Understand Frustrations With The Intellect

Spoken By  Ching Hai, Tainan, Formosa
March 16, 1990 (Originally In Chinese)

Q： How are You, Master? I believe, before You attained the Truth, You must have gone through innumerable severe tests. Can You tell us, when You faced all kinds of difficulties, like feeling depressed or even desperate, how did You detach Yourself from these agonizing feelings to live optimistically while firmly pursuing Your spiritual path and continuing in Your daily life?

M： There were lots of tests! No one is free from trials. Sometimes, the tests were really senseless; sometimes, they were very fierce; sometimes, they were very vicious; sometimes, the tests made You want to die. However, in whatever situation, I always observed carefully and I would say: “Oh! You are in a bad mood today, you want to cry. All right, just go ahead and cry! You are feeling awful today, just let it be. Tomorrow will be different. I am sure tomorrow will not be the same!

I am talking about very logical things, spiritual practitioners or not. Ever since we were born, we have not lived one single day that is identical to another. If today is bad, tomorrow must be good, If it doesn’t get better tomorrow, it definitely will be the day after. It may be raining today, but there will be sunshine tomorrow. We can understand this by observing natural phenomena. We shouldn’t remain in a certain situation, and then hide behind it. Never mind where we are put, it is okay! We just carry on living there. It is only a kind of mood, and our moods change every day — for better or worse. I simply take it as it comes.

When pain comes, I feel the pain; when happiness comes, I feel the joy. I am not insensitive. When pain comes, just let it be. I say: ” All right! So be it today. I will definitely be happier tomorrow. ” Just that. And you ought to keep this in mind. (Applause)

Also, at our most agonizing moments, do not sink with the pain. Instead, try to ponder: ” Why do I have such pain? ” Observe what you can learn from these painful situations. There must be something! If you observe clearly then all situations are good lessons from which to learn. Having realizations through observing, you will be enlightened and happy tomorrow. Understand frustrations with Buddhi (intellect), and don’t let them pass by in vain. (Applause)

Lentil Burger

Ingredients:

 

• 1 can of green lentils
• 115gr dry chickpeas
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• 1 onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 red chili (optional)
• 5 tablespoons of plain flour
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

Extra flour to dust your hands and either olive oil or sunflower oil to fry the burgers.

You’ll need a food processor for this.

Start by placing the chickpeas in water for about 1-2h. Get a food processor and with the chopping blade chop the onion, the garlic cloves and the chili. Now add chickpeas (drained) and the lentils (rinse well so they are loose). Blend again for about 1 minute.
Now add the lemon juice, olive oil, flour, cumin, salt and pepper. Blend until this forms a paste (around 2 minutes should be enough).

Flour your hands and with about 2 tablespoons of the burger mix shape this into a burger patty.

1) For a healthier version of this recipe you can shape the burgers and place them on baking paper on an oven proof tray. You can bake them for around 20-25min on 180 oC.  or you can fry them, just like meat burgers.
2) In a frying pan heat some oil and carefully place the burger shaped patty into the pan. With a skimmer carefully turn them so they fry on both sides. Around 4 minutes on each side should be enough to cook the burger and give it a golden color.

The amount in this recipe makes 5 big burgers. Estimated cost for 5 burgers = under 40 cents (€) per burger.

 

From  http://www.seriouslytastymeals.blogspot

 

 

 

The Purpose of Meditation – Realizing Your Self and Attaining Inner Bliss

Spoken by Master Ching Hai

“All the pain, sorrow and misery come not from the outside, not from other people. They come from our inner ignorance. We expect too much from everyone and everything, and then we’re disappointed. So the only source of happiness is inside. Whenever you meditate, try to get in touch with that source. For your sake, for your own happiness, contentment, satisfaction, you must always try to get in touch with that joyful center which is inside all of you. That is where the Master power is. That is where every miracle in the universe can manifest. That’s all loving kindness, that’s where all loving kindness is born. That’s where all the Virtues, beauty and the Truth laying dormant there for you to discover.

