Happy Vesak Day!

Happy Vesak!

For the sake of filming, I was visiting The Buddhist Lodge and Kong Meng San Phor Kar See Temple. The temples had vibrant decor of colourful lights and devotees joined the rituals like light-passing at The Buddhist Lodge and 3-step-1-bow ceremony at Kong Meng San. Shakyamuni Buddha is the King of Merits, thus Vesak Day is always a time filled with activities for accumulating merits and doing repentance.
I encountered many of you yesterday, and I am always joyful to see you in real-life. Please forgive my hurriedness, as there were plenty to shoot. I got to do it fast before the Husband’s face turned black like charcoal. He had never been a night owl, you see.

After visiting two temples, I gained many insights. Besides Vesak rituals, it is most essential that devotees get to hear teachings that teach liberation and practice Sasha as to transcend the cycle of birth and death.
Each Vesak, we should introspect: Am I purer and more at ease than last year? Have I reduced worldly desires? Is my Bodhi mind broader? Do I have confidence in breaking free from samsara and attaining rebirth in the Pure Land?

If we do not progress, we regress.

For this, I bow in gratitude to my Root Guru Grand Master Living Buddha Lian-Sheng. If not for His 300 books written and His 38 years of Dharma discourses since becoming a monk, I would still be a lost soul in lala land.

Here is a saying from the Tantric patriarch Guru Rinpoche, to encourage you on your path to Buddhahood:
When practicing the Dharma, there are five things that are superfluous:

When you have not developed a mind detached from cyclic existence, developing a devout heart is superfluous.

When you have not distanced yourself from attachment to material things, contemplating emptiness is superfluous.

When you have not distanced yourself from desires, practicing meditation is superfluous.

When you have not distanced yourself from greed and anger, telling you the secret formulas is superfluous.

If you cannot adapt your teachings to the capacities of your audience and instead offer lofty instructions, it is superfluous.