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...

‘Wu wo’ (无我) means ‘non-self’ (Anatta), which means that as there is no enduring (unchanging) entity in our body and mind (which are nothing other than the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness – each in constant change),...

Wrote the below comment on a friend’s Facebook post on her ego, which seems to be the main subject for days already - ‘Seems like too many posts on the illusory ego that is not really there, that makes it all the more “real”?’ She ‘liked’ the...

Part 1: True Happiness as an attained goal (of Buddhahood) is not conditioned by anyone (including one’self’),* or it would not be unconditional. But the path to True Happiness is conditioned by guiding others to attain True Happiness (as the Bodhisattva path). Part 2: Even after...

Question: While the three spheres (of self, other and connecting action) are interdependent of each other, how does emptiness come into this framework? Answer: Here is a simple illustration… First, we need to remember emptiness means being empty of a fixed unchanging self. Next, ...

To empathise is to civilise. To civilise is to empathise. - Jeremy Rifkin As mentioned in the video, ‘We are soft-wired to experience another’s plight [or joy] as if we are experiencing it for ourselves.’  Interesting. The monkey experiment illustrates the power of empathy...

A bipolar student wasn’t sure he liked being his more ‘sober’ self. Perhaps he is used to swinging between highs and lows? I advised that there is no need to cling to any self… Since there is no fixed self that stays high or low, especially in mundane way. Good to...

If There Is No Self, Who Owns My Karma? Just as there are thoughts without a thinker, there is karma without a creator (of karma). - Stonepeace How is it possible, as the Buddha taught, that there is no fixed self to inherit the karma of one’s deeds, while karma still operates for...

If you want to know someone who is always agreeable with yourself, you might as well converse with a mirror, whose reflection smiles and frowns at the very same things you do. But if you are to really converse with someone out there, who is exactly like you, would you find him or her...

In ‘X-Men: Kill or Cure’ by Jason Aaron, Iceman forced to face the shapeshifting Mystique when she takes his form to draw public attention, including his. Though he was confronting someone else, he was in effect facing himself too – both physically and spiritually, as he...

It is raining? Raining? Rain! No ‘it’. No ‘raining’. Just ‘rain’. Because there is no rainer, Because there is no raining, Because there is only rain. The above is inspired from ‘Beyond the Self: Teachings on the Middle Way’ by Thich Nhat Hanh: At the center of...

‘I’ am an experiment experimenting with this ‘I’. ‘I’ am change changing this ‘I’. ‘I’ am (r/d)evolution* evolving this ‘I’. * Evolution or Devotion...

‘Who am I?’ ‘I’ am nothing but constant change, yet while our mind and matter change, there is always to unchanging potential to become fully enlightened, perfect in compassion and wisdom. Yesterday at 11:37pm · Raymund Lacson Well said.. Thanks Shen Shi’an Today...

‘The Broken (Reflexion Trouble)’ is an unconventional thriller. I was interested in it as it seemed to be about doppelgangers, of how some seem to see doubles of themselves, which foretells of something unfortunate going to happen. It’s hard to comment on whether this...

There are many Buddha images around the world, and they come in all shapes, sizes and materials. We will always choose the one we feel close to for enshrining at home – one that is appealing to look at, that we feel close to. Non-Buddhists often accuse Buddhists of idol-worshiping. To...

A Tit for a Tat (49) Tit: If you meet someone exactly like you, would you like you? Tat: I’m not sure… Tit: Well? Tat: I think I will dislike myself. Tit: You should change yourself now then… for the better. Tat: Wait… I think I will like myself. Tit: You should still...

A Tit for a Tat (29) Tit: Is that who I think it is? Tat: Who? Where? Tit: (Pointing at someone in a crowd) That person! Tat: I don’t know who I’m supposed to look for, and who ‘that person’ is supposed to look like! Everyone in the crowd looks like someone...

Because ‘I’ am part of this world, Because ‘I’ am interconnected with this world, Because ‘I’ am seamless with this world, ‘I’ am an illusion in the world. Notes: (On CPR Picture) Where do ‘you’ begin? Without the world,...

The only dialogues I found interesting in ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ are as below. I wished there was an infinite number of them. Norah: … reminds me of this part of Judaism that I really like. It’s called Tikkun olam. It says that the world’s...

Last Saturday, after giving an almost full day course to guides on guiding in a Buddhist temple, I had about two and a half hours’ break before teaching lesson two of a Pureland class. At first, I was apprehensive of how my voice might be affected, by how tired I might be when...