Actions based on love..

In these past couple of months, I have been busy being attached to a school for my practicum to satisfy my Masters graduating requirement for counseling. I have learned something new from my numerous encounters with teachers and students in school.  Different intentions where actions are based out of can have different consequences/effect.  It is common knowledge that the energy of "Love" is one that is very gentle and soothing, however the actions based out of "Love" may not be.  I suppose, one can say that its the intention behind the action that counts.  I had the opportunity to work with 2 teachers with 2 very different methods of approach towards students, but they both achieve similar results, with regards to the student's well being.
    The first a school counselor (my immediate supervisor in the school) who takes the positive gentle approach to help students with their mental well-being.  Students respond very positively to him, and of course from as far as I can tell, the universe takes good care of such gentle caring souls who give much of themselves to the service of others.
   The other a teacher who is also a volleyball coach, who's approach is often the total opposite of the former in most instances.  She would scream/shout/scold her students on the court into submission.  Her students still come back after graduation to thank her for all she has done.  And surprisingly, many of the student's parents support her actions.  Even more surprisingly, the universe takes care of her to make her wishes and life smooth. Both of them are disciples of the Lord (if you know what I mean).
    At first, I was a little puzzled, but gradually I came to see what is happening.  Although for one of them the action may seem harsh and counter to the feeling of what "love" is, her actions are still based on "love".  She spares no thought for herself but treats the charges under her like it was her own children (going by this, she would have close to 40 sons then).  She is very devoted to the Lord, and she is very devoted to her students as well.  Both teachers, in my dictionary can be seen as Great Boddhisattva's in action (according to Buddhist teachings).  They have both shown me that it is not how the action/method present that counts, but the basis/intention of the action.  They were actions based on pure "love" to see their students become better than who they are - selfless actions. I have been truly touched by what I have seen and experienced.
    Conversely, when an action is based on the benefit of the self, is is a selfish action.  That act, can be as gentle as you can imagine it to be, or as harsh as the torturous acts in the abyss of hell.  The actions are still based on the selfish gains, whether if it is to satisfy the wimps of the unconscious personal ego, or deriving pleasure from the performance of the act, ultimately it is a selfish act.
    In short, judge not the action/situation that presents itself to you, or to others, for we may not know what was the original intention of scene that has been presented.  It is the intention that counts MOST!!!!

Love should feel free

I saw this picture and I thought I must share this here.  I feel that many times people mistake love for possession and dominance.  You don't own someone when you love someone. You allow the person whom you love to grow the way they feel it is best for them; even to the point that if they feel they need to leave you, you would still allow it.  Love is not possession, the person you love does not need to be around you for you to love him/her.  In the ideal sense, LOVE is like the love GOD/Buddha/Allah/Jesus/etc have for all of us (regardless of whether you follow their teaching or not, they love each equally).  They do not place any conditions on their love for us, and neither do they expect us to return their love.  THAT is true love !!

Ho'oponopono mantra

In recent days I have come to learn of a very powerful and beautiful mantra that was the product of tribal Hawaii.

(the picture came from this site. If you are interested, a quick visit to the site will tell you more about the mantra.)

I was skeptical at first, but weeks later I tried it on a set of 6 eggs I bought from the supermarket. I spoke the words given above 6 times, with a sincere heart, while holding onto the pack of eggs with both hands, still sitting comfortable in its plastic crate.  The effect was amazing!  The moment I picked up one of the eggs in my left hand, I felt it vibrating very very strongly, like as if I was holding a shard of crystal.  I was floored, and surprised, at the same time.  Who knew those few words could have such a powerful effect.  Which is one of the reasons I am sharing the information.  This means that anyone could use the same method to empower/bless the food that you eat.

