The Stories Behind The Nurturing of Vegetarianism (2) -- Leveraging from Home

Sunset at Home
@ Sungai Long, Kuala Lumpur

At the age of 14,
long before I receive formal Buddhist education,
I was blessed enough to meet a good teacher (Mdm Inthira)
who taught me to look deep within
and leverage from the strength within.

Since then, along some years of
learning and practising Buddhism,
the same teachings and guidance
surface every now and then
whenever I need to gather strength to move on,
whether in my own life path or
in the path of vegetarianism.

I knew, since very early days in Singapore,
that I need to return to my place of origin one day.
Because that is the place I should locate myself
to harvest strength from within.

After quitting from biotech research,
my plan was to return to Kuala Lumpur.
I gathered this is only natural
given the philosophy that,
if one were to leverage strength from within one's own heart, in micro-sense,
one would have to leverage from one's
own home, own family, own country, in a macro perspective.

That was why when Bamboo House
manifested the lack of ability to sustain,
my instinct drifted me back to Kuala Lumpur
to work with RPA Holistic Wellness Academy
to teach nutrition courses.

Some close friends were a little startled,
especially friends in Malaysia
who thought it would be tough for me
to make a living in KL
where salary is relatively low
culture is a bit different from that in Singapore.

With faith on Buddhist teachings,
I was positive and prepared to tackle any hurdle
to make my transition back to KL
well cushioned,
despite the reality of cutting my absolute income by 70-80%.

After returning to KL, teaching at RPA,
my experience was very encouraging and joyful!

In contrast to the belief by many,
I had a very understanding and kind boss,
very caring and friendly colleagues,
very enthusiastic and diligent students,
and didn't experience tightness in financial situation.

As what I learnt in Buddhist text,
with sincerity, true effort and humble lifestyle,
a lot of hurdles will dissolve on their own.

Returning home,
actually renewed me another contract
to put effort in my own family,
fostering closer bonds with my siblings,
and spending quality time with my mum.

Returning to Kuala Lumpur,
actually offered me another chance
to contribute to my home land,
helping people closer to home
and catching up with my old friends.

During new voyage in Malaysia,
I verified a few precious teachings
that I have learnt from Buddhism:
-- in order to achieve more, one need to give up more personal attachment
-- in order to serve more people, one need to lower personal desires
-- in order to be more free and liberated, one need to grateful with what one already have (at home)

I made the right decision,
by surrendering my seniority in biotech research.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have the opportunity
to start up Bamboo House,
although for just that 13months.

It's a pleasurable decision
to pace my path back to KL.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have the chance
to teach healthy vegetarian and nutrition
at RPA Academy.

Back home,
I truly have gathered more strength
to advance vegetarianism further =)

With deep gratitude,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


. RPA

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Stories Behind The Nurturing of Vegetarianism (1) -- Bamboo House

Ex-Bamboo House
Vegan Eatery @ Hougang

It has been quite a few years
since I had some update on this blog
about some exciting vegetarian endeavors
that I have been participating.

The past few years have been
awesomely hectic,
but also enriching, heart-warming and eye-opening.
While things now are taking a relatively slower pace,
I thought it's a good time to review together
some important events in retrospect.
This may also help clarify my mind
and reaffirm how things are going to evolve in the next steps =)

Japanese Private Dining

In 2011, I officially left academic biotech research
and started, along with two friends,
a small vegan restaurant, Bamboo House,
in Hougang, Singapore,

Given the financial education I had between 2008-2011,
I knew very well, that time wasn't an appropriate time
to start a F&B retail;
-- due to poor economy, and
especially healthy vegetarianism in Singapore
was still in the infancy stage.

However, I decided to plunge in,
to not just give it a try, due to curiosity,
but also and mainly,
to experience the true colours behind vegetarian F&B;
-- although the official explanation was that
Bamboo House could serve as supportive wing
to The Veg School which just started in 2011.

Also, the landlady of Bamboo House,
who was a Buddhist friend of mine,
offered a lower-than-market-rate premise rental,
along with other incentives
e.g. free rental of kitchen equipments, crockery, restaurant furniture etc..
It was worth taking the chance, amidst hostile weather towards vegetarian biz,
given the precious blessings from the landlady.

Bamboo House kicked started after very short 1.5months planning,
including minor renovation, recipe testing, minimal publicity
and pooling of relatively small capital (below SGD20k).

Business for Bamboo House wasn't rosy as expected,
from the every beginning.
The residents at Hougang were concerned about
the middle price range at Bamboo House
and skeptical about the taste of meatless diet,
with low salt, low sugar content, without any fried items...

One of Bamboo House partners left within the first month
due to her family pressure and prejudice that it was a wrong investment
and my stubborn resistance not to compromise
the way I design the menu and manage the restaurant...

The path became tougher, left with just Siaw Wei and I.
It took both us for about 6months to harmonise
upon external criticisms on the lack of food variety, location, pricing etc.

All throughout, Bamboo House couldn't breakeven every month.
We added a bit more variety, invested more money in marketing and publicity,
organised value-adding Holistic Meetup events to boost the crowd.
But we still couldn't close the loss gap.

