Enlightenment Guaranteed

This is a film screened by the Buddhist library on the 18th February 2012.

"Enlightenment Guaranteed" is a light comedy about two lost souls finding their way to a Zen monastery to rediscover themselves.

In the film, the two brothers are lost in Tokyo, but as it turned out, became an opportunity and experience for both of them to bond and understand each other. So, a seemingly adverse situation being lost in what was an outlandish city like Tokyo to them, turned out to be a blessing.  The secret here is to learn from the trouble itself.

The two brothers are contrasting characters: One who hasn't meditated before and another who meditates regularly, but it ended up that the one who hasn't meditated adjusted better to the strict and grueling monastery life. As the one who meditates regularly, took everything overly seriously and attempted to look for perfection in everything, leading to much psychological hardships during the retreat. Whereas, the brother who did not meditate before took in everything in his stride. Everything to him seems fine. Nothing worried him much.

Similarly, when we meditate, we do not look for perfection, but to go with the flow.

Kid's Play - Enterprise

There is this trusting little girl who never locked her school locker. Nothing had been lost, until one day when she left some sweets in it. The sweets disappeared, but some money was left there, presumably, by the taker.

Curious, she again left sweets in the locker, and then again found some money left there the next day, apparently in exchange for the sweets. 

Amazed, she repeated the process, but this time , leaving more sweets there, and voila, she found more money left in her locker.

She then thought this could become a business and bought more sweets to leave them in her locker, and true enough,  money flowed in and a business quickly flourished. Her locker soon became the popular de-facto candy store.

Then came a new student from a financially poor family who needed money. Realising that, she transferred her business to the new student and even bought the new stock.

And so, a social enterprise and micro-economy is born.

For more posts on Kid's Play, click here.

Remembering Chang Yew Kee

Two days ago, an old friend, Chang Yew Kee, died of a heart attack in his sleep. He was only 49. We were old Polytechnic friends and didn't get to meet after my departure from Singapore, and then we lost contact of each other soon after. 

During our Poly days, we were members of the Welfare Services Club. Then, we served the underprivileged in the Homes every weekend. It was also during this time that I learned the concept of the Buddhist espoused 'Cause-and-Effect' philosophy from Yew Kee. He also told me that he often pondered about the Buddhist ideal of ridding oneself of all desires, and that he would probably not be able to do so completely. This is something I ponder deeply myself too, till this day. 

It is important to treasure friends and express gratitude to them when they are still around. Truly, we don't know what comes next and when our time is up in this human incarnation. That is why I live everyday as if it is my last. I think it is better this way.

Lastly, I would like to take this chance to say a big 'thank you' to all my friends. Thank you for just for being my friend. 

 (Belated) Happy Valentine's Day!

Rest in Peace Yew Kee!

ps. Yew Kee has a Christian wake. I heard from his family that he converted to Christianity in the year 2000.

Kid's Play - Acting

It takes longer to act with kids, as their cooperation depends on their moods, and if you happened to hit on their lows, then your production will be stuck there for a while.

I was acting with a kid two days ago, in a scene which the kid character was supposed to have just gotten a severe scolding from me and that he was to sulk and to look miserable. However, he didn't play to instruction, and was instead, cheerful and restless. There were two ways for us to proceed: One, which was to scold him and make him really miserable (on and off-reel); or the second option, which is to persuade him.

We went for the second option, as we didn't want to run into the risk of putting him off acting permanently.

So the persuasion went:

Director: Imagine your teacher gave you a big scolding and you are now so sad.

Boy: But she didn't.

Director: Imagine if your most favourite toy is broken and you can no longer play with it! Forever!!!

Boy: But it is not!

Director: Ok, let's play a game. If you do what we tell you to do later, you will get a chocolate cake.

Boy: Ok.

Then we went for the shoot, but it still didn't quite work. He was still moving around and not looking sad at all.

So, the persuasion continued:

Director: Who else wants to play the game? But only the best person can get the chocolate cake as there is only one chocolate cake!

