Vegehub.Org: A new landmark for vegetarian landscape

When Cielo Sereno (CS) was first founded in early 2008,
it was commited to drive healthy vegetarianism to the next level.

During these years (even years before CS was officially registered),
CS have been dedicatedly organising organic education tours
locally and overseas,
giving her best effort to raise awareness of healthy vegetarian living
via fun and interactive tour activities.

In the year 2011 to come, CS continues to organise
meaningful local organic tours with new venues,
and will also be partnering with another VWO
on an overseas tour to Chiang Mai (October 2011, tentatively).

With Cielo Sereno's 3rd Anniversary
approaching in just a couple of months,
it's exciting to announce the rise of a new project Vegehub.org
to mark the blooming vegetarian landscape in Singapore and
to bring local vegetarianism on another quantum leap.

Vegehub is a project that derives support from Cielo Sereno's surplus,
to showcase the commitment of Singapore's vegetarian community towards
a healthier nation,
cleaner air,
greener environment,
more loving society and
more sustainable agriculture.

At Vegehub, you will see
the robust vegetarian blogosphere in Singapore,
established resources for vegetarian education,
a wide array of vegetarian services,
and vibrant pro-vegetarian businesses and events.

It's a one-stop vegetarian online hub for
vegetarians to become more cohesive
via facilated communication and mutual support of vegetarian services.

It's also a convenient reference point for
non-vegetarians to get comfy with the vegetarian world
by knowing the real vegetarian people through their blogs/services and the educational materials.

Please help yourself with this new website.
All feedbacks are welcome and
suggestion of more Singaporean vegetarian websites
are even better!! :D


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



{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}

A vegetarian movement that first moved my heart

In August 2010,

I was in another workshop by T. Harv Eker
"Mission to Million".

Like many of the previous workshops by Eker,
it again touched the inner most of myself,
unleashing my true will, my true passion and
my true reason to celebrate this very life.

It was at this session on the second day of the workshop,
through a series of simple writing exercises,
my "mission of life" got contrasted out and became very prominent
(like never before).

The writing exercise actually made the participants to
answer a long list of questionaires,
to dig out the true "intention" in us.
(-- the questions themselves were straightfoward,
but all of them combined, were powerful and impactful!)

When the facilitator went through the questionaires with us afterward;
to my shock, these two words kept re-appearing, many many times, among the answers:
Vegetarian & Teaching.

As the facilitator put it, if a key word kept re-appearing more than 3 times,
it simply means it's something we are inclined to do it.

I love teaching vegetarian, this is something for sure,
and I do it as a hobby and as a happy volunteering job,
but all these while, I could never recognise/acknowledge that
vegetarian teaching
would be the main part of my life -- I have been burying this true intention...

After the exercise, I told myself, I should be honest to myself,
despite some debate in the mind to "justify"
how these two words floating up a few times doesn't mean I have to do it for life.

If it were not the written exercise at Harv's workshop,
I couldn't have sorted out the true self in me,
amidst a lot of distractions from the outer world,
many people's confusing opinions and my own mind fricks.

I then took a deep breath and decided to go up to the stage
to make a public declaration to about 500 participants at the workshop
that I would open a Vegetarian School,
to fulfill my inner will and passion to guide people towards a
sustainable holistic way of living via vegetarianism.

When I came back from the workshop,
I continued to make my public declaration
to > 700 friends in Facebook and
to >5000 readers of Vegetarian Society's e-newsletter.

I wanted to  firmly commit myself to something that is truthful to myself
and didn't want this dream, this passion, this mission of life
fade off through my procrastination or
even get dampened by my own mind fricks
like many other episodes of my life before.

I have now created a Faceboook Group on Vegetarian School to recruit supporters
and have also set up a survey page to collect comments/suggestions
for a Veg School that the People want.

The very next step is to have an important meeting this coming Saturday
to confirm the venue of the school.

I will probably take a few months to design the school syllabus
and likely that this Vegetarian School will open latest by mid 2011 :)


Cheers!
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: this Veg School will be one of its kind. Courses will be compiled in the format of intensive full day workshops, blended in with practicals, students interactions, experiments and fun! It's a totally out-of-the-square (or out-of-classroom) type of educational system --not to mention, Veg School will not have a fixed premise to conduct course in at least the next few years to come, so expect the unexpected!!


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Life Force Recipes - Explanatory Notes (3)

We now know that seeds are important to us,

as they are the vitality-generating engines.

We also know that harvesting the life-force from seeds
isn't straight forward.

However, there are a few general pointers on
how to minimise the "side-effects" from the consumption of seeds:

(I) choose seeds which are alkaline in nature
~~ these seeds which are relatively rare,
     and can be taken on it's own without much need
     to balance any prominent biased traits.
     Some good examples are: millet, quiona and amaranth seeds

(II) choose seeds which are grown in the climate/region of residence
~~ in other words, these seeds can be grown
     (naturally and robustly without much human intervention)
     in the region we live.
     In the case of Malaysia/Singapore which are in the tropical region,
     some examples are rice, mung bean, millet and amaranth seeds

(III) soak or sprout seeds before consumption
~~ whether to consume raw or cooked,
     soaking and sprouting of seeds prior to consumption
     will reduce acidity of seeds to substantial extent
     For example: soaking of almond overnight, sprouting adzuki beans for two days.

