The Stories Behind The Nurturing of Vegetarianism (3) -- The Veg School Moving On

Presentation at Veg Congress
@ Kuala Lumpur, Oct 2013

The Veg School (TVS)
was first conceived late 2010,
and officially started up in May 2011,
as an effort and good will,
to advance vegetarianism in the region,
by teaching scientifically sound procedures
to adopt a plant based diet and lifestyle.

After returning to Kuala Lumpur in 2012,
I was still required to travel to Singapore
to teach Vegetarian Nutrition for a few Buddhist Associations,
including Sagaramudra Buddhist Society,
80-Gallery (Mahaboddhi Monastry),
and Bliss and Wisdom Society.

TVS was still progressing steadily in low profile
despite my frequent absence in Singapore.

In 2013,
TVS' Signature Vegetarian Nutrition Course
reached out to some 150 students;
TVS' new course, Vegan Culinary Certification Program
also successfully trained two batches of healthy, vegan culinary students.

As TVS is getting a little more well-received,
I decided to expand TVS vegetarian teachings
to Kuala Lumpur, since I am already physically here.

Oct 2013, I gathered some courage to step up my veg effort,
by ending the contract with RPA Academy,
and docking onto full time establishment of TVS programs in KL.

After some intensive meetings and discussions with collaborators
and potential students,
The Veg School will officially conduct
Veg programs in KL starting Feb 2014,
as per some highlights below:
* Detox Retreat @ Titi Eco Farm 3-7 Feb
* Advance Veg Nutrition & Healing (Private classes) Mar-Jun
* Veg Culinary Workshop (semi-volunteering @ Tzu Chi) Mar-Jun
* Yoga and Nutrition for Digestive Health (collaborating with Yin Yoga Asia) 4-6 Apr

In 2014, TVS also continues to add value
in the vegetarian communities in both KL and SG
by creating a free Mobile App

accessible/downloadable at

http://m.TheVegSchool.net

harbouring the following features,
with which I hope to mobilize more people into health vegetarian living:

* TVS Events Calendar



* GPS-assisted Map of Healthy Veg Eateries in KL and SG 

TVS Veggie Map @ KL and SG

* Health Vegan Recipes

Free Healthy
Vegan Recipes on the go

* Vegetarian Info Downloads

Bite-size Veg Info Downloads

Looking forward,
I am hopeful that 2014 will be a promising year
for The Veg School to advance vegetarianism
in Malaysia and Singapore =)


Have a Horse-some New Year :D
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

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}

Building A Sweet Home With Soaps

Sweet Home Soap Social Entreprise
Petaling Jaya SS2, Malaysia 

I was leading a Holistic Living Meetup event in PJ/KL
last Friday evening
by inviting some 14 charitable souls
to attend a soap making workshop.

This soap making workshop
is not only just a back-to-kindy type of
therapeutic sessions for the adults,
but also a heart-warming sessions
to contribute to Sweet Home Soap Social Entreprise
in their course of fund raising
to build a self-sustaining Home for the mentally disabled children :)

The event started in a cordial and relaxed atmosphere,
with detailed instructions
by one of the Sweet Home Soap's Founder, Ms Teng.

We started by measuring 150g of soap base
and subject to melting in hot water bath.

Soon, participants were mixing in
natural colourings,
almond oils (moiturising purpose) and
essential oils (for therapeutic purposes),
before pouring into cutie assorted molds that
brought us back to childhood!

This love shape soap is
naturally pigmented and enriched
by a type of mineral powder
that gives it not only a charming feel
but also nourishing properties ^^

Ms Teng shared more on the benefits of natural soaps
while we are waiting for soaps to set in their molds.

According to Ms Teng,
Natural soaps contain very precious and moisturising glycerol
which is usually removed from commercial soaps
to make into expensive skincare products.

Making own soap, not only gives us a peace of mind
but also ensures the natural goodness are not tempered with ^^

This piggy-in-the-bathtub soap
is made with lemongrass essential oils
which is later given as a gift to my mum
(her zodiac sign is pig in case you ask! :P)

These few soaps are made of tea tree oil
and mineral powder,
now in my bathroom at home :B






The soap making session
altogether took some 2.5hours
from melting of soap base, to ingredients mixing,
to molding, to packing..

