I am good enough

Recently, I met one of my clients to discuss about his packaging. I have come out with 2 options, he didn't like it and ask me to come out with a few more "creative" options. He gave me the art directions. I did accordingly to his direction even don't I think his ideas don't work. True enough, he didn't like his own idea and stick back to my original art work.

When I ask him a deeper question,"Why do you keep changing your mind?" He mentioned that during his course of study at NAFA, his teacher constantly tell him that his artwork is not good enough. He adopt this mindset of his work is not good enough. Years after years, after 20+ years later, even though he is 40+ years old now. He has brought over his past negative experience till now. Whenever a designer does his work, he will think it is not good enough. He didn't dare to pursue his dream of being a videographer. He didn't realise how big impact his teacher has given to him.

How I helped him is to have this awareness that whatever his teacher has mentioned, is already over. Let it go... He is good enough and people around him is good enough. I also just realised that how strong and how deep the impact was given from the teacher. Whatever the teacher has said to his students, be it good or bad, it will impact his students. Choose our words wisely.

100 grateful things, Day 7

Today is seventh day I will share about gratefulness about random things in my life:

1. I am grateful to make an effort to create meanings in my life.
2. I am grateful people appreciate and value in what I do.
3. I am grateful to have a fulfilling life by being appreciative of how I responded to life.
4. I am grateful that I have changed my mindset tremendously. From someone who complains about life to someone who appreciate and be thankful for who I am.
5. I am grateful I allow myself to change my mindset. Since nothing is permanent, I choose to let go unnecessary unhappiness.
6. I am grateful happiness is here and now.
7. I am grateful there are countless of people I need to thank. I will tell them personally. It is the right thing to do.
8. I am grateful I need to forgive myself as due to my own ignorance and move on in my life.
9. I am grateful Ahjah Brahm share that even when we make mistakes, 30% of our life, it is still worth it as we have 70% of our life is blissful.
10. I am grateful mistakes are just learning lessons, ie if we didn't fall, how did we know the feeling of falling? Once we have fallen, the only way, is to get up.
11. I am grateful it is better to make mistakes when young then when we are old.
12. I am grateful I go through mistakes and make myself a better person.
13. I am grateful I am a positive person generally.
14. I am grateful I am able to see different perspectives to solve my own problem.
15. I am grateful I bring joy to my family and friends.
16. I am grateful I give them a shoulder to lie on.
17. I am grateful I am dependable.
18. I am grateful friends come to me to share their woes and I am able to advise them.
19. I am grateful there is nothing more important than family and friends.
20. I am grateful to my parents who put my sister and I before them.
21. I am grateful I think for my parents now. I put myself in their shoes.
22. I am grateful to realise joy comes within.
23. I am grateful to those who set challenges for me, they hope to see a better me.
24. I am grateful I am no longer feel upset to those who have hurt me. They must have hurt badly themselves.
25. I am grateful to realise that life is like a mirror, whatever I do, it reflects.
26. I am grateful sometimes I am touched by my own words and encouragements.
27. I am grateful my clients pay me promptly.
28. I am grateful I create business opportunities for myself.
29. I am grateful to realise skillful means need time to master.
30. I am grateful to realise not all fast speed will bring fruits, patience is the key to success.
31. I am grateful to realise that people who reject, just mean that they are not ready.
32. I am grateful to realise let nature takes its course.
33. I am grateful I start to cultivate patience.
34. I am grateful to move in my own comfortable speed.
35. I am grateful to appreciate balance.
36. I am grateful when I am too fast, learn to slow down.
37. I am grateful when I am too slow, learn to speed up.
38. I am grateful there is no right or wrong, just move with the flow.
39. I am grateful to listen more to myself and my body.
40. I am grateful that my right kind of teachers appear, when I am ready to listen and learn.
41. I am grateful that my quality of life is slowly appearing and I need to be patient for it to unfold.
42. I am grateful to realise that money is an energy. Learn to appreciate money.
43. I am grateful that my money is kind as my money are often use to help people.
44. I am grateful to put my money into good use.
45. I am grateful to start educate myself to use my money wisely.
46. I am grateful to find back my self worth.
47. I am grateful to have the opportunities to learn art histories. They are very rich in creating meaningful and timeless work.
48. I am grateful to paint "Abundance" and hope it will be timeless piece of work as well.
49. I am grateful to realise that too many desires will lead to nowhere.
50. I am grateful I am enough.
51. I am grateful Dr. Lee Leing, with her skillful means, she helped me to save my broken tooth. She is professional and caring towards her patients.
52. I am grateful to feel relax whenever I meditate, do yoga or balancing postures.
53. I am grateful I am answerable for my own actions.
54. I am grateful to realise that any skills can be learn when I put my heart in it.
55. I am grateful to have this strong belief, "there is a will, there is a way."
56. I am grateful to realise that avoid an issue, it will never solve the problem. Only to face it bravely, that is where wisdom comes in.
57. I am grateful when I go through my life photos, there are lots of happy moments which I am thankful about.
58. I am grateful to preserver things I truly care.
59. I am grateful to realise that life is never perfect. Accept things that I can't change and change things that are within my ability.
60. I am grateful to store memories that matters to me.
61. I am grateful I try my best to treat everyone equally.
62. I am grateful to attend Ven. Hui Feng Workshop, he lets us to share our thoughts and views. He correct us when we have our wrong views.
63. I am grateful I am constantly attending dharma classes to deepen my understanding about buddhism.
64. I am grateful although I am 2 days late to complete this gratefulness activity, I am able to be more mindful about people around me.
65. I am grateful to find purpose in this gratefulness activity, to realise how many things I have taken for granted, learned to cherish them now.
66. i am grateful to share useful, helpful or interesting information to friends in facebook.
67. I am grateful to improve my own quality of life.
68. i am grateful to let go of my old romance relationships, which no longer serve me.
69. i am grateful to welcome new relationship and friendship into my life.
70. I am grateful to realise the purpose of our life is not just to reach our destination but to appreciate every bit of our life.
71. I am grateful to count my blessings.
72. I am grateful to find my own happiness.
73. I am grateful happiness is within me.
74. I am grateful to realise that my business is more than just business but true lasting friendship which I want to build.
75. I am grateful support is given to me as long as I ask.
76. I am grateful to focus what is important to me and let go what isn't.
77. I am grateful every single breath is important.
78. I am grateful to be able to work in fun loving environment.
79. I am grateful I did all the best I can for my clients.
80. I am grateful I am able to share my things with people.
81. I am grateful I have warmth at heart.
82. I am grateful I see the value in myself once again.
83. I am grateful I did my best to make a difference.
84. I am grateful I made small changes to my life, improves the quality of my life.
85. I am grateful I able to connect with people much better.
86. I am grateful I am able to heal myself.
87. I am grateful I have sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, these 5 senses allow me to appreciate life better.
88. I am grateful I can use my creativity to help people around me.
89. I am grateful to share my learning with people I care about.
90. I am grateful Angie, Raymond and Teresa always treat me food and I am appreciative.
91. I am grateful I able to see the truths in the Dharma.
92. I am grateful to learn the Dharma from the venerables. They are very mindful and sincere in the teachings.
93. I am grateful to follow the right teachers.
94. I am grateful things are changing for the better.
95. I am grateful Elaine help me in some of the graphics works.
96. I am grateful to know lots of kind hearted people.
97. I am grateful to learn from my mistakes and not to repeat them again.
98. I am grateful for my experiences in this earth. Be it good or bad. I learn to appreciate. Good experiences to be much more easily accepted than bad experiences. However, bad experiences make us grow wiser and more compassionate.
99. I am grateful to widen my perspectives and embrace the experiences and learning.
100. I am grateful to take up this gratefulness activity and it allows to give thanks to the people around me.

100 grateful things, Day 6

Today is 6th day I will share about gratefulness towards my things.

