57 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
57 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
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title: "letter to M, my friend who practises Zen Buddhism"
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layout: post
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---
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Hi M:
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I am writing on a sunny but cloudy morning in Singapore.
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I've
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taken your sugggestion to observe the rhythm of the sun. One of my
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favourite times of day, when I am working at my part-time job (at a meat-free
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restaurant), is - can you guess it? - twilight; I like to watch the
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sunlight fade to blue darkness outside the windows, while the electric
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lamps indoors provide a warm orange glow.
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The fading light, day after
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day, night after night, reminds me that my busy-ness with myriad
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operational tasks at the restaurant, is just a small puff of vapour,
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compared to the vastness and ancient-ness of the Sun, not to mention the
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galaxies in the emptiness of the Space beyond Planet Earth; the Sun has
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been rising and setting since the time of the dinosaurs, and what
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creature am I to presume that I am the centre of the Universe?
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But I
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need a spiritual belief to be my compass in this vast emptiness, and I
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have found that through a personal relationship with King Jesus,
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resurrected Son of God, who is alive, active and powerful (even today,
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at this hour). But I ken that not everyone uses the same compass, and I
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have been growing in my acceptance of that.
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One good thing in my life is
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like-minded friends who share edifying information with me, through the
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wonders of the Internet. For example, Jill wants to find out more about
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the Quakers, so she looks that up on her smart-phone, and tells me about
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them, reading from her smart-phone, while I sit across from her on a
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comfortable couch, marvelling at the ease-of-access of such information.
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In other situations, my Buddhist brother sends me Buddhist Scriptures
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that is free-of-charge to view at a Web-page.
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(For example:
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https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an11/an11.016.piya.html )
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It is
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true that the Internet can harm us if we let it, but I believe a rich
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inner spiritual life can steer us towards a more constructive use of the
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Internet.
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Well, my shoulders ache from typing out this email with an
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awkward posture at my keyboard, so I shall stop writing here.
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Yours
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sincerely,
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T
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On this day, the 23rd of October, 2023 Anno Domini
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