Happiness can only be shared if we have it ourselves

"We can only bring happiness to others when we are happy ourselves; we can't give to others what we don't have."
Simple Bear 27.08.2014.

Lesson from a snail

Lesson from a snail

No I didn't meet a snail sage neither do I speak 'snail'. The snail was a salient condition in that moment of time for my reflection.

I was walking towards the MRT after work when I saw a snail on its shell on the road. As I was preparing to pick it up and put it near the grass away from the rumbling shoes of humans, there was a lady who was walking briskly towards the snail. I stopped the lady before she reaches the snail, told her there was a snail in her path and her reaction sparked my reflection.

She showed disgust on seeing the snail in her path, gave me a cold stare and walked away. In that moment, I noticed the arising, in me, of irritation at her apathetic reaction. I picked up the snail, put it away from walking path and lamented at the apathy that I had witnessed. I took a moment to focus on my breath and this thought arose, I should be empathetic towards her and others like her, if I don't show empathy towards her, there is no difference between us.

If there are already many who are apathetic to the sufferings of others, we should not become one of them by showing apathy towards them. Compassion should not have a limiting criteria on the subjects who are the recipient.

If we think that the human race is doomed due to our egos and apathy then we should play our part and make a difference by being empathetic and compassionate. If we become apathetic as a result of other' apathy, maybe just maybe a lot of them are like us, they become apathetic because they didn't receive any empathy and compassion from others. By being empathetic and compassionate towards them, we may be the condition which engenders the empathy and compassion in them.

Even at the end of the day, it didn't make a difference to them, at least it made a difference to ourselves. At least today, it made a difference to the snail and myself. I am grateful for the conditions including the snail and the lady.

May all give rise to compassion within; may all be well and happy.

With love and compassion
Simple Bear 29.07.2014.

P.S. It's raining these few days, be careful when walking at night, don't step on the poor snails, insects or other small animals who crossed the path. A little awareness may just save a life.

Why am I a Buddhist?

Why am I a Buddhist?

This is the question I asked myself repeatedly for the past few years. For me, the motivation behind me being a Buddhist is a drive for happiness, which in my limited understanding of my own humanity, is the basic and most important goal of being a human. In other words, being a Buddhist, to me, is being human. There is nothing mystical, just the wish to be happy.

For the better part of my life, I had been a free thinker interested in spirituality and had spent the most part of my teenage and young adulthood, surfing through different religions. Instinctively, I knew the journey to happiness had started when I encountered Buddhism in my late twenties. It is not as if I didn’t encountered Buddhism or the syncretic form of it in my younger days. In the past, I had perhaps assumed a normative perspective of Buddhism as a religion, with its focus on ritualism (or so, I had assumed at that point of time) and that, didn’t appeal to the spiritual self.

I spent the first few years as a Buddhist, learning the Dharma (teachings of the Buddha) in its philosophical form, without much practice and although, I had knowledge but that knowledge didn’t translate into spiritual growth when I encountered setbacks in my life. I began to reflect on my understanding of the Dharma and discovered that at the end of the day, the prevalent reason for my lack of spiritual growth was due to my lack of practice. It was this lack of experiencing the Dharma through practice that was impairing my spiritual growth. To be a Buddhist is to be happy, to be a better individual of benefit to oneself and the world. If I wasn’t experiencing any of the positive effects of being a Buddhist, I need to evaluate myself.

The reason that I discovered for myself through months of reflection was a glaring ‘truth’. It was a lack of practice. I was ‘experiencing’ the Dharma intellectually but beyond intellectual understanding, I wasn’t experiencing it. That revelation led me to find ways to experience the Dharma in my life, practicing both in the conventional and unconventional sense of the word. The Buddha had mentioned that there are 84,000 ways to enlightenment and of course, the term, 84,000 is a metaphorical figure for infinite. I believe that non-conventional and interactive ways such as games and performing arts such as singing, dance and theatre arts can complement the conventional methods such as Dharma classes and meditation in our understanding of the Dharma, leading us to progress on the path towards happiness.

