The Heart and Soul

How many of us have heard the expression, some one has a good heart, or remove evil from your heart, or ponder from your inner most heart. Have you known someone that has a pure heart? Apparently having a pure heart is good. But what is this heart? Is it the organ that provides blood and oxygen to our bodies? In the Tip of the Writing Brush are the following verses:

This mind, prepare to clean it quickly,

Purify it by using a filter and sand.  3-10

This filter, where do you think it is?

The heart and mouth are the sand and filter.  3-11

For those unfamiliar with the sewage system, sand is used to separate the impurities in the sewage, making pure water available.  The heart is used in a similar fashion, attracting evil thoughts from the mind, and making the mind pure.  But what eventually happens to the evils that accumulate in our hearts? For some, their hearts will be heavy due to the enormous amount of evil produced by their minds. For others, their hearts will be light due to the joy in their minds.

The thought process involves energy. Evil energy trapped in the heart eventually will be released internally causing disease and illness: and energy may be released externally causing suffering of the individual in the future (cause and effect, karma). What evils one plants today, may sprout as suffering in the future.

This heart or some may call it the soul, is an intangible entity of energy in our bodies. But wherever it may exist, it helps to clear the mind of evil. But unless, we sweep and prevent these evil thoughts from our minds, these evil energies will continue to accumulate in our hearts; and will continue to cause the sufferings in the world.

In essence, the soul or heart is our identity. It like our DNA genes is a road map of our future, a future of suffering or joy.

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The Soul /revised

Suppose there is a soul, or a spark of life that begins our existence in our physical body. Some may call it the inner most heart, which is pure and positive in its original state. In the Tip of the Writing brush is a verse that identifies the heart (soul) as the sand that filters our evils (greed, arrogance, and self love) thoughts. Like the sand that purifies our sewage system, the positive heart (soul) functions to attract our negative thoughts, and store these evils.

Imagine without our soul (heart) containing many of our evil thoughts, how much suffering will result from our evil thoughts going into action. Our soul, in essence acts as our conscious, and limits our evil action. The heart by tying up these negative evils prevents these negative energies from traveling to other parts of our bodies  causing immediate injury and sickness. But these negative energies stored or contained in the heart will eventually cause destruction if the mind continues to produce evil thoughts. It is said that these negative energies are gradually released causing suffering (karma or cause and effect) or disease of the body. What is planted in the heart will eventually sprout.

It is only when our hearts are pure, that we can avoid the sufferings that result from the release of negative energy from the evils in our hearts. When our thoughts become positive, the heart or soul will eventually becomes free of evil. It is this goal of having good thoughts that we must strive for. We must be light hearted, and not have a heavy heart which will burden us in the future.

It is with this information that we pray to God to sweep the evils from hearts of the world. God is said to help us remove these evils imbued in our heart, but has no influence over our minds. It is for us to eliminate evil (greed, arrogance, and self love) thoughts from our minds to lighten our hearts. When this happens, our innermost hearts returns to purity, and our future will be only joyous with everyone helping each other.

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Mr. Rogers’ Neigborhood/ 2

Many have already read the article about Mr.  Fred Rogers when dealing with tragedy. When he was a child, when tragedy occurred, his mom would say to look for the helpers. As noticed in the recent tragedy, many courageous people emerged to help the victims. It is this help that is given regardless of race, sex, and religious affiliation of the victims that I believe that Mrs. Rogers was talking about. It is this mutual help that will create a joyous world.

We do not know what the motivation or purpose was of these people that perpetrated the killing and injury of God’s children. But what we do know is that from these senseless acts, many heroes were noticed by the world. The world saw the unselfish and loving acts of many common people, as opposed to the evils of a few.

For those who continue to perpetrate these evils, your evil opposes humanity and God. In spite of your evil,  the world will continue to see the good in people.

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Mr. Roger

 

Many have already read the article about Mr. Rogers. When he was a child, when tragedy occurred, his mom would say to look for the helpers. As noticed in the recent tragedy, many selfless emerged to help the victims. It is this help that is given regardless of race, sex, and religious affiliation of the victims that I believe that Mrs. Rogers was talking about. It is this mutual help that will create a joyous world.

