# Two events at Friends House

It was my second time to Friend's House in London.

I remembered the first time we were helping out at the talk by Rajmohan Gandhi, "Responding to Today's World - the relevance of Gandhian ethics", on 23 November 2005. It was organized by the Initiatives of Change.


Rajmohan spoke about the life of his grandfather, the late Mahatma Gandhi, and shared stories and quotes relevant to today's society. His main theme revolves around "How by God's grace can we create a blending, not a clash of civilisations?"

With Britain just facing the 7/7 bombings that time (this talk was in Nov 2005), Rajmohan looked at this issue in depth and urged Britain to think about its role in the world. He commented that the triumph of terrorists is that fear is so long-lasting. He stressed that terrorism is a terrible problem but it is not the world's only problem. He pleaded to the people to Britain to engage in world's issues more actively - disease, poverty in third-world country, and threats to the encironment, etc.

A part of his speech reveberated in my mind for a long time. "The real clash is not between East and West, Muslim and Christian. It is between faith and fear, rejection and acceptance. Fear is natural; to be guided by fear is not necessary."


The session drew active discussion from the audience. Many young people raised questions with great variety and depth. People were moved when a young muslim spoke out the difficulty that people of her religion faced: fear of terrorism topped up with fear of being the object of suspicion and fear. On the other hand, white people raised the concern of how to communicate with the people behind the veils.

Here is a text of Rajmohan's speech for those who are interested.

It was a mind-provoking session and it set many of us thinking deeply about the world issues today. I scribbled down some thoughts at that time, and while writing the post about Trust and Fear, I remembered his speech about clash between faith and fear, and decided to put up this post again.

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Fast forward to this year, my second time to Friends House. A nostalgic feeling dawned on me as I re-entered the old building of Friends House. The same old hall, the wooden doors and seats... This time, the organizer and audience were from a different niche of society, but yet the theme and issues still revolves about humanity and peace, "Buddha's Teaching - From Inner Peace to World Peace", by Venerable Master Bikkhu Ching Kung. The talk was jointly organized by Buddhist Education Foundation, Amitabha Buddhist Society, University of London Union Buddhist Association (Yeah! our society!) and Imperieal College Buddhist Society.

A lot of the buddhist believers seemed very excited about the chance to have a look at Master Ching Kung. While we were ushering the crowd to their seats, there were booths outside the hall which give out free-distribution books and CD's. It was a flurry of activities and it was heart-warming to see so many happy faces around coming to learn from the discourse.


Master Ching Kung gave his discourse in Mandarin, and a translator did the translation on the spot. He spoke about the relevance of Buddhist practice in older times to our modern time, and stressed about the importance of "Practice" of buddhism in life, instead of just belief and learning in theory. He drew laughter from the crowd as he recollected his youth during which he used to question about the buddhist practice too, like many other young people.

He spoke about the source of unhappiness and fear in our life - attachment and differentiation, and also suggested methods of overcoming sufferings through the eightfold noble path - right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. He linked the relevance of buddhism teachings to application in today's world to solve the problems. From normal life to world issues, the teachings are relevant.

He also reminded us the importance of cultural ethics/ education that interwines with religion/philosophy. He brought out the example of how Confusianism and the traditional teachings of ethics in ancient China fused with Buddhism which encourage the practice of an ethical life.

He stressed that world peace can only be achieved if we started from inner peace. We tend to look at world problems as external problems, but in reality, most of the problems arise internally. To achieve world peace, we must start from ourselves. He reminded us that each of us have a Buddha within. In many times, our Buddha nature are blinded by our greed, cravings and lots of other distraction in life. It is up to us to reawaken the Buddha within and do good, to create wholesomeness not only in our life, but in the world as a whole.

The Gui-Yi ceremony

After his speech, a "Gui-Yi" ceremony was also held. "Gui-Yi" is somewhat similar to the baptism ceremony in christian. The buddhists proclaim taking refugee in the Triple Gems of Buddhism - the Buddha, the Sutra, and the Sangha. Master Ching Kung explained the common misconception of public about "Gui-Yi". Many tend to refer Gui-Yi as a ceremony which we pledge ourselves as disciples of a certain Masters, this is a mistake as we are showing attachment by doing this. The real meaning of Gui-Yi is to pledge ourselves as Buddhism practitioner and apply Buddha's teachings in our life to bring wholesomeness to all. It is a commitment to ourselves according to Buddhist way. The monastic people are just a "witness" to our proclaimation.

