BF Sunday Service Talk - Will You Cry When I Die?

I attended the Sunday service talk by Dr Wong, for it was on death, a follow-up of the Saturday Youth Service talk on life. The talk was centred on giving appropriate attention to the things that are really important, Dhamma and time (especially with family members). People will cry when we die if we have truly lived well and touched lives.

-          What is important is what we do with our life, not the length of our life or achievements e.g. educational qualifications

-          Therefore we must apply the Dhamma in our life. Discussion and debate is just talk and leads us nowhere if we do not practise

-          E.g. unconditional love, as seen in this really touching ad

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-          A lot of Buddha’s teachings are centred around lay life but are not put into practice e.g. how to manage wealth, earning righteous wealth rather than not earning at all, parents’ duties to children and vice versa

-          The Chinese character for “teach” joins the characters of “old” and “young”, as well as holds a rod (discipline) – true meaning of teaching is respecting and learning from elders who enforce discipline

-          If we knew when exactly we will die, we will live our lives entirely differently and prioritise what is truly important

-          We cannot change many things in life; learning things like forgiveness helps us

-          Today, people have replaced the divine with money and material goods

-          Many words are left unsaid until it is too late e.g. loved one suddenly got into an accident when conflicts were unresolved

-          The time spent with loved ones is precious e.g. elders ask children if they want more rice so that the children spend more time with them at the table

-          We should practise the middle path, working hard but not sacrificing family time

-          Marriages are actually contractual, based on how long we think we will live

-          We need to continually renew our vows, our partners and ourselves are constantly changing i.e. we are different from yesterday today, and 10 years later we are completely different

-          Dhamma has to be applied in life; if we live well, people only need to look our lives to see Dhamma 

BFY Service Talk - Kids! Be Educated or You Will be Stupid

Last week’s talk was by Dr Wong Yin Onn and was centred on education in the Dhamma rather than education in school. It was really engaging as he used many songs and video clips.

-          The 3 Universal Characteristics (impermanence, suffering and non-self) are everywhere and experienced by all of us

o   Impermanence – no state (pleasant/ unpleasant) lasts forever. Chief cause of suffering – our belief that things can last

o   Non-self – no permanent unchanging being can be found i.e. we all fall sick, age etc

-          Existence is endless as we are reborn over and over again

-          The only way out is liberation. A teacher can only show the way

-          Analogy: the pill scene from The Matrix

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-          “That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.” - Morpheus

-          Like Neo, we have to take the blue pill (uncover the truth) rather than the red (live in denial, which is easier) to be liberated

-          Some truths are easier to see (e.g. everyone will die) than others (e.g. non self)

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-          An e.g. of non self as illustrated by this scene in The Matrix. There is no spoon; it is the mind that bends. There needs to be many things i.e. the concept of the spoon, the concept of bending, the eye to see the spoon, the brain to receive and interpret the signals etc

-          Another e.g. Q: Is there a sound if a tree falls in the forest when no one is around?

-          A: There are only (sound) waves. For there to be a sound, there must be a sense object, sound base and sound consciousness i.e. the concept of sound, the tree that falls, sound waves, eardrums and the brain to receive and interpret that sound

-          We are finished if we surrender our intellect to blind faith as it does not allow us to ask why; we should always ask questions

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-          The song “Dust In The Wind” by Sarah Brightman (Originally sung by Kansas, which I personally prefer) reminds us of impermanence

o   When people die and are cremated, their body is reduced to ashes in an hour or so, like dust in the wind

o   Money can only buy a beautiful funeral but not another minute of life

o   We often futilely cling onto what is impermanent

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-          The songs “Colours of the Wind” (Pocahontas) and “Circle of Life” (Elton John) remind us that all beings are interconnected

o   We owe our success due to so many factors and people, and not just our own hard work; if we believe it was just due to our efforts it will inflate the ego

o   In life, never take morethan we give

o   Until we find the path unwinding we will be in the circle of samsara

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-          The song “Imagine” by John Lennon illustrates Buddhist principles

-          Buddha did not teach a religion but taught a noble way of life

-          We can see cause and effect e.g. drank alcohol and then knocked down someone in an accident

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-          Using the Force, Yoda easily frees the X-Wing from the bog. He tells Luke that it is because he did not believe it that he failed, which is similar to walking the path and attaining Nibbana

-          NIbbana is a reality transcendent to the entire world of mundane experience (this is investigated in quantum physics)

-          The Jedi Code “There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. (There is no chaos, there is harmony.) There is no death, there is the Force.” Reminds us of Dhamma

