A friend once asked me
to never forget her,
to remember to ’save’ her,
to lead her to Pure Land,
should I reach there first.

I didn’t promise her
because me being mindful of her
cannot bring her to Pure Land,
while it is her mindfulness of Amituofo [Amitabha Buddha]
that can lead her to Pure Land.

Amituofo is already her best friend,
instead of me,
whether she knows this or not.
He already made unshakable vows to help all.
Who am I, an unenlightened fool to compare?

I might not reach there faster.
Please don’t place any ‘bets’ on me.
I won’t place ‘bets’ on her either.
Let us all just be mindful of Amituofo,
And he will do the rest!

(pic: http://cafepress.com/+amituofo_ringer_t,16932044)

From ‘Prince of Persia’ by A. B. Sina et al:

Guiv: (Injuring a lion that almost killed him in defence; without killing him) No one gave me the power to take life.
Peacock: (When lion pounces on Guiv again and is slashed dead) No one gave you power to spare life.

Comments: We give ourselves the power to take or spare lives from moment to moment. Choose mindfully!

Peacock: Why open [the door]?
Guiv: Because, Peacock, that’s what a door is for. (Forces it open and almost falls into a pit)
Peacock: A door is also to be closed.

Comments: A door is for opening and closing at the right time in the right way, and may or may not hide something. Open and close mindfully!

Man 1: Why is he veiled, anyway?
Man 2: They say he’s too ugly to show his face.
Man 3: I heard he’s too beautiful to show his face.

Comments: A veil can hide ugliness or beauty, but why must it hide only ‘extremes’? It can also conceal plainness or something else. But why speculate at all? Why not just unveil the truth mindfully if you can?

Please feel free to…

1. Send this link http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/operation-bogus-bust-part-2 to share this article with your friends.
2. Download the above A3 poster at http://moonpointer.com/downloads/bustbw.pdf (Colour version at http://moonpointer.com/downloads/bustcolor.pdf) for pasting at hotspots and giving to shopowners where bogus monastics frequent.
3. Download the above as A5 flyers at http://moonpointer.com/downloads/bustflyer.pdf to circulate at the same hotspots.
4. Translate the poster to other languages applicable for the Singapore context.

Below is a related unpublished letter to share, that was sent to press.

More Policing Against Bogus Monastics Needed

From the complaints of various friends, the appearance of bogus monastics or so-called ‘Buddhist monks and nuns (in white)’ is clearly still a recurring problem in Singapore. They thrive partly due to the still prevalent ignorance of the public that they are unholy confidence tricksters in disguise. As such, it would be good if the Singapore Police Force (SPF) regularly reminds the public via various media that such criminals should be reported and not supported.

This is especially so as under the Miscellaneous Offences Act, ‘anyone who collects alms or solicits charitable contributions under false pretences can be fined up to $2,000 or jailed up to three months, or both.’ Educational posters created by SPF in various languages put up at public places of worship and housing estates could prove useful in stamping out bogus monastics too.

In the past, bogus monastics usually stood stationary at busy public places to solicit for money (instead of food or basic non-monetary daily requisites, which is what genuine monastics would seek locally). However, after some legal scares, these criminals are much smarter nowadays, by being mobile with their bowls, moving from place to place. With this change in their methodology, it is much harder to apprehend them, even when the police are called for.

If the police wish to more conscientiously trace and weed out these increasingly cunning illegal elements, they ought to respond to calls upon sightings of bogus monastics by arriving swiftly in plain clothes to tail bogus monastics to their headquarters. From personal experience a few years back, I once called the police for investigating the identities of two bogus monastics, who were standing outside the popular temple at Waterloo Street. To my surprise, they had informers. Upon sighting two uniformed policemen some fifty metres away, the ‘monks’ fled, while the police arrived puzzled at the empty crime scene.

Related Article:

The below article was published in the January-March 2010 issue
of Nanyang Buddhist (Singapore Buddhist Federation’s quarterly magazine)

Operation Bogus Bust (Part 1)
http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/09/bust-the-bogus

Presenting the logo for Moonpointer.com’s
‘A Tit for a Tat’ series!
If you have ideas for a better design, do let me know!

There are now more than 100 aT4aT entries,
all of which aim to be pithy dialogues marrying wit with wisdom.

