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KalyanamittaDecember 2010A Buddhist & Pali College eBulletin

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Dear Kalyanamitta,

Sukhi hontu!

1. You may be wondering if we have made a mistake your receiving the

Decembers issue in November! Well, our team will be taking a break in

December and we do not wish to go away worrying about Decembers

issue. So we have sent it out early!

2. Thank you for your support of the Kalyanamitta eBulletin. With effect from

2011, the eBulletin will be published bi-monthly. Our next issue will be in

February 2011 our eBulletin 1st Anniversary!

3. Keep in Touch - If you have Chinese New Year greetings that you wish to

send to your classmates or teachers, please email us by 31st December

2010. Please state your name, year of graduation and a short message

(not more than 40 words) if any.

4. GAQ and BA students will be sitting for their examinations in December

2010. Good Luck and please do your revisions !

5. Registrations for 2011 GAQ Bachelor Degree is now open to all Diploma

graduates. Please refer to Page 2 for details.

6. On Page 3-4, Ven U Cittara has kindly penned An Intellectual Approach

7. Young litterbugs growing in number. NEA notes blas attitude among teensespecially Page B8 of The Straits Times of 18Nov2010

Read Bro George Kuans timely article on this issue on Pages 5-7.

With Metta,

Jasmine Tan

Editor/BPC eBulletin


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Buddhist and Pali College of Singapore

Registration for Bachelor of Arts 1stYear

(General Art Qualifying)

The new course will begin on 9 January 2011( Sunday).

All diploma graduates are welcome to register for the course.

BPC Alumni will be organizing a briefing and registration session as follows:

Date: 19 December 2010 (Sunday)

Venue : Mangala Vihara Buddhist Temple

Time: 3.00pm- Briefing

3.30pm- Registration

4.00pm- Tea gathering

The classes will be conducted on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7.30pm to

9.30pm and on Sundays from 2.00pm to 5.15pm.

For those who intend to sign up for the course, please email your name and

contact no to:

The Secretary,

BPC Alumni at [email protected]

For those who want more information before they decide to sign up for the course,

we look forward to seeing you on 19 December 2010.


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An Intellectual Approach

Written by Ven U CittaraResident Monk of Mangala Vihara Buddhist Temple

Scenario (1)

We were told that the MahaSammata, the ancestors of the Buddharenounced the world disappointedly after realizing that the human society, supposedly with

the most intelligent of beings demanded the ruling system.

We were also told that our elder monks were very upset when they

knew that an examination system was needed to motivate Buddhists to learn the teachings

of the Buddha. In fact, both the MahaSammatas and our elder monks simply

overestimated us. We still and will need a governing system to keep our morals upright

and an examination system to motivate us to learn the teachings of the Buddha.

Scenario (2)

Twenty-seven days after I became a monk, my father passed away in my

village. When I arrived at my village from Mandalay, many people tried to console me by

saying such big words as Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta and life is like that, so on and so forth.

Unfortunately, none of those words struck me nor reached my heart.

At that time, a man told me that my father had already fulfilled his

duties as even his youngest son was old enough to become a monk. He had been trying

so hard to provide for the needs of all his seven children. Now it was time for him to take a

rest and to be taken care by new parents in the next life. I felt much more relieved. He

looked at my fathers death from a different perspective. Sometimes we need to view

something from a different angle and only an intellectual approach can help us.

Continue Page 4


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Continuation: An Intellectual Approach Page 2/2

Scenario (3)

We have learnt that there are 3 kinds of Bodhisattas: the Intellectual,

Devotional and Energetic types. What is more interesting is the duration of the bodhisattas

fulfilling their perfections: 4 asankheyya, 8 asankhyeya and 16 asankheyya respectively.

Among them, the intellectual Bodhisatta attained Buddhahood within a shorter period than

the other two types because they have no fear in making mistakes. Lessons can be learnt

from mistakes. According to Buddhavamsa, our own Gotama Buddha is cited as one of

the Intellectual group.

Gotama Buddha followed ascetic practices to the extreme for six long years

and then practised the Middle Path. This is a perfect example. By the power of wisdom, the

intellectual Bodhisattas can fulfil their path faster than the devotional and energetic ones.

Scenario (4)

During the lifetime of the Buddha, he bestowed individual titles to his

followers based on their fields of excellence. Venerable Ananda received the most numberof titles, 5 altogether. Why did the Buddha do this? According to the Commentaries, this is

the nature of the Buddhas. Logically speaking, the titles somehow can boost ones

confidence.

Soon after the Buddha passed away, the ones who re-organized the

Buddhist community and re-compiled the teachings of the Buddha were Venerables

MahaKassapa, Ananda and Upali. These three were title holders rendered by the Buddha

himself. Buddhism is more than 2,500 years old and still flourishing.

Believe it or not, it seems to me that these are probably the reasons why

Buddhist universities and colleges come into existence and continue to survive in this

world. Our Buddhist and Pali College is no exception.

