Upcoming Activities

Even though THE CAMP is over, that does not means that nothing else can be done about it... Here is a list of activities that we are planning.

Christmas Eve's Party
Date: 24th December 2008
Venue: Jessy's Place
Time: About 7.00 pm - 12.00 pm (maybe longer)
Remarks:
Bring something worth at least RM5 as part of a gift exchange.

We are not Christians but that wont stop us from celebrating Christmas.

Ho... Ho... Ho...

Skytrex Adventures
Date: tbc (in January 2009, around 17th)
Venue: Skytrex Adventures in Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam, Shah Alam
Time: Morning (time tbc)
Remarks:
Fee per person: RM35 (if less than 10 person going), RM31.50 (if we have more than 10 people)
Duration: 1.5 - 2 hours...
What you will do: Climb trees, going through obstacles in between trees, flying fox...
Wear sport shoes and bring hand-gloves [available for rent at RM1 per pair (limited)]

Please let me know (post a comment or e-mail me at kcbadyc@gmail.com or eztoyou@yahoo.com with your details: name, mobile no.) if you are interested...

2009 Chinese New Year House Visiting
Details to be announce here soon... interested to get updates, please provide me (e-mail me at kcbadyc@gmail.com or eztoyou@yahoo.com) your contact: name and mobile no.

It may be over but the memories stays forever

The 13th KCBA English Youth Camp is finally over yesterday.

Hope everyone enjoyed the camp!!!

For those who wish to share their photographs taken during the camp in this blog, please send it to kcbadyc@gmail.com. Please include details such as your name in the mail.

Photographs taken by the committee members would be upload into this blog as well soon...

With metta
Bro Wei Han

Buddhist answers to common questions

Kuensel Online, November 28, 2008

Timphu, Bhutan -- Lam Shenphen Zangpo answers basic questions that every Buddhist man, woman, and child on the street wants to know.

What is the difference between Buddha and god?

A god by very definition is a creator. In the same way that you cannot be an artist if you do not paint or cannot be a mechanic if you do not repair vehicles, a being cannot be a god without creating. In this way, a god exists only in relation to his creations or, to state it in another way, without creations a being cannot be a god.

To take this logic a step further, if a being does begin to create, then he is only recognized as a god at the moment the creation is born. Before that he was not a god.

Furthermore, anything that is created by joining together a number of components has a point in time when it was first formed. Take for example a table. It needs a top and four legs. When these are separate entities, there is no table. However, once they are joined together, a table is created. In the same way, a god is formed from the joining together of the two components of creations and faith.

Continuing this line of reasoning, anything that has an identifiable point in time when it began, obviously has a time of staying and then finally ending. Think about it. Everything that is compounded, whether it be something as simple like a flower, which is formed from such things as seeds, moisture and warmth, or a complex structure like the universe, it all had a point of beginning and will end. Therefore, in this respect, a god is impermanent.

A Buddha, on the other hand, does not create. He awakens to the truth and points the way for other to follow. The historical Buddha was a man, and in this form he realized the truth and became a Buddha. So, like a god there was a point of beginning and so there is a point of end. Therefore, we can say that the physical form of Sakyamuni ceased upon his death in Kushinagar.

However, ‘the truth’, or to call it by its other titles, ‘basic goodness of heart’ or ‘Buddha nature’, to which Sakyamuni awoke has no beginning. It is like space. It is all pervading. Buddha did not invent it, nor was it created by other beings or through the gathering of elements. Therefore, the essence of Buddha, which is our own minds is not impermanent. It is for this reason that Buddha, or the Buddha nature, is accepted as an ultimate refuge.

To summarize, a god exists only in relation to his creations. A Buddha does not create, and therefore dies not exist in relation to anything. He is beyond permanent and impermanent. In fact, just after Prince Siddhartha gained enlightenment and became the Buddha, he was asked by a passers-by, “Are you a god or perhaps a holy man”? The Buddha replied, “I am neither. I am awake”.

It Isn't About the Trash Can

By Christine B. Whelan, The Washington Post, November 11, 2008

Washington, USA -- Picture this: You're staring at the kitchen trash and feel a surge of frustration. You just saw your partner stuff one more thing into the already overflowing bin without making a move to empty it. Ready to pick a fight, you're about to lash out with an angry indictment of your partner's overall worth as a human being. Then you stop.

You've been taking classes in something called mindfulness, so you take a deep breath and step back. You identify and feel your emotions, and then let them pass. You find the real source of your frustration: It's not the trash; it's that you don't feel appreciated around the house. Instead of an opening volley of obscenities, you consider how to resolve the broader issue.

