Tzu Chi Quality Food Products

This video has finally cleared my doubts as to how the nuns of the Jing Si Dharma lineage of Master Cheng Yen could practise and uphold the principle of "No work no meal" since their very humble beginning. Master Cheng Yen is the founder of Tzu Chi Organization. Master Cheng Yen and her nuns uphold the vow of "No work no meal" principle, meaning they do not rely on donations for their livelihood. They work to produce products for sale, and they use their sales proceeds to maintain their livelihood. 

This video also convinced me that Tzu Chi's food products are worth purchasing and consuming. For me these are the four reasons. First, they are produced with the most stringent hygienic standards with the best natural quality ingredients. Second, they are produced with love. Third, I contribute to support the welfare of the nuns, a most wholesome charitable act. Fourth, they are value for money.

Tzu Chi Hari Raya Celebration And Hamper Distribution

With pachik Yussof this morning at the Penang Tzu Chi centre for the Hari Raya celebration and hamper distribution. This was my first time. Pachik Yussof also helps out at the Lumba Kuda recycling and education centre.

I offer free simple haircutting service

Hi everyone on this beautiful island of Penang. I offer free haircut service to anyone in need of a simple haircut; who for whatever reason is not able to do so.

My service is free and without any condition. However for those who seem to have certain principle that payment must be made, then just contribute whatever amount that makes you happy.  

This is the link to my "Simple Haircutting Service" facebook

Recycling The Tzu Chi Way

Twenty-six years ago Tzu Chi started recycling of papers to save trees from being cut down rampantly. Now its recycling programmes encompass almost everything, and has spread throughout the world. 

I too, do my little part helping out at tc local recycling centre once a week. More work less talk. The Master encourages everyone to participate in recycling. This brilliant project gives everyone the chance to contribute to society. Everyone can do it. The Master used to say, "recycling gives us happiness and keeps us healthy." "Just do it!" Or in Taiwanese Hokkien "choe toh tio lah."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqaQNGogY7I

Recycling Program The Tzu Chi Way : My Hubpages article.

How To Know If The Egg Is Fresh

How to Determine if an Egg is Fresh?

Fill container with warm water, and put the egg in it. 

If the egg sinks flat to the bottom of the container, then it is fresh.  If it floats, then it is not fresh.

Take a look at the picture.  It's so easy.  

The Naked Boat Pullers Of China

Have you read about the naked boat pullers of China alon a stretch of the great Yangtze River?  Or maybe you have watched on video or even have personally visited the place and taken a ride on one of those little boats navigating by the side of bare cliffs with hanging coffins.

To read more on this interesting and fascinating adventure, please go to my article in Hubpages. 

In the meantime enjoy the video below.  It is in the Cantonese dialect.

I cry for you, Malaysia! Professor Swee Tan

I cry for you Malaysia!






And you can read HERE:

Tzu Chi : What unconditional compassion can achieved

Do you want to know what sincere love and unconditional compassion can achieve? This is not about one specific religion. It is about universal values. If you are a universal person who  believes in universal values of love and compassion, then

you should watch this video. Don't short-changed yourself.

After watching the video, if you wish to know more about Tzu Chi please read my article here:

http://goodguy.hubpages.com/hub/Tzu-Chi-Foundation-Master-Cheng-Yen

Tzu Chi, the greatest and most effective relief organization

(Tzu Chi Blue Angels)

Tzu Chi is perhaps the greatest and most effective international relief organization in the world.  The person behind this is Master Cheng Yen, who founded the Tzu Chi Foundation and is the spiritual mentor and motivator of all the Tzu Chi chapters worldwide.

Whenever there is a crisis or disaster, Tzu Chi volunteers will be amongst the first to arrive to help and relieve those in need of help.  These fully committed volunteers are always ready to spring to action immediately with love and compassion.  No wonder they are compassionately referred to as the "Blue Angels"!

Tzu Chi always delivers relief hands-on to the recipients with grace, love and humility and respect for the receivers.  It is just amazing how Tzu Chi is so effective.  Apart from international relief work, Tzu Chi has a wide spectrum of aids ranging from medical, social, to education. 

To read more please go to my article in Hubpages: CLICKHERE   

Playing the piano is easy.Even a five-year old can play.

