Like most people on this planet, I joined the hopeful and like the hopeful, I set new year resolutions. As most of us have expected subconsciously, resolutions are not meant to last. The only hope is that may our resolutions last as long as long as our problems!
While I have no problems missing resolutions, this year was a bit different as I set myself for the first time a resolution of a new category. A few months ago, a client of mine gave me a few CD's with the title '4 lessons of Liao Fan'. In a synopsis, it's about a guy whose life was going 100% as fated until one day he made some good deeds. To his surprise, his fate started to change. The learnings are about how our actions can still change the destiny. Being motivated by these cd's, I made a resolution to do 1000 good deeds a year. For a statistician, that will mean about 3 good deeds per day.
First day, well...life was a bit slow so I missed my daily target. 2nd day...completed 2 but must work harder the following day to catch up with 'lost sales'. After a week, I realized that my best score was 2 per day. A week later my 2 remained the best score but the problem was that the quality of 2 dwindled. I had to include 'good deeds' like slowing down my car to allow a kid to cross the road, holding the lift door for a stranger...which was more of a courtesy than good deeds. But like any other sales guys, we have to do what we have to do.
I can miss my resolution to lose 3 kg or to improve my golf by 5 strokes and I don't think it has any spill over effects to the following days. But missing the good deeds as resolution is something very different. It blatantly tells me that I have not created enough good deeds to build a better aura for the future but that is still ok if there were also not many bad deeds done daily. But a quick check will easily reveal 5 incidents of bad deeds per day!
If I were to treat good and bad deeds as credit and debit, I have a NET DEFICIT!!! And why I'm still ok is primarily because I'm using my savings from past lives. But it's also quite true that opportunities for good deeds may also be hard to come by in our daily life style. For me, I'm in a car to work in the morning, office from 9am to 6 pm. During lunch, I'm surrounded by temptation of good hawker stores above everything else. Have dinner at malls or home. Watch TV for a few hours and...hmmmm. I guess that's it! While I'm sure there are opportunities, but it's so easy to miss if I don't pay attention.
Now, if we look around us, whether it's ourselves or our colleagues and friends, chances are low too if we do not make an effort to find. From time to time, we have heard comments like 'how could this happen to a nice guy like him, who does not do any harm all his life' (but the question is has he done anything good?). I have seen how religious people pray but sometimes it is more a 'request or wish list to God' than good deeds. God, please bless my kid so that he recovers fast, please bless my husband so that he travels safely, please bless my family to be free from harm...if you notice, the word bless is almost as good as 'help me'. So, where's the good deed? I'm not saying that we should not ask for blessing but I think that we need to do more than that.
One thing I benefited from 'missing my resolution' is that I have created a sharper eye for good deeds within the ecosystem of my work life. Example, we can read the paper and once we see any plead for donation and we think it's genuine, let's write a cheque while it's still hot. Put some inspirational cd's in the car for some moments of coaching while stuck in a jam, look for a vegetarian restaurant around the office and encourage colleagues to go green once a week, surf the net during lunch for some organization who need help. You need not donate but you can definitely send the mail to people like me who are desperate. Spread news that you like to help needy people in the office and I'm sure some will come forward iwth some charitable organizations they know. Use your 'authority' to set a target for your staff to find you at least 1 opportunity per week and I'm sure they are happy to help out. As you can see, the list can continue!!
Since I miss my target so badly, I shall include this blog as one of my good deeds...if you don't mind :)
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Passing Moment
In our routine morning to work, be it in a bus or a car, we will have the same vision of things around us moving towards the back as we charge forward to our office. The same physics happen as we hed towards home. We could be so used to the view that it may even become a blind spot i.e. we don’t even notice it’s there again.
Most of us know that those are the ‘passing images’ and they do not belong to us. We will not cry because we lose it nor we crave their existence. However, many of us are not aware that life itself is a journey like a car trip and the views surrounding us are the events and people that we come across. The difference with the actual car trip is that we do crave for that view to stay and we do cry when those views are gone!
