Meditation - All Conditioned Things are Anicca

"Anicca vata sankhara, uppadavaya-dhammino;

uppajjitva nirujjhanti, tesam vupasamo sukho."
All conditioned things are impermanent; They arise and pass away.
To live in harmony with this truth; Brings the highest happiness.

This meditation is aimed to:

• practice to attain harmonious mind
• release negative reaction from your body, cells, molecules, till the smallest part
• be healthy and prosperous
• be calm, peaceful from within, and balance
• reach mindfulness and discernment

- G U I D AN C E -

• sit in a meditation posture (relax your head-neck, shoulder-arms, chest-tummy-sex, both feet, buttock and back)
• pray as per your beliefs
• emanate “May All Sentient Beings be Well and Happy” from your heart to 12 directions (this exercise is effective to expand your mind in a broader level):
1. entire body
2. entire place we're residing in (the house, meditation center, on the plane, etc.)
3. surrounding neighborhood
4. upward
5. downward
6. frontward
7. backward
8. right direction
9. left direction
10. the earth
11. the earth surrounding (solar system, milkyway, surrounding galaxies, etc.)
12. the entire universe

I. BREATHING / HEALING MEDITATION

1. Concentrate in observing breath when breathing in and out and be aware of Anicca (impermanence) → FEEL the breath characteristic on each nostril: warm/cold sensation (fire element), breath length/expansion (wind element), smooth/pause (water element), heavy/light (earth element); there are 12 breath characteristics.
2. FEEL the 36 body parts and 7 Chakras (while progressing, you may go back to concentrating on breathing at any time if you feel uneasy during releasing negative reaction from your physical body, indicating that your body requires more oxygen): head (+2 chakras); front neck (+chakra); right shoulder; right upper arm; right lower arm; right palm; right lower arm; right upper arm; right shoulder; base of the neck; left shoulder; left upper arm; left lower arm; left palm; left lower arm; left upper arm; left shoulder; chest (+chakra); abdominal (+chakra); sex organ (+chakra); right tight; right leg; right foot; right leg; right tight; sex area (+chakra); left tight; left leg; left foot; left leg; left tight; buttock (+base chakra); lower back; middle back; upper back; back neck.
3. To focus on the pain / not healthy / sick / uneasy part of your body, FEEL the respective chakra and the area.
4. To finish step 3: with your mind, wipe the entire front body from head to base, continued to back part from base to head (this is like the sensation of feeling water flowing from top to bottom of your body).

The 7 Body Chakras

II. LOVING-KINDNESS MEDITATION

1. Concentrate in observing breath during breathing in and out (no need to observe Anicca)
2. Exercise to expand loving-kindness wave: "May ... be Well and Happy" (I myself, 5 closest relatives, 5 closest friends, 5 neutral persons, 5 problematic persons; and consecutively back to I myself); mention the name.
3. Emit the loving-kindness aura to the entire universe
4. Emit the loving-kindness aura to the loved or the deceased ones or any particular target of being
5. Go back to observing breathing in and out
6. Recite 3x "May All Beings be Well and Happy"

"Train your muscles with heavy materials (dumbel, barbel) to make them stronger;
Train your mind with the lightest material (breath concentration) to make it sharper" (Ada, 2013)

Reference:
Bali Usada

Happy Independence Teeth

It is important to align our teeth so they can support each other in a nice and neat formation.
In the late age, our teeth can be tilted easily due to deteriorating support of the gum. In spite of that, teeth with straight formation might restrain them being tilted by giving strong support holding each other. For this reason, a lot of people with inadequate teeth formation wear brace to align their teeth.

The dentist said that anyone in any age is still possible to align their teeth using the brace providing the gum is still strong enough to support the alignment. The gum in the age of forties is still considered okay for such treatment. In some case, people in the age of fifties are still likely to do so.

Initially, the dentist normally asks you to have an X-ray photograph to check your jaw structure. Some people have a wide jaw structure causing their teeth formation very loose, or it could be the other way round where the narrow jaw causes the crooked or the overlapping teeth formation due to not enough space for the teeth to grow in line. The former case is easier to align simply by tightening the teeth using the brace. The later case requires more treatment which is to pull several teeth out or to file down some teeth into smaller size. Either way has the same purpose which is to give some space on the jaw enabling each tooth to align in the limited jaw structure.


