The Sarong Party Girl

It was the hottest news of the month. A teenager in Singapore stripped naked in her photos and gleefully posted them on her adult-themed blog. She was featured in a newspaper article last week with rave reviews. The old chaps interviewed were quick to express profound distaste of such behaviour; everyone had a say, and I was glad the majority of them were suitable for entry to heaven.

She thought the pictures had a tinge of artistic value in them. Nothing too wrong, she said. Except, don't let my parents know.

Why was she so afraid to let her parents know? Her reason was that she didn't want to hurt her parents' feelings. Did she think she could hide such a secret from them forever?, especially after the Straits Times, the most prominent newpaper in Singapore, told the whole world about it? There must be some goodness left in her for her to say such a thing. But for her to do such a thing, she needed to be such an absolute rebel.

She indicated to the reporter how she thought a stunt like that could bring her international fame and perhaps a book deal worth millions of dollars. In other words, she was telling us indirectly that selling sex works. True - she was right about that. Afterall, sex, in many aspects of life, is a real money-spinner. But she didn't realise her way of selling sex makes it a very flawed marketing venture. In marketing, we talk about product, place and promotion. She did the placing through blogging - hoping some famous writer would pounce upon her blog by sheer luck. She wrote about singaporean girls having sex-centred relationships with caucasian men - hardly anything new and she sounded too smart for her own good and age. The product herself was not worth a second look!

I pity this girl for having experienced such an inappropriate teenage life. Her mind was just so full of sex, nudity, shaft size, virginity and alike. Can a mind like that function properly in years to come? Can a tainted mind like this be tranformed to a virtuous self again? I guess not. A society without failures would be as dull as having a sea of only plain virtuous girls who treat themselves with respect and not let the devil possess their soul. She is a black dot in a spread of white. No one cares about the little black dot after a while.

The 10 Actions to Unwholesome Karma (Buddhism Segment)

Do you find yourself very good-looking, full of charisma, and enjoying a life free from illness? Well, this is NOT the result of good luck. This is due to the fact that you have accumulated enough wholesome karma in the past to be reborn into an elevated state of existence.

Similarly, if you are afflicted by all manner of sufferings and are unattractive in appearance, you have to blame yourself for having accumulated too much negative karma through unwholesome actions.

What constitutes unwholesome actions? There are TEN of them in all - 3 physical, 4 verbal, 3 mental.

UNWHOLESOME ACTIONS

Physical

1. wilful killing
2. stealing
3. improper sexual acts

Verbal

1. lie with the intention to deceive
2. slander in order to cause friction
3. idle gossip
4. harsh words

Mental

1. covetousness (strong desire to possess something that belongs to another person)
2. harbouring harmful thoughts towards others
3. wrong views

Wholesome karma is generated through the opposite of these. For example, instead of taking lives, we save them; instead of stealing, we practise generosity.

The Envy of the Society

Dr P was a skinny man from india. There was rumour that he was a wealthy kid whose family owned a nursing home back in Mumbai. One then wonders why a respectable wealthy consultant doctor like him would want to suffer demotion and work as a registrar in mini Singapore.

This day, as Dr P, JW, DH and I were strolling along the corridors of the faculty, Dr P began lecturing us on a few short stories of his life.

"When I was a medical student, I was a corky one indeed. All the doctors who taught us found me corky. I thought I was very smart, and I knew everything. Then this well-known professor came to me one day and said to me: 'P, why did you become a doctor?'

"My response was more immediate than lightning. 'I want to make loads of money!' I told him. He said, "You want to make money? Why not I give you a piece of land? And you build a restaurant on it. You will make more money like that than being a doctor. You mark my words and you come and tell me if I am right 10 years from now.'

"So I became a doctor, and realised how right my professor was. It was true. You can make more money running a restaurant! As a doctor, you will never earn enough money to call yourself rich until your hair has turned white!

"But being a doctor is different. You go and ask all your friends if they want to be a doctor. They will tell you they would want to if they were smart enough. You go to a departmental store and you tell the salesman you need to rush back to the hospital for an emergency operation, they will start talking to you and treating you differently.

"If you are a doctor, you are the envy of the society... ..."

This must be the most correct statement about doctors I have heard from a person for a long time. How many doctors can say that they make millions every year? Certainly not more than half. Too many people discern doctors as money-spinning machines with no fear of going into financial dismay. Indeed, I admit the average doctor does get a pretty decent salary. But to say that that would make him very wealthy, I disagree. And even if some doctors end up becoming rich beyond belief, I defend them by saying their hard work has paid off.

Which profession requires you to study all your life? The medical doctor studies and treats the human life. And human life is, undoubtedly, a mystery. There is nothing more stimulating and rewarding than "solving" a mystery. I salute to all my predecessors and I aspire to be one of them. Money must never be the main motivational factor for a career.