Let happiness be the means and not the end of life - the choice and not the outcome of life

No 1144 of Living Life Series 1

Do we or do we not be happy? All want to be happy but many say they will be happy only if they have and not when they have not. 

But isn't it a blessing and awesome if we can be happy even if we have not. Let not happiness be the end but the means to the end. The end is to be alive. Life is the end and happiness is the means. 

How do we be happy to begin with? We simply want to be happy. To help many, having the guidance of God through a heavenly saint enables us to be happy. We can do so through any religion. Any religion will do. 

Happiness helps us to realise the many little blessings in life we take for granted. If not, we will always be far from happy even if many things in life we do have and can have. 

We must be happy to begin with. Then though far from many of the good-to-have in life, we are near to happiness. We should be happy even if we are short of the must-have in life. At least we are alive and we are humans. This is good cause to be happy. Saints like Buddha said that. Precious is birth as man.

Many who have the good-to-have are not happy though they are near to what should more than give happiness. They are a miserable lot. They bring the problem upon themselves. 

Misery or unhappiness is man-made. Hell or heaven is a state of the mind.

Many are not happy to begin with. They have many wants - one after another. They find life wanting and with the many added wants, how could they be happy. The near may be far and the far near. Thus said the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨. 

Many in religion are not happy in their religion unless they can see that there are no other religions. They can only be happy when everyone is in their religion. This will never happen. Then they are in the unenviable state of perpetual wanting and never happy. This is inevitable. 

Religion is only the means and not the end. Let there be many means. For Godsake or rather for goodness sake, let there be many religions and sects. This will definitely be better than having only one religion for the world. 

When and where can we find men to be of one mind and of one kind? Do not be impossible and unrealistic. Let us be down to earth and be happy with what we have and the status quo. This does not mean we cannot improve our lot. We can but just be happy to begin with. 

Don't procrastinate. Don't wait to be happy. Be happy now. Then it is far easier to be happy tomorrow and the day after. Just be happy. Don't wait. No excuse whatsoever to put away happiness. 

Be happy not only for ourselves but for others as well. Be happy for others even with different religions or race from us. How can we be happy if we are not happy for others, if we care not to acknowledge others' happiness? All can be happy in their own ways. May all be well and happy.

Even if life is never perfect and people are not perfect, this is no reason for not being happy. We must be happy at all cost. Imperfection is no reason for us not to be happy. 

Life is short. Life cannot wait for us to be happy. Be happy here and now from this moment. We can easily find things to be happy about as much as those things that can make us unhappy. 

It is obvious. It is wiser to choose happiness. Happiness is a choice and not the outcome. Let happiness be the choice and not the outcome - not the end result.

If we want and want, when will we stop wanting. If we cannot stop wanting, our life will be wanting. Happiness recedes into the horizon. If we choose to be happy, happiness opens the way for us to be happy with anything that comes our way. There will always be light moments even in hard times. 

The happy person will always have things to be happy about. He is a happy person after all. 

This is just common sense but how many have this? Many are simply carried away by wanting. Life will obviously be wanting. All they need is to go back to logic and let common sense prevail. The sages of old in China call this Tao 道 .

Go for logic Tao 道 - not just religion, saint or God

No 1143 of Living Life Series 1

Go for logic Tao 道 - not religion, saint or God. People can be godless even if of religion, of saint and of God. But without being God based, can people be logical? Read on...

Don't let whoever runs a temple be the push for the temple. It doesn't matter. The means should not become the ends. 

The people should not be the attraction. The good works too are not but what really matters is the pure thoughts behind all these - the purity of spirit. It is the Word - not even God. 

But they say the Word is God and God is the Word. The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says that the Word is his image. His image is the Word. Image is not just the wooden or marble image but the divine image people have of him in their minds.

The Mission of the lord will be of the Word - the Doctrine. It is how to promote the pure spirit in men and not the good works or the people or the temple or of any religion - but just the Word behind and beyond religions. 

