Saturday, May 10, 2008 9:16AM /
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This is amazing story of what happened with the recent hurricane in Burma.
Despite a Buddhist pagoda being near flattened, the clay statue they had of Buddha was still standing with minor damage. A coincidence perhaps? But funny yes?
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/08/myanmar/index.html?iref=mpstoryview#
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Friday, May 2, 2008 8:25AM /
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Something annoying happened yesterday. We were walking near Wanchai on the way home and on the way back came across what was a fallen banner on the pedestrian pathway. It was lying across its side, completely blocking off the path. It would have been so easy to pick it up.....it had only fallen but no.....amazingly I saw people lazily walk past AROUND IT. Would you believe? In the end my dad picked it up and propped it back on the sidewalk.
Then we had a fatal bus crash here in HK yesterday at Sai Kung. 15 elderly people died and countless injured.....it was the most fatal crash we've had for a while here....(this according to Chief Executive Donald Tsang). It made me ponder there are people not thinking things through? So many simple things we can do in life to make life better for everyone yet nobody does it? Does anybody have a heart for common principles in life? I had a very similar incident about 4 years ago travelling with family on a double-decker night bus from Ma On Shan.....the driver was driving like a speed-racer, like there was no tomorrow - because he wanted to not be late (and get more pay as a result). It scared the hell out of us.....and makes me ponder why are people in HK so effing selfish?
And about that bus crash yesterday......it has vindicated I feel my view about commitment and responsibility. Too many people have done things for selfish gains. Whoever was driving that bus yesterday is now the one who's really suffering. So many lives hurt, so many deaths.....Had be paid attention to his job and the safety of the passengers first instead of his time or paycheck nothing would have happened. Sadly this wasn't the case....
Then again we don't pay him enough right? We seem to have a society that has wrongly-mixed its priorities. We are glad to pay millions to see a celebrity who only sings or dances, but for someone who serves society in general like a bus driver - a pillar of society - we would gladly pay him peanuts. What is wrong with our world today, that is what I would like to ask?
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Saturday, Apr 26, 2008 2:39AM /
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Something I want to discuss with everyone today. Lately many things have been happening in my life (both good and bad) and I have been contemplating a number of topics including many issues about life and existence.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about commitment and the importance of commitment in our lives and I want to share my thoughts and insight with everyone.
With regards to commitment, everybody at some point in their lives, goes through a certain patch. Sometimes it could be good, sometimes it could be bad. Obviously for most people they would like good things to happen to them - but that is not always the case. For some people, more bad things often happen than good, and sometimes they feel they have no control over the events unfolding in their lives.
I want to share with others how I feel about this particular area.
Recently I was discussing something similar on Vivek Mahbubani's blog. Vivek was talking about controlled rage, getting things done and the feeling that he felt he was lacking in his life and how things were turning out for. What was a casual discussion about how we feel turned out to be a very deep discussion on the issues of habit, control and how we approach life itself. In essence we covered what are the important parts of living and making one's life a success.
Now everybody here on AnD probably knows by now I am a Buddhist and have been a Buddhist practitioner for a number of years, but many do not know why. I was a Buddhist for many reasons. I felt that Buddhism was a very comprehensive and deep philosophy which satisfactorily answered many of my own questions about life where other faiths had failed. It covered life and death and the issues regarding being given fair chances in life (that everything is a result of karma). I found it brought peace into my life as a result, and it usually brought peace also to those who live and stick by its core principles.
What I am going to share with all now is some of the insights I have learnt as a Buddhist. While I do not expect others to think or do exactly as I have, I certainly think that we should consider some of the topics I am about to discuss.
First off is luck and fate.
We all seem to know what luck and fate is. Luck is having the fortune of being bestowed with something good in our lives, and fate is the result of an expected while.
Despite what others say, I totally believe in luck and fate. But, I also believe that we can change luck and fate. For the very simple reason: I believe luck is self-created.
While most people think luck is something that simply lands at your door, I have the firm belief that we create our luck or our future by our very actions. In essence, I believe we create luck by our very thoughts. We all know that most of the things we see in our physical world are manmade - like cars, buildings, furniture and so forth. While we only see the physical end result of the object manifested, we rarely think beyond that everything had first to be created in our thoughts.
