What is Karma?

Cause and effect.

Translate to real life: Past Choices x This Moment = Future Outcome

Future outcome then becomes your 'past choices' aka the condition that you're in and the cycle continues.

Past x Present = Future.

You can't escape your past, it's within you.

So stop telling me to let go of my past.
The past constructs who I am today,
and combine it with my present choice creates my future.

Dear newborn babies,

Welcome to Earth, please enjoy your suffering here.

Let it go? Hold on?

People,

Stop telling people to let go.

'Letting go' is a non-action.

When people attempt to let go,

People just try to push it away.

But that's like

Pushing a dog away

While holding a bone in your hand.

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What are you yearning to let go?  Past? Negative emotions? People? Your self?  In any case:

Neither attempt to let it go,
Nor should you hold on to it.

Here is what you do:

Be aware of it.

Acknowledge it.

Embrace it.

It is not you,

nor is it your enemy.

It is your friend, your ally,

that reminds you of your problems

and leads you to the truth.

So invite it in to have a seat,

talk to it,

get to know it,

feel it,

and face your life with it.

Then you'll discover the true peaceful state

that accords with everything
including not being peaceful.

That's liberation.

Love

Life without Love = Nothing

Knowing That You Don't Know

Not knowing is fine; but not knowing that you don't know (aka thinking that you know when you don't) = big problem.

“Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge” - Alfred North Whitehead

Is there a particular type of person that just tick you off immensely?  Someone who you just can't stand being around with; so much so that you just wanna get the hell out ASAP or you know things would get ugly.  Well, some say that in most cases, what you hate in others is what you hate about yourself.  So what do I find absolutely disturbing in others?  It's just one word really: IGNORANCE.

I'm not talking about being oblivious of something, because all of us have something that we don't know of.  I'm talking about a person who thinks he knows about something when in reality, he has absolutely no clue.  The moment a person claims to know what he doesn't, he becomes a fool.  It annoys me even more when I happen to know enough about the subject to be certain that he is wrong.  

Socrates was considered to be the wisest by Apollo simply because he knew that he didn't know. 

So I appear to be wiser, at least than him, in just this one small respect: that when I don't know things, I don't think that I do either.

Are you aware that it's always those who know very little that generalize everything, thinking that everything is black and white in plain sight (check youtube comments for quick examples).

It's those who know how much they don't know that realize they can't really say much of anything for certain but merely offering suggestions and insights; this uncertainty, this openness, is what leads to new discoveries in the future.  It's like how experts rarely give you a straight answer about anything.  You know why?  Because the world isn't that simple! (Although it is in some way)  A Chinese idiom depicts this perfectly: "great intelligence may appear to be stupidity (大智若愚)".

In the Dhammapada, the Buddha has this to say about fools:

(61)

"There is no fellowship with fools."

(206) 

"Free from the sight of fools,One would constantly be happy.
One who keeps company with foolsWill grieve for a long, long time.
Living with fools is painful,As is living with foes."

(330) 

"There is no companionship with a fool;It is better to go alone.
Travel alone, at ease, doing no evilLike the elephant in the forest"
But what is a fool according to the Buddha?

(63) 

"A fool conscious of her foolishness is to that extent wise."

So, be a wise fool, being aware of what you know and don't know.

Let's look at what Tao Te Ching has to say about this:

Chapter 71 

1. One who knows what he doesn't know. 

2. Is the best. 

3. One who doesn't know but think he knows. 

4. It's a sickness. 

5. A wise man has no sickness. 

6. He treated a sickness as a sickness. 

7. Because he knows his sickness as a sickness. 

8. Hence, he has no sickness.

Pretty much the exact same thing.
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It's a little surprising how much I hate the fool inside me.  Meeting a fool last month caused me to be in agony every time that fool appeared in my mind for one full week!  I can't even stand such a fool being in my thought; I just lost it.  This could serve as evidence that I myself can be a fool sometimes as much as I avoid being one.  Aversion is really something, just as Buddha has said.

The three poisons or the three unwholesome roots (ignorance, attachment, and aversion) giving rise to suffering.

The foe

Is not evil,
Nor is it suffering itself.
It's the fear of them.
With fear, one attempts to escape.
With fear of that fear, one hides in denial.
It is that fear that hinders and ultimately destroys any humanity that one has.

Make no mistake; it's impossible to defeat such a foe, lying deep within your heart.
As they say: if you can't beat them, join them.
Therefore, when you catch yourself in any kind of distress,
Don't fight it, let yourself loose and allow it to penetrate you, soak yourself in it.
As you fade into the foe, the foe fades into you;
Then you'll find yourself one, complete, empty, and free...once again.

Thinking about "Positive Thinking"

I just heard someone refers the concept of positive thinking as an irrational optimism. And then I realized how much the term has been abused (or not). I don't know how the masses understand "positive thinking" nowadays. But after a bit of contemplating, I think this is what the term really means (maybe it has been said, I don't know). Anyways, in my understanding, being positive is not equivalent to being optimistic. Being positive is to love. On the flip side, being negative is to fear. Some examples below:

Positive                                 Negative

Love for world peace                Fear for war

Love for freedom                      Fear for limitations

Love for happiness                   Fear for sadness

Love for companionship            Fear for loneliness

Love for success                      Fear for failure

Love for love                            Fear for fear

Get it? Although both positive and negative essentially want the same thing, they actually attract what they focus on. Meaning that if your desire of world peace is derived from your fear of war, your fear will make a contribution (however small) to a war breaking out. Why, you ask? Because, in this particular example, fear of war leads to sensitively to conflicts, in which leads to mistrust, in which leads to hostility, in which leads to conflicts, in which leads to wars.

Therefore, "positive thinking" has nothing to do with being optimistic about anything; it's about loving what you desire instead of fearing what you don't. The next time you hear someone advocate or criticize the concept of positive thinking, make sure you know what they actually mean by the term.

P.S. Careful not to choose 'positive thinking' out of fear for negative attractions, or else you will fear that you fear that you fear that your fear that you...(repeat)

P.P.S. It's okay to fear. :)

My Religion is Legit = Yours is Not?

Saying one religion is better than others is like saying a M-size shirt is better than a L-size shirt.

Thought

Where does it come from?

Could it be told with words?

If so, what is delivering those words?

Who is there to comprehend?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

But could a thousand pictures convey a thought?

Thoughts come in and out of my mind as they please.  And I (if there's such a thing) am left speechless...

Introducing...Epicureanism—the Materialist

In this new series I'll be summarizing various religions and philosophical systems in the simplest way possible.  It should be quick and easy to read allowing us to compare and contrast .  I'll only focus on their views of the following aspects:

• Nature of the cosmos and our place within it
• God?
• Evil?
• How should we live?

First up, Epicureanism