Sunday, May 16, 2004
vesak day and a flight of stairs
Exams are coming!!! STRESS STRESS STRESS..
neway, vesak day was on SUnday. The temple organised this huge fair at federation square and i was helping out at the tea and meditation stalls. It was early on a saturday morning and i was perched at the edge of the stairs helping decorate a lovely bamboo structure at my stall. My dharma sister instructed me move quickly to the other end of the board so i could receive a string she was passing me from the other end. Seeing a table on my left, my first instinct was to take a step back to walk around it, but my foot never made contact with the ground. As I fell, my only thought was .. I'm gonna die. The steps were half a meter high each and it was a steep incline. I rolled down 2 or 3 steps before my reflexes kicked in and i managed to halt my rapid descent. Shaken, I clung to the side of the steps. Thank goodness the Bodhisattvas were watching over me, I escaped with a bad graze and bruises. I knew that i was incredbily lucky i didn't fracture, or worse, end up with a concussion.Now i knew what my reverend meant by focusing on the present. Urgh.. looks like i've tons of cultivation to do. One whole hour lecture on that topic and nothing went into my head.
another of my dharma sisters was at the bottom of the stairs and she raced up the stairs, jabbering frantically in taiwanese hokkien, which i had zilch understanding. I was too embarassed to listen anyway. I picked myself up and returned to the notice board. But soon, reverends were hurrying over to see what the commotion was about. I slipped away to the toilet to wash my wounds when i realised that my pants was ripped and the skin on my left knee had disappeared into a mess of blood and grime. I was dispatched to the ambulance to be doctored. THe paramedic was real nice. :P oh yeah, and there was a real cute guy paramedic who showed up later.. DANG.
The weather was awful,we kept having to keep our stuff and huddle together. And ohhh. my poor poor poor knee.
SUnday,
We had the grand offering and prayer session. The abbess actaully helped me with my costume!!! So honoured! I didn't even know she was the head abbess. Oh dear, i was so impatient waiting for her to attend to me too.. gotta have more patience next time. Despite my bad knee and the awful weather, i found the prayer session extremely uplifting, especially the prayer for peace.
" xing1, fo2, Zhong4 shen1, deng3 wu2 cha1 bie2,
ni2, wo3, ta1 ren2, yi2 qie 4 ping2 deng3"
SOme people mistake Buddhism as a religion of mysticism, and of blind worship. And i was one of those ignorant ppl, sad to admit for most of my life. Young teenagers abandon this worthy religion in droves simply because it is utterly deviod of meaning for them. I , myself, was at one time disillusioned with buddhism. It seemed to me that i kept asking for favours from teh bodhisattvas and the buddha, without gaining any insight about what was expected of me in this religion. After taking an interest to buddhism last year, I have discovered the true meaning behind many practices and best of all, i discovered the dharma.
I was reading a book about Heaven and hell which I found extremely useful. The Buddha is not an all powerful being who can give us what we ask for, anything we do is reflected back to us by the universal law of cause and effect. He is our teacher, one who discovered the dharma and endavoured to teach it to mankind. THe Buddha doesn't offer us promises of a paradise after death. He teaches us that there was no such thing as an eternal life in heaven or hell. Man is imperfect, and that is a fact. it would be dastardly unfair to bequeath man one chance to make or break his life before condemming him to an eternal lifetime in heaven or hell. Even if you do a misdeed and generate bad karma which may affect your next life or your present life.. you get another go to cultivate yourself.
A refugee from sri lanka stopped by to pay homage .He told me, that although he was a roman catholic, he had the utmost respect for Sakyamuni Buddha's teachings and that's why he came to offer his respect.
BUddhism is a teaching that transcends all sentient beings. The dharma permeates every part of our lives. THe Buddha taught us that the law of cause and effect is universal.. Good will come unto you if you do good. But even if you err and receive you comeupance in your next life, you still have a chacne of redemption. The ultimate goal is to attain enlightment through cultivation and that can come about by escaping the cycle of rebirth, it is a tough path, almost impossible, but we all have a buddha nature inside of us, though it is veiled by our selfish thoughts, and attachements. But the teachings of The Buddha will help uncover our buddha nature.
I just started reading a book by Master Xing Yun on Cause and effect. Will sumurise it once i've the time. Now with exams bearing down on me.. it's quite difficult to chou chu shi jian.. urgh.