If you havn’t seen them yet,
you can read them backwards from entry #103 onwards at
http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/speak-up-or-hang-up

From http://buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=22,8959,0,0,1,0 &
http://kmspks.org/download/clear_misconceptions.pdf (slightly different version)

[This is a concise version of the article at http://tinyurl.com/ronytan]

With regards to the article at http://buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=57,8912,0,0,1,0 on Pastor Rony Tan’s misconceptions on Buddhism, this article hopes to rectify the misrepresentations of Buddhism in his online videos. (The videos can be seen at http://youtube.com/user/miraculoustv)

1. Last Words of the Buddha: The Buddha’s last words were ‘Subject to change are all conditioned things. Strive on with diligence.’ He was urging us to strive on the way (the Noble Eightfold Path) to liberation (Nirvana; enlightenment) that he already discovered, walked and shared.

2. Definition of Nirvana: Nirvana is the perfectly blissful state of liberation from all causes of dissatisfactions, that the historical Buddha personally realised and taught. How swiftly it is attained depends on how diligently one practises the Noble Eightfold Path to realise the necessary wisdom. As Nirvana is eventual with practice, many have attained it in history. It is a state of awakening led to by the awakened.

Read more

Good intentions are not good enough if they arise from delusion.
This is why Buddhism pays attention to both
goodness (compassion; the opposite of evil intentions, speech and actions)
and truth (wisdom; the opposite of delusion).

- Sisyphusian

This is one of my favourite Batman scenes from the 1966 TV series. Watch and listen carefully. It’s side-splittingly hilarious! It made me think…. this could had been pretty cool in its time, but is now seen as mostly as super camp. Now look at how much darker Batman has become in our times. Even a brief scene of Batman in action in broad daylight is seen as totally uncool.

I wondered what constitutes the true and universal meaning of ‘cool’ – that is really timeless. And the answer suddenly struck me. Cool is nothing to do with trying to be so. What’s always cool is genuine compassion coupled with wisdom – in all its forms. Super cool. (No real shark was hurt in the making of the above… I think. Come on… which shark would cling to a leg out of water for so long?!)

A Tit for a Tat (103)

Tit: The caller hung up. So impatient!
Tat: What did you say?
Tit: I asked him to speak up – as I couldn’t hear him properly.
Tat: Maybe he couldn’t hear you properly too!
Tit: Huh?
Tat: Which is why he hung up – instead of speak up!

Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/03/excuse-for-less-mindfulness
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/whats-the-matter

A Tit for a Tat (102)

Tit: There’s no need for you to know it.
Tat: Why?
Tit: Because it doesn’t matter to you.
Tat: But how do you know it doesn’t matter?
Tit: And how do you know it does matter?
Tat: I don’t! I will know if it matters only after knowing what’s the matter!

Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/speak-up-or-hang-up
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2010/02/kockroach-karma

Love is the only shocking act left on the planet. – Reed Bennett

If you are honest, and would like others to be honest, how would you take it if your otherwise perfectly ‘faithful’ spouse of many years tells you that she once had a very brief affair in your absence a long time ago? In the movie ‘Valentine’s Day’, an old lady confesses so to her husband so on Valentine’s Day itself – because she couldn’t stand the guilt.

At first, the husband couldn’t take it. He remarks that the newfound truth makes the rest of the relationship all lies – since it was covered up for some time. It seemed that he preferred not to know the truth – which seemed to spoil it all. But later in the night, he reflects and realises that love is about acceptance of a person, warts and all.

But what if you are the wife? Knowing your husband is honest and ‘prefers’ honesty, plus the fact that you are honest to him in all aspects other than the secret short-lived affair, would you reveal it to him – knowing that there is equal possibility of him accepting the truth versus feeling repulsion about it? Is it worth the risk? If someone admits their mistake to you out of love, shouldn’t you appreciate it instead of hate it?

Are some things really better off left unsaid? Does the truth, even ugly ones, always set us free? Or can it wreck our lives? Does it differ on a case by case basis? But aren’t relationships about honest communication of thoughts and feelings? If a relationship cannot withstand a little blemish, how true and worthy is it? Honesty should only strengthen instead of weaken it.

Unconditional love is the only truly shocking act in the universe. – Anonone