Sound too New Age-y to work in your household? It might be worth a try: Researchers at major universities are exploring the benefits of Buddhist mindfulness techniques to help families increase feelings of closeness and decrease relationship stress -- and the results are promising. Just as the latest Hollywood incarnation of the Incredible Hulk keeps his green-hot anger under control with daily meditations, so are some people learning to manage emotions in their relationships.

In mental health terms, mindfulness is the awareness that emerges from focusing on the present and the ability to perceive -- but not judge -- your own emotions with detachment; it enables you to choose helpful responses to difficult situations rather than reacting out of habit. While Western thought separates religion and science, Buddhists see mindfulness as both a spiritual and psychological force.

Mindfulness isn't simply about calming down, and it's certainly not about giving in. It's about recognizing that you're tired as you go home on a crowded Metro train, so that when somebody bumps into you, you decide to say, "Excuse me!" instead of pushing back. It's about picking an effective way to discipline your teenager for staying out until 3 a.m. rather than responding like an angry child yourself.

Mindfulness therapies for depression have had well-documented success: Depressed people focus on the negatives, locking themselves into a destructive thought cycle that makes the depression worse. Mindfulness training helps them become aware of this cycle and snap out of it.

The same thing is true for couples gearing up for a rehash of an old argument, says Robyn Walser, a psychologist and co-author of "The Mindful Couple" (to be published in February by New Harbinger). "If you are aware of life as a process, not as an outcome, you step back from the argument. "

These techniques of awareness can also prove helpful for children with behavioral problems, says Randye Semple, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Southern California. "We teach the kids to find choice points," she says, showing them that "you can take time to breathe and look at the situation, and then you can choose not to be angry."

Semple begins to train 9- to 12-year-olds in mindfulness by having them focus intently on what they're doing during routine activities such as brushing teeth: maintaining constant awareness of the position of the brush, the taste of the toothpaste, the motion of their hands. After completing her 12-session program, Semple says, children report lower levels of anxiety and are less likely to act out.

Semple encourages parents to demonstrate attentive choices: "Children whose parents are mindful will also be more mindful." Researchers are planning to expand mindfulness training to include more-difficult children, such as those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Starting Small

Some people are naturally more skilled at these techniques than others, but researchers say that mindfulness can be taught. It's like muscle training, says Jim Carson, a psychologist at Oregon Health & Science University.

Short daily meditations, in which you learn to anchor your attention in the present moment by focusing on the feeling of the breath moving in your body, are good for beginners, he says. Then, "begin to pay attention to the times you share with your partner when you feel connected -- what's going on in that moment. Tune in and learn from that." He also suggests reversing that exercise to pay attention to sources of stress in your relationship and keeping a brief journal of those feelings.

This kind of observation can help you prevent an argument from beginning in the first place. "It's an early-warning system. You are able to become aware sooner of the tension rising," says Christopher Montone, director of the Shambhala Meditation Center in Cleveland Park.

Kirk Warren Brown, an assistant professor of social psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, co-developed a 15-point mindful attention awareness scale (see box) and has used it to test the levels of mindfulness of college students in romantic relationships. He has conducted two studies that suggest increased mindfulness correlates with overall relationship happiness.

In the first, he found that men and women are equally likely to be mindful, and if one person in the relationship is mindful, both members of the couple can benefit.

In the second study, Brown asked longtime couples to discuss a contentious issue in the relationship while being observed in his lab. Those who scored higher on the mindfulness scale were less anxious and less hostile after having such simulated conflicts with their significant others, he found.

"Mindfulness tends to inoculate people against feeling negative thoughts in the first place. You go into the conflict with less anxiety and hostility, and mindfulness seems to prevent those symptoms from arising," Brown says.

Mutually Beneficial

Carson finds that couples who practice mindfulness together can benefit not only from the individual attentiveness skills but also from the fact that they are sharing a new experience. "The practice of mindfulness together is a way that couples feel that they are deepening their relationship."

Even if only one partner is trying, the couple still benefits, he says. "If one partner is accepting and open, it's very hard for the other partner to push against that."

To an observer it might look as if the more mindful spouse is likely to lose an argument, but Walser says: "We don't advocate that people become carpets to be walked all over. There's a difference between accepting what you feel and think and allowing someone else to always have their way." Walser notes that this increased awareness can help individuals see when their relationship is in serious distress.

"I don't think it's a cure-all, but we can say with confidence that there's an emerging literature that suggests that mindfulness can help people re-regulate their body and their behavior," says Ruth Quillian-Wolever, an assistant professor of psychiatry and the research director at the Duke Integrative Medicine practice at Duke University, who has led studies of behavior change through mindfulness.