When we have a kid, the kid merely comes to the world through the mother and into our life. However, it is actually still a different car trip. It so happens that your kid’s car is moving next to you and hence you see your child as the view. However, we tend to think that the view belongs to us and crave for it to stay that way. The kid’s car next to us are next to us as long as the factors remain i.e. it could be a traffic jam, it could be two cars waiting at the traffic light or two cars parked together. But we need to know that once the factors are gone, a new view appears. And it will be so as long as our car is moving.
As for the emotional state, we must also know that a lot of events that we get involved in are also passing moments. We may be exceptionally angry with a subject, but that subject itself is also a passing moment just like the view from our car window. If we start to see that all these negative events are passing moments (i.e. very momentary), we may then ask ourselves whether it is worth the anger for such passing moments.
So, next time whether you are in a car trip, at a Japanese fastfood restaurant with the conveyor belt, air plane or jogging, remember that our view around us is merely a passing moment. What can we do? Treasure it if it’s good, don’t over-react if it’s bad because it is another passing moment.
Most of us know that those are the ‘passing images’ and they do not belong to us. We will not cry because we lose it nor we crave their existence. However, many of us are not aware that life itself is a journey like a car trip and the views surrounding us are the events and people that we come across. The difference with the actual car trip is that we do crave for that view to stay and we do cry when those views are gone!
When we have a kid, the kid merely comes to the world through the mother and into our life. However, it is actually still a different car trip. It so happens that your kid’s car is moving next to you and hence you see your child as the view. However, we tend to think that the view belongs to us and crave for it to stay that way. The kid’s car next to us are next to us as long as the factors remain i.e. it could be a traffic jam, it could be two cars waiting at the traffic light or two cars parked together. But we need to know that once the factors are gone, a new view appears. And it will be so as long as our car is moving.
As for the emotional state, we must also know that a lot of events that we get involved in are also passing moments. We may be exceptionally angry with a subject, but that subject itself is also a passing moment just like the view from our car window. If we start to see that all these negative events are passing moments (i.e. very momentary), we may then ask ourselves whether it is worth the anger for such passing moments.
So, next time whether you are in a car trip, at a Japanese fastfood restaurant with the conveyor belt, air plane or jogging, remember that our view around us is merely a passing moment. What can we do? Treasure it if it’s good, don’t over-react if it’s bad because it is another passing moment.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
You get what you ask for
In a job interview, the one that controls the conversation is not the person who talks the most but the person who asks the most. By asking questions, the interviewer is able to direct the candidate’s energy to focus on areas that the interviewer wants to know.
Here, I’m not showing how to impress in an interview but trying to discuss how by asking the right questions, you can maneuver energy to the right direction. Yes, just by asking the correct questions. So it is not wrong to say that ‘if you ask stupid questions, you get stupid answers’ or more aptly in this topic, ‘if you ask stupid questions, you take stupid actions’
In an earlier blog, I briefly touched on ‘the power of asking the right questions’. There are many who are concerned that the economy bubble may burst in 2007. If we ask ‘since it burst in 87 and 97, and shouldn’t it burst in 2007?’ then the mind will answer either ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’. That’s because we have asked a close-ended question. If we ask ‘what shall we do if the economy burst in 2007?’ then the mind will try to list down the precaution steps to take. That’s because we tell the mind that the economy will burst and ask the mind to list down steps to take.
If we ask ‘if the economy will burst in 2007, how can I still be rich?’, then the mind now has to do a bit more work. The mind may tell you property is down and we can buy at lower price, the share market is down and probably it’s time to go in….If we then ask further, ‘which countries should we put our investment?’ Now the mind will think beyond the local country and look for alternatives in neighboring countries.
Isn’t it interesting how the smart-but-stupid mind works? Smart because it can provide many great answers. Stupid because if you do not ask correctly, it will not produce good results!
