With men as a mirror

Emperor Taizong of Tang was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty of China, ruling from 626 to 649 AD.  He is typically considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, emperors in Chinese history. Throughout the rest of Chinese history, Emperor Taizong's reign was regarded as the exemplary model against which all other emperors were measured, and his "Reign of Zhenguan" was considered a golden age of Chinese history.
 

He had an advisor called Wei Zheng. Few men in history would be so frank and honest with their monarch.  When Wei Zheng died, Taizong was overwhelmed with grief.  The Emperor said to his ministers, "With a bronze mirror, one can see whether he is properly attired; with history as a mirror, one can understand the rise and fall of a nation; with men as a mirror, one can see whether he is right or wrong. Now I've lost my faithful mirror by the death of Wei Zheng".


This was a story most of Chinese learned from childhood.  I always find it amazing and inspiring.  I strive to take, as well as make, honest and frank comments.  As Chinese idiom goes: "good medicine tastes bitter; good advice sounds harsh", both taking and making honest comments require courage. 


Eugene has been a very supportive friend, but what I appreciate most is that he shares with me his honest opinions.  


On my blog post "defending competitiveness", he pointed out that for a few times I had my low back injured in tennis games due to my "competitiveness", which was unnecessary. He said sometimes I could be stubborn.  Hmm... have to say that he has a good point :-)


On another post about my friend Y, he praised my standpoint that one should still have one's own life after marriage/children.  But he warned me not to walk to another extremity.  Couples should create chances to participate each other's growth and emotions.  I think what he said is spot on.  Come to think about it, at times I probably overly demand myself to be strong and independent.  I could seem so self-contained that I do not need anybody else in my life, which might be misleading. And "create chances to participate" - what a wonderful piece of advice!  Total dependence is not desirable in a relationship, nor total independence.  We shall work towards a dynamic interdependence, where each party's truth is recognized and all are woven together.


On a separate note.  Another friend Nishant, in a recent group discussion, stressed the importance for kids to be trained to do homework.  He said even though homework itself might not be necessary for kids to do well in exams, especially for smart kids, it's a important training for kids to stay focused.  Smart kids might be able to get by when things are easy.  However sooner or later things will become difficult and one would not achieve much if he/she could not stay focused.  I was impressed by his viewpoint and confessed, painfully, that it was my personal lesson.  I have been struggling with staying focused ever since the beginning of my career after getting by for 20 years in school.  Short attention span is like a stubborn disease, worsened today by the easy access of smart phones and internet.  I guess I will have to fight a hard battle.


And, there is Jimmy who often points out my non-PC wording to avoid me offending others.  There is Yan who re-enforces my tender heart besides a critical mind.  There are Jeff and Steve who have such unique insights on many subjects that often stun me and enrich me.  


My appreciation is beyond words.  Salute!

Sophia's painting

Sophia is my friend Yan's daughter, not even 5 years old yet.  Yan showed me this photo of one of Sophia's paintings the other day, and I was so impressed that I had to ask for a copy and since then having been "showing off" to many friends as if I was showing off "my" daughter :D.

But seriously, look at the use of the color, the blending of it, the details, the composition of stillness and motion, and that was entirely pictured from her imaginative mind.  Not to belittle myself, but I guess I would have a hard time emulating her on this front.

How can one not respect children and their abilities?!

I have only met Sophia once, but she has been giving me abundant fun - sharing her creative "language manipulation" skill and bubbling thoughts has been a very enjoyable pastime between Yan and myself, and the amusement is much more safely guaranteed this way than subscribing to a "joke du jour" iPhone app.

Two years ago my favorite Shambhala teacher Joe mentioned the concept of subdue adult arrogance and respect children.  I think it's wise and necessary.

Extinguish not their originality, and trespass not on their solitude. 

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Update on June 2, 2011, 12:22am

It's said that Sophia herself does not like this painting - "it's one of the worst", she said.  I am certainly bewildered by such a shocking twist :-)

Measure of life (V) - wisdom vs. intelligence and knowledge

This subject is a necessary digression for my story telling.

I searched for a good explanation on this, but was disappointed.  So here comes my own definitions and comparisons -

Knowledge is collected information.

