The Queen's 85th Birthday

04/06/2012 Monday

This weekend is a long one because of the Queens birthday. While New Zealand is celebrating the Queens birthday this week, Australia is not yet until next week, how strange it is?

I pondered on the mystery of life a lot recently. And the destined fortune that the Queen Elizabeth has been the topic of our conversation. We agree that her destined fortune is unsurpassable in the world. In the history, there were innumerable military coups overthrowing the kings or queens recorded, and this never had happened to her. As to her marriage, she married a tall and handsome husband, and I believe throughout her marriage over the 60 years, the husband had never had a harsh words to her, let alone any violent assault happened to most of the couple in the world (I, too, have never said any harsh word to my wife). Longevity is around her family and so she is believed to be having a healthy and long life. And during her sovereignty, she had had a most glorious position in the global political stage that the United Kingdom was once referred to "the Empire on which the sun never sets"

Buddhists believe that everything happens with a reason. So why the Queen has such a good destined fortune and not me or you? Why some people are born in a rich country while a lot more others are born in poor ones?

In both Eastern and Western worlds, "you reap what you sow", is commonly accepted. "You harvest melon because you planted melon, harvest bean if you planted bean". With this concept in mind, we can conclude that the Queen Elizabeth must have done a great lot of good deeds in her previous life and soul she is rewarded with such a divine quality of life.

123 Henry and Helen overseas study

My 60th birthday - part 2

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 at home rather than a big one at a restaurant." "just buy a pack of chips, one stir-fried Rice, one sweet-sour pork from the take-away", added mom.

Young people tend to look birthday party as a very important event. They celebrate their birthdays for each other, so if one has a group of close friends more than 12 then he will be very likely to be invited to a birthday party almost every month through out a year, and they take it as a must-attend occassion. So I appreciate how Chenny felt and cared about our birthday celebration, particularly this 60th one.

As was discussed by us, Chenny called the take-away shop and placed the order. At 6:45 pm that evening, Chenny set out the three dishes on the table plus four glasses of beer.

Jean and I were so happy. Birthday song was sung; wishes were made; photos were shot; the party foods were entirely consumed, and finally had our profound 60th birthday party completed.

I am aware of the truth that I belong to the 60 age group from now on.

My 60th birthday - part 1

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 watch duty on the deck, reading, medication and meditation etc..

But, it is a 60th birthday, as the majority of the 60 year old fellows do, I should be entitled to do something special and joyful to spoil myself and celebrate it. After all, it only comes once in our life...!@#$%%.... What a good and justified excuse!

In my parents' days, a few particular birthdays of the family members' or their close relations' are just can not be omitted. The 6th birthday, the 16th, the 30th, and the 60th, and even the 80th if you live long enough. On these particular birthdays, to some well off family, a feast will be held, and close family friends and relatives will be invited to attend. As to ordinary families, a rather special food such as glutenous cake made in the shape of turtle and dyed in red symbolizing longevity will be offered to the ancestors and Buddha with a simple worship service held in front of the family shrine altar.

So far I did not skip any of the above mentioned peculiar birthdays of mine except the 60th and the 80th ones because they aren't due yet.

I remember my parents undertook a very costly celebration on my 6th birthday--dedicated to the heavenly deities by offering a whole male pig. I still vividly remember I was awaken from sound sleep by my mother before dawn. It was still dark in a cold but clear morning. The twinkling stars were still in the clear sky. Mother took me to the make-shift altar setup by the road side in front of our home. Before me was the corpse of a poor pig, supposed to be male as tradition required. The pig was displayed on a specially constructed wooden frame; its mouth was pulled open and an orange inserted in its mouth; its eyes shut but looked like smiling, the whole body on the frame with head up and tail end down in a 30 degrees elevation.

Mother held my two palms together with a burning incense held in between my palms. She stooped down, holding my hands together with the incense and said the prayer on behalf of me. As I can remember, the prayer went like this, "ah! the heavenly deities and the most revered heavenly emperor, we are so grateful to your constant protecting over Ah-sium (this was how I was called in Taiwanese dialect) that he has turned 6 years old today. Your continuing protecting and blessing him through the rest of his life is sincerely implored." Then, I think, I went straight back to bed after that ritual.

