My Certs

Hey all,

I’ve not been updating on my personal life for quite long now. But this is not one of the post where I go through all the thing I had done since the last post.

This is about the certs which I had chosen to present for my job application. There are so many certificates by the time you graduate and you’ll realise that to put all these in your CV is totally ridiculous. Some certs like participation in a Scouts Camp during your secondary days and motivation workshop for the national examinations are not even worth mentioning. Here I’ve selected the most important and relevant certs so far for the application of this first job. Only in the first job would these matter, hence the timing of this writing.

There are ten of them in total and I shall go through them one by one, giving perhaps the link to the past posts too.

 

Firstly, the programmes that I am in: Bachelor of Science Course.

1. Dean’s List for meritorious performance in the AY 2008/09 Sem 2 of the Bachelor of Science Course. Link.

This one I had gotten during my sem 2. For the achievement of 4.75 Semester Average Points (SAP). Well, you might think I should had gotten it for every semester. However… there are too many things to handle in a semester, and this was the one where I put almost all my free time into studies. It teaches me that this is not the way I wished to spend my university life: I don’t want to become a Study Machine. So at least I have one. It represents my main course in NUS. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 3^rd one I obtained chronologically, in the beginning of sem 3. I put it first because of the 6+5+5+6=22 modules minimum requirement I took for this.

The next programme is University Scholars Programme.

2. Honour Roll for meritorious academic performance and contributions and achievements beyond the classroom in Academic Year 2009-2010. Link.

This one was because I finished 4 out of 8 first tier modules in USP and also joined in the Buddhism in Asia Global Programme. I felt the most undeserving of this cert, as it is unexpected and I didn’t really did any real work to get it. Plus I am not so close to the USP community. This teaches me that a cert does not represent how exactly the person who has it feels about having one. It represents me being in USP, wherein that time, I do not feel a sense of belonging to. It also teaches me that appreciation may come from the most unexpected places, so appreciate them. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 6^th one I obtained chronologically, in the middle of sem 5. I put it second because of the 12 modules minimum requirement I took for this.

The next one I am however extremely proud of.

3. Special Programme in Science. This is to certify that Ng Xin Zhao has successfully completed the Special Programme in Science.

(on the back) The Special Programme in Science (SPS) is an intense programme in the Faculty of Science that seeks to nurture talents among budding scientists. It is specifically directed at the academically talented students who cherish outstanding scholarship, and delight in the rigorous training of the mind and character.

The Programme introduces students to some of the broad areas of science through seminars, discussions, laboratory and fieldwork. With strong emphasis placed on interdisciplinary science, it offers abundant opportunities for those motivated to embark on in-depth studies of advanced topics that are at the forefront of modern scientific endeavours.

Innovative teaching methods, through peer learning and mentoring, form the basis with which creative and critical thinking is fostered. This dynamism is largely sustained by the passion and enthusiasm that the participants have for intellectual pursuits. Apart from their academic curriculum, students in the Programme are also involved in many enrichment activities organized by the faculty.

Quite the description at the back of the cert! Well, they forgot to mention that SPS has a 24/7 room with bookable table spaces for you for each whole semesters and free food are found not-too-rarely just outside SPS room.

Well, it was my 5 modules that I took for this and it represents one of the hardest achievements in my university life. And one of the most worthwhile achievement too. The mentorship experience certainly opened my eyes to how does it felt like grading, teaching, guiding, mentoring, and being normal (instead of extremely weird). Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 9^th one I obtained chronologically, in the middle of sem 7.

Next up is an internship!

4. Certificate of participation. This certificate is awarded to Mr Ng Xin Zhao of NUS for participating in the Vacation Internship Programme at the Data Storage Institute from 10 May 2010- 20 July 2010. Project: Study of Nanophotonic Integration Technology. Supervisor’s commendation: The student has demonstrated resourcefulness and great skills in theoretical study and programming. He has good attitude in learning and working with the unknown.

