Gratitude, according to Oprah, is an energy that expand and elevate us. It turns chaos into order, denial into acceptance, confusion into clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, and a stranger into a friend. Nothing has changed. It is 'You' have changed. When you change the attitude, everything surrounding you also changes.
Yet, gratitude requires a joyful heart. We simply cannot feel gratitude if we are bitter, or angry at somebody or distress, or feel not safe or welcome deep in our heart. Gladden our hear implies recharge 'our battery for this energy to flow into heart. Buddhists' view of gladden our heart, or in plain English, recharge our battery is through deep meditation for awakening to regain our joyful heart.
During meditation, it is not the totally 'manicured lawn' or shining car that will awaken us. You can justly simply gaze a light from the sun and observe a 'dancing' particle in the light beam and realize that 'You' are part of this abundant universe dancing like the dust particle in the light; connecting with all members of the universe.. When you and I feel that we are not abandoned by this abundant universe, you and I are gladdening our hearts and are ready to feel gratitude for life transformation and miracle.
In Christianity, this abundant universe is God. The Bible also teaches us no matter what situation we have encountered, we are not abandoned by God. By realizing that we are ready to feel gratitude and experiencing life transformation.
In the sense, both Buddhism and Christianity teach the same thing.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Miracles only come to the grateful person not to the person with grievance
Gratitude leads to miracle and life transformation. The practice is not new. Ancient people practices this either daily, or monthly. Taiwanese women fasts every 1st and 15th of the month and offers incense, food to god! goddess, and ancestors expressing gratitude. Our national holiday, Thanksgiving Day, has the same 'expressing gratitude' significance. They offered thanks to god; the god responded with more good things to the people.
The reason for this life transformation, according to Depaak Chopra, is because once a person shows feeling of gratitude to any good things in life, it begins to change the wiring of the brain so that we will be paying more attention to what we have, less attention to what we don't have. Thus a close-loop cycle starts: when we show the feeling of gratitude to someone, or something good in our life, the 'source' responds with more 'good' things, and we will be more perceptive to the 'good' things in our life. This happy 'brain' brings about life transformation. Chopra suggests that we express gratitude with our heart at every moment, not just to God, but to every situation that deserves to be grateful.
How do we practice 'gratitude to miracle' daily? According to Chopra, find 3 good things in the morning. These 3 things do not have to be 'very important' or 'significant'. For example, when we get up in the morning, we see the sun light, we hear the bird singing, and we see the flowers blossom. Those are three good things. Offer gratitude to all of them with our 'feeling' . According to Chopra, 'feeling' is mostly important in leading to miracle and life transformation.
Any more suggestions?
The reason for this life transformation, according to Depaak Chopra, is because once a person shows feeling of gratitude to any good things in life, it begins to change the wiring of the brain so that we will be paying more attention to what we have, less attention to what we don't have. Thus a close-loop cycle starts: when we show the feeling of gratitude to someone, or something good in our life, the 'source' responds with more 'good' things, and we will be more perceptive to the 'good' things in our life. This happy 'brain' brings about life transformation. Chopra suggests that we express gratitude with our heart at every moment, not just to God, but to every situation that deserves to be grateful.
How do we practice 'gratitude to miracle' daily? According to Chopra, find 3 good things in the morning. These 3 things do not have to be 'very important' or 'significant'. For example, when we get up in the morning, we see the sun light, we hear the bird singing, and we see the flowers blossom. Those are three good things. Offer gratitude to all of them with our 'feeling' . According to Chopra, 'feeling' is mostly important in leading to miracle and life transformation.
Any more suggestions?
Friday, August 7, 2015
Old folks are as bad as young folks in terms of pride and ego
We often assume as we get older, we get wiser; at least we are better and easier of letting-go the ego than the younger folks. This may not be true as I can see in my eyes with our senior tennis games today at the tennis club.
I was playing at Court #2; we had a great and enjoyable matched. On Court #1, two teams were playing a double-match. One teams were Rodney (Age 92) and Dick (Age 88). The other team were Ruth (age 86) and Marianne (Age 85).
30 minutes after the game, these two teams began to argue about a call (whether a good call or a bad call). The argument were so heated that one player, Rodney (Age 92) stomped out of the court leaving the other players not able to continue to play.
One of the players in my court commented, "Win or lose, does that matter in this tennis social? "
Having fun and enjoyable life ? Or having the 'pride and ego' and lose all the friendship, relationship, or enjoyment?
We might laugh at those old folks 'silly'. However, if we look closely to ourselves we might not much better off. How many couples went to divorce courts due to those 'silly moment'. Microwave not working, blame the spouse. Computer papers flying off the printer, blame the spouse. When the sump-pump not working, "if you don't help me now, I divorce you. The ego, the pride, and the blaming culture cultivated in our society contributes to many broken relationship and friendship in our society.
