| HH the Dalai Lama |
[Oct. 14th, 2009|11:45 am] |
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"How can we eliminate the deepest source of all unsatisfactory experience? Only by cultivating certain qualities within our mind stream. Unless we possess high spiritual qualifications, there is no doubt that the events life throws upon us will give rise to frustration, emotional turmoil, and other distorted states of consciousness. These imperfect states of mind in turn give rise to imperfect activities, and the seeds of suffering are ever planted in a steady flow. On the other hand, when the mind can dwell in the wisdom that knows the ultimate mode of being, one is able to destroy the deepest root of distortion, negative karma and sorrow." - His Holiness the Dalai Lama |
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| steel amazed... |
[Sep. 26th, 2009|01:36 am] |
question: how did Ms Singapore get her charges reduced from 65 to 5?
answer: your honour, i only know how to count with one hand.... (speedo28's says it funnier, but there)
did they even have a column that says 'were you ever convicted of a criminal act?' and did she perjure herself on the form?
or maybe she thought 5 counts, so, no, not 'a' criminal act. |
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| on happiness |
[Sep. 24th, 2009|11:46 pm] |
All the joy the world contains,
has come through wishing happiness for others.
All the misery the world contains,
has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.Shantideva - 'the way of the bodhisattva'
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| twelve dependent links |
[Sep. 17th, 2009|11:39 am] |
I wish I knew what I knew before I did what I did. But what I did made me understand its faults. And if I had understood it, I won't have done it.
无明，过去世烦恼带来的惑，蒙蔽本性，所以叫无明。
行，过去世身口造作的一切善业或者不善业。
识，由过去世的无明和业牵引意识投托母胎，这叫做识。
名色，名即是心，指心只有有名而无形质；色指身体。指托胎后至第五个七日，身体各部分如手脚等都长出来了。
六入，指从名色之后，各种感觉和思维都开始发展出来了，叫做六入。（六根者，眼根、耳根、鼻根、舌根、身根、意根也。六尘者，色尘、声尘、香尘、味尘、触尘、法尘也。）
触，出胎已后，至三四岁时，六根虽能接触六尘，但是未能了知而产生苦或者乐的想法，叫作触。
受，从五六岁至十二三岁时，六根能分别六尘中的好恶等事，但是然未能起淫贪之心，叫作受。
爱，从十四五岁至十八九岁时，贪图享乐及淫欲等境，但是未能广遍追求，是名为爱。
取，从二十岁后，贪欲转盛，到处追求五尘境，叫作取。（五尘者，色尘、声尘、香尘、味尘、触尘也。）
有，因为追求诸境而引起起善恶业，积集牵引，产生三有的结果，叫作有。（因果不亡为有，三有者，欲有、色有、无色有，即三界也。）
生，指因为现世的善恶之业，后世还在六道四生中受生，叫作生。（六道者，天道、人道、修罗道、饿鬼道、畜生道、地狱道也。四生者，胎生、卵生、湿生、化生也。）
老死，指从来世受生之后，五蕴之身，成熟了又始终会败坏，叫作老死。（五蕴者，色蕴、受蕴、想蕴、行蕴、识蕴也。） |
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| ris low the entrant is low risk entry |
[Sep. 16th, 2009|12:14 pm] |
i change my mind.
i am actually quite glad ris low won ms world singapore.
she makes me laugh.
i hope that she wins ms world, and show the world that singapore's quite funny actually. |
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| how porn can save the world |
[Sep. 14th, 2009|03:42 pm] |
porn should never be illegal. everything i needed to know about life, i learnt it from porn.
the arts council should stop pouring money into films about ghosts, identity crises and general whining.
honestly, how many people care about a mute guy who spends an entire feature length movie carrying a cock and following a pair of singing sisters around? 7? 5? 1?
give tammy, her (ex?)-bf and the nokia camera phone an award already! those shorts really opened my eyes into the lives of my fellow island dwellers... and long may the images last in my mind even as my body fades away.
