Vesak 2557

Know what's brewing this coming 24th May?

VESAK DAY is here!

Join us in this joyous celebration of the most important day in the Buddhist calendar this coming Friday, 24th May!
 

Apart from the spiritual program in the morning, the youths will also be specially spearheading an evening program that features the one and only Gratitude Dinner. Our youths will be personally cooking dinner for you and their loved ones on this special day to express their appreciation for the love and care they have received throughout the year :)


So see you on 24th May, 8am at 9 Ruby Lane :)
Should you like to help out in the pre-Vesak preparation, we will also be down on 22nd & 23rd May.

The Camp Master of Camp Ehi Passiko 2013 Speaks!

The Camp Master of Camp Ehi Passiko 2013 Speaks!

This man, currently responsible for nation's safety and smooth operations of our Army to date, has been quietly plotting his next big project for SBM Youth.

In a personal interview with this leader, we found out the reasons why he joined the cause to bring yet another year of success to CEP, and the incident he claimed was a sudden 'ambush' by seniors that brought him to his current exploits!

Why did you take up the Camp Master Role?

I took up the camp master role as I feel that it is a chance for me to learn more and to step up. It took me quite a while to decide on taking the role, and also the fear of disappointing others prevented me from making a quick decision. After quite a while, I decided to step up and to really show what I can do. 

What was the 'Ambush' that happened? And who ambushed you? 

I took up the role in the end seeing how much the people at the table of the Kallang Prata shop during one of the nights of supper, believed in me. I decided to give it a shot, shaking Alvin and Shi Xiong’s hand in an agreement to take over the role of the camp master. I didn't see it too much as an ambush in the end, as the cause was right and it was after all, THE BRAND of SBM Youth that CEP carries on and endures. I am proud to say too that I have my fellow brother, Hangqi to accompany me through this journey of building the camp. 

What do you hope for CEP to be for 2013? 

I hope that this CEP will be a memorable and enriching camp, where the youths can come to find spiritual friendship and forged an unbreakable bond that will last for the years to come. It doesn't end at the camp too. It endures. :) 

Dharma Sharing on 27th April 2013

Earlier today, we revisited one of the most commonly heard-of Buddhist concept - Metta - and questioned ourselves... 

Does Metta = Loving-Kindness? 

NO! :O :O :O What is it then?! So what we've been hearing all the while is wrong?! D: D: D:

Not entirely! Metta is not just loving-kindness, it also involves friendliness, goodwill, benevolence, fellowship, amity, concord, inoffensiveness & non-violence. At this point, the first thought that sprang up in my mind was: whaaaaaaat...so if Metta is such a wholesome and all-encompassing virtue, it must be REALLY hard to cultivate and attain. Will I still be able to practice it then? Another misconception regarding Metta was also addressed - which is the common perception that by thinking that when we sincerely wish others to be well and happy, it is considered to be radiating Metta, regardless of our other thoughts/actions towards that person. However, with this new expanded definition of the virtue, it proves the superficiality of such a thought as we aren't really being entirely genuine in our practice as there is a lack of friendliness and amity in our perceived "Metta".

Brother Eric then shared an interesting example he heard:
Given a Rich Man and a Poor Man, who do you feel more Metta towards?
(layperson's answer: the poor man, duh...)

Then given that the Rich Man has cancer, who would you feel more Metta towards?
(layperson's answer: the rich man i guess...)

Then given that both the Rich and Poor Man both have cancer, who would you feel more Metta towards?
(layperson's answer: the poor man i guess cause at least the rich dude would have money to treat himself...)

But well, the point behind this story is that we should in fact feel the SAME amount of Metta towards both men because we need to recognise that both men are suffering - and this is where we will bring in the 4 Noble Truths, or most notably the First Noble Truth that "There is Dukkha". Thus, our Metta should not be tainted by our biasness or preconcieved notions but equally distributed to all with this recognition of Dukkha in all.

Wufeng then shared about the three aspects of Metta which involves 1) a thorough and systematic application of Metta in our daily conduct; 2) cultivation through Meditation; 3) and a total commitment to it - which means that Metta is radiated through all of our bodily, verbal and mental activities. In this order, the constant practice of Metta in my daily life must come first as it will inculcate in myself a sense of familiarity with the virtue and a consistency of practicing it. After this aspect has been attained, with a better understanding of the virtue will I then be able commit to it wholeheartedly.

Following which, a short sharing was done by Tessa on the psychology of Metta where when one practices Metta to another/others, it avoids harassment, offensiveness, torturing, destructiveness, vexing, and projects the thoughts of "May all beings be friendly and not hostile/ happy and not unhappy/ enjoy well-being and not be distressed'. This means that such a practice by one should not cause another to feel burdened at the same time.

