Enneagram

I just bought this book “The Everything Enneagram Book” by Susan Reynolds. Some years ago when I was working at Boeing, the resident psychologist used Enneagram in our group to help everyone understand each other better. As a result, when I chanced upon this book at the bookstore I thought to myself that I just simply have to get it. And it has shown me further insights into some things, which I had thought to be the case for a while now.

The book claims that our personality is a result of wounding. As a child is growing up, he/she learns from his/her parents and the environment what works, what does not, and what hurts. This learning formulates the child’s Ego, and hence his/her personality eventually. The Ego is what Freud describes as the balancing force between the Id and the Ego. This has been described a little in a recent previous post. This is also the basis for Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. He states that as a child grows up to become an adult, he/she goes through 8 stages of challenges which the person would confront and hopefully master. For more information on this please visit here.

The book also says that there are nine different Enneatypes, or broad categories of personality (for reasons of brevity, those interested more about the Enneatypes should try googling for “Enneagram” or get a book about it to know more about the different Enneatypes). These 9 different types can be further generalized as having 3 main centers of intelligence – Affective, Theoretical, and Effective. (Note: I take no credit for the snips immediately following this paragraph, they are taken directly from the book)

• Affective center : To achieve healthy, perfect union with others, the universe, and with spirit; to understand the stages of human development that create maturity and wholeness.
• Theoretical center : To develop creative vision and open you up to the real meaning of life; to be fully conscious of the true nature of self and others.
• Effective center : to motivate and energize you to actively live your life as it was intended-according to your true purpose and vision; to actively create and complete the work you are meant to do.

These were the abilities afforded us by nature, but unfortunately the book goes on to lament that we “limp along married to the illusion” that we are just fine. And that most of our problems are generated externally. Thus, we inappropriately use these centers of intelligence to as follows (Note: I take no credit for the snips immediately following this paragraph, they are taken directly from the book) :-

• Affective : To manipulate your-and others’-way of feeling, including emotions within relationships
• Theoretical : To think, plot, and make intellectual decisions limited to our narrowly defined universe.
• Effective : To protect and preserve our physical body and achieve our basic needs, no matter the cost to others.

These “perversions” has such a knell of truth about them that I cannot help but want to share this information. Long time readers of this blog will probably remember a few previous postings along this same line of thought. It feels eerie and scary, but it is the truth.

A mirror of our inner world

A good friend once told me in a casual conversation that our exterior world (world around us) is actually a mirror of our inner world. What that is saying is that the way we perceive the world around us is a reflection of the way we think, or the way we are, internally (our inner self). I have been reminded by this little morsel of truth not once but definitely more than twice. Reverend Jing Kung when he was explaining the meaning of the Surangama Sutra, and the Lotus Sutra has said it more than once in both of the recordings. Before some readers cry religious connotations here, let me reassure you it is not. Just think back about how you are feeling and look around you. I can give some example of my personal experiences. When I feel stressed, for example when mugging for the final exams, my room is a reflection of how I am feeling inside. I have stacks of papers, and textbooks, and reference books stacked hastily in all corners of my room. My desk is a mess, like a mini hurricane Katrina just visited. When I am enjoying my term breaks, my room is neat and tidy. When I feel depressed, the whole world is against me. When I feel betrayed, I prefer to sit in a darkened room (the world is dark), and I feel alone.

To expand this a little further, I cannot help but bring up the father of Psychoanalysis – Sigmund Freud. Freudian psychology talks a lot about the Id, Ego, and the Superego. The Id is our portion of the mind that operates on the “pleasure principle”. The Superego is the moralistic component of the psyche. And the Ego is the component that tries to balance the drives of the Id and the moralistic principals of the Superego. When the Ego is either overburdened, or threatened by its tasks, it employs defensive mechanisms such as Repression, Reaction Formation, Projection, Sublimation, Rationalisation, and Conversion. Below is an explanation of provided in the textbook for my psychology course (Buskist, William., Carlson, Neil R. & Martin G Neil. (2007) Psychology (3^rd ed) Massachusetts, USA : Peason Education Limited)

Repression is responsible for actively keeping threatening or anxiety-provoking memories from our conscious awareness. For example, a person may have witnessed a brutal murder but cannot recall it later because of the uncomfortable emotions it would arouse.

