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General Election 2025

04/05/2025 by A learning buddhist...

I thought the Worker’s Party (Opposite Party) could win another constituency but they lost only by 1.5% votes to PAP at Jalan Kayu.

I had been keeping up with the news on the Singapore General Election for the past week. Of all the opposition parties, WP sounds sensible and courageous. Next was Dr Chee from Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). Being a good opposition party was tough. Dr Chee was character assassinated by the People’s Action Party (PAP). I’ve seen Dr Chee on TV since year 2000. He wasn’t my favourite then. Down the years, Dr Chee has grown to be matured and more subdued. He is knowledgeable and very sincere in speaking up for the people. He possess qualities that a politician has. He lost his votes by 3.19%. It was so tough for him.

We only have three constituencies that belong to WP and the rest belong to PAP. Therefore, WP is the only party who can speak for us. We don’t need more anyway.

I’ve read the comments from WP supporters saying that they have lost hope in the people and Singapore and that they will have to continue to suffer the high cost of living. The price of our public housing is skyrocketed high. Everything has gone so expensive that they find it hard to cope and people are losing their jobs due to foreigners. I understand their suffering and unhappiness, that was why I voted the opposition, hoping there will be more voices for this group of people and for the future generations. However, things didn’t go the way we want to.

Reading their comments made me smile because nothing stays permanent. Even PAP would collapse one day. It’s a matter of when! Our late prime minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew said this in an interview many years ago, he said : “I think there will come a time when eventually the public will say, look, let’s try the other side, either because the PAP has declined in quality or the opposition has put up a team which is equal to the PAP and they say, let’s try the other side. It must come.” So Mr Lee had understood cause and condition. What arises must cease!

Over the years, PAP has indeed declined in quality. They no longer listen to the people and do what they want to do. There is no transparency and accountability in the things they do. They don’t answer our questions and remain arrogant. They lie and defend themselves all the time. They only think of their own profit and recently Grace Fu, our minister, during the election said that the people of Singapore give them a chicken wing but they give the people a whole chicken. Serious? To be honest, I rather they not speak.

GE 2025 has ended. It’s time to treat myself a nice dinner.

What’s the future like? PAP is not going to change and neither will they make the lives of those who are struggling with the cost of living better. Life is going to be harder for the locals and for the young generation.

Well, as long as I’m still alive, I’ll keep voting for the opposition. This vote is for those who are struggling to cope with their life!

Now the GE 2025 has ended. It’s time for a good meal and continue meditating!

“Feeling is not yours, abandon it!” Said the Buddha.

Posted in The learning experience… |

Tera, always a kitten (Jan 2019 ~ 9 April 2025)

04/05/2025 by A learning buddhist...

Tera and her mummy, Specky, had always seen sticking together, roaming in and out of SJI. Both were skittish and never allowed us to touch. Specky changed her behaviour along the way after we took them in. She not only allowed us to touch and loved so much to be pet as well. Sadly, she died shortly and I felt I have not given her enough. However, I am glad that she had a place she called home with wet food served twice a day and kibbles all day round.

Tera hadn’t changed much. After the passing of Specky, she remained skittish and played only with Tom whom we guess, was her father. Tom passed on last November and few months later, Tera wasn’t feeling well. We were unable to feed Tera as she still struck us. However, I managed to catch and send her to the vet. Prognosis was bad. Not only her red blood count was low, her platelets were low too. Whenever cats with low platelets, we know it’s hard to cure. However, we always try…

Tera was a kitten then.

She had a pair of big round eyes and beautiful shinny coat even when she reached six years of age. Sometimes I would try to disturb her by going near her and she never once stopped hissing at me. I would laugh and walk away. Sometimes when she was sound asleep, I would attempt to pet her using only a few fingers because I knew she would strike and true indeed, within a few seconds she woke up and hissed at me. I laughed and moved away. Tera was like that and I was like that too:).

Even though she remained feral, I think she had a safe place  with enough food to eat and water to drink. For this, I am already contented.

May the merits accumulated be dedicated to her favourable rebirth.

Posted in The learning experience… |

Sara Lee at the Pet Expo adoption drive.

