Toothpaste

Trying to force your creativity to come out
May be like squeezing a tube of toothpaste
Without removing its cap.

The harder you squeeze, the more you may feel in vain.
Or all your face and shirt may get smeared
With the white paste...

Forcing your creativity to come out
Often shuts the door even tighter.
Or you'll hear the Ego's fugue blaring
That makes you feel as if
Pandora's box were opened...

So talk to your soul quietly
And wait until she replys
In a very quiet song...

A Curious Picture

My five-year-old son made a very enigmatic and curious series of drawings at kindergarten a few days ago. I feel something very religious, Jungian from these drawings, especially in the one at end of the series shown on the left.

From the neat arrangement of objects (two clouds, a mysterious sign 示, a snowflake, four stars and two half-spiral patterns) between and two zig-zag lines that look like curtains, I guess this drawing is about sanctification of the sign 示.

Do the curtains symbolise completion (closing) or beginning (opening)? I don't know for sure but I feel it represents some sort of spiritual completion or unity of in my son's heart.

Although I asked my son what this 示 sign meant, he said he did not know. I guess he simply drew something that came out of his heart.

This sign resembles the Chinese character 示 (shì) that means to show. But when it is used as a radical, it is a sign that a character is about religion or divinity (e.g. 神 shén, "god", "divinities", 社 shè, "earth deity" and so on). Its shape came from the alter of an ancient Chinese deity of earth, where that god's message is shown, thus it became the word to show. So even though my son drew this sign without knowing its meaning, it seems to be extremely suggestive, perhaps of the perception of holiness in him.

Also in other drawings in the series, this 示 sign plays the central role. The entire series (below) looks like a growth story of this sign.

In the beginning, my son says that there was nothing but the sea. That is what he can explain. Probably the checkers in the second drawing means the beginning of order. Then a number of 示 signs appears. I think it symbolises birth. But when it appears again, it is alone. My son says that it seems that the sign has gone on a journey. It flows alone in a river, walks under clouds and drifts in the sea.

There are many spiral patterns in this series and I guess it is the sign of mother archtype. They have been drawn intact or larger to the tenth pane but they has withdrawn to corners in the panes 11 and 12. But they are still visible...

I guess this series shows that my son has become somewhat aware of having his own consciousness separate from the people around him. I think it is his way of expressing how the world around him is made and how it will be completed. As I have only thought about these drawings for the past few days, I think I will receive more message from it... What do you think?

Deliverance from Karma?

My father's clan had run a small spa inn in northern Japan until 1960s. It is said that the inn was opened roughly 400 years ago by Suwa Yorisada, a warlord's son who had fled his territory after his father's assassination by Takeda Shingen, a very famous warlord of the Warring States period of Japan. Then this spa became a designated retreat for Lord of Soma, the local ruler and continued to be until the mid 19th century...

So this is a spa with a long history and pride. A small spa in thick natural forest may be rather a fashionable thing now. But it left my father with very traumatic memories; His grandmother forced him and his siblings to work for the ailing family business like a slave driver or an evil stepmother in a fairy tale. Later, my father left the forest and became a seafarer. From his somewhat extreme move, I feel his trauma was as deep as the forest around the inn.

After pondering these things, I suddenly became aware of where his verbal abuses to me had come from. He simply passed his grandma's abuses to me! Then I felt I would be able to forgive him soon. Then I thought that his grandma also might have had inherited the abusive words from her parents or grandparents...

Probably the family's sorrow was handed down through abusive words for a very long time. Perhaps it was the clan's way of passing of the sorrow of the territory lost four hundred years ago. And I felt I understood what the karma from one's previous lives was... It is sorrow, anger or any negative emotions handed down from a generation to a generation.

The karma from previous lives is often used as a means of extortion in this part of the world. Many a false monk lives on demanding large sums of money from people in distress, saying that he can deliver them from the karmic suffering by a prayer or a ritual. Nobody is sure about his previous lives so it is an easy way to exploit on people's fears...

But now I think deliverance from karma is not about mysterious previous lives. It is about dissolving the suppressed negative emotions inherited from previous generations and keep these from passed down to coming generations. I do not know if this idea is orthodox but it is very useful for me. Anyway, this blog has the word unorthodox in its name so perhaps I don't have to care at all...

Rehabilitation

I have kept myself (needlessly) busy with a thick book again. I am now reading The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich by William L. Shirer.

This book sometimes makes me very sick since I grew up under a neo-Fascist environment and was labelled "inadequate for survival." But I cannot put this book down.

By reading this book, I can disapprove my primary school teachers' curses and rehabilitate myself. I know that I still do need to heal my mind...

Martin Buber Seen in a Chinese Character

I was very much surprised when I saw my five-year-old son doing homework last evening. That a Hong Kong kindergartener had to do homework did not surprise me as a Hong Konger has to know at least a several thousand complicated Chinese characters just to be literate. (He had done homework almost for two years by now.) But what he wrote did.

He was assigned to write 憤怒(fènnù) or anger roughly a dozen times. Look at this 憤 (fèn, to be angry) character. It has as many as 15 strokes! I wondered if an ordinary American kindergartener would be told to remember a big word of the Latin origin such as indignant…

And I also noticed how the characters 怒(nù, anger) looked so much like 恕(shù, forgiveness), the one that I mentioned in my last post. The only difference is the elements on the upper right (又 yòu and 口 kǒu). Just straightening up two tilted lines and add another line below, anger can be transformed into forgiveness. Maybe turning anger into forgiveness perhaps is this easy…

Well, this view is too superfluous and too vulgar. (Actually it does not explain the origins of these words at all...) So I give you a more formal analysis. 怒 is made of the elements 奴 (nú, a slave) and 心(xīn, heart). As a slave’s forced labour requires much power, the element 奴 symbolises the power a person puts to his heart to tense it up. So anger is a state that tenses up heart with much power.

Although it is not a traditional interpretation, I also see another meaning in this character: Anger is a slave’s heart. It is an emotion so base, ignoble and un-liberated. When we are angry, we make ourselves slaves to our burning emotions…

Then what does 恕 or forgiveness is made of? It is made of the elements 如 (rú, similar to) and 心(xīn, heart). In the character 恕, the meaning of 如 is “similar to oneself.” So 恕 means that “forgiveness is a heart that treats someone just like yourself.” Maybe forgiveness is the transformation of “us-them” relationship (which is the source of all hatred) into that of “I-thou.” It sounds quite much like Martin Buber, doesn’t it?

Tags: forgiveness, Chinese, ACIM, Martin Buber

The Golden Rule in a Nutshell

When I want to know the deep meaning of a word, I usually dig into its origin. So I looked for the origin of to forgive in my Collins Concise Dictionary today.

It says to forgive comes from the Old English forgiefan. Huh? It does not help me at all. (Actually, I wanted to know what for means. Does anyone know? Anna, would you tell me what ver of the German vergeben means?)

So I turned to Chinese as almost all the Japanese abstruct words are loan words from Chinese, just as English borrowed many words from Latin.

The Japanese word for to forgive is 許す(yurusu). But this 許(xŭ) character means to allow or to agree in Chinese and does not mean to forgive either in the modern or classical Chinese. The ancient Japanese perhaps confused permission and forgiveness when they imported this character...

The most commonly used Chinese words for to forgive are 原諒 (yuánliàng) and 寬恕(kuānshù). In my dictionary, the former (原諒 yuánliàng) leads to the latter (寬恕 kuānshù).

寬(kuān) means generous or lenient and 恕(shù) means "to do to others as you do to yourself (推己及人)." Then in Chinese, forgiveness means "to be tolerant and do others as you would do to yourself."

Now I have a better understanding of forgiveness. It's the Golden Rule. We do not want others to hold onto their anger to us. We indeed want them to let go of their anger. Now I feel I have learnt how to practise forgiveness better than yesterday...

Tags: forgiveness, Chinese, ACIM, Golden Rule

Forgiveness

I feel that forgiving someone is quite easy. But it is awfully difficult to improve my self-image.

Is it because I haven’t truly forgiven the ones who has trespassed me? Do I forgive him only on the conscious level and my anger is simply concealed in my unconscious mind, just pushing all the eyesores into a closet?

I have a very strong feeling that I want to be forgiven… But I don’t know about what and by whom… Don't say I should be forgiven about my original sin by Jehovah. I don't buy it any longer...

Maybe I just want to be forgiven by myself about behaving like a slave driver to myself...

What do you think, my sweet Moon Goddess?

A Good Slave Driver? No Kiddin'!

I often try to do too much and exhaust myself. I still feel a bit strange but diligence and efforts are what I can value much less so that I can be happier.

Even good things turn sour when these obsess us... These things become slave drivers that force us to work too much too long. Then they are not good any longer.

But these moral things are the hardest to unlearn.

How do you feel?

Ego's Prophecies

My Ego is very good at prophecy.
Whatever It says comes true
Especially when I struggle against it.

It said "You are too lazy to keep this job."
So I wrote thousands of words everyday
In order to deny the Ego's prophecy.
But ended up with losing a job
Because of the laziness from fatigue.
The Ego's prophecy indeed came true.

It said "You are too stupid to live normally."
So I read thousands of pages everyday
In order to deny the Ego's prophecy.
But ended up with frikking headache
That came from maldigestion of reading.
The Ego's prophecy indeed came true.

Actually I don't have to strive to
Deny what the Ego says.
Its prophecies come true
Only because I make them real
By taking them seriously.

So I now close my eyes
And set out to explore the goodies
buried deep inside of me,
Shedding light on each of them
So that I can ignore the ranting monster.

I love this trip to my inner world
Because I am with my sweet Inner Guide.

Tags: ACIM, Meditation, NLP

Carpe Diem... Good Night!

A moment before now was now.
A moment after now will be also now.
We can only live in
Endless continuation of now.
Then I should take care of myself of present now
Rather than live in
Worries of unmaterialised future now
Or regret of uncorrectable past now.

I am helluvalot tired now.
So I go to bed now so that
I can be done with this fatigue now.
It's my carpe diem tonight.

Good night!

Something's Growing...

Very tired.
Not much inspiration felt.
But I know that
Something is quietly growing
Deep inside of me.

My sweet moon goddess
Is busy consolidating something
Deep inside of me.
But I still don't know yet
What is this something.

It's exciting to wait for
Something entirely new.

I know you are now searching
What resources to dig out
And combine with my new skills.
I can wait for a while.
So talk to me when you are ready,
My sweet moon goodess.

Eruption of School Trauma Prevented

I'm back now! (Has anyone waited for my coming back?)

Well, after finishing an urgent translation assignment by 11 p.m. last night, I tried to fill this space. But I could hardly write any word. Although I usually handle a US$100 translation job within a few hours without tiring myself, yesterday's work truly exhausted me.

I first had no idea why it drained so much energy from me. It was a copy of a primary school student's secret dossier kept by the school. Although I had to do some complicated formatting, the document hardly contained any difficult word or technical term... But it exhausted me much more than a legal document, which is supposed to be a lot more difficult than this simple dossier.

Upon completion of this job, I first felt extreme fatigue for a while. Then I suddenly felt very agitated. I wanted to rant but did not know about what. My wife said I felt agitated because of the stress the job had given me. Maybe. But I did not have a clue.

Then I happened to stare the document. I knew the reason now. It was a document from a primary school! But as I had been too much preoccupied by the deadline of the job, my conscious mind did not think about my horrible primary school days, in which my sense of belonging to my native community and nation (Japan) was utterly destroyed, and I managed to keep that to humanity... (I almost cry whenever I see the films or read anything about China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution because my teachers treated me in the way that the Red Guards did to so-called anti-revolutionaries...)

Well, it actually was my unconscious mind (who often manifests in the likeness of cute Sailor Mercury with the name Artemis/Phoebe) that kept the bad memory from eruption. She indeed did a very good job so that my reputation as a translator would not be tainted. But she had to endure the pain triggered by school trauma while I translated the dossier.

So I ranted a bit because she wanted to let off the steam. Then I went to bed, closed my eyes and thanked my sweet Artemis/Phoebe for helping me always...

Few Days Off...

It's suddenly got awful hot (somewhere around 30 C/90 F) and humid here in Hong Kong and I feel darn tired... I cannot come up with even a few trashy ideas during garbage collection... So I take a few days' rest to empty myself...

I guess I'll be back on next Monday.

Anyway, thank you for visiting Alaqa! blogspaces!

Waiting...

This is my holy place, the place where I receive inspiration from my Muse. No wonder I always write trashy poems... I am a garbage collector, anyway...

After a few days' frikking trash production
My soul is almost empty.
So to my sanctuary near the garbage bin I come
Hoping that my Muse would tell me something.

But alas!
She hasn't much to tell me now, either,
And just says that "Nature abhors vacuum."

Well, it's not time for me to take out more trash
But it's time for me to wait for a while
So the garbage bin of my soul is filled again.

So I keep my soul empty and wait for
A kiss of my Muse.
I don't have to make any efforts
Because I know she'll fill my soul soon...

(But I am struggling... I am making efforts to write... I can stop making efforts. I can take a rest. Relax! So that some good things fill my soul so easily and so naturally....)

My Prayer To Artemis/Phoebe

An ancient Greek inscription of "Phoebe"

O! Come my dear Artemis!
I empty myself and
Throw myself in front of You
So that You can renew me
With Your gentle energy
And illuminate resources
Hidden deep inside of me
With your gentle light.

So I take a walk tonight
So that I can recharge myself
With your gentle moonlight...

O! My dear Phoebe!
Please turn your face to me
So that I can be aware of
What I have always had
Under your gentle light.

If you are uncomfortable with Paganism, just change Artemis/Phoebe with Holy Spirit or an angel.

Pom Poko And Doomsday Cults (2)

(Continued from the previous post)

I think that things such as monsters, trolls, fairies and so on are basically the shadows of our world. The movement of Enlightenment has greatly (and literally) reduced these shadows in the past several centuries. I think it is basically good as it has indeed freed us from innumerable fears.

However, a man without a shadow is not a man but a vampire. To keep the balance between the conscious and unconscious mind, we need some mysteries or secrets. We have to embrace some of our shadows or evil, anyway, just to go on living. Just remember cute little lambs or veal slaughtered for your today's dinner...

I believe a society also needs shadows. That seems to be the reason why so many of us are interested in astrology or ghost stories even in this age of science. And every traditional society has its own shadows in the forms of monsters and such.

However, the majority of Americans do not have any natural shadow to project their unconscious mind after they drove Indians away from their native lands. And it seems that European trolls or monsters did not accompany their ancestors when they immigrated to the New World. Or they might have wanted to leave these behind in the Old World (unconsciously)...

So they only had Satan as the object of their projection of shadows. And the concentrated projection of shadow on Satan bloated up this ultimate anti-Christ. I guess that eradication of less threatening worldly spirits has ended up with making this hellish spirit so powerful that he seems to threaten the very existence of human race anytime soon.

In other words, the sense of uprooted-ness has bloated the fear to a degree that people find absurd doomsday cult so convincing…

I also guess this is something that is behind American habit of continuous search for an enemy. The empowered and bloated Satan has always had to be projected onto the worldly evils such as Soviet Union or Muslim Fundamentalism...

I think this is the reason why America has continuously produced so many Christian doomsday cults, the longing for the end of fear through mass slaughter by Satan and God.

Anyway, this is just a hypothesis that I have recently come up with. I need a lot more study to become sure about this theory... But I feel that the cure for this uprooted-ness can be found in tolerance and respect to the nature...

The movie Pom Poko ends with a song that says:

I believe that
You stand by me always.
Please remember
Your wonderful name..

Yes, we have to remember and respect the spirit of nature in order to heal our sense of uprooted-ness. It may sound obsolete and naive but we cannot be whole if we refuse to embrace our shadows...

Tags: Pom Poko, 平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ, 百變貍貓, fairy tale, doomsday cult, Jung, Erich Fromm, Studio Ghibli

Pom Poko And Doomsday Cults (1)

Well, I have to mention in the beginning that Studio Ghibli's wonderful animé Pom Poko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ 港譯：百變貍貓) has basically nothing to do with any doomsday cults. It simply reminded me of these. When I happened to watch this movie last night, I felt it gave me a clue to the reason why there are so many doomsday cults in America.

I am not a big fan of Isao Takahata’s animés as I feel his works are overly nostalgic about Japan of 1950-70s. (The 70s, the first ten years of my life, happened to be the worst time for me…) But Pom Poko is an exception.

This movie is about a failed uprising of small wild animals called tanukis (often translated as racoon dogs) against human to protect their homeland in the western suburbs of Tokyo. It is about the nature’s revenge against excessive urban development. However, thanks to tanuki’s comical nature, their uprising in this movie is extremely funny and cute.

(Although both foxes and tanukis play trick on people in Japanese folk stories, tanukis' tricks are usually described as dumber and cuter than foxes'. Foxes are supposed to be more sinister than tanukis but at the same time they are also revered as messengers of certain Shinto deities.)

But why does this comical uprising remind me of very scary doomsday cults? It’s the monsters, the spirits of forest, into which tanukis disguised to scare humans off from their habitat. Well, their big monster parade to spook people ended up with entertaining them, though…

These monsters reminded me of a night near woods in Minneapolis with my friend, an ex-refugee from Laos and her boyfriend, a grandson of a Lutheran missionary to India. While he said that that it was the most relaxing kind of moment, his girlfriend was so spooked that she wanted to go home immediately. But he did not understand what spooked his sweetheart, at all.

I was a bit spooked, too. Although I did not believe in monsters or spirits of forest, I shared collective memories of them with my Japanese parents and ancestors. So I asked her “Are you afraid of the spirits of woods?” Her answer was “Yes.” Indeed, Asian lives are still surrounded by many invisible monsters or spirits even though we are reluctant to admit…

I pondered why Americans did not feel the presence of spirits. Not just Asians but Europeans have fairies and monsters of woods in their collective unconscious mind. I know it from Nordic troll stories (Moomin by Tove Jansson) or Irish fairy tales. I do not think it is a bad thing…

Then I realised that Americans had exterminated the spirits that had lived with Native Americans from the time immemorial… So there still should be the spirits that had accompanied Sioux or Ojibway Indians but White Americans could not feel the presence of! And now I feel it is one of the reasons why Americans have produced more doomsday cults than any other Western nations… I am going to tell you more about this tomorrow.

(Continued to the next post)

========================================

Available at Amazon.com (Click the picture for details)

Tags: Pom Poko, 平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ, 百變貍貓, fairy tale, doomsday cult, Jung, Studio Ghibli

God's Product Liability

Why do Fundamentalists long for Jehovah's version of the End of the World, which seems to be even worse cronyism than that of Suharto or Ferdinand Marcos?

If Jehovah decides to
Destroy this world with
All the non-Christians tomorrow,
I'll make a petition to him
So that I will be removed from
His list of "To be saved."

I'll be so lonely in New Jerusalem
Because all my beloved ones
Won't be there...

And
I'll be so uncomfy in New Jerusalem
Thinking about billions of souls
Sent to the eternal concentration camp.

They cannot even perish
But Have to suffer for ever!!!
Is it the work of God of Love?

I don't think I can be very happy
When all my beloved are to be
Grilled with eternal fire.

I'd rather accompany them
Even if I'd have to be burnt forever...

God should be a responsible producer.
If He wants to put an end to this world someday,
I want Him to purify and save everyone
Not only the ones who stick to His obsolete rules
Because we all are His products...

--------------------------------

If you are tired of angry God, you can find a good solution in Finding Your Religion by Rev. Scotty McLennan introduced in my previous post. I also recommnd to such a person A Course In Miracles (ACIM), Unitarian Universalist Association or works of Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh such as Living Buddha, Living Christ.

The Unconscious Time Machine

Tardis, the time machine camouflaged as a British police call box from 1950s in BBC's Si-Fi series Doctor Who

The unconscious mind is your time machine
That can take you to any time or any place.
You only have to think about
What time and which place you want go
It'll take you immediately to
The past or the future as you wish.

I feel as if you were always
Standing by me, smiling...*

If you can feel like this
About your beloved ones far apart,
You are already a skiller driver
Of your own splendid time machine!

So talk to your Wisdom
Deep inside your mind...
Time and Space has
No meaning to Her.

*My poor translation of lines from Sunrise by Japanese pop music duo Puffy. (Available from Amazon.com. For details click the picture above.)

Tags: Puffy Sunrise, Puffy, Unconscious Mind, Time Machine Doctor Who

My Foo-bar Spirituality

It said that I might be surprised by the kinship among Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and that between Buddhism and Hinduism. It did not surprise me at all.