Reaction Formation involves replacing an anxiety-provoking idea with its opposite. For example, a person who is aroused and fascinated by pornographic material becomes a crusader against pornography. The crusader will often study the salacious material to see just how vile it is so that they can better educate other about its harmful nature.

Projection involves denial of one’s own unacceptable desires and the discovery of evidence of these desires in the behavior of other people. For example, a man who is experiencing a great deal of hostility may perceive the world as being full of people who are hostile to him.

Sublimation is the diversion of psychic energy from an unacceptable drive to an acceptable one. For example, a person may feel strong sexual desire but find its outlet unacceptable because of internalized prohibitions. As a result, finds another outlet such as artistic or other creative activities.

Rationalization is the process of inventing an acceptable reason for a behavior that is really being performed for another, less acceptable reason. For example, a man who feels guilty about his real reason for purchasing a pornographic magazine may say, “I don’t buy the magazine for the pictures. I buy it to read the interesting and enlightening articles it contains.”

Conversion is the provision of an outlet for intrapsychic conflict in the form of a physical symptom. The conflict is transformed into blindness, deafness, paralysis, or numbness. For example, a person might develop blindness so that they will no longer be able to see a situation that arouses a strong, painful intrapsychic conflict. (This is also known as somatoform disorder)

When we see someone exhibiting a behavior that irks us, it is quite possibly a behavior that we ourselves have which we are trying to exorcise; or it could be also be a trigger for one of our denials.

A denial is something that causes us anxiety which we have not given ourselves enough time to deal with it (Repression in my opinion). For example, maybe your favorite aunt passed away 5 years ago which you did not get to see her at her death bed, you heard that she was asking for you before she left this world. You just could not get a flight out to her in time. One fine day, a friend brings you some delicious strawberry cheesecake for you and you start sobbing uncontrollably. Your favorite aunt makes the best strawberry cheesecake you have ever tasted. As a result, you might hate your friend for it, or love her to pieces for it, depending on the situation.

These are what Freud terms as transference. We transfer our negative/positive feelings about a behavior which we have, or might have, in ourselves onto someone else. Counter-transference happens when the person whom those feelings are transferred onto reacted to that feeling. So the next time you experience something like this, remember to thank that person for bringing that into light, so that you may now be able to set aside some time to reflect on it.

The need for control

All of us grew up with parents (or guardians in some cases) around us to take care of our basic needs, and disciplining us when we do something wrong. As babies they feed us, and hold us to allow us to feel loved. Honestly, babies are so cute, who in their right mind could do anything else but love, cuddle, and take care of them. Come to think of it, that is a baby’s most powerful, and only weapon of defense. As a baby we can do no wrong, that is as long as the parental units still think that you cannot understand their language properly yet. Little or no attempt will be made at disciplining.

Things get a little bit different as the baby grows up, starts to walk, and talk. When the baby can start answering simple questions in somewhat coherent sentences, that’s when things start to change. Parents begin their disciplinary phase. They try to teach the still maturing baby what is right, and what is wrong, the best way they know how. Unfortunately for some, the baby grew up and learns our way of life and what is morality; but the parents remain stuck in that disciplinarian mind set.

We grow up with this need to control ingrained into all of us. We are taught as babies to behave in a certain way by the adults who take care of us. As such, when it is our turn to take care of other babies we impart that same set of skills to them (this is the same reason research has shown that children who were abused tend to abuse their own children later). Social learning theory tells us that babies learn through observation. They learn how to interact with us through the way we interact with him/her, as well as with the way we interact with others around him/her (ie. Interaction with other family members or friends). Through the babies’ observation, they learn about our need to control.

We discipline the baby in order to try and control his/her behavior. When he behaves counter to our expectations, he either gets a lecture, or is disciplined. When he behaves in an expected manner he gets lavished with praises, and sometimes rewards. Even though, we do not explicitly teach the baby how to control, he/she is smart enough to learn that we are trying to control their behavior, and that in order for him/her to be able to control other’s behavior that is the same thing they should do. Have you ever noticed that if a baby likes you he often shares his toys with you, and when he doesn’t like you he snatches his toy away from you when you try to touch it. That is his/her meager attempt at trying to communicate, as well as controlling his/her immediate environment.

