Elle Becomes A Bhikkhuni!

It was Elle‘s big day and pivotal point in her life!

I caught a flight to Alor Setar, Kedah in the wee hours of the morning (before the sun came up) and joined two of Elle’s other friends, Grace and Ewen. They picked me up from the aiport before we went to the temple where Elle was about to be ordained as a Bhikkuni (or Buddhist nun).

This might come as a surprise to some of those who know Elle but she’s been interested in Buddhism since her late teenage years; it was only in the recent years that she took greater action in her faith.

I didn’t believe the first time she told me about becoming a nun a few months prior. She invited me to come to her ordainment day and I agreed in spite of my own reservations and concerns for her, not because of the gifts of high merits as believed by the Theravada Buddhism. (But then, I’ve been taught to be an excellent receiver so I should just accept it, haha!) IMG_3930

There were many other people gathered at the gazebo outside the temple, all of whom will be monks and nuns walking the path. Thus the ceremony began with a group prayer led by a few monks.

I’ve not witnessed an elaborate Buddhist prayer and ceremony before so I watched with curiosity.

(FYI I was born into a Buddhist family and that was the way it was for me the first 12 years of my life though I have little recollection on how we prayed in Buddhist faith… that was until my mother converted to Catholicism in 1999 and naturally my sister and I followed.)IMG_3935

The monks then sprinkled holy water on the crowd of soon-to-be ordained monks and nuns. The monks then snapped a piece of hair from each of the soon-to-be ordains, and the piece to be wrapped in the lotus leaf they each have. IMG_3949

Next Elle’s friends and I took part in cutting her hair before it was completely shaved. In this ritual practice, I have to make a wish that I really, really want deep within me while snapping each strands of hair, all the while exclaiming the Sanskrit verses “Putang, Tangkang, Sangkang“.

I made my three wishes; Elle knows one of them beforehand already!IMG_3959

And yep, completely shaved. This includes her eye brows too!

After a shower and donning the clean white robes, Elle is one more prayer ceremony away from being officially ordained as a…

Bhikkhuni!

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Now I cannot address her by name anymore; I have to call her “Meichi” (which means Mei = Mother, Chi = Nun; so ‘mother nun’).

No body or physical contact is permitted.

And she has to treat me and any of her friends / family members as equals – meaning no favoritism whatsoever.

She will be meditating, praying and serving in this temple in Kedah for the next 8 days, and after that she will be traveling to Myanmar and other places to do charity works for the next one month.

Oh yeah, and also disconnection from materialism, wealth and the world outside! So we won’t be hearing from her for some time.IMG_3977

So why did Elle want to become a nun in the first place? She’s shared quite a fair bit of her side of her story months leading up to her big day today. Fortunately she’ll be doing this for only a month (phew!) Initially I thought she wanted to become a nun… permanently! Haha! I would do anything to talk her out of it. 🙂

I stayed up until the last evening prayers for the day and bid the new “Meichi” farewell. (Remember… I cannot call her by her name for now!)

I hope she finds the inner peace and rediscover herself through this personal journey, albeit somewhat unusual and unexpected!

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The biggest assembly in the history of Malaysia!

Here’s a video clip I took when my friends were helping people climb up the stadium! And the moment captured at the biggest assembly in history to date:

Black Monday

5th May 2013. Worst day in the history of General Elections in Malaysia.

It was dirty. It was ugly. It was disgusting. It was evil.

And I saw people for who they really were.

The courageous and the cowards.

The action takers and the keyboard warriors.

The informed and the ignorant.

For me, my fight had just started.

Zamri Nanyan’s Networking and Mentoring Session #6

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I was invited by Zamri Nanyan to speak at his latest Networking & Mentoring Session for his subscribers last night!

Two weeks ago I spoke at MindValley’s Incitement and I had only 15 minutes of stage time; this time I had 1 1/2 hours to speak to the audience so I could afford to go into greater specifics through my presentation “Continuity Income Secrets” which is loosely based on my re-released course not long ago Membership Sales Machine 2.0 (although by the time I ended, I took two hours!)

Had a wonderful time connecting with the people who came to the session even with the General Election looming around the corner and ‘Ceramahs’ are drawing larger crowds by the tens of thousands throughout Malaysia.

Speaking of that, I’ll be in Gelang Patah, Johor to vote on the 5th of May. It’s been 5 years since I last been there. Wonder how much things have changed (or not). Will also be taking this opportunity to spend time with my mom and sister since it’s already been slightly more than a month!

SIDENOTE: I am originally from PJ and I’ve spent majority of my life there. In a twist of events, in 2003 my family and I moved to the suburbs of Gelang Patah and I stayed there for a couple of years; I renewed my IC there so it has my former Gelang Patah house address.

Incitement @ MindValley

Last night I shared the stage with 4 other entrepreneurs to speak for nearly 20 minutes about my early journey as an Internet Entrepreneur and Marketer to a crowd of slightly more than 100 people at MindValley HQ in Bangsar.

I’ve been looking to get into the speaking circuit again since the time I completed the Train The Trainer program. Unfortunately my nausea feeling stayed with me for months and actually prevented me from looking for any speaking opportunities – not cool to throw up on stage halfway through, you know. 😛

Gotta admit, I was still feeling a wee bit nausea last night even though I spoke for no more than 20 minutes. Been exerting my body too much in gym training, I bet.

But it was a great start to build some visibility in the offline world once again, thanks to Khai Yong recommending me to Incitement co-founder Zikry Kholil.

I was juggling between finishing my next BM course “Mesin Komisen” and later doing my presentation slides on the fly this whole week.

Then came the night…

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I was off to a slow start as Natalia rigged me with the microphone… while the intro music played several seconds too early, haha! 🙂 incitement-entrepreneur-edmundloh-2Captured the crowd’s attention just in time. Hehe…

I started off with a quick survey and from my estimation, about 20% of the audience was already in a business of some kind whereas 80% want to learn how to start a business of some kind.

The right crowd indeed. 🙂

After all, this Incitement Episode was about Entrepreneurship.incitement-entrepreneur-edmundloh-3

So I spoke for the next 20 minutes about my early days journey before and when I took up the invisible mantel of an Internet Entrepreneur. 🙂

I wished I had more time though; would have loved to dive into some practical steps and tips really but that was taken care of by the subsequent speakers fortunately. (3 of the 5 speakers here are from MindValley themselves btw)

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The atmosphere was energetic and the environment electrifying!

I was the first speaker, followed by others – Eugene Hennie (Internet Marketer); John-Son Oei (Founder of Epic Homes); Daniel de Gruijter (Co Founder of Incitement); Amir Ahmad Nasr (Social Entrepreneur and author of My Islam).

Should go without saying but still worth saying… it had been a great pleasure and honor to share the stage with these wonderful folks and I too learned heaps from them. The audience had been a positive bunch as well.

The slightly overdue night concluded with an Appreciation Round. I thank some of my friends who came over to support me and it was great to hear they came specifically for me. Nice!

Khai Yong (he’s already with MV so naturally he’d be there); Chon Giap and friend Chris; Elton Kuah; Shatish Rao (who also helped me record my presentation… video will be ready later!); and of course Elle 🙂incitement-entrepreneur-edmundloh-5On a separate note, I will be speaking again at another event, more on Internet Marketing this time. The date is tentatively May 1st and details are being nailed down (can’t set this on stone just yet; it might change due to the General Elections looming around the corner). More details to be announced later!