My New Year Advice,

My New Year Advice,

With help from the Buddha and Osho;

A man went to the Dharma Master to ask advise.

"My life is miserable I have a very small house , one room and it's too crowded.
There's my wife ,
our eight children,
her old parents ,
my sick dad,
our deaf uncle
and our much loved crippled sister.
I cannot pay for a bigger house, what shall I do?"

The Master asked ,
Do you have any animals?

"Yes we have five goats , three cows , ten chickens, two cats, one horse and a dog."

The Master said,
"let them all into the house for two days."

The man was puzzled but he respected the Master, and did what he said.

Life became a nightmare, he had to sleep standing up and the room stank.

He ran to the Master after two days nearly crazy.

The Master was pleased with the mans progress and said,
"now go home and take the animals out, you will be suprised how much space there is now."

Deep inside every situation and every person, there is an empty space and that emptiness is divine.
That emptiness is reality.

The Buddha called it "Shunyata."

Sooner or later, we have to come to terms with our inner emptiness and reality.

The idea of emptiness,
as a lack, has little to do with what the Buddha said about emptiness.
His teachings on emptiness dealt directly with actions and their results, with issues of pleasure and pain and suffering.
To understand and experience emptiness in line with these teachings does not require philosophical sophistication,
but a personal willingness to admit the motivation behind our actions and the benefits and harm they cause.

So, once we find our emptiness, we become aware of all our actions that cause ourselves and others to suffer.

This year, let's make a resolution, to sit, at least once a week, and silently find our emptiness.

The place where the Divine lives.

With Metta
Nathan


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The blessing

The blessing

Another year is upon us and a truly blessed event is about to take place.
We are blessed that we are alive and can change what ever we didn't like about last years blessings.

Maybe the choices we made were not so good.
We might have thought we were out of balance with the universe.
We felt let down.
Everyone against us.

Well all that is about to change.
The blessed event is here.
New year. New choices.
A new perspective on life and a clear method of how to enact this life saving change.

To change, we need to;
"let go of the old to make room for the new"
So easy, a new thinking.
Nothing changes,
but everything changes.

The new "us" is determined by our thoughts about ourselves.
Not our surrounds, money job, family, only our thinking.

Friends and family will say
"What has changed, you look different."
We know nothing has changed externally, but everything has changed on the inside.
A blessing.

Look forward to this event and plan for an exciting 2014.
It's tomorrow that we can make the plan that will guarantee a wonderful year filled with love and joy.
The very next day is the first day of a new year.

Let's make 2014 the best ever. Let's make it a blessed one.

With Metta
Nathan


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Talking about miracles:

Talking about miracles:

"A mother takes her daughter to the doctor and explains that she suffers cravings and is gaining weight and is sick in the morning."
After a quick examination the doctor tells her that her daughter is about four months pregnant.

"Not possible,
my daughter has never been with a man."
"Isn't that right Debbie?"
"Yes mum, I am a virgin."

The doctor goes over to the window and stares out.
Minutes go by and the woman asks the doctor if he is alright.
"Yes,"he said
"The last time this happened a star appeared and three wise
men came over the hill and I don't want to miss it."

Miracles do happen, but are we ready to allow a miracle to happen to us.

The problem as I see it is that we get involved in everything to stop good stuff happening.

"Why do we have to involve ourselves in everything around us.
Every argument, every decision, every deed and comment that we believe is our business, but actually is not."

We get that small voice that we hear from deep inside us.
"Don't go there, leave it alone, don't make waves."
Do we listen to the voice?
Not really, and if we do listen, that's all we do.
We just listen and rarely take an action that will keep us out of the karma that is caused by our actions.

Ajahn Chah said;

"Do not waste time on other people's issues, being preoccupied with this and that, the whole day, until we end up exhausted and depressed."

What a genius, in one sentence he captured the essence of our suffering.

Ven.Ajahn had an ability to advise us how to lead a life in a most pleasant manner, devoid of life's silliness, that most of us are involved in.

Do we want to create miracles in our life, or do we want to suffer?
Both are easy.
All we have to do is listen to the small voice inside us, or not.
Most times, fear stops us from taking an action, that will bring about a miracle.
Maybe we don't listen and miss out on that opportunity, or miracle.

Let's not fool ourselves into the false belief, that our suffering is caused by everything else, but our own doing.

Our future is determined by our actions today,
so let's start to create miracles in our lives.
Let's start now, to listen to the voice that knows all.
That miracle inside us.
The voice within.

Nathan


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My question;

My question;

I watched Danny Devito being interviewed the other night and he was hilarious as always.

He told the joke about the Buddha who said to the hot dog vender;
"Make me one with everything"

Danny was talking about his religious beliefs and how he didn't follow any organized faith.

He said that he finds something wonderful in everything he does and does not need any external entity in control.

He believes he is one with everything, just like the Buddha and the hot dog man, so, as he loves himself and his life, he also loves everything.

I believe we can spend our lives searching for our lost selves, not being in touch with anything,
or we can spend this moment finding happiness in everything,
just like Danny Devito.

There is a choice, to search, or to find.
The amazing thing is that there is no search necessary, we only have to look in the right place, and we find what we are looking for.

The Buddha was right,
"I am one,
with everything."
No search, no path,
no way, just remove doubt and all becomes clear.

My friend Jonathan told me that if I wanted enlightenment all I had to do was:

"Go straight past the Door of Doubt,
Along the Corridor of Confusion,
Turn down the Hallway of Hope and look for the Revelation Room.
When you enter you may need a while to adjust.
Don't be put off by the darkness.
It's common to feel that you see nothing just before you realize that you see everything."

This, I believe, is when you become "one with everything" and become enlightened.

So to my question;
Are you still at the Door of Doubt?

Do you want enlightenment?

