說東西南北

東，說文解字：東，動也。从木。官溥說，从日在木中。

西，說文解字：西，鳥在巢上。象形。日在西方而鳥棲，故因以為東西之西。

南，說文解字：南，艸木至南方而有枝任也。从屮，羋聲。

北，說文解字：北，乖也。从二人相背。

極案：方位名，東西明了有據，南北顯為無本字訓詁叚借。南，自古尤無定論，眾說紛紜，莫衷一是。南見金文，

于甲骨作

唐蘭釋南為「瓦製之樂器。」卜辭有

字，郭沫若釋：「象一手持槌以擊南。

小雅，谷風之什，鼓鍾：鼓鍾欽欽，鼓瑟鼓琴，笙磬同音，以雅以南，以籥不僭。

禮記，文王世子：胥鼓南。

可見「南」為一種敲打樂器。

國風有周南、召南，學者無攷。肊：或本以「南」伴奏為詩歌。

華夏上古只有東西，初民不認南北。東西，日出日入，易辨，至後世乃分南北。是以必借相背、南樂字為向。

直笛是我最喜歡的樂器。Baroque巴洛克直笛曲清淨有深度，明喨無染著：但因為直笛小聲、音域有限，所以十八世紀開始編制現代交響樂團，直笛被長笛取代，幾乎消聲匿跡；二十世紀初，愛好古音樂的人士發現直笛聲音幽雅，因而研究、復製、吹奏，並推廣。

推廣到二次大戰前的德國，德國人想要把指法簡化，因此直笛有巴洛克Baroque(English) fingering(英國)指法與德國German fingering之異，但德國指法不為直笛師所取，因為音色不好、比較難的曲子更難吹、而且吹到高音域，音準極差等等，因此一般認為，德國指法失敗，知者不取。全世界的直笛大師，沒有一個用(或推薦) 德國指法。

直笛推廣到臺灣，很可惜不受重視，只當作小朋友音樂課入門玩意兒，吹些康樂音樂、Disney曲、民謠，所以很少人了解巴洛克直笛多美，實在可惜。也因為直笛不受重視，據我所知，全臺灣的大學音樂系，沒有一系有直笛主修課程，因此教小朋友吹直笛的老師，絕大多數不了解這個樂器。真是錯失良機！更甚者，最近聽說有些音樂老師教小學生德國指法，這樣下來保證學生吹直笛吹不好、對直笛沒有好感。

我個人認為，直笛在十八世紀被淘汰，由于小聲，對今天臺灣人口密集的城市來說，正是它的優點：大廈林立，隔壁小毛頭練鋼琴，左鄰右舍披害；始練小提琴，狗吠貓哭鬼唳。直笛怎麼練，吵不到無辜的鄰居。我建議，臺灣的大學音樂系應速設直笛主修課程，並且鼓勵學生不要再學鋼琴、小提琴等，改專攻直笛。而且要用正統的巴洛克指法。

舞者許芳宜，不怕我和世界不一樣：「每年除夕夜，爸爸照例要對我們講述一遍「稻穗的故事」，愈是結實飽滿的稻穗愈是低垂，提醒我們做人要謙虛。」

Fang-Yi Sheu, former principal dancer of the Martha Graham dance troupe in New York, was born and raised in Taiwan. A childhood memory, she says: “Every year on Chinese New Year’s Eve, my father would always tell us the story of rice: the richer and fuller the head of rice, the lower down it bows. He always reminded us to be humble.”

Today’s post is for your poor people who don’t know Chinese.

First, please read these English words out loud:

jingle

jungle

jangle

jingo

jinx

The more perceptive among you will notice that ‘j’ is pronounced …. ‘j’. That shouldn’t be too difficult, right?

Ok, that wasn’t too hard, was it? Now let’s try two of those again, with feeling!

jingle! jingo!

Please pay attention to how you pronounce those: jingle! jingo! J sounds like J, if you’re on the right track.

Now, keeping jingle! jingo! in mind, please consider what the reasonable pronunciation of “Beijing” should be.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Bei is pronounced similar to the English word ‘bay,’ like the San Francisco ~. Now say ‘jing’ like part of jingle, jingo, and bingo! you have a pretty good approximation of the correct Chinese pronunciation of Beijing. If you can say ‘bay-jing’ with a do-mi tone, you are even closer.

