Each Grain of Rice is Precious

Miss the meals at the Mountain...
Meals are generally in buffet style, served with rice, or sometimes buns are available too, around 3 dishes: tofu, green vege or mushrooms, with fruits and soup. You just choose what and how much you could eat, with unlimited helpings. Unlike rice generally eaten in Singapore, the rice there are locally grown and of the short grain species, tastes very much like Japanese rice, very Q and soft.

And all these delicious meals prepared for the hugh number of devotees are made possible due to the hardwork of Venerables, volunteers and donors behind the scenes.
(An day's experience as a volunteer at the kitchen, you can see many mothers or grandmothers all helping and they were also very kind to give a tip or two to the clumsy young volunteers like myself on how to use the knives to cut the vegetables safely when they saw our clumsiness.:P In the evening, some of us helped at the cutlery washing section, where we washed, cleaned, and dried the various gigantic pots, ladles, bowls, etc, used to serve the mass.)
After seeing the process & helping to prepare the vegetables to be cooked into a meal, we better understood & treasure even more the meals being served to us during meal times. The appreciation of the famous phrase of "Each grain of rice is precious" (粒粒皆辛苦) was much enhanced just based on the work required to plan and prepare even a simple meal (for the thousands of devotees...), not to mention the stages before the vegetables are delivered to the temple….
The meals, which already tasted delicious, became even more delicious....
Caring Snacks
No matter where you are, they are sent to you...

Lovely bread being delivered to us by volunteers while we were helping to sweep the road to the main shrine near the foot of the mountain.

Reflecting back on the days of volunteering at DDM, one will really appreciate the planning and logistics of all for an event.

Sky Lanterns

What are these? The Sky Lanterns (天灯, 孔明灯) with our wishes written on them.

What are these? D.I.Y lanterns...(like tadpoles?)

Oh, they are actually fishes... Swim, swim, lead us on our way to ....
Let me give you light to show the path One lighted up, Two lighted up, High up in the sky with our wishes... Thank you, Sister Fen & friends, for a wonderful nite
Although 1st attempt by our chef, the dessert: sweet potato glutinous ball ginger soup tasted so good that I couldn't resist 2nd helping! :-)

Thank you all, for a wonderful nite!

Making Sense of What is Happening to Our World by Ajahn Brahm

4th Mar 2009, 8pm, at Buddhist Lodge

Another rejoicing talk by Ajahn Brahm
I believe the main purpose of this talk is to instil in us positive attitude amidst the bad economic news, to face everyday with positive mindset.
Following is summary of what I had scribbled down or recalled:

Tragedy is start of what you learn.
When things get difficult, you learn most.
Using the analogy that if one had stepped on dog-shits, don’t scrap it off immediately, bring it back home, and just before the door-step, scrap it off at the mango tree near the house, it gets transformed into fertiliser. Years later, you get to taste delicious mangoes.
When things get difficult, it is like more fertilisers for you to increase your wisdom & compassion.
When life is down, it is fertiliser for mango tree, when life is up, eat the mangoes.

This is also not 1st time we face difficulties, remember the tsunami, the various crisis that we know from history? We had withstood those incidents & survived.
Economic crisis? Less Rich?
Wealth could make you a prisoner.
Then he told the story of a woman who lived in a big house all by herself that even to the washroom needs a map to be drawn. She lived alone and was afraid that her related would cheat her of her money.
In a large house, everyone is separated from each other via rooms.
Arguments happen in life and should end with love and companionship. He then related the story of his own parents who argued in front of him & his brother but as they lived in a small house, they have to meet each other & also in front of the children, they reconciled. In a small house, people have to reconcile and that’s how forgiveness works.

Economic downturn is not end of world. We lose some we may gain some.
Story about how a man was diagnosed with cancer with 3 months to live. He sold his “ever busy no time for family” business and went on a Europe tour with his family. They enjoyed and when eventually, he was informed of wrong identity, he enjoyed the trip and enhanced kinship and still got a small sum of money left for a more relaxed business which he can spend more time with family.
Then Ajahn also related his own encounter with bush fire in 1991 for his monastery. He thought that the monastery that he built from scratch would be gone, but he thought it’s okay to rebuild it as he enjoyed the process of building before. Fortunately, the monastery survived the fire.
When tsunami struck the town, it was terrible, but people managed to rebuild it.
Thankful to Greed, the economy will pick up again.

Another illustration by Ajahn:Apple Inc starter, Steve Jobs resigned from the company he started. He was down for a while but he thought over what he enjoyed doing and he started another company, NeXT, which brought him back to the company he co-founded. His other company, Pixar Animation Studios (famous for Toy Story) was also a success.
So, instead of just complaining, find something you can do, if you enjoy doing it, you will be happy and you will be successful.
Happy doing something ==> Successful.Now may be Economy gloom but spiritual groom in Singapore.

Q n A Session: (Note! Below may not be the exact words of questions)

Q: What does he think of the incident of Merlion being struck by lighting? Is it a bad omen?
A: It’s a good omen! The Merlion had been electrified to have energy to deal with the future.

Q: How to be contented? Can Greed be good?
A: When you don’t have anything, you are contented.
He told the story that when he was offered 100bahts by 2 devotees, he spent the night thinking what he needs & he found the list becomes longer and 100bahts is no longer enough.
Greed is good for right things such as Greed for Peace, Selfless Love, Tolerance for religion, Understanding etc.
Q: How to let go?A: Put it (right thing) down.

Q: How to quiet your mind?
A: Again the example where he speaks with pauses in between words.
While waiting for his next words, there is moment of silence.

Q: How do we spread Buddhism?
A: Spread Buddhism with SMILE! If people find that you are happy, more composed, they would like to find out what makes you so…
Getting angry at things, with others is only hurting oneself.

Q: Should we accept an uninteresting job?
A: Salary is bribe for doing something you dislike, if your boss knows you enjoy reporting to work daily, he needn’t pay you. So, do your work with a big Smile. :-)
Q: What is the right meditation method for one?A: Meditation should be done with kindness, gentleness.
Meditation: Let things be at Peace

Q: How does transfer of merit work?
A: When you think of someone, there is close connection. There was an experiment when in a retreat, the participants were told to think of their close kin and time noted. When they called to enquire the kin, the kin recalled that around that timing, they were thinking about the participants.

Pardon for any incompleteness or misinterpretation…
Above article may not bring out even a fraction of his fascinating talk. So do try to get his CD for the talk (which they may sell or distribute free at their office or future talks) or look out for next newsletter from Buddhist Fellowship (BF) which they would have much better articles written on it.
One may also check following BF's web pages for available downloads: http://www.buddhistfellowship.org/xoops/modules/content/index.php?id=19
http://www.buddhistfellowship.org/modules/videotube/
or here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BuddhistSocietyWA?gl=AU&hl=en-GB

and check this always: Where is Ajahn Brahm? His monthly activities (Guess this is how BF manage to get him to give talks in S'pore in between transit of flights):-)

May All Be Well & Happy!!!

Cheers:-)