Bees and Orchids

Seems orchids emanate a fragrance that makes bees drunk. So when they hover over the flowers, they get tipsy and drop the pollen over the flowers and the pollination begins.

Now wonder why your man deposits himself instead of bringing the bread home. Not his fault. It's the beer!

Termites Forever

Termite queens are fertilized regularly by the same mate for life, unlike bee and ant queens, whose male partners die after the first and only mating. They live up to 50 years.

Now we know why those termites never go away. Goodness, that queen has been with me long as I have lived!

Identification through the Feet

Under the new rule, all irrespective of gender shall recognise each others' feet.

The new rule has its advantage. When before if you lose your head you lose your life but now if you lose your feet, you only lose your identity.

Of course there are those from the old school who would rather lose their life rather than their identity.

But in time, all will get use to the new way.

What is the Color of Our Money?

We are all very generous people with generosity in sharing love, favor and very openly, money.

We bear warm witness to this free sharing spirit when natural disaster strikes. We are more so willing to give when it involves giving to members of the religious order. We offer our share to the monk’s community, to the temple, church, mosque or monastery. Our intentions are always good for we believe such efforts are directed to the betterment of our kind. And there is merit in it.

What about cross-faith giving?

What about giving to isolated causes which are overlooked? A old newspaper collector on his bicycle perhaps? (He too has a family to feed).

What about a young girl with brain tumors in need of an operation? What about giving for her simple joys of a night out with friends?

Do we say no? Cos those do not belong to our belief system? Or the other does not belong to our flock?

What is the color of our money?

An Ode to English Plurals

A Friend sent me this. Isn't it interesting?!

An ode to English Plurals

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?


'Have a Nice Day'

What Usui Sensei means to me

Recently I got back into healing therapy again. Not really getting back, more like exploring and learning again.

I was introduced to a myofascial therapist and became a patient to explore what can be done with my bad neck and back. (and I have found something that works and will share later..)

Healing and relieving of physical problems and pain had always held a great interest for me. Maybe it has something to do with the good feeling of being able to build something, put something together or repair something that was not working too properly.

With all this the journey led to picking up all kinds of magic and then to Reiki. Apart from the healing aspect itself, it was the life of the founder, Dr. Usui, himself who made a deep impression on me.

From the few stories that we know now, he led a simple life. If it is true that he meditated in the mountains, he was deeply spiritual. From his service to the beggars and the victims of the earthquake, he showed great compassion.

Typical of the orient way of doing things, students gathered to him. I can appreciate that part of his culture which is similar to my own. Through my experience in the learning of martial arts and other stuff, a good teacher is hard to find and a great master is one who shares whole heartedly with very little expectations of payment.

What I learnt and hopefully others see it too is that the Reiki that is taught is not so much about healing but of giving and offering of services. More importantly it is about leading a deeply spiritual life. A life beautifully lived is a life that leads one to self understanding and inner knowledge of the greater scheme of things.

That is how I view my Reiki grandmaster-a fine example of a life well lived.

Compassion and Loving Kindness

Loving kindness is thinking of wanting others to be happy.

Compassion is getting up and doing something to dispel suffering.

Cycles of Joy and Gloom

No no this is not about politics.

Just wanted to show the faces of joy on parents and child. The joy is real. But only seven days ago, there was gloom and anger.

That then, folks, is a reminder that nothing ever stays the same.
The endless cycle continues....

Birthday Do The ShanTung Way

We all celebrate birthdays, don’t we?

In some form or other we do. The western way is to have a cake in front of you when everybody sing a song to usher in your moment and then you blow off the candle.

Maybe the blowing off of the candle is an attempt to halt the process of time and in that way we never grow old. Quite an act of denial if this is true! And actually quite self-centered. It is all about “me”.

There is one way of looking at birthdays which I like. I find the thought behind this quite meaningful. A little Confucian but still very meaningful.
When I was a young boy, there was this man who hails from Shantung province in China. On his birthday, he would sleep out side the house without blanket or pillow, braving the cold and if it rains, much worse. He says that it is their way of remembering the pains that their mothers go through in giving birth to them. It is a day for expression of gratitude. He says that in China it was much worse especially for those born in the winter months.

Care to think about this every time a candle is blown?

Water fengshui- a case study

On the subject of water in fengshui and tips in selecting property, there is something here

Statutory declarations and Testicles

Of late, Malaysians have learnt the term statutory declaration or SD in short. Well, there is another term which is a cousin to sd which is relevant to the court of law…testimony. The origin of this word?

Romans, when taking an oath before the court, to insure they were telling the truth and that their statements were accurate, they swore on their testicles.

Plight of the Tibetans

The Olympics are now well over but there are still some lasting impressions from the protest of the Tibetans. At least I hope there are. (I wrote then to the papers with the hope of generating some awareness of the plight of the Tibetans).

Now the Tibetans are more or less forgotten, swept aside by current events as all things eventually are.

This is a picture of a little boy observed sleeping in a corner of an alley just beside the road that rings the Potala in Lhasa. What struck me was the serenity of his sleep amidst the bustle of pilgrims as well as the bright colors of his dress and blanket.

Now as I look again at this image, the poignancy is not lost. As his elders ponder their grim future, he sleeps on, naïve as a child ought to be. He is older now and very soon, he will start to face his future and that of his kin. What lies ahead for him and his people?

Reiki Masters

It has been a good eleven years ago. I was one of a group of 24 who gathered at the hills of Gembrook.

What were we doing there?

We were Reiki masters in training. All in all, we spent seven full days in those hills in that chilly month of May. Seven days it was but for many it was much longer as some had arrived earlier in preparation and some stayed after to savor the after-charge. I remember one well who stayed a full one month? Of course there was one who had to stay back being unfit to fly home as a result of burns from the fire walking.

Those were seven magical days. So magical was it that we have tried to incorporate these elements of magic into our own courses. Have we succeeded? Only those along for the ride can tell.

We had fun (and stress) with games, communicated with the unseen, mesmerized by psychic surgery, confronted and even chastised by beings. There were many regressions and emotional releases. Once we cross that path of fire (literally) something snaps. I think many of us learnt a great deal about ourselves and eventually become the greatest conqueror. For that is what true mastership is all about. Sadly many miss this point.

Words cannot describe the freedom of de-inhibiting ourselves. We can only soar if we allow ourselves to.

Where are all these fellow masters now? One or two has passed on. How are the others getting along with their lives? I wonder.

Another one or two, I know have been too busy with their material lives to bother to catch up anymore. One I know who is a real tender soul may have gone back to his native Kiwi or maybe he has found the highest truth. I believe he is the one who is most likely to succeed. Déjà vu, another has remained a gem if ever there was one.

Sometimes paths cross and for those who recognize the great importance of our journey make the full use of it. May I always have the wisdom to do so.

High Cost of Healthcare

The old lady was ill with nausea. An ambulance was called and ended with her staying 4 nights in the hospital. Tests like X-rays, CT scans, ECGs, ultra sounds. The suspects were stroke, lung infections, neurological problems and specialists opinions were sought.

The bill on discharge came up to more than a $1000 a night. Nothing was badly wrong with her.

All the equipment cost money certainly but there is something wrong somewhere. Many people scratch and save and all it takes is one bout of illness and there goes the hard savings.

To the government, the young aspiring doctors, is there a thing to learn here?

I wonder too whether those doctors who have made it ever think about how they charge as they whiz around in their expensive cars and sleep in their cozy mansions knowing htat these come from those hard earned dollars of those who cannot afford their fees.