Delivery of Endowment Fund to 3 Students in Raub

We (BMSM Welfare committee members, Bro. Wong Ong, Bro. Koy, Bro. Lim and Bro. Quah who represent BMSM Endowment Fund) went to Raub today to deliver endowment fund to 3 students in Raub at Taman Simpang Kallang. We also brought the family some groceries (i.e. milo, instant mee, condensed milk, baked bean, biscuits and sardine, cooking oil, beehoon and rice) which were donated by devotees from Buddhist Maha Vihara.

The 3 students' mother was injured in a road accident and will not be able to work for at least another 9 months. Currently, Raub Buddhist Association helps the students to pay for their bus transport to school.

Bro. Wong presented some cash to one of the student.

Group photo graph with the endowment recipient, together with

Sis. Mei Hua and Sis. Chao Min from Raub Buddhist Association

We wish to express our sincere appreciation to Sis. Mei Hua and Sis. Chao Min from Raub Buddhist Association for taking us to the students' house and giving us a delicious vegetarian lunch treat.

Raub Charity Trip on 15 - 16 August 2009

On 15 August 2009, we left for Raub at about 8:45 pm after attending the blessing service conducted by Rev. Vijita at the Shrine Hall.

We reached Raub Buddhist Association (RBA) centre at about 11:30 am. We were then given a welcoming vegetarian lunch at the Silver City Vegetarian Restaurant.

We headed for Sungai Ruan at about 1:30PM. Our first itinerary was at the Sungai Ruan Old Folks Home. This home has no caretaker, the old folks have to take care of themselves. Those physically abled-old folks have to take up a job to supplement their income. When all of us occupied the front porch of the home to accompany and talk with them, they were excited of this pleasant change in their daily mundane activities, but most importantly, they needed the company. We distributed gift of cash and kind to the old folks followed by a blessing service.

Our next itinerary was visiting a lung cancer patient with 3 children.

For the rest of the afternoon, we visited another six needy families and individuals, unfortunately all the photographs I have taken have damaged and could not be downloaded :
(a) A speech and hearing impaired couple with 4 children
(b) A man with a Vietnamese wife who is paralysed from the waist down. We have visited him in our previous Raub Charity Trips. His mother who took care of him have already passed away. His relatives had arranged to marry him with a Vietnamese wife to take care of him.
(c) A single mother with 3 children.
(d) Three kidney patients and a man who is paralysed from his neck down.

We have our dinner at the Kum Leng Restaurant at about 6:30PM.

At 8:30pm, Dato' Ang Choo Hong (the immediate past BMSM president) delivered a talk about "Fire" at the Shrine Hall of the RBA centre.


Basically, the talk was about Buddha's fire sermon (Adittapariyaya Sutta), which teaches us how to achieve liberation from suffering through detachment from the five senses and mind.

On the following day (16/8/2009), due to a very tight schedule, most of us woke up quite early, some of us as early as 5:00am. The ladies had a group massage session to stretch and relax their tight musscle in the morning.

We had our breakfast at a food court opposite the Raub wet market. After the breakfast, most of us have a buying spree at the Pasar Tani.

Here were some of the unknown vegetables/fruits that I've never bother to find out eventhough I have visited the market since 1998.

The Malay auntie told me that this is "pelat". (probably spelt wrongly)

I was told these are tamboi (probably spelt wrongly). Can anyone help me?

I have also learnt that yam shoot is edible. A Malay gentleman told me that if the shoot is not probably cooked, it can cause itchiness in your mouth.

Our next charity itinerary was bringing joy to the old folks at the Sungai Lui Old Folk Home.

We then visited a single mother with 2 children and a bachelor with brain tumour. One of his eye has blinded by the tumour.



Many of us found the trip to Raub without buying the Sempalit groundnuts incomplete. Hence, we stopped over at the factory before proceeding to Gua Kechil.

Our visit to Gua Kecil was exciting. The bus has to stop at about 1 km away from the cave as the remaining journey is not accessible to buses as there is no space for the bus to u-turn. I later found out that it takes obout 15 minutes' walk to reach the destination. Thanks to Dato' Ang , Bro Li (RBA) and Bro. Teh for fecthing us to the cave.

