Good Karma Music Stories

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.

i am a buddhist, i believe budda, i have adepressive disease,last year, my disease was breakout at the highest point, i pray to the budda, after 3 months, my disease disappeared, my life attitude changed, i appreciated the budda’s power. it gives me the peaceful feeling.

I found a wallet with money and cards(ID & credit) in the restroom at Barnes & Noble. I took it to the information desk and they contacted the owner.

The phone rang – it was my sister. “Can you come over? we found kittens …” I rushed to her home, all the way thinking about the humid 95+ degree heat we had been enduring, sending positive thoughts that the kittens would be okay. Well, other than being very hungry and missing their mom they were healthy babies about two weeks old. They had been trapped outside behind an icemaker and were howling through the ventilation grate for their mom (everyone looked for several days, but the wooded area near the river is full of dangers for small animals – eagles, osprey, hawks, fox. I saw several cats at the time that had been hit by cars.)After several calls to local shelters (no one would take babies too young to feed themselves and eliminate by themselves, unless it was to put them down) my sister and I settled in to raise the babies. Four in total meant four bottles of cat replacement milk and four hungry mouths. It was so beautiful to sit there together feeding the kittens,talking about the situation (and trying to figure everything out!). She would ask WHY? and I would say to the kittens THANKS FOR GIVING ME/US THE CHANCE TO CARE FOR YOU. When several people told her to take the cats to the shelter anyway and tell the kids they went to good homes she couldn’t believe it. HOW COULD SOMEONE POSSIBLY THINK THIS IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO? THEY NEED US FOR EVERYTHING, I CAN’T DO THAT. I told her I figured those types of people concentrated on self and ego and if an unexpected opportunity arose they couldn’t allow themselves the flexibility to be of service. Her compassion in the way she responded to the situation was beautiful! After the first few days, everyone settled into a routine of caregiving and excitedly observing “kitty milestones.” I don’t know if this has inspired anyone else, yet I feel that simply the act of observation goes a long way, as does being surrounded by healing, caring energy. Maybe this helped/healed somebody in another way that we’ll never know about. I just feel so grateful to have been able to serve in this way – I feel small, just one person, you know? But it really IS TRUE that you can make a difference. We hear it all the time, and “understand” it intellectually, but in truth, in my heart, I never believed it applied to me (not that I would have ever TOLD anyone that :). Given the situation they were in, nothing could have made a bigger difference to those kitties.

…changed my life.It was a couple of days before Christmas and I was shopping at the Vancouver Costco. I couldn’t help but notice how “un-Christmas” the atmosphere was…parents yelling at their kids to hurry up and don’t touch this or that…or worse, some kids were just being ignored and crying for attention. Civilized adults being rude to each other…and I remember thinking how pitiful it all was. I was in the store looking for a Wii – somebody told me they might be available there. I asked a clerk who very nicely told me I was out of luck – see I only had a vague idea of what a Wii is and no idea of how popular they were – making them scarce. Another Costco “customer” heard me ask and after the cleck left he approached me and offered to sell me one – for $500. After talking to this “gentleman” – it turns out he somehow managed to buy 10 or so units (not sure if they were from Costco or not) and was just hanging out at Costco to find people looking for these games so he could sell them one. He actually said things like “you’d better do this because I am your only hope” and “your kids will hate you if they don’t have a Wii on Christmas morning.” I suddenly felt really sad because I know for some people he was telling the truth.On my way out I decided to get a Costco hotdog special. That’s when I got the Christmas Spirit again. I was just looking around at all the people hustling, bustling, ignoring, yelling, pushing, shoving and then I saw her and her little boy. At first, I didn’t take it all in – all I noticed was this woman’s happy smile. And then I noticed her son was handicapped. He couldn’t sit up by himself very well. He couldn’t eat by himself and when he had food in his mouth, it would come back out. But at first glance you wouldn’t know it. This Mom was using one hand to hold him up. She was breaking his food into small bits and feeding it to him and wiping his mouth every few seconds. She did this while she was eating her own lunch, whispering conversation to him and gently kissing his head now and then – and smiling both full of happiness and pride the whole time. I found that amazing especially in contrast with what was surrounding them. They were most definitely in their own peaceful and loving world. I watched them for a few minutes and reluctantly went on my way. Her love and peace had touched me, but I knew if I stayed longer and watched, they may have spotted me watching them and it could have made them uncomfortable or somehow taken away from their time there.Now it’s just over 2 months later and this is still on my mind – as it is everyday. I am more thankful for my kids and I am more at peace and more accepting of things when they don’t work out the way I want. I try hard to be more gentle and kind towards others. I want to smile the way I saw this woman smile. I want that peace and contentment. I want to be able to love unconditionally. I have heard that before – but it doesn’t really have meaning until you see it.It’s a 100 million to one chance that the person who I am talking about sees this, but I need to say thank you. I want you to know that you made a difference in my life.Thank you.

Yesterday, June 30, 2008, a friend of mine brought back boxes full all kind of vegetable picked from her family Fresno farm to me. I thought, there is no way I could finish them in one week. If I offer some to my neighbor, they may get defend, for they are still able to buy them on their own. Without a doubt, I only save a few enough for myself and bringht the rests of them to a temple near my work. I feel relieve after I do so because I don’t want the vegetable get rodent. By offering them to the temple, I think all other nunes (I saw 4 nunes wearing the maroon robe) and other people will enjoy them. Amnitaba.