Recently, before the Bersih 2.0 rally, he and his son Nor Ashman took part in a radio interview on One FM Morning Kaki program. Ashman greeted in Mandarin and the Prime Minister greeted in Cantonese.

One can easily tell that our Prime Minister is trying to impress the Chinese Malaysians how he embraces China, her language and her culture. That’s a good gesture of course. Unfortunately, the Bersih 2.0 rally which took place in Kuala Lumpur yesterday (July 9, 2011) has discredited what he has been portraying thus far.

You see, the Chinese language is not something that can be learned in a few months’ time or a few visits to China. It certainly cannot be learned using Google Translate or any other language translator on the Internet.

If our Prime Minister had studied and understood the Chinese wisdom below, what  happened yesterday would not have happened. Managing and ruling a country is not as simple as “早晨，大家好，我系Najib。” (Good morning, how is everyone? I am Najib).

Lastly, this applies to those MCA eunuchs as well. Being Chinese descendants and speaking Mandarin as your mother tongue means little or next to nothing in embracing the Chinese culture. Your mentality is only equivalent to that of the uneducated peasants in the society in ancient China.

不 尚 賢 ， 使 民 不 爭。
不 貴 難 得 之 貨 ， 使 民 不 為 盜 。
不 見 可 欲 ， 使 民 心 不 亂 。
是 以 聖 人 之 治 ，
虛 其 心 ，
實 其 腹 ，
弱 其 志 ，
強 其 骨 。
常 使 民 無 知 無 欲 。
使 夫 智 者 不 敢 為 也 。
為 無 為 ， 則 無 不 治 。

翯和合鹤
霞顺十鸣
霓蔼礼一
虹祥拜声
万气佛冲
里薿如云
暄重来霄
。，，，

诗里的藏头为贺姓氏的藏音。大儿子和二儿子的名字再以藏音各自藏二、藏三于第一和第二行里。第三儿子藏六在第三行，暄就藏七在第四行。

鹤为中华文化里的吉祥之鸟。鹤响亮的鸣叫声冲上了云霄而得到了光明（阳光）。是以明白事理的先导，要冲破隔障（云霄）才能看清楚（阳光）一切事理的对与错。

第二行看似有点佛教的味道。它是以佛学（非宗教）里的哲学为基础。在佛学和这诗里，佛的意义博大精深，指的是有高等智慧而非一般凡夫之人类。如来是指大自然宇宙里头的一切知识和定律。这第二行意味深长。指的是以底姿态、诚恳地追寻大自然宇宙里头的一切知识和定律以增加本身和人类的智慧。

第三行则有和气、顺利、慈悲和吉祥之气薿薿。兄弟姐妹之间和周边人和蔼地相处。

当之前所有三大条件达成之后，三兄弟不只德高望重，人人敬仰，还让贺氏的声望气势如虹，名扬万里。

他们能不能做到，那就要看看他们长大后对这诗的领悟和造化了。或许他们做不来也无所谓，但愿他们努力为达成诗意，将之传承于后代。

献丑了。

现代佛教看是昌盛，几乎全世界各地都有佛教的踪迹。但是若干都已偏离原本的佛学。在这金钱为上的现代社会里，没有钱，出家人哪来饭吃？出家人也还是凡夫一位，也会肚子饿，要吃饭。寺庙需要钱维持。水电费、杂物费等等，都是钱。出家人就好比生意人，只不过方法不同。出家人出外到处为人做法事，不为是赚钱维持生活。有的寺庙也有出售骨灰阁，从而赚取金钱以维持寺庙和众僧的开销。

让我先说怎么样无知，不过先说无礼，因为无知乃无礼的因；无礼乃无知的果。

在第一章里提到，很多素不相识的“念佛人”来到我父亲家，礼了佛就坐下开始念佛。他们会尊敬佛而向佛礼拜，却没向逝者家属问候安慰。连这个基本礼仪也没有，难道这些人知道入庙拜佛要恭敬，不知道进屋敬人的礼仪？好歹都得问候和安慰一下家属。毕竟家属都是凡人有七情六欲，难免丧亲之痛。

今天是我父亲的头七。我们到家里拜了之后，就到释迦院的骨灰阁祭拜。当周围没人祭拜时，我走到我父亲的骨灰龕前瞻仰。由于我父亲的骨灰龕很靠近位于正中的地藏王菩萨像，我所站位置差不多就在佛像的前面。这时一位青年人手持一柱香悄悄地走到我身后，也没请我暂时避开好让他膜拜，就这样跪下膜拜。究竟他是在膜拜地藏王菩萨还是我的屁股？正当我要退后离开时，我哥哥喝住了我。幸好没有撞上那青年人手里的香。这是对地藏王菩萨无礼，因为该青年人没请我回避就贸然向地藏王菩萨膜拜。该青年人无知因为他不晓社会礼仪风范，不顾及他人的安全（万一手里的香灼伤了人怎么办？）。

好了。说完无礼和无知，现在要说这些“念佛人”如何玩弄佛法。

我父亲于星期四入棺。入棺前，仵工问我哥哥要不要替我父亲遗体注射防腐剂放干冰。我小姑和她的弟弟坚持不要。我小姑说，多念佛求佛菩萨加持，没事的。准备棺木时，她的弟弟还自以为是的向仵工交代该怎么处理。究竟谁才是仵工？连瞎子都可以看得出来那仵工心里不高兴，但他还是忍了下去。我哥哥没出声，我看在她是我小姑也是出家人份上，也不出声。当晚，我注意到我父亲的面有尸水冒出，我告诉哥哥和姐姐。姐姐说待会她会看看。我哥哥却说这是水分蒸发，没大碍。隔天早上，我看见棺材里已经放了干冰。

我小姑和她的弟弟的行为乃无礼、无知和玩弄佛法。无礼是不尊重仵工的专业知识而冒犯仵工。无知是对尸体自然腐化过程和防腐处理缺乏知识。那几天天气酷热。我父亲的遗体还未入棺前是放在客厅的床上，至少有风扇让空气流通，使腐化过程缓慢下来。当遗体入棺上了盖之后，里面密不通风闷热，就会加速了尸体的腐化过程。生死是自然过程。尸体腐化也是自然过程。佛菩萨都不能防止死亡，更何况能防止腐化？这岂不是玩弄佛法？他们的无知种下了因，得了无礼的果，也得了玩弄佛法的果。

一位北京的朋友得知我父亲病危，送了我一句话：“缘起缘灭，了脱一切众生苦。”。她是一位军人、一位博士生和一位无神论者。她家人都是文武双全的世家。她的寄语包含了众生面对生死的大智慧。

缘起缘灭，了脱一切众生苦。缘就是一切因果。有了因就有果。有了父母，就有我。缘起就是当我母亲怀孕有了我开始，他们就成了我的父母亲。缘灭就是我父亲要与世长辞了，不能再看到他了。因（父亲）了果（我）还在。不过他在我心里还是我父亲，到我与世长辞为止。缘起缘灭即是一切没有永恒不变的也不虚无的，也有生生不息的意思。现在，轮到我（因）和我孩子（果）缘起缘灭，一代接一代的传承下去。到时候缘灭，就放下一切，不畏死亡，勇敢面对。这就是了脱一切众生苦。当然这是我凡夫的理解。要是用般若来理解这一句，焉此简单？

试问，一位无神论者以佛学的智慧来开解我这位信佛者，我何等惭愧？我宁愿做个无神论者。无神论者不一定不能学佛。念佛的人不一定是学佛的人。当我二姐往生时，我把佛学看做为哲学而非宗教。现在，我要以无神论者学佛。

前文我提到这些所谓的“念佛人”，常把佛号挂在口边，去到那，念到那。念佛消遣，消遣念佛。颠倒是非、对人体器官医学狗屁不通，玩弄佛法。何谓佛号？为何念佛？什么是佛？阿弥陀经是为何物？地藏菩萨本愿经又为何物？

我父亲在九月中旬再度入院。9月18日我得到吉隆坡复疹，刚好我大姐要回来看父亲，可以搭我的车一道回来。在车里，我听到她向“念佛”的朋友在电话里说道：“今天是地藏菩萨诞，念一句南无地藏王菩萨相等于念两句。”哗！念佛也有搞积分的吗？好像去某某购物中心用它的购物卡购物，每花费一元得两分。念一万句相等于念两万句的功德？还不快快念！

我记得小时侯（六到十岁左右），我父亲常带我到青云亭拜佛、吃斋和听禅道老法师讲经。禅道老法师说，烧香是为了驱虫、记时和提神。所以烧一柱香就够了。烧太多很多烟，对呼吸系统不好。禅道老法师也说，念佛要慢慢的念和用心的念，不能急。能够念到一心不乱才是真的，而非念越多越好。念佛也无需大声地念，无声胜有声。能念一句就达成一心不乱，那就是无量功德。

佛学的衰亡，就是取决于这些无知、念佛消遣和玩弄佛法的人。

怎么样无知？怎么样玩弄佛法？

母亲告诉我父亲的心愿是要在家里往生。可是父亲向我说他要去医院。我向母亲解释说：“让我带爸爸去医院让医生检验。要是医生说不行了，马上送爸爸回家。”最终母亲也答应送父亲去医院。

这时来了好多“念佛人”。有男的，有女的。全都是素不相识的人。他们都是我堂弟召来的。他们有多大声就念多大声。好刺耳。

不到一会，救护车来了。医护人员把我父亲抬上担架之际，这些念佛人就马上停止念佛号匆匆离去。我堂弟也马上收拾东西离开。之后就没再回来。我堂兄向我说道：“医院你要去你去，我不去。”

到了医院，医生给我父亲做检验告知我父亲不行了。从他的生理信号看来，他有可能今晚就走了。为达父亲的心愿，我即刻替他办出院送他回家。医生说父亲的肺开始积水呼吸困难，输氧气能舒解他的痛苦。我就决定向医院租用氧气筒，可是父亲他坚持不用，所以就退还了。

回到家，我小姑（我祖母领养的）的弟弟和弟妇也到了。我小姑是方外，他们此时赶来其中目的自然也是念佛，有多大声就念多大声。到了凌晨3时还在念。我眼看我太太和三个孩子都疲倦了（老实说我也很疲倦），就带他们回家。这时父亲向我大声说：“回去吧。”他也三番四次要说话，可是却没力气说也说得有点含糊，加上念佛和法器铿锵大声刺耳，很难听清楚他的说话。

早上我们过来时，他们还在念。这时父亲他已经不省人事了，呼吸也很吃力。不过他的左手时不时都要拿起来又力不从心，好象是想唤我们那样。我看了都快哭出来了。等到我的大儿子放学，我们逗留一阵子，我就送他们回家吃饭。我们离开的时侯大概是2时。这时我大姐已经回来了。她马上加入念佛。当我们回家时，只剩我大姐一人在念。其他“念佛人”呢？都不见踪影了！3时10分父亲就往生了。我们没亲眼看着他往生。

晚上又来了好多“念佛人”，又大声大声的念。我的孩子生性好动活泼，最小的三岁，最大的才七岁。他们都还年幼不懂事，坐不久就到处跑玩耍去了。我和太太拿他们没办法。小孩玩耍时，笑声大了点。过后有位念佛人过来向我堂兄问道：”我们在为这位念佛的叫什么名？“。我的天！连往生者的名字都还没搞清楚就大念小念，正如小和尚念经－有口无心！过后他又向我说道：”我们在为他念佛好让他安祥，叫你孩子不要吵闹。”。我即刻回顶了他一句，“你们念你们的”。小孩天真无邪，不知生死何谓，不能怪他们。念佛念到连小孩的习性也不理解，可哀！

我二姐在五年前也往生了。她走的时侯也一样，一大堆人大声念佛念到她断气为止。而且不让亲人接近她，连小孩都不能在场。

他们这些“念佛人”说，往生者要是听到亲人对他们说话、哭或笑（小孩的笑声），那他们就不舍得离开。而且念佛能让他们尽快往生。

自从我姐姐往生那天，我既笑看这些信佛庸众。他们把念佛当消遣吗？他们把念佛当做把人快快送西的工具吗？这是无知的念佛。读者要是“念佛人”看了这文章之后，若生气、若说我业障深重，那我就对你说，你也是愚昧的“念佛人”。

照医学来说，人要死时，肾脏功能衰退，肺功能大幅降低，导致脑缺氧。此时，人进入昏迷状态，五觉尽失。心脏和肺还在自律性的工作。自律性指心肌细胞不需意识来支配，就可以产生动作电位。心脏和肺功能不受大脑控制。它们此时会很吃力的工作至其功能完全衰退停顿为止。这是一切生命必经之路，也是宇宙万物的定律。既然五觉尽失，那逝者又怎能听到这些念佛之音呢？不管你念多么大声他也听不到，那又何必？

还有，如依佛经里说的，若是你造的业，你得自己来承担。那么，念了经，回向给亡者得以减轻他生前所造的业，这又如何说得过去？佛都说了，你造的业，你得自己来承担，那这些凡夫又哪来无边法力，念几篇经回向给死者，得以减轻他生前所造的业得生西方净土？这不是矛盾吗？还是笑话？

那晚，当务之急是给医生看看我父亲。要是还有得救，那就要救。要是不行了，就想尽办法让他过得舒服点，而不是叫这些“念佛人”来大声无知的念佛号。

沉墨羽

Why am I writing and then saying myself write nothing? To be precise, I am going to rant about nothingness.