1. I am grateful to have a comfortable home.
2. I am grateful to have a cosy room of my own.
3. I am grateful to have my own space, where I can do my own thinking.
4. I am grateful to have countless of clothings in my wardrobe.
5. I am grateful to have at least 10 pairs of shoes on my shoe rack.
6. I am grateful to have shelves of books, which provides me insights.
7. I am grateful to have art resources which I can easily make art and crafts for people around me.
8. I am grateful to have designing tools to make my creation easier.
9. I am grateful to have a family car, which makes our family outing easier.
10. I am grateful to have a lovely park, where I can do my morning exercise.
11. I am grateful to have a lotus flower pond inside the lovely park.
12. I am grateful to have time to exercise and keep my body fit.
13. I am grateful to have good teachers around me.
14. I am grateful that every things that I come across, have something to teach me.
15. I am grateful to understand that all events are based on conditions.
16. I am grateful to realise that good things are easier to accept.
17. I am grateful to realise that bad things make us change to become a better person.
18. I am grateful to realise that there is no absolute good and bad things, it is how we perceive and accept things as it is.
19. I am grateful to realise nothing is forever, be it things or relationships. Hence, I learnt to cherish them when they are still around.
20. I am grateful to realise some things are thrown away when old but some things are kept for nostalgic reasons.
21. I am grateful to detach myself from things and relationships that no longer serve me.
22. I am grateful to make things to decorate my room.
23. I am grateful to learn how to make my room neater.
24. I am grateful to connect things that matters to me.
25. I am grateful to have teas that I enjoy.
26. I am grateful I am more mindful about the food that I take.
27. I am grateful I appreciate my food better.
28. I am grateful to see that food as medicine.
29. I am grateful I appreciate green leaves and fruits more.
30. I am grateful my body enjoys yoga classes.
31. I am grateful I start to cut down on meat.
32. I am grateful I no longer eating beef and mutton.
33. I am grateful I appreciate whole food more. Whole food are food that has been processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives or other artificial substances.
34. I am grateful fresh vegetables provide more nutrients for my body.
35. I am grateful for the original taste from the food.
36. I am grateful to recycle some of my things for better use.
37. I am grateful to reduce wastage of my resources.
38. I am grateful to make full use of my resources.
39. I am grateful to have court shoes that are lasting for the last 10 years. I use my first pay to buy such an expensive shoes, but it is worth its value.
40. I am grateful to handmade a lovely clay mug for my stationery.
41. I am grateful to have electricity in my home and office, without having to worry about shortage of light.
42. I am grateful to have a chocomania body lotion to wet my dry fingers and smell really nice.
43. I am grateful to realise quality is more important than price wars.
44. I am grateful to realise that material things are not lasting, they come and go.
45. I am grateful to realise that appreciate the things around me and detact them when they are gone.
46. I am grateful to realise that I am not affected by things that I don't have.
47. I am grateful to realise that many things are good to have but they are not a necessity.
48. I am grateful to realise that superficial things aren't lasting, only do things from the heart that matters.
49. I am grateful to realise that I have all the basic things that I need.
50. I am grateful to realise that I don't need a lot of things to make me happy.
Random things about my life 51. I am grateful that ever since I started my own design business. My projects are continuously coming.
52. I am grateful that through right effort and concentration, I can achieve what I wanted.
53. I am grateful that time is favorable for me.
54. I am grateful somehow things just appear on the right places.
55. I am grateful to have opportunities to work with like-minded people. It makes me easier to work with.
56. I am grateful to make friends with LTW4 friends and heart foundation friends.
57. I am grateful to Amutha and Jeya, they are great exercise coach and they teach from their heart.
58. I am grateful Amutha shares that it is okay to let go when conditions are not right and come back when I am ready.
59. I am grateful my procrastination has reduced greatly, keep going!
60. I am grateful I have reduced my comparison with others, as I find no joy doing it.
61. I am grateful money comes to me easily through own effort.
62. I am grateful I am grateful to have courage to live my life. 63. I am grateful to have family who truly love and care for me from their hearts.
64. I am grateful to have friends who support me whenever I need.
65. I am grateful to start to take care of my own health.
66. I am grateful to take charge of my own life.
67. I am grateful Theresa helped me to find visitors for visitors day.
68. I am grateful for the hot chocolate which I have missed for many years.
69. I am grateful for my lovely smile which gives people warmth.
70. I am grateful I have understanding friends around me.
71. I am grateful these wonderful teachers who have guided me all these years.
72. I am grateful I am connected with inspiring people.
73. I am grateful my heart is still warmth.
74. I am grateful for the lessons given to me, they made me wiser and compassionate person.
75. I am grateful life is fair.
76. I am grateful whatever I do is to benefit the people around me.
77. I am grateful for what goes around comes around.
78. I am grateful I am contented.
79. I am grateful I am more grounded than before.
80. I am grateful by drinking my favourite green tea latte can make me happy for a whole day.
81. I am grateful there are so many things to be grateful about.
82. I am grateful for the fresh air that I breath.
83. I am grateful for the level of sound around me is pleasant.
84. I am grateful for the simple things in life.
85. I am grateful each day of my life.
86. I am grateful to give myself each day to reflect what are the things to be grateful about.
87. I am grateful to give myself quality sleep.
88. I am grateful to be able to capture beautiful moment through my intuitive eyes.
89. I am grateful to have an able body.
90. I am grateful to have the right kind of people into my life.
91. I am grateful to have quality friends.
92. I am grateful I have overcome my swimming phobia and truly enjoy swimming.
93. I am grateful I learned to drink sufficient water.
94. I am grateful I learned to understand more about myself.
95. I am grateful I learned to appreciate each moment.
96. I am grateful to realise that nothing in this world is permanent.
97. I am grateful life changes so that I have new experiences each day.
98. I am grateful to study multimedia, followed by visual communication and design communication.
99. I am grateful to be in this designing field. There is so much fun and exploration.
100. I am grateful since I start to drink alkaline water, my body immune system improves.

100 grateful things, Day 5

Today is fifth day I will share about gratefulness towards my livelihood:

1. I am grateful to be a creative designer.
2. I am grateful to use my talent for the right place.
3. I am grateful to give myself opportunities to learn and grow.
4. I am grateful to share my career story with my friends.
5. I am grateful to able to find joy in drawing.
6. I am grateful to see my profession valuable.
7. I am grateful to setup my company RW Design Creations in 3 March 2013.
8. I am grateful to be able to value-add my clients.
9. I am grateful to wake up each day feeling great about my business.
10. I am grateful to build networks with like-minded business owners.
11. I am grateful to find inspiration when I work.
12. I am grateful to continue to work towards my dreams and vision.
13. I am grateful to be happier after working for myself.
14. I am grateful to find joy when I designed for my clients.
15. I am grateful to be appreciated by my clients.
16. I am grateful to be able to earn my living through my business.
17. I am grateful to learn about business management.
18. I am grateful to learn about pitching sales.
19. I am grateful to market my creative work through inside out.
20. I am grateful to be able to see through all my work completion.
21. I am grateful to understand the needs of my clients and give workable solution for them.
22. I am grateful to spend time to hone my design skills to mastery.
23. I am grateful to create meaningful works for other businesses.
24. I am grateful to remind myself constantly benefit people through my designs.
25. I am grateful to have the resources around me
26. I am grateful to hone my presentation skills every friday.
27. I am grateful my business gives a meaningful reason to be motivated.
28. I am grateful my business model is easy to operate and manage.
29. I am grateful my business is operated from my heart. 30. I am grateful I having fun when working.
31. I am grateful I love the moment of exploration.
32. I am grateful to find time to read to update myself with the latest technology.
33. I am grateful I constantly keep up with times.
For people who have helped me
34. I am grateful to Hwee Ling for hired me as a web designer. That was my first job.
35. I am grateful to Hwee Ling that he gave me a pay raise of $700 after working for a year.
36. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work in a printing firm, AXXA and Print, as web and graphics designer. This helps me to build my foundation about print production.
37. I am grateful to Mary Huang, who still continues to give me ad hoc digital project.
38. I am grateful to be hired in Informatics Singapore mulitmedia designer. That's where I learned about people skills.
39. I am grateful to Lynette, who nominates me as excellent service award staff in 2005.
40. I am grateful to Yinna Too, who interviewed me and hired as graphics designer in Singapore Electronics. She saw my ability to see the needs of my clients.
41. I am grateful to Geraldin Chay, she is my nicest boss I ever work with.
42. I am grateful to my teachers at RMIT-SIM, they gave me tools and insight to create meaningful works.
43. I am grateful to have the opportunities to visit Melbourne, I saw how the design agency functions, it is really cool. It gives me hope to build my business and become a successful creative agency.
44. I am grateful to work at Saatchi & Saatchi, the talented group of creatives people.
45. I am grateful to Angie, she interviewed me and hired me less than a week.
46. I am grateful to Mosses, he gave me the opportunities and see the talent in me.
47. I am grateful to learn the good habits from the agency and see the importance of each function of the company. Account, Marketing, Sales, Creative, Production. Each function is important for the company to run smoothly.
48. I am grateful to be able to keep in touch SP teachers, Wendy and Elynn. They are humbled, inspiring teachers.
49. I am grateful to attract talented people around me.
Since I started my business 50. I am grateful to Alvin, who is my developer for government projects. He as my first freelance client.
51. I am grateful to Clara Yeo, she gives me the first graphics project.
52. I am grateful to Angie Lai, who provide a conducive working environment.
53. I am grateful to Stephen, who is my web developer for small projects.
54. I am grateful to Stephen who introduce me to BNI.
55. I am grateful to Samuel, who referred businesses to me.
56. I am grateful to Edward, who introduce me to Brian and Meng Choo, they are very kind couple.
57. I am grateful to Andrew, who gives me some of the graphics projects.
58. I am grateful to Benjamin, who gives me graphics and web projects.
59. I am grateful to Sally, she gives me continuous design projects once she builds trust with me.
60. I am grateful to Dennis, he gives me edm projects for his events.
61. I am grateful to Jaffar, he gives me countless of design projects.
62. I am grateful to my clients give me honest feedback so that I can build manage my business better.
63. I am grateful to Winnie, Leroy, Darren, Sally, Sisi, Ziq and Tommy for giving me opportunities to design logos for their companies.
64. I am grateful to design BB Logo, Business Buddy is a business group where we support and build business together. I saw endless of growth and business opportunities come from this group.
65. I am grateful to align my belief into my business model. It is to create a difference in people lives.
66. i am grateful to realise that I need to operate from inside out.
67. I am grateful to align the purpose of RW Design Creations, with how to build this business and artworks that I design.
68. i am grateful to wake up each day to feel blessed that I have this business.
69. i am grateful this business helps me to clear my debts twice and creates wealth for me.
70. I am grateful for the revenue that comes into my business.
71. I am grateful value each dollar.
72. I am grateful I have endless of projects coming in.
73. I am grateful friends are willing to help me.
74. I am grateful I am able to support my business friends in return.
75. I am grateful to realise that my inner world creates my outer world.
76. I am grateful that I am working on my inner world.
77. I am grateful RW Design Creations is more that just a design agency, it is lively, caring and creative agency.
78. I am grateful to people around me, they matter to me.
79. I am grateful people are connected with me better.
80. I am grateful my interpersonal skills improve.
81. I am grateful to learn to express myself better.
82. I am grateful I am able to take up more challenges.
83. I am grateful to value each person who are willing to connect with me.
84. I am grateful to value each person time and effort.
85. I am grateful to value genuine and sincerity from each person.
86. I am grateful to Joewin and Herliana helps me to sell my services to her business friends.
87. I am grateful to Sisi is understanding and sell my services to her business partner.
88. I am grateful to Jeffrey and Angie coached me, Cindy Leong guides me to make better presentation.
89. I am grateful to bb friends like my designs esp. logo designs.
90. I am grateful to be able to create designs in graphics, digital, mobile apps and logo branding for companies.
91. I am grateful to my resources that are given to me.
92. I am grateful to be able to see business opportunities everywhere.
93. I am grateful to network and be connected with like-minded people.
94. I am grateful to get faith and trust from people easily.
95. I am grateful to see my self worth through my business.
96. I am grateful to give people convenience.
97. I am grateful to give people respect.
98. I am grateful to give people warmth and concern.
99. I am grateful to give people joy.
100. I am grateful to continue to grow and expand my business.