We grow up learning the need to control. As parents/guardians, we need to control the behavioral output of our babies, whether if it was to toilet train them, or to have them behave according to our expectations so that it would be easier to care for them. As working adults, we have an incessant need to control our environment, so that they can function according to our demands, and produce the expected output. Is there any wonder why so many of us are depressed, or suffer a myriad of other psychological disorders resulting from the inability to control some outcomes? Can we all not see that this is not something we have any control over? Furthermore, sadly for some of us, we simply refuse to grow out of the disciplinary phase and still insist on disciplining, or “mothering”, our children who is already a young adult or beyond; again our need to control our offspring so that they become what we think they should be. Again, can we all not understand that trying to exert control over our offspring’s destinies is an exercise in futility?

It is very unfortunate that we have to inculcate into our infants the need for control. This little piece of information was brought to light by Reverend Jing Kung as he was expounding on the Lotus Sutra. I was very much surprised when I heard about it. But what he said does have a ring of truth to what is happening in our society. We teach our children the need to control. Our children then grow up with the need to control their environment. In school, there is the need to control what grades they get. At work, there is the need to obtain the desired outcome by trying to control the input variables. Some examples of this include but are not limited to the marketing strategies to increase sales, the clever wording of unfavorable information to make it palatable to everyone, or limiting the release of information (whether through omission or other means) to make it sound more convincing to its audience. What all this is saying is that our society today is based very much on the need to control. This need to control is borne out of the craving for personal gains (ie. Greed and selfishness).

What if, we can bring up our kids and teach them how to treat everyone around them with respect, and teach them that what we want is not that important if it is done so at the expense of another’s suffering; and to do so without ever having to resort to disciplining them (remember kids learn through observation, and interaction). Can you imagine what the society would be like if it were all made up of these people, when the kids have all grown up? Well, I can’t but one thing is for sure though; if such a society does exist, then it will definitely experience a lot less problems than what our society is experiencing currently.

Atlantis : Part 2

Lemuria and Atlantis were two of the original continents that existed on earth. Inhabitants on Earth at that time lived to about 30,000 years old, and consisted of Extra Terrestrials from neighboring stars such as Alpha Centauri, and Sirius. Both civilization were very advance in their technologies; they are able to harness energy from crystals to propel vehicles through the air of the atmosphere, as well as through space. Lemuria was a more peace loving nation and believed that other lesser developed beings should be left to their own pace of development. While Atlantis were the more domineering nation believing that all lesser races should be conquered (and thus the descriptions of conquest described in some of Plato's works). This disagreement began a thermonuclear war (which explains the melted remnants at the foot of the pyramids and locations mentioned in Part 1) that ended with both Lemuria and Atlantis as the casualties of this aforementioned war. Earth itself would experience the aftermath of this war for a very long time to come.

Lemuria was the first to sink beneath the waves overnight after 15,000 years. Only 20,000 Lemurian managed to escaped into the safety of their new home under Mount Shasta. Some of them choosing to remain with the still sleeping inhabitants that were ignorant of their impending demise. Most of those that remain were members of the priesthood who chose to extend their powers of prayers, chants, and songs, so that the dying Lemurians would feel no fear, and to help with the deep scarring in their etheric bodies. These brave and compassionate folks would pray, chant, and sing, til the water covered them, perishing along with the soundly sleeping masses. After Lemuria went under, shortly it was followed by Atlantis.

(Note : The above blurb is a greatly summarized version of how Lemuria and Atlantis perished under the waves of the Pacific Ocean. For a more detailed reading please visit this site.)

Some of us, whether we know it or not, are part of this story, whether we like it or not, or believe it or not. We carry within us memories of our past lives, even though we are not aware of it. These memories contain habits of our previous lifetimes, hence we sometimes are still acting out our old habits in this lifetime. As the saying goes "Old habits die hard."

Atlantis : Part 1

This time, I would like to write about Atlantis. In part, to honour what little time Reverent Jing Kung has on earth. During a short 15minutes speech at an event held last year in December, he talked very briefly about lost continent of Atlantis, and how it used to have clean power, and technology so advance that we could probably only see them in the movies today. This topic is sort of right up my alley. I've been fascinated by Atlantis ever since I first heard of it as a child.

