Ted in ‘How I Met Your Mother’ says to his buddies, ‘Look we’ve all been searching for the five doppelgangers [of ourselves], right? But eventually, over time, we all become our own doppelgangers, you know, these completely different people who just happen to look like...

We are born empty-handed come, and we die empty-handed. Yet, most of us are born with clenched fists, and some die with them too. Perhaps this symbolises clinging from life to life, our futile grasping at slipping...

Super Short Story (109): Cycles She noticed that given enough time and episodes, the drama serials on TV almost always has every one character hating, forgiving and loving every other character, cyclically and ad infinitum… not unlike what might happen in the rounds of rebirth. What...

They say when you see yourself, it is time to die. But there is another way to see yourself, and another way to die - when you see yourself so clearly by reflection, that you decide to change for the better - to be reborn, without actual...

Question: I was wondering what took so long for the rebirth to take place. It was like 60 years after the pilot died. Do you happen to have some explanation? Answer: Hmmm… there are at least 2 possibilities. (1) He was reborn elsewhere, but recalls the pilot birth due to its strong...

The cleaner at the food court came to retrieve an empty tray, but with absent-mindedness. She lifts a tray off the table, without even looking, and misses the one stacked just below. She’ll have to return for other tray later, though it needn’t be at all, if she had more presence...

C: How I wish I can be born during the golden days when the Buddha is around, when there are many pure practising Buddhists. S: No worries… That is just one lifetime away. In Pure Land, ‘得与如是诸上善人俱会一处!’ (‘attain being with all such beings of...

Mama, ooh, I don’t want to die. I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all. - Bohemian Rhapsody A student from Project Rebirth: http://thedailyenlightenment.com/2011/12/course-project-rebirth-rediscover-reflect-recharge-round-4 asked ‘How do I reply to my kid who said,...

Those attached to living well, who have aversion to death, might forget that death is always eventual, that death can be more sudden than expected, that dying well is just as important, so as to have a better rebirth. Those attached to dying well, who have aversion to life, might forget that...

When things get routine, we wish for the non-routine. When things get routinely non-routine, we wish for the routine. A friend has an interesting take on Groundhog Day the movie. You can read her review at http://tinyurl.com/77gqk9d As she was free from work for a few months after her...

You cry when you are born. Because returning painfully is suffering. How much more tears? You cry when you are here. Because living unhappily is suffering. How much more tears? You cry when you are dying. Because leaving fearfully is suffering. How much more tears? (The irony? Your parents...

Detail from Segantini’s ‘The last task of the day’. Reminds me of the Dukkha of life’s routine burdens and dreariness, and the setting sun signifying it’s time to go home at the end of the day. Towards the Western Pure Land for me....

Here’s something more confounding than the conventional concept of time-travel, that is ironically possible – somewhat… Question: How do you travel to the past while you travel to the future? Answer: By hanging on to diehard habits, thus going around in circular rebirths,...

Since we are all one another’s parents due to many rebirths, parents should also practise filial piety to their children, who were their past parents, by nurturing them well, and heeding their Dharma...

轮回路险，生生世世， 反目成仇，反仇成目。 何不大家厌离娑婆，欣求极乐， 与诸上善人，俱会一处， 修菩萨道，共成佛道？ 阿弥陀佛！ The rounds of rebirth are dangerous. From life to life, love becomes hate, hate becomes love. Why not,...

By Royston Sim [The Straits Times]: ‘For 40 minutes on Saturday morning, representatives from eight religions took turns to recite prayers at Bedok Reservoir. They were blessing the area after the recent spate of deaths [6 suicides] there. The prayer event by religious representatives...

A friend sent by the Chinese text below, written by a Dharma teacher, for comments. My comments are in English, in between - “依佛法的认知，人来到这个世间，有两个任务：一是还债受报，偿还过去多生之中恩怨情仇的债务，接受福报与苦报； This is...

S: Project Rebirth: Rediscover, Reflect & Recharge!… More than 60 have signed up for this round. For those who missed this, do look out for Round 4 :-] B: Not ‘Project to End Rebirth’? S: Haha, I explain in lesson 1 why it’s called Project Rebirth. The idea is...

From ‘Divide “between religions, not religious and non-religious”‘ in The Straits Times on 6 September 2011: ‘Mr Lee (Kuan Yew), whose agnosticism is well-known, concluded on a sanguine note: “If you try to convert me, I’ll say, thank you very...

Part 1: It is amazing… how a total stranger on the street can be all smiles, greeting you, offering a hand to shake. Then again, it’s expected, as she is just a salesperson out to be nice, only to solicit a sale from you. Part 2: It is amazing… how the same...