On Dragons Sept. 7th 2009

I happened to type "dragonofcompassion" into the Google search engine and found these two jewels.
http://lol8.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archive.html

begin quote:
"Sunday, April 24, 2005
The Green Dragon of Compassion

I always feel that dreams have specific messages to convey or are of such major significance which will affect our lives forever.

I had a dream a few months ago. I was with a Master in a new brightly lit room, which was supposedly my new house. It has a very soothing atmosphere as we walk around the house, surveying its surrounding, the air filled with calmness and sweet fragrance. Just when we reached the main entrance of the house, my Master opened the door, and there just outside of the door was a Green Dragon floating in the air, its eyes kind and smiling. The Green Dragon appeared wanting to come in. It was a benign looking dragon. I was not afraid. I saw myself beckoning the Green Dragon in. The Green Dragon immediately entered the abode and the entire place was brimming with a bright white light. I remember myself stroking the green dragon gently. Then I woke up.

No one could tell me the meaning of that dream. My Master said it was a very good omen, without elaborating further. From then onwards, many lamas from the Dalai Lama's monasteries appeared into my life in quick succession. They were either reincarnated lamas or highly ordained monks. They gave me many teachings and oral transmissions of the Buddha's teachings. They gave me many initiations and empowerments of the various Buddhas, so that I can have a faster path towards Enlightenment.

And just yesterday, the Living Buddha, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, came to Singapore. It was only then that I discovered the meaning of that dream. Lama Zopa Rinpoche is to give me the Chenrezig Buddha initiation next week. Chenrezig is the Tibetan equivalent of our Chinese Guan Yin, The Goddess of Mercy, which embodies Compassion. What I saw from a thangka (picture) of the 1000-arms Chenrezig standing on a moon disk, there was a green dragon guarding in front of him. It was exactly the same kind-looking green dragon in my dream. I learnt that the dragon thunders in the sky with the sound of compassion that awakens us from delusion and increases what we can know through hearing. Dragons have the power of complete communication. This heralded the arrival of the Buddha into my life, the Compassion Buddha. Om mani padme hum." end quote

This I found online and this is the information I got and quoted have quoted from here.
From: Feeding Dragons
Byron C. Bangert
February 1 2009
First Presbyterian Church Martinsville, Indiana

In his book, STUMBLING TOWARD ENLIGHTENMENT, Geri Larkin, a Buddhist priest, tells
the following story:
There once was a young monk who went to his teacher in tears. He blurted out that he
was having a terrible experience with his meditation practice. Every time he settled down,
took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, all he could see were two dragons fighting each
other. One dragon was a deep blue and it was filled with anger and greed and lust. Even
its fire was terrifying. It was ferocious, this dragon. The other dragon was just as
ferocious. Only the other dragon, pale white, was filled with love, wisdom, and
compassion. Its fire was a deep, deep yellow. The young man was terrified of what would
happen. Which dragon would win? He couldn't tell and was afraid to watch them fight,
which made him afraid to sit. Could the teacher please give him some advice?
The teacher smiled. He looked at his student, his eyes filled with compassion. "Do
you want to know which dragon will win?" The young monk nodded. "Why the one filled
with love and compassion and wisdom, of course." But how did he know, asked the
young monk. "Because that's the one you'll feed." [Celestial Arts, 1997]
The dragon that will win is the one that you will feed!
Over the course of our lives, we encounter many fighting dragons. Within our own minds and
hearts and souls we daily face this struggle. And it is never as if we can simply banish the anger,
or the greed, or the lust. It is never as if we can simply rid ourselves of all the negative feelings
and emotions and attitudes that have a grip upon us, that threaten sometimes to consume us,
replacing them with love, wisdom, and compassion. Can any one of you promise yourself today
that you will never again become angry, and keep that promise? No, not really. You do not have
much of a choice about whether you will ever become angry. You do have a choice, however,
about whether you will feed that anger, or feed something else in its place. end quote.


When I was young I found it hard to govern my anger. For example, I was 8 or 9 years old and my father told me that I couldn't do something I really wanted badly. I remember I was playing basketball outside in the driveway and had a basketball in my hands. I was so angry that I through my basketball at the floor and it bounced up and hit the chandelier and brought the chandelier down on my mother's expensive dining room table. I was very sad to see all the damage. The dining room table was one of our best pieces of furniture and I was sad that the beautiful maple wood surface was now scarred. So Mom bought a padding for the table so one did not notice the damage.

Another time I was 15 and I wanted to go to a High School party. So I walked in the bathroom where my Dad was taking a shower. I told him I was going to this party and he said, "No!" I was so upset that I drove my fist through the glass shower door and the shower door collapsed completely into the shower. My father got out of the shower and got me by the back of the neck and said, "If you ever do that again I'll kill you!"

Actually, it was good my father could stand up to me when I was a teenager. It kept me out of a whole lot of trouble in my life. And I feel sorry for boys that don't have as strong and as ethical a father as I did.

My father also came up to me at age 12 (the year I went from 5 foot 2 to 5 foot 10) and said, "Freddie. You just can't let anyone make you angry enough to hit them. You are just getting so big and so strong that if you aren't really disciplined you are going to kill someone if they make you angry and you hit them." My Dad was really great that way. So after that I knew to never get angry or out of control. So, from then on if someone got me really angry I would always hit a plaster wall rather than hit a person.
(Plaster is a whole lot cheaper than an injured person.)

So, starting from age 12 I cultivated compassion and being a mediator in all conflicts, (both between my parents and relatives and between friends and even strangers). Over the years I have saved a lot of people's lives this way. As I'm almost 6 feet 5 inches tall now people tend to take me seriously when they might not take others as seriously. So being a mediator and saving lives has always been an important part of my life since I was a boy.

Like many creative intense people I could have gone another direction. It was by choice that I chose to be a mediator and a compassionate friend to all beings. All my father's work on me paid off.