Yet Another Lunar 27th

Just came back from the Lunar 27th puja at KMS. Reached the temple early, but still couldn't find a spare cushion or chair, so had to be placed on the pseudo waiting list. Eventually a space was made available, so I managed to complete the repentance ritual and obtain two bottles of Great Compassion holy water.

What gave me the most meaning was how as we reached the end of the ritual, it started to rain very heavily and the roof was so noisy from the downpour it practically drowned out the Venerable's chanting. Nevertheless, everyone continued with equanimity and for me I was happiest when reciting the 甘露水真言, because I visualised the rain as holy water from Guan Yin Pusa and I imagined all the sentient beings whether seen or unseen being blessed by the Bodhisattva through the sprinkling of the rain water.

So, it was a very delightful day for me and us at the temple this morning. After we completed the puja, we headed to the canteen where we tucked into our favourite vegetarian meals. I love the curry vegetables the most. There was no free places to sit, so I hid and squatted at a corner near the toilets to enjoy my meal.

When I'm at home I'm always picky about food, but whenever I reach the monasteries I always make sure I finish all my food. What makes it even more interesting is how there are long queues everywhere, so it's a Singaporean mindset: As long as there is a queue it must be good. Haha.

Going Home

My dad messaged me early this morning to complain about the faulty HP printer. The printer has only been used once or twice in the past nine years since it was bought, so my guess straightaway was that the ink has dried up and the nozzles / printheads are faulty. It's a good thing that I have free  […]

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Nirvana Columbarium

I am still helping Nirvana Columbarium with presales, but I don't earn any commission because I told them that the multi-level marketing model doesn't help my Dharma practice when I receive an incentive from sales and down-lines. I personally told my parents that when we all die, we'll select  […]

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Impermenance at Work

Just sharing a project that we are undertaking. Thanks to the auspices of the community I am participating, we have begun a project to print Buddhist manuscripts at the request of Bright Hill Monastery (KMSPKS). Basically KMSPKS is conducting a class to copy Buddhist sutras such as the Heart Sutra,  […]

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Two Timing Relationships

I was hurt before by a Christian girl who two-timed me and her Christian boyfriend. From what I understand, they started becoming an item during their polytechnic days, her boyfriend was studying in Australia when she met me at NTU. My cohort very few girls, so when she approached me to befriend me  […]

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Thankful for Peace

As I type, there is a war raging on in the Middle East involving the United States, Israel and Iran as well as other Arab countries being dragged into the carnage. I am a war junkie since childhood, yet at the same time I am an advocate for world peace, preferring a world free from conflicts instead  […]

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Passed My Monastic Interview

Nothing much, just wanted to share that I passed the interview for the Bright Hill novitiate retreat this morning, so I'll be able to become a temporary monk for a week in April 2026. Very happy, all these years I don't have much luck in secular affairs, but the Buddha has always kept His doors open  […]

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Living With Schizoaffective Disorder

Well, where do I start? I was diagnosed with depression in the year 2012, but went untreated until I was eventually hospitalised at IMH in 2018 and diagnosed with bipolar before being further refined as suffering from Schizoaffective Disorder in the year 2019. All these years I have felt suicidal  […]

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Just A Personal Prayer

May I die skillfully as soon as possible than to devour my parents and elders. May I be filial and not become worse than a piece of char siew. May my parents and elders have enough to sustain themselves till their final breaths. In my Buddhist tradition: Om Mani Padme Hum.  […]

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I Love Cats & Dogs

I pledge never to eat the flesh of dogs and cats. I admit I'm a hypocrite because I still am not a full vegetarian i.e. I do eat several types of meats such as chicken, fish, prawn, pork and duck, so I don't want to sound like a goodie two shoe. Yet, dogs and cats are not natural meat sources to  […]

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Prayer for Health

I have been suffering quite a fair bit lately. I feel sick, I don't feel dead yet, but I am aging and I feel sick. Despite having seen both western doctors and TCM physicians, the sick feeling doesn't go away. So I went to my preferred Guan Yin temple and drew a divination lot for supramundane  […]

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World Vision

I am not a Christian, but all these years World Vision has always resonated and worked for me and my humanitarian concerns. I just found the heart to donate to a sanitation project in Vietnam, it's my first donation to WV in many years since I stopped being a child sponsor. The project to build  […]

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Restarting Work!

Dear Friends, It's the third day of the Chinese New Year, and I'm very glad to say that I have officially restarted work! I thought I had to wait a bit longer, but thank goodness a new project rolled into my Inbox an hour ago, and before I knew it I am back to doing what matters most - earning  […]

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Happy Chinese New Year

Been out on the go for much of this lunar new year first day, finally have the time to sit down in front of the computer and get myself oriented and calmed down. Here's wishing fellow dharma brothers and sisters a Happy Chinese New Year.  […]

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Revisiting the Japanese Occupation of Singapore

When I was still a child being brought up by my maternal grandparents, my grandmother would tell me about the difficulty of life living under colonial rule. To her, living under the British colonial masters or Japanese imperialist army were both undesirable. The Japanese were more violent and  […]

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Six Perfections in Buddhism

For the past years I have been practising Buddhism based on the Noble Eightfold Path and Eight Training Precepts. I'm not here to change the world, but when I stick to a fixed set of training for too long, somehow things have become stagnant and I'm struggling to cope with the self-imposed status  […]

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Aloka the Peace Dog

Aloka has inspired me so much, I vow to be reborn as a Buddhist dog in my future life so that I can help to spread the goodwill and compassion of the Triple Gem like Aloka does. While reincarnation is seen to be a bad thing in some denominations of Buddhism, there are those who voluntarily  […]

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Nitcharee Peneakchanasak

The day April 3, 2011 was just an ordinary day for most of us. For me, I was travelling downtown from Ang Mo Kio MRT Station and I stood at the platform facing the tracks. Staring into empty space, I noticed a mental energy arise in my mind and what ensued was that a girl standing next to me  […]

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Nothing

I have been doing zazen meditation for close to (is it?) 15-20 years by now, and I still haven't realised anything. I sit, because I sit, and I have always experienced lots of karmic obstacles so my sitting usually doesn't go very deep i.e. I don't experience any jhanas. So, no samadhi, no jhana, no  […]

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