We later noticed that it's mainly due to a very small vegetarian market in Singapore.
In order to boost our revenue to breakeven point,
we decided to adopt two strategies:
i. food delivery service island wide
ii. private dining program

Business revenue chalked up drastically and
the loss gap narrowed during the month
with bookings of food delivery and private dinings
and we were hopeful that we will eventually breakeven in another 1year..

However, our cash flow were soon running out.
Both Siaw Wei and I had been topping up every month
and certainly was concerned of digging deeper into our personal saving reserves.

I then started to talk to different private investors and big companies
to pull in fundings.

We were almost successful in convincing a private investor
who had a big heart for organic movement,
but in the end the investment didn't take place.
The reason given by the investor was that
I couldn't spend full time in Bamboo House
and was worried that Bamboo House will not run well without my supervision.

-- I was a bit ashamed of myself,
as that time, due to zero income from Bamboo House,
I indeed agreed to collaborate with an academy in Kuala Lumpur
to teach Nutrition courses.

With such agreement,
I would be spending most time in Kuala Lumpur,
and Bamboo House would have to be supervised
by an inexperienced staff (which the investor is not confident with)
-- Siaw Wei was still keeping her full time job then,
so, with my departure to KL,
she definitely couldn't handle Bamboo House alone.

Bamboo House eventually sustained for some 13 months
till the monthly cash top up hit our "stop loss".
Actually, without some small amount of funding from two good friends of mine,
Bamboo House would have closed earlier.

When Siaw Wei and I made the decision to close down Bamboo House,
we were still hopeful that Bamboo House will succeed
given a longer period of stabilisation.

We figured out food delivery and private dining were
two promising factors.
But funding was a critical issue.

At the juncture of renewing the rental contract with the landlady,
Siaw Wei and I were discussing whether we could adjust our stop loss,
but after putting in all factors in consideration,
especially when F&B was taking too much time to manage,
etching into Siaw Wei's family time, my teaching time at The Veg School
and avenues of basic income,
we had to close it.

Bamboo House is physically gone,
but the spirit is still around,
for the birth of Bamboo House had never been
an agenda of profiteering
but a mission to nurture vegetarianism in Singapore.

Up till today, consciously or subconsciously,
I tell people around me,
if ever anybody have the passion and a deep pocket
to start up a healthy vegetarian eatery
(and don't mind losing for a few years),
I am ever ready to be the consultant,
to transfer the experience, culinary skills and healthy recipes ^.^

For friends who had been supporting Bamboo House,
this is a deep down the heart expression of gratitude
to have allowed Bamboo House
to pull through the difficult times
and
to have a precious 13 months to learn and serve the vegetarian community!

All in all, Bamboo House had been a blessings!! ^.^


Sincerely,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

. Bamboo House

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Just how do you resist that craving for coffee? (3)

Weaning off or reducing coffee intake
isn't an easy thing indeed.

But with in-depth analysis of the properties of
a coffee drink will help one to better juggle
in between temporary sensual satisfaction
and long term health detrimental effects...

Here, we take a look at coffee
from even a more holistic view,
putting the economy in consideration.

Perspective 3:
Coffee as a trading commodity

Coffee nowadays is no longer just an edible seed,
but also a kind of highly demanded commodity
that help people make money through trading activities.

The world trade coffee
just like how precious metals, oils and gas are traded.

But the problem is
coffee being a perishable agricultural produce
is susceptible to attacks by mould, insects and other small animals
and cannot be stored permanently like metals, oils and gas.

In order to ensure that this "live" commodity
could be shuffled around without losses during trading
or stored in warehouses without deterioration,
fumigation, pesticides and preservatives are heavily used
to lengthen their lifespan.

In other words,
because coffee is a popular produce in commercial trading,
it has become one of the most toxic produce in the world.

Bearing those toxins and additives in mind,
even though coffee has many healing properties,
we know, logically,
it's not recommendable to ingest on a faithfully daily basis.

The tremendous amount of toxins applied on coffee beans
simply outweigh any natural benefit.

Moreover, coffee is also one of the most
unfairly traded produce.

Coffee although is a lucrative market,
coffee farmers who put in the most effort,
reap the least share of the profit
and often have to bear with the price instability.

During bad weathers,
coffee farmers suffer loss in harvest;
during good time,
over-production leads to falling of coffee price
and loss in revenue for the coffee farmer.

But coffee traders will always
make big bucks, be it good time or bad time...


So, coffee is toxic, coffee is demineralising, coffee is unfair....
but how do we cut down on the consumption?

Next, we will talk about some tricks
to help a coffee-holic slowly wake up from
the coffee spell *.*

Tune in!


Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

#coffee



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Learning about the hidden truth of the current economy



Click here to enter
GoldSilver Knowledge Centre

In May 2009,
I attended the 4 day workshop by
Robert Kiyosaki and his Rich Dad team
on how manage our own financial health
without the intervention by agents and brokers.

That was my very first time,
I got to know Mike Maloney,
one of Kiyosaki's associates,
who gave a very in depth analysis on
the current economy and
how physical gold and silver have become
the essential financial equipment
to cushion the already deteriorating economy.

I bought my first batch of silver coin
on the 3rd day of the workshop,
and subsequently another batch order of silver coins
from Perth Mint (after some discussion with a few financially well-informed friends)
and also my first piece of gold coin in Malaysia
when I thawed my other investment
around the same time.