Otherwise, sooner or later we all die and go where, who cares? At least when we’re living, we must live a very worthwhile human life. We should be happy and be able to carry on our life in a joyful way. Because that befits our dignity as a human being, as the “Top Ten” of all the animals in this world. We’re the top of physical creation. We don’t know if we’re the top of the universe yet. Maybe not, but at least here, we’re the top of creation. So we must carry on our life as dignified as a human being should be, and not be fearful of everything and stupid and in misery, especially when we have the treasure inside that we can always use.

That’s the only purpose of meditation: that you know yourself and know what true happiness is, not because the Master says so and you have to obey the Master. You obey the Master because it’s good for you, but you must know why. You must know it’s for you, not for the Master.

Major Plant-Based Medical Center Opening in Washington, DC

by Hannah Sentenac

Hippocrates said it best back in B.C.: “Let food be thy medicine.” Unfortunately, it’s taking today’s medical community a long time to heed his warning.

Luckily, a handful of forward-thinking, science-minded organizations and individuals are finally advocating for the power of plant-based diets, and the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is at the forefront.

As part of its commitment to nutritional advocacy, the group is set to open a nonprofit medical center in Washington, DC,—one that’ll be focused entirely around Hippocrates’ wise words.

The plant-based Bernard Medical Center will open on Nov. 2, 2015, offering primary care to thousands of patients per year.

Running the show will be Neal Barnard, M.D., founder and medical director, plus three physicians, one nurse practitioner, and two registered dietitians. The staffers will help clients create custom treatment plans designed to prevent and/or treat chronic conditions and other medical needs.

“With six full-time clinicians, we’ll be able to see about 4,000 patients each year,” Dr. Barnard told LatestVeganNews.com.

The clinic will help people change their lifestyles from top to bottom. As medical professionals, they’ll still be able to write prescriptions and perform standard medical tests, but as the team says in their announcement: “Although we can prescribe medications, we prefer to help you minimize your need for them.”

There’s also a major education component to the facility, says Dr. Barnard.

“Barnard Medical Center will be one of the first clinics of its kind, hosting regular Food for Life classes to educate the community and Barnard Medical Center patients about foods for optimal health and disease prevention,” he explains.

Class specializations will include weight loss, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and different types of pain, including migraines, joint pain, and menstrual cramps.

“Nutrition and lifestyle changes will be at the forefront of treatment,” he explains. At the clinic, the root causes of diseases will be treated—versus just focusing on symptom relief like most modern medical facilities.

The clinic will be setting up shop at 5100 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 401, Washington, DC 20016 on Nov. 2nd, so DC-area residents have a lot to look forward to. Let’s hope Barnard goes on to conquer every city in the U.S.—lord knows we need it.

from http://www.latestvegannews.com

 

Loving the Silent Tears: The Musical

For Little Angels – Lesson 25

By master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 25 – Good thoughts, good actions

Your grandparents, your uncles, or your cousins may live far away from you. Don’t put them out of your mind. Write to them or give them a call sometimes. You do this to maintain a blood relationship with them.

You may still think about your beloved family members when they are far away but if you don’t try to get in touch with them, your good thoughts for them, after a while, will be good for nothing. You have to turn the good thoughts in your head to good actions. Otherwise, your good thoughts would not help anyone or make anyone happy. If you just keep the good thoughts in your head, after many days they will turn into trash.

You are thankful to and concerned for people around you. Those are good thoughts. And remember to turn them into actions. Practice doing this at a young age and you will grow up living by the rule “Good Thoughts, Good Actions.”

Why actions are important? Because if you just think and don’t act, your brain won’t develop properly and you can’t see and understand things broadly without neglecting details.

FDA Finally Admits Chicken Meat Contains Cancer-Causing Arsenic

According to the Associated Press, the FDA finally confirmed that chickens given the drug do indeed test positive for inorganic arsenic.

After years of sweeping the issue under the rug, the FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, a cancer-causing toxic chemical that’s fatal in high doses. But the real story is where this arsenic comes from: It’s added to the chicken feed on purpose! As far back as 2006, the IATP’s report Playing Chicken: Avoiding Arsenic in your meat estimated that more than 70 percent of all U.S. chickens raised for meat are fed arsenic.  It is added to induce faster weight gain on less feed, and creating the perceived appearance of a healthy color in meat from chickens, turkeys and hogs.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found that nearly half of all chickens tested have absorbed inorganic arsenic, the most toxic form, in their liver. Based on that finding, the agency asked Pfizer to stop manufacturing Roxarsone, the arsenic-containing drug that’s added to feed to fatten chickens and give meat a bright pink hue.

from :  http://www.livingtraditionally.com

The Secret To Awakening

If you’re like most people, you live almost entirely in your mind. There’s a constant internal dialog going on, the mind always talking to itself. “I need to do this…”, “What if that…”

As soon as one thought is finished, another pops up. This is going on non-stop, so much so that really paying attention to all these thoughts would start to drive you nuts, so all the thinking starts getting pushed into the unconscious where it goes on automatically, habitually.

