Story Telling - Use the Three Sieves Before You Tell Somebody Something

Once, a young monk went running to his Master, panting and feeling very excited. He said: “Let me tell you something, Master. I am very sure you could never imagine it.”

The Master answered sternly: “Wait a minute. The news that you are about to tell me, have you sifted it with three sieves?” The young monk could feel that his Master was a little unhappy, and he shook his head.

The Master told the monk, “Before you tell somebody something, you must at least use three sieves to sift it. The first sieve is the sieve of truth. The thing that you are about to tell me, is it true?” 

“Ermmm… Master, I heard it from the streets. Everybody says that. As a matter of fact, I do not know if it’s true.”

“Then you need to check it with your second sieve. Even if is not true, you should at least be telling me this matter out of kindness. Is that the case?”

“Er… no. On the contrary, Master.” At this point, the disciple dropped his head in regret.

“Then we shall now use the third sieve to check. This matter that you so urgently need to tell me, is it important?”

The disciple replied, “It is not really that important.”

The Master cut in: “As this news is not important, neither is your intention kind, nor do you know whether it is true or not, why would you want to say it when by saying it will cause confusion in the both of us?”

Words of Wisdom from Master Jun Hong Lu
Batam, Indonesia 20160218

Story Telling - The Old Man and Three Naughty Kids

A retired old man went to a small town and settled down in a small house with hopes to spend a peaceful retirement there and write his memoir.

Everything was great in the first few weeks until one day, three naughty boys came to play nearby and started to kick the trash cans around and making a lot of noise. The old man couldn’t stand the noise so he negotiated with the kids.

He said, “Kids, I love what you did with the trash cans and I’d be happy to pay you a dollar per day per person if you come over here and do this every day.” The kids were happy with the arrangement and tried even harder to kick the cans.

Three days past, the old man went up to the kids and said with disappointment, “Kids, the inflation shrank my income by half and I can only pay you 50 cents from tomorrow on.” The kids were reluctant but eventually agreed to the new arrangement and kept on with their can kicking performance after school every day.

A week later, the old man walked up to them with even more disappointment, “Kids, I didn’t get my pension wire lately so I’m sorry I can only pay you 20 cents going forward.” “20 cents?!” The kids were quite grumpy about the news and said “No way we are wasting our precious time to perform for you for this little money! We are quitting!”

They left and the old man returned to his peaceful retirement.

Takeaway from Master Lu

We need to apply wisdom to everything we do and try to do things in a clever way.  Not everything can be done with the conventional way but can be solved in a clever way.  True Buddhists understand that everything has two sides and nothing exists independently from others.  The old man wants to write his memoir in peace but got his life disrupted by the naughty kids but he achieved his goal by taking advantage of the kids’ rebellious nature.

How to Improve Academic Performance Through Recitation

Wenda 20111211 04:19
(Master Jun Hong Lu's call-in program)

Caller:  Master Lu, I have been wishing to improve my academic performance lately.  Do you think my current recitations are sufficient?

Master Lu:  Yes, but you will have to strengthen your "Heart Sutra (Xin Jing).  For the purpose of improving academic performance, you need to recite "Heart Sutra" and "Cundi Dharani" (Zhun Ti Shen Zhou).  For "Cundi Dharani", recite 49 times.  It is very short and you do not need much time to complete it once you memorized it.

Caller:  At present, I am reciting 49 times "Cundi Dharani" and 21 times "Sapta Atitabuddha Karasaniya Dharani" (Qi Fo Mie Zui Zhen Yan).

Master Lu:  But you need to strengthen your "Heart Sutra" to enhance your wisdom.

Caller:  I will do that.

Master Lu:  Prior to examination, cut back on non-vegetarian diet.  In addition, before recitations, avoid garlic and food that caused bad breath.  Do you thik Bodhisattva will ever visit when you do your recitation with a breath covered with foul smell?

Caller:  Understand.  Thank you Master Lu.