Okay, now here's a question I never get tired of asking, and which never gets old.

Scenario: one minute or one hour from now, you face death. Let yourself do this thought experiment, and really be brutally honest. One minute or one hour from this very moment, you face death. It doesn't matter how- just imagine that you see it coming by enough time to be able to have some final moments of mental activity. Maybe even a few minutes.

What do you do? Don't try to impress me with your answers- I don't want to hear the Tibetan prayer that you'd say or the tantric empowerment chant you'd pull out. I want to hear some brave people here tell me honestly what they believe they'd likely think and feel and say and do if they were facing their certain end.

If you were once Christian, do you think you'd hedge that final bet and give even a tiny prayer nod to God and Jesus? Do you think you'd try to face death mindfully, by meditating or becoming mindful in some other way? Would you ask the Awakened ones to be present for you in the Bardo to come? Would you lock up in fear and confusion or shock or denial? Would you feel afraid? Sad? Angry? It's true you can't know what you'd do until the moment comes, but I think you can get some good and accurate guesses based on an honest thought experiment. I did this experiment, and it even frightened me a bit- I felt the tightness in my chest, the pressure of it. I'll share my results after you guys give your input.

There is no right answer, but there are certain answers that will be obvious bad ones. I don't know that any of us here are badass and disciplined enough to face death with smiling equanimity. That would be nice, but be realistic. For frack sake, we fight about useless shit online. That doesn't speak volumes for our attainments in equanimity. But this exercise- and the bravery of sharing one's results- is good for self-awareness, growth, and knowledge of where you are, roughly, on your path. And, it's a good meditation on impermanence to face one's own death. Maybe I should do this daily.

Help everyone? Love everyone? Work for the good of everyone? Are we kidding ourselves?

Serious question. Think about it again. Get out of your "Tibetan for Westerners" books and Richard Gere fansites. Drop the coffee house crap and the cheap plastic malas and really think about this. And when you're done thinking about it with respect to our single planet, understand the scale of "helping all sentient beings in any world." A joke? You think?

This is me being devil's advocate and then not devil's advocate. At what point does cosmic quantitative thinking necessarily collapse into qualitative thinking about the condition of mind that must lie beyond these (seemingly) ridiculous "love the world" teachings?

Om bhur bhuvah svaha
tat savitur varenyam
bargo devasya dhimahi
dhiyo yonah prachodayat


"Let us honor the unity of Divine Spirit
that pervades all realms of existence:
the earth, the atmosphere and the heavens.

May That most brilliant Divine Light
protect us, sustain us
and illuminate our consciousness

that we might realize
our inherent goodness,
our inborn divinity
and our unity with All That Is.

By this knowledge may our actions be inspired."

simple.
honey nut cheerios. clementine. tea.

I've been talking to a lot of depressed people lately. Like a huge, ridiculous amount. Also, the news is always grim, there is anger and hostility everywhere, and even people who you're close to display it and aren't always doing things "in your favor." Even when you do kind things to win them back, it doesn't work. It can seem like there's no place to turn.

I thought and came to the conclusion: my expectations are too high. Every single person is suffering. Every single person is in samsara. To expect anything else is wrong. To expect people to see things your way, or the right way, or half way towards the right way, or to act decently, or to act in ways that don't hurt themselves, is untruthful.

When Wojtesticles makes ridiculous posts, which disturb people or incidentally entertain some others, he is suffering.
When someone bans Wojtesticle, they are suffering.
When someone likes it, they are suffering.
When someone dislikes it, they are suffering.

To expect anyone to be anything above that, to expect anyone to be excellent, to be anything of a high expectation, is wrong and not truthful. To have expectations of anyone beyond the fact that they are suffering, is untruthful.

When someone is hostile, or depressed, or doesn't respect your wishes or feelings, or doesn't listen to advice, or gives you attitude when you try hard to give advice humbly, what do you expect?