Ever since I kicked started my golden and silver path,
I have been continuously following
Mike Maloney's educational videos and reports
as well as other articles to reassure my "new venture" into gold and silver.
and to reinforce my learning about the hidden truth of the current economy.

In contrast to most people think,
gold and silver are not truly an investment,
as it doesn't really give dividents or cashflow.
It's merely a "parking lot" to park our wealth during this financial crisis
which is stepping up day by day.

While I am still at my infancy stage in learning financial wellness,
after two years of multi-session and intensive practice of
financial knowledge that I have learnt from Kiyosaki, Maloney, Harris Dent, T. Harv Eker etc,
I am beginning to have a clearer picture the rough mechanism
how we the middle class or the grass roots
are being enslaved/illusified/deceived/intimidated
by financers, financial institutions and even governements.

This 90min video, below, by Mike Maloney is one of the most
comprehensive recapitulation of many things that he taught
in his past workshops, books, reports, newsletters and interviews.
-- especially helpful for those who are bound by hectic life and
don't have time to read Maloney's book.

Mike Maloney is a sincere financial educator,
even my old classmate who hold a high position in a bank's investment wing agrees:

.

.

Whether to invest, or not to invest; gold, silver or shares or real estate etc,
all that I wish is that at least my friends around are well informed about
the economic environment (mess) we are dwelling in.

Ultimately it's not gold or silver that cushion us from the bumpy road ahead,
it all boils down to awareness,
like how we should manage our bodily health, our fragile environment and spirituality.


With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Holistic Wellness Events Update (1)

Dear friends,

As an improvement to help keep LHW readers informed
about educative and recreational holistic wellness events,
I will be starting, from now on,
to periodically post a listing of upcoming events including:
lectures, workshops, tours and social gatherings =)

For a start, here is the list!
-- Thank you for supporting Learning Holistic Wellness  :D

****************************************************

30th Aug 2011

o Detoxification and Health Workshop (Mandarin)
 8.30am - 5.00pm
 Awareness Place Wellbeing Centre, #03-39 Bras Basah Complex, S180231.
 Tel/Fax: 6336 5067
 Email: sem@kmspks.org
(This is the last Mandarin Detox Workshop I planned for 2011. An opportunity to learn the core principles of detoxification and understand how heal naturally, the proper way. Step-by-step guide to do DIY Detox at home provided end of the workshop.)

o Holistic Wellness Symposium (English/Mandarin)
 8.30am - 6.00pm
 SingPost Building 5th Floor Auditorium
 Tel : 6749 8509
 Email : hws@eco-harmony.net
 (This event is organised by a prominent player in holistic wellness education, Kampung Senang. They are doing this annual Holistic Wellness Symposium for the third year. This event will expose one to wider perspective of alternative natural healing and I benefited from Kampung Senang's events a lot, hence the recommendation)


3rd Sep 2011

o A raw organic evening with Diana von Cranach

 6.30pm-9.00pm
 Green Room Cafe, Bishan Park II
 Details: http://www.meetup.com/Organic-Living/events/29942651/
[Please RSVP latest by 29th Aug]
(Extremely rare opportunity to learn from a raw guru from Bali. I met Diana once and tasted her Baliness style raw food many times.. absolutely amazing. Do join me for the special event that I have pushed quite hard to make it happen =P )


17th -18th Sep 2011

o Trading Mastery Intenstive
 2 full days
 Singapore Expo
 Details: http://tradingmasteryintensive.com/
 (This event is organised by a financial education academy, Royal Edlen at which I attended my some of my financial courses. A reliable and sincere education company, hence the recommendation. If interested, let me know as I can fetch the tickets @ a good discount, being an existing student there. -- I will be helping out at the event.) 


20th-25th Sep 2011

o 5-Day Meditation Retreat (Mandarin)
 6D5N  (overnight stays compulsory)
 Beeh Low See Buddhist Temple, 71B Jalan Jurong Kechil S(598588)
 Tel: 6735 5900
 Email: ddrum@singnet.com.sg
 (This event is organised by Dharma Drum Singapore, a supporting branch of the well-established Dharma Drum Monastry in Taiwan. The meditation retreat will be guided by venerables from Taiwan, who are recognised for their proper skills and understanding of meditation. I attend Dharma Drum's meditation retreat every year since 2007. I have been tremendously benefited, hence the recommendation. I will be in the retreat again this September. Hope you could join me.)



25th Sep 2011

o Organic Pot Luck Party cum Organic Documentary Session
 3.30pm-6.00pm
 GroundUpInitiative @ Sustainable Living Kampung
 Details: http://www.meetup.com/Organic-Living/events/31129782/
 (Do check out the details in the link. The documentary is inspiring and I bet the food and people at the pot luck party will be amazing too!!)


