'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.