A pdf Document of a true account about an inscident with good Life Lessons /Dhamma for reflection. The texts are in English.

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Many years ago, I went for a 8-Day tour to Shanghai
and a few outlying places. There was a total of about
20 of us, some of them my friends from Teluk Intan
and the rest from Ipoh. In the tour group was this lady
from Ipoh whom I shall refer to as Auntie Cheng Sim
(not her actual name). She was in her early sixties,
educated and had a pleasant disposition. She was quite
sociable and could communicate with us in English.
Our tour was handled by one of the popular tour
groups in Kuala Lumpur and our tour manager was a
rather charming lady in her late twenties or early
thirties. The itinerary for our tour was a rather packed
but very interesting one.
Among the places to be visited as in the itinerary were
the following:
* Shanghai
* Pudong
* Wuzhen
* Hangzhou
* Nanjing
* Suzhou
* Wuxi

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By the second day of the tour, Auntie Cheng Sim
already got to know practically everybody in the tour
group. She had interesting conversations with me. It
was on a Monday when she told me some very
interesting things about her religious practices in Ipoh.
This was what she said:
“I go to a few Chinese temples regularly to pray to
various deities. On religious festival days, I am usually
even more busy. You know there is so much to do –
helping in the kitchen to prepare food and drinks for
the devotees who come to pray, cleaning and
arranging the shrine altars, assisting the temple
members to sell various items of paraphernalia for
offerings and prayers and doing public relations work
when the many devotees come to worship at the
temple. For more than 15 years already I have always
been taking pure vegetarian food on religious festival
days and also on every New Moon and Full Moon
Days.
( The First and Fifteenth Day of the Chinese Lunar
Calendar. )

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I started this practice even since I had a dream where
a Chinese deity appeared and told me to go on
vegetarian diet on every New Moon and Full Moon
Day. Believe it or not, if I do not take Vegetarian food
on such days, I will fall sick. The eating of non-
vegetarian food on these ‘holy’ days will make me
vomit and vomit. I will have stomach upsets and I will
suffer headaches and dizziness. It can be really terrible
being so sick.
I am well-prepared for this tour. Today is Monday. It
will be a New Moon Day this Thursday. On this day, I
will ‘survive’ on bread and the Instant Cup Vegetarian
Noodles that I brought along. No problem for me at
all. The gods will bless me for my devotion.”
When I heard her say this, I told her, “Auntie Cheng
Sim, I think you have made a mistake. The New Moon
Day is this Wednesday and not Thursday as you said. I
checked the Calendar before I came for this tour.”
However she insisted that she was correct. According
to her, the New Moon Day would be on Thursday.
Well, I left it at that. Perhaps she was right after all.
But deep inside me, I was quite sure that she had mis-
calculated.

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When Wednesday came, Auntie Cheng Sim, thinking
in her mind that it was a usual ‘non-holy’ day, enjoyed
all the non-vegetarian meals provided by the tour for
that day – for breakfast, lunch and dinner, she had a
good time eating so many different types of dishes –
eggs, prawns, chicken, fish and a host of other non-
vegetarian food. Nothing happened to Auntie Cheng
Sim – she did not fall sick. In fact, she remained her
usual chatty self, as fit as a fiddle.
The following day, Thursday, Auntie Cheng Sim
followed her strict vegetarian diet. For breakfast, lunch
and dinner she ate the bread and instant vegetarian
noodles that she had brought along. I suppose she was
glad that she remembered to follow her ‘religious’
practice on what she deemed to be a ‘holy’ or
auspicious day.
The remaining days of the tour passed very quickly.
On the last day, we presented gifts and tips to our tour
manager, the coach driver and the attendant. We said
goodbye to one another before we boarded the plane to
return to Malaysia.
It was a most memorable holiday tour for all of us. I
would always remember Auntie Cheng Sim.

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The first thing I did when I reached my home was to check
carefully the Chinese Calendar. I was right – the New Moon
Day was on Wednesday and not Thursday. I chuckled. In my
mind I was wondering whether Auntie Cheng Sim would
vomit if she found out that she had made a mistake in
calculating the New Moon Day!
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Reflections
* Mind is the forerunner of all things….we create our own
mental world and beliefs. Our happiness, peace, fear, sorrow,
suffering and other emotional states are dictated by our
mental world, our beliefs, conditioning and attitude.
* Our mind, with its thoughts and states of attachment, fear
and delusion can cause pain and suffering to our physical
health and well-being.
* We must be careful, heedful and mindful not to be misled
and be conditioned by deluded beliefs or teachings that will
weaken the mind. True compassion and wisdom will not be
able then to grow in our hearts and minds.
* May we strive to strengthen our mind and free it from
superstitious beliefs, greed, attachment, fear, worry, and any
other negative mental states. Learn, understand, reflect on and
practice the true Dhamma.