Chocolate Overdose

When I first came to America, I was fascinated with many things including chocolates.  I was about 12 ½ years old and have never had chocolates before.  My first encountered with chocolates was Babyruth.  I asked my mom to buy me a package of Babyruth.   It came with six bars I think.  Anyway, on the way home from the grocery store, I ate all of the chocolate bars.   Yes, they were that good.  My stomach didn’t settle well with this indulgence.  (Overdose maybe a better word.)  I was so sick to my stomach.  I didn’t touch another chocolate bar for a long long time.  I guess one can call this “detachment from overdosing. ”  

Do you remember the last time you completely detached from something you enjoy by overdosing it? 

Christianity is about serving the community.  It is about giving, sharing, and doing what is right with others.  It is about solving the problems that face by humankind and be less concerned with our own personal happiness.  But sometimes it is hard to know what is right and wrong for others.  What may be right for me may not be right for others.  Hell, sometimes I don’t even know what is right for me, let alone knowing what is right for others. 

I don’t think there is a right or wrong way of giving your gifts and talents to the community.  If one truly gives without feeling righteous about it, then it is not wrong.  If one truly gives with sincerity without trying to fix, change, or mold others to one’s way, or without asking for anything in return, then this is not wrong.  As long as we don’t jump on everyone else and solve everybody else’s problems to avoid our own problems, then it is not wrong. 

I started out helping the community by solving my own personal problems because I am part of that community.   If there are problems in the world, then part of the world’s problems is me. I must first put my house in order.   The world is a big community.  This community is nothing but relationship with each other.  If I have problems, then my relationship with you and the world will have problems.   The beginning has to be with me if I think that there are problems.  

Nothing exists in a vacuum.  Sometimes all we see is the symptoms of the problem and not the root.  Violence is not the root but the symptoms of neurosis.  Individual aggression is the root.  Even a peace march can turn into a violence march with these individual aggressions.  Poverty is not the root but the symptoms of the root called greed.  Poverty does not exist because things are scarce; it exists because people are being greedy and hoarding.  We buy in excess and we hoard.  When our attics, garages, and closets no longer have enough space for things, we buy or rent space.  Even when we know that we are not going to use that old kettle or coffee maker again, we still would like to keep them around because they give us comfort (just in case).  We find comfort in hoarding.  One refrigerator and freezer is not enough, we have to have two or three around because it gives us comfort knowing that we have lots of foods and drinks around.  We find comfort in hoarding.  One serving of chips is not good enough; we have to have one bag.  We wonder why there is poverty.  

How do you see yourself helping the community? 

Prayer

Prayer is a personal communion with God and there is no right or wrong way to approach it.  I am just curious about your approach to praying.  Why do you pray? And if you do, what is the basis of your prayer?  What expectation may you have when you pray?  How are your wills be related to the devine will? Do you pray in silence or aloud?  When you pray, do you ask God to grant you wishes whether they are for your love ones, friends, neighbors, the unfortunates? Do you pray to give thanksgiving for God’s gifts and resignation to God’s will?   

Think of the person that you don’t like.   Do you pray for this person?  If yes, do you pray for God to help this person to find God’s way or do you pray for God to help you to find God’s way in this person?    

In Pursuit for Happiness, Part 3

We are passing from one partner to another partner; from one friend to another friend; from one job to another job; from one house to another house, from one church to another church (you get the drill) all in pursuit for happiness.  And strangely it always looks as if happiness is somewhere out there.  That happiness is in a new partner, friend, job, house, church and so on.   Others are enjoying their lives and envy says that it makes sense to pursue what others have to be happy like they do.  But when we reach where we think we can find happiness, it is not there.  Why?  Because we are too busy pursuing happiness and forget to enjoy it.  We forget that happiness is not something to pursue.  It is our nature to be happy.  We forget that happiness is not to be created—happiness is to be seen. 

“The grass beyond your fence is always greener, but don’t jump the fence to see whether it is actually so.  Enjoy it!  If it is greener on the other side of the fence, enjoy it!  Why destroy things by jumping the fence and finding out that is worse than your own grass?” 

