Shi ZhiXing – Page 48 – Ramblings of a Monk

Myanmar Disaster

Posted on13 May , 200827 December , 2016AuthorShi ZhiXing1 Comment

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080507/ts_nm/myanmar_cyclone_dc

As is already in the news … disaster struck Myanmar recently. Let us offer our prayers and kind thoughts to them.

At the same time, if we can, offer them practical help through some of the organisations who are able to reach the disaster areas.

http://www.fireflymission.org/cyclone_00.html
http://www.redcross.org.sg/myanmar_cyclone_src.htm

May all sentient beings be free from thoughts of harm,
May all sentient beings be free from danger and harm,
May all sentient beings abide in loving kindness and compassion,
May all sentient beings be Well and Happy!

It’s Not All About Winning … Really!

Posted on1 May , 20086 August , 2015AuthorShi ZhiXingLeave a comment

Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship

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

So What? … …

Posted on16 March , 20086 August , 2015AuthorShi ZhiXingLeave a comment

So What?
So What!
So What!?

“So what” … sweet sound to the ears, and perhaps the mind as well. Two over months ago, Jan 3 2008 to be exact, during a Dhamma talk at Taipei Buddhist Centre, an participant uttered these magic words “So What?”. To some it was a challenge to the explanations given, while to others, its a curt retort to the speaker. To me, I just love it! … if monks are allowed to at least ‘love’ some idea … 😉

To me, it was excellent that that man thought of the question “So what?”. It implied to me that he was interested in not just listening to mere recitation
of someone’s teachings, but is genuinely concerned about the practical implications of it. Or at least that’s how I interpreted his “So what?”. If he meant it any other ways, I didn’t know it. 🙂

I replied by congratulating him on his question; that we Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike need to open our eyes to see and our mind to inquire, to paraphrase myself that day. My point is that, when we read a book, or listen to a talk, we should listen with an open heart, but not just take everything as it is and leave it at that. We should inquire further on the practical implications of it in our daily lives!

Each time we attend a talk or a class, we should ask ourselves, how does knowing this help us? Or others? Or both? How do I apply it in my life to bring more peace and less stress?

For that matter, we should not just ask ourselves this question when it comes to Buddhist Teachings, but to other things as well. So you didn’t get that promotion this time round … so what? So she likes someone else and not you (or him you or otherwise) … so what? So your son failed in his exams … so what? Now I’m not advocating the other extreme of aloofness. Rather, I’m saying, put things in perspective. Make a checklist of things going right for you. By right, I don’t mean perfect, I mean “good enough”. Then compare the thing that didn’t work out for you. You’ve managed so far in your life without that one thing, so why should it, or the lack thereof, make you miserable now?

Sometimes we give ourselves reasons to be miserable and we should stop. And learn to be content and not spend our precious human life searching the world for a better life. Instead, we can and should learn to reflect more on our own life and be grateful. Having more does not always bring more happiness. More often than not, it leads to more worry and stress.

So the next time, you encounter something, be it a teaching or a difficulty in life, ask yourself … So what? 🙂

The Mathematics of Happiness

Posted on22 January , 20086 August , 2015AuthorShi ZhiXing7 Comments

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!

A Middle-Aged Princess Grows Up

Posted on2 January , 20086 August , 2015AuthorShi ZhiXingLeave a comment

Here’s an article I would like to share with you all. While the ‘princess’ in the blog is a lady, the lesson from it applies equally to all, men and women alike.

awomanagainstfeminism.blogspot.com

An extract below … complete post after the break below

I’ve made some profound changes in my life since then. First and foremost, I stopped blaming everyone else for my own problems. This was the hardest. For my entire life I was told – and I believed – that as a woman, I could do no wrong, that I was not responsible, that I was always the victim in some way. Over and over I had to tell myself that only I am responsible for my happiness.

Once I learned to stop blaming the world, I taught myself to be pleasant and nice. This was hard as well. I had always mistaken pleasantness for weakness. This is not the case. A new colleague at work – a woman from the South – showed me very clearly it’s quite easy to be nice and be strong at the same time.

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Earthlings

Posted on27 December , 20077 May , 2020AuthorShi ZhiXingLeave a comment

Earthlings – Make the connection

EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity’s absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called “non-human providers.” The film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby.