Karma

 

Hope this video will inspire you to keep doing good!

With Metta,

DA

Countdown to Christmas - 1

Ning thinks I'm too early with my Christmas blog header, but early or not, I'm looking forward to Christmas.  It's the season for giving and forgiving, for caring and sharing and for giving love, hope and joy. With such thoughts in mind, I decided to visit the coop one morning to say hello to our new feathered friend, Turkey Lurkey (T.L.).  His first few days at the coop had been rather difficult for him  because Bruce Lee had not welcomed him but lately I was happy to hear that he and Bruce Lee had settled their differences and are now fast friends.  

As I reached the coop, I was surprised to hear singing.  As far as I know, Bruce Lee can only sing "Cock-A-Doodle-Doo" and the hens  "Cluck, Cluck" but this person was singing in a deep baritone voice and he was rendering a very beautiful "Noel".  I stopped to listen and it was then that Bruce Lee popped his head out of the window and asked, "Hey, what do you want?"

"I'm just listening to whoever is singing," I said.  "He's really good.  Is he a friend of yours?"

Bruce Lee said "Ssssh", looked furtively to the right and left, then whispered, "It's a secret.  You didn't hear anything, alright?"

I shrugged.  "Have it your way," I said, though of course my curiosity had been aroused.  If it wasn't Bruce Lee or the hens, could it be T.L. who was singing?  It seemed highly improbable, all this time when I had heard him go gobble, gobble, his voice was low and raspy, hardly the melodious type.

Bruce Lee told me to go away and shut the window. Wonder what he's up to?  

When I told Ning that Bruce Lee was up to something, he laughed and said, "Maybe he's planning a Christmas party and carving up his turkey friend for dinner!"

When I told Head Nun, she too laughed and said, "That old bird always has something up his sleeve. We'll have to wait and see."

When I told APK, she opened her eyes wide and said, "I hope he's not going to do something silly."

I hadn't told them that I had heard someone singing because I had  given my promise to Bruce Lee not to tell but I knew that they would never believe me anyway.  Who had ever heard of singing cockerels and hens and turkeys...?

Now the whole temple is bursting with curiosity.  What is Bruce Lee up to?

(To be continued)

Gobble, Gobble

 

How time flies!  We're nearing the end of the year and Christmas will be here soon.  Once again, there's a lot of de-cluttering to be done, yes, even in a temple.  The nuns have a knack of keeping empty bottles and tins which they feel will come in "useful" one day but that one day never seems to come.   Head Nun was ladamant in throwing out these items for recycling this year, so now the kitchen looks cleaner and less congested.

Then one of the nuns brought out the old Christmas tree which has seen many Christmases with them in the temple.  It looked a little forlorn but a couple of nuns cleaned it up and soon it was as good as new. 

Last year, unknown to the nuns, our two ghost pals, HD and PH went out of their way to arrange presents for the nuns but this year, Head Nun very firmly told the two spooks "No more presents!". She said that the nuns are on a spiritual journey and should learn not to be attached to all things mundane.   So no more discussion on the subject, period.

Just when we thought that there would be no more excitement for the rest of the year, there came a big commotion from the coop one morning.  We rushed there and saw to our surprise that a turkey had found his way there and Bruce Lee was shouting his head off at the poor creature and trying to drive him away, but he refused to budge.  

"Look, my dear," said Head Nun, addressing the turkey.   "How can we help you?  Have you lost your way?"

The turkey shook his head.  "My name's Turkey Lurkey," he said.  "I'm not lost.  I ran away from a farm because I don't want to be carved up for Thanksgiving..."  and he burst into tears.

Touched, Head Nun said, "Alright, alright, you can stay here for the time being.  Bruce Lee, you could at least show some sympathy to this poor creature.  Give him a corner of your coop and treat him nicely."

Bruce Lee made some unintelligible noises and reluctantly told T.L. to follow him inside. As it turned out, T.L. became a great favourite with the hens, much to Bruce Lee's jealousy.  They loved listening to his stories after being tired of hearing Bruce Lee's "adventures" every other night and even kept a lookout for him in case his owner should come looking for him, which he did one morning.  

He was a big burly man with a moustache and you could tell he only cared for the money he could make out of his turkeys.  Head Nun had gone to visit a sick friend and was not expected back until the next morning.  In her absence, APK told him very sweetly that we had not seen any runaway turkey.  He looked at her suspiciously and threatened he would raid the coop if the nuns were hiding his turkey but APK, backed by her fellow nuns, stood firm and told him to get lost.

After he had gone, APK said to me thoughtfully, "Vege Cat, I think we should hide T.L. somewhere.  What if that horrible man does come back tonight and raid the coop?"