Note for those who are unclear on the concept: 北京 Beijing is the capital of the People’s Republic of China. You may have heard of the place? They will be hosting the Olympics, does that ring a bell? Note that it is in China, so logically speaking, the Chinese should have some say in the matter of how to pronounce the name of their capital.

Beijing is the Communist romanization; the Wade Giles romanization, technically the academic standard yet, is Peiching, spelled this way for reasons that wouldn’t interest you in the least; aspirated and unaspirated consonants, that sort of thing. Peking is the old British imperial postal spelling, using a k to reflect central and southern dialects, or maybe just British mangling: hard to speak rummy Chinese with a stiff upper lip, what?

But what flummoxes me, and the reason for this post, is that in recent years Americans have, through undoubtedly concentrated effort, managed to pronounce Beijing all wrong. Now you hear Americans authoritatively saying Beizzzhhhing, with a ‘zzhhhh’ that most assuredly does not even exist in Mandarin. (Of the top of my head, I can’t think of a single Chinese dialect that has the zzzhhh sound.)

Now, in pinyin (the PRC’s romanization), you do see words spelled with ‘zh’, such as Zhungguo, China, but that sound is similar to the English ‘j’, not at all like the Russian ‘zh’ of Dr Zhivago or Zhukov.

But ‘Beijing’ should be straightforward enough: bay-jing, do-mi. Where on earth did this Beizzzzhhhing nonsense come from? I suspect some meat-headed official or reporter wanted to sound like he (or she) really knew something you hoi polloi didn’t have an inkling of, and pronouncing a word like it looked like would be too obvious, and so ended up with the fat-head Beizzzhhing monstrosity. Or maybe it was a French big-wig who can’t pronounce ‘j’ properly. Whatever. Beizzhhing may sound authentic, if you don’t speak Chinese, but rest assured, it is wrong. Bay-jing, do-mi. Just try not to say 背景BAY!-jing, MI!-do, because that means ‘background.’

金剛經:

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有肉眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有肉眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有天眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有天眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有慧眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有慧眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有法眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有法眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有佛眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有佛眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？恒河中所有沙，佛說是沙不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來說是沙。’

糟糕，前幾天誦到此文，居然誦成：

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有肉眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有肉眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有天眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有天眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有慧眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有慧眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有法眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有法眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有佛眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有佛眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有沙眼不？’

造業！懺悔！

叩問諸山大德，懺悔時一直笑，懺悔有效嗎？

on the MRT (Taipei subway) I saw someone wearing a jacket that said

UNITED OBESE ASSOCIATION

Bet they could sell a bunch of those in the States!

Evidently Cuba is looking forward to Castro’s departure, so life can move forward. Castro always put his politics ahead of the people’s welfare: construction materials were dedicated to the military, so the people of Havana live in crumbling houses that fall apart around them, with inadequate electricity, and “plumbing” that pumps human waste undiluted into the sea. Hail to the revolution! Power to the people! Get the old dictator out so the people’s livelihood may be improved.

This brings to mind someone who contributed greatly to the misery of the Cuban people, Che, one of my least favorite celebrities. He happened to have a good photographer who took a sexy photo of him that has made him the idol of all those audacious revolutionaries who dare to express their individuality by purchasing mass-produced Che posters and T shirts, and, throwing caution to the winds, wear their baseball caps backwards! Oh, what creativity! Oh, the flagrant nonconformity of buying trendy consumer goods! I’ll even wager that some of these dangerous radicals ride Harley hogs!

I don’t care much for political parties, I don’t care much for ideologies. If the people prosper and live comfortably, that is good government. 漢武帝擴展版圖，百姓苦不堪言，為誰爭「光」？書‧太甲下：惟天無親、克敬惟親；民罔常懷、惟于有仁。Glory? The greatest glory a government can aspire to is to have contented people who don’t give much thought to their rulers.

Overheard on the Taipei Subway

“我那天回去以後，一直在想痔瘡。”

“After I went home that day, I kept thinking about hemorrhoids.”

Sir Jeremy Bowes served as Queen Elizabeth’s ambassador at the court of the Russian tsar, Ivan the Terrible, who bellowed, “I do not think Elizabeth is my equal. There are those who are greater than she.”

Sir Jeremy would not hear his queen disparaged. Standing firm in the face of Ivan’s insane rage, he retorted, “The Queen, my mistress, is as great as a prince as any in Christendom, and wants not the means to withstand any she has cause to be enemy to.”