But how far away I have come from Christianity did. I was only 34% compatible to this Messianic religion with which I still identify myself (to a much lesser degree than 10 years ago, though). The score was even lower than with Islam and Judaism, which I feel very unfamiliar to.

This is the result of a test about which religion is the most compatible to my spiritual attitude. I took this test this morning just because I received an email from an online personality testing company when I happened to be darn bored by today's translation assignment.

It asked a lot about morality, God and the life after death. I guess the reason why I scored a

very low compatibility to Christianity is that I am not interested in what happens after I die, and that I like to find spirituality in everyday life rather than a supernatural plane. So I scored high with Buddhism; I was 71% compatible to this Eastern religion.

And I scored a percentage point higher with Neo-paganism than Buddhism. I virtually have no idea about Neo-Paganism... (Is it Wicca?) But I understand this because I have developed an extremely personal cult of Artemis/Phoebe in the past few years...

But the highest score I got was with Unitarian Universalism (80% compatible). Well, it did not surprise me because many Jung fans and modern Gnostics are said to be comfortable with UU.

Or I perhaps scored highest with UU because my test result was so foo-bar (f--ked up beyond any recognition) that any other religion could not be recommended to me than the UU mixture of everything...

But I feel now I know one of the reasons why I've had severe depression... I simply did not know

myself. How can a sex maniac like me be truly happy with Jehovah? Well, I might behave but it could only be out of fear of punishment.

But Jesus is already too familiar for me to ignore. I guess my foo-bar spirit is the most compatible to A Course In Miracles (ACIM), the Zen that Gnostic-like Jesus spoke to an American psychologist in 1970s...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Finding Your Religion by Rev Scotty McLennan of Unitarian Universalist Association was especially helpful when I found myself drifting away from Lutheranism and felt sinful... You can indeed choose the religion suitable to you. Click the thumbnail for more info about this extraordinary book. (Available at amazon.com. Please click here or the thumbnal at the top of this post for details/purchase.)

Tags: Personality test, Zen, Unitarian Universalism, ACIM

Thanks, Sigmund!

Well, I am not a big fan of Sigmund Freud and I do not believe that the unconscious mind is an arsenal filled with repressed sexual emotions. But I want to thank him about Oedipus Complex Theory...

Actually, I don't buy the theory at the face value. I don't believe that a man's psychological problems all have their root in his repressed desire to make love with his mom. It's because the theory does not make a sense with me. (I'll tell you about this someday...) But Freud's theory of children's sexual development is interesting and it helped me a lot be a good dad.

Roughly a year ago, when he was four, my son often cried furiously "I hate you! I like Mommy!" as I took care of him while my wife was out for work. Although I was very upset when I first heard this, I was lucky that I had read some Freud by then... So I could be aware that he was in a period in which a boy tends to stick to his mom and be hostile to his dad... I have seen quite a few moms who are so angry with their little daughters, who stick to their dads. But because I knew Oedipus Complex, I could avoid this kind of situation.

According to Freud, a kindergarten boy is in love with his mom until he is six and very hostile to his dad. And indeed, a kindergarten boy is as much interested in romantic relationship and in sex as a girl of the same age. It's the time a girl prematurely tries to select her future boyfriend/husband and confesses to love to him. Indeed, my son was confessed love by a few girls and he was happy with it. He also loved romantic cartoons for girls such as Tokyo Mew Mew or Mirmo Zibang.

And a small boy does have his own sexual fantasy. When my son, then shortly before five, accidentally dug into my hard disk and managed to open a nude file, he stared at it, grinning (to my horror). He then demanded me to show some more. (Uh-oh, I confessed to the entire world that I hide porn pics in my hard disk!)

So I showed him some artistic nude and gymnastic pics. (You may think what kind of sick dad am I! But that's the reason the name of this space has the word Unorthodox! But I find nothing dirty in unclothed human bodies.) He stared into these beautiful bodies, blushed and happily jumping. He got disappointed when I showed him some male nude and demanded me to show more sisters.

