No.130 - DREAMS of a WHITE CHRISTMAS.

M Y  S H O T  as I see it - CHRISTMAS

In this album, I try to capture every emotions and every magical moment of Christmas. This pictures were taken in a Mall in One-Utama, Kuala Lumpur.

Anxious moms taking pictures of their child.

Huge Toy Soldiers.

The Ballerinas and their Teacher.

Giving a tender loving touch.

Young bellarinas.

Santa Claus

Golden Bell

Christmas singers

Spirit of Scotland pipe band.

No.128 - The Holiness Supreme.

Born in a low caste,

Poor was I; had only scanty meals,

A low livelihood was mine-

A disposer of faded flowers.

. . .

Despised, abused and flayed,

By people,

And so humbled,

I bend down on my knees,

In deference to them.

. . .

Behold my fortune!

I saw the Buddha,

With his train of bhikkus,

Entering the capital city

of Magadha.

. . .

Laying aside my carrying-pole,

I went up to him,

To pay my obeisance,

And he, the Lord of men,

Paused upon his way,

In compassion just for me.

. . .

Worshipping His feet,

And standing apart,

I begged His leave

To enter the Order.

. . .

Then the Master,

The most kind and compassionate,

Called me, "Come bhikku!"

Thus was ordination given to me.

. . .

So I dwelled in the forest,

Alone,

And followed the Master's advice,

With diligence.

. . .

In the first watch of the night,

I became conscious of my past births;

In the middle watch

Clarified was my divine eye.

In the last watch of the night,

Just as the day dawned,

I broke asunder the gloom of ignorance.

. . .

Then came the Indra and Brahma,

With folded hands,

They paid reverence to me;

Hail unto thee thou noblest of men!

Hail unto thee thou highest of men!

Deserving of reverence are you,

For all your desires have perished.

. . .

The Master

Seen me revered by the gods

Smiled and said thus:

"One becomes holy

By discipline, celibacy, virtue

And wisdom. Here is holiness supreme!

-Thera Sunita

No.127 - The Fragrance of the Roses.

The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of Lao-tzu's dictum:
"Those who know, do not say;
Those who say, do not know."
When the master entered,
they asked him what the words meant.
Said the master, "Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose?"
All of them indicated that they knew.
Then he said, "Put it into words."
All of them were silent.

No.124 - To My Son.

Poem on "To My Son".
I still remember that when I was in Form IV, in Anglo Chinese(Methodist) School, Klang, my english teacher made us wrote this poem, about a mother writing to her son, on life. This is also a poem which helps to pull me through life.
"To My Son"
Do you know that your soul is of my soul such piet,
That you seem to be fibre and care of my heart?
None other can pain me as you, son, can do,
None other can please me or praise me as you,
Remember the world will be quick with its blame,
If shadow or stain ever darken your name,
"Like mother, like son" is the saying so true,
The world will judge mother largely by you.
Be this then your task, if task it shall be,
To force this proud world to do homage to me.
Be sure it will say, when its verdict you're won,
"She reaps as she sowed, this man is her son."

No.123 - The Admiral Methodist Charity Run 2010.

The Admiral Methodist Charity Run 2010.
A very successfull Mini 6km Marathon was held by the Admiral Methodist Church at Bandar Botanic and termed the Admiral Methodist Charity Run 2010. It was on 16th September,2010 on Thursday, One Malaysia Day...but the folks of Bandar Botanic slept through it...
Below are some of the pictures taken by me. For more photographs, you can log into www.facebook.com / Andrew Sum.
A write-up of the event also came out in the Sin Chew Newspaper on 17th Sept,2010.

No.121 - The Seeker of Truth.

The Seeker of Truth - The Majjhima-nikaya (Sutta No.140).

To the seeker after Truth it is immaterial from where an idea comes. In fact, in order to understand Truth, it is not necessary even to know whether the teaching comes from the Buddha, or from anyone else. What is essential is seeing the thing, understanding it.
The Buddha once spent a night in a potter's shed. In the same shed there was a young recluse who had arrived there earlier. They did not know each other. The Buddha observed the recluse, and thought to himself: 'Pleasant are the ways of this young man. It would be good if I should ask about him".
So the Buddha asked him: "O bhikkhu, in whose name have you left home? Or who is your master? Or whose doctrine do you like?'
'O friend,' answered he young man, 'there is the recluse Gotama, a Sakyan scion, who left the Sakya-family to become a recluse. There is high repute abroad of him that he is an Arahant, a Fully-Enlightened One. In the name of that Blessed One I have become a recluse. He is my Master, and I like his doctrine.'
'Where does that Blessed One, the Arahant, the Fully-Enlightened One live at the present time?'
'In the countries to the north, friend, there is a city called Savatthi. It is there that the Blessed One, the Arahant, the Fully Enlightened One, is now living.'
'Have you ever seen him, that Blessed one? Would you recognize him if you saw him.?'
'I have never seen that Blessed One. Nor should I recognize him if I saw him.'
The Buddha realized that it was in his name that this unknown young man had left home and become a recluse. But without divulging his own identity, he said: 'O Bhikkhu, I will teach you the doctrine. Listen and pay attention. I will speak.'
'Very well, friend,' said the young man in assent.
Then the Buddha delivered to this young man a most remarkable discourse explaining Truth.
It was only at the end of the discourse that this young recluse, whose name was Pukkusati, realized that the person who spoke to him was the Buddha himself. So he got up, went before the Buddha, bowed down at the feet of the Master, and apologized to him for calling him 'friend' unknowingly. He then begged the Buddha to ordain him and admit him into the Order of the Sangha.

