The Stuff of Monsters I must admit I’m pretty fascinated by monster lore – not so much because the creatures are fantastical… but more because I find it fantastical how these monsters became to be taken seriously in the first place. If they are not real in some way, what perpetuated their persistence across the [...]

Me: I see you are wearing ‘Transitions’ eyeglasses. He: Yes. Me: Seems like a good idea… auto-tinting when it gets ‘too bright’. He: Ya… but when I was in Burma, it got really hot and bright in the sun, but the tinting tricked me into thinking it was neither! Almost got sunburnt! Me: Ha! What’s [...]

The Meaning of Meaning Zeph doesn’t consider himself a very ‘deep’ person. But he recognises that he contemplates on stuff more than most. While some feel that being asked ‘What is the meaning of life?’ is annoying enough, Zeph asks things like, ‘What is the meaning of “meaning”?’ Often, he doesn’t understand why others don’t [...]

Amorous feelings are overrated. As if they are ”all or nothing” for some. Why must your love interest be your lover? Why can”t you try to be good friends? Why can”t you just be buddies especially if you already were? Why can”t you settle for anything less than being someone”s ”exclusive” one? Why must there [...]

In the backdrop story of the movie ‘Cape No. 7′ set in the post WWII era, a Japanese man leaves the Taiwanese girl he loves on her shores. So painful was the departure that he didn’t even have the courage to wave goodbye to her at the harbour… even though he saw her looking out [...]

A friend texted me a question – ‘How to have compassion for terrorists?’ He was asking about the recent Mumbai siege, which killed about 120. My answer would be this – ‘We can nurture compassion for terrorists by realising that they had created immense negative karma (which is likely to bear fruit as much suffering) [...]

My Macbook’s power supply unit stopped working suddenly. It didn’t trouble me as much as it made me curious as to why it happened. (I’ll have to buy a new unit tomorrow though… expending time, money and energy) Just when I thought being a Mac convert would give me less software problems, my Macbook finally [...]

A toddler nephew is undergoing a strange phase of growing up. Barely a month ago, his baby sister was born. Suddenly, his behaviour became a little incomprehensibly moody and anger-prone… even to himself! He seemed to experience a form of existential anguish that he couldn’t articulate with his limited vocabulary. When asked ‘Are you alright?’, [...]

Just finished teaching the last lesson of a series of four weekly classes on the Heart Sutra. This last lesson began an hour earlier at 6.30pm, and ended at 9.30pm. Last week, I had to request the class to grant me another extra hour for this lesson, so as to better pace it, to give [...]

Jon: As an artist, I wonder is artists are necessarily self-cherishing by nature? Is there a difference between being selfish and being driven in the creation of art? Me: Artists need not be self-cherishing (as in being self-centred). In fact, the true artist lets go of ego, which allows him or her to create the [...]

During last evening’s movie screening (of the film ‘Angulimala’) cum Dharma discussion for NUS Buddhist Society’s Dharma camp (at Shuang Lin Monastery), a participant asked something along this line –  ’If Batman keeps arresting Joker, keeping him in Arkham Asylum, while he keeps getting away to harm others, shouldn’t Batman just kill him once and [...]

If you position yourself such that I cannot share my advice with you, it is not so much the end of my compassion for you, but an end of your compassion for yourself. If I position myself such that you cannot share your advice with me, it is not so much the end of your [...]

I would dread the day when all around me would only agree with me, as if I’m thoroughly enlightened. But what do they really know anyway, if they are still unenlightened? I would dread it when there are no opposing forces to urge me to be more enlightened. I would dread the day when all [...]

Feng: Shi’an, is this change of things what you wanted?  Shi’an: Yes and no… as with many things in life. Feng: Is that good or bad? Shi’an: Dunno… as with many things in life. I’m looking for someone to use the words below as lyrics for a song… The consolation part should sound sad. The [...]

The below email dialogue with a fellow reader is about the ethics of neutering cats to prevent the multiplication of strays, which might lead to their culling by animal control authorities. She is for the neutering of cats, but was posed some tricky questions by other Buddhists. (She keeps two vegan cats, one a stray [...]