How Venerable Sienghai Hak Finds The Paradise Within: Being a Buddhist Monk Isn’t the Complete Answers
Today, I’m blessed and grateful to share something even better with you. I planned to share this interview with you at a later time, but NOW is always the best time.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Watch these 3-part videos recorded by Venerable Sienghai Hak (nickname Reahul Komar). He is the Executive Director and founder of Buddhism for Education of Cambodia (BEC).
Venerable Sienghai Hak is one of the highly respectable Buddhist monks. Enjoy a good deal of golden wisdom in my conversation with him. He shares some of the invaluable insights into:
- Why he became a monk.
- What life is like being a monk.
- How he is making a massive impact on so many less fortunate Cambodians’ lives.
- He shares his wisdom being the monk for 20 years and
combines with his beliefs in Buddhism practices - How he finds The Paradise Within – Being a monk isn’t the complete answer.
- Principles to live by in daily life that will help you get what you want more out of life.
Awesome content! Enjoy!
And please try to disregard the angle of my sitting position. We couldn’t get the right lighting, so it was the best video recording position we could get.
Venerable Sienghai Hak, Part 1
Venerable Sienghai Hak, Part 2
Venerable Sienghai Hak, Part 3
A STORY BEHIND THE STORY:
At first, I was too busy and didn’t want to squeeze in time to go to the temple. Something inside me told me to go. So I went. Unexpected, Venerable Sienghai Hak just arrived from Cambodia. He is visiting the U.S.A. for the first time and has many other temples to stop before returning to Cambodia.
Ven. Sienghai granted me permission to have this interview with him. I’m so grateful and thank Ven. Sienghai for sharing his incredible story with The Paradise Within Show audiences. It is my hope that you gain some enlightened wisdom from him.
He is the first monk who can speak fluently in English that I met for the time. I always wanted to interview a monk, especially one who can speak English. I wanted to know what life is like being a monk. I don’t think their lives are as simple as it may seem to some people.
I have so many questions that I’d like to ask the monks, including some very controversial questions. Perhaps there will be another opportunity in the future.
In any regard, I’m blessed that my dream came true to bring this conversation to you.
I must admit. I was quite nervous because when speaking with a monk you have to address him differently! An example that I could think of would be when you speak to a king/queen. You address them differently. So yes, it’s sort like that. Except this is different from monks.
It’s not 100% like the normal people (not monks) would speak. I don’t speak to monks that often. Plus, it is not appropriate for women to have an unnecessary conversation with monks. All I know there are LOTS of rules. I don’t talk with them if there is no need.
Having said that, if there is anything inappropriate, please forgive me as they were not my intentions.
Today it was my intention to officially launch The Paradise Within Show on iTunes. We got everything ready at 99%. It’s just that last 1% that seems to take longer than expected.
Still, to me, it is my launch before the launch 🙂 today.
How appropriate it is for me to introduce you to this blessing interview with Ven Sienghai. This is one of the various dimensions of “The Paradise Within renewal from the inside out show”.
In addition, it is a perfect example that things don’t usually go according to plans. It is up to us as an individual how we react and deal with the circumstances in the moment like this.
It’s part of life.
How did I feel before doing this launch? Of course, I felt a little disappointed at first. But then I asked myself, “Why should I save this interview for later? Why not share it now regardless?”
And what did I do to arrive at that decision? I did what I always do and applied my SBCIA strategy which stands for Stop, Breathe, Center, Inventory and Action. The following are just a brief explanation of what I mean by that.
- Stop – I stopped myself from feeling disappointed.
- Breathe – I took several deep breaths. It helped to take me out of that disappointed mood.
- Center – I meditated to clear my mind which one of the many forms to get myself centered.
- Inventory – I inventoried what I could do and what options I had at this moment. Be ready to be flexible, adaptable, accept what you are facing, and go the next step, Action. By yesterday, I had to make a decision. I had two options. I could launch the incomplete show today which I thought would be OK. However, I want you, the listener, to have a great first experience with The Paradise Within Show. Or I could share the RAW interview with Ven. Sienghai which I wanted to save for later. I wanted to have it clean up a little more.
5. Action – I made the decision to not launch with the intended content and prefer to share with you this RAW interview instead.
When The Paradise Within Show is ready for me to press the LAUNCH button in iTunes sometime between now to end of April, I’ll inform you.
So when the next time you have a change of plan, apply the SBCIA strategy. You might realize like I did, that you’re sitting in the golden rice fields. Why should you be hungry? All you have to do harvest it and turn it into the rice.
Ven. Sienghai Hak finds the paradise within, not just by being a Buddhist monk for twenty years. He does more than that.
His compassion for humanity is bigger than his life.
If you are looking for a good cause to support. Look no further and check out by going to Buddhism for Education of Cambodia(BEC) website.
May your every day is blessed with great wisdom, forgiveness, compassion, success and lots more.