Can't think of a good title quick enough, can't think of something cool to write for now, so let's have some update of my life.
Wow, the last time I did an update on my life was just 1 year ago. This is insane. Either my ego has gone down, or I've been on a minor depressive episode, or I've not have real stress for over a year or I'm too addicted to instant entertainment to want to blog about myself. Maybe it's all of them.
Well, so I guess this is telling you guys what happened for the last 12 months. So in August 2012 I.....
Nope, can't be bothered to remember even the most important things that happened each month. Ok, I will but maybe it's better to recall it backwards...I'm going to use facebook to help me too. Man no one will read this, the whole article is too long and the months are either too long or too short. Well, anyway it's a good record.
August 2013:
Resumed my flexible timetable to discipline myself, I'm still a little bit lagging behind, but it works well so far.
I attended NUSBS AGM for the election of the 35th MC, had 32nd MC reunion dinner, there's this PMT Symposium for 3 masters one tradition....
It's boring to just list it all down and inputting no comments on them right? But it's too many events... Oh well.
Minh came back to pack up a few things, we had dinner with the Physics guys together, the 4 French people came back! It's interesting to see Arifin help to fix up my earphone (thanks bud!).
Oh and I helped out at the SPS NOC, as a Group Orientation Leader. It's a bunch of normal kids so far as I can see. And not much pretty girls... Ok, quite a few already. (Man this is going to generate a lot of gossip) Well, I mean, there's no point of chasing any of them even though my cousins pointed out that I'm the one who has the most chance of getting a girlfriend if I wanted to. I have a personal rule laid down after getting rejected the first time: be friends with the girl for at least 1 year or until I am sure that she's single, Buddhist, and not averse to me, whichever one that's later. So it's kinda fun being just friends with girls and losing the ability to flirt.
Next, also this PMT M.U.S.I.C. group which Hung is part of is getting to be more and more prominent as I've attended quite a few of their performances in a lot of places. It started in January and I didn't get pass the interview, but I kinda know almost everyone in the group already. Well, anyway looking back, I'm glad I didn't get in. My interest in Buddhism lies more along the way of intellectual and practise rather than spreading the Dhamma via music. Well, I did suggest such an event to NUSBS too.
Oh ya, I also got invited to speak at the Campaign Ehi Passiko as one of the speaker for their events. It's a small group, but it's kinda cool to be invited like that. Speaking of which I also did a 5 precepts presentation in MDC! Cool.
Also work wise, I dropped in a couple of days in this event:
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/ias/upcomingevents/FMDS/Pages/default.aspx It kinda inspire me to start a map of Physics. More on that when I'm done with it.
Wow, I guess when I do think about it, I've done a lot in a month. I should totally update my life more frequently, it's good for self-esteem!
July:
I've went for Hair for Hope, shaving my head to raise fund for Children with Cancer.
https://www.hairforhope.org.sg/index.php?/shavee/idetails/374 And I raised $70! Yay! Should have used this blog for more publicity, but anyway...
I've went back to Malaysia for a weekend reunion of cousins, and celebrating 55th Anniversary of the wedding of my paternal grandparents! Awesome event of a dinner where I've met a lot of elderly!
I can remember the Awaken Challenge! I was the main question setter and this marks the reason I've joined in the PMT Youth Group as a Committee member. Man I've not done the handover stuffs to wrap this thing up. Anyway, I've met
http://chademeng.com/ Chade Meng and he talks about bringing world peace by teaching everyone meditation! Make sense. He also confess that it might well be an impossible goal, but someone's gotta do it anyway. That is impressive.
Further into the past, there was a lot of weekend events that made me busy... Also made us pushed back the dates of the Awaken Challenge. This includes: 8th Global Conference on Buddhism and the next one was on June, so stay tuned.
http://www.buddhistfellowship.org/cms/index.php?/Conference/8th-global-conference-on-buddhism.html
There, we had this two resolutions that are voted to pass, with more than 90% of the votes I believe.
8th GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON BUDDHISM PASSES RESOLUTIONS AGAINST VIOLENCE IN
BUDDHIST COUNTRIES, AND BOMBING IN INDIA
Delegates from Singapore and overseas attended the two-day 8th Global Conference on
Buddhism, held in Singapore on 6 and 7 July 2013. Drawing on the presence of 1,200
delegates from the various Buddhist traditions, the Conference culminated in the passing of
two resolutions concerning the on-going violence against Muslims in Buddhist countries,
and the bombing of the MahaBodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India on 7 July 2013.
The resolutions were a response from the Buddhist community towards these international
incidents, and passed with an overwhelming majority of more than 95% voting in favour.
Resolution on the violence against Muslims in Buddhist countries
“We hereby wish to inform our Muslim brothers and sisters that as Buddhists, we are
deeply concerned by the violent treatment of Muslims at the hands of people claiming
to be Buddhists.
Islam is a religion of peace and Buddhism a religion of non-violence. These are ideals
for all mankind, regardless of differences in beliefs and customs. We call upon the
leaders of the Buddhist and Muslim communities to condemn all acts of violence and
to use their influence to encourage all to be gentle and act with compassion. We also
call on governments to take firm measures against murder, assault, arson, rape and
other acts of violence and incitement to violence, and take the appropriate action
against offenders, whatever their social status.”
Resolution on the bombing in India
“We are deeply saddened but we forgive those responsible for bombing the
Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya.
You may damage the most important temple in Buddhism but you will not destroy our
faith in forgiveness and compassion. “
“Buddhism is a religion of compassion and wisdom,” said Ms Angie Chew Monksfield,
organising chairperson of the Global Conference on Buddhism and President of Buddhist
Fellowship, said: “While we are saddened by the violence in Myanmar and the bombings in
India, we recognise that the only lasting solution towards such acts of violence is
forgiveness. The resolutions are a concrete way of demonstrating our commitment to
peace. We hope that these resolutions will contribute towards resolving the conflicts in a
peaceful and effective manner.”
