Dempsey Hill B&J X HRC (Plus Cat)

Where the hell am I?

Damn! I am the photographer.

SSA Times x CGF Photos!

Finally we have our first HRC shot in SSA times. For the first time, Fred wasn't caught on smiley face. That attitude looked like he's going to stomp the yard! =D

P.S: Von was caught giggling behind. Hiak!



Wei Xiang looked damn cool in his character. Wahahahhahahahahahahaha~!

Cheers

Lester X SSA Times (343)

Woohoo!

Lester at top left! =D

Buddhist Amy Winehouse

'Rehab' singer Amy Winehouse has taken up Buddhism after been inspired by singer Tina Turner to seek solace in the religion.

Amy Winehouse has taken up Buddhism.

The troubled star - who doctors reportedly fear could be brain damaged after a recent cannabis overdose - has been inspired by singer Tina Turner to seek solace in the religion.

The 24-year-old singer chants Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, a form of Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism.

A source told Britain's The Sun newspaper: 'Amy was introduced to Buddhist chanting by one of her musicians. She chants for 10 minutes in the mornings and just before she sleeps.

'Amy has also been watching the interview clip of Tina Turner chanting on YouTube and she reckons it's already affecting her in a positive way.

'She has a string of Buddhist beads that she chants with, which she keeps in a red silk scarf. She says chanting is filling her life with positivity.'

Amy has endured a turbulent 2008. She has been in and out of rehab, involved in several drunken brawls, seen her husband Blake Fielder-Civil jailed and suffer numerous health problems, including scarring of the lungs.

The 'Rehab' singer is planning to dress up as a mermaid for her performance at the Bestival music festival on the Isle of Wight this weekend, for the '30000 Freaks Under The Sea' fancy dress theme.

http://entertainment.sg.msn.com/Celebrity-Gossip/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1656958

Cheers

HR Crew X MRT Pasir Ris Station

Mel's legs are fairer than Linda's.

Ghastly!

P.S: Don't blame lighting. =D

Cheers

Lost Youth

Read about the case of the NSF who was charged with illegal possession of firearms and bullets, as it stole it effortlessly from his SAF camp just before his ORD.

It was sad.

But beyond that lingering cloud of sadness, lies some of the greatest thought provoking understanding of how an individual, without the belief of freewill, would simply be buried under the felonious chain of karmic debts, seemingly without an avenue to break through and achieve liberty.

In Nichiren Buddhism, it simply means not enlighten to one’s Buddha’s nature, inherent in all human beings.

The article reads from H2 – “Perfect boyfriend to man with a mission to kill.” CloUdiSm would have state that this perfect boyfriend-to-be is but compensated-behaviour from the lack of love during his early childhood and beyond, in order to secure an alternative dimension of security built onto an unstable platform of Love. It is relatively unstable in his case because the interior of his personality and development certainly allows many waves of unforgiving cosmic lesson to rain upon him like sharp crystal shards.

Those who pursue love are inescapable to the fact of self loving is of greater importance than exuded affection, for if the former is afflicted, it’s like a car without a screwed engine – you can’t go for miles even if that’s what you desire.

Do you even have a chance to overcome such a hostile environment if you are the man himself?

Freewill is difficult to expound to those who are buried beneath ten thousands stone slab worth of negativity. I remembered once I dialogue with someone and told him that the concept of hell does not lies with afterlife – in fact, one can easily find hell on earth - the hell that exist in our environment. Interestingly, when we are so warped by this hell on Earth, who bothers about what’s going on after death and the decision made to send man between Heaven or Hell?

I loved how Justice Tay encouraged him: To everything there is a season. There was a time when you loved, there came a time when you hated. There was a time when you felt you wanted to kill, now is the time for you to heal. There was a time you were broken down, now is the time to build yourself up. There was a time when you were at war in your being, now is the time to restore peace within.



This is Human Revolution.

One must learn to change from within, to see a gradual effect in the external environment and to walk away from war is to find peace inside.

When the Lotus Sutra was expounded - light was cast right into the deepest of Avichi hell. Perhaps the self component, despite how afflicted we have developed, has the power to regenerate itself.

