Moonpointer : Buddhist Blog of Everyday Dharma

Guarantee: Sam & Sara #397

Shen Shi'an — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:21:17 PDT

Sam & Sara #397: Guarantee

Sam: Look! There is lifetime guarantee for this product!
Sara: So?
Sam: Huh?
Sara: It doesn’t guarantee that you will use if for your lifetime…
Sam: … or that the company offering it will last my lifetime!

The only guarantee
in this changing world
is change itself.

This’ll be expanded & illustrated as a comic in a ‘Sam & Sara’ book sequel later.

Get ‘The Amazing & Amusing Adventures of Sam & Sara: The Zen of All Kinds of Stuff’ Book for #1-100 illustrated:
http://thedailyenlightenment.com/webstore/store.php#!/~/product/category=4197677&id=17908102

Go Bookshop: http://thedailyenlightenment.com/2012/07/sam-sara-evergreen-buddhist-bookshop
51 Book reviews: http://thedailyenlightenment.com/2012/07/reviews-of-sam-sara
5 Book trailers: http://thedailyenlightenment.com/2012/07/sam-sara-book-trailers
Flyer: http://thedailyenlightenment.com/2012/07/sam-sara-eflyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamSaraAdventures

Easiness: Sam & Sara #396

Shen Shi'an — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:11:37 PDT

Sam & Sara #396: Easiness

Sam: The back of this pot is hard to wash!
Sara: Is your back easy to wash?
Sam: Er… not really either.
Sara: But you do your best anyway, right?
Sam: Er… ya…
Sara: Just do the same for the pot!

What involves us directly
we tend to do better,
but if you ought to do something else,
why not just do your best as well?

This’ll be expanded & illustrated as a comic in a ‘Sam & Sara’ book sequel later.

Already: Sam & Sara #395

Shen Shi'an — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:02:36 PDT

Sam & Sara #395: Already?

Sam: Did you do it yet?
Sara: (softly) Yes
Sam: So, did you do it yet?
Sara: Didn’t I say ‘yes’ already? How many times do I have to say it?
Sam: Just once.
Sara: But I did already!
Sam: But I didn’t hear it the first time!

Miscommunication arises from
misspeaking, mishearing,
not hearing or speculating;
not from intentional ill will.

This’ll be expanded & illustrated as a comic in a ‘Sam & Sara’ book sequel later.

Expectation: Sam & Sara #394

Shen Shi'an — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:45:35 PDT

Sam & Sara #394: Expectation

Sara:I came across this joke – ‘When someone tells you to, “expect the unexpected”, slap them in the face and ask them if they expected it.’
Sam: Hah! You would have to expect the expected… slapped back!
Sara: Good extension!

How do you expect the unexpected
since it is unexpectable?
All we can do is be open-hearted
and open-minded to possibilities.

This’ll be expanded & illustrated as a comic in a ‘Sam & Sara’ book sequel later.

Drama: Sam & Sara #393

Shen Shi'an — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:32:22 PDT

Sam & Sara #393: Drama

Sara: This TV series is so dramatic, unlike real life.
Sam: Isn’t that exactly why you watch it?
Sara: I guess!
Sam: And they’re called dramas because they’re meant to be dramatic!

Good stories deepen on truths
even when they expand on fiction.
What stories do you read and write in life?

This’ll be expanded & illustrated as a comic in a ‘Sam & Sara’ book sequel later.

Sunrise After Skyfall

Shen Shi'an — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:51:02 PDT

The James Bond movie franchise had its 50th anniversary recently. Despite many themes of death in their titles, say, ‘You Only Live Twice’, ‘Live & Let Die’, ‘A View To A Kill’, ‘The Living Daylights’, License To Kill’, ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’, ‘Die Another Day’… Bond never really dies. He bounces back to life after many near-death obstacles, in many manifestations, played by different actors. As ‘Skyfall’ puts it, he is ‘an examplar of British fortitude’?

Bond, in Skyfall, despite being seemingly betrayed by M, his espionage operations director, never blames her, as he agrees that is was a matter of possibly taking him down or endangering many other fellow spies’ lives when she had to order a close shot, that did strike him instead of the moving enemy target in a scuffle. Such is his ability to readily sacrifice.

As if with the Bodhisattva spirit, after healing in hiding, he is eager to be back in service, to seek and serve justice. As we know, Bond has had a string of lost loves in his dangerous career – but he strives on, moving on quickly after healing his broken heart. (Recall ‘Quantum of Solace’.) Okay, his romances are sometimes lusty, and his exploits are at times with a streak of vengefulness. Not a perfect Bodhisattva after all. Yet, generally heroic enough a character to endure in the Hollywood limelight!

In Skyfall, there is an unnerving ‘speech’ by Raoul Silva, the enemy, when he held Bond captive – ‘One summer, we went for a visit and discovered the place had been infested with rats. They’d come on a fishing boat and gorged themselves on coconut. So how do you get rats off an island? Hmm? My grandmother showed me. We buried an oil drum and hinged the lid. Then we wired coconut to the lid as bait and the rats would come for the coconut and… they would fall into the drum. And after a month, you have trapped all the rats, but what do you do then? Throw the drum into the ocean? Burn it? No. You just leave it and they begin to get hungry. And one by one… [mimics rat munching sound] they start eating each other until there are only two left. The two survivors. And then what? Do you kill them? No. You take them and release them into the trees, but now they don’t eat coconut anymore. Now, they only eat rat. You have changed their nature. The two survivors. This is what she made us… You see, we are the last two rats. We can either eat each other… mmm… or eat everyone else.’ In a showdown scene, as Silva falls, Bond has the last word when he says, ‘Last rat standing.’

