Dear Laos

Dear Laos,
How are you doing? Hope you are well. How are your roads? Your traffic accident rates? How are your firs? Your Nong Duang school? Your cute and adorable kids? Your flies? Hope they are all fine and doing well.

It has been some time since we returned and I still cannot find my dear book which was always at hand. Strange that it would leave my hand. Wonder where it went. Anyway, it was nice to know you and to run around on your body. Thanks for all the warmth you have given us and always being so accomodating towards us. We are one bunch of really fun people. However as always it seems we have to leave you and come back to the lion's body filled with trees so tall and gray. It is hot here and the lion does not bathe as often as you it seems.

On return, the time did not stop. It just carried on moving, sib pai, mong keng, sam sib pai. Whoosh, Work, letters, so many things to do. We try to remember the old days but they are just there. No use looking around so much. It is the now and from now on. This weekend the trees would smell as great, as the people would be too. There is much to rejoice about and to be happy.

With Metta,
Emanrohe

Leting go......

Today, I read an article,I don't remember it fully, but it is something to this extent

Let go a little, a little more peaceful
Let go a lot, a lot more peaceful
Let go everthing, everything is peaceful.

Then i saw a blog,
which wrote:

i tink i oso gotta let go la..haha...
i have learnt to let go...
let go of unhappiness and accidents....slowly...

Looking at it brings many feelings to my heart,

Feelings of love, feelings of clinging, feelings of not wanting to let go. Unable to let go.

Unable to let go.....let go of what?
Let go of the good feelings it brought, the warmth, the joy.
Unable to let it go.....

But what is it bringing me now?
Only more struggles, more suffering, more pain.

Let go of the past,
Let go,
Let go of the present..

Let go.........
Let go of the future......

Letting go, letting go brings joy.
It brings a silent smile to your heart. It is warm, full of warmth and love.
Letting go of the present, past and future, does one truely feel the present for what it is.


Let go.....let go.......do not hold on to it any longer, it is not worth it......
Release it, just as it were, nothing.....
It was purely a feeling, nothing, release it......why hold on to it......
Release, release it.......

Wisdom to see

Trying to help someone,
i destroy another,
Without the wisdom of seeing,
I cock up.

But through this,
We learn,
we gain,
hopefully we all can gain,
not at the expense of another.

Thinking too much, forward backwards, where are you now?

Today, I was thinking, should ask my mum to help out at the temple to cut vegetables and such to accumulate more merits and mix around with more ppl cos she is a bit down lately.
But, doing so, there would be no one to take care of my grandmother since my mum is doing the job now. It is said that it is hard to repay one's parents and one should not neglect them. And so my mum misses out the chance to go accumulate merits.
But then again, bouncing the thought here and there? Didn't it all end up here, at the same place again, where you started?
Whatever you are doing now, do it well, do it with your full heart, your full self. With mindfulness. Then whatever you are doing, you are walking on the path of the Buddha, it does not matter what you are doing, it does not make a difference.

Karma, the net, the consequence, the wisdom

Today, we had a session where we were supposed to think abt what is the effect of us going to the under developed countries. Are we going to bring gifts to distribute there? What if it is not enough? Then how should we distribute? Should be distribute by meritocracy(which inevitably introduces this part of the culture of our country to them)? Or should we do a lucky draw so all is equal? Or should we just give the gifts to the teachers there to distribute however they like so we do not introduce and new things from our society into our culture?

Thinking, thinking, many good and bad points were raised abt both methods. Tick tock tick tock, like a pendulum. We should introduce the culture of more developed countries to them, isn't that what they want by allowing more overseas community service teams to go there? But we should respect their culture, and not destroy it by bringing in outside cultures etc. What if they crave for more advanced things? What if they are influenced by new thoughts? They are changing themselves, by adopting and leaning english so why are we worried about introducing our culture and the bad effects? Ultimately, we are just a team there, 2 weeks and gone. Our influence may just be a ripple in their ocean of life journeys. It may be just so insignificant. Or it may be a deadly virus, which once introduced, poliferates and kills all the wildlife in the sea. Who knows? Who can see so far into the effects of our actions?
Planting a seed in their minds, they need conditions to grow, they need the right environment and many other factors to make them maybe yearn for the culture we have. How can we tell such effects of these actions who grew up in a totally different culture by just sitting there and thinking. We were merely speculating with our limited intelligence, with our limited wisdom. How could we have taken so many things into account in the same time?? It is like a net, all conditions connected and we are just seeing part of it. And we dare to speculate, sitting on our butts???!!!!!!
The aim of the exercise was to reflect on our actions, but based on our small minds and wisdom we try to imagine the wide and intricate net of the future? Of the effects our actions might bring? We base on but a small action to predict a future so complicated?
This kind of reflection! What an utter waste of time!! Time better used to develop the required wisdom.

But then again, realising such, was time truely wasted? Was i not reflecting? What was i actually doing? I actually reflected and learnt from the exercise. So was time actually wasted?? Not so it seems. Haha, how interesting. Because of one action(karma) so many effects, so far reaching, it is not immediately obvious.

Haha! Karma, interesting isn't it? Haha!

Coincidence? Or was it meant to be?

Recently, I am involved in an overseas community project and we were supposed to do a book drive today.

Early this morning, i had to buy two plastic bags of ice and bring it to a rather famous temple. So i decided to take a cab there. When i got into the cab, i told the driver that i was going to the temple. Hearing that, he started asking me what i was going to do there and the conversation progressed into buddhism. Happily, we shared our views and when we reached the temple, the cab driver refused to accept my money and said that he was happy to have met me and he takes it as donation to the temple as well as to my cause. How amazing is that!!

What is even more amazing is i had missed 2 cabs to get into that one. The first cab was in a far lane and could not change lane to my side of the road in time as another vehicle was obstructing his way. As for the second cab, i had a choice between choosing it and the third cab. The third cab was doing a u-turn and while the second cab was a Mercedes cab. Thinking that the Merc cab would be more expensive, i waited for it to pass before flagging for the third cab and got my free ride. Is this a coincidence? Or was it meant to be?? Haha, how interesting.

Trudging through the sand

Too much to do
too little time

Too much to learn
too slow to understand

Too much to juggle
too difficult to handle

Too much to do
too slow to do

Victory on one side,
failure on the other

How should I go, where should I step.

Perservere they say,
victory only goes to those who survive through hardships.

And so we go on...