Category: Sharings

Of Brushing or Cleansing Our Teeth?

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This is just another placeholder for future entry … 8)

1st December, 2006

Some of the folks who come across my desk may wonder why a toothbrush is on my desk and not in the toilet where it belongs. Most people either miss it or are too polite to ask, so I shared with the Youth Ministry in Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery during their YMers retreat.

You see, sometimes in the day, I would find a piece of food stuck in my teeth, or find my teeth too grimy for myself, and no amount of rinsing or flossing ( … talking about flossing, they are there on my desk too! 😉 ) will cleanse it. I’m sure we have that once a while … or maybe we don’t notice.

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A Bowl of Delicious Laksa … 8′)

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If there’s such a thing as writer’s block, this is it. I inserted this entry like weeks ago in the hope of pushing myself to pen down my thoughts about emptiness via the illustration of a bowl of delicious laksa, and yet as I sit here weeks later, there is just no impetus to write anything. hmmm ….

I think I’ll just write down what I explained during my workshop about the laksa, instead of making it into a proper article.

So back in August and October, I conducted two four-day workshops on the Heart Sutra. It was mooted by the Youth Ministry of Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery during one of the informal “Dharma discussions”. While the heart sutra is
famous for its “form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form; form is emptiness, emptiness is form” verse, apparently many books on this sutra are incorrect or misguided to say the least. Consequently, many people also have a somewhat tinted idea of what this sutra is about. Hence the Heart Sutra workshop.

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Does Air-Conditioning Work?

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Many years back, I learnt about how air-conditioning works. It basically works by transferring heat through conduction from the cooling fins to the air outside of the room/house/unit that it is supposed to cool.

Outside air < — Cooling fins <— metal tubes <— freon gas <— internal air (from room etc)

In the process, some heat is generated. This heat generated is due to inefficiency of the compressor, electronics etc found in air-conditioning units. This inefficiency is common in practically *all* electrical devices, where some electrical power is converted into actual intended work, while others are lost, either as heat, sound or kinetic energy or a combination of them all.

In a sense, air-conditioners do not create “coolness”. “Cold” cannot be created. Only heat can be created. Coldness appears to exist only in contrast to the lack or relative differences in heat. So while a heater generates heat, a cooler (eg air-con) does not actually create cold. It merely displaces it. Coldness itself is also empty of inherent characteristics.
Further to that, heaters do not actually generate or create heat as well. They merely release the potential energy “trapped” or “stored” in the fuel, or convert energy from one form to another, eg convert electrical energy to heat energy. In the process, most heaters “lose” some energy through ambient heating (ie, heating up the appliant itself in an unintended manner), unintended lighting, sound etc. We can perhaps say that heat itself is dependent arising, that it is also inherently empty.

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How Do I Learn Most Things?

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So I picked up Wiki over a few days last week or so. With all honesty, I did not know a hoot about using wikis, setting it up nor do I claim to be a wikiMaster right now. But I found out how to download and setup a wiki package, how to create new pages etc because some (young) folks wanted to use wiki but didn’t know how to … and didn’t want to lift a finger to learn.

It’s strange ‘cos as I think I learnt most things this way. It goes something like this:

  1. Something needs to be done.

    2. n

  2. No one wants to do it because its not something they’ve done before.
  3. I check it out.
  4. Read up, research on it and learn how to do it.
  5. I get it done.
  6. I learn a new skill.

For the most part, doing things is really a replication of something that’s been done before. Save for the creative screenplays, art, music etc, most things are really just that. Replication.

Just observe how its done once. Then replicate.

Simple. Ok, maybe not all that simple. Sometimes, you need to repeat the cycle numerous times to replicate flawlessly. But mostly, you don’t need to be flawless in your replication. The ability to replicate flawlessly, is to manufacture; the lack thereof, art.

The ability to replicate flawlessly, is to manufacture; the lack thereof, art

So its very interesting for me to observe how all these folks who want to become Buddhas in future, or claim to want to, are so low on interest to learn. Afterall, all SammasamBuddhas spend many many eons (3 Maha-Asangkayas Kalpas to be sure … for those who are of sharp faculties and are earnest in their training) learning and practising.

Alright … enough rambling for a Sunday …