To expect anything else is not truthful. Rise to the occasion. See it with compassion, work towards enlightenment to benefit all beings.

That is thinking that helped me today, maybe it will be useless to anyone else.

Ever watch FOX news? How about that guy on there who likes to cry on cue, calls Obama a racist and compares him to Hitler? Actually lots of folks on FOX news like to compare him to Hitler. Anyhow. People choose to watch that because they like to think that's real. Sane people. Yes, indeed, unless half of the USA is insane, which, according to the prevailing view, would be impossible: people happily clinging to a norm are quite fine.

It's people who have trouble with FOX news that need psychiatric help. Wait, though, it's still almost half of Americans that dislike FOX news! SO they're clinging to a norm, too! So, is it clash of FOX news followers vs. FOX news haters in a war fought on the airwaves to decide the prevailing view of reality which shall be hereafter called the norm, which we will all, in the end, agree with? If so, we'd all better get yelling at each other!

Which is what 80% of Americans seem to think, as I watch from a comfortable distance in Canada's north. Maybe it's just how TV shows it. Probably is. How many Americans also only really know about America through TV though? And, since I think that both halves of America (or rather both 40 percents of America) on the FOX news crises are barking mad, making me and the left-over 20% of Americans who feel similarily and don't really give a damn one way or the other over FOX news except to hope people stop giving such a damn one way or the other over FOX news ... me and that 20%, are we gonna end up locked up, drugged up, shut-up, so that the norms can keep going batshit over ratshit?

Well, that's the way it goes, isn't it?

The Stupid Way posted the story about the monkey with two eyes. Here:

http://thestupidway.blogspot.com/2009/11/tale-of-two-eyed-monkey.html

Taiwan band F.I.R. last night stepped foot in Macau performing for the first time, vocalist Faye's singing didn't let fans down, also sexy as ever, the hotness level caused the audience's temperature level to rise. In regards to Real's marriage, the awaited bride gave the decision all to fate.

"F.I.R.'s Tenth Planet Macau Concert 09" concluded with a lot of cheering last night. As the first time performing in Macau, F.I.R. was touched saying, "They are the best audience, singing together with the audience was the most touching scene." Upon the end of the show, fans rushed to the front of the stage to be closer with their idol. Faye says, "Seeing them rushing out, I couldn't hold myself! (Not afraid of danger?) It's okay, just a bit, seeing them made me excited, but it was worth it, because I can see all their expressions."

New album release next month
Asking about Real and Faye's marriage, the teacher immediately came out defending saying the two are playful in nature, as for Faye, she says it depends on both fate and timing. During the performance, Faye showing off her long legs frankly said it's just not enough, "Spent a lot of time preparing and want to perform even more or it would be such a waste. We couldn't sing all of the songs we wanted to sing unfortunately." Real claimed, "It has been two years since we released an album, but good things should can not be rushed. Fans can't wait where today is only the warm up. December 25th will the date of our new album release!"

Rock version of "ShangHai Tang"
Real exposed the next stop will be Hong Kong, and will also start to prepare for their second concert. He continues, "There's a chance we will do the two shows together, which will be a new challenge." They had previously challenged themselves in Hong Kong singing Cantonese songs in which they didn't believe they did too well. However, the teacher indicated that they would still try, "Can try singing rock version of "Chu Liu Xiang" and "Shang Hai Tang", (A collaboration with Hong Kong artists?) If its with bands, we hope we can work with Beyond or Grasshoppers."

Source: orientaldaily.on.cc
Translated by tdrama*addict @ http://asianfanatics.net


Happy about the new album, finally.

Tags: f.i.r.
Current Mood: okay
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Some people say Hong Kong films have been going downhill in recent years, but the expanding market of Mainland China has opened up doors for Hong Kong filmmakers. If the Lunar New Year frame is any indication of the health of the movie industry, then a crowded and hopefully lucrative opening to the Year of the Tiger certainly bodes well for the coming year. As of now, there are at least 10 films vying for a spot in the Lunar New Year movie lineup, a scene not seen since the heydays of Hong Kong films in the 1980s.

