Something learnt from ‘American Pie: The Naked Mile’ is that there is no such thing as a guilt-free trip without consequences.. even if others offer you a chance to take one, even if you give yourself a chance to take one, because everyone has the propensity of guilt, because everything done has its consequences. That’s [...]

For odd-sized packages of multiple The Daily Enlightenment books to be mailed to readers, we decided to use magazine pages to wrap them instead of using new envelopes or even purchased brown paper. That’s recycling at one level. And here’s more – the magazines themselves are unwanted ones picked up from those who might throw [...]

During the annual (early) Teacher’s Day lunch gathering organised by friends of Pureland Practice Fellowship on Sunday, which was quite moving to me, I spoke of the need for more leaders in terms of sharing the Dharma, which everyone agreed to. But I also spoke of the challenge of finding and being Dharma mentors. After [...]

I like to watch cops-and-robbers flicks – not to see the plainly good guys chasing after one-sided bad guys, but to study the moral dilemmas that characters on both sides are scripted to face. In ‘The Stool Pigeon’, another dimension is added to the sometimes convoluted nature of good and evil. A cop becomes uncertain [...]

A friend’s account: When I took up full-time Dharma work more than a decade ago, a friend warned me about the messy nature of the organisation I was going to work in. In short, he advised against me working there. I didn’t bother – because the details shared were vague anyway.  Till today, I’m not [...]

A Dharma class participant asked me about the nature of doing full-time Dharma work. This is my summary…  How is it like? Is it like a sanctuary, the workplace and pace? Nope. Dharma work is no vocation to relax – it is for constantly engaging in various ways to actively share the Dharma. Work is [...]

When I visit some relatives semi regularly, I’m unfortunately not much of a conversation-maker in terms of small talk. I usually sit around and watch the tube in almost total silence, while the others chatter on. When a relative attended one of my Dharma classes recently, she was shocked at how different and alive I [...]

A Tit for a Tat (161) Tit: I had a strange dream. Tat: What about? Tit: I can’t remember. Tat: How do you know it was strange then? Tit: I can only remember that it was strange! Tat: So strange… that you forgot everything else about it? Tit: Yeah… strange… isn’t it? Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/09/harder-to-forget Previous [...]

A Tit for a Tat (160) Tit: Look! You’re leaving dirty footprints all over! Tat: That’s because you’re making the floor wet. Tit: But that’s clean water – it’s your dirty feet’s fault! Tat: But it’s the water that made the dirt stick! Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/08/an-estranged-dream Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/08/why-are-there-leftovers About aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/logo-for-a-tit-for-a-tat-series

A friend’s experience… While shortlisting films for a Buddhist short film festival, I spoke firmly against the choice of one, listing more than 20 reasons why it should not be selected. To my shock, despite this, someone exclaims that ‘It’s just a movie’. Disturbing… because aren’t Buddhist film festivals for sharing the Dharma; and not [...]

If mediums who claim to ‘summon’ Bodhisattvas and Buddhas can really do so, then these enlightened ones should start the most excellent of Dharma classes, and be able to answer challenging technical questions about passages in the sutras.  However, few, if any, will ever ask them, because most go to mediums to solve worldly problems [...]

Koi Cafe’s drinks are becoming very popular these days. (I go only for the vegan ones, once a while, free of dairy stuff.) It struck me that the reason why its drinks are so in demand, that long queues form and ticket numbers have to be issued, is really very simple… Other than having a [...]

Saw this t-shirt at Bugis Junction. The design is the kind of photo I used to take. When you highlight the most ordinary of things, and appreciate them, they suddenly become intriguing, amazing. In the right light… of mindfulness, at the right time… that is now, anything is never ordinary.

M: If one were to mind, wouldn’t that translate to more ‘mindfulness’ And if one were to take a ‘never mind’ approach, wouldn’t that make one relatively ‘mindless’? S: Vaguely reminds me of this by George Berkeley, ‘What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind.’ However, matter can be shaped by mind, and [...]

The easiest way for a masked vigilante to hide his or her identity in open sight is to secretly shed the mask, to blend in as one of the crowd. To unmask is to mask. Haiku!