The Trick to Money is Having Some ! Part 1

Just checked my blog posting and realised that it was already a few months since my last posting. This posting will be about having money. The title of this posting is borrowed from Stuart Wilde's great book 'The Trick to Money is Having Some'. I will outline specifically on spiritual ways to enhance your money or ability to accumulate money.

Almost 98% of the people you ask on the street would agree that they don't have enough money, including this blogger. Essentially when you start out having minimum or none or on the negative end of the spectrum, then the very first thing you need to change is the mindset. That is before any of the spiritual methods that I am going to list down.

Mindset of Abundance.

Many who are lacking have a mindset of lacking, worst kind have the mindset of stinginess. You may say that they have mindset of lacking, because physically they are lacking. Well that's not true. Those that have mindset of abundance, never remain lacking for a very long time. Those that cannot shake loose of the lacking mentality, will also have no way of shaking loose their financial problem. Or they will constantly have financial related problems.

How to have the mindset of abundance? Give give and give ! Donate to your favourite charity with what ever available amount you can afford. Start the ball rolling even if it means just rm0.50 or rm1.00. When you donate affirm to yourself that there is plenty of this energy in the universe. But of course don't just give rm1 when in actual fact you can be very comfortable donating rm10. The surest way of staying in the mindset of lacking, is when you even try to fool yourself that you don't have enough. Therefore your mind will always create the situation where you don't have any.

When you have establish constantly the Mindset of Abundance, your mind is on auto pilot. You are beginning to break free from the shackle of lacking, the iron chain is unlock and your heart opens up to receive not only just plain money energy but spiritual help.

Everyone who has financial problem and try to get spiritual help on their problem, most of these cases would encounter, how come it doesn't work on me? How can it work on you? When your own heart chakra is lock tight like a clam!

When you have establish and affirm on the mindset of abundance with total honesty to yourself. That is when spiritual help works, when miracles appear, when synchronicity becomes a daily testament to your mindset.

Then only we start on the learning some of the spiritual ways to enhance your ability to acquire and retain this 'funny' energy called money which comes in different types of coloured paper.

What do you want to do with it?

Some basic goal setting is paramount. Because without goals, then you will never know why you needed it in the first place. But we don't have to get to too detail and specific on X amount you need, by X amount of time and selling to X amount of people. This is not a Multi-Level marketing blog. This is a Taoist blog! You must have a convincing goal - convincing here means that your mind and body also believe in this goal of yours. It is not something you write up, to please your husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend or worst your parents. The money goal must be big and noble enough that it will affect and help many people or beings. And yet at the same time achievable from where you are now.
Example, I want to have RM10,000 spare cash to donate to my favorite charity each year. And by donating this RM10,000 how are those specific organization will in turn benefit others? How many lives would affected? How many beings of animal would be helped?

This goal setting for charity is a bit different from the conventional, I want a Rolls Royce Phantom by 2017 because that is feeding on your ego. Charity goals is empowering your selflessness. Very different destination. Think of it another way, if you can afford to donate RM500,000 each year eventually, I think Phantom is not something out of the blue for you.  ;)

Part 2 Here http://yinyangjournal.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-trick-to-money-is-having-some-part.html

Let it Go ! the other version.....

Current trend in the news are young people tend to choose suicide as a solution to solve their hurt and disappointment. Some use it as a tool to threatened their parents to get what they want.

How does one relate that to cultivation in spirituality? Some will say that to be able to kill yourself takes great courage. Those are the very people that do not understand how the mind works.

When a person decides to terminate their life, most often is due to the mental pain they experience at that moment is perceived to be more than the physical pain of dying.

Therefore they choose to end their life. When a person is in mental pain from heart ache, severe disappointment and also total lost of any future hope, then the idea of terminating one's life will be taken as an option. This is also due to strong attachment to the SELF.

In a moment of lost hope and despair, they are unable to detach from their SELF emotion, therefore experiencing pain that seems to feel like eternity. Whereby they can only choose to physically detach from the self which is through termination.

Buddhist and Taoist Cultivation on the other hand is teaching us about how to Let the Self go. Meaning slowly learn to not take the self so seriously. Knowing that you have had many self(S) in your countless existence. Heart ache, pains, disappointment , hopeless are only expectation that is attached to the SELF. When other and your own inability to fulfill those expectations, therefore the EGO will feel the pain mentally.