Then my 16th birthday. 1967 was the year, and I was in my first school term of senior high school. A same service was held; a poor male pig was slaughtered for the sake of my 16th birthday. I ever asked my mother why this kind of costly event had to be held? She said, "we do this to thank the heavenly deities." As I grew older, I understood the reasons: a son is important to a family as he is supposed to carry the linage of this family on; I was the only son survived after my two preceding brothers died in their infanthood, my parents were just too scared of the loss of me and therefore seek for blessing through the folk belief such as this; 16th birthday marks the critically important stage of life in terms of reproductivity, a stage of being able to fulfill the mission soon.

Time flied by. I married at age 26. I remember once before I was turning 30, my mother mentioned about who is supposed to be responsible for the celebration of my 30th birthday. She told me that according the customary, a son-in-law's 30th birthday celebration was at the cost of the wife's maiden home. I cannot remember now whether I had mentioned about the 30th birthday celebration to my wife and she passed the words on to her maiden home, or my father-in-law just knew about the etiquette, anyway, we were asked to travel to my wife's maiden home in Tainan on my birthday one day. I was not aware of the arrangement that my father-in-law had planned prior to our arrival.

After we arrived home, settled and were ready to dinner, my father-in-law summoned everyone to be in the living room, and seated me in the center of the couch and presented a short speech. I could not remember the speech he presented, but it was generally like this: "today is your 30th birthday", he continued "mom and dad wish you healthy, happy and lucky throughout the rest of your life. Offered to you is a bowl of wheat flour noodle with egg and a pan of homemade birthday cake that symbolize long life and everlasting descendants. Here you go."

Then I started my devouring of the whole bowl of the food under the surveillance of the whole family and got my 30th birthday celebration done without having to slaughter a pig.

Now, the 60th birthday is coming toward me. Time flies even faster than I imagine. I am here in New Zealand; have become a Buddhist of the Pure Land path.. What the birthday celebration of this important one will be like? I don't know. But I am definitely sure for one thing, that no pig will be sacrificed for the sake of my 60th birthday. Who will be responsible for this important event? I think it will be my wife, and she will make a bowl of wheat flour noodle with boiled egg for me, and presents a short speech which will be "Amituofo!"

An even more important one that follows the 60th one will be of the 80th birthday which I don't think will be held for me on the planet but in the pure land hopefully.

58th Birthday

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 time job and our son, Chenny, was able to earn for his own spending while studying in the university, they began to take us out for a family lunch in a restaurant.

This year when our birthdays drew near, Chenny initiated this topic at a dinner conversation at home. He asked me how would I and my wife plan for our birthdays. As usual, we used of this opportunity trying to convert him into believing that one should be commemorating ones mother for the suffering she bore in the labor but not delving into activities designed for ones own joy on their birthday. This time he patiently listened the whole lecture without any dispute as he always did before. I said to my wife later on that our son was more matured this year. We also concluded that our children expected us to be aware of the arrival of our birthdays and plan some special activities for ourselves. That meant they were very care about us!

So on 23rd, a Monday, when we were supposed to attend in the weekly Buddhist meditation session in Greenlane, we decided to add something special to our usual transportation, normally by bus to and back, by train, and ferry boat for this time.

After we arrived at city, we normally changed to ride on another bus heading for Greenlane, but that day we hopped on a train instead. I had never got a chance to ride a train in the past 17 years since we moved to New Zealand. So we felt like a child traveling by train for the first time. I took a photo of my wife in the carriage. I saw her smiling all the way through out the trip.

On the way back after the group meditation session in the Buddhist meeting, we explored the Ferry Terminal Building in the city for the first time again since we have moved to New Zealand. It was full of shops and tourists.