The guide told us there are spirits in the cave. There are drawings by ancient men at some part of the cave (the drawings are similar to those found in caves in Sarawak), which is an evidence that it had been inhabited by ancient men thousand years ago.

I was surprised to find orbs appeared in some of the photographs I have taken in the cave.

Orbs are unexpected, typically circular artifacts in photograph. Those who believe in paranormal phenomeon interpret orbs as presence of invisible spirits, auras, angels, ghosts, energy fields, psychoenergetic artifacts, energy balls, etc.

Scientifically, the orb is the result from reflection of light off solid particles (e.g., dust, pollen), liquid particles (water droplets - especially rain) or other foreign material within the camera lens.

It was a pity that my camera ran out of battery and I was unable to take any photographs in the cave, particularly the naturally formed Guanyin statue.

After visiting Sempalit Old Folks Home, we had our lunch at Happiness Corner Restaurant.

Visiting three old folks home in Raub made me recalled a report in the Star which reported that 33% of the residents in government-run old folk homes were Chinese, although Chinese only make up 25% of the population. Why some people are so inconsiderate to dump their love ones to old folk home? How lonely, painful and heart-broken they must feel when after bringing up their children, they were ignored and treated like a hindrance and ultimately abandoned to live the rest of their old age alone.

Nevertheless, most of the old folk home residents in Raub are bachelors.

Bro. Li of RBA fetched me to a Supermarket (located next to the Restaurant) to buy batteries for my camera after lunch.

We visited three needy single mothers after lunch. One of them suffers from SLE and kidney failure, and another suffers from breast cancer.

We returned to RBA centre a about 3:30PM and met a mother of a young man who suffers from hepatitis C.

We had a group photograph with the RBA committee before bidding farewell to them.

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to RBA committee for their valuable assistance and hospitality that had made this trip fruitful, meaningful and enjoyable.

We also wish to thank Dato' Ang for delivering a dhamma talk at RBA and his help for providing shuttle service to Gua Kecil. Big sadhu to Mr. & Mrs. Teh too for making arrangement for us to visit Gua Kecil as well as providing shuttle service to the cave.

Ajahn Brahm showed correct path to business

Ajahn Brahmavamso was invited to give a talk on how managers can improve their ability by following the principles of Buddhism at the Sasin Graduate Institue of Business Administration, Thailand in May 2009. He said executives were successful not because of their IQ or intellectual capabilities, but because of their "EQ" [emotional quotient], or their ability to communicate and to make great friendships and networks. Here is the summary of his talk:

1. RELAX

Ajahn Brahm held up a glass of water at arm's length and asked his audience: "How heavy this glass?

"If I keep holding it for five minutes, it will appear to be quite heavy. In 10 minutes, I'll be in pain. If I hold it for half an hour, I'll be very stupid monk," he said, laughing.

Then he explained his point: it doesn't matter how much responsibility one has, a person becomes stressed if they hold on to duties for too long without taking a rest.

"It's the law of mind," the abbot said. "If your body needs to exercise, your mind becomes powerful through stillness. In business, you need to have a strong mind to compete, and to see what others don't see."

2. DON'T DWELL ON YOUR PAST FAILURES

Dwelling on past failures and assigning blame for mistakes caused a loss of morale. On the other hand, inspiration and encouragement can be found from recalling successes, and repeating them again for greater accomplishments.

"Success is taken for granted," he said. "That's why we are not happy

Ajarn Brahm said "Now" is the most important time but many people are too busy thinking about what's going to happen next.

He told a story that came originally from his Buddhist master Ajahn Chah Bodhinyana Mahathera.

"Once upon a time, there were two chicken farmers," he said. "Farmer No 1 got up early in the morning to go to his chicken shed to collect the chickens' s*** in a basket. Then he took it home, where it smelled so bad that everybody had to run away. Farmer No 2 collected his chickens' eggs in his basket, prepared omelets for his family and sold the rest of the eggs on the market.

