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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Throughout my entire adult life, money has always been an obstacle in my search for higher education. I still remember tapping on my mother's CPF savings to pay my NTU undergraduate studies in computer engineering, and the overall expense came up to around S$25000 for a four year honours program. It […]
Around two to three years ago, I signed up for a lifelong learning course with edX on the topic of US-China Relations: Past, Present and Future. This coursework was offered by the National University of Singapore, and was taught by famous intellectuals such as Kishore Mahbubani, Wang Gungwu and […]
I am a former IT Consultant and Project Engineer who transitioned away from corporate life after being diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Over the past seven years, I’ve focused on recovery, caregiving, spiritual growth, and living simply. In 2005, I was awarded the National Infocomm […]