new Mahabodhi Monastery

Dear Frens,

yet another little advertisement to raise awareness,

that Mahabodhi Monastery under abbot Venerable Guo Jun,

are busy building their new building

So to all my Dharma Frens out there, if u are able to,do check out the Mahabodhi website for more details on how u can help,

the completion of the new monastery would be of benefit to many pple =)

may all be well n happy,

breathing in with awareness,

breathing out with a smile,

one deep bow...

Day of Mindfulness (DOM)

Today joyful garden sangha we held a day of mindfulness @ pao ern shih...
it was great to see so many (70) pple motivated to practice for a day together,
realli appreciative of the strong collective energy =)

programme was
walking meditation followed by a Dharma talk by Thay (DVD) on the Brahmaviharas - loving kindness, compassion, joy and inclusiveness (amounting to true love =))
then a veri nice lunch courtesy of pao ern shih yum yum =p
afterwhich we did total relaxation, dharma discussion, sitting meditation, 5 mindfulness trainings recitation and wrapping up b4 going home =)

a meaningful day indeed =)

had this short discussion on laziness with regards to practice...
shared my own experience,
that i see it somewhat like the stock market =p
sometimes bull run (when the postive energy to practice is strong)
sometimes bear mkt (when laziness n resistance to practice sets in)
often i realise the trigger for a bull run,
more often than not, is the attendance of a retreat,
be it a one day DOM, 3 day/ 5 days retreats,
the important thing is probably the collective energy of the retreat of all retreatants,
set off within myself the positive energy to put in jus that little extra effort into practice...

that little extra energy to perserve with daily sittings...
extra energy to remember to do conscious breathing, mindful walking, loving speech deep listening etc during everyday life...
that little extra energy to rem to refrain from manifestation of emotional reactions n rtn to the physical sensations etc...

thank u my spiritual frens,
for bringing about the "bull runs" =)

sincerely yours,
ur lazy zen student =P

working with emotional distress

i think hardly a day passes without some kind of emotional distress arising,
big or small, work related or personal life related...
be it anger, irritation, frustration etc etc etc

here's a line from ezra bayda that puts emotional distress into perspective,
practice perspective...

...emotional distress is a signal that we are experiencing life through the filter of an ideal, a picture or an expectation...

if there's enough mindfulness on that day on that occasion,
i might... just might rem to practice with the emotional distress =p
usually this is possible when i rem to do conscious breathing...

some steps that u might find helpful in such situations...
1. becoming aware of the distress energy arising within, breathing in breathing out,
thru conscious breathing, i might just be able to loosen my identification with the distress related thoughts a little, open up my mind a little and bring a practice perspective to the whole situation
2. refrain from my normal emotional reactions, be it justifications thru more thinking, blaming/lashing out at others or suppression within... all these of cse fuel more energy to the distress and makes e identification with the distress energy even more intense...
3. label the thinking, to clarify the mental process and not getting caught up within the juicy details of my thinking...
4. residing in the physical sensations of the negative emotion itself, this is returning to the here and now, and if the energy of mindfulness is strong enough, the emotional distress may start to slowly break up and slowly dissolve into something not so solid not so frightening...
but of cse to expect the emotional distress to dissolve is an expectation itself,
so just watch the whole process with interest and see what happens...
what is this?

may all be well n happy,
deep bow...

new KYCL zen center

Dear Frens,

another little advertisement to raise awareness,
that KYCL (Kwan Yin Chan Lin) under guiding teacher,
Gae Mun Sunim JDPS (Venerable Chi Boon)
are busy building the new zen center,
(see picture for the work in progress new building)
while the construction is making good progress,
they are still short of funds...

So to all my Dharma Frens out there, if u are able to,
do check out the KYCL website for more details on how u can help,
the completion of the zen center would be of benefit to many pple =)

Also when checking out the KYCL website do look out for:
the upcoming zen conference and workshop to be held
from 18 - 19 Dec @ Suntec City
that shd be an interesting event for all =)

may all be well n happy,
breathing in with awareness, breathing out with a smile,
one deep bow...

3 day retreat 24 - 27 dec in Dharma Drum Tradition

dear frens,

coming end of year there will be a 3 day retreat at pao4 en1 shi4,
in the tradition of Dharma Drum Mountain (Master Sheng Yen's tradition)

doing a little advertisement for them =)

http://ddys.pixnet.net/blog/post/32865204

i am praying hard my schedule allows mi to join!
hope to see u there ;)

may all of u out there my dear frens,
reading my blog,
i sincerely wishes,
may u be well n happy always,
thanks for being my companions along the journey of life,
i am forever grateful for ur company...
a deep bow of gratitude
=)

smiling dwelling of the heart

todae received the 5 mindfulness trainings together with other 250 brothers n sisters,
grateful for the opportunity to receive the trainings,
grateful for the new energy and encouragement to continue the spiritual practice n path,
on this path many ups n downs,
not be surprised more of such "rolling hills",
but as the zen saying goes "fall down seven times, get up eight"...

happy to receive the Dharma name "smiling dwelling of the heart"
my gosh... gotta smile more =p

sailing off in couple hrs for a 2 mth overseas deployment...
see ya soon,
may all be well n happy
may everyone awaken to e kindness n connectedness that is the essential nature of our hearts

breathing in... out... smile =D

Thay in S'pore 2

today Thay gave dharma talk on awareness of feelings,
moving on from yesterday's talk on awareness of body...
1. awareness of joy
2. awareness of happiness

many ways to generate joy , happiness
a. letting go
so a story was told about a farmer with 3 cows, one day he lost them,
farmer was so distraught, stressed up n frustrated n felt like end of world,
Buddha told his disciples, "aren't u lucky u dun hav any cows to lose?"
so what are the cows that we are holding onto?
goodness, i think the farmer is pretty enlightened,
he onli got 3 cows, i think i got 1000 over =O kekeke
b. mindfulness energy

3. awareness of feelings, e.g. awareness of the fear/anger arising etc
know that our store consciousness contain many seeds,
negative ones like fear/anger etc,
conditions are ripe, they will arise,
practice means bringing up another seed from store consciousness,
seed of mindfulness,
use mindfulness to embrace fear/anger like a mother take care of her baby,
sayang sayang... take good care of it, n slowly transform the negative energy

4. releasing the tension from the feelings

breathing in, breathing out ahhh...

another nice relaxing day in retreat, recharging my spiritual batteries

may all beings be well n happy
kwan seum bosal =)