(IV) add in enhancement ingredients to improve digestivity
~~ many seeds are not easily digested and their nutrients are difficult to absorb.
     Adding in some other cooking ingredients that will improve the digestivity
     will balance off the side effects of seeds.
     These ingredients are usually herbs/spices,
     like ginger, pepper, cumin and corriander.
     Cooking lentil with ginger, mixing brown rice with cumin and corriander
     elevates the taste of humble staple food while ensuring the digestivity of the seeds.


Hope you have been enjoying this series on the science of life-force so far :)



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

Life-force-notes

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Life Force Recipes - Explanatory Notes (2)

We know nothing is created equal on Earth,
because different entities have their uniqueness, preferences and bias,
so as seeds.

While the fact that seeds offer life force remains true,
some seeds are more difficult to digest compared to others;
some seeds are more toxic than others,
some seeds are more neutral (in term of Yin & Yang);
some seeds are more alkaline;
and some seeds are more robust (ie easier to germinate in harsh conditions).

In general, all seeds fit into life force recipes,
but without the knowledge of how to balance the biased traits of different seeds,
sometimes a badly formualted recipe may cause more harm
rather than serving the life-force-giving purpose.

There are different ways to balance off or to get around
the unfavourable traits of certain grains:

In the first recipes, Rejuvenate Concoction,
some of the grains are quite acidic,
but the problem was circumvented by selectively taking on the supernatant
and also balanced by other grains of opposite traits.

The same happened to the second recipe, Longevity Porridge,
where the Yang trait of Huangqi is counteracted by Yin trait of mung bean;
while the other ingredients were also formulated to balance each other.

As for the Amaranth recipe,
amaranth seed itself is very alkaline and not very biased in its medicinal properties,
hence it can be taken all by its own.

Hence, substantial knowledge and intellect are required in
formulating life force recipes... many a time this requires ancient wisdom!!

In the next blog,
more on how to harvest life force from seeds in the proper ways... =)


Well regards,
Kee Yew

Life-force-notes
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Life Force Recipes - Explanatory Notes (1)

In the past few days,
I have been posting a special series of Life Force Recipes.

This series of Life Force Recipes
will slowly expand in long term,
so that they will continue to guide people on taking the right food =)

Something I missed out from the beginning of this blog series
is the explanation on the essence of life force recipes.
Hence, there is a need of supplementary note here.

Probably one may already guess,
The essence of Life Force recipes
is to give longevity, vitality and energy?

Yes, but here are the principles behind:

(i) the food must have meant to give birth to life
(ii) the food must have comprehensive nutrients content to support a new life
to signify the presence of robust vitality.

Often in my vegetarian wellness classes,
I half-jokingly told my students that
there is one fool proof way to identify good nutritious food
-- that is to eat whatever babies eat!

In nature, babies are vulnerables and demand meticulous care
(especially in the quality and nutrition of their feed),
to ensure they grow up strong and healhty (reflection of life force).

If we have observed carefully,
it's not hard to notice that
eggs give life force to newborn chick
milk give life force to newborn cattle
seeds give life force to newborn seedling.

In vegan context, in order to harvest the life force from nature,
seeds is a very logical means for us to sustain life with vitality.

Seeds is a compact package of complete nutrients
(from proteins to minerals to carbo to fats to vitamins etc)
that ensure that a seedlings will germinate and grow up into a seedling
before it can nourish from the sun.

Therefore, in the entire series of Life Force Recipes,
one will always see the hallmark of
seeds, cereals, grains, nuts, legumes
among the major ingredients ;)

That's because life force recipes is virtually baby food :P

-- However, are all seeds created equal?
Are all seeds-packed recipes Life Force Recipes?
We will discuss about this next...



Toast to vitality,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Life-force-notes

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}
Life-Force-Recipes-Explanatory-Notes

Life Force Recipe (3) - Amaranth Cereal Drink

Amaranth Plant

When I first became vegetarian,
like many newbies,
I was concerned about protein intake.

One day, I was surfing the internet
for more convincing info on vegan sources of protein,
and something 'different' popped up in my google search page
-- that is Amaranth Seeds.

According the article,
Amaranth seeds is actually the seeds of amaranth plant (of spinach family).
It was a staple of ancient South Americans
and is notably known for its high protein content and minerals.
This why one of the high protein foods that vegan body builders routinely consume
in place of whey protein and eggs
is Amaranth seeds.

Amaranth can be consumed in many ways,
e.g. served with salad, as cereal or amaranth powder blended into shake.

Sometimes, I would also add 1 or 2 tablespoon of Amaranth Seeds into my
millet/quiona congee, to further boost the protein content (and also life force!).

Here, would like to share a special Mexican-style Amaranth Breakfast Cereal Drink
for variety =)

Ingredients:
. Amaranth seeds (1/4 cup)
. water (2 cups)
. Cinnamon stick (x1)
. Agave nectar (1 tbs or to taste)
. Sea salt (a tiny pinch)

Methods:
- combine Amaranth seeds with water and cinnamon stick, and bring to boil.
- simmer for 20~25min
- stir in Agave nectar and sea salt and serve warm

~~ .. the cinnamon and the crunchy Amaranth seeds would perk you up in the morning =P


Bon apetit,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: Amaranth seeds is available at some health food shops in Singapore


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}