We fancy the thought of having a home or even more a virtual planet of our own out here in cyber space. Many questions have been raised on the purpose of this planet. To that, the answer is that we citizens wish only to share the little knowledge and ideas of ours. Naturally, we would indeed welcome comments and thoughts on matters on our planet. No man is an island, and no planet is a solar system.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Who ordered this truck load of Dung?



Imagine you have just had a wonderful afternoon at the beach with a friend. When you return home, you find a huge truckload of dung has been dumped right in front of your door. There are three things to know about this truckload of dung:

* You did not order it. It's not your fault.
* You're stuck with it. No one saw who dumped it, so you cannot call anyone to take it away.
* It is filthy and offensive, and its stench fills your whole house. It is almost impossible to endure.


In this metaphor, the truckload of dung in front of the house stands for the traumatic experiences that are dumped on us in life. As with the truckload of dung, there are three things to know about tragedy in our life:

* We did not order it. We say 'Why me?'
* We're stuck with it. No one, not even our best friends, can take it away (though they may try).
* It is so awful, such a destroyer of our happiness, and its pain fills our whole life. It is almost impossible to endure.


There are two ways of responding to being stuck with a truckload of dung. The first way is to carry the dung around with us. We put some in our pockets, some in our bags, and some up our shirts. We even put some down our pants. We find when we carry dung around, we lose a lot of friends! Even best friends don't seem to be around so often.

'Carrying around the dung' is a metaphor for sinking into depression, negativity, or anger. It is a natural and understandable response to adversity. But we lose a lot of friends, because it is also natural and understandable that our friends don't like being around us when we're so depressed. Moreover, the pile of dung gets no less, but the smell gets worse as it ripens.

Fortunately, there's a second way. When we are dumped with a truckload of dung, we heave a sigh, and then get down to work. Out come the wheelbarrow, the fork, and the spade. We fork the dung into the barrow, wheel it around the back of the house, and dig it into the garden. This is tiring and difficult work, but we know there's no other option. Sometimes, all we can manage is half a barrow a day. We're doing something about the problem, rather than complaining our way into depression. Day after day we dig in the dung. Day after day, the pile gets smaller. Sometimes it takes several years, but the morning does come when we see that the dung in front of our house is all gone.

Furthermore, a miracle has happened in another part of our house. The flowers in our garden are bursting out in a richness of colour all over the place. Their fragrance wafts down the street so that the neighbours, and even passers-by, smile in delight. Then the fruit tree in the corner is nearly falling over, it's so heavy with fruit. And the fruit is so sweet; you can't buy anything like it. There's so much of it that we are able to share it with our neighbours. Even passers-by get a delicious taste of the miracle fruit.

'Digging in the dung' is a metaphor for welcoming the tragedies as fertilizer for life. It is work that we have to do alone: no one can help us here. But by digging it into the garden of our heart, day by day, the pile of pain gets less. It may take us several years, but the morning does come when we see no more pain in our life and, in our heart, a miracle has happened. Flowers of kindness are bursting out all over the place, and the fragrance of love wafts way down our street, to our neighbours, to our relations, and even to passers-by. Then our wisdom tree in the corner is bending down to us, loaded with sweet insights into the nature of life. We share those delicious fruits freely, even with the passers-by, without ever planning to.

When we have known tragic pain, learnt its lesson, and grown our garden, then we can put our arms around another in deep tragedy and say, softly, 'I know.' They realize we do understand. Compassion begins. We show them the wheelbarrow, the fork, and the spade, and boundless encouragement. If we haven't grown our own garden yet, this can't be done.

I have known many monks who are skilled in meditation, who are peaceful, composed and serene in adversity. But only a few have become great teachers. I often wondered why.