Everyone in the set quickly raised their hands. The boy then went into the set and performed!!! He saw competition! :)

For other articles on Kid's Play, click http://jupilier.blogspot.com/search/label/Kids%20Play

A Tale of Two Film Schools

I know of two film schools: School A and School B. 

In School A, the teachers deliberately mock their students' scripts and challenges them to substantiate or illustrate their story. The teachers expect the students to be able to stand up for themselves and defend their script. These teachers do not believe there is such thing as a ridiculous story (no matter how outlandish the students cut their story out to be), but whether it is one that is properly researched, structured, substantiated, depicted,...etc. They do not go along the directions of whether there is a 'right' or 'wrong' answer to the script, but only scripts that are well or poorly substantiated.

In School B, the teachers on the other hand, correct the the students' scripts, pointing to them what is wrong with their script and what needs to be corrected, what needs to be there in place and how to do it. The teachers get annoyed if the students think that they know better and argue against the teachers' suggestions. Teachers here believe that with their prior training, experience and maturity, they know better and that these young upstarts are merely wasting their time going one big round arriving at the  same 'right' answers.

For instance, in School B the teachers may comment that to play the role of a detective, the actor must look the part, ie. strong willed, lean, a good body gait, and other stereotype traits of how a detective should look like; and the students are supposed to cast an actor that looks like that.

In School A, the teachers will not change the student's choice of the actor, but will ask how the students are going to make that actor come up alive and feels like a real detective.

[Note: There are indeed examples of  untypical looking detectives in Hollywood, like Detective Theo Kojak in Kojak (who is wheelchair bound) and Jessica Fletcher, who looks more like a loving grandmother,  in 'Murder She Wrote'.]

In School A, students are assessed according to their final product, but also on their ability to defend their ideas and scripts. The final script may still appear to be ridiculous but yet well substantiated and described - that is, one that is able to convince the audience possibly of an unusual but interesting story. 

In School B, students are assessed according to their final product based on how they have corrected them according to their teachers' guidance. Errant students who refused to follow the guidance are  penalised.

There is no telling which one of these two schools come up with better scripts that win awards.

Which one do you think wins?

Zerolimit

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I have heard about Ho'oponopono and how Dr Len has facilitated the healing of an entire ward of criminally mental patients in Hawaii State Hospital. And he did that without even seeing anyone of them. However, when asked, Dr Len said that he didn't heal anyone, but worked within himself to let go of the 'data' in him that has caused the situation. That we are all cluttered with data, such that we have lost our Zero state. He says that we are all 100% responsible for what happens around us.

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In Zero state, everything flows: like the right person will turn up at the right time and right place,...etc,   miraculously. That it can be so smooth that you don't even have to make a choice. He even added that if you have to make a choice, that means you are not clear enough.

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This actually rhymes with what a wealthy Malaysian businessman once said to me when I interviewed him for a magazine. He said (in his halting limited English), "In life, no choice is the best choice". He said that as he related a time when he was financially broke and had nowhere else to go but to go to Indonesia to meet a cousin to start all over again. There was nowhere else better to go. Then, when over there, he grabbed the first opportunity that came, because he had 'no-choice'. Today, twenty years later, he is a fabulously rich man both financially and otherwise.

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Then I thought "Has this Zero state happened to me before?  Has what happened to me in going into acting, a result of getting back to Zero?" 

The story of how I got into acting was surprising, even to myself. As it goes, I was asked to act in a film by a director who saw my photo online (not from an actor's portal), then during the shoot she praised me a lot and urged me to take it up acting as a career.  And so I believed her, and a year on, I have done over 40 gigs  and acted in two films that won international awards. And all that happened out of the blue, as I can't recall having made any intentions,about being an actor, at least not consciously.

The other experience I have was the watching of the video of Dr Len's explanation about his work. It came out of the blue from my friend who was screening the film. I attended the screening and in the video, heard Dr Len's mention of making 'solarised water' using blue glass bottles. Then there was a question from the audience of where one could find such blue bottles, and Dr Len said that if one is in the Zero state, then the blue bottles will turn up. At that point, I cheekily wondered if the blue bottles will turn up for me. 

"Where will I find those bottles turning up for me out of the blue?"

