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}