I am officially 30 years of age.
And the first thing I learnt is that emotionally, it is not as dramatic as when I turned twenty. I remember turning 20 in the guardhouse of our Singapore Soka Association penning my thoughts. I was on Gajukai duty that day a decade ago.
On this birthday, I went to work as usually, give extra tuition to my students who will be having their GCE ‘O’ Levels examination soon and then proceed to meet my fiancée for a simple dinner. Towards the end of the night, she asked how that felt like. I simply reply, “Nothing much.”
From birth to the age of 10 – A carefree childhood
From 10 to the age of 20 – Learning about the world
From 20 to the age of 30 – Defining my character
From 30 to the age of 40 – Contributing to my community
I guess that is it. It is simply a realignment of my personal priorities. Nothing more.
And my current priorities are as follows:
Repaying my debts to the Soka Gakkai
Not monetary debts. I remembered a time of observing how my mother struggled to raise three children of her own. And it is my conviction that she succeed due to our family’s involvement with the Soka Gakkai. Throughout my formative years, it had always been Dr Daisaku Ikeda’s encouragements that gave me strength when I needed it. It is he who taught me the correct way to live my life. And I know that his greatest wish is for Soka Gakkai to continue to develop far into the future and to develop innumerous youths who will shoulder the responsibility of Kosen Rufu. This is my vow, to always support the Soka Gakkai in any way I can.
Building my wealth
Buddhist principles stated clearly that money is not a requirement for happiness but is honest to point out that having money is useful in supporting that cause. Building wealth for wealth sake is dangerous and only invites the poison of greed into our hearts which is why I have to constantly remind myself of my original purpose in wanting to be rich. I control my money, sometimes so tightly that I had been accused of being stingy. But I see it as the only responsible thing to prepare for that day when I need to have enough to let my mother live a comfortable life after she loses her ability to generate income due to advancement in age. And also to ensure sufficient fund to start my own family unit which I have every intention to do so in the near future.
Developing the youths
I am fortunate to be in the educational industry – an industry which I sincerely believe has the potential to create the greatest values in life. In order for any society to prosper, there had to have some form of peace, culture and education. Building peace is the foremost requirement. For without peaceful conditions, it is almost impossible to better our society. But peace can only be sustained through the establishment of a positive culture which enhanced peace. To enrich lives, an appreciation of the aesthetics and the arts cannot be ignored. And finally, nurture creativity and inspiration for culture, education is the only means. I may or may not remain in the public education for the long term, but I firmly believe, at this point of time, that I will always be connected to the education business.
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I was with the girlfriend at Borders yesterday when once again; I keenly felt the inadequateness of both the quantity and the quality of the books on Buddhism. I do write about Buddhism on a number of occasions and I have an intensive urge to organize them and have them published somehow in the future. But I have no concrete plans on this yet.
I may not have perfect understanding but I do pride myself on a decent amount of knowledge on matters religious having attended mission schools from kindergarten all the way till junior college. I like to think that my exposure to Christianity is not lacking. Adding my personal intensive study of Buddhism in my formative years, I concluded that the Buddhism practiced by Soka Gakkai has the quality to enhance and enrich our lives and would recommend it to anyone.
The Prime Minister in his recent National Day Rally’s speech; touched on the issue of race and religion in schools. As a teacher in a government school, I am aware of his concerns. And I am in full agreement of the importance of racial and religious harmony in Singapore. This is why I had stated the following countless times in this blog and would continue to do in the future as I know that some of the readers of this blog are young impressionable students:
I do blog about my understanding of Buddhism. And I do recommend the practice of Buddhism with the Soka Gakkai if you are seeking a philosophy to guide your life. But if you already have an alternative religion which may have conflicting views from mine, it is perfectly fine. I believe harmony must be maintained. Do not attempt to debate me on the finer points of our religions. I will not entertain you because undermining other faiths is never on my agenda. I only wish to share a philosophy which I sincerely believe can help to improve lives. I will only entertain honest questions if you are honestly seeking to learn voluntarily.
Nothing more.
