A Personal Prologue to the 11th Dharma Session of Middle Way Buddhist Association

There was a difference to the 11th Dharma session of Middle Way Buddhist Association, held on Dec 15, 2007 at its venue at Pinellas Park, a rather welcome one I would say. And yet it continues a long tradition, not in terms of absolute time though, of a preceding meditation session and of being graced by great Buddhist teachers, in this instance, Bhante Dhammawansha.

After the mind invigorating meditation session, which by now most of the attendees are comfortable with, Brother Tom and Sister Lily convened the succeeding Dharma session by having everyone sitting around in a circle, as opposed to the usual classroom style, and, here comes the interesting and, though in hind sight (to me), rewarding difference: mutual introduction.

Thus far, most of the getting to know you and getting to share experiences with others on the path to Buddhist wisdom among the attendees have been ongoing on an individual basis conducted before the start or after the end of the session. Invariably, that gravitates, at least for me, to a rather personal selective process of interacting with anyone in immediate proximity. I have not been adventurous enough to actively seek out every attendee and engage everyone in sharing individual takes on this rather personal spiritual journey.

So, I was hesitant at best when Sister Lily started the ball rolling, and, one by one, everyone related the many varied motivations each has been driven by, and the as many paths, but ultimately converging, each has traversed. It reminded me of the scene of a typical AA meeting seen in movies, each participatant owning up to the reality of addiction and taking positive steps toward sobriety.

I have never been comfortable in spilling out my inner thoughts in a public setting, not the least of which is the specter of public speaking despite many years of honing the skill in my work, albeit still rather restricted to the professional side of my life. And my blogs are the first platforms, though still with a modicum of anonymity, that I have started sharing experiences that I believe can be beneficial to others.

But by the time my turn came, I was ready. After having listened to others' personal anecdotes, some rather unreservedly, my mental speech draft, in outline form, took shape. All I needed to do was filling the oral gaps with a bit of extemporaneous exploration. Here I would rather not try to paraphrase what others had said to obviate any inaccuracy on my part, but a recollection of my own delivery, with some judicious expansion befitting a written rather than a strictly transcribed format:

Coming from Malaysia, I grew up in a multi-racial setting within which different religious faiths are practiced. While I have stepped into temples and churches on many occasions, back then I did not subscribe to any particular faith, contented to be associated with the moniker free-thinker. Some of my sisters and brothers are devout Christians, but their religious affiliation did not rub on to me as I was preoccupied with worldly pursuits just like any other normal kid/teen/adult as I advanced in age, and so I thought.

On the other hand, wify was brought up in a traditional Buddhist environment, the influence of her paternal grandmother being instrumental in this regard. Since she does not drive, I became the designated driver for all her trips to temples and Buddhist centers, and believe me that adds up to a lot of trips over the years. The practice carried over to US when we came here in January 2004.

I like reading. So while waiting for wify to do her “things”, I naturally passed the time by picking up Buddhist books, of which there are usually aplenty in any temple. Introductory texts, interpretive Buddhist scriptures, both English and Chinese, became the fodder of my avid foray into the spiritual world of the printed word.

I started to identify with many of the core values enshrined in Buddhism: compassion, wisdom, universal love, thinking of others before self, and giving. Above all, I'm in tune with the Buddhist world view of self-determination, of internalization of Buddhist teachings through one's practice, and inner peace as the way to go.

In many ways, the virtuous acts mandated by the Five Precepts (no killing, no stealing, no adultery, no lying, and no intoxicating substances) are already suffused into my subconscious to become part and parcel of my daily life. Admittedly, I still have some way to go. For example, sometimes I have to constantly remind myself not to harm any ant that happens to crawl across my work desk (it used to be just a mere act of lifting a finger and be done with it). At other times I still have to resort to some white lies in order not to worsen an existing situation (a kind of delaying the truth telling if you will, but all in the absence of mala fide).

So I see myself as a Buddhist at heart, though I have yet to undergo the Taking the Vows ceremony to formalize the transition. But I will do that in due course, when I feel the time is right. I'm what and where I'm today in my relatively short sojourn of spiritual pursuit that terminates in the ultimate wisdom of the Buddhist teachings due to wify's steadfast adherence to Buddhism as a central guidance in her life. And for that I'm thankful.

Two of my great teachers in Buddhism, Bhante Dhammawansha and wify, who doubles as my better half in life too, taken in from of Bhante's residence at Clearwater, with the Bodhi Tree in the background.

Wify and I have been supporting the MWBA in anyway that we can since its inception in early March this year. And we will continue to do so in the future. In return, though I say that guardedly lest it be misconstrued as expectations, I have benefited much more from the great Buddhist teachers that we have had and am sure we will continue to have and the collective experience of fellow attendees.

What started off as a record of the day's proceeding, filtered by my own lens as it were, has kind of wandered off into an annotation of my personal journey of discovery in the vast seascape of spirituality. In the interest of maintaining an appropriate length for a blog article, albeit a subjective one, and more so for my own benefit of mulling over what Bhante Dhammawansha has delivered in an effort to better synthesize it into a coherent whole, I would stop here for now and leave this as an affirmation of my having found my true spiritual guide in life.

Life in Its Many Forms and Realms: Release, the Departed, the Buddha, and Contemplation

My wife and her Buddhist friends held a release life activity this morning next to the Veteran Memorial Park just off the bank of the Tampa Bypass Channel. This is the first time we entered the park ground as unbeknownst to us, the opening hour of the park coincided with our time of arrival, 10.00am. Before that, we stopped by a bait and tackle shop to buy juvenile fish and earthworms.

Instead of chanting the sutra at the river side, Yu Huei decided to hold the chanting session at the shop there and then on two considerations. Firstly, some of the small animals may not survive the trip from the shop to the river side. So this would ensure that they would get the good merits transferred to them while alive. Secondly, this would benefit the entire animal collection within the shop.

Indoor chanting amidst the angling gear and the entire collection of small animals.

While at the shop, a curious onlooker’s interest was piqued by the chanting. I explained to him the gist of the release life as an act of compassion toward all sentient beings. “Not pity, but compassion,” I corrected him. “God moves us in many ways,” he replied, radiating sincerity.

On the drive to the Veteran Memorial Park, I almost ran over a squirrel dashing across the road, my sudden reflexive braking motion scuttling some stuff around me. But no harm done.