Every life is born to the world with nothing. We are born naked, without wealth and nothing at all but love from our parents. We depart the world taking nothing with us. Not even a cent, not even a tiny bit of memory. But we leave behind love, memories and sagas for our children to continue.

Last week, I wrote a post about nothing after watching Kung Fu Panda with my family. We had a good laugh. The secret in a secret recipe is nothing, no secret at all. What can we learn from nothing? I look at nothing really seriously and with utter respect. It is a great knowledge, a great ancient knowledge.

In my early travels to many countries, I met a few karate masters. They told me a lot of karate secrets. One of the karate masters who I met in Taiwan told me, “Empty your mind and body. Move with emptiness. You will be swift and strong.” The emptiness is analogous to nothingness. The secret decrypted looks like this, “To defeat your enemy, you must train to the stage where your mind and body become one. You fear no death then you will be stronger than your enemy.” That’s one of my interpretation. I hope I am able to discuss my understanding with him. He passed away a few years ago, leaving the secret of nothingness behind.

I am not going to write about karate or martial arts either. But nothingness and its corresponding theory or philosophy become the foundation of martial arts, especially Taijiquan.

What is nothing or nothingness?

Well, I found out plenty of real facts about 0 in the book, “50 mathematical ideas you really need to know”. I wrote about the book here. For all the years we studied mathematics in school but never been told the fascinating facts of 0. What a math class!

In math, 0 or zero denotes nothing or nothingness! About 2400 years ago, the Chinese civilization had already understood and used 0 in mathematics. In seventh century, Indian mathematician Brahmagupta treated 0 as a number.

According to the book, here’s some math lesson:

It is straight forward for addition and subtraction:

0 + 7 = 7

and

0 = 7 – 7

And any numbers multiplied by 0, the result is 0.

28 / 7 = 4

and we can cross-multiply to write as

28 = 4 x 7

Now, what about 0 divided by 7?

0 / 7 = a

and cross-multiply equivalent is

0 = a x 7

Because any numbers multiplied by 0, the result is 0, so a must be 0 in this case.

But when

7 / 0 = b

the danger arises. In 12th century, Indian mathematician Bhaskara suggested a number divided by 0 was infinity. So 0 leads to infinity, ∞.

How?

A number divided by a very small number resulted a very large number. 7 divided by a tenth is 70, divided by a hundredth is 700, divided by a billionth is 7 billions, and so on… The ultimate smallness is 0. Consequently the answer should be infinity!

The Indian mathematical text Surya Prajnapti (c. 400 BC) classifies all numbers into three sets: enumerable, innumerable, and infinite. The Isha Upanishad of the Yajurveda (c. 4th to 3rd century BC) states that “if you remove a part from infinity or add a part to infinity, still what remains is infinity”. (Source: Wikipedia)

Of course, there are earlier discoveries made by other civilizations, e.g. The Babylonians. I am not going to mention all of them. If you are interested to know more, go buy the book. It is a worthy collection if you value knowledge.

Both Indian and Chinese civilization had contributed to both math and science as early as 5000 years ago. China has made enormous advancement in aerospace technology and recently India has launched its very first space vehicle into orbit. The Indians and the Chinese deserve respects. Comparing the 5000 years of Chinese civilization and culture to the merely less than 650 years of history, a bloody idiot (and his cronies) dared to look down on us and called us squatters.

Just finished watching Kung Fu Panda with LA and kids. It is a really nice comedy with good meaning. My boys like to watch animation and Dmitry has been asking me many times, “Daddy, when can we watch Kung Fu Panda?” Finally, there it is.

The CG animation has brilliant colors and Chinese culture cleverly blended into it. I think it is the best CG animation ever that involves many great complexity. I am not going to talk or comment about this movie because it has been released in cinema sometimes ago. It is pointless for me to review it now. But one thing which has caught my attention is near the end of the movie. Po’s goose father Mr. Ping, tells him about the secret of the secret recipes of the noodle soup. Ping says, “The secret of the secret recipe of the noodle soup is nothing at all. There is no secret recipe.” (I hope I get the line correct, I am lazy to play the video again). Then Po realizes why the dragon scroll is blank. He then defeats his enemy, the much feared Tai Lung, with his determination and courage together with a little enlightenment.

The moral of the story, there is no secret recipe to become success. Courage, determination, faith, hardworking, persistence, strive and a little enlightenment are the secret ingredients of success.

Oh yeah, I forgot, a dream and a miracle are also secret ingredients in the secret recipe. So, dare to dream for a miracle and realize it.

For those who have not watched the movie, I strongly recommend to have a watch. You will certainly have a good laugh.

“This is the great opportunity to show the kids about science I learned when I was in lower primary.”, the thought emerged quickly. At that age, I used to read science comics for kids published by a Hong Kong publisher. I never had any chance to use that knowledge. My mom would do the cooking and I did not mess around her kitchen so there was no chance to mix up the cooked and uncooked eggs. This time, my kids gave me an opportunity to show off.

I took the two eggs in my hand and LA gathered the boys around the dining table. Mom told D, “Look, daddy is going to demonstrate science.”

I took one egg at a time, stood it on its broader end and then spun it on the table, One egg would spin standing until it lost its angular momentum. The other egg couldn’t hardly spin on its end for a fraction of a second. The cooked and uncooked eggs had been determined. The boys, especially D, were astonished.

Well, what is the relationship about this egg tale and the rise of an industrious country?

I always believe in doing the simplest to the most complicated things with my own hands. The end result is not so important. The process of doing it and the knowledge I acquired is of utmost importance.

I am reading this book, “Against All Odds – The Story of the Toyota Motor Corporation and the Family That Created It”, by Yukiyasu Togo & William Wartman.

Sakichi Toyoda was an intelligent man who prided himself on what he had been able to achieved without benefit of education or family influence. He believed that a man didn’t need education in the theories and principles of science and that he could learn all he needed to know by working on machines with his own hands. His son Kiichiro had the finest training from his father.

To bring to the point quickly (I am not going to write a summary of this book yet but to complement a post and its comments here), Kiichiro perfected the automatic shuttle changing device which his father, Sakichi, invented for Toyoda Spinning & Weaving Company.

It was the unorthodox and bold spirit of Toyoda father and son that made Toyota one of the best known and largest auto makers in the world.

Just an appetizer to keep you going. I will write more while I read on.

“乳房”这两个字，对一些年青小伙子来说，可以变成性遐想、猥亵。然而，这篇文章，的的确确地、生动和感性地，描写了女性的伟大。

这是二十多年的事了,是一场战争才开始的没几天。

　　云南边界崇山峻岭怀抱着的一个山窝里，一群人围着三十来个整装待发的战士。这是从侦察大队中挑了又挑，选了又选，拨拉出来的优秀士兵，他们要组成小分队去完成特殊的敌后穿插任务。 

　　任务一，深入敌后，给炮兵指出敌方军事实力集中的准确位置；二、侦察到敌人的炮兵阵地予以破坏，炸毁其弹药库；三、在我军发起攻击前，摧毁敌人的指挥所。三项任务，每项都是刀扎在敌人的心窝子上，但危险程度都是到虎口狼窝里趟路。 

　　枪是每人两只，手枪和冲锋枪，还配上了消音器。人人身上都满当当，沉掂掂的，背着挂着装着炸药、手雷、火箭筒、还有匕首等。每人的左前胸口袋里都装了一颗“光荣弹”，这是为防止万一被敌人抓住时“光荣”预备的。他们都写了一封信封好留在了大队部里，说白了就是一封遗书。战士的年龄都在二十岁左右，稚嫩的脸上个个都透着威严。 

　　侦察大队的人都来了，这是一支身经百战，功勋卓著，抗日战争时就存在的部队。大队战史记录上有回来的英雄，有未归的烈士，但被俘获人名单上却是写着一片空白。全大队的同志，深深的明白，面前出征的战友死的比率要比生的可能大得多。他们，此时的心情是沉重的，但又为战友英勇的去完成光荣的使命而感到骄傲。心紧缩着，脸绷得象铁，表情里没有酸楚惟有庄严。万籁沉寂，空气里还透出了“壮士一去不复还”的悲壮。六十多岁的老军长也来了，也来参加这庄严送行。 

　　大队长那锺一样的声音,咣咣地敲出了命令。老军长的话象慈父对儿子的嘱咐。他知道这也许是他戎马生涯的最后一场战事了，望着面前一张张娃娃面孔，他想到了当年敢死队里的自己。他是万马军中的首长，他的决策，他的意志，要由面前这些孩子不惜生命来实现，那张老槐树皮一样黑黢黢的脸有点微微的抽动。他从警卫员手里接过他从军部带来的不舍得喝的茅台酒，默默地为孩子们斟上。战士们双手托着茶碗，凝望着象父亲一样的脸。赤水河畔的酒香，溢在这南疆的空气里，在场的人都嗅到了。 

　　随着一声“我等待着你们凯旋”那“干”字还没说出来，酒一饮而尽了。 

　　大队长最后问“同志们还有什么话要说？”随后他要大手一挥喊出“出发”来了。 

　　突然一声：“报告！”一个姓鲍，绰号叫“小豹子”的小战士一步跨出队列。 

　　“讲”大队长说。 

　　“我想看一眼刘军医的”小豹子把后边的话咽回去了。 

　　“什么？说明白吗！”, 大队长有点生气。 

　　“乳房”他竟喃喃地吐出了仅有身边人才能听到的这两个字。 

　　周边的人震惊了。 

　　“你混”大队长俩眼瞪得圆圆的，手里的大拳头都举过了头顶，就是没把那个“蛋”字说出来。 

　　“可以”一句平静的女人声音，令大队长回过头来。 

　　他吃惊的看到面前的刘军医在解里外的军装扣子。 

　　刘军医是才分来不到半年的军医大的大学生，还不到二十四岁。她人长得漂亮，身材更好看，该胖的地方胖，该瘦的地方瘦。她待人和气，歌也唱的好，深得战友们的喜欢。 

　　“——来，看吧！”她细声细气的声音竟然震动了这个小山谷。 

　　她象拉手风琴一样，“唰”的一声拉开了胸前的绿色幕布，露出了雪白雪白的胸脯。那一对白嫩的乳房，挺拔拱起，再加上暗红的乳晕衬托，鲜活鲜活的。 

　　几百个男人，几百双眼睛，不约而同地看过来，没有狎昵，没有猥亵，只有肃穆和惊奇。小土堆上的十几个人仿佛消失了，仅剩下刘医生了。.人们忘记了性.她真的很圣洁，圣洁的象一尊女神。 

　　山林默默，空气似乎凝固了。 

　　“敬礼”是分队长喊出来的。严肃标准的敬礼，来自小分队的队员，来自侦察大队的所有人。小分队的人拎着枪，飞快的奔去，脚踢着地面上的草唰唰地响。 

　　小豹子眼里的泪夺框而出，对着刘军医大声喊了一声“姐姐”拧身回头真的象头豹子蹿出去了。那一个个军装裹着的矫健身躯，融进了这南国山林的绿色里。远方，传来嗒、嗒嗒的枪声，轰、隆隆的炮声。遥望，看到了弥漫的硝烟。 

