Life.passion!

source originally from  http://www.longquanzs.org/articledetail.php?id=7069

“I always see the four words “耕耘心田”at the usual laundry shop that I send my laundry… Somehow, the words seems inspiring too, the lookup today leads me to this article, which I feel like worth to have a read, and share… Success is still 99% Hard Works, plus only 1% talent.”  - weelau.

资料来源：佛学研究网 2009-08-12    作者： 星云法师     本站发表时间： 2009-08-14

    田地要靠农夫勤奋耕耘，才有硕果累累；佛教将我们的心比喻为田地，也需要靠开发、灌溉、播种、耕耘，种种诚心、毅力，才能成熟增上，成为一片净土。如何耕耘呢？可以从以下四个方向著眼：

    第一，播撒善美的种子：一颗种子看似微小，长大之后，却能开出无数的花、结出无数的果。假如我们在心田上播撒善美种子，如《无量义经》说： “布善种子，遍功德田，普令一切发菩提萌。”一念善心、一句美言、一件善事，在日常生活中慢慢累积，都是成熟无限未来的好因好缘。如经中譬喻，小小尼拘陀树种子，可以结出成千上万果实，因此，千万不能轻忽小小的一颗善美种子。

    第二，灌溉忏悔的法水：衣服脏了，经过清洗，才能穿得舒服；身体污垢，也要沐浴，才能神清气爽；环境污秽，必须打扫，才能住得舒适。我们的心受到污染，要以忏悔的法水洗涤，心地才能清明。《佛说未曾有因缘经》云：“前心作恶，如云覆月；后心起善，如炬消暗。”犯错不可耻，懂得忏悔改过，就能为自己找出一条光明大道。

    第三，施与肥沃的养分：花草树木，因为施肥，而开出美丽的花朵；我们的身体，有了饮食的补充及适当的休息，就能健康运作。相同的，我们的心，也需要施与勤劳、发心、慈悲、忍耐等种种良善的养分，才会有丰硕的成果。好比想拥有聪颖、通达、灵巧，必须施与智慧、明理、判断；祈愿人缘有所收成，就必须主动、结缘、关怀，人际之间就能自在、顺利。

    第四，启发心灵的智慧：语云：“心田不长无明草，性地常开智慧花。”农夫耕种，田里杂草不除，难有收成；心中的田地，长出无明草，若不拔除，遇事就容易为境所转、为情所困，难有所成。所谓“不怕无明起，只怕觉照迟”，无明起时，懂得觉照内心，当下降伏，智慧自然会现前。

    外在的田地容易耕种、收成，内在的心田却不易开发、耕耘。虽然不容易，只要肯发心发愿，勤奋努力，用功踏实，必定能成就自己的一片心灵净土。

编辑：菁萱

“Use your intelligence, wisdom and work smart, be happy to face and tackle all problem whenever it comes, always treat it as a challenge, take use to it, then, nothing will or can make u feel depress or desperate.” – Daddy, 05 Nov 2009.

“以后有开心或苦恼都可以向我们俩说 :) :)” – Mummy, 05 Nov 2009.

“我的儿子已经长大了，经一事长一智。”-Mummy, 05 Nov 2009.

thanks…, daddy, mummy.

It’s raining tonight. The last day of October 2009, Day-31. It’s quiet, and a little bit cold. I would turn off the stand fan sometimes, like now I do.

     About 10:40pm, I’m playing my guitar, did half step dropped tuning. When I’m to tune back to the standard tuning instead of relying on the software AP Tuner, I try with manual tuning. The result is breaking the 1st E-string. So before it’s about to break, it seems that “hold” onto a pitch for while, i.e. unable to raise the pitch any higher, and “plak”. That ended the string story. In reality, it just strike me a little, feeling miserable for some other things else at the same time.

