Hong Kong...Finally

It was a perfect way to end our 12-day journey...a nine-hour layover at Hong Kong International Airport.  Got to see my best friend again.  Nothing for 16 years, then twice within 10 days was too much of a treat  :D

We took the express train to Hong Kong City from the airport for about 16 US dollars, an absolute bargain for a clean, comfortable, and fast ride to the city.  From the train station, we got into one of the legendary Hong Kong taxis and headed for the top of Victoria Peak.  It was hazy when we got to the peak but the view was still spectacular.  Samantha and I wrote love notes to one another and immortalized them at the "The Peak-I love you" stand.

There is no shortage of shops and restaurants here to satisfy any kind of cravings, no matter where you're from.  In the end we picked a restaurant that faces the main mall.  Good food , good friends, and a great view...what else one can ask for?

Right and...Light

Ask any seasoned photographer what time of the day gives the best picture, you would get one of two answers: sunrise or sunset.  The transition between night and day gives the most even light, which translates into the best exposure to balance subjects and backgrounds.  On film it means more visual clarity.  During this transition between day and night, there are no harsh shadows to hide precious details, like what you might see in photographs taken in full daylight.

So why all this fuss about light?  Because at sunset today, God showed me the analogy between judgement and light.  Like the harsh contrast found at high noon, our judgement of others is harshest when our sense of righteousness is strongest.  And this is also when we most likely to lose sight of reasons and compassion...like the hidden details in the shadows of photographs.  What we do not see in the shadows is still as real as what we see in the light.  But in the harsh light, we tend to disregard those details in the shadows.

The transition between day and night brings clarity not only to sight, but also to thoughts.  This is why meditation at sunrise has always been the most revealing.  Similarly, the transition between sleep and wakefulness brings clarity of intuitions by bridging the conscious and the subconscious minds.  This is also why the transition between life and death reveals the clearest of the soul's intentions.

The Error of being Right

After a long day at school I sat down at the dinner table with my mom who was tutoring my nephew.  "Two plus two equals...", she waited for him to complete her thought.
     "Three?"
     "No."
     "Four?"
     "No,  it's five."
What was that?  "Mom, two plus two is four," I had to jump in to right this wrong.  So over the next 10 minutes I got more frustrated by the minute trying to convince my mother of this established fact that is accepted by everyone else in the world.  I counted numbers 1 through 5 to her in Vietnamese and in English.  I even tried doing it in Spanish, hoping it might work since she had lived  in Texas for the last 35 years.  But for every one of my argument, she had one of her own to counter.  She would hold 4 apples in her two palms and said ever since she was a kid she could only hold 5 apples maximum at a time.  I would take another apple and add to her pile, but it would fell off as soon as I take my hand away.
     "See?  Two and two is five."

To be honest, my mom does believe that 2 + 2 = 4.  But there are many of my beliefs which she does not agree with.  I'm not talking about beliefs that are on shaky grounds like superstitions, or old legends, or urban myths.  No, these beliefs are facts, repeatedly proven by reputable scientists from all over the world.  These same beliefs are the foundation on which our modern technology and social structure is built.  But try as hard as I can, I can never convince her to see the world my way.  I often get frustrated and even angry sometimes when she can't perceive what I see as plain as day.  I just KNOW that I'm right.  Doesn't that give me the "rights" to show her my truth?

Of course, you already know the answer to that question.  No one has that rights, because it would encroach on the individual's free will.  And no one can mess with free will.  God doesn't even touch it...let alone us mortals.

When you declared yourself to be right and another to be wrong, you are creating division.  When you realize that there is no such thing as "right" or "wrong" then you are approaching Oneness.  And Oneness is where you find God. 

Time's...a changing

Ever since I read Conversation with God and encountered the concept of Past, Present, and Future all happening at the same time, I have been sleeping a little less.  The concept is so radically different from our chronological perception that it is almost impossible to imagine it.  I am willing to bet that people living before Columbus's time had some reservation when they first heard the Earth was a sphere.

