Invisible Happiness

Date      : 27 March 2011
Time      : 9.30 am
Venue    : Shah Alam Buddhist Temple
Topic     : Invisible Happiness
Speaker : Dr.Chan Kah Yein

" Peace and happiness are available in crazy moment. Mindfulness is the key." ~ Ven Thich Nhat Hanoh.
As normal sentient beings, we have to practise mindfulness in various useful ways to remove layers of dust, eventually leading us to enlightenment. As buddhists, we have one ultimate goal to achieve which is to attain enlightenment. Though it might sound very difficult to strive the target, it is achievable if we were to put in great effort and try controlling our temper, desire and most importantly our delusion.

It is true that focus helps people to be able to concentrate on whatever works they are doing. However, excessive focus that will neglect the surrounding's happenings will bring disastrous endeavors to people. We might miss out many people in life if we are too focused on certain things. We shall avoid extremes. For instance, a lecturer might not be that experienced in teaching certain topics. It is not for us to blame. Instead, he or she might possess certain special qualities which we might learn from and eventually leading us to another better path. None will ever know. We are supposed to treat every beings with equal respect and be more humble. Everyone has his special character we might learn from. Learning from others helps to mould you into a better one.

Be more understanding and learn to forgive. There's often a saying that getting mad over certain people is merely punishing yourself by taking others' wrongful doings seriously. There are always two sides for every story. We know what we want to do because we're expecting from others. But, the point is people may not know what we expect them to do. Hence, think twice before you blow your top due to people's inability to get their tasks done to your requirements. This is largely applicable especially when you're gotta be a president for a certain organization. President is the prime mover of the organization so it is very important to elect a leader that possess extraordinary leadership skill. The person should be one of ability to show his mindfulness and give precise decision on the organization's future.

Mindfulness comes in different ways. It applies onto people who have time to think of others as well. These people are in general selfless people. They have this caring attitude in which they are thinking of the benefits of others though people are not watching or observing you. All these root from the genuine and purely sincere intention. We have to be more caring and not to get too focused until you neglect the well-beings of others. Knowing is easy but to practise is another matter for discussion.

Mindfulness is to pay attention and be fully aware of what is happening at your surroundings. Understand ourselves, transform ourselves. 

Intention --- >Thoughts ---- > Actions and Speech

When you do good things with your sincere heart, you'll feel very happy. Instead, you will never gain the true happiness if you do something with an ulterior purpose of bad intentions.  What we, sentient beings need is to be honest. Sometimes, we know that it is not correct to perform such behaviors. However, we are too ego to admit it, we refuse to. Again, it is all about our mind, whether we're courageous enough to confess our own undesirable acts.

The Three Evil Roots

Greed

Hatred

Delusion

Dana ( Giving ) as mentioned in early posts, is the true generosity. Only when one person gives for the other people's benefits, that he or she will feel the true happiness. Again, metta (loving kindness) is applicable here. To love others. Basically, in the buddhist context, giving for the others' benefits and to be a harmless people are the two major principles in Buddhism. 

Another important criterion Buddhism always implies onto sentient beings like students especially is to manage stress appropriately. Your reaction is between you and the object. You can choose not to be disturbed. After all, it's again about your choice. Create a "space" between you and the object so that you can have a wider field of vision and thoughts. Feel it with your loving kindness, gratitude, understanding and patience. 

Every cloud has its silver lining. When it comes to adversity, it is again you that have to make choice. Mental strength will generally come to you automatically when you really need to face it. If you are able to, change the situation. If not, change your attitude, choose your reaction. We cannot change the others, we can only change ourselves.

These are basically what I've learnt from today's dharma talk. Just a token of sharing with brothers and sisters. May the glory of metta shines on us. 

Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu. 

Lee Chiu Xian

Sukhihontu.

A Token of Sharing With Brothers And Sisters

Date: 15 January 2011
The Dharma Talk's Topic: Worthy Ways To Happy Days
Speaker: Dr. Chan Kah Yein

Everyone endures to become a happy one. Nobody welcomes gloom, sadness or anything negative. However, be it good or bad, we have to accept them as this is what had been practised by our teacher, Buddha, The Enlightened one.

In fact, there're a few cycles Buddha had gone through before he attained enlightenment in the form of a self known as Siddharta Gautama. It is believed that Buddha could actually achieved the highest level of understanding the world's sufferings the life before as another monk. However, he chose to postpone and remain evoluting in the cycle. To great extent, he did that in order to attain the level of becoming samma sambuddha who is a person that has attained mindfulness and yet be able to help other people in the pursuit of enlightenment.  This had indirectly unveiled how noble Buddha is to save the person in the world selflessly.

