From Evernote:

何謂<求田問舍>?

...

青年人過早企圖置業，是沒有志氣的。看三國志陳登傳，想到以下兩句：「大丈夫憂國忘家縱橫四海，牆頭草求田問舍自甘被縛。」

有月入兩萬港元的青年想置業，從此就被那一層樓縛著了。

不如盡自一己之大志，發揮自己，做有意義的事  。

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From Evernote:

What if you are proud of yourself?

Anything can happen (Part 1)

(Part 2)

I want to share with you this beautiful film, 'Anything can happen' by Marcel Łoziński 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE6q38WnlGA

This is a film ought to see. Because it reminded me a theme I had not talked about in a long time.

What is the meaning of life?

What kind of life I wish to have?

A six-year-old boy goes into a park, and talks to many of the old people there. At first, you will find the boy is interesting, he has got lots of wonderful questions we will never ask. But later, you will find the main theme are on the old people, you will see, how do they feel about their own life. They are mostly lonely, and not happy.

That is the important thing in life.

We must do something meaningful, and to be proud of it.

Are you proud of your true self?

Some guy has brought an expensive car. He was proud of his car, and the money was from his father. He is not proud of his true self, but only his other self. The other-self will be gone in time, but your true-self will not. It remains.  It is yours always. You will be happy in an eternal way. You will be happy when you are old. You will never feel lonely, because,  you will know, you are one with the universe. And that is why, we need to do something meaningful. 

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...

Why is it so difficult to handle rubbish problems in Hong Kong?

From Evernote:

Why is it so diffcult to handle rubbish problems in Hong Kong?

I shall use the following questions to probe the problem:

A.   Sources of Rubbish

1,  Can I buy a piece of biscuit in Hong Kong?

2,  Can I not buy the wrapping?

3,  Can I refuse the rubbish that is coming from my daily necessities?

4, Who created the rubbish?

5, Who is responsible for the rubbish?

6, Can the supermarket be more advanced as the old grocery stores?

7, Can the society refuse or reform the supermarkets?

8, Can we put a tax on ALL wrapping plastics?

9, Can we use glass to replace plastic?

10, Can we ask the merchants to change?

B. How to handle the rubbish

1, Why are we clueless?

2, Are we not wise enough?

3, Are we lacking space?

4, Why can't we dump rubbish on the sea?

5, Why can't we dump rubbish on the land?

6, Can we build a forest on the landfills?

7, Can we turn the rubbish into profitable product?

8, What is Artificial Control?

9, Why  wisdom is always NOT in the hands of a few controlling people?

10, Can rubbish be a privatized business?

11, Can people stop blaming each other and start to think?

12, Will there be people to read the above  questions carefully?

13, Why blaming is wisdom killing?

14, Do we know the problem is coming from an over industrialized time?   

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From Evernote:

Is it really necessary to own your own flat?

Hong Kong is a small place. To own a flat is never easy. Let say a young man has got HK$20,000 (US$2500)a month, if he wishes to buy a flat of HK$4,000,000 (US$513000).  It is almost impossible for him. He has to give up every other wishes, but to work for a down payment first.

The Government of Hong Kong has been encouraging people to own their own flat. It has been a long term policy for the Government to do so. But the real estate keep going up. Buying your own flat is unrealistic.

The Government has got one choice only, that is to beat the market, and hoping to keep the prices lower. But no matter how low the price, it is still not practical to buy a flat.

Why not change the policy?  To rent a flat is almost as good.

In the old times, people had a different thought. If a young man has not a grand wish but to own some estates only, he must be  a weak character without ambition. Why not put all the efforts on what you really wish to do?

And the Government should not build houses to sell, but to rent. the situation would be totally different.


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WHY: "Love of money is the root of all evils"

From Evernote:

"Love of money is the root of all evils"

"Love of money is the root of all evils."  The quote was from the Bible. It has been circulated around the world for some two thousand years. There are similar sayings in China.

The question is why.  And it is not easy to find out the real reason behind it. Love of money seems to be so natural, who would refuse more comfort which money can provide?  Why should I choose not a better life, but a life full of hardship?  When I have no money, I cannot even go to school. And when my mother was sick, I cannot even have a doctor to help her. Why should I not love the money?  Is the Bible wrong? the wise not wise? Should I follow the evil spirit, rather than God? Is this a very very difficult and complicated issue that I cannot understand? Who can tell me?