But, before I go any further, a little disclaimer here. All information you find in this article, and its follow-up, are information that can be found on the web. Some quite recent (2 years old), while others are quite a bit older. As I do not have the links or references handy at the time of writing, I will provide links where it is possible. Please understand that I am typing out all this information from what I remembered reading over the years. Some of the sites are from occult related sites, religion related, while others are some real news, historical accounts, etc.

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Most of us have heard of the lost continent of Atlantis. Many stories and movies, in the history of mankind, used Atlantis as a backdrop at one time or another. Despite many archeological evidences unearthed to prove the existence of such a place, sadly it has still been resigned to being just a Myth or a legend. Or is it ?

Plato certainly did not think so. He gave a very detailed account of Atlantis (here). He was able to describe the structure of Atlantis, and the tools that people use in Atlantis. Tools that exist in our lifetime only through the fantastic wonder of cinemagic. For them, it is as real as the bed that we sleep on every night.

Reverend Jing Kung's exposition on possession of clean energy of Atlantis serves of confirm serveral reports garnished off the internet. Atlantis had 13 power grid locations around the world (check here). Egypt was one of them, and the greatest discovery of this century is the discovery of an underwater pyramid in Japan (here). This power grid enables Atlanteans then the ability to cover vast distance by air (yes you read that correctly, air travel was possible in ancient Greece when Plato was alive, around 330B.C.). Rumour has it that Atlanteans use crystals as their source of power. And this power is CLEAN, no pollution whatsoever.

It was purported that the Atlanteans were the great stone building civilisation that we have read about in our current history books. These people possessed methodology of stone building far more advanced than what we are capable of today. The Machu Pichu of the Ancient Incans, the stepped pyramids of the Aztec and Mayan, The Great Pyramids of Egypt, and of course the most recent discovery of the underwater pyramid of the coast of Japan. All of them still baffle experts to some extent how the stones were transported and built with primitive tools. They can present their own ideas on how these structures were built, but we may never know the whole truth unless we were present then. However, a glimmer of hope exists in our time line that may help unlock some these ancient mysteries - Edward Leedskalnin's Coral Castle in Florida (see here). He claimed to have harnessed the magnetic energies of Earth in the construction of the castle. The most amazing thing of all was that he spent 30 years constructing the entire structure ALONE in the secrecy of night. The most unfortunate part of all was that he carried all those secrets to his grave. Thus, was lost an opportunity for mankind to progress beyond our current known boundaries.

Meritocracy = Competition = Selfishness

As far as I can remember, when I was little, for some unknown reason I have always have this disdain for competition. The question that has always remained in my mind, even when I was going through school, was always "why do I always have to be compared with someone else?" And "why do I need to be better than other people?" The answer that was always given to me was that in order to get ahead in life we need to be better than the others around us. You need to be better than the others in your studies, than it will be easier for you to find a job because you are better then the others, then you will earn more than the others, and thus have a better life than the others. Being the top was the key, generally speaking. Unfortunately, there was one caveat. Only ONE can be the top. NOT everyone can be ON TOP, there is ONLY ONE.

Taking being the TOP out of the consideration for the moment, you'd still have to relatively better than others to make it. The heat is on to be near the top of the pile, so you can get better grades, get the interview that would land you the job, and hopefully make good money to have a good life. Meritocracy is a double edged sword. It is a good thing because it can facilitate many things in the society, and best of all it promotes racial/gender equality. For example, people can be hired for a job based on their merits and capabilities and not based on their race, nationality, or gender. However, it also encourages competition.

Competition, is not exactly a bad thing either, depending on how you look at it. As mentioned before, competition can facilitate meritocracy, but it can also hamper mankind's progress as human beings. Competition can bring out the ugly side of all of us, or the best side. Some will stop at nothing to remain on top, and some will resort to anything to climb to the top. Yet for the few enlightened ones, these will realize being near or at the top would mean nothing to them if they have to trample on others to get up there. These are the few precious ones who realizes that competition promotes selfishness. In competition, one always has the mindset that "I have to be better than the rest to win." In most cases, people would do almost anything to win in a competition. I am not saying that people want win regardless of the things they have to do to get it, but the definition of being selfish is thinking of nothing but one's self. Thus, being in any competition to win would put one in the selfish mindset. Unfortunately for some, it would start their downward spiral into the dark side.