Ivan asked, “Yes? What do you say to the French King? And the King of Spain?”

“Marry, I hold my mistress to be as great as either of them.”

”What do you say to the Holy Roman Emperor?”

“The King, my mistress’s father, once hold that Emperor in his pay.”

Ivan’s rage increased. He screamed at Sir Jeremy, “If you were not an ambassador, I would throw you out the door!”

Sir Jeremy calmly replied, “You could, but my mistress will avenge any harm done to me, her ambassador.”

Ivan screeched, “Get out.” After Sir Jeremy left, Ivan berated his own chancellor and nobles. “Did you hear? He would not have a word spoken against his mistress! If I could have servants like that!” Then he started beating his chancellor with his staff.

I have always wondered that Tsar Ivan did not consider that the reason he did not have servants like Sir Jeremy Bowes was that Queen Elizabeth never made a habit of beating her counselors with a staff.

Sometimes I really don’t know what to make of the news. Here is an article that came out several months ago:

An Irishman blinded by an explosion two years ago has had his sight restored after doctors inserted his son's tooth in his eye, he said on Wednesday.

You couldn’t make something so surreal up.

壇經記，惠能身不幸，父早亡，老母孤遺，移來南海；艱辛貧乏，於市賣柴。

時，有一客買柴，使令送至客店；客收去，惠能得錢，卻出門外，

見一客誦經。惠能一聞經語，心即開悟，遂問：「客誦何經？」

客曰：「金剛經。」

案：惠能「是嶺南人，又是獦獠」，且「惠能不識字」，
卻聞客誦金鋼經即開悟。客誦惠能聽，不視文字，
亦不識文字，可見經文華譯于時為白話文。
今人聽經倘不視文，聽不懂；
今所謂文言文，于唐朝仍可為口語文學。

又：經文熟誦則速。客誦經，
惠能一聞經語，心即開悟，應誦慢板。
肊，客誦經，見賣柴惠能駐足聞經，
或識為大根器，或欲種善根，
故放慢誦讀，企其能會。

 又：能為六祖惠能誦經，多大的因緣！多大的福氣！

Just listen, there's nothing to see. This is a bird that calls at night. I understand it lives close to the ground on the edges of fields, and is about the size of a chicken or quail. Can anybody identify this fellow?

Many thanks to Mr 賴鵬智 Bird Lai, who identified the call as a 黃嘴角鴞 Mountain Scops Owl, or Spotted Scops Owl, Otus spilocephalus.

二二八公園靠襄陽路的工程圍籬拆下了，新面貌真好！從前門禁森嚴的黑籬不見了，取而代之以開放、寬敞的彎曲、活潑步行空間，又大方又方便；彷彿從以前的壓迫限制中解放了。設計師應該頒個獎吧！

Those of you readers (assuming such exist) who have not been to Taiwan may not appreciate how good a subway can be. Taipei’s MRT is clean, reliable, and comfortable, a pleasure to ride.

Boston is proud of having the world’s first subway, but it’s really not much to be proud of. The trains are uncomfortable and dirty, filled with litter, and service is bad. My last night in Boston (May 21), we were taking the Red Line outbound around dinnertime, approaching Central, when the train stopped. It was uncomfortably crowded, but the passengers stoically waited. The train didn’t move for about ten minutes. Finally, the driver made some sort of announcement, but it was mumbled and inaudible. Nobody could hear what she was saying, and people started grumbling. Over the next ten minutes, we were treated to a few more inaudible mutterings. Finally the train lurched forward a few steps, and we were in the station! The train had stopped just short of the station. But even though we drew up to the platform, the doors didn’t open. People inside the train and people outside the train stared at each other for several minutes before the doors opened.

In Taiwan, you could get reimbursement for any such delay and inconvenience, but the Boston commuters seemed used to such miserable treatment. No audible or explicable explanation was offered for this mismanagement; you’re at their mercy when you take Boston’s T.

When we got back to Taiwan, and walked into the subway station the first time, when we saw the train our first reaction was, “Wow, it’s a new train!” Then we laughed, because we knew it wasn’t. After Boston, we just weren’t used to sparkling clean stations, spotless trains, reliable service, and comfortable rides.