"Perhaps it will be at a pub, probably in town, like Clarke Quay?"

As it unfolded, I didn't go to that part of town nor any pub, but when I reached home, I found two blue glass bottles freshly washed in the kitchen!!! Now I must try getting water into those blue bottles, have them solarised and use them to 'clean' myself to get into Zero. Will keep you posted on my progress.

Actually going into 'Zero', isn't new. I can relate it to Guru's common advice to just "go meditate". And he often say that when you meditate, things will be clear and sorted. It is like polishing the diamonds. We are already the Divine - the Diamond, that needs polished, or 'cleaned' as Dr Len will call it.

Principles of (bad) conversations

1. We acknowledge one another as equals.

Remember to acknowledge everyone as equals, if you expect them to be able to listen intently (and so remember what has already been said), follow-up with what they have listened, and speak concisely and not hog air-time. But don't worry, because chances are that they won't,  so this is your opportunity to clobber the conversation.

The dangerous thing is to treat everyone as stupid or 'unequals', because if you do so, you will be too forgiving and patient to have a bad conversation.

2. We try to stay curious about each other.

Always wonder why on earth would they want so much to be right, since there are much more to learn from being wrong! Don't be fooled by their wanting to clarify themselves and that they have been frequently misunderstood.  Always be curious about why and how much ego they must have to not to want to listen to you, especially when you are older than them. Remember to insist that they are the egoistic one and not you. That way, you frustrate them and then they will blow up into a really bad conversation.

3. We recognize that we need each other's help to become better listeners.

This is your great opportunity to speak at length in your best English in complete sentences and to describe every nook and corner of your idea in monumental detail, to show others how clever you are and to teach others to be patient in listening. Reprimand them if they dare interrupt your speech. That way, they will have a lot of time to listen to you.

If you do this well enough, you may actually even get to listen to yourself. Learn how to speak general nothings in eloquent English, so that the conversation will still sound  impressive without getting into being good.

4. We slow down so we have time to think and reflect.

When the conversation is converging too quickly to a point, slow it down by throwing in some general statements to keep it divergent. Like, " there is no right or wrong answers", "there are many views and there are many ways of looking at them...", or "Over here, we all have different opinons, but we learn to accept everyone...".

But remember to say something that sits on high moral grounds and that is not contentious. The best way to do it is to quote from some famous motivational speakers and seminars you have attended. That way, you sound impartial and credible, and at the same time , throw everyone out of their tracks towards some understanding on converged points. So preferably, what you quote should be something out of context, otherwise you risk enlightening everyone. This is also to give them time to think and reflect instead of worshipping some singularly boring convergent 'truths'. 

5. We remember that conversation is the natural way humans think together.

Conversation and thinking are natural. They are as natural as crying out loud or walking over to the other person who disagrees with you and giving him one-tight slap! So don't break the spontanaeity. Even if you know that some speakers are spewing utter rubbish and wasting everyone's time, BE NATURAL! DON'T BREAK THE SPONTAENITY!

6. We expect it to be messy at times.

Yes! This is when you congratulate those who crack vulgar and irrelevant jokes at critical points of the discussion. Tell them that they are helping the rest of us get out of our tunnel visions and out of the box. Not doing so will allow everyone to flow too well into a good conversation. No, no, no, we can't have that!

Lastly, there is this mother of all principles of (good and bad) conversations. In fact, if you master this one, there may be no conversations to start off with. It goes:

"Maturity begins when we're content to feel we're right about something, without feeling the necessity to prove someone else is wrong."    --  Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986)

Note: This post is a parody of "Principles of Conversation". It shows that we can also learn from negative demonstrations. Also, points made on politically correct high moral grounds can still be twisted anyway you want if there is malice. I hope this article can be taken in the spirit of learning, albeit an unusual one. In other words and in the context of this post, the essential ingredient of a good conversation is compassion. Compassion = kindness + wisdom.

ps. Wrote this on my iPhone while waiting for relatives to visit me on Chinese New Year's Day.  As you probably suspect, nobody came!!  Guess they don't like bad conversations!