Hey, I never knew playing piano is so easy.  Even a five-year old can play it so well.  I am taking back my old piano and start playing like this young boy in five weeks' time!

Elvis Presley The Cat King

 Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977)

Elvis Presley, the King.  Do you know Elvis had a very strange name in Chinese?  Cat King! 

I bet a lot of Chinese till today do not know how this name came about.  Maybe Elvis looked like a cat, or sang like one.  More probably he gyrated like a cat on heat.  

Want to know?  Then go to my Hubpages article CLICK HERE:

Sabrina Yeap, the real angel

 

Sabrina Yeap passed away so suddenly at the age of 49.  Who is she?  She was the real angel to all furry animals especially dogs.  She was an orphan since a baby, and she definitely knew what neglect and loneliness were all about. With a heart of compassion, she had saved many dogs from abuse, neglect and starvation.  Her Furry Friends Farm in Kundang village in Sungai Buloh, is well-known to animal lovers. 

May her journey into the future be as fruitful as this, minus the trials and tribulations.   

For full story, please read the Star write-up HERE, HERE, HERE.

To know Furry Friends Farm CLICK HERE

To understand China in real perspective

This TED Talks video by Martin Jacques is worth watching, if you are looking forward to the next century or next decade of human civilization, for that matter.  Martin Jacques (born 1945) is a British author, editor and academic. 

Below is from Wikipedia :

During the last year he has been a visiting professor at the International Centre for Chinese Studies at Aichi University in Japan, a visiting professor at Renmin University in Beijing and a senior visiting fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. In 2009, Jacques' book about Asian modernity and the rise of China entitled When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order was published. He is a columnist for The Guardian and New Statesman.

Meditation to see things as they really are.

(The imposing Main Meditation Hall of the Dhamma Malaya Vipassana Centre, Gambang, Kuantan, Malaysia)

To-day I wish to write about meditation.  What a boring subject.  Rightfully this should be posted in my Buddhist blog "Life Is Like That".  I am writing about the meditation as taught by the Buddha over 2500 years ago.  Actually it has nothing to do with the so-called "religion".  Buddha never introduced any sectarian religion.  He just revealed the universal truths of existence.  These truths you can see for yourself.  Truth like the impermanence of anything and everything in existence.  Truth like the unsatisfactoriness of our existence.  Truth like all of us carry a heavy baggage within ourselves; greed, hatred and egoism.  But then again, people will want to point finger that Buddhism is still a religion because they want to believe in something else.

Be that as it may, let's talk about meditation in the Buddhist perspective.  The main object of Buddhist meditation is to train the mind to see reality, to see things as they really are.  Do you know, we look but don't see?  Once we can come to terms with the laws of nature, understand and accept them as they are, we will begin to change our way of thinking, and we will live in a more accommodating and understanding way of life.  We don't fight nature anymore.  We flow with nature.  Then we have nothing to complain, our lives will be more peaceful.

I have done meditation since I was a young man, but never achieve  much as I was and still am not a serious enough meditator.  Next week I shall be going for a 10-day meditation retreat.   Away from everything; purely meditation from 4.30 in the early morning till 9 at night, for 10 consecutive days.

This course is introduced by S.N. Goenka  and is taught by him and his assistance in centres around the world.  Fortunately for me, they have started one in Penang, hidden by the hillside, up from the Rifle Range Flats area. I will be in the very first batch. 

For those interested to find out more, please go to the following sites:

Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka

Malaysia Vipassana Centre

Vipassana at work in Malaysia : Video

*************************************************************

(Postscript :  I had to postpone this trip due to unforseen circumstances.  I shall update in due course)

********************************
Update 29 December 2012: I have attended the 10-day course on 5 December 2012.  To read please CLICK HERE.

Please take good care of your health

This post is a "copy & paste" from a cancer survivor's blog :

Please reflect very seriously on CT Chang's closing advice:
"I am also sending out a message to all healthy people. You can see how difficult the life of a cancer patient can be. Please spend sometime on your health. It's worth it."

Day After Day

The other day, an anonymous reader said "by writing every single day, and mentioning about your cancer, wouldn't that be reminding you constantly that you are not well, and you continue to dwell in the sea of depression?" I did give a short reply then but today, I thought I would thought I would touch on that topic a little more. I am happy he or she asked that question.