The Guitar 1st E-string breaks…
(* note - clarify that 1st E-String refers to the thinnest E-String, as the 6th String is also an E-String)

it leads to some consequences…

     the GHS strings, [Bright Bronze XL] which has been kept for several years will shine now. This ovation-imitated acoustic guitar was bought in year 2004. (I think). It was after Form 5, and during the time I was working as an office boy in the Ipoh old town TongKC Architect Firm. My father bought this guitar for me on a day that after works at ‘Nam Fong’ music store. GHS strings has been my favourite since the early days of playing guitar. I told myself before, I would wait until the current strings breaks then only I would change it. The time of waiting has been really long… I guess now it’s really the right time to change it, as along with my music knowledge and skill levelling up to next phase… :D Just a bit nostalgia when think back of the strings I bought it last time a Ipoh Garden South, a guitar shop. It was somehow on promotion.. and the shop was closed down some time afterwards… The set of GHS strings just didn’t get its chance to be setup on guitar for quite few years after purchase. When it was unpack today, it’s still fresh, and in good condition. I will have to wait for the strings to season now after the setup, and tune it a few times to get settle in tune soon… (due to the natural stretching of the string)

     It took me an hour to replace the string… while doing it, I recall back of the early days of learning guitar… That my father bought me the first guitar, tune it for me every time when it get out of tune, and replaced the broken strings, taught me to play… I tune it first round, test the guitar, and play some harmonic tones..

     Somehow, it seems like finding a Rosetta Stone tonight, that I gain better understanding into Harmonic tone playing technique. It seems really true that playing at certain frets sounds brighter and fuller, probably due to the natural harmonic frequency?

     … … … … … …

     Many things seem to come into my mind tonight… Perhaps that's what make me feel some sort of emptiness, loneliness, and as if I’m deserted…

Now my guitar, it has new strings on, with Bright Bronze Colour String, it gain its new form, brighter tone than before, and I had gained the new harmonic playing skill…

Rosetta Stone ; noun[sing.] something, especially a discovery, that helps people to understand or find an explanation for a mystery or area of knowledge that not much was known about…           [Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary]

     Wow… come across this word in the book Idiot’s Complete Guide to music theory. Well, it has been some time, if my blog is like a garden to me, it might have grown some weeds. Guess cleaning up from time to time, refreshing it… it’s good isn’t it? Hehe. It was after finishing the 51 episodes of “Kamen Rider Agito”, which the main character Shouichi had a small garden next to the house, growing vegetables.. and use them for cooking dishes; “Farming a little garden” it sounds inspiring to me.

     Recently seems like my brain and body undergone some evolutions?, previously there is a little unease, heat, hot inside, is it fatigue? Then now, bit better, seems like open up some discovery and sudden understanding of many things.

     Somehow the interest to further advanced my music knowledge comes back. This time, I wish I could learn deeper into music theory and better skill of applying it on musical instrument.. yea, guitar. :) Besides, at the moment of 3 months “holiday”, I’m having the current on-going final year project, which currently working on Matlab… Sometimes, I’m amazed that within the short 1 – 2 weeks, gain a considerably amount of understanding into using Matlab. It’s really how amazing that if all the neuron in the brain just suddenly get connected together, and expanding the link… hmm~ still only happened once enough understanding into applying “patience, persistence, focus, and attention…”

     While darling Mooi Lan has gone to China trip along with her mum, These days, it has been lonely, and quiet… After all, I just to get that, after a period of sinking in the valley of life, I want to wake up once again to learn something, and find back the passion in life… Most importantly, our body have to agree with our lifestyle, which is, our mind have to ask our body, is it feeling well today? And our action have to ensure it… Health, it’s getting vital…

In the early years of learning and playing guitar, I come across a guitar pick collection board displayed in my hometown (Ipoh) “Music Store” at Jusco. One of the pick inside which I found attractive was this type. The specialty could be having the 3 holes in its design. Unfortunately, the shop doesn’t sell it. But I thought, some day maybe I could get it by luck and opportunity.

Many years has gone since then, probably it has been nearly 5 years roughly. I saw this one today ! bought it at the One Utama, “Guitar Collection” shop. Hehe~ it’s the Jim Dunlop – “TECKPICK PAT.PEND” (carved on it). As can be found in their website: http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?page=products/pip&id=32&pmh=products/picks

This one is the picture of my pick~ probably can take it as “necklace” accessories? Well, I guess that’s probably why sometimes we have to travel abroad to look for it. We might saw something inspiring at hometown.(starting place), and yet travel far, to search and learn only we know that the world is bigger and found more~