"Yes, you've got a point there," I said.  All the other nuns agreed that something should be done to save T.L. and since there was no higher authority to refer to, APK took the initiative to hide T.L. in the storeroom in the temple.  She gave him some food and water and told him to be quiet.  Fortunately nothing happened during the night and the next morning, after meditation, we prepared breakfast for Head Hun's return.

We had somehow forgotten about poor T.L. in the storeroom, busy as we were with our duties and when Head Nun returned and went to the storeroom to get something, we were startled to hear a loud shriek.  

"OMG .... T.L.!" gasped APK, dropping the bowl of oats she was carrying.

There was a hush as Head Nun returned to the kitchen.  She looked at the nuns, drew in a deep breath, then said, "I don't think it's my imagination but just now as I entered the storeroom, I not only saw a pair of beady eyes staring at me from the darkness but I also heard some weird sounds.  Now, perhaps one of you can tell me what's going on?"

Everyone looked at APK.  There was no escape for her and bowing her head low, she stammered an explanation and how T.L. came to be in the storeroom.  

Head Nun was silent for a moment, then said, "I should have known that you would be behind this farce.  Alright, I'm not going to scold or punish you, you did what you thought was a humanitarian act.  Just get T.L. out of there and put him back in the coop - NOW!"

APK fled to the storeroom, scooped up a frightened T.L. and was about to take him back to the coop when there came loud banging on the front door.  One of the nuns went to look, it was the burly farmer and he had two other men with him and the three of them forced their way into the kitchen.

"I knew it," the farmer yelled.  "They've got our turkey with them, give him back to us you no good thieves or I shall call the police!"

APK stood rooted to the spot, while a shivering T.L. started making funny gobbling noises.  It was of course Head Nun who saved the situation.

Diving a hand into her pocket, she took out some money, thrust it at the farmer and said calmly, "We've just bought your turkey.  He belongs to us now, so please leave."

The farmer was quite taken aback but he couldn't refuse the thick wad of money offered to him.  He snorted, called his friends and they left.

The silence in the kitchen after they had gone was electrifying.  Then APK suddenly shouted, "Three cheers for Head Nun, hip hip hurray, hip hip hurray, hip hip hurray!"  The other nuns started cheering and it was difficult even for an austere person like Head Nun to keep a straight face.

"Alright, enough!" she said.  "Why are you cheering?  If you think that was a good move on my part, my dear nuns, then you should know that I just gave away the money I was going to use to buy our meals this week.  So I'm afraid you all will have to eat plain white rice for the next few days, unless .... (and here she looked at T.L.) .... unless you want to have an early Thanksgiving ...."

The word "Thanksgiving" was like a time bomb for T.L.  Shrieking with fear, he struggled free from APK's arms and ran helter skelter towards the coop, calling for Bruce Lee to save him!  

Well, I'm so glad it's another happy ending.... now we have a new permanent addition to the coop and thanks to a generous devotee who gave us some tinned veg food, we didn't have to survive on rice and water until our next meal allowance.  Something tells me there's lots more excitement to come in the not too distant future ...

Cat Wisdom

 

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

 

The festival is here at last!  Happy Mid-Autumn Festival and may the glow of the moon light your way to good health, happiness and prosperity!

With Metta,

Da

(17th September 2024)

Danger in the Coop

Yay, the Hungry Ghost Festival is over and we can now look forward to the Mid-Autumn Festival!  This year we heard that Chief Nun of the hill temple would be going to China over the festive period and so no invitation from her to spend the festival up there.  Many kind devotees had already presented Head Nun with boxes of mooncakes and moon biscuits and she usually divides them into those for prayer and those for the nuns to enjoy.  

Since we can't wait until the festival comes along in about two weeks' time, Head Nun very kindly arranged for a small "mooncake party" for the nuns in the kitchen the other evening.  The nuns were delighted as there was a good variety of mooncakes to choose from.  Mooncakes are not really my favourite but they insisted I had a small piece just to join in the fun.

So there we were munching away when there came a loud knocking on the front door.  APK and I went to investigate and were surprised to see two policemen in uniform outside.  

"What's the problem, officers?" asked APK.

"We came to warn you that a mentally deranged man has escaped from the mental home in the village.  He is armed with a knife and could be headed this way.  So keep your doors and windows tightly shut.  If you see anything suspicious, call us," said the officer.

"Thank you, officer, for warning us," said APK, now a little nervous.  

The officers sped off in their police car and we ran back to the kitchen to tell Head Nun and the others.  Head Nun immediately told us to lock all doors and windows securely and after we had done that, we returned to the kitchen where we all sat down and chanted a few mantras.  

The next morning, after meditation, Head Nun requested APK and I to visit the chicken coop to see whether Bruce Lee and his hens were alright.  It was nearly 7 am and quite bright already.  APK banged on the door and called out several times for Bruce Lee.  After some time, the door slowly creaked open and a bleary eyed Bruce Lee emerged.

"Why are you guys here so early?" he croaked.  "I haven't even done my morning call!"

