Saturday, April 24, 2010

Gems - Buddhist Dharma Comics n Story books!



After getting some gems! from a recent retreat , I had the opportunity to revisit Ven Hai Tao's Dharma Centre in Singapore, Buddhist Life Mission, located at 19-B Lorong Bachok (Off Geylang Lor 19) Singapore 387788.
It is ironical that a centre advocating life liberation is located just a few shops away from a popular shop selling something that they are discouraging from. But maybe it could be good for the suffering beings who will likely receive prayers & merits from their neighbors.
Nevertheless, it is a good visit to the Dharma centre as I found more gems! Dharma in comics & story-book form for children & also adults! All printed & sent from Taiwan, good quality & mostly colorful. And even found one that they printed in English.
They may be the most pro-children Buddhist centre in Dharma books printing that I had encountered so far. Too bad we couldn't make an order earlier to print & distribute in time for coming Vesak celebration month but
Do Look out for their Cartoon DVDs on Life Protection that will be distributed in the free Distribution Booth in the coming Vesak @ Orchard 2010 (http://vesakcelebrations.sg/ )
As for the books, sorry but there will only be limited copies for those with affinity...

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Short Retreat

Had been busy since back from last oversea trip and had been skipping my weekly practice sessions often due to work.:-(
Decided to attend as full time participant for this short 3.5 days retreat organised by BGFT this year and no regrets. :-) (Even have the blessings of my mum who prepared vegetarian meals for me for dinner & breakfast, so blessed, Gan En!)

Good exercise as completed for what's missed for past few months or maybe the year during the few days. Although tired physically, there's spiritual joy especially with the great chanting sessions conducted by the Venerables, fantastic chants of "Om Mani Padme Hum" inserts that really uplift the sessions.

May we all continue to be diligent in our practice...
May we all be able to attend retreats without obstacles...
May All Beings be Well & Happy...
Amituofo!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Buddhist Story-books for the Children




While attending a retreat at a temple, I found Gems! at their free distribution book booth.

They had a number of "Storytelling by Ven Hai Tao" which the books are dedicated to tell the stories in simplistic way to the children (and adults too!). They are simple to read to understand the morale behind the stories. However, there is one major setback in that they are printed in the more complex Chinese characters utilised by Taiwanese which may not be readable by children of other countries who are generally being taught the simpler version of Chinese characters. If they could be printed in the simpler Chinese Characters, it would make the reading easier and benefit more. Hopefully, they could reprint in the simpler Chinese character version to benefit more who read Chinese in future.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

The 7 Dangerous Act After Meal

More tips received from emails

I only heard about tips 5 & 7 but not sure about the rest :P
======================================================
DON'T ACT THE 7 ACTIONS BELOW
AFTER YOU HAVE A MEAL


1. * Don't smoke- Experiment from experts proves that smoking a cigarette after meal is comparable to smoking 10 cigarettes (chances of cancer is higher).
2. * Don't eat fruits immediately - Immediately eating fruits after meals will cause stomach to be bloated with air. Therefore take fruit 1-2 hr after meal or 1hr before meal.

3. * Don't drink tea - Because tea leaves contain a high content of acid. This substance will cause the Protein content in the food we consume to be hardened thus difficult to digest.
4. * Don't loosen your belt - Loosening the belt after a meal will easily cause
the intestine to be twisted & blocked.

5. * Don't bathe - Bathing after meal will cause the increase of blood flow to the hands, legs & body thus the amount of blood around the stomach will therefore decrease.
This will weaken the digestive system in our stomach.


6. * Don't walk about - People always say that after a meal walk a hundred steps
and you will live till 99. In actual fact this is not true. Walking will cause
the digestive system to be unable to absorb the nutrition from the food we intake.

7. * Don't sleep immediately - The food we intake will not be able to digest properly.
Thus will lead to gastric & infection in our intestine.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Persimmon

More tips from email :-)

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Those who like to eat persimmon please take note!
Although there are many benefits of eating persimmon, but there are a few points that we must be aware of:


1. Persimmons Cannot Be Eaten On An Empty Stomach.


Contains more tannin and pectin, in an empty stomach under the effect of gastric acid, lumps of various sizes will formed, if these lumps can not reach the pyloric intestine, it will remain in the stomach to form gastric persimmon stone. The stone original is as small as apricots and persimmon seeds nu, but will tend to get larger if naturally expelled from the stomach, it will cause diospyrobezoar the digestive tract obstruction, resulting in upper abdominal pain, vomiting, and even vomiting blood and other symptoms. During surgery, persimmon stone as big as a fist was found in the stomach. If the's food in the ! stomach then the persimmon stone formation in the stomach can be avoided .