Ji Gong 济公 puts it point blank as such. What matters is not what one does or what goes through the gut but what is in the heart and goes through the gut. 

Do meditate or rather to put this bluntly do ruminate on this. No one can say that they cannot think and ruminate. 

If the term 'meditate' is used instead, people give the excuse that meditation is not for them as yet. Meditation is too profound. 

But what is needed is for people to think - to ruminate. Surely all can think. Thinking or common sense is Tao 道. 

Tao 道 is not beyond you or me. You don't have to be anointed one, to be baptized or to receive the tonsure to do this. You don't even need to be in any religion, temple or church. 

To be in one may help but can be a hindrance as well but to be not in one may not help either. What is needed is to be logical about life and be pure at heart. 

We need to think for ourselves and not let others think for us. We must not stop thinking just because of religion, a saint or of God. Worse of all is to stop thinking because we are just to believe what is spoken by the man at the helm or because the written word says so.  

The sages of the East uphold this principle of free thinking and not restrictive institutional religion. They did not care about religion. 

But it is people who divide men of thinking into this and that religion and in process curtail free thinking - logical thinking which is Tao 道. 

All can have logical thinking without being Taoists. Thinkers can be of any religion or even if none. 

Go for logic Tao 道 - not religion, saint or God. People can be godless even if of religion, of saint and of God. But without being God based how can people be logical. 

The question begs the answer and the answer begs the question. Can we be logical without belief in God? Can we be illogical even with belief in God? Well, we need to think clearly and not let others think for us.  

Neither more of the same nor more of a new kind

No 1142 of Living Life Series 1

More of the same kind of religion can be a turn-off however good and attractive it may be. 

Thus there is the trend of re-branding and repackaging of religion in the form of a non-denominational church or sect to break free from the drudgery and the inaptness of prevailing religion. 

This is not that it is the revoking of the norms but the need to reinvent the same religion to be more appealing and in tune to the masses. 

But the appeal may come at a cost. Like the downstream of a river, the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 reminds us that the add-ons just dilute the original message of God through the saint of that religion. 

The add-ons or diluents become more attractive than the basic original message. 

More of the same kind may not be a good thing but more of a new kind may turn people on but can be not a good thing at all. 

As the good lord says, men end up further away from clear water at the downstream. 

Thus his mission is to make men wake up to this reality and go upstream to the upper source for clear water. 

Men should neither go for more of the same kind nor more of a new kind as both are not good in their own ways. 

Going for more of the same elder in a temple can be a turn off even if the elder was good and can still be good. Doing away with him and going for a new kind may be good for awhile but will not answer the problem in the long run. 

What matters is what the temple or church is for ? What matters is to crystallize and go for the basic Word - the Doctrine. 

Well what is needed is to decipher out the purpose of the temple and life. Go for the upper source for clear water. 

More of all kinds to reach out to all kinds

No 1141 of Living Life Series 1

Awful is hatred, ill-will and delusions. Awesome is love, compassion, goodwill and right views. 

But any love based on self-good at expense of the good of all is not good enough and not awesome. Self good refers to good for oneself or one's own social circle. 

People of religion who pronounce their own good over and above that of the good of other religions are far from awesome. Worse still will be if they think people of other religions are not good. Aweful it will be if they proclaim that only they will be the favored of God and saints. 

All religions are of God and good enough for many. We need more not of the same kind but of the various kinds to reach out to men of all kinds so that God and saints can touch their hearts and they be God worthy. 

Thus said the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 who is of God and saints and for all religions but not of any. He favors none though out of necessity he had to come down through popular Chinese culture. This we must know and appreciate. 

May we appreciate the goodness of all religions beyond our own. If we can do so, we can learn from all religions and be better in our own. 

We will see the oneness of religions amid the differences. Differences enrich our understanding of the oneness and commonality of the same truth of life across and behind religions. 

