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. 

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 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?

Gone Down South

For the weekend, I am in Johor, the southern-most state of the Peninsular. Unfortunate for me, it is not a holiday. I am down here in Johor to help out at a roadshow with the Kechara Paradise crew - Chia, Jazz and Wan. 

 

We are here in JB's Sutera Mall for the whole weekend thanks to Kechara Southern Jewel Committee (KSJC)'s hard work and dedication. So who is Kechara Southern Jewel? They are a ragtag bunch of Rinpoche's students in Johor, who have banded together to do more for the Dharma. Click here to read more about their little story. 

Anyway, it is their first time organising a roadshow like this and so the location is not the really the best in the mall. However, the team had prepared a really nice little desk, newsletters and lots of pictures to show of the activities that they do here in Johor, many of which mirror those that is done in KL.

Great work, KSJC! Do more and you guys will grow and benefit even more people. There's a great sale going on here at this roadshow with many of KMP books going at bargain prices. Check this out! (Look below) My book is going for just RM10! Who wants to get a piece of me? Unfortunately, there's no one yet. JBian's are not too fond of books, especially English books.  

You don't impress me much!

(In order to safeguard the identity of this person, I took the liberty to change the details of these people so as not to offend anyone. So, please don't jump to quick conclusions about the identities of these people.)

This afternoon, I went for lunch with this person, who has a sibling in the Dharma. It was a fun vegetarian lunch and everything was hunky-dory, even when we started talking about her cousin. You see, her cousin had been working in the Dharma for a while now. That seemed very noble of her but actually, her cousin had been occasionally helping her out with her stipend but is still receiving crap treatment from her. (Excuse my French but you know what I mean.)

This family member takes from her cousin emotionally and financially but portrays herself to be a smart and loving person to the world. She takes her cousin for granted on very small issues and expect 'family' to take care of the nitty-gritties. She is not even that closely related but demands so much more. Hence, whatever Dharma work this person does, it does not impress her cousin. 

On the bright side, the cousin notices that she has improved and is much better at handling difficult situations without losing her cool. However, this does little justice to what she do at home and all she need to do is to bring Dharma home. I don't really know what advice to dispense and so I would tell her to be patient and give her some time, as her cousin does more Dharma work, she will learn to appreciate others and will transform naturally.

I try to sound as assured as I can although I am not confident inside as the issues momentarily made me introspective as well. 

Psychology of a Fatty

This post is inspired by Jamie Khoo's funny encounter that she posted on her blog. I feel for her... Sigh! I feel fat and I have always felt fat and I am told I am fat! I know I am fat by tipping the scale at 76kgs. On the health-ratio chart, my weight and height puts me on the zone of an obese person. Pah! Such charts are really nonsense sometimes. 

But I have hovered around that weight for over a year now and I have gone through phases of trying to lose it and then being indifferent about it and the cycle continues. Actually, I don't think I eat a lot but I love to snack. Don't we all in Kechara? Yes, I know all about the low-carbs diet, high-fibre, no snacking and don't skip meals. Well, my weight had stubbornly remained the same.  

Right now, I am just considering joining the gym again...

I was attacked!

I was attacked by Amnesiac Monster who had a sidekick called Laziness. They both pack a powerful punch and quickly overpowered me. Well... Not really.

I was just busy and I had completely forgotten about this ole' blog. So much has happened since the last post and it would fill a whole big book if I were to update about what happened in between posts. Anyway, I have just an hour before Lamrim class and flea market packing, I thought I resume a blog. I realised I had nothing really substantial formed in my head so I am just writing out what comes immediately to mind. 

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day at Amcorp Mall, setting up booth and ending it with makeup, a tight trashy little dress and a handbag to match. Looks like I am going to die as a man and reincarnate as a trashy drag queen. Well, it is going to be a photoshoot and I am going to be the unwitting star as a drag queen. If you do see me on site (somewhere in town), please don't wolf-whistle and lose your concentration while you drive. You might crash your car and I ain't going to pay for your car repair's hunny! 

Well, until the next post... See ya hunny! 

 

Lord Over Life

There is a special puja that can be performed to request Lamas who have control of their lifespan to extend their lives. No matter how spiritually attained the Lama is, they still cannot live forever. However, an attained Lama can extend their life according to the collective merit of the students.

Therefore, a very special puja that is specifically meant to request the Lama to live long by requesting the ethereal Dakinis not to make requests to their Lamas to leave their earthly body. You see, attained Lamas often have ethereal Dakinis visit them to make requests to come to their celestial realms to turn the wheel of Dharma. The Lama may acquiesce to their requests if the students' merits are low because many students are resistant to advice and teachings. Hence, this special puja is called a Dakini Tenshug and is important to develop merit for our Lama to remain with us. I will write more about this soon...

A Monk dressed as a Dakini during a Dakini Tenshug

 

Why Do You Sell Dharma Books?

KMP, the publications office that I am working for is currently having a roadshow in 1 Utama - a popular suburban mall. However, the roadshow spans over 21 days and our manpower is really stretched out. We even had Deborah Pereira (pictured above), our dear production's manager help out with manning the roadshow both. It was a quiet weekday, with lots of Chinese New Year shoppers shuffling about.It was going to be another ordinary weekday until a man stopped by and started a conversation with her.

Man         : Are you a Buddhist?

Deborah  : No, I am not...  (She is a good Catholic girl)

Man         : Then... Why do you sell Dharma books?

Deborah  : Because I am spiritual... 

This silenced the man and he left soon after, presumably embarrassed by Deborah's reply. I heard this from Fang, KMP's designer and I just love Deborah's witty reply. I am glad she said that and I very proud that she is part of KMP.