　　土堆上那敞开的绿色幕布，慢慢地合拢了，遮住了那耀眼的白皙。 

　　此时的老军长心潮澎湃，他枪林弹雨里摸爬滚打了几十年，什么没见过，惟一没见过眼前的这一幕。他相信小豹子他们既是炮弹把他们炸八瓣也不会眨一下眼，而他怎样评估面前这位和她小女儿一般大的女性呢？————她比出征的英雄战士还要伟大！ 

　　他缓缓地走到她的近前，行了一个庄重的军礼。 

　　当他走出几步后，身后传出悲壮的歌声。“再见吧，妈妈。再见吧，妈妈。军号已吹响，钢枪已擦亮、、、、、、” 

　　这歌声从刘军医嘴里唱出，她在为出征的哥哥、弟弟们唱着唱给远方的母亲听那。 

　　老军长，老泪纵横，人人都泪流满面了。

看这场辩论赛而辩论这个世界是文明还是野蛮的，真是浪费时间。

这个世界是文明还是野蛮的不是世人能定夺。这个世界是一个灰色的世界。文明中带有野蛮、野蛮中带有文明。以文明来掩饰野蛮、而野蛮行为中带点文明处处可见。一位企业化黑帮老大坏事做尽、可他又是一位慈善家，那么他是文明还是野蛮？把一件事以多角度、多层次来抽丝剥茧的深入观察和分析，就会有好多不同的结论。以上两支决赛队伍都缺乏了多角度多层次的客观分析。

在一个文明社会的字典里，《法律》、《斗争》、《仇恨》、《战争》、《经济》、《利益》、《罪恶》等等是不存在的。在文明社会里是不需要法律来约束人民的。为什么？因为每人脑里都没有经济和利益的斗争，也不会有战争。社会上种种罪恶都是利益和经济的冲突所引起的。所以，在我们野蛮的社会里，需要法律来约束人们以防止罪案发生。有文明不代表没有了野蛮。只是野蛮被文明的法律约束压制了。

一个文明社会里，经济和金钱是不存在的。每人都知道自己对社会的义务而工作，而不是为个人的物质享受而工作。所有行动和思想都是和大体一致的为大体的生存而产生。

一个文明社会里，所有思想都是无极的，也不会有这场辩论会，更不需要辩论。一切仇恨斗争都是思想极化的产物。

在我眼里，这个世界是文明里带有野蛮、野蛮里有点文明的一个矛盾世界。

更新：中国苏州大学 胜。

I spoke to a few students during tea breaks at the Ada Workshop which I conducted 2-3 days ago. It appeared that most students hate their university. Why? Because they are forced to become debtors before starting to have earnings. Most Malaysians have to take education loan to finance their studies. But what the universities offer them are sub-standard teaching and poor facilities. Besides paying a hefty sum for tuition, they are charged with miscellaneous fees. These university reaping off wealth from students, making them debtors to fill the university pockets.

A private university has the social obligation to educate future leaders. But most private universities put their profit above all. Students become victims of corporation and yet denied their rights to protest aloud. Students yelling with frustration and hate in blogs and forums with anonymity. What use?

In the recent proposal to impose IT service fee in MMU, we can see how the students being exploited for corporation profiteering and suppressed the rights of protesting and voicing out to the public.

There were a few students came to me expressing their frustration and seeking my assistance to voice up their concerns. They asked my help to arrange a press conference to amplify their vocals. In doing this, these students faced tremendous pressures from their ignorant and naive peers. They were blackmailed by their own peers for trying to make this imposition public.

These students who came to me had exercised democracy to defend basic human rights as knowledge and experience seeking students. They learned not to give up before running out of solutions and hopes. They learned how adults handling and working with youngsters like them. They learned how to analyze and think in multiple perspective. They learned the first lesson of politics.

I admire their courage and determination despite facing disciplinary action and peers’ pressure. I appreciate their trust in me for finding them a solution to voice up without any implication on them. I would like in return to encourage them to not stop here but keep moving forward. They bravely distinguished themselves away from their ignorant and naive peers and want to expand their ability beyond academic. Here is what Confucius said:

I will not be concerned at other men’s not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

一个国家灾难重重，必能训练出超强的毅力和团结力以应付重重灾难。一个人如果困难重重，也必能训练出超强的毅力和顺应能力。所以，当一个人遇上重重困难时，千万要记得温爷爷的四个字：“多难兴邦”！绝对要理性起来，绝不能灰心和放弃。

好一个“多难兴邦（人）”！

At times, we find it difficult to change and we thirst to rely on other people to force such changes. Some people find it easy. Some people blame their incapacity for change.

Incapacity is only lame excuse. The most important element is our determination to change. With great determination we need perseverance and toleration. We need to fight our self conscious and many other external factors. At most time, our self conscious is influenced and heavily woven with external factors, for instance, the surrounding environment and our peers. Sometimes we are reluctant to sacrifice our peers because that is the most precious we ever have.

To sacrifice the peers, it is often a no-no thing in young adults. They are afraid of losing friends and becoming lonely. They are afraid of their peers criticizing.

For many people first time leaving their home (or parents) creates an illusion of independence and freedom. But deep inside their heart, a strong bond with their far away home urge for more attention from/to their parents. Consequently, this bonding builds up a sense of reliance, a barrier to change.

All these are human psychology and social implication that influence our behavior and the way we learn. But change is inevitable…

When I write something and come out of some nice ideas, I become sentimental and get attached to them very quickly. So, in order to not losing both, I come out another idea. A little confusing though but I think it matches the new title.

If you notice the title on your browser window, it reads “Pragmatic Revelations ⊃ The Eccentric Logic of An Eclectic Mind”. To help readers understand better, “The Eccentric Logic of An Eclectic Mind”, meaning the unconventional (or unusual or odd) way of logical reasoning of a mind made up of or combining elements from a variety of sources. The dictionary precisely describes “Pragmatic” and “Revelations” so I do not want to repeat their meanings here. Now…

(Super set) A ⊇ B means every element of B is also element of A. A ⊃ B means A ⊇ B but A ≠ B.

Got it?

Life still goes on…

Joints are important to our movements and acted as a power transmission center along the transmission lines of our limbs. In martial arts, especially internal system such as Wing-Chun, punching power is generated from elbows. Wing-Chun is mimicking many animals and among them are mainly crane and tiger. Crane being the foundation and essential form of Wing-Chun, it is also one of the three main animals in Uechi-ryu.

Sifu Hoe (my uncle) has been training Tiger style boxing since young. He has many years of training in Tiger style boxing. He also practices Taijiquan until now. According to Sifu Hoe’s teaching, the important factor in Tiger style boxing is to lighten up your upper body but have a firm stance and powerful hips for movement and striking. His description matches Ikyuro perfectly but with deeper knowledge and details. The striking power is generated by forearm, from elbow down to the every finger tips. The upper arm and shoulder are locomotive and transmission lines.

Although the power is generated by forearm, power generation using dan tien (the human body center of gravity in the lower abdomen situated 3 inches below navel) and stance can never be ignored. The ground is the ultimate power generator.

So, we know what being the power generators. The question now is how. How do we generate power using joints? I will discuss in details later.

The Internet has become a huge reservoir of knowledge since the past two decades. The use of this knowledge has widen the gap in students thinking about traditional working environment, processes and ethics as well as their awareness of copyright laws and humanistic behavior and obligation. Unfortunately, many youngsters studying in local colleges and universities are not well aware of the pitfalls of using such information and open source projects.

With many years of software development (in both closed- and open- source) and research experience, I am able to quickly identify a genuine work or an adaptation of works from other people. I have seen many copy-and-paste work by students and even received copy-and-paste (exact copy-and-paste and adaptation) works by students applying for internship.

During a FYP judging 3 days ago, I had encountered a project which a student had adapted someone’s work as his own. With two simple questions, I established a firm “confidence” of plagiarism. The abridged story goes:

Every students are given about 6 months to complete their projects. The project can be individual or team work. This particular project which I encountered was an individual project. It’s a project management system capable of drawing and displaying gantt chart. When the student was giving his presentation, a doubt arose in me. Local undergraduate students do not have such high command of programming languages, not to mention developing a complicated software. Creating gantt chart alone is a tough process involving complex algorithm. To develop a gantt chart generating software requires extensive experience and knowledge in project management. It is impossible for this student to complete the gantt chart drawing in 6 months or less all by himself.

In fact, I already knew the project is not authentic. I could simply tell him that his project was not genuine but I did not want to humiliate him in front of the others. Furthermore, he did put in some efforts elsewhere. So I asked two questions:

1. Do you complete this project alone? His answer, “Yes”
2. Can your software do baseline? His answer, “What is baseline?”

Project baseline and baselining are the most fundamental and important features in project management. I am not going to explain baseline in details. You can find out what baseline is by Googling. This poor samaritan revealed himself. No further question was asked by me or the other two judges. Of course, I did not give any points to his project because I simply could not give any, even the minimum. It would not be fair to the other projects which had received minimum points from me.

This young man was not satisfied and he stayed back to ask me why and possibly to argue why he did not deserve to win the project. When he approached me, I could see in his face his dissatisfaction and disagreement with sorrow interwoven in his mixed feeling. He was obviously upset. I could sense his emotion. “What do you mean by baseline? I used C++ to program the algorithm…”, the young man asked and remarked politely. I explained to him that a project baseline is a reference to measure the progress against. Without the baseline, there is nothing to measure against your progress and hence cannot tell if the project is lagging or leading. “But.. sir, I used C++ to program my algorithm and it can calculate the progress from the parameters I entered..”, said the young man. Well, it was clear that he did not understand what I was trying to relay to him. The baseline and C++ algorithm were two different things. This reassured my conclusion.

After the group photo session, we continued our discussion. I told him it was not possible to develop a gantt chart software from scratch in just 6 months. He told me the actual time spent in development was 4 months. He used 1 month to study his project requirement and another month to learn C++. He was very new in C++ and had not even mastered the language yet. This again concluded my finding was correct. After more debate and explanation, he broke into tears and admitted that he copied some codes from the open source. I could see his tears running down and he took out a piece of tissue paper to wipe off his tears. He kept on accusing me saying he copied his project. I never did. I pitied him and at the same time I was so afraid that he would commit suicide. Hey, he is a guy, you know. A soft hearted young man, so am I a soft hearted old man!

I need to comfort him and tackle his psychology. I began counseling him.

And I said to him, “It does not matter if you win a trophy and voted the best or champion project of the year. The most important thing is how much you learn from a failure and how you manage your failure. You are managing your failure right now because you take your initiative and courage to discuss with me and you have learned a lot from our discussion. You learned what is project baseline and baselining. You learned about open source licensing and so much more about software development and ethics. Your peers who have won trophies and they went home happily. While you are staying here to have this heart breaking but meaningful discussion, while you are having the tears because you are upset, your friends could be celebrating their victory with their friends now in a restaurant or cafe. What is the difference you make between yourself and your victorious friends? Don’t be upset because you have failed. You should embrace failure. What you have done by approaching me is a correct decision. Whether your project has failed or won, you should approach the judges to do networking. I may not have an immediate job to offer you but we may collaborate in future for some software projects or business venture. That’s the social networking that you should seek while in university rather than packing your trophy and your degree and go home happily to celebrate.”

After the counseling, he began to lighten and smile. I gave him my call card. He told me he would go to Singapore after his graduation. Hopefully, he found that day enlightening. And I was happy to put a smile on his face.

A reliable resource on the Internet may not be 100% reliable and correct. For example, Wikipedia, popular among students and professionals, is not 100% free of errors and misleading information. If you find a dispute in the Wikipedia and a book, do a double (or triple) verification with people commanding authority in that field. Wikipedia is a global effort contributed to build a free and open repository of knowledge. Any professors down to any Tom Dick and Hairy on the street can contribute to Wikipedia. The site can not grant itself any credibility but the users can. If you cannot differentiate a mistake in Wikipedia, then it has no credibility at all, just as simple as it is.

