An ‘Apostle’ Of The Earth Goddess?

Dec. 4 | Set in 1905, ‘Apostle’ tells of a trio of false prophets, who discover a strange old lady wandering in the woods, with powers to cause fertile growth of vegetation. For power and gain, they imprison and starve her, while claiming to have...

Does Smoking Break The Fifth Precept?

Aug. 24 | The best way to curb negative habits is to cultivate positive habits. – Stonepeace | Books It is Buddhist general knowledge, that the Fifth Precept for beginner Buddhists is to abstain from consumption of intoxicants. The usual definition of intoxicants...

Truths Behind ‘The Mermaid’ Myth

Feb. 17 | Before ‘diving’ into fantasy, this eco-conscious comedy starts off on a serious foot – with sobering actual footages of deforestation, pollution and bloody slaughter of big fish. All in the name of life ‘improvement’, as directed...

Are Your Blessings Going Up In Smoke?

Sep. 30 | The lay Buddhist precepts are encouraged for all to uphold always, especially in times being tempted, by greed, hatred and delusion. – Stonepeace | Books According to the Brahmā Net Sūtra’s (梵网经) ‘Fourteenth [Secondary Bodhisattva] Precept...

How Death Hinders Progress To Liberation

Apr. 20 | The thoroughly unenlightened manifest confused rebirths which further confuse themselves. – Stonepeace There is a phenomenon called ‘confusion from separation (from previous lives) by death’ (隔阴之迷), which is the forgetting of...

‘The Cove’ Of Hidden Bloody Truths

Jul. 26 | 20 lessons learnt from ‘The Cove’, which is an intriguing must-see, be one a dolphin lover or not… 1. Dolphins are not all happy just because they appear to be ‘smiling’. 2. Dolphins are easily stressed by sounds as they...

Can A Human Holocaust Save Humans?

Jul. 19 | In the movie ‘Four’, the first story ‘A Noob’s Human Holocaust’ tells of a gang of guys discussing about global warming, about how the passion for reversing it has cooled down worldwide, much to their dismay. (This is arguably...

Isn’t ‘Yogi Bear’ Endangered Too?

Dec. 28 | In case you don’t know him, Yogi Bear isn’t a yogi (Buddhist meditator or of the like). He’s quite the opposite – totally unmeditative! He is a bear but not just any bear. As he would often define of himself, he is ‘smarter...

Why Are We Here?

Nov. 2 | Question: Why are human beings here since all we do is make a mess of our own lives and everything else? Answer: Most of us like to assume there is a fixed purpose in life, but the truth is, there is none. This is not to say life is unpurposeful or should...

How to Eat for Better Personal & Planetary Health

Apr. 8 | … I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion and to learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants and minerals… – Thich Nhat Hanh (The first mindfulness training) Many Buddhist traditions encourage...

The Emptiness & Interrelatedness in Recycling

Mar. 18 | Recycling your materials recycles your blessings – Stonepeace While the modern economic principle of lowering costs and increasing profits seems like a model for economic efficiency, once we factor in the additional costs of environmental pollution,...

Where is Our Beloved Child Now?

Jan. 27 | In order to turn the worlds into pure Buddha-worlds, in which all living beings can be enlightened, Bodhisattvas should not eat meat. [As there is no killing or demand for it in Purelands.] – The Buddha: Lankavatara Sutra The Buddha once told his...

Can Nature Rely on Your Buddha-nature?

Aug. 14 | Your harmony is when your Buddha-nature makes peace with nature. World harmony is when our Buddha-nature makes peace with nature. – Stonepeace One day during meditation, I was contemplating global warming… With some anguish, I asked Nature this...