Happy Vesak Day! Tomorrow Buddhists around the world will commemorate the birth, enlightenment and Parinirvana of Gautama Buddha. I will stay at home meditating and listen to Dharma talks by Ajahn Keng and Master Sheng Yen to remember and reflect on Buddha's teaching.
We are indeed lucky to be able to still learn the teaching of Buddha even though
Buddha has entered parinirvana 2500 years ago. Remember 戒定慧 Precepts, Meditation
and Wisdom, the Noble Eightfold path to the path of awakening, Buddha told his
disciples before parinirvana.
Below is a video on the night that Buddha who sat under the Bodhi tree became
enlightened/awaken.
After victory over Mara, the Bodhisattva mind was firm, focused and concentrated. At dusk, the Bodhisattva began to develop meditative insight attaining to the first knowledge: The ability to recollect his past lives.
In the silence of the late night, he attained the second knowledge; Knowledge of the passing away and rebirth of beings according to the results of their actions.
Close to dawn, the Bodhisattva attained to the third knowledge; knowledge of the destruction of mental defilements, complete liberation and freedom from suffering. He thus came to be known as the fully self awakened Buddha.
" Craving with you I've been born again and again. But now you are revealed and your power redundant."
I finally completed 2 doses of vaccination last month. Initially I didn't want to go for second vaccination, but my colleagues and friends persuaded me and said that they are doing okay after vaccination so I went. Anyway, I don't plan to get the third dose as people can still be infected by the new variant and our Singapore government is still allowing import of foreigners and permanent residents from high risk countries with more contagious covid variant. There is no data yet regarding third dose side effects. I think it is risky to allow import from high risk countries with high transmissible variant and putting Singaporean's effort to naught. Now we have to regress back to phase 2. :(
Current ministers should monitor the situation first before allowing so many import from countries with covid outbreak of new and highly contagious variant.
Image captured from my Tracetogether app.
Yeah, I went to Cedele for late lunch.
After vaccination, they gave me this sticker and also a box of free disposable masks.
Recently I came across these two beautiful books at Times bookshop. I brought these two books by a Korean Buddhist monk Haemin Sunim. I like that these two books are filled with inspiring Buddha's teaching with beautiful illustrations.
I would like to share some inspiring quotes by Haemin Sunim from the book, The Things You Can See When You Slow Down.
How can you tell if someone is truly enlightened?
Shower him with both praise and criticism.
If he shows signs of being susceptible to either,
then it means he has forgotten his enlightened nature.
Life is like a theatre. You are assigned a role. If you don't like the role, keep in mind that you have the power to re-create the role you want.
Stop worrying about what others think and just do what your heart wishes. Do not crowd your mind with 'what ifs". Uncomplicate your life and own up to your desires. Only when you are happy can you help to make the world a happier place.
Live your life not to satisfy others, but to fulfil what your heart desires.
Recently I went for the first Covid19 vaccination at Tampines hub. It took about 1 hour and 15 mins for the whole process from queuing, registration, vaccination and resting for 30 minutes after vaccination. I went for vaccination at about 7pm on weekday.
As I'm working in the essential service, we are encouraged to take vaccination. Also most of my colleagues already took the vaccination and most of them experienced no negative effect for first vaccination.
Alas for me, I felt a little giddy and also experienced headache for the first vaccination. However by the next day noon, the headache subsided.
I'm now wondering if I should take the second vaccination. Maybe not if the protection only last for a short while. Read that it last at least 6 months after second vaccination.
I do hope to travel to China or Hong Kong hopefully by end of the year or next year. After reading all the attacks on Asians in western countries, I think it is not really safe to travel to Europe or USA after covid19.
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Waiting for registration. Staff would ask you questions like if you have any allergies .
I'm pretty thankful to my government for giving out $100.00 Singapore Rediscover $100.00 vouchers to Singapore citizens (18 years old and above) to support local tourism in this pandemic. To show my support, I used the vouchers to purchase three Ducktour tickets for my parents and me. In the end, my father had another appointment so my other cousin joined us. My buddy aka my ex-colleague also join this duck tour with me using her Singapore Rediscover vouchers.