In the past decade, software development and software business have undergone tremendous evolution. A group called FSF (Free Software Foundation) and many more individual software professionals around the globe have embraced open source ideas. Open source software are generally free from licensing. Its source codes are freely available. Free does not mean it has no copyright at all. Free does not mean you can do anything you want. Many open source projects and their source codes are subject to many different types of licensing. I am not going to discuss licensing issues here because I am not a legal professional. One thing I want to talk about is the open source spirit. Why do people contribute their efforts for free? Many contributors in the open source community develop software for a number of obvious reasons:

1. To further leverage their knowledge and skill. By opening up their source codes, these people allow freedom to examine and to make improvement to their projects by many other software developers from around the world who may have better ideas and methods in solving problems.
2. To embrace “Software is FREE!” Yes, software should be free but not the support. You can download Linux or MySQL (the most famous and popular SQL database in the world today) for free but if you require support to help you to resolve some problems, you will need to pay for professional advice or solutions. This is the model of software business in the 21st century.
3. To create competition. Some closed source software products are actually built upon their open source cousins. A parallel development between the closed- and open- source cousins allows new ideas or technologies to be applied in the products. This encourages healthy competition in technology development and enhancement.

If you use a piece of source codes or parts from the open source, you cannot claim it as your own work like the young man did. Even if you adapt or modify the codes from the open source, you will still need to credit the original author(s) in your work. You will need to respect people’s efforts and the spirit of open source.

Two weeks ago, a Chinese family came to my doukoukai to inquire. Came along their two elder sons and the youngest daughter. They asked a lot of questions about our training and they watched my students practicing on their own.

Before leaving, the father asked me what dan am I? Because we don’t wear gi and belt during training, I jokingly told him I didn’t have any belt. They never return. That’s fine for me.

Many parents, including their children, are eager to reach black belt. They don’t understand the principal of training as well as the ranking system. Last night, 5 little tigers from my Jasin class turned up for the grading. These little kids do not pay attention during training and certainly do not train at home. I failed 3 of them in front of their parents to teach these little kids a lesson about failure. To my surprise, the parents were very keen at taking notes for their children. Although the students themselves are supposed to take notes after the training, it shows some positive feedback from the parents. The parents also get to know how their children are doing in training classes. Anyway, I am glad to have supportive parents like them. The 3 kids will re-test after 3 months. They are not required to pay any fee for a re-test.

The loose translation is “Eagle cries thousand miles away and green (white) reflects red (black)”.

A deeper understanding of this sentence and the loosely translated English version needs to be understood from the Chinese literature perspective, not by using stupid translation software. The original meaning describes a beautiful scenery. But when this sentence is used in my poem, coupled with the other sentences, it becomes another meaning. The real translation with a deeper understanding is this:

An eagle cries as in “it involves in a quarrel which it defends against an accusation”. The green means white and also means correctness and right. But other people sees it as red (black) and means something so wrong.

So, the green (绿) and red (红), as reflected in a Chinese proverb: “青红皂白”. The green-red (青红) pairs into (皂白), black-white. Both green-red and black-white make vivid contrast as wrong-right makes its contrast! The Chinese use these 2 contrasts to describe right and wrong, good and bad.

In the translation, the green means white, has the meaning of innocent. The Chinese characters for green-white is “青白”. And the character green “青” (qing) is pronounced similarly as “清” (qing) or meaning clear. So, “青白” is “清白”, which means innocent.

Similarly, the character “映” means to reflect, according to dictionary. Here, in the context of the poem, it means to contrast. That’s the magic of Chinese literature.

It is a character game which the meanings of a word can be interchangeable. It cannot be translated without proper understanding.

As I said earlier about that sentence “千里莺啼绿映红” in my poem, its original meaning differs from meaning as reflected in my poem when coupled with other sentences or words. A translation software cannot cleverly determine and analyze the structure of the sentence(s) as well as the relationship between the previous and the next sentences. But a clever human being with a “proper” understanding of Chinese literature can. So, don’t use the stupid translation software to determine wrong and right!

A tiny fraction of people knows who and what I am referring to.

I am having muscle ache on my stomach, arms and chest due to the heavy workout last night. So, today not much of practice for myself. As usual, after checking the students’ Sanchin, we went on dantai no kata for Kanshiwa and Kanshuu, then Kanshiwa bunkai.

Tonight, only adult students were coming. None of the kids, including mine came for training. My muscles were aching and not much practice for myself. A perfect time to talk about some concepts. I talked about concepts, not so much of Uechi-Ryu but the fundamentals of tanden (or Tantien in Chinese) and the body structure and skeleton alignment. I also demonstrated explosive 1 inch power punch (of course with controlled amount of energy not to hurt anyone). I continued to demonstrate and to explain the concept of Taijiquan and the differences between the external and internal system. I gave quite a lengthy talk about both internal and external weight change and of course, the scientific explanation of this underlying fundamentals. Martial arts is also martial science which involves human anatomy, physiology, bio-mechanism, kinesiology and physics.

I find it important to let older students to know about this so that they can understand the concept and learn to utilize their body more effectively. This fundamental knowledge is also crucial for them to understand not only Uechi-Ryu system but also other martial arts. The knowledge is also an eye-opener to not be superstitious about Qi, Tantien and the myths about Taijiquan as seen on Youtube as well as in discussion forums.

If I say I have not learned Taijiquan before but am able to explain and demonstrate the Taijiquan concepts, will you believe it?

This appears to be a short anamnesis but I will continue to write about this fundamentals in more depth.

In my retrospection, 2007 had been a great year. A year full of events and incidents. A great year which I embarked on a new chapter in my karate exploration, a totally new direction and a new experience for me. I had visited Okinawa last July/August, a dream place where most karate practitioners would visit and seek further knowledge and experience. I had witnessed with my own eyes for the first time and had broken the myths about karate on Okinawa. I had achieved, to some extent, from Jukyu to Ikkyu after a month long of “severe” training on Okinawa and received recognition and approval (to teach) from both my teacher and my teacher’s teacher. I learned the meaning of “severe” from my new teacher. Upon my return from Okinawa, I set the course on track, a big responsibility for me to teach what I had learned on Okinawa to my students. I opened the first Okinawa Karate-Do Uechi-Ryu Zankai Malaysia Dōkōkai in November. All my students had been tested and a hierarchy had formed before the year ended with Christmas Carol and Nikainen-undō (Training on New Year Eve pass midnight, bridging two years).

I have a rather successful year despite of some sour events. What else do I want more? It is time for me to let go those mistreatment I received. It is time for me to let go the hatred and grudge (did I have any?). It will be nice to let these burdens off my shoulder. This way I can even progress further as I can already see.

I am not only learning a great art of Uechi-Ryu from my teacher, I am also learning the fine Okinawan Budo art from him. I wish to thank him and also those people who have been supporting and assisting me. Once again, thank you all and may you have a happy, prosperous and successful new year 2008.

At the end of 2007, I had seen the challenge for me to teach the concept of Uechi-Ryu, particularly, wa-uke, binkansa and yawarakasa. It is really abstract and hard to be explained and understood by words. So, I begin my research and writing an article (of many parts) to assist my teaching. Part 1 of the article was written two days ago. I foresee it will be many parts of it like this anamnesis. I hope to compile these articles (posts including the comments) into a research paper or book later on. Maybe 10 years later when I have got more time to sit down for word crafting.

Speaking about word crafting, I learn a great deal from my teacher too. Perhaps, my blog will train me to become a writer/author one day.

The last 6 months of 2007 were really exciting and fruitful. I learned a great deal along the process and I find myself with more knowledge and skills. Oh yes, and experience. I would like to thank those people who were the causal factors which slingshot me into this marvelous learning paradise!

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I recalled in a tournament 18 years ago, where I was enraged by the referee who did not award me point when I gave a uraken-uchi (back fist strike) to my opponent every time he threw a gyaku-tzuki (reverse punch) to my mid section. I struck him with uraken-uchi to the side of his head but he could not even touch my gi. I had the advantage of long reach than him. I was 6’3″ and he was about 5’5″. I became more frustrated and angry as his punches did not touch me but awarded point. I don’t deny his gyaku-tzuki was perfect in posture, movement, power, speed and timing. My uraken-uchi struck harder every each time he was awarded wazari (half point). The last few strikes were the hardest, if they all landed on the vital point such as the temple, he would be traumatized. I struck on his parietal with surgical precision. Parietal is the largest and hardest skull bone which covers both sides and the lateral of the brain.

I never met my opponent since after the fight until I met two of his friends at a National Sports Science Workshop in September 2004. We talked about the old days and mentioned about this guy. Both of them told me that this guy said to them how powerful my uraken-uchi. He was feeling dizzy and disoriented after the fight.

Uraken-uchi is my favorite technique because of the advantage of my long range and height. I developed a powerful uraken-uchi and was able to strike hard without drawing the hand backward closer to the body. 18 years ago, I had already developed controllable uraken-uchi with various level of power.

After the tournament, it took me almost 15 years to develop precise control which I am able to deliver an uraken-uchi to opponent’s face with superficial tingling sensation without any obvious injury. Today, my uraken-uchi can strike like a sledge hammer or as soft as a pat on a baby. I have yet to master control as I don’t feel satisfied and am still continuously seeking perfection.

How to develop control and precision in a strike? Well, feeling is the most important factor in acquiring such skill.

Recently, after the last grading test on December 21, I received valuable feedbacks from my teacher. It is extremely easy to learn movement of kata in Uechi-Ryu compared to any other styles. The main factor is the minimum techniques and stances. The most fundamental and frequently used stance is Sanchin-dachi, followed by kiba-dachi and zenkutsu-dachi. Sanchin-dachi appears 98% in all kata. There is only one blocking technique in Uechi-Ryu, the versatile Wa-uke or circular block.

The wa-uke looks very easy and simple by making a circular motion with the arm. The easiest and simplest thing requires most effort to understand and the most difficult to master. I have been trying to teach the basic concept about wa-uke to my students. Even the most senior student has difficulties to understand my teaching.

We often hear a saying, “Empty your cup… to taste my tea.” or equivalent. It is necessary for those who switch over from other style of karate to Uechi-Ryu. They need to unlearn what they have learned. They have to put all the techniques behind. One most important thing they need to put behind is their attitude before they can open their mind and let the knowledge be absorbed like a sponge.

Besides an open mind and/or attitude to willingly accept new knowledge, skills and techniques which look contrary to their previous training, another important requirement is open up all the senses/feeling during training and learning. Senses or feelings, include vision, hearing, touch, macro and micro movement, instinct, and heart. Feeling is a necessary factor in training which most students and teachers have overlook.

Training with feelings can accelerate the understanding of a technique and concepts behind it. Even my most senior student cannot feel or at least describe her feelings during training or practice. Most karate trainings are merely repeating mechanical performance and lack emphasis on feelings. Feelings are most important in the understanding of Uechi-Ryu concepts.

I will write about effectiveness of training by open up all your senses in a series of articles here. I will also write about advanced wa-uke concept in another article. But these articles will only be available to my students and Zankai fellows.

秋风轻拂又一载，回首笑看众愚痴。
奴面不如花面好，江湖恩怨今秋了。
云鬓斜簪春欲放，仰首挺胸迎彤霞。
龙虎鹤功悲新竹，学问功名笑野梅。
老夫高歌轻俗世，秋风伴我饮一杯。

－－贺文耀 2007年12月26日著。

Here’s his gardening wisdom:

When the Gardener plants a seed in good soil and waters it, it begins to grow. First it must soak up the needed water, expand, and push through the hard seed shell. This is painful, difficult, and exhausting work. Did you know of the plant’s nervous system? This is the most painful stage of a young plant’s life! Many seeds just give up and die before sprouting.

This was when you decided to leave the old association, based only on words made many miles away by me, a stranger. You could have just quit karate (“died”) or “stayed in the shell”, but you didn’t. You “soaked up” my words and essays, and decided to break through the shell.

Then the seedling must push up blindly toward the surface of the soil, not knowing what lies ahead, or how far it might be to the surface. Hopefully the soil has been softened and moistened by the Gardener, and hopefully there are no rocks and stones in the way. But despite the greatest efforts of the Gardener to prepare the way, sometimes there are, and the new seedling has to wind around them or push them out of the way. To a tiny new sprout, sometimes even a grain of sand is like a huge boulder! But it must push on, or die.

