Am watching this show titles "料理天王" which is a Korean movie on cooking. Just learnt that the finest ingredient needs not be the freshiest or most beautiful ingredent! In fact the most unsightly or "bent"truck can be used to make the best charcoal. The guy who sells vegetables in the market is in fact the best chef in town! The most important ingredient in any culinary culture is probably the "heart" or rather you must enjoy cooking and put your heart into the dish! Yeah, my piece of culinary advice which i believe is true because this is how i cook.
Besides cooking, not using the best ingredient can be applied in other areas as well. You can make a cute teddy bear without using the best cloth or the best fur. The basic ingredient is the know-how and the patience to sew it all together! In fact, a home-made teddy bear is a teddy bear made with love from the maker!
Probably when we are the best, there will be no place for improvement! Would not life be boring if we cannot keep on improving ourselves and learning something about ourselves every day? Every day is a self discovery day for myself. I won say i improve everyday but i want to be a better person, a more filial and understanding daughter and also a better employee at work. It is not easy doing all these and I will lapse into my old not so good self again! Human revolution is really not easy and it should not be else nobody will want to do their best!
"When your determination changes, everything will begin to move in the direction you desire. The moment you resolve to be victorious, every nerve and fiber in your being will immediately orient itself toward your success. On the other hand, if you think, "This is never going to work out," then at that instant every cell in your being will be deflated and give up the fight. Then everything really will move in the direction of failure. " - Words of Wisdom by Ikeda Sensei.
Some plans before the end of the year involve doing up the OEHS website, writing up my book reviews and cleaning my bedroom!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
History is a peek into the future..
I have been reading this book entitled "The Britannica Guide to the 100 Most Influential Scientists". It gives a brieft account of the people that had made a difference in the field of Science from BC to current. Science more than 2000 years ago comprised of philosophy, astronomy, logics etc. What we have today is built up and developed from these people/ philosophers of the past. One built upon another to make the possibility of reachig Mar no longer a vision but something that will be possible in the near future. I guess from history, we should learn from the mistakes so as not to commit the same errors in our time. However, human beings are forgetful and arrogant creatures as we trust and strongly believed we are more intellient than our ancestors. We think this way because of what we have and what we are now - better and more prosperous, better understanding and treatment of diseases resulting in lower mortality and longer life, advance in technology and the advent of nanotechnology allows us to search even deeper into the micromolecular and nanomolecular level. At this point, we should stop and think that all these are possible not because we are smarter, is because we have inherited and built upon what our ancestors had started. History than is our cornerstone to the future, we should not dealt too long in it but advance with it.
Just finshed FD's meeting this afternoon ad we talked about the eight winds which in buddhism refer to the 4 postive and 4 negatives conditions that can influence our life. The eight winds are prosperity, decline, disgrace, honor, praise, censure, suffering, and pleasure. As human we are constantly swayed by this eight winds. We should not avoid this eight winds but we should face this eight winds and counter them in our strides. In buddhism, a life without troubles and fill only with pleasantness is not happines which is also not really possible in real life. When we face with problems, we should have the wisdom to overcome them through chanting daimoku. The joy of overcoming our adversities will bring more joy to ourselves than merely without or avoidance. This will become our experiences and make us stronger and better human beings!
The second Soka Gakkai president, Josei Toda, once wrote: “Absolute happiness is a state such that, whatever your situation, you feel an immense sense of worth and satisfaction; and wherever you are, to be alive is itself a joy…. Even when we encounter situations that make us angry, we become angry joyfully. When we establish such a state of life, our life is one of boundless joy” (The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, vol. IV, p. 80).
Today is another lazy saturday!
Just finshed FD's meeting this afternoon ad we talked about the eight winds which in buddhism refer to the 4 postive and 4 negatives conditions that can influence our life. The eight winds are prosperity, decline, disgrace, honor, praise, censure, suffering, and pleasure. As human we are constantly swayed by this eight winds. We should not avoid this eight winds but we should face this eight winds and counter them in our strides. In buddhism, a life without troubles and fill only with pleasantness is not happines which is also not really possible in real life. When we face with problems, we should have the wisdom to overcome them through chanting daimoku. The joy of overcoming our adversities will bring more joy to ourselves than merely without or avoidance. This will become our experiences and make us stronger and better human beings!
The second Soka Gakkai president, Josei Toda, once wrote: “Absolute happiness is a state such that, whatever your situation, you feel an immense sense of worth and satisfaction; and wherever you are, to be alive is itself a joy…. Even when we encounter situations that make us angry, we become angry joyfully. When we establish such a state of life, our life is one of boundless joy” (The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, vol. IV, p. 80).
Today is another lazy saturday!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Finally or gradually..
This is probably going to be one of the most controversial of my threads! Don worry, is not political neither is it sexist! I do not like the idea of being pursued by ISA and also it is not advisable to put myself in such a position! Technically, I m pretty pro government and I will probably get hate mails for saying this! Don say I m uneducated and totally hynoptised by the spell of ruling party. I have received education from institutions of the highest calibre and I have also drank "Ang moh" water and done a module in International Law! I don see I have been disadvantaged but rather glad that I have been given the opportunity and the freedom to choose. I have been rather puzzled of those negative comments on the local government. Are we in war? Are we not allowed to leave the country? Are we having bad sanitary facilities or pay a bomb to use public toilets? Are we restricted to access the internet? Are we have to worry constantly about being robbed and murdered? Are we......? The list is long. Do not know what I mean, try living overseas for some time or simply travel beyond Singapore! And about not being able to speak up? This depends on how vocal u are and now you have the chance to do that without applying for a license at Sim Lim Park! If is for other issues, please apply to migrate!
Wrote the above in a moment of tots a few days ago! I actually wanted to blog about this person that I like but who probably tot I m not worth the effort. However at tis time, I think perhaps is not so important after all. Anyway to quote from Ikeda Sensei's "The course of our lives is determined by how we react-what we decide and what we do-at the darkest of times. The nature of that response determines a person's true worth and greatness. " Guess is only at the most crucial of times, u will know who are the people that really support and stand behind u! The darkest of time is also when u discover what type of person u are! I hope I m a fairweather as well as stormy weather friend!
"Hope transforms pessimism into optimism. Hope is invincible. Hope changes everything. It changes winter into summer, darkness into dawn, descent into ascent, barrenness into creativity, agony into joy. Hope is the sun. It is light. It is passion. It is the fundamental force for life's blossoming."
- Words of Wisdom by Daisaku Ikeda
The change in the US presidency really brings hope to people all over the world. Suddenly we dare to dream and "yes, we can" accomplish if we set out to do what we believe in!
Wrote the above in a moment of tots a few days ago! I actually wanted to blog about this person that I like but who probably tot I m not worth the effort. However at tis time, I think perhaps is not so important after all. Anyway to quote from Ikeda Sensei's "The course of our lives is determined by how we react-what we decide and what we do-at the darkest of times. The nature of that response determines a person's true worth and greatness. " Guess is only at the most crucial of times, u will know who are the people that really support and stand behind u! The darkest of time is also when u discover what type of person u are! I hope I m a fairweather as well as stormy weather friend!
"Hope transforms pessimism into optimism. Hope is invincible. Hope changes everything. It changes winter into summer, darkness into dawn, descent into ascent, barrenness into creativity, agony into joy. Hope is the sun. It is light. It is passion. It is the fundamental force for life's blossoming."
- Words of Wisdom by Daisaku Ikeda
The change in the US presidency really brings hope to people all over the world. Suddenly we dare to dream and "yes, we can" accomplish if we set out to do what we believe in!
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