Monday, January 10, 2005
calorie count : sky high.
Action: snoozing on bed
supposed to go joggin today. After a long long delay ( raining the past few dayz everytime i step outt of the house).. but was sooo exhausted, i just landed on bed, shut my eyes and slept right till dinner time.. zzzonk.
shouldn't have slept so late last night.. dionk. was late again for service ( dionk dionk). so paiseh, walked in in the middle of the great compassionate repentence ceremony, stared blankly at the huge congregation who were there. Spent most of the ceremony on my knees chanting an unfamiliar sutra. It was really a test of will power and patience. I got lost a lot of times, my tired mind trying to cope with the unfamiliar fan2 ti3 zi 4 in the prayer book. But it was worth it.. the merits were transferred to the thousands who perished in the tsunami disaster ...
Had a quickie meal then rushed off for Buddhist Fellowship... didn't get lost.. ( smirk) see lz.. i can soooo find my way .. haha.
The guest speaker Sylvia Bay gave a speech on the Buddhist attitude to natural calamities. Here's sorta summary of the talk.
Upon hearing about the disaster, most ppl had only one question on their minds -- Why??? Most Buddhist dismissed the events as pure bad karma. or a collective karma of the world. But Sylvia disagreed. SHe pointed that there were two aspects to the Why?
One was - the natural disaster
The other was - the death count..
Why did the natural disaster occur?
WHY the enormous death count?
Natural disaster: this is easy to explain.. just open your geog textbook. The faults , the sliding of the plates, the displacement of the ocean due to the release of the tension that had been building up.
THe enormous death count was a hard one to comprehend. Sylvia emphasised that it was unfair to judge that it was a bad karmic consequence. Because Karma was far to complex to comprehend. It wasn't a simple affair of a boomerang effect. IT doesn't mean that doing A begets A. The death toll was a matter of conditionality. Only the Buddha has the ability to see into your mind and devulge the karmic cause of your conditions.
Man has a habit of going against nature.. it's a natural surival instinct. We colonise the planet. We cut down trees.. mangrove swamp, we build resorts.. She pointed out that of those people saved, most of them had climbed trees, which held out against the onslaught of the monster wave. On top of that, scientists did mentioned that mangrove swamps could have helped saved some beach fronts. If the beach was not used for commercial gain, the death toll would have been less catastrophic. So it was man's actions that placed led him to cross paths with the unfortunate geographical conditions. Not to say that occupying beaches is a bad thing.. it's just happened that it was a suay choice.
THere are 5 laws that the Buddha taught
The law of physics
the law of biology
the law of the mind
the law of the Dharma
the law of karma
These 5 laws operate simultaneously to give rise to occurances. They give rise to conditions ... but because man is his own master, his decisions will guide how he harnesses these conditions to obtain the fruit .
The pple of Phuket lost sooo much as compared to the people in Africa.. even tho' both countries had prior warning. It was because of a bad decision made by the meteorologist. who did get info that an earth quake may occur, but who thought that sounding an alert would mean disruption of the tourists trade ( esp since it was the peak of the tourist season).. on the other hand, the ppl in Africa suffered minimal loss of life ( as compared to the rest of the countries) because the gov. immediately commenced evacuation. So because greed took precedence over the lives of ppl.. this an action led to terrible consequences.
It's decisions made by our mind that lead to our fate. like that angmoh who ran back 6 times to save ppl.. and got washed away by the waves.. If he had stopped mebbe at the 5th time, he would have lived. But he chose to play the odds. Not to say wat he did was stupid..on the contrary it was extremely commandable.. the pureness of compassion in his heart at the mmt of death will definitely see him reborn into a life of goodness.. but the hard part lies in how his famly can deal with his departure from this life. It was his decision and we have to respect that and his courage.... There was no other questions how or why he died.. he weighed the odds with his mind, he assessed the conditions at that time, and he just did what he judged was best for him and the children he tried to save.
I suppose it's all about choices. It's all about letting go.Do the best you can, and let go.. the want to do stuff it's the one driving you nearer and nearer to dhukka. ( suffering) .. and further and further from nibanna.. yez.. it's true..
you want to help ease suffering
you want to do charity work
you want..
you want.
It's actually doing the act that releases you from this craving and your suffering.. but you've gotta know also when to let go..
My group had a discussion on wat we could do to help ourselves and the ppl there cope with the disaster. and we drew the conclusion that yez.. we can and must help, but we must stand back with a clear mind and assess our strengths and where they can be put to use. there was no point running into aceh w/o the necessary support.. and being a burden rather than a help. the Buddhist Fellowship members were going soon on a firefly mission to help in the disaster struck areas. may the Devas and the Bodhisattvas keep them safe.
Was a pretty tiring but fufilling day. Really enjoyed Buddhist fellowship. :) have to get used to chanting the suttas in pali tho'.
