David's Space...

Where Dragon Fishes are bred...

Well, there is really no such thing as a dragon fish. But to the Chinese, the Arowanas look remarkably similar to a dragon. Although they are highly prized the Chinese because of that but these fishes are not indigenous of this region but are actually from South America. They were obviously brought over a long time ago. There are three main types of Arowanas - the red, gold and green. These are of course the colour of their beautiful dragon-like scales. 

On our journey to ipoh, I drove Fat Monk and Monlam up along the highway along with Jamie, Jean Ai and Wai Meng in Jamie's car. Our first destination was the Arowana fish farm and we found our way on a dirt road filled with large industrial fish farms that reared Arowanas. We found our way to Bintong farm and rendezvoused with Rinpoche soon after to check out the farm.

Adolescent and adult Arowanas are reared in these large tanks. Arowanas are predators in their natural habitat where they prey on small fishes and insects in shallow lakes and rivers. Arowanas can live up to 80 years old if they are kept in ideal conditions. 

Here are the incubation tanks where the little Arowanas babies are nursed to maturity. Here, Rinpoche is asking me whether I want to take rebirth as a baby Arowana. I said no of course but the very thought bothered me for a the next hour. 

Look at these poor fellas, having to carry their yoke sacs until maturity. It ain't fun to take rebirth as one of these guys only to live in a small glass tank for the rest of their long lives!

These are the love ponds of the Arowanas and this is where the male and female Arowanas are placed for love-making and of course reproduction. Arowanas are 'mouthbrooders', which means the male keeps the little Arowanas in their mouths until maturity. The caretaker here told us that a typical male fish take approximately 40 to 50 little babies and they don't eat for that entire month. That is also how the caretaker notice that Arowanas have babies. The male fishes surface at night and the head of the male fishes that are carrying babies are noticeably larger. Rinpoche thinks this is fantastic as it is very rare to have the male take responsibility of child-bearing in the animal realm. 

Here, Monlam gives his best impression of an inviting male Arowana fish - steady, strong, and promises to take care of children... Well not in his mouth of course! Paris! Take hint! 

Much Ado About Future Buddhas

I was at a fantastic Liaison's meeting yesterday and just before the meeting began, Rinpoche gave a wonderful little explanation about how the Buddhas will manifest on the very same spot and how we can connect with them in our future lives. He said Buddhist thought matches scientific explanations of the Big Bang and the evolution of the Universe.

The descendent of the Bodhi tree Buddha sat under in Bodhgaya

There will be 1,000 Samyaksam Buddhas that will appear in our fortunate eon. The historical Buddha Shakyamuni is the fourth Buddha and Maitreya will be next in line. Samyaksam is just an epithet to mean Buddhas that will manifest the 12 deeds of a fully enlightened Buddha and will appear on the very same spot in Bodhgaya. So sceptics will wonder how does a Buddha manifest on the very same spot because the planet might have exploded by then.

Well, science offers a very intriguing explanation to this point. According to the theory of the Big Bang, the Universe will reach a state where all matter will implode, ending the lives of all stars and planets. Then, it will explode and breathe new life to new stars and planets. Thus, the spot in Bodhgaya would have reconstituted into a new planet again with new life, intelligent life and a future Buddha will manifest on that very spot in the universe.

Why? The very spot had been chosen by the Buddhas and is a very important portal from which they will manifest in the future. So how do we ensure that we will be amongst his very closest students? We create the causes now and that is through our action motivated by our intention. Rinpoche explained that we should do Dharma work sincerely and not consider it work and put our full heart into it. If we do, we create powerful merits and karma necessary and when we do our practice, it will seal our powerful karma and merit to take rebirth amongst the next Buddha's closest disciples. This means we perform our daily Sadhana and maintaining our Guru Samaya is absolutely essential ingredients for all this to manifest. 

All the stars and planets will reappear and we will take rebirth amongst them again (Unless you become fully enlightened by then... Nah, not likely). Imagine an ET version of you and me? We might have antennas instead of ears then. Haha! What about an ET Buddha? Way cool!