As a new practice, I suggest you now use questions as a starting point for your timely 2007 resolution. Don’t ask what you want to achieve in 2007. You probably have done that for many years and your resolution is still as good as new. Ask what state you want to be in 2007. If you’re bogged down by work, ‘don’t ask how can I free up my time’ that’s too mundane. You can either go one level up (i.e. something more holistic or nobler) or set more conditions in your questions.
Some example: How can I spend 3 days in my hobby per week despite my current work load? How can I work for less but still increase my pay by 30%? It may sound impossible at first. Have faith in your mind. It will produce some interesting results.
May 2007 be a great year!
Here, I’m not showing how to impress in an interview but trying to discuss how by asking the right questions, you can maneuver energy to the right direction. Yes, just by asking the correct questions. So it is not wrong to say that ‘if you ask stupid questions, you get stupid answers’ or more aptly in this topic, ‘if you ask stupid questions, you take stupid actions’
In an earlier blog, I briefly touched on ‘the power of asking the right questions’. There are many who are concerned that the economy bubble may burst in 2007. If we ask ‘since it burst in 87 and 97, and shouldn’t it burst in 2007?’ then the mind will answer either ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’. That’s because we have asked a close-ended question. If we ask ‘what shall we do if the economy burst in 2007?’ then the mind will try to list down the precaution steps to take. That’s because we tell the mind that the economy will burst and ask the mind to list down steps to take.
If we ask ‘if the economy will burst in 2007, how can I still be rich?’, then the mind now has to do a bit more work. The mind may tell you property is down and we can buy at lower price, the share market is down and probably it’s time to go in….If we then ask further, ‘which countries should we put our investment?’ Now the mind will think beyond the local country and look for alternatives in neighboring countries.
Isn’t it interesting how the smart-but-stupid mind works? Smart because it can provide many great answers. Stupid because if you do not ask correctly, it will not produce good results!
As a new practice, I suggest you now use questions as a starting point for your timely 2007 resolution. Don’t ask what you want to achieve in 2007. You probably have done that for many years and your resolution is still as good as new. Ask what state you want to be in 2007. If you’re bogged down by work, ‘don’t ask how can I free up my time’ that’s too mundane. You can either go one level up (i.e. something more holistic or nobler) or set more conditions in your questions.
Some example: How can I spend 3 days in my hobby per week despite my current work load? How can I work for less but still increase my pay by 30%? It may sound impossible at first. Have faith in your mind. It will produce some interesting results.
May 2007 be a great year!
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Self praise is no praise, but self blame is true blame
You and I have occasions where your friends talk about their predicament over a cup of coffee. After a long discussion, there appears to be no solution because whatever you suggest was quickly turned down by this friend with double the reasons. All reasons seem to be valid and hence, you felt it was better to keep quiet. Then, you guys hug each other and bid farewell and here goes another 'unsolved mystery'.
Going through some of these 'unsolved mysteries', I realize that there appears to be a very common trait. While in training, I learnt a technique that was usually able to smoke out the real reason. It's called the 5 whys. No, don't get it wrong that it is the typical where, what, when...It's much simpler than that. It is 5 whys. Yes, it is why, why, why, why why.
The technique simply suggests that you must ask the reason for an outcome and each time you have the reason, ask why again until you reach the 5th reason. By then, that is most probably the true reason. So, applying this 5Y technique to the predicament of my friends, it seems that all at the end of the day point out to 2 things. The 4th why is usually the 'fear of the unknown'. The 5th : ‘fear of blaming oneself'.
Fear of the unknown is bad. It's is even scarier than the scariest movie. It's another type of horror. Not those that give you nightmare, but horror that sabotages your system and make you fail to think logically. Each time you hit this level, your mind will shut down and tell you that 'do not go beyond this level'. How do you know you have hit this level? Simple. Just imagine that your spouse will leave you one day. What's the next reaction? If it is, 'I will commit suicide' then bingo...you know it.
