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what is Kamma.......
When we say that whatever we do intentionally is Kamma, what it means in scientific terms is that whatever we intentionally do leaves an imprint in our stream of consciousness. This imprint no matter how subtle is Never forgotten. This is why when one is under hypnosis, one is able to recall events long "Forgotten", and even past lives.
The stream of consciousness just keeps flowing on, every moment and act contributing further to it and changing it endlessly. Of course wholesome events change it positively!
You recall an event years and tears ago despite you having made attempts to forget about it because of this reason. We are the result of all our past actions, good and bad, we are the heirs of our kamma! You may understand now why it is said that kamma no matter how 'latent' will come to fruition when the conditions are right. When the condition for your thought to appear is there, your thought appeared! Dreams included!
To determine whether an action is 'good or evil', right or wrong, Buddhist ethics takes into account three components involved in a kammic action.
The first is the intention that motivates the action,
the second is the effect the doer experiences consequent to the action,
and the third is the effect that others experience as a result of that action.
If the intention is good, rooted in positive mental qualities such as love, compassion, and wisdom, if the result to the doer is wholesome (for instance, it helps him or her to become more compassionate and unselfish), and if those to whom the action is directed also experience a positive result
thereof, then that action is good, wholesome, or skillful.
If, on the other hand, the action is rooted in negative mental qualities such as hatred and selfishness, if the outcome experienced by the doer is negative and unpleasant, and if the recipients of the action also experience undesirable effects from the action or become more hateful and selfish, then that action is unwholesome or unskillful.
Short of an enlightened being, most of our actions is a mixture of wholesome and unwholesome intentions, eg even with an act of donation, many people do it because they think that it will result in some gain to the person. Hardly is anyone purely altruistic as our Ego is strong. Only in the enlightened being's consciousness is the false Ego seen to be what it is, only in this hallowed state will one's actions be truly freed of any selfish intent.
Hence for us unenlightened beings, our intention is first and foremost, for that is what creates kamma. A wholesome intention may as you note occasionally result in undesired results and this may be due to a lack of wisdom, eg being conned by some indisciplined monk.
Or an action which as you put is done for what appears a good cause but is in truth to booster one's own ego or image is basically a mixture of wholesome and unwholesome.... only the doer knows which is more and primary!
Hence things are Not black or white but many shades in between... hence the guidelines for our behaviour. That is why Kamma is VERY complex, because our thoughts and intentions is even more so...
Cause and effect is impersonal, impartial and unchanging. We drop a glass cup and it breaks no matter who we are. Everything that comes to be, came about because of causes and conditions that are ceaselessly changing. In turn at every moment in time, our respond to the present conditions, changes it again, hence our path, our destinations and our lives are in our hands based on what we do at every moment. We create our kamma at every moment in time by changing it minutely moment to moment. There is NO predestination or Fate for at every moment our destination or fate is adjusted, fine tuned by our acts in respond to the present.
SELFISHNESS and SUFFERING
Kamma acts through time, and thus the full effects of one’s thoughts and deeds may not become manifest until some time or even years later. In some cases, it may even ripen Lives later!
One important aspect of kamma is that selfishness results in suffering for the selfish party in proportion to the amount of unwholesomeness that has been committed. Conversely, love, compassion and other virtuous states of mind create proportionate amounts of happiness and emotional well-being.
Thus we find in Buddhism no eternal punishment or eternal reward, but rather happiness and sorrow in proportion to one’s own thoughts and actions.
Bad kamma is like salt, we can dilute it in lots of water- Good Kamma. But we are all owners of our OWN Kamma, no one can take it away for us... we can only dilute it with lots of Good Kamma by our OWN deeds.
"If one with a wicked Mind
Speaks or acts
Because of that, SUFFERING follows one
EVEN AS THE WHEEL FOLLOWS THE HOOF OF AN OX. ....If one with a pure Mind
Speaks or acts
Because of that, HAPPINESS follows one
EVEN AS ONE'S SHADOW THAT NEVER LEAVES."
Every word of the Buddha is precious, every simile profound. Let us think of an ox pulling a cart.... there is not a moment's reprise from the burden that it drags along. Be it bright or dark, night or day, a good road or a pot-holed track, the burden of pain and suffering is ever present until the load is finally unyoked. Whether walking or standing, the weight of the cart is ever present, the only difference being the degree of the pain and suffering.