Buddhist have monks and nuns. Which is the first step of cultivation of releasing the self. In Chinese word, for one who is ordained as monk or nun is 出家人, literally meaning one who has left home. Why leaving home? Because in Asian culture, the family unit plays a critical role in defining the self. Your ancestors, your parent, your relatives, what your familly does and more; all of that defines who you are and ultimately how you view your SELF. When one is define as the one who have left home, means they have release and let go a large part of their SELF.

Then slowly learning to cultivate through meditation, letting go of attachments to various emotions. Serving others in monastic life, is also a training to focus on other instead of the self. However all these comes with renunciation. Below is an excerpt that elegantly defines renunciation.

Someone asked Guru Nanak, "O saint, why have you not

shaved your head? You are a sanyasin." Guru Nanak replied:

"My dear friend, I have shaved my mind." In fact, the mind

should be cleanly shaved. Shaving the mind consists of

getting rid of all attachments, egoism, infatuation, lust, greed

and anger. That is real shaving. External shaving of the head

has no meaning so long as there is internal craving.

Many have not understood what true renunciation is.

Renunciation of physical objects is no renunciation at all.

True renunciation lies in the abnegation of the mind. It consists

of renouncing all desires and egoism, and not world-existence.

The real renunciation is the renunciation of the ego. If you can

renounce this, you have renounced everything in the world. If

the subtle egoism is given up, identification with the body goes

away automatically. 

As a layperson/householder, we too can practice daily on letting go which is through meditation. In 15-30 minutes a day, practice of letting go everything, your attachment, your failures, your success, and everything that defines who you are - Your SELF. Then you will find that slowly you will not be too attached to yourself, you can easily reach an emotional state of tranquility. 

If you don't practice now, when the actual day really comes for you to let go everything, how would you be able to do it? 

Smoke Offering 'Nyoms' Responses of Participants

Since 2012, every year I did sharing session of Smoke/Sang Offering with members and patrons of Kam Dong San (KDS) www.facebook.com/kdspg . After practicing it for more than a decade, I feel that it is one of the practice that a person can do regularly to train their compassion and also removing of life's obstacles.

Sang or Smoke Offering is a Tibetan Buddhist practice that goes back to the days of Guru Rinpoche 'Padmasambhava'. Offering of food items such as beans, butter, milk and honey in forms of smell to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and also also sentient beings.

Smoke Offering during Fish Liberation Events at KDS

It is one of best practice of compassion and also generosity that an individual can do everyday.

Participants that came to the sharing/teaching session, some continue to practice every once in a while and some practice it diligently everyday.

Recently KDS changed it's operation hours from once a week to 6 days a week to cater for all the needs of members and patrons.

One of the participants K came by KDS to buy some incense for his practices. He relayed his personal responses of Sang Offering to Bro Fa Hong who is a Taoist Disciple and also Personal Assistant of KDS.

K said that for a while back he has been consistently doing smoke offering for day and evening every day. In one of the evening, he dreamt that he was visited by 2 entity, both wearing very ancient military armors. As he recalled, they don't even looked human as they have animal head on a human body.

In the dream, one of the beings handed him a piece of paper, the paper has few specific digit on it. Then the other one did the same as well. Both paper had the same specific digit on it. After K woke up, he thought maybe it could be a hint for upcoming 4-Digit draw. 

Anyway he thought it could not be, as both paper has same digit and it is not likely. He did go on to buy the number at the game company that he frequent. Malaysia has 3 game company. In the next draw, the number did came out 1st prize but it was a draw by another company.

This is what normally Tibetans would called 'nyoms' for a spiritual practice. It is called a response to let you know that your practice is on the right path. Meaning what you are offering is being accepted. 

*** The purpose of this article is NOT to demonstrate that doing smoke offering, beings will come and give you lottery numbers ! ***

Most that do it consistently will have dreams of being in a big event or party and everyone seems to be very happy with what the party offers. That is also one of the responses of the practice.

One of the benefits of smoke offering practice is that it helps clear spiritual obstacles in the things that you are trying to do or start. It also brings attention to the person, to their their 'dana' everyday through this practice.

