China Earthquake: Camaraderie

Today is the first of the three-day mourning for the China Earthquake victims...In a show of camaraderie, media websites and newspapers in China came together and all of them published their sites / papers in black and white. I know some Chinese nationals who are very patriotic and loyal to the country but this is something that has never been seen before. I am amazed and touched by their spirit of togetherness in this difficult time. China even allows Japanese rescue workers in. Placing the lives of others before one's needs, or in this case, the country's political interests, should be a lesson for Myanmar. If Myanmar junta continues being stubborn and does not allow rescue aids to enter the country, soon they will have no country to run. What's the purpose?

Water and sand

That's what I smell and feel these two days. The heat in the afternoon made me reminisce being on the edge of island, the sun at its most powerful, with the ocean waves crashing to the shore, the shrieks of children in the distance and adults sunbathing and lazily enjoying their fictions. Now where is that glass of pina colada I ordered?

Heat and humidity notwithstanding, this is the best time for napping. Oh the glorious sun! The strays of lights...blinding when you are outside, but naturally lighting your room to its best shade. I can never live without it. Sweat from the after-nap is tolerable because of the refreshment to our soul. To me, a nap is not just a nap, to nap is to enjoy all the wonders of the world. Smell the freshness of your pillow, feel the softness of your bed, breathe the unpolluted air while it still lasts, curl up on your bed, read your magazines until the purring fan and the afternoon music lulls you to sleep...it's the best feeling in the world.

Enjoy!

May all beings be happy!

It's Vesak Day again. Let me wish you happiness and may all beings be happy too! Perhaps we should all consider, it's time to up our game on supporting the cause for vegetarianism.

Albert Einstein said, "Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to be a vegetarian diet." Gandhi also once said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." There is one important precept, as old as history itself, that hasn't changed since. Confucius, Lao Tzu, Buddha all preached it. Hinduism taught it. Jesus summed it in single most important rule in the world: 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.'

We all want to be loved, want to be treated fairly and just. The pronoun 'we' here are beings, and is not intended solely for humans. We don't want to be put into a machine and sliced with blades. Or crammed into spaces with no breathing air with our fellow humans. Or skinned alive..you get the idea.

Let us stop and think about the food on our plate next time.

Just like last year, I wish I could be at Borobudur today. I shall withstand the heat and humidity (Singapore is SO hot and humid this week!) to watch the procession. But alas, I have just visited the place a few months ago. Patience, is something I lack these days.

May all beings be happy and free of suffering!

"I have nothing to say and I am saying it"

4'33" is perhaps the most radical music composition I have ever encountered. It's John Cage's most famous piece and the most controversial. It sounds to me like an art, which music pretty much is to begin with. Perhaps using your environment to create music makes the most perfect sense of all. It is a canvas and a mirror. The center piece is not the object we think it is, it is us.

One funny thing is in the interlude, all sorts of cough sounds from the audience suddenly came up, it's like they're suppressing it for the effect of the composition.



From Wiki:

4′33″ (Four minutes, thirty-three seconds) is a three-movement composition by American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912–1992). It was composed in 1952 for any instrument (or combination of instruments), and the score instructs the performer not to play the instrument during the entire duration of the piece. Although commonly perceived as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence", the piece actually consists of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed. Over the years, 4′33″ became Cage's most famous and most controversial composition.

Conceived in 1948, while Cage was working on Sonatas and Interludes, 4′33″ was for Cage the epitome of aleatoric music and of his idea that any sounds constitute, or may constitute, music. It was also a reflection of the influence of Zen Buddhism[citation needed], which Cage studied since the late 1940s. In a 1982 interview, and on numerous other occasions, Cage has stated that 4′33″ is, in his opinion, his most important work.

Can you live 24 hours without gadgets?

Tomorrow is Shutdown Day. Although the premise is about a day without computer, I'd like to think of the day without any sort of electronic gadgets. I can't participate, although I'd love to join the excitement. Being excited about a day without computer, iPods, digital cameras, cellphones???? Yes! Remember my Nyepi post? Perhaps another day, I'd like to experience that.

Can you last? Let's go unplugged!