When we act unwisely from impure volition, the suffering that results is PRECISELY like that. It never lives us, we may stand still and have temporary lessening of the burden, but it is still firmly yoked to us. On a good road, the load may feel easier to bear while on a bad track, the pain is many fold more. Now let us consider a shadow.... it is weightless, we do not even feel its presence. The actions resulting from a pure intent results in good kamma which follows us weightlessly; we MAY NOT EVEN BE CONSCIOUS OF IT!
Let us ask ourselves as to when a shadow is most prominent? It is obviously in conditions of bright light, and as we go to a shade or a dark room, the shadow disappears.
Are we creating the conditions for our good kamma to arise, for these seeds to bloom in the sunshine of positive conditions or do we create a perpetual haze of dark clouds from our greed, hatred and ignorance, never allowing our good seeds to arise? Even the best seeds need the right soil, sunshine and water to flourish. And a shadow will return as soon as we are in the light NO MATTER how long it had been "missing" while we wallow in the dark!
We are all dragging along our cartloads of suffering and our weightless shadows.... we complain endlessly about our burdens as it is distinctly felt, and we fail to appreciate our shadows. Let us work to lessen our defilements, that being the way to lessen our burden and create the brightest environment for our good seeds to flourish.
And in doing so we also create a smooth road that will hopefully help us to bear with the load that we all inevitably carry from the past. And we can only do it for ourselves by ourselves, NO ONE can do it for us.
[Luke can't levitate his X-Wing out of the bog] 
Luke: I can't. It's too big. 
Yoda: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us.
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship. 
Luke: All right, I'll give it a try.
Yoda: No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.
[Using the Force, Yoda effortlessly frees the X-Wing from the bog]
Luke: I don't, I don't believe it.
Yoda: That is why you fail.
As Ven Sumedho said, enlightenment is here and now, the present moment that is at ease, no past, no future, THE purely present moment, that is the existence of the "Buddha mind".
That is a 'no thinking mind'. That is a very ordinary and natural state of mind, without identity of I, me, mine. Like you are sitting in front of PC, opening the mail box, reading my mail, and you hear the sounds around, you purely know that sound, perhaps of typing, woman voice, man voice, somebody's voice, a baby crying, the awareness is there, embracing everything, knowing everything, as it is, at this present moment. Just a sense of natural ease.
It is only when you switch this "Buddha mind" to delusion mind (grasping of I, me, mine), then all the suffering arises. I read a good simile of a man with a drinking habit, always he will drink, until one day he got really sick and he has to give up this habit for the sake of his life. Since then, on the occassions when wine is served in front of him, he will still have the thought of wanting to drink, but he will just leave it ( letting go the thought without grasping, as he know the result will be suffering, and the thought itself is anatta). So, he remains a healthy man though he is still having the thought of wanting to drink.
So, just abide in the awareness, this "Buddha mind", then you will not involve (I, me, mine) in the thought (understand it just the result of kamma). No need to deliberately push it away or stop it. The nature of it, is to arise due to conditions, stay temporarily and vanish. Just see it with the natural feeling. No need to identify. The Knots Untied
Let me give a simple illustration. [Pls Puts on a shoe with the laces tied tight ] This is the 'self'. It's out of place here in the meditation hall, isn't it? All of you are naturally barefoot. No need for shoes in here. "I am the only one" parading around with a 'self'. What do we do when the shoe starts to hurt, when this self-complex becomes aware of its dis-ease? Often we grab one end of the knot and pull it even tighter: "My damn boss is the problem!" or "If I wasn't stuck in this stupid job...." We might then pull the other end — making the knot tighter again: "Oh, it's all my fault. I'm no good. I never do anything right." Now the knot is very tight. It really hurts. What is freedom? This: [Unties shoelace by gently pulling apart both strings at once] It's as simple as that. Then we actually know for ourselves because the painful tightness is gone. Now we can hold up the two ends of the shoelace and see that the whole painful complex was only the knotting up of those conditions. No more, no less.
