Holidays

It's holidays and it means a break for all facilitators, co-facilitators, principal and children of Sunday Dhamma School. Everyone did a great job on Wesak day and everyone deserves a rest.


I was exhausted after Wesak Day, really exhausted! After a rest, I'll be back to post about our Wesak Day celebration. It was FANTASTIC!

Wesak Day Celebration

Phew, at last the recording is completed! The puppet show will be carried out as planned and I think the children are doing a fantastic job on this. Let's hope they would be able to give their very best on Wesak Day.


Program for Wesak in Sungai Long Buddhist Society:

Wesak eve (18 May 2008)
8.00 pm Puja & Dhamma Talk by Ven Dhammasara
on "The meaning of Wesak"
9.30 pm QnA
10.00pm Rejoice & Dismiss


Wesak day (19 May 2008)
8.30 am Registration & Selling
9.00 am Puja & Opening speech by Dr. Ong (President)
9.15 am Puppet show, Ehipasiko, Happy Wesak by SDS children
9.40 am Multimedia 1
9.45 am Choir singing "小草" and "Breathing in, Breathing out"
9.50 am Multimedia 2
10.00am Speech by Dr. Ong "The meaning of Ratana Sutta &
Metta Sutta"
10.30am The arrival of Ven. Dhammaluca
10.35am Puja, Chanting "Ratana Sutta" and "Metta Sutta" lead by
Ven. Dhammaluca
11.00am Blessing by Ven.
11.10am Dhamma Talk "Who am I?" by Ven. Dhammaluca
11.30am Dana & Lunch together (Vegetarian only)
12.00noon QnA
12.30pm Clean up & rearrange the centre
1.30 pm Dismiss


We would be joining Nalanda Buddhist Society in the evening.

Game on Buddhist Flag

Last Sunday, we thought the children the symbols of Buddhism. To further enhance their understanding about the Buddhist flag and to let them remember the color of the Buddhist flag, we thought of a game to bring out the effect.

The game goes like this:

* Children are divided into 2 groups.

* Each group would be given color papers (color of the Buddhist flag).

* Each group would have short of one or two colors.

* Children are given 5-10 minutes to complete the flag, sticking each color paper together with tape.

When time is up, we would ask to see the result but none of the group would be able to present a complete Buddhist flag.

Then, we would tell them that the Buddhist flag cannot be built due to the shortage of color. Each group is like each person. Each has his or her own specialty and strong point as well as weakness. So, if the two groups could combine, they would easily build a beautiful flag. This also means that we (Buddhists / siblings/ friends) need to be united and help each other so that things get done.

Suggestion: We could combine the older children with the younger children for this game. Older children will be in two groups and the younger children will be in the other two groups. The scenario now is that the older children feel they are superior and do not wish to mix around with the younger children. From this activity, we could actually tell them that none if more superior to the other and that they should always help each other.

Quiz on Life Story of the Buddha

The children of Sunday Dhamma School have heard the life story of the Buddha several times and to repeat the story once again would make the children bored. So, how do we solve this problem since the syllabus of this term is Wesak and we want to tell this story again?

We came out with a suggestion to replace the story telling with a quiz on life story of the Buddha. The questions are basically set in sequence with the story, that is from the birth of Prince Siddhartha to the growing up of the prince, to the four sights, to when Siddhartha left the palace until he attain enlightenment and become the Buddha.

No story telling will be done this Sunday, but throwing of questions to the children. Our purpose is to make the session livelier and to test how much the children have absorb and could remember.

This is how we will have the quiz:

* Children are divided into 3 groups.

* Each group will be given several pieces of paper.

* Each member in the group would take turns writing the answer on the paper.

* Each group will be given 30 seconds to answer each question.

* When time is up, each group’s representative would show their answer and the right answer will be given 1 point.

* By the end of the quiz, the points will be totaled up and the group with the highest score will get 3 extra stars whereas the second group will get 2 extra stars and the last group will get 1 star each.

* For those who did not participate, no extra star will be given. Here, we are encouraging everybody to participate.

What do you think?

"Journey"

“Journey”, a new Buddhist album has been launched and is now selling at RM21.

The album consists of 3 discs.

Disc 1 consists of 10 songs (9 english and 1 pali).

Disc 2 is the rendition of the Mangala Sutta in Pali with English translation accompanied by the soothing sounds of the Sitar.

Disc 3 is a DVD music video of a song in tribute of the late Venerable Dr.K.Sri Dhammananda Nayaka Maha Thera.

Now, who are the singers? Presenting the singers for this album:

M.V. Nathan

Datuk Dr.Victor Wee

Oh Kim Leng

Simon & Cedric Tan (MOD)

Raymond Yeo

D2Y (Dhammaduta Youth)

Khoo Nee Wern (Igemz)

Wee Jee Leng

Dharmic Dew

All proceeds will go to participating centers.
For further information on the album, kindly visit Sukhi Hotu Sdn Bhd.

Busy Term For SDS

This term would be a busy term for us. The theme for this term is Wesak. Wesak, which falls on the 19^th of May would be celebrated everywhere and here in Sungai Long Buddhist Society, we would have a Wesak Day celebration, details yet to discuss.

What we know is that Sunday Dhamma School children will be taking active roles in the preparation of Wesak Day celebration. The younger ones will put up a show while the teenagers would help out like adults.

So, the syllabus for this term includes:

The significance of offerings

Symbols of Buddhism

Life Story of the Buddha

While sharing dhamma on the above topics, we are actually preparing them for Wesak Day. Last Sunday, we showed them how offering is done and have the older kids to actually offer flowers, incense, light, water and fruits to the triple gem, after which we showed them a slide on the significance of offerings.

This Sunday would be a day we tell the children about each symbol and at the same time let the children do some crafts. The smaller children would be doing glitters mandala which would be used as decorations on Wesak Day whereas the older ones would make candle holders which would be sold on Wesak Day.

As for the show, how about a puppet show on life story of the Buddha by the little ones and a song by the older kids?

Well, a big event it will be and it will definitely take up a lot of our time and effort. We hope everyone learn something through this.

If you have any suggestion, please feel free to drop me a line here.

Compilation of Ajahn Brahm's Video

When I received an email from a friend of mine, telling me that there is a compilation of Ajahn Brahm's video, I was very delighted. I clicked on the link and what I found was too good to be true. There are actually many videos on talks not only by Ajahn Brahm, but many other speakers. Let's see how we can utilize this for our Sunday Dhamma School. Hopefully many can benefit from these videos.

Here's the site I was talking about.