It might seem a little early to be thinking about Chinese New Year already (we’re still dieting from the mooncakes!) but believe me, it’ll be here sooner than you expect.

And in the spirit of making sure MHBS members get the very best, we’ve sacrificed our waist-lines to come up with a range of essential CNY snacks that tingle our tastebuds. Some were average and didn’t make the cut, so the ones we’ve put on the list are good. Really good.

Melt in the mouth pineapple tarts and almond cookies, more-ish nuts, broadbeans and savoury snacks, and my all-time favourite, pumpkin seed slices (yum!)

These snacks are hand-made with love, and proceeds go towards supporting MHBS activities, so of course it’s a much better cause than supporting your local multinational supermarket chain store.

Download the order form in PDF or Excel format and please pass it around to all your friends.

Then just drop it in to the shrine on a Sunday, email it here or fax to 6386 7301.

Delivery will be in January (date tba), but you can relax comfortably, knowing that you’ve done your snack shopping and delicious snacks will be on the way.

Sorry, sorry. In a blurred moment I totally mixed up the instructions for the Tea and Mooncakes evening, so if you’ve been by the site recently (yay!) or you receive updates by email (what, you didn’t know you could do that? just type your email address into the subscribe box under the logo on the right of this page), please ignore my mention of it being held in Pontian. It’s much closer to home, at the Singapore Shrine.

Details again:

• Who? All members, helpers and families
• Where? MHBS Singapore
• When? Saturday 22nd September from 7pm
• What? Tea, mooncakes and a slideshow of photos from our last Pontian outing

I’ve got an evil motorcycling pig lantern this year, which should disturb the neighbours and scare small children when it’s switched on, so I issue a challenge to anyone to come up with something more obnoxious than that.

Hope to see you there! 

It’s almost mid-Autumn festival, and what better way to relax and enjoy it than getting together over tea and mooncakes? You’re invited!

• Who? All members, helpers and families
• Where? MHBS Pontian Singapore
• When? Saturday 22nd September from 7pm
• What? Tea, mooncakes and a slideshow of photos from our last Pontian outing

So, please mark out your calendar, we’d love everyone to come along! If you need a map, transport or more details, just drop me a line.

A brief summary from Dr Chua Yang Liang

***

Hi Everybody

Its been quite a number of years since the society last organized a post vesak meeting let alone an outing to Malaysia.

The event was held on Sunday Aug 5 with over 70 participants, comprising volunteers and their immediate families and friends, who came via the chartered bus. I was fortunate enough to ride along them on a two hour journey from Ang Mo Kio to Pontain, Malaysia.

The session for the day began with firstly, chanting of the five songs followed by a mass meditation that lasted about fifteen minutes. The meeting proper began promptly with the incoming chair (i.e. yours truly) sharing the key comments of the 2007 meeting.

The key issues addressed included:

Positive

• one heart “event” where everyone was busy sewing was the most memorable
• show case that we can come together with one heart if we set our mind to it. For that I’d like to congratulate Linda for being the brainchild behind this project and Winston for taking the initiative to buy needles for all to use
• impressed by the speed with which fruits was packed and distributed to the guests. Again, it demonstrates that when we stay focused on a project, we can do it collectively. Congratulations to everyone, I mean everyone,  for making it possible!

• meals were well provided, more than sufficient to consume
• night securities are very appreciative to the kitchen team for leaving snacks for them
• congratulations to kitchen segment for putting together a wonderful menu. Some suggest to have more non-spicy dishes in future
• this site is more peaceful, less disturbances either from traffic or pedestrian walking. Convenient to coffee shop. Congratulations to the organizing committee and Jeffrey for getting this site
• despite the shorten time, the site was up and running within the time frame, congratulations to the logistics team for pulling it together
• positive feedback also for Prayer group for being very helpful and cooperative. Congratulations to Prayer team.

