Of parents and of gratitude

I've heard how my peers have been complaining about how naggy/naggy/naggy our parents have been. I've been in that position myself.

For the past few days, I've been trying to get our youths' parents to gather together at our 30th anniversary so that our parents will know what we've been so so so occupied with. Tickets are at 50 dollars each, parents = 100 bucks!

and I don't know how to describe this feeling, but i felt very 欣慰, because as much as we've been complaining, a lot of the youths are planning to save up and treat their parents to the dinner.

I thought that one reason we want to bring our parents to this dinner -- for free -- because we really really want them to see what we've been doing. We're not too good at telling them things like how much we appreciate them, want their support and love them because we find these too cheesy.

So we do it in our own way, to let them see how we've been growing up fine and how we've been contributing to the community.

Really happy, 长大了。

=]
Mabel

Camp Ehi-Passiko Recce

 Preparations for Camp Ehi-Passiko 2011 have begun. After a series of meetings, some of the organisers went for a Games Recce at a "secret location".

Public Talk

 

A small turn-out on a Sunday evening. Nonetheless, hope everyone who have attended gained some inspiration to lead a happy Buddhist life.

The disciple of the Buddha known for his incomparable generosity was Anathapindika. He was a man with both material and spiritual wealth. Not only did he buy a whole park for the Buddha to stay in Savatthi, he also was the reason why laypeople could listen to the Dharma. Most of the discourse were aimed for understanding by laypeople thanks to Anathapindika. 

Many people have the wrong perception that Buddhism denounces the acquisition of material comforts and pleasure. And is only concerned with the spiritual development. However, the Buddha was very much alive to the fact that economic stabilty is essential for man's welfare and happiness.

Below is 4 ways the Buddha had said about how to acquire wealth in a way that will conduce to prosperity and happiness.

1) Alertness

2) Carefulness

3) Having companionship of good friends

4) Maintaining a balanced livelihood

iPhonegraphy

 

 ID tags for SBM Youth events.



Promoting Camp Ehi-Passiko at Phor Kark See Sunday School.

The Buddhist Library

 

Dhamma Talk by Venerable Chuan Guan

 

Goodnight and goodluck.

Mid-Autumn Festival

(Future)  Girls Generation

 The Fire Eater

 It reads: SBMY Heart-Shape

Life Without a Lantern

By the River South.

For those who have attended today's sharing by Brother Vicky on the story or King Bimbisara and Prince Ajasatu, this is a cartoon version of what we have been shared. Sorry it is only available in chinese, but it is a really inspiring short film. Enjoy!

Part I : The reason why Prince Ajasatu had his name: unborn enemy. And how Devadatta incited wrong views into him that his parents hated him and encouraged him to usurp the throne. 

Part II: He successfully ascended the throne and rewarded Devadatta for his effort. The queen was heart-broken to see his king suffer in the prison and decided to sneak in food for him. In addition, the cell window faced the vulture peak; where the Buddha preaches. It serves as a motivation as the king was a devout Buddhist.

Part III: The queen is vexed and prays for the Buddha to relief her sorrow. The Buddha then preaches on Amitabha Buddha and the pureland. 

Part IV: Skip to 6.40 mins. The queen watches Ajasatu sucks the pus from his own son and was reminded of how king Bimbisara had done the same for him. Instead of spitting out the pus, he swallowed them down because he was afraid if Ajasatu saw the blood and pus he would be afraid.

Part V: Prince Ajasatu is reminded of his time with his father and he had the urge of repent and guilt. He ordered the release of his father. But it was too late as he had past away. Following that, he banned Devadatta from his kingdom and also fell very ill.

Part VI: The Buddha radiates loving kindness on Ajasatu and heals him of his illness. He later visited the Buddha and he preached a sermon to him. However, because he commit the crime of murdering his father, he failed to attain sotapana. 

FEAR in the changing world

What is fear?

It is an ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it but in extreme cases of fear (terror) a freeze or paralysis response is possible.

When do we fear?

Both certainty and uncertainty creates fear. How? When you are uncertain, for example; whether your job application will ever be approved, creates fear. On the other hand, even when you are certain, for example; that you are going to get scolded by your parents when you go home cause you lost your belonging, also creates fear. It really is a fearful world!

That is when we are conscious. We do feel fear too when we are unconscious. How? Sometimes when we sleep, we dream of bad things happening to us; getting chased by monsters or running around in the maze. 

In relation to the changing world...

When we were young, being fearful was not an option because we can always run behind our parents and hide. Now that we have grown up, facing the world is not an easy task. We have to step up on our own and deal with it our-self. 

To tackle fear is very easy. A pinch of right understanding and right action would solve the problem. Often fear is created due to lack of knowing what it can do or knowing fully what it can do. Ultimately, one must have the courage to engage the fear, with the intention to expel fear. 

Unravel what constitutes YOU

As Buddha describes; YOU are made up of 5 different parts.

FORM - Eyes

FEELING - Happy or Angry

PERCEPTION - Relation to understanding

MENTAL FORMATION - Reaction to perception

CONSCIOUSNESS - Awareness to surrounding

This 5 aspects cover your physical and mental entity. Cannot understand and hard to digest? No worries i will break it up into simpler terms for you. 

Example: you are at a shopping mall waiting for your friend.

Firstly, CONSCIOUSNESS allows you to know that the shopping mall is crowded. Then, you use your FORM (eye) to scan for your friend. 

Then at the entrance, you see your friend. FEELING arises as you feel happy to see your friend. This is when PERCEPTION comes in. You know him for a long time and knows he will shake your hand to greet you. MENTAL FORMATION gives you the chance to react to what you are anticipating and you reach out your hand to shake his. 

This 5 aspects allows us to interact with our environment. Different people have different stream of how they handle situations and this may lead to the 3 evils (greed, anger, ignorance). To counter this foul emotion, as Buddhists we must practice and lead life under the guideline of the 8 fold path. 

Sharing and Laughing Yoga

Laughing Yoga takes some stress away. Thank you Brother Yam!