修养

“修养是对自己烦恼的减轻， 智慧的成长， 对他人也就是慈悲的增加； 慈悲的增加， 慈悲的成长， 也就是自我的成长。”
聖嚴法師

A simple wish, an act, a good start

A simple wish, an act, a good start

Decided at the end of Sunday's Symposium, to attend Professor Wang's two days class on the Lotus Sutra at Poh Ming Tse Temple. Yesterday night was the first class and in the class, she mentioned the accumulation of merits to facilitate conditions for cultivation.

I was inspired to share a little recent habit of mine, which evolves from a little paper 'Dana (giving) bank'. A few months ago, I had the privilege to attendTzu Chi Singapore 慈济基金会(新加坡分会) year-end blessings ceremony, and after the ceremony, I had gotten this paper bamboo-like Dana bank for me to put in loose change for charitable purposes. I placed it in my room and started putting in a little bit of coins in the first few days, and as time goes by, I started emptying my loose change in the Dana bank every morning.

I started observing that I felt better in the morning after having this habit. I started observing myself in the act of putting in the loose change and noticed an arising of delight within when I put in my loose change.

I made some changes to the habit:

1. I started making a mental note every morning when I put in the loose change, I wish that the loose change be of benefit to those who need them in the future, and may all be well and happy.

2. Taking note of any egoistic considerations when putting in the loose change especially on the days, when my loose change can be more than a couple of dollars in value and it is near month end when my bank account is slim; I had promised myself that I will put in all my loose change, be it ten cents or ten dollars in value. For me, it is a training (of the mind) to reduce egoistic thoughts and enhance altruistic ones.

As time goes by, I don't count the coins; there is only the action of putting in the coins and the thought of well wishes for those who may benefit, including myself.

I am the first person to benefit from this habit. I started feeling the delight which arises within and reduced tendencies to react negatively to others (even if it only last a few moments). The people in social interactions with me benefited from not having a grumpy old bear to deal with (you know how sometimes, we may wake up at the left (wrong) side of the bed).

And the delight, the well wishes from the giving, in my humble opinion, at least from what is understandable by ignorant me, that is precisely the type of merit, which is the result of the habit, that we need for enhancement of the conditions of our practice, a mental and emotional condition.

Grateful to Jimmy Ling for Inviting me to the event so that I can get the Dana bank, Dharma brothers and sisters at Tzi Chi for providing me with this wonderful opportunity to cultivate this habit, Professor Wang and brotherZenon Teh for the wonderful class which inspired this sharing.

I am grateful to all who made this possible.

May all be well and happy.

I am not crazy

I am not crazy

Boarded a bus at Eunos after Dharma class and sat beside an uncle at the back of the bus. As I sat down on the seat with my bag, I noticed that the uncle sitting next to me, is chanting softly with prayer beads in his hands. I smiled and thought to myself, "I am fortunate to be sitting beside an uncle who is doing his practice." smile emoticon

As soon as the uncle noticed me looking at him and his prayer beads, he quickly stop and tries to hide his prayer beads while still continuing his chanting softly. This thought came to my mind, "Maybe he is embarrassed to be seen as different from the norms of the general crowd in the current context of traveling on public transport."

I closed my eyes, and contemplated on the situation at hand. There are a few thoughts which came up in my mind:

1. It is paradoxically human nature to want to be different and not to be different; in this situation, the uncle may be affected by the wish, not to perceived as different and the incongruency of the wish not to be perceived as different and his own wish to practice causes dissonance, suffering. Am I too, affected by this worldly condition?

2. There is a wish to help alleviate the suffering of the uncle, to help him to continue practice in a more positive psychological condition.

3. It is an opportunity for me to practice too, in the current situation.

I took my prayer beads in my hands and started chanting silently, the name of Amitabha Buddha.

As the uncle saw me chanting for a while with my prayer beads moving as counters in my hands, he started to take out his prayer beads again and continue his chanting beside me. Delight filled my heart. smile emoticon

What will the rest of the commuters on the bus thinks? When they saw us chanting with our prayer beads on the bus. I am not concerned about the perceptions of others, what I am concerned about doing the right things and not only doing things right. Of course, I normally don't take out my prayer beads and chant on the bus to avoid people feeling uncomfortable with me doing that, I normally just chant silently in my mind but tonight, I think I have to do just that to help support the uncle who is doing his practice on the bus.

