Kevin Warsh hinted of interest rate hike recently. Will local banks also increase interest rate for savers? Banks are quick to raise interest rates for credit cards but slow to increase interest rate for saving account. In Singapore, it is low 0.05% interest per annum if you don't credit your salary and saving for some local banks. I'm thinking of changing OCBC to other banks.
I'm thankful to one local bank for giving decent interest rate at about 1.5% for UOB stash account. At least every month, I have some money to buy coffee and snacks.
I find the following verse from Diamond Sutra helpful in letting go unhappiness. In life, there are times you need reminder or encouragement. Life is life Tao, that looks like sine wave with up and down when rotated. But it is when there is duality that you understand what it means in both polarities.
If you are interested to read more about Buddhism and the Heart Sutra, you can visit my blog here.
I spent some time translating meaningful part of this drama on the life of the 6th Patriarch of Chan, the Venerable Huineng as I find that it is helpful. Please highlight to me if there is error in translating.
Venerable Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarchof Chan (February 27, 638 – August 28, 713) was said to attain awakening when he heard a verse from the Diamond Sutra 应无所住而生其心. Without abiding anything, give rise to the pure mind.
When the Fifth Patriarch of Chan Venerable Hong Ren explained to him the Diamond sutra. Venerable Hui Neng was "suddenly and completely enlightened, and he understood that all things exist in self-nature.
应无所住而生其心，Without abiding anything, give rise to the pure mind
云何应住，云何降伏其心 When does the cloud abide, how does the cloud calm the mind
佛说应无所住而生其心 Buddha said without abiding in forms, arises the mind
即是说心即是佛,佛即是心 Meaning Pure Mind is Buddha and Buddha is Pure Mind.
他做了一首偈子Venerable Huineng came up with the following stanza when he understood the verse. I think true self, is our consciousness.
何其自性本自清净！What is true self, it is intrinsically pure
何其自性本不生灭！What is true self, it is neither born nor extinguish
何其自性本自具足！What is true self, it is self-sufficient
何其自性能生万法！What is true self, it can produce immeasurable dharma/ideas
From the Diamond Sutra
Subhuti, all great bodhisattvas should give rise to purity of mind in this way: they should not give rise to a mind that abides in form; they should not give rise to a mind that abides in form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas. They should give rise to a mind that does not abide in anything.
Subhuti, a bodhisattva should turn away from all notions, and initiate the mind of anuttara samyaksambodhi. He should not give rise to a mind abiding in form, and he should not give rise to a mind abiding in sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas. He should give rise to a mind that does not abide in anything.
When we contemplate the following verses from the Diamond Sutra, your mind should not be affected by forms which are transient, dependent on causes and conditions.
一切有为法，如梦幻泡影，如露亦如电，应作如是观
“All conditioned phenomena Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows, Like dew and lightning. One should contemplate them in this way. “
All phenomena appear in the world is a combination of causes and conditions that is temporary by nature. It will pass. There is no permanent nature to form which is subjected to change due to causes and conditions, thus it is illusory. Thus why be sad over something that is illusory. Just let it go and not be attached to it.
A lot of suffering comes from the mind which is influenced by forms like sight, hearing, touch, taste or perception. When someone criticised us, we get upset, when someone own something we don’t have, we want it. We are always influenced by the three poison, greed, anger and delusion.
From the book, Miracles Happen: The Transformational Healing by Dr Brian Weiss, “ Chinese philosopher Hui-neng (6thpatriarch of Chan Buddhism/Zen) wrote, “When we are free from attachment to all outer objects, the mind will be in peace. Our essence of mind is intrinsically pure, and the reason why we are perturbed is because we allow ourselves to be carried by the circumstances we are in. He who is able to keep his mind unperturbed (calm), irrespective of circumstances has attained enlightenment. “
A woman who went through a near-death experience shared,” I realized that life is like a dream”. She wrote, “ When you are born, you wake up into mortality in this physical body. When your physical body dies, you return to immortality.”
I realised what is 无我 no-self as our consciousness or mind changes identity in various body forms in our many reincarnations. Thus there is no permanent self-identity. Do not cling to anger and just let go.
Today on 9 August, Singapore is celebrating 61 years of independence. The success of modern Singapore is inextricably linked to our first Prime Minister, the astute and wise Mr Lee Kuan Yew who led Singapore with his fellow comrades like Dr Goh Keng Swee, from third world to first world. Thank you Mr Lee Kuan Yew for your lifelong dedication to Singapore.
If you love flowers too, visit my Blooming Flowers and Arts blog here.
You can watch the recently concluded Singapore Garden Festival 2026 here. I like the impressive landscape gardens with amazing architecture designs and also intricate penjing.
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I'm currently working part-time in an organisation and I'm delighted to see the most beautiful exquisite pine trees and bamboos! I'm impressed by the effort and thought put into landscaping and taking care of the gardens. Other organisations just put perfunctory effort in creating garden as part of the organisation criteria or KPI. I have to say it's one of the beautiful gardens with unique and exquisite bamboos and pine trees that are quite rare. It's the first time I seen such beautiful pine trees.
This is the third organisation that I joined as part-time staff this year. Actually it should be the fourth as the third was an independent organisation. I learnt about different organisation cultures and implementations. This current organisation has the best culture (respectful generally) and most beautiful garden with creative leaders. The good thing about working part-time is I just focus on the creative aspect of my work and not spend too much time on admin and meeting.
