Good Karma Music Stories

I visited CTTB for a couple of hours to donate sutra’s and bow at the Buddha Hall from Nevada. I needed to make changes to my return date on the greyhound. The nice young chinese man at the admin counter allowed me to use the computer in one of the rooms. This astonished me. I was pleasantly surprised. It was a shock to my system that someone at CTTB was being kind to me.

(I had visited CTTB before but received harsh scoldings for no reason and it really made me want to stay away, but because of Master Hsuan Hua, I keep coming back over the years.)

So…when I was offered to use the computer I was in awe. It touched my heart…. the young man’s kindness. He also called me a cab so I could go to my hotel room. I had brought a genuine sandalwood mala beads I had been saving in a silk bag from Nepal for twenty or so years. It was a great treasure to me. I cherished it so much I wouldn’t use it. I just kept it with my sutra books. Because of this young man’s kindness I offered him my cherish possession, the sandalwood mala beads.

I realized then that I was able to give away my most treasured possessions.

Today is my 10th birthday, I do not have a birthday party. Instead, I spent a day with my family & auntie’s family. We went to a temple in Long Beach and be vegetarian for a day. The food was very good especially these curry mini pancakes. I got red envelopes for my birthday, instead of keep all the money. My mom said I can create good deed if I donate some of my money to the temple. I decided to donate $20 for the food. After that we took my dog to the Long Beach dog park, we met some dog friends! Then we went to the outlet and got some ice creams. It’s the best birthday, I ever had. After all that fun we went home then open more gifts! Thank you everyone!! 🙂 Also, I am reciting great compassion mantra 3 times and transfer all the merit to everyone who is suffering from Covid and hope it will end very soon. Lastly, I always like Master Heng Sure singing in Youtube, when my mom told me about a chance to maybe get the album… I don’t want to miss it. I hope to see Master again when you can visit us in US.

Today I wrote the Great Compassion Mantra .And I even participated in the Amitabha session.

One of the good deeds I did in 2020 was I’ve finally started what I’ve wanting to do for years – I started to upload and produce videos of Master Hua, I hope this project is a life long project, and I’ll do it as much as I can. and I hope this project inspired people as much as it inspired me.

I am a teacher by profession. I teach first grade school children in a California public school and this is my 20th year. This year has been exceptionally hard for young kids as everyone has to do distance learning in my school district. To liven things up and make my class zoom lessons more interesting, I decided to incorporate thematic teaching with Sharing that kids can do. So in October, they shared the different colors of fall leaves they can find and made leaf books. For November, we did stories on the meaning of Thanksgiving – what we are thankful for, and I shared the unfertilized egg from a mourning dove that was left on my bird feeder (I give out bird seeds daily). Perhaps that’s their way of showing gratitude, lol.. For December, we did the meaning of Christmas (sharing kindness with family and friends). An injured bird stayed in my backyard seeking shelter for 3 days and night, until one night the temperatures dropped to low 40s. I didn’t see it again the next day. I also shared pics of earthworms that ventured out from the rain and told them not to step on any. And not to squish ladybugs. They all belong to nature. This way, the students are also inadvertently learning all the vocabulary and required skills, in a fun way and also understanding the importance of being kind. I hope by teaching young minds that if we show kindness to sentient beings, it will provide the opportunity for them to practice and earn kindness in return. They always love to see my pictures and realia on kindness in zoom class!

As a DRBU Masters Course graduate student, there is always a vivid memory of my time there beating strongly inside my grateful heart, especially after having left California so abruptly and unexpectedly due to COVID-19.
Back home, having left everything, and wanting to immerse myself in “retreat-mode” to be able to sink in everything that I learned and experienced in DRBU, I suddenly found myself faced to the reality of the demands of such situation.
So my expectations of a peaceful retreat disolved as the number of people I had to begin to help psychotherapeutically for free increased dramatically.
I had so much wanted to have the time to go through my texts and notes again, so as to “not forget” what I had seen in my Course!
But my sealed commitment as a mental health provider was and has been the priority.
The months have gone by, and continuos, profound psychotherapeutic and academic work are still very much needed as a free contribution in my country, now.
Therefore, no time left for reviews of my classical texts, and I began to feel somewhat nostalgic and overwhelmed, asking myself when would that time come so that I could feel my teachings “close”.
But then, previous patients of mine, some of the new ones, and especially my relatives and sons, told me how inspired they were by the “results of my DRBU Retreat”, and that my non-profit help had inspired them to do the same with their own activities, circumstance that had made them feel and think that it was precisely what the world needed now more than ever before, and that they would continue doing so for good.
Generosity, Loving-Kindness, Forgiveness, and Gratitude…
Paying forward…
Aren´t those some of the abodes we should always dwell in, everywhere, everytime?

I was fortunate to work at a company where I received a free lunch each working day during the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides getting a free lunch, I also get to take another free vegetarian lunch box home if there’s any left over by the end of the day. One day on my way home, I saw a homeless man about middle age drove a bicycle to his tent which camped next to the freeway entrance. Within a split second, I thought to myself, how fortunate I am to have free lunch at work and even get to take home a second free meal sometimes. I was overwhelmed with so much gratitude and blessings and decided to share my blessings with the homeless man. I safely stopped my car where he was, rolled the window down, and gave him the vegetarian lunch box. He smiled at me and said “Thank you. God blesses you.” I replied “You’re welcome, hope you enjoy the meal,” and off I drove. I was able to stop by the second and third time to give him more snacks, fruits, and a meal before I got transferred to a new work site. The joy of giving intensifies each time I give. It’s similar to giving the “self” away each time you give like Reverence HS mentioned. I feel so much lighter and happier than before when I give a piece of my “self” away.