Buddhist Personality : Lee Ka Kit

Name : Lee Ka Kit
Country : Hong Kong
Date Of Birth : 1963
Profession : Businessman.

Lee Ka Kit is the elder son of Lee Sau Kee, the chairman of Henderson Land Development. He is the Vice Chairman of his father's business empire. Despite his wealth, Lee Ka Kit is a low key person and rarely gets into negative scandals. His father, Lee Sau Kee wealth's is estimated at USD19 billion and is listed as the 28th richest man in the world by Forbes in its 2011 list.

News on him were mostly on his business and the numerous charitable events that he undertakes. He is a devout Buddhist and a firm believer of Feng Shui and has keen interest in traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Being a devout Buddhist, he believes compassion is a very important trait that a person should have. His belief in compassion prompted him to get involve in charities to help the people and has set up a multi million charity fund for this purpose.

Lee Ka Kit is still unmarried but being a filial son, he wants to produce heirs to his family as well as grandchildren for his father who is already in his 80s. Last July, his wishes came through when his triplet sons were born by an American surrogate mother.













His triplet sons

The eldest - Lee Chi Shun



The second - Lee Chi Yan



The youngest - Lee Chi Yung



The proud grandfather with his three grandsons

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Thich Nhat Hanh Offers Path To End Pain,Anger

One of the world's most famous Buddhists on August 9, 2011 led about 1,500 people on a walking meditation across the expansive University of B.C. campus.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a tiny 84-year-old Zen monk who was exiled from his native Vietnam for four decades, was wearing a brown monk's robe and toque as he headed the slow parade of silent walkers.

Earlier, the noted Vietnam War protester told an enraptured audience inside the War Memorial Gym that happiness can be found through the popular meditation technique called "mindfulness," which he said will help people overcome their pain, anger and suicidal tendencies.

The monk's one-hour morning "dharma talk" was the public part of a six-day meditation retreat Hanh is leading at UBC for more than 800 people.

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Zen Buddhism Inspired Drumming Session In Taiwanese Prison

Twenty inmates pound barrel-sized drums in a Taiwanese prison courtyard until they are so drenched with sweat that colorful tattoos show through their thin cotton T-shirts.

The convicts range in age from 18 to 25 and most of their records include violence or serious drug abuse. They beat out their energetic rhythms under a blazing summer sun during their midday session at the Changhua Prison.

The prison, 150 miles (250 kilometers) south of the capital Taipei, is one of the latest proving grounds for rehabilitation programs involving dance or other performing arts. Prisons in Japan, the U.S. and several other countries have experimented with them in recent years. A Philippines prison wowed the world when a YouTube video went viral in 2009 with 1,600 of its inmates dancing to Michael Jackson.

None of the programs are quite like the one led by Taiwan's U-Theater Ensemble of drummers and Chinese operatic dancers. It leverages the spirituality of Zen Buddhism and Tai Chi Chuan exercises to try to instill a new sense of equanimity among the convicts.

Ensemble dancer I Bau spends one day a week working in the prison, and is convinced she's making headway with the troupe's "mind to body" approach.

"At first the inmates were easily distracted," she said. "But I taught them to bring their minds back and focus on the rhythm. They show a different temperament now. Everyone sits still like the Buddha meditating."

One of her students is a sturdy 24-year-old man surnamed Chou, who settled a dispute at his former school two years ago by pulling out a pistol and shooting a rival. Because the victim survived, he received only a six-year sentence.
"The lessons give me peace of mind," Chou says with a coy smile. "I can release my anger and all my other negative emotions by beating the drum very hard."

Chou said he meditates in his prison dormitory at night and tries to recite by heart the choreographed drumming lessons he has learned from the ensemble.

U-Theatre founder and artistic director Liu Ruo-yu says the group's spiritual approach emphasizes teamwork over ego.

"As each performer becomes progressively calmer, he can hear his and his partners' drumbeats achieve a kind of harmony," she says. "After finding their inner tranquility, they will progress from their former state of restlessness to gain maturity and stability."

U-Theatre also works with school dropouts and runs a summer camp for wayward students amid the lush mountains of suburban Taipei. But its highest-profile endeavor is the prison program, which began two years ago as part of attempts in Taiwan to expand rehabilitation efforts beyond handicrafts and carpentry.

