Thousand Buddhas

This week has been a very very hectic and bustling week for me. And I am so glad that it's the weekend now! It feels so weird because I've been feeling pretty pre-occupied from Monday till like Friday. To have nothing to do on Friday night, I was haunted with the feeling that I have forgotten to do something, or that I have something to do the next day and so on. It's... Quite bad.

Anyway I wanna talk about something interesting today! 

So on Friday I attended a prayer session at the temple, for people whose Chinese zodiac "clash" on this year. I'm a monkey, and monkeys clash in monkey year. Together with tigers and and pigs. At the temple we chanted a Sutra that reads about the different names of many Buddhas. I know there's a Sutra about the 88 names of different Buddhas. But I am sure that we chanted more than 88!

And also some of the Buddhas have interesting names. For example, Buddha of the wisdom sea, courageous power Buddha, moonlight Buddha and even "leaving mountain" Buddha (direct translation from Chinese 离山佛). I wasn't quite sure of the names, or the meaning of these names. But I'm pretty sure that there is a deeper meaning to the names, and also the Sutra itself.

But after the prayer session I remember an article I read a few years back about how in life, we will actually meet a lot of different Buddhas. Or well we meet people who are "Buddhas" to us. And I also remember the saying of "Be a Boddhisatva to yourself and others". Basically be awesome people that alleviate the suffering of others. Be a mindful person that help others. Be enlightening to others.

For example I believe that when I meet random strangers (or people whom I know) that help me in times of need, I have this belief that they were someone I helped in my past life, and now they are repaying their karma by helping me. At the same time when I help someone, I'm just paying my karma to the particular person for something that they've done to me in our past lives haha.

And of course we do good deeds so that we'll receive good karma in the future/next life.

So perhaps the Sutra above is chanted in the hope that we'll meet these different Buddhas in our lives, that will help and guide us. Maybe, just maybe, the "leaving mountain" Buddha is a Buddha who disguised himself as a traveler we'll meet when we're trekking in a mountain, that will guide us when we get lost. Get it? Well I'm just hoping that we'll meet these different Buddhas throughout this year, throughout our lives to ensure a good passage till we all die.

And please remember that we should also be a Buddha to others in times of need! :D

The Buddha, A Buddha, is not a God or someone with superpower. A Buddha is basically an enlightened person. Someone who is not deluded by ego, free from the grasping of suffering, and always mindful. I think we can use our mindfulness to help others. And hopefully clear their delusions.

Anyho, be it a good, bad, so-so year ahead, always remember that we are the ones that make this year an amazing or bad ones. Just take these "precautions" as sort of a reminder to be extra careful? Do great things, be compassionate, help others, and great things will come to you. 

Have a great week people :) And remember to be a Buddha to yourself and others.

Happy Waisak 2559

Being a Buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman,
but becoming at last, a true human being - Sogyal Rinpoche

First of all wishing all Buddhists in Indonesia and around the world a happy Vesak day! Alright as I've mentioned last year Vesak falls on different days, somehow, in different countries. It falls on the 2nd of June this year here in Indonesia so yep! Vesak is an important day for Buddhists because it commemorates 3 events of the Buddha's life - his birth, enlightenment and death (paranirvana).

I've been deepening my Buddhism starting from May as I've mentioned in my previous post. It's been truly an enlightening experience so far. And nope I'm not done yet. I have so much more to go! But after knowing a few main and core lessons of the Buddha's teachings, I've gained a deeper admiration and awe towards Buddhism. And of course, to the man himself - The Buddha.

So around 2500 years ago, a man named Siddharta left his life of wealth and pleasure behind. He is a prince of a kind, enjoying life everyday. But he knew that this "wonderful" life of his will not last forever. He came across with old age, sickness and death - something we can never run away from. And contemplating about this, he became sad. But he went for a search to end this suffering.

After exploring different methods of meditation, which includes an extreme way where he only eats one grain of rice a day, Siddharta went into a deep meditation and he realised three things - That everything in life is impermanent, and whatever is impermanent causes suffering. And whatever is impermanent and causes suffering, is insubstantial. He discovered the middle-way approach - which is a path in which we neither do  extreme self-mortification nor enjoying too much sensual pleasures.

He became enlightened, awakened. In fact a Buddha is someone who is "awakened". He is free of his own ego. He is free of his own delusions. And I like Sogyal Rinpoche's words from his book "The Tibetan Book of the Living and Dead". That "being a Buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last, a true human being". This sentence gave me so much enlightenment.