We need more of all kinds of religions for God to reach out to men of all kinds. Obvious is the message - More of all kinds to reach out to all kinds.

Threefold Manifestation of God in a congregation

No 1140 of Living Life Series 1

Popular religion has to do with the gathering of people and the joy of coming together. 

People are able to be blessings to one another. People with different skills and from different walks of life are able to meet one another's needs. 

In a way, they play God for one another.  They bless one another. 

The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says that there are a few ways to be blessed. 

One is to be a blessing to ourselves by doing good and putting ourselves on more goodness. 

The other is to ask God and saints for blessings of one form or another to have a more blessed life. 

The third is to be a blessing to one another. A church congregation provides such a gathering. God to one another in a congregation manifests God's presence through men. 

There is the manifestation of God in a congregation in three ways:- through individual blessing himself, direct blessing by God and saints and by members motivated by God being blessings to one another.

Do not make awful men out of awesome God and saints

No 1139 of Living Life Series 1

The emphasis on humility is pervasive across religions. At least this is the message of the saints of all religions. At no time did any saint want to lord over men, let alone harm men even if they are wrong. 

They want men to be good and law abiding not only to the law of God and saints but to the law of the land. Give to God what is due to God and to Man what is due to Man. 

Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 stresses thus. Comply with the ways of God and the ways of the land. This is in all religions.

With regards to the law of God and saints, unlike the law of the land, there is no such thing as a pound of flesh for a pound of flesh or an eye for an eye. 

This sounds absurd - all too uncouth and harsh. Hatred is reciprocated with hatred by the powers that be. By right, hatred and violence should be countered by love and harmlessness. This is the way of God and saints. 

God and saints return hatred with love, harmfulness with harmlessness, lies with truth, blame with praise. 

So if men of religion portray religion in the wrong light, then be aware. They are not doing justice to God and saints. 

No God or saint would wish problems for men let alone impose problems for men. The problems of men are many and plentiful. This did the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 lament. 

This is due to men and not God and saints. Men are not peaceful and collected. They need to cultivate peace and calm amid the ups and downs of life - the yin and yang. They need to be more like God and saints. 

But men of religion end up portraying God and saints like men - ever wrathful, seeking vengeance or ever loving but jealous if we spurn their love. 

God and saints are not like that. They are not men. Men should be like them. 

But sad to say, many men of religion are even making God and saints seem so petty, so jealous and so unreasonable. The more loving God and saints are, the more jealous they are and they will react adversely if their love is spurned. 

Men make the worst of men out of God and saints. Isn't that awful and far from awesome? 

In their love for God and saints, they wish awful consequences for those who do not go along with them. The more their love, the worse this will be. 

If such men want to be awful, for Godsake, do not make awesome God seem awful. Do not cast the awesome with awfulness. Do not glorify ourselves as awesome when we are in some ways still awful. 

Mission to connect religions to upper source purity

No  1138 of Living Life Series 1

There is always the small but definite risk of a non-religious organisation hijacking religion to serve its agenda of exerting dominance over societies beyond its shores so as to champion its brand of  very liberal civil rights. 

In so doing, nations which are not ready for liberal civil rights will lose its stability as their people become more vocal and demanding but yet the nations are not mature enough to be constructive. 

It is at times unavoidable that religion may be used that way and this is never the intention of the founding fathers of any religion. 

There is the pollution of religion when this occurs. The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 pointed to us that the downstream of a religion is never pure but polluted. 

For clear water, people must go upstream to the upper source. Societies will invariably alter religion to fit not so religious agenda. The mission of the good lord is to put this right and this is for all religions. 

Religions can be better than what they have become with the passing of time. The mission is to make sure that religions be better than what they have become and not to start a new religion or sect. 

Religions should bring out the inner or basic truth that kicked start the religions. There is need to bring religions back to the upper source for purity of teachings and directions. 

We must be ever mindful and vigilant though this can be uphill and against the downstream current. 

But alas let us admit that without being in the downstreams of religions to begin with, how could men go to the upper source? 