I haven't managed to find the text version of his speech. I will put it up here once I get the copy of it. Meanwhile, more information can be found on the Amitabha Buddhist Society website.

Both talks are from different groups of society, yet share so much similarity in the themes, the aims to do good and promote peace in the world. I learned immensely from both lectures, and I believe the audience did too. The core of all religions and philosophy is humanity, and in the crazy world today, humanity is direly needed.

# Trust and Fear

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

North Korea has revealed that it has nuclear weapons. Terrorists are planning attacks at random places, random time. Natural disasters like hurricane/ earthquake are claiming thousands of lives. Even in micro scale, streets are no longer safe - snatch thiefs and rapists and killers are roaming in the streets...

A few weeks into lectures and studies in school, we learn, and re-learn about the basis of actuarial field - managing risk. We tried to identify risks, tried to understand people's fear, and tried to manage it. Uncertainty is the key word. Since older times, human has been fascinated by this nature of world - the only certain thing is that everything is always uncertain. Human has relentlessly tried to avoid uncertainty and reduce risks. Because we have FEAR.

Alongside with fear, we have TRUST. Trust is a wonderful nature of human being. By having trust, or in a higher extent, faith, human help one another. We build hopes and feel safe. Yet trust is such a fragile structure, hard to build and easy to destroy. In people's relation, we trust our family and friends. In financial world, we trust the insurance companies to manage our risks, or our banks to manage our finances. In socio-economic context, we trust (to some extent) our government, NGO, institutions and social bodies to provide stability and safety, and hopefully, equality.

Trust and Fear forms such a complex relationship. Balancing the two components are not easy. Reith Lectures series have delved deeply to try to understsand the interaction between these two natures - Onora O'neill (2002) with her lectures "A Question of Trust", Wole Soyinka (2004) with his lectures "Climates of Fear" have explored the effects of these emotions to human, and to a wider context, the society and world.

In older times, fear is easier to identify. It takes more tangible forms like natural disasters, wars, political problems, etc. The sources of fear stood broadly in public - we know who/what are the threats. That implies we have a chance to try to manage or do something about it. Also, we have a clearer concept of what is trustable/ reliable. We have clear definition of what is good and what is bad. And trust is a virtue which brings us forward in life.

Lately, various threats have taken into a more tacit form. Terrorist threats, for example, is so evasive, and yet so threatening. While last time people fear government/dictator who controlled the society/economy/politics, now we fear enemies who are underground, who might be anywhere, who might target anyone. It is not the states or institutions who are in charge, it seems like evil is on the loose. Remember the beheading of foreign soldiers in Iraq? How it casted a terror that the bigger ones are not always the one controlling the game. Within the same issue, look at how the campaign of anti-terrorism has eroded the trust in governments, or in the superpowers in the world.

In financial world, scandals after scandals are revealed. Companies were once in the talent race - recruiting the brightest and best. Yet Enron, Arthur Anderson and many other cases showed that talents alone could not guarantee success of companies. Trust is crucial, yet the strings of events have just done more harm than good to build people's trust in companies.

Also, old threats are resurging. Last time we feared the atomic bomb threat, we were worried about the arm races. Hence, human seek cooperative efforts via diplomatic agreements to keep them under control. In recent decades, the public perceptioin of fear moves to economical/ social threats more than these destructive threats. Somebody even forecasted that the future wars would be waged in terms of economics/ trades/ Internet/ etc. Yet, with North Korea's revelation about its nuclear power, suddenly we were back to the older times. The scary message conveyed, "You get bullied if you don't have WMD, you don't if you have."

Climates of fear is indeed encompassing us. With trust eroding in most aspects, human huddle in fear for the many risks and threats which seem to come from all directions. We really need to recognize that we have a crisis now - our fundamental values of goodness are being taken over by various threats.

