Enlightenment – a state of laughter?

After I finished Chinese class today, I felt like I just had to get out of town. With the ongoing job hunt, I’ve spent so much time in front of my computer recently that my eyes are really hurting a lot. I needed the opportunity to focus far away!

So, I hopped on a bus and headed out to the Fragant Hills park to the west of Beijing. I went there once before, in October, with some of the other Tsinghua exchange students. That was when the leaves changed colour, and it’s a very popular destination – so as I blogged at the time, there were enormous crowds! Today, it was quite the opposite – very few people, with warm sunshine, the frozen lakes beginning to melt, and the smell of firs and cypresses in the air. It was lovely.

I spent most of my time in the Azure Clouds Temple. I visited it last time, but at the end of the day, when I was tired and pressed for time. I missed a lot on that occasion!

One thing that I really enjoyed was the hall of the 500 arhats. An arhat is a term referring to an enlightened student of the Buddha (Wikipedia article). The hall has 500 gilded statues of the arhats. According to the sign outside, it was built in the 13th year of the Emperor Qianlong’s reign, ie 1748. Each statue is 1.5m tall.

The amazing thing is that each statue is totally individual. They include young, middle-aged, old, and ancient. Fat, thin, and emaciated. Most are clean shaven, but a number have beards. Some wear hats; a couple still have their hair, not shaven heads. Some are meditating, others are sitting in detachment but most are engaged in what’s plainly lively conversation. Some are drinking from cups, some are playing instruments (flute, cymbals), and one is giving another a piggyback. And almost all of them are smiling or laughing. It’s a total constrast to the severe, serious figures I’m accustomed to seeing in religious contexts in the West. Bearing inmind that these statues are intended to represent the personal students of the Buddha, what better way to express that enlightenment is a happy state, free from attachment and suffering

The benefits of qigong

Since I started practising qigong and meditation again last week, I’m already seeing benefits as various chronic aches and pains start vanishing, and it seems to be improving my eyesight a little.

Of course, I know that people in the UK can be sceptical about this, regarding it as just “weird” (hey, articulate response, guys!).

So, let me call on an expert source to back me up on the benefits of qigong (or qi gong, chi gong, chi kung, however you want to transcribe it from the Chinese 气功). I just remembered that Tom Peters, the management guru studied by all MBAs, wrote sometime ago on his blog about the health benefits he’d experienced after being shown how to do qigong on a health retreat. He doesn’t say which style he’s doing – I don’t think it’s the same as me; there are many forms. Still, there you are: very senior business people pay this guy thousands just to speak – believe him about the benefits of qi gong if you won’t believe me!

Today’s links

Just a couple of links that I’ve found really rewarding today:

Sujatin at Lotus in the Mud has yet another great quote, a part of which is “If we live at the edge of our understanding then we are always growing”.. I like that: may have to use it as this site’s slogan some time!

Elsewhere, Der Spiegel has a really interesting article (in English!) on the economic rivalry between China and the US. It’s got no surprises or deep insights, but it’s a good read none the less.

Be afraid of mediocrity – don’t be afraid of change.

You know, the Kathy Sierra article that I linked to yesterday, Death by risk aversion just won’t get out of my head, because it touches a couple of issues that have been bothering me lately, and gives me some encouragement. Going through the article’s trackbacks, I see that other people are also picking up on the same points. The first is her comment on not being afraid of change:

Practice LETTING GO Here’s where the Buddhists have an edge. Too many of us hold on to practices or ideas (including sacred cows) long past their sell-by date. If it doesn’t serve us any longer, it’s time to give it up no matter how well it served us in the past. Of course, “letting go” means temporarily experiencing that painful, awkward, “I suck” stage again. But pro athletes do it if they want to break through plateus. Go players do it to move up in ranks. Musicians let go of habits and styles. Programmers do it (waterfall anyone?). Writers do it. Anyone who has switched from skiing to snowboarding (or switched from regular to “goofy foot”) has learned to let go.

I can relate to this one in spades! Right now, I’m applying for jobs, and waiting for that email of phone call, and of course I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t think “why oh why did I leave that safe job back in Wales, or even that safe job here in Beijing? Why did I spend so much time and money on an MBA?”. I hate being jobless, and it’s a really long time since I was in this position – for a long time, I’ve had the skills, experience, and connections to get a new job fairly easily. But, I’m glad I made the switch to Asia, I’m glad I took the MBA – because I’m being forced to adapt to a totally new environment, and I’m growing every day. Of course – growth can be painful, and so I’m stuck right now in the “I suck” stage, still trying to find the right niche for my new skills and outlook. But, “everything changes, nothing is permanent”, and something will come up. The other issue is avoiding mediocrity: it’s something I’ve been mulling over regarding this blog. When I started blogging, I did so anonymously, and I got into the habit of self-censorship to try to avoid giving away hints to my identity. Plus, I was blogging in Singapore where, like all foreigners, I was there on sufferance, and all blogs and other outlets of expression are tightly monitored. It surprises people when I tell them, but I actually feel freer to speak now that I’m in China (and I guess I’ll have to say something about the Google thing at some point, but that’s another post). Anyway, so I feel I’ve kind of slipped into a bland, inoffensive way of writing that isn’t too gripping to read. So, more opinions needed, perhaps!

Who wants to live forever?

I don’t know, but I wouldn’t mind giving it a try! The search for immortality has always been an element of Daoist thought (or some strains of it, anyway)and so I suppose my practice of qigong isn’t unconnected. Commentators will tell you that this doesn’t mean literal immortality, but simply the combination “right living”, meditation, and qigong to keep the mind, limbs and organs flexible and strong, thereby prolonging the lifespan well beyond the usual. This is because normally we become mentally and physically less flexible as we age, and allow toxins to accumulate – and to many Daoist thinkers, stiffness and inflexibility lead to death. (Of course, this hasn’t stopped plenty of Daoist alchemists poisoning themselves in their search for an ‘immortality pill’!) In the West, the search for immortality – or at least, extended life – through science is gathering pace. I’ve mentioned the Cyborg Democracy site before. Via a blog post there, I’ve discovered that Demos, the Blairite think tank, have published a free-to-download collection of essays on the subject. This is going to happen, in some shape or form – barring the possibility of a bird flu pandemic, or some other not-impossible catastrophe bringing global civilisation crashing down around our ears, of course. Simply put, medical breakthroughs are increasing, propelled by the wealth and numbers of the boomer generation – whose sudden recognition of their mortality has spawned a rash of articles recently. What kind of world will this be, where the wealthy can afford to live far beyond ‘normal’ lifestyles, while ecological collapse makes life harsher for everybody but especially the poor? Update, 11 Feb: Via Johnnie Moore, I find this post by Jeff Risley, which adds to what I was saying about Daoism. He writes this:

As we grow older, our minds begin to cloud. We form judgments about everything. We have pre-conceived notions about people and places and esoteric things like death. Because of the particular world-view we have developed, it’s difficult for us to experience anything with a “child’s mind,” or as though we’re experiencing it for the first time. But that’s exactly what we should strive to do.

As I said: mental, or physical, inflexibility lead ultimately to death. Maintaing mental and physical flexibility prolongs life ‘Non-attachment’ is of course a Buddhist concept as well: the two overlap on a lot of things. Vipassana meditation is great for working on this.

Went to the tie-breaker with the Nebuchadnezzar…

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don’t enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.