Do You Have A Torch at Home?

Joyce was an office lady living by herself. Due to recent financial crisis, she moved from her unit in the City to a small apartment in a lower rank suburb. Her neighbour next door was a single mum with a young daughter. In this apartment, people usually close their doors and seldom talked with each other. So Joyce didn't know her neighbours very well.
One morning when Joyce left home for work, she saw in the lift lobby a notice saying there would be a 2-hour power outage in the evening for maintenance. Joyce remembered that she didn't have any torch at home. So she bought two torches before returning home as preparation for the outage.
After Joyce had supper that evening, the doorbell rang. Joyce opened the door. It was the little girl living next door. The little girl asked, "Miss, do you have a torch at home?" Joyce thought the little girl might have come to borrow a torch from her for the power outage. She further thought in her mind, "Are they really so poor that they couldn't buy their own?" "If I lend them the torch, will they return it to me?" "If I lend them the torch this time, they might borrow other things from me next time. Will they?"
While Joyce was still hesitating, the little girl smiled, "That's okay, miss. We knew you probably don't. That's why I come over." Then, taking a torch out from her pocket, she continued, "Mum said there will be power outage tonight. Take this. You'll need it."
Joyce suddenly became speechless. She was so ashamed of herself. She regretted very much at what she had thought of the little girl and her family. It was just that simple and friendly!

Sometimes we might have thought too much. We might have complicated very simple issues. If we could always look things on the bright side first, the world would look much brighter to us too.

Outside The Windows

When May stepped into her adolescence, she began to have her own point of views on everything, and always had differences with her father. She felt her dad always nagged on things. Everything didn't seem right to him. So her relationship with her dad didn't go very well.
One day, she needed to go to a remote place, and her dad drove her there. They didn't talk much on the way. When they reached to the outskirts, her dad saw a river and said to her that the river was very dirty with lots of garbage. He continued to complain that those people were irresponsible and caused great damages to the environment. May looked outside the window. She couldn't agree with her dad as she saw that the river was quite nice, and it wasn't dirty at all. She felt her dad started again to nag on things as usual. She then withdrew into silence, and they didn't talk any more for the rest of the journey.
Today, May went to the same place again. But this time, she was the driver herself. When she reached to the same spot of the outskirts as she and her father did, she discovered that there were really two rivers; the one on the driver's side was indeed very dirty and full of garbage, the other on the passenger's side was very nice and clean like what she had seen before. She then realized that she had never looked at things from her father's perspective. She wanted very much to tell her dad that indeed he was right, and wanted very much to say sorry to him. But she was not able to do so as her father had already passed away last month.

We all have different views. Sometimes, we may base on our own experience and ability to view subjectively and judge on others. If things turn up differently from our expectations, we tend to disagree and feel frustrated. Try to look more from other people's perspective and understand their rationale and difficulties. We can then have a better understanding of the true picture and can calmly face the situation and handle the matter more appropriately.

The Story of the Barber

In a certain remote village, there is a barber who shaves all and only those villagers who do not shave themselves.
The story is simple, but now comes the question, "Who shaves the barber?"
If the barber shaves himself, then he does not (since the barber shaves only those who do not shave themselves). If the barber does not shave himself, then he indeed does (since the barber shaves all those who do not shave themselves). So, the logic shows the barber shaves himself if and only if he does not shave himself, which is totally absurd.

The only possible answer to the question is that there cannot possibly be such a barber, nor such a village. Put simply, the story is impossible!

Promise. Promise.

Once upon a time, there was a man who worked all of his life and saved all of his money. He was a real miser. He loved money more than anything else. Just before he died, he said to his wife,"Now listen. When I die, I want you to take all my money and place it in the coffin with me. I want to take my money to my afterlife." So he got his wife to promise him with all her heart.
One day, he died. His body was stretched out in the coffin. The wife was sitting there in black next to her closest friend. When they finished the ceremony, and just before the undertakers got ready to close the coffin, the wife handed out a shoe box and placed it in the coffin. Then the undertakers locked the coffin down and rolled it away.
Her friend said, "I hope you weren't crazy enough to put all that money in the coffin." The wife said, "Yes. I promised. I'm a good Catholic. I can't lie. I promised him that I was going to put that money in the coffin with him." Her friend raised her voice, "My goodness. You mean to tell me you put every cent of his money in the coffin with him?" The wife said calmly, "Why, yes. I sure did. I put them all into my account, and I wrote him a cheque."

