In the trailer of ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, this was uttered - ‘Everything will be alright in the end. So if it’s not alright, it is not yet the end.’ While this might sound like typical ‘look on the bright side of life’ possibly blind and unfounded...

An ironical problem with Buddhist academia is that it often assumes study of limited ‘facts’ as the path to objectivity, while it is practice that leads to realisation of the truth. The Buddha was not a Buddhist academic after all. Due to the above, I decided not to further...

Patients with mental illnesses often stop taking medication when they assume they have gotten better… only to suffer from relapses. The feeling of getting better is often precisely due to the medication’s effects. This applies to Dharma learning and practice too. We sometimes...

If you do not learn the Dharma accordingly during a Dharma discussion session, you are being untrue to yourself and everyone else in the group. If you do not practise the Dharma accordingly during a group practice session, you are being untrue to yourself and everyone else in the group. If...

To know if your moves happened to be right due to unmindful beginner’s ‘luck’, keep practising them, to repeat the right moves mindfully. To know if you have perfected a Dharma practice, keep practising the Dharma perfectly. -...

The last bowing session in the Pureland retreat lasted the shortest as there was the least fret, as there is the most doing it in the moment, without entertaining stray thoughts of how long more it will be, especially since this is the last chance to practise it...

It is best if everyone walks good the good talk. Usually, only some walk the talk. Still, it is better to talk the talk, but not walk the talk, than to not talk or walk at...

Once there are three friends – Yes, No and Dunno. Yes is full of enthusiasm, who believes that many high ideals are possible, provided that they are accomplished with right understanding and effort. No is full of skepticism, who doesn’t believe he can accomplish much or that the goals...

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...

Wyn: What do you do on Friday? Yah: I attend Pureland practice and study sessions (Pureland Practice Fellowship) every Friday. Wanna join? Wyn: Oh no, it’s too far and inconvenient. Yah: Us Singaporeans living on this tiny island sometimes exaggerate distance. Talking about...

是日已过命已随减, 如少水鱼斯有何乐, 大众！ 常勤精进如救头燃, 但念无常慎勿放逸。 The above verse was chanted just before we concluded our 1-day Pureland retreat at Dharma Drum Singapore yesterday. For the first time, it was really an admonition to me. Yes...

< Sri Lankaramaya Temple When it comes to the stuff that requires faith, most of us are naturally skeptical. Modern folks like us want to be seen as a logical intellectuals instead of irrational superstitious ones. When one claims to have faith without any substantial evidence, it’s...

Reflections on Shinran’s Pure Land Teachings I just finished viewing an animated film titled ‘Shinran-sama: His Wish & Light’, which is a summarised biography of Shinran, the founder of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism (True Pure Land School – the most widely practised Buddhist...