This internship lasted less than 12 weeks, between sem 4 and 5, with a meditation retreat in the middle. It was with the A Star. I touched a bit on applied physics here and get to experience the working life of clocking in and out at the exact timing. In my opinion, the work I did in SPS during my sem 3 surpasses the work I got to do here. This experience told me I am not suitable for industry research. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 4^th one I obtained chronologically, in the beginning of sem 5.

After that I had joined in an International event at the beginning of sem 5. It was:

5. 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games 14-26 August 2010 In recognition of your achievements and contribution to the success of the 1^st Summer Youth Olympic Games.

For this event, I travelled to NTU for a few times during the beginning of the semester to help teach the young athletes (teenagers) how to fold origami. It was yet another International event that enabled me to relive for a moment the awesome feeling of being in one. It also has an interesting backstory, involving the Universal Studios ticket that we got for free, that almost came to be but it did not happened. And I am glad it did not happen. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 5^th one I obtained chronologically, in the beginning of sem 5.

When I mentioned the international programme that I was in, it was:

6. The Academic Committee of 38^th International Physics Olympiad Awards to Xin Zhao Ng from Malaysia Honorable Mention 13 to 22 July, 2007, Isfahan, Iran.

It was the one that changed my life, took me away from depression, made me extremely famous in my high school, got me brimming with confidence and turned into arrogance, and put me on the path to become a Physicist. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 1^st one I obtained chronologically, during my high school years, 1 year before entering NUS.

The second one I obtained would be one year later, just before matriculating into NUS.

7. The International Board of the IPhO awards the Silver Medal to Ng Xin Zhao from Malaysia at the 39^th International Physics Olympiad held in Hanoi, Vietnam July 20-29, 2008.

It was the one that got me into newspaper at last! And the one that I bragged on (in)famously during my first (and second) year in NUS. It was also the time when I learned that my name sounds similar to “Hello” in Vietnam. Making me famous there too. It was partially also with this confidence in the interview that got me into SPS.

Now you had seen: First 4 University Programmes, next 3 International Programmes, and the next 3 are the ones that I treasure the most: Spiritual development, or for those without religion, Co-curricular activities.

8. This certificate is hereby awarded to Ng Xin Zhao for services rendered to NUS Buddhist Society as the Deputy Dharma Director of the 31^st Management Committee. February 12, 2011.

This cert represents a lot of hours attending and organizing NUSBS weekly and annual activities with 14 other friends who are kind and nice. It gives me meaning in my second year of University life and gradually changed me from the Study Machine into someone who is balanced and happy!

One of the toughest moments in my NUSBS life that I burned out, but rekindled in the next cert you see. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 7^th one I obtained chronologically, during the Dana Lunch 2011, middle of sem 6 for services rendered during sem 3 and 4.

9. This certificate is hereby awarded to Ng Xin Zhao For his services rendered to NUS Buddhist Society as the Vice President of the 32^nd Management Committee AY 2010/11

This is the year when I was at my peak in NUSBS. Doing more jobs than I did in the past year that I did not thought possible, fulfilling a lot of successful events, managed a cool team of people who are nice and kind and good in their own way, and the one year that made me prouder than ever for being in NUSBS. It does gives me a lot of work to let go later on. However, while it lasted, it was nice. Nice to the full end of nice. I miss the 32^nd MC! (Which we have been keeping in touch too, more of that next time.)

