(Taken with my iPhone) “What are you doing tonight?” “Nothing urgent. Is there anything I can do for Rinpoche?” “Come to Batu Caves in 30-45mins. Carpool.” And just like that, off we went, ‘we’ being myself, Jamie, James and Jean Mei (yes, four J’s). Standing at the bottom of the 270-odd steps, Rinpoche proceeded to […]

(Taken with my iPhone) Day 3 of aviary duty, and already the birds have it in for me. You see that blood on his beak? My blood, not his. I have some sort of weird karma with birds and them attacking me.

merelygifted: Mahakala

Sometimes people are tiring. There, I said it, the words a ‘Buddhist’ should never use because we’re all meant to be aspiring Bodhisattvas. Problem is, I’m not a Bodhisattva yet so my mind is not controlled, and my mind goes up and down. On good days, the whole world is in pain and I live […]

Whenever we encounter a brick wall, focus on the space behind the wall. – Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

For every moment I choose to be selfish, another being might die. Can I live with that? – Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

(Taken with my iPhone) For someone who doesn’t want her own kids, I seem to be constantly surrounded with other people’s. I don’t mind – I like kids, I just don’t want my own. These three monsters here are Lucas, Sean and Melissa. Lucas is the second child of Phng Li Kim, CEO of Kechara […]

(Taken with my iPhone) The little monster pictured is Dharma, Rinpoche’s new dog. On the day Dharma was brought home to the Ladrang, Rinpoche rescued three other dogs from the pet shops. All of them have now since been rehomed to good families (including my old English Literature teacher!). Many people have issues with pet […]

If the very nature of existence is problems, then why should we be surprised when problems arise? Understanding that, we will become calmer. When good things arise, we should be surprised and use that to rejoice and do more. And when negative things arise, we should not react in a way that creates more negative […]

(Taken with my iPhone) Gone fishing? Gone vegan. One week ago, I announced on Facebook that I was going vegan for a week. I had little idea of what that really meant until I started doing research – no animal products or by-products whatsoever, including sugar, honey, leather, gelatine, etc. So how has the week […]