Anyway, I always feel happy whenever I go back early after completing the task and I don't have to stay back for meetings and other duties. Contract with this organisation will end in few months time. I will use the time to admire these beautiful pine trees during my free time. These ancient looking pine trees are indeed a sight to behold.
I decided not to use Facebook account. What is the point of having the account if I can't share my blog or video? I'm also not comfortable giving my phone number and putting my photo to the social media. In a way it is good that I can save time by not spending too much time on Facebook. So do not respond if you see my name as I'm not using Facebook now.
Immerse yourself in a showcase of award-winning orchids at the Singapore Orchid Show. Co-organised with the Orchid Society of South East Asia (OSSEA). This amazing showcase gathers a diverse collection of warm- and cool-climate orchids from around the world at Flower Dome, at Gardens by the Bay.
Finally watched this excellent touching Teochew movie, Dear You. As a Teochew (潮州揭阳和潮阳）， I chose the original Teochew movie and it made me feel at home as I normally converse a mixture of Teochew and Mandarin at home. My late great-grandmother and grandparents conversed to me in Teochew.
This is definitely a great production. A touching story of how Teochews helped fellow Teochews in a foreign land. It reminds me of my late grandfathers who left China in the 1940s when they were young. They also sent money and letters to their families in China and I couldn't' help but got teary whenever I think of their suffering. The pain of separation from their families back home and they worked so hard to support their big families in Singapore too.
This is an amazing movie. Faster go and watch. Teochew Nan Gaginan.
I finally visited Singapore Garden Festival at Gardens by the Bay yesterday! Wow, there are so many impressive exhibition! I arrived at Gardens by the Bay at around 10 am plus in the morning and left at about 8.45 pm. I didn't see Planters Market as it was too late.
Jointly organised by Singapore National Parks and Gardens by the Bay, I think they have done a great job in showcasing the best tropical landscape design and horticulture and floral display to the world in this 10th edition of the Singapore Garden Festival.
You can still catch Singapore Gardens Festival at Singapore by the Bay till 12 July 2026, this coming Sunday.
For more information, you can visit Blooming Flowers, Arts and Travel blog here where I share everything about flowers, arts and travel.
If not for the recent Molly Tea and LV copyright case in China, I didn’t know the logo from LV is the same as the decoration (different orientation) in a Buddhism rock wall craving （大足石刻 ）in China built during the Tang dynasty about 1400 years ago.
33 years ago on this day, I was devastated that Wong Ka Kiu passed on. Sadly Beyond slowly disbanded after he passed on. A talented composer and singer, his music lives on.
Heaven is kinda nice to me. I should just enjoy early retirement and focus on my hobbies like drawing and painting. Occasionally go see flowers and travel. I have many watercolour papers and paint. I should remind myself to stop buying and just paint.
Painted the cosmo flowers from learning from YouTube.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, former President of the Republic of Kalmykia and President of the World Chess Federation shares with the public of an alleged alien encounter in 1997. President Trump also talk about people coming from space with Joe Rogan. Some of you might think they are bonkers. Listen to what they shared about the alien message on humans on planet earth. I do agreed. Humans are not ready to travel out of space in speed of light. They might bomb other planets with nuclear weapons. After nuclear bombs were dropped, it shook the universe. All planets are relative in distance and it might affect space time travel. More UFO sightings were reported in USA after nuclear bombs were detonated.
We are living in interesting time. The age of full disclosure is coming soon.
Just watched the movie Disclosure Day by Steven Spielberg. Coincidentally, the time it screened the movie coincided with the United States of America's Department of War release of the third set of UFO/UAP files on 12 June 2026 as shown here.
More than 2500 years ago, Buddha 佛 already said that the universe is vast （大千世界， 人外有人，天外有天）. Earth is just like a grain of sand on the vast universe. He also shared that the asuras and heavenly beings had wars too even though they are from higher realms. That's why beings in the six realms are still in samsara as there are still greed, craving and ignorance.
Spoiler alert! Of course this Disclosure Day is a movie and focused on the two protagonists who were abducted. However based on records, USA had more than thousand people abducted by extraterrestrial beings like Barney and Betty case in 1961. Maybe most extraterrestrials are benevolent but there are some who did terrible experiments on humans and some lied to USA government.
In the movie, there are two factions. One who want to continue to keep UFO/UAP secret whereas the other group want the truth to be released. I think Steven Spielberg already gave a hint on how the scientists who went missing or so called "hurt themselves". Some of the scientists already told their friend that they will never hurt themselves. Perhaps someone from military is using psychic to control the scientists as shown in the movie when Noah used a special tool and mind to control and manipulate the young former nun to reveal the whereabouts of of the male protagonist and hurt him. CIA had secret program with remote viewers who can access information with their mind or consciousness.
Towards the end of the last 30 minutes of the movie, it showed footage of Richard Nixon and his bestie Jackie Gleason. They were said to be seeing recovered bodies of extraterrestrials and also reproduced footage of recovery crafts from Roswell in 1947 and experiment conducted on extraterrestrials. I think they are showing these now to desensitise population and maybe later batch of information by USA might reveal these information.
Empathy is important. Treat others like how you want to be treated. If you don't like them, don't hurt them. Just walk away. You cannot use psychic power to hurt others. If you intentionally hurt others, one day you are going to experience the same impact that you done to hurt others so you can understand and experience how others felt on the impact of your action. If you never see or experience what others experienced, don't dismiss them as delusion. Seek to understand. Karma (Cause and Effect) is the law of the universe and is real. 因果真实不虚。南无阿弥陀佛