This is dangerous though, and the fact that nearly everyone else is doing it too doesn’t make it any less so. Your thoughts influence enormously how you perceive your world. In new age jargon, this is the “you create your reality”.

Your beliefs are the lens through which you see the world, though for most, it’s more accurate to say your beliefs are your world. To let the mind ramble on unconsciously is very dangerous because it will go on absorbing, and modifying beliefs without any conscious direction from you, and these beliefs will direct your whole life.

When you’re unaware of your own thoughts, you’re like a leaf blowing in the wind, and it becomes very easy for people to manipulate you. The media can just repeat something over and over again, and whether or not it’s true, the majority of people will start repeating it as fact. Most mainstream forms of media, advertisers and politicians have refined manipulating people into an art.

When you’re caught up in your own mind, it’s difficult to really hear what another person is saying too. Your own thoughts take precedence in your mind, and they can very easily distract you.

You go on half-listening or half-reading what another is saying and at the same time you’re listening to your own thoughts. You get overloaded, too much to take in at once, and so you go on auto-pilot and you operate almost entirely unconsciously.

Unconsciousness reacts, and a reaction is always based upon the past. If you live unconsciously, you will just repeat the past over and over again. It’s very easy to live that way, and it’s very safe, at least by societal standards.

If you truly live in the moment, if you really live consciously, all you know for certain is what’s occurring in this moment, the past is just echoes, and the future is endless possibilities. In living presently, everything opens up, life moves from the known to the unknown to the Unknowable, the Ultimate.

Consciousness is always fresh, always new, always seeing things in different ways. It’s not something planned out beforehand, it’s something that happens entirely in this moment.

We’ve been taught that behaving unconsciously makes us good people though, and that truly making our own decisions, by breaking free of the rigid societal structures, we’ll bring chaos upon ourselves and threaten society as a whole.

The things I’m talking about here may seem fairly mundane, not nearly as exciting as chakras and higher dimensions, but what I’m talking about here, awareness, is the key that unlocks all those things. Spiritual people are always talking about awakening, but what is awakening? Isn’t it simply awareness?

Isn’t that what happens every morning when you wake up? You were sleeping, and now you’re awake, now you’re more aware. Spiritual awakening is just a heightened level of awareness, it’s awareness of more than just the physical realm. You don’t need a bunch of bells and whistles to get there, no need for a spiritual books, gurus, chanting, all you need is awareness.

Greater awareness of the body and mind will naturally lead to awareness of the Soul. It’s the unconsciousness of the mind that distracts from the Soul in the first place, but unconsciousness cannot thrive when the being is aware. Pay close attention to everything, do not let your mind ramble unconsciously.

Really, all you’re doing is acknowledging the way your mind really is. With awareness, little by little, the mind will start to calm. Not by fighting against the mind, not by struggle, but through simple awareness. The worries and fears that thrived in unconsciousness start to shrink when exposed to the light.

People use spirituality like some mental bubble gum. You chew on something for a while, then when it has lost its flavor you spit it out and look for something new to consume. It’s a form of entertainment, some excitement and distraction from an otherwise boring life.

Pay very close attention to all parts of your life, so close that it becomes impossible to ignore any part, whether ecstatic joy or extreme pain.

In this you will be transformed, your feelings will become guideposts in how to live your life, not as an imitation of someone else, but as a celebration of your true self.

http://www.thespiritscience.net

Too Bad about God’s Dollar!

Master Tells Joke

A mother gave her kid two dollars and said, “One is for you to do with as you want, and one is to put in the box in church for God.”

So the kid went around and was playing with the dollars, and then one of them went into the river. She couldn’t find it so she said, “Sorry, God! Your dollar’s gone!”