2nd October 2011

o The Basics of Healthy Diet (English)
 9.30am-5.00pm
 Central National Library (Imagination Room, L5)
 Details: http://thevegschool.net/courses-schedule
(This is the inaugral opening of my pet project, The Veg School! I promise that this veg education event is like no others before. You could only expect surprises, comprehensive and intensive veg knowledge, good food, freebies, hands-on food prep and more!! I must see you there :D )


9th October 2011

o Nutritionals For Preventive Medicine (English)
 3.30pm-4.30pm
 Central Library (Possibility Room, L5)
 Tel: 91175756
 (This is a newly created topic in my portfolio, helping lay public understand the different tiers of nutritional supplement, criteria for good supplement, the pros and cons, and how to harnest the power of nutritionals for preventive medicine.)


 26-29th October 2011

o Health Retreat in the Borneo Mountains
 4D3N
 Borneo Highlands Resort / Kuching
 Details: http://CieloSereno.net/borneo2011.htm
 (Another organic tour organised by my Non-Profit Organisation, Cielo Sereno, which aspires to improve the organic awareness in Singapore via fun educational tours. This premium tour to the Borneo may not be repeated. If you like the healing magnetic field in the mountains and the pure taste of local organic produce, please don't miss it! AirAsia is offering cheap flight now, join us before it's too late!)

****************************************************

Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


p/s: should you need any extra info about any of the above events, please do not hesitate to email me @ pureland2012-at-gmail.com or call 91175756.

p/p/s: should you like future email notification of new blog posts/updates, you may want to subscribe to Learning Holistic Wellness.


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

When doing good is not good enough

There was this incidence, that often I share with some close friends,
where my mum was commenting that I donate too much to charities,
to the extent I didn't take good care of myself.
-- obviously it was only her imagination,
I was very comfortable how manage my personal finance.

But my mum did trigger some thoughts in my mind,
her remarks tho' not true, made me ask a question:
how do I donate more to charities and help more people out there.
The salary I earn is a finite figure, but the people who need helps out there
are almost infiite..

Of course, most people would comment,
just do whatever that is within our capacity.
-- this is a very clean answer.

But what if I would like to contribute more?

I didn't get to a satisfactory answer until I attended
T Harv Eker's Millionaire Mind Intensive in 2008.

Harv was illustrating in one of his session,
giving an example of how a sum of money could be better utilised
for the good of the society,
most importantly, in a sustainable manner.

He was asking, if you were to have a million dollars,
how much do you donate away and
how much do you use it for your own consumption?

The participants gave various answers
in term of different percentage that he/she would donate away,
some 10%, some 50% , some 90%..

Harv shocked the entire audience when he mentioned that he suggested
donate none of the million dollars!

He said, nobody touches the million dollars.
Instead of donating away, or using up the money for own consumption,
invest the money in a safe platform (e.g. an established business, foundation etc ),
which will yield a monthly cashflow.
From that monthly cashflow, one may decide the percentage,
one donate and use for own consumption.
That way, the money that we can donate will be infinite!!

The moment I heard that,
one of my biggest burden in life was released.

It's a very simple suggestion,
but often one can get stuck for many many years,
possibly till the end of life,
without pointers from gurus or teachers.

From then on, I had a new perspective on Cielo Sereno,
a non-profit organic education tour company that I set up early 2008.
There is basically no capital investment in this NPO,
but the effort that my partners and I volunteered,
could be converted to an anual cashflow, bulk of which,
we decided to donate to credible charities
and to fund on sustainable vegetarian projects e.g. Vegehub.Org launched recently.

Altho' the amount of surplus and
hence the donation (from Cielo Sereno) isn't a big sum,
but the amount of donation is way beyond the amount
I personally could afford, if I were to fork out from my salary.

Cielo Sereno is a realisation of theory of sustainable donation
I learnt at Harv's workshop
and it is a pride among my partners and myself :)


Sincerely,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: I have just come back from refresher course (3rd time) at Millionaire Mind Intensive, and gathered some new insights in helping chairities and the vegetarian community via my new project "The Veg School" =)

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Waking up from Bubbleland

I have been following Robert Kiyosaki's and Mike Maloney's
financial teachings for more than a year now.

Day by day, I am getting aware about the volatility
and impermanence of existing prosperity we are enjoying nowadays,
amidst the rampantly changing financial weather.

The deeper I delve into understanding of
how our financial system works in the modern world,
the more wary I become upon how the financial hypes
have been swarming around us
day in and day out.

Along the past 18months, after reading many of Kiyosaki's C.O.R. blog posts ,
Maloney's newsletters and his most recent compilation of
10-episode Gold and Silver educational video series
I couldn't help but begin to realise that we have been living in economic bubbleland
where the buildings that we see, the luxury beyond our means that we are enjoying,
and money that we accumulate are all 'illusive'...

We have all the way been constructing our dream world
by over-depriving Mother Earth's resources,
by over-drafting our children's and grand children's money (before they are even born),
by encouraging unnecessary spending,
by approving (silently) wastage of materialistic blessings...

The way of life we are leading nowadays is simply unsustainable
and worse, it is devastating to the planet we are living on,
destructive to the future of our next generation.

Every day, I am praying that more people will see through
the illusive luxury (which in fact is just another form of slavery)
and would take the initiative to take one step back to humble lifestyle
before the next tremedous financial crisis falls in.

To cushion from the hard hitting financial catastrophe to come,
gold and silver would be the basic preparation we need to do,
in order to start withdrawing ourselves from the deteriorating financial illusion.

