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Flame of Hope "Pagoda" page is renewed. Some new posts are up too. "Hiking in the Austrian alps" "Stained Glass Windows"... "Building Pagoda" "[media report] Austria national TV-News report" See more

Break the Illusion of the Retirement Plan Attitude After I retire: That’s it! I’m free, I’ll do whatever I want to do. After I die: That’s it! It’s finished,... done, it’s over. After I’m enlightened: That’s it! I don’t have to practice anymore. These are illusions. Actually, I’m not denying your retirement plan (if you have one). What I want to say is that the attitude of That’s it! doesn’t work so well, especially if you want to grow spiritually. The attitude of That’s it! is a pitfall that causes you to stop thinking. This is one of the ways to become a Drifter, which I wrote about in my blog last time. Drifters. In all honesty, I think everyone in this world has been a drifter at some point in their life. These people, who (more or less) easily become distracted by everything in life, have an excuse for everything, they feel sorry for themselves, and exude everything negative that you can think of. They don’t do productive things in their everyday activities that will help them become the best version of themselves they can be. The reason for calling them Drifters is because that’s what they do: they drift through life without a care in the world, trying to discover their other self. Some people think that the way things work is in linear, straight lines, that there’s a line from point A to point B, or that there’s a starting point and end point. This only exists if you limit time and space, but when you have a bigger point of view, you’ll understand that limitation is a cut out part of the flow, a very small part of the world. Also, this way of thinking is very much connected to a person’s point of view, such as seeing this world as a physical or a material existence. Actually, the essence of the world is infinitely developing, so we can’t cut or stop time or space. This limitation exists only in the human brain. As you know, the sign for infinity, which looks like a sideways numeral 8, is the shape of the motion of energy, which is constantly moving. Or, you might know the Yin/Yang symbol, which consists of a circle divided into two halves by a curved line. One half of the circle is black, typically representing the yin (dark, negative) side; the other is white, for the yang (light, positive) side. Each half contains a dot in its center in the other half's color. This is not a static image. It symbolizes the movement of energy, starting from one side of the color and becoming more and more, and when it is maximized, the other side appears. And this keeps moving in a circular way and this circular energy becomes one. Also, circular movement doesn’t exist in only two dimensions it also goes upward and downward, in a spiral movement. Nothing stops in this universe; things only stop in the human mind, in illusion. What creates this illusion in people is Fear. More precisely, this illusion comes from the fear of death. When people don’t want to face the fact, either consciously or subconsciously, that they will die one day, they tend to become attached to material and physical things, and then cut parts out of and put limits on this world so they can escape from reality. They create an illusion for themselves and start saying That’s it! It’s done I’m finished! and so on. However, there is no end, spiritually. The end is an illusion that is projected from ego. And when you are stuck in this illusion, your energy goes down. However, we know that the universe is infinitely developing! So, feel the universe within yourself, and circularly, spirally, and infinitely raise the energy!

Flame of Hope Chanting schedule for Nov 15 to 21. You can watch a live broadcast at, https://www.facebook.com/FlameofHopeChanting

Flame of Hope Chanting schedule for Nov 8 to 14th. at https://www.facebook.com/FlameofHopeChanting

Are You a Drifter? My last two blogs, "Expiration Time on Emotions" and "Stand by Myself," talk about our responsibility as human beings and, in relation to thi...s, I just read Napoleon Hill’s book called Outwitting The Devil. He wrote how the Devil controls 98 percent of people, and how this makes them irresponsible. He calls those controlled people Drifters. Drifters believe they are powerless and become those who are: - addicted to self punishment, - easily controlled by others, - enslaved to their emotions, - fearful toward everything, - consumed by suppressed emotion and physical ailments, and - stuck in a victim identity. There are six kinds of fear that the Devil uses to control people, they are fear of: - poverty, - criticism, - ill health, - loss of love, - old age, and - death. And the Devil uses the first and last of these six fear of poverty and fear of death the most. In addition to fear, the Devil uses ignorance and doubt to gain control of people. The Devil enters the thoughts of people through superstition, avarice, greed, lust, revenge, anger, vanity, and laziness. And this is done in very sneaky ways. The Devil uses parents, teachers, religious leaders, politicians, newspapers, TV, radio, etc. anything that makes people not think for themselves and that gets them to follow others, making them Drifters. One of the stories in the book that surprised me was about the way the Devil uses our system of marriage as a way to control us as well. The Devil says: I cause men and women to drift into marriage without a plan or purpose designed to convert the relationship into harmony. Here is one of my most effective methods of converting people into the habit of drifting. I cause married people to bicker and nag one another over money matters. I cause them to quarrel over the bringing up of their children. I engage them in unpleasant controversies over their intimate relationships and in disagreements over friends and social activities. I keep them so busy finding fault with one another that they never have time to do anything else long enough to break the habit of drifting. As a result of this behaviour, parents don't have enough time to listen to their children. When a child is speaking, parents cut in and summarize the story. These actions lower the child’s sense of self-importance. The child loses self confidence and easily becomes a Drifter. Also, the Devil makes us believe that we have only one life. This makes people decide to live only for pleasure, only in the moment, and live for material satisfaction. Hell is not an afterlife; the Devil says that he is not a demon: You know that I exist only in the minds of people who have fears. You know that I control only the drifters who neglect to use their own minds. You know that my hell is here on earth and not in the world that comes after death. You know that I am a principle or form of energy which expresses the negative side of matter and energy, and that I am not a person with a forked tongue and a spiked tail. Napoleon Hill also wrote that Fears are nothing more than a state of mind. So, how can you be a Non-Drifter? Keep thinking, be a thinker; don’t postpone action; be definite in your actions, words, and thinking, when you stop thinking, that’s when you start shifting to becoming a Drifter. In Tao Sangha the way to not become a Drifter is to feel God (or Buddha or the Great Universal Spirit) within you; it is to feel the peace, wisdom, happiness, and joy spring out from within you; and it is to feel those as body sensations and share them with others, making them smile. Keep creating a bright future with determination, responsibility, humour, and joy. If you find yourself making excuses instead of progress, maybe it's a good idea to read Outwitting the Devil or attend Tao Sangha workshops.