Good Karma Music Stories

I just read the story about returning a wallet outside a bookstore, and it reminded me of the same thing -just at Border’s instead of Barnes & Noble. Just like the other story, I took the wallet off the sidewalk and brought it in for the store to return to the owner.

My mother had a an operation for a degeneration of the macular holein her eye. On discharge from hospital, she was required to sit athe table at home and barely move so as not to upset things. I did the cooking cleaning and other things. after all I put her through and her bringing me back, it’s the least I could do.

When I was at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in June, I remember helping an elderly nun transport some gardening stuff in my car…she was so sweet about it, asking why I was at the City and what I was doing there (I often asked myself those same questions:). She had placed some plastic bags in my trunk, so her ‘gardening dirt’ wouldn’t get all over my car. She was also seemingly surprised that a stranger would help her out like that, yet wanting me to see her garden and informing me how much work it was to keep it up. And I thought, gosh, her life is so simple and beautiful at the same time. I don’t know why, but I was touched by the simple beauty of life, that our soul and spirit could be nourished by such intangibility and purity.

living in nyc i myself start living in my own world as many of my fellow neighbors do… Off to work, to lunch, to dinner, to somewhere and normally not stopping in between. Not being available to others as I’m either listening to music or eyes only looking at my path. Most of the time as I’m on my run I’m not bing present for others or really myself…As there are angels in the world one has to have his or her eyes open to see. My act of kindness was smiling at a person who I didn’t know was lost and felt able to approach me… I was able to give directions, but her warm and welcoming smile back was such a gift as it brought warmness and happiness into my journey. I know this is small, but it really was so big as I do try to be present while living in this big amazing city.jp

After steps on the path of transformation,and feelings of anger and frustration.Pointing out my finger to the world,due to not being able to cope with the hurt.I have decided to change my ways, I let go and I give praize, to all that comes to my road, with very little material things I float.Between darkness and bright, I try to be always close to the light, I hope that this time I do it right. For a tiger doesnt really fight. No need to fear, I live inside…..

Last week I attended the Guan Yin Bodhisattva Recitation Session at CTTB for the first time. It was wonderful for me to devote an entire week to loving compassion and hold her name for as long of every day as I could (and my level of practice allowed). During the meditations, I would sometimes be able to hold her name sincerely the whole time, and to begin to turn my hearing around so that I wasn’t reaching out with it as much. When this didn’t work though, sometimes I would give in to my false thinking and walk along with my thoughts, indulging in them. One time, I began thinking about how hungry I was, and about all the good food I wanted to cook and eat. I thought about chocolate cake with raspberries, coconut ice cream, pulled noodle soup, and dumplings. My goodness! I couldn’t wait to get home and cook for my mom!After Guan Yin Session, my dad came to the City and took me home with him. That night, I invited him to dinner (he doesn’t live with my mom) and made dinner for both my parents. (In the past, I have always waited for my mom to get home so she could make dinner, but this time I made dinner so that it was ready when she got home from work.) We had a lovely time, all sitting around the table, eating good, home-cooked food, and talking.The next day, I invited my dad back for dinner. I planned to make the pulled noodles (something I never attempted before…), dumplings (I’ve made them, but never the dough), and coconut ice cream (in the freezer). That day I spent many hours in the kitchen and dining room, kneading dough, cranking ice cream, and trying to get the dough to turn into noodles (so difficult!) My dad came over at about 5:30, but I still wasn’t done making noodles. I had him take a little video on his phone of me trying to make noodles… at least it was entertaining! Then I started to cook. I cut up lots of vegetables, made mushroom/sesame oil filling for the dumplings, and starting boiling the noodles. An hour later, and the noodles still weren’t done and the dumplings had a weird aftertaste. The dough I made was too thick! Finally, I put the noodles in a big bowl and the dumplings on a plate. I cleared the table and set it and served food to my mom and dad. We started eating, and the noodles were gross! The dumpling couldn’t be eaten whole – we had to dig the filling out and eat it plain. My parents were so nice, though. We laughed about the food and had a nice dinner, anyway. Dad even had seconds!After dinner, I served the ice cream. It was a little soft, and I found out dad doesn’t like too much coconut, but mom really liked it. Dad spent the night in the guest room that night, and everyone was happy. They kept telling me how lucky they were.I need to back up a little bit here. My mom has been feeling kind of unhealthy lately. She has been under a lot of stress, and that has made a nerve condition she’s developed break out. The last week or so, she has had a lot of pain just moving, especially walking a lot or twisting her body. The two days that I was home meant that she could eat more, because I cooked for her, and she didn’t have to do very much, because I helped around the house. The day after the colossally gross dinner I made, Mom got out of bed and said how much better she was feeling. She was smiling and had very little pain walking around. She said how glad she was that I was home and helping out so she could relax and not push herself while she’s sick.The happiness of my parents was better tasting than any dumplings anywhere.

Although I couldn’t recall what year it was, however, I know that it was on a Saturday, and my dad and I were driving back home from my Chinese school. As we were finishing up the last stretch, suddenly two sparrows flew right into our direction! My dad slammed the brake and thought the two birds flew away. On the other hand, I had this feeling that he ran over a bird because I didn’t see the second bird escape. As my dad finished parking the car, I stepped out and quickly ran to the place where we encountered the two birds. I scanned across the road and soon noticed an unusual leaf. I walked up to it, and gasped; it was one of the two birds! I hollered back to my dad and gestured him to come. He came and sighed. He picked it up and said, “It’s still alive. I probably scared it when we were driving down here.” I nodded and we brought it home to prepare a makeshift shelter for the poor bird. That night, around 8 pm, my dad and I went to check on the bird. Instead of being immobile, it could actually stand. It had grip as it clung on my dad’s finger. We put it back and went to bed. The next morning, I woke up, done with my normal routine, and quickly ran down the stairs to check on the bird. It was gone. I thought that my dad released it already so I went upstairs to ask him. “You released the bird, right?” I asked. “Huh? I did not. I was sleeping.” He replied sleepily. Suddenly, I had this feeling that the bird was lost in our house! I searched frantically, and then all of a sudden, a glimpse of brownish thing went right by me. I carefully followed it, noticing that it went into one of the flowerpot. I opened the door, quietly and quickly moved it outside. The moment I put the flowerpot outside, I saw the bird flew away. My heart soared and I ran back home for breakfast.