About

Welcome to Bro. Teoh’s Kalyanamittas website to view a repository of very good and useful Dharma material and resources.

1. About our Teacher

Bro. Teoh Kian Koon

Bro. Teoh Kian Koon graduated from the University of Malaya in Civil Engineering in 1979. He has been a spiritual practitioner cum ‘Meditator’ since 1971.

Since his retirement in 2001 from his Engineering career he had been sharing his spiritual understanding and experiences with all those who are keen in their search for true happiness, peace, liberation from birth and death and all mental suffering to become a more virtuous, nobler and wiser human being.

It is Bro. Teoh’s hope that Dharma friends, spiritual practitioners, seekers of Truth and cultivators will be able to make use of his sharing of the truth to develop a better understanding of life to help others and be of great blessing to all of humanity.

He had also counseled and helped many people with severe depression, Karmic condition, career, health, marriage, financial, separation and relationship problems, to recover beautifully via his sharing of the rather penetrative Dharma/Truth (as taught by the Buddha) with them.

He gives dharma talks, conducts dharma cum meditation classes and meditation retreats at various meditation centers and places that invited him. He also conducts weekly meditation cum dharma classes at Wu Ping Chin Seah, a Mahayana vihara (every Sunday) and at Subang Jaya (every Thursday). He also conducts a weekly Dharma sharing/discussion class with a group of very serious spiritual friends every Tuesday night at his Petaling Jaya, SS2 residence. He also organizes and led many spiritual cum tour trips to various spiritual places of importance for his Kalyanamittas.

Bro. Teoh was invited to present an international seminar paper on ‘Life Management with Meditation: Experience and Success’ at the International Seminar dated 10th to 12th August 2013 held in Bangkok, Thailand. The Seminar was co-organized by the World Buddhist University (WBU), the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) and the Pipphalivanaram Mindfulness Center (PMC).

His seminar paper (Success in Life via Meditation First Edition 2015) can be downloaded in  pdf      epub      mobi  

 

2. About us

Bro. Teoh’s Kalyanamittas 

Bro. Teoh’s Kalyanamittas was established by our Teacher Bro. Teoh Kian Koon in the year 2004 when Bro. Teoh officially accepted Sister Hooi Yoon Chun’s request for him to come out to share his rather special and unique dharma understanding with the world with 3 simple conditions as follows:

i) First condition: Call it a sincere Dharma sharing or discussion and not a ‘one-way traffic’ talk so that there is genuine learning and no authority is involved.

ii) Second condition: ‘No right and No wrong’ so as to avoid unnecessary argument and misunderstanding via mutual respect for each other’s cultivation during the Dharma discussion/sharing sessions.

iii)  Third condition: To have an open mind to listen attentively and to take or make use of whatever that is useful and beneficial to progress along the path of Dharma.

Bro. Teoh’s Kalyanamittas is an informal grouping of Kalyanamittas (Dharma/Spiritual/Noble friends) who share the same noble vision of walking the path of Dharma sincerely with great faith to realise their highest human potential (ideal) via understanding the Noble teaching of Sakyamuni Buddha which is basically wisdom, Love and virtues so that they can be a blessing to all of humanity and the world.

Such understanding can be of great benefit for us to develop the understanding of Life so that we (the Kalyanamittas) can have the ability to cope with the great intricacies and challenges of Life that are much needed nowadays, especially so in our today’s modern society where everything is moving at such a fast pace and life can be rather stressful, hectic, demanding and at times highly competitive, provocative and seemly harsh. Human sufferings are very real and it is happening almost everywhere even to our youngsters nowadays.

Over the past decades (since 2004) of rather beautiful and very effective dharma sharing and spiritual activities we (the Kalyanamittas) have managed to successfully develop a great wealth of Dharma information and resources (a repository of very penetrative and insightful Dharma material) that can be a source of great help and blessing to all those who want to develop a clear understanding of the Noble teaching of Sakyamuni Buddha.

It is Bro. Teoh’s sincere intention that this great wealth of Dharma information and resources can be made available to a wider audience and also to all Kalyanamittas and those who have the affinity and interest to receive them. This is the main intent of us establishing this Bro. Teoh’s Kalyanamittas website with the domain name https://broteoh.com.

