Yah: I’m apolitical. Jat: More like apathetic. Yah: Apathetic to politics… yes! Jat: How so? Yah: Because politics has too many shades of grey. So I would rather spend time on something more real, like studying the Pureland sutras. Jat: And Pureland is more real than our world? Yah: A world without the complexity of [...]

Question: A friend’s son lately found it difficult to focus and could not study at all. He had applied leave of absence from school. But, currently he is preparing for a special exam required for studying the subject of choice later.  At times, he is quite frustrated, tense and irritable.  He sleeps in the wee [...]

In long drawn drama serials, it is rare that there are no sudden misfortunes via traffic accidents or great illnesses among some key characters. Sounds cliched? But in the long drawn drama of real life, such stuff do often happen. Sometimes, just because it’s on reel, we forget it can be real too. [Crash is [...]

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 [...]

Recently, we visited a friend’s house, and noticed that he bought a new TV. Teasing him, I said that from a guy who used to have no TV, he now has a big and branded one. Sheepishly, he smiled and replied that since he’s not net-savvy, it’s his window to connect to the world. At [...]

Last evening was the second time I watched ‘A Full Bright Moon’ (Yilun Mingyue) – as the opening film of T.H.I.S Buddhist Film Festival (www.thisfilmfest.com), which tells the biography of the great Venerable Hongyi. I had already seen the video version of it, but I wanted to see it on the big screen – because [...]

在一个无聊的下午中 面对一堆无聊的事物 唯我能做的就是念佛 安抚着那不在焉的心 阿弥陀佛！ On a boring afternoon Facing tons of trivial brainless work The only thing I can do is be mindful of the Buddha To pacify that monkey mind of mine Amituofo!

Venerable Faxian is one of the great pilgrim translators who travelled from China to India to retrieve many precious sutras. King of Bi: Have the Venerables come to be in Bi or are you just passing through? Ven. Faxian: Faxian and these few Venerables are neither staying in your esteemed country or going to any [...]

My parents finally took the Threefold Refuge and the Five Precepts last Sunday. (There’s quite a crowd. Well, it’s National Day, a Sunday and Guanyin Bodhisattva’s birthday – a triply convenient day for more ‘refugees’ to come! Then again, refuge should not be taken out of convenience but commitment. True aspirants would come despite any [...]

I became serious in my Pureland practice after attending classes and doing in-depth research into the subject. For a couple of years now, 24/7, I will try my best to be mindful of Amitabha Buddha whenever I have any free moments. At first, my intention was to train my mind to response with mindfulness of [...]

From the movie ‘Fanboys’ is the dialogue below. The guys were planning to steal a copy of Star Wars Episode 1 before its release – to fulfill their friend’s last wish of watching it before he dies of cancer. Hutch: You gotta find your Death Star. Eric: Okay, I’ll bite. Hutch: Greatest deed Luke Skywalker [...]

While peeing into the ceramic urinal, I saw a small black dot near where my stream was going. I avoided it, and watched it intently – so as to check if it was a small insect. It struck me that if it was an insect, and if I were to leave it in the lurch [...]

Class: We often hear Buddhists greet each other with ‘Amituofo’, aspiring to be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss . We also hear that this practice is a powerful and effective method for most people to advance towards Enlightenment, especially in our day and age. So who is Amitabha Buddha (Amituofo), who founded the [...]

A friend remarked that in this Dharma-ending age, he was surprised that a recent Pureland retreat was not as well received by youngsters as meditation retreats. Most participants of the first are middle-aged and above. Pureland practice is often mistaken to be only for the old or dying, to be less intellectually challenging – as [...]

A friend asked me a couple of interesting questions. I thought I would share them with their answers here – because I kind of wondered similarly in the past, and am sure some others out there would too! Q: Have always wondered about the definition of ‘佛陀’. Does it refer to Shakyamuni Buddha or Buddhas [...]