Be careful here. Don't fall into thinking that the "self" is absolutely evil and must be smashed to pieces. That itself is just another delusion. Buddhism does not say that. When you and I leave the meditation hall, we naturally put on our own footwear. Not somebody else's. In that respect, we all have a sense of "self". [There is a process which when seen together forms a unique charactor or personality BUT not a concrete unchanging Being or Self]. There's nothing wrong with that. The shoe comes in handy sometimes when we go outside. But we don't identify ourselves as that. We freely wear it, and freely take it off. [I do not know about you but it is clear that we need to wear a shoe when the occasion demands BUT the shoe is certainly NOT us! ]
We at Metta Lodge in JB are very grateful that we had a speaker who willingly shared with us her Near Death Experience. While we had read about NDEs or heard about it, it was never in the first person, hence the opportunity to hear about directly and the opportunity to discuss and have fellowship with such a person was priceless. Even more important, the speaker is not by family or training a Buddhist, hence to us this is an independent opinion, not one conditioned by what is tradition or education.
The speaker is a highly trained medical professional with post graduate qualifications and specialty practise, we respect her privacy hence her name is not mentioned. In the 16 years since the event, she had shared with only a select core; when she first woke up and related the experience, almost all told her that she had a very traumatic experience and that she should forget it!
But in NO way was it traumatic. She has since only shared with people who may understand, and I was blessed that she shared this with me some time ago. I invited her to Metta Lodge where she shared with a group that not only absorbed every word intently, they also analysed every word and could understand the process she went through from the viewpoint of the Dhamma.
I am so blessed to be able to listen to this personal sharing of a Near Death Experience; every word resonates with the Dhamma. Everyone is the audience is very touched by every word said! While my memory is fresh, I had written down what I learnt from the sharing. Afterthoughts are recorded in bold italics.
1. This sharing is a rare occasion for the speaker only shares to those who may understand, and only on request. It has not been shared for many years for there was no one whom she perceived to be able to understand. The Near Death Experience occurred in May 1994- ie 16 years ago. The experience was so profound that much of it could NOT be described in words. The speaker even today has difficulty finding words that could describe what she felt accurately.
Bro DrWoon recalls that the Buddha after His Enlightenment similarly expressed a thought as to who would be able to understand an experience so profound that it would be hard to believe or understand by most beings caught in greed, anger and delusion. He states that he understands the Buddha's position clearer now and the reason behind that documented thought.
2. She was fully aware and conscious, literally watching the monitor while doctors were putting in a catheter to reach her heart. When the radiocontrast dye was injected to visualise her coronary vessels, her heart unexplicably stopped, it 'arrested'. When she 'died' from the cardiac arrest while undergoing the angiography, she instantly had an 'out of body' experience looking down from the ceiling, but she DID not have a physical body while she 'looked down' on the doctors resuscitating her. She did NOT have the usual body that we associate with our 'self' - but just a non physical presence. She described it as Consciousness or Awareness, just that! No physical body was associated with it.
From the Dhamma, we learn that Consciousness survives death, that each moment is followed by a next in a ceaseless process of change. Consciousness changes endlessly based on the object on which it is focussed. The 'instant' change or re-becoming into another state is resonant with this teaching. The bodily form of the elements is left and Consciousness has no form, only ceaseless change. That it continues despite the absence of brain activity and heart beat has been documented in many elegant studies.
3. She could clearly hear the background noise and words that were being said by the doctors and paramedics, and she could see the activities going on, including witnessing her doctor husband who was initially standing besides her, being led away from her body to a chair as the doctors worked desperately.
4. She, to be more accurate, her consciousness was fully aware of the happenings and could 'see' in colour. She could see and remember the colour of the drapes.
5. This consciousness floated through the ceiling and immediately left the building into a wide blue space where she felt the presence of 2 beings accompanying her. She could NOT see them but just feel their presence. The 2 beings are NOT in the image of any god or deity or angel that she is familiar with, they were just a presence that she could sense that were full of love.
In the book 'Many Lives, Many Masters' which documented Prof Brian Weiss putting his patient under hypnosis, and the patient regressing into many past lives, similar beings were described as 'Masters' by the patient, could this presence be the devas who are either our past relatives or our 'guardian devas'? Bro Koh an engineer noted that the physical structures of the building did not seem to make any difference to her progress.
6. She felt Peace, had NO pain and actually felt happy. She was told later on that the cardiac arrest, vasospasm and resuscitative manoeuvres must have caused her a lot of pain but she felt none. She felt NO anxiety or fear.
