Transforming The Soul Through Loving-Kindness

In my early days of Buddhism learning,

I couldn't make much progess,

due to a lot of frustration and prejudice

against a lot of imperfections in this world.

I found it very difficult

to apply what learnt from the Buddhism text

into real life,

until I attended a meditation course

with Venerable Guang Pin (广品法师)

(of Singapore Buddhist Federation).

In Venerable's meditation course for beginners,

he taught us to visualise

the light of loving kindness (Metta)

showering ourselves, our family, our neighbours,

and slowly expand the light of loving kindness to

the universe.

He also encouraged his students

to recite a short Metta phrase

"May I be in peace,

May the universe be in peace"

(愿我得安乐; 愿虚空法界一切众生皆得安乐)

ten times every morning right after waking up and

ten times every evening right before going to bed.

I did as instructed.

And, when loving kindness grows day by day,

I notice that I could realise

more dharma in day-to-day living :B

Today, I am still very thankful to Venerable Guang Pin

who laid an important foundation

in my early days of Boddhi path :)

With Metta,

Kee Yew

Nutritious Soup For The Lazy Souls :P

Tho' we may be health conscious,
it's somehow inevitable to consume
some unhealthy foods from time to time.

This is especially true,
when we are busy or exhausted,
and just want to grab anything convenient to eat.
Unhealthy foods (e.g. instant noodles, chips, McD etc)
sad to say is so ubiquitious;
if we are not mindful, it's so easy to fall into their traps...

Therefore, I was so grateful
when I learnt this brainless and quick recipe
from one of my nice friends and teacher, Oh Chong Fah.
With this recipe, at least,
I am more motivated to take good care of my diet
even during busy (lazy) times.. keke..

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Miso Noodle Soup:
(preparation time: 15min)

Ingredients:
1 serving of whole-wheat noodle,
1 bowl of water,
1 tablespoon of baby wakame seaweed
1/2 cup of chilled/frozen silken tofu (diced)
2 teaspoon of white miso (live, less salty type)

Method:
1. While cooking the whole-wheat noodle on the stove,
boil 1 bowl of water in a kettle.
2. when the water is boiled, put in wakame seaweed
and wait for 3min
3. chuck in cold frozen tofu to drop the temperature,
so that it's not too hot for the good microbes from miso
4. stir in white miso to make a soup base for noodle.
5. serve immediately with noodle

Miso and Seaweed are two notably nutritious food.

Miso contains
a lot of good microbes for our healthy gut,
easily absorbable amino acids for quick nourishment
and Vitamin B complex for nervous function support.

Seaweed contains
a whole range of minerals
to ensure proper functions of hormones and enzymes,
and also
good quality collagen
to support better skin and joints.
****************************

Bon appetite ;P

Well regards,
Kee Yew

Do not take nutritional supplement until you read this!

A couple of years back,
I was in this seminar @ DBS Auditorium,
listening to a doctor-turn-nutritionist,
Dr Ray Strand
teaching some basic concepts of nutritional medicine.

All the way along,
there have been a lot of confusion
about the benefits/significance of
nutritional or dietary supplementation.

But Dr Strand pointed out in the seminar that
in order to reap significant benefits from nutritionals,
the following points need to be observed:

1) take a comprehensive blend of multiple nutrients
-- because nutrients don't work alone

2) take the right form of bodily active nutrients
(ie. take L-form instead of a mixture with toxic D-form)

3) take the optimal dosage rather than the basic RDA dosage
-- this is a dosage usually much higher than RDA level
in order to confer the effect of neutralisation of oxidative stress.

During the informative seminar,
Dr Strand also described
how his wife's life long multiple sclerosis,
that he himself as a doctor
(as well as his other specialist colleagues) couldn't even help,
got improved by just taking
a good blend of nutritional supplement.

It was his wife's 'miraculous' event
that initiated him to dive into nutritional-based medicine
in the past two decades and wrote this book
"What Your Doctor Doesn't Know
About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You".

In this book, Dr Strand shares his insight on
the ignorance of doctors in nutrition,
the outdated concept of one-drug-treating-one-disease,
the treatment of degenerative diseases
from the perspective of oxidative stress and self healing.

If you believe that prevention is better than cure,
Dr Strand's book and his website are not to be missed.

Happy Learning!

Best regards,
Kee Yew

Why paper currency is not money?

We have long been told

that we are actually living in illusion.

But it's usually difficult to realise this illusion,

that we ourselves being part of,

as we tend to mistake things being permanent.

However,

illusion could be easier to comprehend

if we carefully observe how

the illusive entities around us quickly degrade.

In finance,

many people invests in

shares, options, insurances, ETFs

which are volatile derivatives of

the real substances.

When financial tsunami hits,

millions of dollars worth of illusive certificates

may just degrade into thin air.