It seems to me now that those monks who had a relatively easy time of it, who had little dung to dig in, were the ones who didn't become teachers. It was the monks who had the enormous difficulties, dug them in quietly, and came through with a rich garden that became great teachers. They all had wisdom, serenity and compassion; but those with more dung had more to share with the world. My teacher, Ajahn Chah, who for me was the pinnacle of all teachers, must have had a whole trucking company line up with their dung at his door, in his early life.

Perhaps the moral of this story is that if you want to be of service to the world, if you wish to follow the path of compassion, then the next time a tragedy occurs in your life, you may say, 'Whoopee! More fertilizer for my garden!'

This article was excerpted from Opening The Door Of Your Heart, Copyright 2004, by Ajahn Brahmavamso.
(Forthcoming North American edition, "Who Ordered this Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Wisdom for Welcoming Life's Difficulties" published by Wisdom Publications)

Have you encountered dung before? Come to think of it, our Planet Deng could anytime change to Planet Dung! Dung can be small but dung can also be huge disasters like the tsunami in SEA and hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, US.

What would you do when dung finds you? Shit happens everyday!

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Dengz makan-makan

Best place to eat in KL. Go forth and enlarge your waistlines, fellow dengz!

1. CHOW KOAY TIEW - Jalan Imbi : the corner restaurant which is on the same row with Sakura, and opposite of Honda Kah Motor.

2. WANTAN MEE/KARI MEE - End of old Subang airport road, in the Subang New Village Town Centre.

3. TAPIOCA NOODLES& VEGETABLES - Old Klang Road : a shack which is nestled behind a chinese primary school, after the market and the post office (which would be on your left).

4. KARI MEE (LEMAK) - SS1, PJ : Alisan Restaurant (2nd shop from corner), facing the Lorenzo Furniture Shop.

5. ROAST DUCK RICE - Seapark : Sunrise Coffee Shop

6. PRAWN MEE/KARIMEE/CHEE CHEONG FUN - Seapark: Coffee Shop near old Paramount Thea! tre.

7. CHICKEN RICE - Seapark: Coffee Shop opposite Seapark Market, run by 2 ladies whose husbands have since died.

8. FISH HEAD BEE HOON - Jln Gasing, PJ. Seng Kee Restaurant, in row of shops behind Lotus Restaurant.

9. MISCELLANEOUS - SS24 Tmn Megah: take the LDP and exit left after the Kelana Jaya LRT Station (towards"SS24").A hawker centre with over 70 hawker stalls (!!) allserving different dishes, no duplicates (!!), which boast the best of each kind in town (!!) not too difficult to locate.

10. YONG TAU FU - Ampang New Town/Ampang Village (there are 3 shops, so have your pick)

11. PAN MEE - Along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman behind KahMotors.

12. HOKKIEN MEE - Petaling Street opposite Hong Leong Bank

13. CHAR SIEW RICE - Jalan Tung Shin

14. NASI KANDAR - Kayu Nasi Kandar Restaurant in Taipan, Subang with a branch in SS2 a coffee shop formerly known as Cheow Yang

15. Teh Tarak & roti - Taman Desa next to the water tank

16. If money is not an issue - Madam Kwan (Nasi Lemak & curry fish head)

17. Little Penang (chow Koay Tiew & Prawnmee)

18. Bak kut teh - Jalan Imbi behind hong leong bank

19. Satay - Naan Corner in Ampang, in between International School and RSPCA, called Nur Satay.

20. Banana Leaf - Kannas in SS2, behind Lisa De Inn hotel

21. Nasi Lemak - Suzi corner, next to Ampang city (used to be called Kerris)

22. Won Ton Mien/Char Siew - Jln Sungai Besi; on the way to PLUS. Only open at 7pm-2am, a car repair shop by day.

23. Beef Brisket noodles - Tengkat Tong Shin; runs parallel to Jalan Alor.Stall near the beginning of the road. Open at night till late.

