By Hui Jue 

A few years ago, my then landlord was between houses and I had to look for an alternative place to stay while she looked for a new property. In this interim period, I stayed at a Buddhist temple. This Buddhist temple was sectioned into three areas; right at the entrance was the Great Hall, behind the hall was the columbarium where the devotees of the temple could house the urns of their deceased family and ancestral tablets. The third section of the temple was some empty rooms which I had heard used to be meant for visiting monks (though not any more) and in one of these rooms was where I lived for a while.

An organisation rented the Great Hall every Thursday evening to carry out their rites. Halfway through the rites, there would be loud shouts and wailing, all mixed up with the sound of the instruments that accompanied the rites emitting from the hall. At first, I was not concerned and was not bothered by it. I would even take a tiny peek into the hall whenever I walked past the hall.

Then I had a conversation with one of the members of this organisation. She told me that during the rites, the members would ‘share’ their human bodies with the spirits of their debtors and enemies. She advised me not to go too close to the hall during the proceedings of the ritual. I was really spooked and uncomfortable and decided to call my Dharma Teacher for advice.

I told her about how I felt and she asked me, “Why were you not afraid before you knew what the rites were about? It seems like you are only afraid after knowing about the rites. Could it be that it is your thoughts that are making you fearful? The Heart Sutra teaches about the emptiness of the five Skandhas and the Third Skandha is thinking.  And when we are not able to see the true nature of this thinking as illusionary and thus empty, our mind starts to fear and create obstacles.”

My Teacher’s words of advice were indeed a timely reminder. It was a reminder to always reflect on the emptiness of the five Skandhas so that our minds will not be fearful, obstructed and deluded.

From that day on, I continued my routine of walking pass the hall every Thursday. However, all unease and fear had disappeared even when I heard the shouts and cries emitting from the hall. This incident has made me realise the power of our minds. When the mind perceives a situation as scary, it will let loose a chain of thoughts to further reinforce this feeling of fear.

Hence we should not let the chain of unrelenting thoughts arise by being aware of the arising and ceasing of every single thought.

By Lingzhi               

In the later part of my teenage school days, I joined the Community Service Club as a Co-curricular Activity. Through this, I got to know an elderly man who is rather severely handicapped – he is wheelchair bound, has difficulty using his hands to hold objects, and needs help to carry out most of his daily activities. 

The main tasks of the weekly visits which I made to the home were feeding or bringing him out to the nearest town centre where he could run his errands. He was only able to do that when volunteers visited the centre and brought him out. When I joined the workforce after graduating from school, I had work commitments and due to time constraint, I did not continue to volunteer at the home. Recently, he contacted me, asking for assistance in bringing him out to run some errands. I agreed to and met up with him. 

It has been more than 10 years since I last brought him out. In the course of running his errands, he kept thanking me and said that “he owed me a lot”. I felt very sad and ashamed, because this was the least I could do for someone who was already in his 70s and really in need of help. This recent experience, has made me realised how blessed and grateful I am to be born as a physical and mentally healthy human being. In fact it is so difficult to be born in the human realm, let alone to be someone both physically and mentally healthy.

Many of us often take things for granted. But we will never know what lies ahead of us tomorrow. Let us all seize the day – to live each and every day a worthwhile and fulfilling one. If we can constantly live in gratitude, this will translate into actions which will benefit not only ourselves, but also all sentient beings. ☺ 

Here’s something my Buddhist teacher has taught me:  Appreciate and be grateful for all that we have for when we treasure our blessings and manage them wisely, we will not waste unnecessarily and know how to create even more good decisions and conditions. And that is how, our blessings will naturally, increase. (珍惜所拥有的，会惜福，不会了福，福报会越来越好)

By Jian Yong

There is a Bodhi tree by the road just next to Aljunied MRT Station. For the past 12 years, I walked past it often, weekly to be exact. I have walked by it on sunny hot days, walked by it on rainy days, on windy days and on cloudy days, year after year.

Whenever I see the Bodhi tree, I will always stop and take a look at it and indulge in a brief moment of inner peace& self-reflection. It has since, become a habit.

Sometimes when rays of sunlight shine through the leaves onto my face, I will be reminded of how the Buddha sat beneath the Bodhi Tree and how he had vowed to end all suffering of sentient beings. I am so blessed to know his path and to have the opportunity to live this lifetime as a human being and to learn to walk his path.