Gold and Silver are expensive now, but the cost of unpreparedness
would a few log-fold more expensive...

Well wishes,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: if in doubt, please do get educated.


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

How do we keep something which is constantly evapourating, like currency notes?

I received a newsletter this morning from GoldSilver.com
featuring Mike Maloney's most recent video record
passing on a few important messages on Singapore's economic pulse,
after he attended a Silver summit and Bloomberg interview here.

Basically, Maloney is concerned that people are still
hogging their currency notes which value is
depreciating faster than they thought.

He also pointed outright the bubbly real estate in Singapore
and the under-information about how money is created in Singapore.

Hope this video will raise your alertness about fiat currencies worldwide
being printed in an astronomical scale:



As Maloney spelt it out, silver would be a good cushion
for this fiat currency crisis.
More details on this video clip of his Bloomberg interview.



Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

When Gold and Silver manipulation is precious

A series of videos to learn more in depth
about Gold and Silver.

Mike Maloney and Bill Murphy explained
how the prices of Gold and Silver
have been manipulated by the Central Banks
and
hence their current artificially low prices,
could in turn be a precious opportunity to tap into
the next wave of wealth transfer.





As some millionaire gurus put it,
investment is a personal matter
which requires personal effort
to learn about it and
to do it with one's own hands.

There are people who still prefer to sit back
in the comfort their chairs and
expect that investment agents could do nice jobs for them
-- which is rare.

Hope the video series above would motivate one
to do one's due responsibility
to at least protect their life-long earning
in the upcoming economic melt-down.


Well wishes,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Is Gold too expensive to invest now?

While Gold price just reached its

10-year high just about a month ago,

and most investors think

the price now is too high to invest in Gold,

there are views that gold is still seriously undervalued.

Mike Maloney has the following remarks on undervalued Gold:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7RVHl8pwk8&feature=player_embedded#

The core is that

Gold is currently priced below its true value,
and the "high price" now is just an illusion of weakening dollar.

As Robert Kiyosaki mentioned,
in the next major wave of wealth transfer
during the big economic crisis to come,
it's the well-informed investors that win.

Rather than blindly shunning off a golden opportunity
just because of the delusively high price,
why not spend some time to seriously study about Gold?

Physical Gold Bullion can be purchased from:
*GoldSilver.com
*Perthmint.com
*UOB Bank Malaysia
*UOB Bank Singapore


Sincerely,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Financial Freedom A Deception?

A while ago,
a friend forwarded me a blog on
how one may perceive
the idea of financial freedom as a kind of
deception.

I agree to how the author pitched in his article
that the phrase "Finanicial Freedom" is overly abused,
and how many industries exploit this term to lure in a lot of funds,
sometimes unethically.

But this is again a same old debate of whether
money is the root of evil.

While money has always remains as tool,
it's human's greed and ignorance that bring about the adverse effects.

In the article, it was questioned whether
financial freedom is at all achievable for most of the people.

The answer should be a yes,
depending on how Financial Freedom is defined.

According to Harv Eker in The Secrets of Millionaire Mind,
Financial Freedom is achieved when
one's monthly passive/investment income exceeds
one's monthly expense.

The tricks in achieving financial freedom is
1. to gain financial IQ (ie humble and continuous learning)
2. to put in effort to set up platforms/systems for passive/investment income
3. to simplify lifestyle (ie reduce monthly expense in sensible manner)

A lot of people go thru' a lot of futile effort in wealth management
because at least one of the 3 above is missing,
and when one fails,
one decides to call oneself a victim and
conveniently denies the whole idea of financial freedom
(or even the necessity of money)

Watch what Robert Kiyosaki says
in this preview clip to his latest documentary on wealth:




In other words, as Kiyosaki puts it,
it's financial education and personal quality
that matters in financial success.

It's never been a money issue.


With gratitude,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

 {Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore (Extra)

MMI '09 was an impressive experience for me,

altho' I attended the same workshop last year.

I didn't expect the effect of recoursing could be so profound.
-- It may be a result compounded by
my past year of intensive learning in financial wellness;
but certainly, I wouldn't have been 'enlightened' without
the constant bombardment of those words of wisdom
throughout the 3 days!

Two important teachings that struck me
during the workshop:

(1) To honour money and to be responsible for it

~ I didn't get it last year, but it just makes a whole lot of sense this year.

Like many people, I was continuously searching
for the secret formula to manage money and generate good income;
but to no avail.

When I was put through the "money burning" exercise at the workshop,
I suddenly realised my biggest fault in financial management all these years
was that I pay little respect to money and
am reluctant to take responsibilities for money!

Simply, without mutual honouring and care, nothing will work out;
just like that in any relationship, be it couple, family, friends or sport team.

I've probably known this teaching since long ago,
but I've never thought that the same would apply
for the relationship between money and me!


(2) "Do whatever that
makes you feel good when you wake up the next morning"

There was a special reception for those who signed up for "Quantum Leap"
bundled courses after MMI concluded and I was lucky to be there.

Harv spent some extra time with the "Quantum Leap" students,
delivering inspiring/encouraging words,
by sharing his own personal experience.

He emphasized that in order to lead a happy life,
the biggest secret of all is
to do only things that make ourselves feel good,
--things that make us truly feel good when we wake up the next morning.

