That which we call Wisdom

Dear Friends,
   image from www.zenandtheartofbusiness.com
We had briefly digressed into the topic of 知 (”zhi”, awareness, realisation, wisdom, knowledge etc) in earlier posting. (refer to posting 3rd Major Qi Period : May 21~July 22, 2008).
Both 老子 (Lao zi) and 孔子 (Kong zi)  have touched on the essence of  知, as per earlier postings. To recap :

As per 老子 :  “知不知, 上 [...]

驚蛰, Thunder and Off we go

Dear Friends,
                    

The lightning strikes and all things spring to life.

Mar 5 is 惊蛰 (Jing Zhe), the beginning of a new 节气 (jie qi), it will last until Mar 20, 2008.

In the posting “Natural 4 seasons”, we talked about 阳气 (Yang Qi) starts to descend in Autumn, sinks further into the deep of Mother Earth for [...]

Experiencing “Now and Here”

Dear Friends,

Modern life, especially in the cities, are so “momentum” driven. Therefore, we talk about :

“… the market is losing its momentum….”

“… you need more momentum in your life…”

“… sorry, I need to rush …” etc

We spend too much worry about the next day, our kids’ future, the U.S. sub-prime issue etc.
Life is [...]

Sexual Orientation and Kaleidoscope

Dear Friends,

Are you troubled by people with different sexual orientations from yourself ?

In my previous posting “From Nothingness to 有生于无”, we discussed the concept of  无 “Nothingness” and  有 “Somethingness”.
The relevant passages in 《道德经〉 (Dao De Jing) and 《易传。系辞〉 (Yi Zhuan - Xi Ci) respectively are :

道生一，一生二，二生三， 三生万物。

易有太极，是生两仪，两仪生四象，四象生八卦，，，，。

These two statements, from two different classical texts, refer [...]

Red Underwear & Your Birthday in Anno F.X. ?

Dear Friends,

Just before Chinese New Year, a Feng-Shui “master” told his Singaporean TV audience that RED UNDERWEAR is good for you in 2008. Singapore, as ever a competitive society, quickly ran out of red underwear stock citywide. 

In most non-Chinese history books, years are indicated as B.C. or A.D. (Or more recently, to be more politically correct, C.E. “Common [...]

Sub-prime and Post-Conditions (後天八卦)

Dear Friends,

Post-Conditions Ba Gua (后天八卦) is more complex and dynamic than Pre-Conditions (先天八卦). This note inevitably is  a very superficial exercise with little in details, if any at all.
To recap, Pre-Conditions (先天八卦) deals with a set of paired pre-Conditions (essentially a balance of Yin and Yang Qi) before the birth of “any event”. It consists of 4 [...]

Health Check Up - what you should really know

Dear Friends,

We are always reminded to have regular health check-up, to ensure early detection of any warning signal.
However, there are a few things you need to know about these common tests.
Say for blood tests, typically a few c.c. of your blood is withdrawn for lab analysis. It typically gives the result as a ratio or count (such [...]

Walking with Empress Cixi (象)

Dear friends,
I believe many of you have visited Yi He Yuan (颐和圆) in Beijing, the favourite summer retreat for Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), who was the de facto ruler of China for 47 years from 1861 until her death.
Empress Dowager’s favourite place in Yi He Yuan is the famous Long Corridor, which is 2,238 feet [...]

Concept of Phase 象

Dear friends,
I touched upon “forms” (象) or “phase” in a recent exchange with friends. Thought of sharing with all my dear readers in this blog.
“象” (”xiang”) is an important tool in tradtional Chinese culture. It is used to represent a certain stage of thing or event.
As an illustration, lets look at our emotions : happy, sad, angry or [...]

Health Pointers for Free

Dear Friends,
I have described human body’s growth/reproductive pattern and it’s “4 seasons” in earlier postings.
So how do we ensure we do not deviate too far off the natural patterns ?
They are summed up nicely by our ancestors in the following few words, in the Chinese Medicine classical text of <黄帝内經> (”Huang Di Nei Jing”) :
“… 法于阴阳, 和于术数, 食饮有节, 起居有常, [...]