Notes from OSHO, Joy. The Happiness That Comes from Within.

(A must-have for your library )

Flied Lice and Gleek Plick

Lu Ting ate at a Greek restaurant because Papadopoulos, the owner, made really good fried rice.  Each evening he would come in and order “flied lice.”  This always caused Papadopoulos to fall down with laughter.  Sometimes he would have two or three friends standing nearby just to hear Lu Ting order his “flied lice.” 

Eventually the Chinese’s pride was so hurt that he took a special diction lesson just to be able to say “fried rice” correctly. 

The next time he went to the restaurant he said very plainly, “Fried rice, please.”   

Unable to believe his ears, Papadopoulos asked, “What did you say?”

Lu Ting shouted, “You heard what I said you Gleek plick!”

Change begins from the root.  We can practice dropping our “negative traits” such as anger, greed, ambition, jealously, possessiveness, lust and so on but it will not work.  We can practice and pretend all we want.  But if the root has not been addressed, it will expresses itself in another form.  It won’t make much different from “flied lice” now it is “Gleek plick!”  We close one door, another immediately opens.  This is not a way of transformation.  It is like pruning leaves of a tree and hoping that the tree will be gone one day.  It is not so.  On the contrary, the more we prune the tree the thicker the foliage. 

Try to block a stream and see what will happen.  The blockage will disturb the equilibrium for those that are on the upstream and downstream and eventually it will spill over.  It cannot be simply destroyed.   

Notes from OSHO, Joy, the Happiness That Comes from Within.

Contemplating Life

Do you sometimes wonder where you come from at the instant of conception?  Do you sometimes have awareness that although you are on the road to somewhere, it feels like you are on the road to no-where?

We come from no where into now here at the instant of conception with just a spacing.  I guess Willie Nelson and Jack Kerouac aren’t the only ones “on the road again.” We’re all on the road.  Some of us actually think we are on the road to somewhere, that we know where we are going.  But sooner or later, we’ll find out that was just a strange conceit.  We can keep trying and keep getting distraught when our pictures of the future don’t match reality as it unfolds.  That’s the promise and disappointment we’ll find as long as we think we are going somewhere. 

After you have been on the road for awhile, you realize that the road to somewhere leads to no where to now here.  The only difference is the spacing.  You realize that the road to now here doesn’t have a lot to do with anyone else.  It’s primarily about you.  It is the path to your own heart.  It leads to all your fears and self-deceptions to reveal the shining truth about yourself.  You realize that you show up to this world with no-thing and you are going to return with no-thing.  You can’t take one thing with you. The only thing you can do with your life is giving it away.  

When we find a way to give, we find the purpose in life.  It doesn’t necessarily mean making contributions or giving things away.  It’s about finding a way to serve in some capacity.  It’s about asking the question what can I do to serve you? instead of what is in it for me? 

“I can’t get no, satisfaction…..”

Happiness is proportional to satisfaction and inversely proportional to desires.  The higher the satisfaction, the higher the happiness.  The higher the desires, the lower the happiness.  As Desires approach zero (and it may be possible for some), then Happiness is equal to infinity.   When we divide anything by a zero, it becomes infinity.  Imagine boundless, infinite happiness…..? 

The question is how do we obtain satisfaction? 

The Pursuit of Happiness, Part 2

Happiness = Satisfaction / Desires

Using the equation above, what would be the answer to happiness if Desires approach zero?  What would you conclude about the secret of happiness based on your answer?

Hint:  What happens when you divided something by a zero?   

Habit

Doubt

Doubt takes many forms.  One form of doubt is fear that we’ll hurt ourselves or make a mistake by going forward.  Another form of doubt is feeling that we’ve misunderstood our lives and that we’re constantly making a fundamental mistake. 

Being without doubt has nothing to do with accepting the validity of a philosophy or concept.  Being without doubt means that we connect with ourselves, that we experience mind and body being synchronized together.  Absence of doubts comes from trusting in the heart, trusting ourselves.  When mind and body are synchronized, then we have no doubt.