This Saturday, we have a talk by one of our Bucky members, Ms Stella Lin, about a book she has read called "The Diamond Cutter", by Geshe Michael Roach. Mr Roach's background is one strewn with a lot of controversy, as he was once ordained as a monk in the Tibetan tradition and left the monastery to start a business and live with a female consort. To read more about his curriculum and controversies, click here.
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This post is therefore put up as a regular journal of the Bucky Group activities. It does not mean that the Group condone the activities of Mr Roach. I for one do not agree with monks breaking vows and not disrobing.
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Anyway, we can still discuss about the book and focus on its contents and not the author. So let's take this as an exercise on our ability to concentrate on the song, and not the singer.
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In summary, the talk focuses on 6 values for success:
- Generosity
- Ethics
- Humility
- Continuous Learning
- Meditation
- wisdom
And all these embraced by Compassion.
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In the book, it suggested that we should thus watch our thoughts to keep those six values. As an measurement, we can keep a bag of black pebbles (to represent bad thoughts) and a bag of white pebbles (to represent good thoughts). So, whenever you have a bad thought, put a black pebble in your pocket, and whenever you have a good thought, put a white pebble in your pocket. At the end of each day, you can check how many good thoughts and bad thoughts you have for the day.
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Discussion:
It is difficult to determine what is 'good' and what is 'bad', as some judgment and bias is required. I would rather have just 'choices' and 'consequences'.
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Clara said that there is no 'good' or 'bad' as everything is 'good'. For instance, if you have enjoyed something thoroughly you may not have learned something from it and there is no growth, whereelse if we had a hard time, we learn and grow and therefore is good for us in both cases.
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There is someone who has just attended this session because he found our group online and it was also the same time that he was starting to read the book. He said there is a regular group that follows Michael Roach's teachings in Singapore.
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One of our members said that it is ok to read the book, but caution us against paying up money towards the Diamond Mountain University in Arizona.
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As the book got passed around, I got to feel the vibrations and it seems that there is a lump of blockage in the author's throat chakra. That usually means that he has a lot of difficulty wanting to express some deeper thoughts. I can feel it. It is psychometry. Read here
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As usual our discussions exceeded the ten o'clock cut off time and soon, Joo Hock has to start his hair salon business.
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Outside the shopping centre, I saw an electric bike. I have been studying the feasibility of introducing electric bikes to more people in Singapore, as it is green, need no Certificate of Entitlement, no Electronic Road Pricing, no parking coupons (so not scared of parking aunties/wardens), gets away with many traffic rules and allowed to take many tiny short-cut trails. :)
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It is pretty cool, with a detachable battery pack that plugs in easily to the wall socket.
It even comes with a remote control alarm. The owner was even kind enough to allow me to try riding the bike. It was very smooth and quiet. The owner is very happy with the bike and highly recommends it. It costs her only SIN$800 plus. A scooter will costs her ten times more plus a lot of CO2..
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