[Note: Undergoing typos and grammar checks...]
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This is the first time I listen to a Tao Master. This Master leads a group of Tao cultivators. It is a religion-free talk. Very profound.
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Note: This post is written in the first person, but it is not recorded ad verbatim to what the master spoke. Besides, the Master spoke in Mandarin, and I am writing in English here.
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Let us go through some of the topics that your group had discussed about in your previous session.
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Complaints
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Let's talk about 'complaints'. Does anyone here know why people complain?
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[I said: "Because of dissatisfaction?"]
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There are complaints that are about not having basic necessities, like food, money, jobs...etc. In other words, complaints about what you do not have. Other people are willing to accept such complaints and may even help you.
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There are also complaints due to dissatisfaction with what you already have but that you demand more. These complaints are luxuries. But can they be considered complaints? Yes, they can be considered as complaints, as they are expressions of dissatisfaction. These are complaints other people would not like to listen to or accept. For instance, it could be a complaint even you have a job, or when you have rice to eat and still complain about the taste.
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These complaints are due to a lack of emotional satisfaction and cannot be measured. So others cannot help to fulfill the demands of these types of complaints because your emotions cannot satisfy the heart and vice versa. Such emotional demands are due to an un-peaceful heart. Material alone cannot bring a peaceful heart.
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It is most difficult to satisfy emotional complaints, because emotions are personal feelings that cannot be felt by others. They can't be easily settled.
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So when you want to complain, be aware of what you want to complain. Check if they are emotional complaints. If they are, then it may be unfair to others because they cannot feel your emotions.
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If a complaint is due to money, for instance, they can be satisfied as there will be a sum that when reached will satisfy the need. There is a quantification.
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When there are emotional complaints it is so difficult to live with one another, as they cannot be quantified and resolved.
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Complaints represent the unstable emotions of a person. They are not violent. A person can have an unstable emotion because he is not loved, not respected, not appreciated etc.
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Complaints from people from different environments will be very different. For instance, complaints from Cambodians would be very different from those from Singaporeans. In Cambodia, it would be about basic necessities like food and shelter, whereas in Singapore, it would be about the lack of opportunities to be able to develop one's ambitions.
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Similarly, complaints from Tao cultivators would be very different from lay people.
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Complaints from cultivators would be about ideals, opportunities to manifest their talent...etc. In other words, they are luxury complaints, in contrast with lay-people who would tend to have complaints of basic needs. 'Luxury complaints' cannot be satisfied, as there is no feedback as to how much is being satisfied, as emotions are not quantifiable.
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Therefore, you can raise a complaint only if it can be fulfilled by others, because unsettled complaints will create chaos. A frequent complainant complains because he does not have the ability to manifest what he wants and rely on others by complaining. An able person does not need to complain, as he can easily manifest what he wants. Sometimes, the more you care for a person, the more that person complains to you, which means that this person has become reliant on you.
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Also when you want to raise a complaint, ask yourself if you are voicing a dissatisfaction or are you actually asking for help? If it is the latter, then just for help. Don't complain.
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[I asked: Are unspoken complaints considered complaints?]
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Even when not spoken, they are complaints. Refusal to take prescribed medicine is a way of complaining; refusal to corporate is a way of complaining; or turning to acts of terrorism are also unspoken complaints.
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A peaceful heart will have no complaints. But how do we cultivate a peaceful heart? The answer is to have a correct mindset. When you lose our concept of correct mindset, then we do not have a peaceful heart. In today's world, there are lots o information. Societal values have become too complex. This has misled the concept of mindsets. Concepts are derived from cultures and religion. So we must be careful with what we choose from religions and cultures.
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For instance, Chinese and Indians have different outlook in life due to their respective religions, cultures and teachings. Both races are in pursuit of concepts that can satisfy them.
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For instance,
A poor man pursue God, in the want for consolation from somebody or somewhere;
A rich man pursue God, in the search for a 'guarantee' from somebody or somewhere.
