Kuan Im Thong Hood Temple in Singapore

 Last year December, on an even day, I finally went to Kwan Im Thong Hood temple at Bugis to pray. Due to social distancing measures,  you can only go to the temple on even days- Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday if your NRIC number end with even numbers and odd number on odd days. Only 50 people are allowed in the temple at any time.

Now the temple is barricaded with those safety barriers and you need to bring your TraceTogether tokens or apps. They also don't accept any flowers or fruits offering due to covid19 safety measures. But you can donate money. 

I like to go to the temple to get the amulet especially when I travel to overseas. It just makes me feel safe. I also like to go there to pray and thanks Kuan Im bodhisattva for her help. 

You can go their Facebook page at here https://www.facebook.com/kwanimthonghoodchotemple to find out latest update.

Heart Sutra By Venerable Guan Chen

I was perplexed when I read many anecdotes of people who went through Near Death Experience (NDE) sharing that they felt that there was no time, that time did not exist from this Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) website. 

From NDERF, Melinda share, " Although time did not exist, this life review took forever but in reality it was only a blink of a second. " 

Miguel wrote in NDERF," How long did the experience last? There was no time, so talking about duration is meaningless. It could have been there forever, I guess. I might never have returned, but eventually, I came back. 

There are many more people talking about no time from NDERF under Exceptional Experiences here.

Recently, I finally have a better understanding of no time from The Heart Sutra Lecture 5 by Venerable Guan Cheng as shown in the video below. Do watch the video below. The following are from this Lecture 5 Heart Sutra video that I find helpful to me in understanding the Heart Sutra better. Initially I thought that I can't blog much since the Heart Sutra only has 260 Chinese characters translated by Master Xuan Zang. But Heart Sutra is really profound and I always have new insights from listening to the dharma by venerable monks. 

The five skandhas is a Sanskrit word for body and mind. What are we made up of? We are made up of the body and mind. We are the creation of the five skandhas namely form, sensation, perception, mental formation and consciousness. We are created by causality by all these five skandhas. 

The Buddha wants us to get into more details by giving us more details in the 18 realms which include the six organs, six objects and six consciousnesses. 

We have three kinds of sensations- pleasant, unpleasant and neutral.

When we perceive through our senses, some scientists call it empirical evidences. When we use our senses, we attach to what we can torch, ear, see, taste, smell... So empirical evidences sometimes could be illusory. Everybody could be different in empirical senses. 

It is different from experiential thinking. Experiential thinking has to be introspective getting inside your mind to see it. 

Empirical thinking is bounded by the four dimensions which are the space and time. Space has length, breadth and width. You perceive space and time with senses. 

Time contains the past, the present and the future. Time is the product of empirical thinking. If you think about it, does the past exist now? The past does not exist. Time only lives in memory. If you don't have memory, you don't have the past. You forgot about the past. If you don't have memory, do you have the past? 

How about the future? People say we have a future But the future hasn't come yet. How can you say the future exists. The future certainly doesn't exist now. 

If you want to know more, do watch the following video.

From Only Love is Real by Dr Brian L.Weiss

Emptiness in nature in terms of karmic retribution

I highly recommend that you watch this dharma talk by Master Sheng Yen. I find that it's  really helpful in understanding emptiness and karma. 

To create more good karma and cultivate more merit in our daily life, then we won't find retribution so painful. 

Sin is produced by the mind and is empty in nature. If the mind ceases, so will sin, whether pure or impure.

Everything is produced by the mind. Our concepts and mental actions decide our verbal and bodily actions. Our verbal action and bodily action plus our mention actions as a driving force constitute the driving force behind our karma. Then we create karma. Having created karma, you will receive karmic results. 

Causality 因果(cause and effect) definitely exist, so does conditional arising （ 缘起).

Causality 因果(cause and effect) induced by conditional arising （ 缘起）is called results of causes and conditions. As a combination, they do exist. However, causes and conditions themselves converse and disperse and are impermanent and changing.

Causes and conditions as a fact are empty in nature. Things formed by causes and conditions exist, but they are empty in nature. As a result, after it is received, it is also empty. 

Watch the video to find out more.