Intelligence is an ability to understand, reason, think, and solve problems.

Wisdom is distilled knowledge that one obtains by properly processing amassed raw knowledge (and often necessarily experience, if that is not counted as knowledge) using intelligence.  And yet, the outcome of wisdom is not guaranteed.  Wisdom enables one to discern, or judge, what is right and wrong, good and bad, and subsequently make sensible decisions.

Let me put it this way : if one wants wisdom, the distilled beverage, one has to have knowledge and experience as grain/fruit, intelligence as the brewing kit, a pursuing heart as the willing brewer.  And we all know eventually wines differ significantly in terms of color, smell, body, acidity, tannin, etc.  Some wine sells at $5 per bottle, and others $3,000 per bottle.

As a nerd, I will conclude this way : wisdom = knowledge + experience + intelligence + a pursuing heart + epsilon the random factor.

There is life wisdom, human wisdom, engineering wisdom, finance wisdom, and so on.  As this thesis is about life, I will only speak of life wisdom.

Here I have a beautiful case that exemplifies the relation:

“Can anyone who has heard this music [Beethoven's Appasionata], I mean truly heard it, really be a bad person?” -from the movie the lives of others (2006)

Yes, what's the use to know all the background information of every music masterpiece yet have no emotional response while immersing in one? What's the use to memorize all the Buddhism scripts yet lose temper when getting elbowed accidentally on subway?  What's the use of being a vegetarian allegedly out of the mercy towards every sentient being yet keep lying to loved ones? And, what's the use to possess the knowledge of the entire universe, yet find no joy in life?

I think gaining wisdom for any individual is as instrumental as the invention of tools for the evolution of human beings.  Joy is the fountainhead of life, of production, and wisdom opens up and unclogs the channels for the vitality to spread into every aspect of one's life.

Measure of life (IV) - ignorance can be bliss

When I was born, ten years of Chinese Culture Revolution just ended. China was pretty much at the brink of getting rotten. Most commoners literally were living next to nothing. I grew up with very limited material and intellectual resources, despite the fact that I was the only child in the family. I was ignorant, without a doubt, and I was a happy kid. I was happy because I was doing well in school. I was happy that I could help my parents with house work so they could do less. I was happy that we were doing better than many of our neighbors because my parents are very smart and hardworking. I do not remember anything that really bothered me: no toys, no books, no cute dresses, not knowing anything about the big world - hey, I did not know why I needed those, or perhaps I even did not know the existence of those, so I was not bothered. How lucky I was to be ignorant under that circumstance! Ignorance is bliss, indeed.  

With me continuously doing well in school, not surprisingly I kept walking into a bigger and bigger world. Nothing was planned, because I did not have the necessary vision to plan anything this "grand", nor did my parents. Again, ignorance is bliss - Without either my parents or myself or anybody in the world expecting me to achieve much, I never had much of a pressure, but only constantly reap pleasant surprises that I actually could do better.  

Luckily that I grew up in China where schools actually value academic performance, and I did not need to dodge flying daggers such as drugs, bullies, teen sex, racial / background discrimination, so on and so forth. To be honest, I was not even aware of those prevalent school issues in US until not too long ago. Call me ignorant. And I am happy I was.

Because I was a good kid, I was always appointed/elected a major student leader. Starting from very early on I was given the opportunities to (oh that's too rosy a description - I confess many times "was pushed to" suits the reality better) deliver a speech in front of the whole school, to command group exercises, to participate debate teams, to run a school broadcast station, to run a student government, to make up rules, to pull together a basketball team and a soccer team out of the only 11 girls in my class,... so I did not become a typical nerd.  

At the same time, I enjoyed good relationship with many people, and I helped many with my wide-spread connections. More importantly, I have always been satisfied with myself that I have been ethical, honest, and generous. In terms of money, I am rarely concerned. With my upbringing, I know I do not need much to survive and I do not need luxury although that is good to have; with my competency, I never worry that I would not be able to make a living.  The fore-mentioned three conditions, I think, are pivotal in determining most people's happiness level. Well, sometimes I did lament that I was not as pretty as I desired.  However, I often had admirers who were either the most handsome and/or the most competent, so with that little vanity as compensation, it was easy to shrug off my dissatisfaction with my looks, not to even mention that I actually was not enthusiastic at all about dating until really late.