Someone asked the great Dharma teacher, Ajahn Chah, “What is Dhamma?” and he answered “Nothing isn’t.” This had become a guiding principle for my own practice. The Buddha had always encouraged his disciples to experience the Dharma for themselves, embodied in the Buddhist concept of ehipassiko which mean “come and see for yourself.” When I encountered an issue in my life, or experience an episode in my life, it is an opportunity for me to practice. Instead of reacting habitually in anger at issues and situations which sends warning signals to my ego to respond, I am aware of the detrimental thoughts and negative emotions, and made a conscious choice to react instead with compassion and loving-kindness. Instead of letting my greed get the better of me in situations in which I find the opportunity to exploit for my own gain, I respond with gratitude for others’ kindness and contentment. Of course, this doesn’t happen overnight and I am still learning, experiencing the Dharma in my life moment by moment. There are times that I made mistakes, but it doesn’t mean that I should beat myself up or cut myself too much slack. A mistake is a mistake; there is no argument over it. The importance lies in understanding why did we make the mistake and how to avoid making it again in future.

I don’t profess to be a well-practiced Buddhist. I am just on the road, the journey towards happiness and I think the road to happiness should be fun. In my humble opinion, as a Buddhist, I want to make experiencing the Dharma in our lives fun. Practicing the Dharma involves more than just sitting down on the meditation cushion. The Buddha had mentioned to Venerable Ananda in the Upaddha Sutta that spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life. It is with the objective of sharing happiness in a fun, interactive way through interactive games, performing arts and the fostering of spiritual friendships that I had joined the youth group. I hope we can walk together on the fun path towards happiness. 

[This post was written as part of publicity material for a youth group as a member of the committee. Don't think it would be published but then again, I thought I should post it here as reflection of sort]

Suffering is one's task

"When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering, he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place . His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden."
Viktor E. Frankl

One of the more interesting lines that I read in his book, Man's Search For Meaning especially the part on our responsibility for our own suffering and happiness "No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place."

Now excuse me while I get back to my task.

Utilization of Knowledge

"Being knowledgeable doesn't make you a better man; using the knowledge for the good of others does."
Simple Bear 02.07.2014.

Doomed to Die

Doomed to Die

Walked along the road yesterday morning and saw a moth lying by the side of the walkway, dead with both wings flattened and later on another moth with a broken wing, struggling to move ahead, away from the army of shoes that are trampling everything on the path toward it.

The moment I saw the second moth, this thought came to me, it was doomed to die. I was feeling sad that I can't do much to help it, as one of its wings had been broken off by quite a bit; flight was impossible for it any longer and it could only wait for the eventuality. The next thought took me by surprise (Yes I was surprised by my own thoughts, the expression of the unconsciousness which indicates at how little we know and are aware of ourselves), we were too, doomed to die and we are struggling to move ahead, to survive and hope to live another moment, and to experience the sunlight, of life another day.

And we lie to ourselves, constantly with the falsehood of immortality. We act as if we live forever, but our actions betrayed us, the subconscious fear of our vulnerability of eventuality. We know the reality of death, which comes to all but we can't accept the reality of it.

I constantly reflects on death. I know people may find it morbid, really uncomfortable to discuss or reflect upon the issue of our own eventuality but avoiding the eventuality until you have no way to run isn't going to help. We were never truly be living if we choose to immerse ourselves in the escapades of sensual indulgences.

And when it is time, we just die without truly living.

We should embrace the fire like the moth, living our lives in the passions, not of sensuality, but of spirituality and we lived and died like the fire which burns with the wind and gone with the wind.

May all find the fire of our lives and live with dignity, and with compassion for all.

May all be well and happy.

With Metta
Simple Bear 27.06.2014.

Positivity in the air.

Positivity in the air.

Meeting friends who are happily married, seeing friends getting married, knowing friends getting engaged, and friends getting attached.

Happy for everyone.

要幸福哦! — feeling wonderful.