Are you ready to take control of your life? Do you feel that it is time to stop worrying all the time wondering where to go and what to do? Are you ready to take a special journey into happiness?

Everyone wants to feel good, be successful and happy, have a good job, some good friends, a nice husband or wife and a wonderful family. You may have been searching for years, put in lots of effort and sweat, spent a lot of money, hoping for the best. So why don’t you have all of that today? First, understand that it is not your fault. Don’t waste your energy wondering whether you are worthy of success, feeling like a victim, living in fantasy or fear, or fighting with illness or distrust.

You can turn your world around beginning right now with this simple 3 step process:

Step One: Say to yourself: I am worthy, I love myself and I am happy. No matter what your circumstances find one thing that makes you happy right now: a child’s smile, the sunrise, a beautiful flower, the smell of fresh baked bread, or even just the pleasure of a breath. Choose to focus on what makes you happy. Feed your spirit with happy thoughts and feelings.

Step Two: Join me for this simple 5 minute exercise: Sit down with your feet flat on the floor and knees and feet hip width apart, back straight and head up with chin slightly tucked. Place your hands on your knees, palm sides up with your fingers curled around your thumbs. Let your tongue touch the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth and let your eyes close allowing just a slit of light to enter. Bring your attention inside the center of your belly, about two inches below your belly button. Imagine that you have a gold ball full of honey inside your belly and as you inhale a swarm of bees return to their nest coming into the golden ball from all around you. As you exhale feel golden warmth radiating from the bees’ nest throughout your body. Continue to inhale and exhale slowly, deeply, gently and evenly, seeing the bees swarm in and the golden light flowing out for 12-18 breaths. When you are done place your palms over your belly and rub it three times in one direction and then three times in the other direction. Rub your palms together until they are warm and then gently smooth your face beginning at your chin and then up and over your head three times.

Step Three: Look inside yourself. See how you feel. Do you feel more centered and able to cope with your world? Do you feel energized and calm at the same time? Do your problems feel as terrible as they did even minutes before?

You have just taken the first step to taking control of your life.

Repeat this exercise daily and notice how calm and centered you feel, how you instantly feel more in control of your life.
You can practice this simple exercise two or three times a day, gradually increasing the number of breaths up to 108, to achieve an even greater level of calm, confidence and strength! In just minutes a day you can turn your world around!

The New Year is here, the challenge is on for the 2009. No matter how we did in the past, it all went to the history, and now all we have is a mystery. What an exciting experience awaiting us.

The Tao follow the nature, we will follow what we have in life today to make a new life even better. We don’t want to spend time and energy to blame anyone, any group or find any reason for what was not happy, we will remain unhappy and fearful. The only way to see joy is for each and every one of us to stand up, find the motivation and tell “god", Tao that you are ready to take a special journey into happiness. We can’t afford to continue stop at the cross road and wondering where to go anymore.

Everyone wants to feel good, success and happy, a good job, some good friends, nice spouse and a wonderful family…., you had searched for years, lots sweat, lots money and lots hope. Why don’t we have them today? Please, understand, it is no one’s fault includes yourself.

Yuan Shen, the original spirit of you is always seeking freedom and happiness, while Shi Shen, the intelligent spirit of yours is always consuming your energy with your emotion and senses. You have less and less fuel in the tank, instead of filling up the tank, your busy mind and intent cloud your Yuan Shen, so you can’t see the truth in you. You had selected to live in fantasy and illusion, allow the desires and fear to run your life. How can you return home with nearly empty tank?

My friend, it is extreme simple truth for you to know today, stop, stop, just take a moment to get some fuel. It is not the end of the world at this moment; you still have time to do something about your life. Let’s take a pause, a deep breath, lick your wound like the lion king after long journey. Take a break, give yourself a moment of silence.

Let’s not wondering worth issue, victim, pretending, fantasy, fear, trust, illness…..

Let’s all say: I am first, I am worthy, I love myself and I am happy. You have a master within. The master is weak, he need some food and energy to wake up. Don’t take away more water and food from him, he need you to feed him, so he is able to wake up and take charge of your wheel.

Jing and Qi are two most important essences, food and water for your spirit, your Yuan Shen. It is the only way I understand to strengthen the master within. You want luck, happiness and prosperity, you do deserve them all. The question is to take the right action and understand the right way to wake up the master within.

Let’s be productive; meditation, tai chi and Qi Gong, they are producing Jing and Qi. They aren’t using Qi, consuming fuel to empty the tank. They don’t weaken your master, they make food for the master. Of course, be consistence and having 3Ds (dedication, devotion and discipline) are most important in this journey.

You had learned so many methods to build Jing and Qi, please don’t forget to practice them. Journey of thousand miles start with first foot step! Stop struggling, wondering,crying, questioning, searching…….., you are the master of your own!

You were born with a mission, discover the master within, no matter what, you start opening eyes now, can you see the love and passion of your life. The universal planets are lining up in the New Year Eve to show you the magic, are you ready?

May the Tao bless you.