There are so many criteria to practise before Buddha, our teacher attained enlightenment finally. One of them is to practise the 10 virtues to perfection which is The Ten Paramis.

THE TEN PARAMIS

ACTION: 

Generosity

Morality

Renunciation

SUPPORT: 

Energy

Patience

Determination

Honesty

MENTAL QUALITIES:

Wisdom

Loving Kindness

Equanimity

True Generosity: Give for the benefit of the recipient, not your own; and that's the kind of giving that is truly beneficial to others.

GREED VS NEED
According to Mahatma Gandhi, the world's resources are enough to satisfy all men's need but will never be sufficient to satisfy even a man's need. Hence, we should learn to value the power of contentment. Learn to say I'm enough. I'm thankful that I've had enough. Never ask for more and this will only lead you becoming frustrated over a lot of unnecessary things.

Energy is something special we can generate. Learn to focus under the environment which is full of distractions. There are too many things within the world that can distract us away and eventually cause us to fail along the way to success. We can never guarantee the 100% peace in all places we travel and we can never say that the place we study is conducive and quiet enough for us to focus. The circumstance might not be able to alter but we, normal humans can change. We must learn to focus even though the environment is not meant for us so that we can survive well in any situation.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Eistein. 

As normal humans, we tend to do mistakes. There is nothing wrong if we make mistakes. What is incorrect is that we never learn from our mistakes. It is vital to know that there should not be failure, mistakes in our mind to be a successful one. Those are only lessons to us in order to become wiser. Genius is 99% perspiration with 1% inspiration. Hence, we should work hard in a smart way when we face failure. Try to figure the root of failure and modify them in a variety ways through positive attitude. Never give up even though you have experienced so many failures. Some entrepreneurs who are so successful said this before, "I don't fear failure but i fear failure doesn't come to me that will then make me strong to strive again."

Loving Kindness (Metta) and Equanimity
We should extend our loving kindness to all sentient beings be they humans or other creatures in the world. All minds are inter-related so we must always care for others. We should treat everything the same way no matter they are of happy or sad endeavors. Learn to be able to hear but not being affected by those wrongful thoughts or false messages. Besides, we should learn to accept sadness but not leading to more sadness because sadness will fade away by itself. We should not be too particulate over that. Since it is not supposed to be resorted, let it be. Time can wash away everything.

A wise person will never get his mind charmed by undesirable things and yet doesn't resist the undesirable things that approach him.

May all gain some benefits listening to the valuable credit we have earned today.
Sadhu. Sadhu. Sadhu.

 

The Succession of Dharma's Fellowship Leading To The Continuation of The Circle

Well, happy new year brothers and sisters. Though it's kinda late but still, we would like to share with brothers and sisters, welcome back to our devoted family. Here we unite as one again, to ensure the continuation of the sharing as well as passing down of the teachings of Buddha, the Enlightened one. 

So, the beginning of something new always brings about the ending of something old. This general theory in fact applies to almost all phenomena taking place in this world, sentient beings like us especially. Hence, our main here today is the announcement of the two new DOC leader for semester January 2011 till Disember 2011. 

The Previous BF representative : Ooi Chia Soon and Tan Sheau Wei

Thanks alot brother Ooi and sister Tan for your delicate service to DOC. We believe tat your kind help and passion towards Buddhism will never die because the way you people pursuit the continuation of the fellowship influences us and eventually bringing up another batch of teenagers who pay full passion towards the religion. Thanks alot again.

The Newly Appointed DOC leader: Wilson Cheong ( ALM-- 11M10) at 016-4396108 and Lee Chiu Xian (ALM-- 11M6) at 012-6546783

The Ausmat Representative: Wei Wen at 017-4128679

The Russian Programme Representative : Liew Chia Chen at 017-9348807

We will be sending out the topics for weekly dharma talk by wednesday every week. Hopefully, brothers and sisters may try to arrange some time out to attend it. It's really worth going for a mindful practice. By the way, please kindly spread the news to other friends so that we can expand our family to a certain extent. Your kind deeds will always be valued. Thanks alot. Not to leave out this that please confirm with us whether you are going to attend the Dharma Talk by Friday every week so that we can arrange transport well.