27/04/2025 by A learning buddhist...

Someone found Sara and asked me to help rehome her. Sara was only four-months-old when I took her in last month. She’s beautiful and should not be difficult to rehome.

We did a private sterilisation for her, meaning her left ear will not be tipped. We ran a blood test and she is FIV/FeLV negative. She has been microchipped and had her first vaccination. Second vaccination is due next week.

Mel went on holiday, so I brought Sara to the adoption drive myself yesterday. I’m hoping to find a suitable adopter for her. Pet Expo is my favourite venue. First , it’s a place where anyone interested in adopting can come meet the cats and kittens. Second, as there are many vendors participating in the event, I get to buy products at discounted price and it usually comes with freebies. Yay! For the cats! Lastly, I get to see large, beautiful pedigree dogs!

Sara was super active and playful. She kept hopping and acted funny in the playpen. The good thing was, she brought lots of laughter to those who were watching her. Due to her super active nature, I had to put an airtag on her, just in case she went missing. There were quite a number of adopters who were interested in her. I have not decided who to contact yet but will do so later in the evening, not wanting them to wait too long.

Three-and-a-half hours at the adoption drive was a little tiring, not only for me but also for Sara. I felt tefreshed again when it comes to an end because it was time to do a little shopping and get more food for them!

Posted in The learning experience… |

“Being Nobody Going Nowhere” by Ayya Khama

05/04/2025 by A learning buddhist...

This was taught during a 10-day meditation retreat. The final chapter was a closing speech from Ayya Khama and it made me feel that I was attending the retreat and was bidding farewell. Yes, the Dhamma is not in the temple, it’s not anywhere but in our heart.

This book can be read by clicking the following link https://www.bps.lk/olib/bp/bp511s_Khema_Being-Nobody-Going-Nowhere.pdf

Below are a few quotes to ponder.

“One second of concentration in meditation is one second of purification because, luckily, the mind can only do one thing at a time.” 

“The spiritual path is all about letting go. There is nothing to achieve or gain.”

“The only time the mind can have a real rest is when it stops thinking and starts only experiencing.”

“A moment which brings the kind of happiness not available anywhere else, through anything else. A happiness which is independent of outer conditions. It’s not unconditioned but conditioned only by concentration. It’s not dependent upon good food or climate, entertainment or the right relationships, other people or pleasant responses or possessions, all of which are totally unreliable and cannot be depended upon because they are always changing…”

“Thinking is suffering, no matter what it is that we think. There is movement in it and because of that there is friction. Everything that moves creates friction. The moment we relax and rest the mind it gains few strength and also happiness because it knows it can go home at anytime. The happiness created at the time of meditation carries through to daily living because the mind knows that nothing has to be taken so seriously that it can’t go home again and find peace and quiet.”

“When the ego stops wanting, all unsatisfactoriness vanishes. This is why we should meditate. Now we’ll look at the ‘how’ of meditation.”

“When the mind becomes calm and tranquil, the breath becomes equally soft and tranquil. When the breath becomes so fine we can’t find it, that’s the moment when we actually enter into a concentrated state.”

“All minds are alike. You don’t have to think: I am especially unsuited for this. ‘Who’s ’I’ anyway? It’s just an untrained mind as opposed to a trained one. Anyone who enters a marathon race can run well and quickly if they have trained for it. It is silly to think I’m useless, I can’t run fast’ if you haven’t trained for it.”

“One doesn’t have to think about anything when meditating. Life keeps on happening and doesn’t need us to think about it. It’s constantly arising and ceasing every single moment.”

“The one way for the purification of beings, for the destruction of unsatisfactoriness, for entering the noble path, for realising freedom from all suffering, is mindfulness.”

“When people dispute what the Buddha was teaching, he didn’t argue. He wasn’t defending a viewpoint. He was talking about his own experience.”

“When that calm and pleasant feeling arises, which the Buddha called a pleasant abiding, and then it disappears again, which it must, because whatever has arisen will disappear, the first reaction that has to come to mind is knowing the impermanence; not, ‘Oh dear, it’s gone again.’ Or ‘That was nice. How am I going to get it back?’ Which is the usual way of reacting.”

