Future Ballerinas（未來的芭蕾舞者）

Remember our beautiful tomboy girl Irene? She’s not only pretty, but also very talented! She’s been learning ballet for years, and she loves doodling whenever she’s not busy playing her computer princess games. In this vivid painting, she combines both her interests and shows us her happy class — The teacher enjoys teaching those little future ballerinas, and the students follow diligently of the teacher’s instructions. And you can even see a couple of students in the back flexing their muscles.

This painting can only be done by a good artist who is a keen observer and enjoys the ballet class.  The judges must have felt the same way, because Irene won the No.2 spot of the eastern Taipei school district for the first two graders! Now her teacher submitted it to attend the national competition, and if it makes it to the top 3 spots, then she’ll be placed in an art school and all the way through “college” (This is my own interpretation of Irene’s mom’s vague email). Not a bad deal! Let’s hope that our little Irene’s painting will help her dream come true!

Irene 的媽媽, 晴意, 寫的原稿：“靖雯（Irene）這幅畫獲得台北市東區國小低年級組第二名,學校老師要把他再送去參加全國性比賽,如果得到前三名就可以保送美術班,請幫靖雯加油!“

Jennifer 的部落格, “Irene 學芭雷舞“, 有更多中文解說。

The Beauty of Airscape in Taiwan (福爾摩沙 – 空中散步)

Gosh, this well-made video by HD Club (精研事務所) got me homesick! The Fisherman’s Wharf in Dan Hsui (淡水), Taipei 101 Skyscraper (台北101大樓), Love River in Kaohsiung City (高雄), Wulai (烏來) in Taipei… I remember them all too well!

Ah… What a beauty!

Dalai Lama Coming To Taiwan (達賴喇嘛到台灣)

Dalai Lama is coming to Taiwan to comfort survivors of Typhoon Morakot. Unfortunately, this beautiful decision could anger China and “undermine the rapidly improving relations between Beijing and Taipei, rivals which are developing close business ties after decades of enmity,” as explained in this AP article.

I don’t know what to say… I understand the political tension that has lingered on since 1949, but couldn’t China put their political concerns aside for a few days and let Dalai Lama pray for the dead and help people who just lost their dear ones? The Taiwanese government has no interests in building any political connections with Tibet, and Dalai Lama is a peaceful Buddhist leader, who treats soothing people’s pain and suffering as his life-long duty. Please, please don’t taint this noble, compassionate event with any political conspiracy theory!

Google Brought Street View to Taiwan

Today Google finally brought Street view to Taiwan! (Oh, right, they did the same for Portugal and Switzerland, too, which might be important for others.)

I’m so exited! I can finally show my friends here where my parents live, where I usually went for good food, what Taiwan is like, and etc. And because Taiwan has changed so much since I came to the States, I can see what places look like now. Could you tell that I’m excited? This came just in time when I started getting homesick. Thanks to Google!

The above Street View photo shows the famous Western Downtown called Ximenting or Xi Men Ting (西門町), a big shopping district popular among teenagers. When I was a teenager, I used to come here a lot; now I’m too old to shop here, but I still go there for good restaurants and food stands. Judging by the incredible small number of people and the “Bedtime Stories” (“天方夜談”) billboard, I guess that Google probably took photos during early weekday late last year or early this year.

After Typhoon Morakot (莫拉克颱風之後)

(More photos with English caption can be found here…)

聯合報

Ever since the giant Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan on Taiwanese Father’s Day (August 8), I’ve been paying close attention to the local news. Everyday I pray for people trapped by mudslides and floods can get out safely, but as days go by, the hope gets dimmer and dimmer…

聯合報

In the above photo, the whole Hsiaolin village (小林村) got buried in 5 minutes by a nearby falling hill without much warning. 15m (49.2ft) under this 800m (2,624ft) long and 150m (492ft) wide mud was where Hsiaolin village used to be. The government estimated that it’ll take at least 3 months to reveal the village and the missing 400- people…

BBC took the following photo from a different angle that shows the real scale:

And there are still other villages… 痛…

Blueberries Are Getting Ready（小藍莓快熟了！）

The shades of purple are definitely getting darker!

風趣的講經大師 — 海雲法師

有些朋友跟我反應,
我寄的佛學文章太難了, 看不懂.
我想大家一看到開頭的文言文, 腦袋都傻了,
接下來的簡易白話解釋就都看不到了.
有些則是因為有些大師的白話文還是不夠白 (像印老的書),
怎麼唸也唸不下去, 頭越唸越大.

我想了又想,
大家可能對比較本土現代的法師會比較 OK,
而 DVD 的講經方式, 會比看書來得比較沒有壓力,
雖然書是根據法師們的講經而編的, 內容也一樣,
但是現代人似乎對電視的接受能力比書要來得高.
MP3 給大家的感覺和只比書好一些, 但是接受度還是沒 DVD 高.
好像有個法師的影像在面前, 大家比較安心,
對佛法不再那麼害怕或排斥, 也就很神奇的比較能懂.

剛好惠涵小師妹在這時從大陸寄來幾套海雲法師的DVDs,
這倒提醒我, 對於初入或想入佛門或純粹對佛門好奇的現代人而言,
幽默風趣的海雲法師倒是個很好的接引者.
我自己當初也是從他的《非常壇經》和《非常金剛經》開始.
我上網找了找, 發現如今他很多部的 DVDs 已經貼在大華嚴寺網站,
和我兩年半前剛起步時, 資訊豐富了不知有幾百倍!

雖然一開始學佛就從《華嚴經》開始, 有點太猛了,
(佛界名句: “不讀華嚴, 不知佛家之富貴.”)
但是先因佛法學得有趣而想學最重要,
往後自己會開始有概念想往哪一方向深入.
佛經雖然有這麼多部, 但是佛陀說來說去都不外在告訴我們
佛境界及成佛之道,
真正的法, 佛陀倒是一個字也沒提, 只因 “不可說, 不可說.”

說真的, 佛經是真的好看到不行啊!
即使純當故事看, 也比哈利波特精彩的太多太多了!
更不用說祂能幫我們改善我們的習性來脫離輪迴了!
只是可惜文言文文字艱澀, 把大家嚇到了而止步.
不過有海雲法師在這裏, 大家就不用再害怕了!

在這我附上海雲法師的《華嚴經．經首01》的第一段,
你就會了解學佛其實很有趣, 和我們之前先入為主的觀念不同,
而且學佛會讓我們的生命更美好, 更豐富, 更活潑!
如果不是的話, 那你是 100% 學錯修錯了!

“華嚴…就是兩個東西, 一個是佛境界. [...]
佛境界你要是真知道, 我告訴你, 打死你都不會放棄.
所以先把佛境界弄清楚.
第二個就是成佛之道, 到達佛境界的那一條路.
你一定是爭先恐後的要走上去.”

• 海雲法師更多的 DVD 講經在這裡.
• 想對《華嚴經》有個宏觀認識的朋友們,
  可以參考《華嚴經導讀》: 網頁或書 (1 – 3)或DVD.
• 想修華嚴法的, 可以先從《淨行品》開始: 網頁或書.
• 看閻驊改寫的善財童子五十三參卡通爆笑版!