Popular religions have to be what they are even if in downstream form. Mission to motivate individuals who are ready to go to upper source purity will have to be effected to bring about clarity of the teachings in religions. 

Have the free spirit

No 1137 of Living Life Series 1

There is the free spirit we must have and this is what all saints and all religions want us to have. 

This free spirit of enquiry is best captured by the Buddha when he says that we do not believe on mere hearsay or just because it is written in the holy texts - not even if we believe he said so. 

We should not even feel guilty of questioning the logic of what the saints like the Buddha said. If there is guilt and there is fear, then there is the brake on thinking. We stop thinking for ourselves and end up letting others think for ourselves. 

This is echoed by the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 who is adamant that he is here not to be a new saint or to start a new religion or sect but to show that existing saints and religions are more than able to bring light to the many like the ocean to many a land.  

If men could have more doubts, then this should be encouraged and they be welcome. If they can shed more light for themselves and for others just by having doubts and the free spirit of the enquiring mind, this will foster more of the free spirit to bring light to one and all. 

More will have peace - the inner peace that comes from understanding the nature of life with the ups and downs - the yin and the yang. 

We must stay atop the opposing contingencies and vissicitudes of life like honor and dishonor, gain and loss, praise and blame. We must stay atop them and be at peace. This is exemplified by the feet of the good lord atop the elements in his image. 

There is need to have equanimity and be at peace come what may. We must not be contained and buried alive by life - be it by fellow men, by religions or by our own constraints such as fear and guilt. We must be free and have the free spirit flying freely like the Vesak Flag. 

Still have Tao 道 though without Tao 道

No 1136 of Living Life Series 1

Saints do not need to be popular. They only want to be right with regards to men. 

Men of saints adore their saints. Men are the ones who want to be popular. To them this is the only right. What is right must be popular. If not popular, it is not right. This is their concept of what is right.

In attempt to be popular, they give in to the crowd and they do what they can to win over the crowd even in the name of God and saints. They veer away from what is truly right. The not-so-right is justified as perfectly right.

What can sweep people off their feet must be popular. What is dead right is usually never popular. That is ironical but what do we expect of men. 

What is right is far from the mind of the majority. They only go for what they can have and gain here and now by mere belief and not by what they must know and do before they can truly have and gain in the end. 

They don't even want to do anything that smacks of effort. Worst of all, they don't even want to think. All they want is to have and better still let others think for them. 

Thus they come in big numbers like insects to the flower and this the good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 wants us to ruminate on. 

To do so, we need to calm down and meditate - be mindful and not be swept away downstream in the river of life. The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 says we have to go upstream against the current to the upper source for clear water - for clarity of life. 

We cannot just be swept downstream and follow the crowd. That is a tall order for many. The easiest is to join the crowd - just be swept along. Thus the majority will be lost to God and saints though they may hail God and saints. 

They do not think. They just let others think for them. They end up far though near to God and saints. But God and saints know that and will not forsake them. 

God and saints assure them that if they call upon God and saints, they will be blessed, and through grace of God and saints, be reborn in afterlife to a heavenly abode to learn more and more to think for themselves and not let others think for them. 

Then they will learn to be thinkers and be on the way to better rebirths. They will have logic or common sense Tao 道 to attain the peace of the heart - the peace of the spirit and mind. 

They will end up thinkers not just believers. They will have inner peace like the saints but not immediately and with cultivation of more perfect pure thoughts over many lifetimes. 

Thus the many who do not think but let others think for them will still be saved. They started off as believers and non-thinkers but will still end up thinkers and good at that - good at Tao 道. 

They may be far from logic or Tao 道 initially but are still near to the Tao 道 of God and saints if to begin with, they have faith of sorts even if they let others think for them. Thus men who let others think for them can end up thinking in the end. Men without Tao 道 can end up with Tao 道 . 

