20101024 Oct 24 Robes and Books Offering 供袈裟与赠书仪式

Robes and Books Offering 供袈裟与赠书仪式

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117543831632158

Robes offering is an annual event in the Buddhist tradition. Monks during the 4 months of rainy season spend more time in temples and attend to lay devotees by teaching the Dhamma and helping them to practise meditation.
At the end of the season, in order to show their appreciation and to give thanks, lay devotees would choose one day to gather at temples to offer robes to the monks.

The Saffron robe symbolises monkhood and renunciation from worldly life. On the other hand, a robe is also one of the 4 requisites essential to monks in their daily lives. So robe offering is a great meritorious deed a lay Buddhist can do.

In the Buddhist Library, this tradition is observed and kept alive as one of our annual events.

Morning Service

  • 10.00am – 10.30am: Puja & Chanting诵经法会
  • 10.30am – 11.30am: Dhamma
    talk 佛理开示
  • 11.30am: Dana for Mahasangha 供僧
  • 11.45am: Lunch for participants 午餐

Evening Service

  • 7.00pm: Arrival of participants 信众抵达
  • 7.30pm: Arrival of the Mahasangha & Commencement of Puja 僧团抵达及法会开始
  • 8.00pm – 8.15pm: Dhamma talk 佛理开示
  • 8.15pm – 9.00pm: Robes Offering and Book Presentation 供袈裟与赠书
  • 9.00pm – 9.15pm: Blessings by Mahasangha 僧团祈福
  • 9.15pm – 9.30pm: Light refreshment 茶点招待

The Buddhist Library

2, Lorong 24A Geylang
Singapore, Singapore
Pls contact the counter staff at 67468435 to enquire about books / robes sponsorship.

z20101113 One Day Meditation Retreat @ PMT

2010 Nov 13, One Day Meditation Retreat @ PMT

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=148284465214866

Join us in this one day simple small group meditation, where we will practice mindfulness, breathing and walking meditation. Only for those who have interest, effort and time. 

  • 0745am ~ 0800am – Registration
  • 0800am ~ 1100am – Morning session (Briefing 0800am ~ 0830am)
  • 1100am ~ 0100pm – Lunch
  • 0100pm ~ 0400pm – Afternoon session (Briefing 1230pm ~ 0100pm)
  • 0400pm ~ 0500pm – Q&A | Closing Dedication

Registration Fee: $50 per student (include lunch)
Registration and payment to be made at PMT Admin Office during opening hours. 

Maximum 20+ students. Registration is on a first come first serve basis before closing date on Saturday, 6 Nov or when session is full. Please log on to www.pmt.org.sg or call 6466 0785 for details.

I do not charge for the session. The registration fee is for defraying operation costs in PMT. If I were to charge, I would charge 20MH ~ 50MH where MH = Meditation Hours. Suki hontu! ^_^

Can A Gay Person Be Ordained As A Monk/Nun?

Someone emailed me a question:

Hi shifu, can a gay person be ordained as a monk/nun?

I replied:

Thank you for writing.

Heterosexual men and women have to transcend their heterosexual desires if they are going to be ordained. Similarly, gay person can be ordained as a monk/nun, as long as this person can transcend this inclination.

Hope this clarifies.

With metta, ^_^

 

In which case, can such a person still be considered gay or heterosexual?  Asexual perhaps?

Suki hontu! ^_^

I Am Going to Slap You! *Piak*

What if I tell you that I am going to slap you when I see you?  Never mind that I don’t really have a good reason to do so or that I don’t know who is reading this entry … unless you leave a comment.

Future Slap

Now, I have not slapped you yet.  but already, you may start wondering why this crazy monk wants to slap you.  Or you may start pondering on when I might really slap you.  Perhaps you are already worrying about the slap and how painful or embarrassing it would be.  You might even start to become upset at me or become afraid of me, because of the future slap that I *may* deliver to your rosy cheeks.  All these occurring without me having slapped you just yet.  I may end up giving you a pat or punch or nothing at all.  But who knows?

Now, the only thing that has happened is really your reaction to the possibility of being slapped some time in the future.  Maybe your reaction is justified, or maybe it is not.  What is certain is that your reaction if at all, is the one thing affecting you.  Each time you recall the statement “I am going to slap you”, and start going into a semi-uncontrolled spin of rumination and emotional acrobatics, you are giving yourself a slap, a mental slap at that.

Instead of doing that, when you notice that you mind has started on this cycle or even inclining towards it, be aware and
mindful of it.  Mentally label it.  => Say in your mind, labelling it “thinking, thinking, thinking.”  Do this instead of diving into the thoughts and begin slapping yourself silly.  Noting and labeling the mind that has wandered off thinking about things can interrupt the cycle while strengthening mindfulness.  Bring it back to the present moment, wherever you are, whatever you are doing.  Give your mind a rest.

Past Slap

Conversely, I may have already slapped you in the past, and each time you think about it, you get so upset.  You wonder how anyone can be so rude and uncouthly, and you wonder why you did not prevented my slap with your karate block or something.  When one dwells in this way, one becomes agitated and the mind spins once again into a mental rut, unable to extract itself out.  When we do that, we are again slapping ourselves mentally.  While the person slapped us once, we slap ourselves again and again whenever we go into that little corner, experiencing the stinging slap each time.  We end up slapping ourselves more than what that person did.