Encouraged by the results, I tried it on my body lying on the bed, just before I was going to sleep.  I thought about my body and how much wear and tear it had gone through, all those aches and pains I am feeling from the parts of my body; and thought that I really needed to give thanks to my body for supporting me through thick and thin all these years.  This time, with a calm mind and sincere heart, I said those words 6 times.  Again, the feeling that followed after that felt like a reply from my body that "we have heard your thanks and accepted it, and we will support you til the end of your days."  I felt this tingly sensation echoing throughout my body.  The tingling was especially strong in those areas which had a problem. This tingling sensation felt similar to same feeling I had when I first started meditating (breathing in the prana, or cosmic energy. It has been said that our bodies ache because the flow of prana in that part of the body has been blocked. Meditation clears it up gradually, hence the tingling, which is similar to the feeling of getting pins and needles in your leg when it has remained in a restrictive position for too long).

I want a dog. Not anymore!!!

As a child, I have always wanted to own a pet dog, or a cat. Something warm, fuzzy, and alive that I could play with, and snuggle up to. At that time, I thought it would be really nice to have a cat or a dog as a close buddy, and to experience the kind of unconditional love they would give me. As an adult now, and having the opportunity to take care of my sister's dog for a time period; I realized that it was probably a good thing that I had not owned a pet.

Don't get me wrong here, its not the having to feed it, and cleaning up after it thing that put me off. It just was not everything that I had imagined it would be like.My sister's dog, while I had him, looked up to me as its owner. I fed him, cleaned him, and he loved me back, kept me company, etc. But I did not feel the same thing I thought I would have felt when I have a pet. It felt like I was only doing what was necessary to take care of it, and be responsible for it. I did not get the warm fuzzy feeling that I thought that I would. Why?

After over 2 decades, I finally understood the reason behind it. When I see an animal I do not own, I want to cuddle it, pet it, hug it, play with it. I love it, and want it to be my friend. That is what friends do, they enjoy each others company, take comfort in each other, and love each other. When I own that "friend" the social dynamics change. Friends are what friends are, you don't own "friends". When that friend becomes your property, you take on a dual relationship, and that is why the social dynamics of this social relationship change.

I am not saying that everyone out there is like that, its just how I feel I am like. Yes, I still love most animals (I am reserving some wiggle room here for a small population of animals that may be out there which are just down right repulsive to even consider hugging it). But I only want them to be my friend, I do not want to own them anymore.

Food preparation tip....

I thought maybe it would be very appropriate to share an important food preparation tip for the forth coming festivities at this time of the year. I read about this tip from the Art of Dharma blog. They aren't the only one who had talked about this, I had heard about the same thing from several other sources in the past as well (one other source is from Reverend Jing Kung, and another source would be from a chef at a vegetarian restaurant).

What they are all saying is that when we prepare food for consumption, we pass on our energy into the food we are preparing. As the Art of Dharma blog puts it :-

"If a woman could see the sparks of light going forth from her fingertips when she is cooking, and the energy that goes into the food she handles, she would realize how much of herself she imbues into the meals that she prepares for her family and friends."

Basically, what this is saying is as we prepare the food, we bless/enchant the food with our energy. So, if you feel sad, upset, angry, or any gamut of negative emotions at all, that goes into the food that you prepare. And those who ingested the food also took in all that energy. That energy is like a form of slow acting "poison" to all of us. I don't think there is any need to explain what does poison do to our physical body. But I can offer an example that poisonous emotion such as hate can cause cancer (You can either choose to believe it, or not. There is no scientific proof to this claim, only theoretical proof. Negative emotions causes stress, stress causes the release of hormones into our body. Long term exposure to these hormones can wreck havoc with our immune system. That is a scientifically proven fact. It is also known that stress causes our bodies both inside and outside to age prematurely. Oxidation is a form of aging, and the health community has been harking over the taking of anti-oxidants to help slow or prevent the oxidation of any carcinogens or free radicals that are already in the body. And we know that carcinogens can trigger cancer given the right conditions, therefore prolonged exposure to negative emotions can possibly lead to cancer, or some other type of stress related illness.)

Conversely, if during preparation of the food, you were feeling happy, blessed, loved, or any form of positive and healthy emotion, you are essentially blessing the food with positive energy for the recipients of your dishes. Those who ingest the food will also feel better, not to mention it will also be tastier.