It sounds like a kindy phrase.
But I was deeply impacted by the simple saying!

Let's reflect:
How miserable a life can be,
if we honestly do things by following
our heart aka our conscience aka our naive instinct?

I totally buy into this, as it's taught in buddhism that
one should follow the flow of nature in order to live in true bliss.
And that very nature we need to follow is our conscience.

Harv's advice wasn't superficial at all,
he in fact skilfully pointed out how people nowadays,
including myself,
do not fully follow their hearts.

Happiness is just a heart beat away
if only we are honest to ourselves...



I am grateful that I went for the recoursing.
And I think, the 4000 audiences in Expo and I
were very lucky to able to learn from
a Boddhisatva who teaches true Dharma
in such a lay context, benefiting the broad public.



With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore (3)

The 3rd and last day of MMI drilled deep into

the emotional relationship with money.

If one's relationship with money is full of
anger, fear, guilt, shame or sadness,
there is bound to be negative effect on wealth accumulation
(and all other aspects of life) .

Harv explained that
negative emotions are stuck energy;
they are primarily incomplete communications.

Hence, participants were guided thru' another self-awareness exercise
to dig out the anger, sadness, fear, shame, guilt and regrets
that we have been imposing on money;
and then let go of the negative emotions (especially anger).

Harv mentioned, if one is to keep those negative emotions,
it will sabotage one's financial path.
Harv himself ruined his own financial life in his early years,
because he had unpleasant experience with his father
over money issue, during his childhood.
That unpleasant experience turned out to be a misunderstanding
that intoxicated his financial health for decades.
(the incidence happened when he was 9 yo,
and he only got it clarified with his day at his age of 40!)
His early life was messed up just because he didn't learn to let go of his
negative emotion.

The workshop climaxed when participants were
asked to break arrows with their throats.
This exercise was to deal with another big negative emotion -- fear
which has been pulling us back from any endeavour towards success.

Breaking an arrow (real one!) sounded scary in the beginning,
but when we see people doing it and we ourselves actually doing it,
it wasn't as scary or as difficult at all.
-- the arrow broke within just a couple seconds,
and there was no injury on the throat at all (amazing!!)

Towards the end of the day, Harv taught us the last secret
to financial freedom.
He wanted us to always bear this in mind:
"Success breeds Success"

In order to be successful in life,
we ourselves need to be a success first, by:
-- Recognising and acknowledging
every improvement, big or small,
we achieve every day.
-- Celebrating successes once every month,
to keep the momentum of success, constantly up.

Harv claimed that this is very effective and
there many proven records using this methodology!

The MMI workshop ended early evening on 16 Nov 2009,
and from the standing ovation at event conclusion in Expo Hall2,
I see that many were grateful to be at
the enriching and eye-opener workshop.

I attended this workshop for the 2nd time,
I still found it equally invigorating and enlightening.
So as Heng, Wenlong, Gary and Susan who came along.


Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: The teachings at MMI are simply too much to be covered on the blogs. If anyone is interested to attend the next MMI (19-21 Nov 10) to experience for him/herself, please let me know; as I have discounted tickets (limited) to the workshop next year :)

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore (2)

At the 2nd day of MMI,
more interesting teachings continued to unveil.

So far, Harv had been illustrating,
from multiple perspectives,
on how actually our lives (esp finanicial fate) are determined by
stories we made up in our lives -- beliefs.

According to Harv, Beliefs
are just thoughts we personally hold to be true;
are not true or false, right or wrong,;
are only strong opinions in the colour of the beholder's spectacles.

As we understand that:
"we don't see the world as it is,
we see the world as we are",
the 3rd step to change our belief structure
is simply to dissociate from disempowering thoughts
and infuse empowering thoughts (reconditioning).

As Harv put it, whatever we say or think,
we will live our self-fulfilling prophecy,
because brain's favourite passtime is to make sure it is right!
So, why not infuse rich people's thinkings/beliefs?

To ensure that we create new empowering thoughts
to replace those old disempowering ones,
we were then led thru' a series of
fun and interesting psychological exercises,
e.g. 'rubber band snapping' game, VAKS,
"worthiness-ordainment", composing our own success songs etc.. kekek..

Harv, along the way, also added that
many people couldn't get rich because:
1. they didn't know why they want to be rich or their whys are too small
-- without the why there will never be the how
and with bigger the why, the easier the how;
-- bigger why means adding big values to people's lives.

2. they are simply poor receivers
-- we have been biasedly conditioned that Giving is better than Receiving,
due to mis-interpretation of an ancient Greek wise-saying, which was supposed to be:
"it's better to be at the position to give, than to be at the position to receive"
-- without the receiving, the giving is simply not valid;
-- a lot of people are constantly conditioned to give, and feel ashame to receive,
hence there will never be wealth accumulated..

At the end of the 2nd day,
participants were demonstrated via an interactive session,
to help us realise our own money personalities, whether
we are savers, spenders, money avoider or money-monk;
and the relavant strength and weakness of each personality.

