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 [...]

If There Is No Self, Who Owns My Karma?
Just as there are thoughts without a thinker,
there is karma without a creator (of karma).
- Stonepeace
How is it possible, as the Buddha taught, that there is no fixed self to inherit the karma of one’s deeds, while karma still operates for one? Here is a [...]

It is raining?
Raining?
Rain!
No ‘it’.
No ‘raining’.
Just ‘rain’.
Because there is no rainer,
Because there is no raining,
Because there is only rain.
The above is inspired from ‘Beyond the Self: Teachings on the Middle Way’ by Thich Nhat Hanh:

At the center of our grasping and imagining, at the center of all our wrong perceptions is [...]

‘I’ am an experiment
experimenting with
this ‘I’.
‘I’ am change
changing
this ‘I’.
‘I’ am (r/d)evolution*
evolving
this ‘I’.
*
Evolution or
Devotion or
Revolution?

If you really think you and I can’t change,
you don’t really believe in Anicca.
If you really think you and I can’t change,
you don’t really believe in Anatta.
If you really think you and I can’t change,
you don’t really believe in our Buddha-nature.

Life is what happens to you
while you’re busy making other plans.
- John Lennon
From ‘Astonishing X-men: Unstoppable’ by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) says, “Everything is so fragile. There’s so much conflict, so much pain… you keep waiting for the dust to settle and then you realize this is it; the dust is [...]

Visited St. Patrick’s School again, a couple of days ago, to give a presentation on the Buddhist perspective of life and death. Instead of using the usual lecture theatre, the school hall was used instead – as there were 130 Catholic boys this time. Above is a picture of a powerpoint slide used, featuring a [...]

Alternative Alice (2): What is Not Cat about the Cheshire Cat?
Cheshire Cat: Which part of me is not like a cat?
Alice: You tell me!
Cheshire Cat: Let me fade away part by part, to help you decide which is the non-cat part. (He fades… till his grin remains)
Alice: That’s what’s not cat [...]

From ‘This is a Bad Time’ by Bruce Eric Kaplan:

But why do we choose to be attached to the idea
that we are really our poor ’selves’,
since we do change and can change at will?

What’s terrifying about negative karma
is its compounding effects if left unchecked!

But enlightenment is also the end of all disappointment,
and the realisation of [...]

A Tit for a Tat (108)
Tit: I don’t understand her.
Tat: Why?
Tit: Sometimes, she is difficult.
Tat: So?
Tit: Sometimes, she is easy-going.
Tat: So?
Tit: So, who is she really?
Tat: Both yet neither! She is always changing. She is change itself!
Tit: But which is the real ‘her’?
Tat: Must there be one ‘her’?
Tit: Why not?
Tat: If there [...]