it's not modern society or educated women or high costs of living that is wiping out the human race.
it's the pervasive social disgust of sex that's created by this puritanical onslaught from celibate or frustrated religious/social/artistic leaders that's slowing the birth rate - THIS is causing the population profile to age.
woody allen gets to make legal films. the pope gets to preach about contraception. thio li an about where to put your straw. it's like martin yan teaching how to cook... really... it's wrong.
in mainstream cinema, sex is always associated with guilt (Closer), psychopathic stalker (Fatal Attraction), psychopathic killer (Basic Instinct).
if a couple have sex early in the movie, they end up separated or dead at some point in the movie....
if they dun have sex in the beginning or middle, they spend the whole movie frustrated and angry. and if it's a comedy, they finally fall in love in the end, and the credits roll before they take off their clothes.
what are we telling our children?
on straits times, you will never read that 'so and so had great sex for nearly an hour which is likely to result in conception'.
no.... but the headlines are filled with suicides and broken families and divorces and criminal charges when teens are found having sex or wife finds husband naked with maid, or star is caught leaving hotel with someone who is not his or her partner.
there's just so much negative association with sex in modern society and this fascination feeds on itself. there's this insatiable craving for bad news about sex.
no one wanted to know if Prince Charles and the late Princess Di were having sex. no one wants to know if Charles and Camila are.
but with Diana and Dodi... wow, we were so hungry to know.... because 'KNOWING' was itself wrong and bad and so exciting!
we so craved a peek into their privacy which fueled the industry that spawned the paparazzi who chased them to their tragic deaths.
had they freely posted naked pics on their blogs, or for a fee at Harolds.com, no one would care.
it's true. we create these taboos that excite and kill us.
there were these ladies who said that they wouldn't watch the movie 'SNIPER' after edison chen's video/photo scandal... why???
the society that makes these women worship edison before the sex mpegs and then rubbish him for making them is hypocritical and has bad taste.
edison was MUCH better in the sex videos than he is on film anytime. sure, his co-stars could've have trimmed a bit, but if porn was a proper industry, i'm david gan would have deployed his scissors tastefully.
we cannot taint sex with negativity and hope for a better next generation that doesn't grow up guilt tinged. it's illogical and it's weird. if not for the primal urge, society would've wiped it out by now.
stop making movies about rocket propelled grenades that shoot down helicopters with Josh Hartnett in it.
if we can show how a gun is loaded, cocked, aimed and shot between a man's eyes, why are the only legal sex scenes restricted to 2 bodies hugging each other and rolling around?
in contrast, porns are so much more useful and positive!
in fact, it's remarkably civil and .... maybe sets rather high standards....
i mean, porn is egalitarian - each party gives AND takes, everyone is satisfied.
porn is non-status conscious - no one wears prada, and the family doesn't object because one comes from the village and the other a scion of a rich dynasty.
porn is about good customer service - everyone smiles at the end because it's ALWAYS a happy ending.
porn is inclusive - if someone walks in, there're no quarrels, no angry faces, no divorces... there's always a role for everyone to play. there're no good cop, bad cop... everyone's a good cop.
most of all, porn is life-affirming. there's a lot of moaning, but no one dies.
it is the society messaging that modern society has gotten wrong along the way.
and we have to stop this messaging spreading to developing countries, telling them what is acceptable by society or God, whether to put their straws up their noses or otherwise. because this is not develoment. it's suicide by boredom. i'm pretty sure the europeans who colonized Africa made her cover up not because of the purported aim of taming barbarism... it was penile envy, simple.
next NDP, i hope the PM announces policies that actually stem the birth decline. i hope he tells MICA to get off their high moral horse and start pooling resources. we need a world class porn industry more than casinos.
i'm quite sure this is one industry singaporeans will not bemoan foreign talents. |
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| 飛絮落花，春色屬明年 |
[Sep. 11th, 2009|01:34 pm] |
most of our lives, we cannot choose what happens.
but we can influence the way we feel about it. |
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| 曹操的《短歌行》 |
[Sep. 8th, 2009|03:39 pm] |
对酒当歌，人生几何？
譬如朝露，去日苦多。
慨当以慷，忧思难忘。
何以解忧，唯有杜康。
青青子衿，悠悠我心。
但为君故，沉吟至今。
呦呦鹿鸣，食野之苹。
我有嘉宾，鼓瑟吹笙。
明明如月，何时可掇。
忧从中来，不可断绝。
越陌度阡，枉用相存。
契阔谈宴，心念旧恩。
月明星稀，乌鹊南飞。
绕树三匝，何枝可依？
山不厌高，海不厌深。
周公吐哺，天下归心。
very LKY..... |
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| generosity and joy |
[Sep. 7th, 2009|11:21 am] |
is there a difference between seeking recognition to shore up an ego and affirmation to handle an insecurity?
maybe it's a difference of degree, not of substance. even if ego holds its head in the sky and insecurity is all sobbing - the quality - 'how good/valued/loved am I' is the same....
and do remedies like hugs and assurances work? how many hugs and smiles and plaques and titles do we collect until we feel secure?
perhaps these reassurances are like fortifying a sandcastle. how many buckets of sand do we shore up our defences?
try - a change of paradigm
instead of collection, give. (but not exchange - not give something in return of recognition)
the act of gift is like surrendering the castle to the waves, dissolving the self back into the whole.
the untenable form of a sandcastle is no more, but it recovers its freedom to become whatever it becomes, to go wherever the waves brings it to and to come to rest where it will. |
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| astral tripping |
[Sep. 6th, 2009|10:50 pm] |
reiki as a couple, stay as a couple.
otherwise, how to tune in to each other? |
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| top jokes from Edinburgh Fringe 2009 |
[Aug. 25th, 2009|01:10 pm] |
1) Dan Antopolski - "Hedgehogs - why can't they just share the hedge?"
• 2) Paddy Lennox - "I was watching the London Marathon and saw one runner dressed as a chicken and another runner dressed as an egg. I thought: 'This could be interesting'."
• 3) Sarah Millican - "I had my boobs measured and bought a new bra. Now I call them Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes because they're up where they belong."
• 4) Zoe Lyons - "I went on a girls' night out recently. The invitation said 'dress to kill'. I went as Rose West."
• 5) Jack Whitehall - "I'm sure wherever my dad is; he's looking down on us. He's not dead, just very condescending."
• 6) Adam Hills - "Going to Starbucks for coffee is like going to prison for sex. You know you're going to get it, but it's going to be rough."
• 7) Marcus Brigstocke - "To the people who've got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn't invent it!"
• 8) Rhod Gilbert - "A spa hotel? It's like a normal hotel, only in reception there's a picture of a pebble."
• 9) Dan Antopolski - "I've been reading the news about there being a civil war in Madagascar. Well, I've seen it six times and there isn't."
• 10) Simon Brodkin (as Lee Nelson) - "I started so many fights at my school - I had that attention-deficit disorder. So I didn't finish a lot of them."
The judges also listed some of the worst jokes at this year's Fringe.
• Carey Marx - "I'm not doing any Michael Jackson jokes, because they always involve puns about his songs. And that's bad."
• Frank Woodley - "I phoned the swine flu hotline and all I got was crackling."
• Alex Maple - "Michael Jackson only invented the moonwalk so he could sneak up on children."
• Phil Nichol - "She's got a face like a rare Chinese vase - minging."
• Alistair McGowan - "I've just split up from my girlfriend, which is a shame, because it was a long-standing arrangement. Perhaps if we'd sat down a bit more..." |
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| auntie, next time kopi not so gau.... |
[Aug. 25th, 2009|12:23 pm] |
i was having my coffee at the porridge store after breakfast and thinking (palpitating) - wah, today's kopi c very power, lucky no sugar.... then a phone call interrupted my train.
