Tech Savvy!

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Feeling frustrated or unable to cope with life after college has started? Or is there a missing drive in your life? 


For those who missed last Thurday's session, do come this Thursday as we have invited Bhante (or Venerable) Ariyarathana from London Buddhist Vihara to give a talk on Applying Dhamma to student life, or working life. If you have any questions not pertaining to this theme, it is perfectly fine. Bhante (Ven.) Ariyarathana will be more than willing to answer any questions under the sun! 

The key teachings in the Dhamma will be presented in a series of Buddhist Fact of the Week (BFW) starting next week. Stay tuned!

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The previous Thursday, instead of focus on the Dhamma, we experienced the help of technology to better practice Buddhism. Here are two MOBILE APPLICATIONS we love to share with all of you out there!

1. Stumble Upon
http://www.stumbleupon.com/

This application links and share many pages and information on a large variety of key themes. They range from English literature to Ballet, animation, and of course Buddhism!
One good article I found on the app is the one as follows:
http://www.raptitude.com/2010/10/9-mind-bending-epiphanies-that-turned-my-world-upside-down/#comments

Every time you click on the icon "Buddhism" a different article will appear. Do remember to bookmark the article if you STUMBLEUPON a good one and want to return to it in the future,

2. Smiling Mind
http://smilingmind.com.au/

This mediation application has 10 recordings to facilitate your meditation process. Starting with Exploring Breath, they guide you step by step for 6 minutes. It gets more effective if you can proceed further to meditate yourself after the 6 minutes guide. At the end of the ten sessions, you'll have meditated through exploring sounds, tastes, body, movements, emotions, thoughts and more. The app also have a meter where you can monitor your inner energy or emotions before and after each meditation session.

Comments by our members: Functional and comprehensive guide(with an Australian accent :) )! Nice little calming bell at the end of the session!

Do give it a try!

That's all folks! Stay tuned!

Ehipassiko Session 1 - Life of the Buddha

This session we take a look into the life of the Buddha. Many people are very interested in meditation to calm their minds. But why does meditation help? The journey of the Buddha provides a better understanding to why we should meditate and how we should go about learning to meditate.

For those who did not manage to join us this session, please take some time aside to watch the following video. The start may be a little slow but the content of this video gives a very good basic introduction to Buddhism and the events that inspired Buddha to understand the way of nature and life and to sit down to contemplate the meaning of life and death.

Feel free to share your views and opinions after watching the video. Cheers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZQ9OZ_JACA

Welcome tea

A big thank you to all who came down for the welcome tea! 

Just a recap of what we did that day: 

We had pizzas while waiting for everyone to come down for the session.

Played a little game to match Dhamma vocabularies to their English translation and sentences that further explained the vocabularies in the context of Dhamma. 

We had a great sharing session after the game with regards to these vocabularies and one of the participant kindly pointed out that the literal meaning of 'Dukkha' is not exactly 'suffering'. Indeed, there are many dhamma phrases which cannot be explained with a single word or sentence. Thorough understanding of these key words or phrases requires further understanding and discussions. That is why we really encourage all of you to come down for the sessions in the future to study the ideologies behind the Dhamma. You may support or disagree with these ideologies. It is perfectly fine! At least you are not having misconceptions to what this first world 'religion'(many may not agree that Buddhism is a religion) is all about.  

Towards the end of the session, we had a twenty minutes meditation. Some were familiar with the techniques but others were completely new. Many, especially those who came in jeans, had pins and needles all over their legs. But worry not, introductory sessions will include baby steps towards meditations where we will practice the right postures and how to calm our minds and filter the noises around us. So do come down to join us in the future sessions! 

Here are some vocabularies we matched during the game. 

Ehipassiko -One of the traditional epithets of the Dharma is "ehipassiko"

Closest English translation: "come and see"

The Dharma welcomes all beings to put it to the test and to experience it for themselves

Karma – One of the basic law in Dharma

Closest English translation: “action”

The sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences

Samsara – The reason why we are still here in the physical world

Closest English translation: “continuous flow”

The cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth to which life in the material world is bound

Dukkha -the entire thrust of Buddhist practice is the broadening and deepening of one's understanding of dukkha until its roots are finally exposed and eradicated once and for all. 

Closest English translation: “suffering”

Negative emotions have to be eradicated through the learning of Four Noble truths.

Nirvana – The final goal of Buddhism

Closest English translation: “enlightenment”

A transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and samsara.

Prajna - Direct insight into the truth taught by the Buddha, as a faculty required to attain enlightenment

Closest English translation: “wisdom”

The direct realization of such things as the four noble truths, impermanence, interdependent origination, non-self and emptiness. Having that, enables one to extinguish afflictions (kleśas) and bring about enlightenment.