David's Space...

The Spectrum of Sexuality

Have you heard of the Kinsey scale? I have not and I just came across it recently and I was very fascinated to read about it so I thought I share it here on the blog for the world to discover their sexuality. Just kidding. I guess anything about sexuality 'arouses' (pun intended) my curiosity.

According to the Kinsey scale, sexuality can be scaled between two opposites, heterosexuality and homosexuality.

Rating   Description

0           Exclusively heterosexual

1           Predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual

2           Predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual

3           Equally heterosexual and homosexual.

4           Predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual

5           Predominantly homosexual, only incidentally heterosexual

6           Exclusively homosexual

X           Asexual, Non-Sexual

The last bit is rather funny and interesting at the same time. I cannot imagine anyone being asexual except perhaps plants. I am sorry but I don't think monks and highly attained Beings are asexual. I think they just channeled that energy towards spiritual realisation and/or benefitting others.

Hence, I think Tantra is such a powerful and effective method toward reaching enlightenment. I say that because all beings are consumed by desire and Tantric methods taps into such a powerful source as sexual desire and convert it into spiritual transformation. How this is done is beyond the scope of this little blog post but I might get into that later. Anyway, what's your scale and can you guess mine? Hehe! 

Break in...

There was a break in this afternoon at Heruka House, the place where I am living. It is scary to discover this but fortunately nothing was taken. There were only three of us living in this house. The intruder went into our rooms and opened all of our cupboards and rummaged through everything including our underwear. Perhaps they were hoping to discover some money or jewellery but there were none. They left everything else untouched including our pastports and gilded statues. Zamkar, our little Schnautzer was exceptionally quiet in the aftermath, perhaps he was traumatized by the intruders.

I am sure Zamkar would have been barking at them but was scared into his little corner under the coffeetable. Paris warned me that dog-napping is getting very popular these days. The way the robber tore through the flimsy front door grills hints of either security or the maids that usually come on Sunday to clean are in cahoots with the robbers. Now with the broken grill, we have to chain it to secure Heruka House. This is a temporary measure until we move out. 

Photo of A Tibetan Yogin

I have always loved this photo that I saved from the Internet sometime ago. This sepia photo depicts a Chod yogi wielding his ritual Chod drum and thighbone trumpet along with a display of ritual implements right before him. Chod is a practice of cutting off the self-cherishing mind. It is a meditative practice developed uniquely in Tibet by the awakened yogini,  Machig Labdron, an emanation of Vajrayogini herself.

Such practices are usually performed under the cover of night and right in the heart of all all fears - the cemetary. It is also a solitary practice that requires one to come face-to-face with our biggest internal foe - fear itself. The meditations is to graphically cut and chop up a replica of ourselves (representing our ego) and offer it to the spirits and various supernatural beings. This is clearly not for the feign hearted. 

That is how fear is used as a means to cut away at the root of all evils - our self-cherishing mind that we conventionally call the ego. I don't think I will ever be able to practice such an advanced practice but there is something alluring about it and the hynotic and rhthymic chant seemed ethereal and otherworldly, that perhaps hint of its supernatural origin. 

Whatever it is, this rare photo evoke a time of the Mahasiddhas of old and the tremendous power they held over the imagination of the people and the development of Buddhism in Tibet. 

What's a Moleskine?

A Moleskine is basically the most expensive notebook in the world! Well I can't vouch for that statement but it is the most expensive notebook in any bookstore in Malaysia. Only a few stationery shops carry these yummilicious notebooks.

Well, this is not a paid advertisement although I wouldn't mind if it became one. They don't have to pay me with money, just gimme a whole range of their notebooks! (I wonder if they are reading this...) I love these black beauties and I actually own two Moleskine notebooks, one a black and sleek weekly organiser and a blank page notebook. I know! I was a little extravagant as they ain't cheap and the organiser is only for a year. My precious Moleskine organiser is ending in December so its time to go shopping for another soon.  

Recently, I gave Abby Foo, a new colleage of mine, a small limited edition Moleskine with an illustration of Little Prince on it (just like the picture below). This is a welcoming gift for deciding to join KMP full time. I do hope it will inspire her to pursue her dreams is to work and be a part of something bigger and beneficial like being a part of Kechara.

What can I say? I LOVE MOLESKINE! I am a Moleskine fan!  

I gave an Interfaith talk...

Last Saturday, I was invited (by Rev. Thomas George) to participate in an interfaith lecture, in memory of Swami Satyananda. This was held in the Pure Life Society center. It was interesting to be here on premise and the topic was 'Religion in the Marketplace'. It was such a broad topic and the panel of speakers were intellectuals representing various faiths in Malaysia. 

