Vesak @ Aljunied by ABC

Yes, Vesak @ Aljunied, same venue, one can easily see the hugh tent at field just beside Aljunied MRT, held from 8-10 May 2009 (Fri-Sun).

This year 's theme is "Maitreya", the Buddha of universal

loving-kindness.

20-feet high Maitreya Buddha statue

Every year's highlight: offerings to 21 Tara.

This year, I finally managed to know what's the practice from the volunteer brother on duty who explained that by making offerings to the 21 Tara, one's wish could be swiftly fulfilled: make a wish, chant "Om Ah Hum" which has purification effect and blow a breathe to the gold coin to be offered to the Tara. For those who knows how to pronounce or familiar with the green Tara mantra: "Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha", they are advised to chant too.

Over at the event, You could find & perform various kinds of offerings such as light & flower offerings, etc. and they have nice food fair too. Try their nice sushi which is wrapped in thin slices of chee cheong fun (rice flour skin). :-)

Singa, Our old friend back in action !

It's certainly rejoicing to see our lost touch friend, Singa, back to publicity.
Let's hope there will be more publication on him & his considerate thoughts in action....

Vesak @ Orchard 2553

The Tibetan, Theravada and Mahayana images of the Buddha representing the 3 main traditions of Buddhism in Singapore.

A new addition for the year, the Maitreya Buddha. :-)

And glad to see above at the fun fair section, this used to be very popular in my younger days and had disappeared for a long while. I had originally intended to find out if adults could have a trial too but had to rush off. Hope to try it again one of these days.... :-)

It is rejoicing to see so many people visiting the event, I do wish the event can be continued for many years to come. :-)

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:-)

Review on Feb09 trip to Dharma Drum Mountain Taipei (Jinshan)

We had originally enrolled for 生命自覺營 Awakening Life Retreat at Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) Taipei (Jinshan) and as it was my 1^st time to stay on a temple to experience monastic life, I was rather excited about the trip. However, just days before our trip, on 3^rd Feb 2009, it was saddening to hear the news of Master Sheng Yen passing away. The retreat became instead a rare occasion for us to participate in a simple yet grand Buddhist memorial rituals for a high monk of the century. It was really touching to see thousands of devotees from all over Taiwan and overseas visited DDM Taipei (Jinshan) to pay their final respect to the Master.

During the 11 days there, besides chanting at the main shrine, participating in the main events: the Encoffining, Cremation and Ashes burial ceremonies, one-day meditation retreat and a half day excursion, we also had memorial experience as volunteers at DDM.

Through doing the volunteering work together, including preparation of food, washing and drying of the cutlery and the gigantic pots, ladles, etc used to serve the mass, washing the kitchen floor, drying and folding (recycling) the disposable raincoats, washing and drying the oil lamp containers, sweeping the roads to the main shrine, preparing souvenirs for thousands of devotees, etc, the participants from Singapore and in fact Malaysia too had fortified our friendship and team spirit.

After seeing the process and 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 being delivered to the temple….

The meals, which were already delicious, became even more delicious....

During our short stay and volunteering work at their “Environmental protection” unit, we can observe that DDM has also done very well in their environmental protection and energy conservation. During normal times, we are also strongly discouraged to take lifts except for the elderly, those with weak health and those carrying bulky items. The buildings have long flights of stairs that every day travelling to & fro different sections of the buildings, is really good training for vertical marathon. Most of us felt that we had climbed whole year's worth of stairs in the days there (we are really very pampered & fortunate in Singapore & I now feel guilty if am sole traveller using the lift after the trip). Likewise is light conservation at the halls & their recycling effort on differentiating kitchen and normal waste, etc, are all good practices worth our learning.

The close encounter with the Venerables, working alongside with them, seeing how committed and serene the Venerables were in a different role, the warmth, care and concern displayed by everyone at DDM really touched us. 

The trip's experience (very much to true monastic life rather than a much fantasy one which we were told our original retreat cancelled was supposed to be) is very memorable to all of us...

Thank you, Master, for all the teachings, for all the efforts to advocate Pureland spirit in Samsara, for all the efforts in helping us realise the Truth … Amituofo…