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-          I could not find the scene from “The Tao of Kung Fu” he showed us but found this similar one instead, where we observe that

o   All of us have  capacity for the greatest of good and evil; we have dualistic thinking as joy can’t be felt without an equal capacity to feel despair etc

o   We should give things e.g. feelings a name – labelling is objectifying them; not identifying themselves as ourselves – meditation technique – arising thoughts are due to causes and conditions; only ours if we make them so

o   We often see them, think they are us and act upon them

-          It is the fear of fear itself that makes us fearful i.e. many of our fears are an imagined outcome of the future, have to do with the sense of self and do not actually come true; we have to realise that there is nothing to fear

-          Many things are neither completely black nor white e.g. kamma; hardly anything we do is 100% unconditional 

Faces of BFY - Clara

Register your interest for our BFY Pushing Boundaries 4 camp (20-23 Dec) at http://tinyurl.com/qe6a7oj NOW and be the first to receive updates! :)

"A few days back I was rushing to do an assignment on my laptop when it hanged. I've spent the past few days before that working on it. I panicked as it had yet to be saved. I tried to get it back with the backup function but to no avail and I was feeling really bitter by then. I had this irritant feeling as I had no one and nothing to put the blame on. I believed if anyone was to irritate me at that point, I would have vented my emotions on the person. Fortunately, I got aware of the arising feelings. In Buddhism we always practice to be mindful of ourselves. So I immediately stopped harping on what has already happened and decide to work on my assignment again after calming myself with a short meditation."

- Clara

River Flow Analogy

This was shared by Bro Shun Xiang.

"There's nothing wrong with the way the body grows old and gets sick. It just follows its nature. 

So it's not the body that causes us suffering, but our own wrong thinking. 

When we see the right wrongly, there's bound to be confusion. 

It's like the water of a river. It naturally flows downhill. It never flows uphill. That's its nature. 

If we were to go and stand on the bank of a river, and seeing the water flowing swiftly down its course, foolishly want it to flow back uphill, we would suffer. 

We would suffer because of our wrong view, our thinking "against the stream." 

If we had right view, we would see that the water must flow downhill. 

Until we realize and accept this fact, we will always be agitated and never find peace of mind. 

Our body is like the river that must flow downhill. It passes through youth, old age and finally dies. 

Don't let us go wishing it were otherwise. It's not something we have the power to remedy. 

Don't go against the stream!"

~ Ajahn Chah

A hearty welcome from the folks at dhammawheelreel and the official opening of our blog!

Hey there, and a very warm welcome from us at dhammawheelreel! As you may have seen from the facebook and instagram pages, we're an unofficial buddhist blog from the Buddhist fellowship. In it, we'll be talking about a variety of things, ranging from movies, current news and various stuff from a buddhist perspective. Hopefully, we'll be able to interact alongside with you guys, so feel free to contact us if you have any queries about anything! Ah, a few things before we kick off. We'll be introducing our faces-of-the-week (inspired by humans of new york, yes!) where a youth-of-the-week will be shown and their growth and development throughout their stay in BFY will be highlighted. We have more and that planned, so stay tuned for more updates!

Faces of BFY - Angela

Hi everyone, as we are officially launching the blog today, some of you who are visiting it for the first time may be wondering what "Faces of BFY" is about. Well, it's basically a publicity campaign for our upcoming BFY Pushing Boundaries 4 camp held from 20-23 Dec. Every week, we choose a member of BFY to answer a mystery question following the theme of fortitude (August) and their response is put up here! This week, we are featuring Angela. Do check out the other posts labelled "Faces of BFY" to see who else we have featured! :) 

Register your interest for the camp at http://tinyurl.com/qe6a7oj NOW and be the first to receive updates! :)

"Without a second thought, my mother is definitely my strongest pillar of support! She has been there for all the different phases of my life and never fails to shower me with unconditional love. Being the eldest among her siblings, she did not have the opportunity to study as she had to work to support my grandparents. As a result, she can't help me with my studies, or advise me on my career choices etc. Despite these, she always does her best to support me, be it through her home cooked food or her constant nagging out of good intention! She taught me that humility is the most important value one must possess to succeed in life!"
- Angela

'Do or do not - there is no try.' A 16 August talk - Talk by brother Yap kheng Guan