Producer/actor Raymond Wong and stars Louis Koo, Sandra Ng, and Ronald Cheng, whose All's Well Ends Well 2009 grossed over HK$20 million last spring, will try to defend the box-office champion crown. The team is back to update another classic Chinese New Year film for the golden holiday, this time the 1993 costume comedy All's Well End's Well, Too, under the quick hands of versatile director Herman Yau.

Returning to movie production, the Shaw Brothers studio offers House of 72 Tenants based on its beloved 1973 comedy classic of the same name, with an ensemble cast headed by Jacky Cheung, Anita Yuen, and Eric Tsang, who also co-directs with Patrick Kong. Jacky Cheung will also star in another New Year film Hot Summer Days alongside Nicholas Tse, Barbie Hsu, Rene Liu, and Daniel Wu, which is a romantic anthology movie co-directed by Tony Chan and famous photographer Ha Wing Hong. Perhaps the most timely for the New Year holidays is James Yuen's Choi San Dou ("The God of Wealth Comes"), starring Alan Tam, Miriam Yeung, Chang Chen, and Kitty Zhang.

A handful of bigger scale Mainland-Hong Kong co-productions provide more choices to the audience. These costume pictures are mainly martial arts-oriented, including Daniel Lee's 14 Blades, starring Donnie Yen, Vicki Zhao, and Wu Chun, as well as Yuen Woo Ping's True Legend starring Vincent Zhao, Michelle Yeoh, Zhou Xun, and Jay Chou. Jackie Chan returns with his trademark action comedy in Little Big Soldier, while another box-office heavyweight, Chow Yun Fat, counters with his portrayal of Confucius.

If fantasy is your thing, look for Wong Jing's Future Cop boasting a sci-fi storyline with superstar Andy Lau, spectacular action, and special effects. Featuring a similar time-travel premise is Jeff Lau's Yue Guang Bao He, which sends up his own cult classic A Chinese Odyssey while sending characters from Kung Fu Hustle, CJ7, and Crazy Stone back to Red Cliff-era China!

Source


Well hey, these sound cool.  I like new year's movies. XD
 

Tags: andy lau, barbie hsu, chow yun fat, daniel wu, donnie yen, hong kong, jackie chan, jay chou, movies, nicholas tse
Current Mood: awake
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That's what I like, a group of membership requests that are easy to approve. :D 

Hey guys~ Spotlight's over and we now have 1023 watchers and 944 actual members.  I hope to see the activity increase around here.  Don't be shy, new people!  And thanks again to everyone that got us into the spotlight in the first place.  It was obviously a good thing.

And just another reminder, I do need a mod.  At this time, for post-approval purposes, because right now it's just me. :(  The application process is fairly simple and is outlined below.

1.First, be in a time zone other than mine. I.e. NOT Pacific Standard Time, which is the West coast of the US basically.  This is basically to open the window of approval times, so it's not just when I'm here and awake, lol.
2.If you meet that criteria, then next is to be a semi-active member. It won't do me any good if you don't hang out around here a lot. Plus, it will give me an idea if you have the judgment to approve posts. Not that we've had many rejections. Maybe one? lol.  An addendum to this is if you're new here, but an active member in another big community or already a mod somewhere.  Just mention this and I'll go check it out.
3.Please PM me, lem0nlight , if you're interested and fit those criteria. Thanks. :)

Tags: !mod
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sixwordstories
Whether you're in the mood for a creative challenge or you're short on time or attention span, this semi-addictive community is perfect for those who find flash fiction way long. Once you get the hang of it, you won't be able to stop. The prince turned into a frog. The girl ran home to mother. Tough to write. Easy to read. It's a double threesome of fun.

Tags: flash fiction, sixwordstories