During the workshop,
there was laughter, new knowledge, relaxation
and most importantly,
that we all did our parts to support Ms Teng's dream
to take care of the unfortunate kids.

Ms Teng is also a mum of a mentally disabled child,
and she told us that one of the biggest worries in her life
(like all other disabled kids' mothers)
is what would happen to her child when she is not around one day.

The only answer to her concern is to spend her next 10years
to raise funds by selling natural soaps and conducting soap-making workshops
in order to build a "Sweet Home"
where mentally disabled children like hers could be entrusted to
when one day she leaves the world...
(I nearly sobbed when she said that)

That evening, I was seriously touched
by the deep motherly love
and I hope I could create another opportunity to
support her Sweet Home Project
so that she could release her burden sooner... :)


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

#soap

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

An Invigorating Health Retreat @ Aenon

Aenon Health Care Centre @ Tampin

I just cam back from a very rejuvenating detox camp
@ Aenon Health Care (Tampin, Malaysia).

It's especially invigorating
to be at this reknown healing centre
after longing for 10years,
and to find out it's more than
I initially thought, just a healing place.

This visit to Aenon
didn't only detox my body,
but also detoxed my soul
for I saw
the hardwork
behind the construction and maintenance of the sophisticated physical premise,
the loving kindness
underlying the healing and educating services,
and
the wisdom
steering the advancement of spiritual wellbeing.

The first day we arrived at Aenon,
we were received warmly by a young and dynamic team
(volunteers, trainees and staff)
and
when we checked in to their hotel standard guest rooms
I was very touched
to see specific guest names were tagged on each door.

Guest rooms tagged
with guest names
for personalised service

Soon after checking in during the late afternoon,
it was some basic health check,
followed by a doctor consultation session.
That was a rare opportunity
to talk to GP (Dr Lee) who is a vegan
and knew my need for holistic healing regime.

The rest of the 1st day we took things easy
while settling down and
attended an orientation session
by the centre manager, Mr David
in the early evening.

At 9.30pm, all guests were asked to go to bed.
-- Healthy lifestyle!

The next day,
when we woke up at 6am,
the first thing was to take our mid-stream urine
and submit to the clinic
where young and friendly staff
took our blood samples for full blood screening.

Before we went for a morning hill walk,
we first started our detox regime by
drinking individually-customised "concoctions"
ranging from lime juice, psyllium husk, 4-in-1 molasses drink* and more.

Where we did our morning walk,
there wasn't just beautiful scenerary,


Dawn @ Aenon front yard

but also
fresh air, golden sun and some good companies :D

Morning greeting from
Scrabby,
a 2-month old baby =)

The daily routine after morning walk
was drinking 500mL apple guave juice as breakfast
followed by Christian song singing and Pastor's sharing**
and health lecture by Dr Lee and cooking class.

Yeah, interesting indeed,
attending cooking class during fasting!
-- this is truly the first of its kind
where one can see but can not eat in a cooking class!! hahaha..
- a bit torturing, but still it wasn't too bad
for we can still ask for hands-on experience..hehehe



Making of veg fish from
tofu and ground oat!

When come lunch time,
we are served carrot-based vegetable juices
followed by afternoon health lecture
and a myriad of healing therapies
scheduled differently on each day
from infra-red sauna, steam batch, salt glow scrub,
full body mssage to hot food bath!
- all done professionally by young and friendly volunteers and staff :)

In the evening, it was apple and guave juice again,
followed by health documentary, singing session or health seminars.

On the 4th day we got back our
blood analysis report
and had another doctor consulation session.

Very seldom, I felt so being pampered in a health centre --
what's more,
the team at Aenon gave us a sense of home
and never failed to shower us with a lot of friendly smiles :)

It was worth the 10 years wait
and
Aenon is a place where
health goers truly should consider visiting
be it for
the juice detox regime,
the tranquil and friendly place for recharging,
holistic health education
or the preofessional alternative healing therapies.

Very grateful that I ever had the chance be with
the good souls
and the good healing place =D



puzzle solving, book reading
and chit chatting
during juice time!

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



* 4-in-1 molasses drink was a advanced formula for blood building and cleansing, comprising of molasses, wheat grass powder, lime juice and aloe vera.

