Does it really matter?
Yes it does.
As a primary 2 child, I was already taught the basics of
morality in Civics and Moral Education. The approach was generic
and simple. This is your father. This is your mother. This is your
sibling (I have one sister who is proudly now a 25 year old working
in the medical line). I am ahem.. still looking for a part-time job
to sustain my fulltime postgrad studies.
There are several ways to pitch a baseball, just as there are
several ways to engage in spiritual cultivation. The Buddha himself
spoke of at least 86400 approaches.. but I mastered none. Maybe I
just had a little bit of affinity with Zen, and Zen practitioners
are TROUBLE.
They read sutras like every other Buddhists do, they uphold
precepts, they practise samadhi, and the ultimate purpose is
transcendental wisdom and compassion, but yet, they are notorious
for speaking in Greekish connotations which make it impossible for
moderators to moderate in a forum, and for readers to read
either.
And so, for convenience, we need to go back to basics. There are
five basic precepts across the board in all Buddhism, have you (or
I) done it today?
No I didn't.
Ok it's alright, try harder tomorrow.
Still, the Gautama Buddha was not only a Master of Dharma, a
Teacher, a Healer, he was too a Universal Parent who viewed all as
children, and knew them by their characteristics. As a growing
young adult, I learned alot from him, heck, I loved that guy :)
So you have brothers and sisters, classmates and family,
friends, bosses and coworkers, if you cannot become a monk today,
what can you, or rather, I, a helpless weak and underperforming
blue collar worker and impoverished postgrad student, do for this
world?
As a college student, I once listened to Japanese music (it
was the beginning of my foray into Japanese culture, and
subsequent Zen-ish), and a band struck me as using a unique name:
Do As Infinity.
I was like, wow. Doing, as if this world was, Infinite.
I knew it was something important, eventually I had my first
contact with Samantabhadra, the nice gentleman who sits beside
Avalokitesvara at KMSPKS monastery, on top of a six-tusked
elephant. His ten vows were special, and I learnt to do at least
one of his ten vows, because the other ten were too difficult, if
not impossible in the Dharma-ending era.
Which vow was easy then?
The 10th vow: To transfer all merits and virtues to benefit all
sentient beings.
I was like wow. Buddhism is just so ... broad.
Yet, like my words, which nobody understands anyway, how many
can hold a Buddhist sutra and proclaim full comprehension?
I have a juicy mango in my hand, this is not a religion where
the moderators are allowed to break it up like five loaves of bread
into two fishes into millions, and everybody's stomaches are
filled to the brim and their hungers satisfied,... this is.... the
real deal. Work for it, pretend to work if you cannot work, and if
you do not know how to pretend, then just look nerd and stupid.
Take care of yourself, because this is retrenchment, these are
other religions, this is credit card debts, these are long queues
to the psychiatrist, your family members are your nemesis in a
previous reincarnation, watch the step. To get from here to there,
you can use the raft, or you can use the causeway, you can use the
undersea internet cable pipes. But if you choose to go the undersea
path, stay on the dry side of the pipes.
Oh no, this is also misrepresentation.
Oh great.
Just ignore me. In Singapore, most practitioners are hobbiest
like me. Without the ability to devote time, effort and
wholehearted attention into practice, and with computers running at
3000 millions per second, and 1 retreat in a year, no wonder people
change religions like they change boy/girlfriends and jobs and
houses in this sunny island.
Still, due respect to the the gentleman who 2500 years ago,
founded this time-tested religion.
I tried my best as a student. =)
metta.