This saturday, we had a talk by Brother Yap about procrastination and how it hurts our progress in working and achieving goals in our lives. Have you ever started off something full of spirit initially, but due to 'unforeseen circumstances' we always end up not following through what we initially set out to do. In the end, we place the blame on other things rather than taking a critical look into why we made such a mistake, or how come we never succeed in getting what we want. Brother yap highlighted how each of the things which discourage us from working on what we want comes from 3 key things - dukkha, annica, and anatta. Anicca represents the impermanence in things that will come eventually, regardless of how we try to prevent it. Dukkha represents the unsatisfactory feelings which arise when we fail to achieve our goals and ideals. Anatta represents the non-self in things and the beings around us. Singapore has a culture of emphasising on the 'right' path. In the news, accounts of successful people in the 'popular' fields of work. Huge sums of salaries and prestige attract many people to these vocations, regardless of whether it is something that they truly enjoy to do. In the end, they realize that it is something which they find difficult to do and end up losing all motivation to pursue such a goal. By letting the 'want' part of things go, we can strive to put aside the ego aspect of our personality and work towards a goal which we have oft-times failed to do so. This is the importance of building the non-self in which Buddhism often emphasises on.

Faces of BFY - Yi Fang

"In life, when I face any difficulties, I always keep my goal in mind. Thinking about my target and the reason why I want it so much often gives me the strength and determination to keep going. I'll have the mindset that I must reach my goal even if I have to deal with the pain of overcoming the difficulties. As the 'strawberry' generation, we are always given what we want, making us very weak willed and give up on things very easily. However, of we have the resilience, confidence and believe that we can reach our target, nothing is impossible!"
- Yi Fang

Register your interest for our BFY Pushing Boundaries 4 camp (20-23 Dec) at http://tinyurl.com/qe6a7oj NOW and be the first to receive updates! :)

Fisherman Analogy

Brother Shun Xiang shared this with us.

FISHERMAN

Our practice of contemplation will lead us to understanding.

Let us take the example of a fisherman pulling in his net with a big fish in it.

How do you think he feels when pulling it in again?

If he's afraid that the fish will escape, he'll rush and start to struggle with the net, grabbing and tugging at it.

In this way, before he knows it, the big fish will have escaped.

The fisherman mustn't try to hard. In the old days, they taught that we should do it gradually, carefully gathering it in without losing it.

This is how it is in our practice.

We gradually feel our way with it, carefully gathering it in without losing it.

Sometimes it happens that we don't feel like practising. Maybe we don't want to look, or maybe we don't want to know, but we keep on with it.

We continue feeling for it.

This is the practice.

If we feel like doing it, we do it. If we don't feel like doing it, we do it just the same.

We just keep on doing it.

If we are enthusiastic about our practice, the power of our faith will give us the energy needed to practise, but we will still be without wisdom.

Being energetic alone won't make us benefit much from our practice. On the contrary, after practising energetically for long time, the feeling that we are not going to find the Way may arise.

We may feel that we cannot find peace, or that we're not sufficiently equipped to do the practice.

Or maybe we feel that this Way just isn't possible anymore. So we give up!

At this point, we must be very, very careful.

We must use patience and endurance. It's just like pulling in the big fish - we gradually feel our way with it, we carefully pull it in.

The struggle won't be too difficult, so continue to pull it in without stopping.

Eventually, after some time, the fish becomes tired and stops fighting and we're able to catch it easily.

Usually this is how it happens.

We practise gradually and carefully, gathering it together.

It's in this manner that we do our contemplation.

~ Ajahn Chah 🙏

Faces of BFY - Heng Soon

Hi everyone, we're starting "Faces of BFY", a publicity campaign for our BFY Pushing Boundaries 4 camp held from 20-23 Dec. Starting from this month, a member of BFY will answer a mystery question every week following the theme of fortitude (August) and their response will be put up here! Our very first member to be featured is Heng Soon! :)

Register your interest for the camp at http://tinyurl.com/qe6a7oj NOW and be the first to receive updates! :)

"Welp with O Levels being around the corner!!! It can get quite stressful yah know??!! How I deal with stress would be to really keep my mindfulness barrier up!! When it's up, my thought process slows down and I am able to think much more clearly and get things done quicker. Furthermore, if you always have an end goal in mind, it would bring you much further!!! That's two awesome tips to handle stress!!:)"
- Heng Soon

Food in Dhamma, Dhamma in Food

The Saturday service on 2 August was a combined service held at SBM (Singapore Buddhist Mission) with the youths from BFY and SBF (Singapore Buddhist Federation) as guests. Such combined services are held once a year at each of the youth groups (BFY’s was earlier this year). The speaker was Brother Brian from SBM who talked about “Food in Dhamma, Dhamma in Food”.