** Aenon is a Christian centre
.

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

How to perpetuate the effort of vegetarian movement

Vegetarian awareness in Singapore is definitely on the rise.

Yesterday I received a call from The Strait Times
surveying the trend of vegetarian outlets in Singapore
asking a lot of questions about the demand of vegetarian fodd
and the owners' intentions of setting up vegetarian outlets in Singapore.

Meanwhile, as published on
TodayOnline/Voices,
we also see that vegetarians are getting
more vocal and defensive about their aspirations
http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC120102-0000051/Its-not-our-parents-vegetarianism-any-more
http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC120109-0000119/Youre-an-animal-lover

And, looking at the feedback column following both online articles
it's thrilling to see the endless debates between
pro-veg and anti-veg sentiments.

I noticed this situation many years back,
and was indeed very puzzled
why even with the hard solid facts and figures
general public are still "not convinced" to go a little less meat...

I later got some guidance/inspirations from teachers
that the vegetarian movement
has to go beyond just raising awareness,
and evolve into imparting proper education on vegetarianism.
-- This so as to perpetuate/sustain the effort of vegetarian movement
done so far in Singapore.

From what I have been experiencing,
proper veg education isn't that straight forward
like running a weekend Veg Roadshow
or putting a few veg lines on FB.

That is at most drawing public attention/awareness,
and merely suggesting to the public about
how they may go via a plant-based diet
to improve their health, protect animal welfare and conserve the environment.

Vegetarian community has to take one step up
to adopt a more holistic educational approach
via a "planned" step-wise nurturing process:

The followings are some suggestive steps that fellow vegetarians may adopt
to better convince/influence family and friends to go less meat more veg :)

Step 1. befriending with non-veg
            -- greet them with smile and kind words always, to establish a good first image :P

Step 2. building rapport/bonding with non-veg
            -- by participating in their lives
               e.g. go non-veg restaurant with them (but order veg option) and do sports with non-veg

Step 3. establishing moderate and trustworthy image of a veg
            -- interact with non-veg by good will, without prejudice,
               shower them with compassion and always willing to add value in non-veg's lives.
               This is a critical bridging step for subsequent "information transmission"

Step 4. gradual information feeding to non-veg
            -- subtly and casually pass on information on plant-based diet (with positive vibes)
                e.g. the anti-aging benefits of phytonutrients

Step 5. engaging non-veg in *omnivore-friendly* veg events/activities
            -- that is to receive non-veg friends in veg events with sincerity and
                absolutely avoid anti non-veg sentiment during conversations.
                This is so that non-veg would feel welcome and won't feel out of place.

Step 6. confer proper education about vegetarianism
            via good books, videos, lectures and workshops 
            -- these educational info has to be fact/science based, absolutely no emotional remarks
                and most importantly with moderate views.
                Otherwise, non-veg tends tp think veg are just a bunch of extremist.
 
Step 7. lend non-veg friends unconditional support/love
            when they decide to try out a vegetarian regime
           -- when non-veg step out of their comfort zone to try out a new diet,
               support and love are essentials to give them a sense of security and
               to gather courage to move on.

As one can see from above,
promoting vegetarianism is not going to be
simply opening our mouth and argue by the facts and figures
(and stirring up heated, meaningless debate sometimes).

Vegetarian education movement takes
a great deal of energy,
a lot of patience to nurture,
a very deep compassion to educate the non-veg public

Only by a holistic approach to educate,
then only vegetarianism will continue bloom harmoniously in Singapore.



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

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Three lectures that grounded the soul, the heart and the body (3)

A very unique presentation
by Geshe Michael Roach

Lecture 3: Buddhist teachings that ground my heart for a successful career

Like many people, I am also a person who from time to time
worry about stability of career.

Just a few days after Dr Lai's talk,
I went for a 2-night career talk
organised by The Diamond Cutter Institute,
meeting a person I admire for a long time but
never thought I would be able to meet in person
-- Geshe Michael Roach.

I first learnt about the existence of Geshe Michael Roach
through recommendation by some buddhist friends,
multiple years back, about this book called
"The Diamond Cutter".