It was also reminder of one of the few events in NUSBS that I helped out after stepping down. Yup, hard for me to let go…Dana Lunch 2012 where this cert was given was one such event, making this the last of the cert that I chronologically obtained, in the middle of sem 8. Another activity that I helped out was a bit earlier, it was:

10. Certificate of Participation Awarded to Ng Xin Zhao For the successful completion of Intervarsity Youth Leadership Dharma Camp 2011 (24 to 25^th September)

One of the few things that made this event and Dana Lunch 2012 worth mentioning is that it is when a lot of Buddhist Organizations were involved. In Dana Lunch 2012, the TIBS was invited with 12 External Buddhist Organizations sharing about themselves. In the Intervarsity Youth Leadership Dharma Camp 2011, it was Fo Guang Shan who hosted the TIBS in assisting us to share our common problems and solutions to them. It was a tremendous morale boost to all who participated and I was glad to be one of the few who represented NUSBS in the planning stage, and in the sharing stage. Being the 8^th cert I got, in the middle of sem 7, it also serves as a reminder to not delude myself, and a dangerous reminder of just how easy it was to fall back into delusion without a proper ending to safeguard the mind and senses. Perhaps only one person would understand this, but oh well. I’ll still put it here.

Now that you’ve seen my University life, you can roughly conclude that I was:

Playful and arrogant during Sem 1, so I didn’t got Dean’s List then,

A Study Machine in Sem 2, so I got the Dean’s List,

A research intensive person in Sem 3, part of the reason I am proud to be in SPS,

Getting into more Spirituality in Sem 4, with a meditation retreat in the middle of my internship!

Receiving and making good fortunes in Sem 5, where I got a recognition I didn’t anticipated, and decided to be Vice President of NUSBS,

Got more involved in spirituality than in studies in Sem 6, wherein I still didn’t get Dean’s List and was planning for big things to happen (Intervarsity Dharma Camp and Dana Lunch 2012).

Trying to let go, very hard no less, in Sem 7, wherein I was still involved in NUSBS and

Finally, involved in mentoring in Sem 8, as mentioned in the SPS part.

Done.

Resume

Name: Ng Xin Zhao

Fellowships and Awards:

Honourable Mention for the International Physics Olympiad 2007

Silver Medal for the International Physics Olympiad 2008

Anugerah Belia Remaja Pendidikan 2008

Dean’s List 2009, Semester 2

USP Honours Roll 2010

Education:

Malacca High School: Upper and Lower 6.

Obtained Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia

Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (Malaysian Higher School Certificate)
Pengajian Am (General Paper)	A-
Mathematics T	A
Further Mathematics T	A
Physics	A
Chemistry	A

National University of Singapore (NUS): Currently year 3 Majoring in Physics, second major in Mathematics.

Part of the Special Programme in Science (SPS), exposed to research early

Part of the University Scholars Programme (USP), a multidisciplinary Programme that accepts 3% of the whole NUS undergraduate students.

Part of Special Programme in Mathematics (SPM).

Areas of Research Interest or Areas of Specialization or Areas of Competence/ Expertise or Principal Research:

Physics, Mathematics, Done review on Closed Timelike Curves (General Relativity), Done Computational Research on finding Consistent Closed Timelike Curve in van-Stockum Universe, Photonics: micro ring resonator, Quantum information: Nonlocality Distillation.

Skills acquired:

Basic C programming, reviewing paper, writing research paper, Matlab, Mathematica, Presentation skills, poster making.

Jobs:

Taught Further Mathematics Personal Tuition for 2 months.

Internship at Data Storage Institute (DSI) as research assistant for 3 months.

Languages: English, Chinese, Malay.

Volunteering Experiences:

Youth Olympic Games 2010 in Singapore.

Co-Curricular involvement:

Assistant Publication of NUS Physics Society for 2008/09

Deputy Dharma Director for NUS Buddhist Society for 2009/10

Vice President of NUS Buddhist Society for 2010/11

Outside of Classroom involvement:

Joined Science Buskers and won the qualifying round.

Global Programme with USP, Buddhism in Asia, focusing on research at Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan.

Short-term noviciation for monkhood programme in Mangala Vihara for 15 days.

Others: Mensan

New Semester Busy Day, Busy Life

I'm very sorry for not updating things up to now, a clear sign that I was too busy to be stressed out. The below will be a outline for more contents when I am in the right mode to write about them, so don't complain that it might be too dry.

