Christmas is just round the corner

Christmas is just round the corner...

Chanced upon the giant Christmas Tree outside Raffles City with & without lights on 2 different days.

In some ways, I do celebrate Christmas... To me, it is a time close to end of year whereby I reflect on what happened for past year and say a silent prayer of Thanks to all those around me...THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!

MAY ALL OF US BE WELL & HAPPY!!!!

Pilgrimage Trip to India

I had previously always wondered what attracts Muslims to their pilgrimage trips (from News coverage on TV) until I made a pilgrimage trip to India 4 years ago. Ever since, I had been encouraging friends (even Christians) to embark on their pilgrimage trips.

Some old photos of the trip to share....

Bodhgaya in the night

The temple was still under renovation then.

The beautiful windmill-like items are actually offerings of candles

Chanced upon a ceremony where lots of Tibetan Monks gathering before the Bodhi Tree.

The Vajrasana or Diamond Throne under the Bodhi Tree, is the central place of worship as it is situated at where the Buddha is believed to have attained Enlightenment

This is the Bodhi Tree, under which the Buddha had attained Enlightenment.

It may not have been reflected on picture but the atmosphere at Bodhgaya is really very holy. We had the fantastic experience of arriving there early one morning after 4am for a short meditation. One will feel the whole place is so serene especially when they played the music of "Buddam Saranam Gacchami" (Three Refuge) for the morning prayers. Something that could not be described in words, I felt so touched and reinforced my faith in the existence of the Buddha.

Another very holy pilgrim place visited is Jetavana at Sravasti where the Buddha gave many Teachings. It is a place that you could somehow feel or was it just my imagination, the presence of Devas? I was very surprised at how hugh the park is as I had heard about the story of how the park was laid with gold pieces by the Elder, Anāthapindika, to purchase the place from Prince Jeta. (more info can be viewed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jetavana)

By just sitting under the tree (as shown in picture below, But no, I wasn't in below picture:P) to pose a picture of "pretend meditation" under a tree, one could almost feel the immediate bliss of meditation. Just as I thought I wanted to find a good spot to meditate, it's time for us to move on. :-(

(However, that experience did motivate me to explore a couple of meditation centres & methods after back in Spore but to-date, sad to say, I could not have similar fantastic experience from meditation)

If only I knew of any Sutra being taught at Jetavana by the Buddha such as the "Amitabha Sutra" then, it could have turned out to be another great experience to recite in such a holy place. It's a pity I was there, just with a tourist mentality without any preparation for the trip.

The trip really reinforced my faith and started my re-exploration on Buddhism.

I wish in my next pilgrimage trip to India, I could spend more time in these 2 places.

*If you are going on any group tour to Buddhist pilgrimage places, one advice is to go with a Buddhist group preferably with Venerable, instead of normal tour packages off the market.

The experience can be quite different (comparing my previous trips with Buddhist groups and visiting Er Mei Shan & Le Shan in China early this year with just normal tour packages off the market).

May We All have good karma to go on more pilgrimage trips...

May All Be Well & Happy...

8 Precepts Event and Bodhgaya

A picture taken at Bodhgaya (India) in 2004

On entering the tent set up for the 8 Precepts event (presided by Venerable Hai Tao on 30/11/08, Sun), it reminds me of the visit to Bodhgaya (2004).

A picture of the Compassionate Venerable giving Dharma Talk in the evening.

Basic Buddhism Course

This will be a familar picture to those who attended the Weekday Dharma Classes (Basic Buddhism Course) at kmspks.

The "antique" cup often quoted by Venerable in her examples of attachment.
A close up on the mini Buddha stature. Very serene and compassionate look.

From the classes attended which the Venerables spent great efforts to make the lessons interesting with stories and examples, trying to teach us Dharma with more relevance to lay person context, I learnt what is meant by Rejoicing/Dharma Joy (Fa Xi). From their lessons, I learnt to appreciate why the Sutras always ended with the phrases: "...the great assembly, on hearing what the Buddha had said, were greatly delighted. They received it with faith and respectfully practiced it. "

We had always been constantly reminded not to be just "pray pray Buddhist" but to learn to lead by example especially parents/adults to their children/younger generation. Though the classes had ended for the semester, I believe the messages and the seeds of the Dharma are already imparted in us and will continue to spread.
Personally, I like their styles of teachings. You won't find yourself dragging your feet to the classes (at least to me, it is something to look forward to every week).
I will strongly encourage those who had not attended Basic Buddhism course to attend and those who had attended long ago to attend again...It will be time well-spent...