Although Buddhist ideas are at the core of mindfulness and meditation practices, psychologists usually separate the religious aspects from the clinical practice of mindfulness. "We acknowledge the source of the training, but it's not religiously grounded. These are practical skills that are present in all wisdom and spiritual traditions," says Carson.

Visionary leadership

The Buddhist Channel, November 2, 2008

The core challenge of leadership is for all of us to have visions and to come up with the tools and systems to get there

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia -- Datuk Dr. Victor Wee is a keynote speaker for the forthcoming WACANA conference, to be held on December 7 in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. In the following interview, Datuk Dr Wee gave his views on Buddhist leadership outlook in the country, core challenges faced by Buddhist leaders, three main pillars of leadership

Can you give us a brief overview of the Buddhist leadership outlook in the country?

Buddhist leaders now are more mature compared with leaders of the past generation. They have become more exposed and skillful, and generally run organizations in a very competent way. But we are also saying that it is important for leaders to come together in order for us to focus our energies, so that we are able to do something really wonderful for the country. The Buddhist community for the future begins right now. Buddhist leaders must adopt good methodologies and mechanisms to produce competent future Dhamma workers. We must not think about ourselves for the present only; we should try to build the Buddhist community for the future.

What would be the core challenges for Buddhist leaders in Malaysia?

The core challenge of leadership is for all of us to have visions. We need to be able to know what we want in the next 5, 10 or 20 years' time. We need to think for ourselves about the ideal state for Buddhism in the future. The next thing we really require is to come up with the tools and systems to get there.

One of the challenges that we face is that people running Buddhist organizations are quite happy with the present state of affairs in their own organizations and temples, because the crowds come in every Sunday or Wesak Day! But in reality, sometimes the activities we run do not produce leaders. The (present) leaders happen to emerge because of some intrinsic abilities that they have, in spite of the system! Honestly (at the moment) we do not have a system to develop Buddhist workers and leaders in a very structured way. If we do not start developing that, it is unlikely that we will achieve whatever vision we set for ourselves. So this is the challenge Buddhist leaders coming together for WACANA 2008 would have to face: having a shared vision on what we want to see happen, and coming out with a system of operationalizing it and making things work.

Can you briefly explain the three main pillars of leadership, i.e. vision, values, and vitality?

Firstly, I think this topic is very appropriate for our situation right now. The first principle is having vision. When you have vision, you can see very far ahead. We need our leaders to have that kind of vision to see the way forward for our community.

Values are important because without them, your integrity may be questioned; then the whole basis of Buddhist leadership is in question. Values are to ensure that as we move towards our vision, things do not go astray, that we are actually going the way we envisaged.

Vitality is the ability to generate that kind of creative energy to make things move. It is the force that provides the action for us to move from where we are right now into the shared vision. If you have a vision, it is not good enough if you do not have the vitality or you do not have the right values.

So, I believe it is very ideal that for this WACANA, we are getting speakers from neighbouring countries - from Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore - to come and share with us some of the situations which are occurring within our region that we may not know of.

And of course it is a great opportunity for our local Buddhist leaders, as well as those who are interested in the subject of leadership development, to attend WACANA 2008. We must begin to think of ourselves as a community. We should identify some things on which we can actually work together, so that it is not with just one pair of hands, but many pairs of hands working collectively towards a common goal.

As Co-organiser of WACANA 2008, what do you hope to achieve from the conference?

Well, I would like this conference to not only come up with a nice publication, and to hear people saying, "Oh, this has been a fantastic conference!" Actually this conference should have some kind of an impact. Five years from now when we look back, we say, "things have actually changed for the better because we had a WACANA."

Maybe 10 years from now, we can say WACANA itself has stimulated many other things which grew from this original idea. Perhaps a generation later, the Buddhist community will be different from what it is now, and we can say that we have reached a higher level because people with ideas have put together a mechanism and agreed to work together in order to produce this new situation.

Of course, if it happens, that would be ideal and something truly wonderful. If not, people will at least go back satisfied and say, "Wow! There were some very good ideas that we've picked up at WACANA!"

On the web: www.nalanda.org.my/wacana.

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Dr. Victor Wee is the Co-organizer of WACANA 2008 (as the Buddhist Gem Fellowship's President).

Jataka Tales: A Window Into Buddhist India

By Cherian Philipose, The Epoch Times, Oct 28, 2008

Taipei, Taiwan -- The teachings of the Buddha have contained both doctrine and stories. Buddhism has traditionally been taught by monks in societies that have been illiterate. Most people could not read the scriptures. Not everyone could comprehend subtle intellectual concepts. Therefore, the Buddha used stories to communicate spiritual truths.