Here is something Chao and I were considering on our flight from LA to Tokyo. Two of 403 passengers on the eleven hour flight, we sat as comfortably as contortionally possible as our 747 zipped us across the sky at nearly one thousand km an hour, jostling lightly with infrequent turbulence.

Then we considered the USS Constitution, which we finally succeeded in visiting in Boston. The ship, with roughly the same indoor space as the 747, carried 450 sailors on voyages lasting weeks and months, rolling and pitching slowly up and down the waves. The sailors were allowed to sleep in their hammocks four hours every day. When weather permitted, ventilation was provided by portholes, such as shown in the photo below, and through the open hatch. With all those unwashed bodies, it must have been suffocating below decks, where, BTW, I had to watch my head when standing upright.

We decided that eleven hours on the 747 wasn’t so bad after all.

原來臺灣的形象如此.....

10AM Tonight's Movie: Guess Who's Going to Hell?
IT guy to IT manager: Nice shoes, are they new?
IT manager: Yeah, but they're too clean and white. They need to be scuffed up more.
IT guy: You know what they should do? They should make the seven-year old Taiwanese kids who sew these wear them for a few days first.
IT manager: Yeah, that's perfect. Pre-scuffed shoes. They'd be flopping around in shoes way too big, but at least they'd have shoes for a few days.

Good Hope Road
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
via Overheard in the Office, Jun 2, 2008

Wenhui文慧 lived in 木柵溝子口 on the outskirts of Taipei. One summer night her brother Wenta 文達 and their father were sitting in the living room swatting mosquitoes.

“Pa,” Wenta said, “The living room is full of mosquitoes. Let’s open the windows so they can fly out.”

Their father agreed, and they opened all the windows. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

An interesting thought:

John Kellerman:

Therapists become therapists because deep down they feel that people are really good and have the capacity to change for the better. The notion that there exist individuals who are simply evil – bad people – and that such evil cannot be explained by any existing combination of nature or nurture is an assault upon a therapist’s sensitivities. The psychopath is to the psychologist and the psychiatrist what the terminal cancer patient is to the physician: walking, breathing evidence of hopelessness and failure.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave no trail.

Talovich

When I was a kid, Americans didn’t hug much. Lovers hugged when nobody was watching, spouses hugged from time to time, and kids dutifully hugged Grandmother when she went back home after a visit.

Now it seems that American etiquette requires dozens of hugs every day. The way things are going, in a few years you will be obligated to hug the cashier at the supermarket when she has run up your order and told you to have a good day.

The problem is, in my observation, very few of these hugs are heartfelt. Americans hugs are rigid formalities, the huggers trying to hold each other as far away as seemly while feigning sincerity.

On the one hand, Americans feel duty-bound to show that they are affectionate and really care (Have a good day!), but on the other hand, Americans do not lightly tolerate invasions of their space.

During my three weeks in Boston, Cleveland, and LA, I observed at least a hundred hugs, of which almost none were warm or joyful. I seriously doubt that many Americans enjoy those hugs. Why bother?

Overheard in Tokyo Narita Airport: Ladies and gentlemen, we are now ready to begin our fright.

I went through Tokyo’s Narita Airport 東京成田空港 several times when it was new and was distressed by the abysmal design. Five jumbo jets shared the same lounge with the space usually reserved for one, so it was SRO: space to sit on the ground leaning against the wall was hard to find and quickly taken. Squeeze into the miserable little shops and don’t jiggle as you patiently wait your turn for the lavatory. After a couple trips through, I was as eager to transit through Narita as English in Calcutta were to return to the Black Hole.

I thought we were coming back from the US the way we went, through Osaka, an unpleasant warehouse of an airport, albeit spacious. I resigned myself when I realized our route took us through Narita, but was pleasantly surprised to find a new, rebuilt airport with great sofas to lounge on and plenty of space for all. A vegetarian can starve to death there, because there are only a couple small eateries with few vegetarian options, but overall the experience was nice.

When it was only a couple years old, I took a flight on 長榮Eva Air and hobbled for days after, the seats were so tight. No thank you. But coming back, the best transfer from Narita to Taipei was Eva, so I resigned myself to airplane seat contortionism. I was pleasantly surprised to find a new, rebuilt airline, with tastefully decorated cabins, spacious seats, and the finest lavatories I have ever seen aloft. Okay, they go overboard on the Hello Kitty; everywhere you look, Hello Kitty. I was just as happy our flight landed near midnight so nobody saw me returning on a plane with three huge Hello Kitties on the fuselage, but overall the experience was so nice that I will repeat it.

