Author: Shi ZhiXing

Happy National Day Singapore!

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Flag of Singapore - Source @ wikipedia

Many years ago, a few hundred moons gone past, a boy was born to a family of the Forest (Lim) clan, on an Island they say once had a Lion roar
The boy grew up, loving the land that fed his family, he had this thing with flags crescent moon and five stars, decked in red and white halves
Perhaps he knew what these stood for, perhaps he is a patriot or perhaps he just love the chocolate candy that came in the flag stem core
So many years have passed, he’s gone through some studies, work and play, he decided that life is too precious to not try the Enlightened Buddhist Way
Following his preliminary monastic training, in a foreign land of freedom, he return to find his island country decked not with crescent moon and stars, but a ferris wheel and racing track

Give me
Merlion or the Angmo Raffles guy anytime instead, he shouted!
A statue of our founding statesmen like LKY would be something he would be proud to share with everyone compared to the ferris wheel, F1 tracks or GDP numbers!
Oh! He wonder out loud, is life really just about getting better grades and bigger houses? He thought if getting these were meant to lead to happiness, then why are people getting more stressed and unhappy driving around and not sleeping well in their upgraded houses?

Perhaps we need to come back to basics and remember what those crescent moon and stars mean to us as we wish our nation Happy Birthday

Rich or poor, this is our nation, with our friends and families, both born here and from shores afar
Remembering that red symbolises “universal brotherhood and equality of man”, and white, “pervading and everlasting purity and virtue” and that like the crescent moon, we are a “young nation on the ascendant”

While pursuing the 5Cs, we shall forget not that we will do so with our common ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality in our mind … and in our heart!

As I think of our Nation’s flag, and what it symbolises, I wonder why we forgot to add “Happiness” to the five?
Then I figured, it must be that Happiness is everyone’s goal, surely we don’t need to state something so universal right?
Right? … Let’s not forget that.

Oh Singapore, I love you so, but do you love me back or am I just another number?

Happy Birthday Singapore.

A Buddhist Monk ^_^ A Singapore Son

References:
http://vs.moe.edu.sg/national_symbol.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Singapore

From the MOE website:

Origin
The National Flag of Singapore is a symbol of statehood. It replaced the Union Jack which had flown over Singapore for 140 years (1819-1959). It was the committee headed by Dr Toh Chin Chye (the then Deputy Prime Minister) which first conceived of and created the flag. Together with the State Crest and the National Anthem, it was unveiled on 3 Dec 1959, at the installation of the new Head of State, the Yang di-Pertuan Negara, at the City Hall steps. Upon independence in 1965, it was adopted as the National Flag.

Meaning
Our National Flag consists of two equal horizontal sections, red above white. In the top left canton is a white crescent moon beside five white stars within a circle. The features of the flag were not arbitrarily chosen. Each feature has its own distinctive meaning and significance: red symbolises universal brotherhood and equality of man; white signifies pervading and everlasting purity and virtue; the crescent moon represents a young nation on the ascendant; and the five stars stand for the nation’s ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.

Buddhist Interact Club @ Manjusri Secondary School

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In May 2009, Venerable DingRong and me conducted a Students’ Heart Corner Programme (quite wordy in retrospect!) at Manjusri Secondary School.

The Students’ Heart Corner Programme (SHC) is a pilot programme aimed at giving the students at Manjusri Secondary School an additional avenue to interact with members of the Buddhist Sangha (monastic) community so that they may learn to cope with their emotions and be able to better handle stress and pressure in school. Structure and Duration

The pilot programme ran successfully every Friday for a group of 10 to 15 students, for the month of May, 2009. The programme included activities such as: Simple Awareness Meditation • Group Dialogue • Sharings • Hymns • Each session was conducted by us venerables and was assisted by Mrs Cheng and Mr Ng. The sessions was conducted at the Dharma / Multi-purpose Hall and lasted over 1.5 hours each.

Photo collage from the second session

Photo collage from the second session

Thus Have I Seen (T.H.I.S.) Buddhist Film Festival 2009

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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!

FYI: Naming Trivia for Monastics

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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 Shi “釋”. It comes from the Shi “釋” in the Buddha’s name “釋迦牟尼佛”, a transliteration of 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 also known by 釋傳觀 Shi ChuanGuan. This name was given by my then mentor Master,  when I took mentorship 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 useful to avoid undue duplication of names when there were hundreds or thousands of monastics. Kinda reminds me of the IP address system (Internet Protocol), ###.###.###.### …. (Comp. Engr or Comp. Sc. students should have a chuckle on that! 😉 ) … but I digress!

Also, this naming system was adopted from the Chinese naming convention when Buddhism took root in China.

