Buddhism As Education

A liberation of animals organised by the Persatuan Penganut Buddha Palme Gon Pulau Pinang will be held this Saturday 31 January 2009 at Riverside of Bagan Lallang at 6.00pm. The liberation ceremony will be graced by four Rinpoches from Palme Gon Monastery based in Qinghui, China. Animal Liberation is one of the most important ceremonies of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. It has been practiced over the millenniums saving millions of lives. The ceremony is consisted of purification, mantra recitation, showering of flower and the dedication. Once the animal is formally liberated through this ceremony, it shouldn’t be killed for it’s for meat, skin or whatsoever reasons. Instead, one should provide good care of the animals and let them enjoy normal life as long as they sustains. For more information, please call 012-4900944 Mdm Chan Poh Choo.

The Penang Buddhist Association at Jalan Anson, Penang will be holding a midnight prayer service to usher in the Chinese New Year at 12.00am on 26 January at the main shrine hall. All are almost welcome. For more details on the programme, kindly contact 04-2280910 or Mr Peter Khoo at his mobile 012-4565866. Thank you.

The Mahindarama Buddhist Temple in Kampar Road, Penang will kick off this year's Chinese New Year celebration with a midnight blessing service at 11.30pm on 25 January. On the following day, food offerings to the Buddha and Buddhist monks at the temple premises at 11.00am on 26 January, followed by lotus candle lighting ceremony and special blessing services at 8.00pm on the same day. A special blessing service for protection will also be held on 9 February in conjuction with Chap Hog Meh. For more details, please call the temple at 04-2825944.

The Penang state government will hold its Chinese New Year celebrations at Campbell Street from 6.30pm to 10.30pm on Jan 29.The Chinese New Year cultural and heritage celebrations will be held in the George Town heritage area on Feb 1, from 12.00pm to midnight, and will feature cultural performances. All are welcome to witness the fantastic events and celebrations in conjunction of our lunar new year. Thank you.

Wishing all readers, supporters, devotees and members of the Buddhist community a very Happy New Year and Gong Xi Fai Cai. Thank you for your continuous support and readership. Look forward to continue to be with all of you.

There are many ways of practicing Buddhism, about eighty four thousand kinds. Each path is different from others but ultimately leads to the same goals: enlightenment, proper thoughts and viewpoints and purity. As such, all paths are equal without one being superior to the other. People have different abilities and levels of accomplishments. Furthermore, they are from different environments and should choose a path most suited to them. We can choose any one of the three goals to concentrate our practice on. When we achieve any one of them, the two will come naturally. There are ten schools of practice in Chinese Buddhism. Zen stresses the pursuit of the perfect clear mind or enlightenment. The Pure Land and Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana school) stress on obtaining the pure mind. Other schools concentrate their practice on proper thoughts and viewpoints. Regardless of which method or school one chooses, they all lead to the same outcome. In other words, when we become an expert in one met...

The Ten Recitation Method is a simple, convenient, effective way to practice Buddha Name Recitation. It is especially suitable for those who find little time in the day for cultivation. Practicing this method help us to regain mindfulness of Buddha Amitabha and bring us peace and clarity in the present moment. The practice begins first thing in the morning when we wake up. We sit up straight and clearly recite Buddha Amitabha’s name ten times with an undisturbed mind, aloud, silently to ourselves. We repeat this process eight more times for the rest of the day. Altogether, we do one round of ten recitations nine times a day, every day as follows: Upon Waking Up Before Starting Breakfast After Finishing Breakfast Before Start Work Before Starting Lunch After Finishing Lunch Before Starting Dinner After Finishing Dinner At Bedtime (Before Sleep) Altogether, this method is practiced nine times daily. The key is regularity; disruption of the practice will reduce its effectiveness. Without ...

There will be a talk on Buddhism conducted in English by Venerable Gen-La Kelsang Khyenrab from England on 21 January from 8pm to 9.30pm at Vajrapani Medidation Centre at No. 16 Jalan Irrawaddy, Penang. The admission is free, all devotees and supporters are most welcome. For more details please call Wei Lin at 012-4808338 or Jessie at 012-4728450.

From the data released by the federal government recently, out of RM440,000,000 allocated by the government between year 2005 and 2008 for places of worship, less than 2% of the funds were distributed to non-muslim place of worship. Furthermore, according to the statistics in 2008, Chinese temples are the only religious places of worship that have not received any funds from the government. Measured against the number of devotees, the figure data are totally out of proportion. The Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia (YBAM) respects the constitution that Islam is the official religion of the country and other religions are protected are protected by the constitution to enjoy religious freedom. Places of worship are important to devotee spiritually. Hence, it is important that these places receive funding from the government for their establishment and construction, apart from donation from devotees and the public. YBAM thus urges the government to fairly distribute the funds to the v...

