Jung and Sailor Mercury

I am now reading Jung's Flying Saucers. Although it is definitely not an easy read and is somewhat hypnotic, I enjoy his explanation about UFOs... He says that they are modern myths (projections of unconscious minds both collective and individual) with technological cover-ups. He is a sceptic. So am I.

And quite surprisingly, I found a clue to why I saw Sailor Mercury so often anywhere I went a few months ago even though Sailor Moon had already been a thing from past. (See my previous post: Wisdom Seen in Sailor Mercury dated on 21 March 2006)

According to Jung, the Roman god Mercurius (Mercury) is a "bringer of healing." As I have started feeling that healing has been taking roots in my soul, I feel it very logical that Sailor Mercury appeared to me to tell me that I was being healed...

But why is it not male Mercurius but female Sailor Mercury? It's quite simple. For I am a heterosexual man, I want healing coming from a female figure, as I think healing is especially effective when it comes in a romantic way. And Sailor Mercury is indeed very close to my anima figure (she looks quite much like my dream girl), a short haired woman with a quiet determination...

My anima figure also matches Jung's description about mercury, the metal. Mercury is metal and liquid at the same time. It changes its shape almost freely. A boyish girl is like this; she flexibly shows both of her female and masculine sides... I find this kind of woman the most fascinating...

The combination of Jung and Sailor Mercury sounds very ridiculous for a 37-year-old man but anyway, healing of a mind often comes in a very absurd fashion...

Anyway, our unconscious minds often try to reach our conscious minds in a very enigmatic ways...

Tags: Jung, Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury

Dear Mr. Confucius

Hong Kong, 29 April 2006

Dear Mr. Confucius,

I was very surprised to hear your words during meditation. What I heard was: At seventy, I could follow the wishes of my heart without doing wrong (七十而從心所欲，不踰矩). It is indeed the goal of any pursuit of happiness!

I have been practising meditation to let go of judgments to myself and others. Although I have done this only for a few months, I feel I am happier and more peaceful.

As Jesus, my another teacher said, not judging others and myself is one prerequisite to enter the Heaven. But frankly speaking, I did not expect that you would talk to me during this no-judgment meditation.

I have been critical to your teachings as many progressive people say that you made the foundation of two millennia’s spiritual stagnation in China. But now I know such an idea is indeed a judgment.

Now I have started letting go of my judgments. Now I can more open-heartedly listen to the teachers I used to avoid.

So I'll study your words along with those of my other teachers. I believe by knowing your words, I can reach out to the people in this part of world much more easily...

I love the word I heard during the meditation. I know you are indeed one of the greatest teachers in human history. So now I would like to apologise for my long-time prejudice toward your teachings...

Sincerely yours,

Peter Yokoyama

Tags: Confucius, ACIM, Pathways of Light, meditation, self-hypnosis

My First Mandala

This is my first mandala. (Mandalas play an important role in Jungian psychology.)

It came out in relation to my previous article Yin, Yang and Unity (26 April). It symbolises the unity of Yin (Udeke) and Yang (Alaqa) by their baby (Ushana). I simply could not help myself from drawing this... It came out so spontaneously.

The triangle behind Alaqa, Udeke and Ushana seems to represent the trinity of these three elements.

Sorry for showing an eerie and badly-drawn picture. This is the very first picture I have drawn to show to other people in more than two decades...

Tags: Jung

Energy Soup in Cooking

So tired that I only want to float on a bed
Just like a sea otter on the bed of kelp.
Release all the tensions without fearing
That I'd decompose into soup of energy.
If my body wants to do so
Just let it melt into the sea of fantasy.

Floating like a sea otter
With my mouth agape
With my eyes staring blankly at the sky.
Perhaps I look like a typical idiot.
But why do I have to care about How others see me
When I don't even fear being decomposed...

Anyway I am just floating on my own bed
On the sea of fantasy without any tension.
I am decomposing my old self and
Renewing everything in me.

I am energy soup in cooking...
Tags: Deepak Chopra, Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen, relaxation

New Alaqa Blogspace for Poems

I have set up a separate blogspace Alaqa Verses for my poems at the former url of Alaqa! (Eastern Unorthodox), as some readers want to read only poems.

However, I continue posting both verses and proses on this blogspace.

Anyway, thank you for visiting Alaqa! (Eastern Unorthodox)!

Yin, Yang and Unity...

