Shoshin-Zazen

Now there’s a reason to buy a good camera.

After much googling to find a suitable wordpress photo album plugin that does not require php curl and its associated libraries, I stumbled upon PhotoXhibit which pretty much does a very nice job. Do check out the photo albums available at the side and top buttons (or here). I am using mainly Picasa web albums as my database mainly because of it the ease of upload from the Piscasa program as compared to Fickr.

Do note that all the photo albums makes use of jQuery plugins which requires enabled JavaScript. Lightbox might also not work in IE6. Nevertheless, its high time to upgrade if you are still using IE6.

Reccommended browser for Awakenings is Firefox.

Ok, its time to comtemplate whether to get that Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18.

I remember it was back in 1999, playing Freespace 2 that I got so much cosmic fun. I think Sins of a Solar Empire lacks a campaign! Oh yes a campaign to kick that alien ass.

There was a particular line in this article that struck me, whilst chomping on my bee hoon while reading the paper  -

He sat alone, plunging his fingers into the yellow mush on his plate. He ate quietly and quickly.

When you eat like this, with your dependence exhibited to the world, a meal no longer feels like something to linger over.

-The New York Times

I feel terribly lucky, yet terribly enlightened to be reminded how many millions out there who go hungry every day. As I type these words, I know my dinner is in about an hour’s time, yet these people have no gurantee to their next meal, or the next.

Recently, a friend of a friend passed away due to an accident. I wanted to share with him this Seung Sahn’s letter to a person whose father had passed away. This is the article:

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your letter. How are you?

In your letter, you told me that your father died. I grieve for you. Long ago in China when the great Zen Master Nam Cheon died, his students and all those who knew him were very sad. The custom at that time was to go to the dead person’s house and cry, “Aigo! Aigo! Aigo!” But when the Zen Master’s best student, a layman named Bu Dae Sa, heard of his teacher’s death, he went to Nam Cheon’s temple, opened the door, stood in front of the coffin, and laughed, “HA HA HA HA!!” — great laughter.

The many people who were assembled to mourn Nam Cheon’s death were surprised at this laughter. The temple Housemaster said, “You were our teacher’s best student in his lifetime. Our teacher has died, and everyone is sad. Why are you laughing?”

Bu Dae Sa said, “You say our master has died. Where did he go?” The Housemaster was silent. He could not answer.

Then Bu Dae Sa said, “You don’t understand where our teacher went, so I am very sad. Aigo! Aigo! Aigo!”

You must understand this. What does this mean? If you have no answer, I grieve for you.

Zen is the Great Work of life and death. What is life? What is death? When you attain this, then everything is clear, everything is complete, and everything is freedom.

Let’s say we have a glass of water. Now its temperature is about 60°. If you reduce the temperature to 20°, it becomes ice. If you raise the temperature above 212°, it will become steam. As the temperature changes, H₂O in the form of water appears and disappears, but H₂O does not appear and does not disappear. Ice, water, and steam are only its form. Name and form change, but H₂O does not change. If you understand the temperature, then you understand the form. Your true self is like this.

But what is your true self? Your body has life and death. But your true self has no life, no death. You think, “My body is me.” This is not correct. This is crazy. You must wake up!

Steam, ice, and water are all H₂O. But if you are attached to water and the water becomes ice, then you say the water disappeared. So it is dead! Raise the temperature and the water is born again! Raise the temperature again; the water disappears and becomes steam, and the water is again dead!

On the Zen Circle, this is the area from 0° to 90°. If you are attached to something and it disappears, you suffer. If you are attached to doing only what you like, you suffer. Don’t be attached to water, O.K.? Being attached to water is being attached to form. Form and name are always changing, changing, changing, nonstop. So form and name are emptiness. Another way to say this is that form is emptiness, emptiness is form. This understanding is 90° on the Zen Circle.

But name and form are made by thinking. Water does not say, “I am water.” Steam does not say, “I am steam.” If you cut off all thinking, are you and the water the same or different? “Same” and “different” are made by your thinking. How can you answer? There is no form, no emptiness — no words. This is 180° on the Zen Circle. If you open your mouth, you have already made a mistake.

If you cut off all thinking, you will see everything just as it is. Without thinking, water is water; ice is ice; steam is steam. No ideas hinder you. Then your correct relationship to H₂O in any form appears by itself. We call this just-like-this. This is 360° on the Zen Circle. Just-like-this mind is clear mind. Clear mind has no I-my-me. Without I-my-me, you can perceive your correct relationship to H₂O and use it without desire for yourself. You will not suffer when water disappears and becomes ice or steam.

Your father’s original face has no death and no life. His body appears and disappears, but his Dharma body does not appear and does not disappear. You must recognize that all things are in your own mind. Just this is finding your true self. Great Love, Great Compassion, and the Great Bodhisattva Way come from this attainment. You must find this.

I hope you only go straight — don’t know, soon find your father’s original face, get Enlightenment, and save all beings from suffering.

Yours in the Dharma,

S. S

The Tree of Perfect Wisdom is originally no tree.
Nor has the bright mirror any frame.
Buddha-nature is forever clear and pure.
Where is there any dust?

