If you happen to come across this page, it is fate that u see this post, so please read on if u can….
MR lent me a book to read: Buddhism Plain and Simple.
In this book, there is an interesting picture which i would like to share with you. If you can identify what is this picture, u have probably reached a stage of knowing.
Below is an abstract of the book about the picture:
Truth or reality is not something vague, mysterious, or hidden. You dont have to go to someone else to find it – not to a teacher, or a Buddha, or your parents, or a priest or rabbi or shaman, or any authority whatsoever. Now is it something you can look up in a book. Truth comes to us through seeing. To see is to know.
Seeing needs no further verification. It’s immediate and as one with truth. But we are usually not very skilled at seeing what is actually presented to us.
for a concrete example, look at the picture below. Believe it or not, this is a near photographic rendering of something very familiar, something you have seen (either in person or in pictures) countless times.
If you do not immediately recognize what it is, then notice your state of mind. Notice that it is, to some extent, confused.
Some people, when they first see this picture, say”I think it is a man lying down”. They are not quite sure. They believe it might be a man reclining. But there is no sense of seeing, no conviction that you know what the picture depicts.
Keep looking at the picture. I assure you that when you actually see what it is, all your uncertainty will immediately vanish. You will know what the picture is. All beliefs and uneasiness about it will instantly cease.
If you havent seen what this picture is, keep looking at it for awhile. Eventually you will get it. And when you do get it, notice the sudden shift that takes place in your mind.
Did you notice how you mind relaxed when, suddenly, you saw, and you knew you saw? Your state of mind, which before was vague, mysterious, fuzzy, confused, and uncomfortable, was suddenly transformed the moment you saw. You had clarity and conviction. And that clarity and conviction will remain with you each time you view this picture again.
If somebody says to you,”it is a picture of a man lying down”, you will know they are off the mark – and no amount of argument is going to influence you.
This is analogous to the difference between seeing and simply having a belief, an idea, or concept.
So have you seen it?
If you have, I congratulate you. If not, try looking again.
___________________________________________________________
For answer, pls see eugene’s blog:
http://saintorsane.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/mysterious-figure-revealed/
After MR answered my questions, now I have a clearer understanding of how the world functions. Below is a very brief summary of some fundamental questions which we may wonder from time to time: where do we come from? who are we? Why do we exist in this world? What is the meaning of our existance? Is there a higher being or guru in control of all that has happened or are going to happen?
We now know there is something called Universe, which comprises of thousands of galaxies. Science has proven that. In the present galaxy that we see now, the only planet that gives existence to living things is our motherly Earth, where we are given water and other natural resources, those of which we exploited or taken for granted with time.
So the first fundamental question, what is soul or 灵?
The soul is like an energy with consciousness. It can neither be created nor destroyed, but it can be transformed from one state to the other.心经：不生不灭，不垢不净，不增不减。 Similarly it interacts with other forms of energy, either positively or negatively. A soul has no gender; logically, a gender only comes into place when there is a body.
Then how do the six realms come into this scene?
We all understand that the six realms is basically a cycle of existence. Just like the water cycle, this is like a soul cycle. What is so special about us humans, is that we have a body, soul and mind. Although animals have too a body, soul and mind, but their brain structure is of a lower form. Diety and ghosts do not have a body, but like us, they have a soul. The difference probably lies in their environment: diety have a soul that is free from human’s sufferings whilst ghosts are still attached to the human world, while hell is where the soul undergoes extreme torture. All of us, in the six realms are interchangeable, we can all get demoted to hell or promoted to heaven. This is because inside us, we still have a soul, a soul which can be subjected to 五蕴，we still enjoy food, love, and fear of pain and sufferings. Our soul is not awakened.
A buddha is different. A buddha is out of the six realms, free from the earthly attachments. The Buddha is not God, if u define God as someone who looks after us like a mother, keep us safe and sound and answer to our prayers.
