SUKMAD stands for the Supreme of the Ultimate Kingdom, Mom And Dad to our soul. Our parents gave us the physical body but SUKMAD gave us our Soul. In other words, SUKMAD is the Creator of this Universe including our souls. Everything in this Universe is made up of atoms and we are one tiny part of it. SUKMAD is that sum total of all the atoms in the Universe which we commonly call it our Creator God. SUKMAD is sometimes referred to, by other religions, as the Father, Brahma, God, the Ultimate, etc. MST Society usually refers IT the 'Light and Sound of SUKMAD'. SUKMAD is OMNI-PRESENT, OMNI-SCIENT AND OMNI-POTENT.

We are known as the 'Unenlightened Children of SUKMAD' and only those who are 'God-realised' beings and souls are known as 'Enlightened Children of SUKMAD'. For examples (according to alphabetical order), Buddha, Ganesh, Guru Nanak, Jesus, Nabi Muhammad and Tai Seong Low Kuan were the 'Enlightened Children of SUKMAD'. These are only some of the examples but there could be others also elsewhere in our world.

Our Soul is the creation of our Creator SUKMAD; we are part and parcel of Him. It was because of our 'impure intentions and actions' of our Soul that led us to 'solidify' to become Man in order to learn and enrich our Soul through hardships, sufferings and pain.

After much sufferings and pain, through numerous rebirths or incarnations and learning the right path to 'go back and to be one with SUKMAD', we then know the best form to be is in Soul form. As Man, we act as a learning vehicle for our Soul to know and differentiate 'what is right and wrong' before we could purify our Soul to be 'one with SUKMAD'.

This is likened to our body injury (as Man) and it takes some time to heal before the affected part could become the same 'good flesh' (purified/enlightened) of our body again (SUKMAD).

Man without Soul is dead: our physical body is like a machine, our brain is like its motor and our Soul is like its energy (electricity). Without electricity (Soul), the machine (body) and its motor (brain) cannot move and is 'dead'. Therefore, our Soul is the most important element of our physical being.

The 1st Passion and barrier of Man to SUKMAD. This is Man's 1st Test that SUKMAD has set for him to pass during his 'learning and enrichment stage' on earth. It is only through the spiritual exercise (meditation) and adequacy that Man can overcome this passion.

Lust can be described as Man's temporary and momentary desire to satisfy his physical and emotional needs. It is the excessive craving/desire for something, not limited to sex only but also for alcohol, drugs, tobacco, drinks and foods.

The 2nd Passion and barrier of Man to SUKMAD. This is Man's 2nd Test that SUKMAD has set for him to pass during his 'learning and enrichment stage' on earth. It is only through the spiritual exercise (meditation), tolerance and patience that Man can overcome this passion.

Anger is that barely controllable outburst of ugly emotion exhibited by Man. It could lead to an unpleasant scene, ignite another one's fury, start a fight/war and/or even a fatal consequence.

Normally, an outburst of anger of Man is due to his pride and glory, satisfaction of his wants and desires, protection of his loved ones and out of fear.

The 3rd Passion and barrier of Man to SUKMAD. This is Man's 3rd Test that SUKMAD has set for him to pass during his 'learning and enrichment stage' on earth. It is only through the spiritual exercise (meditation) and generosity that Man can overcome this passion.

Greed can be described as the excessive desire for materialistic wants of Man such as wealth, food, drugs, etc. and such greed could lead Man to lying, robbing, trickery, bribery, hypocrisy, fighting, etc. just to acquire such materialistic wants.

The 4th Passion and barrier of Man to SUKMAD. This is Man's 4th Test that SUKMAD has set for him to pass during his 'learning and enrichment stage' on earth. It is only through the spiritual exercise (meditation) and detachment that Man can overcome this passion.

Attachment can be described as having a strong affectionate or emotional relationship with a person, thing, events, etc. that one could not do without or give up. This is a pretty dangerous passion which could lead to death, heartbreaks, quarrels and fights, irrational actions, etc.

All materialistic things on earth are temporary and impermanent; somehow one day, Man has to give up all these materials when he physically leaves the earth. As the saying goes, " We come with nothing, we go back with nothing." Man, normally, finds it very hard to detach from all the materialistic things that he feels very attached to.

The 5th last Passion and barrier of Man to SUKMAD. This is Man's 5th Test that SUKMAD has set for him to pass during his 'learning and enrichment stage' on earth. It is only through the spiritual exercise (meditation), humbleness and adequacy that Man can overcome this passion.