If you are keen, search for the nearest Tibetan Temple/Center in your area that offers Teaching on Smoke Offering or you can also join me in my next sharing session at KDS.

Lost on the road....

End of April, a temple disciple informed me that his brother had been involved in a road accident in Penang and was unconscious in a coma for a few days.

His sister in law had asked some other spiritual medium but still there is no improvement for his brother.

I asked for his brother's date of birth and time in order to assess if his brother was in any life danger situation.

From his chart, he appears to be in a critical stage for that 2 weeks until the 10 May. Then I briefly went into meditative stabilization to check whether there is any spiritual factor in his condition.

I've been hinted in my meditative stabilization that part of his brother's consciousness was still out there on the accident spot. Or some would call it as spirits. 

I have informed him to ask his sister in law, to go to the City God Temple 城隍庙 to request for assistance from the temple deities. And also to light up the 7 Star Lamp at the temple for the coming 15 days to ensure that his brother is supported spiritually during the critical times. 

2 weeks later, I asked him how was his brother. He relayed back to me that his brother woke up from coma 2 days after his sister in law went and requested help from the City God Temple.

Thunderwood Protection in Intensive Care Unit

During Chinese New Year, one of my old friend James and his wife Ai Li contacted us. Saying that their friend wanted to liberate fishes on the Chinese New Year Liberation, saying that their friend wanted to do on behalf of their 6 years old nephew Andrew (real name was withheld for anonymity) who was admitted at the Penang General Hospital, Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

On further fact finding, Ai Li related to us that her friend's nephew had a rare genetic illness, in which he has a very weak immune system. He was admitted during since the Chinese New Year due to fever, but upon various test by local private hospital they are unable to diagnose what virus/bacteria infection that he had. When the condition got critical private hospitals advised Andrew's parent to admit him to the General Hospital.

Even while being hospitalized in the General Hospital, they still unable to pinpoint what exactly that he has contracted. By the time Ai Li related his condition to us, he was actually in a semi-conscious state.

I immediately asked Ai Li to obtain the child Andrew date of birth, so that I can analyze how bad was his condition. When I looked at his chart, 2014 was actually not as bad as they would have described. In fact worst was coming in 2015. In my mind, I belief he would survive the current ordeal.

Then I decided to check whether he had any spiritual problem related to his problem. I went into meditative stabilization, upon viewing - an image of a boy surrounded by 3 black entity. The black entity is not in solid form but thick dark black smoke. Therefore I know that his problem is also partly spiritual.

I informed Ai Li that Andrew's parent of someone who has blood relation with Andrew needs to come to temple to request for protection and blessings from the Taoist Deities.

On the 7th Day of Chinese New Year during our temple celebration, Andrew's father, grandfather and aunt came to the temple and request protection and blessings from all deities and 金英祖師 Jin Ying Zu Shi in particular because Andrew had the most affinity with the deity.

I have also drawn a 六壬保命符 Life Protection Talisman and also given the father a piece of ThunderWood Protection Pendant 雷擊木符 from my own keeping and informed his father to place it underneath his pillow. I have also informed the father that they need to liberate at least 1000 fishes on Andrew's behalf.  We have also passed booklets on how to chant 大悲咒 Da Bei Zhou Great Compassionate Dharani and also 心經 Heart Sutra and told them it is time they chanted in more volume to dedicate to his son.

After a few days, Ai Li related to us that after Andrew's father visited us at the temple and brought back the talisman to the hospital, something really bizarre happen at the hospital. Andrew was awake at night time and his mum and nurses saw his eyes was roving around as if he saw someone walking by his bedside, he also raise his hand and pointed towards his bedside as if there is someone there. In actual fact, in the room was only his mum and some nurses. When his father brought him the talisman and put besides him, immediately he would be able to fall asleep.

After which he slowly recovers and can talk. He was telling his mummy, that he saw a lot of people coming towards him and wants to bring him somewhere else. He was holding tightly the Thunderwood Pendant whenever he is awake and that helps calms him down.

The major Fish Liberation Day was on the 10th Day of Chinese New Year , in the afternoon I received a call from Andrew's father thanking me and the temple. He told me that after the liberation, indeed his son did have a significant improvement and can start to eat and drink. I advised him to continue to liberate until the recommended number of fishes.