Buddha on Rituals and Psychic Power

I enjoy watching this drama, Buddha as it is full of wisdom and you can learn about Buddha's teaching. Buddha taught through questioning, which is like Socratic questioning, prompting the person to think instead of blindly accepting his teaching. In episode 36, 21:30, it shows the discussion between the fire worshipper and Buddha.

The fire worshipper asked the Buddha. He asked if rituals, prayers and psychic powers are useful?

Buddha asked him if someone were to cross to the other side of the river, what should he do?

The fire worshipper said that if the water is shallow, he could walk across. If the river is deep, he could cross the river using a raft else he could swim across. 

The Buddha asked him, “What if he don’t want to walk across the river when it is shallow and not use a boat to cross the river but to pray for the other side of the river to appear in front of him?”

The fireworshipper exclaimed, “ then he is foolish.”

Similarly if a person uses his wisdom to reduce greed and ignorance, he will find the path out of suffering, said the Buddha. 

Image from India drama, Buddha

Guanyin Bodhisattva's Renunciation Day

Today is Guanyin Bodhisattva's Renunciation Day. As a Buddhist, I will spend the day meditating and reading the Heart Sutra. Most will just eat vegetarian food. Whenever I feel sad or needs clarity, I will go to Singapore popular Kuan Imm Temple at Waterloo Street to pray and I feel better. Sadly due to Covid19, the temple is now closed to the public. I haven't visit the temple for quite some time now. So now I spend more time reading Buddhist books and Buddha's teaching.  

Do I understand all of Heart Sutra? Not really but it is helpful to me. Just understanding one of the verses like 照见五蕴皆空，渡一切苦厄 - (Clearly perceived the empty nature of the five skandhas ( form, feeling, conception, volition and consciousness) and transcended all suffering.) helps me not to cling to sadness for too long.  

Most of the time, I just see things from another perspective, upset for a while, reflect and then let go of unhappiness. Since all give aggregates are empty in nature and dependent on causes and conditions, why cling to unhappiness for long. Just let go. If it's meant to be, it will happen.  By accepting that all the five aggregates are empty, we are able to embrace difficulties bravely and therefore will reduce our suffering.

Three Important Days Related to Guanyin Bodhisattva

From Dharma Drum here 

In Buddhist classics, Avalokiteśvara, or Guanyin Bodhisattva, is described as a great Bodhisattva with compassion and wisdom, because she vowed to alleviate suffering, respond to any prayers, and deliver sentient beings anywhere in the Saha World. Through The Stories of Guanyin's Efficacious Responses and her biography published centuries ago, Guanyin has been integrated into Chinese folk beliefs and has become a well-known Bodhisattva.

In the lunar calendar, there are three important dates celebrating Guanyin's Birthday, Enlightenment Day, and Renunciation Day, which take place on February 19th, June 19th, and September 19th respectively. Guanyin is widely accepted and worshipped. Therefore, not only would Buddhist temples hold assemblies for dharma services, but also Daoist temples make offerings with vegetarian meals or provide a vegetarian feast inviting devotees to celebrate these special dates, also known as the "vegetarian days" in Chinese folk religion.

To read more, click here

How Not To Be Angry- Buddha and the Angry Man

I like this story about how Buddha interacted with an angry man and was not affected by his insulting words. From my workplace, I see a lot of angry outburst because people are easily affected by what others say and thus they kept thinking about the unhappy thoughts. I be affected for a while but will just let go since I don't accept what they said after learning from this story. 

In this story, as Buddha was walking in a village, a very angry man insulted the Buddha and said that he had no right to teach others. Buddha was calm and serene as usual and he asked the man,  “Tell me, if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong?”

The young man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, “It would belong to me, because I bought the gift.”

The Buddha smiled and said, “That is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you have done is hurt yourself.”

Detaching from both emptiness and existence

I enjoy listening Dharma talk by Venerable Master Sheng Yen whenever I have doubts or feel sad. After listening, I feel much better. By understandings that all the five aggregates are empty, dependent on causes and conditions, one will not cling to feelings and irrational thoughts. All good and bad things will pass.

照见五蕴皆空，渡一切苦厄

Clearly perceived the empty nature of the five skandhas ( form, feeling, conception, volition and consciousness) and transcended all suffering. 

 By accepting that all the five aggregates are empty, we are able to embrace difficulties bravely and therefore will reduce our suffering.