It’s Vesak Day! I visited Bright Hill Temple on Vesak Day’s eve with my sister and cousins to pay my offerings to the omnipotent Lord Buddha, thanking him for making my wishes come through and lending me support when I was at my lowest point in life. This was the very first year that I participated Three step One bow ceremony, the last year only paying my respects to Lord Buddha because of SARS. The symbolism of the Three steps One bow + kneel ceremony, I am not very sure of but my own interpretation would be that of renewing my faith, strengthening myself mentally for the tough times ahead, as well as purging my sins… Bright Hill temple was unusually crowded: throngs of people were queuing up to participate in the Three step one Bow ceremony but the temple is amazingly still as serene and tranquil as before, with soft chantings wafting out from the loudspeakers calming the hearts of city people.

To prepare myself for this big event, we ate vegetarian food for the past three days. It was difficult to find vegetarian food and most likely, the prices of vegetarian food is unusually expensive perhaps because of the efforts in producing them.

We started queuing at around eleven and waited for a whole three hours before our turns came. You can imagine how many devout Buddhists actually participated in this event. While waiting, we chatted about our lives,etc. The whole ceremony took two and a half hours to complete and we had to go up slope, down slope, round the circumference of the temple. When going upslope, I had difficult balancing myself and nearly fell down a couple of times while trying to get up from my kneeling position. But it got easier and easier towards the end. My cousin told me that she experienced difficulty at the beginning but at the middle of the ceremony, some sand got into her eyes and the next moment, it was as though light dawned on her, spurring her to complete. I had to catch up with her towards the end.

After the ceremony, we went to eat vegetarian noodles and proceeded with bathing Prince Siddhartha, after which we collected some books and cds and made our donations.

It was a unbelievably enriching experience. May everyone on earth find his/her own inner peace.

With Metta,
Nicholas


Went to play tennis today. I played the least as my knees were still aching from yesterday/ today’s event but I had great fun. Still in the midst of contemplation of buying a racket cos I am afraid that I will not utilise the tennis racket once school reopens. On the other had, I really should get myself a tennis racket so that it won’t be so troublesome having to borrow from someone else when the need arises.

Upon reaching home, I slept like a log. I feel well-rested now and here I am, writing my blog.