Yes, it really has been nearly a whole year, and Vesak is on the horizon again. Once again the theme of our celebrations is One Heart. This is to remind us of Master’s teaching to have “one heart”, and as we go about marking the day to remember to have one common objective, one focus, one syncopated beat and one voice.

We’ll post full details of the location and timetable over the next couple of days, but a quick summary:

• Prayer Hours: Thursday, May 15 to Monday, May 19, 9am to 10.30pm
• Location: Opposite Block 156, Bishan Street 11 (same as last year)

Some of the events require pre-registration. If you haven’t done so yet, pre-registration is open on the following days:

• Sunday, April 13, 10am to 2.30pm
• Sunday, April 27, 10am to 3pm
  

Pre-registration is required for the following events:

A new series of Ted Talks is currently underway in the US.

I don’t know if you’re familiar, but they’re a mind-blowing series of lectures by some of the world’s greatest thinkers, on a whole range of topics, from the environment to space. As they happen during the $6000 a day conference they’re posted online, so people like us can watch them for free.

I just wanted to draw your attention to a few I thought you might like.

Bob Thurman: Becoming Buddha — on the Web
In our hyperlinked world, we can know anything, anytime. And this mass enlightenment, says Buddhist scholar Bob Thurman, is our first step toward becoming Buddha. When we can know everything, we can see how everything is interconnected — and we can begin to feel compassion for every living being.

Matthieu Ricard: Habits of happiness
What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Buddhist monk, photographer and author Matthieu Ricard has devoted his life to these questions, and his answer is influenced by his faith as well as by his scientific turn of mind: We can train our minds in habits of happiness. Interwoven with his talk are stunning photographs of the Himalayas and of his spiritual community.

Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?
Psychologist Dan Gilbert challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our “psychological immune system” lets us feel real, enduring happiness, he says, even when things don’t go as planned. He calls this kind of happiness “synthetic happiness,” and he says it’s “every bit as real and enduring as the kind of happiness you stumble upon when you get exactly what you were aiming for.”

Rick Warren: Living a life of purpose
Pastor, philanthropist and author Rick Warren reflects on how the success of his book The Purpose-Driven Life triggered his own crisis of purpose. What should he do with this unanticipated wealth and attention? Warren uses his own story to explain the central tenet of his teaching: that the antidote to spiritual emptiness is recognizing what we have been given — wealth, creativity, talent — and using those gifts to make the world a better place.

Dan Dennett: A secular, scientific rebuttal to Rick Warren
Philosopher Dan Dennett thinks of religion as a natural phenomenon, a human feature that has evolved over millennia to meet each society’s changing needs. From this, he makes a brilliant case for studying religion — all religion — as rigorously as we do science. Dennett, who followed Rick Warren on stage at TED2006, then takes a few minutes to analyze Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life and dispute several of its claims — among them a belief that in order to be moral, one must deny evolution.

Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice
Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central belief of western societies: that freedom of choice leads to personal happiness. In Schwartz’s estimation, all that choice is making us miserable. We set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them, and blame our failures entirely on ourselves. His relatable examples, from consumer products (jeans, TVs, salad dressings) to lifestyle choices (where to live, what job to take, whom and when to marry), underscore this central point: Too many choices undermine happiness.

Daniel Goleman: Why aren’t we all Good Samaritans?
Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, asks why we aren’t more compassionate more of the time. Sharing the results of psychological experiments (and the story of the Santa Cruz Strangler), he explains how we are all born with the capacity for empathy — but we sometimes choose to ignore it.

You can watch them online if your broadband is broad enough, or download them to your computer to watch later. If you have any comments on any of them, please do post them here. It would be great to hear what you think.

Happy viewing.

In the past couple of years we’ve all been following some fairly high profile charity scandals in the media. Not just big corporate charities like NKF, Youth Challenge, and currently Ren Ci, but also some cases of smaller charities that have had problems being accountable for their running.

