Literally using ‘illegal aliens’ for addressing multiple socio-political issues such as xenophobia (irrational fear of strangers), ‘District 9′ is a thought-provoking film indeed. A private military contractor (MNU: Multinational United) is tasked to police and forcibly evict 1.8 million aliens from their District 9 slums to District 10 – a new refugee camp some 240 [...]

From yesterday’s news, a headline (and sub-heading) reads – ‘A star to the end: (Michael) Jackson mourners kept waiting as casket arrives late’. It finally arrived 90 minutes after the scheduled time. An interesting question came to mind. If it arrives even much later, will the mourners feel more sorrow or less sorrow? With no [...]

Here are some lyrics in part from Moby’s bittersweet song ‘Slipping Away’ from his album ‘Hotel’: Open to everything happy and sad Seeing the good when it’s all going bad Seeing the sun when I can’t really see Hoping the sun will at least look at me Focus on everything better today All that I [...]

During a Dharma discussion at Awareness Place (after screening of ‘The Woodsman’), a participant remarked about how difficult is was for her to express the same compassion for those she comes across in a class. She was struggling to practise equanimity for all. I answered that having equal compassion does not equate to treating all [...]

Something written for an interreligious publication… A Buddhist charity was giving out aids to the needy in terms of cash and kind for disaster relief. What was surprising to reporters was that various individuals from all walks of life were helped despite differences in race or religion with no questions asked. Most pleasantly surprised were [...]

I once had an acquaintance in school. She had long straight flowing hair and big round eyes. The usual attributes that would make one a classic beauty, as many might feel? Within my clique, many would call her Miss Candy (Xiao Tian Tian), and that would please her very much. Little did she know, they [...]

If you learn to love one properly, you will learn to love all equally. – Stonepeace [Notes: The notion of love in this article is love in general, as in loving-kindness (Metta: the wish for all to be well and happy), that excludes lust as a complicating worldly factor. The following are some of the [...]

After picking up Buddhism, I found my threshold of being able to withstand seeing others in suffering to have reduced significantly. I can’t sit long in front of the television watching people scheming against each other, even though I know it’s just a show. Well, scriptwriters don’t get their stories out of thin air – many are [...]

Just finished teaching the last lesson of a series of four weekly classes on the Heart Sutra. This last lesson began an hour earlier at 6.30pm, and ended at 9.30pm. Last week, I had to request the class to grant me another extra hour for this lesson, so as to better pace it, to give [...]

Feng: Shi’an, is this change of things what you wanted?  Shi’an: Yes and no… as with many things in life. Feng: Is that good or bad? Shi’an: Dunno… as with many things in life. I’m looking for someone to use the words below as lyrics for a song… The consolation part should sound sad. The [...]

In the movie ‘Cape No. 7′, the female protagonist, who was in charge of organising an outdoor concert was feeling down from love blues on a rainy day. She indirectly articulated her woes via stating the uncertainty of whether it would still rain the next day – on the day of the concert. The truth [...]

  It’s probably not the best combo to attend a Heart Sutra lesson and watch a rom-com movie (Cape No. 7) later. I was unable to relate to the story, which would usually stir up feelings of yearning and forlornness. I found myself sitting in the dark cinema, predicting the ending and waiting for it to [...]