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52 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

Inspiration from

Spiritual Teachers

As a Buddhist, our greatest teacher is the Buddha, join the monastic community after a year of my father
the Fully Awakened One, who left his wonderful passing away.
teachings for us to lead our lives to find true
happiness in a very meaningful way. Many of us Dadul: When I look back, I realize it was during my High
are fortunate enough to have met contemporary School days that I began to have questions like: What
spiritual teachers who have allowed us to tap is life all about? How would I like to live my life? What
into the river of valuable inspiration and wisdom becomes of it after death? Where did it come from? And
that originated from the Buddha more than 2500 more. I did not want to live life like most people do, i.e.,
years ago. The underlying teachings of these great pursue a regular job, get married, raise a family, and
die someday. That did not appeal to me at that time nor
teachers focus on the same things that the Buddha
ever thereafter. I wanted to use it for personal growth
had taught: compassion and wisdom, meaning
in a way that might have a positive impact on myself
and liberation, and transformation, i.e. ending
and others, maybe through many lives to come, then
suffering in oneself and others. In this issue, we assuming there would be future lives like there had
ask our Dharma Masters from the three Buddhist been past ones. Being born a Tibetan with its Buddhist
traditions to share their thoughts about their own culture and with His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a role
spiritual masters. model right before one’s eyes, I didn’t have to look hard

and far to see what that life might look like for me. So,
Can you share with us briefly when and how you the decision to get ordained as a Buddhist monk and
first became interested in Buddhism? bring my wish to life, came naturally, and was well
supported in every way.
Aggacitta: As far as I can recall, my interest in
Who is the teacher(s) who has inspired and
Buddhism was ignited when I was reading one of
influenced you in your study and practice of
Lobsang Rampa’s early books: The Third Eye. That
Buddhism? Can you tell us a bit more about them?
happened when I was about 16. Only a few years
later did I find out that he was a fraud, but that did
not dampen my interest in the Buddhist teaching of Aggacitta: When I was around 20, I was particularly
impermanence and in things mystic. impressed by the reasonable and simple explanations
found in Venerable K Sri Dhammananda’s What
Ming Wei: I first came to know Buddhism and observe Buddhists Believe. That was because the Buddhism I was
the three refuges when I was twenty one years old, after exposed to then was steeped in rites and rituals. Though
the death of my beloved father. Indeed, this significant the venerable’s book was informative, I never had any
personal event upended and changed my life. Only then, personal connection with him.
did I realize that every situation in life is temporary;
nothing lasts forever. Nothing can be grasped or held During my third year as an undergraduate in USM, when
onto. Thereafter, I began to explore the nature of life; I was about 23, an intense interest in meditation was
searching for a purpose in life. Eventually, I decided to aroused after reading Alan Watts’ The Way of Zen. The