Dear friends,
image from www.theflowerexpert.com
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No word can fully express our sadness on the two most devastating disasters in recent times. Our deepest sympathy to all who have lost their lives, suffered or lost their loved ones in the tragic disasters.
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They suffer so much, because we enjoy so much. We ARE every bit why they ARE suffering so much.
There shouldn’t be any political consideration in helping our fellow brothers and sisters in pain.
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It is in tragic time like these that will bring out the best of human nature, in helping the needy and each other, irrespective of colour, race, religion or nationality.
My heart sank to see so many school children lost their lives in the quake. While we cannot fight the force of nature, certainly some unneccessary damages can be prevented, especially that of lives. Young kids are the future of our society.
The school buildings were definitely not built according to the building codes of those earth-quake zones. Behind every modern block we see in big costal cities, there are 1,000X as many “toufu” enginnering works all over the China. Sichuan will not be the last tragedy. All schools should be immediately checked to see whether they clear the building codes. No more student life should be lost due to substandard school premises. Students should feel safe studying in the schools.
The road to a rising super-power is indeed a long and difficult one, as the Torch-relay to Qomolangma symbolises. For a nation of 1.3 billion with 800 million farmers, it will take couple of generations to elevate the entire population to a higher level of well-being with a well intention and dedicated government.
Tragic time brings out the best or worst of the government. As in posting Just Government, 仁政, all that is needed is 12 Chinese characters :
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风调雨顺，国泰民安， 安居乐业, (”feng tiao yu shun, guo tai min an, an ju le ye”)
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i.e. “Harmonious natural environment, Peace and Stability, a Decent Livelihood”.
Nothing more, nothing less. The rest are cosmetics.
Gate Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha.
Filed under: All, Cosmic Forces, Environment
Truly, you have expressed the pain & emotions in our hearts too. This morning breakfast was difficult to bear, with seeing the newspaper’s first few pages, photos of the students in rubbles & their grieving parents. Not forgetting that many of these students are the only child & hope of their parents.
Yes, the boneless buildings need to be corrected. Hope something would be done after this disaster.
Thanks for your write up on this subject, so that we all can face it & go through all these together….in 1 spirit.
Wondering what your last line means.
Sorry, I’m really ignorant about it.
YL:
there are things that do not and need not require direct explanation or interpretation. Things like why the heart beats etc.
The last line in this posting is one of them. Trying to explain is equivalent to trying to draw snake with legs. It is the last verse of Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra.
Sorry if this is offending to you.
Thanks for caring to explain this. Off course I completely agree with you that there are things that do not & need not require direct explanation or interpretation. That is called faith!
I’m certainly not offended!
I also don’t quite understand many of your lines eg. this is because that is, they are because we are, etc….
But I accept it as your expressions of life which is important for us to understand you.
Each one of us is different & we express ourselves differently which makes all so interesting & colourful. Accepting each other & not expecting to change them to conform to ones thoughts & expectations….. constitutes unconditional love! It takes a lifetime to learn & have this.
Heartbreaking to see the motionless children under the rubbles. If this is only the prelude of the “Summer Phase”, can’t imagine the full-blown version.
As xy2 said:
“there are things that do not and need not require direct explanation or interpretation.”
Sounds so familiar as I heard someone else said the same thing.
That’s the difference between the ones who had the opportunity to soak in Chinese Education from young and the bananas ( Yellow on the outside, White on the Inside). Intellects steeped in Chinese education are brilliant in using few words or none that speaks a lot and leave you spellbound wondering what it means and can be frustrating to the Western mode of communication that wants everything spelt out clearly.
Those who figured, relishes in the beauty, those who
did not, could remain miscommunicated !
It’s West vs East way of expressing. The Western garden eg. English Garden is about bright colours; the Eastern Garden eg. Japanese Garden is about serenity of greens, pebbles not loud colours.
So leaves you with something to discover yourself. By the way, I am a banana.
YL, mf :
words are essential tools for communication. Yet often they make us blind. We become hostage to the emotions and biases associated with words.
Truths are, in essence, wordless.
When we can’t see each others’ faces to read their expressions, words are very necessary to convey true meanings & feelings. Wordless will be silence & sometimes silence shouts loudly & numb the heart. Sometimes silence kills….
Banana is soft inside(heart) & sweet(spirit). Can be crushed & meshed up by wordless truths. There are many types of bananas. I’m this type.
MF, glad to meet you, a banana like me but of different type, most probably!
it doesn’t matter whether you are a potato, pineapple, mango or banana. They are just different expression of forms. The moment we lock onto these external expressions, we become blind to underlying truth and our view narrowed.
We have discussed this “differentiation orbital trap” in the posting “How much is a Peanut? How much is a Diamond?”
You can do a simple experiment. Dye your hair blonde or paint yourself black. Sure you will get different response from all around you. Truth is, you haven’t changed a bit.
YL, nice to meet you too.
You can google the mantra – all the info u want to know
and drawing your own “snake with legs”. Hav Fun.
Hi MF, what do you mean by google the mantra? You mean type the sentence ‘ this is because that is’, ‘they are because we are’ into Google search? Sorry, you may be laughing by now but I actually did all these & even typed ‘mantra’ to search- in Google but got no where near to what I want to find.
Hehehehe…..I like that….’draw my own snake with legs’!
Do you know that before the fall of Adam & Eve, the snake in the Garden of Eden can talk & got legs to stand? It’s because he tricked Eve into eating the forbbiden fruit, that he was punished to crawl on his belly & eat dust! Should be fun trying to imagine the snake with legs. Might come out to look like the dragon with many legs! Oh….oh…..
I’m poor at reading in between lines, that’s why words are very impt to me. Silence would be a killer unless I can read the facial expression.
YL, I meant google the ” gate gate …” i just learnt that it is a famous mantra in Buddhist scriptures but beware, you may end up more confused. Happy self-discovery.
prajna. (般若).
Ohhh…..I see…..
As long as I know that it’s the Buddhist chant, it’s more than sufficient for me. I need not search into the details of the word.
Just like we use the word ‘Amen’, ‘Hallelujah’, ‘Jehovah Jireh’ etc…
Others also don’t know the meaning but only that they are related to Christianity.
Thanks for explaining, MF.