Now a lot of people tend to miss the importance of thoughts. They often think how their life turns out has got nothing to do with how their lives turn out. But to us Buddhists thought is imperative, for we believe it is the start of everything. Like you must plant a seed in order to grow a tree, we see that thoughts is cause (seed of the tree), and the manifestation of the cause is the effect (the tree). In the physical realm, our thoughts are very powerful. Our thoughts lead to everything else in the universe that becomes created.....including the creation of beings and people (children). So it is important to control how our thoughts work. The idea of Cause and Effect is, if we think positive, we get positive results. If we are thinking negative, what do you expect us to receive. This principle is the same for thought.
Now my blog for today is called 'Success and the Value of Commitment'. Others may ask what has this got to do with Buddhism? Well, let us first of all ask ourselves, in our world of today, why do we worship people who are successful? Why do we seem to fall for people who have the looks, the money, the fame and the glory? The simple reason we see them as successful is because successful people resonate with something that is inside all of us. They could have achieved a childhood dream. They could have worked very hard, and accumulated a ton of money or achievements which could only be dreamed of. This is why most of society gives in or listens to people who are successful because they have achieved something that is worthy of remembering, worthy of mention.
To me, success by its very definition, is a form of habit. I say this because everybody says you cannot be successful simply overnight. It takes years of learning your skills, and honing your talents in order to become successful. Just looking at people like Bruce Lee, Tiger Woods and Li Ka Shing gives you an idea of what true success really is. You see these are people who think, breathe and did success on a daily basis, in order to get where they are. They are focused on their plan to be successful on a daily basis, in order to achieve their ideal. That is how they have got to where they are, because they did work very hard to achieve it.
In many ways, this focus they have - this habit successful people have of thinking of constantly trying to hit their target, is very much like cultivation in Buddhism. In Buddhism we have the practice of controlling of thoughts, actions, intentions and behaviour. The idea is we learn to control and focus all of our thoughts and emotions towards a much higher and purer state of intent. Through developing this higher state of awareness we get to understand ourselves and the world around us the better. We would for starters have a much more peaceful mind. We could even help others who are in trouble emotionally. For we understand that it is our impure thoughts that has often got us in the cross-winds of problems in life.
But what I came across recently myself was probably the biggest eye-opener.
Recently I realised that, if you really want to become a successful person in life, achieve your wildest dreams and live a very full and fulfilling life, the key to it all is firstly your commitment. Everybody knows what the word commitment means. But they probably don't know is the level of commitment I realised one should get to in order to achieve those dreams of theirs. Let me explain.
We know there are natural laws in our universe and that through observation there are entities that exist which are running according to those laws. For example in our current solar system we have moons going around planets, and then we have planets circulating around our giant Sun. In the same fashion if we look down to our own level, as people we evolve around our own Suns. We are the tiny planets and our parents are our Suns. For many of us our entire life evolves around our family.
Now if you examine it on a deeper level, the whole of our current society is underpinned by commitment. People go to work because they seek to look after and serve their families. Staff are employed because they are committed to serving their company. And companies exist because they are committed to serving society with a service or product. Like groups within groups, the whole of society functions correctly when everybody in each smaller group is committed to what they do.
Now let us ask ourselves what if some of the workers suddenly strike. What if they decide they don't want to work, and protest for more pay? This would obviously disrupt how society works right? In exactly the same fashion, when a person is not committed to the things they should do ie. the company they work for, the family they should support they undermine everything in their lives. When a person cuts corners on the things they do; complains about their employers; takes bribes or doesn't do their job properly as they should they are not just undermining themselves - they are undermining everyone else around who has been supporting them for all that time - and will hurt many others along the way especially those who has loved them.
