Note-able

“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore
the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big
differences that we often cannot foresee.”

Marian Wright Edelman

It was, perhaps, a timely reminder.

I was having a chat with a busker whom I frequently met on the way to the train station from my workplace on weekday evenings after work.  He seems unusually happy that day, and further into our little chat, he revealed the source of his happiness, he had met an unusual girl recently and showed me a note, written by her on a post-it paper, carefully folded and kept in his wallet.

It was a note of appreciation for his music, from a random stranger. The note was filled with appreciation for his music in making her day seems happier and encouragement for his future. It was heartwarming. I left the busker with his note, with a pat on his shoulder, telling him to continue living his dream of being a musician.

I felt strangely happy and touched by the kind appreciation gesture of the young girl who wrote the note. I was, in a sense, sharing in his happiness. I am grateful to the busker for sharing his happiness with me and the random stranger who wrote the note.

Perhaps, a lot of us are focusing on how we can make a big difference in others and our lives that we be neglect the little things that really matters. Perhaps, what is more valuable to others is hope, encouragement and faith in humanity which I think all of us can contribute to, with a smile and a kind gesture anytime, anywhere when the conditions are right.

Let us all make this world a better place by being a better us the next moment on.

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love”

Mother Teresa

May all be loved by all and have the love for all

With Metta

Simple Bear 22.03.2013.

Living, Being

"Be passionate about living; be dispassionate about being."
Simple Bear 20.03.2013.

Happiness in Time

"Happiness lies in every moment in time."
Simple Bear 20.03.2013.

Being a leader

"All of us are born leaders; we lead ourselves."
Simple Bear 18.03.2013.

Where are you leading yourself now?

Confessions to-be-made

Confession pages are now the craze online. As I was reading the true, fake, warm, fuzzy, perverted, and funny posts on the pages, I had this thought in mind, I think everyone should have their own confessions page perhaps in the form of a diary etc. We should start writing about our deepest fears, desires, stories about the world in which our mind had gleefully made up for us. After a while, when we look at the ‘confessions’ that we made, we may break into smiles at our funny antics, thoughts or shake head at our ignorance, anger, greed. I enjoyed the times when I read old blogs, letters that I wrote when I was younger than the present. It allows retrospection, allowing one to face up to one’s dark and light, without the possibility of the mind to deceive oneself by denying the memories of the thoughts, emotions and interactions with our world. It is, in Singaporean lingo, in ‘black and white.’

Perhaps, on a metaphysical level, we are ‘writing’ confessions all the time in the ‘cognitive page’. Think about a thought, a memory that you had a while ago about someone, something, changes in the situational conditions in which you are in. Awareness allows us to ‘read’ our confessions, and sometimes, we laugh over stupid thoughts and reactions that we have, in retrospection, in response to now, seemingly insignificant changes.

Now please excuse me, I have a confession to make.

I have an ego. it seems so real to me.

My friends do remember to stash your confessions diary away in a secret hiding place, and its location can only be found by deciphering encrypted messages in a treasure map.

May all be well and happy

Simple Bear 13.03.2013.

Freedom of Death

"Freedom to die is no freedom at all."
Venerable Heng Sure (in his song, Yasodara)

For those who are interested, the song can be found here: http://www.dharmaradio.org/paramita/songs_notes02.htm

This part of the lyrics strucked me when Venerable Heng Sure sang the song, Yasodara on Saturday.

Freedom of death is an illusionary freedom, for death is certain, we can have no free will over death. We may have the delusional assumption that we can choose death but death had already chosen us from the day we were born. The shackles of negative karma that binds us to the prison of Samsara; we are charged with unwholesomeness and perhaps, doomed to eternity, wasting lives after lives in this wretched living hell that we created for ourselves.

The key to freedom is in our mind; only we can free ourselves, there is no one binding us to us other than ourselves.

Freedom is a gift and death, a choice we need to make now and beyond, if beyond ever exists.

Simple Bear 11.03.2013.

Psychic Powers

 "Wisdom is the best psychic power."
Ajahn Brahm