How long a patient must wear the brace depends on how worse the initial teeth formation was. It may take about 1 to 1.5 years under the brace control to straighten either the loose or the overlapping teeth formation. Some case such as slanted-front teeth might take longer time to handle. For my case, I had worn the brace for about 16 months with a monthly brace control.

Does it hurt?
This is the most frequently asked question by someone regarding wearing teeth brace. Again, it is very relative to each person. Some said that they feel painful to chew for a week after the brace tightening hence losing appetite and weight consequently; some even said that they got fever. But for me, I normally had only two days to adapt after the brace being tightened. Those were the two days where I had to chew my meals extra slowly, but no fever at all, thank God.


Post Treatment
My dentist recommends me to wear teeth retainer after removing my brace. The retainer can prevent the recently straightened teeth from being deformed as the new formation is still unstable without the brace. The retainer can be easily removed any time, but it is recommended to wear it at most time. Normally, I just remove it during my meal, after that I wear it again and keep wearing it even when I sleep.


Thank my orthodontist for his professional treatment handling my teeth. Now, I can smile as wide as possible showing my tidy teeth to everyone

Rosella Tea

A nice flower petal drew my attention during my evening walk around Wilis Hill. A lady told me, it is called Rosella (Hibiscus sabdariffa). Then she told me about making Rosella tea. So, I tried it according to her direction.

Pick about 3-4 flowers, take the calyces only, clean them, put them in a mug, then pour boiled water up to the whole mug, let it cool down. You can mix it with sugar. The taste will be like frambozen syrup. But, I prefer the fresh natural sour taste of this Rosella tea.

Rosella tea is rich in antioxidants, minerals, and fiber. Thus, it is believed to be able to reduce the 'bad' cholesterol level and to improve our skin health.

Neem Tree

Hindu people in India use neem leaves as an offering to worship Lord Krishna, the incarnation of God Vishnu.

Neem tree, also known as Imbo tree (Azadirachta indica), gives lots of benefit to human beings. In Tuban, people plant them as shade trees all along the road. They also boil the leaves and drink the water as an antiseptic for stomach as well as curing itchiness or any skin disease. Other sources also mention that the extract of Neem leaves has medicinal properties as anti cancer, anti bacteria, and anti intestinal infection.

Neem trees are very abundant in Tuban, so it’s very easy to get the leaves. Once, I boiled the leaves and drank the water. The taste and the color of boiled neem are similar to Chinese bitter tea (kuding cha - 苦丁茶), one of my favorite tea. There is one big tree just next to my house in Tuban, so I can enjoy my bitter "Imbo" tea any time. ^_^

Hot...Hot...Chili

This is because chili contains a very tiny amount of hydrochloric acid (HCl) that is responsible for the burning sensation in your mouth. HCl is the second strongest acidic compound after sulfuric acid (H2SO4). The effect of hydrochloric acid heats your body system, consequently your body will produce sweat to cool it down.

The sweating effect of chili is very helpful to people living under high air humidity like Sichuan province in China. That's the reason why Sichuan foods use lots of chili. People there eat lots of chili because they want to sweat more, so they don't get humidity-related diseases due to a long-term exposure of wet condition.

Durian + Alcohol = Hangover

Durian contains a sulfuric compound called mercaptan which strongly absorbs water from your body system, hence you'll feel dehydrated. The reason why we can not drink alcohol at the close period after eating durian is because alcohol performs a fast hydrolysis process which also breaks down water from your body, exacerbating your dehydration. The double effect of losing your body fluid will extremely suffer your brain, that's why you'll experience a hangover.

Tips: After you drink alcohol, you have to compensate it by drinking an amount of water at least at the same amount of alcohol you took. And after eating durian, drinking much water will be a wise thing to do. Never ever drink alcohol after eating durian, or the other way round!

Thanx to Lai Weng Hoi and Emmanuel for sharing the knowledge.

Prevent flu! Combat flu!

During rainy season, so many people get flu. When you have the flu symptom, try to do following things:

Drink more water
Have you heard about water therapy? It can prevent and get rid of a lot of disease in your body. However, when you already feel discomfort due to flu symptom, just think that drinking lots of water may flush the virus around nasal areas (pharynx, throat), hence preventing worse illness or infection.

Eat more
As your body fights flu virus, you need an extra amount of energy from your intake to win the battle. Push your self to eat eventhough you lose your appetite during this period, if necessary increase the quantity of your intake!

