An SMS-email dialogue… C: I having bad headache from an infection, but I dreamt of of you last night. How are you doing? S: I’m okay. What happened in the dream? C: I dreamt you beat me. S: Huh? I have never got into any fist fight since young… got no history of violence. (See [...]

White wallpaper tiger ghost: http://facebook.com/shenshian I got a nice Facebook message recently… Dear Sir, … I live in Phoenix Arizona, in the United States… I am a subscriber to NamoAmituofo (TheDailyEnlightenment-Weekly) email list for years and I always looked forward to reading your posts. It is not easy to be prolific yet you always manage [...]

From Depeche Mode’s ‘The Sun and the Rainfall’: Things must change. We must rearrange them. Or we’ll have to estrange them. All that I’m saying, the game’s not worth playing, over and over again. Comments: Our lives must change. We must transform them. Or we’ll have to renounce them. All that I’m saying, rebirth’s not [...]

Guy: I think girls are evil. I know some guys are as well, but girls are more evil. What do you think? Gal: I think we are generally equally ‘evil’. Guy: You think so? Well, I still think girls are evil. Gal: (thinking) Gosh, some gals must have really hurt him. Hurting is inevitable when [...]

In the poignant but touching story of ‘My Sister’s Keeper’, a young girl realises that she was conceived specifically to save her older sister’s life. She decides to sue her parents for ‘medical emancipation’ – to reject any further bodily donations, so that she can live her life fully, in a carefree manner. Now that [...]

What I learnt from the espionage movie ‘The Message’… ‘Don’t shoot me. I’m just the messenger!’ That said, sometimes, the message is worth dying for. A message that will save physical lives. Or better still, a message that will save spiritual lives too. What message will you be willing to die delivering? What message will [...]

During and after the Dharma@Cinema session of ‘Handsome Suit’ recently, there were some issues raised on whether one’s appearance is conditioned by one’s karma. Here is a summary of the interesting discussion. Since one’s form is related to one’s karma, and since one’s karma changes, one’s form will change – till one attains the Buddha’s perfect form [...]

Didn’t he proclaim her to be his ‘one true love’? How could he love someone else after her passing away? But do we expect him to mourn for the rest of his life? Would his ex ‘one true love’ want that? If she would, would her love for him be true? Seems like something’s terribly [...]

This is not a love story. This is a story about love. – Movie tagline “This is a story of boy meets girl. The boy, Tom Hansen of Margate, New Jersey, grew up believing that he’d never truly be happy until the day he met the one. This belief stemmed from early exposure to sad [...]

Every time I come to hear the poignant opening lines of Erasure’s ‘Piano Song’, I’m reminded of how the Buddha’s teachings saved my life during my growing up years – both physically and spiritually, of how much existential resentment and estrangement I had learnt to let go… Never get angry at the stupid people Though [...]

Literally using ‘illegal aliens’ for addressing multiple socio-political issues such as xenophobia (irrational fear of strangers), ‘District 9′ is a thought-provoking film indeed. A private military contractor (MNU: Multinational United) is tasked to police and forcibly evict 1.8 million aliens from their District 9 slums to District 10 – a new refugee camp some 240 [...]

Humorous educational video for those not easily offended by the ‘F’ word In ‘Madman Volume 1′ by Michael Allred, Frank thinks… ‘Sometimes I wish I could cuss. There are times cussing might be appropriate. Oh Fuf-fuf-fuf-fart! One thing I find curious is that I have a hard time saying the.. you know… the “F’ word. [...]

The graphic travelogue ‘French Milk’ by Lucy Knisley is mostly about her good times during her six week vacation in Paris. However, the ‘scene’ that caught my attention most was that of her feeling ‘miserable about feeling miserable’, lying down radiating ‘waves of self-loathing (instead of sending waves of loving-kindness to herself)’. She had finished [...]

Question: I’m helping to run a meditation group. Are there any ways to help create spiritual friendship within the group? Answer: You can try this… Get the group to practise metta (loving-kindness) meditation together, to radiate metta to one another and beyond to all beings, and organise a gathering or outing just after that. It [...]

(How to Create Your Own Time Machine Moments) In the charmingly creative film ‘The Science of Sleep’, a guy invents a one-second ‘time travel machine’ to impress a girl. It’s the most disarmingly cheeky scene I’ve seen in the movies. ‘What are you going to do with one second?’ she asks ‘Well, it just adds [...]