Improvements

• facing difficulty getting some participants to register their names when they light their oil lamps. I appeal to everyone here to pass this message across that it is vital for anyone, that is everyone, to register your name after you light the lamps. This is the same practice that we observe too on Sundays. We are a non-profit organization and its crucial that we maintain a proper record. So please everyone, next time you light an oil lamp, doesn’t  matter whether you have to pay or not, just register your name. It doesn’t take long. Please cooperate.
• family members of prayer group who do not pay… non payment is only provided to all those helpers during the Vesak period. Not to their immediate family
• long waiting time for healing, some had to wait longer than the indicated time. I want to appeal to everyone again, that the timing is indicative. We do our best to make it a short wait for everyone but sometimes we need to allow for those who are sick and weak to be attended first. Nonetheless we will continue to improve this process. We are all here to pay respect to the Buddha and learn HIS way. Take this opportunity to train our patience and learn to channel your anger away.

The session concluded with feedback from Master who specifically mentioned the respective volunteers of different segments for their contribution and also asked for their expression of interest for the  continuation of their respective duties.

Sorry for the delay in posting post-Pontian, it took a while to recover from the excitement of discovering so much talent on one stage in one evening. You might have all looked snoozy on the morning bus trip, but you sure did perk up as the day went on!

If you’re catching up on this story for the first time, 100 members, helpers and friends (yes, 100!) took the trip to Pontian on August 5th. I don’t want to insinuate divine help here, but it did seem that we were blessed with a lot of luck. The buses pulled in to Ang Mo Kio at the right time, the causeway crossing was smooth as silk and the sun shined on us as we hiked from the main road in to the Pontian Shrine.

After paying respect with meditation and prayer, and a post Vesak wrap-up by the society chairman, Dr Chua, Master answered questions and offered wisdom. A report of what was said will be posted in the next few days, so please do check back here.

Then it was on to the serious business of a long lunch, and the caterers outdid themselves with some genuinely delicious vegetarian food. The really great thing about a day like this is that everyone is free from the usual jobs they do when we gather on occasions like Vesak, so there’s plenty of time to mingle and chat. It was my privilege to hear some great stories, learn more and make some new friends, and I think everyone in Pontian enjoyed the chance to relax and catch up.

But, of course you’re all work-a-holics, so when the call came for a cleaning bee, every person armed themselves with a cloth, mop or bucket and set to it with gusto. Yes, we have photos to prove it!

Speaking of photos, the journey is documented here, including the talent of the Moh Hong StarSearch, hosted by the divine songbird, Ms Daphne. There’s a big version of the group shot, but all the others are formatted for computer screens. If you want a bigger version of anything just let me know and I’d be happy to mail it to you.

All up I’d have to say it was a lot of fun and a really worthwhile day out. There can’t possibly be a nicer bunch of people to take a roadtrip with than MHBS members.

So, thanks for a wonderful day everyone.

Check back in a few days for more, or better yet, subscribe to our news by RSS or email using this direct link or the form on the right of this page.

Details of the Pontian trip have been finalised.

• Date: Sunday 5th August
• Time: 8am leaving AMK, estimating arriving at Pontian Shrine at 10am
• Meeting Place: At the bus stop outside the Jubilee Theatre (opposite the MRT station) in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8.
• Bus Numbers: 9481 and 4295

If those bus numbers come up in 4D will somebody buy me a morning coffee?

There’ll be a meditation session, post-Vesak meeting and various activities to be advised later. The confirmed schedule for the day is:

• 12 noon - Vegetarian Buffet Lunch
• 3.30pm - Shopping
• 5pm - Seafood 8 Course Dinner (karaoke available)
• 8pm - Returning to Singapore

Finally, a few important things to remember:

• Passports must have 6 months validity
• All participants need to observe a vegetarian diet from 11pm Saturday 4th August
• Please collect your bottle of drinking water before boarding the bus (breakfast is not provided)
• The Singapore Shrine is open on the 12th August but is closed on the 26th August and 9th September. More dates here.