See how simple the mind turns illogical and irrational suddenly? The reason why someone goes suicidal is because is they have no courage to see beyond that. They can't even tell themselves that 'ok, let me try to live for 1 month and if it's no good, I'll review my life'. Nah, never logical.
Many never dare to think of changing their job because of this fear. Many don't think of changing girlfriends because of this fear. Hence, the fear of the unknown is so powerful that it disallows you to THINK beyond that situation. And because you dare not think, hence there's no action.
The 5th element is ultimate. The fear of self blame. While the 4th tries to jam your system to think logically, the 5th element even stops those who manage to think logically. Self blame has been the mother of all change failures. It is so subconscious that we could have been doing it for years but still do not realize it.
Here are many examples:
- How many times you have told yourself that when you have tried your best, it's ok if it doesn't work out. In other words, you don't have to blame yourself.
- When you have locked all your doors and still it's broken into, that's God's will. In other words, don't blame yourself. You put your money in fixed deposit rather than into some other investments. The reason is that it is more conservative and safer even though you know that it may not be enough for you when you retire. The true reason: you don't want to blame yourself in case you lose your money in other investment.
- Some people consult mentors, ex-colleagues and even mediums before they change jobs or get into a new business venture. Why? Due to collective wisdom, the decision to change seems to be the right reason. If it doesn't work well, then no one is to blame because everyone thinks it’s right.
The ultimate test is to ask ourselves, what is so wrong in taking responsibilities? What's so wrong in blaming ourselves? Why not just apologize to yourself and move on. I know straight away, someone may protest that if they do blame themselves, they will never be able to come back to their normal self again. Sound familiar? It is the 4th why in action. Fear of the unknown. But do be aware that there are people who have a habit of ‘blaming themselves’. That is another category I call ‘it has to be painful to be meaningful’. See my earlier blogs for details.
Back to self blame, there's this joke which demonstrates how we could have handled a situation without much effort but yet it’s so difficult. In America, when someone farts, they say excuse me. In England, when someone farts, they say pardon me. In Malaysia, when someone farts, what do they say? NOT ME!
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Retiring or tiring?
What's the same? Both can be tiring. But, one give you less tiring future while the other sucks your energy away.
When I was still under employment, I made a point that I must continue with my personal development amidst my busy schedule demanded by my job. While that was a right thing to do in my opinion, I did not realize that I have overlooked one more important aspect - personal wealth. The recent event of me not under employment opens up my mind on the importance of personal wealth. There's this book that I have been reading that manage to throw some light and challenges into my own retirement plan.
Here are the questions that may make us think again about our retirement plan.
1. Well, to start with, do we plan to save sufficient money by certain age & then stop working and slowly chew this retirement fund? If this is the case, we are planning to be poor. Why not we make sure this fund is big enough to take care of itself and because of that it gives us money every day so that you can retire?
2. Some of us save our money in mutual funds and are assured by financial advisors that the fund value is projected to double in 10 years time. Ask ourselves one honest question, how much control do we really have over this growth? None actually except that we can sell or buy. Don't we think it's risky to leave our savings in the hand of market forces & all we can do is buy, hold & pray?
3. For those who applaud point 2 & proudly claim that 'that's why I put my money in fixed deposit!', think again too. We work hard to earn our money. But then when we have the money, we let our money sort off 'retire' in FD instead of making the money work harder for us. Who's the master here? You or your money? By the way, how many of our earlier generation saves & saves for retirement and until today, still looks a bit screwed up financially or are still leading a mediocre life?
Well, if everything seems to be lousy, tell me what to do, einstein??!! The key word here is 'leverage'. Leverage in physics simply demonstrates how you can use less effort to lift a heavy object if you can find yourself a stone and a long pole. The longer the pole, the more the leverage.