We must continuously remind ourselves about the purpose of life and don't lose sights in 'ego' or 'pride'. As we get older, we don't necessarily get better in this perspective.
I was playing at Court #2; we had a great and enjoyable matched. On Court #1, two teams were playing a double-match. One teams were Rodney (Age 92) and Dick (Age 88). The other team were Ruth (age 86) and Marianne (Age 85).
30 minutes after the game, these two teams began to argue about a call (whether a good call or a bad call). The argument were so heated that one player, Rodney (Age 92) stomped out of the court leaving the other players not able to continue to play.
One of the players in my court commented, "Win or lose, does that matter in this tennis social? "
Having fun and enjoyable life ? Or having the 'pride and ego' and lose all the friendship, relationship, or enjoyment?
We might laugh at those old folks 'silly'. However, if we look closely to ourselves we might not much better off. How many couples went to divorce courts due to those 'silly moment'. Microwave not working, blame the spouse. Computer papers flying off the printer, blame the spouse. When the sump-pump not working, "if you don't help me now, I divorce you. The ego, the pride, and the blaming culture cultivated in our society contributes to many broken relationship and friendship in our society.
We must continuously remind ourselves about the purpose of life and don't lose sights in 'ego' or 'pride'. As we get older, we don't necessarily get better in this perspective.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Old life, New life
A week ago, we sent off a friend who has relocated his job to Taiwan. To relocate, he sold off everything he had in Wisconsin, cars, houses, even bicycles, furniture store, etc. This was how he prepared to end an old life in Wisconsin and entering a new life in Taiwan.
In 2009, when I finished my sabbatical in Taiwan, I did exactly the same thing. I even donated most of my earning in Taiwan to my host university. When I left Taiwan, I had almost nothing as I finished my old life in Taiwan and starting a new life in Wisconsin.
Every time, we reach a life stage change, this cleansing will continue. These are metaphors for life and death. The biggest life stage change in our life is death as our soul detaches our body and never return. The souls never vanish: they either go to heaven/hell (according to Christianity or Jewish religion ), paradise/hell (Islam religion), or reincarnate to become a worm, or butterfly, or another human form (Buddhism religion). All our egos, money, possessions, cars, houses, are gone in this life change event. The only thing we carry over is our karma, and the soul; no much difference our past experience of many life- change events.
In 2009, when I finished my sabbatical in Taiwan, I did exactly the same thing. I even donated most of my earning in Taiwan to my host university. When I left Taiwan, I had almost nothing as I finished my old life in Taiwan and starting a new life in Wisconsin.
Every time, we reach a life stage change, this cleansing will continue. These are metaphors for life and death. The biggest life stage change in our life is death as our soul detaches our body and never return. The souls never vanish: they either go to heaven/hell (according to Christianity or Jewish religion ), paradise/hell (Islam religion), or reincarnate to become a worm, or butterfly, or another human form (Buddhism religion). All our egos, money, possessions, cars, houses, are gone in this life change event. The only thing we carry over is our karma, and the soul; no much difference our past experience of many life- change events.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Strawberries
Mr. Yang was suspending at the edge of a cliff holding on a vine that was tied to the root of a gigantic tree on the cliff. One tiger was waiting on the top of cliff for his 'fine dinner' should Mr. Yang climbed up the cliff. Another tiger was also waiting for his dinner should Mr. Yang fall to the bottom of the canyon. Meanwhile a chipmunk was busy chewing away the vine that Mr. Yang was holding to.
Then Mr. Yang spotted a strawberry bush that he could reach. Each time the vine swing by the bush, he picked a juicy strawberry and enjoyed the taste of the strawberry.
Suddenly, all his fear of being eaten by tigers was gone. He threw one juicy strawberry to the cliff, the chipmunk ran after the strawberry then the tiger ran after the chipmunk. Mr. Yang was able to recover himself and climb up the cliff and walked away the danger.
Living at present, enjoy the strawberries even there are dangers lurking in our life.
Then Mr. Yang spotted a strawberry bush that he could reach. Each time the vine swing by the bush, he picked a juicy strawberry and enjoyed the taste of the strawberry.
Suddenly, all his fear of being eaten by tigers was gone. He threw one juicy strawberry to the cliff, the chipmunk ran after the strawberry then the tiger ran after the chipmunk. Mr. Yang was able to recover himself and climb up the cliff and walked away the danger.