7. In a very quick moment of time analogous to a flash, she could 'see' her life and much much of the past, but this was NOT in events but in the 'Experiences and Feelings that resulted from the many things done'. Her whole present life and that of the past which resulted in her feelings, development and inclinations zoomed past very quickly and she was aware of the distant past where her consciousness was rudimentary and undeveloped evolving through the ages to higher and higher forms till the present state. But this happened very quickly, akin to a flash of sudden recall. It was a flash recall of NOT only this life but many many past lives.
Kamma and Vipaka is the cause and effect of all the actions that we do. It is the Vipaka or results that is important for that is what creates the next moment or future. Bro Patrick notes that the speaker in a flash had recalled her Vipaka...her Feelings resultant from her actions, her Experiences which changed her and her Inclinations which evolved from all this. From my aspect, I note that we never forget. All our acts and its resultant mental states are NEVER forgotten. In a flash, the speaker recalled her past not as "pictures frame by frame like in the film reel of a movie" but as emotions and mental states. It is important that the speaker could recall even the distant past when her consciousness was rudimentary and its evolution to higher forms but she could not recall precisely any particular independent life in detail other than the present. Bro Patrick states that he now understand better how the Buddha could recall back 91 aeons of time in the first watch of the night, it was as our speaker states, a flash recall just like we recall something of the past instantly in a moment.
8. She entered a dark tunnel and could perceive Bright light at the other end. She could sense the breeze blowing as she progressed even though she had NO physical form that she was aware of.
Sis Sally exclaimed as to why the speaker did not just proceed into the light but the speaker stated that this was NOT something that she could will.
9. Communication was NON VERBAL. It was mind only without any use of sounds. She felt the 2 beings guiding her lovingly even though she could not see their physical bodies. She described this as a similar feeling that one has when there is someone standing behind us; while we do not see them, we sense their presence.
Venerables had taught us that communication with devas for example is non verbal but mental, it is mind to mind. While many of us would have found this hard to accept, our speakers experience seems to back this up.
10. Feelings of attachment which cannot be verbalised or described arosed and instead of progressing, she found herself suddenly going backwards and instantly was in her body. She woke up, saw her husband dozing by her side on a chair. She was in ICU and nurses and doctors started attending to her when she awoke. She was on assisted respiration.
From the teaching of Dependent Origination, what follows Attachment / uppadana is RE-BECOMING to a new state. If the speaker's body had been damaged beyond what medical science could help, she would have irreversibly died and the consciousness would have RE-BECOME to a new state or being, dependent on her Kamma-Vipaka. It was as she noted something she could not control but because she was successfully resuscitated and because of the Attachment which she noted, she instantly was 'back in her body'.
11. She felt she was away a few minutes but in reality more than 6 hours had passed with much that was done to her physical body to save her which she was not aware. However she was told later that her heart stopped only briefly, so she was 'dead' only for a brief period of time.
Time and experience is relative!
12. When she could be well enough to see her surroundings, everything looked 'so beautiful, so fresh'. "My husband never looked so handsome, the food tasted so delicious and even the amah who came to clean the room looked so beautiful!"
Our speaker has become much more Mindful since the event; she herself noted a change in her Meditation since then.
13. After this NDE, she realised that the physical body is NOT her. "It is now just like a sari that I change from wearing now to a nightgown. While we must take care of the physical body as we cannot do anything here without the body, we have to realise that we are NOT the body".
This is a teaching which most of us if not all of us are aware of, but not internalised. The speaker noted that this has changed her entire perspective of life.
14. She also realised that she is NOT the Ego that we all imagine ourselves to be, the "I", that we are so attached to. That Consciousness, that Awareness is NOT the Ego, not "I", in fact she realised that there was NO I or Ego during her NDE, all that made her 'who she is' immediately did not matter. But we are attached to our physical body and to many things that we are not even aware of. She was unable to recall any verbalisation of the objects of attachment, it was just a feeling that cannot be described and instantly she found herself back in her body.
I believe that our attachments are too many and varied to be categorised! The biggest is probably our attachment to the imagined 'I', the Ego and our bodies. Until we have a direct experience that changes our thinking radically, our intellectual subscription to the teachings is not reflected in our thoughts and acts.
15. She learnt that it is 'NOT merits that allow us to let go or be liberated BUT INSIGHT into the truths of life that will enable us to be free from attachment'. She was unable to be free from her attachments BUT she could not recall that she was attached to any specific object eg her husband, it was she described a feeling of attachment that is indescribable that brought her 'back'.
