Ramblings of a Monk

Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship 

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=3372631

Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky had never hit a home run in her career. Central Washington senior Mallory Holtman was already her school’s career leader in them. But when a twist of fate and a torn knee ligament brought them face to face with each other and face to face with the end of their playing days, they combined on a home run trot that celebrated the collective human spirit far more than individual athletic achievement.

When I first learnt about Probability Theory in secondary school, I went nuts! I fell in love with it, as it seemed almost magical that we could somehow synthesize or calculate the probability of something happening! I feel like I’m a psychic! Boy, was it fun finding out that the chance of a ’1′ occurring from an unbiased dice was 1/6 or 0.1666666… 6667… or that the chance of even numbers occurring was 1/6 + 1/6 + 1/6 or 3/6 or 1/2. Ok, it is intuitive to arrive at 0.5 or half, but the maths behind it is the marvel.

The other thing that was fun about probability was that there were the card games. It seem like many math teachers are very into card games as many questions revolves around the probability “of drawing the next Ace from the deck, given a certain hand that was already played”. I half guess that this obsession with cards might have stem from the poor financial status of teachers in general. Literature and linguistic teachers will poke fun at the social rich strata while the mathematicians will dream about striking it rich by winning at this weekend’s poker game or blackjack! Of course, there are the boring apple and oranges in a bag questions and red and blue marbles questions, but those are for kids and no one got rich guessing apples and oranges or marbles!

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Today is not Mother’s day, nor is it Father’s day. It is also not my parent’s birthday. Least of all, it’s also not my birthday. Today, they accompanied me to run an errand to Funan. (Yes, sometimes monks also need stuffs … *grin*)

Here I am back in the monastery, after a meditation class/session with NUSBS in FuHai Monastery, reflecting about the day, thinking about how my parents accompanied me to run an errand to Funan at a short notice. Color me silly, but I found myself teary just reflecting over it.

I just sent them an sms and thought I would share with you all here:

Thanks Mom and Dad! For accompanying me to Funan today at such a short notice. For giving me your time, incessant care and love since my birth! For giving me this precious human life! For bringing me into Buddhism and giving me away to the Buddha! Thank you! THANK YOU! Thank you!

Before this day ends and we rest for the day, do take the time to reflect over the day. Ponder on the kindness, love and care that our parents had showered us. Give thanks. Ponder on the kindness that our friends had given us. Give thanks. Ponder on the assistance that sentient beings have in one way or another assisted us through our day, our life. Give thanks.

Whether you are a Buddhist, a Christian, Hindu, Muslim or Taoist (or believe in any other wonderful faith that I’ve missed out), take the time to give thanks. It does not have to be a special day to give thanks. And yet, on the other hand, everyday is special enough to give thanks!

Give thanks to our parents and fellow sentient beings by

1. Saying thank you to them
2. Being considerate to them
3. Helping them when they need help
4. Giving way to them
5. Refrain from harming them (like hunting, killing animals, insects etc)
6. Respecting their right to their belongings
7. Respecting their relationships
8. Being truthful to them
9. Maintaining clarity of mind by avoiding intoxicants such as drugs & alcohols
10. And if you are really up to it, be mindful of your body, speech and mind. That way you can truly be helpful to them and not harm them!

Have a nice day … unless you have other plans!

There will be an “Om Mani Padme Hum” 12hr chanting day on 6th April, 2007 at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, Singapore.

Location:

Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery
88 Bright Hill Road
Singapore 574117

Participation fee: Sincerity and kindness

Date & Time: 6th April 9:00am ~ 9:00pm

Details:

The chanting day will be split into 6 continuous sessions of 2hrs each.

• Session 1: 9:00am ~ 11:00am
• Session 2: 11:00am ~ 1:00pm
• Session 3: 1:00am ~ 3:00pm
• Session 4: 3:00am ~ 5:00pm
• Session 5: 5:00am ~ 7:00pm
• Session 6: 7:00am ~ 9:00pm

Each session will have:

1. Homage to the Buddha
2. Triple Refuge
3. Mantra chanting
4. Dedication of Merits

Guiding Monastic:

Chuanguan bhikkhu

Please contact KMSPKS Youth Ministry, Billy @ youth@kmspks.org or 6849 5346 or sms: 9765 4322 for participation slots.

Here’s a first segment of a series of talks by Master MiuKing on the Mahaprajnaparamita sutra.
I’ll continue to encode the talks from DVD for upload to google video.

摩訶般若波羅蜜經系列
三歎品第30 / 現滅諍品第31（四之一）
妙境長老宣講
（1999年溫哥華）
1 of 4

Download: dbvpalm.1.2b2.zip
1.2Beta 2
New Features
- Enhanced for OS5 320 X 480 (Works on Palm T3 & Sony OS5 CLIE)
- Chime sound support for Sony CLIE (Requires 3rd party add-in. See below)
- Autostartup modified to always run once a day only
This new version contains update for the prc file.
NOTE:
Currently, Chime feature on Sony requires a 3rd party add-in (MCA2) at AiboPet’s AiboHack Site.
This is due to Sony and Palm having differing APIs for supporting sound. Sony released sound-enabled CLIE with the Yamaha chipset while Palm implemented its own in later Palm models.
Will try to integrate with the Yamaha PA1Lib sound library for Sony CLIE later when I have the bandwidth. (Prob after June)
Will then test on my friend’s Sony CLIE NX70 to see if it works as my only Sony CLIE is the antiqued PEG-SL10!
11 June 2004