2014 CNY Major Fish Liberation by Kam Dong San Penang.

 
It is also a sign spiritually, that his karmic debtors do accept the fish liberation that they were doing as a mean of repaying karmic debts. On the following month, I get to see Andrew in person, when his dad brings him to KDS Monthly Fish Liberation. Subsequently his dad also brings him to the temple to offer thanks to all deities.

Galloping into 2014 with Powerful Luck through Metaphysical & Spiritual Methods

I was thinking of skipping this year's article on boosting luck, as past 2 year's information is more than enough for anyone. And also due to my overwhelming schedule, I can barely find the moment.
Thanks to my sister and die-hard yinyang journal readers who kept on requesting that I need to share real information for 2014.
Here are how this article is written up. 1st & 2nd Section, no matter what religious background you have, it will still benefit you. 3rd and 4th section are Taoist and Buddhist methods of increasing your luck.

1. 1st will be sharing with you on instant boost luck method of Qi Men Dun Jia. How to boost your luck in the first 5 days of Chinese New Year. 

2. 2nd will be what colour to wear so that you don't go in opposite direction against the Qi of the day. 

3. 3rd will be which Taoist Deities to request for Blessings and Boost of Luck in the 2014 Horse Year

4. 4th will be Power Pack Timeless Information to Boost your Luck

1. Boosting Luck with Qi Men Dun Jia 奇门遁甲升运法

This method is based on Qi Men Dun Jia calculation, so you will be informed on the direction to travel on 1 – 5 day of Chinese New Year, and by travelling on the specific direction to a destination, you will be acquiring a boost of luck for about 14 days if done correctly.

I have been teaching Qi Men Dun Jia -QMDJ 奇門遁甲 globally for the past 8 years. In fact I am the first one in the world to teach a systematic QMDJ in English.

What is QMDJ? It is the ancient science of timing. When and where in the 8 direction of the compass that is currently having the optimum Qi 氣 that you can tap. In ancient times it is used mainly in warfare, when, where to attack and when and where to retreat your troops. Information that is been exclusively reserved for high ranking generals. Does China still use it today? Definitely, all rocket/satellite launches in China space program exclusively uses QMDJ calculation to select an optimum timing for their launch. (if this 3 paragraph looks familiar, it is..because I have to cut and paste from last year intro of this subject)

 

Travelling for Optimum Luck During Chinese New Year Period

Day 1 of CNY – Travel NorthEast start journey from 9am and before 11am

Day 2 of CNY – Travel NORTH start journey from 9am and before 11am

Day 3 of CNY – Travel EAST start journey from 9am and before 11am

Day 4 of CNY – Travel NORTH start journey from 9am and before 11am
Day 5 of CNY (Real day of entering into 甲午Horse Year) Travel NORTH start journey from 1pm and before 3pm

So how do you use it precisely? When I Travel NorthEast for example, it means you need to take out your Iphone, Android, Tablet or even on PC (googlemaps) check your interactive maps. Check which location is the NorthEast from your home. Using your home as the reference point and your destination must be NorthEast from your home, in this example.

You can draw a straight line, don't worry about the actual road requires you to turn left or right. The important factor is starting point, destination and the ending location from your home.

Your destination point must be at least 5km or MORE from your home via car.

Then some might as is QMDJ a Taoist Method? Earliest record of QMDJ was that it was passed down to the Yellow Emperor 黃帝 by Goddess of the 9 Heavens 九天玄女 to defeat ChiYou蚩尤.

2. Lucky Colour to Wear

While you are travelling to the location, what colour should you wear? I have listed here also the lucky colour for the first 4 days of CNY

Day 1 – Light Blue, Green, Beige

Day 2 – Light Blue, Green, Beige

Day 3 – Red, Maroon, Orange, Pink, Brown, Yellow

Day 4 – Red, Maroon, Orange, Pink, Brown, Yellow

Day 5 - The real day of New Year - it is a very strong Fire Day. For those that knows you need Fire Element - Red, Maroon, Orange, Pink. The rest of the crowd is Brown, Yellow, Beige.

Some people have the idea that since 甲午 year is a Wood Horse year, therefore Fire generate Earth, which means that good colour to wear is Brown, Yellow and Beige. The year itself is too far away from the day, although the effect of the year lingers throughout, it will not be powerful enough to effect what you wear on the day.