My friend Y, when discussing happiness, said that "it's delta that matters, not the absolute value". Delta, is a mathematical jargon, means difference. In this context, there is delta between reality and expectation, delta between now and before, and delta between one and one's neighbors. I agree, that's a fact for many people, and many times, that's also the very fact that put us into the abyss of unhappiness, which will be elaborated in later chapters.

Nonetheless, I was pumped quite high in spirit by all three deltas : I was doing better than my expectation, I was doing better every day than the previous day, and as far as my then limited world spaned, I was doing better than most of my peers.

With me going through one of the best high schools and one of the best universities in China, it's a bit surprising that all the intellectual pain attacks pretty much shunned clear by at least a 3-mile radius from me, although I read and felt "blue" sometimes. Not a single reason occurred to me to cause serious unhappiness. I, today, do not know what to comment on that. Yes, that was ignorant happiness existing on the fact that I did not know more. But honestly I doubt I would beg to alter such a nice and easy period, to suffer more in order to deepen and enrich myself. If, if there were if's in life, that could last forever, I would no doubt be a princess in the fairy tale of "living happily every after".

However, nature has its own way to unfold things, and perhaps we humans are genetically wired to break fairy tales of that sort.

Measure of life (III) - is ignorance bliss?

What is ignorant happiness?

Without knowing the truth (truth is often complicated and less than beautiful), one is less bothered by the imperfect realities, one has less desire for more, or one can fabricate any fantasy to serve one's ends, hence easier to be happy.  Just like most children.

Intelligence = counter-happiness?

For that reason, many people, for example Lisa Simpson, concluded that “As intelligence goes up, happiness goes down. See, I made a graph. I make lots of graphs.” [The Simpsons, episode 257]

When I had a chat with my boss as I suffered the "intermittent intellectual pain attack", he admitted that he could reckon.  When I mentioned Noam Chomsky for some reason, he commented that "how painful the life must be for intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky and Bernard Russell".  At that moment I could not help empathizing with their deep-to-marrow sort of pain - although today I would be wary of this kind of generalization.

Out of sheer intellectual curiosity, I interviewed quite a few people.  It seems to me people are more or less confused.  On one hand, it does appear that those who do not know as much look happier.  But on the other hand, all that I talked to would choose to know more, if there is such an option.  If happiness is what we are after as a major character for a "good" life, and knowing more seems to destroy happiness or at least reduce it, then why, oh why, we want to drive ourselves into a less "good" life?!  Are we all masochists?!  Oh, how can I pass on such an interesting dilemma without delving into it.  So delve deep I did and hence this writing.

I will neither argue for, nor argue against that view point, because I think intelligence is not the very relevant variable here on this chart.  Rather, wisdom should take its place.  I am pretty confident that wisdom (if it can be measured properly) is a statistically significant factor, and the curve then will flip - flip around x axis or y axis still depends on my further research ;-) .  Intelligence and wisdom sound like twins, but I do not think so.

So the motif of my thesis is : wisdom is bliss.  Ignorance can be bliss, only when people are ignorant of their ignorance, which sometimes is indeed a blissful thing; wisdom, which differs from intelligence, leads to more mindful and sustainable happiness, and that requires skills to manage, hence I call it "skillful happiness".  And anything in between could put one on a big swing : one day in heaven and the next in hell, and that is often completely at the mercy of the God.

Measure of life (II) - two regimes

Joy, or happiness, has often been the common character of a "good" life, no matter to ancient Egyptians, or to Aristotle, or to probably most of us.

For thousands of years, countless many people have been pondering on this word, have been searching beyond and within for it, have been exerting trial-and-error efforts to understand it, and yet here we are, today, still baffled and battered every now and then.

Reading the ethics chapter of any philosophy book will give you a good summary of the views from many great minds, hence I just want to share something personal.

I am one of the happier gals, the fact of which, I believe, will be nodded at by most people around me.  In the domain of happiness, my days so far can be divided into two major regimes : "ignorant happiness" (or "blind happiness"), and "skillful happiness".