3. Biodata of our Teacher:     

Bro. Teoh Kian Koon graduated from the University of Malaya in Civil Engineering in 1979. He has been a spiritual practitioner cum ‘Meditator’ since 1971. Since his retirement in 2001 from his Engineering career, he has been sharing his unique spiritual cum Dharma understanding and experiences with all those who are keen in their search for true happiness, peace, liberation from birth and death and all mental suffering to become a more virtuous, noble and wiser human being. It is Bro. Teoh’s sincere hope that Dharma friends, spiritual practitioners, seekers of Truth and cultivators will be able to make use of his sharing of the truth to develop a better understanding of life to help others and be of great blessings to all of humanity.

He has counseled and helped many people with severe depression, Karmic condition, career, health, marriage, financial, separation and relationship related problems, to recover beautifully via his sharing of his rather unique and penetrative Dharma/Truth (as taught by the Buddha) with them.

He gives dharma talks, conducts dharma cum meditation classes and meditation retreats at various meditation centers and places that invited him. He also conducts weekly meditation cum dharma classes at Wu Ping Chin Seah, a Mahayana vihara (every Sunday) and at Subang Jaya (every Thursday).  He also conducts a weekly Dharma sharing/discussion class with a group of very serious spiritual friends every Tuesday night at his Petaling Jaya, SS2 residence. He organizes and leads many yearly spiritual cum tour trips to various spiritual way places that are of importance, significance and interest for his Kalyanamittas.

In the year 2013, Bro. Teoh was invited to present an international seminar paper on ‘Life Management with Meditation: Experience and Success’ at the International Seminar dated 10th to 12th August 2013 held in Bangkok, Thailand. The Seminar was co-organized by the World Buddhist University (WBU), the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) and the Pipphalivanaram Mindfulness Center (PMC). 

His seminar paper can be down loaded from the below drop box link: Success in Life via Meditation First Edition 2015.pdf

4. Objectives (vision)

To have a website for easy access to all the wealth of rather important Dharma information and resources that we had developed since 2004 so that it can be made available free of charge to all Kalyanamittas and those who have the affinity and condition to receive them, also to a wider audience.

It is hoped that this wealth of Dharma information and material can be a source of very penetrative and rather insightful Dharma guidelines needed for cultivators, spiritual practitioners and Dharma friends to develop the clear understanding and cultivation of the Buddha Dharma to realize his noble teaching.

To build up a very strong Kalyanamittas grouping that has the Dharma so that they can be an effective spiritual force of great virtue and wisdom to be a blessing to all of humanity.

To implement the above beautiful visions so that it can become a living reality. So that each and every of our Kalyanamittas can be a truly transformed Buddhist – a Buddhist that has the Dharma understanding and unshakable faith in the Triple Gems (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) to walk the path of Dharma with great sincerity and diligence. 

To have more noble friends among our Kalyanamittas that can give guidance and be a blessing to all.

5. Overview of Bro. Teoh’s Kalyanamittas

5.1 Original intent and concept of kalyanamittaship

Kalyanamittas means Dharma/spiritual/noble friends who walk the path of Dharma with great sincerity and faith to realise the noble teaching of Sakyamuni Buddha. This friendship is very unique because it is base on Sincerity, Love and Compassion and our Kalyanamittas are very supportive of each other and they are there to counsel, motivate, guide and encourage each other to walk the path of Dharma diligently.

There are basically two types of Dharma friends:

  • Dharma friends that had realized the Dharma (noble friend),
  • Dharma friends who are still on the path of cultivation to realise the noble teaching.

Both types are termed Dharma Practitioners or Cultivators of the Dharma. Cultivators mean you are on the different stages of the cultivation. Some of them can be new, some can be already quite experienced, and some may have already realized the Dharma. Nevertheless they are all Kalyanamittas.

The Buddha’s way of introducing this concept of kalyanamittaship is very unique. 

The Buddha said, “noble friendship (Kalyanamittaship) is the 100% of the holy life”, and he himself is the noble friend par excellence, hence he told Venerable Ananda, “it is owing to my being a par excellence noble friend to them that living beings subject to birth and death are freed from birth.”

His mission is to share these noble truths, which is the essence of his teaching with all living beings that can understand and receive them. The main purpose is to do away with all the divisions that have happened within the Buddhist communities. When the focus is not there, then we will deviate.

