April 10, 2020
How to Make Things Easier?
Change Narrative
Tackle Mental Defilements with Right Effort.
> Neutralize Mental Defilements
> Nurture Mental Purity For Daily Wholesome Living.
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March 31, 2020
Do be inspired by this message by our Dhamma Advisor, Sis Sylvia Bay, as she addresses how we can keep our minds free of fear and in a 'kusala' state during these trying times.
Why must we not give in to fear & worry?
What do we turn our minds to?
What must we do?
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May 24, 2015
Traditionally, the full moon day of Vesak is celebrated by Buddhists as the day that the Buddha was born over 2500 years ago, realized Enlightenment when he was 35, and finally passed away at 80 or so. The average Buddhist may marvel at the coincidence that three such significant events in a person’s life could happen on the same day, and perhaps consider that day particularly blessed. That is one level of appreciating Vesak Day.
In this article, I would like to propose that there is another way of reflecting on Vesak’s significance which is perhaps even more meaningful than the traditional rendition, especially for...
April 26, 2015
The Bodhi Tree[1]
My maiden encounter with a Bodhi tree (botanical name: Ficus religiosa) was back in 1992 when I visited my first Theravada monastery. A well-meaning, veteran member of that Theravada monastery sagely told me that when we visit a “temple”, we should prostrate first to Buddha, then to the Bodhi tree, and finally to “Bhante” (the resident monk).” I was completely taken aback. Being primarily Western educated, prostrating was simply not in my vocabulary, let alone prostrating to a tree! My instinctive thought (fortunately I did not blurt it out) was “Isn’t tree-worshipping a tad tribal primitive?!” Prob...
March 14, 2015
What draws me to the Buddha’s teaching is that it is pragmatic, relatively straightforward to understand yet profound in its implications. Before I elaborate more about how is Buddha’s Dhamma relevant to daily life, I think it is necessary to explain a little about what I think Dhamma is not. Dhamma is not meant to be the substance of philosophical debates with endless postulations and hypothesis. Dhamma is not an intellectual exercise for the very intelligent to showcase their scholastic prowess. Dhamma is neither esoteric nor a mystical revelation of the world after death.
Budd...
The aim is to promote Buddhist thinking and its relevance to society today.
This article is written in the hope of offering some suggestions on how life’s burden could be managed wisely so that it is possible to achieve some degree of mental balance in our daily life and thus be happy. This is essentially a lay practitioner’s suggestion on how to weave the Buddha’s teaching into secular life, such that one can experience some initial fruit of spiritual success and be truly inspired even while living a lay life. I believe the spiritual journey and self-discovery can begin for lay disciples still caught up with sec...
March 10, 2015
I was born into a family of devout Buddhists and was taught from very young that our ‘religion’ was Buddhism and our ‘god’ was Buddha. I had no problem with that: it was really nice and comforting to know that I was watched over by a benign (‘compassionate’ being the more correct Buddhist adjective of course, but I was young then), and supremely powerful being who would make sure that I would be alright. I was also careful to do the right thing so as not to incur Buddha’s disapproval in case I get punished by Him for misconduct.
The Buddha statue on the family ‘altar’ was regarded as ‘sacred’, and must be venerated...