This duck tour allows you to explore Singapore on an amphibious Vietnamese war craft that used to transport ammunition in Vietnam war. Hmm, this is really creative reuse of an old war craft for recreation use now.
This 50 minutes tour started at the Suntec City where we went to collect the tickets. From Suntec City, it passes by the Singapore Flyer and then splashes to Marina Bay where you get to see Gardens by the Bay domes, Merlion and Art Science Museum on the sea. After the sea tour, you head back to the Suntec City and your get to see the historical Civic District and the Fountain of Wealth at Suntec City.
The amphibious vehicle, a former Vietnamese war craft that was used to transport ammunition.
ArtScience Museum and Marina Bay Sands
Singapore Flyer
One of my favourite places in Singapore, the Esplanade theatres by the bay.
Every time I want to have a good laugh, I will watch Stephen Chow's movies. Despite watching several repeats of his movies, I can still have hearty laugh watching his movies. It's definitely a must watch movies for me during the Chinese New Year holidays and whenever I want to laugh.
Recently I read another inspiring book " Same Soul, Many Bodies" by Dr Brian Weiss, a Jewish American psychiatrist, hypnotherapist and best-selling author who used past-life regression to help his patients. Today I'm going to share about the core messages from "Same Soul, Many Bodies" and "Many Lifes, Many Masters". If you read Dr Brian Weiss books, he gave many examples of rebirths and karma. You can read on my earlier post on Many Lives, Many Masters here.
What is Karma? In Buddhism, Karma refers to intentional action which leads to future consequences and affect the rebirth in the six realms. There are 31 planes of existence. You can read it here.
In Many Lives Many Masters, page 122, the Master Spirit shared that "Life is endless; so we never die; we were never really born." this this fear of death would dissolve. This reminds me of one of Heart Sutra verses, 不生不灭 or no birth no death. or neither arising nor ceasing.
The Spirit from the lower level that spoke via Catherine, the patient that Dr Brian Weiss hypnotised said that" We have debts that must be paid. If we have not paid out these debts, then we must take them into another life... in order that they may be worked through. You progress by paying your debts. Some souls progress faster than others. When you are in physical form and you are working through, you are working through a life...If something interrupts your ability.. to pay that debt, you must return to the plane of recollection, and there you must wait until the soul you own the debt to has come to see you."
We all have debts to pay. For example, husband has to pay debt to wife or vice versa or parents to children. In one Chinese article I read, a monk shaked his head when using his divine eye, he saw that the young man married his late grandmother who was reborn again. Before her death, the grandmother was upset she could not look after the grandson. There is a common saying in Chinese that your daughter was your past life lover. Indeed, Dr Brian Weiss's patient exclaimed that his current daughter was his wife in his past life. This life he has to take care of his daughter for not being a good father is his earlier life.
In the book, Same Soul, Many Bodies, John a wealthy man was deeply unhappy despite his wealth so he went to see Dr Brian Weiss. During past life regression, he saw that in a previous life, he died in London great fire. He realised that he was slowly burned to death due to cruel actions he did due to an earlier life as a warrior raped the defeated ruler's daughter and set fire to a city filled with people and, bolting the gates closed behind him.
Evelyn another wealthy lady, a Jewish who felt strongly for Israel and hated the Arabs. During regression, she learned that she was a Nazi officer, a member of the SS who shot the Jews who tried to escape. Dr Brian Weiss shared that he discovered that the surest way to be reincarnated into a particular group of people, defined by religion, race, nationality or culture is to hate those people in previous life, to be prejudiced or violent against that group, Her intense pro-Israel stance in this life was a compensation for her anti-Semitism in her previous German life.
Thought is energy. Regret, anger, pining, depending on the emotion before you pass on, it will decide on the next rebirth.
This book is a confirmation of what Buddha, the awakened one who taught for more than 49 years more than 2500 years ago on karma and rebirth and the importance of observing the Noble Eightfold paths and precepts. Buddha taught that the action that you done in this lifetime will affect your next rebirth in one of the six realms.