Although I still have no idea what Alaqa exactly means, it already has a gibberish friend Udeke (pronounced Oo-deh-keh). I don’t know what it means, either…

But I feel Alaqa and Udeke make a yin-yang couple. Alaqa seems to be yang because “a” sound is a yang vowel in Altaic languages (which my native tongue is said to be related). Then Udeke should be yin as “e” and “u” sounds seem to be yin vowels (in Altaic languages). I feel their consonants also make a good pair…

My five-year son says that Alaqa represents the power of the Sun, while Udeke does that of the Moon. Alaqa is like a bull that energetically jumps out, while Udeke is like a careful bear. In addition, I tend to say Alaqa when I want to give myself a jump start, while I say Udeke when I want to relax. I guess they are paired mantras.

Alaqa and Udeke have been with me for many years. But recently, another mantra emerged out of blue. It’s Ushana (Oo-shah-nah). As it has both yin and yang vowels, I think it represents the unity between Alaqa and Udeke. Maybe it is a baby born between them. But I don’t know its gender yet. Maybe it is androgynous…
Tags: Jung, Chinese Philosophy, Yin Yang

The Smell of New Creation

Back to the basic... A garbage-collection poem.

Just a few hours before
It was dinner delicious and hot.
Now it's garbage smelly
That will soon start to rot.

It is indeed odour horrible.
But it was originally a sign that
Germs were preparing meal
For hungry scavenger animals.

Not many things smell
As horrible as rotten food.
Yes, we should throw it away
And let the nature do its job.

Rotting of food smells bad.
But it's actually just the smell of
The nature renewing herself.
So it's actually the smell of
New creation...

But alas, the garbage I pick
Has no farm to go back to.
It will just buried in holes
And stay there almost forever.

So the ordour of urban garbage
Is its voiceless cries of longing
To return to earth.

What I can do to console garbage's sorrow
Is to sort paper, metal and plastics
So that some of it have chances of rebirth...

Tags: Thich Nhat Hanh

Heirs to Grumpiness

I hope every grumpy old men are as playful as these two... As it's getting hotter in HK, I miss the blizzard that almost killed me in Minneapolis...

Why old men like to lament
About today's young people?
Is it because of envy and regret
That they couldn't fully enjoy
Their youth when it was with them?

A healed mind would advise
But it would not judge.
Complaints are just the sign
That one's mind wants healing.

Then what grumpy old men
Really want is to heal the past
That is filled with so many
Things left undone...

A grumpy grandad has very likely
Created another grumpy dad.
Such a dad is likely help his son
Become another grumpy grandad
A few generations later.

A broken heart can be hereditary.
But I want to leave a clean heart
To the generations to come.

So I want to heal my mind
Because I want my son to
Become an heir to a pleasant world.

So Holy Spirit,
Cleanse my soul
And help me heal my mind!

Ashehra Qaleke!

Ashehra Qaleke! Ah!
Oodook dood dood doo!

Ashehra Qaleke! Ah!
Oodook dood dood doo!

Ashehra Qaleke!
Ashehra Qaleke! Ah!
Oodook dood dood doo!
Oodook dood dood doo!

Yes, it's complete gibberish. But how do you feel now? I hope you find it funny and feel happy...

Tags: Mirmo

Do You Like a Tyrant?

Do this! Don't do that! Go this way!
Don't go that way!

Do you want someone
To be yelling at you always?
I guess you cannot take it
Even if he is a famed coach. 

You want him to know
What you feel
What you want,
Don't you?

I guess you'd jump on
Every opportunity to run away
From this tyrant coach,
Wouldn't you?

Although we don't like a tyrant
We often try to rule our own hearts
Forcibly just like tyrants.
No wonder why we always
Long so much for healing!

Be a friend to yourself.
Be kind to yourself.
Listen to the voice from deep inside
That tells you What you truly want. 
When mighty power of will
Takes you to nowhere
And makes you suffer,
It's high time you listened To the whisper of your heart...


Ha ha, influenced again by a Miyazaki Anime again! This time unwittingly by Whisper of the Heart（耳をすませば　魔幻街少女）. Sailor suits! Hubba-hubba!
Tags: Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, Whisper of the Heart, ACIM, 宮崎駿, 耳をすませば

Power of Tongue-Speaking

I speak in tongues when I upset with my wife:
Ooshanah alekina herekena hootah....!!!