100 grateful things, Day 4

Today is fourth day I will share about gratefulness towards Fo Guang Shan and Bright Hill Temple:
From Fo Guang Shan
1. I am grateful to get to know Fo Guan Shan in 2012.
2. I am grateful to be touched by FGS children who expressed gratitude to their parents during Mothers' Day.
3. I am grateful that I attended Fo Guan Shan's short term monastic 7 days retreat at Taiwan, Kaohsiung in July 2012.
4. I am grateful during the monastic retreat, I look within myself.
5. I am grateful I reflected on my own deeds and actions.
6. I am grateful I realised that I didn't treat my parents well and decided to do something about it.
7. I am grateful I come back with a peaceful heart.
8. I am grateful I made new friends during the retreat. One of them is Maria Kathrina Diaz from Philippines. She is an English teacher who currently teaches in Taiwan. She is passionate lady who loves her own life and lives independently.
9. I am grateful I took my 5 precepts after 1 year later.
10. I am grateful I felt joyful and bliss when I took the precepts.
11. I am grateful Master Hsing Yun is my teacher. I read his books and get lots of wisdom. I felt his energy he is very grounded, peaceful and real person.
12. I am grateful Venerable You Deng is my guided teacher. She is very organised and wise person. I feel her kindness, despite she is a strict teacher. I am thankful to learn from her.
13. I am grateful Venerable You Deng has the qualities such as discipline, organise and groundedness, which I need to work on.
14. I am grateful to be given the chance to teach the children.
15. I am grateful to know Jing Jing and Nelson through Fo Guang Shan.
16. I am grateful I am connected to them. It seem like I have known them for many years.
17. I am grateful to picking up life skills from Fo Guang Shan.
18. I am grateful my inter-personnel skills have improved.
19. I am grateful whenever I light up an candle. It represents light of wisdom. May I light myself and other people around me.
20. I am grateful I learn to connect with the children better.
21. I am grateful I learn not to judge people but understand them.
22. I am grateful my heart is slowly opening up.
23. I am grateful things changes for the better.
24. I am grateful I can manage my challenges better.
25. I am grateful I am more receptive towards changes.
26. I am grateful every venerables at Fo Guang Shan, each and everyone of them have something to teach me.
27. I am grateful I can value-add my design services to them.
28. I am grateful Venerable You Deng asked me if I have take care of my own heart and mind.
29. I am grateful Venerable You Deng makes me realised that it is important to use my heart to do things.
30. I am grateful for the food that is provided at Fo Guang Shan.
31. I am grateful each meal at Fo Guang Shan, basement 1 is cooked from the heart of the volunteers.
32. I am grateful the volunteer teachers put in their effort to teach the children.
33. I am grateful I get to know myself better.
34. I am grateful there are many things that I need to learn and I look forward in the lessons.
35. I am grateful the learning environment is conducive.
36. I am grateful I am back on the path.
37. I am grateful I took up volunteer teacher roles from assistant teacher previous year, as a main teacher this year and to be assistant main coordinator next year. 38. I am grateful to progress in my leadership journey. 39. I am grateful to know Karen, she is the main coordinator, she has wealth of knowledge in FGS operation, she gives advice when I needed her and I helped her when she needs me.
40. I am grateful to know May Hua, she is great in teaching the children. She connects with the children very well.
41. I am grateful to know Shena, she is a very kind lady. I hope her health recovers soon.
42. I am grateful to know Meqin, she is very generous, she gives children' presents every lessons.
43. I am grateful to know Meizhen, she is very grounded and kind. She treats the students like her own children.
44. I am grateful to know Zhiyong, despite he is inconsistent with his promises. He is still has his qualities. He is flexible in his teaching.
45. I am grateful to know Lei Ya, she has strong dharma knowledge and integrates the teaching in lessons very well.
46. I am grateful to know Wen Fang, she is the most HIP grandma in teachers group. Thanks for her regular desserts.
47. I am grateful to know LeLeng, she is also a very kind lady.
48. I am grateful to know Kendy, she assists me during the Dharma class.
49. I am grateful to know Carol and Alex, thanks for their commitment at Mee Toh School for the past one year.
50. I am grateful to attend Chade Meng's mediation class with Jing Jing. I practise mediation with the help of the mediation chimes.
51. I am grateful to be part of gardener's of life project with Teacher Xiuyu.
52. I am grateful to learn from Teacher Xiuyu, she is very knowledgeable and resourceful, in terms of handling the children.
53. I am grateful she taught me to see the needs of the children and asked me to look within myself, what can I provide for the children.
54. I am grateful to learn about 5 harmony from Master Venerable Hsing Yun, he shares 1st harmony is within self, 2nd harmony is within family, 3rd harmony is within people around you, 4th harmony is within community and finally 5th harmony is world peace. Harmony is inside out.
55. I am grateful to learn about 5 observation about food. Be grateful towards the food source as it is not easy to obtain, how fortunate we are to receive food, how food is being cooked and served, be grateful towards food as medicine, to consume the food with right mindfulness.
56. I am grateful I feel at home at Fo Guang Shan.
57. I am grateful whenever I write heart sutra calligraphy, my heart feels peaceful.
58. I am grateful to understand impermanence, everything will change, good or bad. There is nothing we can hold on to or grab.
59. I am grateful for this present moment to find time to reflect and cherish things that are worth remembering for.
60. I am grateful to understand non-self. There is no true self as one view is arising and passing away, based on impermanent conditions.
61. I am grateful I am evolving everyday.
62. I am grateful to understand about dissatisfaction. Life is never perfect as too much of wants will lead to greed, aversions and delusions.
63. I am grateful I suffered less as I am learning to let go of undesirable wants and focus on my needs.
64. I am grateful I go with the flow and non-clinging to things that are beyond my control.
65. I am grateful I appreciate people better.
66. i am grateful I could see people good intentions easily.
67. I am grateful Nelson sometimes shares inspiration quotes to Jing Jing and me.
68. i am grateful Nelson and Xiao Juan helped me financially for a short period of time.
69. i am grateful Venerable You Deng gives me the Dharma when I needed. I recovered my emotions and get back on my feet faster than I thought.
70. I am grateful to find this quote meaningful and helps me a lot esp. during adversity. "When you are successful, be humbled. When you are down, be positive."
71. I am grateful towards life because it can never repeat itself. Life just goes on.
72. I am grateful to build my confidence through daily effort.
73. I am grateful to realised that people around me support and provide the right conditions and opportunities.
74. I am grateful to let go habits that do not serve me and cultivate new effective habits.
75. I am grateful to let go of my worries and start taking actions which serve me well.
76. I am grateful to get myself prepare for the next challenges.
77. I am grateful to recognize myself that I am good enough.
78. I am grateful to make peace with myself.
79. I am grateful to develop compassionate towards animals. Thanks to Fo Guang Shan's Cat, Ji Xiang.
80. I am grateful I pray almost everyday for the well being of all sentient beings.
81. I am grateful I repent when I made a mistake and be more mindful not to do it again.
82. I am grateful I am more sensitive towards my body.
83. I am grateful my heart is lighter each time I pray sincerely.
84. I am grateful that I am able to apply the Dharma into my life.
85. I am grateful I gain clarity through the Dharma.
86. I am grateful to learn the Dharma and transform myself for a better person.
87. I am grateful understand the pains of life so that I can manage my life better.
88. I am grateful my life is a blissful one.
89. I am grateful learns to cherish my things better and not to be taken for granted.
90. I am grateful to appreciate people who have helped me, people who make me grow and people who gives me encouragements.

From Bright Hill Teachers
91. I am grateful to learn and have basic understanding about Buddhism at the age of 33.
92. I am grateful to learn Heart Sutra from Venerable Chuan Guan. He let me understand that if we can change ourselves 1% better each time, we are moving forward towards enlightenment.
93. I am grateful I learn to be more organise from Venerable Chuan Guan's encouragement as this is one of my goals.
94. I am grateful after understanding and apply the teaching of Dharma, I am more at ease.
95. I am grateful Bright Hill temple has a big spiritual library where I can learn from.
96. I am grateful I learnt more about mediation after having an full day of mediation retreat.
97. I am grateful I am able to calm myself easily.
98. I am grateful I learn to be more mindful when I do things.
99. I am grateful to be inspired by wholesome people around me.
100. I am grateful to learn from these spiritual teachers.

100 grateful things, Day 3

Today is third day, I will share about gratefulness towards my close friends:
For Siew
1. I am grateful to know Siew since primary 2.
2. I am grateful we chat long hours on the phone whenever during school holidays.
3. I am grateful we have different personality and we complement each other.
4. I am grateful she is my play mate since young.
5. I am grateful we know each other for the past 28 years and many more years to come.
6. I am grateful I feel comfortable with her.
7. I am grateful she gives me her insights so that I can see the options better.
8. I am grateful she shares with me her learning and we learn from each other.
9. I am grateful we did many things together.
10. I am grateful we travel to many countries together.
11. I am grateful she told me some of silly jokes, which never fails to make me laugh.
12. I am grateful because once I start laughing at some of her still jokes, I can't stop laughing.
13. I am grateful she is cheerful friend.
14. I am grateful she clears my doubts and uncertainty, shows me light.
15. I am grateful she is dependable.
16. I am grateful we share many great moments together.
17. I am grateful we never missed any of our great life events.
18. I am grateful she is always looking for something new and always keep me entertained hehe :)
19. I am grateful she invites me to her house to spend some quiet moment together. 20. I am grateful we somehow have endless of topics to talk about.
21. I am grateful she cooks well and she taught me how to cook a simple meal at her house.
22. I am grateful she is creative in cooking.
23. I am grateful we did jogging or other exercises whenever we are free.
24. I am grateful we used to do photography sessions together.
25. I am grateful she pulls me through ups and downs.
26. I am grateful her joy affect me to be joyful as well.
27. I am grateful sometimes she is peaceful and grounded.
28. I am grateful most of the time, she is fun loving.
29. I am grateful she encourages me a lot.
30. I am grateful we did shape run 5km for 2 years consecutively.
31. I am grateful we had our birthdays, xmas party all together.
32. I am grateful she is thoughtful, caring in her own ways.
33. I am grateful she is a sister to me.

