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Good Thoughts, Words and Deeds - The Shaolin Arts and Daily Life

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  • Good Thoughts, Words and Deeds - The Shaolin Arts and Daily Life

    Dear Forum Members

    I have opened this thread as a place to discuss one of Sigung's most powerful teachings:

    To have good thoughts, words and deeds in our daily lifes. Anyone having spent time with Sigung will notice how often this teaching comes up in guidance to our daily lifes, do a quick questions and answers search and you will find this many times.

    I have a few planned posts to show how this teaching has helped me in my practice, especially in my daily life. I invite all members to share their thoughts and experiences on these matters.

    If you've ever spent time with our seniors you will have experienced how they live and embody the Shaolin teachings. Therefore I especially invite our senior members to chip in with advice and guidance as this will be invaluable for many of us.

  • #2
    Dear Johnny Sihing,
    I've been working hard to try and implement this into my daily life as well. Part of my daily morning prayer includes reminding myself that I am partially responsible for the happiness of others and that I bring happiness and bliss to others by having a compassionate heart. Although I am unable to maintain this mind as well as I like (angry thoughts still flutter up) the patients at the clinic that I work often complimented me to my boss how much positive energy I give off, I guess it's a direct result of my training.

    Yours truly,

    Ray
    "Om"

    I pay homage to all the great masters of the past and the present

    Comment


    • #3
      Dear Ray

      Thank you for sharing your experience, it leads onto my first post which will be on Good Deeds. It is indeed testament to your training that people complement your demeanor, this is something to be proud of.

      All the best

      Comment


      • #4
        Good Deeds

        The first part of this teaching I will discuss is doing Good Deeds.

        This part of the principle can be incredibly rewarding and greatly help us in our practice. It can bring us joy and wonder, enrich our day to day, take us away from our "percieved" problems, grealty enhance our Karma amongst many other benefits.

        When I began trying to implement this practice I struggled with being consistent. I would "turn on" this type of attitude one day and then get consumed with myself on others. To overcome this I have implemented the following practice:

        Every day/week think of all the good deeds that you can do, then just do them. Simple as it seems, just the act of continually shifting focus on to this daily enables us to enact this teaching.

        I further categorised Good Deeds into relevant areas in my day to day. This means I look at Family and Friends, My Shaolin Wahnam Family and people I meet day to day etc. Sigung's questions and answers can be so helpful on these matters, for example Sigung says:

        Now that their children are grown up, all they want is to have their children visit them often, hold their hands and talk to them.
        This is found in questions and answers: http://shaolin.org/answers/ans02b/jul02-1.html


        It is relevant to mention that Good Deeds or charity are categorised in Buddhist teachings:

        Sigung describes this in the questions and answers: http://shaolin.org/answers/ans00b/oct00-3.html


        Should you want to do something, it is best to further increase your blessings by being charitable.

        Charity is of three levels. The lowest level is the giving of material benefits, like monetary donation. The second level is the giving of service, like taking care of elderly people, especially your own parents if you are so blessed still to have them living with you. The highest level of charity is the giving of teaching, especially spiritual teaching. One should give teaching only if he is qualified to do so. Giving false teaching, in whatever field, is being uncharitable.
        So sharing teaching is the highest level. There is a balance to find here, if you continously try to teach people then noone will listen. Also we must first "heal ourselves" then others. We can share books, websites, lessons but we must be sensitive to other peoples views and needs. Sometimes the best teaching is to let our Shaolin Arts radiate from our hearts to those around us, that is what really inspires people.

        Love and Respect

        Comment


        • #5
          The teaching of Good Thoughts, Words and Deeds are closely related to our 10 Shaolin Laws.

          For example doing Good Deeds as described above is closely related to:

          3. Required to be filial to parents, be respectful to the elderly, and protective of the young.

          9. Obliged to be humane, compassionate and spread love, and to realize everlasting peace and happiness for all people.

          10. Obliged to be chivalrous and generous, to nurture talents and pass on the Shaolin arts to deserving disciples.
          It is also connected to all the Shaolin Laws.

