kaaazuo

What about your real cold? Have you recovered completely yet? Lin Yutang was selling you a bill of goods. I checked the goods myself without the middle-man. This is the only way to do business with the Chinese. Whimpy? Emotions and feelings are what the seven deadly sins are about. There is no next time for a serious guy whose battles are won before they are ever fought.

If they are all imaginary, then so are we - no more, no less. Lin Yutang presented the western concept in English terms. I got the Chinese concept from the Chinese text. Tigers began fading away with the likes of Generals MacArthur and Patton. The land where tigers roamed is now populated by a different kind of cats that have no love for God and country. You could be the last of the breed facing the hungry horde. Good times are feelings of exhilaration about people, places and things. Just feelings, nothing more than feelings... Happy with failure? What would Sun Tzu say?

Good argument. Lingon berries? Are you Scandinavian or what? Cooking alfresco also? Maybe we should have a cook off - one gourmet chef against another? And it it's a tie, we can settle it once and for all through martial art.

Ok, how about the Lord of Heaven (元始天尊), the Jade Pure One, one of the Three Pure Ones? He is the head honcho of the Taoist Pantheon and the equivalent of God. Oh, I got the concept, the Chinese concept, that is. You read the same story and came away with the western concept. Different strokes for different folks. The prevailing western value is idealistic socialism. The Chinese has always been pragmatic. This is because they, at the fundamental level, believe in nothing. If you are astute, you can detect this in traditional Chinese philosophy. If the west doesn’t care which way the economic wind blows, that suits the Chinese just fine. You eat their philosophy and they’re gonna eat your lunch. Of course, once you are in the water, you swim for dear life. As for the good times, they are all imaginary – stimulations of the mind. Why would you feel sorry? The Buddhist sees life as a river of suffering and stopping the cycle of rebirth is to stop falling back into the water. They feel sorry for you. You have a different view of the situation and feel great about life regardless of the hazards. And if a croc chomps off a leg or two, swim on, with prosthetics. To you, it’s how we deal with life that counts. In that regard, Stephen Hawkins - who is in much worse shape that the guy who was not doing well - would make a fine Chuang Tzu character.

I am not in agreement and here is why. Dun and Norton made their pitch (in bold) and I replied: 1. You're buying too many things and not enough experiences More satisfaction from experience with friends you treat to a $50 dinner than buying a big screen TV? That’s true for people needy of companionship from sycophants who are always at hand like piranhas and sharks moving in at the smell of blood. Forget the TV. I would rather spend $40 million on a luxury yacht on which to lounge on my own. I can get all the experience I need from the wonderful crew at my beck and call waiting on me hand and foot. 2. You're more focused on getting more money than buying more time. True, if you have to work your ass off getting the money. Guys on the Forbes list of billionaires do sit on their asses or having fun as they watch their billions pile up ever higher. Warren Buffet said that he is happy getting up every morning going to work and having fun doing it. 2. You think a McMansion will make you happy. No, that won’t make me happy at all because it’s bourgeois. And the reason why bourgeois people are not happy is because they don’t have money, are wannabes who always max out on buying that big house. I don’t think a McMansion will make me happy at all. I want to use the killing I made in a gold trade to buy an estate with stunning views of the sea in the Italian Riviera. The happiness doesn’t come only from the property itself but also from acquiring it at rock bottom market price because some wannabe is getting burned alive financially now that the Italian economy is going south. 3. You're letting yourself have too much of a good thing. Material over-saturation could kill the potential to make oneself any happier? Are these guys nuts? Sounds like they are trying to convince people that having money is bad and they should give it to them. Their argument is that the appreciation of a good thing comes from a deprivation of it. That’s true if you are not allowed to breathe. So, should we suffocate ourselves once in a while to heighten the comfort of inhaling normally? There is no such thing as too much of a good thing if you have your head screwed on right. If I am in a state of bliss in Paradise with God and you tell me that Jade Heaven is a better place, I am heading right there, right now. And that’s the American way. 5. You're investing too much in yourself and not enough in other people. Dun and Norton said to make others happier first and you'll bring yourself happiness in the process; it sound obvious, but you'd be surprised how many of us forget it. Not only that. They also said (if you swallow their line) not to make others happier through Red Cross, do it through them. And I say, forgetaboutit!

Perhaps, I was focused on the gastronomical aspect of Chinese cuisine. But why would you consider sensually exciting food spiritually jarring casting the body to the South Seas and the soul to the Western regions? I think the problem with Chinese food, from the point of view of the spiritual, is the Chinese chef whose culinary tradition has always served the top 1%. Instead of serving up fish still twitching, in a spicy sweet sour sauce, to emphasize its freshness, a succulent piece of white fleshed Chilean Sea Bass sitting, like a lotus, in a light soya vinagrette, and top with a stark green scallion garnish would easily relegate the Japanese style to second place. For that we need Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai. Oh, we can lace the sauce with ginseng to make it Tao-like.