Action: snoozing on bed
supposed to go joggin today. After a long long delay ( raining the past few dayz everytime i step outt of the house).. but was sooo exhausted, i just landed on bed, shut my eyes and slept right till dinner time.. zzzonk.
shouldn't have slept so late last night.. dionk. was late again for service ( dionk dionk). so paiseh, walked in in the middle of the great compassionate repentence ceremony, stared blankly at the huge congregation who were there. Spent most of the ceremony on my knees chanting an unfamiliar sutra. It was really a test of will power and patience. I got lost a lot of times, my tired mind trying to cope with the unfamiliar fan2 ti3 zi 4 in the prayer book. But it was worth it.. the merits were transferred to the thousands who perished in the tsunami disaster ...
Had a quickie meal then rushed off for Buddhist Fellowship... didn't get lost.. ( smirk) see lz.. i can soooo find my way .. haha.
The guest speaker Sylvia Bay gave a speech on the Buddhist attitude to natural calamities. Here's sorta summary of the talk.
Upon hearing about the disaster, most ppl had only one question on their minds -- Why??? Most Buddhist dismissed the events as pure bad karma. or a collective karma of the world. But Sylvia disagreed. SHe pointed that there were two aspects to the Why?
One was - the natural disaster
The other was - the death count..
Why did the natural disaster occur?
WHY the enormous death count?
Natural disaster: this is easy to explain.. just open your geog textbook. The faults , the sliding of the plates, the displacement of the ocean due to the release of the tension that had been building up.
THe enormous death count was a hard one to comprehend. Sylvia emphasised that it was unfair to judge that it was a bad karmic consequence. Because Karma was far to complex to comprehend. It wasn't a simple affair of a boomerang effect. IT doesn't mean that doing A begets A. The death toll was a matter of conditionality. Only the Buddha has the ability to see into your mind and devulge the karmic cause of your conditions.
Man has a habit of going against nature.. it's a natural surival instinct. We colonise the planet. We cut down trees.. mangrove swamp, we build resorts.. She pointed out that of those people saved, most of them had climbed trees, which held out against the onslaught of the monster wave. On top of that, scientists did mentioned that mangrove swamps could have helped saved some beach fronts. If the beach was not used for commercial gain, the death toll would have been less catastrophic. So it was man's actions that placed led him to cross paths with the unfortunate geographical conditions. Not to say that occupying beaches is a bad thing.. it's just happened that it was a suay choice.
THere are 5 laws that the Buddha taught
The law of physics
the law of biology
the law of the mind
the law of the Dharma
the law of karma
These 5 laws operate simultaneously to give rise to occurances. They give rise to conditions ... but because man is his own master, his decisions will guide how he harnesses these conditions to obtain the fruit .
The pple of Phuket lost sooo much as compared to the people in Africa.. even tho' both countries had prior warning. It was because of a bad decision made by the meteorologist. who did get info that an earth quake may occur, but who thought that sounding an alert would mean disruption of the tourists trade ( esp since it was the peak of the tourist season).. on the other hand, the ppl in Africa suffered minimal loss of life ( as compared to the rest of the countries) because the gov. immediately commenced evacuation. So because greed took precedence over the lives of ppl.. this an action led to terrible consequences.
It's decisions made by our mind that lead to our fate. like that angmoh who ran back 6 times to save ppl.. and got washed away by the waves.. If he had stopped mebbe at the 5th time, he would have lived. But he chose to play the odds. Not to say wat he did was stupid..on the contrary it was extremely commandable.. the pureness of compassion in his heart at the mmt of death will definitely see him reborn into a life of goodness.. but the hard part lies in how his famly can deal with his departure from this life. It was his decision and we have to respect that and his courage.... There was no other questions how or why he died.. he weighed the odds with his mind, he assessed the conditions at that time, and he just did what he judged was best for him and the children he tried to save.
I suppose it's all about choices. It's all about letting go.Do the best you can, and let go.. the want to do stuff it's the one driving you nearer and nearer to dhukka. ( suffering) .. and further and further from nibanna.. yez.. it's true..
you want to help ease suffering
you want to do charity work
you want..
you want.
It's actually doing the act that releases you from this craving and your suffering.. but you've gotta know also when to let go..
My group had a discussion on wat we could do to help ourselves and the ppl there cope with the disaster. and we drew the conclusion that yez.. we can and must help, but we must stand back with a clear mind and assess our strengths and where they can be put to use. there was no point running into aceh w/o the necessary support.. and being a burden rather than a help. the Buddhist Fellowship members were going soon on a firefly mission to help in the disaster struck areas. may the Devas and the Bodhisattvas keep them safe.
Was a pretty tiring but fufilling day. Really enjoyed Buddhist fellowship. :) have to get used to chanting the suttas in pali tho'.
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