Even the paper currency that

all of us 'realistically' live by

is also an illusive derivative of the real money.

This means, paper currency

will also degrade into thin air.

Especially when more and more

USD is being printed now,

the rate of degradation will be more obvious.

Check out Michael Maloney's video on how

the paper currency is different from real money.

Holding paper currency in hand

isn't something to feel secured about.

-- because it's a soon degrading illusion.

Materialising the volatile currency into

something solid, especially those

that can generate cash flow,

add values to people's lifes and the world

is what financial gurus advise.

Good day,

Kee Yew

How expensive is an organic meal?

When I started as an vegetarian 7 years ago,
I was very mindful about
the quality of the vegetarian food I took.
It has to be of a variety, natural and
better if, organic!
-- I promised myself and mum that
I would keep well with a nutritious vegetarian diet ;)


However, the price of organic vegetarian
was a bit strenuous on my monthly expense.
The pressure was building up so much
that I had to complain to Lee Nguan,
one of my few friends who is also a fan of organic food.


We were actually dining at an organic veg cafe at Smith St,
when I vented out my frustration on Lee Nguan,
asking why good food has to be expensive,
questioning the genuineness of the organic food,
wondering how much I got ripped off by these organic cafes
...


Lee Nguan was cool despite my negativity.
In the end, he just commented:
"Kee Yew, if we stop supporting the organic industry,
do you think in future we will get any organic food
when we need them?"


His remark immediately made me feel ashame of myself
for not being grateful for the good food I had,
for not appreciating the hard work of organic farmers,
for not understanding the difficulties organic outlet faces.


That was the day, I aspired
to lend my full support for the organic industry,
to educate others on the impact of organic agriculture,
to facilitate the growth of organic business in the region.

This was also the same aspiration that eventually led to
the setting up of my organic education company,
Cielo Sereno.

There is a deep reason why
we pay such a high price for organic food.
Basically, the high price is the debt
we pay for our forefathers' mistakes
of adopting chemical farming for short-sighted benefits.


If we sulk over the extra cash
that we fork out for our organic food, today,
it's likely that it will be our land, our air, our water
that we will be paying our clean food with, tomorrow.

Go organic, for the sake of humanity.

Well wishes,
Kee Yew

Rich people do not spend their hard earned money

Dec 2008, I attended T. Harv Eker's
Millionaire Mind Intensive (MMI) workshop,
under strong recommendation
of my teacher, Glenis Lim.

I was extremely grateful to Harv and Glenis
that I was at the MMI wokrshop.

This workshop untied
a long hidden knot within my heart,
that had confused me on money matters.
Specifically, Harv resolved my on-going dilemma
between saving and spending money.

Among many important teachings
at the MMI workshop,
Harv pointed out that:
While most people survive off
their golden geese (finite hard-earned money),
rich people survive off
their golden eggs (renewable cash-flow passive income)
laid by their golden geese
(hard-earned money used as investment capital).

After hearing the precious teaching above,
then only I realised
how wrong I have been managing my wealth
and decided to learn about cash-flow passive income.

Harv will be conducting Millionaire Mind Intensive
in Singapore again this November.
Make sure you do not miss this opportunity
to learn from a big guru :)

Alternatively, you may read his book
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
if you really have to miss MMI.

Sincerely,
Kee Yew

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Do you truly believe in destiny?

Like many people,
I used to perceive life as more or less fated:
I thought we were somehow destined
to walk a certain path,
to meet certain people, and
to settle at certain places...

My baseless prejudice on destiny
was thoroughly challenged and renewed
when I was recommended by Venerable Chin Kung
to read this amazing book,
"Liao Fan's Four Lessons" (了凡四训).

This is the book that shakened
the very 'fundamental' of
my past excuses
for not making adequate effort
to make changes in life,
to pursue my dreams and
to treasure what I already had.

Liao Fan's Four Lessons
is an autobiography of
Mr Yuan Liao Fan, a 16th century Chinese.
He wrote this book, in the hope that,
it will serve as a legacy to his son,
by teaching him
how to change the fate of a person,
like how Liao Fan successfully changed his.

In this book, he detailed on
how his every aspect of life,
initially seemed to be accurately
predicted by a Taoist monk,
gradually got transformed
when he cultivated true kindness
and accumulated tremendous merits
from his good deeds.

I was fascinated with Liao Fan's advice
after reading.
My first impression then was:
How easy it is to reform my life
by cultivating kindness and do a lot of good deeds :D

This is how Liao Fan inspired
the path I have been endeavoring
in the past few years,
untiredly doing a lot volunteering
and contributing constructive values
to my family, relatives, friends and society.

Do read this book slowly,
line by line, word by word,
with great sincerity.
In between the lines, one will gather enough
wisdom and motivation
to reform one's life!


With metta,
Kee Yew

p/s: watch Liao Fan movie here :)
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