Vanity can be described as Man's conceit and desire for the admiration of his personal attainments or attractions through showing off his possessions to others. It could be a display of his wealth, knowledge, power, status, beauty, reputation, etc. In fact, this is his worst enemy and passion which can ruin him when he falls eventually. As the saying goes, " Pride comes before a fall. "

Fate is actually the results of Man's doings/deeds in the past lives and thus is reborn in the next life (lives) with so-called Karmic (cause & effect) credits/debts. That is why some people are born 'lucky' wherelse others are born 'unlucky'. In short, Man is the creator of his own destiny as to what he should become in the future. It is just like Management: if it wants to increase its sales and profitability of its company, it has to set its objectives and plans its goals/action plans in order to achieve its targets.

However, in spiritualism, Man has 3 types of Fate, namely,

1. PRIMORDIAL FATE

This is Man's 1st existence as a man/woman in the physical being without any 'good or bad' doings/deeds in the past. The creation of his/her Fate of whether he/she should be born 'lucky or unlucky' in the next life or lives depends on this 1st existence and thereafter.

2. PRESENT FATE

This Fate is the cumulative results of the past doings/deeds of Man. Therefore, he should not blame SUKMAD or any person for his 'unlucky' birth to these parents nor praise/compliment SUKMAD/them for bringing the 'lucky' him into this world. Who else do you think is responsible for his consequential fate? Of course, it's him!

3. FATE IN THE FUTURE

If Man wants to have a good life in the next rebirth, it is only him alone who should prepare and work hard for it by doing and accumulating all his good doings/deeds in his present life. For examples, doing all types of charitable works, extending compassion to all souls and beings, not killing any living thing, giving dharma to the unrealised souls and beings, etc.

Accordingly, adequacy is the act or habit of not indulging/ having too much of pleasure, food, etc. In the context of spiritualism, adequacy here means refraining from excessive craving/desire for something, not limited to sex only but also for alcohol, tobacco, drinks and foods. The best guidance for Man then is to follow the middle path - not completely lacking of something nor having too much of the thing he wants. Of course, where extremely bad things like drugs, smoking, alcohol, etc. are very harmful to our body, total ABSTINENCE (refrain from) is absolute.

ADEQUACY WILL COUNTER MAN'S LUST FOR ANYTHING.

In our world today, there are many things such as words, events, attachments, materialism, etc. in our society which could irritate, anger, provoke, etc. Man. More often than not, Man intolerably retaliates 'tooth for tooth' to get even with the people, thing or situation. Eventually, this leads to fights and a war.

Like it or not, tolerance and patience are the best medicines and effective way to deal with the above situations. Though it's easier said than done, Man, through lots of experiences and experiments, can develop various good techniques of solving problems with lots of tolerance and patience.

Tolerance is a skilful art and a virtue to Man. It is a 'mind over matter' technique which employs lots of self-control over one's temper/anger/frustration to another one's provocative words, actions, etc.

Patience is a well-known virtue that Man can have. It is a way of Man who can remain pretty calm without showing any emotional agitation throughout a process of an event of teaching, listening, provocation, hardship, pain, delay, etc.

TOLERANCE AND PATIENCE WILL COUNTER MAN'S ANGER.

Man is naturally born greedy and if possible, he would want to be "a dog in the manger", meaning that even though he has adequately satisfied his needs/wants at that point of time, he does not generally have the generosity of giving the surplus to the other needy people. Some people are born with generosity while others can cultivate this generosity from young.

It is always a good principle for us to practise in giving a little bit of our earnings to help the poor, old, sick or the needy people. However, generosity is not true generosity when you pay somebody to donate in money or in kind to charitable homes or poor/needy people on your behalf. This is because you only have the thoughts of being generous but not generosity coming straight from your heart. A true generous person will sacrifice his time, effort and money to personally do the needful in fulfilling the needs of his generosity.

For example, it is a better generosity of a man's heart for him to guide a blind beggar across a busy street than to give the beggar some money. Money is not always the best form in performing one's generosity but a generosity executed from the heart in the forms of services or religious teachings is the best. Here again, one should not advertise nor publicise one's generosity in the media or in any record/register book of any charitable organisation, for SUKMAD knows it all !

CERTAINLY, GENEROSITY WILL COUNTER MAN'S GREED.

Detachment here does not mean that you are indifferent, ignorant, disinterested or uncaring for your loved ones or your possessions. It does not also mean that you have to break up with any relationship from your parents or loved ones nor discard all your sentimental possessions. What it really means is that you do care, love and are interested in the welfare of your loved ones or your possessions but at 'arm's length'.

Example 1.

When a loved one dies, a person should not be so attached to the deceased during the funeral so much so that eventually he/she falls sick and dies, too. He/She should detach unselfishly from the deceased and let its soul free from the earth's bondage and rebirth/incarnation.

Example 2.