Contrary to popular belief, a lot of people (including some Buddhists) regard the Buddha as a god or some super human that grants wishes and health and wealth. To me he is not a "god". He is my teacher. He is someone who helped me to go across paths in life with his teachings. After learning more about Buddhism, I'm more convinced that Buddhism is not a religion. It is a philosophy, it is a teaching. Lessons you can learn that can perhaps make you a better, happier person.

In fact I agree with the Dalai Lama who said that you shouldn't learn Buddhism to become a Buddhist. But become a better whoever-you-are as a person!

Well somehow the more I "dig" deeper into Buddhism, the more enlightened I become. About everything! About life, about who I am as a human, a person, about other people, about mankind and more. I am so far from becoming enlightened, of course. But the Buddha is really my inspiration. He is someone I want and strive to become. And I welcome you to read more about Buddhism. And no I'm not asking you to convert into a Buddhist. I just hope the Buddha's teachings can inspire you :)

Alright that's all from me for now! Wishing everyone a happy Vesak again.

Sabbe Satta Bhavantu Sukithatta - May all living things be happy!

Inseparable Emptiness

色不异空．空不异色．

色即是空．空即是色．

So a week ago, we celebrated the birthday of Avalokitesvara here at the temple. I'm not sure when is the exact day of his birthday. But after doing some research, apparently there are three important days that we commemorate for him: The 19th of the 2nd lunar month is to commemorate his birthday, 19th of the 6th lunar month to commemorate him following the Boddhisatva's way (I think) and 19th of the 9th lunar month commemorating him becoming a Boddhisatva. Although I'm not too sure how these dates come into tradition. But nevertheless, it's always good to contemplate and to reflect on these date.

Like I once blogged last year, Avalokitesvara (or Guan Yin) is someone I strive to be. He is the Boddhisatva of Compassion, and his name means "the lord who observes the sounds of the world". So I deeply and gratefully celebrate these dates. The temple was filled with people last week as we chanted sutras in that lovely evening. Felt good to see the temple crowded with people. Young and old, chanting sutras together.  I love chanting sutras because it brings me great peace.

There are a lot of famous sutras in Mahayana Buddhism. But I suppose the two really famous ones are The Great Compassion Mantra (大悲咒） and The Heart Sutra (般若波罗蜜多心经). Okay I suppose I am a bad Buddhist. Before I know Buddhism as well as now, I thought these two sutras are like "Chinese Sutras" that's not really related to Buddhism heh. But of course not. I discovered later that 大悲咒 is Nilakantha-Dharani and 般若波罗蜜多心经 is Prajna-Paramita sutra. I realised that the Chinese words share the same meaning and translation of the sutras!

I've been researching about these sutras and recently, I've been reading up articles on The Heart Sutra. This has become my favourite sutra. "Prajna Paramita" means the Perfection of Wisdom and well at first I don't really get the "wisdom" of this sutra, until I read and read the sutra again and again, and do some research of different translations and interpretations of the sutra, that I realised how beautiful it is!

I think the beginning of the sutra already has so much wisdom we can take. It says:

色不异空．空不异色．

色即是空．空即是色．

受, 想, 行, 识, 亦复如是

It translates to: 

Form is inseparable from emptiness, emptiness is inseparable from form.

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

The same goes for feelings, conceptions, mental formations and consciousness.

Okay first of all, form, feelings, conceptions, mental formation and consciousness are the five aggregates (or skandhas) in Buddhism. To give an easy example, here is how it goes. We pick a flower and hold it in our hands (form), we smell it and the smell is picked up by our nose (feelings), we discovered that the flower is a jasmine flower (conception), jasmine flower reminds us of tea or whatever feelings we had encountered in the past (mental formations), we are aware of all of these (consciousness). And the cycle goes on and on in our lives.

It is said that clinging to any one of these aggregates is the cause of suffering. And hence, in the Heart Sutra, these aggregates are inseparable from emptiness. This is a reminder that we should not cling to all of these, if not we'll just continue to suffer, forever, trapped in Samsara. These few lines alone have made me fall in love with the Sutra. It is so simple, yet so profoundly beautiful and rather difficult to practice. How do we practice it? I'm not exactly sure how, but this is my take on it.

The five aggregates work in a chain, together, to form consciousness. From this consciousness we'll create suffering, if we ever cling to them. So I suppose reminding ourselves of this inseparable emptiness can help us to stop clinging to all these? Let's do this in another example.

