be the driving force for life even outside the house of God. 

Life is the greatest teacher and we must learn from life. This was pointed to us by the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨. 

The far from the house of God too are near like those in the house of God as the lesson of life is there even outside the house of God. In fact this is even more so but in more harsh and less acceptable tone. The teaching on the far and near by the good lord often strikes a bell in our life. 

If men are told to begin with love and happiness for life, they will laugh this off. They will say that let things fall in place and then they will be happy and at peace. 

But in the house of God, they see life from the other angle. Let there be peace and happiness and all things will happen. The debacle on which comes first, happiness or necessities is a never ending issue in life. 

But the irony is that men go to the house of God for the very things that seem to irk them in the world outside the house of God. The difference is in the mind set. The mind set change religion offers is a wonder to behold. 

Believe and be on the way is good but not enough

No 968 of Living Life Series 1

It is so easy to think that all be well and happy but thinking alone is not good enough if this does not translate to reality. Reality must at least be knowing for real that people are indeed better and happier. 

It is easier to convince those young and in the prime of life but not those on the wane and past the post. It is therefore easy for religion to tell the young and those in the prime that God provides. 

This is the state of affairs and that is why religion appeals more to the young. It is not a dream to be happy for the young for they can be happy that more easily at their age and station in life. 

Religion will appeal to them if they harp on this. God provides and that is it. This is popular religion. Popular religion must be populist in approach. Belief and be on the way. 

That is how religions are like flowers to attract insects to them for nectar. This the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says. Belief and be on the way. It is as easy as that and not to go along is odd. 

But to the more discerning who want to go further than that, they have to get serious and go the whole works. They have to get real and know life in depth. They must know first hand the very nature of life. They must sweat it out. There is no free lunch. 

Believe and be on the way is good but not enough. We must not just be on the way. We must arrive. It is easy to believe and to be on the way but to arrive is another matter. 

It is easy to read the scriptures but to make the scriptures come to life in our life is what matters. Just reading and believing is good but not enough. We must live in the gospel of life. 

For believers of the Buddha, they must do what the Buddha did at least in spirit. Isn't this more than just believing? Believe and be on the way is good but not enough. There is need to arrive. 

Don't lose sight of the basic in religion

No 967 of Living Life Series 1

In Chinese culture, there are various levels and forms of religious practices from the most philosophical and out of reach to the masses to the most simple and popular - just believe and get what you want. 

In other cultures too, this is true and applies to any religion. That is why the prosperity gospel can even be popular in modern society. Men think that God will proper them if they prosper the house of God. That indeed is correct in a way.

While some may be critical, it must be realized that there is in men the need to do things differently and at different levels. There is no right and wrong. All are right in some ways. 

Of course, people will even graduate from one level and form of religion to another and some from one religion to another. 

God and saints will not interfere in the choice of men but men may say that they speak for God and saints. God and saints remain silent and silence does not mean concurrence or even difference. That is the way of divinity. 

That is why the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 descended in 1969 to re-orientate men to go for the common basic teachings in all forms and levels of religion and in all religions. 

Men can continue to choose to be different but must not lose sight of the commonality of the basic teaching for men to be good and at peace. Men often lose sight of this and go for the frills and thrills. That of course is to be expected of men. 

Go beyond the God, the Man and the Dream Factors

No 966 of Living Life Series 1

Why are people of religion in the past so negative and then almost in the same breath said that all would be well if we could do this or that? Well that has to do with the business of religion. 

If all are well, who need religion? So the best is to tell us why we need to listen and accept? The only reason to make us embrace religion is to show that there are problems and the problems will be solved if we accept religion and do as told. 

But this approach is nowadays out of favor. It no longer works and people avoid religion. The next best thing is to show that people can be happier than if they do not enter into religion. They can have better joy of fellowship if they join the crowd at a house of God. 

This certainly is a better option. But then a few question this and decide to have Godless Sunday assemblies minus God. Then, what is the hold and rallying factor. This need to be there. 

There is need for the God factor and there too is the need for the proxy of God in a charismatic man at the rostrum. There is need for audience willing to go along with the dream factor. 

The three factors are God, his proxy in man, the dream factor in the congregation. There is no longer the fear or negative factor and this is replaced by the love factor. Let love and not fear abound.  

Religion is about life. Life is religion. Life is the ultimate gospel. By understanding life and men in life, we know better why some men need religion and some don't. 