With the ending of the lessons for the semester, I can imagine how sad the disciples must be when Shakyamuni Buddha entered into Parinirvana. However, the Dharma will always be in our heart.
Do check up the web for updates of their new classes :

Chinese: http://kmspks.org/download/poster/CBuddhismCourse_Poster.pdf

English: http://kmspks.org/download/poster/EBuddhismCoursePosterV3_6%203Dec12%20(Finalized).pdf


May All Be Well & Happy!!!
Amituofo!!!

Beyond's Concert 2008

The last concert that I attended was TZ's. Time flies, that's about 2 years ago. :P

S had free tickets to Beyond's concert last Sat evening and I readily agreed to attend with her. It is a good retrieval of good old memories of school days as they are the Rock Band of my teenage days. I wondered if my long lost touch classmates who were fans of them would attend the concert but I didn't manage to catch glimpse of any familiar faces. :-I

Paul had matured alot from my fade memory and he showed his powerful voice during the concert. I had always believed in quality of concerts from Unusual Productions from my limited concert viewing experience but the nite's production team, Horizon Productions had produced enjoyable quality too. The ability of the singers to play the musical instruments themselves added points to their charisma.

Always enjoyed concerts' drum performance, I love percussion drum performance. The only musical instruments that motivated me to learn but gave up soon, satisfying myself as an appreciator of music. :P It's not just striking 2 sticks on surfaces but a difficult task co-ordinating the whole mind and body, including the feet and really requires great concentration and talent which I quickly realise I don't have. But given time and hard work, I think it is a good tool to train concentration and aids meditation. Strongly encouraged for kids to learn besides piano. (1 possible class to consider is here :-) )

It's a great evening of Rock music especially during their Encores section when their famous pieces were sung. Most audiences in front of the stage stood up and swayed with the music. Thanks, S, for an enjoyable evening.

Reflecting on Ajahn Brahm's Talk

I was hot and tired, yawning unsightly on the train, on my way to kmspks, even contemplating giving it (11 Oct, Sat, Meditation Workshop: Stress Relief and Self Healing) a miss but I brushed the idea aside and decided that even if I fall asleep during the meditation workshop, it will be better time spent for the moments that I am awake than idling at home.

I am glad I made the right decision as it is another rejoicing experience attending the workshop. I am so grateful for the recent opportunities to attend good Dharma Talks and Classes that always gave me the rejoicing feel (Fa Xi) after the events that I began to understand and appreciate why the Sutras always ended with the phrases: "...the great assembly, on hearing what the Buddha had said, were greatly delighted. They received it with faith and respectfully practiced it. "

There are alot of gems that Ajahn Brahm had touched on tonight and I am unable to comprehend and put across as interestingly as he had done. I could not write well but I will still like to try and diary it here to share with all and as my future reference and reminders.

What is Ajahn Brahm's secret of keeping himself energetic throughout his hectic schedule of travelling and many jobs in many places?
He revealed that it is the power of mindfulness, peace of meditation and compassion in one's heart that kept him energetic.

Ajahn began the session with a non Buddhist story of "the Emperor's 3 questions" by a Russian author to illustrate mindfulness:

1) When is the most important time?

2) Who is the most important person?

3) What is the most important thing to do?

1) NOW is the most important time.
How can you survive in economic recession , with sickness etc?
If you have any disputes or unable to see eye to eye with someone, Don't put off the time to reconcile. Don't put off the time to tell the person you love, you love them.

2) WHO is with us now is the most important person.

Pay personal full attention to those in front of you and let the person feel truly valued.

No matter it is your boss or client, pay attention to person you are with. Clients will come back to you if they feel their needs are heard.

Ajahn gave the example that when he was outside the hall signing autographs and time was up for him to enter the hall to give the speech, he would still complete all autographs and gave full attention to the requestors, not worrying about next schedule.