In short, dear readers, when you do prepare food for others or yourself, do it with a light heart. Do it with much love, respect, happiness, peace, and compassion, so that those who come to eat your food would feel it too and be touched by it.

Do we really know what "LOVE" is ?

Let me share a short story here, which for all intensive purposes maybe a true story that happened many years ago, before any readers of this blog was even born.

In a distant land, nestled within the cradle of a range of mountains, rests an idyllic agrarian village that seemed many times removed from the outside world. The houses were mostly made out of rocks, mud, sticks, and hay. The village was by no means small, and quite highly populated. At the base of the closest mountain sits a building that was more grand than the rest of the village. The building was made out of timber and stones, with white clay used as plaster for the walls. It was taller and more ornately designed and decorated than any other building in the village. This was the village temple dedicated to the Earth Spirit that was said to roam the area. In this temple lived the priest who takes care of the temple, who offers comfort and advise to all the visitors and devotees. Much peace can be felt from within the walls of this temple. In fact this temple was built to cater to those villagers or visitors who find it too hard and arduous a climb up to the Grand Temple of the Earth Spirit that was at the end of a long winding path that starts right behind the temple.

The path to the Grand Temple was a winding long path to walk/climb, yet many devotees make that journey once a year on a specific time period of the year to visit it. To those who make that journey, they are rewarded with a beautiful view of the land. A sweeping view of the village and all the activities that happens within it; and a view of the surrounding mountain range as far as the eye could see. The special feast for the eye came in the form of a Grand Temple built out entirely of marble and timber, complete with brightly colored clay roofing tiles. A marble wall fenced the main temple itself. Auspicious celestial animals, and cloud symbols adorn the wall as carvings. The temple was easily several houses tall with huge pillars made out of great tree trunks as main supports for the Grand Temple. The floor was paved with huge slabs of white marble. The walls of the temple were also made out of white marble with carvings very similar to the marble wall outside the temple. In the grand hall of the temple stands the statue of the purported Earth Spirit who wonders amongst the people to bring peace, and love to all. Perhaps this building was built in appreciation to this very spirit for bringing many many generations of peace to all who lived in the village. Yet, no one lives within the walls of this Grand Temple, but the entire building remains spotlessly clean, as if it had a cleaning crew who does the cleaning everyday. Perhaps, this is another of the Spirit's manifestation of his divine powers.

Every year the path to the Grand Temple would be decorated with streamers and lanterns in celebration that it is yet time again to pay the temple a visit with offerings. Like every other year, the path would be packed with people streaming up slowly from the village. The village temple would be packed as well with many devotees and visitors. This year a lonely old man who is dressed like any other villager, wanders up the path towards the Grand Temple with his gnarled staff for support. We walks very slowly as if he had to drag his foot up the path one at a time reluctantly. His face showed an expression of sadness and reluctance. He would let out a sigh every few steps of the way, not because he was tired. Everyone else hurried around him on their way up the temple. There he sees many mothers with kids in tow making their way up to the temple. Kids would skip happily up the path, while many grown ups would bring some offerings to the temple. When this old man had reached the mouth of the temple compound, he stopped for a very long while. He turned around to survey the beautiful scenery before him, and spied the devotees streaming up the path towards the temple. He flashed a half smile with an expression of content showing on his face, but his eyes was starting to water up. As devotees streamed passed him, everyone would greet him with a smile and a half bow to show respect to an elderly. Some would even come shake his hand. The longer the old man stood at the entrance to the compound, the more he seemed reluctant to enter. He kept shaking his head from time to time with teary eyes at all that was going on around as he spied the entire scene. Finally, he turned towards the temple to take his last step into the temple.

As the old man entered the compound the Grand Temple, all the people that was around him disappeared. The temple was suddenly enveloped in a light mist. His tattered old clothes was suddenly transformed into into grand ornately decorated robes in gold. His head was suddenly adorned with some head gear that looked fit of the emperor of china himself. The only thing that remained the same was the gnarled staff still in his hands. His whole body is now covered with a faint golden aura that emanates peace and compassion. The Grand Temple looked even grander now, decorated in all manners of precious gems and gold trimmings, just devoid of any other devotees. Still standing in the same spot as he took his last step, he gripped his staff tightly and looked down as the first earth rumbling was heard. Tears were now streaming out from his eyes uncontrollably.

