Sharira - What is that?

A friend asked if I could approach some of my wealthier contacts to see if any of them was interested to acquire a collection of 舍利子.There were seven of them and he was convinced that the relics were genuine. The figure mentioned was mind-boggling – in hundreds of million RMB. He even sent me an article about an auction do for such a relic to support his claim.

That was the first time I heard about this stuff. I turned to my good friend KM Chee, whom I can always count on for advice for such matters, to enlighten me.

"舍利子”is called "Sharira" in Buddhism or in the Sanskrit language. Apparently, they are crystals that remain behind after a body has been cremated. Most monks and even those who are strictly on a vegetarian diet and pursuing spiritual development would also leave behind crystals when their bodies are cremated. The collection of 舍利子 that my contact was referring to is said to be from the cremation of Sakyamuni Buddha after his passing to Nirvana!

Out of curiosity, I wrote to another friend in China. She said these relics could not be sold or bought; they had to be “song” (送) or gifted. I also surfed the net for more of it. I was surprised that there were so many websites talking about it.

I always thought simplicity is the hallmark of this religion. How wrong I have been! I sure have learned a great deal from all these.

Humanism

I was reading "The God Argument" by A C Grayling who is the professor of Philosophy and master of London's New College of the Humanities. His latest book consists of two parts: (a) Against Religion and (b) For Humanism. I suppose many will not share his argument on the former; however, his argument on the latter touches me greatly. I would like to share the following excerpts with you...

"Cicero in his De Senectute (On Old Age) held that people should be free to think for themselves, because they possess rights; but at the same time they should be conscious that their rights define their responsibilities to others. Our ethics should be premised, he said, on the fact that all humanity is brotherhood: 'There is nothing so like anything else as we are to one another,' he wrote in On Laws; 'the whole foundation of the human community' consists in the bonds between people, which should reside in 'kindness, generosity, goodness and justice'. The possession of reason places on individuals a duty to develop themselves fully, and to treat others with respect and generosity. These ideas are the essence of humanism today."

"Ideas of a distinctively humanist stamp are however not restricted to the Western tradition. Equally ancient in their roots, they are central to Confucianism and the tradition of non-theistic ethical schools of India."

"That the human good is for human responsibility to discern and enact, without reliance upon, or invocation of, any of the many religions which claim a transcendental source of authority, and posthumous rewards or punishments for obeying or failing to obey."

Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons

Friends who are interested in maritime history may want to read this book: Batavia by Sydney journalist Peter Fitzsimons. Its account of the fate of the people in the Titanic of the day is so gripping that one can easily breeze through it in a couple of days, even though it is quite a thick book.

The Dutch were the foremost maritime power of the world in the 17th century; it had already 'colonised' Jacarta (Jakarta). Batavia was the newest, most modern addition to the Dutch East India Company (VOC)'s merchant fleet. The route from the Cape to Batavia latitudinally across the Indian Ocean was already known, yet a skilled captain could overshoot the longitude it was supposed to turn north and sail straight into the reefs at Houtman Albrolhos Islands off the west coast of Australia. No sooner had the VOC commander and the captain left to look for help than those who were left behind were condemned to hell by the mutineers headed by a charlatan. Massacres and atrocities were blatantly carried out. Greed and betrayal was the order of the day. Fortunately, all was not lost, thanks to a great soldier on board and the commander's return in the nick of time. Two mutineers were left to rot in Continental Australia. Although there appeared to be no trace of them after that, some aborigines there are said to carry European features.

I did not know that Batavia is actually the name of the Germanic tribe that became the forebears of the Dutch people and samurai mercenaries were already being employed by the VOC to inflict fear and terror into the Javanese under the Sultan of Mataram. Surprisingly, the Dutch also did not seem to have family names during that time. And Netherlands was a republic at that time!

Tang Taizong (唐太宗),

Tang Taizong, who reigned from 626 to 649 AD, is generally regarded to be one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history. Was he really a Han Chinese?

Some have argued that he was 3/4 Xianbei (鲜卑), which is a sub-tribe of Donghu (东胡), who were really the Steppe people.

You may want to follow the thread in the following weblink.

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/1614-on-the-ethnicity-of-the-sui-and-tang-emperors

But does it really matter?

Kuiku-tze (鬼谷子) - China's first behavioural scientist?

Everyone seems to know Sun-tze; surprisingly, many have not heard of Kuiku-tze. I thought Kuiku-tze was in many respects a greater strategist than Sun-tze, based on the stuff I have read, though.

Legend has it that he had been around from the Yellow Emperor period - that was more than 2000BC! - until the dying years of Zhou Dynasty (around 400BC), which means he had lived for more than one thousand years. A lot of tall tales indeed!

Some said he was practising diplomacy during Spring-Autumn period (circa 500BC), others put him slightly later, around the Warring Period. But what is attributed to Kuiku-tze may not have been from one single individual at all.

There are 14 chapters in "his" book, much of it is about negotiations, judo-style. Like Sun-tze, much of the advocacy is really commonsensical, bothering on deceptions, in essence. Some of the illustrations actually appeared quite infantile to me. Nonetheless, MBAs would love it. He must be China's first behavioural scientist!

 

 

 

"Oxymorons" in pictures

I don't quite know the exact meaning of oxymoron. But this was the word which came straight into my mind when I revisited these two pictures.




China: Jinan Airport

And why this? General Franco would have "finished" them off when he was alive! Leftists were  strictly no-no in a totally rightists society!

Somewhere in Spain

Home of the Da-hong-pao (大红袍) Tea

Wuyishan in Fujian is said to be the home of China's cliff oolong tea 大红袍 - literally "Big Red Robe". The couple of tea plants shown in the picture below are supposed to be the mothers of all da-hong-pao in the region, which is difficult to believe. Frankly, I don't find dah-hong-pao extraordinary, certainly not the money one has to pay for it.

Wuyishan is beautiful, but also not exceptional. The second picture below is very memorable to me, though. I was told that there was an old temple near this Da-hong-pao garden and one has to walk for roughly a kilometer or so uphill to reach it. It was not a tall order, but very disappointingly, there was nothing old about the temple. The site may be old, but Everything is actually NEW. All the statues are still being covered with plastic sheets! It was a waste of time. But on my way down, I spotted a slightly hunched 85-year-old nun scaling her way up with a walking stick. She told me that she commutes between the temple and the foothill on foot EVERYDAY! Her devotion is simply admirable; I simply had to bow and take my hat off to her.