Mission History and News: Calm before the storm

Friday, November 16, 2012

Calm before the storm

Mission History and News No 12

The issues of man are many and plentiful. "The arguements (issues) and reasoning of human beings are plentiful." Lord Bo Tien said in 1980 anniversary or mission day message. Lord Bo Tien's 1980 Anniversary Message (Also in the second paragraph on page 28 of book Lord Bo Tien's Guidance published year 2000 by Bo Tien Temple Singapore)

The purpose of a temple, church or mission is to answer to the problems and issues of man so that one day man will have no problems or not affected by problems and issues even if they are there. A temple or church is where men go to find peace and blessings.

The greatest blessing is to be free from problems or not affected by problems. But the problem is that there will always be issues. The issues and problems of man are many and plentiful.

But if man has the right approach to life, man must neither run away from problems nor expect that all problems be solved.

Problems and issues are less if man has the peace of heart but if there are worldly problems, they need to attend to them before they can find peace. Heaven will help but if Heaven continues to do so indefinitely, the boon of divine help may prove to be a bane.

Why? Man will always find and create more issues. When man gets what he wants, he is happy and calm. The calm is only for awhile as there will follow a storm of problems and more storms to come. This is because man often fails to understand the true nature of life. He has clinging and ignorant of why he seems to have endless problems and issues.

This failure to understand the true nature of life applies to man as individual and man as a temple.

A temple or church is made up of people. When people struggled to put up a temple or church, there are obstacles to overcome, but their hearts are united by a common cause. They put aside their differences to build a temple or church. Once they succeed, everything appears well and calm.

But men being men will ever be men. The issues of men are many and plentiful. Men will turn against fellow men. They will find issues with fellow men in a temple or church and the calm will soon be followed by a storm.

A temple that men succeed in building will be jubilant and then calm sets in but there will always be calm before a storm. The storm is when man turns against man once a temple is built. This will destroy the temple that is ultimately made up of people and not concrete. That would be pathetic.

God knows but often man does not seem to know and create storm after storm, more so when the temple of brick and cement is built. It is no easy task to build a temple of brick and cement but the real temple is manifold more difficult to build.

The real temple is a temple of people imbued with doctrine, not that of a temple of concrete. Men clamours to wrest control of a temple or church once it is built and ostracise others in the process. This is because of lack of grasp of doctrine. Thus there will always be more sects set up in any religion and more temples or churches in just one locality. These are however temples or churches of bricks and concrete but the true temple or church of the hearts of people often remains elusive.

Lord Bo Tien said in relation to his temple that the sky is the roof of the temple. Lord Bo Tien's 1983 Anniversary Message.

A temple has to do with doctrine and "if not understood, it would be a pity". "His teachings were not meant to complicate matters for his followers. He reiterated that no one should judge or criticise another but his followers should lead or advise the other party to understand the temple doctrine." (Extract from pages 31 and 32 of book Lord Bo Tien's Guidance published in year 2000 by Bo Tien Temple Singapore)

Only then will there be a temple of men under the sky or heaven. Otherwise there will always be calm before storm. This is because they have not understood the doctrine. "Heaven cries in pity for those who have not understood the doctrine" This the emissary of the lord saint said in 1983.

LORD BO TIEN'S GUIDANCE

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Bo Tien mission-related temples

Four Bo Tien mission-related temples have been set up over time since 1970 with two in Singapore and two at Sitiawan. They are independent, autonomous but yet under the umbrella of the same mission. There is one Bo Tien Temple at Jurong Singapore and another Bo Tien Temple at Sitiawan. Another temple by name of Bo Ser Keng set up by a Mr. Tan Niap Peng at Boh Ling Sua Singapore lasted for some time and a fourth set up by the late Chee Sin Hee at Sitiawan Malaysia was named initially as Bo Tien Keng and later changed to Bo Tien Soo.... (not sure of the name). More temples are likely to be set up in the future so long as there are passionate followers of Lord Bo Tien. But it appears that only those temples which are seeded from Bo Tien Temple Singapore will continue to grow. Elder Ling would be able to throw more light on the matter.