In the book, the author i.e. Geshe Michael Roach
narrated how he set up a successful diamond company
in New York within 1 year, using Buddhist teachings
he learnt in a Tibetan Monastry for 25 years.

At Geshe Michael's talk over two evenings,
Geshe Michael wanted to specifically answer
most people's desperate wish for a successful career.

He compassionately pointed out that
the only guaranteed way towards a successful career is to
plant the seeds for a successful career.
That is to help other people succeed in their careers
and to solve other people's problems in their careers.

Strange as it sounded, but that was a proven path
as per Geshe Michael's testimonial
and Buddhist texts (The Diamond Sutra).

Geshe also taught us 4 specific steps to ensure that
we will succeed in our career faster:

(I) plant the seeds in the right place
   i.e to help people who helped us a lot before (e.g. parents),
         people who helps a lot more people
         or people who are in emergencies -- without hesitation

(II) meditate and plan how
      to help resolve target's sufferings/difficulties

(III) take action

(IV) recollect every evening on
      own's kind deeds during the day
      to help resolve target's difficulties

Also according to Geshe Michael,
our success in career is easily erased by jealousy.
To insure the success of our career from being demolished by jealousy,
he reminded us 4 important concepts to help dissolve it:

(A) Jealousy is a perspective that come from ourselves,
      hence it can be eliminated

(B) Any intention/seed will eventually amplify,
      hence the damaging results of jealousy 
      is scalable in long term

(C) Commit to ourselves that
      we will not be jealous over defined period of time
      as an initial practice

(D) Do something to conteract jealousy,
      e.g. learn to praise a person.

I almost wanted to give Geshe a standing oviation
for all those precious teachings.

He was simply brilliant
putting buddhism into lay man terms and
making it so relevant to our modern lives
-- especially when it grounded my unsettled heart
in my career switch recently!


Gratefully,
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}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (8)

While my new life now is gradually settling down
after the "turbulent" last quarter of 2010,
I am beginning to feel recharged and refreshed :)

Life wise, I am getting little bit more organised,
and getting more disciplined
(waking up before 5.30am every morning!
-- how I enjoy being an early bird now :D )

Work wise, I am catching up with new skills
on how to identify diseases of trees,
learning about the life cycles of insects and fungus,
as well as the behaviour of plant viral infection patterns.
(-- I got a lot of inspiration from these small organisms!)


The next episode

When I am finally fully recharged,
the next steps would be

(||) writing my second book on Vegetarian Basics (a long overdue project),
      -- three boddhisatvas have already promised to fully fund the printing of this book
          so that this book would benefit the broad public at zero cost.

(||) designing course syllabi for The Veg School (opening in Sept '11)
      -- cracking my head to come up with creative content and
          audience-ngaging teaching techniques for the benefits of TVS students. 

 and

(||) continue to upgrade myself with financial education (which I am very weak in).
     -- will be attending intermediate level Forex trading course after CNY and
         participating in Eker's Guerilla Business Intensive workshop in June
         to improve financial wellness.


Grounded in gratitude

For the past few months,
I am very happy that I took the leap
to step out of my comfort zone,
going through some strain,
to re-adjust my lifetyle and to re-align my spiritual core
towards a more holistic being.

During the process, I am particularly grateful
to my family, friends, partners, ex-colleagues and new colleagues
who have been supportive for the change and
have been patient with the inconveniences and interruption
that I likely have imposed on their life paths.

Thank you for lending a listening ear on this series of blog.
I hope, by being honestly out-spoken in cyber public
will concrete my promise to the benefit all sentient beings
and strengthen the bond/understanding between myself and readers.

May all be well in the new year of 2011.


By good will,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (7)

Changing job as an affirmation of spiritual faith

By changing to my current new job,
I am switching from lab-based biomedical research to
field-based plant diseases diagnosis.
It may seem silly to claim that it's a big change (after all it's still biology),
but I had to give up bulk of the leverage from my past experience and seniority
and to learn totally new skills/technical knowledge from scratch.

That was way beyond my comfort zone
(even my new employer subconsciously indicated so).
But I didn't want to give myself any excuse to grow,
for I perceive that this is the way to put buddhism in practice.

