Saturday, June 28, 2008

What's next?

First time in my life I absolutely don't know what I want. Should I take a volunteering job move to Nepal for 2 years? Can I survive Nepal for 2 years? Do they have high speed internet there? Should I start looking for new/old job, back to 9-5 routine? Should I continue my dying T-shirts business which I have lost ambition to persuade? I am so uninspired.

I have been volunteering at a feline rescue shelter for a while now, I started doing it when Neko was still with me, and continue till now with a more regular basis. I have been thinking about getting another cat, but the thought of other cat playing her favorite toys, sitting on her favorite spots bother me.

Are we gonna have a summer this year?


Anyway, I think I need watch the amount of foods I feed my house guests, 2 of them obviously have gained some weight.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

My house guests

My pigeon friends had moved out of my balcony last week. I think what happened was one day when one of the pigeon was dining on the feeder, the feeder let lose and fell off the rail. That may freak out the pigeons. I hadn't seen the pigeons for many days to follow, even the nest was empty without the baby in it. But one day I saw mama pigeon came back and then papa pigeon showed up too (man, always late!), I have yet to see the baby pigeon though.



I guess the words that free food are available on my balcony spreaded in the "wildlife" community. The next few days I saw different kind of bird and even squirrels were running around on my balcony, feasting on the bird seeds.






Neko would have loved to see all these wildlife on our balcony. I wonder if I start using the deck, would I scare them away?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Mantra of Prajna Paramita

This is one of my favorite Buddhist Sutra:

When the free seeing Bodhisattva practiced the Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom, he saw through that the five aggregates were empty in their being, and overcame all sufferings.

Sariputra, what is seen does not differ from what is empty, what is empty does not differ from what is seen. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. It is the same for feeling, perception, intention and consciousness.

Sariputra, all things having the nature of emptiness have no beginning and no ending, they are not impure and not pure, and cannot be increased or decreased. Thus, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no intention, no consciousness. There is no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. Therefore, no sight, no sound, no odor, no taste, no object, no knowledge. There is nothing from visual world to conscious world.

There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so on up to no aging and death, and also no extinction of aging and death. There is no suffering, no cause of suffering, no supression of suffering, no path to annihilation of suffering. There is no knowing and no obtaining.

Since nothing can be obtained, Bodhisattvas realize the Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom, and so their minds are unhindered. Because there is no veil, they have no fear, and they are far from incorrect and illusory thought. They are already enjoying Nirvana. All the Buddhas of the past, present and future fully accomplish the An-nut-ta-ra Sam-yak Sambod-hi by realizing the Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom.

Therefore, the Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom is known as the most divine mantra, the great enlightening mantra, the utmost mantra, the incomparable mantra, destroyer of all sufferings. This is all true and not a lie. The mantra of the Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom is said like this:

GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA

(Gone, gone, gone beyond, completely gone beyond. Awaken! So be it.)


Saturday, June 14, 2008

Team DOM

A group of my friends just came back from their Mt Denali attemp few weeks ago. Here is a link to their report and pictures:
http://www.viewsfromthetop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23042
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563358974HDKwSO

Brief background on the name of the team. Dominic is a son of our other friend, Neil, who was killed in an avalanche accident this January, few days before I lost Neko. In memory of his spirit, the team took his name, and carried his ice axe to Denali.

To me what make this group of people and this attempt so special are not because they're climbing the mountain of my dream, but the friendship and humanity they showed during the process. It really doesn't matter if they summit or not, but they're all safe and home now.

RIP Dom and all fallen climbers.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

John McCain '08



http://www.cafepress.com/vote008

Monday, June 2, 2008

Happy Family

The morning after I got back from my months long vacation, I went out to my balcony and saw many twigs at a corner of the balcony. It was kinda odd, but I thought to myself it must be from a storm while I was away. It happened before, many leaves and twigs being blown to my balcony during a rain and wind storm. But rarely only gathered in a corner. So the logical thought is that over the time wind would sweep them to the corner.

Then shortly after that, a pigeon landed on the rail of my balcony, stared at me as if it was wondering: "Who are you?" It stared at me for a very long time and then flew away. Few days later, I went out the balcony again, this time I looked up at my wall mounted a/c unit and saw a pigeon in a bird nest on top of it. Now that all make sense now, the twigs, the pigeon now the nest.

So I began to feed the pigeon. Yesterday I say the mama pigeon on a tree branch across from my apartment, hours later a larger more stocking looking pigeon joined her, which I think must be the papa pigeon. Mama pigeon immediately gloomed papa pigeon, a very loving scene. This was the first time I saw mama pigeon away from the nest.

This morning I went out to the balcony again. Looked up at the nest and saw a baby pigeon next to mama pigeon! I guess the egg must have just recently hatched, so that mama pigeon could leave the nest and took a break.

Good thing I rarely need to use my AC at all even in the heat of the summer, so the happy family will have a safe and quiet place to stay for as long as they want.