This was a rather interesting talk as it was interactive. First for the “Food in Dhamma”, plates of food were passed around.  Each of us had to choose a drink, a Skittles sweet and a snack such as chocolate, Oreo, waffle etc. We could only choose one and could not change our mind after choosing.

Only after choosing our food did we learn of the catches in some of the food e.g. concentrated/ diluted drinks, non crispy Oreo etc. Some members of the audience were asked to share what went through their mind when choosing e.g. if they deliberately choose a certain food or simply picked without much thought, if they had trouble deciding what to choose and if they regretted their choice.

Now, for the “Dhamma in Food”, not being able to change our mind was meant for us to question ourselves if we are willing to accept responsibility for the choices we make. Keeping Noble Silence as we chose our food was meant to help us be mindful of our own thoughts, because if we are too busy talking we may be too caught up with listening to others. The mind can only be at one place at a time.

From this simple exercise, we could observe the functions of the mind:

1.       Collecting information

2.       Differentiating (the different types of food)

3.       Decision making (choosing the food)

4.       Mental proliferation – excessive thinking (e.g. pondering over what to choose)

The real food for the mind is mindfulness, because if the mind is not looked after properly, it is uncontrolled.

How does mindfulness help us?

-          Collect info better

-          Understand the causes (conditions that allow something to arise)

-          Make better decisions

-          Be aware of our regret etc and hence deal with it appropriately

-          Enhances mental development and helps us be more aware in practising the Noble Eightfold Path, especially Right Speech which is difficult for many of us

-          These benefits are a reminder for us to practise

At first, quiet and peaceful physical conditions are needed to be mindful. Later we realise that mindfulness comes from mental stillness, not physical posture. What we try to cultivate from meditation is to maintain the residual stillness outside of meditation.

- Pei Si

12 July talk with Brother Ann Hao – Don’t be a traitor to yourself!

On the 12th of July, we had a talk held by Ann Hao about the follies of blindly following our thoughts and emotions and letting it influence our actions. In it, he explains how this kind of behavior can lead to dissatisfaction within ourselves and by settling aside the turmoil of emotions which can blind us, we can strive to work towards a greater peace.
In the beginning, he mentioned about how Buddhism relates to this particular tendency of us – by looking at the 5 functional factors (Khandhas) made up of the physical form, feeling, perception, mental formation and consciousness. Each of these individual factors are built up from different things.
Feeling – Past experiences
Perception – Realization/ Memory of things
Mental formation – Highly important for kamma generation
These things are the main factors for tying us down. Interestingly, because they are things made from our experiences during our lives, they cannot be said to have a permanent form. For instance, you may enjoy eating chocolate ice cream but due to a possible change in your perception or mental formation, this can change in the future.
Also, these factors are responsible for the creation of clinging (the intensification of craving). This is important as we see many live examples such as sense pleasure (basing too much emphasis on positive feelings), views and theories, and rituals and rules which does not make too much sense without a proper explanation.
By leaving the self, or accepting that impermanence is part of this world, we can obtain a way to pull ourselves away from this flow of attachment and desire from the world. Experiencing things with all 5 senses can serve as a means to reach the desired goal.
In short, it is very important to realize that the ‘self’ is no more than a collection of emotions, thoughts and experiences. These factors are the things which define us but we should not let it get the better of us.

The name’s bond, james bond. It’s the bond era review!

‘Arrogance and self-awareness seldom go hand in hand, Bond.’ – Vesper

Hi there! For this week’s edition, I’ll be talking about a particular series of movies which I have been thinking of for awhile. Also known for its bombastic action scenes, seductive women and masculinity, the James Bond series have made its mark on the movie scene with a long list of successes and duds. It’s iconic as everyone knows about it but hasn’t done anything particularly well since 2005.
2005 was where Daniel Craig stepped in. Highly rough and hewn-looking, he was not well received as the new Bond. However, a solid performance by him, engaging characterization and revamped plot gave life into a largely panned movie and turned it up again. Of course, it felt right to talk about the movie not only because it kickstarted the fortunes of the franchise, but also because the story had a pretty sad moment which drives Bond’s motivation and is summed up in the end of the 2rd movie, Quantum of solace. I’ll be talking about spoilers from here on, so thumbs down on you if you haven’t seen it!