I can defuse a bomb ticking in my belly
Absolutely without uttering an abusing word.
And the chain of absolutely nonsense words
Usually ends up making her smile.
So I can defuse a bomb ticking in her, too.

Stupidity is sometimes extremely useful
Because it can often soften the tight air around us...

Happiness Made Easy

I feel a mouthful of water can taste better than a glass of fine wine after picking garbage for more than a hundred families. It does not have to be ice-cold. It just has to be water. That's what I have learnt at the bottom of a society.

The simpler your demand is, the easier it is for you to feel happy...

When you feel unhappy, try doing something you can do without thinking almost at all and you can easily see a result.

If you can draw, draw a picture that will make you happy. Draw freely because you only have to please yourself.

If you love to sing, sing your favourite song to please your ears and soul. Sing as you like because you are the only audience.

Is your sink full of dirty dishes? You are so lucky that you have an opportunity to free yourself from thinking for half an hour. You can sing if you want while doing dishes.

It is easy to get satisfaction from these simple tasks. Don't underestimate these small things. Awareness of happiness you feel from these small things will serve as stepping-stones when you pursue bigger achievements.

So do a simple thing and be happy with a good result from it. Just like a child. Yes, indeed, it is easier for children to enter and stay in the Kingdom of Heaven than for us the grownups...

Even a Cat Knows

I love giving Chinese tuina massage to my family members. Giving massage to someone is as soothing as receiving so when I feel tired, I massage my wife's legs and back. Now I know that sharing energy can activate it and giving is better than receiving.

I often give massage even to Amy, my 10-year-old cat (photo). I started massaging her a few years ago when my son (then two or three years old) started chasing her around. She became very nervous and when I patted her on the back, I often found her muscles very stiff. That's why I started massaging Amy.

In the beginning, she simply hated it. I know very well that massage on stiffen muscle is indeed very painful from my own experience. When my fingers sank into meridian points, Amy angrily meowed and bit my hands. So I had many small wounds on my hand for the first year or so.

After a few years’ practice, she now likes my massage. She sometimes lies at my feet and demands me to massage her. Although she still gets angry when I push too hard, she enjoys my massage, closing her eyes and purring comfortably.

When she really enjoys it, she rewards me with licking my hands. She licks my hands carefully to show her satisfaction.

A cat is said to be a very selfish animal. But Amy often simply cannot help herself from expressing how much she loves me. That makes me feel that loving someone and expressing love may be a basic instinct of animals with highly developed brains. Even a cat knows that loving is as good as being loved...

Hating someone or something is a part of our original and primitive design. But seeing my cat licking my hands, I feel love is also one of our fundamental desires that has been with us for millions of years. And we humans have free will to decide which we want to nurture. It's up to every one of us...

Roswell, Oh, Roswell

I watched a TV programme about the Roswell flying saucer case on Discovery Channel yesterday. The large-eyed naked "alien creature" on the autopsy table reminded a classic comedy film Forbidden City Cop starring Stephen Chow, the master comedian of Hong Kong.

In this movie, the alien creature is just a Chinese Emperor in an alien costume... It looks so much like the Roswell spaceman! Because it is the parody of the Roswell Case... So Stephen, who volunteers to dissect the "Heavenly Fairy", almost chops His Majesty's leg. Anyway, this is a great post-modern masterpiece with a lot of surprises. Definitely must watch.

Well, I have been very sceptical about UFOs since one of my middle school classmates was arrested right after he ran into a police station, saying that he was almost kidnapped by space aliens. He was high on paint thinner...

Anyway, these kids often saw UFOs, nymphs or goblins while they were high on their cheap and easily available drug. I once heard that cocaine-addicts also tend to see UFOs.

So I basically think a UFO is an external projection of mental image. I am not saying that everyone who sees UFO is a drug-addict. But I guess it is a psychic rather than a physical phenomenon.

Driving in a place like a desert in New Mexico, a person can easily go into trance and see a lot of weird things. Such unexplainable images used to be called ghosts or monsters in the pre-modern times. But people continued to see these things even after the penetration of modern science into the general public, anyway. So I guess people, who had outgrown ghosts or fairies, wanted a more "rational" explanation and put scientific-sounding wrappings of aliens or UFOs on the things formerly known as ghost and such.

Well, in a society like Japan where an ancient culture survives in the rural areas, people still see ghosts quite often on lonely highways at night... In the United States, these primitive "spirits" seem to have been exterminated upon the colonisation by White people...