The awning shed era - 1974 to 1978

at 11 3/4 ms 407A Woodlands Road Singapore marks the beginning of the mission. It was donated by Poona and was graced by a saint under Lord Bo Tien who goes by the honorific Tien Xin with characteristic pose of twin cross swords. Though not under the martial wing headed by Mou Chi Sun his cross swords is reflective of the cross arms of saint Mou Chi Sun. It had a zinc roof or awning with six metal pipe pillars. It is reflective of the teaching that the altar of the lord saint can be under the sky as heaven is the roof of the temple and religions are the pillars of God to bring salvation and save souls. The original altar at Woodlands is at the back in a debiliated hut and the shrine room there was vacated to house the aged destitute as per the direction of the lord saint Lord Bo Tien. Photo courtesy of Elder Ling

Published in year 2000 by Bo Tien Temple Singapore for its 32nd anniversary with Forward by Bro Peter Kong Meng Sin the then incumbent temple President. The book was compiled with advice of the late Senior Brother Philip Png and extracts of the early literary contributions of Dr. Siow Hong Him and of the Commonwealth Colombo Plan scholar and Kedah state civil engineer the late Senior Brother Tay Chong Sim. Many of the near verbatim transcriptions of Lord Bo Tien Chinese Hokkien messages were by Brother William Chew who was the Hon. Gen Secretary of the Bo Tien mission-related temple at old premises - 407A Woodlands Singapore. Chong Sim did the first draft for the book in the last few months before his passing away from terminal illness. He was so weak that he had to request a lady aide to get the draft book cyclostyled and bounded (108 copies). He requested that the final book to be published be named LORD BO TIEN'S GUIDANCE. Indeed his wish came true in year 2000 but the book omitted some key material substance in the messages of the lord saint and did not openly give due credit to him for writing the first draft. Why this had to be is anyone's guess and speculation. Perhaps the book is indeed independent from the first draft he wrote in his dying days. But what is most reassuring is that Lord Bo Tien did say that if Heaven wants, even the lost parts of doctrine/messages can be recovered and made available for men who have the heart in the mission of the lord saint. Chong Sim's first draft book contains the missing parts. This is just more than coincidental and is perhaps evidence of the hand of providence at work. Credit must be extended to Brother Peter Kong for supplying him the nine original translated scripts of the messages of Lord Bo Tien. No one in right mind would deny that the act of giving the scripts was a simple and yet very noble deed that will go down in the history of the mission.

The eventful post 2004 era

Elder Ling replaced as Chairman at Singapore connection at AGM in 2004

The burning of the shrine image in the immediate post 2004 period instead of placing it in museum at the top floor

The separation of welfare wing from temple as entity of its own in 2010 /2011

22nd March 2012: Elder Ling's membership was revoked at Singapore connection and on 23rd, the next day, a notice of the removal was put up at two notice boards.

24th March 2012: Elder Ling's trusteeship termination process was instituted at Singapore connection

For details, go to The eventful post 2004 era

Elder Ling Diung Kwong

Elder Ling's up and coming book

Mission History and Elder Ling

Read the above post in series 1. reviewing how the book by Elder Ling should be angled and correctly positioned. The views of inner truth netizen will always be that Elder Ling must balance the effective delivery of the history and steer clear of mention of individual personalities. The yin yang balance in this respect will determine the degree of value of the book. With Elder Ling's input and verbal consent, the jist of the Mission History has been included and posted in this Series 3 as five posts but due to editing and various constraints (such as readability, space and presentation), roles and names of many individuals have not been included as they might prefer to stay out of mention and publicity. The representation of the history regretably may thus be considered not adequate and not effective. Inner truth netizen regrets that some may be be upset over this but yin yang balance must be observed so that all will be better able to have more of the peace even if not exactly the divine inner peace of spirit in the twirls and swirls of life in the yin yang world.

13th May 2012

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The folly of man

The folly of men is often to idolise a man instead of God and saints. Man however good is not good enough. In fact, we should not even idolise God and saints and to make matters worse, go further to put words in their mouths. We should live in God by living in the Word of God and saints instead of being awed by the awesome goodness of God and saints. It would certainly be more far fetched to idolise man which would be unthinkable but many do this. Instead, we need to learn from both sides of a man - both the sunny side and the dark side. After all, life be it our own or of others is the living gospel and the gospel is God.

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Friday, November 16, 2012

Calm before the storm

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