At first, we were worried that the steep descent down the earth slope from the bridge to the river side may prove to be a slippery, and hence, dicey operation. But the park was just opened, and we were able to park inside the park. And the good thing is the slope to the river edge is very gentle here, at the bottom of which are scattered rock pieces to provide a firm foothold. Those must be the remnants of a rudimentary bank protection measure against erosion: rock slope. The other meritorious aspect of this particular site is the absence of preying birds that are known to swish down on the small released animals as we have learned painfully from our experience at other sites. The fish fries were released into the stream, and the earthworm, into hand-dug holes by the river side.

The outdoor release life activity, first the aquatic kind and then the burrowing kind, momentarily confined within the two brown bags in the hands of Sister Annie.

Then something else happened. A group of ducks were swaggering toward us while we were about to drive off. So the ladies alighted again, palms joined, and started chanting away at the approaching ducks, presumably sensing food from their past treatments. The merits thus transferred so that in their (the ducks') next life they would be reborn in the human realm, the realm at which Buddhahood is most reliably attained, the ladies thanked the ducks and we were soon on our way to our next destination, a Thai temple along Palm River Drive.

Transferring merits to the swaggering kind

But not before we made a slow drive around the park. It being a Veteran Memorial Park, there are many displays of war paraphernalia: helicopters, and artillery equipment. A small plot in the back was stacked full with miniature American flags, in memoriam of the many casualties of wars. The apparent irony of holding a release life activity in a park dedicated to the many soldiers perished in wars was not lost on me. But in a way, what we did could also be considered as a way of transferring merits to the departed consecrated in the park.

The Thai temple is a sprawling complex amidst the tree-lined river bank, with timber boardwalk over some of the soft ground. The temple’s inside is both regal and solemn. Next to the temple is the canteen where temple helpers were busying packing up the food orders for the expanding crowd of visitors.

Top left: A painting of a Young Buddha teaching to the Five disciples on the foreground.
Top Right: A view of the temple from the river bank.
Bottom right: the Buddha statue inside the Temple.
Bottom left: A view of the river bank from the front of the Temple.

We did the same and adjourned to one of the many tables dotting the river bank to partake of the food offering. A point to note is that the food served is a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian, a departure from the norm at Chinese temples where only vegetarian food is served. The rates charged for the food were very reasonable indeed and would only be possible due to the unfaltering show of volunteerism from the local Thai community, at the same time providing a steady source of revenue to maintain the temple to contribute to the well-being of all sentient beings.

A serene view from our table of feast, and contemplative too.

The Sixth Dharma Discussion session of MWBA: Buddhist Talk, Taking Refuge Ceremony and Q&A by Venerable Jian Fu

At the heel of our attendance at the 2007 Buddhist Summer Camp in Orlando, we congregated, this time closer to home, at the Pinellas Park venue of the Middle Way Buddhist Association on the evening of July 9, 2007 to attend the Buddhist Lecture, From No Self to Liberation: The Paradoxical Wisdom of Emptiness, given by Venerable Jian Fu, the Abbot of the Zen Center of Sunnyvale. We were there too on the following night, July 10, for the Q&A session during which Venerable Jian Fu cited personal anecdotes and experiences to help illuminate the path to enlightenment. A Taking the Refuge in the Triple Gem ceremony was also held on July 9 at the conclusion of the Buddhist talk and I look forward to reading the personal experiences of those who have embraced Buddhism that very night formalized by their participation in the ceremony that included reciting the repentance verses and the Four Great Vows.

The participants of the Taking Refuge Ceremony with Venerable Jian Fu

Using his uniquely measured tone and even mode of delivery in a slightly accented English suggestive of many years of American education, Venerable Jian Fu started with a simple definition of the Buddha, it being the enlightened one. That state of ultimate bliss, actualized through liberation from suffering, is not beyond us as all sentient beings are endowed with the Buddha nature. What separates us from the Buddha is the concealment of Buddha nature from our own selves, under the cloak of greed, anger, and delusion.

To illuminate the above message, Venerable Jian Fu cited the famous Chan/Zen (Zen being the Japanese word for Chan Buddhism in Chinese) poem attributed to the Sixth Patriarch, Venerable Master Hui Neng:

Bodhi is no tree;
Nor is the mind a standing mirror bright.
There is nothing to begin with;
Where can the dust alight?

Here “nothing” is an allusion to emptiness while “dust” is a euphemism for contamination comprising the three mental toxins cited above.

Our polluted state of mind, and hence suffering, can be traced back to our attachment to the entity, self, or more aptly, our misconceptions of our self.

Firstly, our understanding of ourselves is not correct as we often take our earthly possessions to be part and parcel of our image of self. Putting those possessions in the right perspective as affording us the temporary right to use, Venerable Jian Fu enumerated five groups that de facto own our possessions:

1) The Government and its institutions including IRS and banks.
2) Natural disasters (floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.)
3) Doctors
4) Thieves/robbers
5) Children.

One can also further add lawyers and the insurance group if the above list is not enough to shatter our illusion regarding our flimsy hold on our possessions at best.

Secondly, we act as if we treat our existence as a permanent one. Somehow impermanence is just beyond our comprehension.

Thirdly, we feel that we are in control, without realizing that living and dying are the same thing. We start dying the moment we are born.

Fourthly and lastly, we think we have an independent body, not realizing that inter-connectedness is the operative word. And Venerable Jian Fu illustrated the need for an attitude of sharing by telling the story of how denizens of the Hell and the Heavenly realms feed themselves. Both have the same setting: they all sit around a big table, full of food, and each has a three-foot long chopstick (let’s imagine these are the Chinese realms but the point is not lost).

Soon the hungry souls in the Hell realm are engaged in a chopstick war, each trying to knock the food off the other’s chopstick while unable to put the food into the mouth because of the length of the chopstick. And the day ended with none managing to get any eating done and the same scenario repeats the next day.

At the heavenly realm, the happy souls feed each other, putting their own chopsticks in other’s month. Soon everyone is satiated.

On emptiness, Venerable Jian Fu explained that the notion is not synonymous with non-existence. Rather, emptiness connotes that it is beyond description. It is awareness, and becoming mindful of what the mind is doing, the very essence of meditation in an effort to regain the self command, the discipline of the mind.