Her insight into the need for Wisdom to free us from attachment is truly profound and a fundamental teaching of the Buddha.
16. Her life since then has been changed as she now views life very differently. She is no longer obsessed by the physical form though she takes care of it well, her priorities are no longer work and material achievement. "Insight to the Truths of life is what liberates" and for that she now meditates regularly.
A half hour of Q&A followed:
Dr Wong, Q: I want to reaffirm whether you saw in colour or black and white as you noted that you had NO physical body, hence NO eyes!
A: It was definitely in colour as I can still recall the colour of the BLUE skies
Bro Hock Teck, Q: Could you hear the details of the doctors voices and what they said? This is important to me because I want to know whether what we do at the bedside of the dying eg chanting will make any difference!
A: Yes, I could hear their conversation clearly BUT it was only very brief as my Consciousness or Awareness left the room very soon after.
Sis Sally, Q: Why did you NOT just proceed and go into the light?
A: Oh I would have loved to BUT it was not mine to control! The instant I had the feeling of attachment, I was immediately back to my body. I am not afraid of death any more because I know it is NOT horrifying. I still have heart problems but the cardiologists refuse to do another angiogram because of my past experience but I am honestly NOT afraid. If in doing another angiogram I am assured of a similar experience, I will gladly proceed!
Sis Mrs Heng, Q: Were your children already independent at that time?
A: No, they were still studying
Bro Hock Teck, Q: Will you be willing to share your experience with other Buddhist groups?
A: This is a very personal experience. In the 16 years since, I had shared this with only a few people. Initially I would tell people about it but most people will pat me and say 'Oh you had such a terribly traumatic experience, just forget about it!' I realised that many people do not accept what I had gone through or look at it negatively. Hence now I only share with people who I perceive will be able to understand. I do not recall what made me share with DrWong some time ago but I am happy that that has led to me now sharing with you all who are so full of love. In fact, you have helped me put into words what is so difficult to describe.
Dr Wong: Let us give our speaker time and privacy. This is NOT an experience that can be shared with just about anyone, we are so blessed that she is willing to share with us and this has taught us more about the realities of life and the Dhamma than all the classes that I had given in the last 6 years! Let us thank the speaker for a wonderful sharing. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
 People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
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Do not condemn your neighbour; you do not know what you will have done in his place!
It is NOT easy to realise is that Even "our" thoughts are NOT ours, NOT entirely under our control... many will find this hard to believe. I was taught this a long time ago, and I was initially shocked by this...... How can, I said!??
Vipassana Meditation is so important as it leads to this profound insight; as we note honestly and without prejudice, without desire for anything, we can calmly watch the mind and see all these clearly. Our thoughts arise as a result of a cause which may be distant or recent, and when the conditions are appropriate for its arising, wham! it arises; whether we like it or not, want it or not. Truly Anatta (NonSelf).
For example, we had taken the Precepts and feel obliged to keep them as we feel them wholesome, now when the opportunity arise to BREAK them, we hesitate because of the CAUSE ie the Precept being taken!!! We may say it is 'MY' Free Will, but this Decision came to be because of the Past events!! Or a new event may have occurred like seeing a BIG car, so now the chain of Thinking had changed, for the priority/greed for that car overwhelms the more distant Precept!! And we steal the money/ etc to feed that new Desire.
Observe and see that our thought patterns, responses are truthfully conditioned by many things, our education, culture and personal practise..... very little is "original", it is a chain of events, one following another in a complex web.
Some of the causes may be very distant, eg a childhood acquired behaviour trait like 'never walk barefooted you naughty boy' and now when we do, note how the mind responds! Yukkk Dirty3! or in med school 'always wash your hands before.....' so much so it is a conditioned behaviour now or merely 5 mins ago when we were upset at our wives for buying another pair of shoe when there is enough to satisfy Imelda Marcos already, and thoughts of wife, shoe recurrently arise as we note our mind....... Try getting rid of that thought and we will find that NEAR Impossible.
There is no concrete 'I' really, just a process driven by kammic energy, causes and conditions, and its responses too are "patterned" by these. This is why 'we' can CHANGE!!!! because by altering these Causes, and Conditions we CHANGE our responses, 'Free Will', behaviour, 'ourselves'.