Changhua warden Tai Shou-nan has been so impressed with the results that he recently took the unprecedented step of allowing inmates to perform before 10,000 spectators at a local stadium. He wasn't disappointed, saying the audience's enthusiastic response helped boost the inmates' confidence.

"They realized they were not inferior to other people and they too had great potential," he said.

Tai noted with pride that U-Theatre recently hired two freed inmates to join its professional ranks.

"This gives other inmates hope that they too will have a bright future when they are released," he said.

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'Fish' In Korean Buddhism

Anyone interested in the temple decorations of Korean temples will discover painted and sculpted fish all around the main halls _ on the pillars, brackets, ceiling and walls. It is also easy to find wooden fish gongs and wind chimes.

The origin of the use of the fish in Buddhism is unknown: one version tells that a fish always has its eyes open day and night; thus it is a reminder to always be aware. Another version comes from a story:

long time ago, there was a monk who committed many unwholesome deeds. Eventually, he died and was reborn as a fish with a tree on its back. One day when the monk's old master was crossing the river, the fish came to him sadly. The master looked into its past life and held a memorial ceremony to save the fish. That night, the fish appeared in the master's dream, appreciative of his master's kindness. He asked his master to please cut the tree from his back and make a fish-shaped instrument and tell this story as a lesson for practitioners.

The fish shape is applied to large wooden drums, small handheld wood percussion instruments and metal clappers for the wind chimes as well. These numerous examples underscore its significance. All can be used as non-verbal sign to minimize talk during meditation and other solemn proceedings. The sounding of bells and drums also helps calm the mind and prepares participants for spiritual practice.

As the wind chime clappers, fish- shaped gongs (``moktak'') are symbols to inspire constant diligence and alertness. Moktak is a hollow, wooden percussion instrument used to mark the rhythm of chanting. It is shaped like the wooden fish but is smaller and round and used in Buddhist ceremonies when reciting sutras and chanting.

It is the most representative among the ceremonial instruments used by Buddhist priests. To make a moktak, they carve wood into a large bell, cut it in half and hollow it out and glue it back together. Then, it is played by hitting it with a wooden stick. Originally it used to be made bearing the likeness to fish. Moktak is a small version of ``mogeo'' (wooden fish), one of the four Buddhist instruments.

A moktak

The best material for making moktak is the jujube tree, yet wood from birch, ginkgo, or zelkova is popularly used as well. There are two types of moktak: one is the large moktak, which is placed upon a small cushion and usually used in gathering the temple people; the other is a small handheld one used in chanting, services, and reciting the sutras inside the Dharma halls.

It is also a necessity in conducting ``doryangseok" (the daily predawn chanting service) in which a monk or nun walks around the temple, also waking up the other practitioners. In the ritual of ``beompae'' ( Buddhist music), it is played keeping in tune with the music. Historically, people made both fish-shaped and circular moktak, but after successive generations the circular design prevailed.


Fish are not restricted to the grounds of temples; they also are suspended in the air. Fish wind chimes are found on the eaves of Buddhist halls and pagodas. The wind rings the chimes, awakening the monks and nuns. Practitioners, like the fish who are always aware in the sea, practice to continuously cultivate themselves, even in their dreams. The wind in the chimes is likened to the condition of complete freedom from obstruction.

The fish adorning temples is not only a metaphysical symbol of tranquility and unrestricted freedom; it also a character in Buddhist fables. An example of this can be found in the Jatakas, the stories of the Buddha's previous lives as follows:

In one of his former lives, Sakyamuni Buddha followed bodhisattva practices while dwelling in the sea. There he witnessed a large fish preying on smaller ones, which in turn, did the same with still smaller ones. So Sakyamuni caught and ate the biggest fish, sparing the life of the small fish. This Sakyamuni's soul was transformed into the king of the ``makaras'' (a mythical animal with the trunk of an elephant, the front legs of a lion, and the body of a crocodile) with a massive body measuring several ``li'' (a distance of about 400 meters). At that time, famine had struck the land by the sea and people were turning to cannibalism. A huge makara, Sakyamuni beached himself on the shore and offered himself up as food, thereby saving the people from starvation.