So our story in Casino Royale begins with Bond going on a massive hunt for a group of criminals, mainly headed by a guy named Le Chiffre. After taking down a series of henchmen to break into his chain of operations, Le Chiffre implements a high-stakes game of poker to recouple his losses. Bond is sent to join the game in order to place Chiffre in a losing position so that he would be forced to become an informant. In the process, he joins up with Vesper (played by an awesome eva green) who serves as his superior during the game. In the process of working together, eventually Bond turns from a cold ruthless murderer to feeling emotionally attached to Vesper. Unfortunately, Vesper betrays him in order to protect him without his knowledge, forcing him back to his emotionally turbulent, angry and betrayed self again. Throughout the entirely of Quantum of solace, he constantly thinks about her, being caught up between his love for her and her betrayal. Eventually, after realizing that she was forced to betray him and deciding that it is best to move on, leaving a necklace of her behind in the closing scene.
What we see here is a sad case where Bond places too much attachment to a single person due to his tendency to be aloof and lonely due to his line of work. Being in the shoes of an agent who has to kill, it can be incredibly difficult to maintain a strong emotional front. Which is largely why I really enjoy seeing Daniel Craig play as bond, he portrays a much more humanistic version of Bond while putting up a cold and dangerous front. This brings me back to my original point where Bond’s love and loss over Vesper feels much more impactful.
The loss of a beloved one, especially one whom we may be over dependent on may have its dangers. Having such an important clutch taken away suddenly may be extremely difficult to handle. However, it is not uncommon to see people being too attached to a single object. Be it a friend, partner, relative, family or object (or even a pet!).
This brings me back to one of Buddhism’s key tenets – the importance of having little attachment to material things, as they do not last forever. Being an object which is subject to change over time, it can be easy to realize that the object or person whom you have strong feelings towards in the past – have changed.
Of course, this is not to say that we should not have any emotions towards anyone like robots! On the contrary, it is better to enjoy the feelings and emotions that you have felt without placing too much stress on the particular object.

If we pick something up, we don’t necessarily have to attach to it or think that it is ours, in some absolute way. Once we think something is actually ours, there is possessiveness or “clinging” in Buddhist jargons, which causes tension. To let go of clinging to something we’ve picked up is merely to relax our hold. We don’t need to put it down, we just need to relax the grip. We don’t have to get rid of things, like getting rid of your wristwatch and your automobile and your house, or your apartment and your income. So, it’s not about picking things up, because you can pick something up and hold it, and then put it down. That’s a useful and very necessary part of life. The problems come with the clinging, the possessiveness, the idea that this is mine and i am going to have it and keep it….

It’s more about learning how to pick things up and put them down when we need to put them down, which is the whole purpose of developing mindfulness of time and place.The discernment that chooses how to act at any given time needs to be based on that fundamental acceptance. But we have to use wisdom and attentiveness to the situation to see what’s “right”.

In short, we can see that even the suave-ist of people like James Bond can fall into the trap of being overly attached and in turn becoming manipulated by the memory of his loved one. With focus and determination, we can do our best to avoid being betrayed by our attachment to become even better than the ‘heroes’ we see in media.

The Rains Residence

Brother Richmond shared this with us.
The Rains Residence
This is a period of three months when bhikkhus must reside in one place and cannot wander, though they may undertake all their usual duties provided that they do not take them away from their monasteries overnight. In special circumstances they may even be absent from the monastery or residence where they have vowed to keep the Rains for as long as seven days. As bhikkhus do not withdraw more than usual at this time from involvement with lay people, unless they are devoting all their time to meditation, it is better to translate vassavasa literally as “rains-residence” rather than “rains-retreat.”

Usually a lay person on the day of entering the Rains makes a vow or vows to practice in a certain way during the three months of the Rains-residence. This vow may be told to a senior bhikkhu or it may be kept private but in any case it is made in front of a Buddhist shrine. This is something which could be done by any one who wanted to tighten up on practice for the duration of the Rains-residence. The content of the vows vary with one’s character, country and circumstances. Below are a number of typical vows made by lay people on Rains-entry day, some of which could be practiced by isolated Buddhists:

During the Rains I shall give almsfood to bhikkhus every day.

I shall give up smoking while the Rains are on.

For the Rains, I shall chant morning and evening service every day.

I shall go to the monastery to hear Dhamma on every holy day (i.e., 4 days a month).

While the Rains are on I shall not take any intoxicants, or see or hear any form of entertainment.

During the Rains I shall undertake the Uposatha precepts on each Full Moon day.

For the whole Rains I shall practice meditation twice a day.