A son may accidentally scratch his father's beautiful and expensive car. The father is so attached to the car that he scolds and punishes the son by beating him up. The question here is: is the car more dear than his son? We think not, the father can repaint the car or buy another one rather than scarring their father - son relationship. If the father were more detached from the beautiful and expensive car then, he would have preserved the good relationship with his son.

Example 3.

Your best friend has involved in many financial and domestic problems. He/She comes to you for advice and counselling. You spent many good hours and days giving your best advices and guidances to him/her. Since he/she is your best friend, you would want to find the best solutions to end his/her problems and needless to say, you would also want to see to it that he/she overcomes all his/her problems successfully. Unfortunately, he/she follows some of your advices/guidances, but chooses to ignore the other part of them. Therefore, the outcome of his/her problems being solved is not very successful.

Thus, this made you very disappointed and very angry because you are so attached to him/her. Consequently, you are frustrated, suffering from insomnia, etc. and might lose his/her friendship. If you have done your best in helping him/her, you should be detached from him/her as to whether he/she follows your advices/guidances completely. Let him/her have the freedom to choose whichever ways he/she wants in solving his/her problems.

DETACHMENT WILL COUNTER MAN'S ATTACHMENT.

It is so easy for us to be vain, arrogant and boastful of our achievements/possessions than to be unassuming and humble. Many of us do not know that humbleness is one of the best gifts to Man from SUKMAD. It creates a string of subsequent virtues like tolerance, patience, respect and affinity with all people. Look around you today, there are very few great successful men who are truly humble of their outstanding achievements/possessions without having them being publicised in the popular media.

To borrow from an adage, "Great people are humble people." But I believe ordinary, unassuming and humble people are even greater people. This is because it is so hard to practise humbleness in our 'rat race society' with so many challenging opportunities to become rich, powerful and famous. Despite all these, can you still become humble? I would answer "yes", through many experiences and time, humbleness can be acquired by one. Sometimes 'humbleness' can be misunderstood for weakness in a person, but on the contrary, he/she certainly has a strong character beneath him.

HUMBLENESS WILL EVENTUALLY COUNTER MAN'S VANITY OVER TIME.

Compassion is often mistakenly referred to as 'sympathy or kindness'. Sympathy is a feeling of pity radiating from one person to another, but this is not compassion. Kindness is an act or feeling of one's help/assistance offered to another person, but again this is not compassion. More often than not, all the above feelings of sympathy and kindness come from thoughts than from the heart alone.

However, a man's compassion is a strong, genuine and natural feeling radiating from within the heart towards another pitiful being/soul. Often, this compassion of one creates tears in one's eyes naturally, upon seeing the sad condition/state of another being/soul. He/She does not use any logic or reason to have compassion for another.

Example: a compassionate man can burst out in tears upon seeing a poor beggar in the streets, and promptly donates some money to him or sometimes even help to look after him without even thinking of having some rewards/ compensation in return. He/She does not even ask why the beggar who is so young, fit and strong has to come out to the streets to beg. Do you have the compassion, sympathy or kindness for the poor soul?

Kindness is an act of one doing good or performing charitable deeds to people. Kindness may not only be in the form of monetary deeds, but it can also mean doing a service or a good deed to one. Sometimes kindness of a man is initiated through thoughts and rational thinking of a situation of the poor and/or needy people. However, a man's compassion removes all these human rationale in wanting to extend his kindness and generosity to people in our society. After knowing these differences between kindness and compassion, which category do you belong to?

This is said by a Sage about two and a half millennia ago. Therefore, over time thoughts could create your future and fate. When a person always has ill thoughts and imaginations, he would usually attract 'negativeness', 'wrong and bad people' and 'harmful surroundings'. As a consequence, he would always have unkind and harmful intentions towards people and even other things.

However, when a person has the 'right thoughts and intentions', he would always have a kind heart and a helpful soul in him. He is always on the lookout to help people, perform charitable deeds, etc. He is always looking for 'inner peace and happiness' which could only be achieved by him doing things through his right 'thoughts and intentions'.

Have you ever come across a person who has been jeered, booed, scolded, spat at, etc. and yet he remains composed without remarks or retaliation? Or have you ever met another person in times of misfortune, in critical situation, in danger, etc. who can still smile and is "happy to live for another day"? If you have, then these persons definitely have equanimity.

Equanimity is a state of one's mental composure and calmness to deal with misfortune, critical situations, dangers, humiliations, etc. without an outburst of his anger, fright or depression. Equanimity is normally acquired by one through lots of his experiences and experiments in his journey through life. He listens attentively, observes minutely, analyses carefully and makes his judgments unbiasedly on all things that come to him. After many years of practical training, he begins to acquire the so-called equanimity in him.