It’s not necessarily the case, although it might be, that dishonesty is involved. Charities are often manned (personned?) and run by volunteers who are good-heartedly giving something back to the community, but aren’t necessarily trained or qualified for the role they are taking.

Moh Hong Buddhist Shrine is a charity, registered with the Singapore Government. Charities are set up to advance a cause beneficial to the community, which includes education, religion, arts, welfare, sport, health and a range of other things. There is also another category of charity called Institutions of Public Character (IPCs) which are mainly institutions and trust funds.

To help charities and IPCs in good management and operations, the government has recently drawn up a Code of Governance for Charities and IPCs. It includes guidelines for charities in good practices, such as how many trustees should be on a committee, what forms a quorum at a meeting, bookkeeping, conflicts of interest, asset management, contracts for services and the like.

Moh Hong Buddhist Shrine will certainly be doing everything possible to comply with the new Code of Governance.

The Chairman and Secretary of the management committee attended a briefing with a representative of the Charities Unit of the government on Friday, 22 February. They report that at first glance Moh Hong, which is run entirely by volunteers, complies with most of the standards of good governance and very few changes are required. Over the next couple of months they will be going through the code in detail to see whether any changes need to be made or whether Moh Hong should take advantage of any of the training, consultation services or government funds that have been set up to help charities with best practices.

If you lose track of the Shrine opening days, or need to check the dates for Vesak, Deepavali or 7th Month, the Calendar page with all the details is now updated.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Lunar New Year and warm wishes for peace, health and prosperity in the year of the earth rat.

New Year always feels like a time of new beginnings, and I wanted to share one of my favourite stories, from Thich Nhat Hanh’s beautiful book Peace Is Every Step: The Path Of Mindfulness In Everyday Life.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful river finding her way among the hills, forests, and meadows. She began by being a joyful stream of water, a spring always dancing and singing as she ran down from the top of the mountain. She was very young at the time, and as she came to the lowland she slowed down. She was thinking about going to the ocean. As she grew up, she learned to look beautiful, winding gracefully among the hills and meadows.

One day she noticed the clouds within herself. Clouds of all sorts of colors and forms. She did nothing during these days but chase after clouds. She wanted to possess a cloud, to have one for herself. But clouds float and travel in the sky, and they are always changing their form. Sometimes they look like an overcoat, sometimes like a horse. because of the nature of impermanence within the clouds, the river suffered very much. Her pleasure, her joy had become just chasing after clouds, one after another, but despair, anger, and hatred became her life.

Then one day a strong wind came and blew away all the clouds in the sky. The sky became completely empty. Our river thought that life was not worth living, for there were no longer any clouds to chase after. She wanted to die. “If there are no clouds, why should I be alive?” But how can a river take her own life?

That night the river had the opportunity to go back to herself for the first time. She had been running for so long after something outside of herself that she had never seen herself. that night was the first opportunity for her to hear her own crying, the sounds of water crashing against the banks of the river. Because she was able to listen to her own voice, she discovered something quite important.

She realized that what she had been looking for was already in herself. She found out that clouds are nothing but water. Clouds are born from water and will return to water. And she found out that she herself is also water.

The next morning when the sun was in the sky, she discovered something beautiful. She saw the blue sky for the first time. She had never noticed it before. She had only been interested in clouds, and she had missed seeing the sky, which is the home of all the clouds. Clouds are impermanent, but the sky is stable. She realized that the immense sky had been within her heart since the very beginning. This great insight brought her peace and  happiness. As she saw the vast wonderful blue sky, she knew that her peace and stability would never be lost again.

That afternoon the clouds returned, but this time she did not want to possess any of them. She could see the beauty of each cloud, and she was able to welcome all of them. When a cloud came by, she would greet him or her with loving kindness. When that cloud wanted to go away, she would wave to him or her happily and with loving kindness. She realized that all clouds are her. She didn’t have to choose between the clouds and herself. Peace and harmony existed between her and the clouds.

