This interview is just one of the many that took place for “A New Generation of Buddhist Young Practitioners,” the cover feature of Mandala July-August 1998:

When did you meet the Dharma?

I think I am really a very lucky person, even more so than people like Bill Gates who are extremely rich, because I met Buddhism at a young age: I was less than 10. My father taught me om mani padme hung when I was in primary school. I still remember, there used to be a red sticker of this mantra on the wall of my room, and I guess it has really left a deep imprint. And I remember once handing up a watercolor painting of Buddha to my arts teacher.

But my meeting with Dharma really started when I was 13 or 14. One boring afternoon, all of a sudden, without reason, I decided to read my father’s Buddhist magazines, in Chinese. The article I read was on the four noble truths. I was totally impressed! My thinking has always been Buddhist, come to think of it.

What is your lifestyle like?

I began to take weekly Dharma lesions at a Buddhist Sunday school, and it was here that I was first introduced to Dharma in English. I would read the inspiring stories of bsuddhas and bodhisattvas, which had a great impact on me, especially the story of Ksitigarbha. I was deeply touched by his piety and great compassion.

As a student, I spent most of my time in school. I studied hard and tried to get good results. I play hard too! – like being involved in extracurricular activities. I hang around with friends, go to movies and some happening places in town to have fun.

But the difference between my friends and me is that I’m also involved in religious activities. I now teach Dharma to the young children at the Sunday school. I help at Buddhist camps for youth. I go to Amitabha Buddhist Centre to attend pujas and Dharma talks, and I am really happy to meet all the precious overseas lamas who kindly teach at the center. This, for me, is comparable to other teenagers meeting their movie idols!

And I always look forward to meeting my Zen master from Taiwan. He comes to Singapore every few months and he always does animal liberation. I simply love doing that!

I am definitely so much luckier than my friends. I was from one of the top junior colleges in Singapore and all my schoolmates were really smart. But I do not think they are wise. In an affluent country like this, people are getting more and more materialistic, and young people crave for material comfort, with some even resorting to stealing if they cannot afford to buy brand-name goods. And there is an increase in fighting among teenagers. There is just so much suffering among my friends.

From feedback from friends, one of their major problems is anger. They know they suffer from this and other negative attitudes like craving but they don’t know how to overcome them.

I try to share Dharma with them. Once, out of the blue, a friend asked me whether I was afraid of dying, and I took the opportunity to tell him the Buddhist perspective. Another time when my friends talked about fishing, I told them about animal liberation. My friends might not agree with what I say, but most of them find Buddhism quite interesting.

I can really feel a great change in me after coming into contact with Buddhism. I feel so much better about myself, whereas before I was a shy little girl and did not have much assertion and initiative. I guess it is the result of thinking about karma, knowing that one has the ability to change one’s own life for the better or worse.

Life is a matter of choices, whether you choose to be happy or sad. I try to choose to be more positive, and I suppose spirituality is the driving force behind it. Life seems much more meaningful to me if I have the spiritual goal of trying to perfect my body, speech and mind so as to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all. It would be such a waste to strive for just worldly achievements like lots of money or fame, knowing perfectly well that I would have to leave everything behind when I die.

What are your goals in life?

I am 18 now and I will start university in July. I have many goals and ambitions. Although I do aspire to make a lot of money and climb to the top of the corporate ladder, to be successful in a worldly way, it is not enough for me. I want to make a lot of money, but I want to contribute it to society, to charitable organizations and more importantly to support Dharma, like doing lots and lots of animal liberation and printing Dharma materials.

I remember my Zen master once telling me that for every worldly thing we do, we can make it spiritual by thinking that it is for the sake of sentient beings.

It would be very nice to be a nun. This would be the best profession to spread Dharma to others. But I still have a lot of worldly desires right now, so it is just a thought.

My ultimate goal is to attain enlightenment in order to benefit all sentient beings. This is my most substantial goal, something that is so wonderful, so meaningful, which I can strive for life after life.

What different have the spiritual teachers made in your life?

The lamas play a very significant role in my life. They are such inspiring beings and there is so much to learn from them. I am always awestruck by their pure ethics, and I tell myself I must practice hard to be like them.

Like Geshe Dawa, the resident teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre. I am really impressed by his humility. I must learn to be like him! Of course, all the lamas, like Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Ribur Rinpoche, they are so compassionate. There are endless things to learn from them: emptiness, bodhichitta, so much Dharma. They are real life examples, our role models. If they can be buddha, so too can I.

If you could introduce one element of the Dharma to a group of people where there is none, which would it be?

I would choose bodhicihtta, because it is something so beautiful. What could be as great as Buddha’s compassion in wishing all sentient beings to be free from suffering? I don’t think there is anything comparable to this. And I would want to tell people that Dharma means to realize the true nature of all phenomena and the end of all suffering. If one could realize how unbearable all the physical and mental sufferings are to oneself, loved ones, strangers and enemies too, one will slowly learn to feel compassionate towards others and eventually generate bodhichitta. This thought of bodhichitta is simply superb!

How do you see Dharma fitting into your life in the future?

With Dharma, I believe I will be more successful because I will be equipped with antidotes to my negative attitudes and behavior. I will be more positive in life. If I practice conscientiously, then Dharma is everywhere, everything I do will become Dharma.