Tips: Eat as much fresh garlic as you can. The fresh garlic contains allicin which is good for antibiotic in our body. Allicin will be gone if you cook the garlic, thus eating the fresh one might be more powerful in combating flu.

Worrying about terrible breath after eating fresh garlic? It’s the sulfur compound which is responsible to make people dizzy when you open your mouth. But, don’t worry about that! Eat tomatoes while taking your fresh garlic. The substance contained within tomatoes can neutralize the strong smell of garlic.

Take vitamin C
A 1000 gram vitamin C is recommended when you are combating flu as it can increase your body immunity.

Get enough sleep
Go to sleep earlier. Allow your body to have more rest to support your recovery. This makes the healing faster.

Take medicine
This is when you feel really terrible and can’t take it anymore. Then take flu relieving pills, or as a better option, ask your doctor for a prescription. Still apply what I’ve suggested above, hopefully after taking your medicine, in the following morning you wake up, you’ll feel much better.

Do exercise
After taking enough rest during recovery process, usually your body will feel “saturated”. This makes you really want to re-activate your body. Indeed, this is a good sign of successful recovery. Do some physical exercise, but not too heavy one. After sweating, you’ll feel much refreshed.

Source: advice from my parents, my senior, health magazine, the internet, and of course my own experience ^-^

吃海螺必须要小心

我以前写一篇文章关于“丰富的早餐”说我姨和我早上吃海螺之后感觉不舒服。我们觉得可能海螺对肚子太凉，所以肚子应该不可以太空。
最近，我告诉我的中国老师这件事儿。她说，海螺本来有毒。就是白色的一部分最近离它的孔，这部分就不应该吃的。吃了太多你就重毒了，所以感觉不舒服，头或者眼睛感觉很重。
总的说来，吃海螺时，注意白色的部分，别吃那部分。这样对身体比较安全。

Tai Chi (太极拳 - tài jí quán): Soft inner power and its philosophies

There are 2 types of inner power:

• Hard type; often seen in many martial art practices, such as: expelling enemies without touching them, bare protection to any sharp weapon, etc.
• Soft type, which I will describe more in the following passage.

Every one has soft inner power (SIP). The simplest illustration about the SIP is: if someone moving a box from point A to B, than he has been already used an SIP. However, once the box has been placed at point B, then the SIP has also been over.

Maintaining our SIP is essential. The more long-lasting the SIP we maintain, the higher our body immunity will be, consequently the more resistant our body to any disease will be. The point is how to train our SIP to be more continuous and more long-lasting. The simplest answer is by practicing “Tai Chi Chuan”.

Every movement of Tai Chi is inspired by philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism. The period when Tai Chi was created, these two teachings were popular in China. It’s believed that most of Taoist monk practiced Tai Chi for maintaining health reason.

The philosophy of Buddhism "form is emptiness, emptiness is form (空即是色, 色即是空)" and the balance of Yin Yang (阴阳/yīn yáng) of Taoism: softer and harder, upward and downward, outward and inward, bigger and smaller, centrifugal and centripetal, are basic philosophies of Tai Chi movement.

Here I can describe Tai Chi Chuan 24 styles and 42 styles, the two styles that I am familiar with. Each movement, from the beginning until the closing part, must flow and not be fragmented, although the formation theme of each movement must be shown obviously .

The best illustration to explain the concept of Tai Chi movement is: Our universe! From an empty space, then the big bang initiates the whole thing, the forming of solar system and other star systems. And everything works based on natural gravity power (as analogized to be the SIP), hence there appears revolution (major movement) and rotation (minor movement), night and day light; and everything must be balance. If any of this system doesn’t work properly, or stop rotating or revolving, then it is the end of the world.

From this analogy, says you are practicing Tai Chi 24 styles, if you perform the whole movement (open-close, revolving-rotating, major-minor, etc) without a balance flow, then your practice of maintaining ISP is totally useless. That’s why the more practice the better.

***
The first day I practised Tai Chi Chuan - 24 styles, my right leg was so painful. Both legs used to be trembling during and after practice. But, it was getting better and better after practising several times.

dedicated to my late Tai Chi master, PekPiu

The Art of Cooking

Sharpening Taste

Cooking is such a relaxing activity, it's really fun! Some people worries if their cooking tastes not good. To me, it's just a matter of training sensoric nerves of my tongue to make my cooking tasty.

