By Shi ChuanGuan, on 26th April, 2011 Some asked me recently whether Buddhism is against Gays, Lesbians or Transsexuals.
The question is with respect to a facebook post where someone quoted Buddhist texts to position Buddhism as anti-gay.
This is what I told him.
Buddhism is not against gays. As human beings, we are preoccupied with different things at different part of our life. Through our preoccupation, effort and conditions, we different results.
Some conditions and preoccupations are more conducive for Enlightenment while others are not. All forms of sensual or sensory preoccupation impedes our progress towards Enlightenment. And that includes sexual preoccupation, hetero and homo.
It is with respect to those who wish to attain Enlightenment, complete release from craving and attachment, that the Buddha taught this.
These sutras should be understood in this context and purpose, and not misconstrued as an antagonistic stand against this or that group.
Some time back, someone wrote me asking whether a gay person can be ordained. I wrote, replying that the person has to transcend sexuality itself, whether it is hetero or homo.
So the next time someone misquote Buddhist text to position Buddhism as in an . . . → Read More: Is Buddhism against Gays, Lesbians or Transsexuals?
By Shi ChuanGuan, on 25th April, 2011 This is not another vegan proselytizing campaign. I just find it funny when I hear non-vegetarians rejecting vegetarian food. Here I illustrate with a table, why it does not make sense for them to do so.
Vegetables, Fruits, Grains, anything non-animal, condiments & flavouring Meat of land, sea and air creature. At this point, excludes outer space aliens. Vegetarian (Herbivore) YES!  NO! Non-Vegetarian (Omnivore) YES! YES! Meat Eater (Carnivore) NO! YES!
Most human beings are omnivores, that is they eat both meat and non-meat food items. This include your usual chicken rice (chicken meat, rice, salt, cucumber, tomatoes [at times] etc), laksa (noodle, coconut milk, eggs, bean sprout, bean curd, prawns, etc) and other food you find at food courts, hawker centres, restaurants etc.
Pure carnivore do not eat non-meat products. Lions, tigers, and practically the whole wild cat family do not eat anything other than meat. Some birds are carnivorous while others are herbivorous and only eat fruits or nectar of flowers. Insects can be either herbivorous, carnivorous or sometimes omnivores.
Vegetarians (referring to human beings) choose to take only . . . → Read More: Can non-vegetarians eat vegetarian food?
By Shi ChuanGuan, on 22nd April, 2011 If there is one industry that tries very hard to go green, is the computing industry. Or at least, they try to appear like they are going green.
But if you look at almost all consumer products in this industry, it is slowly edging towards the razor blades business model, where they sell you a cheap shaver, with expensive blades.
Printers is the main culprits. Printers are now sold at below cost in order to recoup the revenue from the ink cartridges and special paper products.
I don't blame these companies for trying to make money. But I wonder how responsible they are in using natural resources with the intent for them to be thrown away within a year or two.
Notebooks and mobile phones are no better. They come with proprietary battery designs that sometimes vary within a product family. To be fair, several mobile companies design their product families to use the same proprietary battery pack, charger, cables etc. They employ proprietary connector, shapes and sizes for all of these items in order to lock in users to their brand. I keep hearing people complain about Microsoft not being open source and being proprietary, why don't anyone make . . . → Read More: Going green … then stop selling things using the razor blades business model.
By Shi ChuanGuan, on 21st April, 2011 Besides the Dharma and meditation, you know what else get me excited?
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1126136 ^_^
By Shi ChuanGuan, on 18th April, 2011
By Shi ChuanGuan, on 20th March, 2011 Democracy, the banner of modernity, seem like the solution for everything in our life. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights0, it is stated as one of the intended goal of human rights.
Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
While it has been the better choice compared to other forms of governance1 such as Monarchy { Government by a single ruler (king/queen, emperor) }, Aristocracy { Government by noblemen (hereditary) }, Oligarchy { Government by few persons}, Theocracy { "Government by God" (in reality this means government by religious leaders) } or Dictatorship { Government by people, that have seized power by force (often: military dictatorship) }, it may not always be suitable or at least not produce what most people may consider 'good' results. Take note that I . . . → Read More: Democracy requires mature people or members to succeed
By Shi ChuanGuan, on 15th March, 2011 Just came back from a Religions For Peace conference @ Furama City Centre (@Furama Hotel). One of the message that struck a chord in me was about how talks on peace very often are just talk, with no action. After all these years of talks on peace, and yet, we still have strife and conflict. It seem the ones who attend conferences on peace are already advocates of peace, while those who really need a dose of it are not attending it.
While it feels that way, I think if even just one of the religious leaders were to internalise the message and bring back it back to his or her community, it would be worth it. We got to keep it up!
Interestingly, one of the theme in today's session was about how the individual must be at peace before the group or the nation can be at peace. This resounded strongly with the Buddha's words, that the mind is the forerunner of all, and only when we defeat our defilements can there be peace.
So, my dear friend, how was your day? Is it peaceful? Or did you get upset over the same thing again?
May you be . . . → Read More: “Talks on peace very often are just talk, with no action”
By Shi ChuanGuan, on 18th January, 2011 Was wondering … why aren't we piping the heat from air-con compressors / coolant units to heaters yet?
These units are transferring heat from the room or fridge to the coolant gas and onto the air surrounding the unit. Go check out the back of your fridge or the compressor unit of your split-unit aircon in your house, the one sitting outside the house, and you would find the air around it warm or hot.
Can someone device a way to make use of this excess heat? As it is, this heated air is either going to waste or increasing the temperature outside. Granted, no heat is ever wasted, it is just transformed to other forms of energy … or loss to space, ie out of the earth's thermodynamics.
Just wondering … …
By Wakeupnow, on 17th March, 2009 2) Can the venerable give me some advice on how to cope with laziness and internet addiction?
Hmmm … laziness and internet addiction. Quite an interesting pair … ‘cos laziness is inactivity, while addiction is not.
We can be lazy about many things. For example, I’m “lazy” when it comes to killing mosquitoes. So I’ve not killed one (in my knowledge) for many many years. I’m also “lazy” with making money. So I’ve quit my job and become a monk, and have not made any cash for all these years; the up side is that you cannot be retrenched as a result! :p We are lazy about some things and passionate about others, even to the point of being addicted to them. The difference between the two, lies in interest.
We are lazy about things that do not interest us. Life, unfortunately and frequently, requires us to do things that are less than interesting. Take work for example. Most of us are not interested in our work. Really. We are driven mostly by what it can bring us or others. Sometimes that is monetary gain, sometimes it is a sense of satisfaction derived from identifying ourselves with the profession. Without . . . → Read More: Q&A: Laziness and internet addiction
By Wakeupnow, on 17th March, 2009 Below is part 1 of my reply to an open question posted on Leave a Message
1) My dad says that we must respect books because some divine beings might be living inside it, if we disrespect the book( e.g stepping on them, putting them in an untidy manner etc.), we will not get good results in examinations and will not gaining enough knowledge. Is that true?
So there are two parts to your father’s claim: 1. That there are some divine beings living inside books, and 2. By disrepecting them, there will be some consequences, such as poor exam results and being knowledgeable.
First off, there sure are beings living in books, but divine or not, I know silver fishes lives in books, especially the old ones. There are some legends that some spiritual beings or guardians protects books, and that they may get pretty angry if anyone mistreat the books they protect. Such legends probably evolve or develop from earlier legends about guardians of knowledge or wisdom, which books are the physical representation of. These latter legends may themselves have been derived from the view that knowledge or wisdom is sacred and thus should be respected and held . . . → Read More: Q&A: Respecting books
|
@ PMT *NEW*
Heart Sutra Workshop
More info
@ BL
Tue Morn Translation
Tue Nite Meditation
Sun Puja-talk-Bodhikids
Wed, Fri - Consultation
Thu SIMBB Dharma classes @ PMT
Sun Monthly talks @ SBM
@ Metta
Sun Nite 佛法概論
|