It has already been a year since then. Recently, he managed to dig into some nude photos in my hard disk again. But this time, he immediately closed the folder. And he stared sternly at me and said "You are so dirty!" （你好鹹濕！）Just to make sure, I showed him some pics of women in leotards or swimsuits but he showed no interest.

He is no longer big in girls' cartoons and make sure to watch every episode of Transformer. Although he seems to a bit uncomfortable with dirty pics in my hard disk, he is now very friendly to me. He has become a bit hostile to his mom, too. Now I know that his sexuality has entered the hibernation period that would last at least for five years... This also matches Freud's development theory. Now it's easier for me to have fun with him...

*BTW, Freud Bobbing Head Doll is available at Stupid.com.

Tags: Freud, Sexuality, Developmental Psychology, Oedipus

Let Them Flow

Ego works like
A cheaply made presure cooker
When your heart is filled with
Sorrow, anger or fear.

Saying that
No one would be on your side,
It tells you to contain
These negative emotions
While it cooks them into
Powerful ticking time bombs

And it detonates them anyway.

So when you feel sad, angry or afraid,
Simply open the lid and
Let your emotions flow.

It'd make you feel ashamed awhile
But it's better than living with bombs
Ticking forever.

If you try to suppress negative emotions,
You only give them permissions
To stay with you and blow up someday.

So simply let them flow.
When they flow away,
You are free from them.

Let them flow...

Tags: Thich Nhat Hanh, Meditation, Zen, Anger, Fear, Sorrow, Ego, 一行禪師


中文版:你可以不生氣（台北‧城邦文化 一行禪師著）

Shaking Off Burdens of Goodies

Breaking up with a girlfriend
Whose look made many men look back.

Walking out from a Forbes 500 company and
Starting to pick up garbage for sale.

Throwing away a pair of designer suits
And cladding like Shaggy of Scooby-Doo.

Asking for a salary cut and
Moving into a working-class neighbourhood.

Many were surprised by my repeated downgrades.
But all these have actually upgraded my life.

These goodies might've made me look happy
But they were only burdens to me.
They dragged me with the demands to be
Someone who wasn't me at all.

Shaking off all these burdens of goodies
My heart really lightened up.

I wish I could lighten up my body
Just like Shaggy
Who can stay slim despite his big appetite!
(Well, he runs a lot...)


Shaggy hanging onto Scooby's tail. The girl in front of the van is Velma. (Well, non-US visitors need some explanations...)

P.S.
Actually, I think Velma is quite cute... I like her more than Daphne.

Tags: Scooby-Doo, happiness

The Life in the World of Miracles

We are living in the world of miracles.
Close your eyes and think about
What you can easily do now.

Kissing your girl friend might be easy now.
But think about the very first time.
With your heart pounding
You might've felt it'd be even more difficult
Than to send a human to Mars.

But voilà!
When your lips touched hers
You made impossible into possible!
It was indeed a miracle!

Think about the first time when you wrote a letter.
Think about the first time when you rode a bike.
Think about the first time when you spoke a foreign language.
Think about the first time when you sold anything
To a customer...

These were just a handful of examples
Of the miracles you've experienced...

Be mindful of what you can do.
Welcome pleasant surprises for ever.
Then we continue to see miracles happen
All the time around us...

Tags: Thich Nhat Hanh, Miracles, ACIM, Mindfulness

Taoist/Zen Memo Pad

MEMO
You can print this space out and use it as a memo pad...
(Please see the note at the bottom of this post!)
































A memo pad has to be empty
So that we can write something on it...

We always need some emptiness
So that we can fill it with goodies, too!
Empty some of contents of your mind now
So that you can pour new ideas into it!

Tags: Taoism, Zen, Emptiness

Step Back and Take a Wider Look

What agitates you isn't the world around you.
It's how you interpret what you see.
Step back and take a wider look.
You'll find that you've been just looking
At an extremely small part of the world around you.

See the right extreme with your right eye
At the same time the left extreme with your left eye.
You'll find the world actually is quite different
From what you saw a minute ago.

A narrow, fixed view agitates you
While a wider view allows you
Put down your heavy and painful burden
Of fear or anger...

I wrote this for reminder to myself. But I want to share it with you because the healing power of panoramic (peripheral) view is so great...

Tags: ACIM, Zen, NLP, Panoramic View