華枝春滿，天心月圓

弘一大師圓寂前，自知時至，寄給好友夏丏尊和得意門生劉質平的偈語：
「
君子之交，其淡如水；
執象而求，咫尺千里。
問余何適，廓爾忘言；
華枝春滿，天心月圓。
」

Recent Reading

千年一嘆

余秋雨從 1999 年年底開始實施歷時 4 個月的「千禧之旅」 -- 與鳳凰電視台一行於 1999 年 9 月 27 日啟程，尋訪世界的古老文明。旅程由希臘為起點，探訪雅典、邁錫尼等古城；其次來到埃及，憑弔金字塔和法老王；接著，往以色列、巴勒斯坦、約旦、伊拉克、伊朗等中東地區而去，這些神祕 的國家，人民常年飽受戰爭摧殘；再來，去到人口爆炸的印度，一探菩提樹與洞窟；最後，抵達終點尼泊爾，從此地回到中國。

這是一份真實的考察日記以完成古老的中國文明對世界其他四大文明的世紀拜會。整個活動行程有 3 萬多公里，幾乎囊括了世界所有的古老大河文明，包括了伊斯蘭教、基督教、猶太教、印度教、佛教……等各國宗教文化。

I Had to Go and See the Turquoise Myself

This presentation features more than sixty exceptional objects that large embassies, diplomatic missions, and trade delegations from Ottoman Turkey and Safavid Iran offered to the tsars of Russia. Ranging in date from the early sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, these lavish gifts and tributes include rarely seen arms and armor and jeweled ceremonial vessels and regalia intended for the Russian court or the Orthodox church. Some of the finest pieces are equestrian in nature: stirrups with pearls, golden bridles with turquoises and rubies, and saddles covered with velvet and silk.

"The Tsars And The East: Gifts From Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin," Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Pictures and Text by the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Recent Reading

The Buddha's Apprentice -- More Voices of Young Buddhists

"I was absent-minded partly because I was young, but I also realized that the cause of absent-mindedness was self-centeredness. Knowing this, I trained myself to always try to put others before myself. Whenever I met another person, I would think, 'what can I offer this person?' For me, the 'letting go ' of the self, in practice, became offering myself. I combined this with advice from Shifu to 'use the body like a rag; use your mind like a mirror.'"

From the chapter Clouds and Water - by Jimmy Yu

"I had plenty of questions and doubts about which rules, vows, precepts, and worldviews -- like beliefs in reincarnation, other worlds, invisible beings, the lower realms -- made sense and were worth adopting. The Dalai Lama encouraged me to ask these questions and explore Buddhism. He said that Buddhism would reveal itself."

From the chapter The Long and Winding Road - by Lama Surya Das

Recent Reading

The Art of Living - Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka

Recent Reading

The Annotated Alice - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (By Lewis Carroll, annotated by Martin Gardner)

Who knew that there really was an Alice? She may not have tumbled down the rabbit hole, but probably slipped down the narrow staircase in the back of Christ Church College's dining hall.

Alice's one major romance before she married, was with England's Prince Leopold, son of Queen Victoria. The relationship was not to last as Alice was a commoner. She eventually married Reginald Hargreaves. Alice wore a gift from the prince on her wedding gown and named her second son Leopold. A few weeks later, Prince Leopold, married to a princess, named a daughter Alice.

Thank You Shifu, For Everything.

「諸賢各自珍惜，
我們有這番同學菩薩道的善根福德因緣，
我們曾在無量諸佛座下同結善緣，
並將仍在無量諸佛會中同修無上菩提，同在正法門中互為眷屬。」

Master Sheng Yen (1930 - 2009)

Recent Reading

Bonfire Of The Vanities by Tom Wolfe

The timing is ironic -- Reading the book that coined the phrase "the Master of the Universe" in the midst of the financial crisis now sweeping the world. But the book is sheer genius.

Quotable Quote: "A liberal is a conservative that has been arrested."