From time to time, it’s good to examine the evidence underpinning your judgments and opinions.

Overheard in Little Saigon (Westminster, CA):

A: Don’t go to San Francisco in the summer, because it’s too hot.

B: Too hot?? Aren’t you Viet Namese?

A: Yes, but ~

B: You’re Viet Namese and you think SAN FRANSISCO is hot??

A: Yes, but I’ve been in America for thirty years. America has done what China could never do. I have become American. China tried to make us Chinese for thousands of years, but we Viet Namese never became Chinese. Thirty years in America, and I’m American. The American Empire conquers everything.

B: Yeah, right, Disneyland.

A: Yes, exactly, Disneyland and Coca Cola.

B groans.

A: The American entertainment industry conquers all before it.

B groans again.

A: When I went to the Immigration office to become a naturalized American, I raised my right hand and solemnly swore, I pledge allegiance to the entertainment center of the United States of America.

Flying over Philadelphia to transfer to Cleveland from Boston, I saw more baseball diamonds than I had ever seen in one metropolis. Few of those in LA: tracks, swimming pools, and streets lined with beautiful blooming jacaranda trees. Apparently they hadn’t planted these trees when I lived in LA, because I don’t remember seeing any, but now they line streets with purple. Better than cherry trees, if you ask me.

Boston: lots of people walking, joggers everywhere.

Cleveland: nobody walking, nobody jogging.

LA: nobody walking, some joggers.

Boston: a Dunkin’ Donuts every five steps.

LA: few Dunkin’ Donuts.

Boston public transportation: outdated, dirty, unreliable subway, buses, and trolleys.

LA: What does “public transportation” mean?

When someone tells you where to go,
now you know where it is.

actually, this is Heil Avenue, in Huntington Beach, California. But I did a real double-take.

The Amish used to be called the Pennsylvania Dutch, but actually, there are more of them in Ohio than in Pennsylvania. Visiting my niece and her kids in a suburb of Cleveland, we made an outing to Amish country, which surprisingly is only about an hour’s drive outside of Cleveland.

An hour by car, anyway, probably longer in the horse drawn buggies the Amish drive. We ate in a very good restaurant, Mary Yoder’s Amish kitchen. Vegetarians beware: Amish aren’t, so we attacked the salad bar and ate our fill. I am not quite sure how a website fits in with horse and buggy. We enjoyed the contrast of the traffic outdoors: car, car, horse and buggy, Harley hog, horse and buggy, FedEx delivery truck.

Evidently the restaurant is very authentic, because most of the staff wore Amish plain clothes, and soon after us, an Amish clan started to fill the next. First some adults, then a dozen girls, none yet in their teens, took their places. To our eyes, they looked healthy inside and out; fit, good clear skin, good clear eyes, well bred, demure, shy, but lively and affectionate among themselves. They probably get sick of being gawked at, so we tried not to, but some of the little ones were so cute it was hard. We suspected they may not see many Chinese, because several of the girls gawked at Chao, delighting us both. (Not a lot of ethnic diversity in Cleveland: black and white. The ethnic diversity in Amish country was one African American we saw walking down a road, and Chao.)

Speaking of diversity: American Amish are not the same as the Taiwan aborigine Amis tribe.

Some of the young men were in their twenties. I told Joe to look at their physiques; they are obviously very strong, trim, and healthy, but they don’t have the ridiculous clumps of useless, decorative muscles city people pay exorbitant gym fees to develop. I admired their free easy gaits; these are people who walk.

The contrast to the Typical American Family on our left couldn’t have been stronger: junk food obesity, tattoos, grotesque hairstyles, obstreperous children, loud, intrusive voices, vulgar clothing. It was obvious why American consumerism attracts few Amish.

At a general store in a nearby town, I accosted a young brother and sister. Their conversation was cheerful, polite, and intelligent. I asked about taking photos; they said, Some people mind, some don’t, so ask. I did, and they assented.

Horse and buggies don’t pollute like cars, but they don’t smell much better. But jeer while you can. When gas goes up to ten bucks a gallon a few years from now, people will be lining up to learn horseshoeing from Amish blacksmiths.

overheard at a playground near Cleveland, Ohio:
one 10 year old girl leading another into playground: "This playground has everything! swings, slides, monkey bars, rock wall.... Welcome to heaven!"