Besides that, kindly visit our group in Facebook which is Dhamma On Campus - the Bodhi Fellowship from time to time. We will always keep you all informed about the most updated events DOC is planning to orga nise. May all be blessed and attain mindfulness. Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu.

Chiu Xian    

Sunday Dharma Talk + Pre-Exam Prayer + Farewell

A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compasion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
-Albert Einstein

If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism. -Albert Einstein

DOC that Sunday morning was indeed an inspiring one.  

The morning’s event started out rather blissfully, with usual offerings done with proper understanding to remind us the Truths of life, Homage to the Buddha and puja to settle ourselves in calmness and  so to connect our minds to the Buddha.

 After the open ceremony by chanting versus in the Buddhist scriptures in Pali Language to recall back the core teachings of the Buddha, we warmly welcome Dharma Speaker of the day, Venerable Geshe Tenzin Zopa who is the Current Resident Teacher of LDC (2007 Jan - Present), born in 1975 in the village of Tsum located at the foothill of Himalaya. Ven. Genshe shared with us the Dharma on topic"the Foundation of Good Qualities".

According to Ven. Genshe, in Buddhism, bodhicitta(बोधिचित्त, 菩提心) is the wish to attain complete enlightenment (that is, Buddhahood) in order to be of benefit to all sentient beings trapped in cyclic existence (samsāra) who have not yet reached Buddhahood. One who has bodhicitta as the primary motivation for all of his or her activities is called a bodhisattva. Bodhicitta also means the aim to, on the one hand, bring happiness to all sentient beings, and on the other, to relieve them of suffering^; this definition is consistent with the definition of seeking enlightenment, as enlightenment is the freedom from samsara.

Bodhicitta may also be defined as the union of compassion and wisdom. This is a development of the concept of luminous mind in the Pali Canon. While the compassion and wisdom aspects of bodhicitta are actually highly dependent on each other, in the Mahāyanā tradition (the school of Buddhism within which the terminology relating to bodhicitta is most fully developed) they are often referred to as:

• Relative bodhicitta, which refers to a state of mind in which the practitioner works for the good of all beings as if it were his own.
• Absolute, or ultimate, bodhicitta, which refers to the wisdom of shunyata (śunyatā, a Sanskrit term often translated as "emptiness", though the alternatives "openness" or "spaciousness" probably convey the idea better to Westerners). The concept of śunyatā in Buddhist thought does not refer to nothingness, but to freedom from attachments (particularly attachment to the idea of a static or essential self) and from fixed ideas about the world and how it should be. The classic text on śunyatā is the Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra, a discourse of the Buddha commonly referred to as the "Heart Sūtra."

So, the term bodhicitta in its most complete sense would combine both:

• the arising of spontaneous and limitless compassion for all sentient beings, and
• the falling away of the attachment to the illusion of an inherently existent self

Venerable also reminded that by having the heart of Bodhicitta alone is definitely not enough as we have to put into action to help other sentient beings with our love, compassion and wisdom. The most easiest way to practice Bodhicitta is not to harm the others and do not revenge to the people who mistreat us. In contrary, we should be reminded that all the bad things happen to us is due to the previous negative karma. Thus, we shouldn't let the Karma be recycle again as bad karma will imply for us if we did something in return to revenge. We should show our patience and remain calm for a while and try to explain in proper way to solve the problem but not make the things worse. This can be done if we practice Bodhicitta and compassion in our daily life and soon this will shape our behavior to become a patient and compassionate person. 

The highlight of the evening was the Pre-Exam Prayer conducted by DOC Leader, Bro Leong Wei Hung. The prayer was done in Chinese Mahayana Tradition. together with English explanation. After lunch, every DOC member gathered at the Meditation Hall sincerely, waiting to pray to the Lord Buddha and the compassionate Bodhisattva, hoping to perform well during the SACE External Examination and End-of-semester examination in INTEC.  One of the most stressful things students in INTEC face is examinations. Whether it's a regular test in class to the external exam, students are not immune to the anxiety-inducing exams. While there is probably no prayer that can get us an A on an exam if we don't prepare for, and probably no prayer that can change that "B" answer to an "A" answer. However, we can rely on prayer and  the blessing of the Buddha to help us study better and relax more when taking a test. Saying a prayer at exam time can help us focus better on what we have learned so that it comes out by making smarter choices on your exams.