Venerable Jian Fu also expounded on the difference between love and compassion. Love is centered on the ego, the false self, and it has a flip side, hate. On the other hand, compassion is unbounded, extending to all sentient beings.

The contrast of love and compassion was elaborated further on the following night of Q&A by Venerable Jian Fu in response to a question from an attendee whether compassion is abstract. Answering firmly in the negative, Venerable Jian Fu reiterated that love, as conventionally used, has both positive and negative implications as exemplified by the roller coaster ride of a typical love-hate relationship between individuals. Compassion, in contrast, is love to all, motivated by a deeper sense of wanting to help others, to save others from suffering. We readily give, in efforts, in wealth, and in kind, to a worthy cause (e.g., victims of the 2004 South Asian Boxer Day Tsunami and the 2005 Katrina Hurricane). Those are tangible feelings and there is nothing abstract about them.

We need to control our mind so that we do not become slaves to our desires. In that respect, we want to live in the moment, which is distinctly different from living for the moment that only conjures up actions of doing whatever we want. But we don’t want to be a control freak either. The Zen practice aims to develop mindfulness, so that our mind is like a clear and still lake, and does not focus on the bubbles that may form on the surface. The freedom that ensues is in the sense of doing anything we want without making any wrong. In time to come with constant practice, we would transcend the duality of stillness and motion.

In responding to another question, Venerable Jian Fu explained that there isn’t any yardstick one can use to measure one’s progress, or even whether one is making any progress at all. But there are certain signs that when viewed together, do point to positive advances on the right track. These could take the form of being more at ease, of showing less agitation, and evincing an overall joyous disposition.

Venerable Jian Fu felt blessed that he has found a great teacher in his search for Dharma. While it’s OK to identify a teacher to guide us along, the important thing is to have faith in your teacher. In a similar vein, Matthieu Ricard, a French monk whose journey from a scientist to a Buddhist monk bears some uncanny resemblance to that of Venerable Jian Fu, has this to say about being under the wings of great spiritual masters in his book, Happiness – A guide to developing life’s most important skill (Little, Brown and Company, NY, First English Edition by Jesse Browner, 2006):

“The good fortune of meeting with remarkable people who are both wise and compassionate was decisive in my case, because the power of examples speaks more forcefully than any other communication. They showed me what is possible to accomplish and proved to me that one can become enduringly free and happy, providing one knows how to go about it. When I am among friends, I share their lives joyfully. When I am alone, in my retreat or elsewhere, every passing moment is a delight. When I undertake a project in active life, I rejoice if it is successful; and if doesn’t work out, I see no reason to fret over it, having tried to do my best. I have been lucky enough so far to have had enough to eat and a roof over my head. I consider my possessions to be tools, and there is not one I consider to be indispensable. Without a laptop I might stop writing, and without a camera I might stop sharing pictures, but it would in no way impair the quality of every moment of my life. For me the essential thing was to have encountered my spiritual masters and received their teachings. That has given me more than enough to meditate on to the end of my days!”

I can definitely see some more parallels between what I have read in Matthieu Ricard’s books and what I have gleaned from listening to Venerable Jian Fu’s talks and the two CDs featuring him that I managed to pick up on the display table on the first night (The Wisdom of Zen Buddhism – A journey from computer scientist to Zen Buddhist master, an interview by Jean Ramacciotti, and Buddhism and Modern Science, Dharma talk by Ven. Master Jian Fu, Seattle, Winter 2005): giving up earthly possessions, seeing the connections between Buddhism and science, being under the tutelage of great masters, being grateful, practicing detachment, and sharing the Dharma.

And I’m blessed too to be able to cross path with both, be it in person or through writing.

My family and Yu Huei flanking Venerable Jian Fu

Music and Lyrics: The Art of Observing and Letting Go

There are not too many British actors in my favorite list. Sean Connery is one. Michael Caine is another. Pierce Brosnan is OK. But Jude Law and Clive Owen are a different story. Oh, Hugh Grant. I enjoy his comedy films too. But not until I watched Music and Lyrics (image below is scanned from the front cover of the DVD that we bought, pre-viewed, from Hollywood Video) that I find him to be a delightful actor with a sentimental singing voice.

Cast as a has-been in the music industry, having being unceremoniously dumped by his singing partner of the Pop fame, Hugh’s movie character found a revival of sort, precipitated by what else but the power of love. Drew Barrymore as a budding lyricist, honed by her writing talents that came with her own set of demons, is believable and refreshing.

Of the many songs in the sound track, I particularly like Way Back Into Love and Don’t Write Me Off. The first one is a duet, but I much prefer the first version he did with Drew, a catchy tune sung with love in the air in the little world of theirs to the elegant accompaniment of piano.

I recall a scene where Hugh and Drew (I prefer to use their screen names rather than the characters’) argue over the relative importance of the melody and the lyrics. And I kind of agree with Drew that melody only captivates one at the first instant but lyrics are the memory that endure. At the same time, I must also admit that we can always hum a tune or two but will have a hard time remember the lyrics, except for the chorus.

The movie is rife with repartees, kind of like a banter where both parties want to have the last word, like the following exchange:

Hugh: The best time I've had in the last fifteen years was sitting at that piano with you.
Drew: That's wonderfully sensitive... especially from a man who wears such tight pants.
Hugh: It forces all the blood to my heart.

See what I mean? Then Hugh made a reference to Florida where nothing grows except for oranges, or something to that effect. This must be the portrayal of the Sunshine State as a retirement colony.

About the only aspect that I find discomfiting is the song Buddha Delight (though I must admit that there is such a HongKong delicacy, literally translated as Buddha Jumping Over the Wall, presumably to savor the delicacy) being sung by Haley Bennett (as a teen singing sensation) amidst the gyrating males that smacks of something that is beyond the bounds of family entertainment. But the worst is yet to come: when Haley appeared from the bowel of a giant Buddha statue on stage, to perform among the dancers who wore saffron garments reminiscent of a monk’s outfit (I don’t seem to recall whether they are bald).

I think Buddhist people really practice forbearance for I am not aware of any outcry of such an undignified treatment of a great teacher. Actually, I did not even know there is such a scene in the movie. Otherwise I most likely would have refrained from watching the movie, or at least fast forwarded that “ill-conceived” segment.

