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A Journey to Freedom
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18.01.2022 How not to worry in a global pandemic and recession? Part II - Those that do not worry ========================================= On 7th of February, I bought a $830,000 investment property at a $900,000 loan. Both my wife and I had a stable job, and the Melbourne property market was booming, so it seemed a wise move with no risk. ... Two months later, the world was upside-down. Neither of our jobs are guaranteed. Experts say that the property values will drop by 40%. If we both lose our jobs, we may be evicted from our apartment and sell that investment property, making a loss of $300,000 straight-away. Yet I do not worry at all. My book A JOURNEY TO FREEDOM told a similar story about a Japanese monk called Hakuin: A teenage girl in a village in Japan in the 18th Century was pregnant, a situation that was extremely shameful in those days. Grilled by her parents, she pointed to Hakuin Ekaku, a monk, and one of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism. When the outraged parents confronted Hakuin, he simply responded, "Is that so?" When the baby was born, the parents brought it to Hakuin, who was now disdained by the whole society, and demanded that he raise the child. "Is that so?" Hakuin accepted the child. The teenage girl was tortured by guilt, though, and she eventually confessed the identity of the true father. The parents then went to Hakuin to apologize. "Is that so?" Hakuin said as he handed over the child. How not to worry? Read my next post - the Part III.
07.01.2022 How not to worry in a global pandemic and recession? Epilogue - To suffer or not to, that is your choice ========================================= As said in my book A JOURNEY TO FREEDOM:... "There can be many challenging conditions for you to deal with in your life, such as losing your job, having your house burn down, your partner leaving you, or you being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Yet, for any of those conditions to become mental suffering of yours, your heart has to resonate with it. The resonance is your rejection, resentment, or dread of that condition. If you do not judge what is happening and accept it unconditionally, then your heart will not resonate, and you will not suffer." To suffer or not to, that is a decision you can make. There is no complex reasoning in it. It is simply a yes/no switch. You say I decide not to suffer, and voilà, your suffering ends. Ever since our hands were freed from crawling to grab a weapon, we have been fighting to gain invincibility. But the more power we gain, the more insure we feel; the more foes we wipe out, the more enemies we face. True invincibility cannot come without, it can only come within. The realization of this fact is enlightenment. [End]
03.01.2022 How not to worry in a global pandemic and recession? Part III - Why don't they worry? ========================================= The enlightened like the Japanese monk Hakuin do not suffer or stress, because they realize that, between us and the external world, lies an intermediate layer that we have full control of: how we perceive the external world. Our mental stress and sufferings do not come from the problems in the external world, instead, they come from this intermediat...e layer how we perceive the external world. Most of us do not know of this intermediate layer, or do not know that we are able to control it. That is why we suffer. Hakuin decided to perceive the drama of an angry mob banging on his door accusing him to be a hypocrite and sexual predator, and the resultant tarnishing of his reputation as a Zen master all across Japan, as nothing but a ripple on a tranquil pond. Hence he did not suffer from this drama. In my case, I can’t prevent my family being evicted out of our apartment, or the loss of $300,000, or, even worse, I catching the coronavirus and die in agony. But I have a choice to not to mentally suffer from any of these. How to make this choice to not to suffer? Read my next post - the Epilogue.
02.01.2022 How did a person trapped in ego and anger for 45 years find peace and reconciliation? Through enlightenment, he gained amazing insights into Zen Buddhism, why human suffer and how to end it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0874Q6BZ4 Part I is the author’s memoir. He suffered abuse and negligence in his childhood, and grew up to be egotistic and aggressive. He had a lot of problem in his workplace and personal life. ... He attained enlightenment via meditation. He became fearless, and found peace and reconciliation. He became liked and respected in his work place, and handled difficult situations as a manager with ease. Part II & III introduces the author's theory about the evolutional and psychological nature of suffering and why and how we can end it, using common sense, interesting stories and drawings. It is different from usual religious and spirituality books - those tend to say "Just believe and don't ask why", while this book proves the theory step-by-step rigorously using deductive reasoning. Part IV introduces an easy-to-follow template to end suffering through meditation. It shows how to avoid most pitfalls that see many veteran meditators stuck for years without progress.
