02 February 2010

The Return of Zalankai

And so the month of January ends. I was thinking about how time seems to pass faster as we grow older; the DJ on the radio said the same thing. As we become busier and laden with increasing responsibility, time is indeed a luxury. I would like to think that I began the new year managing my time reasonably well and had fallen into a firm rhythm.

And highlight of the month of January for me had to be the return of the discussion meetings of the Singapore Soka Association. After half the year of suspension of the meetings due to the precautions measures taken against the H1N1 pandemic, the discussion meetings resumed with vigor across the country. In my chapter, we managed an attendance of 155 from 4 districts.

The discussion meeting is an informal gathering of people from all walks of life coming together to share their struggles and challenges, as well as to encourage one another to achieve victories over our various problems through the application of Buddhism in our daily life. The positive social force generated by this seemingly insignificant activity cannot be underestimated. In Singapore currently, over 400 districts were conducted simultaneous at various members’ homes with about 30-50 members and friends of the association attending at each session.

I learnt recently that the current top ‘O’ Levels student of the school I’m teaching at, Atreya, is also a member of Soka Gakkai. Hence, I invited him to speak at one of the discussion meeting I was facilitating. He shared frankly that it was the application of Buddhist principles that contributed most to his victory in his studies. Another student, Lup Seng, who made vast improvement from his preliminary examination to the ‘O’ Level was also in attendance. But he claimed to be too shy to share.


Atreya Sharing...

SRS District 2

SRS District 3

SRS District 4