When you discovered you have cancer, after all the initial shock or whatever you want to call it, you will quickly wake up and realise that you now have cancer. Some people chose to remain angry questioning "why me?" and can spend their rest of the remaining life angry with every one and still not get an answer. Some others chose to accept the reality and make the best out of it. No matter which path one chooses, as a cancer patient, we live with the cancer day in and day out. Once you have cancer, it will stay with you forever. Even after in remission, you are living with the fear of recurrence.

There are so many things happening in a day. From the moment I wake up, I feel the sickness, it's only a question of whether its was better or worst than yesterday. Of course, many cancer patients keep themselves busy with various activities throughout the day. Hopefully during those times, the mind is off the illness. When the illness is improving or stable, then it is much easier to manage. But when the illness is progressing, got more things to think about. There are many things a cancer patient has the decide as well. For example, if the cancer has spread, do you tell it to your family, siblings and parents? When in pain, do you show your pain in front of your family, siblings and parents? Like I was coughing blood, I had to do it quietly because if my parents see me oozing so much blood, it will cause them great pain. Also when I need to cry, I have to find a solitary place to do it, hiding my emotional pain. When I am depressed, I have to act in a normal way and yet at the same time pacify my emotions. Otherwise people around you get worried too. Then there are therapies to consider and research. Funds running low. And the lists goes on.
One of the main charcteristics of cancer is pain, excruciating pain at times. It sticks with you 24 hours a day whether you are aware of it or not. At times when the pain score is low, maybe 2 or 3, the pain is in the background and I can mostly ignore it. This is considered comfortable and of course as the pain score rises, the only way to keep the pain at bay is to take pain killers. My worst experience was in Chongqing, China after my TAE procedure. Morphine is the mother of all pain killers. Even after receiving the morphine jab, I could still feel the excruciating pain. If it was possible I would want to end my life then.

I find blogging very therapeutic. It allows me to express my thoughts and emotions, reflect on what's going on with me, my life and my illness. It also allows me to come into contact with many people, especially other cancer patients as well. The mutual sharing and support for each other. Some readers go out the way to write to me, phone me and console me while others prefer to write in the comments. Some readers go even further by providing me with some funds or training. All these helps me to cope better.

I am also sending out a message to all healthy people. You can see how difficult the life of a cancer patient can be. Please spend sometime on your health. It's worth it.

*******************************************************************

 I  made a comment on his post:

Hi Chang,

I am past 60. Each day I live to remind myself that another day alive is a bonus. My top priority is good health. And I try my best to eat right, drink right and think right. The specter of death at anytime is very real to me.

Thank you for sharing your honest thoughts and feelings with us. It certainly is very therapeutic.

I take the liberty to "copy & paste" your posting in my blog. Hope your permission is given.

Take care.

The World's Greatest Magician is not Copperfield

So you think David Copperfield is the world's greatest magician.  You are so wrong.  Met Lu Chen from Taiwan, truly; THE World's Greatest Magician.  After watching the video below, you can follow up with his other unbelievable magic in the other Youtube videos.

He is simply the greatest...without any prop. 

What is compassion?

What is compassion? The dictionary explains:

"Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it."

We humans have the conscience to feel for others' suffering.  Whether we are compassionate or not is another matter.  The level of compassion of a person also depends on this person's spititual interpretation.  Let's take a look at this piece of story which was sent to me recently.  After reading through, you may like to contemplate what compassion is all about.

**********************************

Humans can stop and think before they act...if attention is drawn to the pain and suffering of what they are about to do.

This buffalo has changed the life of these butchers - heart-rending news story from China

This buffalo has changed the life of these butchers.

