I was talking to a friend over online chat (real life friend tho, not virtual), and we started talking about preventing bad things from happening in life, and taking steps to prevent it. Living by the code of "prevention is better than cure." My reaction to that was, I used to be like that, always wanting to see the future so that I can know all the bad things that is going to happen and move around it. It is also one of the biggest reasons why I was so interested in the occult, tarot cards, and divination. As I understood the law of cause and effect, and about karma, that sort of just went by the way side. I told her that we cannot hope to be able to foresee all consequences and control the outcomes, so that the outcomes is as anticipated, or as desired.
As mere humans, we cannot see past our present lifetime, some of us cannot see past our nose. Our journey (soul journey) into this world has been planned since before the day we were born. We planned it together with our guardian angel/s, so that we will have enough resources to go through what we need to go through to learn what we need to learn. We created our own trials and tribulations in order to gain wisdom, so the next time something bad happens instead of saying "why me?" maybe we should ask "what do I take away from all this?" Always remember we are like Avatars in an MMORPG (basically, a character in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, like World of Warcraft). Dying is like deleting that character online, and being born is like starting a new character. The controller playing the game still lives no matter what happens.
When you understand that completely, you begin to see the wisdom of letting things go and go with the flow of things. Things happen for a reason. Past karmic debts need to be repaid in full. So when someone slights you, or does something that pisses you off, tell yourself that its karmic debt being repaid, and "I should be thankful !"
"Does that mean that I should go ahead and do stupid things and let stupid things happen to me ?" That is a loaded question. If you need to do something, even though its going to be stupid but it "needs" to be done anyways, and you at the same time are fully aware of the stupid consequences that will happen, then do it. BUT if you don't know that, then you would not know that it is stupid anyways, and would not be aware of its consequences either. So the choice is still up to you at that point.
Then the big question, "how would I know that I am being stupid?" To that I say, you are stupid when you don't know what you are doing; you are not when you know that its stupid and aware of the consequences, but still do it anyways. However, this does not mean that you should go ahead and do all the stupid things anyways knowing that it is going to have stupid consequences. It also depends on your intentions. For example, know that banging your head against the wall will give you a bump on your head, and hurt like hell, but still going ahead to do it is still just being plain stupid. A positive example here would be a story heard from Reverend Jing Kung.
Lets call this random monk Reverend Kong (this is a fictitious name, he does not exist. Any similarity will just be a coincidence). He is one of the monks residing in this big ornate temple. A lay follower, call him Lenny (again a fictitious name who does not exist in real life. Any similarity will just be a coincidence) usually visits the monk every once in a while to ask for financial assistance. Now, the monk knew full well that he was being scammed, every time Lenny visits him. But he allowed it to happen anyways. He hopes that in so doing, one day Lenny's conscience would spur him into realizing his follies, and repent on his own accord. Everyone around the monk would definitely say the monk was just too dumb to say "No!" But that is not being stupid, it is called being compassionate and having great patience. If giving some money away will save Lenny's soul, bring Lenny wisdom, lighten Reverend Kong's karmic debt, and enlighten Lenny eventually at the same time; that is a worthy sacrifice.
Showing posts with label Avatar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Avatar. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The Avatar Movie
I watched the Avatar movie over the Christmas holidays. I must say I liked the whole plot and storyline. Not forgetting to mention that the entire movie was also beautifully crafted, again with alot of subtle threads linking their imaginary world into our own world. I just wanted to share what I got out of it.
Mankind has discovered a very valuable mineral (read worth alot of cash) on the beautiful lush green (again more puns of money growing on trees) world of Pandora. Tempted by greed, humans have encroached into the homeland of the Navis in an attempt to reclaim these very expensive and valuable mineral, even to the extent of destroying the very home that these folks lived in (kind of reminds me of elves living in their tree homes). Their home is this HUGE GIGANTIC tree that literally housed the entire tribe (like Yggdrasil, the world tree in Norse mythology).
The Navis believed that everything is linked to one another (Eywa is the mother of all things on Pandora, in the movie Sigourney Weaver's character said that all the plants and trees on Pandora were linked via a network of roots that is even more complicated then the human brain). That all come from the energy. Such energy is only borrowed (all living things on Pandora). Eventually that energy would have to be returned (death, and the Navis bury their dead under the roots of their home tree).
In the movies, there were these little floating jellyfish like creatures. Neytiri (the main female charater of the Navi, and Jake Scully's love interest) describes these creatures as very pure spirits, seedlings from the mother tree (sounds like their translation of the devas in our world, they even look a little like them if you have ever seen them before in photos). So anyways, I doubt I should go on any further for the benefit of those who have not seen the movie. For the practitioners of Buddhism, it is not too hard to see the links at this point. In Buddhist teachings, we have been told that we all come from the same thing, and will return to it someday (when we realise our ONE TRUE SELF). That we are all one, therefore we should not differentiate, but treat each one equally for we are one and the same. That is also why all things are transient (forever changing) and hence empty (not real; we may think that it is real because we were conditioned to think thus. Just like when one is sleeping and having a dream, everything in the dream would be real to the dreamer, once the dreamer awakens, he/she will realise that it was a dream. Just like how Jake Scully becomes his Navi Avatar in the beginning). Thus, the life we lead now is empty. It is not too difficult to see that if we are empty, and everything we can see and touch is empty, why do we then insist on accumulating even more stuff that is also empty. When we pass on, we cannot bring any of it into the after life (or next life, depending on how you look at it).
