Vesākha Procession 2015

Brickfields was transformed into an illuminated faerieland on Vesākha Sunday. Not even the sudden thunderstorm could dampen our spirits as we walked and thought about the teachings of our wise and kind Teacher.

Sabbe Satta Sukhi Hontu: May All Beings Be Well And Happy, on Vesākha and always.

The Vihara, all lit up for Vesākha.

Devotees lining the streets in preparation for walking alongside the floats in the procession.

My flowers for Buddha. They survived the storm although the pot was waterlogged. We still managed to make it back to the Main Prayer Hall in one piece.

The leading float. With a papier-mache elephant.

The Nepali Buddhist organisations' float.

Pickup truck with Lord Buddha riding on top. I always knew Lord Buddha was adventurous.

The Very Bright Float. 

I call this the Tron Float. You're allowed to be irreverent, you know. Humour is good for the soul.

The Myanmar community's fantastic float.

I call this the Pink Float. There are lots of flowers and pink doughnuts on the Pink Float. Yes I know I'm irreverent but Lord Buddha won't mind.

A Lumbini garden themed float.

The Ti-Ratana float, with illuminated panels showing pictures of Reverend and the children. I have to say this is my favourite float.

I call this the hippie float. Cos of the midcentury colours of the halos, or pabhamandala.

So many Buddhist dogs going walkie-walk with the procession.

We took shelter under a bridge during the sudden downpour. I hope none of the floats suffered electrical damage.

High-spirited devotees kicking ass under a huge tarp. Singing and cheering as though they were at a football match. They rock!

Clapping and cheering each time a float made it through the underpass with its lights still on.

Cheerful devotees with their umbrellas despite getting soaked to the skin.

Volunteer Power on Vesākha!

"However innumerable sentient beings are, I vow to save them.
However inexhaustible the defilements are, I vow to extinguish them.
However immeasurable the dharmas are, I vow to master them.
However incomparable enlightenment is, I vow to attain it"

~ The Four Great Vows in Buddhism


Although I profess the religions of Theravada Buddhism and Hinduism, I spend very little time on scriptures and worship. But what I do know intuitively is that religion should give us hope, strength, courage and a moral compass. Religion should never promote suffering and sacrifice. My primary role is to be a good human being and to put my values and beliefs into practice. What is good for others must necessarily be good for me. And due to the strength of my beliefs that I am living my life in the way that my religions would want me to, I feel no guilt about the fact that I go to the temples so infrequently.

This year I spent even less time on prayer than usual on Vesākha, as I had made prior arrangements to volunteer with Sampah Masyarakat in a joint cleanup and greening project with another environmental organisation, TrEES (Treat Every Environment Special), at the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields.

Despite the fact that Vesākha ("Wesak Day" is really just the Sinhalese name for it) is a national public holiday, it wasn't a UN holiday this year and so I was at work all day and could only volunteer for the 1900h - 2300h shift. Still, I managed to reach the Vihara at 1830h and complete my shift by 2330h, and I was pleased with all that we have accomplished in one day.




The Buddhist Maha Vihara cleanup and greening campaign was far more successful and orderly than the Thaipusam Mega Cleanup. The two organisations set up recycling bins throughout the Maha Vihara temple complex and stationed volunteers on shifts to ensure that the public and temple staff sorted their waste and disposed of them in the correct bins. I doubt we would have received the same level of cooperation and understanding at the Batu Caves temple complex!
(Photo credits: Shyam Priah)



Volunteers Melvin and Leela from TrEES collecting used cooking oil for reuse. Well, you know who to thank for not clogging up the drains of Brickfields with cooking grease!
(Photo credits: Shyam Priah)



Sampah Masyarakat volunteer Hariharan sorts food and plant waste for composting.
(Photo credits: Shyam Priah)





The beautifully illuminated Vihara, when I arrived for my shift in the late evening.



The main prayer hall all aglow.



Devotees lighting joss sticks and candles and offering prayers at the numerous shrines throughout the Maha Vihara temple complex.



A revolving, colour-changing lantern display in the Vihara grounds.



4 of the Sampah Masyarakat volunteers: From left, Hariharan, Shyam (the founder), me and Petri.