I am grateful to the uncle for the kind reminder to practice and giving rise to the courage within me to ignore the possible views of others.

Going even further on the application of courage in such a situation, it can be applied to counter the group cohesiveness and diffusion of responsibility elements of the bystander effect, which refers to the social phenomenon in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The unwillingness to be different from a group (the bystanders in a situation starts to think of themselves as a temporary group, identifying themselves as a group in the situation), breaking the group cohesiveness, and apathy resulting from diffusion of responsibility, thinking that others will help the victim, hence there is no need for us to do so.

A lot of times, if we do observe, once we start to be the first one to help in a bystander situation, others in the group will quickly join in and the courage to be different, to do the right thing can perhaps save lives, not only the victims now and then but also future victims when the experiences of helping others in a bystander situations may encourage the growth of such courage in the bystanders who joined in to help in the situations. A little courage from us may have a ripple effect of compassion on the world.

May all have the conditions to cultivate the courage and compassion within us and to share the courage and compassion with all.

May all be well and happy.

And yes, maybe in the eyes of the world, I am a little crazy. Maybe, just maybe.

The Avalokiteśvara within

The Avalokiteśvara within

I had the good opportunity today to attend the Understanding Guan Yin Symposium organized by Poh Ming Tse, with my fellow friends at Nidana Youth Group.

Glad to catch up with old friends from PMT MUSICians and listen to their new compositions.

Took quite a few pages of notes and spent my evening going through them, doing some reflections and feel like sharing just a few points which I think will be personally helpful to my own spiritual cultivation.

1. Model for Emulation

Professor Reeves had mentioned in his presentation, that one of the roles of Guan Yin is being a model, for us to emulate her quality of boundless compassion, the wish and volition to alleviate the sufferings of others.

To become Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, we must bring forth the compassion to mind; when we chant the name of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, we are (if I may posit) bringing to mind, and giving rise to compassion within us, the wish and volitional action to alleviate the sufferings of self and others. And the compassion for self and others may helped us go through the trials and tribulations of our lives.

2. Skillful Means of Propagating the Dharma

Professor Wang, in her presentation on the Buddhist teachings by Venerable 慧思 and 智顗, had mentioned that there are certain steps that the Buddha will take before he speaks the Dharma, he will:

i. Enter into meditation

ii. Observe the faculties of the people that he is speaking to.

iii. Decides on the skillful means required to teach the Dharma to the people to bring them closer on the spiritual path to enlightenment.

At this point of time, I had this thought, I am not the Buddha, how can I have the spiritual ability to observe the faculties of others in order to employ the necessary skillful means in my expressions of the Dharma to let others understand the Dharma.

I spend quite a while contemplating on the points, trying to make sense of it for individuals like me, ordinary beginners on the spiritual practice, to utilize the points for my own cultivation. Then it came to me, that I could in fact apply those steps in my own ways in propagation of the Dharma.

i. Spend some moments in mindfulness meditation (if time allows, a session before any sharing will be great; if not, spend some quiet moments to be aware of oneself)

ii. Observe the faculties (or mental and emotional states) of oneself; search within for the a few alarms signs to be addressed:
a. Is the intention to speak egoistic?; is the reason for speaking (of the Dharma) an attempt to assert one's perspectives on the other person without considering the mental and emotional states of the other person (observe by signs of body languages and linguistical signs), or for any other personal gains? Such as reputation?
b. Is there any empathy within? The positioning of oneself with the other person on equal (or almost equal) grounds without any judgements?
c. Is there any compassion? The objective of speaking the Dharma is for the good of the other person, to alleviate the suffering of the other person?

iii. Employment of the most suitable methods (within one's compassionate arsenal of methods) within one's limited capacity to speak of the Dharma, or through actions in the hope that the sufferings of others can be alleviated.

3. Connecting to Compassion

Brother Shen, in his presentation on devotional practice had mentioned that the compassion of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas are always in perfect alignment, always ready to be connected to us but we, people in the sea of Samsara, may not be aligned with them due to our ignorance and we need to make aspirations (to help ourselves) to be connected to the great compassion of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to alleviate our sufferings.