I was surprised to see a sparrow fly past me as we sat in the departure lounge waiting for our flight out of Philadelphia. A passing cleaning man smiled and told me, “We have three birds inside now, and we can’t catch them. We have set out traps and traps, but they are too smart. They come down to the floor and trash barrels to eat, but they never eat out of the traps, and they fly away too quickly. It started with one bird five years ago, and now we have three birds living indoors.”

“Smart birds,” I said, “They can spend the cold, snowy winter indoors.”

“Right, and they can enjoy the air conditioning in the summer!”

The light, agile sparrows made an amusing contrast to the hulking jet liners outdoors. The jets can fly farther, but they can’t make nests up near the roof!

overheard in Brookline Finale, Boston
Pompous man with European accent: The difference between Chinese and Japanese, you see, is that Chinese are all the same, but Japanese have real individuality. Japanese are individualists.

May 20 is a glorious day. In an earlier post, I referred to our three futile attempts to visit the USS Constitution. Last Monday, after our marriage ceremony, we decided to take a water taxi over to visit Old Ironsides. We marched right up to the gate, and examined the sign that said
CLOSED MONDAYS.
Ok. We are nothing if not persistent. Today we carefully checked and double-checked the calendar, figured it must be Tuesday, took the water taxi to Charlestown Navy Yard, marched right up to the gate, and actually visited the great ship! Hurrah!




















We took a very interesting half hour tour. If you come to Boston, be sure to go! But not on Monday.

The 20th is a great day for Taiwan. President Chen is actually following the basic rules of democracy and turning over the presidency to President Ma; on loosing his immunity, Chen will immediately face prosecution for crimes of corruption and so forth. I think when he steps down, everybody will heave a sigh of relief. For eight years, he has worked to stir up animosity and polarize the people. He has never even tried to be the President of Taiwan; he wanted only to be the president of his followers. A new day has come. President Ma has said, No more talk about party affiliation. We are all in this together, and we will all work together. Hurrah!

Old American saying: You can fool some of the people all of the time, you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. I believe this is President Chen’s greatest failing. He thought he could fool all of the people all of the time. Sorry, good bye, good riddance. Now Taiwan can finally face the future and move forward. Hurrah!

Today Chao received her Master's degree in Dance/Movement Therapy from Lesley; the first commencement ceremony I have attended since my junior high school graduation.

The Mayor of Cambridge addressed the exercises, saying 'significant' five times and 'passion' eight times within five minutes. A noted Doctor, receiving his 44th (!) honorary degree, reminded us "how important you and your generation is." Another speaker told about someone who was awarded a degree "post-humorously," and exhorted us to "remember the ordeals of our school." It took me a moment to realize she meant 'ideals.'

I was surprised to learn that, of Americans 25 years or older, only one out of four has a bachelor's degree, and only one out of ten has a Master's. I thought the figures were much higher.

Anyway, congratulations to all members of the class of 2008, whatever school. Remember how important you is, and keep up your passion for the significant ordeals you have learned.

I spotted this sign on South Street in Jamaica Plain, near the Forest Hill T station. I'm not sure what it means, but I suspect it is a comment on Our Exalted Leader, President Dubya.

You may have expected that enlightenment would come ZAP! instantaneous and permanent. This is unlikely. After the first “ah ha” experience, it can be thought of as the thinning of a layer of clouds.
Ram Dass

中國哲人云修身養性，而後明心見性：身心不二。于西洋則不然；身是身、心是心，嘴巴上說說就夠了，不需身體力行。
身心自然分不開；不修身如何養性？身不修則心不正，心不正，當然無法悟道。但西洋人受鈴木大拙誤導，對禪理誤解極深，認為不待紮根、不用實修，糊裡糊塗遇禪機便開悟了，開悟等于立地成佛。
在人間，自知軀殼是五蘊的一合相，卻只此臭皮囊，便要借假修真。悟，是心亦是身，身不調、氣派不通，如何能悟？
不持戒、縱慾失節、造業損德，難悟。口食葷腥，氣脈阻澀，殺生造業，離道日遠，智者不肯。
The West's conception of Ch'an (Zen) has been so sorely malformed by Suzuki that you can be pretty sure that anything which says Zen isn't.
Under the influence of Suzuki, you might think enlightenment is something that comes suddenly and stays, turning you into a buddha in a moment. Far from it. Ch'an stories may tell of the moment of an enlightenment, but as they were originally recorded for Buddhist practitioners, the stories do not need to recount the decades of strict discipline and hard work that preceded the enlightenment, and the years and years of increased dedication that followed. Those are taken for granted.

