Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Teary Ming Yi in court
BUDDHIST monk Ming Yi choked back tears several times yesterday as he recounted his life story in court and described the uphill task of establishing Ren Ci Hospital.
He was so devoted to making it succeed, he felt it was his baby.
It took him six years to convince his mother to let him become a monk, he said. He was her only son, and the youngest of four children.
Then, as a young monk, he made ends meet by conducting funeral rites, something he disliked.
Later, as he went about fulfilling a mentor's last wish to start a Buddhist-run hospital for the destitute, naysayers thought the idea too far-fetched.
'I am a Buddhist monk. The worse it is, the more I have to go into it,' said the former chief of Ren Ci Hospital.
Ming Yi, 47, was testifying for the first time during his trial for making an unauthorised $50,000 loan to his former personal aide.
Speaking in English, he described at length his journey from novice to being involved in the Singapore Buddhist Federation and becoming abbot of Foo Hai Ch'an monastery.
His move to fulfil the late Venerable Siong Khye's wish for a hospital started modestly enough, with a day care centre for the elderly in Yuhua.
Then the area's Member of Parliament, Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, suggested that he take over a wing of the then-Woodbridge hospital for the destitute and mentally sick.
It all started with him wanting to help a friend.
He was so devoted to making it succeed, he felt it was his baby.
It took him six years to convince his mother to let him become a monk, he said. He was her only son, and the youngest of four children.
Then, as a young monk, he made ends meet by conducting funeral rites, something he disliked.
Later, as he went about fulfilling a mentor's last wish to start a Buddhist-run hospital for the destitute, naysayers thought the idea too far-fetched.
'I am a Buddhist monk. The worse it is, the more I have to go into it,' said the former chief of Ren Ci Hospital.
Ming Yi, 47, was testifying for the first time during his trial for making an unauthorised $50,000 loan to his former personal aide.
Speaking in English, he described at length his journey from novice to being involved in the Singapore Buddhist Federation and becoming abbot of Foo Hai Ch'an monastery.
His move to fulfil the late Venerable Siong Khye's wish for a hospital started modestly enough, with a day care centre for the elderly in Yuhua.
Then the area's Member of Parliament, Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, suggested that he take over a wing of the then-Woodbridge hospital for the destitute and mentally sick.
It all started with him wanting to help a friend.
Labels: Interesting News
and i Always do~