Your friend,
Chen

The Three Treasures of the Tao are how we reconnect with the root of the Tao, with stillness. Today I want to discuss the principle of Mercy.

Mercy must come from the bottom of the heart. It comes from the original virtue. It is like we see the hand of god reaching down to us. It also means forgiving from the conscience side, reaching out and forgiving. It also means love, compassion. This quality is only based on the first quality of conscience. Who is the god of Mercy? Kuan Yin, she delivers the conscience from the heaven to the humans.

Mercy enables you to understand the pain of humans and to wish them well. It allows you to stand on clouds and never fall. If we only see a portion of a person’s dragon then we can know that does not fully represent them and then we could have mercy toward that person. If that person does something to you, you could call it bad, but maybe it is for a reason that this has happened. Be there just faithfully with no doubt about whatever is, entertain, it is life lesson. Let go of being victim. Thank the educator. Now is time to face them, open your heart and tell them how you truly feel about them.

The lesson of mercy shows the beauty of virtue, beauty of conscience. It is mercy to see the pain that is in the devil’s heart. You first have to practice with yourself. You have choice to open door or close door, choice to be on side of god or devil, make yourself sick or healthy. Let your self entertain life, don’t be entertained by life.

No matter what you think, I believe that you deserve to live happy, no matter what, when, or how, nobody can step on your toe. Don’t ever let the bird shit on your head. You all deserve to live in the great way, happy, joyful.

To help us with daily life, the rest of this life and the next life, we need to learn the principles of the Three Treasures of the Tao. Earlier I’ve talked about Forgiveness (see blog from 8/20/2008). Today I want to talk about Conscience.

Conscience in Chinese Liang Xin means kind heart, humble, kind heart, so conscience means good heart. In Confucianism Yuan De means original conscience is kindness. Liang Xin is kindness heart, it is a perfect virtuous heart.

Original nature is conscience, so how do we find our Conscience that has been polluted by the environment we live in, the external environment and the internal environment? Affecting it also are greed, hatred, emotions are internal impact on human nature.
External impact is the environment we grow in, books we read, external effect, they also impact our original nature.

This requires that we each return to our life – say 30-40 yrs ago – to what brought you to where you are today. For example with weight management its combination of internal and external effect, external if eat McDonalds for one month and see what happens, it has an immediate impact.

So what is original virtue, how do we return to original virtue?

Chapter 14 of the Tao Te Ching (Look it cannot be seen - it is being form…
Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao) describes the dragon of the Tao. Why do we all want to see entire dragon – none of us has seen it, in fact dragon has no form, we made it into a form. Just as we thought there was a god, whether it has form or not we give it form.

Once things are into the form then intelligence can be in. We pretend to hurt, we pretend to see. But we all mess up. Like with Bible – no one translates it correctly – that’s why so many translations. Difference is source of conflict. When people start to translate god, to paint picture of god then we lose our conscience because we try to make sense of the unknowable – we try to encapsulate it with imperfect language. God, Buddha, Christ, etc. have all been translated improperly. Those who translate claim power, but these are mistranslations – human words, they will abuse the power. People try to seize the form without the wisdom to know that it is formless and cannot be seized. I paint a dragon knowing that is not a dragon, knowing it could be wrong and is my fantasy. My intelligence has decided that it looks like this, but this is illusion.

You have created a dragon picture of yourself – so why do you believe this is a dragon? Are you painting a god or a saint of yourself? Your original nature is formless! What does original virtue mean to you? No matter how you describe it you are painting a dragon. So why are painting? Two sides to story. No matter if painting beautiful or ugly dragon of yourself, would you go back to shoot your own foot even knowing this dragon is not you, you are formless.

Embrace and accept what your dragon is – it may be ugly but it is your dragon – don’t laugh at it, “I” painted it…embrace it. It doesn’t matter what kind of dragon I paint, I accept who I am. In back of mind accept that it is illusion. Most of us think that the dragon is real, is us. Are you willing or have wisdom to open heart and know there is possibility that it is not me. I can accept but also let go. It’s okay either way. If it’s good to embrace, is it okay? If you get punched in the face is it okay? If not then dragon becomes real and you become very vulnerable.

If have no target, I am the best shot in the world. Why do you have to have a target? How to let go of attachment? How to let go of identity? The painting is not us. Many years we have been creating this identity. If we become target it is easy to be shot. If you become no target, then you are best survivor and the most powerful person on earth. Form and formless. If have form you are easy to aim at, if you are formless there is nothing to be shot at. Once you have a target you can no longer find a place to hide. You might hide away from Chen’s BB gun but you can’t hide away from your own original conscience. Now you are a target of your own conscience. You cannot run for cover from your own conscience. This is very important. Live under the sun or live in a cave, which is better? Live in the sun, in nature – where don’t need to hide. Expose your own self under the sun – then you are free.

So FIRST principle is conscience.

