Good Karma Music Stories

I wanted to get the CD so I decided to do some acts of kindness until I had a story to share. First I gave money to three homeless people with eye contact and a heartfelt blessing. That seemed pretty easy. Someone saw the response of one of the recipients and told me that I made her happy. Maybe I helped to inspire that passerby to be generous, too. Then I gave leftover food I was planning for the next day’s lunch to another homeless person. He seemed very hungry.The Rev. Heng Sure told a group that there are three types of giving: material (money, food, etc); courage and dharma.My courage story is that I met with a student from Hong Kong who is studying at an American University. He is interested in the field of sustainability (in which I work). I gave him advice for how to grow his contacts and his vision of what he wants to do and told him to keep me updated every few months. That felt like a true gift of attention, my time and my knowledge and some inspiration for him to fulfill his life’s dreams.My dharma story is that I am working to transform my anger against those who are blocking policy on energy and climate change that could accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and could help humanity to learn to live with a lighter footprint. I absorbed the advice to separate the policy from the person and to be able to love all beings as divinely connected. I also get that coming from anger (and hatred and rage) leads to half-baked messages. My dharma act will be to tell the truth as I see it, not holding back for fear that people can’t handle the truth about what we are doing to our planetary life support systems and the consequences that humanity (and our brethren living beings) will have to endure over millenia to come. I will speak this truth from a place of love, as well as urgency and passion. And with the intention of building bridges between where people are now and where we can go together, building a future based on love, as well as science and commerce.Thank you for your beautiful music and your message of wisdom and walking each step with mindfulness and intention.

Once, there was a huge black spider with long feet on the wall of my room, but, instead of feeling disgusted and smashing it with a broom, I quickly played a buddhist song in my laptop, hoping that the mantra would make the spider more compassion and it would eventually stop frightening me. When I paid no more attention to the spider for a few minutes, I looked back at the wall and the spider was nowhere to be found. I am so glad that I did not take its life.

This is an odd time to be thinking about the Paramita songs because I’m currently taking part in the 8 precepts which inhibits listening to music, but I suddenly remembered I don’t have the songs anymore and wanted them 😛 About a year ago, I lived a five minute drive from school and the “Be Green” fad was at a major peak. All of a sudden, it was the cool thing to be green (not that it’s a bad thing), so I was surrounded by people consistently preaching environmental awareness. Well, it worked; I wanted to be more environmentally friendly, so I decided I’d start taking the bus. I figured since there was a bus station across the street on the street that my school was on, it’d go there.. right? Nope. I looked up directions on Google maps and it said I needed to walk a mile to the closest bus station. I almost did it until I thought, “Wait, how far away is the school?” So, I looked up the walking directions and found the school was only 1.6 miles away. I thought it was ridiculous to walk a mile to save .6 miles, so I just ended up walking to school on non-rainy days. I suppose that broke the habit of relying on my car and now I’m a public transport frequenter. And on the bus, train, or lightrail, I constantly get the chance to observe random acts of kindness that help inspire me to be a good person.

Thursday after noon, at East Pacific Mall in El Cerrito, CA while loading grocery into our car, I heard my wife’s voice behind me. “Let me help you.” I turned around. An old woman was struggling with a 50lbs rice bag into the trunk of her car, parking next to ours. My wife helped her lift the heavy bag into place. The woman walked toward the passenger side of her car. I opened and hold the door for her. As she got into the car she said something I could not understand. However, I could not help seing a young man in the driver seat, reading a newspaper.

Not sure this is an act of kindness to become a vegetarian for not wanting to harm or make others to suffer. After I read a book about how people farm their animals and how they slaughter them. I couldn’t consume any meat at all. I feel sad when I see meat in the stores and people specially Buddhists who try their hardest to find excuses to eat these poor animals. I like to listen to your song – Ballad of Earth Store. I haven’t listened to other songs in your album because that is the only song I could find on the Ten thousand City website. This song is really great. Each note seems hit right into my soul.

Last month, I heard about the starvation of children and adults of Somalia. So I donated $25 to AmeriCare. After the donation, I was prompted by AmeriCare site to tell my other friends what I have done and encourage them to donate. First I thought I shouldn’t let others know what I did. But then I decided to put in email address of some of my friends, whom I have helped before, in the hope that they would make a donation and share in the act of kindness and compassion. Whether my friends donated or not, or how they would think of me and themselves shouldn’t be of my concern. The point is to share my joy of giving and inspire others to do the same.

I just finished a seven day Chan retreat. It was a very challenging, but ultimately inspiring experience in which many people from all walks of life came together in sincere practice. A few weeks earlier, I was at CTTB and appreciated hearing Master Heng Sure speak about the act of dedicating merit, so after finishing the retreat, I dedicated the merit from my practice to all living beings, wishing that they may swiftly accomplish Bodhi. As far as everyday things, there are a number of homeless people in the area where I live and when I pass them on the street, I try to make it a point to acknowledge them, whether simply with a smile and a “Hello”, a little conversation, or with some change or some food.