If the meanings of words are totally arbitrary, how can anyone communicate? Beware of those, who discuss the Dharma, using Buddhist terms, in their own vague terms. Beware of those, who discuss the non-Dharma instead, abusing Buddhist terms, in their own deluded terms. If the meanings of words are totally arbitrary, why communicate with anyone?

On the death of Osama Bin Laden without trial, you can’t really kill terrorism – you have to transform terrorist ideas through communication. I know it’s hard, but the harder truth is that terrorists don’t just vanish upon death – they get reborn, and their ideas live on among the survivors.

Open-hearted communication is the lifeblood of any relationship. Without the Buddha’s communication of the Dharma to the Sangha, of the Sangha to us, we would have no spiritual relationship with the Triple Gem, and no spiritual friends too.

Q: It doesn’t matter whether one calls oneself a Buddhist when one is practising the Buddha’s way. Often, we are too attached to a label and think our label is better than another’s. We should continue to spread the good teachings of the truth, but we don’t have to make comment on any other beliefs. [...]

(Thank you, Scorpio East, for the premiere tickets!) Though ‘Aftershock’ retells the terrible tragedy of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake which killed 240,000, it is not a typical disaster movie. Its focus is on its tear-jerking aftermath – of the subtle yet sure spiritual aftershocks, of how it tore one family apart, before reuniting them. Bereaved [...]

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 [...]

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? [...]

Jat: Is it just me who think people who ignore sms or emails are rude? I mean they should know that I’m waiting for a reply… or do I need to indicate ‘RSVP’? Yah: I get that too and sometimes it’s even work-related. Jat: Could silence have become the new ‘no’ or ‘don’t bother me’ [...]

All interpersonal and organisational problems arise from people with different extents of delusion interacting with one another. It is usually the initiative of those who have less delusion to help those with more delusion to realise any problematic issues at hand. But another problem arises when these people (with less delusion on the issues) are [...]

Demand email: Please hand-deliver so-and-so as attached immediately! Reply to email: To… ? (Two days lapse before demander reads and replies email. So much for urgent and timely communication via email!) As quick as some are to demand stuff done by email, the same folks might be slow to reply by email. Electronic communication is [...]

A Tit for a Tat (9) Tit: Do you think my sms reply was okay? Tat: Well, it depends on how she reads it… Tit: Huh? Tat: … just like how you replied depended on how you read her sms! Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/06/only-for-now Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/06/electronic-bad-faith

A Tit for a Tat [8] Tit: Oh… how convenient it is, to communicate through email, to let others take their time to read and reply! Tat: Oh… how convenient it is, to not communicate through email, by saying one was too busy to read or reply! Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/06/depends-on-how-you-read-reality Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/04/its-normal-weather

I seem to be having a strange problem. But really, this problem has been there all along, only aggravated by the expansion in my jobscope, which made me busier. What is this problem? Because I do Dharma work, I’m particular about not spending work hours dwelling on even the littlest of non-work matters. Since I [...]

Q: Some believe couples are married because ‘they owe each other in their previous lives’, while ‘children are born to either collect or pay parental debts’. Is this true? A: If the first idea above is absolutely true, it is to pessimistically say that there can never ever be any form of happiness in marriage [...]

In the backdrop story of the movie ‘Cape No. 7′ set in the post WWII era, a Japanese man leaves the Taiwanese girl he loves on her shores. So painful was the departure that he didn’t even have the courage to wave goodbye to her at the harbour… even though he saw her looking out [...]