This was your final decision and preparation, your commitment to making the trip to Okinawa, your arrival, and the anxious hours before actually beginning your work.

It was like holding your breath as you swim through an underwater tunnel, with no way back – how much further, how much further, when will you reach the end and break the surface, how much further…?

Now the tender new sprout reaches the soil’s surface and breathes in the fresh air and begins to absorb sunlight! What a joy! The gentle breeze, the warm sunlight, the uncountable stars at night as the tiny new shoot sleeps and grows using the day’s stored energy. But it is still tender, and easy to injure. It must be protected and nourished through this critical stage of development.

This was your training here on Okinawa, and your realization that all I said to you was true. This was your beginnings of study with me and your fellow students on the Nagahama Dojo, and the encouragement you got whenever you made progress and growth in the system. This is the excitement you felt when you first met Toyama Sensei and finally had an opportunity to perform for him, and met his approval for your performance. This is the culmination of your studies in one short month that cemented your resolve to “plant your roots” in UechiRyu. You have seen the sunlight and now you strive upward toward the source of your energy and growth. And this is my commitment to take care of your development, and see that you have all possible opportunity to reach your potential.

The promise and commitment of the Gardener to the plants in his care. So it was from Toyama Sensei to me.

Now the plant is growing with strong stem and branches, new leaves and increased absorption of sunlight and water. It’s well-formed root system digs deep and cannot be pulled up easily. The bark on its stem grows tougher every day, and stronger each week. Small bugs can no longer assail it. Birds are no longer interested in pulling it from the ground for use in building their own nests – the “sprout” has become too tough. However, not having seen even one season of growth yet, it is still in its youthful stages of development and needs the attention and ministering of the Gardener. There are still some plant-eating animals that can cause mischief – but the Gardener gives what protection he can until the plant is a full-grown tree, which will take some time yet.

The plant is far from mature enough to produce fruit for creating more like itself. That will naturally take several seasons. But it has the start that few of its kind have in the wild, unattended and surrounded by weeds and rocks that stunt its growth and rob it of vital nourishment. It can look down now at its beginnings in the soil, and laugh at what once seemed to be huge boulders and heavy barriers in the way of its growth; they now seem like tiny grains and pebbles, and small light twigs. They no longer bar the way; they add to the nutrition of the soil and the protection of the roots. And so those things that once caused pain and fear are to be appreciated.

My greatest challenge came two days ago when I received a feedback from Sensei about our video performance. Suddenly, I realized the greatest challenge is lying within the concept of the system. It is the hardest to teach to a student. Although I realize most of the concept taught by Sensei on Okinawa, I find myself have not completely absorbed. Even if I have absorbed, I am not able to apply the concept through kata.

The concept in Uechi-Ryu Zankai is simple but rather complicated to understand and to apply. For instance, applying “yawarakasa” and “binkansa” at the same time. Not to mention applying both together with “chikarazuyosa”. For all these three elements, they need a mind with opened senses, to be able to feel and to control every muscles and bones. A better understanding and the capability of manipulating body central of gravity are vital in the process of learning, understanding and applying.

This may not sound too difficult for me due to my prior understanding of bio-mechanics and kinesiology from the cross training of karate which I received many years ago. I also would like to thank those teachers who cross trained me and helped me to understand the concepts (of other styles). Without them, I would have been struggling harder by now.

I have taught my students how to move and how to do kata, alright. Yet, I have not been able to realize the conceptual model in their understanding and application. This is the greatest challenge in my entire karate coaching career.

在宇宙里，万物都是在运动或静止的行态。来自于牛顿的《自然哲学的数学原理》(Mathmatical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687)，定义如下：

所有物体都将一直处于静止或者匀速直线运动状态，直到出现施加其上的力改变它的运动状态为止。

经典力学，又称古典力学或牛顿力学，是力学的一种。经典力学以三条牛顿运动定律为基础，是在宏观世界和低速状态下研究物体运动的基要学术。在物理学上，经典力学是最早被接受为作用于物体上的力学的一个物理模型。经典力学又分为静力学（描述静止物体）、 运动学（描述物体运动）、和动力学（描述物体受力作用下的运动）。在十六世纪，伽利略就已采用科学实验和数学分析的方法研究力学。他为后来的科学家提供了许多豁然开朗的启示。艾萨克·牛顿则是最早用数学语言正确地描述出这些定律的英国科学家。以下分别列出这三条牛顿运动定律：

1. 第一定律：如果物体处于静止状态或作等速直线运动，只要没有外力作用，物体将保持静止状态或等速直线运动状态。这定律又称为惯性定律；
2. 第二定律：物体的加速度与所受的净外力成正比，与物体的质量成反比。加速度的方向与净外力的方向相同。即 ；
3. 第三定律：两个物体的相互作用力总是大小相等，方向相反，同时出现或消失。强版第三定律还另外要求两支作用力的方向都在同一直线上。

“无极”就是所谓的“平衡”。不论物体在当物体静止或运动状态，它都是处于在一个平衡状态。当物体在外力和相对力达到的时侯，物体就处于静止状态。当物体处于运动状态而不受外力的影响，它就会继续前进。当外力影响了物体，那时物体里的平衡就被干扰，而改变它的状态，那物体就从“无极”转化成“有极”。

“极”就好比方向。在物体的运动，其运动方向可分为“正方向”或“反方向”。两极化就是指方向的变化、状态的变化（静止或运动）和伸缩的变化等等。第三定律说明了两极和无极。两个物体的相互作用力总是大小相等，方向相反，同时出现或消失，这是极化。要求两支作用力的方向都在同一直线上，是极化到无极也就是平衡的条件。

“太极”也有“物极必反”之意。当物体运动状态达到了极限之时，它就“静止”了。哦？何解？

拿光子 (photon) 来说， 光子的运动速度（299,792,458米/秒 或 1,079,252,848.8千米/小時）可说到了极限。可是对肉眼来说，光是静止不动的。我们夜里看到的星星，它所发出的光芒是在好几万年甚至于好几亿年之前的时侯。

这也就是爱因斯坦的“相对论”。当一个物体 A 以高速度向另一物体 B 前进，而物体 B 以慢速度向那高速度物体 A 前进，在那两个物体上所观察到的另一物体向自己前进（如A观察B，B观察A）的速度是一样快的。是以“太极拳”以慢打快的原理，就是物理学里的相对论！

这就是“太极”和“无极”以科学的解释。古人对这些物理学已有了相当的认识，只是以中国古老文学的型态给演译出来。岂知被不谙文学的人乱来解释一番，把太极拳理给弄糊涂了、神化了、玄化了、优越化了、超越化了等等。可哀！

冯驰先生说：

中华武术自宋、明、清以来，发展迅速，流派林立。一方面拳种繁衍，一方面人体内外整体观的武术理论已逐步趋于完整，无论南派、北派、内家、外家，莫不一致提倡内练气，外练形，内外兼修，以提高武术的养生作用与技击水平。

内家拳，作为中华优秀的传统武术，更注重“气”的锻炼。如内家拳中的太极拳云：“养气为君骨肉臣”，“以心行气，以气运身”，“气遍身躯不少滞”，“气沉丹田”、“气宜鼓荡”等；形意拳云：“精灵养根气养神，养功养道见天真，丹田养就长命宝，万两黄金不予人”，由此可见内家拳对气的重视程度，他们并且摸索出一套完整系统的训练方法，大体分两步：一步是养丹田之“气”，养气之法通过调身如：头领颌收，劲部松直，涵胸拔背、塌腰敛臀、护肫圆裆、松肩垂肘等来达到“气沉丹田，通过调息“气沉丹田＂，行之既久，常若一团气力坚凝于腹脐之间。二步是运“气”，运气之法是通过丹田鼓荡，“周天运行、螺旋缠绕”等使“气”运到身体各部位，以备养生与技击。

为什么如此内家拳如此重视“气”的锻炼？究其原因是因为他们认为“气”是高能量物质，是人体运动的原动力。武术中的高级劲台太极拳中的弹抖劲，形意拳中的中寸劲等都是“气”发放的结果。其实这是一个天大的错误。造成这一错误的原因很简单，就是由于当时科学不发达，技术落后，对人体的解剖知识，生理机能不明，单凭身体的感觉得出的结论。也正是这种结论的错误，才造成了中华武术史上最大的误区。可以说，几乎每一位练武者，特别是内家拳锻炼者都受到了不同程度的误导，走了不少弯路，有的甚至终生不能重返拳学正轨，真是可惜可叹！

既然掉进“气”的误区，就要跳出“气”的误区。要想跳出“气”的误区，首先就要弄明白“气”的真正含义。真实“气”的真正含义有两层：一层是通过所谓养所得的丹田之“气”，实际上就是腹腔内的压力，是自然的生理因素所致，而不是什么高能量物质，也不是武术中的弹抖劲、寸劲的根源。可能有人会问：为什么通过养气能感到丹田气足了，爆发时丹田的鼓荡能感到身体的力量增大了呢？原因是在养时通过调息，锻炼了腹压肌的收缩力，当腹压肌再收缩时，使腹腔内的压力比原来增强，这样我们的感觉好像是丹田里的气足了；当爆发时由于丹田的鼓荡，一些腹压肌拉长收缩，被动牵引脊柱产生一定的力量，但这种力量对技击来说是微不足道的。那么说丹田“气”（腹腔压力）没有什么用途了吗？其实不然，丹田之气有一个很大的用途，就是当腹直肌、腹外斜、腹内斜肌这些对脊柱运动力臂长的肌肉收缩拉动脊柱运动时，如果腹压肌中膈肌动力产生的腹内压能当好支撑点，就能使脊柱、特别腰脊产生动抖运动，这才是武术中弹抖劲的根源。通过腰背的主动弹拌运动与产生的力量非常大，与丹田鼓荡被动牵引脊柱产生的力量悬殊很大，作用差别也很大。二层是所谓运至全身的“气”绝不是与呼吸有关的气，更不是什么高能量物质，而是遍布全身的神经纤维和神经末梢。太极拳中“以心行气、以气运身、气遍身躯不少滞”的气真正含义实际就是大脑发出指令，通过神经纤维的传导，达到全身的神经末梢指挥全身肌肉的松紧协调。可能有人会说：为什么通过全练功，身体有麻热胀、蚁走等得“气”的感觉？其实这是人体自然的生理现象。凡是学过人体生理解剖知识的人都知道，人体的各种体育运动，都是神经支配骨胳肌收缩的结果。人体骨胳肌大小共有六百余块，大部分是小肌肉，而在平时的运动中起主要作用的都是大肌肉，这样一部分小肌肉如果长期用不到或锻炼不到，神经支配这部分肌肉的能力就会降低或根本就不能支配；另外，每块骨胳股都由很多肌纤维束组成，并且每一肌纤维束都有神经支配，即使经常运动的骨骼肌里也有神经支配不到的肌纤维束。通过练功使支配不到的肌纤维束的能力得到加强，在这一过程中，由于神经接通或神经支配能力的加强，都伴有电位变化，形成电荷移动，使身体有麻热胀、蚁走等得“气”的感觉。

在上一册文章里，龙说：“气是无型的…” 不代表以仪器所测量到的一些生理现像并不足以构成一个完整解释‘气’的理论。往往好多练武之人，不去做进一步的深入了解，而“人云亦云”把误解一代传一代。

只要一提到“气是假的”，就会受到很大的震荡。这是人类迷信和固执的心态。就好相说“神是不存在的”。丹田和气已经到了一种精神信仰的地步，好比宗教。把他们的迷信给打破了，他们就会很痛苦，而且会很执着的回应以保护他们对丹田和气的信仰。我的文章不是要给这些人痛苦，而是要给那些开明，勇于脱离传统，勇于探索之人做参考。至于那些执着迷信之人，要是不能接受，就请一笑置之。