Step #1
Hence, the first step is to understand our own leverage in our own environment. For a person which has more spare time. time naturally becomes the leverage. For those in IT, knowledge will be the leverage. For those who want to pursue training and consultancy at a younger age, age and energy become the leverage. Some guys know more people than others. That's a leveragable network. Like a kungfu master which can transform everything around him as weapon, we too can look around us and develop something as a leverage.
Step #2
However, leverage only provides us the 'machine' but without the manual and the key, we don't know how to operate this machine to make money. So, come along with leverage is another key word called 'context'. Context is something like a pail that keeps our contents (reality). If we do not expand the pail, we could not expand our own world. When we expand our context, we actually trying to learn more about a subject and our reality naturally expands in this subject. Remember that what we think is real becomes our reality. If you think earning a million a year is real, that becomes a reality to you. If you think investment is risky, that becomes your reality too. But how do we expand our context?
Step #3
You expand your context by asking the right questions. You probably have heard,"ask, and you shall receive". But to expand your context, you must "ask the RIGHT questions and you shall receive the RIGHT answers". A small example that I use quite often nowadays. If you ask, "if the economy is down in '87 and '97, then 2007 shall be a downturn too?". Your mind will answer 'Yes''. Questione is satisfactorily answered but unfortunately context is not expanded at all. If you ask,"what I need to do if 2007 is a down turn?" Your mind will naturally answer "don't spend too much, save for rainy days". Question is satisfactorily answered as well BUT context is stil not expanded.
Now, ask this question,"How can I make more money in 2007 if economy is down?" Your mind will now pause for a while to look for more answers as this question is now more challenging. The answer finally comes, "Save more now. Be prepared to buy better property deals next year" Here, I'm not demonstrating that property is the way to go. But you can see from these questions, the answers are all good answers but vary depending on HOW you ask.
Step #4
Well, if you have the context, the leverage and the way, what's left? Your Plan. How to plan is totally a different subject. But I'm very sure all of us know how to plan. Many times, it is not the plan that fail us but we fail ourselves. So rather than talk about how to plan (which most of us know), I'll keep it simple to a few points why we fail ourselves.
First, it is not painful enough. In other words, the pain of not changing is less painful than the pain of changing. So what happen? We become a 'dragon'. We drag-on. How long ago in the past and for how long in the future are we going to repeat these same bloody words "there's a long holiday coming!" and then not long after that followed by "how nice if the holiday can be longer!" So, think of all the negative elements you have now and instead of using them to kill your holiday mood, use them as dried branches to start a fire to boil your emotion, until it's painful enough for you to change. Once you are at that stage, planning becomes natural.
Second, it is about self-blame. What if I fail? What if people call me stupid? All this will go away if the first point is painful enough. So will be 3rd and 4th if any...
Step #5
However, once you are boiling with passion to change because it's now painful enough, you must see where you are going to and how the end results will make you the happiest person in the world. With this vision, you are then no longer motivated by pain but by pleasure. Imagine this: You don't wait for holidays but you DECLARE your own holiday!
So, what do you do? Check you retirement plan to make sure that it is still a good plan. If there are some concerns or a lot of your plans are based on hope rather than facts, than you need to increase the SPEED of your plan. To increase the speed is to leverage. You will find the right leverage if your leverage can answer this simple question, "How can I do what I do for more people with less work and for a better price?"
Happy leveraging and retiring!!
When I was still under employment, I made a point that I must continue with my personal development amidst my busy schedule demanded by my job. While that was a right thing to do in my opinion, I did not realize that I have overlooked one more important aspect - personal wealth. The recent event of me not under employment opens up my mind on the importance of personal wealth. There's this book that I have been reading that manage to throw some light and challenges into my own retirement plan.
Here are the questions that may make us think again about our retirement plan.
1. Well, to start with, do we plan to save sufficient money by certain age & then stop working and slowly chew this retirement fund? If this is the case, we are planning to be poor. Why not we make sure this fund is big enough to take care of itself and because of that it gives us money every day so that you can retire?