We do not know what the motivation or purpose was of these people that perpetrated the killing and injury of God’s children. But what we do know is that from these senseless acts, many heroes were noticed by the world. The world saw the unselfish and loving acts of many common people, as opposed to the evils of a few.

For those who continue to perpetrate these evils, it is not working. The world sees the good in people.

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The Jekyll and Hyde in Each of Us

Is it possible to be good and also bad? For example, the chief executive officer who decides to cut many jobs in order to make lucrative profits for the shareholders of his company; who also donates most of his salary for charities and churches that help the less fortunate.  How about the caring health worker, who lacks the skills to provide adequate care to his or her patient, but yet continues to work despite the possibility that harm may come to his or her patient. There are many who believe that they are helping others, but because of the evils in their hearts, may be unaware that they may be causing some of the sufferings in the world.

Only when we realize that we may have greed, arrogance and self-love in our minds, can we prevent some of our behaviors that hurt people.  It is when our hearts become pure of these evils that true joy can be attained. When the minds of the world are purified of greed, arrogance, and self-love, there will be heaven on earth with everyone helping each other.

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History Repeats Itself

Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to change behavior? No wonder they say that history repeats itself. We do not learn from past history.

We read books on changing behavior, whether it is for a healthier life style, like losing weight, or to change our perspective on life, like having a cheery disposition everyday.  We fight to change, but when temptation arises, we go back to our previous ways of coping.

Habits, or our old thought patterns are very difficult to change. How difficult is it for an alcoholic to stop drinking, or a gambler to stop visiting casinos? Some may say that there may be chemical or genetic factors that cause these behaviors. How difficult is it for a person that has a temper to stop the anger within?

This may also happen to religious people. We read passages over and over, but yet when real life situations arise, we may not follow our sacred books. Why is it so difficult to change, and how do we change?

In our sacred book, The Tip of the Writing Brush, it is told that people have become selfish, arrogant, and greedy. It is this thought process that has contaminated our minds, and is difficult to remove.  Like the dusts that have been imbued for a long time on the surface, they are difficult to remove by our selves.

This is where we may ask God to help us.  Many of us pray for God to help us change our behavior. But is this prayer effective? It is the evils of greed, arrogance and self love in our minds that causes these behaviors. Instead of asking God to change our behavior, we should ask God to help us eliminate the root of our unwanted behaviors. This is the elimination of the evils in our hearts. 

When we are able to sweep greed, arrogance, and self love from our minds, then it will become much easier for us to change our unwanted behaviors.  Pray to God to eliminate these evils from our minds. When this happens, history may not repeat itself.

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God’s punishment is………

Have you wondered what God does when he gets angry? In the Old Testament, God destroys the world except for Noah and his Ark. When Moses came down from the mountain, and found his people praying to a gold idol, God again placed the death sentence on some of his people.  Even today, some may take death as God’s punishment for conduct that opposes God. The extremists may think that they are executing God’s punishment by killing innocent people. But does God really punish his children with death?

Once in our religion, opponent priests forced their way into the Service place and confronted the followers, threatening them with death if they continued to follow the religion. Before leaving, they ransacked the worship hall, and threatened to return with more violence.

Many people would wish retribution to these violent thugs; but from this incident a prayer supposedly originating from God was created. This prayer asks God to eliminate evil (greed, arrogance, and self love) from the minds of the world. Instead of punishment, we are asking God to save the people who try to harm us.

It is when we realize that death is not a punishment from God, can we truly understand the intention of God in creating mankind. God created mankind to live the joyous life, with everyone helping each other.

 

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Jeremy Linn

Just saw the 60 minutes interview with Jeremy Linn of the Houston Rockets. I was not surprised by his comments that he has been discriminated because he is Asian American. This discrimination included exclusion from being recruited by elite college basketball programs, or being drafted by the National Basketball Association. But it also included racist remarks during his high school and college career by opposing teams and crowds.