We can understand how far men can go with popular religion or without religion. We can see that to go beyond, they need to go beyond dreams and go for real and greater joy that popular religion could find it hard to offer for men who go for dreams. 

They must know what is true religion or spirituality. They must go for the inner truth underlying popular religions and men must seize the inner truth and go beyond popular religion to have greater heights of spirituality. 

This is how the message of Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 will open up religions to greater spirituality through developing the inner truth beyond popular religion that men are passionate about. Popular religions have their place but men must go beyond this.

Support all religions. This is the will of God

No 965 of Living Life Series 1

The moment we say one religion is better than another, we have done wrong to God and saints. This is even if we admit that religion is man-made. 

In civil society and democracy, it is the people who decide who are the rulers. In spiritual, men don't decide who be God and saints. 

In fact, it is God and saints who are in the know. God and saints know better how to help men and what men must do to be in paradise not just in the afterlife but here and now. 

It is not that God and saints decide who can arrive but that they are the main ones who can guide men along. They know better. God and saints don't dictate to men what men dictate to the rulers of the land. If they are so, then they are no God and saints. They are not men. 

But all hell will break lose if men handle spiritual the way they handle the land. It is not men who decide who be God and saints. It is not that way. Men however forget that and that is the problem. 

So why say one religion is better or worse still the only voice for God. All religions are one in God and saints. This did the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 say. 

Men will always be men. The problems and issues of men are many and plentiful. This too did the good lord say. 

That is why some men run down the religions of others. If we run down any one religion or sect, we are running down God and saints. Support and believe in all religions and that is what should be. This is the will of God and saints.

God is beyond the ways of man

No 964 of Living Life Series 1

It is a odd to think that God and saints will only help those who are good. If this is the case, there will be less and less people whom God and saints can help. If they go by this ideal, there will be no one who truly deserves their blessings and help. They might as well keep to themselves and don't lift a finger. 

But thankfully, God and saints feel sorry for all beings. Often without their help, we will be mired in problems and issues in life. They attach no conditions or qualifications. They welcome us with open arms even if we take them for granted. 

Men at the rostrum in a house of God are no God and saints. They might even hurl expletives and drive us into fear and guilt. They want us to submit and be subservient. This is the thinking of men at the helm but not the way of God and saints. 

God and saints truly love us. This is divine love that the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 wants all to know and this divine love is to be found in all religions. 

God and saints provide a wide choice and there is a great variety of choices through not only religions but through the sects and schools in every religion. 

All religions, sects and schools are one though different. Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 is the messenger of the oneness of religions. Diversity is to provide for this and not to divide men. But men of God and saints in their folly may divide men in the name of religion - in the very name of God and saints. That is to be expected of men and not God and saints. 

However disgraceful and unworthy we may be in the eyes of men, the more God and saints want to be with us. The unworthy is as worthy as those who think they are worthy. Give this some thought. 

That is why we find the most unlikely people in any house of God and if we don't understand God and saints we wonder why on Earth, God and saints want them to be there. 

As the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says, "Blame not insects coming to the flower for nectar." Blame not God and saints for unsavory people in a house of God. 

God is beyond the ways of men. Do remember that. Don't judge lest ye be judged. Didn't the saints say so? Jesus too said this. Those who think that unsavory men should not be there in a house of God are themselves unsavory as well. 

The doctrine is in life. Life is the doctrine

No 963 of Living Life Series 1

There will always be change in life and we too will change. What is important is for change to be better. But can we do so all the time? 

We must go for change. Change is a necessity but change can also be there when we are not ready. How do we be ready for change? 

One way is for us to be the architect of change and be in the seat to decide the change. That is not realistic at times. 

Another is to make ourselves that much more adaptable to change so that we will not be at the receiving ends of change. We should not be if we know how.

The ultimate reality is that life as man is not for forever and the most important change is for us to face this. We cannot do so by running away and denying life. We will always be in life. 

We must cope with change by being adaptable at at the same time be the architect of change where we can and in realistic sense. We have to be somehow.

While we are at these, we must be at peace with life and not end up in pieces because of life. If we have the peace, we can handle life. 

We cannot wait for things to happen before we can have peace. We must have peace before things happen in life. That way we can face the storms and calm seas of life as they unfurl. The sages say this is the doctrine of life. 

Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says the doctrine is in life and life is the doctrine. This is parallel to what he says that his image is the doctrine and the doctrine is his image. 