Living at present, enjoy the strawberries even there are dangers lurking in our life.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
In God we trust
Ann was busy giving away pennies to those friends who visited her at the hospice, forgetting about the fact that she was dying from terminal cancer. Just about 2 weeks ago, she asked her doctors to stop all her treatments, including chemo, radiation, or surgery. Instead, she turned spiritual and giving away pennies. Why pennies ? Because, at each penny, there was an ingraved letters, "In God we trust".
Each religion can have different interpretation of God. However, the essence of God remains the same irrespective of religion. God is the Universal Divine Intelligence. It is this Intelligence that direct an embryo to grow into a man or a woman, flowers will blossom in spring and leaves will fall in autum. The Divine Intelligence also directs us wake and sleep cycle each day, alive or dead for each individual.
If we trust God, we will not be afraid of being dead. Each night when we sleep, our souls detach from our body. The souls return to our bodies when we are awake. When we are dead, our souls also detach from our body but they do not return to our body. In Christine religion, this soul either goes to hell or to heaven. In Buddihist religion, this soul will attach to a different living being, a butter fly, or a worm, or a human body, 'reincarnate' to start a new life.
In God we trust, because this Divine Intelligence knows what to do with our souls once they detach our bodies. Just like falling asleep, the best medicine to overcome insomnia is to completely 'let go' or surrender. Similarly, when the time comes that our souls will detach our bodies forever is to completely 'let go' and 'surrender' to the Intellengence greater than what we can imagine or attempt to control.
Each religion can have different interpretation of God. However, the essence of God remains the same irrespective of religion. God is the Universal Divine Intelligence. It is this Intelligence that direct an embryo to grow into a man or a woman, flowers will blossom in spring and leaves will fall in autum. The Divine Intelligence also directs us wake and sleep cycle each day, alive or dead for each individual.
If we trust God, we will not be afraid of being dead. Each night when we sleep, our souls detach from our body. The souls return to our bodies when we are awake. When we are dead, our souls also detach from our body but they do not return to our body. In Christine religion, this soul either goes to hell or to heaven. In Buddihist religion, this soul will attach to a different living being, a butter fly, or a worm, or a human body, 'reincarnate' to start a new life.
In God we trust, because this Divine Intelligence knows what to do with our souls once they detach our bodies. Just like falling asleep, the best medicine to overcome insomnia is to completely 'let go' or surrender. Similarly, when the time comes that our souls will detach our bodies forever is to completely 'let go' and 'surrender' to the Intellengence greater than what we can imagine or attempt to control.
Friday, July 10, 2015
About Balkan
I have participated in Door County Folk Dance Festival (DCFF) in the last 4 years. This year, DCFF introduced something new and unique--The Culture Session, specifically with a presenter Marti Koenig from NY.
Marti used to be a history instructor at New York City. Due to his interest in Balkan culture, he became a Balkan dance and culture instructor at a college in New York City. He secured a Smithsonian grant to visit Balkan countries several times in the past 15 years. He produced books, CD and DVD through his culture research at Balkan countries.
He presented his research in consecutive 3 days: Day 1, general description; Day 2, photo and audio clips. Day 3, video clips and films.
What makes Balkan unique? What makes Balkan dances interesting?
Balkan countries includes Macedonia,Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Bosnia. The people there are Europeans. However, these countries have been occupied by Turks as part of Ottoman Empire. Thus, there is a culture cross fertilization between Western and Eastern cultures making their music unique flavor. Additionally, this is the region where three major faiths, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim intersects. Culture interactions or cross-firing is inevitable. They reflect in their music and dance as well.
Balkan dances are earthy, i.e. there is a strong identification between the people and the land. The dance is for farmers, peasants and for common ordinary dance unlike court dances which are for royal or for noble people.
All those reasons making Balkan dances the most popular dance in DCFF.
Marti used to be a history instructor at New York City. Due to his interest in Balkan culture, he became a Balkan dance and culture instructor at a college in New York City. He secured a Smithsonian grant to visit Balkan countries several times in the past 15 years. He produced books, CD and DVD through his culture research at Balkan countries.
He presented his research in consecutive 3 days: Day 1, general description; Day 2, photo and audio clips. Day 3, video clips and films.
What makes Balkan unique? What makes Balkan dances interesting?
Balkan countries includes Macedonia,Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Bosnia. The people there are Europeans. However, these countries have been occupied by Turks as part of Ottoman Empire. Thus, there is a culture cross fertilization between Western and Eastern cultures making their music unique flavor. Additionally, this is the region where three major faiths, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim intersects. Culture interactions or cross-firing is inevitable. They reflect in their music and dance as well.
Balkan dances are earthy, i.e. there is a strong identification between the people and the land. The dance is for farmers, peasants and for common ordinary dance unlike court dances which are for royal or for noble people.
All those reasons making Balkan dances the most popular dance in DCFF.
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