I live in London, UK. I am taking the second lockdown as an opportunity to repent my mistakes and found my head, lower back, and legs are weak and cold while I was following the Earth Store Repentance Ritual downloaded via www.drbachinese.org. I have dreams almost every nights. I could see how I forcefully stepped on insects. I honestly can’t believe what I did in one of the dreams. I am in the position of not wanting to share it and wanting to share it. Because I don’t promote super natural power and mis lead people about Buddhism on one hand. On the others, I agree if there is a…

Recited Om Mani Padme Hum 1000 times.

Growing up as the only child, I have never cooked much, even though I eat every day. Recently, living with a dozen fellow practitioners, I have been inspired by the care and joy they put into preparing and sharing food. So, I signed up to be the apprentice chef every day for half a months, and then cooked a meal independently for the whole group. It was a simple meal: white rice, curry, and stir fry veggies. But I had so much fun — and gratitude in heart — while cooking, and my gracious guests loved the food. It was all gone before I remembered to take a photo to…

My parents recently moved to another country which has been a lifelong dream of theirs, but they expected they would be able to return periodically to stay connected with friends and family here. With the pandemic, all of those plans changed. This has been especially challenging for them as family members have graduated, passed away, and gotten married since the travel restrictions went in place. I’ve been trying to write them regular letters (emails) at least once every week or two to stay in touch with them so they feel more connected.

One evening, my mom found a gecko while she was cleaning the puzzle on the floor. She called my dad to quickly come and capture it. The gecko was lightning fast and almost ran away! When my dad captured it, my mom came into my study room and told me to come look at the gecko. It was a cute, small baby gecko and it had big eyes with thin slits in the middle. We decided to keep it for the cold night to come because we were afraid it might freeze to death outside. I searched up what geckos ate and found that they ate bugs and fruits. We…

This week Jin Wei Shi and I helped with a Laddership Pod (online retreat) with Service Space where we went over the four brahma-viharas: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Many late nights putting together the curriculum, but it was worth it! It was also quite inspiring reading everyone’s reflections.

Hello. I did not something special in regular meaning. But I did something really important for those that I did that. Well, I started to help insects to escape from my house. From the perspective of our big world it’s not important. But for these insects it is all the world. I understood how much depends on me and that if I am at this planet I can use my life to help other. For example I was washing the dished and I saw a little living being in the water under plates. It was on its back and was fighting for its life. I helped him and made him…

One of my sisters has recently developed really terrible hand eczema, which makes coming in contact with water generally painful if she isn’t wearing rubber gloves. Her hand dexterity is greatly reduced when she puts on her hand medicine or moisturizer. I bought her some cotton gloves and some eczema moisturizer from a small business and have been doing her dishes for her every day. The other day, I helped her blow dry her hair before she went to sleep. My other sister also has cracked and dry fingers from eczema which she has had ever since she was little, so I help her do her dishes as well, especially…

I recently learnt that my own daily meditation practices and chants are merits that I can dedicate on behalf of my parents, siblings, relatives and colleagues. I have been dedicating all the merits on behalf of them to all sentient beings – wishing them happiness, ending their sufferings and achieve enlightenment.

I recently was released from prison for drinking and driving, no accidents thank goodness. While I was in prison, I met a young lady whom was in prison for drug addiction. What little books available, I found a book on Pranayama. Everyday her and I would go in the yard and do breathing exercises and basic yoga stances. She was interested in my beliefs so I told her stories that Master Hsuan Hua told in his sutra commentaries. I taught her the basic precepts of morality, the Five Precepts. One day, she told me she was so scared of the violence that persisted in the bunk bed below hers. ..…