Change for change sake?

I haven't been paying too much attention to the Boston mayoral election this year, or ever. In the past there barely anyone there to challenge the incumbent mayor, Mayor Menino has been in the office for as long as I've been living in and around Boston, 16 years.

When I first moved to the city, I was told to stay out of the east side of Mass ave, street like Tremont Street and Columbus Ave at night. Apparently Chinatown was filled with prostitutes and street lined with adult entertainment businesses.

Gradually, those place weren't that "scary" anymore, Columbus street and Tremont street, the Southend as the local called it are now bustling with fine restaurants and Chinatown is no longer the adult entertainment paradise.

Just 3 weeks ago I took couple of hiker friends from out of state to Chinatown, we walked around the corner of Essex St and Lincoln St. I was amazed to see a clean and beautiful small Chinese garden along South St. Years ago that area was a dump, streets filled with potholes, trash everywhere, homeless make a home in the back alley. Now, there is a small bamboo garden with a man-made stream flows along it. Side streets being rerouted and turned into a clean open square with cast-iron benches for visitor to rest.

I have yet to visit the waterfront and South Boston, but from what I read and heard, that area seems to be doing very well too. South Boston back then was one of the "scary" place, now, it is the home of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Few years ago, the institute of Comtemporary Art made a new home in waterfront area.

I don't know much about the politic in Boston, all I know is what I see, and I have seen good things happening under Mayor Menino's leadership. The younger and better looking Flaherty may be a good leader too, but I have yet to hear a compelling reason why we need the "Courage for Change". If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Congratulations Mayor Menino, now get back to work!

Heal the World

There's A Place In
Your Heart
And I Know That It Is Love
And This Place Could
Be Much
Brighter Than Tomorrow
And If You Really Try
You'll Find There's No Need
To Cry
In This Place You'll Feel
There's No Hurt Or Sorrow

There Are Ways
To Get There
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
Make A Better Place...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

If You Want To Know Why
There's A Love That
Cannot Lie
Love Is Strong
It Only Cares For
Joyful Giving
If We Try
We Shall See
In This Bliss
We Cannot Feel
Fear Or Dread
We Stop Existing And
Start Living

Then It Feels That Always
Love's Enough For
Us Growing
So Make A Better World
Make A Better World...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

And The Dream We Were
Conceived In
Will Reveal A Joyful Face
And The World We
Once Believed In
Will Shine Again In Grace
Then Why Do We Keep
Strangling Life
Wound This Earth
Crucify Its Soul
Though It's Plain To See
This World Is Heavenly
Be God's Glow

We Could Fly So High
Let Our Spirits Never Die
In My Heart
I Feel You Are All
My Brothers
Create A World With
No Fear
Together We'll Cry
Happy Tears
See The Nations Turn
Their Swords
Into Plowshares

We Could Really Get There
If You Cared Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
To Make A Better Place...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me


RIP Michael Jackson.

Hiking cat

Cat goes on a crime spree

The significant of a date.

It has been more than a year since Neko passed away.

My life has changed in many aspect. I let myself loose to explore many things. Spent most of my summer last year in the woods, hiking, meeting new friends. But my apartment remain mostly unchanged since then, I still have her blanket/mats at her favorite spots, still dread to look under my bed, where I last seen her alive in our apartment. It is still very hard to think about all these. My life seems to go back on track as long as I'm not thinking about that day, January 10, 2008.

This date has since become a point of reference to me. Every time I see a date of the past, I'll associate that to when I still have Neko around, or after I've lost her. All the memories and emotions will follow, especially late at night, like tonight. She has been a big part of my life, I'll miss her forever.

I love you Neko.

Amazing performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons by Kyung Wha Chung

I'm currently vacationing in Milwaukee at my sister's place. Both my nieces are into violin. While doing nothing at their place, sitting around waiting for the next meal, I browsed youtube for violin performance and found this performance:


Here is her biography.

Thank God I don't have to move to Canada!

Anywhere but Here

This is the forecast for Chicago:

This is the forecast for San Jose:


This is Boston:


After enduring the months long of cold winter shoveling snow, digging out our car, do we not deserve a nice summer!?

Even Seattle has better weather than us!!!

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.