This will be the only time I will gripe about this for Buddha taught us to observe and let go. That reminds me of a story of two monks crossing a river when they were accosted by a lady for help in crossing the swift flowing stream. The older monk readily carried the woman across the river, put her down, and went about his business. The younger monk, steeped in the tradition and mindful of the Buddhist code of ethics that there shall be no touching between a male and a female, was aghast at the perpetration of the older monk and could not resist confronting the older monk at the next stop on the latter’s impropriety. The older monk’s response? “Yes, I did carry the woman across the river, and have since put her down upon reaching the other side. But it seems you are still carrying her all this while.”

So observe and let go. Do not react. But meanwhile, I would enjoy the melody and the lyrics of Way Back Into Love and Don’t Write Me Off for a little while longer.

My Ongoing Buddhist Journey

I have been a free thinker since I was capable of independent thinking. Until recently, the thought of embracing a particular religion did not enter my consciousness, but I do know, and indeed subscribe to, the imperative of morality, of human decency.

My understanding of religions, their origin, their core beliefs, and their ways have been gleaned from what I see and read on a daily basis, much like experiencing other aspects of life like going in and out of a revolving door, never stopping long enough to delve deeper into their inner teachings beyond the outward manifestations of their respective followers and adherents.

I see churches, temples, and mosques, and now synagogues since I moved to US. I know of Sunday services and Friday prayers but have never participated in one as I’m not one of them. In terms of frequency, it’s the Buddhist temple that I’ve entered the most and hence, most familiar with, including the ceremonies conducted therein. However, none of these “visits” is of my own volition. Instead, they are a consequence of accompaniment, my wife that is.

As is the case for most Chinese families in small towns where Buddhist and Chinese cultural practices, notably ancestor worship, are well-mixed, my wife took to Buddhism at a young age, though ostensibly for observing the ritualistic roles of praying and paying homage. But we are both tuned in to the Buddhist precepts of compassion and giving, more so as a result of our moral upbringing rather than actualizing the Buddhist canons of doing the virtuous and seeing beyond self.

When I went into engineering after high school, the primacy of the scientific way that reveres empiricism and objectivity dominated my thinking process, leaving no room, or shall we say, no motivation, for faith-based beliefs. My favorite reads were fiction and non-fiction works on the material world where happiness of the self is central, eschewing discourses on religions that seemed superfluous then.

The only admission that I granted to the higher beings may have been some utterances made while walking in the deep of the night, along a deserted road, greeted by dancing greenish beads accompanied by occasional howling from their owners (these would be the dogs and small town legends have it that dogs howl when they see denizens of the other world). As you can see, even a rational-thinking dude like me was wont to invoking the divine for reassurance and protection against the wandering spirits, just in case. And yes, those would be the midnight trips I made to my future wife's home. Typically I would take an evening train from KL, and disembark at Paloh around 2am, and would then walk alone to her house, a 15-minute brisk walk, the briskness by force of circumstances if you know what I mean.

It was in the last couple of years that I started sitting in on dharma talks while ferrying my wife to attend such occasions. And I started developing an interest in reading on Buddhism: free Buddhist texts on display during the above occasions, Buddhist websites as well as Buddhism-based articles via email. It’s like a whole world of Buddhism-related information superhighway just opens up and I’m happily zooming along, making frequent stops along the way to savor the offerings.

My library loans started to veer toward the Buddhism genre: books by the Dalai Lama, Matthieu Ricard and other western authors, giving me an opportunity to compare notes with those writings by Chinese masters such as the Venerables Chin Kung, Tsing Yun and Shen Yen.

At the same time, I have also started translating some of the Chinese Buddhist writings into English and feature them on my blogs. Concurrently, I’m also finding that I’m better able to control my temper and become patient, not as easily irked as before should things not go as I expected. It could be a combination of me becoming mellow with age or the nuggets of Buddhist wisdom gradually seeping into my sub-conscious. Either way I find that I’m better able to focus on the task at hand, mindful of the here and now.

Practically, I’m already a Buddhist practitioner, both in thought and in action. What I have yet to do is to formalize the infusion process by taking Refuge in the Triple Gem (the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha), unlike my wife who has already taken it twice. I think I will do that in due course, in my own time, when the conditions are ripe.

A Destiny Date with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama

My wife hails from a large family of ten siblings, spanning seventeen years in age difference from the eldest (herself) to the youngest, who was born when I was dating her already. Of the ten, only one has ventured down under, and through the years has ascended the academic ladder, culminating in her appointment as the Head of the School of Law and Justice and Co-Director of the Centre for Peace & Social Justice, Southern Cross University early this year. Professor Bee-Chen Goh has really done her family proud.

The Center for Peace and Social Justice, together with the Office of Regional Engagement, has started a Wisdom series aimed at learning from a diversity of spiritual approaches to living. The inaugural lecture was given by Geshe Ngawang Gedun, Spiritual Director of the Australian Tibetan Buddhist Centre (ATBC) on ‘The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, a two-parter on March 24 and 31.

Then this Friday, the Center is scheduled to kick off the first of the Buddhist Perspectives Series that focuses on Buddhism, technology, media and education. And the speaker will be Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, a Buddhist filmmaker and author.

On the heel of these programs with a strong Buddhist presence, Southern Cross University (SCU) has also awarded His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, an Honorary Doctorate in recognition of his humanitarian work and his advocacy of world peace, in conjunction with the Dalai Lama Australia 2007 tour. The Honorary Doctorate was conferred by the University Chancellor, the Honorable John Dowd AO QC, in Melbourne on June 8. [The above news are all gleaned from the SCU website.]

In this connection, Bee-Chen has been honored with being invited to be on stage with His Holiness, one of four who would be asking question during the ensuing dialogue. After the encounter, Bee Chen called her eldest sister (that’s wify) and gave a first-hand account of her very first meeting with the Dalai Lama: forehead-to-forehead greeting, scarf/shawl giving, not to mention the excitement of seeing/hearing the Dalai Lama speak in person. She was even kept on stage during her turn at the scarf giving ceremony when the Dalai Lama explained the meaning of the gesture.

For the past few days, I’ve been trying to source the Net for any news of this momentous meeting that she was a part of. And that account turned up today, in the form of a video taken with a still camera in YouTube. See for yourself and marvel at how easy going the Dalai Lama is. The image below is captured from the above video display.

