Amitabha

Tainan mom has gone to the other shore

2012-01-22T14:41:00.001+13:00

This is a photo of Jean's maiden family reunion taken in 2007. Mom in the centre, Qian ge (Qian is our eldest brother), Jean and Zhe mei are to her right hand side; Gan ge, Shi jie and eldest sister-in-law to her left. Apparently, Jian mei was the photographer. Mom was then at the age of 85.At 11:40 am of 21/01/2012, (6:40 am Hong Kong time), Jean’s youngest sister, Zhe, called us from Hong Kong

Some thoughts on new year day of 2012

2012-01-01T11:54:00.003+13:00

01/01/2012 Sunday.This is the first day of the new year. What lays ahead is impossible to predict unless you are someone with super natural power. There are quite a lot of people claiming they have this kind of ability, they are called "fortunetellers".In Taiwan, I believe it is still the same as was 20 years ago when I just left Taiwan, that people of either older or younger, like to consult

Why practice meditation

2011-12-13T17:12:00.000+13:00

My first involvement in group meditation took place in Ponsonby Library, Auckland, in a evening of April or May of 1992. The group was lead by Jim Jinmon Langabeer whose teacher was based in the Zen Mountain Manastery, New York, following the Koan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. Prior to my first time involvement, I never had attended any sitting meditation. All I knew about meditation was

I have broken my flute

2011-09-18T09:27:00.003+12:00

Early in August 2011, while browsing eBay one day, I had this idea of searching for any flute or even its parts because my flute sounded pretty airy which according to my google search was a problem of leaking pads.I was amazed and surprised that after a few keystrokes in eBay's search box, a very long list of brand-new or used flutes is shown on the monitor of my notebook. Among them are a

Father and son

2011-08-27T13:25:00.004+12:00

Never had I thought that my son, Chi-an, will become a musician or a guitarist one day. But he is now, and is very busy teaching people of various age groups in schools in the daytime, in the Music Education Centre after the school hours, some other students come to our home to learn from him in his studio. This picture shows the place he sets up as his guitar tuition classroom. Chi-an's

The meaning of life

2011-07-24T10:22:00.001+12:00

A fellow Buddhist, recently told me that her son spoke to her with illogical statements and showed some symptoms that stunned her very much. I knew straight away that was schizophrenia because I happened to have just watched a video not long ago about this disease. I felt very sorry for this mother because I also knew from her that her son was very obedient and supportive to her. Every week on

On fatalism

2011-06-28T14:40:00.000+12:00

One of my previously written post titled "destined fortune" states that the prominent naval minister of Qhing Dynasty put this remark on his tomb stone "belief in destined fortune and not in the acquired knowledge". My personal perception about his statement carved on his tomb stone is apparently telling the world that we have nothing to be proud of because anything profound that you think you

Learning Google spreadsheet part 2

2011-06-24T11:12:00.003+12:00

There is a saying that life means uninterrupted learning. As far as my personal learning experience is concerned, besides my learning activities during my schooling time, the one I have learned wholeheartedly and persistently is Google spreadsheet. I have written a post previously about how I got involved in the learning of this application provided by Google for free to the mass public. As of

On destined fortune

2011-05-04T10:22:00.010+12:00

This link leads to a listing of web pages containing a statement the honorable Minister of Qing Empire, Zeng Guo Fan, once said: "... believe in the destined fortune and not the acquired knowledge...(信運氣﹐不信書)". My understanding of his statement is that he believes that any of our achievement manifests by our destined fortune and not just simply from careful planning and persistent effort. He must

Resume my role as a telephone counselor

2011-05-02T10:06:00.003+12:00

I had once been a telephone counselor since 1994. That was a voluntary job helping the Chinese speaking residents of Auckland when they are in need of someone to talk about their difficult situation. It was a part-time voluntary job which I contributed six hours per month in the evening sitting and waiting for calls in the telephone room. That job lasted for about 10 years till October 2005 when