I asked MR, “为什么我从小就觉得观音每次都在一旁帮我，观音的千每次都很准，不由得我不去相信。”
“因为你是仙天灵， 所以和观音会有因缘， 在你下来人间前，你请观音照顾你，在你有困难时他会扶持你一拔。”
The Buddha is just someone who is awakened, a being of higher intelligence. There is no “he” or “she” in the Buddha, but a gender is often associated to the Buddha who arises from an enlightened human. The Human state is the exam hall, the gateway to becoming a Buddha. Every Buddha – past, present or future – is a human being, not a god.A Buddha is simply a person who is awake – nothing more or less.
Then what is the world of Buddha like?
We do not know, because we are not yet a Buddha. Some say it is a paradise full of lian hua, waterfall, many others like you in meditation, calm and peaceful. But this is just a paradise that we humans desire. Some thinks we continue to meditate or we become humans to teach others into cultivation. Just like there can be laws of nature in this universe, how about the world of Buddha? There are stages there, different Buddhas of different powers. So we have an idea that they continue to meditate, each stage they get different and higher awareness.
If 空 is what the Buddha has achieved, then surely the buddha doesnt need lianhua or beautiful sights. Surely the Buddha doesnt need more meditation. Probably there isnt any world of Buddhas. They are probably energy souls that continue to meditate and roam around in the universe, with no identity or landmark.
But instead of looking at what a Buddha’s life is like, there is a more immediate urgency to realise where we are now and what we are doing. We still need to live, work and pay for CPF, housing and food. We are now a human.Instead of thinking about our future or past, it is time to concentrate on the present and make full use of the present to become awakened. But how? Through what means?
We choose Buddhism to help us become awakened. One reason is because we have an affinity to Buddhism. Secondly, apart from other religions, buddhism tells us the universal truth : Both the dark and bright side. We don’t look at just Heaven, but we look at life as a whole and to accept the presence of a cycle.
I like the way Steve Hagen puts it:
The Buddha himself invited people on all occassions to test him.
“Dont believe me because you see me as your teacher.”
“Don’t believe me because others do.”
“Don’t believe anything because you have read it from a book either”
“Dont put your faith in reports, or traditions, or hearsay, or the authority of religious leaders or texts.”
“Dont reply on mere logic, or inference, or appearances, or speculation”
I asked MR, ” Can we read the Bible even when our teacher is the Buddha?”
He asked back, “Who wrote the Bible?”
” the people from ancient times, after Jesus Christ, the popes perhaps..”
“Who wrote the teachings of Buddha?”
“… the 13 monks? the disciples of Buddha…”
“Jesus did not write the Bible, Buddha did not write his teachings, how accurate are these, we have to see for ourselves. You can read the Bible, the Quran, anythings you want, but you have to interprete them for yourself.”
Buddhist teachings and writings can assist you, but you wont find truth in them, as if truth somehow resided in the Buddha’s words. No words – Buddha’s, mine, or anyone else’s – can see for you. You must do that for yourself, as Buddha did while seated under a tree a hundred generations ago.
Buddha’s words can also be likened to a finger pointing at the moon. His teachings can point to Truth, but they cannot be truth. Buddhas – people who are awake – can only point the way.
We cannot hold the Truth with words. We can only see it, experience it, for ourselves.
One may have a solid knowledge of Buddhism, but the truth is you are still unawakened if you hardly see for yourself.
So back to the question, is there a higher being in control of all these in the universe? Definitely not the Buddha, but we understand, at least for now, that things are the way it is as governed by the laws of nature. 
