Wednesday 19 October 2016

Happy Kathina!

Today we celebrated Kathina day at the temple. And also it co-incides with Avalokitesvara's Renunciation day and we always celebrate these two events together. So happy Kathina everyone! And yay I'm blessed that I am able to attend three of Avalokitesvara important days this year. 

In the temple just now, there was a nun who gave a short Dhamma talk. She talks about how we should not just think of doing good karma as doing good "actions". Like donating, helping people and so on. But the things we say, think and so on is also considered as something we can do to "donate" to our karmic bank. Even meditation, chanting sutras and praying is considered as such. 

Because she said by doing so, we're able to liberate our mind, even though just for that short while, from worries and negative thoughts. I think a lot of people forgot about this fact. The meaning of the word karma is action. And a lot of people forget that thinking and saying is also a form of action. So even though we help a lot of people, but our minds are filled with negative thoughts, what's the point?

The path to enlightenment is really the transformation of our minds, and not just our actions. And I think we need to have a change in our minds first before we can create a positive ripple effect to our life. From our speech, and then action and so on. I'm still working on this. Through daily meditation.

This is why I love Buddhism. I think it's a religion that improves our life through the transformation of our mind. And like the saying goes - change your mind, and you can change the world.

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