人性的光輝面... The Bright Side of Human Nature ... The buffalo standing still, sad and frightened to tears 水牛淚流不止。Buffalo weeping nonstop.     2011年4月16日 星期六 人性的光輝面...The Bright Side of Human Nature... 主旨： 這頭水牛改變了這些屠宰工的一生This buffalo has changed the lives of these butchers The Buffalo standing still, sad and frightened to tears According to the news release from China’s People’s News, whether people believe it or not, this incident actually happened in Hong Kong. The Weekly World Newsreported that a group of workers were bringing a water buffalo into a packaging factory, ready to slaughter it to make steak and beef stew. When they approached the front door of the slaughterhouse, the sorrowful buffalo suddenly stood still, refusing to move forward, kneeling on its two front knees, and with tears streaming from its eyes. How could the buffalo have already been aware that it was going to be slaughtered, before entering the slaughterhouse? This shows that it was even more alert than many a person. "When I saw what is believed to be a stupid animal actually crying, and when I noticed that its eyes were full of fear and sadness, I could not help but shiver." Extremely shocked by this, butcher Shiu Tat-Nin recalled: "I quickly called other people to come see, and they were as surprised as I was! We pushed and pulled the water buffalo, but it would not move; it just sat there crying constantly." Billy Fong, the boss of the Hong Kong packaging plant said, "Mankind has always thought that animals are not like people who can cry, but this buffalo is really sobbing like a baby!" At that time there were at least a dozen strong, burly men present, but their hearts were softened by the buffalo's crying, and those who were responsible for killing water buffaloes were even more touched by this, tears welling out of their eyes.   Buffalo weeping non-stop When workers from other slaughterhouses heard the news, they also ran to the crying and kneeling buffalo, and the site was soon crowded with people who were astonished at what they saw. Three of them were so shocked that they said that from now on, even when they slaughter other kinds of animals, they will never forget that buffalo’s tears. At the point when a buffalo is crying and people are crying as well, we can all be sure that none of them will kill the buffalo now. Then the question was how to take care of this matter. Finally, they decided to buy the water buffalo with cash, and then they sent it to a Buddhist temple, for the monastic to take good care of it, so that it could be assured of living out its life peacefully. When this decision was made, an amazing thing happened again: "When there was an assurance that the buffalo would not be killed, it finally agreed to move, got up, and it’s here with us." How could a water buffalo understand human words? Shiu said: "Whether you believe it or not, this is really true, although it sounds really incredible." Undoubtedly, this buffalo has changed the lives of these butchers.

How we view life

We usually see America or USA to be precise, as a nation of plenty.  This CBS 60 Minutes video, shows the stark side of USA.  Don't worry, you don't have to spend 30 minutes watching this.  This video is only 14 minutes.  It showed the interviews on several families who were "down and out" with no place to call home, living in vans and trucks.  Families with their children.   Listen to their stories. 

I hope some pampered kids in town would watch this and listen to the last sentence by the young girl at 13.10 minute of the video.

Wake up call for Muhyiddin

DPM cum Education Minister Muhyiddin, below is a wake-up call for you!

The Refreshing New Image of China's Talents

(Yang Lan)

The refeshing new image of China's sophisticated and talented young generation.  Yang Lan, China's most popular TV hostess.  A banana like me cannot read Chinese, but the internet has it all.  Yang Lan,  a businesswoman and co-owner with her husband of Sun Television Cybernetworks in Shanghai, speaks impeccable English. And look at her flawless facial complexion!  What a lady!

Yang Lan, a journalist and entrepreneur who's been called "the Oprah of China," offers insight into the next generation of young Chinese citizens -- urban, connected (via microblogs) and alert to injustice. 

Yang Lan’s rise to stardom in China has drawn comparisons to Oprah Winfrey’s success in the US. It’s easy to see why: Yang is a self-made entrepreneur and the most powerful woman in the Chinese media. As chair of Sun Media Investment Holdings, a business empire she built with her husband, Yang is a pioneer of open communication.

Yang started her journalism career by establishing the first current-events TV program in China. She created and hosted many other groundbreaking shows, starting with the chatfest Yang Lan One on One. The popular Her Village, which now includes an online magazine and website, brings together China’s largest community of professional women (more than 200 million people a month).

Yang, who served as an ambassador for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, wields her influence for philanthropic endeavors, too. She founded the Sun Culture Foundation in 2005 to raise awareness about poverty and to promote cross-cultural communication.

"Yang stands out as a role model for women who want to achieve across the industry spectrum in an increasingly global society."

The Paley Center for Media, “She Made It” Initiative, 2007

When someone sent me this video, I thought I might spend a few minutes watching it, given it's length of 18 minutes.  But once I saw her face and heard her voice and perfect English diction, I forgot about the time, although it was past midnight. 

Don't believe me?

I couldn't embed the Ted Video here. So here is the link : CLICKHERE

 

I cry for you Malaysia!!