home sweet home is now

People walking, Gandan Monastery. ©Owner this blog. 

That day I left Gandan in 2007 it was chilly. Minus 43 degrees to be exact. I began study there as a Buddhist monk. In fact I still study and keep my own dharma materials with me. I place some pictures here.

Of course if China knew about my connection they would make it diffucult; for example I have very much avoided falun da people - in fact I have found them to be lacking in the essence of real Buddhism.

There is a time and place for everything.


The beauty of the empire of Chingis Xaan was something to behold; we learn of it only today in echoes and imagery from the past. This year, 2011 - is the 803 anniversary of Chingis Xaan's birth. There was TOLERANCE in the greatest empire the world has ever known:

temple beside synagogue beside mosque beside shrine.

All beliefs were allowed to exist as part of the requirement for being in Chingis' firmament. He took over China, for example.  Coleridge Taylor's famous poem "In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree..."    refers to  the largest city in the world. Do you know the answer to the question for today?

QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHAT IS THE LARGEST CITY IN THE WORLD?

ANSWER: Chongqing China  PRC.

Population >30 million.

Zuun Naran treet, at entrance to Gandan Monastery.©

 

And a while back, the Xaan's kingdom extended over China. Of course many know that the reason the "Great Wall" was constructed was for protection from the invading throngs. Qongqing City ~ Qong Qing De = approximately Xong Na De = approximately Xanadu.

To the right, part of the little wall that separates Gandan form the neighboring GERs / yurts and dwellings in Ulan Bataar. I am slated to return to study this year, and look forward to warmer climes there in summer months. But come 19 September each year give or take, snow falls and pretty much does not leave as snow pack under foot.

Environs about the Gandan Monastery, Ulan Bataar © Owner this blog. 

Wherever I am is home. Now is home. Paradox, ambiguity, perhaps; I already blogged about the ambiguity thing.

But... time is so short, to do awakening and then dwell still in the world is just a momentary thing too.

I thought it would never arrive

My my. I thought the day might never arrive. I knew I would get my chance at being just another f*cking millionaire. No more rainy days, in other words...

To my Spam INbox came this:

I am Mr Buru Onya working with

African Development Bank(ADB)

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Dear friend,

This message might meet you in utmost surprise. However, it's just the urgent need for a foreign partner that made me to contact you for this transaction. I am Mr Buru Onya from Burkina Faso in west Africa. I got your e-mail contacts from website after my extensive search for capable person. I prayed and meditated fervently over it and i committed it into the hands of almighty that you should be the rightful person to help out before I made up my mind to contact you today.

I have the opportunity of transferring the left over fund sum of US$39.500 Million dollars into a foreign account and the said fund belongs to our deceased client. Hence, I am inviting you for a business deal where this money can be shared between us in the ratio of 60/40 if you agree to my business proposal.

Further details of the transfer will be forwarded to you as soon as I receive your return mail. Reply me here for security reasons, Email

(onya2011@voila.fr)

Have a great day.

Thanks,

Sincerely,

Mr Buru Onya

ASSIST ME

But hey, you know what, Mr. Onya - I am holding out for the big one, solly chollie. I wanna be a billionaire. Millionaire thing, not worth my while. But you have a nice day.

I think you owe it to yourself

we all know Tibet is a fascinating place. I have a lot of information about the country and traditions. I think you owe it to yourself to check it out via this link here if you are at all interested in the matter. Here I will remain letting deep waters run quietly and refer albeit obliquely to the "Oracle of Tibet":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9XQb_DeVBM&feature=user

treMENdous controversy exists since 1959 w.r.t the Dalai Lama - who as you might not know is considering naming his successor before he cashes in. China wants Tibet, but Tibet wants independence. The west has gone lightly (perhaps because there are only yaks and thanks there - no oil). It is an old too familiar story.

but - what would you say if you took the guiding, pivotal decisions for your life course and path from a guy who is stoned out of his gourd? would you do this thing?

no disrespect of course... but the absolute need for deepest consideration would be essential one might say...

Blogeo, ergo Sum.

0,
as
I go
public
from time
to time I enjoy
publishing here and there.

thus
mypublicpapers.wordpress.com

as well as here.

ok, well if Rabbie Burns was a gadabout bacchanalian I can follow suit in the spirit of poets.

In conclusion I posit, therefore after Descartes'
Cogito, ergo Sum:


for
the 21st
Century it is:

Blogeo, ergo Sum. 

talk amongst yourselves.

Gotta Love the work of Jean Reno

If 

you 

would 

like to 

see how 

the former 

superpower 

Russia, the Kingdom 

formerly known as the 

Soviet Union - you would do no better 

       than to tune in to http://www.rt.com.

Today (end of February 2011) they have a good interview with Jean Reno, seen here.
http://rt.com/art-and-culture/news/reno-jews-nazi-camps/.

Ancient Poetry - Modern Form

it was a good ole time
way back when
my o my
do 

u 

recall
:
when musicians could actually play instruments
?
now
they're  e c h o e s
through memory's halls.

I started using this form as poem thing a while back. Above. Stems from the idea in oldest poems being written in the actually shape of the thing they are written about. By old here I mean thousands of years old, coming from records of ancient China (where I live most of the time). I confess I like the idea. Even back to the nax - chi ideograms. Makes me think I got to spend a year down in Yunnan like my friends tell me.

Pardon my pronunciation, I speak Mandarin, Guo Yu / Pu Dong Huar... obviously  the dialect is Yunnan - southern China in "naxidong".

I love the form thing because it looks like - at least in this case - something reminiscent of a lamp or a vase. I invented a whole series of poems based on mathematical progressions, which I claim copyright to here - called the Mids©. They are stored away on my google secure site somewhere. I have written thousands of poems. And I don't care I just can't stop. Some day I may start to collect them into one place in order to call it a book. But somehow I am not crazy about the idea of books yet, perhaps the time will come.

Fairy Dance of the Puppets in Libya

They've called round the wagons in Libya. Wow. Here we have the up close and personal view of a guy, Qadaffi in dashiki v.2 a.k.a the real me  - propped up corrupt as any puppet would safely be with the western billions to spend on matters of state - and here he goes ballistic in real time. UUUUuuuuuf.





And in our This Just In Department:    U.N. rights body recommends suspension of Libya

I cannot help but think of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan (did you realize that in 2008 the LARGEST natural gas reserve was found there?), Kazakhstan (where I worked on a joint Russian-Chinese energy project), Tadjikistan, Azerbaijan (where I was shot)... like so many puppets. The Central Asia Shuffle perhaps? Sort of like a Fairy Dance of the Puppets version reminiscent of the Christmas Nutcracker Suite, eh? Macabre to say the least. Political embarrassment - just a little. What do you say when the fetid calf eats its own? "You cannibal, you?"



Why I stay tuned is - a good friend and associate is in Libya. Doctor T -- call home. 1 week and 1 day and counting. You have email.