But until we are enlightened, defilements from causes planted from the past both LONG2 ago and recently, will give rise to intention when the Conditions appropriate for its arising is there. BUT as long as we watch it with Calm Abiding and do NOT respond with action, it is OK!! This is Wise Attention the suttas talk of. And even this respond of doing nothing but watch IS also created by causes and conditions!!
A teacher asks a student if he would obey his every command. The student replies affirmatively. The teacher then asks, "if I were to tell you to go and kill, would you obey?" The student replies, with deepest respect, "Master, I would have to disobey because I am incapable of killing anything". The teacher says, "You have NOT understood Anatta (NonSelf), know that it is not because you are morally good that you cannot kill. It is only that kamma, and existing causes and conditions, do not incite you to kill. When those conditions change, know that we can be capable of any act!"
This is very profound and requires Insight of the Non Self nature of all beings. We are a flow of Khandhas (Aggregates), and what we are now is the result of Kamma, Causes and Conditions; every moment helps condition the next Moment, the next Consciousness. When conditions change, this complex of Aggregates similarly change. Everything is the result of causes and conditions, even our present thoughts are but the results of causes and conditions conducive to its arising! So we must constantly create good causes in the present moment in our every action, to maintain the most wholesome conditions possible, such that the coming future will as best as possible be positive.
 Now, the mind is alright, it is normal.
It won’t be and it thinks again.
We watch that.
Watch it clearly
Become familiar in watching, and skilled.
Be a champ in watching.
It is good to see suffering.
To see suffering is the most excellent thing.
Suffering gives rise to ‘BUDDHA’.
If there was no suffering, there would be no BUDDHA.
Don’t be the one who is suffering: see it!
To see suffering is to be the BUDDHA, a little BUDDHA.
The BUDDHA is the One who knows,
the Awakened One,
the joyful One.
It doesn’t mean a person,
rather,
it is the quality of knowing,
of being awake – that is the BUDDHA.
The state of seeing is a quality,
it is the standard of life,
it is the Path.
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Meeting the Dhamma: Malaysians in search of Wisdom
I come from a typical Chinese family that believed in a mixture of Taoism and Buddhism, peppered with lots of superstition. My late mother was very devotional, chanting every morning and dutifully making offerings. She tried to force her brand of religion down my throat and like any teenager, I rebelled. To me it was irrelevant and unscientific and pretty much inconsistent with the 20th century.
I studied in a mission school and learnt much about Christianity, it appeared to me as modern and Western, all that my inherited 'religion' wasn't; in fact I spent about 10 years of my life studying the Bible very seriously. While that led to endless conflicts between my mother and I, I am grateful to all the teachers who taught me much about morality, tempted me with heaven and threatened me with hell. There were however an ever increasing number of questions that laid unanswered, and simply allowing faith to overcome all my doubts proved to be a piece of paper over fire. It burnt and I refused to surrender intellectually.
It was so easy as an impressionable teenager to have faith. It was so tempting to be told that "ask and it shall be given..". But it required Intellectual Suicide. And mine simply refused to die! Blind faith is indeed strong, so powerful that it led to the Inquisition in the 16th century. And in modern times, the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan.
But unquestioning unchallenging faith gave me this clutching unrest that something is incomplete and WRONG. I needed MORE than just Faith. I needed the Truth.
At an unconscious level I was always searching for the truth either via science or philosophy. Medical studies and very hectic post graduate training diverted my attention but this returned when life slowed down.
I was at a shopping complex waiting for my wife (as Usual!) when I strolled into a bookshop. There I saw Ven Dhammananda's interpretation of the Dhammapada, a heavy formidable book which looked rather impressive sitting wrapped on the shelf. I asked the staff for permission to see it which they obliged. I read the first 2 verses and that changed my life.
"Mind is foremost, Mind is Chief......"
This is very different from all the religious books that I have ever read, it struck me as truly unique and it touched the deepest parts of my searching mind. I bought the book and read it, and my walk up the Buddha's path started that day.
As I studied the Dhamma with the same devotion that I did with medicine I found a treasure trove ignored by the majority of mankind. Here is so much that is empirically true that anyone could see, if only he wants to. Here is the record of a man who perfected himself and who left his footprints for us to follow. No rituals, no magic, no promises but pure humanity with all its flaws and possibilities are expounded on and developed, with man's potential to achieve the apex of his mental evolution clearly outlined.
When I subsequently read about the futility of petitional prayer, a deep hard rock was removed from my heart. While "ask and you shall be given...' is GREAT advertisement, it is naive and an honest look around will show it to be manifestly untrue.
The Buddha said (instead) that:
"Long life .., Beauty.., Happiness.., Status .., Rebirth in heaven is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world. "Now, I tell you, these five things are not to be obtained by reason of prayers or wishes.
If they were to be obtained by reason of prayers or wishes, who here would lack them?
It's not fitting for the disciple of the noble ones who desires long life to pray for it or to delight in doing so.
Instead, the disciple of the noble ones who desires longlife, (the same is repeated for Beauty, Happiness, Status, Rebirth in heaven).. should follow the path of practice leading to long life......
In so doing, he will attain long life, either human or divine".
While this is remarkably BAD advertisement, it is the obvious Truth and to me rational, fair and self evidently true!
An uneasy feeling about a divine deity unfairly dishing out favours that smacks of nepotism has at last been erased. Its a better fairer world where we get what we deserve! I am so happy to learn that issuance of a Heavenly visa is NOT the sole prerogative of one creed or faith.
What is amazingly reassuring when we study the Dhamma is that no man of science need to bend himself backwards to fit the Buddha's teachings, in fact it is all very scientific and resonant with the discoveries and theories of modern 21st century science. Going full circle, I discovered that while imperfect man had created a very confusing 'religion' of rites and rituals they called Buddhism, the Buddha Dhamma has remain refreshing, modern and relevant when one finally sees its message amidst all the icing that had accumulated over the centuries.
There is much for the layman and monk. There is much for the housewife and the businessman, and even advise for the politician. Its applicability and relevance has not waned in 2600 years. Its truth is self evident. And I did NOT have these nagging doubts, these mental gymnastics of creation and all-destroying floods, of a creator one moment harsh and warlike and the next loving and kind, to reconcile. I found peace. 
I finally understood why the gods have anger and sought revenge. I finally understood why a god would make a statement like "Vengeance is mine, saith the lord".
I finally made sense of Epicurus' famous/infamous riddle:
I finally could go to sleep with my dinosaurs and Peking man. I now am assured that the Grand Canyon and the Mulu caves were not made in 7 days, I am happy that the Ebola virus and HIV were not 'created' by an angry god. I am so relieved that I need not eat the scraps that fall off some divine table to obtain salvation but that salvation is instead in my hands. I did not have to hate Bertrand Russel but instead admire his frankness and insight when he said "During the long process of Evolution from the amoeba to homo-sapiens, at what stage did the 'soul' come in?"
The Buddha Dhamma has made intellectual life for me much simpler where I was a mental contortionist before. I did not have to lie to myself to be a believer anymore!
When the student is ready, the teacher will come. I found this so very true. After I started studying the Dhamma seriously, teachers and books and notes all started falling in place. Each helped me to understand better, to see reality within and without. I am very grateful for the renaissance in Buddhist literature these last few decades for now the Dhamma is easily available to the English educated weak in Pali. The internet is also a boon, but one has to sieve the gems from the chaff.
And I am grateful to all the teachers, Sangha and lay, who devotedly shared the Buddha Dhamma. Trips to India and Burma helped me see better, friendship with fellow Dhamma farers provided much spiritual strength.
The teachings of Cause and Effect, Kamma, helps us all to make a better world and society. Whether one believes in a next life or not, its benefits are immediate.
People dress for their religion, eat for their religion, preach for their religion and some may even kill for their religion... but very few actually live the lives advocated by their religious founders.
Religion is in the life that we live, not in the creed that we profess. What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we actually do.
From my training in medicine, I long knew that the best way to learn is to learn from an expert, then practise, and then share with someone else who is keen to learn. And this is what I have been doing.
Associate Professor Dr Wong Yin Onn
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   Through thick and thin, they stuck with me the last 6 years
Beloved students
Comrades in academia
Fellow Dhammafarers
 “Monks, a friend endowed with seven qualities is worth associating with. Which seven? (1) He gives what is hard to give. (2) He does what is hard to do. (3) He endures what is hard to endure. (4) He reveals his secrets to you. (5) He keeps your secrets. (6) When misfortunes strike, he doesn’t abandon you. (7) When you’re down & out, he doesn’t look down on you.
A friend endowed with these seven qualities is worth associating with.”
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