Order of Interbeing

1. Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even a Buddhist one.

2. Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless absolute truth.

3. Do not force others to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education.

4. Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes to suffering.

5. Do not accumulate wealth while millions remain hungry.

6. Do not maintain anger or hatred.

7. Do not lose yourself in distraction, in-wardly or outwardly.

8. Do not utter words that can create dis-cord or cause your community to split apart.

9. Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal advantage or to impress people.

10. Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party.

11. Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans or nature.

12. Do not kill. Do not let others kill.

13. Possess nothing that should belong to others.

14. Do not mistreat your body.

The Flower in the Mirror

Reflecting on the impermanence of this life is important.

My niece recently taught me a game on my iPhone.. Since I have little personal interaction with them on a one to one basis, I thought it was a good idea to be trendy as a in-thing, in addition to the uncle-nieces interaction.

Its called draw something, which awards coins if u guess what the other person is drawing.  With the money, you can buy additional bombs (to get rid of some alphabets to give u a closer guess) or additional colours to make your pic more beautiful.

Soon, everyone is playing this game when they are free.. and we continue to laugh at each other's drawing of bagpipes, frodo, dark vader and lady gaga.  It is all virtual and unreal, just for fun, and a sheer waste of time if you are addicted.

I suddenly realised something from this game.. it is a total reflection of impermanence, and this life too.  While we are in the pursue of wealth, fame and success, are we not in the virtual world too?

Are we not feeding our greed, desire, anger, and ignorance in our games in life too?  The fact that it looks so real, it is real?

Perhaps all is the flower in the mirror and moon in the river..  It is just a reflection.  Not knowing the true purpose of this life, one falls into attachment to reflections rather than the "real thing"

But what then is the real thing?