Awareness Meditation

Attended a meditation practice recently that is quite enriching, hence quickly drop down some pointers as reminders.

Fixed point 定 Meditation verus Awareness/Mindful 觉知 Meditation.

Unlike Fixed Point Meditation, Awareness Meditation does not focus on a single point. The awareness can move from one's breathing to movement of the body, awareness of the thoughts and emotions that arises as well.
For example, one's aware of what one is doing at the moment, ~ I am aware of I am typing right now, I am listening to a song, etc.
The constant awareness of what one is doing will help reduce wild thoughts from arising and drifts one along.

Venerable likes to use the illustration of cleaning a table.
One can focus on using a cloth to clean the table, and do a good job on it but that is still an external view, thoughts can arise that there is a corner spot that needs more effort to clean, why didnt the earlier cleaner do a better job?

Awareness is more internal in that one realises and is aware of one's movement in cleaning the table and the arisen of such thoughts. One continues to do as per normal speed what one is doing but at the same time, one is aware of the movement and thoughts that arises. For a thought that: "Oh, I had done a good job!" . One realises that such a thought arises.

Constant consistent awareness of thoughts and emotions arising will thus cause less drifting by the thoughts as awareness causes breaks in the thoughts and hence reduce continuation of any bad thoughts ~

For an anger that arises, one is aware that one is getting angry. 1st awareness I am angry with 1st thought of anger, continue with angry thoughts, then 2nd awareness, I am still angry, continue, but broken with constant awareness breaks the angry flow/cycle, one gets out of the situation faster than in an unawareness state that one drifts along with the flow of anger and creates more negative karma.

We can practise this constant awareness meditation anytime, anywhere.
A recommendation is always to refocus on one's breathing when one has lost it.

Tried the awareness meditation this morning when I am brushing my teeth.
Generally, I am very mechanically or unmindfully just brushing my teeth but with the awareness practice to work on, I believe I did a relatively good job in comparison to normal days.
I brushed more thoroughly in & out, left & right, front & back. Hopefully, I could always maintain this awareness.
Aware, Aware I am brushing, I am typing, I am reading, I am breathing...

Practice, practice until it becomes part of me, so that whenever any unwholesome thought arises, I will be aware and bring myself back to present moment and refocus on completing my tasks.

Amituofo.:-) 感恩

PKFT will be holding their next English Basic Meditation class from 2 Mar 2013 to 18 May 2013 (Sat nites). Registration has already started, you may visit the temple at 21 Shunfu Road, S'pore 575741 (beside Shunfu mkt) to register.

Their weekly activities include Friday nite chanting on 观音普门品 Pumenping .
Abbess will generally conduct an hour's of Dharma session from 7.30pm before the chant. Their last Fri session for the year is 14 Dec 2012 and and their monthly Dabeichan held on 1st of each lunar month nite will have their last session on 12 Jan 2013, then it is holiday til after Chinese New Year in Feb 2013.
(so sad, have to rely on oneself to chase away blues til then)

Medicine Buddha Repentence Liturgy

Another annual event of Pao Kwang Fo Tang (Bao Guang Fo Tang) at 21 Shunfu Road, just beside Shunfu Market. 
Their offering altar setup for the Medicine Buddha Repentence Liturgy is simple and non elaborating but their chant is as usual, nice and motivating.

There are Best Wishes cards of variety purposes for one to write one's names and wishes, there's also light offering for 49 days per sutra.
Really like their chanting...Traditional yet Modern & Compassionate

An extract below on the important pages of the Medicine Buddha Repentence Liturgy text used. 

Important extracts on the advices by the Buddha to cure ...
Putting up as a constant reminder...

The Abbess ended with a brief teaching on the extract of above and important reminder that we must not only ask for forgiveness for the wrong that we had done, but also we in turn, should develop the BIG Heart to forgive others.


May All Be Well...
May All Be Happy...

Planting of seeds

This recent trip to Teochew brought back some old memories of seeds planted during my younger days...

One interesting concept that the Teochew people have is that they believe Oysters are vegetarian food because there is no blood outflow from it. So, we discussed if the shell products are vegetarian, it was then that I recall of my early encounters of reading picture books on advocating vegetarian and avoidance of killing from the library of S'pore Buddhist Lodge. There are several stories advocated of kind people who after rescuing the lives, even yes, shell lives from being killed from cooking and releasing them back to the water, dreamt of the shell lives transforming into human/deity forms and appearing in the kind persons' dreams, thanking them for saving their lives.
 
It led me to recall that I had always thought that I was influenced towards pro-vegetarian because of watching Ven. Hai Tao's DVDs advocating vegetarian a couple of years ago but they are actually intermediate compared to the young days when I visited the corner Picture book section at the library of S'pore Buddhist Lodge.

Those are the days when I will go there to study for exams but getting tired of studying, I will relax by reading the picture books at the corner. Back to the library recently, there had been some changes, but the corner is still there, the familar titles on the stories of Buddha & Bodhisattva and yes, books advocating vegetarian and life releases are also there.

Gratitude to S'pore Buddhist Lodge, for the conducive environment to study & read.
Amituofo...

Pureland Dharma Talk at S'pore Buddhist Lodge

 

 

Saturday Pureland Dharma Talks at S'pore Buddhist Lodge by Ven Yan Xu

Good!!!

A pity I missed the earlier talks...   