But the reality is that why don't we think now and not wait till afterlife in heavenly abode to think? Be thinkers and not followers. 

Think for ourselves and do not let others do the thinking. There must be logic or common sense in life or in religion. 

Tao 道 is common sense and is in life and in any religion. This must be the understanding we need to know. 

The good lord Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨 would have achieved his divine mission if we can just think for ourselves regardless of the religion or life we are in. 

All religions are one in Tao 道. There is the same God and Tao 道 in any religion, any life and any society. Logic and common sense cannot be different in different persons and religions. That will be illogical. Religion cannot be without Tao 道 .

If we fathom this post, then we will realize this. The Tao 道 of some may not be Tao 道 at all. The Tao 道 they know is not Tao they should know. 

But the Tao 道 that is not Tao to them may be Tao 道 if it can lead them to Tao 道. How perplexing can simple common sense or logic be? Truth is indeed simple and yet profound to many. 

Tao 道 is not the starter for the many. If introduced from onset, Tao 道 will not work.  The Not-Tao is more appealing and in the long run will be more productive in bringing beings to Tao 道. They will still have Tao 道 though without Tao 道. 

Many have to start without Tao 道 to end up with Tao 道. But they will never admit that they do not have Tao 道 to begin with. Who would think that they have no logic - Tao 道?  We will be asking for trouble if we tell this in their face. 

But alas many men with no short of intellect are often carried away by their fancies and behind this is the denial of common sense. Tao 道is common sense but many take it as simply too profound and perhaps even illogical and bewildering - beyond them. 

This is because they are not settled in mind. They do not silent the storms in their mind. Howe can they silent the mind when they are attracted by the noisy din of the men at the pulpit? 

Only when there is calm and no storms will they be calm and see the true nature of life and be able to have common sense. Common sense eludes men when they are carried away by noise and emotion. 

Religions to be popular and to swing with the crowd must do the unthinkable. Crowd and popularity comes first. Without crowd where will be the financing and the life in a house of God and saints. They bring in the crowd first even if there is no Tao 道 to begin with but in the end they will still inject Tao 道. 

The narrow minded will frown at it. They think they are above the majority. They think they have Tao 道 but may end up with less of Tao 道 in the end if they are conceited and opinionated. Pride begets a fall. Pride clouds the mind and a cloudy mind may lose out in common sense. 

Doubts promote spirituality - Tao 道

No 1135 of Living Life Series 1

If we have doubts about our religion, we are likely to be better off in the religion. Doubts arise because we don't fully agree and according to Lord Bo Tien 武天菩萨, this is good. 

There is the inquiring mind and the mind keen to know more beyond what are accepted by the crowd. If we believe wholesale, we tend to be less questioning. We don't even think for ourselves. We let others think for us

We tend to believe from the word go. We end up more gullible. We may be swayed and be easily moved and emotional. We are not level headed and may end up fanatical - doing the unthinkable that people frown at. 

Doubt is good. Doubt is not a wrong doing to anyone least of all God and saints. 

Doubts maketh the man of spirituality.  He is the man of logic and common sense. He won't follow the crowd and be easily led by the nose by the man at the pulpit. 

He sees things as they are or at least in the way he understands. He knows the weak areas and the strengths. He embraces logic - Tao 道 .

He is more discerning and calm. He does not accept gospel truth. He is less likely to do the unthinkable. 

How can he when he draws no line between himself and others let alone between religions? He learns from all religions to be better at what he believes - to be better in the religion he is in. 

He lives in the beautiful world where people accept one another for what they are. The world is his family. Since when will members of the same family hold the same thoughts and views? 

All have their share of doubts. That is life. All who think will have doubts. When there is no doubts, perhaps there is no thinking. They just let others think for the. 

Each one thinks for himself. All do not let others think for them. They are one even if of different views. No line is drawn even in the name of religion. 

Society should be like that - heterogynous yet there is remarkable oneness. Members of society stimulate one another to think more and become a thinking society - a society of Tao 道.