Last year I went to iLight alone. This year I asked my friend to join me to explore Light to Night Singapore 2024 at the Civic district where you can view Singapore National Gallery being projected with interesting light images. For the first time, you can also enjoy street food outside National Gallery. We walked from Raffles City shopping mall near City Hall MRT station to Raffles Place MRT station to explore different light art.
We enjoyed mesmerising live performance by street performer Bryan Wong @Brylights who was dancing gracefully at one with the giant ring and light sticks. We were all so impressed by his awesome performance!
Light to Night Singapore will end on 8 February this year.
Yesterday was a really productive day. After work, I went to admire the dahlias flowers at Gardens by the Bay Flower dome with my cousins. Later we went to Chinatown to see the Chinese Lunar New Year light-up. Based on the Chinese zodiac, this year is 甲龙 or Wood Dragon.
I'm finally back to Chinatown this year. I'm quite happy with the lighting decorations and I look forward to shopping at Chinatown soon to prepare for my favourite festival of the year which is also known as the Spring Festival. I'm looking forward to a brand new start and change this year.
I think this dragon design looks quite impressive at night from the side view.
Chinatown MRT station
Pretty traditional shophouses in Chinatown
We had dinner at Good Luck BBQ for Sichuan cuisine.
I'm very happy with my new book purchase at Orchard Road today by Jet Li LianJie 李连杰, Beyond Life and Death, Jet Li looking for Jet Li. Jet Li is a Chinese-born Singaporean who is successful actor, former 5-time Wushu champion. I hope there is a book signing event in Singapore. Even though this book is in traditional Chinese and has to be read from right to left instead of the usual left to right and Simplified Chinese, I decided to buy as I wanted to read immediately and the bookstore staff are not sure when the Simplified Chinese version will arrive in Singapore. Anyway, i can recognise the traditional Chinese character which has more strokes.
In this book, Jet Li shared his quest for the truth and happiness. Like him, we have affinity with Buddha's teaching (佛缘). We find Buddha's teaching helpful in solving personal problems and clarifying many questions I had. I really enjoy listening and reading the dhamma. Why are some people so talented in certain field? In education, we talk about prior knowledge. Perhaps their consciousness still retain prior knowledge they acquired in their past lives. Our bodies are like hardware like mobile phone and it will break down and our consciousness are like the software or data that retain contents like knowledge and karma of previous hardware. It reminds me of the Heart Sutra verse, no birth no death, just transformation in states.
Shakyamuni Buddha was born a prince with great wealth and power but he realised power and wealth can't end universal suffering of aging, sickness and death. He spent 7 years searching for the truth and end to suffering and he found it-the Noble Eightfold Path ( Right View, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration) to end suffering and he spent 49 years teaching people using differentiated teaching to people of various abilities from the poor to the royalty. Buddha taught people not to believe him or supposedly by him but to investigate and find out if it relate to your experience. He only taught and shared his discovery on how to end suffering and anyone can also achieve if they practise what he shared.
Jet Li pondered why his billionaire friends are still so upset despite their wealth? No matter how rich a person is, he or she can't escape death. You only own the wealth temporarily. Poor and rich people still have worries and suffering. Poor people worry about 2 to 3 figures and the rich worry about millions or billions of dollars. A rich person still strive to earn more and this 'greed' or insecurity make them even want more which lead to more craving and greed. There is also 无常 or impermanence as there is always change. Day by day, we change with age. Understanding this, I appreciate this moment. I'm currently younger than the next moment.
I totally agree with him. Especially regarding people who are sarcastic.
Interesting insight from the monk. Why didn't I think of that? I need to focus more on practice. Hopefully next year, I can go to meditation retreat in temple. I do hope to visit China Mount Putuo or Taiwan Fo guang shan.
I finally managed to see the adorable Le Le panda, baby of Jia Jia and Kai Kai. Today I went to River Wonders with my parents and youngest brother to see the panda family.
I really hope Le Le can continue to stay in Singapore. There is a farewell event on 20 November this year and after that he will go for quarantine before his trip to China in December. (Update: Le Le will be going back to China in January next year. ) He is so cute and smart. Before he dozed off after eating his lunch, he kinda sensed the crowd and looked up and I managed to take a photo of him. Even though pandas are generally solitary animals, it would be good to keep the family intact. Felt so sweet to see both Jia Jia mama panda and Le Le munching on bamboo together. Will Le Le be back to Singapore?