Yes, money is not to be loved.  Something else is to be loved. People work hard to earn money, and can use the money in many ways. Money is a tool. We need tools to do many things. But we are not working for the tool. We are not living to eat. We have higher purpose in life. We need to achieve something. We have our hope. And we are never to give up our hope. And our hope is not for a selfish purpose. It is very bad to give up the higher purpose in life. We are not like pigs, pigs are living to eat. We are not living for a comfortable living. We are not living for bigger houses, cars, luxuries, If we do, we are leaving the zone of humans. Humans have a higher aim then animals.

And loving money does not only mean leaving the zone of humans, it is the source of hatred. And that creates conflicts, and war. When I cannot have enough money to have a doctor to help my mother, I know that is not only the problem of money. It is a bigger problem. We the human beings are not balanced. We need to work harder and harder for a better future for all mankind.

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What Next?

...

Syria is not a problem now. What is the next problem?

Iran and North Korea may be.

In a few more years, nuclear problems too, would not be a problem at all.

And then the question also rises:  What Next?

There might be some regional conflicts. England and Spain, China and Japan, African oil, etc. Conflicts are bound to happen, as the economic situation falls. But those are never big problems. Some wins, some loses. Smart people will keep an eye on all that, preventing someone in winning too much, and break the balance.

The one and lasting problem is the terrorist groups. Will they sooner or later decrease to a harmless situation?

There are two factors behind it. One being poverty, the other is culture element. Culture element is the ability to think. If you can help them to think properly, they will become rich and will not resort to terror acts.  But that is the basic human problem. People cannot even help their own children to think properly, how can they help other nations?

Ancient Chinese rulers had a very pragmatic technic to handle the problem. They work according to the philosophy of Lao Zi:  Keep every one away from knowledge, and then there will be lasting peace.  And that was no joke. They meant it. To encourage students to study only one moral subject, all students would become obedient civil servants (employed by the rulers) and would not be thinking astray.

And the modern leaders (Mr. Obama and his followers) were thinking in a similar way:

Spread the idea of democracy to the whole world, problems would be solved.

But democracy was only a technical means for the ancient Greeks; they had more subtle inner wisdom above the technical means.

Democracy is useful to wise people only.

If you encourage a group of pigs to select their leader, they could have no other option, but to select another pig to lead them. They will not be thinking wiser, and poverty will remain. Poverty seems to be more eternal then other issues. When they have no other means to earn a living, there will not be peace. We can only hope, terrorist thoughts are not eternal.

How can you encourage the world to “think”?

Yes, if people are wise enough, they will find a means to make a living, and settle every thing peacefully.

We have to stop here. As the problem is too big an issue and we have no other choice, but to guess, what other issue would arise somewhere in the planet and need attention to.

And our question remains: “What next”.

If I say, the next issue is philosophical, you will laugh.

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...

From Evernote:

Why is Lu Xun so important?

One news in Hong Kong said, Lu is phased out already; as his last piece of literature prose in the Chinese school curriculum had been deleted, and the students could never know who is Lu Xun. Lots of angry voices were against it in the web. However, another news from the official news network the xinhuanet published an article denied the news(big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/2013-09/05/c_125323623.htm)(20130905 京華時報 )  . It said, it was one out of several remaining pieces were deleted, not all. And the reason provided were that Lu is too difficult for young students. The message means that it was not a political action to delete Lu, while actually several more important pieces were already disappeared years ago, including the "The positive biography of Ah Q".

Lu is a writer died long ago at 1935. Why he is so important?

Yes, Lu is important not because he was the friend of Mao, and not because he was the only writer who could stand against attacks during the Cultural Revolution, but the works he had produced and the facts of how  influential he was.

He was the main opposition of the Confucian thoughts.    He thought the most important thing for China was to cure the Chinese spirit, as the Chinese spirit was sick, and the cause of sickness was Confucius. In his work, "The Dairy of a Mad Man", he said, the Chinese history itself was a book full of facts of "Confucian doctrines eating people".  And he created Ah Q the image of Chinese people under the influence of Confucius. Up until now, whenever the name of Ah Q was mentioned, people will be alerted of the common weakness of the Chinese people.

Will there be any "Common weakness" in the Chinese spirit? There were actually two kinds of thoughts in the Chinese mind:  one the Pro-Confucius and the other, the Against-Confucius. the Pro ones would deny there were any weakness in the Chinese mind. 

Thus, the Pro-Confucius people would like to delete Lu, or to marginalize him.