My perception of spiritual practice

2011-03-30T10:59:00.005+13:00

In the past few years, Internet has become very popular and advanced enormously, e-mail users often send interesting or useful information to share with each other. I noticed that this trend began increasing sharply in 2000, sometimes I receive this kind of forwarding from friends whom I haven't got a chance to meet them in person, and the number of this kind of forwarding can be over 20 or more

My 60th birthday - part 2

2011-03-04T10:00:00.004+13:00

The day of 25th of February came and went quietly and swiftly. That was the one marking the birthday of mine and my wife's.Prior to its arrival, Chenny asked us whether if we would like to have a lunch as our 60th birthday celebration in the restaurant or at home. I knew he cared about making a good one for us, I was very pleased to feel his caring thoughts. I said "I prefer to have a simple one

My 60th birthday

2011-02-03T10:29:00.006+13:00

I am turning to 60 years old when the calendar comes to the 25th of February. It is approaching soon. I should be excitedly looking forward to it; I must have worked out a plan of travelling with Jean in a cruise tour visiting popular destinations in the world. But I know it will just be another ordinary day filling up with routine activities--morning practice, check e-mails, shift dog to do his

Delivering Happiness

2011-01-20T10:51:00.003+13:00

A few days ago, a friend forwarded to me a story titled "the shoe king. "Shoe King"? never heard of that, but I was curious about this very special title, so I read on.It was a story about a computer genius Tony Hsie, a Taiwanese-American, aged 36, CEO of Zappos, the biggest shoe retailer on the Internet. I read on. His parents were from Taiwan, both graduated from Taiwan University, the top

Learning Google Spreadsheet

2010-12-10T10:08:00.000+13:00

For some reason I have been fascinated by the amazement of how the spreadsheet can process complicated data since the end of October 2010.It all began with Chenny's request for my assistance in sorting out a three-page name list which he scribbled notes all over the blank areas about the class time changes, students contact details and etc. the notes were so messy that even Chenny was not sure

Our Thai Neighbor

2010-11-21T08:25:00.002+13:00

This is the house neighboring to ours where lived a Serbian family. In April of 2008, the Serbian family moved to Australia, and Nede, the owner of this house had to rent his house before he left for his new job in Brisbane. Nede promised me that he would find a good neighbor for us. A couple of days later, he appeared at the door steps with two Asian ladies. I knew instantly they must be his

My adventure in making sourdough bread

2010-10-08T11:52:00.005+13:00

It is hard to believe that somehow I could become fascinated by the craft of making sourdough bread starting from July 2010.About three months of time has past since the day I started the adventure in the exploration of this ancient art. From the quality of the breakfast rolls that I made yesterday with my own formulated sourdough starter, I think I can now announce my success in taming the

Having read "The Shack"

2010-10-03T11:43:00.004+13:00

A friend, a devoted Christian and dentist based in North Shore City, recommended I read a book titled “The Shack” by William P Young.The book begins with an explanation of the childhood of the main character, McKenzie, nicknamed ‘Mack’.My reading took about two weeks, leaving me with the impression the content is quite philosophical because of the great amount of discussion between Mack and the

Chan family (詹家)

2010-09-18T17:08:00.005+12:00

In the afternoon of 18/09/2010, someone was knocking the door. I slowly moved to the door to unlock the door and found it was Mr. Chan standing at the door step with a warm and kind smile on his face, both of his hands holding two boxes of something. "Some freshly baked moon cake for you" he said to me. Suddenly I realized that the moon festival was around the corner, another year had slipped

Pass over the slack months (度小月)

2010-09-08T11:53:00.004+12:00

Well before I was in courtship with my wife in 1975, I had already heard of the story about "Du Xiao Yue” 度小月, meaning "pass over the slack months".Du Xiao Yue is a small restaurant serving very delicious and traditional Taiwan delicacy located on the corner of two streets in Tainan city. Since Tainan is my wife's maiden home town, so when I paid my first visit to her family, she naturally took

