Clear Water

1st lesson of 2008, Sis. Khoo told us of her experience in London, where she relate a certain game called 'Chicken'. It is a game where teenagers dare each other to do the 'STUPIDEST things'. There's one incident where a teenager dare another to beat up an old lady while taking a video of it. According to a recent survey where interviewers ask senior citizens what are they most afraid of, the highest score wasn't on height or rabid dogs and such, but teenagers! Why would teenagers do such thing?

Sis. Khoo showed us an example by giving each a clear glass bowl to be filled with water. A question was asked. "Why is water special?" The answer is, as exactly as clear as water, that the water is clear as glass. We can see through water, it is clear, it is calm. That is a pure mind. Babies has pure mind. Babies can't differentiate boy and girl. They don't know whether they are boy OR girl. Only when they grow older, they start to differentiate and condition. Boy would go "eee...I don't want that pink hello kitty bag!" and girl would say "I don't want to play ultraman! That is boys game!" Sis. Khoo asked Tian Hao "Do you want a hello kitty bag?" Tian Hao responded shaking his head.

As we grow older, dust get into our eyes to the point where sometimes we can't differentiate what is wrong or right. Our mind becomes unclear. Difference in thoughts causes misunderstandings and even fights. All these are caused by conditions where we don't accept other people opinions. Dust gets into everyone eyes, sometimes even in our parent eyes. What can we do to remove this dust?

Sis. Khoo then gave us each a small painted porcelain figure of an elephant with coloured candles within. We each took turn lighting the candle with a lighter. (some of us never lighted a candle with a lighter before)"Why is the light placed at the altar when we offer puja? Why is it special?" Light symbolize wisdom, light spreads across the room, when one is in darkness, light can show us the way, when one flame lights another it will not die but continue to light. That is what light symbolize and that is why light is special.



We had a short meditation then. As we meditate, we notice the sounds around us, we notice the discomfort that the body is feeling. We notice our mind, what are we thinking, and why are we thinking so. And then we notice our breathing. Breathing is something that the body does automatically. We often take it for granted. Breathing in....and breathing out.... and we open our eyes later. Everything looks much clearer. That is one benefit of meditation, it clears our mind, it lets us feel calmer. Some felt sleepy too.

We were separated into three groups randomly by numbers such as 1, 2 and 3 to do a little discussion of what do we want to do in the class this year or what do we want in this blog. There are three categories that we have discussed as we each broke into our own groups. Some are shy and quiet, some kept spewing ideas, some explain, while some try to drag others in the conversation, some felt competitive as they want more ideas than the other group, and some calmly join in accepting and giving ideas happily smiling.

The results of our discussion are as in below:

Spiritual
Song/lyrics compose
Learn different types of chanting
meditation
Get to know others religion

Social
Food fair stall(raising fund for BMSM building)
Visiting old folks home
Publishing magazines
Film short movies
KSDS idol

Interesting
Sudoku competition
Dancing class
Create Buddhism related games
Acting
Learning foregin languages(spanish,japanese...etc)
Eat and cook session
Yoga classes

And so the 1st lesson of 2008 ended =)