This Pontian Day Trip is the beginning of a series of activities, workshops that are being organised. So, look out for news at the notice board or check it out here. Should be lots of fun!

Just a short update on the Moh Hong trip to Pontian, Malaysia. It has been confirmed for Sunday 5th August and the bus leaves from AMK MRT, opposite the bus station at 8am. We’ll have bus plate numbers and a map shortly and I’ll post them as soon as they become available.

In the meantime, I now know a few irrelevant facts about the area. In addition to a massive trade in durians, did you know it had a Pineapple Museum?

We mentioned in the last post that there would be a trip to Pontian this Sunday for Vesak helpers and members. Unfortunately this has been delayed by a couple of weeks due to unforeseen circumstances. Group reps should have been in touch about the rescheduling, but if you have any queries please do get in touch with Yang Kuan. We’ll keep you posted here as soon as we have a new date for the outing.

Shrine Reopens

The Shrine reopens this Sunday after a 2 week break. A full list of opening dates for the remainder of the year is here

Post-Vesak Pontian Trip

A trip to the Moh Hong Shrine in Pontian, Malaysia has been organised for Vesak helpers on Saturday July 7th. There’s no cost to members (and helpers) and a bus has been chartered as transportation for the day. Immediate families of helpers and members are welcome to come along by paying only for the bus fare (details to be available soon). In Malaysia there’ll be a members meeting early in the day, but it won’t be all work, work, work. After lunch there’ll be plenty of time for shopping and relaxing in town.

Group reps have been contacting everyone, but if you haven’t been notified and you’d like to come along then please let Yang Kuan know. All members are welcome.

Looking for a few brave volunteer wordsmiths

Young, elder or in-between. If you can write an SMS or a shopping list then you can write… don’t be shy. We have a bunch of quick, fun writing assignments (only a few paragraphs each, promise) but we’ll never get them done without your help. Not only that, but with our special patented Moh Hong Edit-O-Matic your words will sparkle somemore. Please… don’t make us come around to your house and drag you away from your favourite soap opera to harrass you. Get those fingers tapping and volunteer as a Moh Hong wordsmith now.

Founded in Singapore in1965, the Moh Hong Buddhist Shrine follows the Mizong lineage of Buddhism. Although Mizong is sometimes referred to in English as “Secret Sect of Tibetan Lamaism” or “the secret doctrine”, the teachings of Moh Hong originate in India and were passed to our Spiritual Master by her Indian teacher here in Singapore.

We believe that Prince Siddhartha Gautama (Lord Buddha) was born in Nepal and travelled to India, where he attained enlightenment in Bodhgaya and travelled to teach the Dharma.

The name “Mizong” does not refer to the secretive nature of the practice, but rather to its extensive and profound nature. It is a Tantric Buddhism tradition, most closely aligned to Red (Nyingma) Tradition.

A central practice of Tantric Buddhism is meditation and this is practiced around the world in many different ways, including qigong, yoga and martial arts. Moh Hong’s essential tenet is the understanding of truth through chanting of sutras. At Moh Hong, our members learn to sing hymns in Chinese (Mandarin and Teochew). Chanting of prayers are done specifically by our prayer group, who are trained to perform various religious rites such as for Vesak Day celebrations and funeral rites.

Our Spiritual Master has dedicated her life to karmic healing. We believe that some illnesses are karmic in nature, and Master uses her meditative abilities to lighten the load.

We have 9 founding philosophical pillars and we follow the Noble 8-Fold Path, often pictured as the Wheel of Dharma, which forms one of the cores of Buddhism throughout the world. Followers do not eat beef and are vegetarian on Fridays.

Since its founding, Moh Hong has been an active member of the community in Singapore, supporting other organisations. We are currently involved in a joint program with Alexandra Hospital to provide subsidised medical screening to our members and the public.

We currently have two places of worship and healing, in Pontian, Malaysia (permanent) and in Bishan, Singapore (temporary as we seek a suitable property for the Society).