Trip to Wats 2

One afternoon they said that we could spend the afternoon at a flower park or at the temple. Immediately my brother's were like 'FLOWER PARK!!! Bet that won't be happening again any time soon where they're thaaaat enthusiastic about a flower park hahahaha.so we spent the afternoon there.

It felt like we weren't in South East Asia!

I love the way they did up the place. And I love how open and clean it was. And the colors!!~ ~

We also visited another Wat on another day. Called Wat Boonyawad. Ajahn Dtun let us ask him questions after breakfast. This is him and the translator:

I was really happy to attend it somehow. We asked him questions and because there'd been a question weighing on my mind which i just wanted to get off my chest, i pulled myself together and asked him. I asked him 'There are some people I don't get along with and somehow every time I meet with them negative feelings are aroused like anger, impatience etc. As a human, I don't like these negative feelings and because I try to avoid them, I wish I could avoid these people too or I try to avoid these people. Is this ok?'

In the middle of asking this question, I started tearing up. Admittedly, I've been kinda emotionally fraught I guess. Ever since grandma passed away I've teared up at seemingly random times when I'm especially fraught with emotions. I think another reason I started tearing up was because Ajahn Dtun was looking at me with soooo much compassion. So much. Just through his eyes.

He said 'It's normal to get along very well with some people and not so well with others. It could be past kharma at work. The important thing is to remember that everyone wants to be happy. Everyone is searching for happiness. When someone says something, be mindful of your mind. What you think and what you say. However, if you can't do this, it may be better to avoid these people'.

It's really very hard to be mindful. I've tried it. It's much too easy to just react.

Trip to Wats part 1

Last Friday I went to Bangkok. Before everyone goes 'so jeles!!!!' let me just say that I had to wake up at 4:30am every day, and 3:30am on the last day. And I'm still sleepy because after arriving in KL at 12+am when we got back, I went to work the next day. and work starts at 8:30am. sleepy!!!! Basically a Buddhist temple called Wat Ratanawan based in Khao Yai national park in Thailand was having its inauguration ceremony and my parents wanted to go. So the whole family went. With a Buddhist group called BUBS (Bandar Utama Buddhist Society). This is the Wat (temple):

It's Thai style architecture and made of wood. I heard the monks helped with the sanding of the pillars and other work during the construction period. Beautiful, don't you think? Amazing how different Buddhist temples look in different countries.

Honestly I felt sleepy and bored most of the time I was there because I don't understand Thai and was so sleep deprived. But I was very impressed by the Thai people's chanting. They chant beautifully in unison. They don't try to outdo each other by chanting very loudly and they don't chant like they are in a rush. It's done earnestly.

I was also very impressed by how much respect Thai people have for monks. I think partly why Buddhism is so strong there is because the King is also Buddhist and the Thai people also respect the King very much. There were about 200+ monks the day we all gave food to the monks. We lined up around the lake and the monks came around asking for alms. The army helped out with the organization and everything. I have to say that they are very efficient even though they looked very young! Wonder if we can have the same standards in Malaysia? It's beautiful to see how everyone worked together. Without complaints or arguments.

The sticky rice in Thailand is soooooo fragrant and delicious!



There were monks from many places and luckily for us there were a couple of Dhamma talks in English.

I remember something that struck me and has stayed in my mind. A monk from Canada was speaking and I think he was speaking about non-self. I apologize in advance because my memory is not so good so I may not be 100% accurate about what he said. He said that non-self is not about not feeling anything. It doesn't mean you don't feel anger or jealousy etc. It doesn't mean that if you feel those feelings that you blame yourself. That just leads to more negative feelings. If you feel anger,jealousy, fear it's only human. What you should then do is be mindful of your body and of your feelings. Be aware of what you are feeling. Observe yourself. What are you thinking and feeling? Why? If you just react to how are you feeling, your reactions will cause more negative reactions. Cause and action.

I remember he came before to Malaysia and he talked about fear. He said after being aware of his body whenever he felt fear, he realised that his aversion to fear was causing him to react very badly. It was more of the aversion than the fear that caused him to react. I was very touched by how open he was about his own experience and feelings.

This is the inside of Wat Ratanawan:

They used this square box thing and a pulley system to move things to the top of the stupa. Quite cool right? And the monks went to the playform on top to place Buddha relics in I think. Anyway, it was quite interesting as I had never been to such a ceremony before and it was really interesting as a Thai cultural experience.

Milk Toof

The other day, my Japanese classmate lent me a book.This book:

It's written by Inhae Lee, who has a blog here.

The main characters, Ickle and Lardee are just too cute!!I love the characters and the pictures. She must have taken alot of time and effort to make the book. Check out this video:

I so want my own copy and to give one to my cousin's kid now haha..I bet she'd love it! There's only one word to describe every item and the colors of each item - cute. And the teef have so many face expressions!They get to a lot of mischief..

But anyway, I won't say more, read for yourself! Check out the blog or better still, buy a copy of the book so you can look at it any time!