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?

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.)

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.

John McCain '08

http://www.cafepress.com/vote008

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.

Few good quotes

While looking for a good quote for my new travel web page, I came across many good ones, thought I'd post here. Enjoy.

“I'll go anywhere as long as it's forward.”
David Livingstone

“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.”
G. K. Chesterton

“Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.”
Benjamin Disraeli

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be”
Lao Tzu

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still”
Lao Tzu

“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.”
Lao Tzu

“Great acts are made up of small deeds.”
Lao Tzu

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
Lao Tzu

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
Lao Tzu

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”
Lao Tzu

Proverbs:
“It is better to travel than to arrive”
“The heart that truly loves never forgets.”
“What soberness conceals, Drunkenness reveals”
“The longest journey a man must take is the eighteen inches from his head to his heart”

All quotes above were found in ThinkExist.com

Missing her...

This is one of my favorite movie clip of Neko:

HH Karmapa in America 2008

Last weekend I had the great privilege to attend His Holiness the 17th Karmapa first public teaching in America. To me it was more than just privilege but very fortunate to have this opportunity to receive His Holiness teaching in person, because I was only very recently took refuge in Tibetan Buddhism, April 28 to be exact.

His Holiness arrived in New York City on May 15, the first stop of His inauguration trip to America. Here is a very good website detailing His Holiness daily activities.

The following are my account of the event. First day's teaching was in Hammerstein Ballroom on West 34th Street, the 16th Karmapa had also given a public teaching there more than 3 decades ago. There was a morning and afternoon teaching on"Awakening the Heart of Enlightenment" I mistakenly thought that they're the same teaching in 2 sessions, but in fact it was 2 different teachings, the afternoon session was the continuation of the morning session. Bummer!

I arrived to the afternoon session around noon, there're already a long line of people standing in front of the Manhattan center. As I stood there waiting to be let in, I noticed there were about 5 NYPD cars parked across the street. Curious about the security measure the city provided for His Holiness visit, I asked the security personnel and glad to find out that the FBI and even Secret Service were involved to ensure His Holiness's safety. However the security at the door was not as tight. There was only metal detector but no X-ray scanner to scan bags, all bags were searched by hand.

I was on the 3rd floor box seat, very closed to the stage but on the side of the stage. I was under the impression that cameras were not allow inside the ballroom, mainly because it said so on the website. So I didn't bring my camera, as it turned out no one enforced the rule and flashes were fired all over the ballroom, bummer #2 for me. Never again will I obey rule posted on a website. However I was managed to take a few pictures with my cell phone when I was outside, but the interior of the ballroom was too dark for my puny camera phone. Among the audience, the majority was caucasian and a large number of Tibetan dressed in beautiful traditional costume. To me coming to the event is religious and intellectual pilgrimage, a privilege to see His Holiness and to receive His Holiness teaching in person. It doesn't matter if you're a Buddhist or not, we're all believer of kindness and compassion. Not to say that we're all kind and compassionate, but we're here to learn, to become.

The afternoon teaching began with a musical guest performing contemporary music, which I found to be a bit out of place, I'd expect to hear chanting of Karmapa Chenno or singing of Buddhist Mantras instead of a folk song. While impatiently waited for the song to end, I had a glimpse of His Holiness from behind the curtain. As soon as H.H. stepped onto the stage, the whole place went silence, everyone immediately stood up, with palms closed in front of their chest. It was surreal, His Holiness, the 17th Karmapa was right in front all of us. I had never seen anything in such extraordinary high fidelity before, His Holiness literally glowed on stage. The color of His robe, His glasses and His entire profile were in such clear and sharp focus. But the crystal clear image of His Holiness was quickly distorted by my teary eyes, I didn't know why I cried, it just happened.

His Holiness's teaching was very lively and humorous. My favorite was when His Holiness noted that the stop-and-go traffic in New York City was "a challenge" for patience, especially if you have a cup of hot coffee with you :).

