Today I woke up at 5.45am before sunrise to take the 8 Mahayana Precepts. I just feel like observing it without much thinking. It was such a shame that I dare not review when was my last time I observed the 8 Mahayana Precepts. I am a Buddhist whom has taken the 3 Refuges and observed the 5 precepts, how many times had I broken all the 5 precepts, comparing to a mundane person? As for the 8 Precepts, it was not so difficult to observe. I only take it on auspicious days, how come I have to wait for so long to do so? No wonder I lost my job. Look at me now, I am now a pauper whom no one dare to ask me out for even a simple lunch ...
Anyway back to our Vesak Day activities today.
I went back to ZZZ abit after taking the 8 Precepts Vows in front of the deities. When the kids are awake, we are all ready to head out. We first went to Burmese Buddhist Temple. Wow what a crowd! Gave some donation to hospital to create some good causes and then head to do prostration at the main hall. We all know that Burma produces the best Jade. Buddha here look serene. Only if it is not so crowd, it makes a good place for some quiet time. We also took our only meal at the temple. By observing the 8 Precepts, I took only 1 meal for a day from before sunrise to the next. I think their fried bee hoon and spring roll was one of the best! We also had ice cream and chin-chow. It was probably the first time I drank chin-chow with added-evaporated milk. Wanted to try the pancake but the queue was too long. I thanked for the food we had. May everyone who contributed to the effort for making the event (and food) successful have good health.
We went to ABC tentage (next to Aljunied MRT) again. I wanted to see Amitabha Buddha Pureland giant thangka. The sun was blazing like a huge fire ball. I took it as the blaze from the Buddha. We always say "佛光普照", that's it what we were experiencing this afternoon, haha. This is what we call Positive Thinking. What's the use of complaining being "hot" since nothing can change the way the fireball choose to be. We do not want storm or rain during Vesak as we cannot create wisdom by lighting candles. To think further, each ray touches us like Buddha's Blessing. By this simple thought, we gained good merits, multiplying good merits specially on auspicious days.. Merely thinking, so hot WTF, we gain multiplying negative merits. Nevermind I was one of the latter before, let's try it again and again.
No Tau Huey Jui (Soyabean drink) today as it was a hot day, highly craved by everyone. I was lucky I was one of the last 5 for the leftover mineral water. Tau Huey Jui was sponsored by my "媒婆" Mdm C and her sister. Yes she was my "媒婆" during my 过大礼. I still remember oranges rolling around on the floor because they are round. Hahaha, it was OK, nevermind. it was hilarious.
After viewing the big thangkas (alamak I forgot to circumbulate today, why?) , busy walking around searching for tau huey jui, I offered some pujas and also let the kids offer gold coins to 21 Tara. Read about the benefits you'll received, I have taken it down in one of the picture. Anyone of any religions can walk to the tentage and offer to Tara. I always say, it's the merits not the religions.
We headed to Gaden Shartse Dro-Phen Ling. Mrs Goh is regular here. It's also my favourite temple. I missed the late Lati Rinpoche and up till today, His incarnation has not been found yet. I count myself lucky for being able to meet Lati Rinpoche in this life when He was still alive. The day I heard about His passing (April 2010), my tears roll like snapped mala beads. OK, the activities at the centre will start in the evening, so we were far too early today. Since we were there, the kids took their own sweet time to bath the "Baby Buddha" as there were no queue. The "Baby Buddha" statue was a sweet one I have seen so far. Love the eyes. Either you chant the verses while bathing (as in Chinese Mahayana) or chant Shakyamuni Buddha heart mantra. Most importantly, our own mind should be purified and be free from greed, anger and ignorance when we "Bathe Baby Buddha".
I went around to pay respect and take a closer look at the Buddha images, the Koi pond and play with the dog. When it's time to go, we go.
Remember images and all kinds of act merely help us to "signify" doing something since we still need a boat to cross the river. When our mind is clear, all cling on, included images should be discard, as in when we reached our destination, we should leave our boat at the shore and walk ahead. By discarding, it's merely mental elimination, not the physical movement of throwing.
Happy Vesak!
