buddhist society

The Buddhist society's activities

I became a member of the Buddhist society because I think I don't know this religion 'deeply'. Besides that, my friend is reverent to Buddhist. Hence, I sign up as a member. The first activity that I encountered was the Buddhist class, which is held on every Friday, 12.30 pm to 2.30pm. The class are divided into 3, the first one is the first level for the beginner, while the second level is for those intermediate to continue. The other one is a workshop for those who wanted to become a facilitator. This workshop is to help to produce facilitators so that they can guide all the beginners and those intermediate. It's not compulsory to take part in the workshop. Only those who really think they wanted to help can take part. Bascially, the Buddhist society have 4 major activities throughout the week, that is the Buddhist class, the choir class, the meditation class and the dhamma talk.

Buddhist Class

So far, I've been to 2 of the Buddhist classes. The first class that I attended was a short movie about the birth of the Buddha, and how the prince became the Buddha. After the screening of the movie, we went into our groups and discuss all the things that we don't understand with our faci. These faci will help us as much as they can. And from this movie, I got to know some questions that I've wondering about. The second class is a continuing class from last week. We still discuss about the short movie that we had watched and the facis also told us about other little things like who are the 10 juniors' of the Buddha and what are their specialities. Afterwards, we had a game about the Buddha's juniors to help us to remember them. By now, I knew a little bit more about the Buddha compared to last time. But if you asked me to name all the Buddha's juniors, I still cannot memorised all of them!! :)

Choir Class

Choir class. I like to sing, so I go lah!! But the main thing is that I don't know those songs that they always sing. That's why I went to the class, hoping to learn those songs. Those senoirs who are under the choir class will teach us the correct way to sing a song, like we have to 'exercise' our throat and sound before we start to sing. This is done to help us sing better and won't lose our voice. The teaching are simple. They will play the tune with guitar and we sang according to the tune. All of the songs that we sing are played by guitar. And they will tell us what is the song about, so that we can know the meaning of it. Until now, I had learned many songs, but I still could't memorized all of them. But the song that I really like is the society's theme song, "Home Away From Home". This song was written and composed by a senoir. Our Yang Dipertua (Pengerusi lah...) said there will be a different feeling when you sing that song in the first, second and third year. He said the writer has written out all those 3 years' feeling in the song. For me, I think the song might have done so because from the lyrics itself, they are like divided into 3 parts. The first part are for those newcomer who came into USM from all places and different backgrounds; the second part are for those intermediate and the third part for those 'oldies'. I cannot elaborate much because I still haven't have that feeling. Maybe wait till I graduate first!! I think it's a wise move for me to participate in this choir class because I really feel closer to them because we sing the songs together. I mean, there will be a strange feeling when everybody is singing except myself. I guess I have to try my best to try to memorised all those songs so that I won't be left out!!

Meditation Class

Meditation class had been go on for 2 weeks, but I only managed to go 1 time (the other time I couldn't make it because I had a test). There are 2 meditation class, 1 in English while the other 1 in Chinese. This is done so that those who don't know Chinese can also attend the meditation class. I think it's a good thing because the class really make you think of yourself properly. The master said during the meditation, all those you had suffered before, like what and what pain, it will all 'come out'. I haven't feel it, maybe because this was my first time doing it. Beside doing meditation, the master also tell us some of the meditation-related thing. But overall, I think it's a good class after a whole tiresome day. During meditation, we can really rest our mind and think of all those things that we had done during the day, whether it's a good or bad ones. If we did bad things, we have to think again why we acted that way and remind ourselves not to do it again next time. If we do good things, we must remember continue to do good deeds. Hence, we will not going into the wrong way.

Dhamma Talk

I haven't have a chance to go to this class, because I got a class to attend to when the time where this talk is held. It also have 2 classes, 1 in English and the otehr 1 in Chinese. A master will be invited to each class to talk about a topic. I'm not sure, but I guess it might be something about life, people and surroundings.

Feeling

I think I had learnt something from all those activities. And this is a good scenario, as this is what I'm hoping for, gain something new or experiencing something different. This is university's life. If we don't really involved in uni's thing, when are we going to experience it? There is a different life in university compare to secondary-school's life or worklife. If I didnt enjoy the uni's life, when can I enjoy it again?? That's what my aunt and cousin (who had been to university) said before I entered university. And I really don't understand why, at that time, they always wanted me to enjoy life in university, keep telling me to remember this. And now, after 1 month in university, I knew the feeling they tried to tell me, and I understand it now!!