But if we make a mental leap and accept this idea as fact, a whole new world of possibilities is opened up to us.  In this new world, time is no different from space.  Traveling to the Past or to the Future is no different from going to Jupiter or to the edge of the expanding Universe.  And "traveling" through time and space in this new world is no different from daydreaming by the window.

During a run the other day, I was thinking about all those movies with time travel as a central theme.  Because the standard time travel story lines are all based on the premise of chronology, we either see the recurrent scenarios of "the Past is fixed but the Future is movable"...or the scenarios of "the Present can be altered by changing the Past".

In the world of "Past, Present, and Future all happening at once", what new scenarios would we see?  First of all, there would no longer be a time-line.  Second, I can only illustrate this idea graphically if reincarnation of the soul is accepted as fact.  And third, the idea only makes sense if you believe in the "thoughts-lead-to-realities" manifestation cycle.

Because all 3 time references are happening at once, I think that all time references can affect one another.  No longer is the Present and Future dependent on the Past, but the Past can be altered by the Present or even by the Future.  If you can imagine that your Present self is a residual vibration from the time of creation (i.e. conception) then you can start seeing the idea of the Past existing along side with the Present.  Now if you can imagine this residual vibration is actually the residual vibration from the time of the Original Creation (i.e. The Big Bang) that has been carried over thousands if not millions of reincarnations, then you can see that you are the embodiment of all Past since the beginning of time.

If the Past is residual vibrations, then what is Future?  Future is all new vibrations at the cellular level that have not been fully formed into thoughts at the conscious level.  Future is all thoughts at the fetal stage, very malleable and slippery.  Of course, it has to be so because the Present and the Past is constantly affecting it.

I think of all the interdependent relationships among these 3 elements, the Present and Future affecting the Past is the hardest concept for us to accept.  If we broke a glass, no one expects to see that glass whole again.  Life is not a word processing program where you can "undo" a deed, right?  Right...and wrong.  Life is only as real as your perception makes it.  How many times have history books been rewritten to change the perception of the victor?  How many times have the last act of a man defines his whole life?  It is not only possible, but it's real.  If enough people believe it's real then it's real...no matter what had actually transpired during the first go around.

I think the Present can affect both the Past and the Future.  Of course, there is much less freedom in changing the Past because of more constraints; but the process of affecting the vibrations of the Past is no different from that of the Present or the Future.

Thamel, Nepal

If you are looking for something "not-Nagarkot", Thamel should be at the top of your list.  Just a little outside Kathmandu, Thamel is custom-made for the tourists...and for the tourist dollar.

Everywhere you walk in Thamel, you are bombarded by shops, restaurants, and hotels.  Don't like the prices at one shop?  No worries.  The shop next door can probably give you the exact same thing for less.  Our first hotel in Thamel charged us $50 a night.  We walked to the hotel across the street to do laundry and found out that they were charging $15 a night.  A good rule of thumb while you are here is to never forget to haggle.

If you are the adventurous type and like to try the local cuisine wherever you go, there is no shortage of those types of restaurant.   If you do try the local eateries here, it's probably safer to stick with the Indian, Tibetian, or even the Chinese dishes.  Once you start venturing away from those dishes, things can get very adventurous.  We ordered a bowl of Italian Minestrone soup and a bowl of Chinese Hot and Sour soup from a local diner.  The waiter brought us two bowls of soup that look deceptively similar.  One had a more reddish tint than the other from the chili powder just added before serving.  Samantha had ordered the Minestrone and thought that she had gotten the Hot and Sour by mistake after the fist spoonful.  I traded her for mine.  She took a spoonful from the second bowl and thought I never made the switch.  It turned out that they both had noodles, both had peas and carrot, and both tasted sour and spicy.  No doubt both came from the same soup pot.

The other thing we noticed about the local Tibetian/Nepali restaurants is that their menus are almost identical to one another.  This fact isn't just true within Thamel.  The menus are the same whether you are in Kathmandu, or Nagarkot, or Bhaktapur.

There are exceptions of course.  We found a restaurant that was owned by an Italian.  Their pizza and mushroom ravioli is even better than what can be found in a popular Italian restaurant here in Houston.

What are we thinking?