The Jataka Tales are part of this tradition. They are tales told by the Buddha about his previous lives. In these narratives, the Buddha is always referred to as the Bodhisattva (a spiritual practitioner who has not yet reached perfection).

The literature of early Buddhism is always illuminating. The ideas found in it are quite contemporary. Buddhist doctrine did not confine itself to the notion of enlightenment. It often dealt with social issues. In the Buddha’s time animal sacrifice was quite common. He opposed the practice, teaching that those who killed animals would accumulate karma for their actions. They would have to pay it back.

Today, the idea of animal rights is well established. Those who campaign for animal rights, however, may not believe in karma. Their concern is often simply to prevent, or at least reduce, cruelty to animals.

We use animals, for our profit and our pleasure. Australia exports millions of sheep to the Muslim world to be slaughtered for Ramadan. Activists are rightly concerned about the manner in which the sheep are transported. They do not like the fact that the sheep are killed in a brutal fashion once they reach their destination.

The response to the manner is which we treat animals, is interesting. There are people who are vegetarian for political reasons. Some are vegan. The shift in the public mind, has led to supermarkets that sell free-range eggs and free range chicken.

The world is of course, increasingly committed to animal rights, as it remains committed to human rights. There is much greater awareness now, that the whole planet is interlinked, and that what we do to it, comes back to us.

It is quite possible then, that in a subtle way, we are moving back towards the idea of karma.

The Goat that Laughed & Cried

(It is important to note that in his past lives, the Buddha is known as the Boddhisattva)

The Buddha was assembled along with his disciples at a time when many people were sacrificing animals in a Feast for the Dead. They believed the animals had to be killed in order to feed their dead ancestors.

The monks asked Buddha if he thought these sacrifices did any good. He replied that they did not. He said one accumulated karma by doing this and one suffer for it later. Then, he told the following story:

“During the reign of Brahmadatta, in the city of Benares, there lived a Brahmin. One day, he told two of his disciples to take his goat down to the river and sacrifice it for The Feast of the Dead. His sons bathed and groomed the animal and began to lead the goat down to the river. At that moment, the goat remembered the deeds it had committed in its past lives. It became overjoyed that on that day it would be freed from its misery. In its happiness, it burst out laughing. A little later, when it realized that the Brahmin would pay a price for killing it, it was moved to compassion and started crying. The disciples were amazed.

They asked the goat. “Tell us why you laughed earlier and why you cry now.”

The goat replied, “Ask me this question in front of your master.”

The Brahmin’s sons led the goat back to their master and told him what had happened. After hearing the story, the Brahmin asked the goat why it had cried and why it had wept.

One being asked that question, the goat remembered its past lives very clearly.

It replied “In the past, O Brahmin, I too, was like you, well-versed in the scriptures. In order to make an offering for the Feast of the Dead, I sacrificed a goat. For the karma I accumulated from sacrificing that goat; I have had my head cut off lifetime after lifetime. So far, my head has been cut off 499 times. This will be my last time and after this I shall have repaid my karma for that deed. I laughed because I was happy at the prospect that I would at last be set free from this crime. I cried because I felt great compassion for you. I knew that you too would have your head cut off 500 times.”

When the Brahmin heard this, he was greatly moved.

“Do not fear, goat,” he said. “I shall not kill you.”

“What’s this you say, Brahmin?” cried the goat. “Your protection is too weak. I am destined to die today and the force of my karma is much greater than the force of your protection.”

The Brahmin ordered his disciples to set the goat free and make sure that no one hurt it wherever it wandered.

As soon as the goat was set free, it stretched out its neck to eat the leaves of a bush growing near a rock. At that moment, a bolt of lightning struck the rock. A huge piece of the rock broke off and hit the goat on its outstretched neck. Its head was severed instantly. People came running and gathered round to stare.

In those days, the Bodhisattva was a Tree-Fairy. And now he floated cross-legged above the people. He thought, “If only these people knew the truth about evil-doing, perhaps they would stop killing.” In a honeyed voice, he began to give the people a teaching on karma and reincarnation.

When those people heard the teaching, their inner wisdom awakened. They gave up animal sacrifice and spent the rest of their lives in acts of charity. When they died, they went up to Heaven.”

When the Buddha finished the story, he told the monks, “In that life, O monks, I was the Tree-Fairy.”