If rats can be conditioned to be viciously carnivorous of their own kind, they can be de-conditioned to regain their original nature too. Why must we imagine ourselves or others to be conditioned beyond hope of change? In the larger picture of things, our truly original nature is our Buddha-nature, the ability to actualise Buddhahood. All other defiled natures based on greed, hatred and delusion are transitory, unsubstantial. Will we see Bond evolve closer to his Buddha-nature in the next instalment of the franchise? We’ll see!

Abstract Art

Shen Shi'an — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:11:15 PDT

PY: Art is too abstract. No wonder I always failed at art.

SA: The trick is being able to justify your creations as art! Exactly because art can seem abstract, it is easy to pass if you can come up with a more exact and thoughtful philosophy about your ‘abstactly’ done pieces. The art teacher would have no way but to agree it is a work of genius if you can illuminate him sufficiently about your work’s significance!

Speedcam Paradox

Shen Shi'an — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:01:04 PDT

Should you warn others of the presence of speedcams at certain places? It might save them from getting into trouble with the law, but it might mean they might speed and get into accidents elsewhere instead, harming others and themselves?

Would it be better to let them get caught naturally by speedcams? Would it be even better to keep changing the positioning of speedcams, so that drivers are cautious everywhere as they can’t be sure if they are being watched?

When it comes to observation of the precepts, whether there is anyone ‘watching’ or not, the law of karma naturally ‘registers’ everything done intentionally. Karma-cam is everywhere and always turned on! As they say, take care of your karma from moment to moment and your karma takes care of you!

Doppelganger Buddhas

Shen Shi'an — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:46:08 PDT

Ted in ‘How I Met Your Mother’ says to his buddies, ‘Look we’ve all been searching for the five doppelgangers [of ourselves], right? But eventually, over time, we all become our own doppelgangers, you know, these completely different people who just happen to look like us.’

Truth is, in the rounds of rebirth, from moment to moment, and from life to life, we have been our own doppelgangers to some extent, as we change subtly and sometimes drastically.

We might not be totally the same or totally different between two consecutive lives, but we can evolve to be totally distinct eventually, growing out of all ill ways, to let our Buddha-nature shine through completely. That would be when we become all other Buddhas’ perfect doppelgangers in body and mind!

Past Parents

Shen Shi'an — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:09:00 PDT

I asked him why he doesn’t seem very concerned for the spiritual well-being of his parents. He replied that since we have been reborn so many times, we have all been one another’s parents at some point in the past, and that if so, he doesn’t see why he should be too particular about his present set of parents. It seems vaguely logical at first… but upon closer scrutiny, he isn’t very unconditionally and equanimously helpful to other beings either.

And if one is not even very concerned about one’s present parents, who are the most clear and present parents now, can one truly care more about strangers, other ‘past parents’? Spiritual charity begins at home, unless there are obstacles at the moment, which we should strive to overcome too. Right?

Fleeting Moments

Shen Shi'an — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 09:57:26 PDT

If the second hand is fleeting moment to moment,
the minute hand is also fleeting moment to moment,
with the hour hand also fleeting moment to moment.

A past moment fleets to become a present moment.
A present moment fleets to become a future moment.
A future moment fleets to become a past moment.

To be mindful of here and now
is to be mindful not of things as they are statically,
but of things as dynamic change itself.

Relative Truths Matter

Shen Shi'an — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 09:41:09 PDT

Zeroing a gun is
to realise the relative truth
of how you can shoot well.

Even if it is not a absolute truth (or universal principle),
that way you use the sight and aim,
your zeroed gun still works for you.

If, however, you try
to use the gun in an absolute way,
it is harder to shoot straight!

Past, Present, Future

Shen Shi'an — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 09:30:06 PDT

The past affects
the present
a lot…

but…

The present affects
the future
a lot too.

So…

How about resolving
the past
in the present

and…

How about changing
the future
in the present too?

What Art?

Shen Shi'an — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 09:19:49 PDT

‘Exit Through The Gift Shop’ is a witty documentary about and by Banksy, that prompts good questions about what makes art art, whether ‘illegal’ art (graffiti) is equated to illegitimate art. The irony of his once frowned upon (by the arty-farty) street art becoming mainstream auctioned commodities because they are too good to be ignored is funny too.

So… ‘What is art?’ My zenny answer counter-asks – ‘What is not art?’ Art is emptiness; subject to change, and has no fixed self or form! Art is the moment you appreciate anything mindfully. If so, mindfulness is what creates art! If so, we should cultivate the art of mindfulness, so as to create and appreciate art everywhere mindfully!

Art is deemed so or not by others as so at times, but this should not bother artists, as long as they see worth in their own works! This worth doesn’t have to be quantified in dollars and cents. It’s just unfortunate that some artists require dollars and cents to sustain their work. There is no true self (fixed nature) in art, artists, perception and art’s audience! The case of Banksy highlights this, even if accidentally. All these elements are in a constant whirl!

The film shows the whole ongoing affair to be like a circus act! A character is featured in the film, who appears to be an overnight artistic genius (Mr Brainwash) inspired by Banksy. Some theorise that he is one of the guises of the otherwise anonymous and faceless Banksy himself. It is great satire if it is really him, as he banks on the famous Banksy’s endorsement to make it big in the art world, to earn actual bucks as Banksy himself, who has otherwise been missing on the spoils from his originally free works!

Good Morning?

Shen Shi'an — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:36:41 PDT

PB: At the moment, I am failing to understand the ‘good’ part of ‘good morning’.
SS: Good to have survived the night?
PB: What do you mean?
SS: Good to be alive? It’s more of a wish methinks – ‘good morning’. Make it work!