Because we take form, we make the formless take form and we believe the form is real. Conscious form we see the dragon, if we see dragon it becomes the most vulnerable. Do not limit your wisdom, intelligence, spirit to the size of a rice bowl, because opportunity is infinite. The dragon that you paint is not the only dragon that you can paint, You can repaint from scratch and create a new dragon. It can be difficult to erase the old picture, painful, but after the operation comes the healing, comes the new life. Whatever has polluted the body, mind, spirit is permanent unless you give in to it and say that it is…
You can absolutely change it because conscience has no form so drop your bullshit and change it. Drop old habit, attitude and concepts about how to live your life, take the extra effort to move your butt and take action. Then your life will change for ever and you will draw a new dragon – it is still just an illusion – it is for entertainment. It is there for a reason but it is entertainment.

When you lose something that you are attached to you feel it but it’s okay. Don’t sell yourself short. Each of us is so Taouable (Tao Valuable)… You have the greatest value – do not sell yourself short. Don’t lock your conscience into a steel box. (i.e. a dragon) Philosophically I calls you all dead men walking. You live here but you’re not here. We lost original conscience because we are entertained by our life. Our emotions are like one arrow after another shooting at us.
So how do we get our conscience back? Return to original nature. Wipe out the dragon, unlearn what you have learned. It’s hard. Unlearn what learned for last 10, 20, 30 or more years. We keep our minds open and willing to wipe out the dragon and open mind to all the possibilities. I live in the now. If I stand on this spot now where am I going next? Don’t know – I have so many opportunities. Don’t put yourself into a blocked spot. The only way we get in there is by running away from all of our arrows to hide. Can you turn around to entertain your life, (better than life entertains you), keep your freedom of choice, have freedom to entertain all choices. So why choose to go into steel box?

Okay – sounds good philosophically but is it real? But again, as a priest we are only as a person standing on top of the hill swinging a flag, I only swing it, that’s my job. I’m not going to walk the path for you. I’m not going to grab your hands and force you to walk it. You choose. You have to let go of the dragon.

Chuang Tsu dream of butterfly:
Sitting in garden, dreams of butterfly flying around him and then wakes up and tries to figure out if he is butterfly or it is other? Then he lets go of it.

So are you in a dream now? No one can answer that. You may be in a dream or not. You cannot tell. We think that if there is space and time, they are real and then we believe we are not in a dream. But we don’t know if that is true or not…Dream or not dream. What makes you believe this is not dream – just because think that dragon is so real, that you think who you are is real. Because your identity is so real, therefore you believe you are not in a dream. Religions try to save you from your pain. Only you can save yourself. Only you can cleanse your sin. Jesus is a manmade story. It is you who must be willing to go on the cross and wipe out the dragon that you paint. Form becomes formless. Knowing two sides are on the one piece. Leave yourself the opportunity.

What does spirituality mean to you? Many people think that if they do yoga, eat healthy, behave compassionately, do good works, etc., then they are spiritual. But that’s not really it. In everyday life, what is the opposite thing that you’ve seen that someone thinks is spiritual but it’s not?

If someone pretends then they are the biggest victim. They are creating and growing the spiritual cancer cells that will bring them closer to death faster – un-virtuous gain for one penny will bring you one inch closer to the coffin. Pretending to be a master or a spiritual person will take you closer to death. True spirituality is 24 hours a day maintaining the same conscience, mercy and forgiveness – the Three Treasures of the Tao. Spirituality has different qualities: human vs. saintly vs. immortal. We’re all different. Ordinary people also differ between them. As long as we are all human, our measurement of development is the degrees of mercy, conscience and forgiveness. Are you faithful to the Three Treasures or do you just pretend? Are you different with different people? Sometimes people will reveal that they are inconsistent. If it is intellectual, it is not true spiritual. First we are in mud and are human. We must walk in this path first and be best human first. Understand then what conscience means, mercy means and forgiveness means. When we become best human, only then can we become immortal. Don’t fantasize – be real – don’t judge the world around you. Be in it.

Ji Gong was a Buddha who came down to enlighten many Buddhist practices. At that time many were stubborn about the rules of the Buddhist bible such as couldn’t drink wine, eat meat, had to dress nice, etc… So he came down from heaven to tease the people to teach them that the practice is about spirit connection not about rules. He came down dirty, in rags, with broken everything. He went to temple to find a place to sleep but the monks wouldn’t let him in because he was such a mess and told him he couldn’t come in. When priest went inside Ji Gong was already there so they dragged him back outside. When they went back n he was already on the altar. This repeated several times and then they finally gave up and let him stay, but they asked that when they have ceremony he not be in front of them. Plus they want him to work. They told him to get donations for reconstructing the temple within 30 days. Every day he was there drunk and sleeping and then at the last hour priests try to throw him out. He went to the well and used his fan and chanted a mantra and materialized the wood needed to do the work…. There are many stories to teach people to not be rigid about what monks are supposed to be and what spirituality is.

“The Buddha stays in my heart while the wine and the meat go through my intestine.”

Some people talk a lot and preach a lot but they don’t have god in their heart. They judge – by judging they lose the Buddha in their heart. Do you truly have god/Tao in your heart? No need to judge.