Looking Deeper Beneath "Painted Skin"

by Shen Shi'an, The Buddhist Channel, Oct 31, 2008

Dharma-Inspired Movie Review: http://huapi.ent.sina.com.cn

Singapore -- The film "Painted Skin" was adapted from one of the beloved fables from the classic Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio), which collects some five hundred spooky tales. A timeless classic is one because it still sheds light upon ourselves in an enlightening manner. As such, good supernatural horror stories are really skilful vehicles which warn of the possible horrors of human-nature. This is the truth in fiction.

As suggested by the title, a "foxy" demon dons a painted human skin to tempt men. When they get close, she tears out and devours their hearts. It's a literally "heart-wrenching" experience at its possible worst! Yes, it's one of those cautionary tales on not judging someone by their appearance. Those who look human might be heartlessly demonic, while the demonic can transform to be humane too.

Beauty is only skin deep, and the skin is not very deep! What lies beneath might be a can of worms. (Watch the film to see what I mean!) From a broader perspective, while there might be demons in the guise of humans, there are humans who are entirely physically so, while invisible inner demons lurk within their minds. Such demons are so much harder to detect for the unmindful, including one's own!

The demon, who could only associate with humans as sources of "hearty" food became infatuated with a married man. She begins yearning for his love. She seduces him, but he adamantly stays loyal despite being a little shaky in conviction. Jealous of his wife, the demon schemes against her. Meanwhile, the wife knew she was a demon, but could not convince her husband so due to the lack of evidence.

But what is love without trust? Then again, can we trust someone else entirely when we cannot trust ourselves at times? Is the benefit of the doubt always beneficial? There is no clear answer, while it is our onus to discern the truth best we can and to help one another to do the same. The inner demons in this case are suspicion and delusion. Devious indeed these are, both capable of thwarting reality and destroying trust.

The story questions the paradoxical nature of commitment in the face of temptation. If one is already with one's supposed true love, how can one be tempted by another? Unless one's love was not true enough? Or is commitment that despite temptation? Perhaps it depends on what is meant by love. Is it in this context friendship mixed with lust? "Love" is a very generally used word indeed - sometimes tainted with hidden lust; other times without a trace.

Is it infidelity when a married person lusts for another? If so, does it imply that love is supposed to include lust? If one loves without lusting, is it a love more or less true? Or would it be "merely" parental or friendly platonic love? Why do many see exclusive lust for oneself as crucial in an intimate relationship, when it makes it more worldly than spiritual? In Buddhism, true love includes lust-free unconditional loving-kindness concerned with the welfare of all.

What is the cost of love? Does true love sacrifice everyone else in its way, or does it only sacrifice oneself? Does love become lovelier when it sacrifices more of others or oneself? Does true love not truly set the beloved free and rejoice in the beloved being happy… even if it is with another? The demon realised that she had sacrificed everything but herself in her pursuit for "love", which rendered her quest impure.

Not only did the wife love her husband, she cared for the others in the household too, as she agreed to sacrifice herself – only if the demon promised not to harm him or the others. The man loved his wife too, but was tempted by the demon to trust her. He realises his mistake and sacrifices himself for his wife - after getting the demon to agree to restore his wife's life.

The demon was ruthless at first, willing to "sacrifice" even the man's beloved wife – out of love and lust for him, to be with him. Hers was a selfish "love". Though she too yearned for unconditional love, hers was heavily conditioned with deceit and murder. However, in the end, she was touched by the man and wife's love for each other, and sacrificed herself to make amends before it was too late.

On the whole, the script is a dramatic yet subtle study of love and sacrifice. We might not be able to find true love, or love all truly straightaway. But all is not lost. As a Buddhist friend put it, "Love is love. Love might not be totally true now. But love can always become more true." And we know love can eventually be perfected, because the Buddha exemplified it perfectly via his thoughts, words and deeds.

Limited "Seats" Available

Due to my lack of knowledge in words, I have to use the above word, Limited "Seats" Available, to convey the message that things would be handle differently this year.

For one, we would be limiting the number of participants for the KCBA English Dhamma Youth Camp to 80 person only. Furthermore, this would be done on a first come first serve basis as our all year round's preparation is done with this in mind.

So, if you are interested in joining our youth camp, please register early to avoid disappointment.

For your information, we have already received 12 participants, which means, there are only 68 "seats" left up for grab...

Jet Li: Real-life Hero

By WONG KIM HOH, The Straits Times/ ANN, Oct 15, 2008

Singapore -- As many a journalist who has met him will attest, Jet Li in the past was no easy interviewee. Although pleasant, the martial arts superstar was a man of few words, deftly sidestepping questions either with cryptic answers, stony silence or an enigmatic smile.

But the Jet Li now ensconced in an armchair at the Shangri-La Hotel is very different: garrulous, expressive, volleying questions with witty anecdotes and analogies.