Leela of TrEES sorting the waste for recycling at the basement. I am awed and humbled by her dedication and unflagging energy.



Guess how long it took 3 of us to cut open, flatten, stack and transport this mountain of cardboard boxes?
No more than 10 mins.







Recyclables waiting for collection in the basement.
"Vow #1: "However innumerable the recyclables are, I vow to save them from the landfill."



Mat and Leela of TrEES sorting and bagging up the recyclables. They amaze me. They've been at it since 0600 hrs.



I finished my shift at 2330 hrs and was about to leave when I saw a troupe of Kandyan dancers making their way into the Vihara. What fun and excitement! It was an unexpected but fitting reward for the hours of hard work.


I trust that the good people at the Vihara will continue the legacy of good waste management practices started by TrEES and Sampah Masyarakat, as they demonstrated examplary cooperation, interest and enthusiasm. I wish all faith groups would place as much emphasis on creating a safe, healthy, clean and livable environment for all living beings and ecosystems.

Vesākha Weekend and Animal Updates

The last two weeks have been a flurry of activity -- dental appointments, meetings with volunteers, making final preparations for the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Open Day and fielding questions after my Letter to the Editor on the animal-testing facility was published.

This post, therefore, will be full of non sequitors and disjointed jottings. Sometimes I feel like I am the protagonist in an absurdist play. Today, for instance, I held a cat in an Arsenal jersey and a baby bat that fell out of a tree. Not both at the same time, of course.







Mizz was adopted by SPCA General Worker, Thim, and now lives in the SPCA Bungalow with the Inspectorate and PR & MarComms Team. I was there this afternoon to deliver books to the Shelter and to pick up a copy of Earthlings and the cruelty investigation manual. Mizz doesn't seem to mind wearing the Arsenal jersey all day and spends a lot of her time on the window ledge.



My colleague Nick saw this baby bat on the lawn in front of our department's cabin and pointed it out to me. I had to put the baby bat somewhere safe from automobiles, feral cats and human feet.




The baby bat was kept safely hidden in some dense foliage behind our office and given papaya to eat in case he was hungry. He looked a little dehydrated but otherwise healthy. There were no signs of injury. I have picked up many stranded bats before. They were mostly disoriented by sunlight and winded or stunned from having fallen off their roosting places. They are usually able to orient themselves and fly off safely at nightfall.

Gerald Durrell and I would probably get along famously well with each other.


Friday, 28th May 2010: Vesākha Day and other news



The Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields

As is my custom every Vesākha Eve, I recited the Jayamangala Gatha (Stanzas of Victory) on Thursday night. My command of Pali and Sanskrit has deteriorated from want of practice and the only stanza I seem to be able to remember without effort is the one on Nalagiri the Bull Elephant. Trust me to only remember the bits with animals in them.

Being able to sleep in on a weekday is such luxury, and I made the most of it on Vesākha (Wesak) Day as it was a public holiday. I spent a good part of the day doing housework, giving the Rowdies a bath, getting Whoosh (my fostered cat) vaccinated and completing some office work which I had brought home in my thumbdrive. My colleagues and I have decided not to return Whoosh to the stalls except as a last resort, as she did not receive adequate care there and we did not want to risk Whoosh getting hit by motor vehicles again.



Light dispels ignorance.

I took the train to the Vihara in Brickfields in the evening to meet up with Covert Mum and Covert Dad. I took the parents to dinner at Gopala's, one of my favourite restaurants, where we had lovely dosai and some pretty unusual but tasty soy satay.

I saw the parents off and then walked back to the Vihara, where I was to meet up with my friends from the Facebook group, Sampah Masyarakat (roughly translated into "Society's Rubbish", or "scum of society"), as we were to conduct a cleanup campaign in the Vihara and the streets around the area. I failed to meet up with the group and all attempts to contact them failed. I had brought my own biodegradable garbage bags but picking up litter while the crowds were still coming in was an exercise in futility. People were dropping litter faster than the volunteers were picking them up. I didn't want to get trampled to death in the stampede and so I gave up after a while.