Day 2's teaching was at the Waldorf Astoria, I was told that His Holiness was staying in this hotel during His visit in New York City. As expected, the line was formed long before noon for the 2 PM teaching. The hotel staff made a mistake arranging the seats in my seating area. Our seating area was in a room separated by a wall of French doors next to the main floor. Before the teaching began, the doors would be opened and we would have a partial view of the stage. But believe it or not, the staff arranged the chairs to face the opposite direction of the stage. Obviously most of us turned our chair around, to face the stage. It was a pretty chaotic scene, many not only turned their chair around, but rearranged the chair to ensure a good view of the stage. As you can imagine the result was many chairs right along the wall of doors. Just before the teaching began, someone from the hotel came to our room, announced that once the doors open, we're allowed to enter the main floor and stood on the side line. Woohoo! Sure better than sitting in a room watching the giant screen.

Needless to say, I brought my camera with me today, but only after taking 2 pictures before His Holiness even arrived, a security personnel came to me and told me that no camera was allowed, at the same time flashes were going off all over the ballroom, whatever! I put my camera away and thought to myself, unless she was going to stare at me the whole afternoon, she would not stop me from taking more pictures.

HH took the stage and received the same respectful silent standing ovation from the audience. But today I noticed a handful of people gave the highest respect to His Holiness with the 3 kneeling-bowing ritual. I didn't see anyone did that yesterday, and was caught by surprise. I thought to myself that I should have done that too. After the intermission, the security was loosen up a bit so I walked to the back of the main floor directly facing the stage, as soon as His Holiness stepped back onto the stage, I took my chance to perform the ritual to His Holiness, this time I noticed there were more people did the same too. It's never too late to learn and never too late to give your respect.

His Holiness teachings were full of philosophical wisdom, which I don't pretend to understand all of them, there were many thoughts for this new Buddhist to ponder that's for sure.

The afternoon began with the representative from Major's office proclaimed this week to be "His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Week" in New York City; ended with the event coordinator from the New York City side gave a slightly inappropriate yet touching closing note. She referred to His Holiness as "His Hottie-ness" as she was struck by His Holiness's good look.

It appeared to me from her speech that from the beginning coordinating this event was a messy job to her, but toward the end, after meeting His Holiness and watching His Holiness stood in the rain offering flowers and prayers to the victims of 9/11 at Ground Zero, she began to "fall in love", as she said with her voice began to break down and choked up with tears, His Holiness tremendous kindness, grace and compassion touched her. She expressed gratitude to His Holiness for stepping up to lead the world when the world so desperately needed a good leader, a round of applauds roared through the ballroom. That was a good line to mark the end of the evening.

I left the event feeling rejuvinated and inspired.

For you, my beloved Neko, I want to be a better person.

Day 7 and 8

Well, I'm already back in Boston now. So here is a quick summary of the rest of my vacation in Japan.

Day 7: Took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima, visted the awesome Miyajma Shrine on the sea, and the somber memorial of the Atomic bomb site.



Day 8 was the last day in Japan, I traveled back to Tokyo early in the morning. Spent few hours wandering around Shibuya and Shinjuku, before taking the JR Narita Express back to Narita Airport. Concluded the 8 amazing days I spent in Japan.

Here is the link to all the pictures:
http://www.huiyengchang.com/places/08japan/jp1/index.html

Enjoy!

Day 6: Easy day in Kyoto

I stayed in Kyoto today fear the rain would be too inconvenient to travel around, but as it turned out, it was just some drizzle here and there, no big deal at all. I got a 1 day bus pass and armed with a Kyoto city bus map (more story to tell about this map later) visited Kinkaku ( Golden Pavilion), Ryoanji and some other shrines around the area. Walked the Path of Philospohy and end the day with a delicious bowl of Kimchi pork and rice.


I have been using Lonely Planet as my primary guide book. I particularly like the walking tours they recommended. However the direction they provided were not always correct, so you need to ask around a bit and do some wandering around. One instance was instead of a left turn, the book suggested a right turn etc. Sometimes the point of interest just not as interesting as they suggested. For example, the guide book described a small shrine built on a waterfall along a walking tour, as it turned out, the so call waterfall was just a tiny rush of spring water flowing from a short ledge. But nonetheless, I enjoyed how the guide book would intrigue my imagination of the site, as if I'm embarking on a treasure hunting trip, armed with the guide book as my treasure map. The result may not always rewarding, but the process itself was exciting enough.