I checked the timetable for a ferry heading for Devonport where we can have a relaxing stride along the beach and enjoy the peaceful reminiscent atmosphere of the small town. I had travelled by ferry to small islands for a couple of times before, but this was the first time I rode it from city to Devonport. So it was my another first time experience.

It was two O'clockish when we arrived Devonport. There the sea view, flying sea gulls, tourists and the shops created a peaceful relaxing picture that made you sleepy. We enjoyed ourselves there for an hour and then took a bus home. I thought to myself that the simple but joyful tour we had that day had somehow fulfilled Chenny's wish of seeing us to do something special to celebrate our birthdays.

In the following week, first saw Tessie's e-mail asking if we would be interested in watching an opera show called "My Fair Lady". She would buy the ticket costing $74 - 100 each for us as birthday gift if we said yes. Astonished by her generosity but we replied saying we preferred a family lunch at Daikoku Restaurant on the weekend.

Early in the morning of my birthday I received a text message in my mobile phone from Chenny wishing me a happy one.

So we had a lovely family lunch there. Chenny brought his girlfriend Lily along. We shot a few photos in the restaurant to mark our birthday celebration of 2009.

Our 58th birthday is indeed an unforgettable one. The fact that children will grow; we will get old; nothing material remains unchanged permanently; and etc of thoughts rise and sink in my mind on that day. The force that drove me to write this post was the feeling of delight in receiving the return feed from my children.

Celebration of Chenny’s 21st birthday

The 8th of October 2008 is the 21st birthday of my son, Chenny. Although 21st birthday is a big celebration to all young people, but did not seem to be so to him, because he was busy in preparing the term exam. His girlfriend secretly organized a birthday party in a restaurant, called him up that night, asked him to be present, and pushed him into the hall blindfolded to make him a surprise. When Chenny told me what happened in the party, I thought after all girls were more thoughtful.

A few days prior to his birthday, we knew this one got to be a bigger one, and was thinking what to offer. My wife decided to do something our parents did for us when we were small for him on that day. After all, she is supposed to be more thoughtful than me so I just let her plan go through.

Early that morning, she boiled two eggs, dyed them into red, wrote “Happy 21st birthday“on both, and placed them on the table. When he came to the dining table and saw these lovely red things, he smiled a while but looked a bit confused as if asking “Is this for my 21st birthday?”

What my wife planned to do was to give a speech about the real meaning of celebrating a birthday when Chenny saw the red eggs. Anyway Chenny’s 21st birthday celebration from his parents is very culturally special and unforgettable to him.

The speech my wife delivered that morning was like this:

Son, it is ok to hold a joyful party in a format of food, drink, friends, and fun for your birthday today. But I want to use of this opportunity to tell you how children of our generation celebrate their birthdays, and what we all should bear in mind on our birthdays.

When we were young, the economy in Taiwan was not good. Birthday cake with candles was never heard of let along a birthday party. Yet, as parents, they wanted to do something special on their children’s birthday. Early in the morning, my mother already boiled two eggs and dyed them in red after they were cooled down a bit. As soon as I was leaving for school, she gave me a pat on my head, told me it was my birthday, prayed in murmur that I should grow into a healthy decent person, and put the still-warm eggs into my pocket. Then waved me good bye by the door step. The warmth and the red colour of the eggs in the pocket gave me a special feeling of birthday whole day long.

It is now the 21st century. People already forgot those days when material was not abundant as today. Birthday party in general becomes an occasion of eating, drinking and having fun. Very few will ever visualize the scene in the maternity ward of hospital where mother is bearing the agonizing pain till her baby is given birth.
As this is your 21st birthday, a day that means so much to you, so we decided to celebrate it uniquely for you by reversing the style that is followed by today’s society. Mum and dad’s blessing is more meaningful than a big party dinner. Also important is that a birthday should be the day to thank mother’s love. We wish you keep growing into a healthy and noble person.

After the speech, Chenny smiled sheepishly and gave us a hug and left for school with those two red eggs in his bag. This 21st birthday of Chenny’s is indeed a very unique one.