“Don the Dharma Armour. Win Battles Against Afflictions” Part 2 Dharma Enrichment Workshop

The battle against affliction rage on in part 2 of DEW on Sunday 8 November 2020.

Venerable Bensi started the workshop by reminding us to observe our mind stream and set the motivation to prepare ourselves to uphold the Mahayana aspiration; to achieve much greater benefit for self and others. This can be set by adjusting the right motivation. Next, Venerable Bensi conducted pre-lesson recitation and Mandala offering.

Next, Venerable ZuDao also emphasized the importance of daily Mahayana aspiration. In one of the two polls, Venerable ZuDao reminded us that the key point is not to negatively label ourselves when afflictions arises and be discouraged. The use of snake and ladder game by Venerable ZuDao was a good analogy to explain the ladder as an expressway to progress up, & the snake as our anger that can cause our downfall. We are fortunate to have our Master Ri Chang and Teacher Zhen-Ru with proven ways to guide us to recognise what the snake looks like and be familiar with ourselves on our weak areas to watch out for.

Note: During DEW, Venerable ZuDao’s powerpoint presentation suddenly failed to show up. Venerable was able to handle it calmly, supplicate and continue the event. This “life example” has demonstrated the importance of watching our own afflictions sharply and swiftly.

After break, Associate Lecturer Cheryl facilitated sharing sessions from 2 students who has successfully faced and overcome their afflictions recently while working from home during circuit breaker.

1st sharing by student Qian Yong.

- Qian Yong, as a full time BW Monastery staff, has to juggle between work and home. The negative affliction is very cunning and come in extremely fast to hit her with cabin fever. This resulted in her being on the verge of breaking down and in self-pity. Fortunately, one of the venerables came in to “pull” her up. Qian Yong has reminded herself to supplicate hard and to continue to use the teaching to guide her.

2nd sharing by Associate Lecturer Adeline Tay.

- Adeline Tay’s work involves conducting multiple virtual meetings during circuit breaker when working from home daily. This entails facing very tight dateline to prepare for an important service launch for many organizations. Her earnest supplication for wisdom to counter erroneous thoughts, before starting work every morning and after lunch, enabled her to successfully reduce mental stress.

Lecturer Cheryl summarised that guidance from Teacher on how to see the bright side of life, has enabled us more time to learn instead of focusing on stressful situations and digging a black hole which sink us deeper.

Lastly, Venerable Bensi wrapped up the DEW event with a summary and also answered questions regarding repentance that were raised by students during the previous DEW on Saturday.

We’ll see all again in 2021 DEW & hopefully by then we can continue to meet in person again. Rejoice everyone!