For Shiyan
34. I am grateful we know each other since Primary 2.
35. I am grateful we support one another.
36. I am grateful she is loyal.
37. I am grateful she is kind.
38. I am grateful she helped me when I had depression.
39. I am grateful she gave me words of encouragement. She said,"If you did nothing wrong, there is no fear." This encouragement gives me strength to carry on.
40. I am grateful she cares, even though she pretends she didn't.
41. I am grateful I feel comfortable and safe whenever I am with her.
42. I am grateful she shares with me her life skills.
43. I am grateful she is wise in her own ways.
44. I am grateful we are bonded although we hardly meet.
45. I am grateful she protects me when I was young.
46. I am grateful I am able to help her when she needs me.
47. I am grateful we still managed keep in contact after so many years.
48. I am grateful we get to meet once a while despite her heavy workload.
49. I am grateful I can be her listening ear when she needs.
50. I am grateful I saw her character transformation when she learns to be wiser.
51. I am grateful she is a good person.
52. I am grateful she is a calmer person.
53. I am grateful she forgives easily.
54. I am grateful she is doing her best for her family needs.
55. I am grateful she manages her money better.
56. I am grateful she trusts her friends unconditionally.
57. I am grateful she immediately finds the best dentist for me when I told her I broke my tooth.
58. I am grateful she let me knows when I do it wrongly, and correct me immediately.
59. I am grateful we poke fun of each other once awhile as we know we will just laugh it off.
60. I am grateful as we grow, we know each other better.
61. I am grateful I feel strength of righteous in her.
62. I am grateful I see goodness in her, despite she can't see it herself.
63. I am grateful she is happier compared in the past.
64. I am grateful she is the kind of friends who remains true no matter what happens.
65. I am grateful she may appear indifferent but she is warm at heart.
66. i am grateful I share with her dharma when she faces challenges in her life.
67. I am grateful to have her as my friend as well as a sister.

For Felicia
68. i am grateful Siew introduce me to her.
69. i am grateful she is kind and warm person.
70. I am grateful we celebrate festive and birthday events together.
71. I am grateful she is lovable when she is with us.
72. I am grateful Siew, Evon and I are her sisters for her wedding.
73. I am grateful we had many laughing moments.
74. I am grateful she can be young at heart when she wants to.
75. I am grateful she and WH invite us to their warm and cosy home.
76. I am grateful we played board games together.
77. I am grateful to know her as a friend.

For Evon
78. I am grateful to know her through Siew as well.
79. I am grateful we celebrate festive and birthday events together.
80. I am grateful we had laughing moments.
81. I am grateful we played board games together.
82. I am grateful to know her better every time we meet.

For Pey Yng
83. I am grateful to know her in this lifetime.
84. I am grateful we are born in the same year, same month, same day.
85. I am grateful our personality is quite similar.
86. I am grateful I am able to share Dharma with her so that she can overcome her adversity in life.
87. I am grateful we are easily connected.
88. I am grateful we meet once awhile to catch up on our daily lives.
89. I am grateful she is also another dependable friend.
90. I am grateful to share my learning on heart sutra with her.
91. I am grateful to introduce Fo Guang Shan to her and she brings her son to waterdrop teahouse whenever school holidays.
92. I am grateful she started to do volunteer work at bright hill temple during her free time. This brings her higher sense of self worth and she is happier.
93. I am grateful to share my joy with her.
94. I am grateful to be open with her.
95. I am grateful she reconnected back to Buddhism.
96. I am grateful she is diligent in her practise and she motivates me to be better.
97. I am grateful she finds joy in baking.
98. I am grateful she is willingly to adapt changes and doing her best for her family.
99. I am grateful we share our learning with each other.
100. I am grateful everything happens for a reason.

100 grateful things, Day 2

Today is second day I will share about gratefulness towards my family:
For Dad
1. I am grateful for my dad efforts in raising me up.
2. I am grateful my dad is a responsible man.
3. I am grateful to my dad for his kind words.
4. I am grateful to my dad for waking me up in the middle of the night, just to pee to prevent me from wetting the bed.
5. I am grateful that my dad carried me when I was very young age.
6. I am grateful that my dad helps me with my homework during primary and secondary days.
7. I am grateful my dad fork out expensive tuition school fees just to ensure I passed my English exams.
8. I am grateful my dad loves our family whole-heartedly.
9. I am grateful my dad helped me with my school work when I didn't know how to do it.
10. I am grateful my dad gives me words of encouragement when I was feeling down.
11. I am grateful my dad cares for me even though he doesn't say it.
12. I am grateful my dad cracks silly jokes to make us laugh.
13. I am grateful my dad is loving.
14. I am grateful my dad provides all my needs.
15. I am grateful we are able to do things together. e.g. Dad and I painted a lamp cover together.
16. I am grateful my dad respect my decisions.
17. I am grateful my dad listens to how I feel.
18. I am grateful my dad did little things for me in his own ways.
19. I am grateful my dad is like a superhero in my heart.
20. I am grateful my dad plays board games with me once.
21. I am grateful my dad is not busy and spend quality time with me.
22. I am grateful my dad concerns about my life.
23. I am grateful my dad helps me whenever I need him.
24. I am grateful my dad is able to live with me till his ripe full age.
25. I am grateful my dad is wise in analysing things.
26. I am grateful my dad gives me his feedback for me to consider.
27. I am grateful my dad is courageous.
28. I am grateful my dad helps people whenever he can.
29. I am grateful my dad console me and gives me light of wisdom.
30. I am grateful I am more open in sharing my thoughts and feelings with him.
31. I am grateful put himself in my shoes to understand me better.
32. I am grateful despite of my mistakes, he still forgives and loves me unconditionally.
33. I am grateful he is my dad.

For Mum
34. I am grateful to my mum for her to take care of me since 9 months of birth.
35. I am grateful I didn't give her much pain when she delivers me.
36. I am grateful she took care of my needs.
37. I am grateful she is a loving mother.
38. I am grateful I learned to appreciate her better now.
39. I am grateful she nags at me as it is for my own good.
40. I am grateful I learned to listen to her advices and decide if it's useful for me.
41. I am grateful for her home cook meals as she cooks from her heart.
42. I am grateful she cares a lot for me.
43. I am grateful she loves me through her actions.
44. I am grateful she prepares breakfast for me almost every single day.
45. I am grateful she hugs me more often than in the past.
46. I am grateful she loves me unconditionally.
47. I am grateful she cooked my favourite food often: fried rice.
48. I am grateful I am able to have meals with her.
49. I am grateful she chats with me when I am home.
50. I am grateful she is more willing to impart her cooking skills to me.
51. I am grateful when I hold her hands crossing the road, just like she holds my hands when I was young.
52. I am grateful she consoled me when I am down.
53. I am grateful she loves me for who I am.
54. I am grateful she accepts my flaws.
55. I am grateful I am able to cheer her up when she's down or she needs attention.
56. I am grateful I learned to be more sensitive towards her needs.
57. I am grateful to receive her light of wisdom.
58. I am grateful I looked after her during the trip at Guangzhou in 2014.
59. I am grateful she looks after me when I had my chicken pox and cooked steam pork platter, sour vegetables and rice as these are the only food I can eat.
60. I am grateful I am able to share my ups and downs with her.
61. I am grateful I have more patience with her nowadays.
62. I am grateful to see more of her virtue than her shortcomings.
63. I am grateful she chose to quit her job just to look after me when I was a baby.
64. I am grateful she prays daily for the wellbeing of our family.
65. I am grateful she is a warm and friendly person, even my friends like to chat with her.
66. I am grateful I am more open to her.
67. I am grateful she is my Mum.

For My Sis
68. I am grateful for my sister is a loving person.
69. I am grateful she sometimes nags at me because she cares for me.
70. I am grateful I am her right hand "chef" when she cooks meal for our family.
71. I am grateful she loves our family a lot.
72. I am grateful she taught me a lot of things.
73. I am grateful she spends quality time with me.
74. I am grateful she hugs me every now and then.
75. I am grateful I can share all my thoughts and feelings with her.
76. I am grateful she is open.
77. I am grateful she taught me how to love myself more.
78. I am grateful she held my hand when I was young.
79. I am grateful we did many things together.
80. I am grateful we did wall climbing, she's as agile as a monkey.
81. I am grateful she shares her learning with me.
82. I am grateful she is a fun person to be with.
83. I am grateful she accepts me for who I am.
84. I am grateful she encourages me a lot.
85. I am grateful she helps me to go through my life challenges.
86. I am grateful she supports me whenever I need her.
87. I am grateful she gives me useful advices.
88. I am grateful we share our things with each other.
89. I am grateful she is creative, enhance our living.
90. I am grateful she treats me good food.
91. I am grateful she is generous.
92. I am grateful she is kind.
93. I am grateful she is wise.
94. I am grateful she enjoys being with nature and we spend outdoor trekking often.
95. I am grateful she is organised and impart some tips with me.
96. I am grateful she lives her life simple and I feel she is grounded.
97. I am grateful she is calm and peaceful most of the time.
98. I am grateful she keeps all handmade things I made for her.
99. I am grateful she is with me for my important milestones.
100. I am grateful she is my sister.

100 grateful things, Day 1

A new friend, Elizabeth challenged me to take up 100 grateful things we are grateful for the next 7 days. I took up the challenge and we do it together.