Years ago, I learnt from Master Chin Kung a precious teaching:
[translating crudely] A truth shall always tally with its manifestation and vice versa (理事相融).
On my boddhi path to gradually release my attachment,
if my inner attachment (or part of) has truly shed off,
there should be manifestation of increased flexibility and capability and
vice versa.

Or,
By learnng to increase my flexibility and capability,
it shall correspond with increased degree of detachment.

With that, I embrace this relatively drastic change in career,
as an important assignment along my spiritual learning.

Despite the hardship ahead,
I accept this growing opportunity open-heartedly and joyously.



Gratefully,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (6)

The transposition I recently made in Oct 2010,
was a strategy to navigate around some hurdles in life,
it was also a steep learning curve for me to upgrade myself, skill-wise and spiritual-wise.


Relocation as a lesson of detachment
One of a few big lessons that I learnt/observed was
the detoxing process of my residence (also a spiritual detox).

I didn't want to move away from
the previous residence at Tanjong Pagar at all.
It was a convenient place to stay,
with access to a lot of good quality vegetarian and organic groceries.

I didn't know exactly how shifting away fromTj Pagar to Choa Chu Kang
would help improve my difficult situations then.
But strategically, by relocating,
I would encourage myself to step out of a stagnant ground
or break the viscous cycle I unconsciously fell into.

When I started to do packing up at my old place
then only I realise 80% of my stuff was actually unnecessary.
My room, my drawers, my kitchen had been substantial mess,
reflecting my inner status of confusion and lack of discipline.

Because I was shifting to a smaller place in CCK,
I had to force myself to throw away a lot of things,
including my favourite photos in Australia, Italy, Barcelona etc..
plus some very good books that I didn't had time to give away,
(altho' a good friend, Yin Hui did come to my place to adopt 4 bagful of dharma books)

Incidentally that remind me of a website:
storyofstuff.com
which mentioned that we basically throw away 90% of what we bought (within a year).

I jokingly told some friends that
the shifting expericence was one of the biggest sins I ever committed.
I trashed away so many valuable resources and blessings.

However at the same time,
I observed that it was a good opportunity for me to learn to detach from
materialistic forms.
While I was contemplating constantly to throw or not to,
I kept reminding myself, when it's time to go, it's time to go.

And, there was this little humble plastic bag that taught me a big big lesson:

I had a habit of recycling plastic bags and accumulated them in drawerS.
At the juncture of packing up, I was still undecided whether to throw them away.
Suddenly, when I picked up one very old plastic bag,
it crumbled into ashes between my fingers.
My heart ached and
whispered "even I don't give them up, they will give me up one day still".

Immediately loads of plastic bags were into the big trash bag.


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



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (5)

The reason I waited (procrastinated) was that
I hoped the problems were temporary ones.

Obviously they didn't go away,
especially I did nothing to resolve them.

The situations persisted for a very long time,
up to the extent where
my performance at my 9-to-5 job was affected
and my health became compromised.
My boss compassionately asked about my delayed response at work
and everybody around kept asking why I looked so frail..

I had to recognise that my life has gone into orange/alert alert.

Most people who know me closely
probably would reckon that
I have been taking on more than I can chew.

But for I have made a vow in my early buddhism days,
that I would walk the tough Boddhi path to benefit the broadest sentient being possible,
I didn't want to give myself the excuse of overload.
Overload is basically a relative contrast of the lack of skills and wisdom.

Instead, I decided to do two things:

1. let go of unnecessary attachment in life

.o. for one will never able to run fast with a bulky knapsack,
     I would release the pursue of unnecessary luxuries and personal indulgement.

.o. This would also translate into sparing more time for spiritual practice and dharma study.


2. transpose my current 'positions' to a more empowering one

.o. this explains why sudden change of job and residence.

.o. Knowing that the research job that I held in Biopolis
     required a lot of creativity and brain-juicing,
     I decided to change to a job which allows more routine tasks.
     The current Plant Scientist post at AVA/Lim Chu Kang,
     allows me to do field works at farms, parks and nurseries,
     giving me substantial exposure to natural magnetic field too.

.o. The new residence at Choa Chu Kang is also a deliberate act,
     partially to accomodate current new job at Lim Chu Kang,
     but mainly it's a strategy to shift away from hectic vibes in Tanjong Pagar.
     I had little excuse not to make weeknight appointment with people
     (who needed my assistance/input/contribution etc)
     while I was right in the central position of the island.
     By relocating myself to less crowded area also gives me opportunity
     to heal from my over-exhaustion in the past 2 years.

