The Red & White Wrist Band

okay... Erm...

Friday : We had our Buddhist Society meeting and it was one of the meetings which have really taught me something new. Pn. Ng, our teacher advisor was there with us and she explained to us about a red and white wrist band which serves as an self-indicator. The wrist band turns red when we are shrouded with anger, jealousy, hatred, greed, demise and any other negative influences. However, it turns white with the presence of love, care, kindness, warmth and all other positive influences especially zen, awareness and holy. There are 4 phases or stages that we have to go through.

1. The first stage, the phase where an individual meets conflicts. We always face problems everyday and this will cause extreme injury to our soul or mentality thus creating tension or pressure.
2. The second stage, the phase where an individual learns to be aware of the conflicts. By being aware, we can see things in all directions and analyze it. We can actually reflect on our own actions and that will help guide us to a better path in life.
3. The third stage, the phase where an individual requires support and care from others; their family, friends and teachers. This is the stage where we are most vulnerable to negative influences as the slightest breakdown will bring us back to the first phase again. Therefore, in this stage, we should always acquire the help of everyone no matter how minimal or maximal it may be.
4. The fourth stage, the final phase where an individual represents a form of complete zen or also referred to as angelic. This phase is the hardest to accomplish and it will require enourmous confidence as individuals in this stage are never prone to provocations, never blame other people for any type of fault and never cause conflicts.
   

This is what we did in the meeting:

• We sat in a circle (since the start of the meeting)
• Pn. Ng have us hold up our right hand, including her own's parallel(horizontally) to the ground
• We started with a person who expresses his problems as well as which stage of the red and white wrist band
• This process goes round a circle
• Everyone expressed their problems and explained that they are in what stage and why.
• After a full circle, we put our hands down slowly

There is a purpose for this activity, it is to teach us to let go of all the conflicts in our life such that we do not overpressure ourselves and hurt ourselves in the process. We can be calm when we are facing a problem. The explanations for carrying up and holding the hand until everyone has expressed their views are:

• Every burden we add to our own, it brings more and more pain
• At first, it may seem easy to just hold our hands up but it's not so later because we have to complete a circle before we can release our hands
• Also, when the person is talking, he does not feel pain, because his mind is occupied with what to say thus the pain from the hand is gone
• However, after the person has finished talking, the pain suddenly recovers back and the person is able to feel it again while the others are talking
• Let's not forget that we are human beings and we are not perfect. When we hold up our hands, we feel the pain and we have to wait for everyone to express their views before we can release our hands. This will actually cause certain individual to think in their mind, "Why can't they speak faster? I'm tired of holding my hand up. It's painful!! Talk faster!". When this occurs, we are actually putting the blame on our friends for the pain we are receiving. This is one of the negative practices we should try to avoid.
• When we are at a stage where we are aware, we can see that this is actually not anyone's fault. We always think that no matter how painful it is, we can bear it for the sake of our friends or loved ones.

Okay... That's all... Hope you guys learn something new from this too...

-JaSoN-