Today is my first day so I shall start with appreciating what I am and what I have:
1. I am grateful to meet Elizabeth, get to know her better to take up this 7 days of gratitude.
2. I am grateful to be able to wake up every morning.
3. I am grateful to be able to breathe normally.
4. I am grateful to be able to eat and taste the food that I need into my body.
5. I am grateful to be able to run around in the park for my exercise routine.
6. I am grateful to be able to appreciate beautiful things that is happening in my life.
7. I am grateful to be able to walk normally.
8. I am grateful to be able to brush my teeth on my own.
9. I am grateful to be able to find joy in painting.
10. I am grateful to kick away drinking alcohol habit to protect my own health.
11. I am grateful to be able to exercise with my exercise kakis.
12. I am grateful to be able to wash and wear my own clothes.
13. I am grateful to be able to do some yoga postures to train my flexibility.
14. I am grateful to be able to dance.
15. I am grateful to be able to learn drawing on my own.
16. I am grateful to be able to reduce my tv addiction.
17. I am grateful to be able to live in a loving home.
18. I am grateful to be able to travel around at ease.
19. I am grateful to have a healthier body, through exercising and healthy food regularly.
20. I am grateful to to be inspired by Buddha for his perfection of compassion and wisdom.
21. I am grateful to be kind.
22. I am grateful to be generous.
23. I am grateful to be courageous.
24. I am grateful to be diligent.
25. I am grateful to be a loving person.
26. I am grateful to be able to help other people when they need.
27. I am grateful to be able to listen with empathy.
28. I am grateful to be able to care for others.
29. I am grateful to have insights each day of my life.
30. I am grateful to be able to shine some light of wisdom in others.
31. I am grateful to be healthier.
32. I am grateful to be more organise.
33. I am grateful to be able to accept who I am.
34. I am grateful to be peaceful with myself.
35. I am grateful to feel joy within myself.
36. I am grateful to be able to share my joy with others.
37. I am grateful for the lessons which I have overcome.
38. I am grateful for people who care about me.
39. I am grateful to be able to appreciate my body better.
40. I am grateful to be able to give a dollar to a stranger who needs to take transport back home.
41. I am grateful to be able to live my life through passion.
42. I am grateful to be able to beautify people lives.
43. I am grateful to be receptive towards criticism.
44. I am grateful to work in a safe environment.
45. I am grateful to live in a safe country.
46. I am grateful to have patience with myself when things go wrong.
47. I am grateful to be able to resolve issues and find solutions.
48. I am grateful to be able to do volunteer at age of 30.
49. I am grateful to build goodwill with others.
50. I am grateful to be able to love animals more.
51. I am grateful to be a Buddhist at the age of 33, which helps me to be a better person.
52. I am grateful to gain clarity through asking.
53. I am grateful to be able to make beautiful things with my hands.
54. I am grateful to have freedom to do things which I enjoy.
55. I am grateful to have a seat whenever I need it.
56. I am grateful to have a grateful heart.
57. I am grateful to be able to appreciate music.
58. I am grateful to be blessed.
59. I am grateful to be able to enjoy even a glass of plain water.
60. I am grateful to be able to serve others while being served by others.
61. I am grateful to be able to bath from fresh, clean water.
62. I am grateful to be able to drink clean water.
63. I am grateful to be able to receive nutrients from the food.
64. I am grateful to be able to read and educate myself.
65. I am grateful to be able to impart my knowledge to others.
66. i am grateful to be able to share the merits with people.
67. I am grateful to learn how to cook simple meals.
68. i am grateful to be able to overcome my life challenges.
69. I am grateful to overcome my own fears.
70. I am grateful to accept my own flaws.
71. I am grateful to allow changes in my life to make life better.
72. I am grateful to be more open-minded.
73. I am grateful to be able to finish my work timely and smoothly.
74. I am grateful to be able to take care of myself.
75. I am grateful to be able to lead my own life.
76. I am grateful to be able to complete 80% of my goals that I have set.
77. I am grateful to be able to look within myself and see my self-worth.
78. I am grateful to be able to transform my mistakes as learning and not to repeat them again.
79. I am grateful to be able to find values in everyday living.
80. I am grateful to appreciate myself better.
81. I am grateful to be able to detach myself from material wants.
82. I am grateful to be creative.
83. I am grateful to be able to sleep peacefully.
84. I am grateful to have the strength to carry on with life.
85. I am grateful to be able to let go unhappiness easily and embrace new experiences.
86. I am grateful to be able to console myself when things are not rosy.
87. I am grateful to be able to value time more and adopt "Time is precious" mindset.
88. I am grateful to receive excellence service award in 2005.
89. I am grateful to take part in photography exhibition in 2008. I did my first photography exhibition.
90. I am grateful to take part in creative art "Stigma" exhibition in 2013. This exhibition is to create awareness about mental health awareness. I did my first art installation and named in "I am stronger than my challenges".
91. I am grateful to take part in creative art "Portions of Blessings" exhibition in 2013. This is exhibition to exhibit everyone of us has our own portions of blessings. I did my first acrylic painting and named it "Abundance of Blessings".
92. I am grateful to take part in NANAS Charity Art Sale, organised by Art Social Haus. Partaking in this meaningful fundraising event. I am in the mist of working in this small art piece.
93. I am grateful to volunteer myself as a dharma teacher for 2 years, preparing for the 3rd year with greater responsibilities and learnings.
94. I am grateful to take part in the running events, 5km run, which I surprised myself that I can actually complete within 45 mins.
95. I am grateful to educate myself for a quality living.
96. I am grateful to be able to travel to many countries to broaden my horizon.
97. I am grateful to be with nature for relaxation, appreciating mother earth for what she has provided for me.
98. I am grateful to live life as it is.
99. I am grateful to be able to live another day.
100. I am grateful to be able to pen down 100 grateful things and events about myself within a day! This amazes me haha :D

Gardener of Life

As the last day of Mee Toh School has ended on 8 Nov, volunteer whole year to serve others. Finally have my own time for myself.

I have given myself 2 treats: one for the body and one for the mind. 1) Free zumba class in the bishan park in the morning. Joined back the class as it's only fortnightly and also healthy to keep my body fit.

2) Free art space at Arts Social Haus (ASH). It's a newly setup space in July where art hobbyist can rent the space for $10 for half a day. I got it for free as my friend told me there's such a place.

The experience is good. I managed do some sketches and to paint an acrylic painting in 4 hours.



This piece of artwork is Gardener of Life 《 生 命 园 丁 》 Hope to shed some light into the children mind and heart. Although the details are not there but I am still pleased with this work. It brings out the essence of gardener of life.

Fulfilling Volunteer Teaching

I had a wonderful weekend this week as it was Mee Toh School Dharma Class Year End Ceremony. It was my 2nd year volunteer teaching at Mee Toh school. Had ups and downs but overall it was a wonderful journey to impart dharma to the children in a simplified way.

I had a few realisations, in the eyes of parents, their children is perfect. They can overlook their children flaws and give them unconditional love to their children. For example, one student forgot to wear PE Tshirt for the ceremony and her father brings her clothings to the school.

The focus of teaching is to understand the needs of the students and provide the dharma accordingly so that the children will benefit in a long run.

The bonding of the main teacher and assistant teacher needs to be there to experience the utmost learning for the students.

As I was worried that the playful children will screw up the performance. However, they are well behaved during the performance surprisingly. In fact, I am touched by their behaviour. There's no bad children, only teachers who didn't have the skills to guide the children yet.

The essence of gardener of life《生命园丁》is to plant good seeds into the children mind so that they will have positive outlook of life.

New insights about enlightenment

Few days ago, I met a person who is a life coach for 20+ years. He shares with me about personal profiling. He did his work along spiritual path, and shares with me that everyone has our own life lessons to learn. He told me that his background is Christianity and followed by Buddhism and finally he gains some wisdom and he uses his own way towards his own learning by using scientific tools to help himself and other people.

He told me his own learning that enlightenment is not about the end-point is enlightenment. To him, every realisation is enlightenment to make us wiser. After digesting with what he said, I realise that every little steps or new insights help us to be wiser on the path of enlightenment. It is a process. To break-free from our bad habits and make us a better person is enlightening. How much have we let go of our own attachments is enlightenment.

For example, when we are lazy, we must have the awareness and choose to be diligent, break-free from our own laziness, find alternatives ways to make us more motivated to complete our tasks. This not only strengthen our diligence quality and it cultivates our discipline and focus.

We have been deluded in the past, it is important to make ourselves in this time round, learnt the lessons and be wiser. Most often it is easier said than done. However, I remembered venerable chuan guan said that if we can remove at least 1 bad habit in this lifetime, we are 1 step better than yesterday, it is worth rejoicing.

In the past, I was too attached to romance, thinking how the ideal romance should be. Yes, the word "should be" is my own expectations, not the reality. Hence, it caused unnecessary suffering to myself and the other person unknowingly. In the romance relationship, there is bound to have love-separation suffering. Because one day, one person will leave another person, even they are fortunate enough to live to the ripe old age.

A friend of mine told his wife that he doesn't want to have any promises that they will be together in the next life as he realised the truth that attachment is the root cause of suffering. I think it is wise of him to say that, no matter how we wanted to be enlightened, as long as there is attachment, it will be hard to break-free from cycle of life and death.

For this life and future lives, I hope that I will have less and less attachments. I also realised that detachment is not about giving all away, it is about appreciate and cherish the things and people around us and not to cling on to them when they are not around.

Observing Mind

I realise how mind can trick myself for believing into something I make up on my own due to my past experiences. For example, I received a sms from Alvin, who used to be bad tempered. He has changed but somehow his sms was "Please check your email." Immediately, my reflex starts to gear up and become very alert. Started to think what "bad" thing is going to happen. Silly me, starts to amplify the scenario that I did something very wrong and required a huge amount of effort. When I reached home, I immediately check the email. The change is very small and it is just a 5 min effort.

My mind just trick me into believing that something bad is about to happen, which is totally untrue. It could be due to past bad experience to trigger the "emergency" alert. It can be dangerous as my mind can be in deluded mode, unable to see things clearly as they are. That is why it is important to keep my mind in a grounded and calm state of mind.

Another story which I want to share is my friend's mother in law who is at her last stage of cancer. Doctor said that she only had 3 months to live. She started to have craving for food, although she can't eat at all. Shifu says that if her wish, just try to fulfill her as much as possible. Let her mind be at the state of calmness.