來果禪師 Master Laikuo, a contemporary of 虛雲老和尚 Master Hsuyun (early 20th century) told that when he was a young monk, one retreat he attended was so harrowing that he thought of running away. The Master in charge of the retreat picked up that thought, and announced, "If any practitioner thinks of running away from this retreat, we'll catch him before he gets over the wall, break his legs, beat him to death, and burn him to ashes before the retreat is over. Sit where you are and keep your mind on your work!”

Ch'an cultivation requires more work and dedication than most people are willing or capable of. It is more than something you write on your products or place in your mouth to raise your value or inflate your ego.

It is ludicrous to suppose that a body fed with meat, clogged by onions and garlic, polluted by cigarettes or liquor, and numbed by the hammering of television shows and popular songs, could approach the tranquility that is the first stepping stone of Ch'an.

I saw a great T shirt across the street from Harvard Yard. There was a picture of Our Exalted Leader George Dubya Bush, and underneath it said
BLAME

YALE

Thank heavens for disasters such as the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in China! Well-fed comfortable citizens of developed countries can write off their consciences with a donation check and with great self-satisfaction continue their lives unexamined and unaltered.

Cyclones and earthquakes are great tragedies, brook no dispute on that, but more people suffer from the repercussions of unbridled consumerism than from natural disasters.

Evidently there is an inviolate Massachusetts law that before you even consider having a baby, you have to promise to spend at least a month’s pay on a stroller. Nobody in the Boston area actually carries a kid: dog forbid that you touch your child, it may learn to love you. Rather, you place your progeny in a stroller, the more expensive the better, where it cannot see you, cannot smell you, cannot feel you, probably cannot even hear you, and push your kid forward inexorably into the world unprotected and unaccompanied.

These photos were all taken within a short time within a small area, just a sampling of what rules Boston sidewalks. You can see that some irresponsible parents are risking drastically impairing their children’s futures, because they are in four wheel strollers. Better parents go into hock if necessary to place their babies in three wheel strollers made of nylon, aluminum, titanium, and carbon, with safety belts, pneumatic brakes, and, most important of all, coffee cup holders.
But surely you can see how important strollers are. First, without strollers, parents would have one less item to compete for conspicuous consumption. Even worse, without strollers, parents might have to touch their babies and hold them close. Yikes!

announcing the marriage of Yugan and Sabiy

超 + 極

Boston City Hall

by Judge R Salerno

May 12, 2008

Anybody who doubts that glamour has disappeared from flying should go through Osaka's Kansai Airport, which displays all the grace and splendor of a parking garage.

Japanese esthetics are very good at small, and they can sometimes manage big, but they cannot do grand. Flying may no longer be glamorous, but a line of jets lined up at a terminal, with some gliding to the runways, others taxiing for takeoff, is a grand sight.

What is this man so happy about?

He was, until today, Vice Premier. Past tense, because he is responsible for the disappearance of US$30 million of public funds. Now, in today’s national budgets, US$30 million is no great shakes; it would fund the American war in Iraq for half an hour, maybe. But the sticking point manner in which the money disappeared.

President Chen, leaving office on the 20^th of this month, has worked hard at his diplomatic offensive, with startling results. Costa Rica, Taiwan’s friend for decades through thick and thin, broke off relations. Nicaragua, another faithful old friend, appears to be gone. On a state visit to Central America, Chen was in the middle of a speech when the President of Honduras turned off his microphone. When you get snubbed by Honduras, you ought to ponder how successful your diplomacy is.

Chen has thrown wads of money at small countries all over the place. There was a bidding war for recognition from Vanuatu, which you probably don’t remember is a small island nation in the Pacific. I forget who won, but these people do pay visits (at our expense); sometimes downtown Taipei, near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is draped with some really unusual flags you probably see almost nowhere else.

And so the focus shifted to Papua New Guinea. To forge relations with PNG, and the word forge seems especially apt here, Chen’s regime promised to give them thirty million US dollars. PNG decided not to set up relations, and the middleman skedaddled with the thirty million.

