The Three Acts of Goodness
Good day everyone! The Chinese New Year just recently concluded and the entire experience was so liberating for me. I came to a deep and meaningful realization of the intricacies of the Chinese culture and the underlying Buddhist philosophies that drives their traditions. It was so refreshing to be a part of that night.
Anyways, I didn't really have the chance to talk about my experiences during the Chinese New Year at Chu Un Temple. For that very reason, I would like to share with you The Three Acts of Goodness which was displayed on a standee in the temple.
The Three Acts of Goodness
I am not a practicing Buddhist but I would love to think that I am. The basic tenets of their philosophy are just so appealing to me - the idea that the world around you lies in your very hands, or rather in the inner recesses of your mind.
The three acts of goodness weren't really formalized until 1998, which was introduced by Venerable Master Hsing Yun. He believes that these habits are important to be cultivated as it affects our future immensely. Just like Mahatma Ghandi who said "We must be the change we want to see in the world", Master Hsing Yun also realized that the very foundation of the society starts from each one of us.
He asserts that each one of us has the capacity to affect the entire community, nation, society and the whole world by exercising the three karmas of a person - body, speech, and mind. Each one can be used positively and negatively and sure enough, the result will be proportional to how the karma was used.
Karma of Mind: Think Good Thoughts
Are you familiar with The Law of Attraction? If you aren't, it is actually a New Thought Philosophy which believes that focusing your mind on the positive or negative thoughts will bring about either positive or negative experiences into one's life.
The same idea is preached by Buddhists. Each one of us is invited to think positively if we want to gain positive experiences. We often overlook the power of optimism. We see ourselves at the worst but expect for the best. It doesn't really make sense. The mind is a very powerful tool. Prayers can move mountains. Meditation can clear thoughts. COgnitive therapy can cure mental illnesses. Our minds are like factories and each thought is brought into the world.
In this light, I urge everyone to think of the positive side of things at all times. It's rather very simple. If we are greeted with an unexpected circumstance, just remember that our minds are capable of distorting reality.
Karma of Speech: Speak Good Words
Words cut deeper than a knife. What we bring out to the world through the words that we speak is a direct reflection of ourselves. As an advocate of emotional intelligence, I really believe how important it is to be mindful of our words. Most of the time, relationships are not destroyed because of a lack of compatibility between partners. I would like to believe that it mostly boils down to our reactions towards impulses.
Let us say that two partners are having a quarrel over the remote control. The girl has the device in her hands but the boy grabs it directly and changes the channel. We can imagine how shallow the situation is. However, if you listen to testimonies of people in a relationship, a small spark such as this would already constitute a breakup. Now, instead of the girl saying what she really feels in the most constructive way possible, "I am mad at you for I am offended by your lack of respect for my rights. Please do not do that again", most of the time we resort to anger, rage, and immediately revert to our primitive instincts - to hurt. We curse our partners and end up saying what we don't really mean.
It's a sad tale but it is happening around us. This is why I urge everyone to be mindful of our thoughts. We need to be aware that sometimes we don't really say what we mean and work towards articulating what we really have to say.
Karma of Body: Do Good Deeds
I believe that this is the end result of the habits mentioned above. Our intentions are translated into actions. There is nothing more honorable than doing what you can to help others. After all, we should leave the world a little bit better than when we found it. We become agents of change by the practicing these virtues. We become capable of achieveing great things through ourselves.
karma of mind, body and speech..i will remember that.thanks for sharing
Thank you for sharing @josejirafa. I agree with you. I will take note these 3 things
I do believe in this. What we usually think is what we become. Bad thinking result to bad actions.
love the attitude going here :)
Again no image sources!
Hi there @ana-marie. Thanks for your concern. I can only presume how angry this has made you with the conviction of your comment. However, I simply forgot to add in that these are my photos. I took these using my Vivo Smartphone at Chu Un Temple Cebu, Philippines.
Would you recommend that everyone add in each of their posts if the photos are theirs? And what phone was used to take the photos? I woyld love it if you share your insights.
Thanks for stopping by though!
I have to apologize to you completely regarding this one! - Entirely my bad and my mistake!
I'm not going to delete my previous comment as I don't want to run away from my mistakes. I would just try to make it right, as first by my 100% upvote for your article, hoping it might be of some comfort to you for my above unrighteous comment, and as well I would like to explain why and how it happened.
As I came to this article right after visiting one of your previous posts (what was the entirely different case than this one), and being a bit upset as well as disappointed, I missed doing the regular check I usually perform.
In other words, seeing a bunch of photos without any source listed, I wrongly assumed it's the same story as with the previous post. As I said, entirely my bad and my mistake!
My sincere apology once again!
P.S.
To answer your questions...
Officially (and as far as I know) listing the source when using your own content (including photos) it's not mandatory, especially if the same content hasn't been used elsewhere before.
In case the content has been used elsewhere before (e.g., on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or any other website), I would strongly suggest to link and mention that place where the work was previously published.
If nothing else to avoid so-called Steemit Police bots (like Cheetah is) that are not that smart to figure all of that out. They would just notice that material has been published elsewhere and if there is no source link, by automation mark it as SPAM or even put the account on the Blacklist.
From the manual curator's perspective, if there is any indication and/or mention that photos, images, illustrations, graphics or what so ever is the author's original work, it would help us a lot in many ways. If nothing else, by reducing the time needed for checking each one which time then we may use for providing more curations.
In other words, and from my point of view, in such cases (as e.g. this article of yours is) it's not necessary to provide such attribution under every single photo, but it would be great if it's mentioned, for instance, somewhere at the end of article what wouldn't disturb much the overall appearance and neatness of the whole article.
Regarding mentioning the device used in taking the photo it's entirely up to you. From my point of view, it may only help somewhat to prove the ownership (if it would be needed), but it's not mandatory. Although some authors, especially professional photographs would even list what kind of lenses, exposure, etc. they have been using while taking the photo.
But all of that it's optional and left to your personal choice.
Oh yes. I have heard a lot of concerns with cheetah lol. She's one feisty bot.
All your points are well expressed and I am thankful for your high regard towards posting great content and making steemit a better community. I took note of your advice and lessons. I could use it for my future posts.
It's a pity we had to get to know each other this way lol but I am really glad now that you stopped by. I learned a lot from you and I believe I will continue to learn from you.
This will merit my persuasion to make better content for evrybody. Thanks again. I followed you by the way and I just found out that you are from @thealliance which totally explains your credibility and passion for quality. Best of luck!