5.2 Purpose and intent

The purpose and intent of this concept of Kalyanamittaship is to allow us to bring everybody (all Buddhists) together, back to a common platform, so that all Buddhists, not only just those from Subang Jaya (SJBA members), including all of the other groupings and various Buddhist groups which at the moment (if I am not wrong) they all have their own respective vision, mission and activities and all these are very important and very good – nothing wrong. The only thing I see lacking is the integration part. We have to integrate them into one big and great family which the Buddha called Kalyanamittaship or Dharma family. We can then temporarily do away with all the religious and societies symbols. Then as Kalyanamittas, we don’t have to call ourselves as from SJBA, from Brickfields, Maha Vihara, Nalanda or Sentul or whatever. All these, if we are not careful can lead to unnecessary division and misunderstanding.

5.3 An informal grouping

Since Bro. Teoh’s Kalyanamittas is just an informal grouping of Kalyanamittas hence any Buddhists or free thinkers who share our vision can register on this website and join us in all our activities. There is also no need for membership fees. All our activities are funded by volunteers and our own Kalyanamitta funds.

6. The Avijja Sutta (pdf download)   Youtube Video

This Avijja sutta (AN 10.61) clearly explained the importance of having true noble friends as Kalyanamittas to realize the enlightenment. According to the Buddha, having noble friends as our Kalyanamitta is one of the pre-requisites to become an ariya or an enlightened being.  It also talks about factors that will influence Ignorance. To be free from ignorance is one of the main tasks in cultivation.

Having Dharma/spiritual/noble friends (Kalyanamittas) is a pre-requisite for this task hence the importance of Kalyanamittaship. There are two sequences discussed in this sutta. Each of the factors in both sequences has its own nutriment. The first sequence is the

Ignorant sequence:

1. The nutriment for ignorance (Avijja) is

2. The five hindrances (Panca Nivarana) and the nutriment for this is

3. The three ways of bad conduct (mind, body and speech) and the nutriment for this is

4. Unrestraint of the sense faculties and nutriment for this is

5. Lack of mindfulness and clear comprehension (Asati and Asampajanna) and the nutriment    for this is

6. Unwise consideration (Ayoniso manasikara) and nutriment for this is

7. Lack of confidence/faith (Asaddha) in the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha and nutriment for this is

8. Not listening to true Dharma and nutriment for this is

9. Not associating with good Dharma or spiritual friends (Kalyanamittas).

(Note: NOT associating with good Dharma or spiritual friends (Kalyanamittas) is the starting nutriment to the wrong path that finally ends up with Ignorance (Avijja) leading to Heedlessness.)

The second sequence is the

Enlightenment sequence:

10. True Knowledge (Vijja) leading to enlightenment and the nutriment for this is

9. The Seven Enlightenment factors (Satta Bojjhanga) and the nutriment for this is

8. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana) and the nutriment for this is

7. The three ways of good conduct (mind, body and speech) and the nutriment for this is

6. Restraint of the sense faculties and the nutriment for this is

5. Mindfulness and clear comprehension (Sati and Sampajanna) and nutriment for this is

4. Wise consideration (Yoniso Manasikara) and nutriment for this is

3. Confidence/Faith (Saddha) in Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha and nutriment for this is

2. Listening to true Dharma and nutriment for this is

1. Association with good Dharma and spiritual friends (Kalyanamittas).

(Note: Again you can see association with good Dharma or spiritual friends or Kalyanamittas is a pre-requisite needed to arrive at that path that ends in True Knowledge (or Vijja)/enlightenment. That is the reason why the Buddha clearly instructs us via saying to Venerable Ananda: ‘having Dharma/spiritual/noble friends (kalyanamittas) is 100% of the holy life.” Hence developing and promoting true kalyanamittaship among all Buddhist within the Buddhist communities is most important.