Then, why several people can witness the same UFO or alien creatures? I guess these images are made in the collective unconscious and seasoned by the zeitgeist. Anyway, many people used to see the same ghosts or goblins...

Well, Carl G. Jung wrote a book titled Flying Saucers: a Modern Myth of Things See in the Skies in 1958. I will read it soon.

Musashi's Trust in Himself

Statutes of Musashi (right) and Kojiro on the site of
their duel on Funajima Island (now called Genryu-to
Island), Shimonoseki

Whew! I finally finished reading the entire volumes of Musashi, the epic Samurai novel today. It's so good that I simply could not put it down so it took only 10 days to go through 1.45 million Hanzi (Chinese characters) in 1,300+ pages. (I read the Simplified Chinese edition from Hubei Province.)

It is full of Zen wisdom and is a kind of book I would read over and over again in the rest of my life. As it is an extremely long story, I will just talk now about an episode very close to the end of the story. I love this part. I guess it is already a classic episode that many people have already known, though...

Just a few hours before the official duel with Kojiro on a tiny island, another young sword master, Musashi takes a long time and quietly draws pictures at his hostel. The people around him get frustrated by Musashi's unhurried attitude and worry that he may not really willing to fight with Kojiro. He draws these pictures for the inn's master and the boatman who will soon take him to the duel for memories.

And after he goes on aboard a boat, he starts carving an old and cracked oar into a wooden sword. He carves the wood with a short knife slowly and quietly.

He draws pictures not because he was reluctant to fight. He carves a wooden sword not because he has forgotten his own. But he quietly prepared for his duel by making his consciousness focused on manual work. As both painting and carving require high level of concentration, you cannot do these well if you think much. And it is vice versa.

When you are doing a good manual work, you are absorbed into it and very unlikely thinking much... Actually that's the reason why a Zen novice starts his training from cleaning and washing dishes.

By drawing and carving, Musashi empties his mind. He knows very well that thinking much about how he should fight with Kojiro would not help him much. After many years of training, he has learnt that the most reliable thing is what has already been completely a part of him so that he does not have to think about it at all. (Such a state is called Unconscious Competence by practitioners of Neuro-linguisic Programming - NLP.) He has decided to let his unconscious mind prepare for the duel.

Emptying your mind is a good way to achieve excellence because it is the highest level of trust you can grant to your unconscious mind. If you can do this, your unconscious mind will be so glad that she would co-operate with you, providing you with all the available resources.

Why Now After Two Decades?

A girl has been on my mind these days for an unknown reason these days. She had never been significant to me so I have been puzzled why she emerged out of blue in my consciousness after many many years...

The last time I met her was on my way to school when I was on the 11th grade. As the top of her sailor suits was white, it should be between June and September. She was on her way to another school and just said "Hi!" with a broad smile and rode away on a bicycle. It's been already more than 20 years since then... I guess I hadn't even thought about her for more than a decade.

I'd known her for more than a decade by then but I'd never felt close to her. Looking back, I feel quite strange why I didn't fall in love with her. She always wore short hair, had a pair of large and mischievous eyes, a boyish smile, flat chest and nicely tanned body and legs like those of a leopards... And she was a kind of girl who would chase after and hit a boy who flipped her skirt, laughing and shrieking wildly.

She was just a right kind of girl for me. But I have no memory that I liked her. I remember her as a very cute girl. She was also very sexy in her gym outfit. But I didn't ask her to go out with me, even though I did to other less cute girls who weren't interested in me at all.

I wonder why. I don't regret at all that I didn't flirt with her. I just wonder why I did not pay attention to my dream girl even though she was very friendly to me. I was grossly unaware of whom I really liked. Maybe I unconsciously repressed my emotions towards her for some reason...

I have no idea why she has stays put on my mind for more than few days without stirring any strong emotion in me... I don't have a clue what triggered her memory.

Why now? Actually, I haven't though about her for more than a decade! A memory is indeed a weird thing.

Anyway, I wrote about her simply because she wanted to emerge from my unconscious mind. Perhaps, I'll find a reason soon.

When a Cat Stops Talking To Her...

I am delighted that a local Hong Kong TV station (ATV World) recently shows a Miyazaki anime every Sunday. It showed Kiki's Delivery Service yesterday. Even though Kiki is a bit too young to be my anima figure, I love this story of the little witch's growth.

