Finding Buddha

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