A day of fang seng

The day that was : 6 March 2011

I have invited a friend together with her spouse and kid for a weekend activity of fang seng. As usual we went to the animal shop located in Inanam where we frequent quite often to purchase frogs and cengkerik (cricket) for fang seng. I always tell the shop owner that I need them for the sole purpose of feeding my pet fishes at home. I know I need to disguise my actual intention in a bid to discourage the owner to capture or purchase the insects/amphibians in large quantities knowing that there’s a regular customer who always come in to purchase the creatures in droves for fang seng purposes. I had gone to the shop alone the previous evening for the same purpose, but decided to come back with my friend to purchase the remaining small frogs placed in the shop’s aquarium tank as well as few much bigger sizes of the frogs which I noted the day before were crammed inside in a very small tank. I felt that if they were not quickly freed they would have died of suffocation and foul air amidst the dirty environment inside the plastic tank which made absolutely no room for their movement.

People these days are cruel to the well beings of others, knowingly, while others, blatantly and arrogantly ignorant. These poor creatures are not humans, yet deserve their very own right to fight for their existence and shelter, but some of us are sinners of lust and greed with gluttony in our desires; and material fulfillments our prime concerns, hence making profits the only motives on our daily agenda.

There was a time when after exiting the shop I was approached by a young man with the same purchases of plastic bags of frogs and crickets. He asked me what was the purpose of my purchases and I instead tactfully inquired as to why he would want to know. He replied that from my appearance I didn’t seem to be someone who bought small frogs and crickets to feed fishes. I told him that I have been adopting the act of saving life as part of my Buddhist practice and to my delight he said he was also doing the same. He further mentioned that he has been learning to release animals on small scales. I am happy there’s someone who shares my belief and in his young age he has already found his faith and is seemed to be diligently practicing it. This man proceeded to ask questions like where are the suitable place to release frogs and have I ever released crabs? I said yes. And where do we release these crabs? Is the beach a suitable environment for them, or swampy area?

I felt pleasantly amused by this young man’s eagerness to seek liberation and hence cultivate compassion for these creatures, I said “may be we could find the answer by surfing the internet? And would you like to join my brothers and I for today?” He politely declined saying he would keep his purchases in his house and only release them once he is back from outstation assignments. I bid goodbye without asking for his name, for I believe if there is `yuan fen’ between us, we surely will be able to see each other again.


Today my friend’s husband had to drive a long distance to Tuaran town after unable to find suitable places to release our purchases nearby. We then walked a long distance on a gravel road, then a suspension bridge before finally coming to the bank of a river, it was definitely a friendly and clean environment for these amphibians to call their home. Together we uttered a little prayers and chanted some mantras before releasing these creatures to where they belonged, and for them to once again embrace freedom..



Freedom, finally.
On the suspension bridge, with Moi & her kid, Ivy.