His Holiness explaining the origin of the scarf giving gesture, an Indian tradition, but acknowledging that the material has come from China.

It's heartening to know that another academic institution is working towards establishing a Buddhist program. And to know that Bee-Chen has played a part in that development really warms our heart. Amitofo.

Chanting Buddha's Name

After a brief rest upon returning from the 2nd Session of the Middle Way Buddhist Session [(not for my wife though as there was more cooking to be done to contribute to the pot luck dinner in conjuction with the Buddhism lecture meeting organized by Gainesville Buddhist Association at the campus of the University of Florida (UF)], we hit the road again at 3.30pm, bringing along three other Buddhist friends in our Minivan.

It so happened that our S at UF is also starting his spring break this weekend, and we took the opportunity to expose him, and his sister, to Buddhist teaching. We arrived at UF just before 6pm, and went straight to Diamond Village after picking up our S.

While in the Campus, we drove past the apartment in Corry Village that we had stayed for four years when I was a UF grad student during the early half of the decade of 1990. We thought it would be nice to knock on the door and introduce ourselves to the present residents, “Hi, we stayed here more than ten years ago." That’s what a previous resident did to us while we were there, holding a bottle of wine in his hand. However, the thought stayed as that as we drove past.

We were the early birds at the venue, the commons room in Diamond Village, a family housing for UF students. Then the attendees started to trickle in, bringing their contributions to the pot luck. Soon the table was filled with yummy food items.

While the scheduled lectures are to be given by Brother Shieh on the Diamond Sutra, this evening session was a special one conducted by his wife, Sister Lily, on Chanting Buddha's Name (Namo Amitabha or the shorter version, Amitabha). Also, unlike the morning session at St. Pete, this evening’s session was in Chinese, which means that any error that arises in my translation is solely mine.

In his introduction, Brother Shieh stressed the distinction between knowing/understanding and realizing. In learning Buddhism, knowing/understanding results from a shallow level of understanding that is commonly associated with our acquisition of worldly knowledge. But realizing can only come from a deep level of understanding of the Buddhist scriptures.


Buddhism emphasizes actualizing Buddhist teaching through practice, not merely acquiring the ability to recite verbatim nor shelving the teaching at a corner in the mind. Then only would we achieve a complete transformation, a thorough revamping of our value system in consonance with the teaching of Buddha.

At the start, Sister Lily circulated a set of notes to give an outline and the gist of the lessons that she would cover. I have to admit that the notes make frequent use of excerpts from scriptures and Sutras that address the what, how, and the results of chanting Buddha’s name, and a literal translation just would not do nor would it serve any purpose. On the other hand, the associated meaning of each is profound that defies my feeble attempts at translation primarily because of my limited understanding of Buddhist concepts and terms myself. But I guess one can’t really be faulted for trying. And feedback would be the best judge. So make use of the comments capability here liberally.

The basic premise for chanting Buddha’s name is the manifestation of the causal relationship that links chanting Buddha’s name (cause) to achieving buddhahood (effect).

As a broad definition, the action of chanting Buddha’s name would lead to one’s liberation from the cycle of rebirth so that one could, or rather would, be conveyed to the Western Pure Land, a heaven of buddhahood, upon leaving this present physical world, so that we could mingle amongst the enlightened denizens and become one.

As a narrow definition, the action would lead us to a focused state, thereby spawning wisdom. Being focused, we would not be trapped in the make-believe world of impure thoughts. Therefore, chanting Buddha’s name is a panacea, a purifying agent if you will, for impure thoughts that haunt us.

The direct way of chanting Buddha’s name is to recite through the mouth. A way that has worked for her is to recite the short version (Amitabha) that consists of four Chinese characters (hence, four sounds since the Chinese language is monosyllabic) in rhythm with breathing: two during inhaling and two during exhaling. Start with a small number target (say, five) and graduate to bigger number (in thousands daily) over time. In this way, the mind will achieve a focused state.

She also recommended ascending to the next level of mental recitation. First, study an image of Buddha and memorize it by heart. Then while invoking the mental image of Buddha with the eye closed, silently recite the Buddha’s name.

With diligence and perseverance, in time one would even be able to do the chanting, either verbally or mentally, by meshing it with any rhythmic motion/sound such as the to-and-fro swiping action of the car wipers while driving in the rain or the tick-tock of a clock.

The benefits of cultivating the habit of chanting Buddha’s name are threefold:

• Obliterating bad thoughts, thereby nipping the seeds of bad action in the bud, and neutralizing bad merits that have accrued.


• Promoting good/virtuous thoughts, thereby sowing the seeds and laying down the conditions for meeting up with Buddha.


• Through practice, the action becomes implanted and repeated action cumulatively provides for the emergence of right mindfulness at the time we are about to depart from this physical world.

The benefits of chanting Buddha’s name accrue cumulatively. Hence, it is vital that Buddhist practitioners commence and cultivate the habit of chanting Buddha’s name as early as possible. And now it’s as good as any other time to initiate that first step toward preparing for the final moment of our present life as time is forever marching inexorably forward, so is our aging, and death is a certainty.

To Endure/Tolerate is to Win & Win

Our primary sources of news in Chinese, be it about Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, or US, are online e-newspapers or e-journals. However, whenever we do grocery shopping at local Chinese stores, we always make it a point to take the free Chinese newspapers or buy printed copies of the same, one of which is the World Journal.

On the December 16, 2006 issue, I was pleasantly surprised to read s brief news coverage on the proceeding of the 2006 Venerable Master Hsing Yun Dharma Lecture held at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall that stretched over the period Dec 15-17, 2006 (p. A10). Subsequently, I searched the website of Fu Guang Shan Monastery and note that the event had been reported there as well. The Venerable Master Hsing Yun Dharma Lecture series started in 1975, and this year’s event marks his last public appearance at spreading the Buddha teaching, after which he will enter into a period of self-imposed solitude.

According to the web news from which the image is taken, the event was in the form of “a talk [dialog] between Venerable Master Hsing Yun and Chief Executive Officer of The Landis Taipei, Stanley Yen, about [entitled] Sea of Wisdom – [on] Business Management and Personnel Management [the insertions in square parentheses are mine as replacements so as to better describe the event]. The sage words of Master Tsing Yun, juxtaposing the application of the Buddha teaching in everyday management are legendary to me as I’ve blogged here.

