Tuesday, August 23, 2005

MPO

Music...
Passion...
Originality...


Inspire the world with the infusion of musical and spiritual harmony.

Coming soon to INCOVAR... do you want to be part of MPO?

Stay tuned...

Thursday, August 18, 2005

24IDC kickstart gathering 17.08.05

Alex is the new chairman for the upcoming 24th edition of the Incovar Dhamma Camp. With a new chairman, coming from a training and development working background, it's not surprising to see a more systematic pre-planned approach to conducting this kickstart meeting. If you're interested in training, go find Alex! Haha...
The meeting started with Aaron (Lee) explaining about Buddhist culture. Then a round of ice-breaking followed by explaination about BGF and Incovar. Further on we shared about our experiences in Incovar and what is our expectations!

There's quite a few new faces lined up as committees for this 24IDC, namely Pevin (actually returning committee), Ern Huei, Kar Kin, Gary, Suk Fong. There are some others who're interested to join but couldn't make it for the 1st meeting tho'... hope we'll see them next Wednesday!

[Event] Full Moon Musical Puja ~ 19.08.2005

There will be a Full Moon Musical Puja as follows:

Date: 19 August 2005 (Friday)
Time: 8.30pm (please come before 8.30pm to get the front seats!)
Venue: BGF Center

We have started out a new concept in BGF. Bring-a-friend-along! Come, bring a friend along and let us all make this Full Moon night to be an inspiring yet exciting one. Dont forget to introduce your friend to us!

On this Musical Puja, you will be inspired by the singing sensation of some youth and an enriching talk by Bro Tan Ho Soon. This short talk will be beneficial to the younger generation.

Dont miss this opportunity to come and gather in BGF on this auspicious day and make aspiration.

So see you there! If you need transport, please buzz MJ @ qmeijoon on Yahoo/MSN.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

|musical|puja|05082005|

musical puja last week. some inspiring moments to share from that day.
sometimes, being too tied up with work, struggling everyday to survive, making sure that we perform well at work, and etc...we sometimes move too fast and forget to stop and think.

hei, its musical puja again, new moon/full moon day. a day where the gravity pull of the earth is the strongest and its a day when we make aspiration...

let musical puja be a reminder for us all to gather again, to make aspiration, to make the world a better place for all sentient beings - our vision for incovar.

lets start by gathering @ bgf for musical puja. next mp is on 19082005 and bro tan ho soon will be giving an inspirational talk...

because @ incovar, we inspire...


Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Who are you?

Remember this interesting session we have in the last IDC? I somehow am so into these four temperaments at the moment... have been searching for tests and reading up a bit... going to read more... but today, at this hour, just want to post this blog, and for those who are interested you may take this test again...

Visit here.

The Perfect Melancholies, you want to do the test, do it the right way, haha, so on this site the definitions of the terms are right beside the characteristics! And the more you do, and analyse, the more accurate it will be, or the more you will understand the thing. Being the Perfect Melancholy that you are, it doesn't hurt to do the test one more time!

The Popular Sanguines, let's do it the fun way! Tests are always fun, share it with other people and it will be even more fun (or so I think, mm... I'm no sanguine at all...)

The Peaceful Phlegmatics... let's do it the easy way, what better way than to have the definitions right there, without having to search for it, or to count your scores, cause the website has it all... you just need to tick tick tick...

The Powerful Cholerics... who likes to do it their way, I don't know whether this is your way or not... but as a choleric who will just get into action, well, just do the test and don't think so much lar... just get the results!

Go search search a bit if you want to find out more... plenty of descriptions on the Internet...

Now... let's start with me... I'm a Perfect Melancholic... so I'm always analysing things, sometimes maybe a little too much, so you just need to shake or wake me up into reality, just stop analysing and don't take things so seriously!

Anyone else would like to share who they are?

Friday, August 05, 2005

[Event] New Moon Musical Puja

There will be a New Moon Musical Puja as follows:

  • Date: 5 August 2005 (Friday)
  • Time: 8.30pm (please come before 8.30pm!)
  • Venue: BGF Center

Come with your friends and family to experience spiritual peace of mind, relaxing atmosphere and contemplative surroundings. Chill out with live music and inspirational speeches. Make new friends, foster existing relationships.

Because at BGF... we inspire the future...

An excerpt from our discussion in yahoogroups:

Ceremonies and rituals are vehicles for spiritual _expression. In fact there was a survey once done by Reader Digest that show 80% ppl who partake in a religious ceremony periodically in their life, lives longer than those who don't. However this could be just a general survey but it tells us alot.

Puja have a very strong implication to our spiritual practice. I would concur that it us who have to walk the path ourselves and not rely on others or even be aping others in performing religious practices without knowing what we are doing. After all, we are all educated and have a good reasoning power unlike previous generations that perform certain rites "only" out respect for the previous generation.

However being or joining a Puja session is very important. It helps to develop the devotional aspect of our practise, moreover when a Sangha member is present.

We must always remember that Sangha members we meet and have contact with today are representations of all the great Sangha members, from the time first five ordained Bhikkhus to Sariputta and Moggallana to all the great Patriaches.

So if we could develop the same sense of respect everytime we meet a monk as we were meeting Sariputta, it have a great impact on us.In fact i'm sure if we meet famous contemporary masters, even without talking to them we also feel so awed! And this is something i know from experience. Moreover the sight of a Sangha (or as mentioned in the Sutta, Samana-holy people) is a true blessing in life - Mangala Sutta.

Having periodic devotional practise will help us to lead a more humble and respectable life. Everytime we pay respects to the Triple Gem, we humbled ourselves to bow down, to accept that we are in this path of perfection and the Triple Gem are our noble examples of enlightenment and purity. We condition the mind and the body to internalise this purpose. With that we have a great foundation for our other practises.

I feel that going for pujas for the right intentions and right views would yield splendid results. Communal gathering is an excellent support for spiritual practise. After all the Buddha did corrected Ven. Ananda once that friendship is entire of part of spiritual practice. I have been reading the life of Sariputta (http://accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel090.html) and found that noble association actually helps one and the other for spiritual goals. Both Sariputta and Moggallana have been friends aeons and asshankheyyas ago since Buddha Anomadassi's time and made the aspirations together to become a future Buddha's chief disciples.And many lifetimes they were also friends, until the finally achieved their spiritual goal.

Thus to summarize!
1) there are 1001 benefits of attending a Puja
2) however one can only reap full benefits if done with right intentions.
3) communal practise is very important. spiritual friendship can support one all the way for spiritual attainment.Kindly attend a puja today....

metta mudita,
mui han