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.

Caravan Himalaya

Guest Writer: Tiger Ng

Movie: Caravan (Himalaya)

Screened at the Buddhist Library.

Review

This movie is simple, no “big-shot” movie stars, no over-budgeted advertising trick! What Eric Valli used in this movie are the breathtaking views of the Himalayas, the courageous caravan, and the completely non-professional cast (real chiefs, lamas and local villagers) which provide the film with a sense of “authenticity” that is not found in the “money-hunting” Hollywood products.

“Himalaya” delivers a strong message that revolves around power, leadership ability, tradition, and change. A simple question: “When superstition, tradition and culture collide with our own conscience, what would you have done best to avoid conflict?” Probably we can make use of what is uttered by one of the main character in the film, Norbu: "When two paths open up before you, choose the hardest one." Talking about this, Bhante Dhammaratana (The Buddhist Library Spiritual Advisor) has opined that one should always take the hardest path. [This is my own view: there’s no easy way or short-cut in everything we do in our life (be it spiritual or secular). Obstacles in fact serve as our “spiritual teacher” that makes us matured over the course of time].

Indeed, “Himalaya” reflects what is really happening in our modern society today: struggle between old and new, as well as between god-fearing society and self-reliant upstarts. How do you challenge the tradition and belief systems that have been practised for thousands if not hundreds of years? Especially when things happen in accord to what is “prophesised” by those so-called superstitious predictions…

Well, to relate this subject to what is taught by the Buddha, we may want to reflect upon the Kalama’s Sutta. Following is an excerpt from the Kalama Sutta: “It is fitting for you to be perplexed, O Kālāmas, it is fitting for you to be in doubt. Doubt has arisen in you about a perplexing matter. Come, Kālāmas. Do not go by oral tradition, by lineage of teaching, by hearsay, by a collection of texts, by logic, by inferential reasoning, by reasoned cogitation, by the acceptance of a view after pondering it, by the seeming competence of a speaker, or because you think, ‘The ascetic is our teacher.’ But when you know for yourselves, ‘These things are unwholesome; these things are blameable; these things are censured by the wise; these things, if undertaken and practiced, lead to harm and suffering,’ then you should abandon them.”

My principle is simple. I always respect the ancient belief system, even though some of them seem to me rather superstitious. They have survived for such a long time, there must be some reasons for them to exist until now. Some of them are simple innocent belief [for example, whenever someone has urgent toilet business, but there’s no nearby toilet can be found, he would have to settle his “business” at a nearby tree. Before doing this, we were always told during our childhood time that we must ask for “permission” from whatever “things” residing at that tree to allow us to proceed with our urgent business. For me, although this might sound superstitious, but it is a form of respect for all the living (and non-living) things in this world, who knows there might be a tree Deva at particular tree?]. However, if the practice of such belief systems become an obsession and start to disrupt my daily life, and could probably lead to the unwholesome consequences, I would not tolerate them, will try to challenge and clear the “clouds”.

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Environment - The Buddha and the Environment

Date: 21st April 2009

Time: 7.30pm

Place: The Buddhist Library, Singapore

Speaker: Mr Joe Lim, from the Singapore Environment Council (A non-government charity)

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Mr Lim started by saying that for the Dhamma and the Environment, the hardest part is the practice. So here tonight, we are here to influence more people and like the Dhamma, to convert it into practice.

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Is climate change all doom and gloom?

Young people feels that it is unfair as they did not destroy the climate.

If everyone does something (to protect the environment against destruction), then it will not be doom and gloom.

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The Rich are more wasteful. The following is some comparison:

Waste in OECD = 3 x that in China = 10x that in India = 100x that in Africa

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At that rate, we will need a second earth by 2030.

The wastes in Singapore is also quite high. This could be attributed to its industries like the seaport and the oil refineries.

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It is the first time in history that there are more people living in cities. Cities occupy 3% of land, but 75% of energy.

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A video called "The Story of Stuff" was screened:

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The Dhammapada has aspects related to the environment. There is a whole chapter related to flowers. In one, it mentioned a flower with no fragance - which means words that sounds beautiful but do not result in practice.

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In the Uposatha sutta (UD5.5), it describes the ocean beautifully. For details, read here

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My comments:

The linear production consumer system can be made cyclical, as illustrated in the last part of the video. Then we can achieve:

1. Sustainability.

2. Equity

3. Green chemistry

4. Zero waste

5. Closed looped production

6. Renewable energies

7. Local living economies.

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The good news is that there are already technologies that are able to take mixed waste, treat them and separate them automatically for reuse, with the remaining organic wastes used to generate electricity. Therefore, the issue of the green revolution is not the technology, but about 'political will'. 

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Unfortunately, politicians in many countries, particularly developing countries, like to see their investments paying back within their term of office, so that it can benefit them.  This term is usually a period of five years. Hence green technologies are not implemented because decisions are made for the short term. If decisions are made for the long term, then after say 7 or 10 years, recyclables will be recovered and reused, and electricity will be generated free.

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What The Bleep Do We Know?

I will be screening the docu-movie, "What The Bleep Do We Know?" (http://www.whatthebleep.com/)

Would you like to join us?
Admission is FREE!

Date: 7th March 2007
Time: 7pm
Place: 105 Holland Road, Singapore
(next to Estoril Apartments).

Map: http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_travel/travel/travel.php?travel_id=1&travel_site=32933

Babel - The Movie

A moving story surrounding two boys in rural Morroco, whom were handed a newly purchased hunting rifle from their father, to keep the jackals off their mountain goats.

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Amid the boredom sheperding their herd, one of the boys then decided to test how far the rifle can shoot by pointing it at a tour bus far away down the valley. Little did they know at the time that they would end up having shot an American woman in the bus. This shooting tragedy created diplomatic ripples between the American and Morrocan government, distress to the American couple's Mexican nanny and their children in the USA, and the distressed Japanese man who gave the rifle to the Morrocan native as a gift after a hunting trip a few years ago. The dramatic detonation of the sequence of calamities is akin to the flap of the butterfly wings that sets off a storm continents away.

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This movie may be a little stressful for parents watching it as it portrays the mischiefs that children get into during puberty without knowing the dangers lurking. The acting, particularly the Morrocan and Japanese natives was scarily realistic to have made my stomach turned.

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The moral of the story is that one single and seemingly small event or thought can affect many people, without the original thought being aware of the consequences. And the events can occur continents away simultaneously.