It was truly an honour to be representing the Buddhist perspectice. However, the other speakers were formidable with their intellectual discussion. I did my best to bring things into prespective with what I understood of the topic and yet appear unperturbed by these great intellectuals. Even the questions from the floor required me to think a little. It was perhaps my poor grasp of the language or the interesting Indic accent of its speakers. I only managed to scrape through with lots of quotes by Rinpoche and a smart little commentary of each. 

However, the lecture and the dialogue that ensued went on quite well. I was not booed off stage and I didn't put too many people to sleep. I did meet Mother Mangalam, which I found out was the president of the Pure Life Society and of course, I would take this opportunity to offer a bouquet of roses to her on behalf of H. E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche. She said she remembers Kechara (she came to the opening of the new Gompa) and she said Rinpoche was very down-to-earth. 

Of course, I wouldn't forget to offer a bouquet and a gift of some books to Rev Thomas George as well for inviting me to this talk. I hope I wasn't too bad of a speaker and that he would invite me and my recommendation, Jamie Khoo as well.

Alls well ends well. I was presented with a neat gift of a Shaeffer pen and I was glad it was over and it was nice to meet some new faces and perhaps some new friends as well. Looking forward to such talks and appearances in the future. 

 

A Buddhist Past...

A visit to the local muzeum was not really on the top of my to-do list. However, I found myself visiting it along with a bunch of my friends from Kechara as part of an educational visit arranged by H. E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche. We are there not to soak in the culture of Malaysia as we are already Malaysians but to see relics of Malaysia's Buddhist past. 

Everybody knows that Malaysia is predominantly Muslim today but this was not so, over a thousand years ago. The Malay archipelago (which include Malaysia and the Indonesian islands) were then predominatly Hindu-Buddhist. Smaller and larger Malay kingdoms rose and fell throughout history. At that time, they were a thriving civilisation that were heavily influenced by India due to trade routes bringing Indian traders that have been ploughing through the region for over a millenia. 

This ancient 8-armed Amoghapasha Avalokiteshvara statue is one of the few relics of that past. Its serene smile hints of the turbulent moments in history that only its bronze eyes have seen. Who commissioned this statue? Who prayed and made offerings to this this divine statue? 

We may never know as the muzium does not have much to say about it and have relegated it to prehistory of Malaysia. The muzium have very little artifacts from this period except a few scant pottery shards, beans and worn-out sculptures. There is little archelogical explanation which perhaps is reflective of today's prevalent belief system. This period is very much a past that seemed glossed over, unwanted and very much under-researched. 

Whatever it is, Hinduism and Buddhism arrived here and set the seeds of the local culture to germinate into the modern Malay culture. Perhaps, with this somewhat Tantric emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the earlier waves of Tantra may have arrived here much earlier as well. This statue is an exciting find and a very interesting clue to what Malaysia was like back then. 

And not only Malaysia but what the whole region was like, especially when Atisha arrived on the Indonesian Isles to study under the great Bodhichitta master, Serlingpa. I left the muzeum wishing there were most exhibits and explanations from this era of our history. 

A New Abode

Due to monetary reasons, Paul (my housemate) and myself have been looking towards moving for sometime to lower our rental cost. Simulataneously, my mum has an apartment in the Hartamas area and she had recently asked me to find someone to rent the place because she didn't want to live in this 1600 square feet apartment.

So, I asked her to allow me to go over to take photos of this place and here are some of the photos I have taken of it. It is a nice tidy little place and I remarked that maybe one day I would like to stay here. She jumped on the topic and asked me to consider it and added that I don't need to pay her a single sen. She had already paid the apartment in full except for the monthly management and amenities fees. 

I spoke to Paul and Jace (both remaining housemates of Heruka House) about it. I even took them on a tour of the place and they liked it. Eventually, Paul accepted as it would help him to save quite a bit of money. 

The beautiful hall of the apartment faces the balcony with a breathtaking view of the Hartamas area including a Turkish-looking mosque in the distance. 

My mum had this console installed for a flat screen TV. Now, we just need a flat screen and we are set. Unfortunately, most of us wouldn't be free to watch. Perhaps Zamkar (Paul's white schnautzer) would want to learn how to operate the TV remote. 

The cabinets in the kitchen is fully done up with cabinets along with the state-of-the-art electrical stove and exhaust hood above the stove. No excuse for not cooking and saving money from now onwards.  

The apartment has 3 bedrooms and each have a bathroom either next to it or attached. This is the master bedroom and my mum got the wardrobe and table all done up. I like the brown walnut colour, quite classy. Not bad colours from my mum.  

The breath-taking view from the balcony of the apartment.

The view of the pool area from the balcony and I can plan where I want to land if I were to commit suicide. There are the usual apartment facilities like the gym and others but I like the pool. Perhaps, I could skinny deep in the pool if I ever get a chance. What do you guys think? You like?