Both are in search of concepts to satisfy themselves.
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"Fang Kwei Si Tong"
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To understand more about Black Box, let us look at "Fang Kwei Si Tong" (FKST), which the group here has interpreted it as "Mutual Exchanges in Reciprocity". It is important for all of us here to have a common understanding of FKST.
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There are many explanations for "Fang Kwei". Nowadays, many of the explanations are expressed from the technical perspectives.
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"Si Tong" means "System". Systems essentially need to have interconnections within itself. Without interconnections, there won't be a system. Take our body for instance, there are subsystems and all of them are connected to form our body system. In our body, blood is pumped out from the heart and returns to the heart. This return flow is a feedback to the source of the flow. Essentially, this blood comes from the source, hence the meaning of "Fang Kwei". In your interpretations, you have used "mutual exchange" - that implies one party sending the energy to another party and vice-versa. In "Fang Kwei", the energy is sent and received by the same source/destination.
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However, blood flowed out is different from that of the return flow.
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Similarly in business, money flowed out (investments) are different in value to the returns (profits). In fact, for everything we do, that is what we want to have a flow out and return flow at higher values. Even Buddhists want a positive return in whatever they do, even if it means just a peaceful heart; even if the peace is realised in the next embodiment.
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But sometimes, we don't get positive returns. For instance, you may invest $10k and get back only $6k. Why? That is because the feedback System has a problem. If you look around, you will also realise that there are many feedback systems that are in chaos. That is because we don't understand the systems.
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Feedback, or feed-back, implies "feed", what we 'eat' or take-in. To "feed" and to "feed me back".
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Universal energy all have feedbacks. The tree takes water and sun and produces oxygen...etc. This works very well.
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However, the human feedback is not working as desirably as other universal systems. We ought to get desirable feedback as we are part of the Universal System.
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Feedbacks can be constructive or destructive. However, why are there more destructive feedbacks than constructive feedbacks. It is system that is having problems, as the objective of the system has not changed, since all human beings want peace. All religions advocate peace but we result in war.
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In the education system, we have a teaching system which is well trained. However, we also have a learning system, which tends to be not well trained. So sometimes, we don't produce good students. University students are well-trained in learning. That is why best students may not have best teachers.
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So a teaching system must be synergistic and complementary to the learning system.When the Buddha teaches, he use a high system of Dhamma to teach the high level consciousness to suit their learning processes; and will use a low level of Dhamma to teach the lower levels of consciousness. Therefore, systems are very important, especially learning systems.
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There are also problems in systems in religions. We all have our own systems and should not impose on others if we have not checked if the system is problematic, or that it cannot be accepted by others. Two different systems from individuals, organisations or entities must match. We can't be egoistic and impose our system on others. We must open up to other systems and become a multi-system system.
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Singaporeans have this concept of multi-system system, as we live in a society of many races, cultures and religions. That is why we adapt well when we go to foreign countries. We adapt well because we don't have a culture. We don't have a culture yet. May be in 50 years' time, Singapore will have its own culture and the language will be Singlish (said in jest)...
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Black Box
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A Black Box is a secret. An unopened message. Secrets exist in government, in companies and in individuals.
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A Black Box has secret activities inside. How do you find out these secrets in your Black Box and in other people's Black Box?
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Everyone has secrets. Some secrets are even not known to ourselves. These secrets are stored in our sub-conscious, some from experiences in our previous embodiments. Through the Chinese Ba-Zhi reading, Face Reading, palm reading, hypnosis,... etc, we can find out about the contents in our Black Box. Our destiny is in our Black Box.
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We can also observe our own behaviours and emotions, record them and we'll know all our own secrets. Knowing how to open Black Boxes can be useful. For instance, if you are a boss at work, you would want to know who are the talented ones for the specified work and who are more loyal ones.
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How do we know that?
We can know by looking at the feedback. So we give the employee a position, the authority and tests, and allow him to operate in freedom.