Since coming back from Thailand and taiwan, I have went to NUS and helped out in Physics Enrichment Camp, then came back to Petaling Jaya for the INCOVAR dharma camp, wasted one month playing games and stressing out from the pressure of wanting to write the Buddhism in Asia paper.

So I had to go back by 14th July to NUS to finish up my paper in 2 horrendously short weeks including 2 hours round trip from Woodlands where I stayed in my uncle's home to NUS. Then I had to prepare a slide for presenting my paper.

After that, it's Momentum magazine publishing time. I and Ronald got too many articles for the Momentum and now it's 4 extra pages compared to last years ones. Work is stil in progress but finishing by this week. I retired from Physics Society too to make space for the upcoming NUSBS and Nam Wah Pai CCAs.

Which talking about NUSBS, I had to choose between SPS Newbie orientation camp and NUSBS MC retreat which is at the same time, different place. I joined the Camp Ehi Passiko in East Coast Park, therefore missing my SPS camp trial. And now looking back at the photos and videos of SPS NOC, one has to admit that one shouldn't miss that for the world. Well, I am running for the Dharma Director or Deputy post in NUSBS and even had an interview where I realised that spending every Monday, Wednesday, Friday evennigs, and Saturday mornings every week is not enough for the Dharma Director or the Deputy.

Then continuing on from Saturday morning, I'm to join Nam Wah Pai's traning in the afternoon. I've just came back from the Combined Martial Arts Display (CMAD) there and I am amazed at how cool all these performentses are. Really inspired me to write a good scipt for them to incorparate all 9 or 10 martial arts club in the almost 2 hours show.

Now I'm a bit conflicted, with so many CCAs I'm involving in right now, I'm busy almost the whole week doing my CCAs instead of studying or doing my 7 and a half modules (normally people take 5 or 6). Tuesday I sacrificed my lab for Momentum (and finding and downloading OnePiece songs), Wednesday I spend my afternoon learning Black and White Photography developing cause the Demo Lab (I'm having a part time job there now) has not got the expected visitors. Then straight to NUSBS Dharma Subcom meeting/recuitment. Then I've taken some time to go for USS class only to come back to the meeting. Then from 9p.m. onwards, I've gone on a travelling trip around campus to paste the THIS buddhism film festival posters. Thursday, once I've finished my 6 hours of lectures from 8am to 2pm, I've gone to the UCC and helped out but more like hang out at the CMAD where I see their last reheasal and their actual performers until 10p.m. when I left and come back to SPS. Friday I'm going to Dharma Circle at night and Saturday, welfare visit during the morning and Nam Wah Pai welcome tea in the afternoon.

All these made me missed a lot of IS meetings, and due to my not attending SPS NOC, I've relatively poor knowledge of who's who in our current newbie. Plus the amount of time I've spend going out to do CCAs, I'm rarely in the room, except at night.

Not only I've missed SPS happenings, I've also missed a few lab sessions that I should attend. By the way my 7 and a half modules are:
PC2132 Classical Mechanics
PC2131 Electricity and Magnetism 1
PC2193 Experimental Physics 1
CS1231 Discrete Structures
PC3274 Mathematical Methods for Physics 2
PC3232 Nuclear and Particle Physics
SP2172 Investigating Science
and USS2105 University Scholar Seminar the half.

So you see that it is very desirable for me to finish up my lab as soon as possible to accomodate for other things. That's why I'm conflicted as to my real direction in NUS. It seems a fool of me if I think that I can excel well in everything, but I still want to try. I need time to review my theoretical classes too as they are new to me and mathematically demanding as in I need to know how to read the physics from the maths.

Ok, sorry for the long talking, the dam has stored a lot of water and finally it brakes. Now I've got to find a way to sleep for the 8am meeting with Phil Chan for the questions that I and a few friends are going to ask (Lord) Martin Rees on next Monday. (You see how busy I am? It's impossible to say Yes to everything in life, Yes Man is still a fiction.)