These three factors are the cornerstones of Pure Land Buddhism. If they are present, rebirth in the Pure Land is achieved. Faith means faith in Amitabha Buddha’s vow to rescue all who recite his name, as well as faith in one’s own self-nature, which is intrinsically the same as His [to recite the Buddha’s name is to recite the Mind]. Vows are determination to be reborn in Pure Land in one’s pure Mind so as to be in the position to save oneself and others. Practice generally means reciting the Buddha’s name to the point where one’s Mind and that of Amitabha Buddha are in unison i.e. to the point of single-mindedness. Samadhi and wisdom are then achieved. Please note that all Buddhist Teachings are expedients, dividing the one and indivisible Truth into many parts. Faith, Vows and Practice, although three, are really one. Thus, it can be said that rebirth in the Pure Land depends on three conditions or two conditions [Faith and Vows] or even one condition [Faith], as the one contains all...

Amitabha’s Pure Land is depicted in a way designed to attract practitioners. In the Pure Land, there is no sickness, old age or death. The sufferings and difficulties of this world do not exist at all. Those born in Pure Land come forth there from lotus flowers, not from the woman’s womb in pain and blood and once born they are received and welcome by Amitabha and his assistants. They received immortal, transformed bodies and are beyond the danger of falling back into lesser incarnations. They are in direct presence of Amitabha Buddha and the Great Bodhisattva Kuan Yin [Avalokitesvara] and Great Bodhisattva Shih Chih [Mahasthamaprapta] who aid in their ultimate enlightenment. Those who go to the Pure Land live there among beings of the highest virtue. Beautiful clothing and fine food are provided to them ready made. There are no extremes of heat or cold. The correct states of concentration are easy to achieve and maintain. There are no such things of greed, ignorance, anger, strife or ...

The Buddha name recitation is practiced in many forms: silently or aloud, alone or in groups, by itself or combined with visualization of Amitabha or contemplation of the concept of Buddha or combined with the methods of Zen. The aim is to concentrate one’s attention on Amitabha, and let all other thoughts die away. At first and all along, miscellaneous thoughts intrude and the mind wanders. But with sustained effort, one’s focus on the Buddha name recitation becomes progressively more steady and clear. Mindfulness of Buddha – Buddha remembrance – grows stronger and purer. Reciting the Buddha name functions as a powerful antidote to those great enemies of clear awareness that Buddhist had traditionally labelled “oblivion” and “scattering”. “Oblivion” refers to the tendency of human mind when not occupied by its habitual thoughts to sink into a state of torpor and sleepy nescience. “Scattering” is the other pole of ordinary mental life, where the consciousness flies off in all direction...

Pure Land Buddhism is a religion of faith, of faith in Amitabha Buddha [and in one’s capacity to achieve Buddhahood]. Amitabha Buddha presides over the Pure Land in the West, the land of ultimate bliss, named “Peaceful Nurturing”. In Pure Land there is no suffering and defilement and delusion that normally blocks people’s efforts towards achieving enlightenment here in our world which the Buddhist named “Endurance”. The immediate goal of Pure Land practitioners is to be reborn in Amitabha Buddha’s Pure Land. There, in more favourable surroundings in the presence of Amitabha and his guidance, they will eventually attain complete enlightenment. The essence of Pure Land practice thus consist of invoking the name of Amitabha Buddha, contemplating the qualities of Amitabha, visualizing Amitabha and taking vows to be born in the Pure Land. Making a vow to attain birth in the Pure Land signifies a fundamental reorientation of the practitioner’s motivation and will. No longer is the purpose of...

The Than Hsiang Bayan Baru center will be organizing a series of Chinese New Year(CNY) activities for 2009 namely (i) CNY lamp lighting, (ii) CNY eve chanting, (iii) CNY one day Amitabha Chanting retreat, (iv) CNY caroling and (v) CNY Buddhist celebration. We cordially invite all brothers and sisters in the Dharma to join us in these joyous events. CNY lamp lighting will begin on the CNY eve till the 9th day of the 1st lunar month( 25/1/09 to 3/2/09) for 9 days. It is an opportunity for all to show our reverence for the Buddha and at the same time to pray for good health, safety and success. Lamp lighting is a meritorious deed as it symbolizes the unfolding of wisdom. Donation for a sum of RM 50.00 or any amount are welcome and will be channeled toward Phor Tay high school building fund. CNY eve chanting will begin with the cleansing ceremony at 10pm, followed by a Dharma lecture by Ven. Wei Wu. The Venerable will also lead in the Buddha name recitation in tandem with the countdown to ...

The Heong Sun See Temple of Penang situated at Jalan Tanjung Tokong Lama will organise a Chinese New Year Lamp Lighting ceremony on 25 January 2009 at 8.00pm. All supporters and devotees are invited to participate in this event to mark the begining of our Chinese New Year. For more information on other activities please call Tel: 04-8999067 or 04-8999629. Thank you for your support.