Each holy day during the Rains I shall keep the Eight Precepts and meditate twice, each time for an hour.

The vows must be practicable. It is no good making vows, perhaps quite exalted ones, which are out of one’s range and only another extension of one’s ego. A person who practices the Dhamma for a while gets to know his strength and weaknesses and will know therefore what it possible for him to undertake. At the end of the Rains, having accomplished one’s vows without a break, one feels that something worthwhile has been done. And sometimes these temporary practices have a lasting effect — the smoker does not go back to tobacco, or the meditator finds that his practice goes so much better that he continues to sit twice a day, and so on.
Extracted from (Lay Buddhist Practice by Bhikkhu Khantipalo which can be found on Access To Insight)

The Man Who Spat On The Buddha

Bro Heng Xuan shared this really meaningful story. Really gives us an insight as to how the Buddha perfectly understood non-self and we can use this to help us forgive.

The Buddha was sitting under a tree talking to his disciples when a man came and spit on his face. He wiped it off, and he asked the man, “What next? What do you want to say next?” The man was a little puzzled because he himself never expected that when you spit on somebody’s face, he will ask, “What next?” He had no such experience in his past. He had insulted people and they had become angry and they had reacted. Or if they were cowards and weaklings, they had smiled, trying to bribe the man. But Buddha was like neither, he was not angry nor in any way offended, nor in any way cowardly. But just matter-of-factly he said, “What next?” There was no reaction on his part.

Buddha’s disciples became angry, they reacted. His closest disciple, Ananda, said, “This is too much, and we cannot tolerate it. He has to be punished for it. Otherwise everybody will start doing things like this.”
Buddha said, “You keep silent. He has not offended me, but you are offending me. He is new, a stranger. He must have heard from people something about me, that this man is an atheist, a dangerous man who is throwing people off their track, a revolutionary, a corrupter. And he may have formed some idea, a notion of me. He has not spit on me, he has spit on his notion. He has spit on his idea of me because he does not know me at all, so how can he spit on me?

“If you think on it deeply,” Buddha said, “he has spit on his own mind. I am not part of it, and I can see that this poor man must have something else to say because this is a way of saying something. Spitting is a way of saying something. There are moments when you feel that language is impotent: in deep love, in intense anger, in hate, in prayer. There are intense moments when language is impotent. Then you have to do something. When you are angry, intensely angry, you hit the person, you spit on him, you are saying something. I can understand him. He must have something more to say, that’s why I’m asking, “What next?”

The man was even more puzzled! And Buddha said to his disciples, “I am more offended by you because you know me, and you have lived for years with me, and still you react.”

Puzzled, confused, the man returned home. He could not sleep the whole night. When you see a Buddha, it is difficult, impossible to sleep again the way you used to sleep before. Again and again he was haunted by the experience. He could not explain it to himself, what had happened. He was trembling all over and perspiring. He had never come across such a man; he shattered his whole mind and his whole pattern, his whole past.

The next morning he was back there. He threw himself at Buddha’s feet. Buddha asked him again, “What next? This, too, is a way of saying something that cannot be said in language. When you come and touch my feet, you are saying something that cannot be said ordinarily, for which all words are a little narrow; it cannot be contained in them.” Buddha said, “Look, Ananda, this man is again here, he is saying something. This man is a man of deep emotions.”
The man looked at Buddha and said, “Forgive me for what I did yesterday.”
Buddha said, “Forgive? But I am not the same man to whom you did it. The Ganges goes on flowing, it is never the same Ganges again. Every man is a river. The man you spit upon is no longer here. I look just like him, but I am not the same, much has happened in these twenty-four hours! The river has flowed so much. So I cannot forgive you because I have no grudge against you.”
“And you also are new. I can see you are not the same man who came yesterday because that man was angry and he spit, whereas you are bowing at my feet, touching my feet. How can you be the same man? You are not the same man, so let us forget about it. Those two people, the man who spit and the man on whom he spit, both are no more. Come closer. Let us talk of something else.”

Maleficent – Both a Vilian and Hero

Yup as I mentioned in my previous post, I’m writing about Disney movies for a bit before switching to other movies. If there is any violent objection, please comment. Haha :D

This time I’m writing on a fairly recent movie that just came out last month – Maleficent, yup the remake of Sleeping Beauty from the antagonist’s point of view with a few twists. As usual, there will be spoilers in this post.

