Dear Brothers & Sisters,

Have you ever broken something – like a ceramic dish – when you were angry?

People do that very often. Husband and wife arguing, someone breaks something, or both break things in a breaking competition. Continue reading Breaking →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

If you think about it, the human life has more tough time than relaxing time. Excluding sleeping time, during our awake hours, we usually are under pressure of work, studying, making deals, buying and selling, taking care of children, fighting and competing, dealing with unexpected bad things falling down from the sky – such as sickness, accidents, being stabbed on the back, being badmouthed, being betrayed… Moments to relax and enjoy life are few and far between. That is why the Buddhists say, “Life is suffering”. Continue reading When grieving, cry →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My question above means “Can you stand by yourself without leaning on someone higher?”

Maybe you are one of those who think they can stand by themselves because they think they are strong enough. But my observation is that it is extremely difficult to stand by yourself, because in life you will run into experiences that may collapse you at times. Most people don’t realize how weak they are until they face a catastrophic event much more horrendous than they can handle.

My own experience is that I cannot stand by myself. I may have an illusion about my strength once in awhile, but generally I can see cleary that my weakness conquers me easily, like angry when I know I shouldn’t, eating something when I know I shouldn’t, saying something that I know shouldn’t, worrying about something that I know I shouldn’t, fearing something that I know I shouldn’t… Too many things to name. For many years I was truggling to be better – however you want to define better – but I always felt like I didn’t move one centimeter. Seemed like the battle to better myself was naturally a losing battle. Continue reading Can you stand by yourself? →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Each of us has many labels, some of them we give to ourself, some of them people give to us, but usually we agree to both kinds of labels. Ex: Lawyer, northerner, female, Saigonese, Catholic, International American High School, Polytechnique University graduate, John Hopskins Univ. Master in International Relations, super-intellectual, health-conscious vegan… and probably a lot more.

Probably we all enjoy those labels of ours, or at least have no problems with them. But we don’t know that they usually are our hinderances spiritually. Continue reading Watch out for your labels →