Since this article is about Taoist Method to increase luck during the CNY period. Taoist method will not be complete if I am not mentioning which Deities to request for luck and how to go about it.

3. Taoist Deities to Request for Blessings and Boost of Luck

Increase of luck can also be done through REQUEST with specific Deities in Taoism. Base on your Chinese Zodiac sign, there is a specific deities within the Taoist pantheon that is responsible to 'look after' you for this particular year. Therefore you have to ask in the right places. Below are the list on which Taoist Deity to request for an increase in luck for HORSE Year. This yearly chart is produced by Kam Dong San Temple, Penang. http://www.facebook.com/kdspg

 

4. POWER Pack timeless information to boost your luck

1. Preparation before Request for Boost of Luck from Deities

Before going to the temple during Chinese New Year period, the most important is to do some preparation. Which means the body must be clean, from an aura perspective.

How to achieve this? Many methods, but the most simple method is to take a 'flower shower'. You must have at least 7 or 9 types of different flowers to mix into the water, and White Lily must be included.

1. Put all the flowers into a clean pail and put half cold and half warm water into it.
2. Just about to finish your shower, take water from the pail and pour from your head and let it trickle until your toes.
3. Then use clean towel to wipe body dry.
   
   
   
    

If you want the cleansing to be more effective and you do have Guan Yin statues at your home, after chanting of at least 9 times of Da Bei Zhou 大悲咒 Great Compassionate Dharani Mantra on the water. Request from Guan Yin for the water to be use to cleanse your body. Then you can pour the cup of water to the pail with flowers.

 

 

  

2. Charity. Most of the time when a person tries to increase their luck through spiritual means, they will encounter obstacles or difficult to complete the required practice. This has to do with the person's individual merit in their destiny. Just like borrowing from a bank, everyone has their credit rating. If you don't consistently increase your merits, you will definitely encounter no result when you try to achieve it through spiritual means. Charity of any kind is a good start to increase your luck, once you increase your capacity for good luck, it will be easier to ask for divine intervention!

3. Sponsor a Buddhist or Taoist statue in temple. Sponsoring of statue in temple is like a fixed deposit that keeps on growing. Because as long as the statue is in the temple, and it is benefiting others through its image or inherent spiritual energy, parts of the merits will go to you. Sponsoring of big statues are difficult because not everyone has the first hand information in order for you to contribute your share. Therefore sponsoring even a small statue that will be place in a temple is a good way to keep the flow of good luck to you.

 

4. Feng Shui ready your house and office. Living and working in harmony with the surrounding energy of your home and office is one way to increase your luck. Using the environment energy to suit your own destiny make up is like a plane flying with a strong tail wind, you will arrive at whatever goals you set much faster, easier and effortless.

 

5.Before knowing how to live in harmony with your environment, you must first able to know what are your own personal cycles and timing. Check your Destiny through a good analyst, find when you should go all the way, and when to just lay low is winning more than half of the game in your individual destiny.

6. This method is long and tedious for some, but it works. Chant specific Buddhist mantra in thousands or millions – it will definitely help eliminate your past baggage of bad merit.

 

Wishing Everyone - A Happy and Prosperous Horse Year - 祝大家新年进步！，万事如意！，心想事成！

 

Values in the context of Buddhism PART 2 of 2

 

If you would like to read PART 1 of this article

When you have the idea that VALUES are actually driving us in doing the things we do. You can then change VALUES, hence changing your beliefs about those VALUES and changing your behaviour towards things/people and anything that you come into contact with in your reality.

This explains why someone who love to eat meat, may suddenly becomes a full time vegetarian. Many type of experiences could have contributed to it. For example, they develop certain health issues and decided to become vegetarian, because they value HEALTH more than personal food satisfaction in their VALUES hierarchy.

Whereas for some people, they may have terminal disease, but would not even consider changing their diets. For this type of people, they would usually say “If I could not eat what I wanted to eat, life would be meaningless”. You can then know that they VALUE the taste of food more than survival itself. Because they have a high VALUE that Life Must be Meaningful. And for that to happen, they have a governing belief inside their head that says ' eating what you want to eat at any time is giving my life its meaning'.

