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 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}

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}