"When you remember your past and bring it into your present, are you collecting s***, or are you collecting eggs?" Ajahn Brahm asked.

3. THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IS THE ONE YOU'RE WITH

The most important person is the one you're with, whoever that person may happen to be.

If you're in your organisation, the most important one is whoever is in front of you right now. If you're with clients, they're your most important persons. If you think that the one in front of you is your most important person, then you can communicate with him well, instead of thinking: when will he go away?

Be with them. If it's your boss, or a potential client, give them a degree of importance. Many people will say: I forgot about them 'because I'm busy'. I give them importance. It's an easy investment and you can get rewards.

4. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO AS A MANAGER

The most important thing to do as a manager is 'to care'.

If it's your customer, you care for her. Or if it's your boss, you care. It's a synergy to get people to work together.

5. TRUST

One of the biggest problems in achieving economic success was the cost involved in being unable to trust other people. For instance, sellers worry that buyers may not pay on time.

If we can trust, and trust is well-founded, then it will bring down transaction costs significantly and give a significant boost to any economy.

6. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

Very often managers give up performance assessment because they don't want to upset people.

However, in any business, it's a manager's job to improve performance and sometimes criticise subordinates. Ajahn Brahm suggested that managers use what he called "the sandwich method" by giving praise and pointing out a subordinate's positive qualities before identifying his weaknesses.

"When you praise someone, they will open up. Everyone likes a compliment, and it also shows that you care for them," he said. "Realise also that if a worker has a problem, it's your problem as well. When it becomes 'our problem', you will find a solution."

He cited a government department in the United Kingdom which was in the habit of measuring staff performance according to how many contracts they could get signed in Brussels [HQ of the European Commission]. A consequence was that all the department's qualified people "burned out" and left the organisation. The department later changed its system to reward officials who worked hard, or in other words, rewarded the process rather than the outcome.

Life is a process. It's how we achieve, more than what we achieve. If, this time, we're still not winning, then next time we will win. If you do it the right way, then eventually you will be rewarded. If you take short cuts or short-term profits, that's how we have ended up with - long-term recession.

Source : Monk shows correct path to business

Dhamma in Business : Buddha's Teachings apply brake to greed

The Nation, 17 June 2009

Doing businesses is like swimming: you can never stop or you may drown. So says Chuleeporn Chompatana, managing director of Smart Vision, Thailand.

However, she believes managers must learn that moving too fast or being too greedy can bring disaster to a business, so Chuleeporn uses Dhamma "like a circuit breaker" to keep on a balanced course.

"Dhamma can be applied to business. Everyone can become greedy when doing business, but Dhamma will 'brake' us with consciousness," she said in a recent interview. "Sometimes, when you feel no fun in doing something, you will know it's time to stop."

Smart Vision is a provider of glasses, contact lenses and related products and services. In its 11 years of operations, Smart Vision has never made a loss. It posted record sales revenue of about Bt50 million last year.

Chuleeporn, 37, said she began studying Dhamma four or five years ago by reading the books of revered monk Phra Maha Wudhijaya Vajiramedhi - better known by his pen name, W Vajiramedhi. Since then she has joined retreats and practised meditation.

She said she had become more relaxed with her staff as a consequence and was not moody when staff failed to perform according to expectations. One direct effect of Dhamma on Smart Vision's business came when Chuleeporn learned to give. That launched the company's annual programme of donating glasses to communities.

"It is like [the donations] have an automatic return. In the communities where our company is located, word gets around. We never have any problems. Our staff has to arrive at the office at 5am so they can get to the health check-up location by 7am. If the villagers cannot see us well enough, [they will complain] we're making too much noise," she said.

Unlike traditional shops, Smart Vision offers its products through a fleet of 10 vans that follow hospitals and health centres as they provided on-site health check-ups. Smart Vision has no retail stores but recently opened outlets in two Bangkok hospitals, near their ophthalmology departments.

Chuleeporn said normally, a factory or office she visited would have 300-1,000 staff and that 15-20 per cent of them would order glasses or other products from Smart Vision. Although the company has hundreds of competitors, only four or five are considered major rivals, she said.

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