Singapore is said to be a Fired Rice Paradise.
Sometimes you fry the rice, and that is still okay, it is
still paradise, until you add some "ingredients" which are
thoughtlessly, mechanically tossed in - whther those "ingredients" happened to be called "prawns" or "chicken" you don't care, as long as it's taste appeal to you, you call it Fried Rice Paradise, but to the "things", the once-alive and well beings, they are Fired Rice Purgatory.
The first time I encountered a dish called "Drunken Prawns" I was a teenager, and a meat eater like any other "normal", "ordinary" kid... it must have been at the East Coast Seafood Center or the one along Changi Road near Bedok, which is quite famous.
It was a fascinating thing to watch... I remember seeing it myself, and as if putting on a show, the waiter will bring in some live prawns, in a nice see-through wine glass, so you can watch all the action from the safety of your seat. When the waiter pour in some hot wine, he cover it immediately, because after doing this, there is a lot of commotion, a lot of struggling and suffering happening, a lot of last minute energy and gasp for life.
Of course, at that time, being unenlightened, it was just a curiosity show for me, a decoration, an appetising show before the real meal. It is nothing. It is like one of those decorations you put on food.. Like a freak show when the circus come to town.. It is just something adults enjoy, and we teenagers learn to "enjoy" it too, from the adults. You are not supposed to think too much about it, if you do think at all, because after that, when the prawns are thoroughly cooked and deliciously dead, and all red in color, that is the time you gorge on it and enjoy the real taste.
After many years on the spiritual path, I can say something about enlightenment. It is something very ordinary. Enlightenment is a shift in perspective.
If you see the "Drunken Prawns" as some form of delicious, fusion-style kung-fu romantic gourmet delicatesence, then you are sadly in the dark force of ignorance, the unelightened being wallowing in misery without knowing anything at all.
If you see the "Drunken Prawns" as an act of cruelty, and feel the pain of death and torture of a fellow sentient being, and furthermore, acting on it, you vow never to live or to taste delicious rotting flesh at the expense of another living being, then your Love, your divine spark is awakened, and congratulations, you are in the land of the enlightened sages..
It is very simple. Enlightenment is a thin layer between the ignorant fool and the saints, it is a shift of consciousness. Once you moved to the other side, you are safe... heaven welcomes you, the angels sing with joy. Once you shift your perspective, your position, your viewpoint, then you are enlightened.
Can there be anything more simple than this ?
Labels: animal cruelty, bad karma
Lasm's story told @7:20 PM
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