'Good morning, I am xxx from XXX Insurance, an affiliate of Amex Card, can I have a few minutes of your time?' urrrggghhhh.... this filipino lady speaks very fast, very hard to interject....
me - what is this about?
'As a valued customer of blah blah...., we would like to extend to you a 500,000 coverage in the case of death or accident resulting in permanent disability'
me - I am fully insured.
'Yes, on top of any insurance policy you may have, we can payout HALF a MILLION dollars more in case of death'
me - I am FULLY insured.
'but it's only $70 monthly and you can even choose to increase the payout to ONE MILLION dollars'
me - so I should then kill or maim myself?
'..., that won't be covered sir'
me - then I am not interested, really.
'well sir, if you change your mind, you can call me, my number's on your hp'
me - er, about killing or maiming myself?
'no, I mean the insurance'
me - ok, sure.
... I only finished half the glass of coffee... I decided to leave that half full.
I hope I made her day slightly more interesting today. |
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| mad about food as a national policy |
[Aug. 22nd, 2009|12:30 pm] |
apparently George Yeo once said "Singaporeans spend a lot of time eating and thinking about food. Even while we are eating, we are already thinking of the next meal. It is an inseparable part of our culture."
er... cave dwellers think about food all the time, does that constitute a culture too?
obviously, we think about food. there's not much left to obsess about is there (especially since the govt prefers to do all the thinking for us).
feeding our body is how we rebuild it.
the salad, the KFC fried chicken, half-boiled egg, liver in porridge, wanton noodles with chilli - that which is not burnt up or passed out becomes part of our body.
we are literally rebuilding ourselves via eating. it's like organ transplant without GA.
but it's not really enough to build a society or nation on food or security or racial harmony and health - it's not much different from animal realm or a garden of eden...
it needs to think to become human. to be cognizant. and sometimes it thinks and says things that annoy you.
if you stop physiotherapy everytime you're irritated, in the future, no one is going to tell you anything you dun like to hear if they love you.
there's much to be proud of in Singapore, yet too much to be humbled by.
if our society had a culture, there'll be food for the mind - we have kino and borders - whereas london's got a whole charing cross street of bookstores... we have a durian (rather embarrassing to have the PM call our national theatre after a fruit during a rally speech, especially when no one laughed) - whereas there's a theater or two in every block in moscow.
and if SFI cannot produce all the wanton noodles bak chor mee and chilli crabs for the nation, you cannot do all the thinking for us - well you can, if you want a parliament of zombies or sycophants. |
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| the habits that unmaketh us |
[Aug. 19th, 2009|11:11 am] |
a good bowl of mee pok ta is al dente, just oily enough, vinegared and fragrantly spiced.
whilst one good bowl of mee pok ta is never enough, two is too much.
tom yam noodles, carbonara, wanton noodles.... when one leaves nothing behind, one bowl leaves craving for more.
a badly cooked mee pok soaked and caked in lumps is always too much.
with any luck, my eating habits will prove my undoing. |
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| one thing's for sure, it's not been a goodyear.... |
[Aug. 19th, 2009|10:58 am] |
it's timely to change Temasek's CEO, but no timeline has been fixed.
it prefers a Singaporean CEO, but it is opening the field to everyone.
it considered Goodyear carefully and hired him, but fired him anyway.
it thinks everyone is interested to know what happened, but has nothing else to add.
it vets the appointment, but doesn't want to make it a political decision.
it revealed all of Temasek's secrets to Goodyear, but leaves it up to Temasek to keep those secrets.
Temasek is strategically important not to reveal information about Goodyear's departure, but not as important as Singapore or GIC's unpublished reserves and assets.
Singapore and GIC has very important secret reserves / assets, it won't tell you more, you have to believe they are there.
Temasek's damaged, but only visibly so - fender dent, so to speak.
