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Sixteen questions in cultivating Dao

Holy Teaching from Buddha Ji Gong 1. If a simple comment from someone causes you to be angry for so long, how can you expect to cultivate Dao? 2. If you worry only about your own hardships, afraid that no one can understand you, and do not care for others,

Why seek Dao?

Holy Teaching from Buddha Ji Gong Why does one seek Dao? Where, exactly, is Dao? What does it mean to “seek”? Let me tell you: When you come to the temple to seek Dao, you do not receive anything. You don’t come to the temple for the Heavens to

為什麼「求道」？

English translation available: ‘Why seek Dao?’ 活佛恩師慈訓  為什麼要求道？道，到底在哪裡？ 『求』這個字是什麼意思？為師跟你們講：你們來佛堂求道，其實都沒有得到什麼東西！並不是說你來到佛堂，上天要給你什麼東西。三寶是上天降給你的，是不是？你們都忽略了『道是自然』這四個字。道是很自然的，而三寶又在哪裡？三寶就在你身上，三寶是本來就有的，不是靠別人跟你講，也不是靠別人送給你，是你本來就有的，而且每一個人都平等、都一樣，沒有誰比較好，也沒有誰比較壞！ 三寶，就是代表你的佛性，每一個人的佛性是平等的，沒有階級之分，但是你們現在有了階級。在人的世界裡一定有階級，但我們今天修道就要瞭解，道是很自然的，我們要恢復自然，就要沒有階級，沒有你、我，沒有形象。 今天你要求證是不是點開那個地方，是與不是，皆在於你自己，別人信不信也是在他自己，

修道十六問

English translation available: ‘Sixteen questions in cultivating Dao’ 濟公活佛慈訓 1. 別人的一句話・都可使你生氣那麽久，你如何修道? 2. 你只在乎自己的苦衷，怕無人可了解，不知關懷別人，你如何修道？ 3. 你不懂得「委曲」自己、「求全」大局，你如何修道? 4. 你看人、事、物都不順眼，滿心罣礙，你如何修道? 5. 你連「上香禮拜」都惰，你如何修道? 6. 你的主見太深，老覺得別人不好，你如何修道? 7. 你不懂得「將心比心」替別人想，你如何修道? 8. 你做事這「不耐煩」，你如何修道？ 9.

Procrastination

As hx was procrastinating this morning, hx watched a TED talk on procrastination. (Classic, right?) Tim Urban distills this human tendancy from the perspectives of the ‘panic monster’ and the ‘instant gratification monkey.’ Very entertaining and actually correlates very well to our own 道心、人心 Panic monster gets awoken when

The Universe and 信

In Confucian teachings, there are Five Virtues, or 五常之德：仁、義、禮、智、信. Landy has mentioned in recent temple teachings the utter importance of 信, as it is the glue that keeps all other virtues together. It is, in fact, what keeps the universe together. Without 信, universal order,

Box: uploading new versions

The version history feature of Box allows us to “overwrite” files while keeping a version history of up to 50 versions per file—indefinitely. This allows us to upload new versions of files, keep old files, yet simultaneously not add to folder clutter. This version tracking is automatically performed when

Chris Batts' near-death experience

The tumultuousness of Chris’ life began very early in infancy, when his mother left him crying in a dumpster. He was eventually found, but was bounced from one home to another as a young child, and he often went to bed hungry. He felt depressed and alone, and he started

Design principles for user visibility

Here is an illustration for how hx has currently designed the default visibility of posts and event items for different user levels. Conceptually, there are seven levels of usership by current design: 1. Anonymous This is the average Joe Schmoe that navigates to tongde.us randomly on the internet. This

Recap: True Self meditation

Thank you all for joining us this weekend in a wonderful session on True Self meditation. We hope that the content was helpful, and that the actionable exercises we shared can help us all to be in better tune with our True Self. Remember that cultivating Dao is conceptually simple—

Public

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Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. — Lao Tzu 知人者智，自知者明。 勝人者有力，自勝者强。 老子

Evaluating content visibility

The benefit of having individual accounts on this website is that we are able to cater content to each individual Dao relative. This sometimes requires that we periodically test accounts of various permissions levels in order to ensure that the subset of total content that relatives see is indeed what

Posting to specific classes

We can now submit blog posts to the website that are only visible to participants of specific class series. Hope our inaugural group for doing this can be our biweekly English Zoom Series in 2021. How to set posts to be visible only to certain class series To make a

Class: English Zoom Series (2020-2021)

Dao Seminar this Saturday 1/9

Dear sincere Dao cultivators, Happy New Year! We hope that each of you had a joyous holiday. Although circumstances this year were sure to have been significantly different from years past, we hope that everyone could continue to find inner peace, solace, and tranquility—or even be the bright, radiant

COVID-19 quarantining

Hx has been asked for COVID-19 advice by the De En temple staff with respect to whether people recovering from the virus should be allowed to visit the temple, or whether continued quarantine is necessary. The short answer is that it continues to be complicated. The CDC has assembled all

Class: English Zoom Series (2020-2021)

2020: Dao seminar recap

What a great way to end the inaugural year of our Zoom seminar series! Here is a quick graphical representation of the topics we discussed. What do you remember from these sessions? Add your thoughts in the comments below!