而丹田有上丹田，中丹田和下丹田。有三丹田，五丹田之说。这里所指的是下丹田，也统称丹田。丹田多指人体脐下三寸处，也称“小腹”。这里头除了小肠，根本什么都没有。而这人体脐下三寸处，正好是人体重心所在。前文所说的“其心不正，亦邪”。其心就是指人体重心。如人体重心不中正，那人就会失去平衡而跌倒，也会影响健康。有肥胖之人的小腹是凸出的，俗称“肚腩”。因为肥胖之人的小腹是凸出的，其人体重心不中正，也比常人显得笨重和容易跌倒，健康也比常人差，之所谓：“其心不正，亦邪”。

腹腔上面是肺，而肺和腹腔有横隔膜把肺和腹腔分离。横隔膜是造成肺和腹腔里的压力的型成。“丹田内转”是解腹腔里压力的变化，使肺部压力相互形成。腹腔压力的变化，把内脏均匀的分布开来，也造成肠的蠕动，增强肠对营养的吸收，废物的排出，是以有养生之说。

人的祖先是猿猴，以四脚行走。腹腔里的内脏，均匀的分布，如图里的黑猩猩。其重心中正，力大无穷。可能就连几个太极高手一起上，也未必是黑猩猩的对手。难到黑猩猩也会上乘的内功／气功不？道理很简单。人的先祖慢慢开始进化，改以两脚行走。这时，内脏开始受地心吸力影响而往下移，腹肌开始退化松懈，造成“其心不正，亦邪”。气功就是呼吸法，改善人体构造，内脏的分布，回归大自然原始的动物本能。这时，“意守丹田”就是指在意识的控制腹腔，横隔膜的运动和内压力，再慢慢的进入潜意识的控制。这时“心正而身亦正”。如仔细观察图里黑猩猩，就能看到它那强壮凶猛的身体是受其重心所支配 － “心正而身亦正”。这也是为什么武术以动物为基础的原因。

“以身变手，以气变手，以意变手”有何解？手是型体上的构造，看得见，摸得着，这是“以身变手”。如果没有神经的电子讯号和血液（压）的流动，那手就没有作用了，这就是“以气变手”。有了神经的电子讯号和血液（压）的流动，那手就起作用了，那还的有在意识或潜意识的支配或控制，那才能随心所欲, 这就是“以意变手”。“以身变手”并不是只是型体上的构造，看得见，摸得着这就草草了事。手和身是相连的。手就是身，身就是手。而手的运做，要靠身体和重心（丹田）的支配和控制，以达成最理想的运动，那就是“运动经济学” (motion economy)。

话说回来，人的呼吸有分先天和后天两种形态。胎儿在母亲体内是用脐带呼吸。所吸之物是带有氧气和养分的血液。所呼是带有二氧化碳和废物的血液。这些血液在胎盘里进行了一系列复杂的运转。胎儿这时是用逆腹式呼吸。逆腹式呼吸方法是一种能够增强人体气机顺畅、调节人体功能、平衡人体阴阳的一种呼吸练习方法。平时我们的呼吸特征是：吸气时腹部凸出，呼气时腹部凹进。而逆腹式呼吸方法则相反，体现在外形上的要求为：吸气时腹部凹进，而呼气时腹部突出；逆腹式呼吸具体方法，取站、坐姿均可。慢慢用鼻腔吸气，同时腹部内收，胸部上提，横隔膜下移，肺部吸满了空气之后再徐缓吐气，呼气时腹部慢慢鼓起，渐渐恢复到原来的状态。逆腹式呼吸有以下好处：

• 扩大肺活量，改善心肺功能。能使胸廓得到最大限度的扩张，使肺下部的肺泡得以伸缩，让更多的氧气进入肺部，改善心肺功能。
• 可以改善腹部脏器的功能。它能改善脾胃功能，有利于舒肝利胆，促进胆汁分泌。腹式呼吸可以通过降腹压而降血压，对高血压病人很有好处。
• 吸氧量加大，令大脑氧充足，对安神益智有好处。吸氧足，气血就活跃，有利于伤病加快复元，经常练此呼吸法伤病的确是比一般人好得快！
• 由于比普通的腹式呼吸增加了对腹部的压力，因而血流加速，血中的酸素浓度提高。其结果就是免疫细胞机能的活性化，间接性副肾机能的强化，以及因此而被提高的免疫力。
• 现代生理学认为腹式呼吸加大了腹肌和横隔膜的运动幅度，起到了增加肺的换气量，按摩内脏，促进新陈代谢的作用。从现代气功学的角度来看，腹式呼吸能强化腹部混元气的聚散开合，而腹部混元气的多寡以及运化则直接关系到躯体形态的变化，肥胖就是由于这一部分气的运化失常而引起的。因此，炼功减肥着重于腹部气机的锻炼。

逆腹式呼吸法是胎儿和初生婴儿的先天呼吸法。此呼吸法也被称为“道家呼吸法”。原因是道学里认为：“逆则生，顺则死”而形成的养生之道。此言有理。胎儿在子宫里不是呼吸空气。出生时哭，是要把肺里的液体排出然后呼吸空气以让肺部由呼吸液体转换呼吸空气。那时肺部还未成熟，不能用顺腹呼吸或胸呼吸，要不然必死无疑。这是大自然的神奇之处。古人运用文学和智慧，以六个字，“逆则生，顺则死”来形容养生之道。试问这六个字要是给一般没有文学和医学知识之人仕，又会得到什么样的解说？

在婴儿出世后的第一或第二月，婴儿慢慢的转去“顺腹式呼吸”。待婴儿的肺部渐渐的成熟，婴儿也改用“胸式呼吸”。

气功里的呼吸法也采用这三种，以达到先天和后天呼吸法的好处。 吸氧足，氧气在肺部活跃的进行转换，带有足够氧气的血液也活跃的在人体各器官进行转换，那就是所谓的“气血活跃”。

当掌握了这三种呼吸法，最高境界是以呼吸之时，胸部和腹部都能不动。这时呼吸仅靠横隔膜。呼吸时，胸部和腹部都不动是武术最高境界的需求之一。呼吸时胸部和腹部的起伏，是武术里的大忌。和高手过招，他能观察胸部和腹部的起伏，就能掌握你的呼吸。就在吸气之时，一拳打在身上，好比打在充满空气的气球，立刻爆裂。肺里有很多小小的气囊，当充满空气的时候，一遇外力的打击，里面的空气会发生震荡。要是气囊里面的空气压力过高，那时小小的气囊就会像气球般爆裂，轻则伤，重则死。是以气功或呼吸法是武术的根基。

我在呼吸法上有所掌握，也能做到呼吸时，胸部和腹部丝毫不动，也能发力和发劲。我可以感觉到发力和发劲时毫不吃力。

丹田和气功是古代生理学，生物学，生物力学的结晶品。那好比“阴阳”或“两仪”就是现代的二进制 (binary) 学说。冯驰先生所说：

由于当时科学不发达，技术落后，对人体的解剖知识，生理机能不明，单凭身体的感觉得出的结论。也正是这种结论的错误，才造成了中华武术史上最大的误区。

正如我前文所说，在古时，可能是读书人创作了武术，然后以文字记载，又当时不知所谓何物，就以一些文字比如丹田之类，以求记载。那为什么读书之人会创作了武术的呢？读书之人缺乏劳动以至身体机能衰退，而创作了有如气功之类呼吸法和五擒戏之类的运动法，进而演变出武术之学。而武术也有源自文武之家。武家创作的武术，多以武将军或是属下创作而多以练外功和硬功为主。目的是在极短时间内练得功夫用以杀敌。而古时武将军，都是文武双全，能以特出的文学来记载武术心得。后人却以迷信和愚昧的智慧来解读博大精深的武术文学。可哀！

练武最重要敢承认错误，纠正错误。盲目的和一些执着迷信之武夫，“人云亦云”那有何足道？那又跟莽夫有何分别？

武术是建立于生物力学和物理学，以生物体内物质运动和物理学里的运动和惯性原理，来达到以其的效果。

气功是有的。可惜它被人给神秘化了。气功是呼吸的运动。气功讲究的是在于有系统的呼吸训练法，务求锻炼肺部的自然呼吸和放松，以至促进内循环，增强生物电磁。有效的控制呼吸，能达到《意》，也就是潜意识，来控制身体内分泌，比如，肾上腺素。

肾上腺素的一般作用使心脏收缩力上升；心脏、肝、和筋骨的血管扩张和皮肤、粘膜的血管缩小。肾上腺素能使心肌收缩力加强、兴奋性增高，传导加速，心输出量增多。对全身各部分血管的作用，不仅有作用强弱的不同，而且还有收缩或舒张的不同。对皮肤、粘膜和内脏（如肾脏）的血管呈现收缩作用；对冠状动脉和骨骼肌血管呈现扩张作用等。由于它能直接作用于冠状血管引起血管扩张，改善心脏供血，因此是一种作用快而强的强心药。肾上腺素还可松弛支气管平滑肌及解除支气管平滑肌痉挛。利用其兴奋心脏收缩血管及松弛支气管平滑肌等作用，可以缓解心跳微弱、血压下降、呼吸困难等症状。这也是所谓的《气》！

气功对生理上有一定的帮助。能以呼吸随心所欲的控制肾上腺素的分泌，就能增强力和劲的输出。《气》是无型的，但是它是有迹可循。当腎上腺素分泌增加之后，供血也随着增加。此时，人体所产生的红外线和电磁波也相对提高。这就是被人们误解的所谓气功。

读了她的文章之后，我和她的看法有同感。 我认为，中国文学是深奥的。中国武术里头的理论，不能用仅是武术的观点去看，而是要从文学和科学的观点去看，研究和分析。中国武术里的文学，并非就是专业人仕如医生，律师，工程师之类就能明了。

比如说，《其心不正，亦邪》所指其重（中）心不正直，就没有好姿态，也就不能得力。被不諳中国文学的武夫来说，意义可就要偏差十万里咯！

再有，《以意催力》是指以潜意识来发动全身所有筋骼，骨头和肌肉的互动而发力，传力。

要知道，在古时，可能是读书人创作了武术。一般莽夫，又怎能写出深奥的武术文学？

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After the last incident, I become very careful choosing my friends. I begin to categorized the type of friends with different privilege and close range between them and I. Why? Because I do not allow the 3rd line to be drawn. I do not wish to draw the 3rd line so I became choosy with friends. I only allow those I really trust to come to close proximity of my heart.

It is not easy to draw a line between a previously so called “friend” and me. It takes a lot to draw a line and to break a friendship. Erase the line, you may ask me to. But in my philosophy, good friend is hard to come by. Rotten friends are easily obtainable. I value good friend way far beyond rotten ones.

I will gladly accept their apologies if they ever want to apologize with great sincerity. But I still will not accept them into my life as a friend again. The only difference is a more natural “hello” if we ever meet again in the public.

I treat my friends better than I treat my family. LA knows and she is not happy with this. I can forget those rotten ones but I can’t forget their bad actings. I can forget how good I treat my friends, but I can’t forget how good my friends treat me. No one, including my parents, can ever change me and my principle about friendship.

This theme is graphically represented by the random header images which I made from photos I took on Okinawa while I was having a walk at the ruins of Zakimi castle. I took some photos of flowers and plants, scenery and artifacts.

This is my favorite. Before I came to Okinawa, I was quite lost in karate. All my surroundings seemed to be thick stone walls. Suddenly, I found an exit, which led me to the Sky! This also signifies my understanding of “karate” as Sky Hand as Seizan Sensei told me. In Uechi-Ryu Zankai, karate-do is like the sky, without border and endless. People build walls surrounding themselves and others to restrict seeking of knowledge and truth as well as to protect their own benefits. I am glad that I have found an exit to this confinement.

These images indicate the road ahead is difficult and the woods on both sides represent challenges, confusions and distractions which can easily get lost in. Fortunately, there is a small road that leads to the destination. The road, as if Uechi-Ryu Zankai.

The gardener on the left represents Toyama Sensei. The two trees represent Seizan Sensei and Sumako Senpai (as well as other Sensei and Senpai) setting a goal for me to reach up there.

These two images are made of floral and artifacts found at Zakimi Castle site. No special significant meaning.

This is an image of some surf boards at Torii Beach. No significant meaning. Just a photography image.

After meeting him in person when I visited Toyama Sensei’s dojo with Seizan Sensei at Zakimi Okinawa, his health becomes one of my motivation. I envy to have his health in my old age.