Confusion. Confusion.

I was writing a blog some other day. I was trying to say something was stationary (i.e. not in motion), but I suddenly forgot whether it should be spelled as 'stationary' or 'stationery'. I knew they are both pronounced the same but their meanings are entirely different. To ensure the correctness of my writing, I had to look up the dictionary to find the right word to use.
After the writing, my mind wandered along similar vein. A couple of other words came to my mind which I felt very easy to get confused and mistaken. Following are some examples but I'm sure there could be many more others. If you know which is which, good on you. If you are not that sure, it's better to consult the dictionary before putting them into writing. Good luck!

aides/aids
aisle/isle
ascent/assent
born/borne
breath/breadth
canon/cannon
complement/compliment
complementary/complimentary
capital/capitol
cast/caste
counselor/councilor
cubical/cubicle
decent/descent
discreet/discrete
ensure/insure
fiance/fiancee
hail/hale
heroin/heroine
immerge/emerge
insolate/insulate
incidence/incidents
instance/instants
kerb/curb
loath/loathe
marshal/martial
principal/principle
recount/re-count
rein/reign
rhyme/rhythm
sensor/censor
stationary/stationery
storey/story
vain/vein
wean/ween
wreath/wreathe

Finally, don't confuse 'we' with 'wee' as we wee.

No Worries

All things in life are temporary. If going well, enjoy them, they won't last forever. If going wrong, forget them, they can't last long either.

WORRY will not take away tomorrow's TROUBLE. It only takes away today's HAPPINESS.

Jobs in the Zoo

One day a young man went to the zoo for an interview of a job as a street performer. The zoo keeper said to him that the zoo's most popular attraction, a gorilla, had died suddenly and he feared that attendance to the zoo would fall off. He offered the young man instead a job to dress up as the gorilla until they could get another one. The young man accepted.
So the next morning, the young man put on the gorilla suit and entered the cage before the crowd came. He discovered it was a great job. He could sleep all he wanted, played and made fun of people, and he drew big crowds to the cage. However eventually, the crowds got tired of him, and he got tired of just swinging on tires. He began to notice that people were paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. Not wanting to lose the attention of the audience, he climbed to the top of the cage, crawled across a partition, and dangled from the top to the lion's cage. Of course, this made the lion furious, but the crowd loved it. At the end of the day, the zoo keeper came and gave the young man a raise for being such a good attraction.
So this went on for some time. The young man kept irritating the lion, the lion got angry, the crowds grew larger, and his salary kept going up. Then one terrible day when he was dangling over the furious lion, he slipped and fell into the lion's cage. The young man was terrified. The lion stared at him and prepared to jump over. The young man was so scared that he began to run around and around the cage with the lion close behind. Finally, the young man started screaming and yelled, "Help! Help me!" The lion was quick to jump on his body. The young man found himself lying flat on the floor looking up at the angry lion.
Hastily, the voice of the lion said , "Shut up! Shut up idiot! Do you want to get us both fired?"

VVJ380

When I purchased my Ford Fairmont Ghia sedan in 2002, I also bought a personalized registration plate (VVJ380) to come with it. VVJ stands for my three children: Vickie, Veronica and Johnson. 380 was the airbus aircraft model introduced at that time. As I had been working in the airline industry for over 30 years, I had particular passion for choosing such number. Besides, 380 also mean:

3 (生) - healthy
8 (發) - wealthy
0 (靈) - intelligent.

I'm so fond of the number 380 that, every time I go to withdraw money from the ATM machines, I withdraw $380 for no reasons!