I start to think if one's desire and craving are so strong, one can likely fall into attachments and not be able to leave peacefully. It can affect our quality of rebirth. It is so important to train and keep our mind positive. It never comes to me that departing this world can be so challenging. However, all the more we should do our best to be reborn at Amitaba Buddha's Pureland to learn from him and progress from there.

Meanwhile, just do our best to keep our mind pure, calm and peaceful to our best ability.

The day has ended...

The day has ended... I feel like expressing it with a poem today!

AT THE END OF THE DAY

At the end of the day,
after all the work is done;
At the end of the day,
as my heart is filled with gratitude;

After all the trials,
and after all the uncertainties;
After all the learning,
to make it through the day;

I thank for peace and joy,
for the people I met and connected with;
I thank for the work that I have done,
for little accomplishments I did today;

For there is no blessing,
such as this I found so true:
It’s such a pleasure just walking home
at the end of the day with a grateful heart!

Winning in life

Today I watched Hong Kong Drama Series "非常老师". This episode caught my attention, one reporter asked how does this tuition teacher willing to give up his high salaries as a principal to setup his own tuition centre and gives free tuitions to low income students.

He mentioned that there is one student who changed his life. This student was expelled by him due to his poor results and his misbehavior. Many years later, he saw this student delivery goods at the carpark and he shared that,"No school wants me because of my poor results and misbehavior. I had no choice but to come out to work." He paused,"Principal, Am I such a bad student?"

This question ponders the principal and he reflects on his own actions, his value is to educate the students well but yet he chose to give up this student, due to the education system who only keeps the best students. Hence, he quit his job and specially trained the low income students and give them free education. He strongly believes that only through education, it could improve the quality of life.

Unfortunately, the tuition centre couldn't sustain and the landlord wants to increase 30% of the loan fee. Pressure given from his wife as she can't understand why his students are always put in his first place. She raised a divorce as she can't agree with him anymore as he has neglected her and his daughter, not only that he wanted to sell away his house, just to keep the tuition centre.

The next scene is teacher's daughter went missing because her friends laughs at her and found by the expelled student. The wife thanked the student for helping to find back her daughter. The student realized that the daughter is actually the principal's daughter and told the wife that the principal was his beneficiary because despite the principal had to work a couple of jobs, he still spend nights with him to give him free tuition, which pull him through into university. He was very grateful to the principal. The wife realized that how great her husband is and she and they also realised he is a great man.

Twists and turns, the principal's sister managed to find a china investor who is willing to invest in the tuition centre to sustain the centre. All end well eventually.

Reflection:
This is a good story to me. As I am a volunteer teacher, at times I need to handle misbehave child, but the question is should I outcast the student so that he will not distract other students? If I have done so, am I holding back his rights in learning and not be able to learn the proper values like other students? How can I teach better so that the students, including the misbehave child, will enjoy and like my class? These are the answers I need to find myself.

Fortunately, for this principal, he is willing to make up to the student. If not, his action would have ruins a person's life.

What every we do, there is a karma reaction. It can be good or bad consequences. Do no harm to people with words or actions, especially children.

Words can be a double edge sword, to condemn or to inspire. Because what are we say or do to them, they will take it to heart and it may takes years or a lifetime to remove/heal these words and actions, where the impacts have already done to the child.

吉祥与我

佛光山有一只可爱的猫叫吉祥。第一次见到它时，她就躺在靠近电梯的地毯上。感觉它很慈祥。听一位师姐说它是一只流浪猫，有一天，它就走进了佛光山。师父们就收养了它，便帮它取名叫着吉祥，因为大家上上下下都祝贺大家吉祥。它几乎也接受自己的名字，每次叫它吉祥，它都会有回应。它不是普通的猫，因为自从住在佛光山，它开始吃素食。它应该已经习惯吃素，不然它应该早就离开佛光山了！

今天我叫Karen老师帮我找clip board。她很乐意帮我找，就当她看见吉祥时她就冷傻了眼。因为她非常怕猫，她让我想起了Fifi，因为我以前也是很怕猫。不懂何时我已经不怕猫了，或许是因为吉祥吧。它很慈祥的靠在我的脚，仿佛它告诉我它喜欢我，让我安心。我看见Karen老师那么害怕，就赶紧把吉祥带去B1，是它经常走动的地方。

回想起来，我才发现我不怕猫了。我已经把恐惧转为爱。我每天都祈求众生的平安快乐。或许每天的祝福，让我身边的人事物也随着改变。执着只会让人痛苦，不如放下才能让自己有更大的心，接受每一人事物。

我想为什么两年前，佛语就告诉了我不要执着，因为一切都会过去。终于开始了解佛要告诉我的事情。虽然是慢很多拍，但慢几拍，好过没领悟到任何东西。感谢佛陀的智慧，教导我如何以礼待人。没有100%的好人，也没有100%的坏人。因为每个人都在每天学习，走向成佛之道。

贪变穷，慷慨变富裕

隔了两个星期，我已经平复自己的心情。财已失去，就要面对现实。今天刚巧电视播了《绳之于法》，播了三个人被不同的Cyber Scams，被犯罪的人有机可乘，还好有一位女孩的妈妈提高警惕，没让罪犯得逞。方佛告诉我，钱财要看紧，不要太轻易的相信人。毕竟这世间有三毒：贪，嗔，痴。虽然害人之心不可有，防人之心不可无。我们不可以害人，但我们要防备别人对我们有不良的企图。

虽然钱财已失，师父和朋友给我法布施，安慰我钱财身外物，钱财会再回来我身边。不要太在意。妈妈也告诉我贪变穷，慷慨变富裕。

我就想起佛陀的故事：迦旃延在阿盘提国宣化后，想回到舍卫国听闻佛陀说法的途中，见到一位妇人手持水瓶，坐在河边大声的啼哭，尊者一见，不觉油然的生起同情的怜悯心，他怕这个妇人因失意的事想不开，而投水自杀。

因此，他就向前问道：

“妇人！什么事情使你伤心，为什么在这里啼哭呢？”

“不要你管，告诉你有什么用？”妇人哭的声音更大了。

“妇人！告诉我，我是佛陀的弟子，我可以帮助你解决苦难的问题。”

“你是没有办法的，你看世间这么不公平，贫富如此悬殊，我是一个苦命的穷人，一生都受苦，我被贫穷的苦折磨得实在不想活了！”

妇人说后，像要往水中跳的样子，迦旃延赶快上前一把拉住她，非常慈悲和同情的开导她道：

“妇人！你不要伤心，世间上的穷人很多，不仅是你一人。同时，穷人并不一定是苦或不幸，富人不一定就是快乐。你看那些拥有奴婢和田宅的富人，他们仍然天天为贪欲瞋恚的烦恼所苦。为人只要平安的生活就好，贫穷值得这么悲伤吗？”

妇人不耐烦的挣扎着说道：

“你是一位出家的沙门，你能看得开世情而我们不能。你要知道，我是这里大富豪的奴隶，我穷年累日的做着奴隶，衣食不周，没有自由，而我那黑心的主人，悭贪暴恶，没有丝毫慈心。我们做事，稍有差池，便打骂交加，叫我们求生不能，求死不得，想到这些痛苦都是由于我的贫穷所致，怎么不叫人为穷苦悲伤呢？”

“妇人！既然如此，你不要悲伤，我告诉你一个解脱贫穷和发财的方法。”

“是什么方法？”妇人把眼泪揩拭一下，望着迦旃延。

“方法很简单，你既然为贫穷而受苦，那你可以把贫穷卖给别人！”

“贫穷可以卖给别人？”妇人惊叫起来：“你不要乱说，如果贫穷可以卖给人，那世间上就没有穷人了。有什么人肯买贫穷呢？”

“卖给我，我肯买！”迦旃延回答。

“贫穷可以卖，而且也有你买，不过世人不懂出卖贫穷的方法。”

“要布施！”尊者开示道：“你要知道人生的贫富各有因缘，贫穷的人所以贫穷，是前生没有布施和修福；富贵的人所以富贵，是前生肯布施和修福。因此布施和修福是卖穷买富的最好方法。”

妇人听后，智能开朗，她到今天才明白了致富之道。但她随后就又苦着脸问道：

“尊者！你说得不错，我确实明白了发财的方法。不过我极其贫困，我是一无所有的人，就是我手中的水瓶，还是我那爱财如命的主人所有，你叫我怎么好布施呢？”

迦旃延把自己的钵交给女人，说道：

“布施不一定要用钱，对别人布施欢喜也可以。现在你持此钵盛水给我，作为你对我的布施！”

妇人此刻才真正明白布施的意义，当即依教奉行，后来她以供水功德，得生忉利天享乐。

迦旃延具有说法的方便，所谓论议第一，在比丘中的确是名不虚传！

Breathtaking Video

Nothing more need to be said.

Happy Birthday to myself

Happy Birthday to myself! Once a year, just flash past. I am very delighted that yesterday, Evon, Felicia, Siew and my Sister helped me to organise and celebrate my birthday. It is indeed very blessed and my heart filled with joy and happiness. Thanks for their effort and preparation. Even Siew's mum and my dad contribute in their own little ways.

There is my lovely po piah birthday "cake", first time invention by me hehe :D. Though the wordings are not clearly seen, but it is still my own creations :) Thanks for the beautiful decor and yummy food. It is hilarious whenever I am with this group of friends. I think it is because they are simple at heart and always feel comfortable with them.

Today, I met Pey yng and her son for lunch. She is a vegetarian now and she told me she does it for her family. I didn't feel much joy within her so I share my experience with her at 8 precepts retreat. She starts to feel a bit happier. Then she said she wants to go to the famous guan yin temple to pray. I went with her and it has been a long time since I stepped in that temple. I give thanks to the gods and bodhisattvas who may have helped me in the past. I told them that I have taken refuge with 3 Triple Gems: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. I will continue to practice the Buddhist way and tell them that I am happier since I taken the 3 Triple Gems Refuge.