Another reason is being the only person in Malaysia to know Uechi-Ryu Zankai training and there is no second person with adequate knowledge and skill level to train with. Although Allison is approaching, her skill level is still quite far away. A maintenance training will be good to maintain my knowledge and skills I learned on Okinawa and not to let them getting worse or diminished.

With the newly installed mirrors, all the kouhai including myself are able to see the reflection while training to correct body posture and movement. Thanks to our sponsor. This evening, I started to have more intense training after the class. I was alone in the doukoukai so I took off my shirt. I could see my muscle working during my kata performance. When doing kata, it is best to remove the shirt so that the muscles can be seen in the reflection and you can judge whether your training is on the right track or not.

I could see my muscle relaxed and contracted on impact. I could see my muscles twitching during movement. I could see I am on the right track of the training.

My training has been so so since last week. But there is a good news. A new member joined my class on November 13. He has got 5 years of training experience and currently Ikkyu (1st kyu) from other karate style. He found out about Uechi-Ryu in a Chinese language martial arts forum. He is studying at MMU and he is staying nearby the doukoukai. He suffers from asthma since childhood and every time the weather changes, his asthma will attack. He has to relied on medication to get rid of the phlegm.

On the first evening, I taught him Sanchin. He is a fast learner but needs to work very hard to achieve the requirements in Uechi-Ryu Zankai. I was told by him that he vomited a large amount of phlegm the next morning after his first lesson. He has never experienced this before without the help of medicines. It is a good sign as his lungs are learning to breathe differently and are able to discard phlegm by themselves. This is a very encouraging and interesting live experience from a real person who has started to learn Uechi-Ryu Zankai karate-do.

Let us look forward to see if his training will prevent him from the asthma attack after 3 months or so. I wish him a good start in Uechi-Ryu Zankai and best of health.

So, encouraging isn’t it? This has also provided me some motivation and to wake up from the steep learning curve. I could feel my thrusts had become more powerful during my training tonight.

As I mentioned in previous part, the training at Uechi-Ryu Zankai is very dull and monotonous. It will affect one’s motivation if he/she has got not enough new excitement or motivation. I hope there will be more encouraging and interesting live experience along the way to keep us/me motivated. If not, enough proper rest will be necessary to let our body and mind to recuperate to the state ready for more severe training.

就如《般若波罗密多心经》里的哲学，《空亦是色，色亦是空》。把这哲学运用到《空手道》里，《空》亦是精神，也是没有边际。《色》亦是《型》（套路），哲学，技术等等。到了最高境界，《空亦是色，色亦是空》等于《型》（套路），哲学，技术等等亦是精神和永无止境的境界，变幻成《无型》，到了《无极》之境界！

现在一般普通的说法，大都已经偏离了真正的意义。日文就是有点怪怪的。kara 的汉字是《空》也是《唐》。是以，先为《唐手》(toute)，后改为 karate，是《唐手》也是《空手》。在后来，大日本军国主意的掘起，也就不用《唐手》而改为《空手》。

其实，kara，《空》并不代表空无一物的意思。《空》既是《天空》的《空》(sora) ，意思就是，像天空那样无边无际。这 karate 或 sky hand 的意义，是我从冲绳上地流山会那里学来的。这意义可以说已经绝迹了。好多练空手道的，都以现有的说法为标准，人云亦云。可哀！

译自原文 。

The kanji word for kara is 空, which means empty. But it can also means sky as in sora. The kanji for kara and sora is “空”. As the result, karate also means “Sky Hand” which signifies the knowledge and perfection of the martial art has no border or boundary and is endless.

This concept is lively and vividly displayed by Toyama Sensei. At the age of 80, he is still training and seeking perfection. At this age, he is still as fit as (or fitter than) most young adults in their 20s. For 70 years of his Uechi-Ryu training, he has a very well built body and a clear and sharp mind. As the last active student of Kanbun Uechi Sensei, Toyama Sensei becomes a living legend whom you will never believe unless you see him with your own eyes. I met Toyama Sensei myself.

My new perception of the meaning of karate has remodeled my karate training and my philosophy utterly.

Posture Improvement

One noticeable result of Uechi-Ryu training is that it corrects my body posture and strengthen my back muscles such as Rhomboideus major, Latissimus dorsi, Thoracolumbar fascia, Serratus posterior superior, and Trapezius. These are huge muscles which hold up our body skeleton to give us posture.

The heavy works on Saturday and throughout the entire week until today does not give me any serious aching except a slight back muscle ache on Sunday but it recovered very fast. I had no more aching on Sunday night. I don’t have much opportunities to do such heavy works often because I mostly use my fingers to type on a computer keyboard. I can remember in the past, whenever I worked on heavy duty job like painting and cleaning with lifting, I would suffer muscle ache especially the back for a couple of days even if I trained in other style of karate.

This indicates the correct body posture together with the movements and breathing in Zankai’s training has significant health benefits especially in chiropractic.

I suffered from a herniated disc on L3 on my right in 1999 and since then, long sitting and bad body posture (particularly while sitting) would give me some discomfort in my lower back. This condition has also improved although once a while I still can feel some discomfort in my lower back. My awareness of correct body posture always reminds me of good posture. I developed this awareness after my month-long training at Zankai on Okinawa.

Chest Expansion

Another remarkable improvement is my chest. In Zankai, correct body posture is not all. The expansion of the chest as I mentioned earlier in part 3, has substantial benefits in pulmonary and cardiac functions. My training has also increased my lung volume as my chest expands.

Chest expansion is not only important for pulmonary and cardiac functions, it is also important for developing chest muscle.

My physical is slowly changing as I continue to train the Zankai’s method. The growth will be slow and will not be readily available to give immediate fast results, but I can feel the slow changes which develop a good foundation for any future development.

The old-style Uechi-Ryu (Zankai) is a defensive style and deploys different approach compare to most modern style Uechi-Ryu. So I am not talking about modern style but my focus is the old-style.

Wa-uke is the most important and the only blocking technique used throughout every kata. It is the most misunderstood blocking technique in Uechi-Ryu. Many people, including some of my students, have misunderstood wa-uke. Some say it is slow. Some say it is ineffective. Some say it is less defensive compare to other blocking techniques in other style of karate. Some say how can one blocking technique be applied to all kind of attacks.

Yes, Wa-uke is one blocking technique that applies to all kind of attacks including grappling. Thus, the old-style Uechi-Ryu is a CQC (Close Quarter Combat) system but still remains as effective for long range combat. This misunderstanding is due to lack of in-depth study and understanding of the technique itself and the application (bunkai) and philosophy of Uechi-Ryu kata.

As the name implies, wa-uke or circular block, travel in a circular or elliptic motion. Uechi-Ryu is not a linear system, rather, it is circular. To understand the underlying concepts and philosophy, you have to think circular or elliptic. The movement in Uechi-Ryu kata is like ocean waves. When you are practicing kata, you need to move like ocean waves.

Ocean waves are mechanical waves that propagate along the interface between water and air. The restoring force is provided by gravity.

(Source: Wikipedia)

After we understand the mechanical concept of ocean waves, we now can apply the concept into wa-uke and techniques in Uechi-Ryu kata: A wa-uke is a circular or elliptical mechanical arm motion which propagate in a plane between the defensive and the offensive body. The motion is circulated by gravity and centrifugal force.

The Sanchin kata is the foundation for all Uechi-Ryu kata. As I mentioned in previous episode, all Uechi-Ryu kata have staggering effect, complementing each other. To understand the application of wa-uke, we have to gain deeper understanding of Sanchin. While the understanding of Sanchin increases, it complements the understanding of other kata in the system. One significant point we need to focus in Sanchin is the turning of our body. It not only creates centrifugal force, it is the fundamental movement we need to understand and master in order to apply wa-uke effectively.

With wa-uke, you can perry an attack; a kick or a punch or any combination followed by counter strike. Or if you wish, you can lock then throw or a take down depending on the degree of damage you think is necessary to be inflicted onto your assailant.

The mastering of Sanchin movement and wa-uke is more than enough to defend against any untrained attacks. If the assailant is a trained attacker, deeper understanding and years of training will be required to defend against such attack effectively with combination of other techniques. But if the mastering has exceeded the expert level, the wa-uke and Sanchin movement alone is more than sufficient.

Sanchin alone requires entire life time to understand and master. It embeds vast concept and knowledge like the ocean; providing unlimited exploration, improvement and perfection. We are only a tiny dot floating in the ocean.

My visit to Okinawa improves not only my knowledge and skill in karate-do. It has been an eye opener and it lets me discover the real karate-do, its culture, philosophy and spirit; as an ancient budo art of Okinawa.

The Okinawan system is not as rigid and militarized as the Japanese system. The Okinawan system is more flexible in many ways. The Malaysian karate-do has been following Japanese styles which are very much a militarized training. The influence was from Shotokan, one of the few introduced to Malaysia in the earliest karate era of Malaysia.

Many times people have been asking me, “Is style really matter?” These people are thinking, if any karate that can teach you to fight well, what is so important what style it is. To me, the real essence of karate lies deep in its root of the style which has been forgotten by the new generation of practitioners. Many who know the real budo path of karate-do are not too interested in changing people’s thinking and often choose to be self-contained for self-improvement and self-preservation.

If you Google for “karate”, you will find many funny styles and names across the world. Many new styles are created outside of Okinawa/Japan. Really, can we call these karate? It is very difficult to have a stand on this argument. Call it whatever if you find nothing wrong about it.

My visit to Uechi-Ryu Zankai on Okinawa was absolutely an ultimate experience. Toyama Sensei is one of the very few grand master who really doesn’t care about the outside world. He is very disappointed how polluted karate is today. Of course, he feels very sad if he sees some videos of poor performance. He is entirely into preserving and passing on his knowledge to his high ranking students. My teacher, G. Seizan Breyette Sensei, a hatchi-dan (8th dan) kyoshi to-dan, is one of the very few high ranking students of Toyama Sensei.

The Zankai’s Training Philosophy

Uechi-Ryu Zankai is one of the remaining few old-style traditional karate-do on Okinawa devoting to continue to teach and to preserve the pre-World-War-2 karate-do which Kanbun Uechi Sensei brought back from China. And Toyama Sensei is the only legendary left on the earth who is actively passing on his knowledge which he learned from Kanbun Uechi Sensei.

The training at Zankai is very organic. Unlike most modern styles of karate-do, the Zankai uses training methods derived from organic living mechanisms which largely resembling a living organism in organization or development and profoundly affecting our bodily organs and functions. Many modern karate-do as well as other martial arts introduce free form sparring element to their training for competitive sports purposes with influences from Hong Kong and Hollywood movies. The introduction of free form sparring is also to transform monotonous old-style training to a more dynamic and exciting activity. It is rather hard to have modern people especially the youngsters to involve in a monotonic daily devotion. Martial arts training in the old days (100 years and more ago) was a daily devotion and monotonous with repetitive training. Modern youngsters prefer exciting new stuff such as sparring to display their male machoism.

The organic training of Zankai enhances functions of heart and lung especially. Take Sanchin for instance. Beginners (new students) learn Sanchin as first lesson in Zankai. To perform proper Sanchin, the shoulder must be down and pulled back, tummy tucked in and pulled up so the chest will rise and expand. This increases the capacity of the lung and reduces pressures onto organs such as the heart, the lung and digestive organs. The heart can pump more freely with bigger room. Bad body posture has long-term effect on our internal organs such as our heart. When our body postures collapse, our organs are squashed against each other. This is the reason for an enlarged heart appears in X-ray. Because of restricted space, the heart has to work harder to push against the pressure from the lung and other organs. Gradually, the heart enlarges due to the stress.

The kata system of old-style Uechi-ryu has staggering effect onto one another and they are closely inter-related and enhancing each other in one way or another. There is no basic or advanced kata in old-style Uechi-Ryu. In fact, all the kata complement each other at various stages of the training, enhancing and strengthening the body (skeleton, muscle tissues, organs and vital body functions), motor skills, balance (stability), breathing, mental concentration and ultimately all the senses.