By thrashing out fear after fear, I do not mean to say we are doomed. What I want to say is we still have hope, if we work for it. Until now, I still believe of purity and goodness as the fundamental state of human nature. It is just that human values have been polluted, and we need to clean them up. We need hope, we need faith, we need prayer, we need trust in each other. And we need each other. I hope the readers of this post could have a moment to ponder about the many issues that surround us today, and have a prayer for a better tomorrow. Have faith.

# Health is wealth

Almost everyday I reached Old Street tube station about 9.55am, about time to start my classes. And almost everyday, as I came down from the tube, I would see a familiar silhouette. A crooked back, a deformed spine. It's a middle-aged man who happens to go to work about the same time as I do. A few times I happened to walk just behind him, and the figure haunted me for a long time.

I have to admit that I feel scared. I am scared of my future. Like him, I have scoliosis, and have been feeling quite inferior about this fact of my body. Some friends noticed it, and whenever they commented about it, with politeness and good intention, somehow there's a slight pain and sort-of-shameness in my heart. I think, human tends to feels like escaping whenever being confronted an uncomfortable, yet starkingly true fact.

When I was small, we were not that well exposed to medical knowledge to diagnose the symptoms. Only when I finished my high school, got a scholarship and was required to do a medical checkup, the doctor told me that my X-ray shows a "deformed spine" - "S-shape scoliosis with dorsal left concavity apex at T7 with 22 degrees and right lumbar concavity with 35 degree. Acquired compression to the left side of T8."


What a shock! Went through a flurry of activities, going to specialists and checkups. Some doctor suggested physiotheraphy, some suggested chiropractic, some said surgery could readjust the spine, but with high risk. Tried out a bit of physiotheraphy and chiropractic, but stopped after some time due to the expensive costs.

Have been having neck pains and backache more often these days, and I am worried about it. As usual, it's right shoulder, right scapula region and left lower back. Same old areas. I do yoga stretches to alleviate it, and pray very hard the scoliosis will not further affect the internal organs. It is a scary thought to know that a human's body is such a fragile framework, and suddenly life appear to be so precious.

This morning I bumped into the man again. I prayed for him silently, or was I praying for myself at the same time? Perhaps. I know when I get old, my back would look like his. Yet, somehow, somewhere in my heart, I think I haven't been able to fully accept it. Living in denial? Perhaps.

I think, a better way face it would be to take care of my body now and live happily. Afterall, worrying about future does not help much. What matters most is neither past or future, but present. Treasure every moment, treasure the people that I care about.

# 每逢佳节倍思亲

It's mooncake festival today. Inadvertently, I felt the feeling of homesickness sinking in.

"独在异乡为异客，每逢佳节倍思亲" is a quotation from a poem of a Wang Wei (王维《九月九日忆山东兄弟》). I found an English translation from internet, it says: "A lonely stranger in a strange land I am cast, I miss my family all the more on every festive day..."

I miss home, I miss everything back there. Unlike the previous years, somehow starting a new semester this year felt heavier than usual. I think that I have really started to feel the longing to go back to my own country.

I decided to do some baby-ish wallowing in self pity now. Bah, humbug! Please feel free not to read on so as not to spoil the joyful atmosphere of mooncake festival.

My stupid neckache is hurting like hell, what a way to spend my mooncake festival... Barely recovering from cold sores, the neckache/shoulder ache decided to pay me a visit. Felt like a robot a whole day - a simple action of glancing over my shoulders became an awkward manouevur of rotating my whole body to face the direction I wanted to see.

Cancelled an appointment with friends due to the constant stinging feeling on the shoulders. It's Friday night and I couldn't go anywhere with this mind-numbing, body-stiffing pain. Having to get in bed early on mooncake festival is no fun...

I know I need rest, but I couldn't help being 无聊 a bit before settling myself on bed. Decided to take a few pics to commemorate my lousy mooncake festival on 2006.

My best mates during mooncake festival = cold sore relief cream, Sloan's muscle pain rub, Vicks Vapourub.

My lanterns on the wall, brought from Malaysia. I miss playing with lanterns and walking around neighbourhood with my little yellow lantern...

My faithful "Lil' one", birthday gift from KK and Ray. Temporarily forgot about my neck pain when I looked at its cute little innocent face with toothy grin.

I like its sleeping position.

Another thing I like about Lil' one, it's tail which looks like a piece of grilled steak. Hungry...

HAPPY LANTERN FESTIVAL!!!