Accidently, coming to America 10 years ago denotes the watershed between those two regimes.  Don't get me wrong.  It's not like there are monsters and wolves in US.  If I am asked of a question that "what is the best thing that has ever happened to you", my answer, without hesitation, will be "come to America".  I think it's that dramatic change of environment catalyzed a quake that shattered the unsound foundation of my spiritual world.  And I am 120% glad that it happened that way instead of paining me through a slow death.  About 1.5 years ago, I started to have this delightful feeling that finally a butterfly had morphed successfully from a caterpillar, or that a phoenix had risen from ashes... I could smell spring everyday, and I had never been that live - not because I did something majestic or became a big shot, but because I felt I found, not without pain, joy, and the path leading to it - this time it's a different kind of joy, more mindful, more sustainable, and more sophisticated.  It has been a profound and life-changing experience.

Measure of life (I) - preface

I am certainly not claiming I under measure of life, and I am perfectly aware that different people adopt different measure, which is, and should be, everybody's freedom as long as one does not infringe others' rights. And I have no interest in judging what is better, but to share my two cents and perhaps to get some echos as well as different voices from generous readers.


“You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions.  Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. ‘Have you found joy in your life?’, and 'Has your life brought joy to others?’”
                                                                               - from the movie <Bucket List>


I quite like it.


Searching for the purpose of life and finding means to better one's (and others') life probably have puzzled many aspiring and curious minds, including mine.  And I think it's a lifetime project, also a fun and intellectually stimulating project.  At least for now,  I think these two questions from ancient Egyptian culture seem quite spot-on.  And inspired by that, I will venture on writing about my experiences and views on this topic.

China vs India : who has a better chance for economic growth

I would never have written such a post had I not come across a post on a forum (gplus.com) listing 10 advantages that India has over China for 21 century economic growth.  So the following text is an adaptation of my response to that list.


Out of the list, I find only 3 worth discussing, although they are still not the fundamental drive of competency, according to my opinion :


1) India's resource consumption has decreased for every incremental dollar of GDP since 1991 (as against China, which was using three times more resources per dollar of GDP than India).
2) India is in a very sweet demographic spot, being the youngest country in the world: half a billion Indians are less than twenty- five years old, giving it a unique 'demographic dividend' among peers.
3) Its judicial system is robustly based on English common law. It's a genuine, albeit imperfect, democracy.


My response :


1. Cost of GDP. A quick look at the composition of both countries economy will tell you that India is focused on service (Service : fluctuating around 50% of GDP; industry : around 25-30% of GDP, and employs less than 20% of the workforce; agriculture : around 30%, but employs 60% of the workforce) while China has a more balanced distribution between service and industry (service : industry : agriculture = 43 : 47 : 10). Of course a call center will incur lower cost than a steel company. In case of the tail risk that the west alienates both countries, guess who will survive better?

2. Demography.

-Younger population is good, as long as they produce enough to reach beyond supporting themselves. If a big portion of them are hungry and (semi-) unemployed, it's hard to justify glorifying a big (young) population. In that, as the only-child in my family, I personally respect China for making a responsible sacrifice, while India cannot feed its biggest population.  If a bigger young population is unconditionally advantageous, come on, it's not like Indians are better at giving birth than Chinese are.  Not to even mention that China has more natural resources such as land and water to accommodate a bigger population.

-As a direct benefit of a one-child policy, the new generation of Chinese has a astronomically better opportunity in terms education and health than the older ones. Needless for me to prove that it's productivity that matters, not population. A smaller educated and healthy population might be more collectively productive than a bigger but uneducated and under-nutrition-ed one.

-Assume everything goes well in China : economy is booming, and opportunities ample for young people. Hey, maybe young Indians and other young Asians want to immigrate to China. We have been seeing more and more young Indian faces already in Beijing and Shanghai - people "vote with feet". Assuming there is not such a splendid future, many people do not have a job anyway, and it's safer to have a lot of old "unemployed" than young ones.

-a 60 years old today is not the same as a 60 years old in 20 years. Many 60 years olds might want to work in 20 years.