Happy New Year,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (4)

The stepping-up crises

It's a blessing to have a group of like-minded
working together towards the betterment of the society.

However, with projects become bigger and sophisticated,
gradually my weaknesses of poor time management
and the lack of leadership got contrasted out.

There is one point in time,
where I was overwhelmed by multiple commitments (of substantial scales)
and I suddenly got lost.

There seemed to be to little time for too many things..

Hence, I decided to take one things one time;
but often, I behave more like procrastinating.
Things never get done and projects took too long to conclude
(e.g. the launch of Vegehub.org was delayed nearly 1 year).

Adverse conditions began to intensify,
many many of my partners/collaborators
started to complain about my slow progress;
some even throw in their emotional 'attacks',
  relationships became awkward,
    my leadership in some organisations was doubted,
      I was constantly late for appointments,
        communication among partners broke down,
      issues were misunderstood
and my energy level almost dropped to zero.

Basically. my life was paralysed.

Regardless of the hurdles,
I did my very best to manage and
patiently waited for breakthrough to occur.

However, the wait was, apparently, a bit too long...

.. to be continued.


Truthfully,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (3)

Empowerment by friendly networks

As the scope of service become wider and deeper,
the learning path towards holism
proved to become tougher and more challenging.
I began to see the importance of coordination among
like-minded people to get things work out as a teamed effort.

This is where I started to appreciate a line
that I picked up from a window-displayed book @ MPH bookstore
many years back.

Quoting (crudely) from the biography of a successful figure (which I can't remember now):
"what make me a successful person isn't my talent, it's my network"

My belief on people network gradually strengthen
along the years of voluntary services.
No matter how I boost my vitality and manage my emotion,
I still couldn't get all things done all by myself
and eventually have to acknowledge the necessity of coordinated effort
to serve broader public...

This is when I looped in a few good friends to officially
start up Cielo Sereno in order to lay off some of my workload
in my education effort on organic living.

This is also when I deeply felt grateful about
having a bunch of sincere good friends around me
supporting the same ideal for a peaceful and healthy society.

Everytime I look back on how Cielo Sereno is well on track,
(the last check on Cielo Sereno web visit statistics, revealed
there have been >500 unique visitors
fetching some educative info from the website every month)
the similar notion came up:
--  it's the network of like minded friends that make
our organic education impactful and significant.

I slowly realise, network and relationship make a holistic life
more complete, more abundant
and more empowered (for a bigger and better cause).


Gratefully,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (2)

Volunteerim is to me is the best course I have ever attended.

It's a life-long continuous learning,
which is rewarding but gives little space for complaceny (if the intention is true);

It's precisedly designed teaching program with real-time feedback,
encompassing a good balance between theory and practical.

Volunteerism gives instants gratification, tho' little materialistic returns;
it satisfies the inner soul, tho' often drains the physical body;
it completes one's personal development, tho' frequently it requires one to make sacrifices.

If one feels like the best school and best course to attend,
volunteerism is the only one I would recommend =)

So, for the past 8 years or so, I deeply plunged into volunteering
for the Vegetarian Society, The Chinese Buddhist Assoc,
The Singapore Budhdhist Federation, Fu Hai Monastry,
Kampung Senang, Dharma Drum, Buddhist Life Mission Assoc etc...

I reaped a lot of personal growth in there.
However, after I gathered enough physical strength or wellness to endure
the heavy load of volunteering part time after work
(to the extent I look so frailed, my family and friends called me crazy tiring out myself for 'nothing'),
I began to face an all new challenge in emotion management.

The emotional set back from adverse experiences during volunteering
could be quite a few log scale more intensive and damaging than
the plain physical energy drainage.


Buddhism as the fountain of sustainance

If it were not by some spiritual faith,
I couldn't have sustained so far.
-- I was taught that the 'boddhi path' i.e. path to enlightenment is meant to be tough and lengthy,
hence much perseverence is required despite of challenges of the body and soul.