On a related note, traditional keys in Korea were usually shaped like fish. The primary purpose of a lock and key is to bar thieves from entry, and the fish is a cautionary sign for its owner to remain alert day and night.

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Buddhist Personality : Alex Fong

Name : Fong Chung Shun ( Alex )
Country : Hong Kong
Date Of Birth : March 17, 1963
Height : 182cm
Profession : Actor

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Kung Fu Nuns

It is early in the morning at the Amitabha Drukpa Nunnery on a hillside just outside Kathmandu and hundreds of devotees are walking clockwise around a golden statue of Buddha.

But rather than being immersed in prayer, up on the roof something different is happening - they are practising the same kung fu fighting made famous by the Bruce Lee films of the 1970s.

Young Buddhist nuns from the 800-year-old Drukpa Buddhist sect are being taught by their Vietnamese master.

The martial art was introduced to the nunnery two years ago and the nuns practise up to two hours a day.

'More powerful'

Rupa Lama, a 16-year-old nun from India, says kung fu helps her concentrate.

"It's good for our health. Meditation is very difficult and if we do kung fu, then afterwards meditation becomes much easier," she says.

It's a beautiful life option to getting married, having a baby every year, working in the fields and doing the cooking

Another nun, Konchok, also from India, says she likes kung fu because it gives her strength.

"It's very helpful for our safety. If somebody teases us or something, then we can hit them and be more powerful," she says.


The confidence shown by these young nuns is unusual. Buddhist nuns in the Himalayas are normally seen as inferior to monks.

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, an Englishwoman who became a Drukpa Buddhist nun more than 30 years ago, says traditionally nuns have been neglected and overlooked.

"The main problem for nuns has always been that they have not normally had a good situation in which to live, they have not received the support from lay people that monks receive and they have not been educated.

"So often nuns became basically just household servants for their families or working in the kitchens and the gardens in the monasteries," she says.

Kung fu was introduced into the Amitabha Drukpa Nunnery by the leader of the Drukpa spiritual sect, His Holiness The Gyalwang Drukpa.

'Well-equipped'

The Gyalwang Drukpa is the 12th incarnation of the leader of the Drukpa - or dragon - sect of Buddhism, which is the main religion of Bhutan and is widely practised in countries across the Himalayas.

The nunnery is no different to any other large house in Kathmandu
He says that he felt that previous spiritual leaders had not done enough to advance the rights of women.

"When I was very small, I was already thinking that it was not right to suppress women in our society," he says.

"But then when I grew up, I started to think what can I do for them? Then I thought what I can do is to build a nunnery and then give them an opportunity to study and practise spiritually," he says.

The nunnery built by The Gyalwang Drukpa, the Amitabha Drukpa Nunnery, is a modern, well-funded and a well-equipped place of worship and study.

"Not only [is it] just beautiful to look at, but it is a nunnery with the guidelines and the full support from their master, me," he says.

He says he encouraged the nuns to take up kung fu when he saw nuns from Vietnam practising it.

Emphasis on meditation

For the past week, the nuns have been giving demonstrations of their new skill to thousands of pilgrims who are attending the Second Annual Drukpa Conference.

Nuns say that Kung Fu has opened up a whole new world
The Drukpa sect, which places an emphasis on meditation, is popular throughout the Himalayas and also with Westerners.

Jan Duin, who is attending the conference from the Netherlands, says he has been impressed by the kung fu practice.

"I think it is very helpful physically and also psychologically because they do a lot of sitting practice," he says.

"In meditation you practise concentration and you also practise concentration with kung fu."

Buddhist nun Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo says that she'll be introducing kung fu into her own nunnery which is based in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

"It's excellent exercise, secondly it's very good for discipline and concentration, thirdly it arouses a sense of self-confidence which is very important for nuns, and fourthly when any young men in the area know nuns are kung fu experts, they keep away," she says.

Jetsunma says since nunneries have begun to offer better education and physical programmes like kung fu, the number of young women who want to become nuns has grown dramatically.

"Many of them say, wow, if I become a nun I can study, I can practise, I can do these rituals, I can live together with all these other lovely nuns and lamas will visit us and give us teaching," she says.

"It's a beautiful life option to getting married, having a baby every year, working in the fields, doing the cooking, doing the cleaning.

"You know for them this is a huge opening up in a whole world that had previously been closed to them."

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