And this is one of the interesting point to observe China. Will China go back to the thoughts of Confucius? Or to open up another way?

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From Evernote:

人心是否相通?

...

謝謝讀者寧君來信並贈書:(Paulo Coelho: Warrior Of The Light)

寧君說，不知是否對生命有感悟的人，思想都有相近之處。 不論莊子，耶穌，祈克果，，，對生命都有近似的看法。

是的，李察在學習莊子和耶穌方面，的確時有得益。祈克果未曾深入看過，相信，Paulo Coelho 也是值得一看的。

古語說，人心不同，各如其面。只是部份真確。

人心在兩個地方不但只相通，而且接近相同。

一個是在內在的價值方面相通相同:  最近有小孩的雙眼被人挖去，幾乎所有人的感受一樣。儘管儒家強調權威思想和服從，而且否定研究大 自然，但並無否定人的惻隱之心。而所謂惻隱，也是很接近乎<愛>的。

另一個是在高層次的方面相通相同。

無論是在體育競技方面的冠軍，或是在政治，宗教，科學，文學，音樂，藝術，商業，等等方面的造詣極高人仕，甚至於只是一個被選出的絕色美女，他們關於宇宙人生的某種感覺，都是相通的。

大約所有人關於天堂的感受都一樣。

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...

From Evernote:

How does the sun shine?

...

The eyes of a six year old boy were plucked by some one. The tragedy happened not long ago. The act were worst then killing. Why did people do this? Minds were shocked around China, and the world.

It proves that we are one and we are all related. It is stirring.

The hidden meaning is very basic, yet it is forgotten some times:

We need to see.

The sun is shining for every one.

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...

What is the most important thing in Syria now?

Not to let the chemical weapons fall on the "wrong hands"-

Some of the rebels are terrorist, and the sudden collapse of the Syrian State would have unexpected effects.

Please refer to Thomas L. Friedman:  "Arm and Shame" in the IHT, Sept 5, 2013.

From Evernote:

Who can lead the world?

If no one ever cares about the world, I care.

If no one leads the world, I lead.

How do I lead the world?

Do I lead the world with force, or hate?

No, I will lead the world with love and wisdom.

Do I need force?

Yes, I will need force. Not only partial force, but complete force.

What is a complete force?

A strength coming from every body, every mind, every soul, is a complete force.

Who am I?

I am we.

Who are we?

We are one.

From Evernote:

What is Water?

"Water" might be the only mind-concept that was concrete in the minds of a few very early Chinese philosophers.

mind-concept is the special Chinese way to think. They would use a pictogram, or the graphic symbol character, to represent a mind-concept, which is usually not definable by the reasoning power of the left brain,  for example, "tao" was a mind-concept, and left-right another.

What is a "water"?

From the books of  Zhuang Zi , water is something like wind, it could float things. If there were some water on the table, you could float some small bits on it. But if you put a cup, the small among of water cannot float the cup, the cup would stick on the table. Zhuang Zi was the most  balanced talent by that time. He can look into the facts, and find out the truth. However, Lao Zi was not that balanced. What is water? Lao Zi would not see into the reality of the water, but only saw the symbolic meaning of the water. He said, water was the symbol of weakness:  and he changed his attention  immediately from water to "weakness', which was another important mind-concept. According to Lao Zi : being weak is good, as it can turn into strong.  Weakness  is  strong,  like  water is strong.  As water has no form, can go every where,  is an undefendable weapon in war.

Fail to look into reality, was the weakest point in Chinese culture. Whenever they see something, they would use the mind-concept to analyse it , and try to find out the "inner" meaning.

And actually, the so-called "inner meaning" could be another trap in the front steps of a treasure mountain. In a balanced mind like Zhuang Zi, things are always reachable both from the external side and the  internal side, and only the balanced mind can see into the real reality which is not necessary the same as a symbolic moral. A water is a water, which is a real thing, and of course, you can see that as a symbol and try to find out the inner meaning.

Why is it a trap?

But in the old times, people cannot distinguish between "inner meaning" and "moral". They thought that every mind-concept has got some "moral" in it. 

The trap is forgetting the internal search. It is not only moral . There is an inner meaning for everything. To search only outside, is the fatal dead end for any civilization. And the Chinese were not mainly internal searching, they had confused the internal with the moral.

And that is why, Confucius was so much fond of moral and neglecting all the scientific and external search. All the books by the Confucian scholars were moral books, not even one of them science.

From Evernote:

What is the meaning of being "big"?