Thus Buddha taught sentient beings precepts and the Noble Eightfold path: Right View, Right Thoughts, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Meditation. Be mindful of your action. Do good and be compassion to all sentient beings.
Karmic power and the unconscious by Master Sheng Yen. In terms of psychology, the unconscious is not something that we can control or are aware of, while karmic power, a Buddhist concept similar to the unconscious, is a kind of power produced by our actions in countless past lives, which we can change our karma by understanding its source and not letting it grow. This life is the result of causes accumulated in past lives. Master Shengyen shared that Karma this concept means that in countless past lives from beginning less time, life after life, we have performed all kinds of actions- bodily, verbal and mental actions. These actions produce a kind of power which persists through time and is concentrated in this life. This is called karmic power. Will all the karmic power of our past lives be manifested in this lifetime? Not necessarily. It depends on what kind of karma is the strongest. Also the type of karma which has the closest affinity with the circumstances of our current life. Shakaymuni Buddha taught us to believe the causality of the 3 periods in giving us guidance and explanation about our lives. I find the following quote by Master Sheng Yen really helpful.
The four steps in dealing with any problem: face it, accept it, deal with it, let it go. 面对它， 接受它， 处理它，放下它。
Last Saturday I went to Gardens by the Bay to view the River Hongbao show to explore the beautiful lanterns and just to celebrate Chinese New Year. I went for the 8.30 pm to 10.30 pm time slot after visiting the flower dome.
In the past, River Hongbao show was held at the Marina Bay floating platform where you can see the ArtScience museum and Marina Bay Sands. This time, the festive lanterns are spread in the vast Gardens by the Bay.
This event is now extended to 20th February, this Saturday instead of today. Last I check, tickets are all booked today.
Website: https://riverhongbao.sg
As usual, you find the God of Fortune in River Hongbao show.
Wow happy to see both my Chinese zodiac sign and western horoscope: Rooster and Pisces.
The magnificent Peacock lantern is sponsored by Kuan Im temple at Waterloo street.
ple at WaterI went to OCBC skywalk before exploring River Hongbao show at Gardens by the Bay.
Yesterday was the first day of Chinese New Year. Only my youngest aunt and her family visited us yesterday. The other aunties and uncles called to say that they are not visiting us this year. In Singapore, there is a cap of 8 unique visitors per household per day due to social distancing measure. In Singapore, most Chinese are celebrating Chinese New Year and other races get to enjoy the long weekend.
I think this year I won't get to collect much Hongbao due to lesser visitors. At least I got to receive some red packets yesterday. I started to keep the hongbao a few years ago and not spend it. I heard that it's like keeping the blessing that your seniors gave you.
Yesterday I was sneezing in the afternoon so I went to take a nap. I heard of people discouraging afternoon nap on the first day of lunar new year as it might make you lazy. Anyway I'm not bother by that statement cause by nature I'm already quite lazy and I was too sleepy after sneezing. I have sensitive nose and it look like I have at least a day of sneezing the whole day almost every week but I will be ok after sleep. It's weird but when I was doing chanting meditation, the sneezing stop. Sometimes I think someone up there is hinting that I should meditate more.
Many families will be having their annual reunion dinner tomorrow. I'm looking forward to tomorrow sumptuous dinner with my family too. This time my youngest brother will be bringing his wife to join us for tomorrow reunion dinner.
In Singapore we have to follow strict social distancing measures due to coronavirus. There is a cap of 8 unique visitors per household per day. This year is a quieter Chinese New Year. A few aunties already called to say they will not be visiting us. I hope this year will be a better year.
Wishing all a Joyous and Blessed Chinese New Year!
For the first time, River Hongbao show is held at the Gardens by the Bay instead of the Marina Bay platform.
Unlike previous years when you could just enter the premise, this time you have to book the tickets due to social distancing measures. I managed to book ticket on last Thursday 11 am and tickets ran out very fast.
Last Friday, my friend and I went to Gardens by the Bay and we managed to see some lantern light-ups at the Supertree area. I booked the ticket for this Saturday evening. I'll post some nice photos of the event.
Website: https://riverhongbao.sg
The gigantic God of Fortune at the Supertree, Gardens by the Bay.