A terrible and devastating earthquake has just gripped the idyllic village town. Falling stones from the mountain side would fall and crush some devotees on the path, the buildings in the village all topple one by one burying all that were unable to get out. Some of the buildings were crushed by the huge boulders that toppled off the mountain face. After the thunderous roar from the angry earth, came the loud wails and cries of the survivors of the quake. As the last of the stone fell to the ground, the Earth Spirit turned to rush out of the temple compound to see what had happened to the people whom he had loved and cherished for such a longtime. As he peered through the mist covered surrounding to the valley below, he cried even louder as if to try and drown out the loud wails of the survivors. "Why did this happened? You were supposed to be here to protect us! Why?! .... sob...." As he heard those words, he sobbed even more uncontrollably. A disembodied voice then spoke to the Earth Spirit, "You know it needed to happen." The Earth Spirit then replied, "but they could have all been saved from this suffering if I had not left the location. I only needed to be present! It wasn't that hard to be just THERE!" Again the voice said "In order for these people to ascend further, it has to happen, and you know it." "Even though that maybe so, it still hurts a lot, and does not make it any better." "Be comforted to know that even though it may cause you pain, but you have saved many times more souls than you could have by remaining there. You loved them enough to leave them and let it all happened, so they could all become better. See past your hurt and rejoice at their ascension." With much sadness, the Earth Spirit departed from that plane of existence.


I shall let you the reader decipher what you think the moral behind the story is. Thank you very much for reading this far, and I hope it was as much therapeutic and enlightening for you as it was for me.

Universal Religion

Some people may feel that religion is a form of escapism. For most people, it is a form of faith where they can comfort themselves with the believe in the existence of an omnipotent being. However, we should also not forget those who believe that no such being/s exist, that we are the masters of our own destiny.(Here I am refering to the major religions of the world founded by past masters, or saints. Examples of these past masters would be Jesus Christ, Sakyamuni Buddha, Prophet Mohammad, Laozi, Confucius, etc.)

No matter our beliefs, what is true is that almost all of the major religions teach their followers how to be a better person. To be a better human being, to commune with our souls in order to return to our TRUE self. And they do this through stories, poetry, doctrine, dogma, etc, to inspire us to follow the right path.

Therefore, we should not segregate religion into their differences. Instead we should view all the different religions as different schools trying to attain the same goal. They just each go about trying to help us achieve the goal in a different way. Let me try to illustrate this in 2 ways, first I shall use the example of the British education system, and then followed by the use of an example in the American education system. First, under the British educational system, we could say that all the world's different religions are like the many secondary schools in the system. At the end of the final year of the school system, everyone must sit for the standardized examination known as the GCE'O levels as a graduation requirement. They must pass the exam to qualify for graduation and also to move on to an institute of higher learning. Under the American system, religions would be like the High Schools preparing students to do well in their SATs, so that they may be able to enter an institution of higher learning.

Despite the vast compassion of the ascended masters who gave us this knowledge, there are some who would use that knowledge for their own perversion. In such a case we should always remember that it is not the religion that is teaching them the wrong things, but the people involved who chose to pervert the information to their own advantage. This is why we have terrorist who claim they act in the name or their god, or pastors using their status in the church to commit sexual crimes, etc. No religion is free of such problems all of them have their own share of perverted followers, some more then others. Hence, we should all be cautious and have trust in our own natural instincts when trying to discern the right from the wrong. Any GOD worthy of our devotion will be ONE who will bring immense compassion and love to all, a love so great that the vastness of the oceans on earth cannot hold a candle to it. A love so great that we can do no wrong in HIS eyes against him. A love so great that no matter how we slight, despise, or ridicule HIM; HE will still shower compassion and love upon us - immeasurable absolute unconditional love. HE will love us equally no matter who we are or what we are and regardless of what we have done.

