My birthday just ended.. Its a very different birthday that i had. I was never a loner in my entire life. Always surrounded with friends and buddies. Probably thats why i never like to do things alone. Its just a norm for me.

But i wanted to do something different this year for my birthday. So i decided on my new resolution! I want to do life liberation.. Saving lives on my birthday and setting them free is so much better than eating good food and enjoying myself. In the night, i went to do meditation. What a birthday! Haha.

Just when i wanted to set off to buy my fishes, it starts to rain very heavily. I assume that this is a test for me. Which is more important? Saving lives or avoiding the rain? Of course i chose to embrace the heavy rain and went ahead with saving lives.

I went to a small fish shop in Lim Chu Kang. I told the uncle that i wanna buy all the fishes. He said im not allowed to do so... zzzzzzz. So in the end i bought like 10packets of fishes. Each packet contains around 50 fishes. These fishes are used to feed bigger fish rear by people. So if i don't buy them, they will definately be eaten up.

At least if i set them free in the river, they still stand 50% chance of survivor. That will depends on their karma. Most important thing about life liberation is that you sincerely want the fish or animals to gain freedom and happiness. Its not about the merits that you want to get or the good fortune that you wanna gain.

Remember... If you think of merits, there will be no merits. This sentence sounds difficult.

Let me try to explain this. There is 2 kinds of merits in this world. Let me just name it as Good Merit(Gong De) and Prosperity Merit(Fu De). Good merit is the merit that you can bring it with you into your afterlife. Prosperity merit is the merit that you can only use in this world. This merit will be change into money, happiness and fame and be given to you.

Example, if bill gates donated 10millions to charity and wrote his name on it. The merit will be converted to Prosperity Merit. He will gain fame and recognition. Everybody will talk about him as such a charitable man. Thats what the prosperity merit will give him. Fame and Recognition.

If you didnt put your name inside and remain secretive, you will get the Good merit. You donate the money because you really want to help the poor. If your heart really goes out to the poor, why do you need people to recognise your effort and good heart?

So if you think of merits, there will be no merits. Meaning the Good merits will be converted to Prosperity merits to you. In Buddhism terms, we want the Good Merit, not Prosperity Merit. So this explains the sentence.

In your afterlife, these Good merits will be used to grade where will you be reborn, If you guys believe in afterlife. Its always good to believe in a religion. At least you are still holding on to a fine thread of string leading to heaven. If one day after you died, you realised that there is really a place called heaven. Its just too late. You didn't hold on to anything. So please believe in a religion. No matter what religion you believe in. All the religions teach you to be good and do good.

For me i chose buddhism as i think the teachings of the Buddha can sasify my questions. I was born as a buddhist, become a christian then a catholic and back to a buddhist. I went a big round to search for my answers. In the end, i finally found my answers.

Remember.. All religion are the same. Don't discriminate other religions that you don't believe in. They are all up there sitting together.

Lastly, marry the people... Not the religion.

I will be gone to Bangkok for my pilgrimage. Will be back soon.