Forget everything you know about the fairy tale – this story is a much needed adaptation of the original classic. Set in the magical kingdom of Moors, the beautiful fairy Maleficent falls in love with a human, Stefan, but is betrayed by him so that he can become king. Deeply hurt and enraged by the betrayal, she places a curse on his daughter Aurora that she will fall into a deep sleep at the age of 16. Frightened, the king sends his daughter away to prevent the curse from happening, but Maleficent is determined to pursue her to see through her revenge. Will the princess be able to find her true prince to rescue her from the clutches of the evil fairy? 

HINT: Not a typical fairy tale. This should give you a hint about where the story is headed!(Synopsis by Wei Xing)

King Stefan’s greedy and immoral nature that surfaced in his childhood stealing incident escalated and ultimately led to his great fear and demise. By cheating Maleficent’s romantic feelings to cut off her wings out of his greed to be crowned king, he created a cause for her to take revenge by cursing his baby girl. This caused him to live in fear. His desire to go all out to kill Maleficent caused him to not even realise when Aurora’s curse had been broken. Maleficent had decided to walk away instead of killing him despite the great suffering he inflicted on her, and it was his own desire to kill her that led to the fight that ended in his death.

The moral of the story that would be told to children is that selfishness and greed will eventually bring one down. King Stefan is indeed an extreme example. In a more general and relatable sense, this relates to our bad habits and tendencies, which are all rooted in greed, hatred and delusion, the roots of suffering. We may start off with them since we are young, and this movie is a warning that they may snowball in adulthood if not corrected. Thus now is the best time for us to start identifying and correcting them.

Maleficent had great courage because she was in the position to kill Stefan, but decided to walk away. Her action shows that she has let go of the past; she was now very different from how she was when she cursed Aurora. This is a reminder to us that we have a choice in any situation even if it can be very difficult. Revenge does not equate justice. I’ll let you guys contemplate about this quote:

The movie shows that there are underlying reasons why people do things. We often do not have the full picture and should try to judge less and be more forgiving as our judgment is usually not fair. In the original story of Sleeping Beauty, we only hear how the fairy who cursed Sleeping Beauty was “evil” and Sleeping Beauty was victimised by her. However, by telling the story from the antagonist’s point of view, we can completely empathise with Maleficent and understand why she did what she did. Being the unenlightened beings we are, which of us wouldn’t be blinded by hate and revenge if we were as hurt as deeply as she was by Stefan? Having said that, this also shows how when we are angry or hurt, our perception is also twisted. Maleficent took years to realise how innocent and loveable Aurora was unlike her father, to the point that she decided to revoke her curse and was desperate to help Aurora when she realised she could not do so.

You guys may have thought of the last point – that romantic love may not be true love and vice versa. Stefan turned out to be merely using Maleficent and did not love her. True love is to really care for and be there for another; Maleficent was the one who broke her own curse because she genuinely cared for Aurora. This idea can be applied to anyone, especially in relationships. It is a pity that some couples go into a relationship in a hurry for their own self image, excitement, being completely infatuated with the person etc. I feel that partners should really stand by and help each other through the ups and downs, and have to recognise each other’s strengths as well as weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Pfft, stop chuckling :/

Ok it’s the end of this post. For subsequent posts I shall be writing on some more recent stuff including Disney movies.

- Pei Si

Saturday Youth Service Talk – The Grateful Beasts

The talk by Venerable Pandit was on the fairy tale of the same title.

Before he went into the story, he gave us an insight into Buddhist psychology and the power of stories.

People go through these 2 phases:

Id Phase (from Freudian psychology)

- Actions based on getting pleasure and getting rid of pain – liking and disliking (e.g. a baby cries when hungry)

- Irrational

Delayed gratification

- Willing to go through some discomfort/ dissatisfaction in order to get something better e.g. have a smoother life

- Rational. Linked to ego (good) – wisdom that should be developed

Storytelling was one of the ways that was used to record wisdom before people started writing. Stories are powerful because they are easy to remember and can contain metaphors for ideas. Stories are used in the suttas as well. The books are about storytelling for business if anyone’s interested: “My Life in Advertising” by Claude Hopkins, “Made to Stick” by the Heath Brothers and “Tell to Win” by Peter Guber.