Datuk Dr Victor Wee, President of Buddhist Gem Fellowship Malaysia, said: “I am
heartened to see Buddhists from all traditions using this opportunity to engage each
other on current issues of critical importance. We have discussed and passed public
resolutions on these two issues, based on the Buddhist principles of kindness and
wisdom.”
The Conference included topics and presenters such as “Search Inside Yourself” by Mr Tan
Chade-Meng of Google, “Challenges to Buddhism: Taking the Buddha Seriously” by
Professor Richard Gombrich of Oxford University, and “Buddhist Bioethics in Medicine and
Research” by Dr Ho Eu Chin.
About the Organiser of the Conference - Buddhist Fellowship
Buddhist Fellowship is a non-sectarian English speaking Buddhist group that focuses on the
learning of the Buddha’s Teachings and the practice of meditation. It has over 5,000
members and has been a dynamic force in the Buddhist community in advocating
modernization and bringing issues into the open for discussion and resolution.
This is also the month that I've gotten myself into a
pen-and-paper role-playing game, only this age, we use https://app.roll20.net/sessions/new for online communication without having to physically get together to play. The setting's based on the Song of Ice and Fire or the Game of Thrones as it is called in the TV version. Too much sexual stuffs in it for me to want to pick up the TV or the books, but the story seems cool, and the world cruel. We've just finished a chapter and I'm playing the good guy who doesn't even want to kill.
Also I think I've presented in MDC on different types of Meditation Retreats.
June:
The Metta convention was attended and it was very cool!
http://mettaroundtheworld.org/blog/2013/05/20/metta-convention-29-30-june-2013/
Other than that... I've joined in the NUSBS Meditation Retreat in Bekok! It's the nicest retreat I've been to yet, but I'm currently slacking behind on my daily meditation schedule.
This was also the month of the Haze, and the month I found my new roommate JerJer.
May:
was a bad month for me. Secondly, (because it happened after the first, and I'm recalling it backwards) it's because I've been scammed. Articles:
http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.sg/2013/05/i-got-scammed.html
http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.sg/2013/05/street-smart-20-advises-to-not-get.html
I've been very prejudiced and cynical on a lot of outside things from then on. Also I've potentially saved someone from being scammed in KL just recently.
And firstly, Malaysia's opposition lost by an unfair election:
http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.sg/2013/05/a-superhero-response-to-malaysias.html despite me going back to vote:
http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.sg/2013/05/my-voting-experience.html
April:
was a good month for me! I've gotten my Nintendo 3DS then. It's a time sucker, please do not get it so soon, even when Pokemon X and Y is due on October 12. Or else there's a ton of games that you can play with it, the advertising strategy for games they use for the 3DS is awesome and amazing. Blame the low flow of articles on this blog on it too.
And there's the usual NUSBS Dana Lunch and Congress. Oh and my sister came to Singapore to work! It's been 5 months!
March:
I've joined in this:
IAS Workshops/Conferences:
25 to 27 March 2013
1st IAS-CERN Workshop on Particle Physics and Cosmology - Status, Implications and Technology
My cousins are in Singapore! But I've just attended very little activities with them. Like the Shan You Family Day. I've joined in the NTUBS 1 day meditation retreat, and got burned out to attend any more Buddhist activities earlier. But there was the social event of celebrating Jian Hong's Birthday by the 34th MC. Somehow I got in there (by being busybody in their Open House).
Also
Institute of Physics Singapore Meeting, which is mostly talking about Condensed Matter Physics
http://www.ipsmeeting.org/index.html
February:
Ah facebook does help, there's these events:
Linda's Graduation, Cousin's Wedding, Poh Ming Tse CNY Lunch
And making badges in Buddhism Awareness Week, going back for CNY....
January:
I was busy looking for a new laptop, which I got a tentative one on Feb or March, I go back about once a month on average now? And I volunteered for
Alms and Sangha Offering 2013 on the first day of Jan.
Also there's the announcement for Pokemon X and Y that month, I offered to mentor an Alcubierre Drive Lit Review (which became part of my research now). And I sat in for some modules (Advanced Dynamics and Quantum Field Theory)
December 2012:
There was a meditation retreat at Pengerang, by Kwan Yin Chan Lin, I met Mike (who was part of Awaken Challenge organizer team) there and straight after the retreat, I was involved in the Spiritual Countdown at KMSPKS then stayed overnight for the Alms offering the next day. It was crazy! Anyway in the Spiritual Countdown, I got famous again... in being shameless in singing! Apparently I went back home again for another reunion... and there was the NUSBS Dhamma Camp which I stayed over for the last night. And there was a Pokemon event that I attended. I was playing Pokemon White 2 then which I got during October.
November:
I deactivated my facebook then, so not much information about this month. But I remember going for the retreat in Genting Highlands of the Plum Village tradition. Oh maybe the deactivation was for the NanoWrimo! I got in and won again! Cheated a bit at that.
October:
Got Pokemon White 2. Joined in Intervarsity Dhamma Camp. I think 2 girls are having a crush on me at that time. Joined in a Vero race, was very very active in bringing people out via the Temple Explorers Singapore Group. And started Class at Mangala Vihara on Diploma at Buddhist and Pali College Singapore where I volunteered to be Class Representative.
September:
Joined in an Abhidhamma Course straight after a course on Visuddhi magga, and spent a lot on movies at the Buddhist Film Festival.