Hui-Neng, (638-713)

Project New Dawn Laos is a student initiated Youth Expedition Project to Luang Prabang, Laos in 2008. The project is endorsed by The Singapore Buddhist Lodge (SBL), and is supported by the National Youth Council of Singapore (NYC). Twenty-two volunteers comprising of different nationalities, religion and race participated in a two week long expedition to Muang Kham Village to construct a concrete stairway and sport court from the 16^th to the 31^st of May. In addition, a documentary about the lives of the villages was filmed and is aimed at bringing back home the stories as experienced by the volunteers themselves.

`Who are YOU?’ said the Caterpillar.

Alice replied, rather shyly, `I–I hardly know, sir, just at present– at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.’

Lewis Carol  “Alice in Wonderland”

Things never happen without a cause. Buddhists call it causality; in simpler terms: cause and effect. Youth Expedition New Dawn Laos (in short- YEP Laos) is one such endeavor that was presented innocently by Peter Tan, the host for this project in Luang Prabang. This was back in July 2007 when I was backpacking Laos and Thailand. Feeling extremely itchy for another YEP challenge, my buddy Eric from the past Mettaheart 3 project to Vientiane talked to me about it in school and I said, “Ok, let’s do it.

The seeds have been planted.

Back home, I had to dig out fuel for this project, besides I already have guns pointing at my brains in my university engineering course. Where can I find the fuel to feed the “motivation monster?” I recognized that a project of this scale needs to be sustained with a heart of uncompromising stoicism and passion. I knew that I need had to find this first.

Typical expectations given by volunteers often range from experiencing another culture to leaving the comfort zone to learn, etc. A certain part of me hankers after these expectations, but I knew I have already experienced these during my past YEPs.

The entire lifespan of a YEP takes place slightly more than half a year, during this time, volunteers put in a lot of time and effort. I decided that maximizing all of these makes very good sense. As such, the short two-week expedition will be even more precious. Hence, I decided that my motivator would be to ensure that the participants have a YEP experience that they will want to share. As a participant before, I know how a good experience will leave an indelible mark. I would expect a good YEP experience to not only generate great learning outcomes, but also create a desire to share what they have learned and henceforth spread this experience to their friends and family

Fleshing out the project details took longer than expected, however this was easily circumvented because we started planning early. Afternoon lunch breaks at the National University of Singapore arts and business faculty canteens were favourite meeting times.

The project took on various shapes and sizes. During the initial planning stage, we discussed about a dual project in Vientiane and Luang Prabang but threw the idea out because it diluted the project. We also sought advice from Alvin, the experience leader that I had for my past two YEP trips. Thanks to him the learning curve was more bearable.

A few weeks into discussion, emails were flying from Singapore to Laos and vice versa. Our host, Peter was very helpful and we started into writing the proposal for funding from NYC. This was back in October 2007.

We had to break for exams in November. In December, we had to plan for a Reece in January. This is where the fun starts, I recalled. At the same time, I wanted a documentary for the project which I feel can be a good vehicle for the public to see what we have done in the expedition. There came an opportunity when a few people with the right expertise volunteered their services. However after a few discussions with them, we felt that the cost of doing a separate documentary was out of our budget and spiraled out of our desired aims for the project.

The reece took place in January because Eric had an internship. It was quite a journey because TigerAir decided that Udon Thani was not worth their dime. Anyway, we flew from Singapore to Chiang Mai, then to Udon thani via Nok air (a purple bird with a funny beak airline) then took a land transport to Vientiane, where we finally met up with Peter. The next morning, we took a 9 hour ride up to Luang Prabang during which I ate the most number of peanuts while listening to Lao KTV.

And so we finally reached Luang Prabang with a befitting picturesque sunset in the mountains. We had to stay a night at the UNESCO World Heritage Site before taking on a boat to Muang Kham Village. We had steamboat with Peter and some of the villagers in the cold of the night. A silent, awkward meal plus Beer Lao lingered through the rest of the evening.

The next morning, we boarded a long boat to Muang Kham village. I could still remember that it was a bright sunny day, with clear blue skies. We had meetings with the assistant village chief and school principal. The primary school had this old kampong feeling. Sited on top of a small hill and backdrop with rolling green hills, the primary school was a “classic”. It seemed like a very nice place to do a project.

At night, away from the merry beer Lao folks, I stole into the outside of the villager’s house and placed a bench in the middle of a sandy pitch. I lay there for an hour, oblivious to the singing and bitter cold, marveling at the stars in the sky and counting the shooting stars.

The next morning, I had to leave the village while Eric had to stay behind. I was to backpack Vietnam and took a flight to Hanoi from Luang Prabang airport.

After the expedition has been completed and in restropect, I felt that the Reece, to be put bluntly, has been quite useless. The Reece had only served to dish out some romantics for the project, something that harden our resolve to do a good job in the expedition to come. I think a better Reece could have been done. Indeed, I will look back upon this expedition if I would to attempt at any Reece again.

This marks the end of the planning phase (aka invinsible but important) of the project. The next few months will be filled of fenzied recruitment, team bonding and expedition preparation. It is ironic to note that back in January, I could already see the end of the project.