Say someone says something hurtful to you (your ear picked it up (form)), and then you felt angry and annoyed by it (feelings), you discovered that those words hurt you (conception), and suddenly you just think of all the negative things this person did to you (mental formations) and then this feeling of you, needing to be angry and to be made at this someone arises (consciousness). 

Now you remind yourself of the sutra, that these aggregates are inseparable from emptiness. And you realise that these aggregates are nothing but emptiness. They come, and rise, and... Go away. This will prevent you from clinging onto these aggregates and congratulations, you're one step closer to becoming the happiest person ever alive in this world! Now keep on practising this.

The Buddha said that no matter how many times you read the holy words, they mean nothing if you don't practise them. So yep, you can chant the Heart Sutra like 100 times everyday, but they mean nothing if you don't understand and apply the teachings. I do read the Heart Sutra everyday. To me reading these sutra is a reminder for me to apply this technique every day. And also, I realised that the more I read this sutra, the more insights and wisdom I get from it. Hence, more application!

Okay what a long post! But I've always wanted to blog about this. I hope you enjoy reading this post and may it help you in life as well. Have a great day everyone :)

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

Being Buddhist

 Happy vesak!

Hello everyone, it's Vesak Day here in Indonesia so... Wishing all of you a very happy Vesak Day! :D Sabbe sata bhavantu sukithata, may all living things be happy! I know Vesak falls on Tuesday in Singapore but here it falls today. I guess there are different days for different countries so yup. I've always thought Vesak falls on the full-moon of the 4th lunar calendar (and that's Tuesday). Oh well new discoveries everyday! New lessons learned.

And also today I am a raw-vegan for a day! Shall blog about it tomorrow night.

Because... Tonight I wanna discuss here something about my religion. About being a Buddhist.

I have always regarded myself as a Buddhist since young. That's because, I tell myself that. That's because my family is a Buddhist and that I went to a temple for my Sunday school. When I was young I have never understood Buddhism. I see it as a religion and a practice that I ought to follow because I am born a Buddhist. It's true.

It was only in the recent years (like 5 years back) that I began to learn more about this religion of mine. And only recently that I begin to understand the beauty of it. Ever since 2012, when I went to the temple (Mangala Vihara) for their Sunday service, I truly begin to understand about Buddhism. The parita (chantings) that I read, and with a little bit of diligence and curiosity I went to search more about it from the internet and the books.

So I began in my conquest of finding out what does being a Buddhist mean. Is it being someone who goes to the temple everyday and chant everyday? Or someone who's a devoted vegetarian throughout his life? Or someone who shaves his head and stay in a cave to meditate for years to attain enlightenment? To me none of these are definitions of a Buddhist. In fact, I think one definition is not enough to define a Buddhist. It's not. Besides, I always remember the words of the Buddha. That no matter how many holy words you read, if you don't practise them, it's equivalent to nothing.

Of course, I would want to be like the Buddha, to reach enlightenment. And be free from the cycle of births and attain Nirvana. But does that mean that I have to "wait till I die" to see if I am free from this cycle of births?

After reading a lot of online materials and books, I realised that one does not need to sort of "live a life" to attain enlightenment. Yes, I think all (or most) goals of Buddhists is to attain enlightenment. So now, let me ask you, how do you define being enlightened?

Does being enlightened mean you become a person with a golden halo on top as you walk. Or maybe you feel like a supreme being walking on earth, somehow.

To me, being enlightened means to have short and simple revelations in life, that adds up to form your own meaning of life. It's like getting an epiphany to yourself and then this small thing can change the rest of your life, forever. For example, I've learned that I won't live forever, so I've decided to live my life to the fullest. Another example is that life is a suffering but it's something I feel worth suffering for. So I'll just bear with it. I've learned that nothing is permanent, not even your good days. So laugh the bad days off, because they'll be over one day.

I revolve around the 3 basic principles of existence of Buddhism. One is anicca which means impermanence Second is anatta which means non-self and the last is dukkha which means suffering.Anicca is simple and straight forward, that nothing is permanent. I've been grappling with the other two for years. To realise how those two relate to principles of existence. Now I kinda find out what they mean. In my own definition of course.

Anatta means non-self, and to me it means you need to accept the fact that there's no "I" in "me" (literally!). Meaning to get rid of your ego and selfish desires to be happy. This is a really difficult thing to do in my opinion. And because of its difficulty, we will grapple with this problem all of our lives. And thus results in the last principle, dukkha or suffering.

So yeah, if you can revolve around the three basic principles of existence, I'm sure one day you will get these small "revelations" about life. These will then help you to create your own meaning in life. And you'll be able to lead a happy and mindful life. And I think, to me, that's really equivalent of being enlightened. Because it feels like you have your own life to walk on. It feels like you have nothing else missing in life. You're wholesome. You're enlightened.