To sum up the session, Zeming then did an activity to explain the 4 Brahma Viharas in more detail, where Yeow Chong was asked to demonstrate by balancing a pole with one hand. This was challenged by filling a bag of water on each side of the pole, which represent the two polar opposite emotions of happiness and sadness. When one bag was heavier than the other, the balancing undoubtedly became tougher. Next, YC was asked to repeat the activity with a longer pole, which made the task even harder. However, with this longer pole, the plastic bags were changed to ones with holes as well. Hence, no matter how much water was poured into either bags, it did not prove to be much of a challenge. Through this, the activity tried to show that when we try to contain and hold on to all of our feelings and emotions, it may become increasingly difficult and tiring. On the flip side, should we be able to let go and just appreciate the moment as it is but not cling on to them (like the bags with holes which enable the water to flow out), we would be able to be less burdened.


So basically, from this session, I had learnt quite a bit about Metta and I hope you did too! :)

Resonation Performing Arts Circle @ Shan You Family Day!

Greetings!

This Saturday is Shan You Counselling Centre's fund-raising and family day event, held at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza, Takashimaya, at the front square!
The details are as follows:

Shan You Family Day 2013

30th March 2013

10am - 5pm

Admission is Free

Now for the more important portion of information: SBM Youths will be there to support Resonation Performing Artistes who will be presenting a series total of 30 minutes of items that will be sure to bring about much excitement and quality to the concert who already have both local and international acts! 

SBM Youth members will be meeting at 12 Noon Sharp at Orchard MRT and they will meet up with Ernest and Wu Feng to head over to the carnival to play some games and shop around the 60-80 booths available! 

At the same time, the time for Resonation's performance is at 1 Sharp! Be there and cheer on for them! 

Our Groups very own SHINEE impersonation, ACE will be there, as well as upcoming Girl Dance group, Scarlets in the form of SNSD! We also have 5 lovely songbirds and they will mesmerize you with their vocals! Resident musician Wei Guang will also be there! 

JOIN US IN THIS GOOD CAUSE AND FESTIVE CARNIVAL! 

YAG Dharma Sharing on 2nd March 2013

I was expecting the discussion topic for this week to be something interesting. When I heard it was on five precepts, I went “well, it’s gonna be a boring one” because I had learnt them from school when I was in primary 2. But, I was wrong!  I learnt a lot today and I thought the sharing session was really enjoyable and interesting.

The sharing session was conducted by Carmen and with the presence of Venerable Bodhi. Due to time constraint, we only talked about the very first precept, Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi OR I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life.

Before we started, we were told what the word ‘precept’ meant. Precept means (from Google) a general rule intended to regulate behaviour or thought. 5 precepts are 5 IMPORTANT things that we, as Buddhists, ought to follow but they are not commandments, which must be followed or you will be punished. They are meant to be followed so as to live a happy life. They are meant to protect ourselves and others.

“Am I wrong if I have killed a living being?” Venerable Bodhi asked. She, then, came out with 3 things to look at:

• Intention
• Preparation
• Result

And the most important point is your intention. If you unintentionally kill someone, you are not breaking the precept. However, if your bad intention is there, you have broken the precept.

After discussing it in general, Carmen used Vegetarianism to discuss about it in details. I thought it was a really good topic to be used to discuss about the first precept as many people tend to think ‘a Buddhist must be a vegetarian.’ So, “Must a Buddhist be vegetarian?” “Must a Buddhist stay away from meat?” From the discussion, we concluded that as an upāsaka/upāsikā (layperson), it is not wrong to consume meat but why not we try to cut down the consumption of meat? We can see the supply of meats around us is more than enough but we often don’t think that all these meats are there because we, directly or indirectly, demand for them. If every one of us cut down the consumption of meat, lesser animals will be slaughtered. Isn’t that sounds slightly better?

While discussing about consumption of meat, Venerable Bodhi came out with a question, “what do you think about milk? Is it okay to drink milk? Cows are not killed for the milk.” The first thing came to my mind was, “it is perfectly okay to drink milk!” I guessed most of us would think the same thing too, right?  But that is actually not the case. Venerable Bodhi shared with us about a video she watched on how milk was collected. Yes, cows are not killed for the milk but they are suffering because of this. Due to the advance technology we have and the high demand for milk, they are subjected to high power suction machines to pump out their milk, few times a day, in order to fulfill the demand. The suction machine is so powerful that some of the cows can’t even stand while being pumped for their milk. Oh, did I mention that the newborn cattle are separated from the cows? So now, are we still confident enough to say “drinking milk is perfectly okay”?

The session ended with a question, “are jobs like butchers and fishmongers wrong?” Due to time constraint, we didn’t discuss on this but Venerable Bodhi closed the session with, “they are jobs we are encouraged to avoid. But we must not look down on them!”

In conclusion, Five-precept is a guide to lead us to live a happy life. It is not there to restrict us but to protect ourselves and also others. It is just a training guide but it is very important and we ought to follow to make us a better person.