Before I end my day, I shared Venerable Master Hsing Yun's 5 Harmony with Pey Yng. The 5 harmony is:
1) Be Happy Within Ourselves
2) Be Harmony and Peace within Family
3) Be Respectful with People
4) Be Harmony with Society
5) World Peace

I am still practicing each day now I have harmony within myself lol :D Gambatte! Happy Birthday to myself, working towards a better self :)

8 Precepts Retreat

Today is my first time attending 8 Precepts Retreat at Bright Hill Temple. It is an enjoyable day. About 350+ of us took the 8 precepts for 1 day & 1 night. The 8 precepts are no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, no intoxicant, no high bed, no perfumes, music or luxury pleasures and no meal after lunch.

I find it meaningful as this retreat is relaxing and I enjoy Venerables' talks. We did chanting, sitting mediation and walking mediation. It is all about mindfulness in eating, talking, sitting and walking. Feeling grateful that a number of helpers attended to our needs, they gave us blankets as the weather was raining in the morning, as the sun came out, they lower the temp. Our body just changes to adapt the weather.

Some of the key things that Venerables have mentioned:
1) Walking, standing, sitting and lying down are the basic actions as a human being.

2) Living in the present = Mindfulness
Be mindful about little things in life, it could means a lot.

3) 把自己的心按住在清静的心境上

4）当我们不开心时 -> 心要学习调整 -> 烦恼不见了！ Red Carpet Analogy

5) 多看，多了解自己的内心世界，多观察自己
不开心时，沉淀自己的情绪
不要在那个点上，要继续往前走
Self-Manage our own emotions, if we are not in control, others will control us.

6）Criticism and Compliments are just sounds, be unaffected by these sounds and circumstances.

7) When someone is angry, when we are able to see he is suffering, hence our bodhicitta arises. Listen with empathy and help within our own means. Don't be affected by his circumstances.

8) 要学习新的事物，不断的提升自己，Bodhisattvas have completed 6 parimitas perfections. It is a long journey to cultivate bodhisattvas path. Let me master the 5 precepts first. 戒，定，慧 3 levels of learnings.

What I like most in this retreat is walking mediation, keeping myself mindful as I walk. I like one of 普贤菩萨 chant, mentioning the time is short, every moment is precious. I made 3 vows today, to be more caring towards my parents, to be more diligent in my practice and bless people to be well and happy.

I will take one step at a time. These are very good reminders for me as I can be really forgetful at times!

Repentance

I do have wrong understanding about learning Buddhism is to do good deeds and helping people. I realised that it is more than that, it is to repent on what wrong deeds that we have done in the past and be a better person.

Wen Fang shares with me her own experience that she has fear in driving. Even the fortune teller tells her not to drive. Through her own meditation, she saw that in her past life, she was a reckless driver which caused her own death. Now, every time she drives, she is more mindful and repents.

I personally think that she is courageous. Facing her own problem, instead of avoiding it, she finds ways to resolve it and rebuilt her own confidence in driving.

As for myself, I repent for all the wrong deeds that I have done in this lifetime and my past lives due to greed, hatred and ignorance, I vow to cease all evil deeds and be a good person from this lifetime.

Short stories of Finance

Just read Short Stories about finance management shared by Jack Ma.

This particular story draws my attention.

【琐事】

　　一只鼬鼠要与一只狮子决战，狮子果断地拒绝了。鼬鼠说：“你害怕了吗？”狮子说：“如果答应你，你就可以得到曾与狮子比武的殊荣；而我呢，以后所有的动物都会耻笑我竟和鼬鼠打架。”

　　-—不要被不重要的人和事过多打搅，因为成功的秘诀就是抓住目标不放，而不是把时间浪费在无谓的琐事上。

I glad that I choose my own inner peace than to continue to struggle over my lost of wealth. I have not lost the valuable inner peace and courage within me, instead I gained clarity.

The most absurd "solution" which a friend gives is to go to the FBI to handle the situation, since that guy is from UK. I know he is trying to help. But deep in my heart,"You think we are shooting drama, is it? All I want is to put my mind back to peaceful state."

This is what I replied to him: "It's alright. If this is a fraud case, he will be caught. If his case is genuine, he will be fine one day. There's no reason for malaysian police to keep him as he already serve his notice.

As for my money, it will come back to me in another form, so I already let go this incident.

Between money and peace, I choose peace of mind. Thanks for your kind offer, I don't need it anymore."

I thought through carefully what I needed to do for me to move on in these 2 days. Instead of still harping on the lost money, which I can't do much about it, I redirect my focus and energy into my projects and people that I care about. I am thankful that the most people around gave me good advice and let me see the whole picture better.

You know what, I slept well after I decided to let go of the lost money. My existing and new clients come to ask me to help them with the design projects.

记住：
学习的最高境界——悟。
做人的最高境界——舍。
生活的最高境界——乐。
修炼的最高境界——空。
交友的最高境界——诚。
人生的最高境界——静。
爱情的最高境界——容。

烂慈悲与感恩心

经过惨痛的财务教训，我才清醒的领悟到钱财要看好。不可以感情用事。有些人是真的不可以帮的。钱没了，就算了，钱还可以再赚。最重要人没有事。胡乱帮助人，不听朋友的劝告，还理直气壮认为自己的决定是对的，就会变成烂慈悲。帮人也是要思考这个人可以不可以帮，为什么而帮。

虽然难过，但在这个困劲中，帮助我的人还真不少：
1）感谢父母，他们对我的体量。妈妈心疼我，她看见我把自己幸幸苦苦的钱就这样流失了。我向爸爸道歉，爸爸还安慰我跟我说以后有什么事一起分担，不要自己一个人承担，自己做决定。多听别人的意见，会看见不同的角度，就不会再陷入困境。

2）感谢朋友给我的财布施，无畏布施。谢谢他们相信我。给我安慰，关心我，给我正思维。他们才是我真正的朋友。

3）感谢有灯师父给我的法布施，她说钱财流失了会再回来，不要再怪自己，把这个经历分享给以后可能遇到这类似的事情就可以让他避免金钱损失。

4）感谢姐姐，她到处去跟朋友说我的事情就是希望我看清事实，不要再让我馅下去了。

经一事，张一智。不然我的二十千白给了！

Let it go - Frozen

Beautiful Animation Video from Frozen, Disney.

You are born to shine!

Yesterday, I took part in the Area S3 Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation contests. I had minor breakthroughs for my humorous and evaluation contests. Thanks for the wonderful guidance from experienced toastmasters, Winson Lim, Darren Tay and Kwan Hong. The common grounds that they have are they have a system in handling the contests and they are flexible enough to make some changes to adapt to the current situation. It is something I need to learn from them.

What I have breakthroughs are:
1) I am starting to break free from my usual way of thinking patterns.
2) I am more open and receptive towards new ideas and learning.
3) I can share my thoughts with other people with less nervousness.
4) I understand that I need to gather my key points and expand them on the spots.
5) I can use every Friday mornings as my training ground.
6) I breakdown my message into points so that I will be able to remember better.
7) I am more confident than before.

It is really powerful to do things that I am fearful about. When I actually do it, my courage and confidence grow tremendously! I very thankful about it. I remembered Darren Tay shared with me that his teacher told him that he is born to shine! I felt inspired too! Now I started to feel and experience that I am born to shine as well! I will continue to learn and expand myself. I am truly grateful to able to have so many good, valuable and experience friends around me. Thank you!

Masquerade

Had an interesting BNI Awards Night. This year theme is Masquerade. I designed my own mask and this is my first time doing magic performance, lead by Tommy Chiang, Tommillusions. Doing something new last night! Thanks Tommy for sharing his small little tricks to us! :)

Masquerade Flyer

Theresa and I

Designed Mask by me hehe :D

Turning Referrals into Money

Stop being anxious and start being relax

Here are some tips to stop ourselves being anxious and start being relax.

1) Choose your friends wisely You are average of 5 people you spend most of the time with. Our environment shapes our thinking and behavior in quiet and powerful ways! There are friends who drains your energy and there are friends who have a holistic approach of living their life where they can uplift your energy. Spend more time with them and they not only help you to think positively, and you can learn to handle your challenges more effectively.

2) Set aside time each day to worry If you find the urge to worry uncontrollable, I recommend that you set a specific time each day to worry. E.g. you allocate 10 mins after dinner to worry so that you know that you have time to worry. It may sound strange technique but it is effective as it allows you to compartmentalise your worries. During these worry sessions, write down all fears and concerns that you have and brainstorm possible solutions. If you can't find any solutions, this is probably a worry that you shouldn't spend so much time on as there is nothing you can do about it.

3) Stop comparing Everyone is unique in our own ways. Comparing makes us feel inferior or ego about ourselves and other people. Learn to count our blessings and we are learning and growing.

4) Keep a gratitude journal Being grateful helps us to focus on the positive side. In fact there are research that shows grateful people tend to be happier people. Write down 1 thing that you are thankful for each day. A simple entry can be:

• I am thankful to have a stable career that enables me to provide for my family.
• I am thankful my family cares for me and I am able to spend quality time with them.

Keeping a gratitude journal is a simple habit that will take you just 2 minutes a day but will reap tremendous benefits in a long run.

Worries are weeds that can run rampant and become a destructive force in our lives. I hope by applying 4 tips in this article, we are able to manage these weeds better so that we can focus time and energy on bring up healthy, happy and successful life.

How to get organised

For many years, I have tried to be organised but it failed terribly. Even I start to feel that I need to be more organised to de-clutter myself and my poor habits. However, I haven't given up hope on myself. Still finding the way to get myself organised. Still feeling hopeful. I went google search to find some useful tips,
How to Deep Clean and Organize Your Room

4 Useful Tips I will adopt are:
Organize your bedside table Take everything off and out of it. Organize the drawers and the top of it. Wipe down the bedside table and go through the items you cleared off of the bedside table. Put anything important you might need on the top of it like a glasses case, cell phone, etc. But try not to make it too cluttered.

