In the movie ‘Werewolf: The Beast Among Us’, Daniel reads this from a book, ‘But just as the beast lives inside the man by day, the man may live inside the beast by night.’ Kind of true but then again, our bestial nature can reside in us by night, and humanity in...

What’s terrifying about zombies is their relentless mindless hunger – sounds familiar? Think consumers’ herd mentality on Black Friday. There may be more, but here are four recurring dilemmas from observation of zombie flicks. 1. Should you take human-like zombies down,...

The graphic novel series ‘Sweet Tooth’ by Jeff Lemire should not be mistaken merely as a simple man versus monster story. In a world set in the near future, the line between human and beast becomes blurred when human-animal hybrids are born. It is an exploration on the nature of...

Question: If farmed animals are not bred in farms and wild animals are not caged in zoos, will they be roaming about on Earth? If farmed animals are bred with much humanity, say almost equivalent to rearing pets, will it be deemed fit to eat them eventually? Answer: The truth is that wild...

True that shark fin is quite tasteless and lacking in nutrition. 1. Every animal that is killed needlessly was in its last moments an endangered one - even if not in terms of the species. (Applies to humans too.) 2. Every animal killed for any other parts or all of its parts is still a victim...

Not that it is definitely possible, if humans create a robot that is unerringly humane, in comparison to the average human, will that robot be a Buddha? But if the above is possible, the humans who create such a robot would already be Buddhas, for being able to program it to be...

Watching the TV version of ‘The Walking Dead’, I’m reminded again of why zombie flicks are important for humanity… really! When surrounded by dead humans who have lost their humanity, will humanity* survive? * Humanity: As a species, and as the quality of being humane...

Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: ‘Because the animals are like us’. Ask the experimenters why it is morally okay to experiment on animals, and the answer is: ‘Because the animals are not like us’. Animal experimentation rests on...

Ubuntu (Zulu): People become people through other people. Humanity (English): Human beings are humanised through being humane to one another. Buddhahood (Sanskrit-English): Beings become Buddhas through helping other beings become Buddhas too. Paraphrased from a friend’s notes: Ven....

Here is my mini sharing of His Holiness Dalai Lama’s 2010 Southeast Asia teaching tour. I felt very fortunate to be able to learn directly from him. Even more fortunate was to have two great Dharma friends who have been to His Holiness’ teachings for years, to take care of us and...

In ‘Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant’, this line is uttered – ‘It’s not what you are that makes you human, but who you are.’ Sounds vague. Here’s a proposed improved version - ‘It’s not what you are that makes you human, but...

The remake of ‘Clash of the Titans’ is more fascinating than its 1981 predecessor for a number of reasons. Firstly, the monsters are a lot meaner. Secondly, the gods are a lot meaner… too! Set in an ancient time, the film paints a terrifying world filled with convoluted ...

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...

Lawrence: [Seeing gun and bullets] I didn’t know you hunted monsters. Singh: Sometimes monsters hunt you. ‘The Wolfman’, like all good monster movies, be they remakes or not, remains a cautionary tale. If we take the wolf half of a wolfman (aka. werewolf) to represent the...

Warning: This is a proper vampire movie, where vampires adhere to the classic rules. E.g. they do not glitter with fairy dust in the sun without bursting into flames during non-twilight hours! (To avoid confusion in monster lore, Twilight’s ‘vampires’ shouldn’t be...

At what point is technology too much? It seems inevitable that technology will not just be extensions of our bodies but gradually internalised too, literally. The movie ‘Vexille’ tells of the future, when the Japanese government and its leading corporation asks its people to take...

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...

In the graphic novel version of ‘Kidnapped’ by Robert Louis Stevenson (adapted by Alan Grant, illustrated by Cam Kennedy), the protagonist gets… yes, kidnapped. For most of the story, he is portrayed as severely disturbed by having been betrayed by his only uncle. Even after...

From ‘The Twilight Zone: The Monsters are Due on Maple Street’ by Rod Serling (adapted by Mark Kneece), a mysterious blackout strikes the suburbs. The townsfolk gather and a boy suggests that it might be the work of invading aliens, who are simply waiting in the dark to grab...

This was written in the burb of ‘The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye’ by Robert Kirkman – ‘How many hours are in a day when you don’t spend half of them watching television? When is the last time any of us REALLY worked to get something that we wanted? How...