7. Bro. Teoh’s Kalyanamittas core Attributes and Values

1. To heed the Buddha’s advice to develop a clear understanding of the below words of wisdom spoken by him:    Words of Wisdom of the Buddha        (Extracted from the Dhammapada Verses)

Dhammapada verses on avoiding all evil; do good and purify the Mind via having right view with regards to the Law of Karma and the understanding that we are all born of our karma, heir to our karma, conditioned and supported by our karma and we are what we are because of our Karma : –

Verse 1 Mind is the forerunner of all things. Mind is Chief. Everything arises from the Mind. If one speaks,  act and think with a wicked/evil/unwholesome mind, then suffering will follow one like the wheel that follows the hoof
Verse 2 Mind is the forerunner of all things. Mind is Chief. Everything arises from the Mind. If one speaks, act and think with a pure / wholesome Mind, then happiness will follow one like the shadow that never leaves him.
 Verse         183 All Evil has to be avoided, cultivate whatever goodness possible, and purify the Mind. This is the advice of all Buddha.

 

Dhammapada verses on Heedfulness (Appamada Vagga) :-  

Verse 21 Heedfulness is the path to the deathless, heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful do not die; the heedless are as if dead.
 Verse 22 Distinctly understanding this difference, the wise intent on heedfulness and rejoices in the realm of the Ariyas or the Enlightened Ones.
 Verse 23 The constantly meditative, the ever mindful and the steadfast ones realized the bond-free, supreme Nibbana.  
 Buddha’s  advice before his parinibbana Appamadena Sampadetha – Strive on with HEEDFULNESS!

 

2. To have Dharma/noble friends to walk the path of Dharma with great sincerity, faith and perseverance to realise the noble teaching of the Buddha leading to personal transformation (characterwise, personality wise and wisdom wise.)

3. To strive on with Heedfulness with great determination to be ever mindful and constantly meditative to cultivate the Noble 8-Fold Path as taught by the Buddha.

4. To be ever mindful to keep the 5 precepts as advised by the Buddha diligently.

5. To develop unshakeable faith in the Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha via avoiding the fools and the heedless and constantly associating only with the wise and virtuous.

6. To cultivate diligently the understanding of the following essential Dharma:

  • What constitute evil (the 3 evil roots of Greed, Hatred and Delusion);
  • The 5 Daily contemplations;
  • The 5 spiritual faculties and the 5 mental hindrances;
  • The 3 right views of Karma niyama, Citta niyama and Dharma niyama;
  • The 4 Noble Truths;
  • The 12 links (Paticca Samuppada);
  • The 4 right efforts;
  • What constitute Right thoughts, speech, action and Right living.
  • The four foundations of mindfulness;
  • The 7 factors of enlightenment.

8. Kalyanamitta funds

The setting up of the Tuesday class and Thursday class Kalyanamitta funds was first mooted by our Teacher Bro. Teoh in the year 2005 with the sole purpose of helping all the Kalyanamittas to have the special condition to progress along the path of Dharma. These funds are unique because only these Kalyanamittas funds can donate towards the following goodness and wholesomeness done by us:

i) Donate towards the cost of producing all Dharma publications, materials and Dharma notes needed for our classes and sharing and also for free distribution to Kalyanamittas and others;

ii) Cost of all the stationery, white boards, writing and cleaning materials, recording set, recorder and microphones etc that are needed for us to conduct our Dharma classes and sharing;

iii) Donate towards the following wholesome causes as suggested by Bro. Teoh and his Kalyanamittas:

  • Spiritual trips’ common funds to partake in all the wholesome activities performed while on such trips;
  • Meditation retreat common funds to partake in all the wholesomeness accrued;
  • Way places that we had affinity with like Anandagiri Hermitage, SJBA, Sumeru Klang, Mangala Lodge Kampar, etc;
  • Anandagiri Hermitage and SJBA Education and building funds;
  • W.A.V.E. to partake in the annual wholesomeness done by them (Annual Kathina offerings to various places all over the world and the printing of appropriate Dharma books for free distribution);
  • Tzu Chi organisation;
  • Cameron Highlands Sam Poh or Triple Gem temple and their Stupa fund;
  • Cost of printing and publication of all Dharma books and transcripts and notes produced by Bro. Teoh;
  • Miscellaneous donation deem appropriate by Bro. Teoh and his Kalyanamittas.

iv) The above Kalyanamitta funds’ wholesomeness together with the other wholesomeness that can arise via joining any of our weekly and other Dharma and spiritual activities can bring forth great causes and conditions for all Kalyanamittas to have the special merits and blessing to walk the path of Dharma much more successfully and with ease.