Life in Singapore.....

Today I am little bit free so I decided to write one short article. First thing that I wish to share is that I just received a mail from one of our devotees who was very sick. He read my article where I wrote on how to handle situations when one is sick. After reading that article, he wrote to me saying that he now feels much better. That makes me extremely happy as it encourages and reminds me that my writing do help some people, especially those who are lost and in hard times. He wrote to me saying this:

‘From the Words of Wisdom and it quote by you “Sickness is the result of our Karma and so when we experience this, it means that we are in the process of purifying that Karma. Just like we try to practice Dharma and we do many good deeds to purify our Karma; similarly, when we face sickness, it is also a kind of purification we are having. So with such an understanding, our sickness is not just a form of pain but we are eliminating the cause of negative Karma which might lead to more serious consequences if not manifested in this way.”


Good Words of Wisdom and I feel better now.

Regards,’

This is really great and I am more encouraged to write something that I feel is good and meaningful. Nonetheless, you should not expect all the time that I can write meaningful sentences and words that have lots of wisdom as occassionally, I simply write as I like because I am a human being. And what I write are some times just descriptions of certain things or matters which maybe just a thought of one person that may not relate to the Dharma but are related to the general life of an ordinary person.

Back to the Karma Kagyu Buddhist Centre in Singapore, it seems that everyone is little excited over the coming event of my birthday and many of them are very busy organizing the event. I already mentioned in an earlier blog that birthday to me is a mixture of happy and sad feelings. Sad - not because I am getting older but just the feeling that I am still not awakened from ignorance since beginningless time. If we reflect this carefully, then we feel very uncomfortable and birth is an indication of our failure to awake from the deep sleep of ignorance and it represents the start of another chapter of our dream. So in this manner, we have many chapters of dream on going ceaselessly one after another. When are we able to wake up? Seems like very difficult to stir us from our deep slumber and we will take a long time to awaken …..

Anyway, now that we know we are dreaming, we can seize this opportunity to wake up because we are now aware of our dream state. We will not be as confused as before and we can take any situation with lesser attachment since we now know it is like a dream. Hence, there is no grasping basis for us to attach to it and view it as a reality and deem it truly existing. What we need to do is to handle our habititual tendencies and to eliminate them gradually by putting in more effort into our practice. When we reflect on that, then we should feel happy because we are now already in the process of practice to awaken ourselves and this is only possible due to our births.

Regardless, I am very touched by the Members of Karma Kagyu whose devotion is so stable and driven from such quality, they are trying their best to make the simple birthday event nice and pleasant. Also when I see every single member of the committee working very hard and in unity, much like a person with one mind, letting go of their personal interests, egos or agendas, I feel so great and touched. I do not need any physical gifts for my birthday. Actually, the greatest birthday gift I wish for is this unity quality amongst the members. This harmonious gift is the best birthday gift for me and I will accept it wholeheartedly. I am really blessed with such a wonderful environment and people around me. I have confidence that this environment will not only last but it can develop more beautifully as time goes by because every one thinks positively and is moving selflessly toward such a development. I just want to thank all the wonderful committee members, members and devotees, who are the main driving force of our centre’s good progress and who ceaselessly support us in so many ways over a very long period of time. You all are truly wonderful people and I really treasure each and everyone one of you as a great person with great qualities. I am not trying to please you by saying this but these are my heartfelt words deep from within.

( Below photo is my mother and niece at Kirtipur)

In one of my earlier articles, I expressed about how important our mothers are. A few close people wrote to me and asked if I am missing my mummy a lot and thus the article. I did not write the article just because I miss my mummy. I actually wish to share the awareness of reflecting on the kindness of our mothers because in this modern society, we are too involved with developing our own future so we tend to forget the other important part of our life which is our parents. Some times I hear couples referring to ‘my family’ as only their partners and children.

They exclude their mother and father which to me is a really very selfish and wrong attitude. So I hope all of us understand the kindness of our parents and by giving our love and care to our parents, it is actually a quality of human beings as well as a good practitioner. I merely wish to convey this message to my readers. I do not know a fathers’ love and care because my father passed away when I was only 1 year old and so I hardly remember him. But I do know that fathers are equally important like mothers so those who still have fathers with you that means you are very fortunate and treasure every moment of it and you should give your care and love to him similarly to the mother.

Some of you gave comments and expressed encouraging words to my articles. I thank all of you and also, if you wish to ask or share something with everyone, please feel free to leave a comment. This will make you a part of the community to the blogger.

Recently, we have been working on a CD album. Just a few days before the audio CD edit was completed, I received the master CD and played it. I listened to my own voice and I was a little embarrassed because I can sense that I am not well prepared in the beginning. I felt a bit nervous as I neither sing like a professional singer nor chant like a puja master. Eventually, things got a bit better and smoother. The recording was done in a hurry just before I left Singapore for KL centre so I did not have the chance to re-record or make any changes or even listen to the raw recording prior to editing. Therefore, please do not have high expectations on this audio CD that has me singing. I am really touched by this project’s group head Ren Hui. She has a really beautiful voice and I especially find the children singing very touching. This is really a group effort that arises purely from their hearts. It is infused with tremendous feelings towards our mothers. I know all of them are not professional singers but their efforts are driven by their love towards all mothers and this is truly special.


I seen the email circular that this CD will be launched on my birthday and already, I am beginning to feel a bit shy. Hopefully, people will take it as an effort from my heart and not judge at the voice quality and professionalism. It is for free distribution and you can get a copy from the Centre. You can listen to it as well as read or sing along with the lyrics on the cover. I thank all the generous people contributing toward this production. May this create a loving and caring nature for everyone.

You can listen the sample song here.

Full song in youtube is here.


Another embarrassing project is the photo journal. I am not a good photographer as you may think but I do love to take photos of nature and expressions of people. So this book presentation of photos is not to indicate how good a photographer I am but rather as a present for the Karma Kagyu Buddhist Centre on my birthday. All sales of the photo journal will go directly to the Singapore Karma Kagyu Centre for its Dharma Activities to flourish. So please support these noble activities by ordering your copies of the photo journal with our centre and I thank you for your support towards the centre.

JB centre celebrate my birthday in advance.

after cake cutting, members enjoying foods.

Chagzog Damcho Centre Singapore celebrate birthday.