I am starting to get more curious over this 灵 thingy. I just had a dinner with a friend and we had a small talk over my meditation and how ling zhong tang works. I m not sure if the information i have gathered so far is truly what has been conveyed, but I hope I havent conveyed the wrong message, even if this is simply a sharing session. While talking about cultivation of our soul and the need to be awakened, there is this odd feeling that some spirit beside us is listening to our conversation.. o well, since we are talking about the world of souls…Then, my friend starts to question more, and soon I find myself dumbfounded. I realised I have not fully understood how this real world out there works.
dear shifu and all bro and sis, pls correct me if i m wrong:
So we have the six realms and the Buddha world. The greatest power lies in the Buddha. Some of us have probably been a Buddha in our past lives, the reason why we came down here is because we want to 度人, and from our teachings, to help the human beings on earth to cultivate and become a Buddha themselves, so as to 离苦得乐. However, unfortunately, the Buddha forgets everything upon transformation into a human and the transformed human will have to reawaken the soul in order to remember his or her mission. This can take up to 6 lives, if the soul is still unawakened in this period, it will no longer be able to go back to being a Buddha. The only wayto go back is to recultivate. A diety or goddess can also commit sins (dunno what these may be), and as such they can demote to being a human or animal. While it is also possible for a person from hell to be promoted upwards. While we ignorant beings are being monitored in these life cycles, our actions are constantly in viewed by the supernatural to determine our next lives’ karma. Somehow, I feel my prayers are answered in temples, when I prayed to Guanyin, and other gods. Is this actually true or a result of strong brain power? What do dieties do in heaven? Do they make merry and come down once in awhile to help answer people’s prayers? Where do souls originate from? Do they all originate from the Buddha? Do souls perish? We encounter various dieties, but in the real world, there is no one and just one Guan yin, but several multiplies of the same Guanyin, aka sun wu kong multiplication?
Do human souls and faries have a gender? We concluded that a soul doesnt have a gender because having a gender already creates a difference. Also, our reasoning is that souls do not procreate like humans and thus do not need a gender? And I heard from my friend, guanyin is a male…is this true?
I often ask myself, if this is the real world of the souls, why should it work this way? Why are there so many rules and regualtions in the “ling”world? Law in mortal world, law in the ling world…Why does the Buddha, or whichever higher being wants to rule the world such that we experience sufferings on earth?
How many cycles can a soul last in the six realms before perishing and vanishing into the universe?
Is it possible that all religions that we see in this world are actually talking about the same god? It just happens that the Bible, the Quran, and the Lotus Sutra etc… are variations from different people of the past, people who interpreted the messages from God in different ways. As a ling xiu zhe, can i read the bible?
When we do DG, is it simply to awaken the soul? My friend questioned, why do we move differently? Why cant a soul just lie there and rest? Why do souls move?
My response was: I imagine our soul is simply an energy ball, there is no specific shape or form, but what it possess is boundless energy. Once in our human body, it is locked. Similarly, its power remains hidden. But once awakened, the power is released and this energy ball starts to churn out different movements, what we see from DG comes from the activation of our soul. Every soul has a distinct inherent characteristic, thus we see different movements as according to the spiritual power in them. But as our eyes are open, we still remain fairly conscious to know the existance of the human world. These movements are completely controlled by our own soul. In contrast, the movements we see during healing are controlled by higher beings connected to the same characteristics of our soul.
My friend’s mum has always been a devoted buddhist. Her mum can see light or energy waves around a person. As such, is her mum considered 灵性很高？
Somehow, I feel that my prayers were always answered in the guanyin temple. Do dieties really know all the time what we are asking for? How come praying lots can be so accurate that i m pretty surprise myself? Shifu once said that real temples are meant for meditation, chantings and jing zuo, is it pointless to pray at all? Do dieties still have受想行识？
I find it difficult to identify my real purpose of cultivation or motive. Am I doing it so as to have things go smoothly for me, and my wants to be achieved, such that I will not experience sufferings? Tad seems so selfish…. Or am I doing it because of the greater mission i am responsible to carry out? The latter seems so selfless yet hard to attain.
All human beings in this mortal world have a heart of a Buddha (is this interpreted as we all were once buddhas?) Or we may or may not be a Buddha in our past lives, but we all have a potential in becoming a Buddha?