And there was always hope – the last quality that came out of Pandora Box.

P.S: Read the outcome at: http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Courts%2Band%2BCrime/STIStory_255454.html

Cheers

Human Revolution (Dance)

The lady in her 30s was a dancer and was trained as one since she was a little girl. Later she got into some kind of accident and lost her entire left arm. She was depressed for a few years. It seemed that someone asked her to coach a Children's dancing group. From that point on, she realized she could not forget dancing. She still loved to dance. She wanted to dance again. So she started to do some of her old routines. But by her losing an arm, she also lost her balance. It took a while before she could even making simple turns and spins without falling. Eventually she got it.

Then she heard some guy in his 20s had lost a leg in an accident.

This guy also fell into the usual denial, depression and anger type of emotional roller coaster. She looked him up (seemingly he was from a different Province) and persuaded him to dance with her. He had never danced. And to dance with one leg? Are you joking with me? No way.

But she didn't give up. He reluctantly agreed. " I have nothing else to do anyway." She started to teach him dancing 101. The two broke up a few times because the guy had no concept of using muscle, control his body, and a few other basic things about dancing. When she became frustrated and lost patience with him, he would walk out. Eventually they came back together
and started training. They hired a choreographer to design routines for them. She would fly high (held by him) with both arms (a sleeve for an arm) flying in the air. He could bend horizontally supported by one leg and she leaning on him, etc.

They danced beautifully and they legitimately beat others in the competition.



This is a classic example of Human Revolution - displaying the most artistic and beautiful expression of a human spirit, through a form called dance, not fettered by perceived unfair environment or circumstances and triumph over all difficult struggles.

Kherxin and I was talking the other day in some Bugis cafe and she was sharing the essence of why dancer dance?

'I danced because of dance itself.' (Quoted by this instructor whom I can't remember his name).

In midst of all that mundane distractions in our daily life, often, we find ourselves forgetting the original intention on why we even started dancing in the first place.

It's nothing else but simply because we like doing something we like to do. Period.

I think we need to fall back on our core every time when doubts or uncertainty surface occasionally.

It's the same for the identity of the group.

We need to be focus on why we even come together. Because only then - in perfect one mind - could we assist each other to achieve a common dream that we could possibly carry for eternity.

I was glad to be invited to the overnight Kenshu on Saturday until Sunday. Understanding the intense struggles that the pioneers fought with the organization during the earlier days in SSA, unconsciously made me linked back to something closer back home - the crew.

This is the time when things are beginning to take shape.

And the worst struggle have yet to come.

But we will surmount anything, collectively as one being.



Cheers

SSA TImes 326 (28 May 08)

哎哟，我们家Yvonne和Kherxin竟然上了SSA报了。

大家请翻倒第五页。 谢谢。

哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈！

P.S: To read chinese characters, please encode to Unicode UTF-8

吃二死

Can Money Buy Happiness?

Can Money Buy Happiness or Not?

Wharton study shows link between wealth, well-being

Business Times 26 May 08

(WASHINGTON) The saying goes that money can't buy happiness. But inquiring economists have been working for decades trying to prove or disprove the notion.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business released a study in April showing 'a clear positive link' between wealth and 'subjective well- being,' based on global surveys.

While this may seem logical to some, the research flew in the face of a longstanding theory that happiness of a country's population does not rise with income, after certain basic needs are met.

This theory, dubbed the Easterlin Paradox, was developed in 1974 by Richard Easterlin, an economist currently on the faculty at the University of Southern California.

Mr Easterlin's research had drawn on surveys notably from Japan, where surveys had shown little or no increase in national happiness despite the country's post-World War II economic miracle.

Wharton economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers contend in the new research that better data over the past three decades and a closer analysis suggests that the Easterlin Paradox is flawed.

They found that the wealthiest countries in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita rank near the top of surveys on happiness, with the poorest at the bottom. More significantly, within each country, higher incomes translated to higher ratings of life satisfaction, they found.

'There appears to be a very strong relationship between subjective well-being and income, which holds for both rich and poor countries, falsifying earlier claims of a satiation point at which higher GDP is not associated with greater well-being,' they say in a paper to be published by the Brookings Institution.

