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Kenneth S. Leong Books

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“Like avoidance, indulgence is also a form of escape. The objects of indulgence, be they drugs, alcohol, or sex, are simply used as painkillers. Experienced healers know that the real problem often does not lie in the drug or whatever object an addict is addicted to. For most addicts, the problem existed long before they started taking their drug of choice. Experienced healers also realize that getting rid of the drug does not get rid of the problem. In fact, it is critical to address the real problem at the time the drug is removed. More often than not, the drug-taking behavior is a symptom for a deep-seated unwillingness to face life as it is, i.e., a lack of gentleness. Thus, forced abstinence, without treating the root of the problem, may do more harm than good.”

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Book:The Zen Teachings of Jesus
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“When we find the dark side of life too much to take, when we feel an urge to fight or escape from it all, perhaps we should visualize a lotus flower, the timeless Buddhist symbol for purity. While the lotus itself is clean and beautiful, it is nevertheless rooted in dirty, stinking mud. Unsightly as the mud may be, it provides the necessary nutrients for the lotus flower. Should the flower be disconnected from the mud, it cannot continue to live. Perhaps we should think of our greed, anger, and lust in the same way: they provide the necessary food for our soul.”

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Book:The Zen Teachings of Jesus
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“In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asked us to turn to nature as our teacher. Nature does not make any distinction in its treatment of the good and the evil, nor does it discriminate between the just and the unjust. To treat all things and all people as equal is the way of nature. Jesus said that our love of others should also be like that. True love is indiscriminate. In this light, the instruction to "love your enemies" and to "pray for those who persecute you" is more a reflection of this nondiscriminatory mentality than an intention to go overboard.”

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“[A]ll beings in the universe are interdependent. Thus, the love of God means the love of All There Is. The one who loves God is the one who adopts a loving attitude to all things in life, for all are intimately connected and do not exist apart from one another. Therefore, the second greatest commandment is simply a derivative of the first one. Our love for others is due to our recognition that each one of them is also an integral part of God, inseparable from Ultimate Reality.”

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“Many people have completely missed out on the joy, humor, and profundity of Jesus' teachings because they keep holding on to the first interpretation they were taught back in Sunday school. In a way, they are like butterflies that are too afraid to come out of their cocoons or grown-ups who will not let go of their childhood clothes. By refusing to let their understanding grow with their personal experience, they are ensuring that the scriptures remain as a dull document progressively fading into oblivion rather than metamorphosing into the living words of God.”

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“Spiritual truth has more to do with meaning than with facticity, and meaning is a function of personal experience. If we reread the fairy tales that were told to us as children, it is very likely that we will discover a wealth of new meanings. But these meanings could not have been made available to us when we were children because we simply did not have the maturity then to understand them. In a sense, there is not just one Bible but millions of them. For each of us is effectively reading a personalized version of the Bible, even if we all try hard to be "objective" in our reading. Subjectivity in interpretation is built-in - for we read what we are.”

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“When was the last time you noticed the beauty of a cool breeze or the wonder of a starry sky or the vibrancy of a wild flower on the roadside? I used to have the ability to instantly appreciate the beauty of all these when I was a child, but by the time I was twenty it was almost lost. (It took a lot of Zen practice for me to regain it.) The world has not changed that much; there are still summer breezes, night skies, and wild flowers. But where has the perception gone?”

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“In the Parable of the Great Banquet, many of those who failed to share the joy of the feast were ordinary people who were simply too busy with their future-oriented life. As the invitation came, they ignored it and went off to tend their everyday business. Like most people, they felt that it is more important to make a living than to go to a feast and make merry. In a word, they are too "serious.”

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“[O]ur existential anxiety originates not from the objective state of reality but from our inflated expectations. The main problem is the discrepancy between our belief that we can handle everything by ourselves and the fact that, as mortals, we have several limitations. Unaware of this, we try to do the impossible: to control the uncontrollable, to predict the unpredictable, to hold on to the impermanent, and to secure the unsecurable. This illusion of omnipotence becomes our torture.”

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“This is self-abandonment: to live in the moment, not feeling the pressure to achieve something, not thinking about winning or losing, not worrying about acting foolish, breaking away from the neurosis of restraint or defense, enjoying the beauty of the moment yet not holding on to it, letting go without thinking about the need to let go, feeling the happiness without hoping for the happiness to continue, having no ego or attachment to anything. It is not work but pure play. It is not a matter of striving but wu-wei. It is not something planned for but a spontaneous event.”

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“While the mainstream Western mind visualizes the good and the evil as two opposite forces, each attempting to annihilate the other, the Taoists envision them as interdependent and complementary. The yin-yang is the primordial symbol for creative tension, without which life and growth are not possible, This understanding that the opposites are complementary is essential to Zen's gentle attitude toward life.”

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“Zen means the truth that is revealed through simple living. In the acquisitive society, we tend to have too many personal possessions, responsibilities, engagements, and entertainments. The big secret is that our quality of life has deteriorated because we are crushed by the weight of all these. There is so much to do and so little time to do it! Our situation is not unlike going on a tour where the tourist guide has scheduled too many sites to visit. Instead of increasing our enjoyment of the tour, the cramming actually diminishes it.”

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Book:The Zen Teachings of Jesus
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