Competition in school is something that almost everyone can identify with. Your grades in school are decided not by how much you know, but how well your cohorts are doing in relation to you. No where is this more prevalent than in the grand national exams in Singapore such as the GCE 'O Levels, the GCE' A Levels, and most prominently in most prestigious universities around the world. Even the entrance exams like the SATs, TOEFLs, and other similar exams are graded based on the bell curve. Some students have also outright stated that they would do almost anything to get better grades.

No doubt, schools are tailored to help students to better adapt to living in the society as adults. It should be quite obvious to all that our society has been built on selfishness and greed (for example, everyone wants to be better than the person next to them, and they want to make more money to be able to live better, and enjoy more. Therefore the never ending spiral to accumulate enough wealth to achieve their goal/s). Our society has lost its way in humanity in our pursuit to enrich ourselves materialistically, neglecting our other aspects of humanity. Realize now that we as a society have lost our genuine concern for our other fellow human being's well-being, and our responsibilities to our families by virtue of the titles bestowed upon us in a family (for example, a working mother will never be able to fulfill her responsibilities as a mother satisfactorily. This eventually affects the society with ill behaved brats.). Sometimes, it is through no fault of ours (survival reasons), and at other times it is a choice. It is time I feel that we should all wake up and realize this little truth on what we have become in our daily pursuit of a better life in the society. It is not always bad, but the biggest question of all that we should always consider - when will more be enough ?

A Prayer for the first day of 2011

May all sentient beings in all realms and all directions be able to experience, and bestow Good Health, Peace, Happiness, and Enlightenment.

Children are our most precious treasures

Even though I do not have kids of my own, I still feel that children are our most precious treasures. I learnt for the first time today that what a child between the ages of 4 to 8 years old know, in terms of life, can put what I know to shame. This came about during a presentation from Dr. Susan Wright on the embodiment of art. She is an educational psychologist focused on young children, and has done alot of research on the art that children drew. It was such an eye opener.

Children between the ages 4 to 8 years old, who are able to draw and paint can churn out pictures with so much symbolism and content that can put most adults to shame. Granted, they cannot draw like Michael Angelo or Picasso, but the content in their artwork is just astounding. They can tell stories in their art, make use of space, positioning, lines, symbols, and colors that tell LOTS. And on just one single page. Most of all, they can even describe to you what it all means; although maybe not as succinctly as an adult can do it. I was awed beyond words.

But at the same time, I feel very sad for them all. Such bright, talented, and creative kids are subjected to our myopic classroom educational system that emphasizes memory work above everything else. On top of that, parents pressure and stress their kids to do "extremely well" (doing "well" for most parents now is not good enough), so that the parents will be able to boast to their peers. This is gross injustice on the innocent child.

And before anyone suggests that a revolt on the educational system is in order, I would like to say that I am not advocating one. We, the society is partially at fault for this injustice. We are all part of the society that advocates formalized classroom education as the way to go. We want fast results, smarter employees, etc. Who do you think are producing the fast results, and where do you think smarter employees come from - OUR KIDS. So, for those of you who are parents, maybe its time for you to realize what has been going on, and what has been done. Time to appreciate our little precious ones like the treasures they deserve to be. BUT PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL THEM !!!

I am the richest person in the world

A merchant wanted to gift a monk a really expensive branded watch. He brought the monk to his bank's safe deposit box for the monk to choose a watch. The merchant owned a total of 2 large safe deposit boxes where he kept all his expensive jewelries. Once the safe deposit boxes were open and the monk saw what was inside he exclaimed that it was less than he had expected. The merchant was a little shocked at the remarked, he asked him why ? The monk asked him how often has he worn any of the jewelries there ? The merchant replied, only very rarely, he was afraid that he would be robbed. The monk then said, in that case then I am the richest person in the world. All the jewelry that exists in the shops all belonged to him. The merchant looked at him a little puzzled. The monk that explained, if you kept all your jewelry in the safe deposit boxes, and only used them occasionally, then how different is that from me going to the jewelry shops to look at the jewelries like I was going to buy something there ? Its the same thing. I go there, hold the jewelry a little, wear it for a while and check myself out in the mirror while wearing it, then return it to the display case. Even though I do not own it, I still get the same experience you get when you come to the safe deposit box to check your expensive jewelry out very occasionally. So by that line of thinking, I own all the jewelries in all the shops that are in existent.