Exams are coming!!! STRESS STRESS STRESS..
neway, vesak day was on SUnday. The temple organised this huge fair at federation square and i was helping out at the tea and meditation stalls. It was early on a saturday morning and i was perched at the edge of the stairs helping decorate a lovely bamboo structure at my stall. My dharma sister instructed me move quickly to the other end of the board so i could receive a string she was passing me from the other end. Seeing a table on my left, my first instinct was to take a step back to walk around it, but my foot never made contact with the ground. As I fell, my only thought was .. I'm gonna die. The steps were half a meter high each and it was a steep incline. I rolled down 2 or 3 steps before my reflexes kicked in and i managed to halt my rapid descent. Shaken, I clung to the side of the steps. Thank goodness the Bodhisattvas were watching over me, I escaped with a bad graze and bruises. I knew that i was incredbily lucky i didn't fracture, or worse, end up with a concussion.Now i knew what my reverend meant by focusing on the present. Urgh.. looks like i've tons of cultivation to do. One whole hour lecture on that topic and nothing went into my head.
another of my dharma sisters was at the bottom of the stairs and she raced up the stairs, jabbering frantically in taiwanese hokkien, which i had zilch understanding. I was too embarassed to listen anyway. I picked myself up and returned to the notice board. But soon, reverends were hurrying over to see what the commotion was about. I slipped away to the toilet to wash my wounds when i realised that my pants was ripped and the skin on my left knee had disappeared into a mess of blood and grime. I was dispatched to the ambulance to be doctored. THe paramedic was real nice. :P oh yeah, and there was a real cute guy paramedic who showed up later.. DANG.
The weather was awful,we kept having to keep our stuff and huddle together. And ohhh. my poor poor poor knee.
SUnday,
We had the grand offering and prayer session. The abbess actaully helped me with my costume!!! So honoured! I didn't even know she was the head abbess. Oh dear, i was so impatient waiting for her to attend to me too.. gotta have more patience next time. Despite my bad knee and the awful weather, i found the prayer session extremely uplifting, especially the prayer for peace.
" xing1, fo2, Zhong4 shen1, deng3 wu2 cha1 bie2,
ni2, wo3, ta1 ren2, yi2 qie 4 ping2 deng3"
SOme people mistake Buddhism as a religion of mysticism, and of blind worship. And i was one of those ignorant ppl, sad to admit for most of my life. Young teenagers abandon this worthy religion in droves simply because it is utterly deviod of meaning for them. I , myself, was at one time disillusioned with buddhism. It seemed to me that i kept asking for favours from teh bodhisattvas and the buddha, without gaining any insight about what was expected of me in this religion. After taking an interest to buddhism last year, I have discovered the true meaning behind many practices and best of all, i discovered the dharma.
I was reading a book about Heaven and hell which I found extremely useful. The Buddha is not an all powerful being who can give us what we ask for, anything we do is reflected back to us by the universal law of cause and effect. He is our teacher, one who discovered the dharma and endavoured to teach it to mankind. THe Buddha doesn't offer us promises of a paradise after death. He teaches us that there was no such thing as an eternal life in heaven or hell. Man is imperfect, and that is a fact. it would be dastardly unfair to bequeath man one chance to make or break his life before condemming him to an eternal lifetime in heaven or hell. Even if you do a misdeed and generate bad karma which may affect your next life or your present life.. you get another go to cultivate yourself.
A refugee from sri lanka stopped by to pay homage .He told me, that although he was a roman catholic, he had the utmost respect for Sakyamuni Buddha's teachings and that's why he came to offer his respect.
BUddhism is a teaching that transcends all sentient beings. The dharma permeates every part of our lives. THe Buddha taught us that the law of cause and effect is universal.. Good will come unto you if you do good. But even if you err and receive you comeupance in your next life, you still have a chacne of redemption. The ultimate goal is to attain enlightment through cultivation and that can come about by escaping the cycle of rebirth, it is a tough path, almost impossible, but we all have a buddha nature inside of us, though it is veiled by our selfish thoughts, and attachements. But the teachings of The Buddha will help uncover our buddha nature.
I just started reading a book by Master Xing Yun on Cause and effect. Will sumurise it once i've the time. Now with exams bearing down on me.. it's quite difficult to chou chu shi jian.. urgh.
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