Knowing that this path is tough, is one thing;
resolving the emotional predicaments along the way, is another thing.
Often I have to apply some buddhist teachings
either Amituiofo chanting, metta illumination, and some meditative detachment,
to handle emotional attacks or conflicts..

These are actually teachings from Venerable Chin Kung
that I learnt in my early buddhism days
and those precious widsom turned out to be the most valuable
in cushioning my bumpy ride on this holisitc path that I am striving on.

Volunteerism, when imparting into
every single cells of my body
and every episode of my life,
indirectly invoked the complementation of
vegetarianism and buddhism.

This is how my life began to step up towards a holistic path
(which I believe from my understanding from my teachers' teaching,
a necessity to achieve total awareness)




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



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (1)

The final quarter of 2010
has proven to be the most drastic change on my life path,
since I turned vegetarian and buddhist some 7~8 years ago.

This change wasn't all that sudden actually,
as some close friends may have observed in the past one year or so,
my gradual drifts into entrepreneurship, cyber-presence and intensive financial learning.

I have friends commenting in multiple events
that I somehow have gotten more interested in 'money' nowadays
(cf. my passion in volunteering and spiritual studies along those years).

But the core hasn't change since the very beginning.

Beginning from the will to serve

The story starts since I arrived in Singapore in 2000,
and was hungering for spiritual fulfillment after
a long depression (undiagnosed) since I left my secondary school.
[I wasn't happy how the world it was and built up a lot of skeptism towards people around and refrain to 'participate in life']

I hence started my volunteering path in 2001,
in search of peace, bliss and enlightenment.
Lucky enough, I was given many opportunities to
serve and wide exposure to buddhist teachings
since I devoted myself to volunteerism then.

I was submerged in total bliss and joy of volunteerism, as a reuslt.

After a while, I began to realise that my physical body
couldn't sustain the demanding effort in volunteering.
I wanted to do more and
very wished to serve a broader public with deeper impact,
but my exhausted body kept holding me back...


Vegetarian lifestyle as the foundation to serve

Subsequently, my natural instinct asked that
I go vegetarian to build a good health foundation.
And so I did.

Given the concern of imbalance nutrition and
my promise to mum to take good care of myself despite my special diet,
I drilled deep into vegetarian nutrition,
eagerly attending wellness seminars, workshop and cooking classes.

My health became better day by day
with a natural/organic vegetarian diet,
and gradually improved my energy level and endurance power.

Driven by my deep gratitude towards vegetarianism,
I geared my effort in contributing to the vegetarian community
(including The Vegetarian Society of Singapore).

And this brought me up to the next level in fulfillment
but also posed a new set of challenges.

to be continued...



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


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

When is organic food truly organic? (4)

In reality,
it may not be easy to fulfill all the 6 definitive criteria.

Simply, some of the criteria are
- unmeasurable,
- arbitrary (if measurable) or
- non-achievable (given the unfavourable condition/background in certain region.)

Organic produce from different regions
are hence very variable in quality
depending on
the farming practice,
certification stringency,
land/region,
public's receptive-ness etc...

This fact however
should not contradict the need for organic agriculture.
Because we do whatever best achievable.
If we give up on organic agriculutre
just because we cannot perfect the organic agricultural system,
we will never have organic food.

When I led local organic tours in Singapore,
often I told the participants
that the farms we visited were not truly organic,
by strict definition.
However, we should still support them,
because of their organic spirit and
their good will to produce safer food with less chemicals.
Without them, we will never get anything close to organic.

This leads to one last criterion to define organic food
-- Gratitude.

This is getting a little bit far fetch to some of us.
But gratitude is indeed needed to ensure that
organic spirit will sustain and persist.

Our ancestors used to live in an organic world.

But this organic world slowly degenerates,
as mankind become less and less contented/grateful.

We want luxuries (e.g. "abundance" of meat)
which could not be provided by Mother Earth.

When Mother Earth can't catch up
with our ever-expanding demand,
we do silly and unnatural interventions
to 'fix the problem" from the surface,
by poisoning small animals,
     hormonising the live stocks,
     genetically modifying cash crops
and eventually intoxicating our ownselves,
-- under the excuse of saving world hunger...

As we can see now,
the lack of gratitude is the fundamental cause
that get non-organic agriculture started.

