Have You Registered Yet?

Have you registered for Aloka Foundation's 24hr Metta event? Yes, the round-the-clock chanting at SJK (C) Sungai Way, Jln SS 9A/1, Petaling Jaya from 31 December 2011 to 1 January 2012 for world peace, stability and harmony.

But wait a minute. Questions are popping in your head. Why do I have to register for chanting? And also why do I have to contribute RM30 for registration? These questions begged to be answered.

Registration is required to assist the Organising Committee in planning and anticipating the crowd during the 24 hours. It is also for the Organising Committee to maintain regular communications with registrants, which then serves to remind and update registrants on the event.

The common response from people at our promotional roadshows are: "I don't know where I’ll be (during New Year’s eve and New Year’s day)… I don’t know what I'll do then… I can’t commit myself to this yet…". This only reinforces the need for registration.

The RM30 contribution also serves as a form of commitment. On top to that, the RM30 entitles one to a metta kit or goody bag comprising a compendium of metta book, a candle in a glass which is to be a light offering to be made to the Triple Gem, etc. Part of the RM30 will also be utilised a contribution to the sanghika dana.

For the convenience of many, registration can be made online via www.24hrmetta.org and payment can also be made online via ipay88.

Register now and be part of this landmark even that will illuminate the world with metta and foster peace, stability and harmony. What a great way to usher in the new year!

Reflection 2

By Lee Soo Lim, Singapore

Bodhi leaves share the same root. Human beings too, have the same nature and live on the same boat. Boat of no self, impermanence and suffering.

We are the Bodhi leaves, living on the same tree and sharing the same environment. When the environment or surrounding is on fire, we will all face the fury of fire. If any single leaf catches fire, the entire tree will be in trouble. Hence, we need to extinguish our inner fire and live peacefully with others. Only when others are happy will we then be happy. When others are in trouble so will we. We need to have the knowledge to live with those around us as well as within ourselves.

Similarly, only when there is peace and harmony within ourselves, then there will be a tangible benefit that is useful for exploration.

The Four Basic Values: Self Discipline, Respect, Gratitude and Equanimity enable one to live happily with oneself and others. In fact, the so called Four Basic Values are not 'basic'. They are the gems of mankind, worthy of practice and upholding. As the monks show these qualities during Pinapata, they are worthy of veneration, respect and gifts.

I wonder long in this Samsara, in the quest for the true teachings and eventually found this supreme teaching unintentionally. I, Dhammasiri was touched and in tears during the Pinapata Novitiate 2010. Dear Comrades, Brothers and Sisters in Dhamma. Quick! Follow me! Keep watching the activities of our Mind and practice all the Four Basic Values with diligent effort.

Emptiness encompasses ‘Somethingness’ and ‘Nothingness’. Shower in the midst of rainfall-like arrows of Mara`s army and troops. Let Emptiness identify and encompass the action and reaction, right and wrong. Let Maras disappear. Empty as it is. Equanimity and composure.

Words from Dhammasiri: The mind is enlightened because the mind knows suffering; the cause and cessation of suffering, and therefore frees itself from suffering. Taking refuge in Dhamma is refuge in Nibbana. Mind arises due to ignorance. Mind ceases due to Nibbana. No one enters Nibbana but Mind itself (Maras disappear).

I would like to offer my sincerest Thank You to Bhante Mahinda and Sister Sumitra, who organised the Novitiate program, an unforgettable lifetime experience for me. Thank you to all the Monks and Nuns, Dhamma Followers, Helpers, Merchants, Workers and all the `Past Lives Parents` who were present and around me. Lastly, my daughter Jiali who encouraged me to join this precious Novitiate program of a lifetime.

Sarnath - A Reflection on the Novitiate Programme

By Adrian Lim, Australia (Samanera Sumedha – 2009 Sarnath)

I never thought I would ever attend the novitiate programme. Two weeks in monk robes, two meals a day, communal temple living, and all the associated restrictions – it all sounded too difficult. Each year as I heard about the novitiate, I would rationalise all the reasons why I could not go – too busy, no leave, other things I had to do – but underlying it all, I was simply not ready.