All religions teach us how to face and handle life and to count our blessings in life even during a storm. Indeed we should grumble less and treasure life as blessing even more so in a storm. We still have life and have God and saints.

We must abide by God and saint in us. Then as said by the good lord, issues will be no issue and even if big issues cannot be no issue, they will at least be not as big. It all depends on how we view life. It all depends on us and we can depend on God and saints as well. 

Those who pray in earnest to God and saints through any religion or even through none, God and saints do know and they will respond. They don't even need to be good enough to qualify. There is no conditions attach except that that they be earnest. There is no bargain chips. 

God and saints are magnanimous and not petty like men. God and saints hope is that when men can be better off, they can be at peace and learn from life. The doctrine is in life. Life is the doctrine

Nurses' Day and nursing the ills of life

No 962 of Living Life Series 1

There is need to nurse the ills of men and what better day to think of this than Nurses' Day. The issues and problems of men are many and plentiful. This the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says. The ills of men are partly man-made. There is need to nurse the ills and if possible prevent them. 

The ills are due in part to the nature of  man and the longing of men for sensual pleasures such as over eating, over using of the body and mind as well as the lack of use as well. 

Religions must come in to nurse men so that they have less ills and more health in all aspects - physically mentally and in spirit. 

The solution is to have balance and to be atop the polarities and the vicissitudes of life, like depicted in the image of the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨. 

But when men fail to do this and just go with what come along in life, they are swept around by the ups and downs, the yin and yang. They suffer as a result. They want more and more. The more they have, the more they must have. 

Some think they know better. They run away from life but can they? Men too suffer when they deny life needs and rot way. 

When they want nothing to do with life, they die in life even when very much alive. They die too when they go for too much. 

Too much and too little create woes and ills. There need to be the optimum or balance. Men need to nurse their lives so that they can be at peace with no ills of life. 

This doctrine is in the image of the good lord. The doctrine is the image and the image is the doctrine. This did the good lord say.

The image tells us the need to nurse our way out of issues and problems in life and have peace from the ills of life. This is not that there will be no ills but just there will be less ills and sense of calm that allow the person to mitigate and rise above the ills of life. 

There is need not to create ills - prophylaxis or prevention. We need to prevent and not create more ills of life. There is need to remove the cause of ills and to get relieve. 

But some ills never go away. We need to be atop of whatever remaining ills. We need to be calm to say atop. 

Even palliation for intractable ills will not work if there is no fortitude of the mind to be above ills. Only then will there be calm even in a storm. 

No matter what, we need to nurse the ills of life. We need to have the peace of life. We need to cheer ourselves up. Nurses provide the care and cheer for physical and mental ills. They provide fellowship and strength. 

We must give strength to others to overcome ills of life and what better way than to sing and dance in a house of God to bring cheer to self and all. Join the cheer and merry making. Join in the celebration of life and make life lively. 

Call this the work of men or the holy spirit but it works and lessen our need to want more and more. Then we will not create more ills for self. 

Yes, we must nurse the spirit of cheer and peace in life but there is that thin line that we must not breach or we end up promoting indulgence. Any sensual indulgence will be no different from others. So please, don't go overboard with indulgence in cheer and end up creating more ills in the process by promoting the very same roots that create ills in so many things in life. 

Alas, many somehow simply don't go to the root of the ills of life. They just make do with cheer even in religion and sort of resort to mere mitigation using sensual indulgence as palliation when there is the cure they should go for... 

Hope you get the point, otherwise instead of nursing the ills of life, we promote alternative ills and think that we have done a great job at nursing the ills of life. Often, at times men of religion do precisely that which they want not to do in the name of religion and they think they have done their religious job. 

They have indeed done a great job and brought cheer through substitution that does not substantially nurse the ills of life but perhaps this is what people want. But mind you, this is not wrong.

They get immediate relief and gratification. This is good enough and will be the way forward. This is substantial enough. It allows them to be happy and to be in cloud 9. 

Popular religion must be like that and that is why the inner truth basic to religion is buried deep under layers and layers of popular religion. 

Religion becomes archaeological sites for those rare few who are serious enough to dig into to discover the inner truth. This did the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 say in 1969. 

But for many, popular religion is good enough to nurse them from the ills of life and somehow bring relief of sorts though not good enough... So let there be cheer, song and dance in a house of God if this can dull the pain and ills of life. 

The choice is left to the individual and not wise to say which is better or right. One man's meat is another man's poison. All are right in religion and there is no question about that. This is the will of God and saints. 

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