水陸空‘09

Totally forgot about the 水陸空法會 this year until I received a call from 覺聞師, one of the monk friends I made during last year's ceremony. They were once again in the Shurangama hall and while reciting on day 1, felt that something was missing, and realize it was me... so they called me up. I've become part of the Shurangama group! Lolz. Its so nice to have such great friends... they're really my 善知識 in Singapore.

Day 2, I got there and they decided to start from Scroll 1 again, so I didn't miss anything. It took awhile before I got into the flow. Been a while since I did sutra recitations, and they go really fast coz in the room, I was the only layperson, the rest were all monks.

Day 3 was 冬至. The day where we eat 湯圓 in Singapore, Glutinous rice balls in sweet soup. One of my favourite dishes. Got up early again to head to the monastery and continued with our recitation. It is only the 2nd day of recitation and we're already on the 7th scroll. During the break, the monks were talking about a trip to Myanmar in January and they invited me to go along. Soon the rest of them were saying: "I'll go too if Jonathan is going!" the initial group of 5 will grow to about a size of 8 - 10 provided if I go.... Peer Pressure from the monks... Lolz.

During the afternoon, there was also a 3 hour break and I was just hanging around aimlessly when I received a call from one of the monks to head over to the monks quarters. I went there and they prepared a bed for me to rest! It was really really sweet of them. Although it was just a wooden board and a wooden pillow, I had the best sleep ever! Really needed the rest to last me for the afternoon session.

At the end of the entire day's recitation, I was told to stay back for awhile, and 覺聞師 personally cooked vegetarian dumplings to share! He said in China, 冬至 is not celebrated with 湯圓 but with 餃子! As 覺聞師 started cooking, more and more of the other monks came in to help prepare - cutting the veggies, preparing the sauce, setting the table. Then as we sat around the table having our meal, it felt so much like a family... We drank tea after that and chatted the night away till I had to leave before the temple gates close (I got locked in once and they also prepared a bed for me then Lolz). And before leaving, they gave me a packet of the dumplings to give to my grandmother. Its been a really really good day spent with good friends in a spiritual setting. 真的是法喜充滿！

Sometimes, the smallest gesture can mean so much to another. If you can find beauty in the smallest actions, you will see that this world is filled with many beautiful people...