Buddhism in Asia

One year ago, three students started planning a trip to overseas to study about religions. After much discussions and research, they came to form a plan for a research trip to Thailand and Taiwan to study about Buddhism in Asia. This trip is then proposed under the University Scholars Program Global Program, thus USP will subsidize the trip to allow the students to learn and share their knowledge to the world.

On April 2009, a team of 11 undergraduate students, one Masters graduate, and one Professor was formed. The team is to go on a trip consisting of three legs of journey, from Singapore 13th-14th May, to Thailand 16th-22nd May and finally Taiwan 22nd-30th May. This is in order to study the Theravadan Tradition in Thailand, the Mahayana Tradition in Taiwan, and its mixture in Singapore.
On the Singapore leg, we learned that even the monastics can be involved in Buddhist research. There are many areas to look upon, from the Vinaya to Politics, from Textual Studies to Modernization of Buddhism, from History to Transnational spreading of Buddhism. There is even a Buddhist College in Singapore! There’s also the Singapore Buddhist Federation that serves to unify all Buddhist institutions and Buddhists in Singapore.

There are three examples of Buddhism in Singapore; Tzu Chi Foundation in Singapore represents the import of Taiwanese Buddhism in Singapore complete with the same architecture as the original building in Taiwan and the same functions of Jing Si bookstore静思书轩, along with the same activities, and ideas. The same goes for Wat Ananda and Wat Palelai, reflecting the Theravadan Tradition from Thailand. Guang Ming Shan Temple however sees the unique combination of both Theravadan and Mahayana tradition in its architecture and also local Chinese influences.

In Thailand where more than 90% of the population is Buddhist, we learned that the Buddhist temple in Phuket practices monk worshipping. The people pray and ask for fortune, health, and success. The temple also serves as a tourist attraction area. In Surat Thani, Suanmok, we have the chance to learn about a renewal of forest tradition based on the Tripitaka by Bhikkhu Buddhadasa due to the corruption of the true dharma mentioned earlier. Suanmok forest tradition, which is a short distance away from the city, provides exposure camps to school children, opportunity for the lay and monastics to undergo silent retreat (no talking) for 6 months straight, and a place where one can renounce and become a monk.

In Nakhon Si Thammarat, the stupa that contained the Buddha’s relics is “guarded” by demons, animals, decorated with influences by Hinduism. This reflects the belief that the Buddha is regarded as one of the reincarnation of the God Vishnu in Hinduism. In fact there are many local influences in Thailand; the people still pay respect to the city pillar, the heart of the city, and in hotels and supermarkets, there are altars set up to worship the local spirit in the place. Besides that, the people in Thailand wear all kinds of amulets for protection, health and blessings. In fact, the amulet market in Bangkok is a multi-million dollar business.

Talking about Bangkok, Wat Pho is located next to the Grand Palace, both huge and luxurious; this is a good strategy to instate Bangkok as the centre of Thailand. Monastics in Thailand receive government supplies and help and in return, the king of Thailand is supported by Buddhism. The existence of Universities in Bangkok also establishes it as the centre for monastic education. Being a monastic also guarantees a free education up to University, this is sometimes used for climbing up the social ladder in Thailand, as some monks disrobes and takes up jobs after graduating.