Website now SSL secure

Your browser should now default to connecting to https://tongde.us. (Note that this is now ‘HTTPS’ instead of ‘HTTP’.) No action is needed on the user front-end. All passwords and data will now be sent with end-to-end encryption when connecting with tongde.us.

COVID-19

A Letter to Enkindle the Heart

English translation by Robert 參考：中文原文，余講師文惠書寫 We live in an extraordinary time period, when all aspects of human civilization have reached unprecedented levels of growth and prosperity. From exploiting the earth’s natural resources, to the exploration of the universe, to scientific and technological developments, all aspects of humanity

Chinese

致各位前賢一封點燃心燈的信

See: English translation by Robert 這是一個非凡的世代，人類各方面的文明都達到了前所未有的境況。物質文明的豐盛，科技文明的宇宙探討；並因種種的物質、科技所帶給人類的各種內外在衝擊，所導致的種種後遺症，也使有心挖掘真相，解決問題的人，努力探索，尋思人類的未來方向、人類生存的價值和意義。 正巧2020的開始，就引發了世界性的疫情，悲觀的人更對世界現象憂心，使心中無主的人，惶惶終日，彷彿世界末日將臨。 其實，危機永遠是轉機，絕望的情況也往往是人類新生的契機。因為生而為人最可貴的靈性是如此美妙，只要悟透主宰生命的本質，是精神領域而非物質文明，我們就有機會頓悟，而放下，而突破。 更何況這個空前的大環境裡，自從千年以來已隱隱透著一絲曙光，自六祖已降，平民百姓皆有聽聞正法，領悟真諦的機緣；因為總有明師現世，以種種因緣牽引眾生向道的心。 終於因緣成熟，於百多年前大道應運降世，使芸芸眾生，如欲修行，便有下手處——回歸自性，肯定真如自性人人皆有。只要體悟個中意，修行的光明坦途於焉展開。 今天在這個群

南極仙翁白話訓

西元二○○九年六月十日歲次己丑五月十八日              仙佛慈悲借竅訓 南極仙翁慈悲借竅訓： 感恩的心，感恩誰啊？（父母親）有沒有感恩自己呀！（也有）感恩自己，為什麼自己要感恩啊？給自己機會，你今天會在這裡，有沒有因緣啊？（有）這是誰給你的因緣啊？（自己的根基）自己的根基。 因緣，因緣，有人把握，有人放棄。你們現在把握了沒有？（把握了）真的？那法會開下來，對你們來說有沒有改變？老古頭，不能這麼折騰啊？慢慢來。不認識老朽啊！福，祿，壽三星聽過沒有？有感恩的心的人很有福氣嘿！因為他不會抱怨，是嗎？（是）他遇到順境很感恩，遇到逆境也很感恩。因為他知道是要造就自己的，是幫助自己了業，了愿的，是嗎？（是）你們現在座在這裡辛不辛苦啊？（不辛苦）你看老仙翁彎著腰，辛不辛苦啊？（辛苦）

同聖壇

三天主考慈訓

中文　︱　English Translation 西元二○○六年七月十五日歲次丙戌六月廿日　新澤西同聖壇 　　　　　　　　　　　　　       　恭求仙佛慈悲指示訓 百千法門同歸方寸　諸般妙德皆在心源 見性一轉已三千卷　允執厥中妙不可言 吾乃 　　三天主考　爾師兄　今奉 命　來至同聖　進門已參　 皇座 再問各位弟妹們 各個安平　 平心靜氣誠意正心 各素其位且待兄評   　    　 垂目橫書問知音　可知今日法會因 各皆有其殊勝緣　與那佛緣之厚深 天道降世承一貫　普渡三曹天命真 諸眾既已幸聞道　拳拳服膺莫誤辰 有緣逢了佛出世　無緣對面陌生云 既進師門指玄受　可要返觀自照心 因不知所真偽辨　故而法會說明云 若非引保苦口勸　若非點傳點其忄 哪有今日聚於此　哪能不著生死門 亘古無有今已得　不可自棄輕視云 自身有道知參悟　自性自渡方為神 人間幻化之因緣　水中撈月假作真 真修道者見門道　不學糊混走旁門