-Before I start to dong
<relax, calm my mind, think of nothing, body feels light, as if i do not exist, my mind coexist with my body, they are in universe, my arms rise up, I feel the thin layer of air just above my skin, the tension, the energy, I name it “qi”, I follow this “qi”, to wherever feels the strongest. I think I already start to “dong”>
- In process of Dong
< I try to concentrate, keep the feeling there, be lost, my mind free from daily events…My arms start to sway in circles, I thought: my back aches, then my back starts to sway, I thought: my neck feels tired, then my head starts to sway… (shucks, am I thinking too much?)…Stop thinking, lynn, stop imagining, OK, I try to concentrate again… shucks, lost the feel… then I went back to step one, feel back my energy and try to move again>
2nd Dong
<this time, no thoughts, keep telling myself, 自在，自在, my arms swayed in circles, I walked around like nobody’s business, with the attitude, heck it, be it a move that is conscious, or a real move by my soul, I shall just move and not think… With that in mind, I started to move in circles. I wished to stop cos I felt dizzy, but there was this momentum going on, had to tell myself: time to stop… hmm, tad was a real move? But shifu said the real dong gong shd be very enjoyable. Why do I feel dizzy?>
Things I observed about my dong gong:
I like to walk backwards. But I cant see wad’s behind me, I am afraid of falling on someone or something and hurting myself.
I like to sway my arms in large circles, and I enjoy the air flow as I sway my arms.
I tend to turn occassionally for a few rounds before I tell myself, need to stop, I am too dizzy. I vaguely rmbed myself turning several rounds in the basketball court on a Thu, in the dark, I enjoyed turning, but I will fee dizzy.
When I get dizzy, I like to kneel down and rub my head against the floor like a baby.
What i find most difficult about dong gong is to keep the momentum going, to keep being in the process of dong. Guess I should really jing zuo more…
那晚办了忏悔后，隔天回到家时，妈妈突然说要我用阴阳水洗身体。记得这水是用来赶走阴魂，那时妈妈这样一说，我愣住了， 不会吧， 怎么又卡阴我却一点也没擦觉到？现在回头想想，那时期心情很不好，很容易为一点小事脾气爆躁，比较自以为是，觉得自己做事一定是对的， 而别人是错的。万万没想到是真的卡到阴， 师父为什么会知道呢？
其实当灵修者帮我医病时，过后那几天我还是脾气有点暴躁，但这次开始注意自己的行为，不断跟自己说：我是我，尽量让自己觉得自在，不要去多想。
在最后一次的清洗，一点感觉也没有，好像已经恢复正常。 希望真是如此。
我最近的功课是每晚静坐45分钟。我做到了，可是昨晚辛苦得很想奔到床上睡觉。 每次做静坐时途中睡着了， 蔽自己不要想睡。
我在这期间曾经有一晚感到全身不自在，心胸很紧，头晕，肠胃不舒服，现构图的感觉。 那晚已是凌晨半夜，我疼得很想在地上翻滚，觉得很辛苦，很想摆脱它。 我在神台前不停地念阿弥驼佛，脑里观想白光照进肚子，这一下功夫，开始吐了一些白沫，慢慢地觉得比较舒服了。 后来感到非常惭愧，好像在痛苦的时候才会想到菩萨，希望得到一些舒缓。平时虽有念经，点香等，甚至做SOP，但是那感觉没那么强。
十月八日
今天我学会了忍辱，原来不是那么容易。说起来好像挺容易，但完全地不去理会，不生气，受委屈也不能说，那就还真的要靠修行，静坐等。师父曾经说过，当你生气时，有没有静下心来，认真去体会当时的感受，又没有理由生气？最终让自己生气的其实就是自己，而惹自己生气的人也许隔天一早已忘了事情的发生
果然，隔天早上，像什么也没发生过，老板对我还格外的关心。
各位灵修人，抱歉花这么长的时间才开始认真写
已下是我这几个月在灵中堂的感觉，
观音法门的感觉
我知道我这么一说肯定会挨骂，可是我真的还没感受到那种热能或第三眼睛的跳动。唯一觉得的是有气在我身体周围环绕，一种麻麻的感觉，还有手臂的皮肤，好像刺刺的感觉。其实我已经让自己不去怀疑，可是好几次都怀疑那光到底是否照到我全身？到底有没有光？有时在半途中，还得在脑海里重新观想那到光，好像硬逼那光出现似的。因为我看不到，也听不到，完全只能靠感觉，这感觉究竟是真是假，没人可以帮我确认。我们在做梦的时候，梦中情节往往就好比像真的一样，所谓有没有观想对，是否就像在做梦的时候？
修行的真正目的
在这期间，感觉有点不同，心胸比较放开，能接受别人的批评，开始也比以往坚定，有主见，也尽量不多想。开始领悟到人的脆弱心, 人的无知， 我们所知道的都陷于这一世。接触了灵界的奥妙后，开始有更多的疑问。
如果灵界才是真实的世界，那灵界的世界是怎样的？成佛后的世界又是怎样的？