ACE CAMP 2013

ACE CAMP is a 4 days - 3 nights Buddhist organized specifically for young adults aged 17 to 30 years old. The objectives of the camp is to
(A) Share the Buddhist faith to young people
(B) Build strong spiritual friendships amongst the participants

DETAILS

Date   : 21st (Fri) to 24th (Mon) June 2013
Venue : Kent Ridge & Changi (Campers will be informed of the meeting point in the weeks leading up to the camp).
Fee     : $50 Early Bird rate, before 1 May 2013
             $65 Normal Rate    
Age     : 17 to 30 years old
 *Spaces limited to the first 60 participants.

PROGRAMMES

There will be a good mixture of outdoor adventure games and Dhamma programmes. The games are specifically designed to build teamwork and friendships amongst the groups. The Dhamma sessions are interactive and will be led by Venerable Chuan Guan and by senior youth members. You can find out more about Venerable Chuan Guan at the following Youtube link.

You can also have a view the summary video of ACE Camp 2012 to have a better understanding of the camp:

ACE?

ACE signifies our conviction that the Budhdist faith can help youths achieve excellence and success in their daily lives.

WHY THE LION?
The lion is the king of the jungle and the Buddha has on occasions, "represents himself as the stateley lion and to describe his proclamation of the Dhamma, bold and thunderous, as a veritable lions roar in the spiritual domain". The animal also symbolizes courage and bravery and we hope that Buddhist youths in Singapore will stand firmly by their faith. The roar of the lion is majestic and commands respect by its counterparts, just like how we want our youths to take pride of their Buddhist faith and take the lead in sharing the teachings to their peers and in doing good in the society.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Feel feel to contact our Camp Masters, Jimmy Ling (97959653) or Chin Wufeng (96176838) or email us at sbmyouth@gmail.com of you have any queries.

ABOUT SBM YOUTH

The Singapore Buddhist Mission's youth group is a fellowship of young and vibrant Buddhists who seek to balance spiritual pursuits with youthful living and to build strong spiritual friendships grounded in the Buddha-Dhamma.  

SBM Youth has been running Buddhist youth camps for more than 16 years. It organises Camp Ehi-Passiko annually with more than a hundred teenage participants for each run. SBM Youth also organises Camp LIONS, a leadership training camp, for Buddhist youth leaders.

Youth Dharma Sharing on 2nd March 2013

Carey's reflections on what she learnt :)

Saturday's session was about anger. We played a game where everyone sat in a circle. Each of us was given a cup of water and a bowl. A vase was placed in the middle. With a limited time, we each had to empty our cups. Either by pouring it into the vase, in someone else's bowl or in our own bowl. In this game, the cup of water represents our anger, the bowl represents our capacity to hold anger. When someone pour water in our bowl, we would pour water in his/her bowl. Same goes for anger, if we let out our on someone, that person will also do the same. I learnt that we should not let out our anger on others. In a way, anger works like karma. What you give to others, it will get back to you. Instead, I should try to understand why the person is angry and not quarrel with him/her.

Dharma Sharing on 23rd Feburary 2013

Jimmy's insights on the sharing on 23rd February 2013 :)

"When you know how to die, you will then know how to live." - Mitch Albom, "Tuesdays with Morrie".

This quote came to mind in the midst of a sharing done by Weiguang, our very own singer-composer within SBM. The sharing was started off with sharing with us the Six Realms in Buddhist context. Since young, I had heard of the Six Realms but havent had much knowledge about it till now. Further on, he went on to share how much does our modern science is so related to Buddhism in terms of the world we live in. It became very amusing to know that quantum physics has a lot in common to Buddhism. It is really hard to imagine that all the theories that Scientists nowadays have uncovered are already discovered almost 2500 years ago!

To further enhance on the sharing, we were lucky to have Venerable Bodhi to be with us to answer our questions and doubts when it comes to certain practices that Buddhists do in daily life. The deepest impression that I had taken away from the sharing, was Ven. Bodhi explaining on the treatment that Hellish Beings get when they get reborn there after their Earthly deaths. The drawings that we have seen at Haw Par Villa that depicts hell was actually very much related to the time when the impression of the ancient time artists had. In fact, what is happening in the hell is actually moving with time. For instant, in the ancient time, beheading is actually a capital punishment during ancient China. Therefore, artists during that time will refer beheading as 1 of the punishments that hellish beings get when they are reborn in hell accordingly to their Karma. In current time, if being deprived of technology can be tormenting to one, then there could be such a punishment in hell when the hellish being could be trapped in the space where no technology devices could be given in order to make him/her suffer.

Overall, it has been a great sharing where everyone was kept at the edge of their cushion with their ears held wide open for the great stories and information shared by Weiguang and Ven. Bodhi. I can only wish that more people can come and hear them themselves.

