religious obligation

‎"People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle."
— Thich Nhat Hanh

For a slight moment, anger and frustration came to me like a spark in the spark plug when the key went the right way. The engine did not get started or heated up, but still it's among the possibilities, closer to probable than possible.

I could not really comprehend the religiously-strayed people (if I can still regards them as human) of the world going into violence and coercion and called it a religious struggle. The only struggle that they are actually doing is struggling in comprehending their own religion.

Gautama Buddha once had a short discourse on the superpowers (No, He is not talking about neither US nor China).

He reached the riverbank.
Someone shouted at him - not in a rude way.
"Hey, Lord Buddha, people hah say you so powerful, I also powerful, you want to see what I can do" (contemporarized, translated)
"Well, what can you do?"
"I can cross the river without getting wet."
"Seriously?!"

And without further explaination, the man flew off the ground and stepped on the water.
He did not sank, but continue to stride above the water till the other side.

And he came back to Buddha the same awesome kungfu way, that some of you might have watch those move in most Hong Kong movies.

"Buddha, you see that?"
"Yes, how many years you've trained?"
"20years."
"Let me show you how can I cross the river without getting wet"
"Awesome. This I must see."

Pheeewwwittt..
Lord Buddha stepped into a boat.
"Hi, boatman, how much to take me across the river?"
"Oh, usually I charge few pennies, but for Lord Buddha, it's my pleasure"

Lord Buddha turned back to the Kungfu Guy.
"As you can see, you had wasted 20years to attain what can be done with few pennies."

Now, the final word about superpowers and miracle is actually to disassociate with them, but instead seek practicality in life.

Asking God/Higher beings/Devas for a lottery strike or wrong bank transaction which ended with few billions surplus in your account is what I called as association with miracle.

Throwing your money for kid's education or food into donation to temple and donation to lottery and hoping for a miracle is not practical.

When your house is on fire, you should go and get a bucket of water to put off the flame,

And not rush to a temple to pray that the fire will cease by itself.

If you do, there can only be one sole outcome -

• you'll lose your house (never play with fire)
  
• have to stay in the temple (which is not a bad thing considering one has much to learn about practicality in Buddhism)

Nuff said.

P.S. My effort in explaining is as futile as trying to explain 'Barr Chin' to my fellow Malaysians, because they are off the older generation or in one word - elders.