Holy be Your Name

Standing in front of these holy items, the whole history ofChristianity came alive.The fragments of Holy Cross, Noah's Ark, the bones of John theBaptist, Luke etc, were placed in this very room at Etchmiadzin,surrounded me with thousand years of significance. I couldn't help buttrembled when confronted by these important proofs.I have seen the relics of Buddha in Xi'an, China, the hair of ProphetMuhammed in Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, Turkey. Seeing these now inEtchmiadzin would make it complete as three most important religionsin the world echo to each other to bring forth peace and enlightenmentto mankind.However, great minds are meant to be misunderstood, because atdifferent levels they communicate.J. Francis Stroud says, "Religion is like a finger pointing to themoon, but foolishly we grasp or put our arms around the trappings ofreligion, ritual, dogma, and forget all about in which direction it ispointing us to go.…where the finger is pointing to the moon, all that the fool sees isthe finger."And started comparing that my finger is better than yours, my God isbetter than his, my war is holier...

Freedom in China

Normally I didn't really care much about the human rights or freedom of speech etc pressured on China by western countries.

But just a few days in China, I was surprised to learn that many popular websites are currently banned in China by GFW (so called Great FireWall of China) for the reasons I am yet to find out. Those websites like Blogger, Wikipedia, Flickr etc cannot be accessed or photos cannot be viewed, some even claimed that Google and Gmail had similar fate some times ago.

I always think that a ban in the freedom of expression is an indication of failure in education, a lack of confidence in one's righteousness but still wants to exert controls.

Normally when something is banned, it will not just stop that way, it is a human nature to find ways to go through, around, underneath, over it, for example, will a country which bans prostitution have no prostitutes? It will just go underground, and problems will be difficult to be assessed and rectified when neccessary.

The more something is supressed, the more it shows the suppressor's inability to handle different voices from an equal stance.

Civilized Anything

It is not unusual to notice that there are a lot of banners with slogan hanging here and there in China, one word that comes out most often, I think, is 'civilized', for example, be a civilized citizen, civilized unit, civilized management, civilized user, civilized working, civilized driving etc, it has been used so widely until it has almost reached a stage where 'civilized' can just be coined to any nouns and verbs. 'Civilized' here simply means to be considerate, to think about others, to respect.

The China population has been ranking top for long, it has become a custom for most people to fight for whatever they want without considering much about others, living in scarcity for so long has planted a concept that whatever you want will be grabbed by others if you are not fast enough and being too considerate, this mode of survival skill has been carried forth until the age of economic booming.

As Beijing 2008 Olympic is approaching, the government has worked extra hard with the hope to remove as much 'uncivilized' habits as possible from the public, in order to not leave a bad image to foreigners. However, smoking in a closed public area like lift, train carriage, or spitting onto floor or even carpet, peeing beside a road etc can still be seen.

快乐的邂逅

许多人为自己的人生套上太多的必需,必需考好成绩,努力向上,必需勤奋工作挣钱,必需有家庭有伴有孩子,而下一代则必需重覆这些必需.

这种必需是什么呢?是一种狭隘的盲从,认为美满的人生,快乐的获取,只有一种既定的途径可达至.

但是人的心像个快乐的小孩,世界是他的乐园,美好的东西太多,有趣的玩乐无数,周遭尽是无限新奇的可能性.可是所谓的理智,就像个呆板的大人,喋喋不休的尽是催促他做些无聊的工作.

放开束缚吧!突然你会觉得天地豁然一片辽阔.

别太过认真,来这世上尽情的玩乐吧!这不是颓废迷失的放纵,而是稚子之心在神的国度里尽情的嬉乐,以心为本,探索自身的能量,赞叹世间的奥妙.

人生没有意义,这没有意义可不是一种消极,而是一种自由,正因为没有意义,每一个人皆可赋予自己个别的意义,是对是错只有你的心知道,问问自己,你快乐吗?快乐是一种上帝的肯定,违背心的意愿得到的将是惩罚,是郁郁寡欢,或百般无耐,你骗得了全世界,骗不过你的心.

相信你的心吧,当你的心快乐天真的笑着时,那是一种与神的邂逅.

Leaping with Gratitude

My heart is filled with gratitude these days because Kanna and Pillai have been taking the extra effort to offer me the freedom to quench my globe-trotting urge and an option to go back later. I have been lucky all these years to have great people around me, I still feel that I owe them a debt of gratitude because of my leaving.

However, inside of me there is a force growing stronger and stronger, a force of metamorphosis, and I think my changing process is going to be faster and faster. That is how growth should be, like snowballing, to welcome more growth and seek more possibilities by leaping forth, I might fall and it might hurt painfully, but I don't think it will make me less intelligent.

I have least intention to lead a monotonous life, staying at one single place doing the same old thing over and over again, life is thousand-cloven, all rich and wonderful, but I cannot see the new world without leaving the old, the new might not be the better, the important thing is my readiness to take the risk and go forth.

Into Uncertainties

Just a few more days I will be free, in front of me are uncertainties, however, age has taught me the beauty of them, because within uncertainties, there are possibilities, and my life will change, I still don't know to which direction, but at least I can feel the excitement now, it's alluring, and fresh, and energetic...to walk into the world again with a child-like curiosity and playfulness.

It's a bit strange if after accumulating experience and knowledge throughout the years, what is left within me is fewer possibilities and confinement, learn all these years to tell myself what I can do and what I cannot, to shrink my own world with my own fear and lament about it. It is really funny if one can think in such way to reduce oneself to a safety corner.

Whenever I step into a terra incognita, the world opens up for me, now it's getting more and more exciting for me to go into unknown rather than feeling the fear. Unknown is an imagery monster with fear as its weapon, guarding the new world from the timid, the moment I decide to walk straight up and take it down, it dwarfs and vanishes.