As an infant PhD student, I was sent to the National Research Council of Canada for a course. I took the chance to visit Niagara Falls. People have that typical lifelong wish to tour the world and see the seven wonders. Is it a conquerous desire? I never had such a wish. It has been simply absent. Perhaps because there were more fundamental and basic issues to be sorted before considering extravaganzas.
The Falls was massive! Yet, a weird feeling crept in -- right, here am I standing in front of the mighty Falls, so what? As Buddhism teaching suggests about gratification -- having sought and found what we've been longing for, can we really be satisfied to the heights of our expectations and to the depths of our yearnings?
This is perhaps along the lines of Saint Augustine's Confessions:
Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you. He bears about him the mark of death, the sign of his own sin, to remind him that you 'thwart the proud.' But still, since he is part of your creation, he wishes to praise you. The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.Or, as the song goes, "Like the woman at the well, I was seeking ... for things that could not satisfy ..." Worldly pleasures!
(By the way, had Niagara Falls been European, I doubt artificial rainbow lights would be engineered to 'decorate' this wonder of nature.)
There were Koreans and Chinese around, whom I made friends with. Such are the people who do not need to be in a pub in order to socialise -- that's the Asian warmth of Asian touch. Asians have a completely different sense of shyness -- Asians readily befriend and offer sincere hospitality without having a pint in front of them; yet they don't go round mating random partners.
Vancouver is a viable migration option for Chinese whether from China, Taiwan, Malaysia or elsewhere. It depends what one is willing to tolerate while most still regard their homeland as their homeland no matter how uneasy they are with the politics and justice. Talk about Communism in China or the uncertainty in Taiwan. No where is "tiantang" ("heaven" in Mandarin). The Chinese in Malaysia have to score much higher than Malays in order to gain the same entry to the same university; Chinese have to pay a much higher price to buy the same house. For us who survived the elbowing this reverse-apartheid doesn't really hurt; for others it cuts deep. My friends who had to go to Singapore for tertiary education vowed never to return. Oh well that's how Malaysia keeps its society in shape. The Chinese aren't really suffering, in fact most do well. I'm from the 3rd generation of Chinese in Malaysia: the first generation came mostly as labourers. Many by the 2nd generation had already made it in life. The 3rd generation goes to university like nobody's business! We get there, just with a little extra labour. That's what Chinese are good for!
I was at Montreal General Hospital for a conference. Took the chance to visit Tzu Chi volunteers, who answered my phone call with a leaping spirit, "Women dajia dou zai dengze ni ya!" ("We are all waiting for you!" in Mandarin). This is the Taiwan-based Buddhist organisation whose international mission and relief work I hope to get involved one day.
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