After the holy prayer session, DOC members expressed their greatest gratitude to the Temple, DOC Leaders and  everyone in the fellowship who has contributed in shaping the DOC by singing Prayer Song entitled "Thankful". The showing of the photos from the early stage of DOC  with few members till today with more than 90 members touched the heart of many members deeply. The activities continued with lively young souls communing in hymn ("Cradled in Buddha's Arm" and "the Dharma Shines in Me")

The farewell session carried out to say goodbye and expressed our thankfulness to the serving and great jobs done by our DOC Leader, Bro Leong Wei Hung, Sis Laura and all the Ausmatian seniors. Every members hugged and communing with the seniors and leaders, and this ended our DOC meeting on Sunday.

All in all, we truly enjoyed ourselves today. May the Lord give blessing and guidance for this fellowship and its following. Thank you once again to all who made today’s event the meaningful experience it was to everyone of us.=)

Sukhi Hontu

BF Representatives will be leading DOC for the next 5 months

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
1) The retirement of DOC leaders, Bro. Leong Wei Hung and Sis. Laura Kuek started from 10 August 2010 onwards and they will become the advisers of DOC till January 2011.
2) New DOC Leader and committee board will be elected in January 2011.
3) For this transitional period (from August 2010 to January 2011), the management of this Bodhi Fellowship (BF) will be handled by two BF Representatives:
Bro. Ooi Chia Soon and Sis. Tan Sheau Wei , together with several committees of the transitional period.
4)ALL DOC activities will be organized by BF Representatives from 10 August 2010 onwards.

Committee Board of the Transitional Period:
Advisers: Leong Wei Hung
                 Laura Kuek

BF REP: Ooi Chia Soon 
                Tan Sheau Wei
BF Committee: All Committees of "DOC Youth Buddhist Camp 2010"

Appreciate the Teachings of Buddha

Finally, DOC Youth Buddhist Camp 2010 has come to an end. 

Hopefully you guys really enjoy and learn something new about The teachings of the Enlightened one! 

Thanks for giving me a chance to walk into your heart..

it's really a wonderful time with you guys !!! 

For all committees, thank you for all the hard work. You all made it possible!=) 

Remember, no matter wat will happen to u, DOC will always be there to assist u~ 

Buddhism needs youth, youth needs Buddhism! 

Don't forget our promise to serve DOC!

Sukhi Hontu to all of u =)

天下没有不散之筵席~ 

2010大专佛法团契佛青生活营终究曲终人散... 

此次的营要是没了工委们的发心付出以及营员们的用心体验，

是不能像这样圆满结束的！

虽然仅有1天的相聚，不过相信大家都已经建立起共同的默契！

愿大家能够珍惜彼此间的手足情 =) 

感恩各位的付出，感恩各位的参与~

但愿此次的分离将不会是永恒的离别~ 

期盼着你们所学的佛法能够应用在生活上~ 

师兄师姐们！

无论未来发生什么事，别忘了DOC这个家永远在你左右！

用空常回家吧！咱们有缘再聚！

阿弥陀佛！

末学
梁玮航

please visit our group at facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=257746323370 to get more photos and videos about the camp! =)

 

DOC Youth Buddhist Camp 2010

DOC Youth Buddhist Camp 2010 《2010年大专佛学团契佛青生活营》

 

The details of the event are as follows:

Date:   24 - 25 July 2010

Venue: Shah Alam Buddhist Temple

Theme: Who am I?

          INTRODUCTION

Since the re-formation of Dhamma on campus (DOC) in January 2010, we would like to organize a camp at the Shah Alam Buddhist Society for all students in INTEC from 24 July to 25 July 2010 with the significance of inculcating a deep faith in our own religion and developing a sense of trust as well as respect to Buddhism regardless of age and gender.

          OBJECTIVE

The objectives of the major event are as follows:

1)      To promote the understanding of Buddhism by enriching the correct values and knowledge from the enlightened Buddha and applying them in daily routine

2)   To clear doubts and misunderstanding about Buddhism among all the youth Buddhist in campus.

3)      To expose the students with comprehensive and inspiring teachings through various interactive activities and seminars in the camp

4)      To foster close and mutual friendships among the participants in line with the correct Buddhist teachings 

The camp is mainly targeted to juniors. The purpose of this camp is to provide an opportunity for juniors and students in campus to meet and get to know each other, work together in a Buddhist community, learn and experience the Buddha’s teachings, as well as recharge and escape from tiring and tension study life.

Undoubtedly, this is the biggest event of DOC in 2010! so, please join us!