"Okay, I'll tell you," he says, explaining his previous reticence in a mix of English and Mandarin. "I hated promoting movies. It was like cheating."

Li, 45, a guest at the recent Forbes Global CEO conference here, says he detested ploys by movie companies to exaggerate everything--from on-set stories to production costs--just to create media hype and buzz.

And then the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami happened. He and his two younger daughters--then aged four and two --were nearly swept away by the waves at the Four Seasons Resort in the Maldives.

"One of the first things I learnt in life was not to do anything which would upset my mother."

"One moment we were on the beach, the next the water was up to my chin," he says. He gripped one child, while several hotel guests dragged the other to safety.

It was the proverbial wake-up call for the star who has portrayed several Chinese folk heroes on screen.

"There is no guarantee when you will finish your life. You may not live until 60. When you die, all your dreams will die with you," says Li, who has been married to former actress Nina Li Chi since 1999. He has two older daughters, aged 19 and 20, from an earlier marriage to actress Huang Qiuyan.

The tsunami experience made him act on what he had been mulling over for 10 years--how to use his life and knowledge to give back to the world.

"Before that, everything was about me, Jet Li," he says. "After that, I told myself I have to do things for society."

First, he spent two years in India, Europe and the United States visiting major agencies and non-governmental organisations including the World Health Organisation and the Rockefeller Foundation "to learn how to do NGO".

Then, last year, he set up the China Jet Li One Foundation, which has four pillars of focus: education, health, environment and poverty.

Its tenet is 'one person + one dollar/yuan + one month = one big family'.

What it means is that if each person donates at least one dollar/yuan or an hour of time each month, the individual donations can be transformed into a powerful source of help for the world's needy.

This philanthropic model was put to the test when a massive earthquake devastated Wenchuan county in China's Sichuan Province in May, leaving about 70,000 dead and thousands homeless.

One text message from Li set the wheels of One Foundation in motion. Within a week, it raised more than 50 million yuan (US$7.3 million) via the Internet and SMS.

The screen hero became a real-life hero.

He admits candidly that he has not always been so selfless. Born in Beijing, he is the youngest of five children and was two years old when his engineer father died.

"We were very poor. One of the first things I learnt in life was not to do anything which would upset my mother."

He also became extremely pragmatic and money-minded. Talent-spotted for his agility, he was enrolled in the Beijing Wushu Academy at a very young age.

"At eight, I didn't know what I was learning. I only knew that being at the academy meant having food to eat," he says.

From the age of 11 until 16, he won 15 gold medals in national wushu competitions and travelled the world to demonstrate Chinese pugilistic arts.Former US president Richard Nixon apparently was so impressed when he saw Li performing on the White House lawn that he asked the 11-year-old to be his bodyguard when he grew up.

Li had retorted: "No. I want to protect my one billion countrymen."

His star shone even brighter when he was cast in Shaolin Temple (1979), a gongfu movie which spawned two sequels. He has gone on to conquer not just Hong Kong and Asia but also Hollywood.

Last year, he made headlines for pocketing 100 million yuan (US$14.64) for his role in director Peter Chan's The Warlords.

His latest Tinseltown outing is Mummy 3: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor, released last month, co-starring Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh.

But despite the fame and fortune, something gnawed at him.

"I was like most people. Over 24 hours, I would sleep 10 hours. I might be happy three hours, eating, talking and spending time with friends and family," he says.

"But I would also spend five hours thinking how I could get more and make more, and I would spend the rest of the time feeling disappointed."

He became a Buddhist and decided that if he wanted to extend his hours of happiness, he would have to give and help others.

From the outset, Li wanted his One Foundation to be built on a solid business model, and he looked to Western philanthropic organisations run with transparency and proper governance guidelines.

"That's why the Rockefeller and Ford foundations have lasted so long," he says.

The same cannot be said of many Asian charities run like family businesses, without a strategic vision or strict governance guidelines.

"In the West, it is also very common to see people like Warren Buffet giving away their wealth," he says, referring to the world's second-richest man who pledged about US$40 billion two years ago to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"A foundation can invest the money and get even more. It's like a very nice chicken which will lay all these eggs."

But he wanted to do things differently.

"I want a system where we will get eggs every day but without a chicken," he says, looking pleased at his own witty analogy.

"I could be like everyone else, and just ask this film director or tycoon to donate one million. You can do that one year, but nobody will take your call the next year," he says.

Instead, he is seeking small pledges donors will not find daunting. This way, more will donate, and small sums can snowball, as his Sichuan earthquake fund-raiser proved.

He has roped in some of China's biggest telcos and Internet companies to help process SMS or Internet donations as small as one yuan.