According to our Guide, the people in Thailand know basic Buddhism along with many Traditional beliefs. There are many ways to practise Buddhism including the strict forest tradition by Ajahn Chah in Ubon Ratchathani. Our group has the priceless experience of staying overnight in Wat Pah Nanachat, international forest monastery. The monastic there wakes up at 3 a.m. for the morning puja, gone for alms round at 5:30a.m. and take their one meal per day at 8a.m. After noon time, they go for meditation, have tea at 4p.m. and come back only at 6p.m. for the evening puja.
After a tiring journey across Thailand, we flew to Taipei, Taiwan. There we are fortunate to visit Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) 法鼓山 and received a warm welcome. Its founder, the late Master Sheng Yen empathises on education, protection of the spiritual environment, and balance between understanding and practise of the Dharma. In line with this effort, DDM Sangha University, Chung Hua Institute of Buddhist Studies, DDM Buddhist College and the upcoming DDM University are built to spread the seed of Dharma to everyone. They have outreach activities supported by the donations and an impressive temple ground complete with bell for the visitors to ring. They present traditional Buddhism in a modern way using wisdom and original intensions of the Buddha to stay true to Buddhism.

In general the Buddhist movement in Taiwan is of Humanistic Buddhism 人间佛教 which started from Master Tai Xu’s effort to change Buddhism from the religion of funerals during the late Ching清 dynasty to a religion that actively involves in the human activities. This is most clearly seen from Tzu Chi’s慈濟effort around the world. In accordance with their four main mission of Education, Medicine, Charity and Culture, many schools, hospitals, relief aid teams are deployed in helping the needy. There are also classes of flower arrangement, tea making in the Hua Lien Tzu Chi University. The medical students use the body of willing deceased donors as their silent teacher in anatomy classes, learning respect and gratitude towards their silent teachers. The Tzu Chi Hospital in Hua Lien, there are even places where the terminally sick patients of different religion can see their religious symbols just before they die. This clearly shows that Tzu Chi belief in Buddhism in Action, and the nuns under Master Cheng Yen, the founder of Tzu Chi, support themselves by working in the farms. With the spirit of Buddhism reflected through their actions rather than speech, Tzu Chi managed to pull in 10 million members worldwide making monthly donations to support the various activities. Amongst the members are non-Buddhist too and the halls and functions of Tzu Chi are always careful to be sensitive towards people with other religions.

Finally, Buddha Light Mountain佛光山 founded by Master Hsing Yun in Kaohsiung is our last stop in Taiwan’s mega temples. With holy water, Buddhist hymns singing, Big Buddha statue, pure land cave exhibit, and museums, it is clear that Buddha Light Mountain incorporates modern elements to spread Buddhism too. With millions of members in Buddha Light International Associations, it is also not negligent in education as there is Buddha Light University in Yilan and Buddhist College in the temple itself for all to live and learn the way of the Sangha. In short, the trip was enlightening, with many details unaccounted for here, but the most important lesson is to practise the dharma even when researching Buddhism.

Buddhism in Asia Singapore Leg Day 1, 13th May

Sorry for being gone for so long, now I'm going to update this blog heavily. So before the trip, we travelled to various places in Singapore to the a feel of what form does Buddhism takes in Singapore.

Our day started with a briefing session in USP building, level 7. There I was, at 9:10 a.m. thinking that I'm late despite rushing on to school all the way from Woodlands. But then there was a change in schedule and venue, and I'm spared of the shame of being late on the very first day.

So our speakers are both members of the Sangha and arrive at around 9:40 a.m. Venerable Bodhi, whom I've meet before in NUSBS Dharma Camp and Venerable Chuan Cheng from the Singapore Buddhist Acedemic research. Venerable Chuan Cheng talked about his experience as one of the director in the Buddhist Acedemy, apparantly, the Acedemy is for members of the Sangha to train in adecemic research at an undergraduate level, and was finding hard for the support of other Universities to acknowledge their programme and take their students to Masters and Ph.D levels.

Venerable Bodhi continued the discussion by briefing us on Buddhist Research. The history of modern Buddhist research came from the Westerners discovering relics of the Buddha in India and verified that the Buddha in Buddhism was a real person that existed, hence the "historical Buddha". Then they started to take interest in what Buddhism is, which text of Buddhism came first and so on.