On windy days when the Bodhi leaves fall on my hand, I will be reminded that we are all walking towards the same destination: Death. It doesn’t matter how long one lives; if one doesn’t cultivate, there will still be countless lifetimes of suffering. As life is filled with impermanence, so we should be appreciative of the little things in life and be grateful that we have a healthy body for cultivation.

On rainy days or on days where I feel down, I will be reminded of, while under shade of the Bodhi tree, of my Buddhist teacher’s words, “Has your mind always been thinking of the benefits of all beings? It doesn’t matter how insignificant we may seem now. As as long as we do not regress from the path of Bodhisattva, one day we will get there. A Bodhisattva goes through countless lifetimes of hardship and cultivation to get where they are. So why spend time worrying about life’s ups and downs? Instead we should see them as opportunities to cultivate and grow our Loving-Kindness and Compassion for the sake of helping others.

In our daily life, we are too engrossed with making a living. Often, we do not even have a moment to be aware of our thoughts. Instead, we simply muddle through the flow of of activities that just keep coming. Finally, when you are home, our body is just too tired to meditate. Thus, walk beneath the Bodhi tree gives me a precious moment to reflect. By reflecting, I will know not to stray too far from the path of Buddha. 

The next time you walk past the Bodhi tree, pause to take a look at it. Will it inspire and guide you as much as it did me?

By Alvin

Since my school days till my working life, I have always been seeking and contemplating on the way towards a more carefree life. However, my definition of a carefree living is not to be like a wandering spirit or someone without an aim in life. 

As most of us are experiencing now, life is getting more and more stressful, so how do we reverse this trend? How do we deal with the pressures in a more connected world, with tighter deadlines and seemingly more impatient clients and/or superiors at our workplace? Often, we are also seeing things not happening in the way we want them to be. As technology improves, life should be more simpler. But ironically, I am sensing that we are becoming frustrated more easily. So where should we turn to and what are the ways to allow us to seek inner peace? It took me some time to at least know which direction to work towards, after embracing and practising Buddhism.

Recently, I am no longer as easily stressed up in my working life or even when dealing with daily matters. I feel that I have become more carefree. However, being carefree is not to become any less serious in carrying out my daily tasks. On this point, the Buddhist Teachings are advocating to us the importance of focusing our minds on the task at hand and once the task is over, our minds should also be released from that task（事了心了）. In this way, we will definitely be less stressful as we do not ponder about the outcome or wonder at the possibilities of failure.

Deadlines are still there, but we should not waste our time worrying about them. In this way, not only are we saving time, but more importantly, we are freeing up the capacities of our mind to be more efficient and effective at our work. In doing so, we are also trying to achieve a small enlightenment because we learn to let go with ease. I have come to accept things as they are and be more calm in dealing with matters at work. 

Although this is easier said than done, it has become our habit to start worrying even before the event is happening and once the event has passed, to start thinking about it on hindsight. It is actually not easy to let go of our thoughts, as we are often too attached to our own notions of gain and loss (得失心). In a way, this is a good opportunity for us to cultivate on letting go of the notions of gain and loss in order to overcome our dreadful feeling of restlessness, as well as our repetitive patterns of thought. For this, we need the teachings of Buddhism to guide us to transcendence and self-reflection, such as by asking ourselves, why are we still stuck or seemingly unable to improve even if the situation has happened for countless times? Rather than just using our own narrow mindset to look at the situation again, we should embrace only the factual happenings with open-mindedness, solving it with positive and rational thinking as the basis to handle even the most sticky of situations. That is why the teachings of Buddhism can be so practical to our daily lives.

It is important to stress that to avoid anticipating and getting worried beforehand is not the same as telling ourselves not to plan ahead, as the saying goes, failing to plan is to plan to fail. Planning is part of dealing with the task and being focused without the unnecessary feelings of expectations and desire. I am taught that everything is created in our own minds. Whatever the issue is, if we perceive it to be a big deal, then it is a big deal. If we perceive it to be trivial, then it is trivial. Being more focused in just executing our daily tasks will result in living with lesser stress and living our lives in a more carefree way. This is blissful living.