From where should I start? Perhaps straight to the point; after going through several sessions with Ling Zhong Tang, under the teachings of Shifu and the other senior fellow mates, how do I feel? Were my questions answered? Do I still carry on going there for the same initial reason? For what purpose do I still harbor for when going for this weekly lesson? Do I hope to get something in return or to clense my soul, somehow, to refresh myself for next week’s work?
There are too many questions unanswered, or rather, my doubts and suspicions cannot all be answered in a day’s time, nor by any other person. Yes, no one can give me an answer, I need to find the answer myself. What am I seeking exactly? In this present life, and other possible routes… As I continue immersing myself into the teachings of Shifu, listening to the stories of ancient men, and the reality of the world of “Ling”, my curiousity gets the better of me. Fear creeps inside me as I start to find myself planning the future of my soul, and starting to look at how short my life can be when I am still a human-being. I imagine myself before birth, wandering aimlessly in a world of darkness, nothing to live for or die for. Suddenly, I feel like asking my soul, how are you? How have you been living for the past decades or so? Did you ever feel pain?
The first day when I stepped into Ling Zhong Tang, Shifu asked me the very first question: “Have you experienced hardship?”
I was dumbfounded. I did not know how to answer him. What is hardship? Have I already experienced them, yet not knowing that I had been through it? Or have I always been living so blissfully that at this rather young age, I am still clueless as to what is hardship?
I replied, maybe, I do not know.
Then, his next question was,” Then do you realise that human life is hard in itself?”
I have seen and heard of the less fortunate people, we all do. Even the more fortunate people feels that they are not really happy afterall, no matter where we are, man is never satisfied nor feel that he has enough or more than enough to share with others. Based on these, I guess, I judge that human life is hard in itself.
“that’s why we are here to learn to become a Buddha and become detached from the cycle of 6 realms.”
Yes, that sounds wonderful, miraculously nice, but as a human, I have always wanted to ask this, something I guess is forbidden, or not wise to bring up during class, probably because this is what a human feels and what a human will ask.
“What is the life of a Buddha like? We all presumes it to be the heaven of heaven, a higher-being where we will get divinity and eternal happiness. But how does one prove this? If the Buddha exists, if the six realms exist, then beyond the world of Buddhas, is there an even higher level to be attained which we are not aware of?”
I have always wanted to seek my true self, and probably I feel that by attending the classes, I can find myself spiritually and learn some true knowledge of the other world. Sometimes, they all seem rather overwhelming for me, the chantings, the SOP, the procedures, the regulations, the Do’s and Do-Not’s …. and in a state of Man, I wonder why there is a need to abide all these? Isnt our main purpose just to believe in pusa and our soul? But of course, all these act as only an aid to the human state in achieving the sould state. But if our heart is not there, it is useless to do anything.
I am still in the stage of viewing my soul.