"There are so many foundations out there, but what makes Jet Li's special?"

He also has other corporate partners in on the act, and is taking the lead himself.

"I have just signed a contract with a movie production company in China. In the next 10 years, they will donate just 10 cents from every ticket sold for every movie they make. And every theatre just needs to give one cent from every ticket sold."

He smiles and taps his right temple: "Think about it. You're not just watching a movie, you are also helping out and donating."

Li may lack a formal education but his business savvy and eloquence are impressive and infectious.

"Even if you are donating just one dollar, you have to feel comfortable. And no matter how little you donate, you have the right to check how much we are collecting, what we are doing," he explains.

He has drawn a formidable army of partners and volunteers, comprising MNCs, listed companies, celebrities, think-tanks and other NGOs.

For instance, Deloitte handles the audits. International ad agency BBDO helps with the advertising and Ogilvy with the PR and marketing.

His media partners include more than 20 of the biggest names in broadcasting and publishing including Disney, NBA and the Shanghai Media Group.

His board of directors is a veritable Who's Who in China, while his celebrity volunteers run into the hundreds and include stars Jackie Chan, Andy Lau and Michelle Yeoh, rapper Jay Chou and Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang.

One Foundation has also attracted some of the top NGO brains from Peking and Tsinghua universities, and has also struck up a strategic partnership with The Red Cross.

And that, he stresses, is his unique Asian software: everything is transparent, and the levels of checks by the big One Foundation family are too formidable for misuse of funds and other inappropriate behaviour.

"There are so many foundations out there, but what makes Jet Li's special?" he asks rhetorically.

"People are not stupid. They will work it out. Why does One Foundation have all these people in their family? Why are corporations like Microsoft and Starbucks also on board? They must be doing something right."

Which is why he says a system--with a set of attendant values and beliefs--is imperative.

"When Jet Li is not here, the foundation will continue because the values are there, the system is there."

Meanwhile, he has taken a year off work to sell the beliefs and make the system more foolproof.

Currently, One Foundation is concentrating its energies in China where almost 200 million people are affected by disasters and nearly 60 million need help each year.

But it intends to spread its wings globally. Already there are plans to set up foundations in India and Singapore.

"I have already been to talking to various partners in Singapore for the past eight months," says Li, whose two younger daughters attend the Singapore American School.

He sees Singapore becoming the base for training and grooming future leaders as he believes many NGOs will be set up Asia in the next five to 10 years.

"We don't have enough leaders. It's very hard to find people who have a good heart as well as a business mind," he says.

Singapore is a good base because of its infrastructure as well as its experience in solving health-care and environmental issues.

The interview hour is up, but the cheerful star wants to relate a little anecdote on why everyone should give.

"Just imagine someone gave you a watch for your birthday five years ago. When you look at it, you'll be reminded of the person who gave it to you. In your mind, the watch will always be his."

He gets more animated as he elaborates: "If you keep everything in a box at home, nobody will know that it's yours except you. So the more you give away, the more you have."

He cocks his head conspiratorially. "Now that's my secret to being happy."

Think on This: Meditation May Protect Your Brain

By Michael Haederle, miller-McCune, October 08, 2008

Research is confirming the medicinal effects that advocates have long claimed for meditation

Emory, Georgia (USA) -- For thousands of years, Buddhist meditators have claimed that the simple act of sitting down and following their breath while letting go of intrusive thoughts can free one from the entanglements of neurotic suffering.

Now, scientists are using cutting-edge scanning technology to watch the meditating mind at work. They are finding that regular meditation has a measurable effect on a variety of brain structures related to attention — an example of what is known as neuroplasticity, where the brain physically changes in response to an intentional exercise.

A team of Emory University scientists reported in early September that experienced Zen meditators were much better than control subjects at dropping extraneous thoughts and returning to the breath. The study, "'Thinking about Not-Thinking:' Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing During Zen Meditation," published by the online research journal PLoS ONE, found that "meditative training may foster the ability to control the automatic cascade of semantic associations triggered by a stimulus and, by extension, to voluntarily regulate the flow of spontaneous mentation."

The same researchers reported last year that longtime meditators don't lose gray matter in their brains with age the way most people do, suggesting that meditation may have a neuro-protective effect. A rash of other studies in recent years meanwhile have found, for example, that practitioners of insight meditation have noticeably thicker tissue in the prefrontal cortex (the region responsible for attention and control), and that experienced Tibetan monks practicing compassion meditation generate unusually strong and coherent gamma waves in their brains.