People are seeing the safeguards in red tape and bureaucracy; you have a clear path of how much money went where for what. Chen’s regime has always leaped past those safeguards, throwing public funds to friends and associates with as little legal oversee as possible. Chiu, the man you see smiling here, did not do any background check on the middleman; his reason was, “He’s the friend of a friend.” That should be reason enough to entrust somebody with a fortune, no?

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is trying to write off the money as ‘lost due to accident,’ but the public, already sick of Chen and his regime, is aroused and will not buy that. After avoiding the issue for days, President Chen finally announced his apology and in the same breath announced that this scandal has nothing to do with him, that he didn’t know anything about it.

Although I think it would be great if Dubya walked through Iraq with the troops, nobody really expects a ruler to fight a war personally; a ruler does not drive buses, ring up sales, pour concrete for houses, or grow produce for the markets. A ruler’s job is to see that others do their jobs properly. In other words, a ruler’s job is to choose people who can do their jobs, delegate, and supervise. A ruler who does not choose people, delegate, or supervise has no business in power.

Chen’s regime has been one corruption scandal after another. If he will not be held responsible for his people, what is he doing in office?

以前有一位同事讓我厭惡；每次有事情需要處理，他先不處理，卻逕奔來跟我說，事情發生不是他的錯、不是他的責任。我很不耐煩：我不管誰的責任，臨發事先處理好才要緊。加上，我欣賞敢作敢當的人。

今天聯合報的新聞，陳總統終于談到納稅人的錢消失了十億元，說此事「傷害了政府及執政黨形象，他深感愧疚，並向全民道歉。陳總統表示，他本人心中坦蕩，既未主導，亦未參與執行。」

乾乾淨淨的；女婿有罪，沒我的事；我選派的官有罪，沒我的事。

論語：舜命禹：「朕躬有罪，無以萬方；萬方有罪，罪在朕躬。」又曰，「百姓有過，在予一人。」

尚書，湯誥：湯既黜夏命，告萬方，「罪當朕躬，弗敢自赦…其爾萬方有罪，在予一人；予一人有罪，無以爾萬方。」

Don’t repeat your parents’ mistakes

I wrote this refreshing little piece on 1994.12.25.

A sick child’s parents spare no pains to cure it. They can stay up night after night until the child gets well. If the sickness is more serious, they can leave work and hobbies behind to be present at the sickbed or outside the operating room. They are willing to accumulate enormous debts so that their child may, if not be healthy, at least live.

But what about old folks? They’d better not get sick, because if they do, their children are busy with their careers and don’t have time or patience to spare for them. Doctor’s bills are paid grudgingly. If the old father or mother needs attention for more than a week or two, their children have a hundred other more important things to do.

This shows the basic ingratitude of humanity. Parents willingly sacrifice their time, their money, and their talent for their children. But it’s a one-way street.

2008 note: actually, it makes evolutionary sense. But why bother?

Many are concerned about the Hispanics entering the United States. They say that few Hispanic children in the US learn English; the signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages, and in some places only Spanish. Spanish is heard in courts, so there is a continual need of interpreters, and if current trends continue, legislative sessions may even be held in English and Spanish! Some Nordic, WASP, or Aryan type Americans say that since the Hispanics have so many kids, they will soon outnumber others, so America will not be able to preserve proper English, and even the government will be changed.

Do you foresee a future United States taken over by Spanish speakers? Before you answer, consider what Ben Franklin wrote about German immigrants in 1750:

“Few of their children in the country learn English…. The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages, and in some places only German…. their own language …[is] allowed in courts, where …there is continual need of interpreters; and I suppose that in a few years they will also be necessary in the Assembly, to tell one half of our legislators what the other half say…. They will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will be precarious.”

By today, over 200 years later, over a third of all Americans have German blood. Please tell me which of your true-blue American friends and neighbors have German blood; tell me how many of them speak a word of German. Yes, German immigrants have influenced American culture; would you throw out the Christmas tree because it was brought by Germans? When I moved to California as a boy, I was charmed by a strange custom we read about in our local history textbooks, called a piñata. There were some for sale on Olvera Street, but none of us had ever seen one elsewhere, much less batted at one. Will you toss the piñata out of your next party because it was brought by Hispanic immigrants?