24. Char Siew/Chicken rice - Tengkat Tong Shin; further up the road. Old prewar shop house. This has to be the drop dead unhealthiest piece of anything you can insert in your mouth in KL? but to die for. Chicken is strictly as filler to make sure you don't get a heart attack overdosing on char siew.

25. Fish balls - Tengkat Tong Shin; a little further up the road from char siew. Stall inside a coffee shop. This guy is good, look at the amount of people he employs to helpout!

26. Hokkien mee (KL style -thick, black, yummy (sounds kinky)) Petaling Street; at the intersection opposite Hong Leong Bank. Full of porcine goodness. Still the gold standard of Hokkien mee.

27. Seafood noodles - Segambut; near Auto Bavaria. A big bowl full of noodles and assorted mussels, prawns, cuttlefish, fish etc. for reasonable price. Pick of soup, clear, tom yam, curry. Forget the rest, or for the curry. Soya bean with cincau not bad. Avoid on Sunday mornings.You will wait for an hour. Fried Chicken Rice (only on Weds and Sat)!! There is a branch now open in SS2 Chow Yang, called Restoran Yu Ai with yellow sign board, just a few doors away from Kayu Nasi Kandar.

28. Ploughman's Lunch ? Finnegan's Seri Hartamas. A big plate filled with a pot of pate, slices of ham, pickle, onion, chunks of cheese, a slab of butter, 4 hunks of bread. If you are EXTREMELY hungry, this one's for you.

29. Chef's salad - Flagz; behind Souled Out. This salad is as all salads should be - crunchy FRESH veggies, and the dressing is to die for. Easily the best salad in town. And I don't even like salad. Beer is the freshest in town too, great bite.

30. Hokkien Mee (Penang style otherwise known as Prawn noodles) Champ's; Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru. Standard gone down somewhat recently, but still head and shoulders above all others in KL.

You'll have to go to Penang to beat this.

31. Char Kway Teow Bukit Damansara; behind Hock Lee supermarket, next to Shell. Corner stall inside coffee shop. Best in KL. The fellow has been

frying for longer than I can recall, and he is so good that you may have to wait up to 45 minutes during lunchtime. Doesn't use too much oil almost perfect. As above, you'll have to go to Penang to beat this. Other stalls in the same shop not bad.

32. Chicken rice Jalan Gasing; very close to the Federal Highway, same row as Southern Bank 2 shops one in the middle, one in the corner. Can't decide which is superior, but both are very good. Middle one has Ipoh taugeh.

33. Bak Kut Teh Klang, just about anywhere. Hokkien Association off the main highway leading to the heart of Klang is a good place to start for beginners.

34. Dim Sum ? Marriott Hotel. Chinese restaurant here serves northern China style dim sum. Easily best dim sum in town. A little pricey.

35. Fish head off Jalan Sungai Besi; just past Won Ton Mien, turn left right after BP. Three shops clumped together. All look dilapidated but don't worry. Don't know what type of fish they get their heads from, but I suspect fresh water fish. Hot sauce fish head to die for. Extremely reasonable prices.

36. Bak Kut Teh Segambut; go past Auto Bavaria, follow road all the way until you see a Chinese temple on your left. Enter the temple courtyard and you will see a tin shack where they serve bak kut teh. Not quite up there with Klang, but nothing to sneeze at. Go for yam rice rather than white rice. Fried Chicken Rice (only on Weds and Sat)!!

37. Nasi Kandar/Kerabu/Laut Taman Tun; the other end of Secret Recipe in a store on the same block, usually with a van outside. Truly Kelantanese style. Only in the morning though.

38. Seafood ? Pulau Carey; get to Jalan Banting and follow signs to Pulau Carey. Place called Kang Guan, just before the actual bridge onto the island. Cheap!

39. Nasi Lemak TangLin at Lake Gardens, near the Clinic/Hospital. Only open when government depts open.

40. Chicken rice - Bing Restaurant in Sri Rampai. Wait till you drop to eat the chicken rice. Worth it.