There's No Way But Up

Almost everyone I meet in Kechara would ask me whether the stones are out. It is almost like a standard greeting from the people I meet to ask me about my ‘stone’. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not complaining but I find it rather amusing. Unfortunately, the stone is not out and so…

Last Thursday morning, I woke up with a slight dull pain on the left side of my stomach. I thought I had stomach ache so I sat on the toilet bowl and it took me quite awhile to realise nothing was coming out. I thought it might be a food poisoning so I grab my…

There was a time when I was constantly being attacked by an unseen spirit when I was asleep. I would hear a buzzing sound and then I would be rudely awakened by the feeling of paralysis. I would struggle for awhile before I would be set free. There were times I would feel hands pinning…

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….

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Welcome to Laddaland, the latest Thai horror flick to reach our shores. Like many other brilliant horror films from Thailand, it is not a mere mindless scare-fest. It is smart, sexy and packs with enough psychological drama to make the on-screen characters come to life.  Initially, I didn't really like the main character, Thee (Saharat Sangkapreecha)…

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…

(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….

I promised a facebook friend that I will take a photo of my shrine to share with him. So I thought I share it here with anyone who would chance upon this blog. The main deity is Lama Tsongkhapa sitting on a little Dharma throne with his two foremost disciples at his feet, Gyaltsab Je…

One of my recent projects was to organise the launch of the cookbook, Eat Healthy, Daily. Li Kim (my boss) wanted it to be more than just a launch, she wanted it to be a platform to promote vegetarianism and turn the whole world green. Well, I wasn't really very keen with the idea as…

I know this is way overdue but I am going to post up some pictures of KMP (Kechara Media and Publications). I have never worked in such a beautiful office before. The showroom of Volvo (one of my previous jobs) was not bad too but I was a lousy salesman. Anyway, never in my wildest…

I drive this lovely car, the Proton Savvy 1.2l car for just over 3 years. Unfortunately, the gears had always been a little clunky – it jerks each time the car changes gears. After awhile, I gotten used to it. Probably due to my aggressive driving, the gearbox is giving way. The speedometer shuts down and…

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…

I just watched Thor last night (thanks to a treat by Tsem Rinpoche) and although before watching, I was not too thrilled because I was expecting some silly blond guy in Viking armour wielding an oversized hammer. Well, it turned out to be exactly that but this Viking guy turned out to be a Nordic…

For those of you who are interested in engaging in a Je Tsongkhapa retreat, I have taken the liberty to include here the instructions from the Tsongkhapa boxset manual. However, I would encourage those of you who are interested in conducting the retreat to go through the entire manual and read about Je Tsongkhapa's amazing…

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…

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…

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…

We had a briefing today at Kechara House Gompa with Liaison Paul Yap leading it. It was all prim and proper with a name list of people in charged along with the itinerary for the two-day event. When all was settled, the liaisons and Kechara Care ushers went downstairs to for a trial run of the escort….

  The news is abuzz with a video footage of a brown poodle being abusively trained to stand. What's amazing about this video footage is the amount of publicity it rallied and as a result, so many people want to see the perpetrator behind bars now. I guess that's the power of Facebook and the Internet.  I…

Our dear lady boss of KMP, Li Kim took the whole KMP team out for Chinese New Year shopping yesterday at 1 Utama shopping mall. I couldn’t follow because I was at the airport waiting to pick up Paul and Datuk May Phng, who had just arrived from Taiwan. Upon my return to KMP, I…

I am feeling a little tired and listless after a weekend of flea marketing. It was fun but the whole lot of fun have left me drained. Earlier this evening, I was feeling that I needed rejuvenation. Perhaps a soothing evening massage but I decided to drag my ass for puja at Kechara House instead. Needless…

 Dear friends, I have a special request of my blog readers. You can change lives, change thinking, change attitudes and change outcomes if you try and all from the comfort of your homes and Pc’s….You just have to care. Please care. It’s beautiful to focus out.. Cruelty towards animals is against genuine spiritual developement, unethical and…

Over the weekend, I went up to the island state of Penang. Here are some of the pictures I took on my Blackberry… I saw this picture when I went to visit the Tzu Chi Foundation center there. I recalled many times that Rinpoche had likened Kechara to be a ship crossing the turbulent ocean…

Bouddhanath Stupa                                             Kechara Lounge @ Bouddhanath Some friends just returned from Nepal and they got me dreaming about Nepal. I would like to go to Nepal too but I guess I can't afford it…