Intuition

Intuition or intrinsic delusion?
How do you tell?
I can't.
Which is why I take my intuition with a pinch of salt.
It ironically makes me happy sometimes when my intuition gets proved downright wrong.
It makes me stop guessing, assuming I know.
There is no perfect intuition till there is perfect Enlightenment.
Any otherwise, there is at least a pinch of delusion in the "best" of intuition.

True Strength

Your greatest "strength"
could be your greatest weakness.
That upon which you build your entire life
can destroy it entirely if it disappears.
A true strength can never weaken.
What is your true strength?

Brand X

Zen
is
the brand
of brandlessness?

Yes no maybe.
Don't know.

Sigh

Zlyrica: Heard myself sigh very loudly while sleeping, and woke myself up. Haha.
Zeph: Sigh... It's useless to sigh... usually we sigh at helpless situations... but if it wakes you up, why not? Haha.

Seat Belt

Zlyrica: You won't believe what I saw! Amitabha Buddha (statue) in a funeral car with a seat belt on... haha. Can you imagine the Buddhas really sitting in cars like that? Even Buddhas need seat belts! Hehe.

Zeph: Haha but actually Buddhas won't need seat belts; they won't even need cars. Enough protective devas around and supernormal powers to teleport! But yes, they will set a good example for road safety!

Much Ado

IQ Question:

Rich man needs _______ .
Poor man has _______ .
If you eat _______ , you die.

Fill in the blanks with the same word.

Answer spelt backwords: gNiHtOn

Why do we tend to think "something" is the answer, that "something" is needed?
Sometimes, "nothing" is good enough.

Every Breath You Take

Good morning my dear friend.
The sun, the breeze is beautiful with you around.
Let all of us be well,
be happy with every breath we take.
Start breathing now.

-Lynn

Distraction

Zeph: Hey! That design has too many distractions!
Zlyrica: Distraction is a form of attraction.
Zeph: Hmmm... are we attracted to distractions then, missing the REAL attraction- Truth.

Bodhisattvas Needed

"Oh there will be enough people trying to make the world a better place."
That is the common excuse for not putting in effort.
But bear in mind that that is a common excuse of commoners,
who make up most of the world.
This means there might not be enough Bodhisattvas without you.
Bodhisattvas- definitely the more the merrier!

Happy Cat

Sophie: Seeing a happy cat usually brightens my day* :>
Zeph: Knowing your day is brightened brightens my day*-
may you see no sad cats**,
may everything else brighten your day**,
may all be well and happy everyday**.

*A thought of Appreciative Joy
**A thought of Loving-Kindness

Relatively Easy

It is incredibly relatively easy to know the path towards Enlightenment,
as compared to the perseverence one is to muster to walk the path itself.
It's thus no big deal if you know tons about the Dharma-
for as long as it is not actualised in your life, it's not alive, unreal.

What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping?

Just when you are puzzling yourself over the "moral" of this Zen koan,
here's my alternative answer-
"SLAP!"
A tight smack for you on the face, shattering your thinking.
The resounding sound of one hand clapping upon you...
Just my pseudo-Zen.

Leadership

A good leader leads by example.
A poor follower needs a good example.
Maybe that's what separates the leaders from the followers-
one inspires the other who needs inspiration.

Good followers of the Buddha!
Become good leaders too!
Be Enlightened.

Third Voice

I have a friend who speaks of herself in the third voice. I think it does us good if we always look at ourselves from an objective and different point of view. When you speak of yourself in the third voice, it can distant the ego- as the "self" becomes not so personalised, less a part of "you". This, I feel, is spiritually beneficial.

Paper Monsters

Using headphones to sample Dave Gahan's new solo album (titled above) for the very first time at HMV, it didn't sound very good. But being a fan of the lead singer of Depeche Mode, and with time to kill while waiting for a friend, I decided to sample it a second time. Suddenly, it seemed pretty good. I figure for the first round, I was listening for a Depeche Mode style, and disapproved everything that wasn't it. The second round, I heard his new style in itself, without comparison. Likewise, we often make ourselves suffer unnecessarily when we compare. Only living each moment with equanimity without prior likes and dislikes do we genuinely live each experience.

About

It is sad that many are intrigued about* the Dharma,
but not the Dharma** itself.

*Eg. Buddhist arts, culture, history, rituals...
**The teachings of the Buddha which lead to nothing less than Enlightenment.

Good Soup

A: Oh the soup isn't very good.
B: Well it's good to me.
A: Actually it is good enough in itself- I just have to remove my prior expectation before my first taste of it. Let me taste it again... I think likewise, everything is good enough in itself.
B: What about evil? How can it be good?
A: Actually, I was wrong to use the word "good". Everything in itself is just as it is- but they become "good" or "bad" when we differentiate.
B: So evil is itself, not "good" or "bad"?
A: Yes, it's empty of any inherent fixed characteristics. The existence of our inner evil urges us to seek Enlightenment. So in that sense it can be "good" though usually seen as "bad."
B: But evil is "bad" as without it, there will be no need to seek Enlightenment.
A: What's so "bad" about seeking Enlightenment- when it is part of going beyond "good" and "bad"?

Experiencing the Second Hand First Hand

Maybe we should remove the hour and minute hand of the clock.
Maybe we should leave only the second hand there.
Maybe we will learn to let go of the hours and the minutes.
Maybe we will forget that there is past time to miss, future time to behold.
Maybe we will learn to live by the second.
Maybe we will realise how even this second continually slips away in the second.
Maybe we will realise how easily and surely the sands of time slip through every grasping hand.
Maybe we will feel more compelled to free ourselves of time.

(Inspired by the Diamond Sutra's teaching that the past, present and future mind cannot be grasped.)

Final Authority

In the end, you are your final authority as to what is the Truth. You use your own wisdom to decide whether something is true. Even the Buddha cannot convince the adament fool who chooses not to see. Thus, it is important to continually increase wisdom, and close the gaps of delusion. Where there is no wisdom, the weeds of delusion find space to grow, just as they grow in cracks of a pavement. Not closing of the gaps, delusion seeps in more and more, and there comes a point when you are taught the ultimate Truth and yet you see nothing of it. While no attained fruit of wisdom is ever lost, weeds can still overrun, covering it up till you clear them.

Become Sangha

The real goal of Buddhists
is not to simply worship the Triple Gem;
it is to become the Triple Gem-
to become a Buddha,
by being one with the Dharma,
by becoming the Sangha (Noble Ones with at least the first fruit of sainthood, sotapannaship).

Enlightened?

Q: How do you know if the Buddha is Enlightened?

Answer 1: I don't. All I know is that I am not Enlightened, that I have not yet finished learning from Him about Enlightenment. What matters is that I am not Enlightened. When I become Enlightened, I will be able to tell you the answer.

Answer 2: As long as you ask this, you are not Enlightened. Be more Enlightened.

Don't Look Too Much Ahead

Leaving office with a colleague, I was walking along a long road leading to the bus-stop. The bus speeds by, and she laments missing it. I remarked, "Don't look ahead too much. There is no point if you can't rush for it in time. It's like chasing an impossible future, a carrot on a stick. Enjoy the walk now instead. Why subject yourself to disappointment?"

So What?

So what if the Buddha is not fully enlightened?
As long as He is the most enlightened person I know.

So what if the Buddha does not exists?
As long as the is the "realest" person I can emulate.

But of course,
the Buddha is fully enlightened, real.

Ultimately, we take refuge in our intrinsic Buddha-Nature,
nothing extraneous.