'The Easterlin Paradox says that what I care about is my relative ranking in society,' Ms Stevenson told AFP. 'It says economic development doesn't matter at all - that the United States is no better off in 2008 than it was in 1920.'

The results have important implications for public policy. Ms Stevenson and Mr Wolfers noted that economic growth might not be considered an important policy goal if it does little to raise well-being.

The Wharton researchers said that multi-nation surveys such as the Gallup World Poll and the Pew Global Attitudes Survey reveal 'quite powerful effects of income on happiness'. 'There is no evidence of a satiation point,' Mr Wolfers told AFP. 'Even as rich counties get richer, they appear to get happier.' The researchers said that they were not seeking to make any political point or support an ideology.

Although backers of the Easterlin theory said that it argues against unbridled pro-growth capitalism, Ms Stevenson said that the new research could also be used to promote more distribution of wealth.

'A 10 per cent increase in income for a poor person will give you the same gain (in happiness) as a 10 per cent gain for a rich person but it would cost a lot less,' she said.

Accordingly, she said that redistributing income from the rich to the poor could increase a country's overall happiness quotient.

Mr Easterlin, meanwhile, stands by his research, updated several times since the 1970s.

In a 2004 paper, he said that surveys continue to support his thesis.

'Contrary to what economic theory assumes, more money does not make people happier,' he wrote.

'Most people could increase their happiness by devoting less time to making money, and more to non-pecuniary goals such as family life and health,' Mr Easterlin said.

'It's necessary to separate shorter term fluctuations in which GDP and happiness are positively related from the long-term association between growth and happiness,' he said in comments e-mailed to AFP.

'The conclusions of (the Wharton) paper appear to be based on the short-term association and do not contradict the findings regarding the longer term.' The new research, meanwhile, has set off a fierce debate among scholars. -- AFP

***



I recalled the gist of book 'Buddha in the Mirror', which reiterated about the classic example of what the above referred to as 'Relative Happiness'. People measured their happiness economically or also known as the 'Treasures of the Storehouse', as quoted by Nichiren, have their happiness devoted to material possession that are subjected to the Law of Impermanence, which are fleeting and ultimately not substantial or eternal.

The sixth world of Rapture - in which people reveled in their pursuit of relative happiness, are still subjected to the fluctuation of the lower six worlds. In fact, as the novelty of materialism often wanes faster than the journey it takes for your food to pass out as waste - upon consumption. In order to retrace back the route to this world, people begin to gorge themselves with more material possessions to recreate the feeling of novelty and temporal fulfillment of relative happiness, seeking to create an empty identity within this saha world. Sadly, they have only fallen into the world of hunger, perpetually craving for mundane desires that cannot be sated.

This hunger grows astronomically and the Law of Economics would have explained it well: 'Desire are unlimited, but resources are limited' - hence, people end up leading a desiccate life as they reasoned to themselves that they would be happier with more money or material possession and constantly feeling inadequate.

I will quote a verse from the bible, which I learned in my earlier days in school and coincidentally, it falls under St Mark 8:36: "For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?'

I realized my journey with Nichiren Buddhism has enhanced my expansive world of philosophy and knowledge. And the incredible thing about the Lotus Sutra is that it does not point towards a given direction, but rather a proposing a meandering path towards Buddhahood, focusing on the means and not the end itself.

I recalled the time of ecstasy during Soccer Celebrity Match last year when we did our inaugural performance of forty people under UP. Or even the M&D festival in which I acted for the first freaking time in my life.

Manz - that awesome experience was at least 24 times stronger than the novelty of me buying my Bape Jamaican in Hong Kong. There was absolutely no way I could constantly upkeep dope underground labels, but for me to enter into the performance arena with my brothers and sisters was entirely possible.

I recalled fondly the oxymoron: I was so fucking poor, but I felt so rich.

Thus, first hand experience says it all: although money can buy relative happiness, to build our happiness onto this unstable model is ultimately unsustainable. It is as if we are stuck with an eternal hunger, consuming everything possible, yet still finding it an inability to resolve the hunger pangs.