Dharma Sharing on 23rd February 2013

Here's Charmaine with us on what she learnt on 23rd February 2013! :)

in today's sharing we talked about the 6 realms of existence in Buddhism. They are the hell realm, hungry ghost realm, animal realm, human realm, demi-god realm and the god realm.

Beings are sent to the different realms based on the kind of karma they have accumulated in their previous lives.

Beings are sent to the realm of suffering (hell realm) due to the bad karma they accumulated from, primarily, hatred.

Next, would be the hungry ghost realm. Beings are sent there mainly because of greed. They are to live a life of always wanting more and never getting enough.

Then, would be the animal realm. Being are sent there because of ignorance and delusion. they are characterised by prejudice and complacency, and they avoid anything that is different.

Coming on fourth would be the human realm. This is the realm of curiosity and passion. It is very difficult to be born in this realm and it is the most conducive realm for attaining nirvana.

After that would be the realm of the demi-gods. The karma of hate and jealously causes rebirth in this realms. Beings there are always jealous of others and live a life of paranoia thinking everyone is out to get them or do better than them.

And lastly, the realm of the gods. Beings are sent there due to a lot of god karma. But, because of their higher status, they are blind to the sufferings of other and lack wisdom or compassion.

What I realised is that the different realms signify the different things we experience in live . From the hell realm, I learnt that in hatred the ones that suffer are ourselves. Though our actions may hurt others, we are the ones that will suffer the consequences, leaving us lonely and with even more hate.

From the hungry ghost realm, I got that with greed we will never be happy as we will always be wanting more.

The animal realm shows me that we have to be open to new thing and be willing to accept them as they are.

The demi-god realm made me understand to not compare myself with others as there is no need to be jealous of what other people have or don't have.

The god reminded me that even if i am higher position than others i must not forget how i got there and hep others should thet need it.

Lastly, the human realm. To me the human realm is like a balance of the other realms. although not to the same extreme there are beings here that are suffering, are ignorant and also people in better positions who had humility. Therefore we need a balance of everything to be able to be happy in our lives.

YAG CIP Session: Amanda's experience

As promised, here's Amanda and her thoughts :)

On the 2nd February, a group of us volunteered to go do some House Maintenance CIP . We were split into groups of 11-12 to go to two different houses to help the beneficiaries to tidy up  their house & do a little bit of spring cleaning as they might not be able to do it themselves due to health issues.

My group went to a house at Telok Blangah Drive. Where Mdm P, the beneficiary, is staying together with her daughter. Mdm P has various health conditions like not being able to see properly, having mental health and physical issues. She has a son who works and is uninvolved in the household chore maintenance, a daughter who is intellectually challenged and has limited ability to take care of the household chore, a late husband who suffered from stroke (Beneficiary has to take care of his daily living such as bathing and cooking for the family).

When we first entered the house, we all thought that it was already pretty clean. Most of the work left for us to do is probably just to clean up the slightly dusty racks and wash up some parts of the house such as toilet, kitchen and the room.

I volunteered, together with dawn, one of our group mate, to clean up the toilet. it was done rather quickly as it was already pretty clean to start with. After which, we went around helping the rest with whatever that was left to do. From cleaning the Toyogo drawers to mopping the floor to arranging the stuffs back to its original places.

A few of us noticed, that Mdm P have been sleeping on her late husband's hospital bed which is left at her place. We all thought that that might be a cause why she might not have let go of the past, living in sorrow. Some of us also noticed her sitting just outside the room, staring into the hospital bed from outside. We were deeply saddened by the sight of it.

At first when we first entered the place, we were all too focused on doing our jobs, the atmosphere was still really tight. Till Roy, one of our group mate, decided to crack some jokes with his friend. Laughter filled the place, and we see how it was spreading everywhere, even to Mdm P. She eventually started opening up and chatted with us. She even got her daughter to head downstairs to get some drinks for us. Her daughter was really helpful too. When she came home halfway thru our work, she immediately find a rag, & started helping us with the cleaning. She didn’t wanna stop cleaning. Even when the stuffs are already cleaned, she would still clean it again and again, to make sure that it is really clean.

Just before we left, we took a group photo. When we asked if Mdm P is comfortable to be in the photo or would she prefer not to, she replied brightly, in mandarin, "Yes, of course i want to! Why wouldn’t i want to take a picture with all of you?" It was heartwarming to see how our little actions could make them smile. Their smiles, of course, made us all felt that all those hard work are worth. A quote I came up with right after we left that apartment that day "A good deed a day, keeps those bad frowns away." I'm glad I was part of the reason behind their smiles, I'm glad my actions helped a family live in a better conditioned house and i'm happy that at the end of the day, everyone learnt how we should appreciate what we already have cause there are people out there living a life that's much worse of than our's.