Jean paid a visit to her mother in hospital in Taiwan

2010-08-05T15:28:00.007+12:00

Chenny and I got up at 5:45 AM in order to drive to airport during the busy traffic hours of the motorway and arrived there in time to meet with his mother. From my observation, Chenny is nice to his mother although very often he is impatient with her.Jean's mother, aged 90, had a fall at home and then lost consciousness during the daytime one day in late June of 2010, and was thus rushed to the

Another visit to Mitre 10

2010-07-22T10:00:00.000+12:00

I had been thinking of wrapping up the hot water pipes of my home so as to retain the heat for a longer time. To do this project, I have to go to Mitre 10 to buy the insulation material which is 2 m long, although not heavy, it is quite a hassle travelling by bus. So this project had been left in my "wish list" ever since until....One morning on 17/07/2010 when my wife was away in Taiwan to see

When My Wife Is Away

2010-07-06T10:00:00.000+12:00

My wife left for Taiwan yesterday to pay a visit to her mother, aged 90, who was sent to hospital urgently a few days ago.In the past three years since her last visit to her mother in Taiwan in 2007, we had never parted from each other. We saw each other in the day and in the night; we had meals together every day; we talked on children and on life now and then; we helped each other and actually

My Hands-free Telephone

2010-06-30T10:00:00.006+12:00

I call this telephone set hands-free because when I am engaged in a telephone conversation, I don't have to hold the handset and attach it to my ear and mouth throughout the duration, instead, I put on the headset and talk on and on with my hands free for other things like taking notes at the same time.I know a genuine hands-free device should be something like this.The first time I saw a real

On happiness

2010-06-14T10:00:00.002+12:00

I ponder on this topic very often, especially often when I'm getting older. I am 59 at the time of writing this article. It is said that Buddha began his exploration on this issue from early part of his teens stage, and resolved to find out the cause of suffering. So compared to Buddha, I am late awakened to this issue. I think most of the creatures are late awakened, or are never awakened to

The scary machine gun

2010-06-04T10:00:00.006+12:00

Machine gun is a very powerful, very dreadful, very scary weapon in battlefield. Yet, when I am invited to chat online, the first sentence I send back in the conversation is usually "a second please, let me get my machine gun..." and my friend on the other side knows what it is; and I can imagine he is warming up himself in front of the computer rubbing his two hands vigorously, staring into the

A Day Out to Takapuna Library

2010-05-17T20:03:00.005+12:00

It was May 16 of 2010, a Sunday and happened to be a beautiful and brilliant sunny day.Sunday has been spared for my day out if the weather promising. Where do I normally spend it? Beach, bush, the roadside café? Nah... Library is my favorite option, and on this beautiful day, the one in Takapuna is the best. It is the best library I had ever been to, not because of its beauty of the building, or

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-10T14:50:00.009+12:00

The Mother's Day of 2010 has three features worthwhile to record.Tessie and Chenny celebrated Mother's Day for their mom on the 8th (Saturday) and 9th (Sunday) of May respectively due that their activities clashed.Chenny arranged to celebrate Mother's Day for his mom on Sunday. He sent a text message to my mobile asking me to tell mum that he would bought some stuff home in the evening so she

The one morning in Mitre 10

2010-04-24T07:00:00.000+12:00

Date was the 17th of April 2010 on which the story went.The night before, Chenny reported a leaking tap to me. I had noticed this problem long time ago and had thought about getting it fixed, but I was lacking of confidence at that time, so I just left it with fingers crossed. But that night when Chenny told me the problem and I went to have a look, I knew I could not just get fingers crossed, I

Will the world be better off by 2020?