Literally they would rather die than not being able to eat what they want to eat. BUT this beliefs about achieving the VALUE of Life Must be Meaningful is not helping them in this situation. You want to know a big secret? They also don't know that they have such damaging beliefs, sometime they pick it up when they are small and don't understand much. Yet slowly it becomes an important part of their life. If they are able to change their beliefs from Life Must be Meaningful WHEN I am able to spend more healthy times with my love ones – IMMEDIATELY this person can change their diet preferences with no regrets, hang ups or any chances of reverting back to their original way. All it takes is a shift of beliefs to fulfill the VALUES that they hold.

Now comes the ultimate question, how do we view VALUES in the context of Buddhism. Buddha in his ultimate quest towards reaching enlightenment, is about how humans can be free of suffering and be happy.

Teachings of Buddha often mention how humans create suffering for themselves by clinging on towards what is not real in their emotions and also physical things that we view as permanent.

If we are ask enough questions to find out about a person's high VALUE and what it ultimately means to them. We will often discover one common word and emotion. And that is being HAPPY.

For example, when you ask a person who has a high VALUE on MONEY in their life, what does it mean to have money in your life? They would answer something like ' so that I can feel secure', 'I can do whatever I want , with whomever I want, at any place I want' , ' so I can be free' . Then if you probe further, 'What does it mean to be free? ' What does it mean when you can feel that sense of security?' What does it mean to be able to do all these things?' Finally they would say that ' then I would feel truly happy!'

Buddhism mentioned that all sentient beings wants to be happy and to be free of suffering. And Buddhism went a step further.

For all the VALUES that you may have and fulfilling those values, some of it are base of a 'false' perception. VALUES and BELIEFS based on material things, ability to evoke emotions, and people will not make a person happy forever. They will ultimately be causes of suffering for you. Because life itself is impermanent, material things, emotions and people will also one day be lost through time or separation upon your own death.

Because of the existence of Karma and Reincarnation, you may have already experience many lifetimes as many different people with different values. And because of attachments towards those various false perceptions, the mind takes on reincarnation again and again in hope to search for something that provides ultimate happiness. But each time, we view those material things, people, emotions as the source of our happiness, those in the end will become our suffering and hence the cycle is unending.

To be free of suffering and be happy, one would need to realized that the unending cycle itself is emptiness. Emptiness here does not mean that it does not exist, but realizing the sense of meaningless of attaching to things that are not permanent if we look at it from across many lifetimes.

Then you may ask what are the VALUES of Buddhism? Reducing attachments towards all things, in this sense even reducing attachment towards the SELF. Without the SELF, there is no EGO, hence no attachment of any kind. Meaning, SELFLESSNESS is one of the higher VALUE in Buddhism. Why Selflessness? Because when we don't think about the SELF, thinking about the happiness of others, the welfare of others, then Compassion develops naturally and happiness is realized automatically.

Buddhism encourages as human beings, we need to collect more merits, do more good deeds in order to have the wisdom to realized full Selflessness. Collecting merits and do good deeds itself is an exercise towards being selfless. It is those merits from the good deeds, that propels each rebirth to have a much better chance of realizing the Values of Buddhism and finally being able to achieve Enlightenment 

Values in the Context of Buddhism, needs a person to have a realization of how values actually governs our life. And whether those values and beliefs are actually giving the real happiness that we seek for not only in this life but in all our future lives as well. To check on what are our current values, whether they are aligned towards being more selfless or actually our current value is aligned towards the self. If it is aligned towards the self, we can never achieve lasting happiness. As most likely it is only temporary.

A lot of people go through life, behaving the way they behave without actually knowing what are the things that are driving them. They often think, it is their birth 'gift' which sometimes can be a curse in disguise. The important realization to have, is that we all have the power to change our values and beliefs. Nobody is a victim of circumstances, all are only victims of their own values and beliefs!

My short article here on VALUES and also BUDDHISM will never be extensive enough for you to know all about it, but if reading through this article creates enough curiosity in you to start searching for answers, then I would have achieve what I set out to write. And most likely it is written for you.

May you be Happy !

 **Those who like to know more about Feng Shui, please visit my blog at http://gkhamconsulting.blogspot.com