A Texas man was attacked by a Great White shark in Perth, Australia yesterday...a tragic loss.  What is senseless is that "authorities" are trying to capture that same shark.  First, how are they differentiating that "guilty" shark from the rest of the Great White.  Second, why are we condemning an animal for what it did instinctively?

Nagarkot, Nepal

Undoubtedly our favorite place in Nepal on this trip was Nagarkot, a little village about 30 km northeast of Kathmandu.  The village owes its existence to its strategic location, where you can have the best view of the Himalayas without having to leave the Kathmandu valley.  The most desirable hotels here are the ones perched along the peaks, where the view of the mountains is unobstructed.  Tourists tend to make a 1 to 2-day stop here for the sunrise.  We stayed for 3 nights to recover from the stress of Kathmandu.  Unfortunately for us, all three of those days were cloudy and hazy.

For 60 US dollars a night the hotel throws in a breakfast buffet, which includes a staple of fried potatoes, sauteed vegetables, sausages, toast, pancakes, and an omelet bar.  The fare is a small step above what you might find at Denny's but we were glad to have a break from the ubiquitous local meal of curry.

Oneness and Individualism

At church today, the priest discussed Matthew 22: 34-40.  It was about simplifying the Ten Commandments down to 2 basic ideas:  to love God with all your heart , soul, and mind; and to love your neighbor as yourself.  When I first heard this gospel as a kid, I thought it was marvelous.  It's so much easier to remember 2 things as opposed to 10 things.  But you know what?  It took me almost another 30 years to realize that it is actually even simpler; because those two ideas are actually one and the same.

Each and everyone of us is an atom inside God's body.  Each of us is a reflection of our Creator.  And each of us is a representative microcosm of this vast macro-cosmic Universe.  God resides in everyone of us.  We all appear to be different, but we all are made from the same stuff.

A Night Out in Kowloon

It's always great to see a familiar face during a voyage, especially when you haven't seen that face in almost 16 years.  The layover in Hong Kong was on purpose.  My best friend Chor returned to Hong Kong after having lived in Houston during most of his twenties.  We met in Houston while doing a play together.

Having a personal guide, Samantha and I had no worries about getting lost or finding a bad meal.  But Hong Kong is modern, well-organized, and "mostly English-speaking" city, so even without a guide anyone can navigate the city without much difficulties.

The nightly Hong Kong skyline laser show is best seen from Kowloon and we took advantage of that fact.  We also took advantage of the local eateries, which are widely known for their low prices and excellent flavors.  Chor and I went totally local and ate at a corner congee shop, where menus are still hand-written.  Our nourishing meal wasn't more than 3 US dollars each.

During our walk of the city, I came across a window display of a pair of ivory and jade sculpture, in the form of dragons and horses respectively.  This pairing is symbolically important to us because Samantha's Chinese zodiac sign is the Dragon and mine is the Horse.  Samantha had a deeper insight that it represented Heaven and Earth.  Coincidentally, Samantha is strong in her upper chakras while I am solid in the root chakras...diametrically different but unquestionably dependent.  It was a perfect illustration of the Divine Duality.

Jon Bon Jovi Soul Kitchen

Link to Jon Bon Jovi Soul Kitchen

I saw this on the news today. What a great concept! Pay what you can for a meal. If you can't pay, you can work in the kitchen to pay for it. I am definitely keeping this idea in the back of my mind when I open my Pediatric clinic in the future.

The Day Before

Before arriving at Nepal, we took advantage of our layover and visited Po Lin Monastery.  From the airport we had a choice of taking the cable car or the bus.  We opted for the bus on the way up and took the cable car down.  Hong Kong is known for its fantastic food, but one of the most memorable meal I had during my stay in HK was at Po Lin Monastery.

First Blog

Our plane landed at Kathmandu 9:30 pm local time.  This is my first time ever in Nepal.  And this is the first big trip I have with my "other-half".  The changes that took me here could fill a book.  But since writing a book seems too daunting, I opted for a more digestible blog.

In a way, this trip to Nepal is a symbolic new chapter in my life...and I have had quite a few of them.  But this last chapter is the most exciting chapter and it is going to be the last chapter, because it involves a relationship with God.