From my observation, he is also very mindful as in the gaps between next autograph requestor, when he noticed that people are taking snapshots of him, he will turn to the photographers to give his warm smile for them before back to his full attention to next autograph requestor.
(I was abit disappointed that the pictures taken of him did not come out well with my sis's hp and kind of miss my hp which had just gone into coma. Thank you SEphone, for your past services, for helping me captured memorable pictures of food and images:P, lets hope you could pull out of your coma soon.

Thank goodness, BF had put up some lovely pictures taken for the events on this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seng548/sets/72157607984234516/)

3) TO CARE is the most important thing to do.

The job of Doctors is to care for people, healing is the side effect/bonus.

He then introduces that health problems can actually be cured by meditation.
The meditation method can also be a self-inflicted medical check-up/cure for yourself. Give your care to the area where you may suffer e.g. back ache, to massage the muscles around the pain area.
He also related the story of a girl who suffered from chronic panick attack whose conditions was so serious that she was bedridden and medicine couldn't help. She was taught by Ajahn to identify which part of her body felt tense whenever she suffered from anxiety. To massage the area of the body with care & compassion and by easing the tension of her body, the causes, her mental problems also disappeared.

Meditation is kind, soft and gentle just like the Buddha.
He went on to teach this variation of meditation method of relaxing one's body that I 1st encountered.

At the stage before he gave his meditation instructions, I was still very tired, trying hard to open my eyes wide and fighting away my tiredness.

In his very kind, compassionate voice, he gave the meditation instructions:

Sit down, close your eye and relax as best as you can.
It may take minutes to get used to the darkness to be aware of feelings in body.
Ask yourself if you are comfortable.
If yes, then ask yourself if you can feel your toes,
be mindful of the physical sensations of your toes.

Relax your toes, feel your toes connect to the brain.
There is contact when feedback is received if your toes feel tense or relax.
Make your feeling change to make it more relaxing.

Spend quality time with your body --> caring it now

Now move up sensation to your feet, contact , notice sensation changes.

Ease any tightness, feel your feet relaxing more and more.

Any stress is released.

Move your attention up to lower legs.

Mindful of physical feelings...Contact...

Wish those sensation to relax, tightness to disband,

any hardness to soften, and more relax...

Change to become more easy, peaceful, soothing.

Everything relax, feel good and maintain as long as you can....

Gradually move sensations up your body.... to shoulders where we generally felt tightness to relax.

Go down the arm to relax and send kindness to your mind.

Then slowly repeat process up to your head....

Hence, his meditation method starts from relaxing from lower part of one's body instead of from top-down and surprisingly at end of the meditation, I came out of it with wide open eyes and clear mind. (And I am still wide awake later up to 2am writing my blog:P)

I wish BF or kmspks could make the recording of the talks, workshop available to public either thru CD, DVD or downloadable from Internet to benefit those who missed the events. And hopefully they can especially edit the portion of his soothing meditation instructions separately to benefit all so that all could easily practise.

May All Beings Be Well and Happy... :-)

Reflecting on Ajahn Brahm's Talk

Another rejoicing talk by Ajahn Brahm! Enlightening us as usual in his intelligent and lively talk. (10 Oct Fri, Dealing with Uncertainties in Life)

A brief recall of his speech...

Fear is good for us to avoid mistakes but too fearful can cause psychological obstacles as the story told by Ajahn Brahm on novice monk "Grasshopper" in crossing pool of "acids".

This too will pass ....
(story of young ruler given ring with craving of the phrase to remind himself)

Very important to have correct positive mindset in the coming difficult times expected, build up your social assets: friends and relatives who will standby you.
What people will remember you at funerals will not be your wealth but how you had been a good parent or children or in your social role.

In times of recession, positive mindset that this will pass soon,
In times of good economy, this will also pass soon so don't spend unnecessary. ...
Kind words, tiny acts of show of concern can all help one another.
Start by smiling to your neighbors...strangers...
By showing concern that someone still cares about them, you never know your simple act could save them their lives...let them see sunshine in life...

Just reflecting
This too will pass ... Extending this beyond current years, to this current life of ours...
Make the best of our current human life (satisfactorily or not) in preparation for our future rebirths too....
We are in the position we are now because of what we did in the past...
We will be what we are in the future because of what we are to do now...

Any reflection from the talk? Please feel free to share your thoughts...

Cheers:-)