Just as an intellectual Bodhisatta attained Buddhahood faster than the

devotional and energetic ones, an intellectual approach to Buddhist teaching could show

us the way to a more in depth knowledge of the Lords teachings and a shorter path to

enlightenment.

- End of Article-


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.Littering: An Anti-Social Behaviour and the Buddhist PerspectiveWritten by Bro George Kuan

Years of anti-littering campaigns have made Singapore into a fine city. However,

those efforts have been thrashed. Of late, littering has reared its obnoxious

presence in housing estates, beaches and Orchard Road.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

Habits are not inborn but acquired. Good and bad habits begin from the home

just like charity. Whether a person litters is influenced to a large extent by

whether a close family member or friend either approve of littering or commit the

act themselves, the NEAs sociology study showed. If a child is not taught to

place litters in a bin but allowed to leave rubbish all over the house or not picked

up, he will grow up thinking that it is perfectly all right to litter, even in public

places. Obviously, the child must be taught by parents or guardians. Even if they

do not explicitly teach the gospel of godliness, they should at least set good

examples. Sad to say, many parents or guardians dont. Failure to teach is

already bad. Leading by bad example is worse.

Poor house-keeping where homes are not just messy or untidy but also filthy give

young kids the impression that a dirty and unkempt surrounding is norm. Mothers

and wives were found to bear the greatest influence on what their children and

husbands did. Among the 1,500 youths interviewed, 45% said their mothers were

a strong influence in shaping their attitudes towards littering. For men, the same

proportion listed their wives. This clearly showed the role of women as important

facilitator in shaping the values and actions of their families. This important role,

I am afraid, is already abandoned by working mothers who prefer to let theirdomestic maids do all the cleaning work.

Buddhist Morality

Evermindfulthat Buddhists are exhorted to be compassionate on their littered

path to Nibbana, I shall see what the dhamma has to say about anti-social

behaviours before making sweepingstatements.

uddhist Morality

ermindfulthat Buddhists are exhorted to be compassionate on their littered path to Nibbana, I


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Continuation Littering Page 2/3

Almost 95% of the people surveyed said they knew it was wrong to litter. So,

littering is a moral issue. Morality is about doing the right thing and refraining from

doing the wrong thing. Hence, any idea or intention to litter is wrong thought. For

that matter, thinking that littering is harmless is wrong thought. If you throw banana

skin on the ground and someone step on it and slip, you are the cause of his

mishap. So throwing rubbish callously out of the window is an inconsiderate,

selfish, and wrong act. The test of what is right or wrong isAnumana that which

is unpleasant to one is also unpleasant to another. In other words, if you wouldntlet some other people dump rubbish into your home then you shouldnt litter in

public.

Buddhist Social Dimension

Littering is an antisocial activity. If not arrested, it becomes a social norm. In many

Asian countries, it is customary to see people littering everywhere with not the

slightest compunction. There are several agent of socialization, namely parents,

school, peer groups, religion and mass media.

In the Sigalovada Sutta, a discourse on domestic and social ethics, the Buddha had

laid down the social obligations of a layperson and his interaction with society. To

which of the six quarters do we look for ways to smother anti-social behaviour?

In the eastern quarter, parents shall restrain their children from anti-social

behaviours and exhort them to virtue. That is, they teach their children as young as

toddlers to be clean and tidy. No leaving of litter or waste around and to discard

them into proper receptacles. Also, parents should teach their kids to pick up after

themselves and not wait for someone else to do. When they get older, parentsshould let their children help in cleaning the house. Apart from cleaning and tidying

up their own rooms, they should be assigned to clean common areas like dinning,

living and kitchen as well as the toilets! Idling around the house should not be

encouraged and maids should be dispensed as soon as children become

independent


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Continuation Littering Page 3/3

In the southern quarter, teachers shall train students in civic-consciousness, to

hold fast to good social behaviour, and to instruct them in the art of loving and

appreciating the environment. Thus, teachers have a duty to inculcate good

social behaviour and the importance of keeping Singapore clean. School

teachers should be more knowledgeable about protecting the environment and

impart this knowledge to their charges. During civic lessons students should be

told that littering in public is really obnoxious. Would they like to travel in buses

and trains peppered with litter and crawling cockroaches? Would they like tonegotiate piles of rubbish as they walked on the streets and to hold their breath

when crossing choked canals?

In the northern quarter, friends should disapprove of their peers who litter and are

inconsiderate to others by leaving unwanted tissues behind. They should

reinforce each others good habits and admonish bad ones. This is easier said

than done. When a young girl was caught by NEA officers for throwing cigarette

butt on the ground, her friends were trying to justify her inconsiderate action.

In the zenith quarter, religious teachers shall restrain the laity from harming the

environment through indiscriminate littering. They should admonish such anti-

social behaviour in their weekly sermons. Perhaps, religious teachers have the

moral authority to exhort the lay to do good, correct mental defilements and

reveal to them the way to heaven is cleanliness.

Written by:

George KuanBPC Diploma 2009/2010

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