Organize your desk Work is very important and you can work best in an organized area. Take everything off the desk and sort it. Keep only stuff important to work or school and find homes for everything else. Wipe down the desk and neatly organize the items on the desk. Also, wipe down your desk chair. You are more likely to work well if you feel comfortable, clean, and organized.

Organize your bookshelf Clear out the bookshelf and sort the items. Next, wipe down the shelves and give it a minute to dry. Next, organize books and keepsakes. Remember, you DO NOT want to create a junk shelf so DO NOT put things that are irrelevant to the other items on the bookshelf.

Organize the clothes in your closet a certain way. First, clear out the closet. Wash all your clothes. If clothing does not fit anymore, then donate it. Vacuum/mop/shampoo the floor and wipe down shelves, racks, and other parts of the closet. Next, hang up delicate items (note that knitted items should be folded in drawers to prevent stretching of the threads). Get more wear out of your closet by bringing a few rarely-worn items to a more prominent position. If you don't wear items you should get rid of them, making space for clothing you will wear. Then, hang up or place the rest of your clothes on shelves. Put like clothes together(sweaters with sweaters, dresses with dresses, jeans with jeans, etc.) Now, organize your shoes neatly. You should always keep shoes with clothes so in the morning, you can dress from the head to the shoes.

Action Plan:
Put things that are relevant to current moment.
I will spend each week to de-clutter my workspace, wardrobe, shoes, bags, bookshelves and art & craft sections.
1st week - workspace
2nd week - bookshelves
3rd week - bookshelves
4th week - wardrobe, shoes and bags
5th week - art & craft

More articles on Be Organised, Organize Your Life

Journaling

Robin Sharma shares few tips about Journaling
1) Record my daily progress, example spending 20 mins to recap what has happened to me.
Yesterday weather is really good, all my clothes are dried within 2 hours! Thanks for the sunny day :)

I met Joewin, just realised she is only 27 and she has such a successful event business. Happy for her!

Also met Alvin and Max who just started up IT digital marketing business. Hopefully get to know them better.

Also glad to be in the new office to do my work, I will spend more time in the office :)

2) Record Daily Insights / Learning in the Journal
Joewin is so eloquent in her presentation and sharing what her company does, need to learn from her. The best part is she also helps to share for me :) Little girl with a big heart.

I need to embark on my drawing skills. It is the most fundamental. Will start from today, Create this new drawing habit. Just spend 15-30 mins of my time to draw.

3) Record Gratitude
I felt that I am more kind towards myself.
I am thankful that I receive kindness from my family.
People around me are kind to me, especially Alvin Neo who used to scold me, also becomes kind towards me. I am thankful.

4) Record Things that Matters
Focus on what is important.
You are free. To Focus. To Create. To Relax. To Feel Peaceful.
Record stories that matters.
a) Exercise in the morning. It helps to recharge and energised.

b) Spend 5-10 mins mediation wakes up and before bed. It helps to clear the mind and relax.

c) Find time to think. Before start work, realign myself to recap what needs to be done for today.

d) Find time to think. Before bed, recall the good things that happened today and be grateful.

e) Put something good in my mind in the morning.

f) Do the most difficult things first in the morning.

g) Be so good in what I do.

How to Do Your Best Work

Robin Sharma shares on 6 Keys To Mastery

1) Do something difficult every day

2) Exercise first thing in the morning

3) Be Ridiculously good at what you do - practice every single day

4) Be Ridiculously Curious - learn something new every day

5) Get your health to world class

6) Lead without a title

Inspiration from a Bhikkhuni

This morning, I watched a clip from Taiwan which shares about a Bhikkhuni, who opens a vegetarian restaurant. She allows everyone pays any amount as he or she wishes. Unfortunately, the business went into red and she has to use her own savings, which she saves during her teaching days, to top up the difference. However, she still preserve and continues to serve the public.

What truly inspires me is she said, "There is no one, she dislikes nor anyone, she can't trust." I think she is amazing and noble. Thanks for telling me that we can have this peace of mind and treat everyone equanimously.

Broken Friendship

"Oh My God, my friends frame has broken!"

This frame has been with me since Oct 2013! Due to my negligence when I woke up in one of the morning. The top part of letter "F" came off. I have scolded myself for being careless but the frame has already broken. It is more important question for me to do: What am I going to do about it?!

For the past few months, I just use a transparent scotch tape wrap it up. I know it looks ugly but I didn't bother to do anything about it. Until today, I decided to fix the broken part properly. I removed the ugly scotch tape and use uhu glue to glue it back carefully. Yes, it looks much better as though it has not been broken. But of course, there is still a missing chip that came off and the cracks between the broken part and the full frame. I still choose to put the frame beside my bedside so that I can continue to see my friends when I wake up! :)

This small incident has taught me an important lesson about friendship, or any other relationship. If I choose to focus on the crack (hurt), I will always be hurt. However, I choose to fix the crack (heal or do something about it), I actually healing the friendship and at least it won't get any worsen but getting better each time.

Although there is a crack in between, but at least I choose to do something about it, no more ugly scotch and from far, you can't tell there is a crack. Even I know there is a crack, I know that I have done my best to salvage this crack and make the best out of it.

Proud to be a Chinese

I am proud to be a Chinese because in my new office, there are 3 potato people. (Meaning that they can't speak Mandarin properly, even though they are pure breed chinese) Hahaha :D

Since primary school, my Chinese result is always the top 10% in class. I enjoy Chinese classes, thanks to a chinese teacher, Chen Feng Ying, who taught me chinese at P2. Her Chinese class is interesting and I never feel bored in class. Since young, I learnt about a chinese phrase from her,"近朱者赤, 近墨者黑。"

朱砂 is also known as Cinnabar is a bright red mineral consisting of mercury sulfide. It means that when you touch the Cinnabar, your hand will turn red, if you touch the ink, your hand will turn black. Meaning that if you have good company, you will have good character. Like wise, if you hang out with bad company, your character will be tinted.

This teacher always tells us don't follow the bad students, learn from the good students. Hence, she splits us into 3 groups, The good students, mediocre students and poor students. My dear friend, Siew, her chinese isn't that fantastic. However, I still hang out with her. I become to influence her to like chinese as well. Over these years, her chinese has improved. Not only that, some of my friends who are weak in Chinese, through my explanation in some Chinese phrases, their chinese also improves.

Last time, I didn't find myself can benefit anyone through my knowledge in Chinese. Now, I truly appreciate that I learn Chinese well and I can educate my fellow mates and my students. Sometimes, I even help my clients to translate their work! Yes, I am proud to be a Chinese.

Art Therapy Day 3

Magnificent Sunset
This evening, I went jogging with a friend and we saw the beautiful sunset, it was mixture of blue, white and golden yellow. The sun's warmth is so gentle. It is an inspiration for today.

There is a chinese saying, 夕阳无限好，只是近黃昏
The setting Sun is endlessly endearing; But the light of day is disappearing! It means that every moment, will come to an end eventually. Cherish the present moment!

Art Therapy Day 2

Hope
Rainbow always gives me a sense of hope. Wanted to paint rainbow in a fluid manner, ends up the first one is too stiff and the colors are too strong. The second one is lighter and have the feel of rainbow but not in the shape of an rainbow. I guess I will need to balance the 2 visuals together to form the real rainbow in my heart. Anyway, it is a good experimental exercise for me to have a feel of the brush strokes, colors and the theme.

Although all seems out of place, but I learned something in this art therapy which is colors that are too strong are not pleasant in a long run. Yes, it does attract attention but it doesn't sustain at all. However, lighter tone tends to have the endurance and the soothing effects, even you can look at it for a very long time, with ease and pleasure.

It is also telling me that fast and furious is not lasting, however slow and gentle, going with the flow is the way to lasting happiness.

Art Therapy Day 1

Flowers in the water
Subtle raining in the pond where we can't differentiate the water from the sky and the water from the pond. Had some financial issues waiting for me to settle. Subtle discomfort but there is still hope. Hopefully, things will get better tomorrow.

My reflection about Life and Ch'an

Here is my sharing for this year's learning. This is the 3rd time I went back to Taiwan Fo Guang Shan. This year event is 2014 International Youth Seminar on Life and Chan where 1200 participants from 40 universities all over the world are selected to attend this seminar. I learned a lot each time I went back, I always feel recharged and feels great back home. According to Venerables, life and ch'an are inseparable. Before I come to this seminar, I ever wondered what is "Ch'an"? Some venerable's realisation, Ch'an is simplicity, natural, way of life. It is as simple as walking, dwelling, sitting, lying down, eating, all these activities are living in the present moment.

It is the alignment of our body, speech and mind, all in one. One of the Venerables mentioned that we are all disintegrated, such that when we are thinking about object A, our heart is thinking about object B and our mouth is speaking on object C. Hence, it is totally disintegrated and it affects us in the long run, clarity is lost. By living in the present moment, having the right mindfulness, we are very clear with what we do. Hence, we are focus and clarity is gained. All these come with daily practise and it helps to balance our body, speech and mind.

I like Venerable Master Hsing Yun's 5 Harmony. He encouraged everyone to maintain harmony within self, their homes, respect others, create harmony within society and to propagate world peace. I personally think that it is achievable and it always starts from ourselves. Dr. Ang also shared, "Life is like a series of exams as our wisdom increases, we will be able to overcome these life challenges." I totally agreed with her and through learning the Dharma, I benefited a lot, it is easier for me to overcome my own challenges, not only that I am able to make peace with myself and spreading happiness to the people around me.

I love the daily morning meditation class. It is simple and easy to follow, just need to focus on the breathing and free our mind.

Overall, there are many great learning points but I will choose these 3 as main key points
1) Breathing is a form of cultivation and it is a way of being
2) Clearly understood and focus on what we do
3) Cherish all conditions around us, be it people, space and time

Although there are small hipcups in this retreat but they are negligible. We are all imperfect, how can we expect everything to be perfect? It is simply amazing when I see all FGS Venerables and organisers put all their hearts into the event, everyone of us played a part in making the event a success, that is the moment where I felt we are one. what more can I say but to fill my heart with gratitude.