2. Some of us save our money in mutual funds and are assured by financial advisors that the fund value is projected to double in 10 years time. Ask ourselves one honest question, how much control do we really have over this growth? None actually except that we can sell or buy. Don't we think it's risky to leave our savings in the hand of market forces & all we can do is buy, hold & pray?
3. For those who applaud point 2 & proudly claim that 'that's why I put my money in fixed deposit!', think again too. We work hard to earn our money. But then when we have the money, we let our money sort off 'retire' in FD instead of making the money work harder for us. Who's the master here? You or your money? By the way, how many of our earlier generation saves & saves for retirement and until today, still looks a bit screwed up financially or are still leading a mediocre life?
Well, if everything seems to be lousy, tell me what to do, einstein??!! The key word here is 'leverage'. Leverage in physics simply demonstrates how you can use less effort to lift a heavy object if you can find yourself a stone and a long pole. The longer the pole, the more the leverage.
Step #1
Hence, the first step is to understand our own leverage in our own environment. For a person which has more spare time. time naturally becomes the leverage. For those in IT, knowledge will be the leverage. For those who want to pursue training and consultancy at a younger age, age and energy become the leverage. Some guys know more people than others. That's a leveragable network. Like a kungfu master which can transform everything around him as weapon, we too can look around us and develop something as a leverage.
Step #2
However, leverage only provides us the 'machine' but without the manual and the key, we don't know how to operate this machine to make money. So, come along with leverage is another key word called 'context'. Context is something like a pail that keeps our contents (reality). If we do not expand the pail, we could not expand our own world. When we expand our context, we actually trying to learn more about a subject and our reality naturally expands in this subject. Remember that what we think is real becomes our reality. If you think earning a million a year is real, that becomes a reality to you. If you think investment is risky, that becomes your reality too. But how do we expand our context?
Step #3
You expand your context by asking the right questions. You probably have heard,"ask, and you shall receive". But to expand your context, you must "ask the RIGHT questions and you shall receive the RIGHT answers". A small example that I use quite often nowadays. If you ask, "if the economy is down in '87 and '97, then 2007 shall be a downturn too?". Your mind will answer 'Yes''. Questione is satisfactorily answered but unfortunately context is not expanded at all. If you ask,"what I need to do if 2007 is a down turn?" Your mind will naturally answer "don't spend too much, save for rainy days". Question is satisfactorily answered as well BUT context is stil not expanded.
Now, ask this question,"How can I make more money in 2007 if economy is down?" Your mind will now pause for a while to look for more answers as this question is now more challenging. The answer finally comes, "Save more now. Be prepared to buy better property deals next year" Here, I'm not demonstrating that property is the way to go. But you can see from these questions, the answers are all good answers but vary depending on HOW you ask.
Step #4
Well, if you have the context, the leverage and the way, what's left? Your Plan. How to plan is totally a different subject. But I'm very sure all of us know how to plan. Many times, it is not the plan that fail us but we fail ourselves. So rather than talk about how to plan (which most of us know), I'll keep it simple to a few points why we fail ourselves.
First, it is not painful enough. In other words, the pain of not changing is less painful than the pain of changing. So what happen? We become a 'dragon'. We drag-on. How long ago in the past and for how long in the future are we going to repeat these same bloody words "there's a long holiday coming!" and then not long after that followed by "how nice if the holiday can be longer!" So, think of all the negative elements you have now and instead of using them to kill your holiday mood, use them as dried branches to start a fire to boil your emotion, until it's painful enough for you to change. Once you are at that stage, planning becomes natural.
Second, it is about self-blame. What if I fail? What if people call me stupid? All this will go away if the first point is painful enough. So will be 3rd and 4th if any...
Step #5
However, once you are boiling with passion to change because it's now painful enough, you must see where you are going to and how the end results will make you the happiest person in the world. With this vision, you are then no longer motivated by pain but by pleasure. Imagine this: You don't wait for holidays but you DECLARE your own holiday!
