Thought of the Day

Events become experiences only after they have been reflected upon thoughtfully.

Happenings become experiences when they are digested, when they are reflected on, related to general patterns, and synthesized.


Henry Mintzberg

Move your butt, dude~

Life has settled in into another round of complacency and routine. At times, you can feel yourself shutting your eyes and still is able to perform every daily tasks as per se. What has changed? Nothing actually. And this is not a good sign.

We aged as we wake up every morning. Time moves and progresses, and it does not wait for us. Therefore, in order to keep pace with time, we too must progress, no matter how small that "improvement" is. Therefore, we can only warn ourselves "wake up!" and move forward......

Whether we actually did or not.... that's another matter!

A Lesson or two...

Sometimes we have to look back at what we have done in the past, and try to recall why the hell you ever made those decisions before. Life is a learning process, if only you know you are learning, and/or if you know that you should be learning what was happening before your senses.

Crisis comes and goes...... What is important, and obviously, is that we are still "alive and kicking". It is not as if doomsday will be coming, or is it coming? <LINK> Anyway, as I was writing, I have been through many downs in my life so far. I remembered most of them, but did I learn from these experiences? Hard to say now, perhaps, years down the long road, when there is another such crisis (environment) and my circumferences to this crisis, then I can gauge better whether I have learned or not.

Only I know myself best. And even myself do not know whether I have (a) remembered the history, (b) learned the lesson; and (c) recognized the danger signs again. History has foretold that mankind never learn from their past mistakes, just look at the world wars and you know whether the Great Powers of that time have learned to understand their politics.

Anyway, for the present moment, I REMEMBERED, at least till another distraction strong enough comes along and drag me along another path, perhaps with another kind of danger lying in waiting for me. That is, what we called - Life's lessons!

Political Blog

I have re-started my political & current affairs blog again, since election fever is here again!

For more information, please go to the other blog:

http://miragew1.blogspot.com

The ABC of Intelligence

孔子曰：

生而知之也 上也
学而知之也 次也
困而学之 又其次也
困而不学 民斯为下也


Confucius said:

People born with perceptive insight has the ability to take one matter and inter-link three other events.
People who learned from experiences has the ability to take one matter and understand it properly.
People who learned from bad experiences has the ability to remember the mistake and not repeat it again.
People who does not bother to learn can only obey.

Confucius explained that,
Experience is better than knowledge
Intelligence is better than experience
Perception is better than intelligence

.

卧薪尝胆

史册流芳千古王，卧薪尝胆岁月长。

英雄忍辱十年恨，壮士负重九州茫。

吴地歌舞天下易，越国沉浮山河殇。

姑苏城下雪仇日，人世几多换沧桑。


无名者

It's okay to fall down

It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down…

Only how many times you get back up!

The Art of Learning

智力 比 速度
更重要，

Intelligence is more important than speed.

判断力 比 技巧
更高明。

Judgement is wiser than skill.

Determination breeds Success or Failure?

When the world is flourishing, everyone seems to have a similar thread of thoughts. It does no harm indeed. Why does it matter if one's opinion leads to a certain success while another opinion leads to another success in another aspect. Success in any form is always welcomed.

When the world is in turmoil, everyone has different opinions. Conflict after conflict, and it bring forth more clashes. Why is that so? Because everyone always feel that their solutions to the turmoil are the correct version while other opinions will not lead to the same conclusion. No one want to adopt a blundering solution indeed. Everyone is uncomfortable with everyone else idea.

Therefore, it brings back to my own situation. I am running a stream of bad luck indeed that is almost going to be one year. I am determined to see it through, endured for the past 11 months and is still enduring so. The perseverance that I have built up while engaging in office politics for the past years have harden my roots. I stick to my principle. No one has understood me so.

This bring us back to a phase that Confucius said, "知其不可而为之". The dictionary meaning is:
【解释】：明知做不到却偏要去做。表示意志坚决。有时也表示倔强固执。
The translation simply mean knowing something quite impossible and yet is determined to do it; at times refer to stubbornness.

All of us have dreams that we want to realize them. In actual reality, different obstacles and challenges are inevitable. To stick to "知其不可而为之" ground means 2 types of ending.

(1) Breaking through the barrier and bore a tunnel of success within the turmoil.
(一) “置之死地而后生”，居然反败为胜，得享成功的果实。

(2) Digging a bottomless pit, drowning inside the labyrinth of misery.
(二) “含恨以终”，一生辛劳付诸流水，实在有些寃枉。

I am an extreme person, a person with 2-colour only. There is no "maybe", "perhaps", etc. It's a "yes or no" or a "do or die". Therefore, once a path is laid, there is no other path. Along the way I may have side-tracked, but it's never back-tracking. Which ending shall it be? Read the history then. It's in the making, for I do it and you write it; and not you write it and I do it.

Pride and Humility

"Pride goes before a fall" as the saying goes.

With pride comes confidence.
With the confidence comes egocentric.
With egocentric comes pertinacious.
With pertinacious comes misdirection.
With misdirection comes failure.

After failure comes self-realization.
After self-realization comes reflection.
After reflection comes humility.
After humility comes guidance.
After guidance comes direction.
After direction comes success.

Pride goes before or after a fall?

How well do you know yourself?

子曰：

无听之以耳而听之以心，

无听之以心而听之以气，

听止于耳，心止于符。

气也者，虚而待物者也。

唯道集虚。虚者，心斋也。



庄子将听分为三种境界，一是听之以耳，二是听之以心，三是听之以气。他认为，听之以耳是肉体感官的聆听，听之以心也仅仅是情感的感动，而这种肉体的情感的感动进而抵达一种听之以气即感悟音乐背后的“道体精神”，才能达到一种从有到无的精神超越。

My Girl

This is the sadder version of the MV of the Korean drama "My Girl".