Buddhist Conference 2554 (II) - The priceless nature of happiness

Delivered insightfully by Mr Danai Chanchaochai from Thailand. He is one of the prominent figures in the field of marketing and management. He has also given talks on occasions and places like Asian Business Forum and the UN. And what does this city dweller have to impart?

Tremendous I would say. Very practical and his experience in the corporate world makes his point rather simple to use and practical.

He said that, "Happiness is a state of mind and not the bank statement." During the Q&A . Someone brought up a point that we need money to bring basic happiness at least. He then share a story of his friend who is an affluent banker where no matter how much money he has can not buy back the life of his drowned daughter. He even went into a state of depression and only through Buddhism he managed to get back on his feet.

He pointed out that according to a statiscal studies, Americans and Indians are one of the happiest human around and Chinese ranked lowly in this. He also commented that how billionaires like Bill gates and Warren buffett has urge 50 other billionaires to donate 99.9% of their wealth in America but only 1 in China :)

Iddhipad (Bases of Success)

Chanda - Inspiration
Viriya - Effort
Citta - Thoughtfulness (Attention to details)
Vimamsa - Investigation (Enquiring mind)

He also brought our attention to how changes have been occuring globally E.g Climate; Taj Lake Palace hotel once a luxury hotel in the middle of the lake is in the middle of a grass land now.

Dinosaur dies but tortoise survived. Harriet the tortoise that was discovered by Charles Darwin that lives for 175yrs. As said by Charles Darwin, "It is not the strongest or smartest that survive but the one that has the ability to adapt."

Happiness is having the freedom to choose. When we are mindful we choose. If we are not mindful, we simply react. The animal instinct. We can and should live beyond our Karma.

During the US election campaign, Obama's "Change" triumph over Hillary Clinton's "Experience". When we use experience, we allow ourselves to use the past to control the future. Experience is egocentric. We all desire to change the past or the future but in fact we can only change the current moment and only the current moment is real. Yet current is ongoing and fleeting as well. We should embrace change.

"If the rate of change on the outside is faster than the rate of change on the inside. The end is in sight." - Jack Welch. I find it applicable in the corporate world as well as how we should see our cultivation and life.

20yrs ago South Korean is never in the foremost list of rich countries and is alot less develop than Thailand. Yet Thailand has remain rather stagnant but South Korea and Singapore alike has surpass Thailand in prosperity and development. Changes is the dynamics behind.

"We have overestimate the change that will occur in the next 2 yrs and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10." - Bill Gates. We should not be lulled into inactions.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein. Buddha is also the earliest to study about impermeance and changes.

He left us with a flow chart :)

1. Where we are ---> 3. How do we get there? 2. Where do we want to go?


Stay tuned to next post on sharing by Ven. Faxun of Buddhist Library :)

Buddhist Conference 2554 (I)

Nice conference! Great day where buddhist from different temples and walks of life gathers together to talk and discuss on happiness :) Theme of the conference is call "Creating Happiness in Here and Now."

It is a collaboration from Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho temple, Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, Cheng Beng Buddhist Society, Mangala Vihara, Poh Ming Tse and many other buddhist from various buddhist groups like Firefly mission, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Buddhist Library and Singapore Buddhist Mission.

All thanks to Bro Soon Sheng for helping me to acquire the tickets and so nice to see friends like Heidi, xiao feng & bf and Joyce too!! Ya also saw uncle Michael also!!

Speakers then was all prominent and respected figures of their field. And the dim-witted me trying my greatest effort to jot down notes just like a student :)

Anyway I will try to share what I manage to catch in the upcoming series of post of the conference. Pardon for being too slow in sharing as there is really too much to share :)

All in all, the whole hall was filled with people and the volunteers alone i think is more than 50 i think. As from the organiser, Dharma in Action, this is their 3rd large scale project following Buddhist Youth Conference and Buddhist film fest.

This conference in fact lasted since Vesak day till yesterday with series of talk on the theme Happiness.

Stay tuned to part (II)!