He's leaving on a short trip soon. i realised it's awful to be not talking. i wished we could trash things out soon. but like pearline said, i'm a coward too. even though i have a lot of things in my heart that i wanna spit them out, i'll swallow all of them back in at the crucial moment. and they'll all be buried deepdeep down in my heart again. gah help me i'm such an embarrassement.

I think some people read too much into msn nicks. erm... yeah of cos i still love him very much if that's what you're wondering :S


Ok anyway i promised to share about Singapore Soka Association right. it's a Buddhist society that promotes the understanding and practice of Nichiren Buddhism. it was founded in 13th century Japan by a sage called Nichiren. it basically works on the Buddhism principle of respect for the dignity of life. of cos i'm quoting all these from a pamphlet i got.

It's quite surprising that i've never heard of this organisation before in my entire life, and neither has most of my friends. but apparently it has been around for more than 30 years, with 25 ooo members... it's a very well established organisation. aye, i've been ignorant.

On the day of the 2nd performance, i had a little chat with one of the leaders there. i asked him what's the main difference between this Japanese buddhism and the form of buddism Singaporeans mostly practise.

Buddhism first originated in India, that's indisputable. from what he shared with me, i have the idea that basically they both differ in the way of practice. nichiren buddhism doesn't burn offerings or require you to be a vegetarian. i got the impression that they mainly do chantings. in other words, it is a very rationalised form of the religion. he said people are getting smarter and they are starting to question the purpose behind each practice. ok, how true. so they're only doing things that they feel is reasonable.

I guess there are different degrees as to how you want to commit to your religion. some buddhists go vegetarian entirely, some partly, some eat meat all the time, but can you dismiss them as non-buddhists just cos they eat meat? hmm i wonder. and melf was wondering if christians should go clubbing.

My own opinion is that all these will depend on your own interpretation of your religion. like for the leader i spoke to (shucks i didn't even get his name... sorry...), he feels that religion should be something that serves the people, instead of the people serving the religion. hmmm. now isn't that interesting, when you compare this with the beliefs of other religion.

Of cos there could be other significant differences between both forms of buddhism, like maybe the faith or the teachings. but i didn't go into that. for more information you could visit the website here (wow they should pay me for this).

Hmm. i'm always curious about different religions. my family practises Buddhism so i guess you could call me a Buddhist too. but i always wonder how all these religion thingy come about and it often intrigues me the way people would go to extremes just because of a book/rules/guidelines/whatever that was written long long long long long time ago.
LingS | 12:24 AM