The good news here is that we are all capable of that. We all have that nature within all of us. The capacity to love unconditionally. That is our TRUE self. Our instinct is our soul speaking to us. Our soul knows things we are not conscious of. The soul holds knowledge beyond our present lifetime. Our soul is our Higher-self. Religion is the window to our Higher-self. Religion exist to help us see past the arrogance we exercised oh so long ago, so that we may again get in touch with our Higher-self. If we truly practice what they preached, our TRUE self will start to reveal itself gradually. As our TRUE self reveals itself, we may suddenly find that we have hidden talents beyond our wildest imagination. Those talents are what we have always possessed, but chose to ignore because of our attachment to this world and everything that comes with it. It is not lost though, we can find it when we find our TRUE self to reclaim what was lost.

Meaningful Hidden Message in Anime

I just finished an entire series of Anime that I thoroughly enjoyed, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn of an actually meaningful message within the series. I appreciate the fact that the creators did a huge amount of research to come up with such a story. Embellished with all the trademarks of Japanese Animation creativity, characteristic artwork, the usual robotic element but with a twist to it, yet still have a story that is relevant to our timeline, and quite possibly even beyound our time.

The title of the anime is called Aquarion, and the story is about the war between 2 races of beings - Humans and the Shadow Angels. The humans live on Earth that has been devastated by the war that is going on, while the Shadow Angels live in a sort of a parallel dimension where the Tree of Life grows bearing beautiful flowers but no fruits. Just in case some of you are planning on watching the anime, I shall not go too much into the plot and the story. Suffice to say that both factions were so intent of annihilating each other at one point that they forget that they both share a common goal. That goal is to preserve the life of their respective races.

You see, even though both races were fighting for their race's survival, the Tree of Life is the root of all life for both races. The Tree started to wither in the midst of their war, when the tree dies both their worlds will be destroyed. This phenomenon was oblivious to all parties involved in the fight - blinded by their hatred, and craving for vengeance. When it was brought to light what was going on, with great effort did they put aside their differences to save the Tree, and thus save the earth. In order to do that they must see past their differences to unite with compassionate love, and understanding.

The entire story did strike a chord within me. Sometimes we are so busy with ourselves that we totally miss the obvious. It also echos with the current situation the whole world is facing. There is literature out on the web that says we are entering the Age of Aquarius, the golden age of Humanity where we will see each other with compassionate love, understanding, and respect. But before that age can come about, we must learn to get past all our materialistic attachments, and learn to be more kind, loving, understanding, forgiving, and respectful of everyone.

This is such a good message that is sort of rare in the entertainment media. Hats off to the creators of the series for being able to bring forth such a message. I hope more stuff doing this same sort of thing would appear for all to enjoy, and to contemplate on.

Authoritarian Personality

I read something about Authoritarian Personality while I was studying for my exams, that I thought it was pretty informative and I'd share it with everyone. It was a section talking about Prejudice. The excerpt below is taken from Buskist, William., Carlson, Neil R. & Martin G Neil. (2007) Psychology (3rd ed) Massachusetts, USA : Peason Education Limited.

"Because prejudice is repugnant and can have such appalling effects, such as genocide, prejudice is often traced to individual differences and personality attributes. One of the most widely promulgated theories of prejudice is the authoritarian personality (Adorno et al., 1950). Children who are brought up in families where their parents use harsh disciplinarian methods to secure love and dependence develop a love-hate relationship with their parents, which is endurably stressful. The stress is resolved by idealizing their parents and all authority figures and redirecting their hatred onto weaker others. This resolution becomes a deep-seated and immutable personality syndrome, authoritarianism, which frames relations for the rest of the person’s life. It predisposes people to be prejudiced. Another personality explanation has been proposed by Rokeach(1948), who argues that some people, for whatever reason, have a general cognitive style that is prejudiced because they strive for a rigidly stratified social world, are resistant to belief change in the light of contradictory evidence, and are inclined to ground their beliefs in authority and orthodox belief systems."

Future parents to be take heed of the above when parenting. For some others, I hope this would shine a little light onto your present disposition. As for the rest, may this serve as a little piece of illumination.