So, what do you do? Check you retirement plan to make sure that it is still a good plan. If there are some concerns or a lot of your plans are based on hope rather than facts, than you need to increase the SPEED of your plan. To increase the speed is to leverage. You will find the right leverage if your leverage can answer this simple question, "How can I do what I do for more people with less work and for a better price?"
Happy leveraging and retiring!!
Saturday, September 09, 2006
August of My Life
August appeared to be a very interesting part of my life. I managed to get myself one month of vacation in Toronto anda as I was about to overcome my jetlag there, my cancer friend's sister called up and announced that he passed away. On the day I left Toronto, Rev. Dhamananda, the chief monk of Brickfields Temple in Malaysia, passed away. Perhaps this series of events is what I have been taught all this while - transient are all wordly matters!!?? Anyway, gained some, lost some but life must go on.
I dedicate this blog to Hee Boon, my coursemate, friend, truth seeker and listener of my crazy ideas. May he be well and happy!
Hee Boon was stricken by cancer a year back and as usual, he was a positive persopn and looked at things in a tue 'ehipassiko' spirit i.e. come and see (undersand) There is no dogma but only facts and logic to support all beliefs. He blogged his views and experience and I learnt a lot from it. In fact, the blogging idea for me was inspired by him.
Below is what I have learnt from him which I would like to share with all readers : Make meaning.
Events happen. We can debate that it is happening for a reason, or some prefer to view it as a random process. Whichever the case, that is always partially or totally beyond our control because there are so many factors affecting those events.
HOWEVER, there is one area that is within our control all the time which is how we make meaning out of this event. In other words, our intepretation of that event. Our house could be burglarred. We can inteprete in many ways : stupid country, stupid lock or stupid luck. But we can also think of it as 'well, I just realized my security system is not good enough which I need to improve. And perhaps I should buy insurance to cover for burglary too'. The intepretations with 'a lot of stupid' will usually result in us not doing anything but feeling angry with almost everything. The latter meaning on the other hand, spur us into action. Forget about the past and how to improve.
Hence, for every single event, we can choose to make the meaning we want out of it. No wonder someone told me that 'he chooses happiness'!
An anology to making meaning is how we frame a picture. Try get a picture especially one with many elements in it. Cut a hole in a piece of paper and run this 'frame' through the pictures. You will notice that as we browse, we see a pix within a pix. The picture is just like an event that has happened. Our mind will never capture the whole picture (because it is changing all the time) but when we make meaning, we are capturing the part that we want it to represent the pix. Voila! you have made meaning.
For Hee Boon's berievement, I interprete it as:
'Anything can happen. Treasure what we have now'
'Life is more than work. We must continue to upgrade our understanding on life'
'Use Hee Boon's blogs as examples when talking about learning life'.
For those interested, you can check 'fhbadventure.blogspot.com'.
I dedicate this blog to Hee Boon, my coursemate, friend, truth seeker and listener of my crazy ideas. May he be well and happy!
Hee Boon was stricken by cancer a year back and as usual, he was a positive persopn and looked at things in a tue 'ehipassiko' spirit i.e. come and see (undersand) There is no dogma but only facts and logic to support all beliefs. He blogged his views and experience and I learnt a lot from it. In fact, the blogging idea for me was inspired by him.
Below is what I have learnt from him which I would like to share with all readers : Make meaning.
Events happen. We can debate that it is happening for a reason, or some prefer to view it as a random process. Whichever the case, that is always partially or totally beyond our control because there are so many factors affecting those events.
HOWEVER, there is one area that is within our control all the time which is how we make meaning out of this event. In other words, our intepretation of that event. Our house could be burglarred. We can inteprete in many ways : stupid country, stupid lock or stupid luck. But we can also think of it as 'well, I just realized my security system is not good enough which I need to improve. And perhaps I should buy insurance to cover for burglary too'. The intepretations with 'a lot of stupid' will usually result in us not doing anything but feeling angry with almost everything. The latter meaning on the other hand, spur us into action. Forget about the past and how to improve.