Buddhist research itself can be divided into many different parts: the research into Vinaya, and textual studies on the Tripitaka (as we shall see later this is taken up by the people in Fo Guang Shan) , the Politics (Thailand is one interesting example of how much the influcence of religion can affect politics) , Sociopolitical (same as before, just adding a social to it), the History of the spreading of Buddhism( of what happened after the parinibbana of the Buddha to the present day) , Neuroscience (where the workings of the mind as described in Buddhist text are compared to the findings of science), Transnational Buddhism (different forms of Buddhism in different countries, their interactions, their similarities and differences), Transreligion, modernisation of Buddhism and so on.

Then we had a nice luncheon with the Venerables in Enginneeing Canteen, during which I asked them if I can be a monk and hold Ph.Ds, and the answer is of course, yes, but if it is Physics, then they adviced me to fulfil whatever worldly chase that I want to first before becoming a monk.

After the lunch, we went to Geylang to visit the Singapore Buddhist Federation (SBF). We do our first time introduction in the bus, and then it's Venerable Chuan Guang's time to show us around the modern building of the SBF. Inside the 6? or 7? story building, there are the main shrine hall, and classrooms, and office rooms. During the tour around SBF building, the others were puzzled by my acquaintance with the second venerable of the day, and it's from the same camp.

Later on we had a talking session with Venerable and he outlined the objective of SBF.

SBF Objectives

To unify all Buddhist institutions and Buddhists in Singapore.

To observe Buddhist precepts, to practise Buddhism and to propagate Dharma.

To promote culture, education and social welfare.

Singapore Buddhist Federation(SBF) was initiated and formed by the chinese community of Buddhist in 1948.It is the parent body of Singapore Buddhist organisations and followers.It consist of the following components:

The Singapore Buddhist Federation Foundation was set up in the late 1990s. It was renamed as the Singapore Buddhist Community Foundation on 24 June 2005 to reflect more appropriately its objective to serve the community. It aims to bring relief to those suffering in the following areas:

• Extending assistance to victims of disasters (e.g. floods, famines, pandemics and wars).
• Offering help to individuals and their family members who are unable to work due to old age, sickness or accidents.
• Awarding bursaries to students from primary to tertiary levels.
• Supporting organisations that share similar objectives as the Foundation (e.g. hospitals, educational institutions, refugee camps, orphanages).
• Sponsoring educational, cultural and religious organisations.

The above is taken from the website itself. His blog is : www.buddhavacana.net.

According to him, Buddhism can be classified as Theravada-Sri Langka, Burma, Thai, Cambodia and Mahayana Buddhism-China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Tibet (Vrajayana), 2 main schools within Mahayana is Chan (Zen) and Pure Land Buddhism. At the question and answer session, he shared that if someone said that different religion is just different routes to the same place, it is not exactly true. It's more like being on the road, just because you are drive a certain car to a certain place, you don't have to shout to the person next to you that they are moving in the wrong direction.

After some more photo taking session, we went off to the Singapore Tzu Chi Branch. Right in the front entrance of the Tzu Chi Building, it is the picture of the Abode of Still Thoughts (one of the places we are going to visit). We were guided to the video presentation. In the presentation, there were many instances of Tzu Chi helping people in Singapore, no matter how hopeless, no matter how poor, no matter how much help they need, and not as a one off event, they keep on coming back to check out on the progress of the person they helped. Teach a person how to plant instead of giving him vegetables. The video also highlighted the 4 missions of Tzu Chi, namely Charity, Medicine, Education, and Culture.

After the video, we had a sharing with one of the volunteer of Tzu Chi. She recalled her experience of volunteering for Tzu Chi and that her husband was initially against her coming to volunteer instead of spending more time working. But through slow cultivation of loving-kindness and compassion, she had gain her families' trust and support and even her husband is now starting to volunteer for Tzu Chi. Before this, she punished her children for getting 90 marks in an exam (instead of 100 marks) , but after joining Tzu Chi, she had a more open mind and is just grateful that her child is healthy and well. One particular touching episode is that later on, her child called to ask her whether she will come back for dinner, indicating that they wanted her back at home.