          A final quote from questions and answers: http://shaolin.org/answers/ans06a/jan06-1.html
          which is incredibly inspiring in respect to doing Good Deeds:

          When you give, you open your heart and your spirit expands

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by sifu
            When you give, you open your heart and your spirit expands
            Dear Johnny Sihing,
            Thanks for your posts. I wanted to comment on my experience with Sifu's quote above. I've found that by practicing the meditation as you described which is a deepening of my morning practice anyway, you bring new meaning and joy to your life. I've met so many people who are spiritually tired because their daily lives do not give them any joy: they hate their jobs, their upset at family, blockages, blockages. I find that by doing the exercise you described you also utilize the powerful law of attraction, this is really empowering. It gives meaning to your life and you radiate happiness and bliss.

            ^_^
            "Om"

            I pay homage to all the great masters of the past and the present

            Comment


            • #7
              Nice thread Jonny. I'm looking forward to reading more.

              In a recent thread "what is evil?" we discussed that by doing good ( good thoughts, words and deeds) is a great way of avoiding evil.

              Personally I have often taken time to observe my seniors particullarly when they are embodying these traits and then try to find small ways to emulate them myself. At first this feels akward but gradually in small ways I have noticed improvemnts.

              I'd like to hear some others experiences,

              Pete
              "Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day." Sally Koch

              Comment


              • #8
                Dear Pete,

                I too have spent time observing my seniors and figuring out characteristics that I wish to emulate. This could be seen like learning the form of patterns and that the essence comes from getting this form correct and relaxing into it. The other way we get the essence is through our development in training, and this essence is manifested in the form (our behaviour). It is good to work both ways to achieve the essence.

                Dear Ray

                Thank you for sharing your experiences. Some of your points about the way people conduct their daily lives will come into one of my posts to follow called "Driving With the Breaks On".

                All the best

                Comment


                • #9
                  Good Words

                  The next part of the teaching I would like to discuss is Good Words.

                  Another quote from Sigung demonstrating the importance of this teaching is the following from questions and answers: http://shaolin.org/answers/ans97/nov-dec97.html

                  We are what we say, do and think; when our words, deeds and thoughts are noble, we are noble
                  What does it mean to have noble words? Part of this concept is described by Sigung in The Complete Book of Zen pg 44:

                  Right Speech, which means to abstain from telling lies, backbiting, slandering, using abusive language, and indulging in foolish gossip
                  So part of Good Words is to identify the areas in our lives where we may be guilty of any of the above, and overcoming/letting go of the blockages which cause this to happen. In my culture it is very common for people to idulge in these negative words, I think practices such as gossiping are the cultural norm in the west. I have found two ways that I have improved this:

                  One is through my training I can now feel the negative energy associated with, for example, slandering. My brother Hubert talked about this on another thread, describing the feeling of being unable to lie.

                  The other way is being mindful of my speach and observing when I may be prone to drift away from Good Words. And to either replace bad words with good, or smile from the heart and let go.

                  I have also found inspiration within the 10 Shaolin Laws to help me manifest Good Words. For example:

                  3. Required to be filial to parents, be respectful to the elderly, and protective of the young.
                  From this law I try to ensure that I manifest respect towards my family, friends and especially the elderly.

                  5. Forbidden to be ungrateful and unscrupulous, ignoring the Laws of man and heaven.
                  Which has inspired me to feel and express genuine gratitude when someone helps me in some way.

                  9. Obliged to be humane, compassionate and spread love, and to realize everlasting peace and happiness for all people.
                  So we must aim to have our words manifest compassion and love from an open heart.