Therefore, “Shi” is the surname, and “Zhi-Xing” is the complete name, and not Zhi-shi or Shi-Zhi or other permutation! ^_^

Say, for a fictitious monk by the name Shi Mou Jia 釋某甲, in formal writing, one may refer to him as Venerable Shi Mou Jia, while in spoken form, one would simply address him as “Venerable Mou Jia”， “Mou Jia fashi 某甲法師” or “Mou Jia shi 某甲師”.

In some writing convention, it is also common to join characters together if they are meant to be joint as a phrase or name. Eg, Ven. Moujia instead of Ven. Mou Jia.

In various communities, both Theravada and Mahayana, it is common that a monastic may be known not by his ordination name, but by a common name based on the location this master came from. Eg, Chanmyay Sayadaw, means the Meditation Teacher from Chanmyay (a place in outskirt of Yangon, Myanmar).

Another example would be Dharma Master Tang San Zang 唐三藏  法師. This indicated that he is a Tripitaka master from the Tang dynastic empire. The tripitaka reference may also point to his pilgrimage to India to bring back the teachings (tripitaka) instead as his motivation for the trip was to clarify certain discrepancies in the existing texts. His Dharma name was 玄奘 Xuan Zang (or Xuan Zhuang) and is what is commonly found as the translator for various sutras in the Mahayana tradition.

In Buddha’s time, Dharma names were not explicitly given to new monks. Rather, they were simply known by the existing names. Eg, Upatissa became known as Ven. Upatissa. Upatissa was the name of Ven. Sariputta. Sariputta means “Son of Sari”, “Sari” being the name of Ven. Upatissa’s mother.

While the tradition of giving and receiving Dharma names came later on, it can serve monastics in a meaningful way, to mark a departure from our lay life as we embark on our spiritual journey towards Nibbana.

Hence, if you have a friend who has went forth as a monastic, it can be better to start addressing them by their Dharma name. Even though words and names do not make one enlightened, it can remind both parties of the change in role and path in life, and gently urges the monastic onwards in their daily endeavour on the path.

So, now you know! …
With metta, ^_^

An Interesting Feature about Google Maps

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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 users to remain focus on finding useful information without having to dabble with zooming in and out of a region unnecessarily.  However, this also gives a false impression as far as the actual comparative size between regions are concerned.

Another reason could be technical.  The map data stored in the google servers could be optimized at different scales, and hence the easy way to represent the maps would be to adopt the native scaling stored in the database.  This reason however, does not quite cut it.  Given the engineering strength of Google’s R&D, normalising the scale of the stored map data before representing them visually should not be a problem.

So why are they doing it?  Maybe someone can clue us in.  But you can try it out and see for yourself.

So are they lying?

Technically, google is not lying about anything at all.  Afterall, it dynamically adjusts the scales and displays it rather prominently on screen.  What is perhaps disturbing (for me) is that everything is so seamless, the scaling is virtually undetectable unless you notice the change in the scales.

Lying and Business / Work

A number one reason many people gives when asked why they do not undertake the five precepts is Work.  “I’m in Sales.”, “I’m in Marketing”, “I’m a Buyer”, “I’m in HR”, “I’m …. ”

I like to analyse this using a simple table.

Truthful Lying
Success [ A ] [ B ]
No Success [ C ] [ D ]

In the above table, there are four scenarios, A, B, C, D. “A” represents someone being successful while being truthful, while “D” represents someone who is unsuccessful while lying.

Let’s look at B & D.  Both B & D lies at work.  This is the category we are tempted to follow, believing that it leads to success, or at least success with securing our job.  Is it true that there are people who find success at work while lying?  Yes, it seem to be the case.  We always hear of anecdoctal stories of some back-stabbing co-worker who lied his or her way around deals and up the corporate ladder.  But is it true that everyone who lies will succeed?  If we really think about it, we know that it is not true as well.  While some succeed (B), some will fail (D).  So it is not true that lying guarantees success.

Next, let’s look at A & B.  These are the ones who succeed.  This is the category most are trying to be in.  Is it true that all those who succeed lied their way through?  I doubt so.  I believe there are those who used their skills, intelligence and competence to succeed without having to resort to lying.  From my experience, it takes some courage to be honest at work.  But it pays off.  You earn your superior’s trust and your peer’s respect.  Your customer knows that they can … well, trust you when they engage your services or buy your product.  Looking at A & B, if you can succeed without lying, why should you lie at all?

Now, one might ask.  What about case C?  What if your honesty does not pay off and you do not succeed.  Well, between you and me, I would rather go away without success, knowing that I can sleep at night, with my conscience clear than failing *and* worrying about integrity (case D).

So my friend, will you dish out the Truth at work?