-With technology advance, fewer people need to work, people need to work for fewer hours, and work is less labor intensive.


3. Whether democracy is superior in terms of promoting production, it's in fact quite debatable. What matters for economic boom, I think, is economic freedom. They might be correlated, but not the same (Singapore is a good example).

Both nations' recent development are very respectable, and obviously both are not without problems. There is a huge essay I can write about this topic but I can comfortably drop most of my arguments because I think they, as well as most of the above, are just scratching the surface of the problem. I think the most fundamental (economic) competition edge for any nation relies upon economic freedom (including but not limited to rule of law) and education, with the former significantly depending upon the latter. Both India and China cannot boast on either. So if there is a race between India and China, it's a race of education. Just like neither big nation can organize a competent soccer team, population also does not correlate with economic success; a disorganized and disengaged big population only creates chaos - a younger population creates a more severe chaos in that case, for the obvious reasons.

Travel (II) - Europe 6 - Athens Day 0

Click here to view some pictures in Athens

In Brussels' airport while waiting for my flight to Athens, I had a chance to chat with a handsome Greek gentleman. He reviewed my top-10-things-to-do-in-Athens list, and gave me more practical and more detailed advices.

A digression.  He was doing his PhD in psychology in UK, with a research focus on lie detecting for forensic purpose.  Due to my long held interest in psychology, he instantly intrigued me.  I asked for some elaboration on this topic.  The first point he made was to "ignore body language completely".  He said according to research, the correct prediction based on body language was no more than 50%, i.e. a random guess.  The hype of deciphering people based on body language was pretty much a US FBI product.  I was glad to learn all these as I personally did not believe body language analysis based on my own experience.  When I asked how to detect lies, he said to ask many open questions and to see if that person elaborates and if the details make sense.  That instantly reminded me of one of my favorite movies "the lives of the others" where an East German secret policeman used a similar scheme to interrogate people, but with torture.  He laughed and said that's definitely his favorite movie too.  But in UK, the evidence collected through such kind of inhuman interrogation would not be admitted in courts.  He then asked about my PhD research and my current job.  I answered with carefully organized details :-P.  Later he mentioned that he used to major in dentistry and actually practiced for a while, and decided that's not for him, then he started from scratch in psychology.  Fascinating.

He mentioned to me that Aegean airline offers good meals.  That turned out to be true.  Meal on the flight was quite Greek and delicious : pasta with octopus, hummus with coarse texture (the most delicious hummus I had had), and the dessert was a Greek special sweet made from sesame with coca.

It was a short flight of 3 hours from Brussels to Athens.  I was busy writing my blog so did not even notice it before I arrived.  Read about the scoundrel taxi drivers in Athens, also got that "rumor" confirmed by the new friend I made as well as some airport staff, and it was past midnight in Athens time, I dared not to take a taxi from the airport to the city center.  The Metro was also closed at that late hour.  So I opted to take a bus to city center and then to take a taxi to my lodging place - Athena's friend offered us a newly decorated apartment in the center of Athens.  

With all my curiosity about and admiration for mythical Greek civilization and splendid Greek culture, I did not want to close my eyes for one second on the bus, even though that was already past 1 am local time.  I was amused when I saw so many mathematical symbols, sigma, lambda, theta, epsilon..., were part of the store names - "now we know where math was from".  However, what I saw along the streets were less than glamourous - it looked like some corny suburban towns in China.  At the beginning I thought that was only in the remote areas, but when I got off in the city center, nothing looked like a modern city, nor a historical city.  Hmm... 

Even though the taxi ride was short, I guess I could call the driver a scoundrel.  Anyway, it was late at night, and he was kind of old, I did not want to argue but to treat it as a charity.

Athena was already in Athens and she was kindly waiting for my arrival.  Her friend George, who provided lodging for us, was a wealthy ship-owner.  Even though I knew that was a spare apartment of his, my imagination about the condition of the building definately had gone beyond what I saw.  It was an old-looking apartment building.  The elevator seemed like from last millenium.  One would have to open the elevator door like opening a house door by literally pulling the knob.  And it ran with a huge noise.  The interior of the apartment itself was well decorated very recently and nothing that we would complain about.  So, what kind of city is Athens?  I was wondering before I passed out in bed...