At the booth operated by the Aloka Foundation, someone called me by name. It was a lady who was a participant of one of my 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) workshops in 2009, and I asked her if she had seen any of our fellow activists there. She did not, but she did have candles to offer to me instead. I made a donation for the lighting of candles in Lumbini, the birthplace of the Gautama. One of the candles was in the name of my parents, and the other would bear That Special Someone's name and mine. It was nice to think that somewhere in the foothills of the Himalayas, there would be a little light shining for him and me.

I returned to the Vihara to recite my poojas, and on my way out spotted an elderly lady looking lost. She was unable to contact her daughter and her phone battery had died on her. I offered to call her daughter on my phone and to walk her to the Tamil Methodist Church where her daughter was waiting for her anxiously. She accepted my offer gratefully and it took us ten minutes to walk to her daughter’s car. The elderly lady was wilting in the heat by then. It was late when I finally got to the train station, and I was by then too exhausted to even think about attempting to contact the other Sampah Masyarakat members again.

I didn’t like the fact that I had failed to participate in Sampah Masyarakat’s cleanup campaign after I had agreed to do so. I didn’t like the fact that it was an addition to my already long list of sins and transgressions – all those red lights I’ve run, illegal U-turns I’ve made, trash I’ve talked and swear words I’ve uttered. I am glad there isn’t any Heaven or Hell in Buddhism. Judging by the number of offences I’ve committed, I don’t have any doubt as to where I’ll end up.


Saturday, 29th May 2010: Terror Kitty and other new friends

Saturday was no day of rest for me, as I had promised the SPCA officers that I would be at the shelter early to guide the new volunteers who wish to engage in animal care work. The new volunteers -- CH and Manoj who are undergoing training as volunteer dog trainers, and two teenage girls -- and I started bathing and tickwashing the dogs as soon as it was warm enough, around 0945 hrs.



CH and Manoj rinsing off one of the Kennel F dogs.



Manoj is a natural at handling dogs.



The two girls worked very slowly and I had to keep checking to make sure they had rinsed the shampoo off properly.

We were joined at the B Kennels by a group of students from Taylor's College, who mostly stood around chatting with each other and taking photographs. Most of the time, one of the students would attempt to help us, while the others stood around watching.



I think Manoj asked for volunteers, not an audience.

Manoj left by 1130 hrs and the students left shortly after, despite not having done much. CH and I finished bathing all the dogs in Kennels B Ext and B and I tidied up the dog-washing kit. I cleaned the Cattery before cleaning myself up and getting the carrier from the Battletank to bring a spayed cat home in.

The latest cat to be spayed under Project Second Chance is a feral female caught and sent to the SPCA by my friend, Leena. I had agreed to bring the cat home and provide post-surgery care. The cat was a holy terror -- the fiercest I have ever met. She ripped the gloves right off our hands and bit the carrier door. When we tried to guide her into the carrier using sticks, she bit the sticks (which were at least 2 inches in diameter) and broke them right into two. We finally got her into the carrier after much sweating, heaving and cursing.

I drove home with the terrorist in my backseat yowling for all she was worth. That cat is living proof that spaying doesn't necessarily make them any more docile.

I reached the Bachelor Pad, set up the holding cage for Terror Kitty, and tried to transfer her into the cage. She turned on me with a look of pure hatred in her eyes, slashed my arm and dashed out of the gate and down the street, with me in hot pursuit.

And that was it. I couldn't find her. Terror Kitty was nowhere to be seen. I felt like a failure. I didn't know what to say to Leena, except that Terror Kitty would probably be okay because it has been over 5 days since her spaying, that the wound has healed and she is in good health.

It was while I was brooding over poor Terror Kitty that my friend Pat came over in the late afternoon with her husband and daughter and a carload full of good things to be donated to Green Living and the SPCA for our Pre-Loved Books stall and our quarterly Jumble Sale respectively. It was raining like the clappers then but my dear friends did not abort their mission to deliver the promised items to me.

I spent the rest of the evening on housework, and put a saucer of kibbles out for Terror Kitty in case she returned. I made one last search attempt for Terror Kitty before driving back to the parental home on Saturday night.

Terror Kitty, wherever you are, I hope you are alright.