So yep. I think that's my definition of being a Buddhist. Someone who puts the words of the Buddha into practice, and revolves their lives around the 3 basic principles of existence. If done well, you'll be a Buddha - an enlightened person.

Before I end off this post I want to add a quote I come across with.

"Yankinci samudaya-dhammam sabban-tam nirodha-dhammanti" 
Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation

Remember that your life will cease one day. Make the best out it. Be the best out of it.

Happy Waisak once again!

Contemplation of Impermanance

 Live the moment

Alright, I'm going to blog now, I can finally blog now and yes haha. Bad news is I'm feeling unwell for the past few days now. Can sense that the flu bug is coming :/ I feel flu-ey and heaty. The weather has been really hot the past few days, or even in fact for the whole week this week. It's not the humidity but just the heat. Even though I'm back at home, with aircon, I feel hot. Must be the heatiness you know. From all this hot weather.

Anyway today was another great Sunday, minus the unwell part. The whole day I was just feeling sick. I hope this can go away pretty soon please. I don't like the feeling. Same thing, I began the day by going to the temple. It's a decision I made that I'm going there every Sunday hehe. Unless I have something on Sundays. And yup. I was late today so I missed Puja but I made it for the chanting hehe.

Usual shopping and lunch, and well I like to go to Starbucks after lunch now! And write my weekly journal now. It failed so bad. I'm supposed to write this daily ITP journal thing for myself. But nine weeks, 45 weekdays, and I only wrote 4 entries. I usually write it on a weekly basis anyway so yeah. Nowadays I just make it into like some reflection journal. I like it.

I didn't run today, cause of the heat and also just me feeling kinda unwell. So I decided to pamper myself at home by watching TV, surfing the net and so on. It's great haha. I realised it's been such a long time since I can do this. The weekends are packed in June for me. Can't wait to have those weekends where I can just unwind and have all the time to myself. And do the things I want to do.

Nevertheless... The weekends in June are fun so yep! Hehe.

While in the temple today, I came across the phrase "Contemplation of Impermanence" during the chanting. It's good to know what does the chanting mean, as they put it on top of the verse.

Then as I was on the bus back to Holland, I kept on thinking to myself, repeating those three words. Contemplation if Impermanence. Impermanence, is basically the fact that nothing in life is permanent. It's a bittersweet truth that we all have to accept. Nothing lasts forever. All good and bad things will one day come to an end.

I always try to live on Buddha's teaching of living the moment earnestly and fully (even though honestly speaking, it is a very difficult thing to do). Not to worry of the future, not to dwell in the past, not to be hurt by the past and to just be hold back by it. But to live the moment, the present, to the fullest. And I always believe that it's true.

Linking back to the phrase Contemplation of Impermanence, I realise how the two teachings go hand-in-hand together.

Impermanence to me means that nothing lasts forever. Not all good things stay forever. And at the same time not all bad things will remain either. It will all come to an end. And to know that they will not remain forever, then we can do this, can't we?

As we know that one day our life will end, we live life to the fullest.
As we know that one day our suffering will end, we push and fight on.
And at the end of the day, we'll remember these days as bittersweet memories we cal all smile to.

True isn't it?

So yeah people, the next time you're doing something, be it traveling, doing exams, performing, cooking, writing and so on, play it with all your heart. If you're going through a rough day, a bad period, a tough moment in your life and so on, press on and don't ever give up. Cause at the end of the day, we will all come to our finishing line in life. And all these happy and bad days will turn into memories.

Life will never be complete without its down moments. There are the bad weeks, there are the good weeks. The happy days and the not so happy days. The days where we wish will never end, the months where we wish will end as quickly as possible. But who are we to choose where we want to be, to control time and to jump time? All we can do is to live, NOW. To live life. And though it's tough. It's happy. Life will still move on. It will still press on.

Today I learnt a new lesson of Buddha, that I can apply with another lesson I've been trying to apply. I hope I can apply this. And live my life to an even high level, higher definition of "fullest". Last week wasn't a really good week for me. It has now come to an end. Tomorrow another week begins, and I hope it will be a better week.

I guess Buddha's lesson of living in the moment is really good for me. For a sentimental guy like me. Well I know I shouldn't dwell in the past. But I hope through living the moment to the fullest, I can then smile to the memories of today in the future. You know :)

Good night. Here's to an awesome week 10 :)