“Liberation is not ‘knowing’, it is ‘feeling’. Everybody feels a ‘me’. Everybody knows their name but everybody also feels that the name describes this special ‘me’. One can feel the self. So in order to get to non-self, it has to be felt too.”

“The enjoyment of the sense becomes or refined when there’s more purification in a person. The smallest thing can be enjoyed, but the danger lies in wanting it. This wanting, the craving, brings the unsatisfactoriness because the wanting can never be fully satisfied. We’re always lagging behind. There’s always something more beautiful to be seek, something more to be heard or touched. There’s always something else. This creates much restlessness, because we can never get total satisfaction.” 

“The hope and anticipation of the gratification of sensual desire is that which makes it pleasurable. Once it has been gratified, it’s already finished and done with and new desire arises.”

“One antidote the Buddha prescribed for restlessness and distracted thoughts is learning more abut the Dhamma, the teaching. When one knows the teaching, one can direct the mind to it often. One remembers the Buddha’s words. When one learns more about it there are clear-cut and decisive answers in any kind of difficulty that arises. The Buddha’s answers always lead out of suffering. They always leads out of egoism, but they are not so easy.”

“The Buddha said the one who can get rid of these five hindrances is one who has finished the work, with nothing ore to be done.”

“I am the owner of my kamma. I inherit my kamma. I am born of my kamma. I am related to my kamma.. I live supported by my kamma. Whatever kamma I created whether good or evil, that I shall inherit. ‘The Buddha said we needed to remember this every day.”

“Right intention is our kamma-making process because our mental formations are having the intentions. Right view can be established in ourselves through some wisdom and insight. It will be foundation for our intentions. Intentions are constantly arising with every action and reaction. ‘Kamma, O’monks, I declare, is intention, are the Buddha’s words. This is how we make kamma, and if we believe that good kamma is essential for our wellbeing, we have to watch our intentions.”

“When we live with mindfulness there is a marked difference in our awareness. We know what’s happening with ourselves but we don’t become involved in it. When anger arises we know it’s arising, but we don’t have to become angry. That’s a great skill. When there is boredom, we know boredom has arisen, but we don’t have to become bored or frustrated. We just know the arising and also the ceasing of all mental states.”

Last but not least…

“There is no escape route externally or through non-attention or non-awareness. The only escape is through insight, which brings total clarity. Every other escape route is blocked.”

Posted in Teachings to remember | Tagged , , |

Yellow, I often called her 李黄 (2013 ~ 7 March 25)

31/03/2025 by A learning buddhist...

She had always been a scaredy cat since the day I met her 11 years ago and way too skinny. She had an underdeveloped eye and we had to remove her eyeball five years ago and it was cancerous. She had another good five-and-a-half years to live.

The reason that we decided to take her home was because she was heavily pregnant and she was the first pregnant cat that we had come across. Of course, we tried not to abort the kittens. Yellow gave birth to four lovely kittens!

All living beings are the same. Giving birth is equally painful and all mothers love their children, human and non-human. That’s why I don’t take dairy products. It’s utter cruelty! We don’t need them to survive! Yellow’s kittens were so smart that whenever we took them to adoption drives, they would pretend to sleep for the whole session and became dragons when it was time to go home. One day, all of them became this big!

We love them!

Although Yellow was a scaredy cat, we had no issue administering her medication or supplements. I am always glad that she was not in anyone’s hand who would take advantage of her. Despite being a scaredy cat, she was way too easy to handle.

Yellow at her prime! We have not removed her eyeball when above photo was taken. Though she tended to hide, she would come out, look at you and meow whenever she was hungry and she will be well served! I always liked to force pet her:).

Her eyeball was removed in the above photo. With or without eyes, in no matter what state, we love them the same and this goes towards all living beings.

We estimated Yellow to be at least 12 years of age. A generation “gone”!

Thank you 李黄 for being part of my life. All of you play an important role in my life!

May the merits accumulated be dedicated to Yellow’s favourable rebirth!

Posted in The learning experience… |

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