                  Finally:

                  10. Obliged to be chivalrous and generous, to nurture talents and pass on the Shaolin arts to deserving disciples.
                  We can be very generous with words if we say compliments that we really feel, these words will nurture the talents of our friends and family, which links to spreading love. My brother Innes has made a very good thread on this subject: http://www.wongkiewkit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5694

                  Good Words can be seen as a manifestation of Good Thoughts. I shall discuss Good Thoughts, the most important part of this teaching (as it initiatives the Karmic process), in my next post.

                  All the best

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Nice thread Bro!

                    Originally posted by Jonny Say View Post

                    We can be very generous with words if we say compliments that we really feel, these words will nurture the talents of our friends and family, which links to spreading love.
                    This is an excellent technique and one that can have quite miraculous effects. It is so simple to find something to honestly appreciate about someone, yet so few people take the time to do it, often out of fear or embarresment.

                    But it must of course be real appreciation, not empty flattery. This reminds me the words of Dale Carnegie and his famous book "How to win friends and influence people".

                    "Flattery is from the teeth out. Sincere appreciation is from the Heart out."

                    Alex
                    "All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain...."

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Jonny,

                      Originally posted by Jonny Say View Post
                      I too have spent time observing my seniors and figuring out characteristics that I wish to emulate.
                      Good to hear I'm not alone!

                      I like your description of tqwo methods. That gleaned through Iour training without conscious effort; and that we mindfully try to implement. In my experience I've found times when one or other is more powerful. A few years ago my habbits for what I books I read or films I watched changed as I really stopped "enjoying" anything dark or sinister (like psychological thrillers) - not that I was really into anything like that before but I now really know why!

                      I'm looking forward to reading about good thoughts.

                      Pete
                      "Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day." Sally Koch

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Hi Pete

                        Ive also experienced a desire to no longer watch disturbing films as a natural result from my training. The concept of choosing to develop a certain way of being and a new way of being arising as a natural result of our training will come up in later posts. It is a topic very much worth discussing and relates alot to the daily life focus of this thread, so feel free to share more insights/experiences.

                        All the best

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Dear Johnny Sihing,
                          Thank you for your wonderful posts. I wanted to bring up that good thoughts about others especially family can make a tremendous difference. I try to consciously steer my mind away from dwelling on my family's negative qualities as Sifu has taught and although I'm not at my best right now I'm confident that my heart will open more in a few more days.
                          Also I wanted to raise the issue of good thoughts regarding yourself as a vital way to develop courage and self-confidence. I am, still in the practice stage regarding this as well ^^. But I felt that this was a useful topic to raise.

                          Best,

                          Ray
                          "Om"

                          I pay homage to all the great masters of the past and the present

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Dear Jonny,

                            This is a great thread, well done!

                            It is fascinating to see how our life changes thanks to our training and according our choices. In fact, with our training, the results of our choices become more obvious, because everything we do is amplified.

                            Like Pete and you described, I've also seen my tastes in movies and music change quite a lot. I used to really be into "arty" movies, usually visually and emotionally very disturbing. A few month ago it occured to me that I hadn't seen such movies for some time, and I didn't really feel the need to. However, I tried, just to see. To my surprise, I actually felt physically sick during the movie. I was taking so much negative energy in that I really had to completely disconnect from the movie to carry on watching.

                            So, nowadays, I'm more into the big harmless blockbusters, and your average Hugh Grant movie

                            Warmest,

                            Hubert
                            Hubert Razack
                            www.shaolinwahnam.fr
                            www.sourireducoeur.fr

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Hi,

                              thanks Jonny for starting this thread. I think it's a very good one. I also have similar experience regarding the taste in movies and music.
                              With the training I became more sensitive. Before I really liked movies with bloody battles and a lot of violence but now the same movies make me sad. after watching them I feel "impure" and sens a lot of negative energy. I also prefer Hugh Grant now

                              I would like to add that such movies create in me negative impressions, impressions influence my daily thoughts and at the the end my thoughts cause my deeds. So now I try to get as less negative impressions as possible.

                              Best,

                              Marko
                              Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

                              Comment

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