There is no favourable money personality and
in view that each personality has got its own plus and negative points,
the key to success in money management is
- to make sure we lead a balance life in all perspectives and
- to adopt a preset structure of money management (the Jar System)

More exciting stuff to expect on Day 3 of MMI!
Keep tuning in :D

Nice weekend,
Kee Yew






















{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore (1)

Yesterday, was the 2nd time I attended T. Harv Eker's
Millionaire's Mind Intensive (MMI) workshop @ Expo Singapore.
The 1st time was extactly one year ago.

MMI workshop literally transformed my life,
since November 2008,
when I decided to heed Eker's advice
to change my financial blueprint.
I am grateful so much he has changed my life;
and in order to ensure I truly harness all that he taught,
that I decided to re-course at MMI November this year!

Here, I would like to provide a daily update on
some of the highlights at the 3-day workshop.

One thing that struck me at the first day of MMI
was a simple yet profound reminder that
our Income Potential is directly proportional to
our Comfort Zone.
In other words, how much we could stretch ourselves
actually fundamentally determine our capability to generate wealth.
Throughout the past 12 months,
I did feel quite a bit of strain when re-wiring and picking up new skills
towards financial freedom,
and I inevitably complain about it occassionally.
With the reminder above, I guess I need to be more
faithful with the new financial path I am on,
and probably should be happy that I am expanding myself
in personal growth and income potential
when I go thru' the stretching! =)

There were so much that was taught the first 14 hours
at Expo, yesterday.

Notably:
We were guided through some psychological exercise
to realise our own financial beliefs.
As Harv mentioned, the first step to change is Awareness

Harv emphasized that the inner invisible realms of
Mentality, Emotion and Spirituality dictate the
outer visible realm of Physique.

Our current financial status today is merely
a printout (visible fruit) of
our own financial believes (invisible root).

The financial belief is deemed as the blueprint of our
financial outcome because it works like a thermostat,
constantly adjusting the level of wealth to a pre-set level we deem appropriate.
Harv stressed that it's not so much knowing how to generate wealth,
 it's actually more of an issue how our subconscious brain
determines the amount of wealth we are willing to attain/retain.

The second step to change our financial destiny is
Understanding
-- understanding our root motivation to generate wealth.

We were guided through another psychological exercise
to dig out how our financial blueprints
were subcounsciously constructed since childhood
via
Verbal Programming (by our family and friends)
Modeling (of our Parents' financial behaviour) and
Specific incidence (that imprinted a prejudice in our financial perspectives )

Many people accumulated a lot of wealth, but
eventually, they just have to lose them, because
their motivation for money (roots) were based on
Anger, Fear and Proving themselves.

After understanding where our roots lie,
we need to debunk those disempowering believes

and base our motivation for money on

Purpose and Joy.

More to come on the 2nd day of MMI.

Please tune in again tomorrow :)

With metta,

Kee Yew

pureland2012-at-gmail.com

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Ask and we shall get!

I was attending a webminar conducted by

a billionaire Keith Cunningham last night;
and was grateful to pick up
an important principle of successful life (and biz)
within just the 1hr 15min talk.

Cunningham was absolutely inspiring in his talk.
He pointed out that one of the biggest reasons why
people fail in their biz (life?) is that they
are too passionate about their own ideas,
but
forgot to ask what the clients really want.

He quoted an example that
Sony actually first started out her biz
with her much-loved electrical rice cooker.
This very first product failed Sony miserably,
as the public did not think it's attractive
with many rice cookers basically lying around everywhere.

In contrast of Sony's failure with their first attempt,
Cunningham told another story about
a famous chocholate company (forgot what's the name :P)
whose initial passion was actually caramel!
This company went around and asked people
if they would like a shop that sells caramel.
The feedback was that caramel was not appealing,
BUT, if they would be crazy if the shop sells all chocholates!!!
The choc company did as the feedback told, despite their passion in caramel.
And you bet the company got good business selling
not what the company had in mind initially,
but a product that the outer world truly need/demand.

After listening to the two real stories,
I kind of sat back and reflected:
how many times in life, we do things we think people'd like just because we like;
and not things that people actually spell out they really want.
A lot of failures, according to Cunningham, in fact arise from
our habit of not asking what people need (due to ego-centricity?).

If we do ask, and serve people what they need,
we shall get the adequate return for servicing people with the right thing...

-- Ask and we shall get !

Listening to Cunningham, I believe that
it does take much wisdom for one to become successful in biz/life.
Don't you agree? =)


Cheers,
Kee Yew


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

How to order Silver Bullion Bars from Perth Mint

A few friends have been asking how to order

999 Silver Bullion Bars from Perth Mint,

worrying the procedure may be a bit too complicated.

Here, I would like to share my experience for easy reference =)

Basically, it took me only 2hours to settle :P

-- presuming funds are already in the bank and the total sum of order is < AUD5000.

- Please note that this capital gain investment for Silver Bullion Bar is for 2-3yr term investment.
-Liquidity is moderate. If higher liquidity needed, then go for Gold Bullion Bars.


The procedure is:

1. Call Perth Mint @ +618 9421 7428
between 9.00am and 5.00pm, Monday to Friday (Perth Business Days)
and ask for a quote. [Calling is a must]

2. Perth Mint will email you the quote right after the call, and
you will need to fill in the agreement and fax back to Perth Mint within 1 day.