Therefore, I was eager to find out how the Buddhist and corporate perspectives on management could be blended, mutually reinforced, and marshaled for the benefit of humanity. However, the web news went on to describe briefly what both personalities did, but nothing on what actually transpired, or at least a gist/summary so that people like me can take home some message as well.

Fortunately, the coverage by the World Journal did a better job in that respect, even though the headline used is a critique of the present political leadership of Taiwan: The leader vehemently denies any wrong-doing. In his words, integrity is paramount among the many qualities required of a leader, which the present leadership lacks. Honestly, I’ve to admire his candor in rebuking the political leadership of the day as most religious figures would deem such outbursts as beneath their stature. The image scanned from the World Journal news shows an animated Venerable Master Tsing Yun gesticulating to make a point about having a forgiving heart.

The news report highlighted an exchange during the Q&A session in which a participant inquired as to the how of self-management, noting that managing people is inherently more complicated than managing matters despite the emphasis on communication.

While nobody wants to be labeled as a loser, Venerable Master Tsing Yun reminded us that there is always a best even among the best. Therefore the best approach to endure/tolerate such proclivity among us is to be flexible in our dealings while leaving all options open, including acceding when mutually beneficial. But how to put it into action? Venerable Master Tsing Yun offered three steps:

1) Firstly, endure through the countenance by spotting a smiling face (note that countenance has another positive spin meaning consent); failing which
2) endure through the mouth by refraining from speaking ills of others, and if there is also not attainable;
3) then endure through the heart as in being big-hearted and forgiving.

At the end of it all, the very matter that has precipitated the "contest" ceases to be of concern anymore.

Here I would like to close with a brief discussion on the Chinese character that means to endure/tolerate (note that there really isn’t an equivalent word in the English lexicon that encompasses the full extent of the Chinese character, and the best I can come up with is a combination of to endure and to tolerate as used above). The image to the left is from here.

For one, it can be considered as a combination of another two Chinese characters: the dagger over the heart. It’s also the same word used to denote a ninja (nin, ja meaning person/practitioner), a highly skilled warrior who is able to endure the severest test/punishment. Some common Chinese proverbs associated with the character are, literally translated, "on top of endurance hangs a sword", which implies that a moment of inability to endure can bring about dire consequences, and "a hundred times of endurance turns one into gold", which means endurance makes us a better person.

So contrary to western thinking, to endure/tolerate in the psyche of the Chinese and the ethos of Buddhism is not an admission of defeat and thus to be shunned, but rather a virtuous display of one’s magnanimity that truly results in a win-win situation.

Dharma Lessons Through Practice

Today's release life activity bore a special significance: it's the very first time we had Bhante Dhammawansha to grace the occasion. Bhante Dhammawansha is a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka based in Clearwater. He has been delivering Buddhist teaching in the Bay area for the past 5-6 years, including giving Buddhist talks and participating in inter-faith dailog in area churches and synagogues. The first Annual Robe Offering Celebration of the Dhamma Wheel Meditation Society that we have participated on Nov 12, 2006 and that I have blogged here was held at his residence.

As usual, seven of us first assembled at our usual place, the 24-hour McDonald's Restaurant along North Dale Mabry just north of the I-275 flyover (or viaduct as is called here). All seated in my car (an 8-seater Minivan), we crossed the Bay via State Road 60 over the Courtney Campbell Bridge and picked up the 8th passenger, Bhante Dhammawansha, at his residence. Then it was off to the Clearwater Beach for the release life activity.

This is a revisit for many of us, Clearwater Beach being a popular site of choice for our activity. En-route, Bhante and us warmed up mutually pretty fast and he started sharing his experience with us, including the contrast of the condition now and the time when he first came to the area 5-6 years ago.

He was in an eminent position to do that because he had resided in one of the ocean front condo units along Clearwater Beach for a period of about seven months, thanks to an Indian lady who housed him in her own condo.

Now so many high rise condominiums are sprouting up along the ocean frontage in the Clearwater Beach Area like young shoots after a nourishing rain that the ocean view is no more like before, unbroken vista of the beach expanse and the distant horizon. I replied matter-of-factly that that's the price we pay for development, but knowing deep down inside me that it doesn't have to be that way.

While cruising over the newly opened bridge that leads us to the Clearwater Beach, we saw what Bhante meant: closely spaced condominiums, some still under construction, rising like a curtain at the water's edge to crowd out the ocean view.

We first bought the fish and shrimp juveniles from the bait shop and placed them in pails to be carried over to the site, which is the wooden jetty next to the bait shop. We also brought along a battery operated aerator (the yellow instrument attached to the top of the pail in the image) to keep the juveniles in a healthy condition while on transit to the jetty as well as during the mantra chanting session.

We then proceeded to the wooden jetty behind the bait shop where, led by Bhante, the party chanted Buddhist mantras in Pali amidst Bhante's explanation of the significance of releasing life. Above all, the act of releasing life fosters compassion, nurtures virtue and perpetuates love for all sentient beings. The resulting purification of the mind is akin to cleaning us of the rust that have encrusted us, thereby facilitating us coming into closer contact with our true self on the route to attaining buddhahood. Buddhist teaching emphasizes the humanistic approach, and upholds adherence to precepts through practice.

I find Bhante to be a resourceful teacher: employing a captivating story telling style, citing analogies and using simple language, wearing a perennial smile, adopting an approachable stance, and displaying great listening skills. These he evinced comfortably in his interaction with us, both in the car while waiting for one of us to run an errand at the local post office, and during lunch at the Thai House at the Largo Shopping Mall.

A case in point is the notion of rebirth, as distinct from reincarnation. While the latter entails wandering spirits in a limbo for a period of 7 days, the former is instant and occurs the moment the present life ends. Also, in biological terms, there are only two essential ingredient for a human birth to occur: a fertilized egg, and a womb for the gestation. But Buddhism adds one more element: the best attempt at an English translation is the sub-consciousness. And the rapt attention on my wife's face says it all.

The Thai House is frequented by Bhante, while it's the first visit for the rest of us. Other than the symbols of Thai Buddhism, the wall is also adorned with the names of regular patrons, which I thought is a novel move and is likely to entice repeat business. At the end of it all, the courteous waitress was kind enough to offer to take our group picture, with the Smiling Buddha standing guard behind. The delicious lunch was an early Christmas gift from Susie, the lady in pink standing to the right of Bhante.

