Retelling of a Tibetan folk story: Brother One has 99 horses. Brother Two has 1 horse. None feel they have enough. Brother Two thinks: If only my brother would give me 1 horse, my horse would have company! Brother One thinks: If only my brother would give me 1 horse, my horses would number 100! [...]

In a ‘post-Lehman Brothers’ world, an investment ad in the subway ironically reads, ‘Be humble, the stock market is probably smarter than you.’ This seems to speak of the so-called ‘wisdom of the masses’. But are the masses necessarily wise? What about the ‘delusion of the masses’? If the masses are so wise, why is [...]

In the movie ‘Minority Report’, the featured world of the near future is such that wherever you go to, your identity is readily picked up by detectors that read your unique iris pattern. Technology becomes so advanced that the meaning of ‘direct marketing’ is redefined. Say, when you walk by a dynamic billboard… It detects [...]

Great still above from ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ with wonderful colours and composition. (I snapped this off the TV while preparing notes for the screening.) All we have is one another, while we can’t really ‘have’ any ‘other’… than our Buddha-nature. All we have is one another, to show one another our Buddha-nature… with our Buddha-nature. [...]

Ever since I read somewhere, that spiders cannot crawl out of bathtubs, I kind of looked out for them regularly in the tub at home. For years, I never saw one.. till one morning, when I saw a tiny young looking spider walking on the base of the tub. I watched patiently, to see if [...]

A friend sent me the above with this question: Bwahaha… i wonder what’s the teacher’s religion? I replied: Oh, haven’t u heard? It’s an ancient ‘universal’ religion called ‘egoism’, which most of us subscribe to, albeit to different extents! (Buddhism teaches the truth of the ego being an illusion. Any religion that involves egoism is [...]

是日已过命已随减, 如少水鱼斯有何乐, 大众！ 常勤精进如救头燃, 但念无常慎勿放逸。 The above verse was chanted just before we concluded our 1-day Pureland retreat at Dharma Drum Singapore yesterday. For the first time, it was really an admonition to me. Yes indeed, a day has passed and my lifespan had decreased by a day. Yes indeed, I felt like a fish [...]

Sadhu to those all over the world who participated in Earth Hour. May all be mindful of the importance of caring for the Earth from hour to hour! During Earth Hour last night, I was teaching a class on the Amitabha Sutra at Kong Meng San. When the lesson began at 7pm, I flashed a [...]

Pic: Pureland Retreat at Dharma Drum Singapore Sometimes, you don’t really need a meditation cushion. Sometimes, you don’t really need a blanket from the cold. Sometimes, you can just sit, make do and make peace. 需要的不多，想要的太多 Our wants are many; our needs are few. – Ven. Shengyen

Pic: Dharma Drum Singapore During the Dharma discussion portion after the screening of Groundhog Day at Dharma Drum, Kee Yew brought up an interesting point… There was a scene where Phil (played by Bill Murray) attempts to get a lesson to learn how to play the piano. Because he relives the same Groundhog Day, he [...]

The stray cat that is more fretful of uncertainty than free of all suffering reminds me that… we are all wandering strays in Samsara as long as we have not found refuge in the Buddhadharma

Photo: On Nicoll Highway, while strolling to a bus-stop after Coldplaying The Buddhadharma is… a path lit with smaller lamps of wisdom which lead to the destination of perfect enlightenment. The Pureland Buddhaharma is… the expressway to perfect liberation guided by the brightest light of Amitabha Buddha!

On Monday this week, though it was a working day, we made sure we left home hands-free of any baggage, free even of work stuff and personal effects – because we were going to Coldplay’s Viva La Vida concert, and anticipated swinging a little haha. It amazed me a little that it could be done, [...]

DHARMA@CINEMA: Little Miss Sunshine Movie Screening cum Sharing by Shen Shian The movie ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ (Winner of 2 Oscars in 2007) is a hilarious yet touching family drama on the nature of winning and losing on many levels, about ‘the wisdom that often comes not with success but with failure’. Like all good road [...]

Boarding the southbound train at around 9.45pm after work, an uplifting sight caught my eye. The man with outstretched legs in the photo above was reading a copy of ‘Be a Lamp Upon Yourself‘ (which introduces basic Buddhism with abridged materials from a few good books plus some original sections). First published in 1999 and [...]