Mothers' Day

We took our Mother to the Cherry Garden at Mandarin Oriental for lunch over the weekend. It was not cheap. But the food was excellence. Hence the trip is worth it. Good for the occasional celebrations.

Read this poem recommended by Sensei:

The sprouts of happiness resides in each person's heart.
If those sprouts are fostered, how big they will eventually grow!
The source of life lies within me.
I have no reason to long for some distant heaven!
~ Ivan Franko (1856 - 1916)

Happiness doesn't come from others. It's something that we must build within our own lives. There is no need for us to compare ourselves to others or envy them.

Our happiness depends on how much we can foster another person. To share the path to absolute happiness. This is very true. I promise to never slacken in my efforts despite my part-time studies.

Back to School

I have been accepted for a Masters Program in Education. It's back to school as a student for me. Pretty excited about it.

5.3

"A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and further, can enable a change in the destiny of all humankind."

~ Daisaku Ikeda

May 3 is the most significant day in the calendar of the Soka Gakkai. It is somewhat like the “New Year” for the forces of the Buddha.

1. Is my life going in the direction I wanted?
   
2. Is my country developing in the direction I wished?
   
3. Is the world evolving in the direction I hoped?

These are essential questions for a person of conviction.

Life is eternal. It is like energy which continuously change state. Just like a pendulum in a vacuum fluctuating from potential energy to kinetic energy to potential energy to kinetic energy…. So does life moves from death to life to death to life to death to life in an eternal cycle.

We know that time seems to pass quickly when we are happy and slowly when we are sad. Hence, if we die with a high life condition, our joyful death will seem only a short moment and we are back alive again. However, if we die with a low life condition, then our torturous death will seem to last an eternity. Since we are only able to affect our life condition while in the kinetic state of life, we should really treasure it.

Life is an eternal series of moments. If we are able to treat each moment as our last in the “kinetic state”, then our thoughts will naturally be focused on what matter most to us. That will be our priority in life. That will be the mindset with which to answer the 3 questions I state earlier in this entry.

Watched “Hamlet” with my students some time ago. Was inspired. I always wanted to be a writer when I was younger. But social conditions resulted in my becoming a school teacher instead. Due to my lack of training in the area of narrative writing, this dream is going further from me. But I realized that I may be handicapped in narrative writing, I might be able to handle dialogues. Maybe I should try writing plays.

Dreams are meant to be pursued.