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Thanks to Jessy for pulling me to CMC for the meditation session this evening. Used to be able to breeze through an hr of sitting easily, but now it has become a struggle. And i dun have to spell out the reasons why.

I have to repeat the fact that nowadays i dun like Dharma grp discussion or sharing sessions. Somehow, I feel that most of the time, most ppl are unable to share any useful or beneficial stuffs. Ruiting told me this evening that she dun wish to talk but jus wanna listen - exactly how i feel. But fortunately CMC has a few ppl whom i find their sharings very sincere and touching. I found Peifen and Bro Goh's sharings most meaningful.

From the sharings, I identified one of the gravest mistakes tat i sometimes made, and often made by many others - Giving blind advices. Peifen shared that we shld only advise on things which we have personally experienced before. We shld not be telling ppl how 'nice' a place is, without having visted the place ourselves before. Bro Goh reinforced this idea by further sharing his views on the need to understand tat diff ppl are facing diff challenges at diff stages of their life.

V often, ppl love to give advices to others, assuming tat they have a complete understanding of their situations and problems. What might be applicable to you might not necc be applicable to others. So stop telling others what they shld do and shld not do, if you have no fxxking relevant experiences yourself, or u havent tried putting yrself in their shoes yet. And this reminder goes to myself too.

The NUSBSA AGM held today was very efficient and fast. The working style, attitude, feelings and atmosphere generated by these BS snrs were very similar to what i have experienced in BS when i was a jnr member. Hopefully some of these esscence and good practices passed down from batches to batches will be conserved and be continued by the juniors. But somehow once things are lost, they will be lost for good.

I m back into playing my same old role in the alumni. Frankly speaking, i see NOT much purpose in ourselves playing the roles of 'Alumni' in the society. Rather, i see it as an organisation that helps to organise Dharma activities for the public, which i find meaningful. Afterall, I applause to all these snrs whose faith and passion to learn + propagate the Dharma can remain so strong after so many years. Imagine some of the ppl already started raising the white flag after jus 1 yr of committee work.

Somehow the culture of the Buddhist society is v different from the other religious grp. When i was setting up the bs booth for matric fair few yrs ago, i saw that this christian grp has some middle aged helpers, who provided them with the transport and labour (and i bet financial support was included!). I was filled with envy then. And nowadays when i go back to NUS, I wud sometimes meet some of my course mates - and most of them are back to campus for their cell grp activities. The presence of snrs in these christian grp activities is like so common, but i bet any snrs who go back to NUSBS activities will feel alienated. Correct me if i am wrong, haha.