Yeung Yat Chan | BrotherOne @brother-1 - Tumblr Blog

Ubi leges valent, ibi populus liber potest valere.

Sailing the sea of unexplored, navigating through the map of experience.

A brief reflection on the symbolic meaning of a physiological feature of human beings.

Have you ever wondered why our eyes are positioned at the front of the face?

The answer could be fairly simple — God wants us to keep looking forward. This answer, nonetheless, is more of a distorted simplicity. While ordinary men may think that we are physiologically programmed to look forward, it may as well be a challenge given by the One above — to voluntarily take the strain as we coordinate the cervical and optic muscles and rotate our heads, so that we can, metaphorically, look back and learn from our past.

Looking back, however, does not connote absolute benefits. If people are overly obsessive about their past, they become its prisoners and have to withstand, often unconsciously, the pain of acting so; just like people would eventually experience chronic muscle strain if they relentlessly ‘look back’.

So, what have we learnt?

With moderation, look forward and look back.

Reading list for February 2021

1. The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel Van der Kolk

2. Protagoras and Meno – Plato

3. The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe – Stephen W. Porges

Reading list for August 2020

1. The Undiscovered Self with Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams — Carl Jung

2. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories — Franz Kafka

Ongoing reading list

1. Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief — Jordan B. Peterson

Reading list for June 2020

1. Modern Man in Search of a Soul — Carl Jung

2. Fahrenheit 451 — Ray Bradbury

Ongoing reading list

1. Capital in the Twenty-First Century — Thomas Piketty

Reading list for January 2020

1. Antichrist — Friedrich Nietzsche

Ongoing reading list

1. Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief — Jordan B. Peterson

2. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading — Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren

Religion and Life

A man of fortune is a man of virtue, a man of virtue is a man of happiness.

How do you define the good and the bad? If the Holy Bible, the collection of Words of God, the volume of Logos, is the singular true source of reference, for what reason should I trust it?

Or we could argue that, this is a foundational question of the faith in God, a question enquires into the existence of God himself?

If God himself is the begin and the end, the creator of the cosmos, the judge who brings justice in the very end, the embodiment of Christianity, does that mean all of these can be invalidated by merely nullifying the existence of God, his authority, and his incontestable righteousness?

Reading list for September 2019

1. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind —Gustave Le Bon

2. 1984 — George Orwell

Ongoing reading list

1. Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief — Jordan B. Peterson

2. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading — Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren

Time is the Fourth Dimension, perhaps?

#Four Dimensions #Ludovico Einaudi #Elements #Time

Stories embody our values and interpretations of meanings, stories most likely consist of many subjective descriptions of the objective reality, and it provides a legitimate means to regulate our emotion.

We are perpetually mediating between order and chaos (optimally speaking), the known and unknown. Though rather hastily, it is only possible to incorporate something that has been explored in the stories, considering we do not know the unknown until it reveals itself.

Every story is an assemblage of narratives of the known, it is an auspicious regulation of emotion by simply informing ourselves who we are, who we want to be (where we want to go), and how are we to get there.

Stories are coherent, and shall not be fragmented since our life is linear, history can’t be situated proceeding to the present, future is never the history of history itself.

#Maps of Meaning #Jordan B Peterson #Psychology

Reading list for August 2019

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century — Timothy Synder

2. Unfreedom of the Press — Mark R. Levin

3. Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief — Jordan B. Peterson

Reading list for July 2019

1. 文化苦旅 — 余秋雨

2. Me before you — Jojo Moyes

Ongoing reading list

1. Capital in the Twenty-First Century — Thomas Piketty

2. 宋詞 — 遲乃義鉑淳（編）

我家，我城我對香港這地方有一份特別的情愫，大概是源於出國唸書的日子久了而蔓生的一份鄉愁。

緬懷一個地方，原來並非只惦記她可愛之處，還有她平凡之處，還有她討厭之處。我喜愛這裏的粵語、繁體字、抑揚頓挫的粗言穢語，走過亞皆老街，法輪功街站依舊擺著黃色橫額「法輪大法好」，朝途人派發大紀元時報；一輛輛貼滿廣告的雙層巴士，擁塞的紅隧，三十一度的潮濕天氣⋯⋯這些以往我不以為然，甚至厭惡的風景，沒想到有天竟成了我最喜愛的一幀都市沙龍。我知道這是獨有於香港的城市風貌。當經過九小時的飛行旅程，飛機側飛，金黃陽光透進機艙內時，我馬上能辨認到維多利亞港，那個孕育無數生命的漁港，而我會跟自己低聲道句：我回來了，我的家，我的城市。

這個城市，正處在大破大立的時勢裏。我聽到了她在呼喊著，她的人民在呼喊著。

年輕人啊，我明白你們經歷過種種抗爭後，對政府和制度的懟怨，或是對自己無力改變現況的嚎啕。但你們可能還沒有意識到，此時此刻的香港正站立於成捍衛民主和自由價值的最前線。但正正是因為處於這麼前線的位置，我更盼望你們行事為人都能更謹記瞻顧，慎思明辯，我盼望你們都可以持守住信念和希望，因為你們參與的不是一場戰役，乃是一場戰爭，是一場將會涵括無數場困惑而絕望的戰爭；因為你們真正的敵人並非那扭曲公義的引渡法案，也非那些涇渭不分的警隊高層和戀饜權力的官員，而是那富有暴政極權趨向統治的中國共產黨，它以資本主義來強化自己的專制，以經濟的國際影響力來腐化人文價值和權利。你們真正的敵人，是剝奪人權，削弱主見的政治意識形態。

一連串的遊行示威抗爭終會再一次歸進靜寥之中，但不要鬆懈。我盼望你們能多了解自己的政治信念，能篤學而博文，能力行而約禮；能有廣闊胸襟包容異見，以理服人。惡龍仍黯黯徘徊，這個城市必須同心畢力，學習耐性的功課，致力於溝通，否則只會在敵人前自我潰解。這顆東方之珠所閃爍並非繁華經濟的霓虹燈光，而是自由的曙光。

香港民眾上街示威的第一天，我的腦海裏一直迴蕩著張昇的一首詞：「多少六朝興廢事，盡入漁樵閒話。悵望倚危欄，紅日無言西下」。我忽爾感觸起來，在想：你們的示威遊行，你們的奮力抗爭，在許多年後回看，還不只是那遠逝時間裏的一小印記。而在後人、我們的下一代去看，甚或只是湖裏的一朵漣漪，短暫，迅逝。他們不會計較遊行人數的多寡，他們會達觀的回顧。紅日無言升起，無言落下，天氣一樣炎溽，紅隧一貫擠塞，雙層巴士依舊來往貫穿這城市的脈絡。然而，我們所奮力所追求的或許也只是這麼簡單。當每個旅者跨洋過海回來，在飛機上看到維多利亞港，看到綿延的天際線時，他們都能欣雀地低語：我回來了，我的家，我的城市。

我會一直與你們同行，正如你們都一直與這個地方同行。我會用自己微弱的聲音對施壓者怒吼，並高唱自由的頌歌，我會以細膩的筆觸鏤刻香港人的堅定與氣韻。

 這是我們的家，我們的城市。這裡是香港。

 #以文字去撫慰 #以筆觸作刀鋒 #我家 #我城