Funding Acquired

Circumstance

I had been using an old laptop to work on this website and to prepare lesson materials for the meditation courses. The old laptop was slow and constantly gave me problems like software freezes and operating system crashes. After I upgraded the hard disk and RAM, it made the laptop more stable but still experienced freezes and crashes albeit less frequently.

On 25 September 2022, Jovin Sng approached me to offer to help raise funds to get a new laptop for me. I agreed but told her that it would be cheaper to get 2022’s model the following year in 2023 when new models come out. So, it was agreed to wait until March 2023 and to try to raise funds in the mean time.

However, my old laptop broke down on 26 September 2022. I tried to get it repaired but it costs a few hundred dollars. To me, it is not worth it so I needed to raise enough funds to buy a new laptop as soon as possible as I had the October meditation courses starting on 7 October 2022. This only gave me 2 weeks to get the laptop and set up all the necessary software for live streaming and in-person lessons.

Fund raising

With Jovin Sng organising the fund raising event, thankfully, a number of Buddhists responded to the emergency situation with no hesitation and the funds was raised in 1 week’s time. Among the donors, it should be mentioned that Jennifer Tan and Jessica Poh contributed the most and without the two of them, the fund raising would have taken a much longer time, possibly beyond 7 October 2022. If this had happened, it would mean that the October meditation courses would have to be cancelled. Therefore, through a number of fortunate coincidences, this fund raising was successfully accomplished.

Benefits

By making this fund raising a success, the donors for this fund raising event are not only contributing to a Sangha member; they are also helping to make sure that the October 2022 and subsequent meditation courses can be successfully conducted. Furthermore, new Dhamma articles on this website can be regularly updated to benefit many visitors of Refuge In Dhamma. Since the propagation of Dhamma by Refuge In Dhamma is done mainly through these two channels, donors who provide support for these two channels are also enhancing the operations.

Therefore, with all the factors mentioned above, these donors can expect extremely substantial good karmic rewards.

Here is the list of donors for this fund raising event:

• Jennifer Tan
• Jessica Poh
• Mae Chee Eng
• Donor
• Alice Yao
• Ellane Wong
• Gan Fong
• Goh Siang Tiang
• Jonn Goh
• Jovin Sng
• Ng Hong Tou
• Pamela Heng
• 三宝弟子
• Tiffany and Jim Family

Blessing ceremony

In appreciation of the donors’ generosity, a blessing ceremony was conducted on 9 October 2022 at 9 am at the Meditation Hall in Palelai Buddhist Temple. (Special thanks to Huixin for taking the time to help record the ceremony in video and take pictures.)