amazing!

hi.. today i went for my first "exterior" interaction with a group of buddhists at a "co-op".

there are a few things i want to say abt this meeting:
1) the "co-op"
firstly, the meeting was held at someone's home near ihouse. i looked it up on google already.. it was only 10 mins walk away.. so i tot "ok.. must be someone's nice little house"

as i was walked up along the street to my destination, i went past alot of fraternities..
these are houses with greek letters as names: alpha beta phi, phi phi zeta, etc..
greek letter got over 20 letters.. so u go figure how many combinations..

anyway.. these fraternities are supposed to be students who want to live together as a group or something.. u can read up the topic at wiki..
i was amazed by the number of such houses.. the whole stretch abt 30 such organisations.. :)

that did not prepare me for wat is next..
the meeting place was a "co-op".. which was a different kind of fraternity ..
the house i went into .. there was no front gate.. the doors were not locked..

the first thing i saw when i stepped into the garden was a kid's bike hanging out of a window..
then once i went into the house.. i saw a snake/python cage... big rubber mats on the floor... doors painted with graffti/SFPD signboard... a basement bike storage area with 20+ bikes and countless parts all over... another giant basement room with lots of mattress around the perimeter of the room (this was the meeting place)..

during the meeting, the host explained that this was a house for pple who wanted to come together to live together as a group/community.. they cook/clean/do gardening for each other.. n there were 55 pple living there in one big house... amazing!

but judging from the cleaniness of the place... i dun think i can stay there.. hehe

2) the "meeting"
ok.. i was not prepared for this meeting.. i tot it will be just a session for introducing their form of buddhism..

anyway.. this group meeting i went to was initiated by a group of berkeley students who practise SOKA GAKKAI Buddhism .. maybe singaporeans heard of SOKA Association.. this is exactly the same! SGI (SOKA GAKKAI INTERNATIONAL) has lots of branches all over the world.. which is kind of neat... cos i always tot only catholicism and christianity do missionary works.. now i know buddhism does it as well.. (ok maybe becos i am a frog in a well..)

so for those pple who practice the usual singaporean buddhism, we usually go temples, pray, offer joss sticks, have a figure of Buddha on the altar..
here they have a Gohonzon (a "enshrined" scroll with sacred writings) on the altar n no joss sticks.. everyone got a buddhist rosetta and started chanting immediately upon arrival..

after most of pple arrived, they started with a small chapter of the Lotus Sutra.. everyone was serious abt the religion and all had a small booklet of the Sutra.. some even knew it by heart...
we had a small discussion abt youth and went on to talking about our goals and uniqueness...
guess this is very much like a christian fellowship...

the meeting ended after 2 hours.. with some light snacks and drinks.. i tok to the pple and here is another amazing thing .. the pple attending are american black n white, koreans, hk chinese, japanese... age ranged from 13 to 60+.... totally different from the predominantly chinese in singapore..

i spoke to one of the african american buddhists.. he became a buddhist 20 years ago and was very enthustatic abt the religion.. another young kid told me that she was a buddhist since young and her mother was one too...

3) my feelings or/and reasons
DISCLAIMER: i am not zealous or some religious frantic.. neither am i truly knowledgeable abt SOKA GAKKAI..so some stuff i said might be inaccurate..

i went to this meeting because i met this group at the spring fest when i was looking for a buddhist temple or community.. so i tot quite interesting.. just go n look see loh..

i guess although i am away from home.. i shld not 'lose' my religion and stop praying or something..
dun get me wrong.. in singapore.. i go to the 4th street kuan-yin temple whenever i feel like it or whenever i am nearby.. i admit i may be more "pious" than most of my frens and i am proud of it.. :)
i just want to find a place of buddhism where i can go n remind myself as a buddhist..

at the same time.. cos i am overseas.. i feel the need to have a religion even more.. some sort of spiritual reliance... like if i am back home, my parents will pray for the family.. but i am here by myself.. i shld start something myself.. learn abt buddhism myself.. be dedicated to it myself as well..

i heard of soka in singapore from frens.. but did not attend their sessions... cos i had my "own" 'sect' of buddhism then.. but i admired their way of bringing the religion to the public.. akin to "consumer"-ised the religion... which is good! more accessible to all..

hence i can use this opportunity to find out more here.. since there is no my 'sect' here.. and oso.. i am a strong believer that no matter wat religion or sect/domination of a religion.. all are teaching pple to be nice, towards goodness.. n for the better of the society lah.. so i think SGI shld be a good source of learning for me.. :)

see how lah.. i shld be going to one of main branches here in bay area to look see.. :)
btw, dun worry abt i spending too much time on religion.. i still know that study is the priority :P