INTRODUCTION:OMAK

Observe Merit and Appreciate Kindness

• We live in a culture defined by consumerism, materialism and addictions

• The idea to strive for material things lead to stress

• Usually we ignore the spiritual side of life• we need a good balance to achieve real

happiness and remove pain & suffering

How do we interact with other people in our daily lives?

ref: http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/08/28/the-critical-7-rules-to-understand-people/

When dealing with other people, most of us usually ignore the intentions of others. Once things go wrong, we tend to focus on their faults.

This will then create an unpleasant perception toward others and gradually ruin our relationship with them.

Being understanding and expressing gratitude to others is a different approach to this norm.

Venerable Ri Chang has been promoting the practice of OMAK in our lives.

Everybody has all sorts of qualities, temperaments, or characteristics. Among those, some are considered as merits (or good qualities) and some are faults (or shortcomings). While interacting with others, our tendency of focusing on one category over the other dominates our pleasant or unpleasant perception, which then defines our relationship with other people.

OMAK :Observe Merit and Appreciate Kindness

Benefit of OMAK:

Once you have become conditioned to this, you may still notice some faults in other people, however, this will not bother you much because you are more focused on their good qualities and kindness.

BREAK TIME : )

In this book, a Japanese scientist experimented with Water crystals with positive and negative words.

‘Thank You’[in different languages]

Water crystals are unable to form when shown words with negative emotions.

【 I am furious, I want to kill you 】

【 You fool 】

【 scoundrel 】

Love and gratitude created beautiful crystals

If thoughts can do that to water, what will our own thoughts do to us?

Similar tests have been done on rice, repeated by many people around the world.

【 thank you 】

【 scoundrel】

(in general) positive / negative thinking

When we interact with people, our minds can be dominated by negative feelings. That is because our mind helps magnify that tiny fault.

When we observe and magnify the positive things, others’ fault will become smaller

Approach to OMAK: STEPS to apply the skill: 1.Start from most recognizable, directed kindness towards you.

2. Observe and appreciate what you have: job, environment, food etc.

3. Apply OMAK when things do not go as planned

Video: what’s that?

After watching, 5 min discussion…

TIPS to apply OMAK

1.Learn from experienced practitioners2.Deliberate preparation and practice 3.conducive environment4.Broaden your point of view5.Understanding positive thoughts lead to good outcomes

CONCLUSION• OMAK can be the most valuable thing we learn in our lives.• OMAK leads us to help others, at the same time, is an effective

way to change ourselves for the better.

Homework: apply OMAK in your life

Street compliments video

REVISION..STEPS to applying OMAK:1.Start from most recognizable, directed kindness

towards you.

2. Observe and appreciate what you have: job, environment, food etc.

3. Apply OMAK when things do not go as plannedInstead of focusing on others’ faults, try to look for

their good qualities and their kindness to us.

VIDEO & DISCUSSION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhID-_WNy98

VIDEO: World’s toughest Job

Observe merit of others; LOOK FOR / discover others’ good characteristics

Not necessarily kindness towards you

Things that are good for you, but you might not feel positive initially

When our minds are dominated by negative feeling, we magnify that tiny fault, although there are also merits. On the other hand, when we observe ourselves, our minds also magnify our own good quality, however small that is.

• Look from that person’s point of view• Put yourself in their shoes• What can I learn from this experience

How to handle complaints?

How to react when people disrupt your commute?

BREAK TIME!

End of OMAK lesson 2

OMAK lesson 3

VIDEO: This Is How A Single Good Deed Can Change The World

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRSIFmlJwgM

DISCUSSION TIME!

We are all still unfamiliar to ourselves on the path of spiritual growth

The motive for us to practice OMAK is that when we practice OMAK on others, they may not get the benefits, but we will certainly get the benefits

Once you have become conditioned to this, you may still notice some faults in other people, however, this will not bother you much because you are more focused on their good qualities and kindness.

It’s hard to change the world; it’s certainly easier to change how we see the world.

The Five Minute Journal ~ Practicing Gratitude Every Day

Is our world lacking beauty? Or we lack the ability to discover beauty?

The key to happiness has always been in our own hands