Ok, I will think of another word for God. This story is sad. The guy who was not doing well shouldn't have been born. He didn't give a damn which way the wind blew, what color the sky was and who became President of the USA. Why give it a shot? You don't have to be born. The guy who was not doing well didn't have a choice. You could stay unborn and avoid the risks of getting into bad situations. What is there to gain? Why make that quantum leap into the battlefield of life just to dodge minefields and bullets? This thread is about being poor. I am asking an impersonal question here to the unborn. Why would anyone want to be born if given the choice to say no. Practically all kids are brought into this world to face bad situations. Even if you are not poor, you are looking at minimum 12 years of grueling education just to get a job as a rotor rooter helper assuming you don't want to pile on debt to go to college. Even then, there is no guarantee life is going to get better.

No dissing, Taomeow. Just telling you that when it comes to spirituality in food, the Chinese don't cut it. Chinese cuisine is rather hedonistic and developed in the imperial kitchen to titillate China's emperors. To the Chinese, eating food is a celebration of material success. As you know, spirituality brings about a heightened awareness that comes with sensual acuity - not just taste and texture of food but also its fragrance and visual presentation - a mind obliterating trip that blows the self away. One other culture, other than India's, that breathes spirituality into its food is Japanese. It's so zen sitting before a Japanese chef and watching his priest-like seriousness as he slices with precision shashimi-grade fish that I wash down with warm saki. As a martial artist, I am always alert, ever-ready for that sudden thrust of his bocho in my direction, and this adds to the meal.

Oh my goodness, Taomeow. Indian spicy is the original spicy. And the spirituality that goes with it is heavens above compared to Mexican and Thai. Just last week I was feasting on tandooris, tikkas and briyanis beside two naked voluptuous, full-breasted sex-temple Indian women (stone statutes) at Khansama in Serangoon Road, Singapore. Your spirituality needs awakening. It's not just chillies which are hot. They are not spicy in the real sense which is aroused by garam masala, pepper, and cummin and cinamon and cardamon and cloves and god-knows what else goes into the pot.

I am using God here as a Chuang Tzu-style caricature, not as a Supreme Being for worship. Which Chapter are you referring to? I would like to consult the Chinese text on this. If God had been the Tao, you would have been thrown down the birth chute regardless of what your druthers were. But God is kind and he says, “ok kid, what about this other situation, your potential mom looks like a nice college girl. She is from a traditional well-to-do upper middle-class Christian family but she is an atheist. This is why she is cool about having extra-marital sex with her boyfriend and...oops... got pregnant with you. The upside is, she won’t be forcing Christianity down your throat. The downside would be a possibility of you getting flushed down her birth canal into the rubbish chute. There is also a chance that, having been raised a Christian, she might turn to her folks, see you till full term, and give you up for adoption if your potential dad is a cad. The jackpot is, you get lucky, your potential grandparents make everything right, bankroll your parents, give them a fancy wedding before you get born, and love you like crazy. What do you think?” What would be your answer?

What about Indian spicy, Taomeow? There is Northern and Southern Indian.

You are convinced I am lying regardless of what I say. You cannot beat the system as long as you are a part of it. This is why you are conflicted. In that conflict is the hypocrisy and the dishonesty of those who would bite the hand they feed from. If you are honest and not playing a double game - feeding the fire and then cursing it - you would stop with the criticisms. They won't budge the system but they will surely destroy you.

I hope you don't see this as prying but your recount of life experiences does bring light to aspects of the human condition. If we look objectively at what you said, there are learnings to be gained. $20 a week back then could probably buy more than $200 today. But it was tough, I get it. Even though things happen for no particular reason, then as well as now, and people get married and have kids regardless, don't you think it is tough on kids who don't have a say about their coming into this world to face hardship? If you had that choice and God asked you, "hey look kid, it's your turn to get born. There is this poor family and you're gonna get washed in the sink, do you want to get born into that family situation or wait for another one?" What would have been your answer? That's enough for now.

Do you realize that you are stuck like a fly in the web of reality? I think you do; but what you don’t realize is that every tug and pull to break free serves only to strengthen the web. You can’t win the game. It’s like gaming with a computer that gets smarter with every move you make against it. The only way is to stop the game. Pull out the power cord. Don’t feed the system. The awful truth is that we are addicted to the system. We cannot live without it.

This is what you get when you have a democracy and everybody has a point of view. If the smartest guy is not allowed to run the show, you get a mess that feeds on itself.