Hence, for every single event, we can choose to make the meaning we want out of it. No wonder someone told me that 'he chooses happiness'!
An anology to making meaning is how we frame a picture. Try get a picture especially one with many elements in it. Cut a hole in a piece of paper and run this 'frame' through the pictures. You will notice that as we browse, we see a pix within a pix. The picture is just like an event that has happened. Our mind will never capture the whole picture (because it is changing all the time) but when we make meaning, we are capturing the part that we want it to represent the pix. Voila! you have made meaning.
For Hee Boon's berievement, I interprete it as:
'Anything can happen. Treasure what we have now'
'Life is more than work. We must continue to upgrade our understanding on life'
'Use Hee Boon's blogs as examples when talking about learning life'.
For those interested, you can check 'fhbadventure.blogspot.com'.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Tradition is also technology
Every day, tourists visit famous spots from The KL Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur to the Hoover Dam in Las Vegas, snapping photographs to be part of human progess in technology. But do you know that about 1000 years ago, tourists then also visited hot sites like Great Wall of China and The Aztec City because of its technology? Wait a minute, I thought we are talking about technology and if yes, how come we have lsot cities and great walls? Aren't those historical sites?
Well, this is the point I want to make. History and technology are actually the same thing but only different from the time dimension. The National Science Center is the sequel of the Museum and the Museum is the prequel of National Science Center. Again, the difference is only time.
In another 1000 years to come, The KL Twin Towers will be viewed as another historial site like the Great Wall of China. Now, if you could still live by then, would you call that technology or history? Well, both are right.
If you agree to the above, then we should have the same mindset for tradition and the traditional ways of doing things. People tend to take tradition as a way of the past. And worse than that, there are traditionists who go all out to preserve the tradition. But tradition, just like history, is alive and it keeps changing. On the health part, a lot of traditionists believe that the best way for living has been discovered thousand of years ago and hence modernizing any part of it is viewed as 'adulterating' the ancient art. To many Chinese, the tea drinking is a tradition where special earth pots are used and the way tea is brewed strictly follows a set of steps. We may be proud of this tradition but again, don't forget that the tea pot and the way of brewing tea were actually TECHNOLOGY that the Chinese were proud of 1000 years ago!
So, put it simply, tradition is merely a 'state of technology'. It is evolving and plays different roles in different eras of time. In the next 100 years, blog could be the traditional way of communicating as by then, nobody writes anymore...it's all about talking or talknology!!
Well, this is the point I want to make. History and technology are actually the same thing but only different from the time dimension. The National Science Center is the sequel of the Museum and the Museum is the prequel of National Science Center. Again, the difference is only time.
In another 1000 years to come, The KL Twin Towers will be viewed as another historial site like the Great Wall of China. Now, if you could still live by then, would you call that technology or history? Well, both are right.
If you agree to the above, then we should have the same mindset for tradition and the traditional ways of doing things. People tend to take tradition as a way of the past. And worse than that, there are traditionists who go all out to preserve the tradition. But tradition, just like history, is alive and it keeps changing. On the health part, a lot of traditionists believe that the best way for living has been discovered thousand of years ago and hence modernizing any part of it is viewed as 'adulterating' the ancient art. To many Chinese, the tea drinking is a tradition where special earth pots are used and the way tea is brewed strictly follows a set of steps. We may be proud of this tradition but again, don't forget that the tea pot and the way of brewing tea were actually TECHNOLOGY that the Chinese were proud of 1000 years ago!
So, put it simply, tradition is merely a 'state of technology'. It is evolving and plays different roles in different eras of time. In the next 100 years, blog could be the traditional way of communicating as by then, nobody writes anymore...it's all about talking or talknology!!
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