In America, we have learned to be tolerant to different races and cultures including the Hispanic, Native Americans, and African Americans. I remember, 50 years ago when classmates confronted me with racist remarks, and I also recall the discrimination my son suffered during his youth while also participating in sports. For some reason, America still believes it is all right to openly discriminate against Asian Americans.

Or is it that most Americas are still prejudiced, and are repressing their true thoughts due to government and public protocol. But for some reason, this repression of true feelings is not suppressed against Asian Americans.

But what causes people to discriminate against others. Arrogance, or the feeling that one is superior to another appears to be a major factor. It is when people decide that they are more superior to others that we begin to see hatred, discrimination, and wars throughout history.

Some how we must eliminate this evil of arrogance from our minds. People must realize that we are all children of God.  Only when this realization occurs, and when arrogance is swept from our minds, will there be true joy with everyone helping each other.  There is still much work to be done by our religions to  remove arrogance from the minds of the world.

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How to spread the Truth

The question arises, if you believed you had the truth that would benefit others, what would be the most appropriate way to have people accept this truth? Would you be able to force people to accept the truth, or would you be able to convince people by example?

If you were a supervisor at work, how would you be able to get your employees to accept your method of operation? Would it be best to constantly monitor, and correct their work habits, or would it be in the best interest to show by example the method of work that is expected. Studies will show that coercion does not work.

Throughout the history of religion, missionaries have sometimes used force in converting others to their religion, but this has not usually resulted in major conversions. Examples include the crusades in the middle ages, and our own Native Americans in this country.

Many religions now establish health and education posts in developing countries in hopes of helping and converting. Example includes the Mormon and the Seventh Day Adventist Church. They hope to spread the truth, by showing others by their exemplary role models.

It is this voluntary acceptance that leads to more acceptance and true understanding of information. When information is forced upon individuals, one does not completely open the heart or the mind to the truth. It is with this knowledge that religions and countries that force their people to accept only their beliefs and manifesto limit the capacity of the people to understand other beliefs; but more important limit the ability of their people to understand their own beliefs, even though it may be the truth.

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God’s Guidance or Punishment?

For the average person, hard work, patience and perseverance usually result in success in any endeavor. For example, society encourages one to work hard and save for a comfortable retirement. Our system of capitalism depends on sacrifice today for the gains of tomorrow. But for some reason, there is a part of society that believes in instant gratification. The criminals in our society can be included in this group.

What goes through the mind of an evil person? They may obtain satisfaction from the spoils of corruption, the gratification of an illegal drug, or the retribution of a recent disagreement. These are all immediate gratification from greed, arrogance, and self-love. Hard work, patience and perseverance are not familiar to them. They want everything now, resulting in suffering of others and of themselves.

But like there immediate gains, suppose God begins to give them immediate retribution for their evil actions or thoughts.  Would this prevent the criminal from committing crimes against society? For fear of God’s wrath, the criminal will certainly reconsider his actions. But like the incorrigible child, the prevention will only last as long as the punishment continues. It is this fear that prevents the evil action; God’s immediate retribution does not prevent the evil thoughts from emanating from their minds.

For the rest of society, the continuation of God’s retribution would be a blessing. There will be a lack of crime. But the criminal is not saved. He or she stops his crime spree not from his or her volition, but from the fear of God’s wrath.

Only when a person can understand God’s intention for these retributions, can he or she begin to prevent the evils (greed, arrogance, and self love) from manifesting in the heart. God is trying to show them that having greed, arrogance, and self love will only result in future sufferings for the individual. It is when this realization occurs, that the individual acts from his own volition, then from fear.

Is this immediate guidance from God a possibility? In the Tip of the Writing Brush, God warns that this guidance will manifest to the entire world. When God’s work is realized by the world, people will begin to sweep greed, arrogance, and self-love from their minds, without further guidance from God. When this occurs, there will be joy in the world with everyone helping each other. Watch for God’s guidance!

 

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