The moral of the story here is, if you own something and only use it very rarely, then its as good as not owning it at all. If you have it use it.

An Interesting Incident

I witnessed a very interesting incident while bringing some friends to visit a temple last week. I saw this gentleman standing in front of the gigantic golden statue of Amitabha Buddha with his palms pressed together in a praying posture. A small piece of paper was secured to his hands with both his thumbs. There were writings on the piece of paper, which I presume were the prayers to the lord Buddha which he wished would be answered, or granted. As he stood there, oblivious of my existence some distance behind him, praying to the Buddha a tan striped cat strode nonchalantly across in front of him. The man stomped his right foot at the cat, not once but twice at the cat as it crossed his path.

My initial reaction to that was utter shock. How dare you do such a thing to an animal that did not do anything to you but just went about minding its own business; much less in front of the statue of a being that embodies compassionate kindness, and yet you still have the audacity to ask Him for your prayers to be answered. It boggles my mind. Then I started laughing silently at the exhibition of ignorance, both his and mine. His ignorance of what Buddhism is all about, and my ignorance in letting something this small affect me.

Causes of Calamities

According to Reverend Jing Kung, as I was listening to him expounding the Lotus Sutra, he claims that the causes of natural calamities were detailed in the Lotus Sutra. The cause of natural calamities is us. Our environment is a reflection of our inner-self, just as our appearance is also a reflection of our inner-self. Therefore, beauty is not necessarily only skin deep; but it is necessarily only temporary.

We drool at the sight of delicious food, regardless of whether we need nourishment or not. Thus, greed brings flood, or water related calamities.

In-equanimity, inequality, prejudice, bias, bigotry, proud, etc, brings with it earthquakes. When we have equanimity and equality with all, things are smooth and flat. Just like flat smooth ground, it is easy to walk on. Everyone's life also becomes easier because everyone treats everyone else with the same respect. But when the opposite happens, thing become difficult for everyone, the flat ground becomes uneven - earthquake.

Foolishness (for example, those who refuse to see past their nose), stupidity, selfishness, brings with it calamities of the wind. Such calamities would include things like Hurricanes, Tornadoes, sand storm, etc.

Hate, anger, and vengefulness, brings with it calamities of the fire type, such as volcanic eruptions.

He also goes on to say that, inorder to save the world from all the above calamities, all it takes is for a group of 20 to 30 lay followers to attain Bodhisattvahood, through the practice of perseverance and calmness of the inner self. In so doing, because the people who have been inspired to save the world through such practice would have accrued enough merits to stop the calamities.

3 Flavors of Charity (edited)

Charity is the act of giving performed with the intention of enlightening sentient beings, when they have observed the performance of such acts. At least for this author, I had not realized that only until recently. Therefore, when we perform charity, we are distributing what we do not need to others who need it more, in hopes that when others around us see the act they would understand the meaning behind it; and thus inspire them to follow suit. At the mere mention of charity, the thought that immediately comes to mind is the donation of money. However, there is more than just money we can donate to charity. Money just happens to be the most convenient and easily accessible. There are actually 3 different kinds of charity.

Monetary Charity
This is the most widely used and most popular form of charity. Everyone always have some money on them, whether its just small change or big dollar bills. It is also the most convenient because you could just give and move on to your next daily routine, or your next errand.

Charity of Time and Energy
This form of charity is less popular as it requires one to "sacrifice" their time and energy. Something most of us are finding short on in this modern society. An example of such a form is charity is Volunteerism. Like when one donates their time and energy into helping a charitable organization to help them in their daily responsibilities of performing their function. Such work may not mean direct involvement into what they do, but it could be just simply being present to help clean up their office, perform some light administrative duties, volunteering as a chauffeur, or even just being the errand boy/girl. Just helping someone else do something is also an example such a form of charity. Like helping someone who has fallen up, helping to babysit your neighbor's, or relative's children are also instances of this kind of charity.