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In freedom, you observe. Different people will give different feedback. For instance, you can trust a particular person and he will become more trustworthy. He feels obliged to be more trustworthy than he already is, because you trust him totally. However, for another person, as you trust him, he becomes tempted to betray you and then finally he betrays you. Before trusting this second person, you didn't think that he would betray you. More surprisingly, even that person himself did not know that he would ever betray you. So it is a surprise even to that person, as he didn't even know this secret in his own Black Box.
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In other words, you have put things in his Black Box to receive feedback. In the preceding example, you have discovered the secrets of two different persons by trusting two different persons. If trusts were not given, there will be no understanding of their Black Boxes, as Black Boxes can be opened only when there is full freedom.
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We all have total freedom to open our own Black Boxes.
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In history, societies are much controlled. The wayward man will not do evil things. Likewise, the upright man cannot do great things.
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Conversely, look at the United States of America, there are great achievements, but also high crime rates. That is because in the USA, people are given more freedom than elsewhere. With full freedom, Black Boxes are open to realise their potentials.
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Chinese people can tell the destiny of a baby when he is 3 years old or younger. At that age, they are fully spontaneous and don't have a Black Box. When the 3 year old are fully natural, we can tell where his destiny lies. As he grows older, he gradually creates a Black Box.
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So human potential is not fully manifested. Every topic is related to self and your life, from the system of feedback.
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DNA
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DNA are codes carried over from our previous embodiments. They are like memory. These codes are lengthy. Research done to date discover enough DNA code to fill up 40 phone directory size books. Each code, like a phone number in the phone book, forms part of our experiences.
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So if you can pull out the Buddha code, then you can be Buddha now.
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That's why you see some people grew from young to old age, then return to child-like behaviour again. They have pulled some parts of their DNA of childhood.
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Similarly, when we play with children till we are fully immersed in the games, we have pulled out the child-code in us.
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So we can live a cultivated life and pull out the cultivated code.
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For those of you who are about 50 years old in Singapore, you have been in the military service 30 years ago. During that time, you probably listened to Teresa Teng's songs, dance the Ah-Go-Go and other trendy activities during that time. So if you are now exposed all these experiences that you had 30 years ago, that is Teresa Teng's songs, Ah-go-go...etc. It would instantly remind you of your army days. You will feel as if you are there and then.
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That is why some professionals, though live much of their life in their profession, suddenly decided to turn to the monastery and decided to turn to monk hood. Perhaps he had heard chants, seen certain statues, or been to some temples...etc. That is because in his past embodiments, he had ever been a monk and has now pull out the code embedded in his DNA.
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So which DNA code we pull out depends on the environment we are in. So, to change the world, you have to change your practice and change your culture.
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People who change themselves can change others. You would need a new practice to change yourself. Then your future will change.
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For instance, Western societies have changed the lifestyle of Asians; and the West will be changed by Asians philosophies. So we need a conducive environment. One that we can cultivate ourselves and over time, we will change our DNA.
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Ok, it is getting late and I think we should stop here. We have covered only a few terms we want to cover. We shall leave the other terms for the next session. We have only covered terms now. After that we will discuss about whole phrases, then whole books. :)
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Thank you for listening so patiently to what I say. Such topics do need much concentration.
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The talk ended here. It lasted slightly over two hours. I will be back for the next session.
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This week, we continue to read a page from Charles Handy's book, "Waiting for the Mountain to Move". In it, it speaks about Mr Handy's attending church every Sunday because he wants to, not because he has to, and that church was necessary for him to get to periods of recreation from the activities of daily life. He described his life like a pendulum, oscillating from the extreme hype of activities to the quieter moments of recreation. 
Many crowded the temple to pray to him, especially mothers who want their children to do well in school.
Offerings like these are pre-packed by the temple and sold to devotees to offer to Confucius. How would Confucius need all these food? Are these offered to him or to the devotees themselves? 
Today I visited the shrine where my father's (ancestral) tablet lay rest. He passed away peacefully four years ago - in his sleep.
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