However, this is not to say that you should give up everything immediately. If you do decide to do that, you would have achieved alot of what most people cannot (of course all the Buddhas and Boddhsattvas of the 10 directions of incalculable realms of existence will rain down blessings on you, if you could do that) . There is still the responsibility to others around us. We must always keep that in mind when we act. We may strive to achieve spiritual greatness, but we should also strive to not affect negatively of others around us (this is why greed is bad, becoz greed tempts people to accumulate what they want irregardless of the consequences to others. This is illustrated very well in the whole movie).
Before I end this post, I would just like to add that when the outlook of things look bad, everything looks bleak, all hope is loss, and you feel hopeless. It may not be a bad idea to just quiet yourself down and pray (to whatever God, Diety, Boddisattva, or Buddha) tell them of the problems, and what you will need help in. Your prayers might just be answered in the most unexpected ways, you will just have to be patient. From my own personal experience, if your prayers were of unselfish motives, the answer will definitely come. If you feel that your prayers may not be answered, there is still no harm in trying. What you gain is a moment of peace, what you lost is just a few minutes of your lives. (Just like what Jake Scully did in the movie, despite what Neytiri said about Eywa, his prayers were answered) These loving spirits who watches over us are closer then you think they are.
Mankind has discovered a very valuable mineral (read worth alot of cash) on the beautiful lush green (again more puns of money growing on trees) world of Pandora. Tempted by greed, humans have encroached into the homeland of the Navis in an attempt to reclaim these very expensive and valuable mineral, even to the extent of destroying the very home that these folks lived in (kind of reminds me of elves living in their tree homes). Their home is this HUGE GIGANTIC tree that literally housed the entire tribe (like Yggdrasil, the world tree in Norse mythology).
The Navis believed that everything is linked to one another (Eywa is the mother of all things on Pandora, in the movie Sigourney Weaver's character said that all the plants and trees on Pandora were linked via a network of roots that is even more complicated then the human brain). That all come from the energy. Such energy is only borrowed (all living things on Pandora). Eventually that energy would have to be returned (death, and the Navis bury their dead under the roots of their home tree).
In the movies, there were these little floating jellyfish like creatures. Neytiri (the main female charater of the Navi, and Jake Scully's love interest) describes these creatures as very pure spirits, seedlings from the mother tree (sounds like their translation of the devas in our world, they even look a little like them if you have ever seen them before in photos). So anyways, I doubt I should go on any further for the benefit of those who have not seen the movie. For the practitioners of Buddhism, it is not too hard to see the links at this point. In Buddhist teachings, we have been told that we all come from the same thing, and will return to it someday (when we realise our ONE TRUE SELF). That we are all one, therefore we should not differentiate, but treat each one equally for we are one and the same. That is also why all things are transient (forever changing) and hence empty (not real; we may think that it is real because we were conditioned to think thus. Just like when one is sleeping and having a dream, everything in the dream would be real to the dreamer, once the dreamer awakens, he/she will realise that it was a dream. Just like how Jake Scully becomes his Navi Avatar in the beginning). Thus, the life we lead now is empty. It is not too difficult to see that if we are empty, and everything we can see and touch is empty, why do we then insist on accumulating even more stuff that is also empty. When we pass on, we cannot bring any of it into the after life (or next life, depending on how you look at it).
However, this is not to say that you should give up everything immediately. If you do decide to do that, you would have achieved alot of what most people cannot (of course all the Buddhas and Boddhsattvas of the 10 directions of incalculable realms of existence will rain down blessings on you, if you could do that) . There is still the responsibility to others around us. We must always keep that in mind when we act. We may strive to achieve spiritual greatness, but we should also strive to not affect negatively of others around us (this is why greed is bad, becoz greed tempts people to accumulate what they want irregardless of the consequences to others. This is illustrated very well in the whole movie).
Before I end this post, I would just like to add that when the outlook of things look bad, everything looks bleak, all hope is loss, and you feel hopeless. It may not be a bad idea to just quiet yourself down and pray (to whatever God, Diety, Boddisattva, or Buddha) tell them of the problems, and what you will need help in. Your prayers might just be answered in the most unexpected ways, you will just have to be patient. From my own personal experience, if your prayers were of unselfish motives, the answer will definitely come. If you feel that your prayers may not be answered, there is still no harm in trying. What you gain is a moment of peace, what you lost is just a few minutes of your lives. (Just like what Jake Scully did in the movie, despite what Neytiri said about Eywa, his prayers were answered) These loving spirits who watches over us are closer then you think they are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)