Nathan




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My thoughts.....,

I have been quiet the last few weeks.
I have been contemplating my own mortality, my own impending demise.
This probably won't happen for another thirty years or so, but when we reach a certain age this thinking process can become a magnificent obsession.
As I am in my seventieth year this topic becomes important.

My thought have turned to writing a Death poem.

A Death poem is usually written after one passes away.

The poem is read as part of a eulogy at a funeral or placed in a newspaper telling of the persons life.

Should a famous person die then the poem can become quite flowery and pretentious. The more humble the person, the fewer words are written.
A famous humble comedian wrote
"I told you I was sick"
as his poem on his headstone.

There is a thought that everyone should write a Death poem whilst they are alive.
A poem that somehow sums up a life.
The easing into the next phase of life, somehow making one feel less fearful.

"Yes Death,
Peacefully, Quietly,
I touch you,
Only to find..."

This life leads to this?
Someone once said
"Is this all there is?"
Quite obviously, it is,
"all there is."
Nothing else.

So why the fear?
Why the kicking and screaming that goes on?
Must one face the next part of the journey in mortal trepidation?

What will happen to us?
Will we return as a slug?
Questions of a misspent life, a life unfulfilled, or just questions of a fearful person.

These questions and more, are voiced by those, who have not yet realized the beauty of our existence.

We have this amazing, wonderful life,
so graciously given by loved ones, that all too soon quickly leave.
Most complain that love ones past too early,
or that they had a hard life with no luck.

Death should have chosen someone else.

So the decision to write a poem seems to smooth our agitation regarding death.

Once the mind accepts the fact that we must pass, then the fear of death seems to disappear.
It is the acceptance that death is another part of life that is so difficult.
It's all so final, there is no more?
I am not so sure that there is "no more."
It is the adventure of being not so sure about re-birth and coming back that makes death so special.
My suggestion to all that have any fear of the future is to write down that feeling of fear through a Death poem.
Nathan


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Where is the mind?

Where is the mind?
For many years I have immersed myself in spiritual contemplation and growth.

Over the years I have locked myself in a pagoda in a Vipassana retreat.
Spent weeks in a Wat in far northern Thailand being a novice Therevadan Monk.
Spent time in an Ashram in Malaysia and in China,
in a hospital run by blind masseurs learning how the body and mind works.
Lately I have been studying with a Chassidic Rabbi in a local Synagogue and a Holy Master in a Tien Dao Temple here, in Malaysia and Taiwan.

To what end?

Did I find something that most don't know?

I do know that this morning I was reading a short discussion on what the mind is and how we should see our mind.
The next thing was where the mind is situated.
The article was written by the late Traleg Rinpoche of E-vam Institute in Melbourne.
From a Tantric Vajrayana point of view, Traleg Rinpoche shows me I got the answer wrong.

Needless to say I should start all over again.

Forget what I think I know and begin again with a blank screen.

In understanding mind and what it is,
Tantric texts tell us that:
Mind is empty
Mind is luminous,
Mind is bliss.

Where the mind is,
is another matter.

Firstly I thought of the emptiness of the mind.
Tantric tradition says that mind is not something that can be grasped.
We cannot identify it with brain processes,
or with the heart.
The mind cannot be found either within,
or outside our physical selves.
Mind is not an entity,
or a thing, and that is why
the mind is empty.

Unlike inanimate objects, the mind is able to illuminate both itself and other things.
This luminosity is not discovered outside our ordinary experience.
Our experience of anger, jealousy, pride, are illuminated with a sense of clarity well before we put our interpretations on our emotions.
Luminosity of the mind comes in two situations:
when the mind is calm as during meditation and when the mind is disturbed.
With both these situations we should identify and see with clarity and not make any distinctions.
We then will see the luminosity of the mind.

The minds blissful aspect is reliant on being able to cease in making distinctions between our ordinary mind and the meditative experiences of mental tranquility.
We no longer have to make distinctions within our mind saying
"this aspect is good and that aspect is bad so it must be destroyed."
When that conflict is solved, bliss takes place naturally.
Bliss is then discovered as another aspect of our own mind.

These three aspects of mind are indispensable in the tantric tradition.

Now to the question:
Where is the mind?
Traleg Rinpoche said that some identify the mind with our neural system, whilst others locate it somewhere in the heart.
If we are really sophisticated, we may think it is located in the brain.
Tantric logic tells us to identify the minds location as purely within the three aspects :
Empty, luminous and bliss.

My deepest thanks to the late Traleg Rinpoche for his insight into the tantric path.
He said that the greatest hindrance to our search is the fear of our own incompetence.
He said we need to have ultimate conviction.

Thank you dear man,
I am working on my conviction.
Nathan.


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The duck

I could not resist posting this silly story.

My thanks to the originator;

A woman brought a limp duck to the vet.

She laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's

chest.

The vet shook his head and said,

 "I'm sorry,

 your duck is dead."

The distressed woman wailed, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead," 

replied the vet..

"How can you be so sure?" she protested. 

"You haven't done any testing on him or anything.

He might just be in a coma or something."

The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the

room. He returned a few minutes later with a black

Labrador Retriever. 

As the duck's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. 

He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.

The vet patted the dog on the head and took it out

of the room and returned with a cat. 

The cat jumped on the table and sniffed the bird from head to foot. 

The cat shook its head, meowed softly and

strolled out of the room.

The vet looked at the woman and said,

"I'm sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely,

a dead duck."

The vet turned to his computer terminal, 

hit a few keys and produced a bill.

The duck's owner, still in shock, took the bill.  "$150 just to tell me my duck is dead!"

The vet shrugged,

"I'm sorry. If you had just taken my word for it, 

the bill would have been $20, but with the

Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it's now $150."

Once again my thanks

Nathan 

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