Travel (II) - Europe 5 - Brussels, Belgium

Click here to view some pictures in Brussels

April 18th, Monday.  Last day in Belgium before I head out to Greece.  Solo tour for me again.  A few people mentioned before that Brussels is sort of boring compared to many other European cities.  That was quite contradictory with my original imagination of a garden city covered by flower carpet.  It turned out that the splendid flower carpet show is only up once every two years in an even numbered year, and only during the third week of August.  So I was totally going to miss it. 

Belgium is the capital of Flanders, Belgium, and Europe.  It houses the headquarter of EU and NATO.  I did not bother to identify which building is which in the neighborhood of the royal palace and congress, except for the fore-mentioned two.  However, the grandeur and formalness and conservativeness of those buildings kind of suggested that Brussels is a political center in Europe.  

Before heading out to the #1 tourist attraction Grand Place (or Grote Markt as in Dutch), I rested a bit in the big park right in front of the royal palace.  It's obviously a beloved leisure place by locals where I could see people jogging, kids playing, and many baby trolleys.  

Grand Place had a less than glamourous beginning.  It was just a swampy sand-bank between two brooks, known as "broek sella" which gave Brussels its name.  The sand bank was turned into a market and sold French and English textiles, French wines, and German beer.  In the Middle Ages wooden houses were built around the market and by 14th century wealthy families took to building stone mansions which led to the market developing into the main commercial administrative centre.  The Gothic Town Hall (Hotel de Ville) came in 1402 and by now it was also a political center. 

Many have admired the beauty of the Grand Place, wide open cobbled square, surrounded by elegant guildhouses.  I was also impressed by the grandeur of it and the decorativeness.  However, I was not charmed by the style of the decor. 

The side streets were full of souvenir stores, cafes, and restaurants.  Belgium is known for chocolates, waffles, beers, and Manneken Pis, the "Pissing Boy", or "Little Julian".  All were in the vicinity.  

The chubby-cheeked bronze statute of Manneken Pis, created in the 17th century by Jerome Duquesnoy, embodies the irreverent spirit of Brussels.  Although only 60cm in height, he is probably Brussels' most photographed statue.  That day he was stark-naked as usual.  But sometimes he gets dressed.  In fact he has an impressive wardrobe of 600 outfits displayed in the Maison du Roi (or Broodhuis as in Dutch, Royal Art Museum).

I bought a big waffle with dart chocolate, and sat among hundreds on the shoulder of the square in Grand Place.  Pretty nice!

Hoping to do some shopping in the local antique market as well as to buy some chocolates in some well praised shops, I headed to Place du Grand Sablon.  To my disappointment, the antique market is only open on Sundays.  However, it's a nice casual place with lots of cafes where locals like to hang out.  Right away I saw Wittamer, a recommended chocolate place that offers a tearoom experience.  I ordered a dessert and a hot chocolate, savoring while sun-bathing.  A little blond girl, probably 4 years old, came over to play with me, showing off her little duck and easter eggs, posing for my pictures, and trying to take pictures for me.  Although we did not share a common language, I had a good company.  When I stood up to leave, she dived into my arms, hugged me tightly and insisted to give me a kiss.  Such a sweet heart. :-)

Regretfully, I did not find the famous chocolate store Pierre Marcolini (39 Place Du Grand Sablon) for their exceptional displays.  Athena later confirmed that it was really beautiful.  I did not care enough to look for it with efforts.  Oh well, next time.

Another regret is that the comic strip museum was closed on Monday.  It's said that Belgium has more comic strip artists per square kilometer than any other country.  Maybe I'll be better off to first read some comic books about Tin Tin, Belgium's famous cartoon character hero, before my visit next time.  I remember B was reading them.  Bummer that I did not pay much attention.

Brussels seems to be the transportation hub in Western Europe.  It seems to have more railway stations than any other cities, and it's well connected by rail to the rest of Western Europe.  I also find its airport probably one of the largest that I have seen.   With my heavy backpack, I was tired out when I eventually reached my gate for the flight to Athens.  And I am sure that I walked the longest distance on the moving walk-way.