If you look at those who have been successful, you will often see successful people becoming ever more successful. Why? Because success breeds success. True success is by definition, a deep commitment to a task or job. It is a cultivation or practice by its very nature - an unrelenting practice of perfection of obtaining a pure state of the human mind. And if you want to attract success, if you want to truly look after your family and achieve great dreams you must act successfully in the beginning and this begins first with your commitment to family and society, and being true to yourself and those around you. One must not cut-corners in their work nor in their outlook on life - but focus on getting the job done properly on hand. For this is the only way to success - and successful living. And one must not lie either to themselves or the people they work for - no matter how trivial it may seem. For this is the law of Causation, and every Cause has their Effect. Rewards will come in their own time for people who are committed to what they do. This is how luck is created.
In answer to fate, the same principle I mentioned earlier about thoughts manifesting objects into our lives, I believe is the same that manifests events in our lives. If we want to have a better 'fate' in our lives ie. achieve a better end result, we must work to become better in the beginning. It is thus such an ever important prerequisite that we think positive, and be direct and truthful with ourselves and others in all our daily dealings. Because that is the only way I have realised, that we can ever change our fate.
So, if you ever wonder about success and luck and fate, think about commitment and what it means in your life. Apart from being committed in your own life, look for someone who trusts and supports you - and is deeply committed TO YOU. If they don't, you know that you can happily make do without them and find someone else who will.
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Sunday, Apr 20, 2008 11:16AM /
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I went to a fantastic Indian restaurant here in Causeway Bay HK last night and the week before and had some brilliant tasty food! Probably one of the best Indian restaurants I've had in a long while....and I've had plenty when we used to live in London. We discovered this place last week and it was a surprise find. I haven't had one for nearly all year! It was so convenient for us where it was located and the food was utterly brilliant - very tasty and fresh!
Here are some of the things we had:
Tandoori Chicken
Chicken Tikka Masala
Prawn Korma
Mushroom Badgi
Onion Naan
Sweet Naan
Pilou rice mixed with fruit
Lemon Lime juice (nice and refreshing drink)
Indian scented tea
If you are looking for a more exotic place to be in HK, this is it. And don't worry if you cannot read English......all the Indian dishes have Chinese written next to them!
Address:
Mirar Masala
R2-R7 Island Beverly (Near Sogo)
1 Great George Street
Causeway Bay
HK
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Sunday, Apr 13, 2008 4:21PM /
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Just reminiscing about some of my favourite jokes. Here's a few I heard many years ago:
A Boy Called F*ck You
Three kids are walking down the street, called Shit, F*ck You and Manners. F*ck You is a punky looking tall boy with spiky hair, Shit – a fat kid that loves eating all the time and Your Manners – a short and skinny, nice person. As they are walking down the street, Shit falls badly to the ground so Manners as a person that he is, stops and tries to help him up. He asks F*ck You to go home and runs round the corner for help.
On the way home he runs into a stereotypical English policeman and starts gibbering at him in a panic, in an attempt to solicit help. The policeman says “‘Allo, ‘allo! Calm down, young lad! Now, tell me, what’s your name?”
“F*ck You” comes the reply. “WHAT did you say?” says the policeman. “I SAID FU*K YOU” (thinking the policeman was maybe deaf). 'Boy' the policeman asks 'this is the last time I’m going to ask you, what’s your name?”.
“F-*-C-K Y-O-U” the boy shouts, but saying it slowly. “Where’s your manners boy?” the policeman asks. The boy replies “Round the corner picking up Shit”.
3 students on creation of the human body
Three engineering students were gathered together discussing the possible designers of the human body. One said, “The creator must have been a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints.”
Another said, “No, it had to be an electrical engineer. The nervous system has so many thousands of electrical connections.”
The last said, “Actually it had to be a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?
Three Engineers and a car
There are three engineers in a car; an electrical engineer, a chemical engineer and a Microsoft engineer. Suddenly the car just stops by the side of the road, and the three engineers look at each other wondering what could be wrong.
The electrical engineer suggests stripping down the electronics of the car and trying to trace where a fault might have occurred. The chemical engineer, not knowing much about cars, suggests that maybe the fuel is becoming emulsified and getting blocked somewhere.
Then, the Microsoft engineer, not knowing much about anything, comes up with a suggestion, "Why don't we close all the windows, get out, get back in, open the windows again, and maybe it'll work !?"
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