“The Grateful Beasts” is available at the following linkhttp://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/146/the-yellow-fairy-book/4780/the-grateful-beasts/. These are the metaphors in the story as Venerable explained:

- The young weak one (Fergo in this case) is always the one who ends up succeeding in fairy tales
o When you try something, you’ll do it wrong the first time

- Setting out from home into the unknown
o Withdrawing from the comforts of home and mundane life to embark on a spiritual journey (especially for monastics)

- Fergo’s eyes were taken out and his legs broken
o In meditation, people cross their legs and close their eyes. Closing eyes represents letting go of one’s previous knowledge. Losing one’s legs symbolises how one ventures into darkness in meditation and previous abilities can’t be of help there

- Fergo persisted in fasting
o We need patience to go through the difficulty of the practice to reach the spiritual goal

- Fergo’s blindness and the raven asking what’s remarkable in the land
o Being in the dark represents how a meditator is willing to feel emptiness in meditation which clarifies his/ her vison, while a normal person will question what’s remarkable about that

- Healing lake
o Meditation starts to heal one after he/she has been through difficulty

- Fergo gives the healing water to other beings
o When one becomes a beautiful person internally to some degree, they can help and influence others positively

- Wolf
o Desire. When desire is on one’s side as in this case of spiritual desire, it’s to their advantage. If it’s not then it’s to their disadvantage

- Mouse
o Mice live in fields which represent cultivation and control of environment. A more civilised form of desire than the wolf. A hard worker and helper who does duty without much thought or wisdom

- Mouse at Fergo’s feet
o Work

- Queen bee
o Worker. Bees have a honey and a sting. Likewise, when one has a spiritual aspiration and lives up to it one experiences joy. When one does not then one gets stung

- Bee’s wing torn by a cruel bird
o Like when one follows the wrong teaching, it only brings one down. The true teaching is delicate

- Bee rests on shoulder
o Dhamma enters through the ear

- Fergo could rest while the beasts did the work for him
o The spiritual qualities we develop will fix things for us in difficult times

- Princess (with prince)
o Wholeness of self. When either party is lacking there is a lack of wholeness. When the princess was locked in a tower, it is like how as we purify our minds the impurities surface making enlightenment seem further and further away until we practise till we overcome all defilements. When one is enlightened everything comes together as a whole

- Palace of flowers
o Developing our character and ego into something beautiful

- Fergo got on the wolf’s back leading all the wolves
o He is in control of desire and the pack makes him unstoppable in killing the egotistical, unkind and unfair king, like killing those parts in ourselves and destroying greed, hatred and delusion

- Wolves went peacefully back to their own home
o When desire doesn’t control you, it disappears when you no longer need to do something

June 13 – Brother Tan’s Talk About Practising Buddhism

Hi there! This week, we’ll be sharing more about the previous talk held by Tan Chede Meng, one of Google’s Jolly good fellows. It was held at Vimalakirti Buddhist Centre on the 13 of June. In this post, I’ll like to share about our sharings and experience from the talk itself, as well as after-thoughts about it.

So on a hot sunny morning, we sat down to listen to Brother Tan’s talk. Among us were other Buddhist youths from other organizations such as Singapore Buddhist Mission (SBM), Singapore Buddhist Federation (SBF), and the NUS Buddhist society. It’s good to see so many of our compatriots joining in this activity!

During the talk, Bro Tan mentioned several key pointers in the practice in the Dhamma. It is true that in today’s hectic world, it is extremely difficult to maintain a strong dedication towards meditation and practising it. However, keeping to a basic few minutes of practice can do wonders for your concentration, as seen from his quick demonstration with us throughout the talk. For example, a single breath exercise practiced for 8 times is actually sufficient for a day’s practice (of course, the more the merrier!)

Ultimately, the key thing in many of these practices would be the consistency in maintaining them. Momentum plays a really big part in this, since it can be really difficult to work on something which is not integral to our daily lives. The benefits can be quite substantial, such as calming down the mind and concentrating on the task ahead.

Another key idea which he talked about was Buddhism’s future with respect to both the Western and Eastern community. Nowadays, we do see a trend where Buddhism is increasing in popularity in the west, but not so much in the East. Why is this the case?

According to Brother Tan, it seems that in the west, there is a stronger application of Buddhist practices (the meditation aspect) with respect to scientific knowledge which we are aware of in today’s society. Buddhist concepts are seen as directly applicable in the face of current scientific knowledge and has been a positive influence in helping people maintain a healthy mind and awareness in the front of many things which could distract one.

In wrapping up, I have to say that this was a rather inspiring and enlightening talk regarding the way we practise Buddhism and how we can and should make active moves to achieve it. It was also really great how we were able to interact with him regarding some of his thoughts about certain terms and Buddhist practices. It is really important to join these talks in order to further improve your understanding as well as clarify certain questions which you may have.

- Wei Xing