Feb 24, 2016
Days like today
Sometimes things are just going very well, and that makes me want to be nice and joyful. But I also wonder, does my bubble of serendipity keeps me from seeing the struggles of others?
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from South Korea
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Netherlands
seen from France
seen from Kazakhstan
seen from India
seen from Sri Lanka
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from Finland
Days like today
Sometimes things are just going very well, and that makes me want to be nice and joyful. But I also wonder, does my bubble of serendipity keeps me from seeing the struggles of others?
Someone cleaning the floor above. We see the clean floor but we don’t see the person... invisible.
MRI Meditation
I got to see things...
Talk about stillness. At the 22 second mark, I felt as though I was experiencing something completely surreal.
Beginner's Mind, Beginner's Heart
Reading the book by Shunryu Suzuki, the first thing I noticed was that the characters for beginner's mind (初心) literally translates to beginner's heart, where 心 = heart.
Google translate says 心 is both mind and heart, but in my native understanding of Chinese, I feel 心 as more heart than mind. When discussing this with my father, he pointed out that many Chinese (= Kanji) words about thinking invoke the heart, reflecting a conception of thinking that acknowledges the role of feeling, in contrast to the Western view that places thinking and feeling in opposition.
The character for "to think" is 想. The top 相 means picture (photo is 相片). The bottom is heart. "Thought" is 思想. Note the heart at the base of both characters.
Now, there is another phrase for "to think"： 动脑筋. It literally means "move the brain". This sort of thinking is more used in the sense of solving a difficult math problem, implying more more logic. This thinking also feels more instantaneous, in contrast to 思考, which means a slower, more reflective thinking (literally, testing out thought).
思考 very much reflects my own search for Truth in thinking (waxing philosophical now, since I'm approaching the end of a Doctorate of Philosophy). It's not just a matter of pulling thoughts out of the brain but rather finding expressions of ideas that resonate in the heart.
Something to meditate on. I enjoyed observing my own thought patterns triggered by watching this (space, time, emptiness, motion, illusion...).
Native
Eating a 1620s reenacted Thanksgiving feast with pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation, not a single mention of the natives which were critical to their survival and whose history they re-wrote. Later talking to locals, there are plans to shed light on that side of the story as the 400 anniversary approaches.
You can observe shadows on water on a windy night.