 

 

S'pore Buddhist Lodge is located at 7-19, Kim Yam Road S'pore 239329

Don't Wash Fruits With Salt

More tips received from email...
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Don't Wash Fruits With Salt

Using salt to wash fruits and vegetables is worse. Salt is sodium chloride. Therefore, washing fruits and vegetables with salt will make pesticides more stable. Fruits and vegetables should be washed with water first, then clean with water again by adding a little low gluten flour (or starch). This will remove the pesticides. A test done in the Inspection Agency pointed out: salt compound will stabilize pesticides. It is better off to let the vegetables sit at room temperature for half a day, then rinse with water. The advertisement "Washing vegetables with salt is healthy" is incorrect. A teacher at the Food Engineering Department said: salt makes pesticides more stable due to chemical bonds. Pesticide residues in vegetables will be locked in. Therefore, pesticides in vegetables should be removed by rinsing with water several times. Do Not add salt to wash vegetables ......! In one nutrition class, Professor of Medicine in Taipei (now also a hospital clinical dietitian), has strong criticism of the misleading ads and wonder why no one ever stop it. Disclosure of such inaccurate information happened quite often, but no action was taken to stop it.... She hopes the public can have accurate medical knowledge. ============================================================= Little Secrets In Daily Life 1. Hot and spicy to tears, what to do? If you accidentally eat the hot food that makes you shed tears, your first thought will be probably a glass of water. However, hot water is not a solution, it will make it more spicy. In fact, the best solution is to drink hot milk. 2. Keeping tofu firm Soft tofu in the cooking process is very easy to break into pieces. If you want to maintain the integrity of tofu, you can soak it in salt water for about 30 minutes before cooking. 3. Soup is too salty Making soup with too much salt, the subtle taste of the soup will be destroyed. If this happens, the remedy is to add cooked potato pieces for few minutes. The potato will absorb the salt. When soup is served, then remove the potatoes. 4. Soak a little vinegar before cutting taros Cutting taro can make your hands itching. Soaking your hands in vinegar before cutting taros will prevent your from itching. 5. How to remove the wax from an apple If you often eat apples with their skin, then you would need to remove the wax first before eating.... (a) place the apple into hot water, the apple's wax will vanish. (b) Apply toothpaste on the apple to clean out the wax. 6. How to slow down potato germination? Potato buds contain toxic alkaloids which can cause abdominal pain and dizziness. Placing an apple in potatoes can significantly delay thier germination time. Ethylene gas produced by apple has hampered the effectiveness of potato development. Putting apples together with papayas or kiwi will make them ripe faster. Further, apples can make persimmon astringency disappear but sweeten after a week. 7. How to make good rice After washing rice in water, add a few drops of lemon juice, (or a few drops of oil), cooked rice will turn out good and fragrant. 8. How to keep biscuits crispy When storing biscuits in a container, put a sugar cube in it at the same time. As the sugar absorbs the moisture in the container, biscuits or cookies can remain crispy and delicious. 9. What can be done if clothing stains with ink If ink gets on your clothing or fabric, you can use cooked rice or paste with a little detergent to remove the stain. Use your fingers to smear repeatedly on the spot, stain can be removed quickly. Then soak it into fresh water with ordinary cleaning agent for a period of time before washing. 10. How to treat smelly shoes Put a small amount of baking soda directly into the boots, sneakers or shoes, that are obviously smelly due to dampness. Baking soda powder has the effect of absorbing moisture and odor. 11. Ring around the collar, or spotty under the armpit area of the clothing First brush some shampoo, shaving cream or lotion on the dirty area for five minutes. Then wash off the stain. 12. How to keep flower fresh Adding a little beer in the vase can keep house flowers fresh for an extended period of time. This is because beer contains alcohol which is both antiseptic and disinfectant. Beer also contains sugar and other nutrients for the leaves. 13. How to sharpen scissors Stacked three aluminum foil together, then cut them with the scissors to be sharpen. You will see surprising result. 14. How to remove annoying gummed labels It is quite annoying when comes to remove the price tags on merchandise. To remove the gummed labels neatly, all you need is to use a hair dryer to apply heat on the label before taking them off. 15. What can you do with beer beside drinking Most people know milk is good in cleaning foliage plants. In fact, use leftover beer to wipe plants is even better! Dip a cotton ball into beer, lightly wipe leaves to remove dust and keep them lustrey. Furthermore, this method also prevents ants from coming to the plant. 15. What to do with unwanted perfumes Before throwing them away, unwanted perfumes could be useful. You can use unwanted perfume to clean indoor light bulbs with cotton balls. When the bulbs light up and warm up, the whole room would be filled with the aroma. 17. Remove crayon graffiti from wooden furniture. If you have kids at home, wooden furniture are subject to crayon graffiti. Crayon stains cannot be removed with water. Although the use of paint solvents can do the job, the paint on the surface could be damaged. The most suitable method is to use toothpaste. Not only it cleans, it does no harm to the furniture. 18. Use vinegar to help mopping the kitchen floor. The kitchen floor is often easy to get greasy. Before mopping the kitchen floor, pour some vinegar on the mop. This will enable easy removal of grease. 19. How to remove stains from tea cups Stained tea cups can affect their appearance. To clean up the stain with a man made loofah cloth the cups would have scratches in the long run. Just spread a little toothpaste and hand-wash the cups, stain can be removed easily. If the stain is too thick, wait a few minutes after applying toothpaste before washing. 20. Improved floor sweeping The unused stockings can be attached to a broom to clean the floor. Stockings can help sweeping up cotton, hair and other particles that are difficult to sweep with an ordinary broom.