It's critical to understand that our attitude towards our life, in any given circumstances, determines our outcome in happiness.

True happiness is generated from within - not bestowed from external causes.

P.S: Yaya says must share something with HR Crew on 'Buddha in your Mirror', so I corresponded it with the Business Times article. So any lengthy views, just post it on comments tag - shoutbox cannot take lengthy words.

Cheers

HR Crew Training 之 One Minute Choreo (18 May 08)

Today is the dreaded one minute choreo.

I admit I was damn anyhow - but hell, actually, I thought it was quite fun actually.

For those who did not showcase today, just to let you know - die die also must do... cannot run away one... MUHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

Random pics for the day.





Cheers

Post Mortem Discussion (HR 'Supper session' on 110408)

Interestingly as per yesterday conversation, I read an article this morning in Straits Time forum about proselytizing or sharing of religious faith.

***

RE: Let's respect a person's private space in public

I WAS sitting alone in my school canteen one afternoon when a girl came up to me and asked if I had time to spare. Yes, it was yet another get-to-know-God session.

I'm sorry if this sounds impolite, but I've had enough of such encounters in school and other public places.

I find the increasingly noticeable trend by Singaporeans to proselytise in public worrying.

It is not uncommon when one is sitting alone outside Starbucks, or on a bench in school, to find oneself being approached by some stranger who starts introducing his or her concept of religion.

It may be acceptable to spread one's religion by setting up a booth at Orchard Road, putting up a website, or distributing fliers but it should not go further.

Proselytizing in school is too much. I am well aware that these people mean well, and feel intensely about their beliefs and that good things are meant to be shared. I feel the same way about my religion too but I do not do what they do because it is not the right way to share my beliefs.

Such get-to-know-God sessions are undemocratic because they indirectly convey the message that a person feels his religion is superior to the beliefs of others, and that others should therefore switch.

It is also intrusive especially if courtesy requires one to listen when one wishes to turn away. I am glad that my friends, who are of a different religion, do not try to convert me.

Religious freedom does include the right not to be annoyed by someone who over-enthusiastically tries to promote his or her beliefs.

Tolerance and acceptance have their limits.

I believe that the only way for a person to win respect for himself and his beliefs is for that person to be a good person first.

He should embody the values which his beliefs teach him, and prove the strength of love through actions, not sermons.

Show me that your beliefs make you a better person, and that your religion makes you care for the world; that is all you need to do.

After encountering one too many sessions in public, I think that there perhaps should be a law to ban such religious touting.

Wee Feng Yi (Ms)

***

I will quote fromYasuji Kirimura book:

'...The five guides are the criteria Buddhists should take into consideration in propagating faith. There are: (1) correct understanding of the teaching, (2) a correct understanding of the people's capacity, (3) a clear recognition of the current of the times, (4) an accurate evaluation of a society and the culture, (5) a solid grasp of the philosophies and systems of thoughts which have been propagated to date....'

Then he goes on:

'... There are two methods of propagating Buddhism: Shakubuku and Shoju... Strictly speaking, however, there is a definite difference between them. The important thing is to employ the most appropriate method depending on the situation. If we practice Shakubuku when shoju would be better, inappropriate method causes unnecessary friction and delays the progress of kosen-rufu. When shakubuku is utilized to teach those who have a misguided concept about Gohonzon, we should know what to refute. We have to correct mistaken views about the Gohonzon, but it is unnecessary to try to change a person's view on life and the world even though we may disagree with them. Rather, we should have faith that if the fundamental attitude towards Buddhism changes and a person begin to practice it sincerely, he will gradually change his views on life and the world on his own accord.'


Cheers

Friday Rendezvous.

Friday Rendezvous.

Dope shit.

Cheers

Peace, Education, Culture and Kosen-rufu

Tina Turner Chanting




CNA Interview with Dr. Lawrence E. Carter Sr. (Daisaku Ikeda)



A great human revolution in the life of one person can change the destiny of humankind and our planet - Ikeda Sensei.

P.S: To disable the bloody song, click on any 'comment' tab in anyone of my post. That would do the trick.

Cheers