Category: Life

“Oh,” said Yen Hui, “I am used to fasting! At home we were poor. We went for months without wine or meat. That is fasting, is it not?”

“Well, you can call it ‘observing a fast’ if you like,” said Confucius, “but it is not the fasting of the heart.”

“Tell me,” said Yen Hui, “what is fasting of the heart?”

Confucius replied: “The goal of fasting is inner unity. This means hearing, but not with the ear; hearing, but not with the understanding; hearing with the spirit, with your whole being. The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another. But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence it demands the emptiness of all the facul­ties. And when the faculties are empty, then the whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right there before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind. Fasting of the heart empties the faculties, frees you from limitation and from preoccupation. Fasting of the heart begets unity and freedom.”

The Way of Chuang Tzu, translated by Thomas Merton, pages 52, 53

Strangely enough, my eyes glazed over several times when I read this paragraph, even though I could tell this was the heart of this little story between Yen Hui and Confucius.

I wonder why my brain would silently shut off as I read these words.

In a more dualistic mindset, I’d say it’s the forces of evil trying to keep me from the truth, but that doesn’t seem to be way of the Dao.

Maybe in realizing “this passage is important”, I was taken out of the moment and thus lost my concentration.

The mind a weird little fellow.

I woke up early and ground through the remaining emails in my personal inbox, which had gotten up to the four digit range.

Yes, I’m one of those obnoxious inbox zero people, though I’m not so perfect to be truly obnoxious.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the remaining 22 emails still hiding the inbox. I most likely need to revive my old Things to Do, which will suck up a few of these items.

But that doesn’t answer what to do with the items that are just interesting bits of reading or media that I’d like to enjoy in the future reading / time.

I suspect I’ll just add a star to them, put an entry in the TTD, and then archive it away. In about a year, I’ll cull through the TTD list and they will be disappeared for good…or at least until I decide to go through another exercise culling my starred emails as well!

Maybe it isn’t the worst thing in the world to procrastinate on such “gems”, there is a chance they weren’t really worth reading at all.

Time will tell.

For the next road trip, now that we have more room in the back of the Odyssey. This is definitely not a minimalist list, but it worked well for our Disneyland run in May.

Instapot
The small baby chair, with straps.
Water Boiler
Water Filter
Bottled Water
Toaster (optional!)

Grains and stuff for breakfast porridge (yams worked well too)
Fruits
Nuts
Beef Jerky
Granola Bars
Chocolate bars
Chips / Crackers (as desired)

Underwear for every day
Socks for every day
Undershirt for every day
Tank Top, every other day
Outer shirt, every other day
Pants + Shorts, every other day
Vest
(This collection of clothes was a bit more than necessary, but better than the alternative of running short).

Flip flops or slippers to go with the shoes (presumably one is on your feet when you leave, so the other is packed in the car).

Camping Mattresses (that sofa bed was not good)
Yoga Mats (so we can walk barefoot in the motel)
Picnic Blanket
Extra blankets for sleeping

Stroller (the kids don’t walk themselves)
Baby Carrier (maybe for the last time)
Books
Toys
Board game (one)
Clipboard, paper, and pens to draw with

Power Strips, Two (one for the phones, the other for the kitchen stuff)
USB chargers and chords (one for each phone).
External Battery pack (one)
Computer
Computer power cable
ipad (optional)

Using the Trofast bins was a stroke of genius by my wife. They are light and modular, easier to use than suitcases since our visit stayed at one motel the whole time. Even if we were hopping from motel to motel, then I think we would have picked out the next day’s clothes at the back of the van and then brought it up in one bin.

I have been lucky to avoid nightmares since childhood, but I had the closest thing this morning. I dreamt that I may have owned a winning lottery ticket for a $253 million dollar drawing.

But I couldn’t find it!

So the dream consisted of running around the house looking for it, but that wasn’t the nightmare.

The nightmarish part was two-fold.

If I couldn’t find the lotto ticket, I’d live forever with regret. Even in the dream, I was well aware of the fallibility of memory so I wasn’t completely certain I actually had the winning numbers. But I really wanted to know for sure.

And if I had won the lottery…well, then my life as I knew it was completely over. It might be a nice change, but I’ve read enough to know lottery winners often fare quite poorly.

But ultimately I can’t complain. The dream was set in my grandparent’s house and I was running around with my grandmother looking for the ticket. I haven’t dreamt of her in years so it quite pleasant to visit with them, frantic as it may have been.

Coming down with a cold with a nasty sore throat has one minor benefit.

It made me realize how awesome things are in this modern world.

Hot water on command,
Central heating or air conditioning,
Nice soft comfy blankets,
Mattress too,
Paid sick leave,
Soup,
Showers,
Podcasts,
Kleenex,
Sewer system,
and the backstop of an advanced medical system.

All those little things add up when your body is raging in its battle with a virus.

I was bouncing around the internet and veered onto a short promotional video for my alma mater, UC Berkeley. At the end the speaker closed with “Fiat Lux”. The English translation of this phrase, “Let there be Light” is on the university seal, but the exotic brevity of the Latin made it extra cool.

That made me think of my current institution’s motto, “All for Country”, a high calling even if I’m not ready to commit “All”.

Even so, both of these are a bit more exciting than the motto of my graduate school, Rice University. “Letters, Science, Art”, which is descriptive enough I guess.

I suspect that having its not a bad idea to have a good motto for constantly centering oneself. The hard part is finding that particular mantra.

Fate and luck can be cruel and unfair, but sometimes, people are also held back by their own limitations.

Sometimes you are where you’re at because of who you are.

The trick is personally choosing these limitations knowing the consequences, not blindly allowing circumstance, genetics, or previous habit determine what those are.

In order to avoid getting addicted to caffeine, so I have a general rule of not drinking any such beverages on the weekend.

It’s a rule that has worked so far.

The question is what else should I detox from?

And the corollary would be, if it requires a detox, why not just abstain altogether?