2010-04-16T07:19:00.005+12:00

One of the papers that Chenny chooses to study this year is business ethics. Not long after the term commenced in March, we had a spontaneous chat during the dinner time. Very seldom had we had long, formal and academic talks, but this one was. The chat gradually drifted to his further study on Business Management, then he raised a big question "Will the world be better off by 2020?" and invited

Marriage -- Then and Now (part II)

2010-03-15T07:00:00.003+13:00

My previous blog post is to some degree in favor of the notion that "marriage is the grave of love affairs". I got to hide that post away from being seen by my wife. To my view point the female agree with this saying more than the male do, but once they got married they tend to bury it deep in their minds and try not to mention it. Because otherwise, what can they do? They are locked up, and so

Marriage - Then and Now

2010-03-06T07:00:00.002+13:00

There was a popular saying in the early 1960s in Taiwan, "marriage is the cemetery of love affair" so it said. This phrase was often heard during my junior high school days. Young people, especially female, in that era liked to comment on marriage by quoting that phrase whenever a hot debate or chat on that topic was coming to an end.As a small boy I, in my early teens, dimly understood what that

The Sight of My Father's Back

2010-01-14T08:34:00.003+13:00

Father appeared in my dream recently. As usual, just like when he was alive, he was quiet and only smiled slightly in the dream. After that dream, I recalled bits and pieces about him. The first mind picture I had was Dounan Railway Station. That was one sunny afternoon in 1974. I stood by my father waiting for his North-bound train to return home. I was then serving my obligatory military

A Baby Boomer's Memory

2009-12-13T07:02:00.003+13:00

Born in 1951, I am a baby boomer. Recently when I get a chance to be meeting with friends of my age group, the chatting topics are more or less related to the planning of retirement. Indeed, the baby boom generation has entered their retiring stage of life.What a shame, time has to pass by so swiftly that all of a sudden I am turning 60. Now recalling my childhood memories in 1950's, it feels

Mind Chatter - Self-talker in the mind

2009-11-20T06:00:00.007+13:00

I can not recall the approximate time, now, when did I begin to notice there was a chatter inside me. The chatter I am talking about here is not a hallucinative one which whispers into our ears, but the one that comes out of the ego from our minds. Or may be I should term it the mind self-talker.For a brief experiment on myself. I stop writing this post at this point. I close my eyes with an

DIY - do it yourself

2009-10-22T17:59:00.003+13:00

Do it yourself - DIY, has been part of my everyday living since we moved to New Zealand in 1992. Not only because I am passionate with it, but also because I need to. When your mere income is the sole support of the whole family, you can become a DIY man more easily.So as I recount now about what projects or repairs I have done in the past 17 years, I feel great, pride and awesomeness in

A memorable Transistor Radio

2009-10-01T08:00:00.000+13:00

The fine music from Concert FM is in the background while I am writing this post. This red portable Panasonic transistor radio has been with us, the Chen family, since 1982. It is very old to a radio and yet it is still working nicely.It is very memorable to me because it has witnessed quite a few important events in the Chen family since the day it was 'adopted' by my father in 1982.In an early

Introducing Mrs. Lee's art works

2009-09-10T22:06:00.002+12:00

This Chinese character means Buddha. It was written, or I should say, painted on a framed canvas with color oil paints, by Mrs. Lee, our family friend. It looks like she is doing calligraphy on this character. But, traditionally, Chinese calligraphy is done on absorbent cotton paper with water based black ink, while this work is done on canvas with oil based color paint.Mrs. Lee calls her

A Cross-generation Friendship

2009-08-10T07:50:00.021+12:00

This young fella is known as Robbie. He has been my colleague, English teacher, playmate, or in the modern term, my buddy since that day when he introduced himself to me in 2003. As his age is the same of my own kid, I take this friendship with him as a cross-generation one.The stories started from 21st October 2003, the first day of the three day training program which our company, Ora Limited,

Mother's cooking

2009-08-02T09:14:00.010+12:00

This is a zoomed in cropped photo of my mother (on the right) and my aunt from a very old and faded family photograph. Mother was about 19 at the time when this picture was taken in 1934. She was dressed in a female adult suite for important occasions in that era.Once, we were reviewing our albums, this was the one she stayed her attention on the longest as if her memories about that scene