"We wanted to make sure you and your ...er ... girls are ok," said APK.  She then told him about the mad man who had escaped from the mental home.

Bruce Lee looked at us, then cocked his head to the right and winked at us.  Then he cocked his head to the left and winked at us.  Then to our surprise he did a little jig and walked backwards into the coop and shut the door in front of him.

"Hey, what's with him?" asked APK.  "Why is he behaving so strangely?"

"Perhaps he's caught a bug," I said.  "I've never seen him act like this before."

"Well, I suppose they're all safe, otherwise he would have said something, you know him and his big mouth," said APK.  "I'll return to the temple and tell Head Nun."

She ran off but I remained behind.  My sixth sense told me that something was not quite right.  Was Bruce Lee trying to tell us something?  I decided to sneak back to the coop and take a look through one of the windows.  Trying to be as quiet as possible, I stretched myself up and peeped into a window at the back.

What I saw gave me a shock.  Firstly I saw that all the hens were cowering on the ground and standing in the middle of the coop was a huge man.  He was gloating over them, a knife in his hand. Then, horror of horrors, I saw Bruce Lee hanging upside down from the ceiling!  It looked like the man had strung him up there and I suddenly realized that he must be no other than the mad guy himself!  He had probably been hiding in the coop the whole night and when we knocked on the door earlier, I guess he had  threatened Bruce Lee that he would kill the hens if he gave him away.

I immediately ran back to the temple, told Head Nun who called the police and in a short while, they came, surrounded the coop, took the man by surprise and escorted him away.  A police officer then cut the rope and brought Bruce Lee down.

"What took you all so long?" shrieked a dishevelled Bruce Lee.  "I could have died hanging up there!"

"Calm down, Bruce Lee," said Head Nun.  "You should thank Vege Cat for saving you all.  If he hadn't suspected something was wrong when you acted weirdly, that mad man would have made minced chicken out of all of you!"

"Okay, okay, so he saved us but only because I acted smart, " he replied haughtily.  "But my girls will never get over the shock.  I shall have a headache nursing them back to health!  What's more, I lost some of my beautiful feathers when that maniac strung me up!  I shall sue him for causing me bodily harm!"  He grumbled on and on until Head Nun got quite annoyed.

"Look, I shall put a barbed wire fence round the coop ...."

"Not only that but a CCTV and fire alarm," demanded Bruce Lee loudly.  "We don't want to be roasted alive nor do we want to be victims of another lunatic!"  The  hens clucked their support from behind, making quite a din.

"What is this, some kind of rebellion?" said Head Nun in exasperation.  "Alright, I have heard your demands and will look into them.  I am as concerned about your safety as you are.  Now please get back inside!"

Bruce Lee opened his mouth to say something but shut it again. The "boss" (Head Nun) could  refuse to give them food for the whole day for being naughty, so it was better to keep quiet.  He strutted back into the coop with his hens but not without an arrogant flap of his wings.

Head Nun kept her word and put up the barbed wire fence, for a start.  The temple didn't have the budget for a CCTV and a fire alarm, so that had to wait.

In the next two or three days, we didn't hear Bruce Lee's wake up call.  APK said he must be busy attending to his girls but after that, he was out there crowing his head off again and we knew peace once more reigned in the coop.  

The Buddha Said ...

 

Cat Wisdom

 

Whatever Will Be Will Be ...

It's here again, the Hungry Ghost Festival which is going to last one long month.  Since knowing Humpty Dumpty and Pumpkin Head, it has been less scary for me because like the good pals they are, they have assured me they will protect me from naughty or unfriendly spooks who are out to get innocent cats.  So I now I can go to bed without having to hide under my blanket or wear shades!  It is most unfortunate that both of them had such a tragic end to their lives - HD fell ten stories from his apartment and PH was beheaded by loan sharks.  They wouldn't have been able to rest in peace if  Head Nun hadn't given them room in the "Palace" where they now reside happily.

So we were relaxing in the kitchen and HD said that if he had his life to live all over again, he would work hard to be a millionaire.  Apart from giving himself all the best in life, he would also do charitable work, like building schools, houses for the poor, etc. etc.  PH said all he wanted is to be born in a big family where he would be loved by his brothers and sisters and of course his parents because he had been an orphan all his life and never knew love.

"And what would you want to be, Vege Cat?  Surely not a cat again?" HD asked me.

I wanted to say that it is my goal to be free from this cycle of birth and death and never be born again, but thought that maybe that would be too difficult for two ghosts to understand.  So I said, "I will be whatever the Buddha wants me to be."

The two ghosts gave me the "thumbs up", I went to bed and so ended another day.

Happy International Cat Day - 8th August 2024

 

Wishing all our feline friends many more years of joy, hugs and kisses!

With Metta,

Da

P.S. to the Humans: Don't forget to hug your cat!