House of Chua - Jeffrey Chua » Buddhism

Planting lotus is tough work

Jeffrey Chua — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:49:34 +0000

Planting lotus is tough work and here is the reason.

Many years ago, i bought some lotus seeds from a thailand florist. It was only recently my mum talked about planting lotus, then i brought out the seeds to show her. She dropped around 4-5 seeds into a small tank and changed water regularly. However, after more than a month, there was no visible change to the seeds. Then i remember i read something about hacking the seed’s shell from the shipped instructions (2 A4 pages of instructions). However, i have lost it after such a long time. The last time i remember was showing it to my good friend many years back. Finally after much tracing, i managed to find the original website i ordered the seeds from and found the required instructions. It said

“These seed must be nicked with a sharp knife ( careful here ) or rubbed with a file or scraped across concrete to break the hard seed coating. You can file top or bottom, just stop when you see the creme colored inner core.”

As i could not find my file (yes, i remember i have a file at home somewhere), i used a pen knife to cut and scrap the shell. It was a lot of hard work and i could not penetrate the hard shell at all. I also tried with the nail’s file. No luck at all. Then i decided to forget about the whole thing and continue my life as usual until one day i discovered that the tank with the seeds was empty! My mum has given up and threw away the seeds! Oh dear!

Today could be a lucky day. I took back the seeds from my mum and i found the “lost” file. So i decided to put in some effort to file 3 seeds (the number 3 should be an auspicious number???) and continue the lotus project.

Planting my lotus seeds

Hopefully in the next few days or so, the seeds will germinate and grow into flowers like below.

Lotus flower

What will an Arahant do? Jeffrey hurts his back

Jeffrey Chua — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:29:10 +0000

I hurt my lower back on 13 Aug, thurday. The cause must be the heavy stuff i was carrying on my right shoulder on the way to work. When i was returning from home, the pain started getting worst. I had to stick 2 pieces of the pain plasters on my lower back. They did not help much during the night. Whenever i moved my body, the pain will be there. The next day, the pain seems to have affected the nearby nerve, it started to give rhythmic acute pain around the area. It was quite bad when i was waiting for the MRT on the platform. I almost want to return home to rest and then see a doctor. However, i decided to continue to travel to work, i have some deadline to catch.

“Maybe it will get better later” i thought.

Just don’t think of the pain. The body is the body, the mind is the mind. It got worst in the afternoon, the thought of seeing a doctor arised again. My admin even said”Jeffrey, you walked like an old man.” I better go see a doctor. I happened to pass by the a clinic and have a look inside.

“Wow! So many people inside?” I think i still can tahan until i reach home to take some pain killer and use the “yoko yoko”.

On the way back, i started to think of the Arahants (the Noble ones). What will they do if they have such suffering? Will they

1. think of the body as the body, the mind as the mind?

2. ignore the pain by pretending it is not there?

3. acknowledge the pain and let go of it?

4. maybe they will decide to rest under the tree?

5. maybe consult a doctor or take come medicine?

6. do meditation to relax the muscles?

I wonder…

Arahant

The good thing comes last?

The good thing comes last?

Jeffrey Chua — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:46:57 +0000

I had a lot of frustration at work lately but i am using it as an opportunity to watch out for any dhamma that could arises. I worked until 8+pm today, with so much to do, even the notebook got so slow and overwork as well. I decided to call it quit and leave the office. There was a lady in front of me when i left the office. I suspect she is going to take a cab and i was correct, we were walking the same direction. So i walked slowly behind her. While she flaged and stop a cab successfully, another empty cab zoomed past me.

“Oh no! I missed a cab” came to the mind.

Never mind i will wait for the next one. After a while, i noticed another cab LED light from afar and flagged for it. When it gets near, i discovered that it was a Mercedes Benz cab.