If I may posit, this concept of self proactivity in connecting to the compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas can be applied in our daily lives in two different ways:

i. We need to take responsibility to ourselves and take actions (which includes being open minded to suggestions and the volition to change for the better) to be connected to the compassion of others, who are willing to help us (In the Lotus Sutra, it is mentioned that Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva can manifest in different forms such as our friends or random strangers to help alleviate our sufferings); if we are unwilling to change for the better, to relieve ourselves of the sufferings, no matter how much help is offered, the sufferings remains.

ii. If we want to express compassion to our family and friends, understand that the same principle or concept applies; no matter how much we see them suffer and want to help. They must be willing to help themselves first, the wish to get out of the suffering cycles that they are in. If they are not willing to help, there is no need to be disappointed or worse get angry over it. Conditions are not optimal for the compassionate action to take place. We can only be patient and wait for the conditions to be right.

I am grateful for all the academics and fellow Dharma brothers and sisters who shared their knowledge and experience with us at the symposium today.

May we all give rise to the Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva within us and live our lives in compassion and wisdom.

May all be well and happy.

One, as Ambassador of Faith

Happy Easter Sunday my Christian friends

A few days ago I had the opportunity to be part of a inter-faith dialogue with a Catholic priest and there was this question which was put to him on how do one attract youths to the Catholic faith.

His answer is one which I totally agree with. He said (and I am paraphrasing) to conduct oneself in proper accordance to one's faith which attracts them to the faith through inspiration.

We can't please everyone. And to attract not only youths, but youths with the right motivation, to engage in spiritual cultivation is important.

We are all, regardless of faiths, the ambassadors of our faiths. We are the key to the continuity of our faiths, our 'spiritual lineages', through our own conduct and practice.

Grateful for the candid and open sharing.

May we all have the motivation and conditions to fulfill our potential for goodness, as believers of our faiths, as humanity.

May all be well and happy.

Aspirations or Attainments?

Attended a Dharma talk by 常护法师 from Dharma Drum Mountain Singapore on Tuesday night. Left the talk with a few points which I spent my time reflecting and I thought of sharing.

1. When we are inspired and moved by the charitable, voluntary and spiritual works of others, we need to ask ourselves since the cause and work is so noble, so inspiring, why are we not doing the same good works that they are doing and be the inspiration ourselves?

2. When we commit ourselves to our work as employees, as volunteers, are we a positive addition to the team or a negative one?; when we criticise the works of others, are we better than them in terms of our commitment, our initiatives, our quality of work, our responses to the changes which happened?

3. When we criticise, are those criticism, a projection of our own sufferings, arising due to a need to protect the mind from the pain from acknowledging the inherent source of suffering.

4. When we start our work spiritual and volunteering, we started with selfless aspirations, and time passes by, we start to see achievements for our hard work done and expectations for future attainments may arises; we may start to get frustrated with our progression if we don't see any attainment of our expectations. Are we gradually confused with achievements and aspirations? Are we working for achievements or are we working for aspirations?

5. When we utilise methods to achieve our aspirations, the motivation behind efforts in utilising the methods, are we bound by and clinging on to the methods that we used and had gradually forgotten the aspirations which motivates us in the first place?

It seems all too human and I, have to admit I had let myself fallen carelessly time and time again. I am grateful for the points for me to reflect on it.

Thank you DDYP SG for organising the Dharma Talk. Do send my gratitude and appreciation to Venerable for his precious sharing and the volunteers for making this sharing possible.

May all be well and happy

Sacrifice for Happiness

Sacrifice for Happiness

A friend who has been feeling unhappy over the past few weeks came to talk to me.

Friend: "I am really unhappy. I want to be happy."
Simple Bear: "Are you willing to sacrifice, to give up what is yours to be happy."
Friend: *after thinking for a while (& looking at me suspiciously) "Yes. I am willing to sacrifice, to give up what ever it takes to be happy. So what do I need to give up?"
Simple Bear: "You just need to give up your unhappiness."
Friend: squint emoticon!