Stop slapping ourselves.  When you notice that the mind has started on this cycle or even inclining towards it, be aware and mindful of it.  Do as mentioned above:

Note – Label the mental process of “Thinking” for 5 to 10 secs
Bring the mind back to the present moment, be it your breathe or whatever you are doing.

The same applies to pleasant experiences where we reminisce over the past.  While this seem pretty harmless, it can unfortunately spin off into discontentment of the present and take us on an emotional roller-coaster ride.  Similarly, if we start letting our mind wander to the future, of what would happen, may or what we would do or may do, the mind goes into an auto-pilot mode that more often than not lands in a ditch.

Break the Cycle

We can break the cycle.  Wanting to break the cycle is important.  Recognising that the faults of this cycle aligns ourselves in the right direction.  Then we have to start doing something about it.  Before we spin into such cycles, we train ourselves to be take care of our mind and be mindful of where it is going and what it is doing.  We can do so by using mindfulness meditation to train ourselves.  As we sit and watch the breathe, labelling it as it rises and fall, or as it goes in and out, we train the mind.  As we do walking meditation, we learn to watch and be mindful of the walking.  While doing that, we also start to be mindful of how the mind is so fleeting, even whilst we walk (or get on with our daily lives), like a leave in the wind, perpetually on the move.

But as we train and become more and more mindful, we are more easily aware when the mind has drifted.  We then slow down the tendency to spin into those emotional ruts.  Overtime, we tame the mind.  What we do with it after that, is another blog entry.

In the meantime, go, go to the empty space, go to the empty room, go meditate.  Or just close your eyes right now and where you are, just meditate, even for 5 secs, 5 mins or 50 mins.

 

Happy Thoughts ^_^

Based on a sharing with a visitor to the library yesterday, on how she can meditate.

Divinity Lots or ‘Fortune’ Lots 簽

 

Someone recently asked me about divinity lots found in KMSPKS:

Dear Venerable, I have a question about the divine sticks (qiu qian) at the old hall at Kong Meng San. Devotees will beg for divine advice from the three Buddhas and a piece of paper can be collected outside. Who are we communicating with? The message could sometimes be very clear, but some people will say that it is not Buddhism and mere superstition. I remember a story about Lord Buddha putting His bowl on the river; if the river flows upstream, he will strive to gain Enlightenment. So is this divine advice real? How do we make it real?

Here’s my short reply:

There is this belief that the Bodhisattvas or Dharma guardian help give guidance on worldly matters.  Having some help in this way can be similar to asking an experienced friend or mentor for guidance, it can certainly be helpful.

Having said that, the Dharma (teachings) ultimately help us transcend the worldly gains and loss, such that we can still be happy amidst life’s greatest difficulties or trivial nuances.

Sui hontu! ^_^

 

To add to that, if a Buddhist learn this or go to the temple for this and only this purpose, then it would be a great loss for him!  The real treasure in Buddhism lies in the Dharma (teachings) taught by the Buddha and the efficacy of the teachings in liberating us from our habitual tendencies and fed-ups in life.

Give a man a fish or some fried beehoon, and you feed him for a day or at least a meal.

Give the man a rod, … erm, better not, less he start fishing and killing fishes.  Give the man or woman for that matter, some help to find a job through http://www.mom.gov.sg/profile-
gateways/Pages/job-seeker.aspx
 or upgrade their skills via http://www.mom.gov.sg/skills-training-and-development/Pages/default.aspx and he can secure a stable livelihood for awhile until the next recession.  Rinse.  Repeat.

Give the person Buddha Dharma, and he can develop inner peace and happiness even when hungry.  With this inner peace and happiness, he can look for a job happily and not be grumpy and bitter.  And when he finds a job, he is full of energy (viriya!) and vitality (indriya?) to fulfill and exceed what is expected of him!  He earns his keep rightfully, without harming himself or others.  He enjoys the fruits of his labour with his friends and family with open handed generosity, and sets aside a portion of his earnings for savings (rainy days), to support his parents, give to the charity and support Dharma work.

While he live as a lay person, he continues his study and practice of the Dharma under the guidance and mentor of the Maha Sangha.  He lives his life not just devoted to his own pleasure but also for the benefit and welfare of others.  If he do not attain to the very least certainty of Dharma (sotapanna), he has sown the seeds for further learning and progress.  Living a life that incline towards goodness, the Buddha declares that the rebirth will be good, will be pleasant and happy.

EDIT:

Here’s my reply to facebook comments on cultural practices in Buddhist temples and monasteries:

Aircons are also not Buddhist practices, but most would quite readily use it to cool us down. 

If the Master WuFong had stopped my Ah Ma from burning joss paper and other cultural practices, she may have went to some other non-buddhist temple to pray. Today, it may well be Priest Chuan Guan telling you about something else.

Dance and hiphop are also not Buddhist practices, but yet the younger generation Buddhists are very willing to use these as skillful means to appeal to the youths. Perhaps we have to bear in mind that different people of different generations have very different needs to fulfill before they may be ready to learn Dharma.