3. TT transfer the sum quoted at your favourite agent/bank within 2 days and
email Perth Mint to confirm TT.

4. Wait for the bars to come in 2 weeks =)


** There are extra charges that you need to add on when budgeting your investment:

- Postage @ AUD1/oz
- 1% Insurance (of Silver Bar) + 1% Postage
- Bank TT fee (SGD20~40)
- 7% GST (in SGD)
- FEDEX handling fee (~SGD20)


Happy Investing ;)
Kee Yew




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

You will when you believe...

As T. Harv Eker' MMI workshop is approaching this Nov,

I realise that it has been almost a year

since I started immersing in a whole series of

Millionaires workshops begining Nov 2008.

Looking back in retrospect,

I feel very grateful that there has been so much

that I have learnt from the great souls.

One amazing thing that I observe,

among all those millionaires' teachings

is that those successful secrets
all eventually converge with

Buddhist teachings!

The recent workshop with Anthony Robbins' again emphasizes
that the blueprint of successful life lies in

what we believe:

We can only be rich, when we believe we will

We can only be healthy, when we believe we will

We can only be happy, when we believe we will...

This teaching actually has long been well versed

in many Buddhist Scriptures,

except it takes on a more sophisticated universal tone:

"Everything is the outcome of mind activity" (pardon the crude translation)

"一切法唯心所现，唯识所变"

I guess the great people always think the same;

hence naturally,

those who succeeded follows the law of universe and

those who follow the law of universe will succeed.

At those millionaires workshops,

the gurus were like Boddhisatvas,

reiterating the precious teachings of Buddha,

repackaging the same essence of universe in layman flavour,

showing the evidences of the universal principles

in a much more comprehensible form
(ie by presenting their real life success stories).

These Millionaires workshops in the past 10months

did not only convey

the superficial skills to achieve financial abundance;

they were also delivering very meaningful Dharma lessons,

to repeatedly enhance my confidence on

what I learnt in the Sutras -- especially

the importance, the power and the instrinsic meaning of

Believes.

I have always wanted Rebirth in Pureland.

But on and off, I did doubt, given my pass negative believes.

Somehow after the much-perceived-as-money-making workshops,

I picked up a message that

I can't be reborn in Pureland unless I believe so.

If we were to achieve financial abundance in this life,

by just making ourselves to believe;

we should believe the same for rebirth in Pureland in the life to come.

Or vice versa ;)

Amituofo,
Kee Yew

p/s: According to Buddhist teachings,
ultimately, there is no such thing as financial abundance (so as all others);
things like financial abundance exist because our mind perceives/believes so.
If our mind does the opposite, financial abundance deminishes.
Also, we actually, readily have everything within our finger tips,
including financial abundance.
There is no need to wish for it, as it already exists.
But if we purposely impose a negative belief on it (e.g. financial abundance),
it will also deminish.
~Not so much to impress people with mysticism,
but there is truly something between the lines to be learnt with mindfulness.

T. Harv Eker In Singapore

This is a great chance to learn about
how to change your blueprint of wealth.
T. Harv Eker
(author of best-seller "Secrets of The Millionaire Mind")
will be conducting Millionaire Mind Intensive Workshop
@ Singapore Expo 13-15 November 2009!

This workshop is not about how to make money technically.
It's also not about how to predict the ups n downs of economy.
Eker teaches the very vital
mastery skills of changing our imprinted mindset about abundance,
the psychology of overcoming financial challenges
and strategies of residual income generation.
My financial path changed a great deal after attending
Eker's workshop last year.

Register now @ http://www.tharvekerasia.com/

Myself will be recoursing along with my 3-4 other biz partners.
Also, as the course is intensively scheduled from 9am to 11pm daily,
we are planning to stay at Crowne Plaza Hotel @ Changi Airport.
-- Yes, it'll be sort of a fun holiday-cum-learning retreat :D
Let me know if you are interested to join us before 30th Sep.
We can book hotel rooms together =)

Looking forward the enriching workshop!

Cheerio,
Kee Yew

p/s: please note that altho' the enrolment is free,
there is a SGD50 refundable charge.
Also, you may be required to purchase
the course book (which is very important) at SGD100~200.
So after all, this is not a free course.

Why being middle class is not good enough

One of the many important teachings
that I gathered from the millionaires' workshops
I attended in the past 9 months
is the realization of the middle class crisis.

According to Robert Kiyosaki and many others
the current middle class is soon
vanishing.

This is due to
the new capitalism system after 1971,
the abuse of debts in current financial system and
the poor financial education in general.

When a big financial tsunami hits,
most of the middle class people who
preferentially save their hard earned money
will lose their money substantially and
downgrade to poor class.

The already poor class people will suffer the most.

Whereas, the rich and super rich class will be cushioned
by their higher financial IQ and cash flow investment.

In Kiyosaki's seminars and books,
he repeatedly expressed his concern of
wide spread financial-illiteracy,
and hence his good will to educate.

He believes financial IQ is the only key to
draw the middle class out of the crisis.
He foresees, the vanishing middle class will
segregate into the poor class and the rich class
depending on whether they are willing to
increase their financial IQ.


Well wishes,
Kee Yew