Unexpectedly then, and at the last minute in September 2009, I decided to sign up for the novitiate programme in Sarnath. I suddenly felt that I was overdue for a “spiritual time out” and that it was time to replenish my fast-depleting “merits bank”. After all, I had often heard Venerable Mahinda’s catch-cry that “the novitiate is an experience that you will never forget in this lifetime, and perhaps future lifetimes”. Though I did not understand precisely why and how the experience would be “unforgettable”, at the time I just wanted to believe it. I also thought that by spending two weeks in one of the four Buddhist holy sites (and enduring all the discomfort outside of my comfort zone), I would at least receive lots of divine blessings and my life would be set for greater things! If I could achieve all of this, surely surviving the two weeks would all be worth it.

Some of you reading this may know what I mean by “surviving the two weeks”. Yes, on the one hand, you want some time to reconnect with your spiritual self, but then the thought of committing two whole weeks in India and enduring the hardship is a little much to bear.

“Really…what will the toilets be like – will there be hot water? Do we get beds? Will I able to sleep in a room with so many people – what happens if there are snorers – and mosquitoes? And I have to wake up at 5am and no dinner?”

You then start to rationalise that perhaps your time and money could be better spent on a holiday elsewhere. After all, you’ve worked hard and you deserve something more enjoyable - and so in this familiar manner, the novitiate is put off for yet another year.

All these quiet questions and inner doubts are understandable (if like me, you’ve become that attached to all the mundane comforts of your life). And therein lies a point. As I realised during the programme, the novitiate is in part an experience that shows us the potential to live a simpler way of life away from all our modern conveniences, yet at the same time still be truly contented and happy. Yes the first days of the programme are hard to adjust to, but in that process, you begin to recognise all your unconscious external dependencies that you assumed to be necessary in your life. And beyond that, how being free from it all is somehow liberating – and that, of itself, is not a bad thing.

But as I now contemplate further, what I learnt was far more than just about leading a simpler way of life. All of the procrastinations, doubts and challenges I feared about the novitiate was in many respects also a personal test of my sincerity in wanting to lead a more spiritual way of life – in some ways becoming like mirror of all the compromises I was making to being (or not being?) a spiritual person. In this manner, the external experience of the novitiate provides an opportunity for internal reflection on what you truly want from your life, what makes you happy, and most importantly, how important is all of this to you.

Nothing quite prepares you for the outward experience of undertaking the spiritual vows at a Buddhist holy site, and its ability to deeply engage and open your mind and heart for the spiritual quest within. The setting of Sarnath, as the place where the Buddha chose to preach his first sermon, both in its symbolism and a fountain source of spiritual energies, could not have been a more fitting backdrop for the 2009 novitiate programme. Taking the vows of a samanera (or novice monk) in the Mulaghanda Kuti Vihara, meditating before the sacred Dhammika stupa, chanting the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta each night in the very place where the Buddha first uttered it, and walking in the footsteps of the Buddha on our almsround or pindapatta, are moments hard to describe in terms of its deep spiritual impact.

And the internal transformation you undergo is unquestionable, however subtle and whether or not you may realise it at the time. As the shared experiences of the novitiate participants have shown, each person’s objectives / experience may differ from the next, but most agree that the inner transformational experience is profound and encompassing. To participate in a programme that has the genuine capacity to re-engage one’s inner spiritual self, and in the process embrace qualities such as love, compassion, humility, contentment and gratitude, is to experience the Buddha’s teachings unfold in one’s own heart and mind. It is in this respect that Venerable Mahinda’s statement that the novitiate is an “unforgettable experience” truly has an enduring context and power.

So finally, if you are reading this and still contemplating to join a novitiate programme or a spiritual retreat - put all your procrastinations to one side - and just make the decision to do it.