That evening something wonderful happened. When she opened her heart completely to the evening sky she received the image of the full moon – beautiful, round, like a jewel within herself. She had never imagined that she could receive such a beautiful image. There is a very beautiful poem in Chinese: “The fresh and beautiful moon is travelling in the utmost empty sky. When the mind-rivers of living beings are free, that image of the beautiful moon will reflect in each of us.”

This was the mind of the river at that moment. She received the image of that beautiful moon within her heart, and water, clouds, and moon took each other’s hands and practiced walking meditation slowly, slowly to the ocean.

There is nothing to chase after. We can go back to ourselves, enjoy our breathing, our smiling, ourselves, and our beautiful environment.

On Saturday 2nd February, representatives of the Moh Hong Buddhist Shrine Committee attended an event organized by the Bishan Citizen Consultative Committee in appreciation of the donations that citizens and organistions (profit and non-profit) have given.

This fund serves the low income families through direct assistance as well as bursaries to school going children. Approximately 40K out of the 70K raised last year was given out as bursaries last year.

Moh Hong Buddhist Shrine has been contributing to this fund since 1991. We are happy to be a part of this community and will continue to lend our support to the needy.

If you’ve got a little time to yourself during the New Year rush, these Buddhist comic books are a lovely way to relax.

The Buddhist Library in Geylang has just announced enrollment for two courses:

Diploma Course in Buddhist Studies  - a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental doctrines of Early Buddhism, their interpretation in the Abhidhamma, and their historical development in the early Buddhist schools. There are 3 modules:

• Fundamental Doctrines of Early Buddhism
• Doctrinal Interpretations in the Abhidamma
• Historical Survey of Buddhist Thought

Master of Arts (in Buddhist Studies) - in conjunction with the Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Sri Lanka, with a pre-requisite of a good first degree in Buddhist Studies or Postgraduate Diploma in Buddhist Studies

Details are on their website.  Even if you’re not planning to do any formal study, you might like to surf to their website anyway. The Buddhist Library is open to the public and has over 16,000 books in English and Chinese. They also offer a variety of short informal courses like their 10 part “Discovering Buddhism” series, free-and-easy meditation sessions and yoga classes.  They also have Buddhist meditation MP3s available for free download here.

The Buddhist Library is at 2 Lorong 2A Geylang, open Tues - Sat 12-9pm, Sun 10am-9pm, closed on Mondays.

Just a reminder to everyone that orders are now being taken for scrummy-licious CNY snacks. We affectionately call the one in the photograph “twisties”, and five minutes after the photo was taken it was an empty bowl.

It’s a delicious range of munchies, and sales will go towards supporting Moh Hong activities next year, so download the order form in PDF or Excel format now 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.

Art Lovers - I just wanted to give you a quick pointer to a current exhibition at The ARTrium. It’s open until Sunday (18th Nov).

Buddhist Doctrines Captured On Canvas by Taiwanese artist Lee Sun-don is interesting for a number of reasons. He uses a technique he calls Totemic Energy Oil Painting (based on a concept of existence out of non-existence) and western painting techniques to convey the Buddhist doctrines, the Forshang Buddha Dharma.

Subjects for the paintings include Buddha, Buddhahood, Buddha’s teachings, Buddhist sutras and Buddhist philosophy.

That’s all interesting in itself, but what you might find makes it worth your trip is his approach to the subjects. The writeup for the exhibition says:

“His painting is not merely a work of art, it also inspires Zen practice. In his paintings, he delivers messages and leaves enigmas for viewers to explore and contemplate. He hopes that the viewers will be inspired and gain true understanding of life while enjoying his artistic creativity.”

In addition to being a self-taught painter, Lee Sun-don is also a Buddhist Patriarch, writer, composer, Chinese Chess and Go game master, and science critic and talks on art in spirituality. His work is successful internationally. He is represented by a gallery in Taiwan and one in Beverly Hills California and at the moment he also has an exhibition in Paris, with his next one in December in New York.

It’s lovely stuff. Check it out on his website

The ARTrium is in the MICA Building

140 Hill St, on the river behind Funan
Open 11am - 7pm
Entry is free.