"There are a lot of potential applications for this," said Milos Cekic, a member of the Emory research team and himself a longtime meditator. He suspects the simple practice of focusing attention on the breath could help patients suffering from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and other conditions characterized by excessive rumination.

Meanwhile, a meditation-derived program developed at the University of Massachusetts called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is gaining popularity for treatment of anxiety and chronic illnesses at medical centers around the U.S.

As far back as the 1960s, Japanese scientists who used electroencephalograms (EEG) to measure the brain waves of Zen monks found characteristic patterns of activity. But the advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the 1990s gave researchers a chance to see brains functioning in real time. Functional MRIs measure the blood flow in different parts of the brain, which correlates with how active they are.

The Emory team, which also included Giuseppe Pagnoni and Ying Guo, wanted to see whether Zen meditators were indeed better than novices at controlling the flow of thought, as meditators themselves report. Cekic and Pagnoni asked a dozen seasoned Zen meditators — including several monks — and a dozen control subjects to perform a simple cognitive task while undergoing an fMRI scan. The Zen practitioners all had at least three years of daily practice experience, while the control group members had none.

Inside the scanner, the subjects were all asked to follow their breathing while looking at a screen on which words or word-like combinations of letters were flashed at irregular intervals. Students had to decide whether they were seeing a real word or a made-up word and signal by pressing a button, then return to focusing on their breathing.

The random word or letter combinations engaged what is sometimes called the "default semantic network," a resting state in which words and thoughts arise spontaneously — what we experience as mind wandering, Cekic said. Practitioners of zazen (seated Zen meditation) are taught to notice when the mind has started to wander and quickly return attention to the breath.

When the word or letter combinations flashed on the screen, the experienced meditators were quickly able to leave the default state and return to their breathing, Cekic says. "You have these extended reverberations in the semantic network after you give people a word," Cekic said. "The meditators pretty much turn it off as soon as it's physiologically possible, while the non-meditators don't."

This is the second set of findings to have come from the fMRI experiments, Cekic said. Although people lose neurons — gray matter — and have more trouble concentrating as they age, the study published last year by the Emory team found this wasn't true of the Zen practitioners.

"What we saw in the meditators was pretty much a straight line," Cekic said. "There was no decrease with age in their gray-matter volume." There was also no decline in attention — in fact, the effect of meditation on gray matter was most pronounced in the putamen, a brain structure linked to attention. "We can't say causally that meditation prevents cell death, but we did see in our sample that the meditators did not see a gray matter loss with age," Cekic said.

Meanwhile, Harvard University researcher Sara Lazar made headlines in 2005 when she reported that Western practitioners of insight meditation — a non-judgmental awareness of present-moment experience that resembles zazen — had significantly thicker tissue in their prefrontal cortex and insula than non-meditators.

Lazar, who practices insight meditation and yoga, performed fMRI scans on 20 experienced meditators and 15 controls with no meditation experience. Lazar said that because earlier research had mostly been conducted on monks, she wanted to see whether the once-a-day meditation sessions typical of most American meditators might affect brain structures.

Unlike earlier research, which had focused on brain waves or measured neural blood flow, Lazar's experiment yielded the first concrete evidence linking meditation practice to changed brain structure. "The nice thing about (studying) the structure is it's something solid," she said. "It's not performance on a task. It's your brain."

Lazar says it's too soon to tell whether meditation causes new gray matter to form, or whether it protects against the normal decline of brain volume. The greatest contrasts were seen between the cortical tissue of meditators and control subjects who were in their 40s and 50s, she says, while the insula, which integrates sensory processing, was thicker in meditators of all ages.

Future research will require longitudinal studies — following subjects through time — to see whether or not meditation is causing the neural changes. "Maybe meditators are weird," Lazar said, suggesting that perhaps people with unusual brains are especially drawn to meditation.

Where does all this lead?

Andrew Newberg, a University of Pennsylvania researcher who has written popular books, like Why We Believe What We Believe and who has conducted brain scans of meditating Tibetan monks and Franciscan nuns engaged in contemplative prayer, believes the science shows meditation works.

"The overwhelming evidence is that meditation has benefits," he said. "If it makes your mind clearer and helps you focus your attention better, it should help people."

For more than a decade, Newberg has plumbed spiritual mysteries, using fMRI and SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) to measure blood flow in the brains of not only meditators but people in the throes of other religious experiences, including speaking in tongues.

"The fascinating thing to me is that when people have these mystical experiences, they not only describe it as real, but they describe it as more real than our everyday experience," he said. It raises the question of just what is real.

"I recognize that studying some of the things I study may get me to an answer," he added. "A lot of this has been my own spiritual journey, which has become a lot more meditative and contemplative."