“Oh Shit! Will i be chop carrot?”. The Mercedes-Benz cab has a pickup cost of S$3.20, this is much higher than any of its competitors. Well, since i already worked so hard today, maybe i should think positive and enjoy my ride. The journey was ok. The mind was continuously thinking about how to be mindful by asking “Where is the mind now?”. This is a new tip i picked up from my Sri Lanka’s colleague. He has plentiful of such knowledge in dhamma. Back to the cab, when i reached my house, i noticed that the meter was showing S$16, there was also another 2 below, i suppose it should be $2 surcharge? When i asked the driver

“How much?”, he replied S$16. It was really a surprise! I have been taking so many rides with Comfort cabs and City cabs, the cost of the rides usually average around S$22 to $25. So the good thing really came last for today! A bad start does not necessary has a bad ending. It can end well. Isn’t it interesting?

Ajahn Durian

Jeffrey Chua — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:03:52 +0000

In many buddhism talks, you are likely to hear about mango and mango tree. Have you heard about durian and durian tree? During my last visit to Ubin, i see some dhamma related to a durian. Ajahn is a Thai word meaning teacher. In this article we will talk about what we learnt from a durian in the trip.

June and July is durian season, so i decided to go Ubin to see those durian trees and also to try my luck. I have managed to pick up a durian last year around the same time too. People do not call it Kampong durian for no reason. It is very different from those fruits we can buy from the market. The Kampong durians’ fruits are usually very large seeds and very thin flesh. The bonus is they are free! With more people shifting to stay in the main island, more durian trees are deserted. Along the way, we saw many bicycles loaded with durians.

(bicycle with durians)

Yes, i realised another mistake! We should have rented those bicycle with the basket! I went in the direction provided by a local and we found the first durian quickly.

(Our bicycles and durian)

Something was strange. There were two Malay boys around the area but they did not touch this durian. They left this durian behind. From the outer appearance, the durian looks good to eat (You can see my greed growing). So i decided to put it into a NTUC bag and tied it to the handle and continue the journey to the Chek Jawa. It was going low tide.

(durian in ntuc bag)

On the way to Chek Jawa, we continued to see many people of different races and nationals (China, Indian and even Japanese) walking along the roads checking on the durians. Some even brought they trolley along. They must be expecting very good pick. The durian hit my knee a couple of the time due to the bumpy roads (Ouch! The start of my suffering).

After we arrived at the parking place outside the Chek Jawa, we can see some more bicycles with one or two durians in their basket.

(Other bicycle with durian)

We decided to leave the durian tied to the bicycle and preceed with the Chek Jawa walk. Doing so, there were pro and con. The pro was the bicycle is easily identified. The con is someone may take the durian. Since the durian is free, i managed to tell my mind to let go for the moment. With the completion of the coastal walk, we proceed to the coffeeshop for lunch. When we asked the staff to help to open the durian, they turned us down (suffering!). After a while, one of them decided to offer to help. I saw her trying to use a chopper to chop the durian. She tried and tried but not very successful (transfer of suffering). So she passed the durian to another regular eater at the shop (transfer of suffering x 2). She tried with more strength and i saw her poke a finger into the opening and concluded the durian is unripe! (suffering). This regular eater and her friends also managed to pick a few bags of durians. After i returned home, i saw those cuts on my knee (suffering).

(cuts from durian)

What we learnt:
1. Remember to rent bicycle with basket.
2. Eat the durian on the spot. If the durian is no good, you can Move On. You do not carry the suffering with you.
3. Sufferings can be transfered.
4. Learn how to pick durian from the expert. This will greatly increase your chance to pick good durians.

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The New Four Noble Truths

Jeffrey Chua — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:22:53 +0000

Life is Happiness. If Buddha is still around, he will likely says “Life is Happiness”.

With modern society, people are more receptive to positive thinking. As such, the new four noble truths will be as below:

1. Life is happiness

2. The cause of happiness

3. The continuous of happiness

4. The path leading to the continuous of happiness

Come! come! Let us lead a peaceful and happy life. ?Who says buddhism is?pessimistic?

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