Turtle

"Imagine that the whole earth was covered with water, and a man was to throw a yoke with a hole in it into the water. Blown by the wind, that yoke would drift north, south, east and west. Now, suppose that once in hundred years a blind turtle would rise to the surface. What do you think? Would that turtle put his head through the hole in the yoke as he rose to the surface once in a hundred years?"

"It is unlikely Lord."

"Well, it is just as unlikely that one will be born as a human being; it is just unlikely that a Tathagata, a Noble One, a fully enlightened Buddha should arise in the world; and it is just as unlikely that the Dhamma and discipline of the Tathagata should be taught. But now you have been born as a human being, a Tathagata has arisen and the Dhamma has been taught. Therefore, strive to realize the Four Noble Truths."

Monday, May 03, 2010

The Law of Attraction

I've been spending quite some time on self-help books, the more memorable ones to myself lately are:
- What's the Colour of Your Parachute (2008)
- The Seven Whispers by Christina Baldwin
- The High-Heeled Healer by Ann Marie Woodall
- Simpleology 101

It takes me a long time to finish each, and I haven't really finished each of them. The High Heeled Healer in particular was very interesting. I did almost every one of the suggested exercises in the book. There are numerous times when I surprised myself with what I put down as the answer. I might want to go through the whole book again, and look through the answers again, perhaps describing the transformation it had led me through.

But right now, I just want to speak of a recent incident which I find rather "shocking" in a good way. I was back in Malaysia last weekend, and ripped Chyi's CD - The Unheard of Chyi. Well, just felt like doing it. I've got that CD for a year but had never listened to it.

On last Saturday, I played the songs on my laptop. Then I went to search for her info on the Internet, and I found that she had recorded a buddhist CD in 2004 - Tibetan Mantras, or 佛心 as what the album is known in Chinese. This caught my attention, as how all buddhist mantras caught my attention. So I downloaded the songs from Baidu. It contains mantras like 大悲咒 and 南无观世音菩萨. On last Friday & Saturday, I also did metta meditation, after stopping for almost 1 year.

Ok.. then on Sunday, we (my colleagues and myself) were supposed to go to Xikou. When I reached their hotel, one of them suddenly changed her mind and we all agreed to go to Putuo Shan. On the way there, I learned that Putuo Shan is one of the 4 main mountains for Buddhist pilgrimage in China; Putuo Shan is for Guan Yin.

I felt like.. this is too much of a coincidence. I must have been having the Buddha and his teachings in my heart all these while, planting Buddhist seeds now and then.. that I deserve to see Guan Yin in such an unplanned circumstance..

I'll continue to plant the seeds..



~ttg~
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