The Buddha asked him whether he had the alms-bowl and the robes ready.(A Bhikkhu must have three robes and the alms-bowl for begging food.) When Pukkusati replied in the negative, the Buddha said that the Tathagatas would not ordain a person unless the alms-bowl and robes were ready. So Pukkusati went out in search of an alms-bowl and robes, but was unfortunately savaged by a cow and died.

Later, when this sad news reached the Buddha, he announced that Pukkusati was a wise man, who had already seen Truth, and attained the penultimate stage in the realization of Nirwana, and that he was born in the realm where he would become an Arahant and finally pass away, never to return to this world again.

No.120 - Travel Out - The Emperor's Summer Palace.

Travel In Beijing - Some Japanese tourists doing some shooting at the Emperor's Summer Palace.

No.119 - Travel Out - A Cathedral in Beijing.

A Cathedral in Beijing.

Thus Have I heard....

Let your love flow outward through the universe, To its height, its depth, its broad extent, A limitless love, without hatred or enmity. Then as you stand or walk, Sit or lie down, As long as you are awake, Strive for this with a one-pointed mind; Your life will bring heaven to earth.
- Buddha in Sutta Nipata .

No.118 - Thus Have I heard...

Thus have I heard....

Whenever we feel that we are definitely right, so much so that we refuse to open up to anything or anybody else, right there we are wrong. It becomes wrong view. When suffering arises, where does it arise from? The cause is wrong view, the fruit of that being suffering. If it was right view, it wouldn't cause suffering.
-Ajahn Chah

No.117 - Thus have I heard.

Thus have I heard....
Whosoever has heard the law of virtue and vice is as one who has eyes and carries a lamp, seeing everything and will become completely wise. - Buddha...

No.114 - Becoming Truly Alive.

Make this moment the most wonderful experience of your life.

"We live a kind of artificial life, lost in plans, worries, and anger.
Our practice is to wake up and live each moment fully, allowing this moment to be the most wonderful experience of our life."

"Has the most wonderful moment of your life already happened?
Most of us will answer that it hasn't happened yet.
But the truth is, without the presence of mindfulness,
the moment is never going to happen."

-Thich Nhat Hanh

No.113 - The Prayer.

On Prayer - Kahlil Gibran
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
~
For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?
And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.
And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer, she should spur you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing.
When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.
Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.
For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive:
And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:
Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard.
It is enough that you enter the temple invisible.
~
I cannot teach you how to pray in words. God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips.
And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains.
But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,
And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence,
"Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.
~
It is thy desire in us that desireth.
It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.
We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:
Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all."

No.112 - Frozen in Time - Silk Worms.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what will thousands of pictures say?

Frozen in Time - Silk and Silk Worms.

Silk Factory in Beijing.

(Taken on 19th November,2009. Time 8:33 am

Camera Sony DSLR-A300)

From silk comes beautiful silk cloths

No.111 - Frozen in Time - Frozen Lake.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what will thousands of pictures say?

Frozen Lake in Beijing.

Why should one wait until one is old to see the beauty of the world?

(Picture taken 16th November,2009, Time 10:39 hrs. Camera model Sony SLLR-A 300)

No.109 - Frozen in Time - Water Bird.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what will thousands of pictures say?

Looking for Worms
(A lonely water bird , most probably of the Gren Heron family, stalking the marshes of Bandar Botanic Lake, Klang, Malaysia.)

No.100 - Police walk the Beat.

'If a picture is worth a thousand words, what will thousands of pictures say?'

They do walk the beat in Hongkong!

("Security is something which cannot be compromised in Hong Kong. It is difficult to ignore this peril staring at us in the face sometimes, even in our homeland.")

No.99 - Hong Kong school children.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what will thousands of pictures say?

Primary school children waiting for their buses, in Hong Kong.
("I think that when we get to heaven we will find that these children are a whole lot closer to being perfect than we are. Their hearts are pure and unselfish. The world has a morbid idea of what perfect or normal is")

No.93 - Down Memory's Lane - Siesta.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what will thousands of pictures say?

The Heritage's Heritages!

17th December,2006 Hong Kong. My daughter taking a siesta in a traditional cottage.

("It is very simple to let go of our worries. A simple change of attitude will enable us to open our minds and free outselves from worrying over the different situations we face in life.")