I guess Kiki's age is somewhere between 12 and 14, the later stage of Lolita period when a girl becomes a young woman. In order to train herself into an independent witch, she leaves her parents in a village and flies to a city on her broom. Jiji, her little black cat accompanies her on her shoulder and continues to chat with her.

I see this anime as a story of the emergence of independent self and consciousness in a young girl. In the first half of the story, Jiji the black cat chats with Kiki in the human language. I think this is a sign that Kiki has not fully developed her own consciousness yet. She can chat with her cat because the boundary between she and Jiji is still quite vague. And she can fly on a broom without thinking. She can do it unconsciously.

But after she becomes aware that she likes Tombo, a bespectacled mischievous boy, she loses her magic power. She cannot fly. Jiji no longer speaks a human language but only meows. Moreover, he goes out to court his white dream she-cat. Kiki now has separate consciousness from Jiji's. Anyway, a city is a place for separate consciousness.

It does not give one a blanket of protection and oneness that a village would provide her... Having her own consciousness, she has to re-learn how to fly, that was simply a natural thing for a witch's daughter. I guess this part of story symbolises the difficulties that an early teenager experience especially in the relationship to the people around her. It is the pain of re-birth. I guess she's lost ability to fly because she still do not know how to handle her newly gained separate self.

Close to the end of story, she flies again to save Tombo, who hangs onto a rope attached to an airship that has accidentally started flying. Now flying needs a reason and determination. She has to be fully aware of her ability to fly so that she can use it better and in a conscious manner (so she would not abuse it). But after she is able to fly again, she is accepted by the people in the city as a heroine. It is the beginning of her life as a young adult.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Christianity almost is a woman's religion in Japan. Almost every Protestant church there has more female number than male ones so that it is awfully difficult for a Christian woman to find a husband of the same faith.

Actually Christianity is a religion of woman lib there. (It also expains why Japan's first female prime minister was a Protestant.) And one of the reason is (naturally) the Easter story that Jesus first appeared to women after the Resurrection. Indeed Jesus respected women...

I love this story because it can also free men from the unbearable heaviness of being, along with women from the unbearable lightness.

And the popularity of Christianity among Japanese women comes from mysogyny of the Japanese Buddhism and Shintoism. Well, any religion (or ideology) as a tool of governance tends to be hostile to women and the non-mainstream people...

The Lilies Instead of the Thorns

Offer your brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of love and not the “gift” of fear. You stand beside your brother, thorns in one hand and lilies in the other, uncertain which to give. Join now with me and throw away the thorns, offering the lilies to replace them. This Easter I would have the gift of your forgiveness offered by you to me, and returned by me to you. We cannot be united in crucifixion and in death. Nor can the resurrection be complete till your forgiveness rests on Christ, along with mine.
- A Course In Miracles (ACIM), Chapt. 20, I, Para. 2, Verses 5-10

A Holy Defloration?

When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And then the centurion said that Jesus had been surely the Son of God. (Mark Chapt. 15)

As I did not see a clear logical connection between the torn curtain and the centurion's comment, I wondered why the holy curtain had to be torn in two. Well, it has been explained as the symbol of reconciliation between God and man. Now, there was nothing to separate God and man as Jesus died to redeem the sin of the world. This is the traditional Literalist interpretation. It's not mysterious enough and is very boring...

But I recently read an interesting interpretation. Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy say in their Jesus and Lost Goddess that the curtain was a hymen! No, it is not a typo of hymn but it is hymen.

They say that a curtain is used in a Jewish secret ritual to explain what is like for a man to know God. In that ritual, a priest opened the curtain and revealed a statute of two entangling angels. This statute showed that love of God is similar to the love between men and women. And the curtain represented a hymen. Freke and Gandy say that the curtain in Jesus' Passion was taken from this secret rite.

Then the Crucifixion could mean an act of defloration! Then who was the virgin? I don't think she was Virgin Mary. Mary Magdalene? Probably not, either.

I guess it was Sophia, the Goddess of Wisdom... Then the Crucifixion was man's penetration into the Gnosis (the knowledge of God) and makes this hymen theory quite logical.

But I feel defloration is not enough for a man to know a woman very deeply. Even if it is a symbol of marriage, it is just a beginning. Wedding is just an entrance to another level of intimacy between a man and a woman. Maybe it is a rite of transformation of hot romantic love into warm but long-lasting love. Then the Crucifixion may not be the completion of devine plan but just an entrance to a higher consciousness.