Reality follows Mind vs. Mind follows Reality

In simple terms, "reality follows mind" (境隨心轉 jìng-suí-xīn-zhuǎn) implies one's perception, intention or thought controls one's own reality and affects how one acts and behaves.  "Mind follows reality" (心隨境轉 xīn-suí-jìng-zhuǎn) means one's perception is dictated or manipulated by one's own reality and becomes a slave of this reality.

This topic may sound "sleepy" to you.  But if you grasp the concepts behind, you will have one foot stepped inside "Club Enlightenment".

To make these concepts easier to understand, please watch a 98 seconds video below about a 11 years old boy who had failed his exams in China, the land of "tiger moms":

The boy and his father

The video may run too fast.  Let me recap the contents for you:
1.  This 11 years old boy got 7 points (out of 100) from a school exam.  A Chinese boy with this low and failing score is very likely scolded or beaten up by his parents.
Academic failure is a cardinal sin in the mind of traditional Chinese parents.
2.  Surprisingly, his father was very happy to see his boy get 7 points.  He had even bought a car-load of fireworks that costed him US$160 to celebrate the boy's exam result.
3.  It is because this boy had zero scores in his previous exams.
4.  After this incident, this boy has a change of attitude towards school works and become self-motivated to study.
5.  He got 57 points in an exam held a few days ago.

Originally I have planned to explain the dynamics behind.  But I don't want to sound like a preacher.  So I let you figure this out and make your own judgement.

Happy thinking (and weekend)!

P.S.  Consult "Diamond Sutra" if you want to know more about "reality follows mind".

Ken Lai
© 2018 Ken Lai, all rights reserved.

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Diamond Sutra Vs. Diamond Drill II: Secret of Pain Control

Last October I had blogged about using Diamond Sutra to overcome dental pain caused by dental-drilling. 
https://kenlai.wordpress.com/2015/10/08/diamond-sutra-vs-diamond-drill/

Yesterday, I have my third dental crown done.  With previous two pain-control experience with Diamond Sutra, I thought this trip should be painless.

Alas!  Life always gives you some surprises (or "sh** happens" in daily language).  Age must be catching up with me after hitting 60,  I forgot the first sentence of the Diamond Sutra while the dentist was drilling my teeth.

While in panic (and pain!), I recite silently the easy-to-remember compassion mantra "Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ".  But it did not reduce the pain.

Diamond Sutra

Out of desperation, I had recited Diamond Sutra without the first sentence while whacking my brain trying to remember the first sentence of the Sutra.

Amazingly, Diamond Sutra still stopped the drilling pain without reciting the first sentence. Eventually, my brain had recollected the first sentence of the Sutra.

A question come to my mind-- why the shorter Sutra "Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ" does not work?  Is it too short to keep my mind busy enough to divert its attention to dental drilling?  If this is the case, any longer sutra or prayer from other religions should work too.

As an intellectually curious or dummy,  I had sacrificed myself as an experimental subject to test this hypothesis.   I had stopped recited Diamond Sutra and recited the Catholic "Our Father" prayer.

But....the last time that I had recited "Our Father" prayer was in 1974 when I was a senior in a Catholic high school.  I had forgotten most of it!

Was I in big trouble?

No, it actually worked better in stopping pain while my brain frantically search through the brain cells for the "fragments" of this prayer.  In other words,  this "search" had directed or distracted the focus from the dental pain to the prayer.

"Ken,  I am an atheist.  What can I do instead of reciting prayer or sutra?"

You may try to recite some passages, poems, lyrics ... that you had learned during your childhood or anything that you can barely remember as distraction.  It should work just the same.

This is my little pain control without drugs tips to humanity.  But there is no escape for the pain of paying tax and dental bills. You may help reduce my bill-paying pain by reading my ad below and click the link if you could.

Ken Lai

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Diamond Sutra vs. Diamond Drill

The blog title sounds like a Japanese monster movie.  It is actually about my adventures in a dental office.

I had a dental crown done a few months ago.  It was a two visits operation.  First visit to drill away parts of the worn out tooth, make some plastic molds to create a temporary crown and cap it on top of the tooth.  The process could be painful even with anesthesia.  The second visit is to replace the temporary crown with the final one, is not painful and done without anesthesia.

Yesterday I had another dental crown operation.  As usual, the dentist had given me an anesthesia shot and drilled my worn out tooth.  I still felt the pain, especially when the drill hitting some tooth nerves.  Suddenly a purple light flashed in my mind and I had recited a 4-lines gatha of the Diamond Sutra in Chinese in my mind.  In English, it will be:

"All conditioned phenomena
Are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow,
Like dew or a flash of lightning;
Thus we shall perceive them.”

My pain had disappeared while the dentist was still drilling happily.

Diamond Sutra is about non-abiding and non-attachment and that everything in life is an illusion.  I interpret that pain is also an illusion and thus should not be painful.

"Ken, this cannot prove the Sutra had worked its magic.  You had an anesthesia shot."

Well, I agree totally.  So I had done an experiment...

It was over an hour after a few plastic molds were done and the effect of anesthesia was 95%+ gone.  It came to the final installation of the temporary crown which requires some more drilling to fit.  The dentist had asked me if I want another anesthesia shot.

"No."  I manned up and replied.

I had regretted it within 30 seconds.

The dentist had drilled like there is no tomorrow.  It was so painful that I had almost levitated over the dental operation chair.  I knew the anesthesia had left me alone.

The moment of truth came--- I kept reciting the above 4-lines gatha of Diamond Sutra in my mind.  The pain was almost gone even the dentist was still drilling.  I still felt a little pain but it did not bother me physically.

You may try this trick next time when you run into painful or dangerous situation.

Ken Lai

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