Le Le (left) and his mum, Jia Jia eating their lunch.
Le Le retreated to his favourite tree after eating his lunch.
Besides comedy and musical movies, I also like Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) related movies. Now UFO is known as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP). We have a vast universe and I believe there are other extraterrestrial beings from other solar systems. I read that there are different species. Some look pretty and some look scary. I think most are benevolent kind else with their advanced technology, they could easily destroy this blue green planet earth. Instead this beautiful earth is dominated by ignorant greedy human beings who burn the forest and pollute the ocean for this man-made money. Money can't buy clean air and water.
I think this amazing movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind directed by Steven Spielberg in 1977 is really awesome. I hope to watch it in movie theatre one day as it can be spectacular to watch it in big theatre.
We are just a spark in the universe! Look at the image below, Earth is the third planet from the sun. In this solar system, there are 8 planets. Earth is just one of 8 planets in this one solar system. Our sun is just one star. There are two hundreds billions of stars in this milky way galaxy. This vast universe has one hundred billions of galaxies! （大千世界). Are we alone? Looking at this number, it is impossible we are alone. It is naïve to think we are alone.
For sure, there are other living beings in other planets in other galaxies. Many might be more technologically advance compared to us, looking at their supersonic speed spacecrafts flying around planet earth. You can read more here.
There are more reports of people seeing Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) around the world. It's a great breakthrough that there is congress hearing on UFO in the United States of America . After the Roswell UFO crash in 1947, there were many great inventions. Did the US engineers reverse-engineer the recovered non-human (euphemism for alien) UFO space craft? Hopefully this congress hearing will encourage more people to share more information about UFO. The truth will be revealed one day. Who knows, those non-humans might reveal themselves soon. Maybe they are observing us, worrying about nuclear war that might destroy planet earth and the implosion might impact other planets and galaxies. Hopefully there is no nuclear war on our beautiful planet earth. It is foolish to move to dusty dull Mars if beautiful planet earth is destroy by nuclear war. May there be peace in this Universe. Meanwhile, just enjoy life on this beautiful blue planet!
This is our solar system. Our sun is just one star among the hundreds of billions of stars in our Milky way galaxy. The universe has billions of galaxies! We are just a small spark in the vast universe! Click here to read more. Image from Encyclopedia Britannica.
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From Discovery Channel, Stephen Hawking - Are We Alone?
David Grusch, a former U.S. intelligence official, told US congress that ‘Nonhuman biologics’ were found at UFO site. David Fravor, a former US Navy commander said, "The technology that we faced is far superior to anything that we had. And there’s nothing we can do about it, nothing."
Former USA President, Obama smile and said the aliens exercise strict control over us. He looked serious when he said he can't reveal anything. Admire Obama for his honesty.
Yesterday was the first day of Chinese lunar month of August. I decided to go to Kwan Im temple at Waterloo street to pray since I haven't visit the temple for many months. Luckily the temple opening hours is from 7am to 6.30 pm and I managed to pray at the temple after work.
This temple started in 1884 and was last renovated in 1983.
From Wikipedia, "The temple's main worship is Cundi, a manifestation of Kuan Yin. It also worship Damo and Hua Tuo. A statue of Tathagata Buddha is also placed behind Kuan Yin. On top of the altar there is also the Four Heavenly Kings."
Last month, I brought this interesting book, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by humorous Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner on the development of quantum field theory in 1965.
He shared how his father developed his love of learning through observation, creative imagination, thinking, and questioning and seeing the pattern and interconnection of things around you. I highly recommend this book especially if you enjoy learning.
You can watch this video on Richard Feynman talking about Fun to Imagine here
Went for night walk at Marina Bay area to recharge this Monday.It's always a bustling place filled with tourists who are excited to pose with Singapore iconic Merlion, a lion with fish body spurting water. I felt happy after walking in the durian Esplanade theatres by the bay and looking at the colourful Merlion.
Merlion
One of my favourite places, the Esplanade theatre by the bay.