Thanks to Yu Huai Chen, again, for organizing the activity, all participants for taking time to display compassion, and Bhante Dhammawansha for both gracing the occasion, and for enlightening us on some of the important lessons of the Buddhist teachings within such a short span of time.

Understanding Buddhism Revisited

Similar to the NBC effort , another effort at fostering inter-faith understanding on a global scale, but using a local example as a microcosm, has started in Malaysia more than two years ago. The local example is the State of Penang, through the Penang Global Ethic Project.

The project “promotes the concepts of 'World Religions – Universal Peace – Global Ethic' by identifying them with Penang's traditions of religious tolerance and diversity” where “people of all nations, ages, religions and ethnic backgrounds can learn about traditions of peaceful religious co-existence.”.

Through organizing such activities as exhibitions, public talks, public forums and workshops, the project aims to highlight “common moral values and ethical standards which are shared by the different faiths and cultures on Earth”.

Spotting a banner containing nine symbols that represent Indigenous Spirituality, Hinduism, Chinese Religion (comprising Confucianism and Taoism), Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Bahai Faith on its main page, the website also contains an introductory article on each of the religions.

The first paragraph on Buddhism asserts that “Buddhism is not a philosophy. It is a religion.” I find such an assertion to be unnecessarily rigid, nor does it reflect the prevailing Buddhist view expressed in English Buddhist texts one of which is “The Collected Works of Venerable Master Chin Kung” translated by Silent Voices and printed by The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation .

In Chapter Two entitled “The Four Kinds of Buddhism Today”, Venerable Master Chin Kung enumerated at least four different types as follows:

• The authentic Buddhism: This entails "the education of understanding the true reality of life and the universe originally taught by Buddha Shakyamuni. Unfortunately, the authentic education is rare and difficult to encounter nowadays".


• The religious Buddhism: "Originally, Buddhism was not a religion, but now it has become one. We can no longer deny that there is a Buddhist religion because everywhere we look, specially in Asia, it is displayed as a religion ... Today we see people making offerings to the Buddha statues and praying for blessings and good fortune. In this way, Buddhism has been wrongly changed into a religion."


• Buddhism as the philosophical study of the Buddha’s teachings: "Many universities today offer courses on the study of Buddhist Sutras, considering the teachings as a philosophy. The content of the Buddha’s education is actually a complete university of knowledge and wisdom. Philosophy is only one of its contents. Just as it is wrong to recognize a university as a single course, it is also inappropriate to think of and limit the Buddha’s education to only a philosophy… The Buddha’s teachings are profound and vast, and teach us the truths of life and the universe. It should not be mistaken as only a philosophy".


• The Deviant and Externalist Buddhism: This "is an extremely unfortunate distortion that came to be in the past thirty to forty years". It thrives on “the weakness of human nature to cheat and harm living beings, disturbing the peace and safety of society. The speech and actions of these deviant and external paths can be very attractive and enticing. One should be careful as not to be misled by these deviant ways and regretting it would be to late.”

So by default, the perception of Buddhism as solely a religion, or a philosophy, misses entirely the central tenet of Buddhism as an educational endeavor in the broadest sense of the word. And to that end, “we should recognize them for what they are and think carefully as to which way is most beneficial to us and the one we will ultimately follow”, so admonished Venerable Master Chin Kung, lest we help propagate the misconception that Buddhism is a religion, and nothing more.

The many facets of Buddhism as expounded by Venerable Master Chin Kung have been similarly addressed in Wikipedia, which describes it "as a dharmic, non-theistic religion, a way of life, a practical philosophy, and arguably a form of psychology".

The last characterization as a form of psychology perhaps springs from one of the recognized schools in Buddhism, the Consciousness Only School (Weishi in Chinese), which “holds that all things exist only as presentations or phenomenological appearances that are manifestations of our consciousness” (from the Glossary of the book blogged here ).

Today's is the concluding class of the Dharma lecture series on the Consciousness Only School delivered by Venerable Master Hui Zheng that I and my wife have been attending for the past two months. I hope to prepare a summary of what I have learned and benefited to share in one my subsequent blog articles.

Understanding Buddhism

On weekdays, I usually leave home at about five minutes after seven in the morning to send my daughter to school. That means I only watch about five minutes of the Today show on NBC, which starts at 7.00 am sharp.

So I know the Today show people have started a series called “The Mystery of Faith”, which started with Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Then yesterday morning, the focus turned to Eastern religions, and the show displayed some images of the religions that caught my attention, that of the Buddha. However, I could not stay on to watch because of a prior commitment as aforementioned.

So today after work I was able to watch the replay on NBC’s website, which consists of two 5-minute segments hosted by Campbell Brown and filmed in Hong Kong, now part of China.

The first segment started with Ms. Brown standing in front of a gigantic sitting Buddha said to be 10 storey high, one of five such Buddha statues in China. Visitors have to climb 268 steps to reach the Buddha site, according to Ms. Brown.

In her narrative, she covered two eastern religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. On Hinduism, she said that the religion, which has over a billion followers, actually started in Pakistan about three thousands years ago and spread into India. The Buddha was born in India, and Buddhism spread from there into the Asian Continent. There are now about 375 millions Buddhist practitioners (read here for my choice of the term "practitioners") worldwide.

Both religions are not well understood by the West, perhaps sometimes overshadowed by the elaborate ritualistic practices, and apparent worship of multiple deities. Both are often viewed as a kind of enigma, with ornate temples/shrines and mysterious looking gods.

She correctly asserts that Buddhism is not an institutionalized religion, but rather a personal journey to enlightenment. Therefore, everyone has the divinity within each to become a Buddha.

Neither does Buddhism profess total renunciation of the present life, but rather one should actively pursue a meaningful life by helping others, by doing good deeds, and by repudiating all the worldly excesses and exterminating worldly sins such as greed, anger, and delusion.

One of the central beliefs in Buddhism is karma, the totality of actions and conditions executed or experienced in a previous life that bear on the consequences occurring in this life, and likewise of this life on the next life, as symbolized by the wheel of life that turns inexorably. This is a strong motivator to do good, akin to the adage that you reap what you sow.