To revive the organic world
once our ancestors lived in,
we need gratitude.

Hence, Gratitude is the ultimate ingredient of true organic living.


With Gratitude :)
Kee Yew

p/s:
I recently set up an Organic Living Meetup Group.
and sincerely invite you to join in the force to support the organic industry
for the betterment of Mother Earth, if you are residing in Singapore =)

When-is-organic-food-truly-organic
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Train The Trainer 2010

Again, I was at another self improvement intensive workshop,
last week.
This time, it's a program that teaches teachers/trainers
how to teach/train effectively -- Train The Trainer.

In the 5-day workshop, there were so much to learn.

I was grateful to come across
teaching techniques that
accelerate learning and
capture students'/audiences' attention.

According to our coach at TTT, Mr Blair Singer,
in order to accelerate students' learning,
the following 3 factors are important:

1. Teaching environment that stimulates
both right and left brains' functions
(e.g. music, colours, rules)

2. Engaging audiences' full participation
(e.g. questions, discussions, sharing)

3. Acknowledging students' input
(e.g. applause after students' sharing, glorify students' participation)

During the workshop,
we were also guided step by step on
how to cultivate confidence as a trainer,
how to design our own teaching courses,
how to do effective presentation and
how to market our courses.

One precious notion,
Blair mentioned that
to be a good teacher/trainer is
to be a leader who
abides to the code of honour (ie ethics)
and
offers what the audiences wants to have, what they want to be.

Another impressive teaching from Blair was:
Many are nervous to go on stage because
too much attention was focused on our own selves
rather than the audiences;
while it should have been the opposite.

TTT was an eye opener,
and the rewards reaped from the workshop
are simply invaluable.



Regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

How doing nothing is the best way to save the environment

From time to time,
we hear about many green movements
calling for environment protection,
amidst the worsening global warming.

While I fully rejoice with all these great efforts to
prevent further pollution on Earth;
I also notice that
no matter
how many celebrities are invited to speak in public,
how many international summits are held,
how many passionate pledges are made,
these movements have hardly generated sufficient impact so far...
(pardon my prejudice, but I need to say this to make the point below)

Simply because:

At one moment, we read on the newspaper
about how traveling by air wastes so much fossil fuels,
the next moment,
we rush online to catch the "irresistable"  offer by
budget airlines advertised just on the next page.

At one moment, we learn on a TV documentary
about how the meat industry
has become the biggest pollution contributor;
the next moment, we are already planning for
a weekend buffet with family and friends,
when a credit card dining offer advert flashes on the TV screen.

At one moment, we gathered that 90% of what we purchase
ends up in the trash after 12 months;
the next moment, we dashes into a telecom retail
to ask for a new mobile phone
when there is a "zero-dollar" mobile phone plan.

Like a snail easily slides back two inches
after making a big effort to climb up just an inch;
environmental protection effort to-date is still considered sluggish.
Strictly speaking, the best way to protect the environment is
to do nothing at all.

It sounds controversial.
But the above proposal is based on a basic dharma teaching
which explains that
all matters in the universe arise from
our ever-spinning restless mind.
(一切法由心想生)

In other words,
pollutions arise because our mind
have been thinking too much about our own self-interests.

Hence the natural solution to reduce pollution would be
to think less and to do less of our own self-interests.

When we do nothing about
finding the cheapest way to travel long distance for holiday,
we save fossil fuel and create less CO2.

When we do nothing about
searching for the best buffet deal in town,
we reduces the demand for flesh and waste less resources on Earth.

When we do nothing about
pursuing the latest model of mobile phone,
we prevent metals and plastic from being incinerated.

Many of us have been focusing too much on the surface of
the environmental issue and
forget that the root of the problem actually
comes from our endless demand for luxuries and short term pleasure.

Once a Zen Master mentioned:
what we truly need isn't that much
but what we want are always overwhelming.
(须要的不多，想要的很多)

This may draw some debate,
but seriously,
gratefulness and contentedness are the only
antidotes to the deteriorating Earth surface.

When one is grateful and contented with one's good life,
there is no need to do anything to save the environment.
We feel there is thing to do because we know we have done some damage.
-- but when damage is done, it's usually too late to fix.




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

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}