2. Persimmon Skin Should Not Be Eaten

Some people feel that eating persimmon fruit together with the skin taste betten than just eating the flesh by itself. Scientifically this is not advisable because the vast majority of persimmon tannin in concentrated in the skin. If eaten toegether with its skin the formation of gastric persimmon stone is easier, especially when the astringent proc! ess is incomplete, as its skin contains more tannic acid.

3... Do not eat pesimmon together with high-protein crabs, fish, shrimp and other foods

In Chinese medicine, crab and persimmon are considered "cold foods", therefore they cannot be eaten together. From the perspective of modern medicine, crab, fish and shrimp contains high level of protein and thus under the effect of the tannic aci! d, it is easy to solidified into blocks, namely, stomach persimmon stone.


4. Diabetics Should Not Eat Pesimmon

Persimmon has 10.8% sugars content, and most are simple pairs of sugar and simple sugars (sucrose, fructose, glucose is such), which can easily be absorbed by our body after eating which may result in hyperglycemia. For diabetic people, especially those with poor glycemic c! ontrol, it is even more harmful.

5. Enough is enough

The tannic acid in persimmon together with dietary calcium, zinc, magnesium, iron and other minerals form compounds that cannot be absorbed by the body so that these nutrient! s can not be used and therefore eating persimmons can easily lead to a lack of these minerals. And because there is more sugar in persimmon, eating the same amount of pesimmon compared to apples or pears will make one fill full faster hence will affect one's appetite, and reduce the intake of meals.! Generally, with an empty stomach, it is advisable that not more than 200 grams of persimmon should be taken.

6. Mouthwash after eating

Persimmon has is high in sugar and contains pectin. After eating persimmon there will be some of the fruits remaining&! nbsp;in the mouth, especially in between the teeth. With the acidic properties of the high tannic acid it is easy to cause tooth decay, the formation of dental caries. Therefore after eating persimmons it is advisable to drink some water or to rinse our mouths.

吃柿子雖然有很多好處,但有幾點需要提醒:

1. 空腹不能吃柿子
因柿子含有較多的鞣酸及果膠,在空腹情況下它們會在胃酸的作用下形成大小不等的硬塊,如果這些硬塊不能通過幽門到達小腸,就會滯留在胃中形成胃柿石,小的胃柿石最初如杏子核,但會愈積愈大。如果胃柿石無法自然被排出,那麼就會造成消化道梗阻,出現上腹部劇烈疼痛、嘔吐、甚至嘔血等症狀,曾在手術中發現大如拳頭的胃柿石。如果胃“有底”的話,就可避免胃柿石的形成。

2. 柿子皮不能吃
有的人感到吃柿子的同時咀嚼柿子皮比單吃柿子更有味道,其實這種吃法是不科學的。因為柿子中的鞣酸絕大多數集中在皮中,在柿子脫澀時,不可能將其中的鞣酸全部脫盡,如果連皮一起吃更容易形成胃柿石,尤其是脫澀工藝不完善時,其皮中含的鞣酸更多。

3. 不要與含高蛋白的蟹、魚、蝦等食品一起吃
中醫學中,螃蟹與柿子都屬寒性食物,故而不能同食。從現代醫學的角度來看,含高蛋白的蟹、魚、蝦在鞣酸的作用下,很易凝固成塊,即胃柿石。

4. 糖尿病人勿食
柿子中因含 10.8% 的糖類,且大多是簡單的雙糖和單糖 (蔗糖、果糖、葡萄糖即屬此類),因此吃後很易被吸收,使血糖升高。對于糖尿病人而言,尤其是血糖控制不佳者更是有害的。

5. 適可而止柿子中的鞣酸能與食物中的鈣、鋅、鎂、鐵等礦物質形成不能被人體吸收的化合物,使這些營養素不能被利用,故而多吃柿子容易導致這些礦物質缺乏。又因為柿子中含糖較多,所以人們吃柿子比吃同樣數量的蘋果、生梨更有飽腹感,從而會影響食欲,並減少正餐的攝入。一般認為,不在空腹的情況下,每次吃柿子不超過 200克為宜。

6. 吃後漱口
柿子含糖高,且含果膠,吃柿子後總有一部分留在口腔裏,特別是在牙縫中,加上弱酸性的鞣酸,很易對牙齒造成侵蝕,形成齲齒,故而在吃柿子後宜喝幾口水,或及時漱口。