One of our long standing members of over 30 years passed away peacefully on November 26, 2008. Wang Teck Hor (袁德河) was a runner-boy on the prayer stage. He supported the prayer proceedings through his endless and often thankless chores of refreshing prayer offerings’; maintaining sufficient stock of incense; preparing beverages for his fellow prayer mates; and the list goes on. While he was not on the forefront, his duties were nonetheless critical and crucial to the smooth running of the entire group.

While we mourn his passing with his family, lets us remember that this is not the end but a new beginning of his next chapter on the path towards enlightenment. May we bid him farewell and may he continue, as he had in this life, diligently on this path.

The memorial service will be held on November 29th, 2008 at the void deck of Block 22, Havelock Road at 7.30pm. The cortège leaves on November 30th 2008, 1pm to Tze Toh An.

A sunny day, delicious food and lots of smiling faces made for some lovely pictures of MHBS’s Deepavali celebrations. Online here.

I wanted to draw your attention to a short video that went live on the web a few days ago. If you have some spare surfing time then please do click through and have a look. It’s very inspiring.

It marks the launch of a global endeavor to celebrate compassion and promote collaboration between the world’s religions. The background to it is a TED Prize wish by Karen Armstrong, calling for a Charter for Compassion.

And the exhilarating twist here is that the writing won’t be done behind closed doors. It will be done by you… and perhaps millions of others around the world. Because they’re using special collaborative web tools created by the geniuses at Kluster (a collaborative decision making platform) to enable this be truly a charter “created by the world for the world”.

Millions of people around the world will be contributing, in their own language, to help create a charter capable of inspiring the world to focus on what the great religions share, as opposed to what divides them. Already people are responding to this amazing idea with passion and excitement. The goal is to obtain all input from global participants within the next four weeks, select the best contributions with the help of a council of religious “sages”, and conduct a major launch of the finished document in 2009.

Although Buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion, I think this is very exciting and very relevant to something we all hold close to our hearts.

Aren’t we a handsome bunch?

I had a bit of a windfall gain last week. A disk of unseen photos from Vesak popped up. They’re by oh-so-humble Kevin “who me? I’m not very good yet” Low and there’s lots of really, really nice pics amongst them.

Some intimate portraits too… perhaps of you?

As usual, if you’d like big versions of anything, just let me know.

So, off you go, check them out here.

This is an anonymous contribution from a Member, offering a glimpse behind the scenes of the celebration. We’re extremely grateful and it would be a great time to remind everyone that this is your website and we welcome your contributions on any topic you think will be of interest to Members. Just email here or pass to Yang Liang or Alice at the Shrine and we’d be happy to share it with everyone.

As always, this year’s Deepavali celebration was a success, with the rain holding out until the end of the celebrations before unleashing its wrath (and thus helping to wash the floor a second time).

Many people came with family members in tow, prayed for blessings, greeted and paid respect to our Master, chatted with fellow members over the sumptuous vegetarian buffet lunch and left satisfied; making it yet another memorable occasion.

Like many past celebrations, there are a few small groups of very happy and willing volunteers who work quietly behind the scenes (well, I say quietly, but actually they can be quite boisterous) to ensure that everything goes smoothly with minimum hitches. For example:

• Putting up the decorations to enhance the ambience
• Arranging hundreds of oil lamps for everyone to light
• Washing and arranging the hundreds of fruits & flowers for offerings
• Handling all the administrative matters
• Photography — to capture our actions (the good, the bad and the ugly) - for our viewing pleasure and posterity (available on the shrine’s website)
• Cleaning the Shrine before & after each celebration
• Setting up the tables and chairs for guests
• Arranging and replenishing the food & drinks
• Setting up paraphernalia required to conduct the prayers

These volunteers have never, and will never, solicit for thanks. Nevertheless I would just like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of everyone who has in one way or another made these joyous occasions so successful.

Here’s a quote from someone, (that’s me, hee! hee!).

“Blessed and most fortunate are we in this lifetime to be given these precious opportunities to learn, serve and walk alongside our Master. The blessings and guidance that we received from our Master are PRICELESS.”