The Window in the Hospital

Two seriously ill men were staying in the same ward in a hospital. Eddy had to sit up in his bed every afternoon for an hour in order to drain the water from his lungs. His bed was beside the only window of the ward. Ken had to lie flat in his bed all day for his illness and could not see the window. Everyday the two men talked about everything, including their families, houses, work, hobbies and holidays.
In the afternoons, when Eddy sat up to drain the water from his lungs, he looked out through the window and described what he saw to Ken in every details. Outside the window, there was a park and a beautiful lake. Several ducks and swans were swimming leisurely on the water. Children were playing with their toy boats. Young couples were leaning upon each other beside the colourful flower beds. There were beautiful city landscapes in the far distance. Ken listened attentively in closed eyes, imagining the views of all the activities and colours in his mind. Day after day, Eddy told Ken the scenes happening outside the window and Ken said to Eddy he felt very happy with all those views and events.
Time passed. One day when the nurse came by for regular inspections. She found Eddy had passed away quietly and peacefully during his sleep. Eddy's body was subsequently removed from the ward by hospital staff. Several days later after things settled down, Ken asked the nurse if he could change to the bed beside the window which Eddy previously occupied. The nurse gladly agreed and changed accordingly.
In his new bed, Ken forcefully pushed himself to sit up slightly and turned his head slowly to look out through the window, hoping he could have a look himself on the real world outside. But he was shocked as he could see nothing except a white wall of another building opposite. He couldn't understand why Eddy told him things so differently in all those days. He asked the nurse, and she replied, "Eddy was blind. He couldn't see there was a wall outside the window."

Eddy was just trying to create happiness and joy with his imagination, and shared them equally with Ken in order to cheer him up at their difficult times!!

No matter what situations we're in, if we can make others happy, we'll feel happy ourselves too. Sharing sadness and pain reduces sadness and pain by half. Sharing happiness and joy multiplies happiness and joy manifolds. As Michael Jackson also put it in his song (Heal the World):

"We could really get there
if you cared enough
for the living.
Make this little space
to make it a better place."

The Story of Buddha (3 of 3) - The Eightfold Path (八正道)

The Eightfold Path (八正道) describes the ways to end desire and hence suffering as laid out by Buddha. It outlines a plan of self disciplines regarding wisdom, ethics and mentality with the goal of freeing the individual from all desires and hence sufferings, and finally leads to understanding of the truth of life. The Eightfold Path should not be taken as a sequence of eight individual steps. Instead, they are highly interdependent principles that have to be seen in relationship with each other.

The Eightfold Path can be described in simplistic terms as follows:

Wisdom disciplines (智慧) - these require people to establish correct thinking and willingness.
1. RIGHT UNDERSTANDING (正見解)
In order to start down the Eightfold Path, people must understand the Four Noble Truths and the reason for choosing this course of action.
2. RIGHT INTENTION (正思想)
People must be firmly convinced that following the Eightfold path is what they wish to do.

Ethical disciplines (持戒) - these require people to take specific actions in their lives.
3. RIGHT SPEECH (正語言)
People need to consider their words carefully. What they say may not be totally freed from faults, but they should aim for truthfulness and kindness.
4. RIGHT ACTION (正行為)
People must think about the motives for their actions. Actions should be caused by selflessness and kindness, and not selfishness and cruelty. All their actions should show respect for others.
5. RIGHT LIVELIHOOD (正職業)
People should earn their living in ways not to harm others, but show respect for all living creatures, and allow them to continue with their own moral and spiritual growth.

Mental disciplines (定力) - these require people to take specific actions in their minds
6. RIGHT EFFORT (正精進)
People should persist in their effort to live their lives in keeping up with the principles of the Eightfold Path. Don't be too rough on oneself when things got messed up. Just pick up, dust off and gently and firmly set back in the right direction. Practice makes things perfect.
7. RIGHT MINDFULNESS (正意念)
People should be very aware of their own minds and bodies. They should notice when moods and feelings change, not for the sake of judging them as good or bad but for the sake of noticing what they are and how rapidly they change.
8. RIGHT CONCENTRATION (正禪定)
In this step, people must focus their mind and meditate. With correct practices of meditation, their bodies will relax, their minds will be calmed and freed from all distractions. Their minds will enter into a state where all mental forces are unified and directed into one particular object for contemplation.

By following the Eightfold Path, people would be led ultimately to the liberation of all sources of desire and hence suffering, thus attaining nirvana - the state of being freed from all sufferings. It is anticipated to be difficult but achievable.

After Buddha attained his enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree at the age of 35, he chose to return to the world to share his knowledge with others. Over the next 45 years, he travelled from place to place to preach his teachings to everyone who listened (including the five ascetics he met, his own wife and his son), and his followers multiplied as time went along. His teachings were later collected and organized by his disciples and became today's Buddhism. As Buddhism continued to be spread worldwide, Buddhism became a bit localized (and unfortunately a bit mystified). But nevertheless, Buddha's teachings are always regarded a good philosophy of life. Buddha died at the age of 80.