After the experience of Tzu Chi, one is tempted to join them and be one of their big family as everyone called each other brother or sister. They even have a bookstore where one can buy organic grains, instant rice (for relief aid purposes), and compressible chopsticks. After that, we had a discussion of what we learned during the day and off we went back to our homes in Singapore!

Buddhism in Asia Day 1, 16th May

Woke up around 5:00 a.m. then got ready to reach the Changi airport, budget terminal by 6:15a.m. credit must go to my uncle for being so accurate in the timing. The plane starts on 8:15 and reaches Phuket, Thailand on 8:45 local time, which is +7 instead of our +8. So after reaching the airport so early, we had to wait for the travel agent to pick us up at the airport, the first meal (breakfast) that we had to cover for ourselves is in the airport. Well, I'm a bit surprised as I thought that the meals should be covered, but it seems that I wasn't careful enough in reading "Students will have to pay for other expenses such as meals, local transportation (if any) etc, where applicable"

So, after the travel agent picked us up, we got to our first temple visit in Phuket!

Wat Chalong

Which I just got the name from the internet and more information about it than what I've learned from there. http://www.phuket.com/island/wat-chalong.htm
Well, reproducing and analysing my field notes, this is what I've gotten:
Thai King is a reincranation of the god Vishnu of the Hindu religion that protects the people. There are monks statues for worshipping and fortune telling which is a variant from Chinese traditions. The flag of thailand has 3 colours, red-white-blue to symbolise the nation-religion-king, with 94.7% of the people are theravadan buddhist. It can be seen that the temple is an example of very large deviation from the tripitaka. The function of Buddhism in Thailand is a unifying factor and the function of the temple is mainly for tourist attraction.

At 12:00p.m., we continue our journey towards Surat Thani (the city of good people) and reached our first hotel at 4:30p.m. Banjung Buri Hotel. During the trip on the bus, I learned a lot about the humanistics, art and social sciences, collectively I shall call the "Arts" from talks with William, Jack and Prof. It seems that the people from Arts believe that there is some internal consistency of the human behaviour, that they can explain some social trend and infer the rules from observing the world. In physics terms, it's like deducing General Relativity from the observation of the bending of lights by gravity. But the people in Arts don't expect to make any predictions about the world in which we live in. Well, anyway this just shows that they actually think that what they do makes sense, by just using common sense. And the ideas that people has thought before has been assumed to be thought by a resonable person using reasonable evidences. The theories are variable, (which they said it's like physics eg, the theory of gravitation it's hard to argue with them that their rule changes every now and then, but gravity doesn't) then they build upon the "old theories" by these "earlier" people and construct the whole of their social sciences without much use of maths.

Ok, now about the night time, we went to a boating seafood dinner at $10 singapore dollar (another blow towards my not expecting to use any money on the trip). Well, one thing I need to say about this is that it really is a nice experience, worth the money. We went on a boat on a river and had our seafood dinner while the boat is moving. While we were eating, our host on the Karaoke and we get to choose the songs we want and sing. We went upstream all the while, to see fireflies! After I've finished eating, I went to the front of the boat and stood there, wondering if this is the life that Luffy (OnePiece) wanted, strangely enough, I didn't feel any fear of falling or of the boat (made of wood) sinking. Then a few moments later, we stopped and waited for the appearance of fireflies in the darkness. Then like Christmas trees, lights appeared on a few trees along the river! The synchronization is amazing, every firefly on a tree blink its light with the others almost perfectly. Then I had to go to the toilet, so in the darkness of the ship, I when down to the toilet on the ship and took my time. It was only that when I came up that the boat started moving back again. It took one more hour to go back, so in the mean time, we sang the songs that we wanted. I choosed "I believe I can fly".

Well, we went back to the hotel later on and got into our beds, my roommate is Yean Chert.