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Dharma In Action is pleased to present Thus Have I Seen (T.H.I.S.) Buddhist Film Festival 2009. 10 films showcasing Buddhist values and cultures from all over the world will be screened from 13 to 19 September 2009 at Lido Cineplex. Visit www.thisfilmfest.com for more information and visit www.sistic.com to purchase your tickets now!
Here’s a short article about how monastic names come about. Just so you know. The surname adopted in the Chinese Mahayana monastic tradition is “釋”. It comes from the “釋” in the Buddha’s name “釋迦牟尼佛”, Shakyamuni, meaning the sage of the Shakyan clan. My ordination name was 釋智行 Shi ZhiXing and it was given by my late teacher, and ordination Master, Master Miu King 上妙下境老和尚 when I was given the “going forth” in 2002. In Singapore, I’m commonly known by 釋傳觀 Shi ChuanGuan. This name was given by my mentor Master, Ven. Kwang Sheng when I took mentorship under him in 2006. So, 智-Zhi and 傳-Chuan is the ‘generation’ character. Under the lineage stemming from the Buddha to the Chinese masters, the Chinese sangha adopted the naming convention in use by the Chinese. so a monastic from a certain lineage would have the lineage / generation (middle) character that follows a certain order. Based on one’s lineage / generation character, one could trace your Dharma lineage accordingly. 行-Xing and 觀Guan is the ‘name’ character. Depending on the master or community, there may be some naming convention in place. IMHO, this elaborate system can be . . . → Read More: FYI: Naming Trivia for monastics If you are reading this blog, you probably know what google is. It is the search (advertising) company who’s name has become a verb, i.e. “I googled and found the meaning of ‘ergo’”. Besides providing search services, it also provides the popular gmail, calendar, google docs, and map services etc. Dynamic Scaling Recently, I discovered that on google maps, as you tour the globe fairly smoothly without leaving your desk, the little scale legend at the bottom left corner dynamically changes. The scale tells us how large or small the map actually represents. So if you are looking at some region, and it displays the scale marker is one inch length and the number reads 500mi, it means that one inch length on the map at that scale represents 500miles in real life. This means that with a fixed-sized scale, two regions of different sizes would appear to be of different sizes accordingly. With a dynamic scale, as I mentioned earlier, two regions of different sizes may appear to be of a similar or identical size when in fact they are not. Why Do That? Why are they doing this? I don’t know. This could be a feature to allow . . . → Read More: An interesting feature about Google Maps An email has been floating around, urging the reader to not miss an event on the 27th August 2009. It is indeed a rare occurrence to have Mars so near to Earth! Though, apparently, it was closest in 2003, and not this year. See the following links: 1. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/09jun_marshoax.htm 2. http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/errata/ss/mars_in_august.htm 3. http://www.otastro.org/Mars2005/ According to NASA, such an occurrence happens in a 60,000 cycle, so if you miss it six years ago … you got to be around 59,994 years later. Maybe we will see it when we come around as human beings a few more times. Maybe. The fact that Mars will pass around its orbit is quite certain (unless so catastrophic astronomical event happen); that it’s orbit and Earth’s orbit will be closest once more in some distant future is also rather certain, based on present conditions. Whether we will regain human rebirth a few more times is not certain. Unless we live humanely, observing the precepts, sowing the conditions for human rebirth. Then that is certain. While it is another 60,000 years or so before Mars will come around, it will be many hundreds, thousands of years, aeons, before the next Buddha will arise and teach the . . . → Read More: Mars will be nearest to Earth soon … or not! PS: This is a long article and in retrospect, may have more implications to Buddhism than I have explored. I have decided to leave it as it is and perhaps explore these connections in other articles. You know, evolution, the Theory of Evolution that is getting a lot of press time in US? Yeah, the one Darwin proposed as the manner human and the various types of animals came to exist the way they exist? That they evolve from earlier simpler forms and are evolving into more complex forms. I’m not a scientist or a biologist. I never studied biology or anthropology and I’m not even good in Chemistry. I’m just a monk with no training in these fields. But I have an interest in science since young and of late, due to the sheer volume of online articles about the Theory of Evolution (TE), I cannot help but read a few and learn something more. TE states that as species evolve different traits, the ones with traits that are more suitable for survival tend to be passed on to later generations through the genes, because their hosts survive. On the other hand, species with incompatible or loosing traits die . . . → Read More: Some thoughts about Evolution and Cancer We have moved! The weekly Group Practice will be held at Buddhist Librar: Weekly Group Practice Venue: Buddhist Library, 2-4 Geylang Lor 24A Date: Every Wednesday Time: 7:30pm ~ 9:30pm Programme: Puja – Chanting (~15mins) Meditation (15mins) Dharma talk & discussion (1hour) Q&A (20mins) Closing Puja – Dedication |
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