Charity of Knowledge
This is where one shares knowledge and wisdom with others. When you teach someone how to do something, or perform a task, and asking for nothing in return, that is charity. Instances of this would be when a friend teaches you how to do your homework, or a colleague passes you tips on how to better perform a task.

However, all three forms of charity are practiced, when one donates money to help defray the costs of printing religious scriptures, or generally books/booklets/pamphlets/etc that help to enlighten the public so that they may gain wisdom (not referring to information pertaining to the materialistic domain/s, but more of information that will help enlighten one's soul, thus gaining profound wisdom and understanding). In donating money for the printing, one has fulfilled the Practice of Monetary Charity. In turn, it also means that you have also enabled the people involved to be able to go ahead and print the literature in question. That is the Practice of Charity of Time and Energy. Finally, when the literature has been disseminated to readers, people will be able to gain the wisdom contained in the literature. Thus, fulfilling the Practice of Charity of knowledge. The merits accrued from this act of charity is immeasurable.

Lastly, there is another form of charity I would like to mention - Vegetarianism. Many Buddhists believe that to be a true disciple of the religion, one would have to go vegan. That belief if questionable at best. The true meaning of vegetarianism has been lost through the passage of time because those people did not truly practice Buddhism. The Buddha teaches all to question what was being taught to understand the teachings better. When questioned about the practicality of his teachings, he goes so far as to tell doubters to try his teachings out first, then make a decision for themselves after. So, if those who claimed that one of the reasons for being a Vegetarian is because you are a Buddhist, you have the wrong idea. The reason for Buddhist some Buddhist being a vegetarian is because they are practicing the Charity of Time and Energy. From the Buddhists' perspective : "I give up eating meat such that sentient beings need not have to give up their life for my enjoyment." (The sentient beings here refer to all the animals on land, and all the animal life forms that live in the water, that have to give their life so that all humans can have food on their table.) The westerners have the right idea when they speak of becoming a vegan. Of course, not everyone gives up eating meat for religious reasons.

(Note : In Buddhist Vegetarianism, it is a widely practiced to not eat Onions, Garlic, or anything that belongs the same family of vegetables. The reason this came about is due to the fact that veges just as Onions and Garlic can stimulate the production of certain hormones. These hormones can cause one to have difficulty focusing while practicing meditation. Hence, the reason why Buddhist Monks do not eat them. And thus the reason for the wide spread practice in the lay follower community. Such veges are actually GOOD for our immune system. It helps arrest harmful bacteria inside us.)

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.

Who died and made me King ?

CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It is a form of psychological intervention that targets our frame of thinking. Giving us a tool to correct our irrational (dysfunctional) thinking into more rational (healthy) thinking. Thus, allowing us an opportunity to correct a dysfunctional lifestyle.

The way it works its so simple, that its amazing. When an event happens, our first thought would be a rational thought. For example, "oh, I didn't do well in my test", "mum just scolded me", or "I just missed the bus." Usually, they would be thoughts that described an event that was just experienced. Following that, our second thoughts, in respective order, "I am going to fail my entire semester", "I am useless", or "why couldn't the driver had waited for me for just one minute more." These thoughts are what sets the stage for our action phase. In the examples given above, depression and anger sets in. This is where CBT seeks to work its wonderful magic here. It helps to change our irrational thoughts into more rational ones. My lecturer hit it home for me when she said one thing; "who died and made you King that the whole world has to serve your wants and needs ?"

I am not sure how many of you have similar experiences, but for me I can now see how I can get stressed, depressed, or all the gamut of what we termed as dysfunctional behaviors and emotions arise. Even though, we do not usually think about it, but we live under the assumption that the world around us, revolves around us, and all things must work the way we need it to be. When things do not work the way we like it to be, we react negatively, and act out accordingly.

Therefore, we need to understand that the world works the way it needs to work. We work the way we need to work. The people around us need to work the way they need to work. When we try to influence the way things work outside of ourselves, unexpected things can happen, and things may not work out the way we planned, expected, or hoped. When we interact with things outside of our sphere of direct influence, weird things can happen, good things can happen too, or nothing happens. We just have to understand and accept the consequences, then move on from there. Dwelling on the consequences will not help us progress, but learning how to accept it and move on will. No one died and made you King, so the world does not revolve around you.