Every once in awhile, while walking around anywhere, u might encounter a monk, just casually going abt his day, before or after work.
It’s kinda hard not to notice them, especially cos they’re bald and in their full uniform. I can’t help but think dat they’ve walked all the way there, straight from the temple.
Idk why, but the first time my brother and I saw one at Bugis, he referred to him as Eugene. So from then on, every monk we see is now Eugene.
Now my family is not Buddhist, or Taoist…. I’mma be real, idk which of those two religions Eugene belongs to.
But based on Google’s images of the respective monks, I’m more inclined to believe it’s the former.
So, we have a very limited (and pretty outdated) idea of wat monks do. These beliefs we have stem mostly from American TV shows and old Kung Fu movies, with a little added influence from Johnny English.
We sorta think dat Eugene and friends spend their days meditating on top of a mountain, fasting, while oso abstaining from technology. Every once in a while they go to some forbidden land in Tibet, to meditate wif other monks, with the aim of achieving spiritual liberation from dis world. They do this until they reach Nirvana… I think…
Oh, and they oso practice martial arts every Wednesday. They learn to do back flips at a young age, and then acquire more fighting skills as they get older. I’m sure some of them even learn to fly, towards the later part of their lives.
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Ok, my Buddhist friend has confirmed dat is indeed not wat they do.
But dis lack of understanding is probably why we get amused when we see a monk casually wandering about a space of worldly pleasure, like a shopping mall. Like, we’d think dat goes against some kind of rule in the laws of the monk.
So when we see Eugene walking around, wif his airpods plugged in, we can’t help but think in our heads:
“Eugene, come on now. I don’t think those airpods are helping your journey to spiritual purification. You know better than that 😉 “
Deep down, I know it’s silly. But my brain just automatically thinks dat the sight of it looks a little off…
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But I mean, there’s bound to be some rules right? I’m pretty sure there are certain things people who aren’t monks do, dat Eugene probably can’t (or shouldn’t).
The other day at Orchard I saw a monk at Hermes. Dat got me doing a double-take. Looked a lil something like dis:
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“Eugene… what are you doing, now? Lots of poor and starving people out there, Eugene. Can’t just forget about them now, can we?“
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Well, I shld probably work on learning more abt Eugene’s religion. I kinda wanna see whether his act of indulgence is proper or not…
But truthfully, even if it wasn’t, I shldnt judge, right? I am not perfect. Nobody is. Everyone is flawed, and I’m sure Eugene’s just trying his best to be pure, in a modern world filled wif material pleasure.
…Still makes for an amusing sight though. It’s like dat scene in The Next Karate Kid, where the monks go bowling. Except, u noe, it’s real life…
13.11.2025
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