Less MSG

Some people always adds more, or sometimes too much MSG or chicken stocks to sharpen the taste. Forget all of this stuff if you want to be healtier; Use a combination of sugar and salt instead.

Pay attention to texture

Another important point is, you need to know which part of the material you must put first into your cooking pan. This balances the texture of a cooking, especially in a mixed-stuff dish. For example cooking a stir fried veggies, you don't simultaneously put all veggies into your hot frying pan. Carrot is more massive compared to spinach, then put carrot earlier and stir it till tender then you mix it with spinach.

Hope that helps, and let's cook! ^^

Aweto

or in Chinese called 冬虫夏草 (dōng chóng xià cǎo), translated as: winter worm summer grass. Its life stage has been clearly stated on its name: during winter it is an insect, during summer the grass grows.

As today I visited Tian Men Shan (a range of beutiful mountains), lots of local people sold these insects. It costs you 1 RMB to buy one dried insect. They said, just soak them in a bottle of wine. Drink this wine is good for your health (at least that's what they said to me). Well, I'm just amazed with this creature, half animal, half plantation, cool!

New Protein Sources

Centipede "lipan" Satay

Taste: like shrimp barbeque
Use: antitoxin, good for skin disease (that's what the Chinese said)
Price: 10 yuan/stick

Thai Scorpion

Taste: a little bit like a fried "tongkol" fish!
Imported from Thailand
Price: 8 yuan/stick

Chinese Scorpion

Taste: better than the Thai ones
Price: 4 yuan/stick (3 scorpions)

Cicada Satay

Taste: unique to this insect
Price: 5 yuan/stick
This insects were collected around Dalian area. There are heaps of Cicada around this month. Chinese people call it zhīliǎo (知了). If you take a walk in the park where there are lots of trees, then you can hear the specific noisy sound produced by this kind of insect. That's why Dalian people also call them as mīmīgǎ (咪咪嘎), which its translation means cackling sound.

an adult cicada
Location: Tianjin Street. Dalian

“丰富”的早餐

今天早上在我家附近的市场，我姨夫和我买了4只新鲜的螃蟹，12个海螺，和2斤生菜。在家里，我阿姨做菜：蒸螃蟹，煮海螺，和炒菜。我们早餐吃海鲜吃得太丰富了。

吃饭后就休息休息。突然，我阿姨说她的头感觉很重，她就躺在床上一下。不一会儿，我也感觉我的眼睛很重。我告诉他们我也要躺一会儿。

快要两点，我姨夫叫我一起出去吃饭。在路上，我阿姨告诉我们吃早饭之后的事儿。没想到，我们感觉得以某一样。是不是因为早上吃螃蟹我们中毒？

后来，我姨夫安慰我们。他说不可能中毒。他很肯定说那就是因为我们的肚子太凉了。螃蟹对肚子非常凉。他自己吃螃蟹之后一点儿问题也没有。他吃螃蟹之前已经吃了什么什么的东西，所以肚子不是很空。

事实上，我阿姨和我吃午饭以后，身体感觉比较舒服，没有头疼了，眼睛也不重了。我姨夫说得挺对的。

现在我就知道了。对我来说，这是个好经历。螃蟹和海螺对肚子非常凉。吃螃蟹之后应该喝一点儿酒。这样对肚子比较合适。怪不得，早上我阿姨和我，肚子空时吃螃蟹，就感觉不舒服。

How Full Are You?

The Chinese proverb:

“早上吃得好，中午吃得饱，晚上吃得少”

Meaning: eat enough breakfast, allow to satisfy yourself for lunch, little portion for dinner.

However, in a particular condition, you are attending an all you can eat lunch or dinner. Another question arouse in my head, "When do I have to stop eating?"

Answer: When you feel already full but at the same time you still think that you can grab some more dessert into your mouth. This is the time to STOP eating! Satisfying your desire to continue to eat, then you'll feel overly saturated, consequently: low concentration, passive body movement; the worst thing, you want to sleep but you can not sleep.

Well, it did happen to me several time (as I can't resist an offer of a tasty tiramisu eventhough I've been so full, douchhh!!!). So, what I did was just to take a 15-20 slow walk, then have a cup of hot tea (no sugar at all!). To my experience, the most bitter hot tea has more comforting effect to my stomach. That's why, kuding cha (苦丁茶), the Chinese bitter tea, is one of my favorite!