Shoshin-Zazen

Today I talked with a fellow YEP (Youth Expedition Project) New Dawn participant about him being in Luang Prabang, a place where a team of us did a project in a village called Muang Kham. He told me all about the villagers who saw him in town and called him to joined them in drinking beers. I can almost visualise the old quaint town of Luang Prabang - its architecture, and its people. Food carts line up streets with litter and funny smells, and its beguiling night market filled with Karen wares and bags. I remember the village and how we managed to stay tried to live in a moment in a Laotian’s life - a hard life, if I might add.

As I now write this in my room in Stockholm, Sweden I find myself rather disconnected with the South-East Asian culture and places. I am far away from home, missing dearly local foods and delicacies. Home is in South-East Asia, a place that I can identify with straight-away.

I met a Thai student just a floor above me who just moved in. She was a student studying for her Masters in “Strategic Management” in KTH. With some anguish written all over her face, she complained about the cold - and it is only the end of summer now. I told her about Chiang Rai and it was also cold - just like this, now.

The Zen masters say a mind flows like water. My mind is just doing just that now; flowing here and there. So when I talked about Chiang Rai, I remembered my first project in an Aha village and lived in a  humble bamboo hut for two weeks. The nights could be very chilly, temperatures could drop to near zero celcius. We would always need a fire to keep our hands warm while we chat over hot tea in the evenings.

I cannot help but feel that the disconnect I feel between now in Stockholm and home in South-East Asia is largely due to simplicity of life that I came into contact with in Thailand and Laos. Rather, this “complication” does not really lie in the lifestyle but with the local people’s mindsets and thinking.

All these make too much thinking, I am going to eat my sandwich now.

Project New Dawn Laos - YEP Muang Kham Village, Luang Prabang, Lao P.D.R from slurpyslurpz on Vimeo.

As I write this entry in the seemingly air conditioned, humidless air of Stockhom, I thought about the days in Muang Kham. I remember mentioning that the project will come by quick and fast - like a blink of an eye. Now it is over and I am in far-away Sweden, not seeing the prennially sunny isles of South East Asia for one entire year.

It must have felt quite lonely. Then I watched this video, freshly uploaded, and smiled. Things like these travel wherever you are, and you feel comforted with them, just like eating Mee Pok Ta.

There is an old Zen saying

The road enters green mountains near evening’s dark;
Beneath the white cherry trees, a Buddhist temple
Whose priest doesn’t know what regret for spring’s passing means-
Each stroke of his bell startles more blossoms into falling.

-Keijo Shurin

Time is running short.

Looking around our beloved earth, we see many things going wrong with mother earth - more than most of us would want to see. For sure, we can see them on the TV box, with powdered newcasters talking about rising sea levels and melting icecaps with monotony that can immobilse a sloth.

A midst all these destruction and construction, new generation of earth beings, or rather human beings are being called forth to save this “little blue dot” as immortalised in the three words by Carl Sagan. Do we have any choice, to save our home from fire made by its previous occupants? Who are we saving it for? Do we owe it to somebody?

If you think we should save it for our children, what do you think of the declining population in developed countries, where people are said to have the best of lives drinking and eating to their hearts content?

In fact, what do you think of countries who have to enact populist baby-incentive laws to encourage people to pro-create? Is it just a pragmatic mindset that money is the parents’ main piority, to say, give their children the best in life?

Or is just pure materialistic thinking that people now, put their finances first,to count whether the dollar and cents makes sense first (that means putting their children in the so-called best education systems), are just thinking more about me and themselves?

I would like to think that we are doing too much, and too little at the same time. The reason is because although we, as human beings, have every intention to make this blue dot right, , we still do not understand ourselves. This is the reason why we are still fighting wars, creating poverty and selfishly depriving the disadvantaged.

The deceased and controversial comedian, George Carlin, whom the christians say is in hell in paying for sins on earth, used to say quite ably, that “we human beings are so self-important” and this is going to destroy us and our planet. Even environmental groups like the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and animal groups like PETA can act violently, shows that even if a cause is for a “greater good’, their means of doing it is far from exemplary.

The twisted mind of us, humans, can be quite hard to fanthom.

Going to the point of this, have you ever thought that some of the most beautiful places on Earth are places that are the most unpopulated, and untouched by man?

Just the other day, I was walking along a “broadwalk” along a mangrove swamp, meant to protect the mangrove ecology from human beings. Looking at the crowds and spoiled view, I mused that the broadwalk has made it more conveinient for us to litter the surroundings and bring in more city dwellers to scare away the wildlife. I concluded that “conservation” meant ironically, getting human intervention away. Look at chernobyl , wherethe  worst nuclear disaster took place, and you will see an example why.

One day, I will travel to tibet and see these flags fluttering in the crystal blue sky - we are like butterflies who only live a day but think we have all the time in the world.

Some of the games played during the recent Youth Expedition Project to Laos can be quite boring until you make full use of it. For example, is this exchange of letters I got from a fellow volunteer:

I asked him:

If Happiness and sadness do co-exist, one cannot do without the other, then is it true that the human’s search for happiness is a fool’s errand?

He replied:

No doubt, if happiness and sadness co-exist the human’s search for happiness is a fool’s errand. However for human beings who have not been enlightneded, what we can do is to minimise the sadness in life. Happiness and sadness are states of the mind. Whenever sometning happens, we can choose to accept and face it happily or sadly. Also human being cannot treat happiness and sadness equally; we tend to favour happiness then sadness.

On the other hand, enlightened beings will treat these two states of the mind equally. They can identify the impermanence of these states of the mind and will not attach to them. By understanding the difference in spiritual attainment, the human search for happiness is not really a fool’s errand. It actually encourages human being to be happy and optimistic in ever occassion especially during difficult periods of time.

Support Youth Expedition Project New Dawn Laos.

Buy a t-shirt to support our efforts to reach out to the children at Muang Kham village, Luang Prabang, Lao P.D.R and Muang Kham primary school.

Visit here for more details.

Your support will go into funds for

• English Lao Books for refurbishment of their school’s library
• Teaching materials
• Art & Craft materials
• Volunteer Cost (35% of all proceeds)

100% Cotton White T-Shirt

Sizes for male design: S/M/L/XL

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1 for $12

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Here is the highly anticipated sequel to the Spiders in the Closet trilogy. Enjoy!

The evil spreads. Apparently the evil turns even the purest of heart into mean fighting machines.

They fight and fight.

It was too much to bear. Something had to be done. Some tried…

…to eat really weird stuff. Ugh. While others…

…went to find the great taiji master… however…

He too got infected. Nothing seemed to work…The guy in the middle is super infected. (Hint: Look at the first episode.)

Not even the mighty Durian.

“I am flying, Jack!”

Look what happens when one eat too much durians. Its more effective than taking Tongkat Ali.

To be continued…