.
The Chinese way of thinking is very different from the West.

They use pictogram, and are mainly right-brained.  They would like to use a graphic word to represent a "mind-concept", and the mind-concept could be a basic building block of the thoughts. Or it could be an ideal, or a trend.

a mind-concept is not like a paradigm. It is just a concept, but the concept is usually not definable.  Tao( the way, or the truth) is the main mind-concept among the concepts in the Spring, Autumn & Warring States period(770-221BC)

Philosophers tended to corner a mind-concept, and then develop their explanation.  Once they found a new mind-concept, they would be very happy.

Big, or Bigness is a very simple mind-concept at the very beginning. However, this mind-concept has been extremely important in Chinese Culture.

Zhuang Zi had written an article in the very early stage of Chinese History. By that time, no one seems to aware the situations of human beings. They dont even have a concept about the "human being", and not to mention the concept of the earth, or the creator, etc. Zhuang Zi was a very imaginative philosopher. He wrote about a big bird in the article "The Flying" (refer to my bloc for the original text). The bird is so large, that it can fly from the Northen Unknown to the Southern Unknown. What is it like flying in such high places? No one had gone up such high places then. Zhuang Zi wished to use such impact to guide the thought into another mind-concept, the boundless infinity. In the boundless infinity, one could find absolute freedom.

However, people at that time simply cannot understand such advanced mind-concepts. Infinity and absolute freedom is too complicated for them. Instead, they had found only the concept of bigness is acceptable. Lao Zi said, Tao is Bigness. And many other writers wrote about bigness then. Some other "Zhuang Zi"(many other writers declared themselves were Zhuang Zi, but actually they were employed by the Han Rulers to use the name to promote Confucian doctrines)said, in front of Confucius, no one can claim the title of  bigness. (The Autumn Water, a faked work of Zhung Zi) . The thought of being big is very popular from that time on.  Lao Zi said, "the sky is big, the earth is big, and the man(the Emperor) is big. "

Being big had become an ideal then. the proverb " Be inclusive and be big"  ( You Rong Nai Da  )was impressive in the Chinese mind from then on. However, the more advanced mind-concept of infinity had been marginalized since then. It is another sad story of Gresham's Law, bad money drives out good.  "In search of bigness" has become a main concern of the rulers. They can never understand the thought of oneness, or the thought of infinity.

Being Big, is the comfort zone of the Chinese. It seems that being big is something to be proud of, and safe. And more importantly , it is compatible to Confucian doctrines.

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From Evernote:

What is the basic character of the Chinese?

It is  "Wu Nai", means helplessness.
When asked: "Don't you feel wu nai?" Lots of them will say yes.

Lots of the Chinese believe in fate, feeling they can do nothing, honor authority, and that means giving up the freedom of thinking. Lots of them are selfish, not willing to mind other people's business.

Dr Sun Yat-sen said they are like a basin full of loose sands. And sands are not like concrete, it is loose, cannot support anything.

Those are Confucian influences.

But this is not the original character of Chinese. Confucians had tried to eliminate ancient thoughts. They had marginalized almost all the non-confucian thoughts. They had changed the Chinese character.

However, not all Chinese are like that. Lots of them are in the opposite. May be that is the subconscious mind brought down  from the ancient. Lots of them are brave and daring people.

And that is the reason why there are always two different types of Chinese.


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From Evernote:

What is a sex breath?

People are breathing much more during sex. What is the difference between a sex breath and an ordinary sports breath?

I like to practice Qi Kung during midnight. One time, when the Qi came up from my stomach as usual, suddenly I noticed the different. I found I was breathing deeply yet heavily. It seems something more than the normal air are blocking the airway. I have to squeeze harder to let the air come up from my lung. The experience was very much like that in the sex, but not like that in sports. During sports, if you need more oxygen, you just breath harder and the oxygen will come as expected. But during sex moments, you breath harder and harder, the noise were not the same. Some thing more than air is using your airway, it is a traffic problem in the airway.

And now I was practising Qi Kung only, I was not making love. Why should such noise come up ?

I doubted that it was the Qi using the airway as well as the air. And  I think the Qi was not using the tunnel of the airway, but the tunnel itself. It was something like the water tube. the water use the airway inside the tube to move, but something else is using the tube itself to move.

And now I was practising Qi Kung only, not making love. Why is it that I got the same feeling?

It is not easy to call up the Qi during practice. It need years of practicing. But you dont need any practice, if you are making love to some one you love, the Qi would come up, as in the Qi Kung practice.

