I heard the following in a conversation between 2 people in HELP University.
“You know, the reason
why the Buddha statue in China is fat because Chinese believe that
fat is prosperous. Originally the Buddha (statue) from India is
skinny, so when Buddhism comes to China, the Chinese change it.”
Along the recent news
of a monk managed to persuade future doctors to quit their bachelor
program and Marcus Lim's compliment that I'm the most knowledgeable
person on Buddhism (in philosophy of life and death class) and how
it's a shame that I did not share my knowledge when there was a
discussion.
I remember when I start
learning Buddhism, I had an interesting conversation with Seh Yun
雪云(Snow
Cloud) from Mahsa college. Somehow the conversation turn into
religion. She happened to be a Buddhist too.
Her: Where did you go
for Wesak day?
Me: I didn't do
anything special. What is Wesak day?
Her: You're telling me
you're a Buddhist and you don't know what is that!?
I could only reply
silently with an awkward smile. That time I was learning Buddhism by
myself, without any teacher. It was very difficult. At the time when
the above conversation happened, I only know something walking and
sitting meditation practise. I learned how to cultivate the 5
percepts (Refrain from killing, refrain from stealing, refrain from
intoxicated, refrain from sexual misconduct, refrain from untruthful
speech.) and I study one of the core teachings in Buddhism, the
concept of impermanence. During that time, I really knew nothing
about the special occasions that Buddhist celebrate.
About 3 years ago, life
was different for me. I was after profit, that comes in the form of
money, fame, and opposite sex attention. Who knew that today, I would
be one of the guy who talk the most about Buddhism in HELP
University? I
haven’t met anyone who can tell me something that I don’t know
about Buddhism. I’m aware that there are 2 monks in the University.
I only talked to one, Reverend Sumedha had helped me greatly in
spiritual progression – for that, I am grateful. I wanted to
undergo the ceremony to make him my guru/sifu. However, according to
his school of Buddhism, the ceremony is only done amongst Bhikkhu
(monks) and Bhikkuni (nuns). I happened to have requested the same of
Long Po Prasit, a monk from Thai. But apparently, there are no
ceremonies performed for upasaka (male lay devotee) and upasika
(female lay devotee). LP Prasit's reply upon hearing my request was,
“Sadhu sadhu. You know, I know. That’s enough.” “Sadhu”
means well said or well done, in its simplest verbal form. From my
experience/understanding, it is similar to how Christians use “Amen”.
Both Sumedha and LP
Prasit, are from South Buddhism, while there are many school of
Buddhism, the culture of Buddhism can be mainly divide into three.
South Buddhism reside in countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka, North
Buddhism mainly in China and the surrounding countries. The third is
Tibetan Buddhism, mostly represented by Dalai Lama, the countries
involved are Tibetan and Nepal. That is why you see different
fashions among monks and different ways of bowing and practise. What
makes Malaysian even confused is because, Malaysia happened to be one
of the few countries to have all 3 Buddhism influence! That is also
why, you can see some monks walk in the street barefooted, and some
drove luxury cars. Most Chinese family practise north Buddhism.
What is Buddhism. Some
would start by explaining with the history of Buddhism (it origin
from India), others begin with the basic concept (impermance, non me,
karma, nirvana). New students find it hard to learn Buddhism because
of the usage of abstract words. The abstract words actually explain a
lot but it is often not easily understandable for non-cultivator or
beginners. Consider the following example, The Emperor Wu of Liang
梁武帝,
once asked “What is Buddhism? Who are you?”
Daruma
达摩,
founder
of Zen Buddhism, replied in sequence “There is nothing. I don't
know.”
This
is an opening chapter for my writings. I saw many students wished to
gain knwoledge on Buddhism but do not know where to turn to. I tried
distributing books, but good English books are hard to find as the
meanings are often lost in translations.
You may contact me for a digital copy of Buddhism For Dummies, I find
it wonderful for English readers who wish to start his journey in
Buddhism.
Everything
I've wrote, I swear it is the truth, I did everything in my
capability to ensure the best in my writings.
Om
mani padme hum (mantra
of Avalokitasvara
aka guan yin, 观世音菩萨心咒)
PS:
Buddhist mantra is not a curse, just a blessing.
_/\_
Lotus
Li Hong 莲花利宏
Shiro
Lau Li Hong