Apparently its engines and steering works well. I guess it's just as well no one bothered to ask about its investments in Citigroup and Barclays et al - coz it appears to have lost its tyres and is steering to nowhere. |
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| sorry, I really dun want to know what Nina Wang calls you in bed..... |
[Jul. 15th, 2009|01:04 pm] |
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/world/asia/15hongkong.html
what a tragic comedy. and i pity the judge most of all.
i have visited our courts a few times recently. having seen a judge who went out of her way to help the 'defenceless' (her court officials were uncaring and callous, the defendant couldn't understand English and the appointed translator couldn't care less, the prosecuting officials were....), i'd gained respect for this thankless toil.
i grimace to think that some judge in Hong Kong has to sit through days of this clash of the wantons - images of intimacy between Nina Wang and Mr. Chan - gosh, how does one keep a straight face....
With the hundreds of millions of dollars carelessly thrown or carried in bags around, one cannot imagine who is a victim here. But perhaps society and everyone whose victimization helped concentrate wealth in the hands of so few. Then we have only ourselves to blame. To pass up the fruits of our labour so that idiots can bury them in jade 30 feet down.
I pity the judge who has to write a judgment. And the appeals judge(s) et al who will inevitably have to review the judgment.
No one side will be satisfied, and yet none shall be too poor to pursue their case until the very highest of human courts. Unlike us plebeians who cannot even afford to contest a traffic/URA summons. Pleading guilty as we click PAY - $6/10/30/70/200 when the pontianak catches up with us, thus is our lot.
I cannot imagine any self-respecting lawyer took this case.
But maybe, if I was charging by the hour, I wouldn't mind being called hubby pig. |
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| football fan, thy name is fickle |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|12:57 am] |
i do not know why once i had so enjoyed reading about christiano ronaldo, now i loathe seeing yet another smug shot of him gracing Bernabeu.
he is the same CR, then 7, now 9 - pout, arrogance and all. it's very likely he'll play even better football in the new Real Madrid. there's no logical reason for me to dislike him so much i'm turned off by football news.
except that he made choices i perhaps wouldn't have.
the danger in worshipping heroes is that we expect them to achieve our aspirations. ultimately, we disappoint ourselves. |
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| precious time |
[Jun. 15th, 2009|12:47 am] |
i have to honestly say, that most of the time, when i make plans, wonder what to do, where to eat, what i'm really doing is scheming how i shall waste or ignore the passing of time.
ironically, it's completing errands and chores that my time is least guiltily dissipated. left to my own devices, i'd rarely trust myself with too much time.
i'm reminded of impermanence, but obviously not quite often enough. i do know that tomorrow, i might not wake up. might not shower and shave and drive to work. might not log in or answer emails or have coffee with friends. i 'know' - but it is like knowing the earth is the 3rd planet from the sun - knowledge that leads to no wisdom.
because every single day, morning, afternoon and evening, i can possibly think of more important things to do than the quarrels i engage in, the gossiping i do, the mindless acts that make time pass unnoticed until my next bday celebration.
today, eg, i could've woken up early enough to celebrate father's day.
last night, i heard the news that someone had a drunken accident, slipped and fell into a coma and passed away. barely 21, not yet ord-ed.
this morning, gang fights along boat quay brought in 2 red trucks, 5 police cars, ambulances and a end too early for the murdered kid.
this afternoon, we visited my secondary school teacher and mentor with cancer, we talked about almost everything but her illness, but i'm not an oncologist, 华佗, 长寿佛, 药师佛, nor a christian / muslim who believes in eternal redemption. there's no comfort i really know to bring.
i counted my beads, but there's no integration or differentiation that answered the riddle that hung silently in the air.
embarrassingly, more than a quarter of a century later, when the bell rings for the end of school, when my chores and errands are done, i'm still indolently wasting time having petty arguments with classmates, dumbly banging my fists at the injustices of the world, channel surfing till it's too late to begin my homework - the distractions may have been substituted, but it's still the silly kid in the white and green uniform hoping his teacher won't notice his work was only rushed to completion at the eleventh-est of hours.
there's never going to be enough time till the bells toll for each of us. and i might have passed her subject all those years ago, i have failed her again today. |
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