I guess it was the time for the male and female to exchange the Qi. When a positive or masculine Qi meets a negative or feminine Qi, they must be doing something.

Qi is unknown to human uptil now, however, it is something like electric, it is not a spirit. I suppose there must be some thing more than physical contacts during sex. there must be some spiritual contacts during sex. 
And I guess, it is this spiritual contact which brings life into the next generation.

And the strange part is:  even people do not love each other, still they can make love and produce babies easily. They might not have spiritual contact, but still , they could have babies, though the life of the babies could be different. Will the baby grown up as usual or, grown up as a misfit ?

We can just wait for the future studies. But for the moment, every one can observe the special sex breath easily.

I was once walking with one of my school mates. She was not my girlfriend, but we talked very often. It was the teenage years, we talked and talked, all about the most updated literature ideas.

We were walking uphill, and suddenly I found she was breathing very noisily.  She breathed and breathed, for a very long time. The sound was so strange, that I can remember it after so many years.

It was exactly the sex breath she was breathing. But I didn't know it then. I asked her, are you alright? she said, she is ok. And she refuse to sit down and take a rest.

But I still do not understand, why would such sex breath come up during a literature  discussion.

From Evernote:

Will there be spiritual contact in love making?

When I was practicing Qi Kung ( A kind of Kung Fu) I found I was breathing very heavily. It is not like the breaths in sports. It is rather like like the breathings in sex. Heavy, noisy.

It is a stimulating thing. And I have a question:  Will it be the same Qi ? When people are making love, the male and female might have a contact of Qi.  They might have contacts not only in skin and sperms and eggs, but also in Qi?  Could they exchange Qi during love making?

And most important of all, their spiritual situation might have some effect in the arrangements of the genes. A happy couple produce better offsprings, do you believe that?

spiritual forces could arrange genes, that could be a very important study.

And I must make a note here:  Qi is not spiritual. They are not the same thing. Qi is a matter, like electricity. May be, those  are the helpers of spirit, not the spirits.

From Evernote:

What is "Love" ?

This is the most asked question in Google last year.  And there are numerous definitions of love listed in the web.

Why  are  so many people curious about love?

Because life is linked. Even in the most terrible solitary confinement, still, one is linked.

Love is the communication between minds. The communication can be physical or spiritual. The communication could be strong  or weak.  And the feelings of communication depends on different people.  Some people have a stronger feeling then others. But the links between people are always there.

And that is why we are one.

From Evernote:

How to pick philosophy from religion?

Religion is a taboo today. Lots of people have given up religion. When they gave up religion, they gave up the philosophy too.

There are always two parts within a religion:  philosophy and doctrines.

Doctrines are always the work of clergymen, but philosophies not.

Oneness is the basic idea of Jesus. And it is almost same with Zhuang Zi.

Why is Oneness important?

Because Oneness is the reason of love.

When people realize that God is Us and We are God, his thought will be in a much higher level.

What is the meaning of "We are God"?

It means human conscience is divine.  And divine is human conscience.

If you can seek from your inner conscience, you will discover many things.  For example, homosexual need not be a sin, but dishonest is. If we can honor honest and give up lying,  many problems could be solved.

And this is the philosophy from Jesus.

She Loves The Baby

She loves the baby
She kisses the baby
She hugs the baby
She collects clothes with the baby
The baby slips
The baby falls

She cried
I will follow you

Angels took them both

(  A baby and her maid fell  from a high building yesterday in Hong  Kong. )

From Evernote:

How to communicate with an orange internally?

To know something externally is to measure, calculate, and explore, etc. You need some tools to measure an orange. You can cut it into pieces, put them into different machines to measure it. But to know an orange internally is a completely different approach.

It is the same with knowing a person, or a special situation internally.

You ought to use your mind.

What ?

First you have to put down your scanner, camera, ruler, etc. Forget those external tools. You are not to give up tools, however, put them down for a while, can help you create a silent mind.

May be, you can smile a little.

And then you say, ok, I like the orange.

You have started an important step. You have started to use your feeling. If you open the orange, perhaps, you will like it more.

Now you are in deep contact with the orange. Did you feel anything?

Or you felt nothing at all?

Yes, internal connection in not a very difficult matter. You have the feeling, and you are not crippled inside. You are using your inner feeling to contact the orange.

You have a feeling with the orange.

Did you hear the inner voice of the orange?

If you do, you must be very talented.


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