This brings on another central Buddhist belief: that of the cycle of life from birth, death and to rebirth. In that Buddhism and Hinduism are congruent in the concept of samsara, the continuity of existence, commonly referred to as reincarnation.

A commonality among the various religions is the concept of heaven. However, they depart on how their respective followers get to the heaven. In Buddhism, it is the nirvana. While literally meaning extinction, nirvana is the attainment of the ultimate reality, understanding of the absolute truth, and reaching a state of safety, peace, happiness, and tranquility. However, Buddhism cannot be divorced from this world for it is a humanistic approach to embracing life, hence the term heaven (or pure land) on earth where the path leading to it is laid by the cessation of afflictions through cultivating the Four Noble Truths blogged here.

It came as a pleasant surprise that Buddhism has been highlighted in a national broadcast as part of a concerted effort toward inter-faith understanding so as to explore common ground to help achieve world peace. Late, but better than never.

In this Internet age, websites on Buddhism abound, some of which have migrated to the English medium to gain wider dissemination of the Buddhist teachings. Here is a sample of those websites that provide a wealth of Buddhism-related information in all its various facets:

• Amitabha Buddhist Society of U.S.A.


• Buddhist Association of the United States


• Fo Guang Shan International Buddhist Order


• Tzu Chi Foundation


• Dharma Drum Mountain

Feel free to explore and partake of the wisdom enshrined in the Buddhist teachings.

A Virtuous and Meritorious Day to Remember

A regular activity of my wife's cohort of buddhist adherents is the monthly ritual of releasing life. While Buddhism advocates that one shall not kill and terminate the life of another sentient being, releasing life is considered as a virtuous deed that can accumulate merits to one's good karma, hence begetting good consequences in a future life.

The activity is carried out in the morning at the water's edge, be it bayside or riverside. First, the entourage will stop at a pre-determined fish bait shop in the vicinity of the chosen location. Using the donations received from fellow adherents, we will buy bucketful of juvenile fish, shrimps, and sometimes, crabs, all live ones (I always tag along as I'm the designated driver since my Minivan can seat 8 passengers, and also the photographer, armed with my Canon Powershot A35).

Now, a site reconnaissance is first conducted to ascertain that the proposed site is accessible, that there is a fish bait shop nearby and it opens for business early in the morning, and that the place is not frequented by either fishing enthusiasts or preying birds for obvious reasons.

Not obvious? Then for one thing, fishing enthusiasts have a nose for where fishes congregate and where fishes are found aplenty, the juveniles that we release would have vanished instantly into the food chain, thereby defeating the purpose of our efforts. While some may view this as a symbolic act, due diligence must be exercised that their chances for survival are maximized. As for the preying birds, we usually have a trick up our sleeve, by feeding bread crumbs to them first, which in itself is a meritorious deed as well. Having their appetites satiated, the birds are less likely to swoop down on the temporarily disoriented juveniles, which can be traumatized during the release operation.

One of the adherents always provides the pails and portable aerators for keeping the juveniles alive during the short transit to the chosen location. Once at the chosen location, the ritual starts with the chanting of the Great Compassion Mantra and the Heart Sutra. Then the juveniles are released when the contents of the pails are poured gently into the water.

Today is the first time we have the ritual at the river side, actually is more like a canal, the Tampa Bypass Canal, which shunts the river discharge from the upstream of the Hillsborough River directly into the Bay during high rainfall events. But we added a new life to be released: earthworms, which are bought at the same bait shop, four cans-ful of them. But instead of pouring the can contents into the water, they are poured into shallow holes dug near the river bank then backfilled where they can then burrow to their heart's content without having to worry about wandering birds/chicken.

We left the house at 7.15am and by 9.10am, the ritual of release life was over, for today. Seeing the juveniles swimming away in a carefree fashion, instead of being gobbled up as baits at the end of a fish hook, filled our hearts with compassion, and permeated our minds with wonderful thoughts of the benevolence of life.

But for today, that wonderful feeling continued. This time, at 10.30am, the destination was the first Annual Robe Offering Celebration of the Dhamma Wheel Meditation Society held at Clearwater. Laden with cooked food ranging from fried noodles, vegetable dishes, to fresh-cut fruits (my wife prepared two bowls of water melon and strawberries), we arrived at the destination at the nick of time (my fault as I was busy talking about the recently concluded US election with my front seat passenger and missed the turn into State Route 60 from the I-275 bridge crossing the Tampa Bay. So instead of going to Clearwater directly to the north, we ended up at St. Pete at the south because there is no U-turn on the I-275 bridge and we had to make a long detour to the south first).

But as I said, we arrived just when the ceremony was about to start with food offering to the various Bhante (the equivalent of Venerable in Pali) monks (thirteen in all). The adherents stood on a line next to the serving table and the Bhantes then walked by in a line on the opposite side, their bowls gradually filled up by food items picked up and offered by the adherents.

This is the most meritorious of alms giving, offering food, clothing, shelter, and robes to the sangha, any community of Buddhist monks. That done, the bhantes then sat on two opposite rows, with the apex occupied by the white statue of the Buddha, seemingly presiding over the ceremony. This was the setting for the robe offering ceremony. The adherents took turns to offer the robes stacked neatly on a table in their names as sponsors to each Bhante in turn.

This was followed by the award of certificates to newly ordained adherents, each being given a Buddhist name in Pali with the meaning explained. The ceremony concluded with a Dharma talk on the significance of the robe offering and the associated merit gathering aspect, and lastly, an acknowledgment of appreciation from the Dhamma Wheel Meditation Society (DWMS) to all concerned who had helped make this a solemn and virtuous event.

Thanks were also extended to the congregation of Unity Church, the ever helpful neighbor, for their continued support of DWMS. This inter-faith cooperation is especially credit-worthy and inspiring and should auger well for a peaceful world.

Today has indeed been a wondrous day, and we have all been blessed in more ways than one. May all beings be well, happy and peaceful, as written on the program sheet. And I extend the same to all those who visit my blog, and pray that you would likewise extend the same wish to all with whom you cross path.

P.S. I’ve been using the term "adherents" but the term used by DWMS is "practitioners". To the extent that Buddhism emphasizes the practice of the various Buddha teachings and their embracing as a way or philosophy of life, I would agree that “practitioners” would be a more appropriate and meaningful description than “adherents”, which may imply blindly following of a faith. Henceforth, I will use “practitioners”.