If you like Imee Ooi, you will like Sadhu For The Music - Dharma Music Unity Concert 2019 lead by Ms Imee Ooi. It is shared in Youtube today for the Vesak 2021 Special.
I like the Heart Sutra sang by Imee Ooi as she has really smooth sweet voice like a heavenly Devi. I went to her Heart Sutra concert in Singapore last year and it was a really great experience listening to her singing live. I do hope after the pandemic, she will be able to come to Singapore for another Dharma music concert.
On Vesak Day today to commemorate Gautama Buddha's birth, enlightenment and parinirvana, I practise meditation and listen o Dharma talk by Ajahn Keng and also Master Sheng Yen. I like to listen to Ajahn Keng because I learn something new and his talk is quite interesting.
As usual, Ajahn Keng reminds us that if we want to have happiness, we have to observe the precepts. Your mind is calm and not remorse and it gives you inner peace.
Happy Vesak Day! Tomorrow Buddhists around the world will commemorate the birth, enlightenment and Parinirvana of Gautama Buddha. I will stay at home meditating and listen to Dharma talks by Ajahn Keng and Master Sheng Yen to remember and reflect on Buddha's teaching.
We are indeed lucky to be able to still learn the teaching of Buddha even though
Buddha has entered parinirvana 2500 years ago. Remember 戒定慧 Precepts, Meditation
and Wisdom, the Noble Eightfold path to the path of awakening, Buddha told his
disciples before parinirvana.
Below is a video on the night that Buddha who sat under the Bodhi tree became
enlightened/awaken.
After victory over Mara, the Bodhisattva mind was firm, focused and concentrated. At dusk, the Bodhisattva began to develop meditative insight attaining to the first knowledge: The ability to recollect his past lives.
In the silence of the late night, he attained the second knowledge; Knowledge of the passing away and rebirth of beings according to the results of their actions.
Close to dawn, the Bodhisattva attained to the third knowledge; knowledge of the destruction of mental defilements, complete liberation and freedom from suffering. He thus came to be known as the fully self awakened Buddha.
" Craving with you I've been born again and again. But now you are revealed and your power redundant."
Sometimes people wonder why evildoer escapes from their evil deeds and go unpunished in this lifetime and why good people suffer. Sometimes karma manifests in this lifetime, sometimes karma will just happen in next life or the next next life. Just like seed, some fruit takes few months to ripen and some seeds take years to ripen.The movie Running on Karma is a film on Buddhist concept about Karma. Karma is simply cause and effect.
This is the reason why the compassionate Shakyamuni Buddha spent 49 years of his life teaching people to avoid evil by following the Noble Eightfold paths: Right Speech, Right Action, Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.
The protagonist is a Buddhist monk who acquired supernatural power of seeing a person's past life 天眼通 when he meditated for several days after his friend passed away. He could see what will happen to the person due to the person past life as he could see changing images on a person's face. He gave up monkhood and went to work as a stripper after he realised he could not stop what will happen. He helped the police woman escaped death twice or thrice but later realised that it was the police woman who saved herself by her kindness. However in the end, the police woman who was a Japanese soldier in her past life who killed many people was killed in the forest as she wanted to help the monk.
In another scene, the monk stopped an angry police sergeant who was beating the murderer by saying to him, "One thought Heaven, One thought Hell"(一念天堂，一念地獄). I recalled in a Dharma talk by Venerable Chao Khun Keng who shared that our mind is very powerful and we needs to be aware of it. Therefore, we always have to be mindful of our thoughts as our actions are driven by our thoughts 一念之间，但下种的因。
Recently, I read a book Miracles Happen by Dr Brian Weiss. He shared a case of a lady who can see a person's past life when she 'see' people's faces change, and sometimes entire scene play out around them. What she saw is similar to what the monk in the movie see. Maybe, some people are born with the gift of spiritual eyes who can see other people's past lives while others who through meditation, acquire psychic eye.
Dr Brian Weiss's sharing has further provided evidence that Buddha's teaching that there is reincarnation and how your action in past life will affect your present life and how your present life will affect your future life. Therefore we have to be mindful and observe the Noble Eightfold path which includes Right Thought and right action.
Running on Karma
This excerpt is from the book Miracles Happen: The Transformational Healing Power of Past-Life Memories by Dr Brian Weiss.
Sometimes when I face unhappy situation, I applied Buddha's teaching to let go of anger. Everything is temporary. There is no point in holding on to anger. Just let go and you feel at peace.
Spiritual practice lies in applying the Dharma in every minute and aspect of our daily life.