Learning Japanese 1972-1973

2009-07-06T08:34:00.002+12:00

Japan had a difficult time after World War II. From 1945 to 1956 when it was admitted as an UN member nation, this period of a decade must be the toughest time in its history imagining the great number of soldiers killed overseas, the two atomic bombs that wiped off two of its big cities in a short instant during the world war.Yet, it stood up, reconstructed their homes, and just within 10 years,

Part Time Job

2009-06-24T14:28:00.004+12:00

One Sunday morning in 2000, I was surprised to see Tessie, my daughter, bravely walked into Daikoku Restaurant to the interview for her application of a part time job as waitress. She looked somewhat nervous but she deliberately tilted her chin up, radiated as much confidence as possible through her face and posture, smiled a bit and walked to the reception counter. Outside of the restaurant,

My Days in Junior High School 1964 -1966

2009-05-27T09:29:00.002+12:00

This might be the only picture I had during the three year junior high school days. I am the one standing at four from the right of the second row from the back.It was shot a few days before the graduation ceremony was held in June 1966. The scene was in front of the newly built hall of Ching Shui High School located by the state highway in Ching Shui township of Taichung County, Taiwan.From the

In Remembrance of My Aunt

2009-05-04T07:12:00.002+12:00

A few weeks ago, Aunt came to my dream. She quietly looked at me with a kind expression as she usually did when she was alive. The dream was quite clear, and it was the first time that aunt ever appeared in my dream since she died in 1984. So I reflected upon the dream a lot after I woke up.Aunt was born in 1914 in a small town called Ching Shui in the Taichung County of Taiwan. She was named

2009 Easter Show

2009-04-17T11:02:00.001+12:00

The Easter Show ran from the 10th April, Friday, through to the 13th April, Monday, this year. Easter is a very cultural and religious festival in western countries. Here in New Zealand, the school term break of a two week period coincides the arrival of the four day long Easter holiday. This makes the whole country immerse in a very peaceful and joyful holiday atmosphere when Easter comes around

A Miracle

2009-03-27T12:00:00.003+13:00

Throughout our life, we might encounter something which we found hard to explain how it could be happening to us, and if it benefits us, then we tend to call it 'a miracle'. In my 17 years of living in New Zealand, I had this 'something' happened to me 6 years ago, and because it came to me when I was desperately in need of it, so I called it 'A Miracle'.To tell the story, it has to be started

Tear Noodle

2009-03-06T16:27:00.015+13:00

During the new year holiday, we noticed there was a new restaurant opened nearby the Northcote Library where I and my wife usually spend our Saturday mornings. The three Chinese characters "手扯麵" on the menu posted on the window outside of Xi'an Food Bar drew our attention. From the meaning of these three characters, we imagined the noodle was made by tearing the dough into finer strips to be

58th Birthday

2009-03-02T09:13:00.011+13:00

Both my and my wife's birthdays are in February. So we have developed a tradition of celebrating our birthdays together on the same day, normally after 25th, in the month since our marriage. I can not remember as start from which year exactly have my children begun to remind me of our birthday celebration. But as far as I can remember that since 2006 when our daughter, Tessie, secured a full

In Remembrance Of My Father-in-Law

2009-02-06T08:50:00.021+13:00

February 14 marks the memorial anniversary of my father-in-law. In the early morning nine years ago on this date, the phone rang unexpectedly waking us up from sound sleep. My wife rushed toward the phone set from bed. It was her eldest sister, Zheng Shi, calling from Taiwan to advise us a shocking news, father had just died in Tainan City Hospital.It was a tremendous shock to my wife as I heard

On The Pure Land Path

2009-01-27T09:31:00.012+13:00

Many of my friends and my two children know that I will be going to Nianfo, reciting Amituofo, in a Buddhist meeting somewhere in Auckland on Mondays. They know I and my wife are Buddhists; are quite devoted to its activities; and are helping that group with some secretarial tasks.But they know very little about what activities are held there; why it attracts me to travel all the way by bus to

Chenny's Babysitter

2009-01-06T10:20:00.003+13:00