Human is actually animal but with slightly higher intelligence and having civilization after going through many evolution. The human evolution contributes to the lost of animal characteristics both physically and mentally. Invention and innovation reduce our physical activities while we become more dependent on tools and machineries. Comfortable lifestyle has made us a lazy animal and lose all the primitive animal characteristics and instinct. Essentially, the training retrain us (human) to become an animal again. The training is based on 7 animal forms: Dragon, Tiger, Crane, Snake, Cobra, Leopard and Mantis. Dragon, Tiger and Crane are the major animal forms in the training. These animal forms teach us to move like them. After some period of training, you can notice improvement in physical strength, bodily structure and vital functions.

The old-style Uechi-Ryu training, like many old martial arts in the olden days of China, does not include jiyu kumite or free form sparring. Kumite (for short), cause destructive effects and harms more than constructive growth to our body. The ancient Chinese had learned a great deal about injuries many thousand years ago without sophisticated medical equipment. Many Chinese martial artists were practicing for their health and to protect family and country. They rarely flashing their skills. Until today, this culture remains in modern Chinese martial artists. But no doubt, there are some going around (the world) displaying and promoting their strongest arts. Like many other modern martial arts, the wushu introduces San-shou or free form sparring into some of their training for competitive and other reasons mentioned above.

I have written articles about injuries and their potential long-term effects. You can read my articles about injuries here.

有些人，一生无法拥有灿烂光辉，别说只有过一刹那的灿烂。好多人穷一生劳碌辛苦，也没能有灿烂光辉让生命活得更精彩。

灿烂光辉，不需要，也不一定要有丰富的物质。它只要有真诚的爱情或友情，那怕生活不富裕，也能活出灿烂光辉！

The military government of Burma does not deserve to rule the country. Burma has been a country practicing Buddhism which spread Buddha’s philosophy and compassion. How can this happen? Greed?

Weapons should be pointed outward to any possible incoming threat which will harm the country. Weapons should not be pointed inward to their own people. Killing their own country men is a crime which cannot and will not be tolerated by any God and by human race.

Today, humanity is lost. Do we, the almighty human, deserve to live and rule the wonderful mother earth?

My fourth teacher had done so much disgusting acts to get rid of me. Of course, he succeeded not. He pursued me in exile to any dojo I went, I became stronger and my spirit burning higher in search of truth. None of these had managed to exhaust me nor to make me quit. But the betrayal of the two very close advocates was really hurt. I promised to a very high ranking Shihan to secretly work things out. The two alter ego thought that I might betray them and become the leader. A good strategy which most people would deploy was to act fast. Not knowing the truth behind me and the commitment I had to bestow, not knowing their careless and selfish acts would cut through our friendship, they chose to realign with their master.

As the matter of fact, I had already decided to switch to Zankai after months long of email communication with Seizan Sensei. I was convinced by Seizan Sensei the Zankai philosophy was the simplest I was looking for. The two advocates’ foolish act had accelerated my crossing over to Zankai. A catalyst added just in time and also allowed me to see clear right through their hearts and prevented another possible disaster after “our” crossing over to Zankai later on.

We had been talking about Uechi-Ryu. We discussed about the risks, difficulties and wonderful techniques of Uechi-Ryu every time we met up for tea to discuss issues at hand. This break up had also cleared the path for the future and had also made my way to become more subtle in dealing with people of intentions.

Suddenly, I realized my egoistic (yes! I admitted) and compulsive behavior had been cleverly utilized to excoriate the clone style I was previously in and expatriated from. People who I had once trusted had seen my weaknesses and quickly exploited my smallness. I was recruited immediately into his karate organization and offered big responsibilities and trust. At last, I saw a light when two clowns broke up the door of my dark room, and I could get out of darkness, surrounded by layers after layers of lies.

Today, I am happy I no longer to be a clown, being exploited by the circus master!

I was exhausted by the political differences and power struggling among the karate organization and among the karate-do practitioners themselves. I had asked myself, had I found the true path? The true path which I reckoned seemed to have the same stinky smell of politics and power struggling. Like many other karate organization, this organization which I once regarded as the clean and righteous place originated from the holy land of karate, was infested by people who lied and did not trust a person who whole heartedly to be their true friend, people who were so thirsty of power and control, people who were so naive and ignorant, people with alpha intelligence and low psychometric profile…

After this ugliest experience, I was quite skeptical about the new organization although I had found convincing after many electronics correspondence with Seizan Sensei. Using all the formal reasoning skills I had and a little discussion with my wife, I decided to take a risk to go to Okinawa to immerse in this new organization. I vowed to myself, this would be the last attempt. If this was another rotten organization, I would end my journey in karate.

When I met Seizan Sensei for the first time at the Naha Airport, I was overwhelmed and forgot to bow. He bowed first and I followed. I was stunt! That night, I met his Okinawan wife, Sumako Senpai (godan). We talked over the dinner at Mintama Restaurant and I could sense their warmth and their good nature. I was more convinced that night.

The next morning, when Seizan Sensei corrected my Sanchin and Kanshiwa kata, he talked about some concepts and philosophy which were so different from what I knew of. That night, we went to Zakimi dojo to meet with Toyama Sensei, Judan (10th dan) Hanshi. He was a very “nice” old man at the age of 80 and still stronger than any well-built full-grown adult male. Before I met Toyama Sensei, I thought he was so high in hierarchy and unreachable. In fact, he was so near right in front of my eyes. He was very humble, but strict. He was very kind but sharp. I could sense his good nature as well and I felt rather comfortable asking him a question and listening to his response although I did not know Japanese. Sumako Senpai was the translator. I was satisfied with his answer and I was more convinced in Zankai.

On the following Monday, I met Jessica Hoffman (who came to Okinawa for her summer holiday and train), Hikaru (15 years old) and Senato (10 years old) in the morning training. They were wonderful people. In that evening, I met Jeff and Dave, Pat and his wife. We trained together and they were good people of good nature. Good people of good nature stays with a good teacher of good nature in a good dojo of a good organization. I was 99% convinced!

What about the other 1%?

My first trip to Okinawa has totally changed my perceptual experience about karate-do, the systems, techniques, concepts and philosophy. The cross-trainings which I have been through, have opened up my mind to be more receptive in the re-learning of this completely different system. Those dirty politics in karate-do I have gone through, have soften my ego and strengthen my will in search of a true budo art. I was lost like tears in the rain, couldn’t find the right path, until the light of Uechi-Ryu Zankai shined on me. I hope this essay will help people (some, not all) who shares the same passion with me in search of karate as a budo art to find this old style Uechi-Ryu as a new beginning.

When I began my karate training in 1985 while I was a schooling teenager, karate was a fascinating terms and it was so cool to talk about. At first, I was really reluctant to join the karate training but under my friends’ persistent influence, I joined them. Being naive and ignorant, we all practiced whatever our instructor told us to do. Days after days. Without my conscious knowing, I was addicted to karate training. After every training session, I started to anticipate the next one to come. It seemed so far away. When the training finally arrived, I was overjoyed.

After my mid high school, I left my school SMK Tinggi St David and continued my upper high school at SMK Munshi Abdullah. At that time, my teacher, Syed Pakri Sensei and his brother had decided to form their own style. Being loyalty, I joined with a friend of mine, Tan Tai-Kiat, searched out the home dojo of the style which we were training in. We were so happy to hear the country chief instructor to invite us to go to the honbu dojo to train. Of course, it was a great honor to be able to train with the top ranking teacher in the country and we took this opportunity.

We took our shodan test after the training and earned the probation shodan. We were very happy to go home with a black belt. Black is the cool color to wear. We immediately initiated karate club at SMK Munshi Abdullah. Both my friend and I became the instructors. Friends and former karate brothers admired us and some were jealous. I could remember a friend of mine, he was as tall as me, somehow had a subtle challenge with me in a kumite. His attacks were intense and powerful. And me, wearing the black belt, my ego surged and I powered up my attacks. At one point, he initiated a turning back kick. I followed. We both got kick at the back at the same time. I could not remembered how powerful our kicks but no one got hurt.

With the black belt ego and realizing the jealousy among our peers, Tan and I trained hard. The size of our class at SMK Munshi Abdullah grew bigger and bigger. The juniors started to join. I could recall the number was about 50 seriously training and almost a quarter were girls.

Our years in SMK Munshi Abdullah was short lived. After 1 and half years, we left after our exam. It was then the classes started to fall apart when another instructor came to substitute us while we were having our exams. Now, it has become a golden reminiscence.

After the exam, I continued my training with my fourth teacher. I trained very hard under his instructions and he being considered a very respected teacher by me. He was very fond of the instructor who replaced us while we were gone for exam. He commented highly how beautiful the senpai performed his kata and he was one of his best students. His statement made me look up to this senpai and I always trained with him.

Then in one of the closed championship, I became the kata champion and the senpai became 1st runner up. I was totally surprised with the outcome of the competition. Then, I gradually submitted to ego when good compliments and comments came to me one by one. I felt proud to take the best kata title away from my senpai. He? On the other hand, he was quite disappointed and gradually came less and less often for training then he quitted. My teacher boosted me and commented how disappointed of him towards my senpai. I took this as an encouragement and a credit for my hard training. Being naive at that time, I did not feel or even bother about my senpai’s feeling.

I was selected to represent the style at a MAKAF (Malaysia Karate-do Federation) championship. I was disqualified at the first round. I remembered one of the referee asked me what kata did I perform. Mixed comments came to me after my defeat in the first round. The chief instructor told me the referee did not even know our kata. My teacher told me, “See! I told you to perform Bassai-dai but you insisted to perform Wanshu”. But, the chief told me to perform Wanshu and my teacher was there to hear that. What a….

After the incident, I was feeling a little down and I had to depart for my career. So I quitted. I came back again after being away for 1 and a half years. A junior bumped into me on the street and he invited me to come back. I answered to his invitation. When I made my return, I focused into kumite. The training was really hard and intensive. Then I was appointed as the Women Team Coach for Melaka Karate Team to SUKMA (Malaysian Games) 1992. My focus turned to training the women team. This was when I gained most of my coaching experience as a competition coach. My team won the first gold medal for Melaka in the women individual kumite event.

I departed again immediately after the game due to some reasons. I stopped training in the style for many years. During the years, I met teachers and friends from various styles when I traveled overseas for work. I trained with them whenever I could. This was the time I started my cross-training. Without realizing it, my cross-training had built a strong foundation which I think it contributes to my accelerated Uechi-Ryu training at Zankai.

When I decided to come back to coaching because of inspiration by my kids, I did not realized my cross-training and some knowledge had laid a path leading me towards the search of true karate-do. First, I found out the style I was training at this while was not an authentic style. When I found out about this, I was marginalized and my former teacher wanted the association to sack me. I quitted from the association on my sole decision. Then I found the true authentic style and I joined. After quite a while of mingling with the country chief instructor, the nature of me to find out the truth, had spotted lies and more lies, I began to distrust him. Then the betrayal of my two close comrades which accelerated my cross-over to Uechi-Ryu Zankai.

Before I stepped onto Okinawa soil, all these, seemed to be a path which led me to Zankai and the true spirit of Okinawa Karate-do. Today, after becoming a member of the Zankai family, all these have become meaningless, nothing but good reminiscence of my achievements and the pain in the ass I gave to some people.

Why all these have suddenly become meaningless?

My training in Uechi-ryu Zankai karate has opened up a whole new dimension of knowledge about bio-mechanism in the human body which in turn to simulate animal movement. Uechi-ryu Zankai, an old style karate, teaches the forms of 7 animals: Dragon, Tiger, Crane being the 3 basic and mostly practiced as in postures together with Leopard, Snake, Cobra, and Mantis.

In the forms of these 7 animals, human can be taught to become primitive again where powerful movement and postures come from the animal instinct of the primitive homosapiens.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. – Leonardo DaVinci

Uechi-ryu is teaching the simplicity of the animals which is so complicated for a complex human. The simplicity in the Uechi-ryu Zankai karate is the hardest to understand and to perfection compares to complexity of any other sports karate.

My understanding of Uechi-ryu Zankai has just begun and it is so shallow which I can only write so little about its simplicity versus the complexity of modern humanization.

Last year, while I was seeding a software development project at UTAR and I got a chance to work with some students. We planned to do a live data collection from a GPS device which required us to drive around in the car with the GPS device connected to a notebook computer to log live GPS data. We chose to do it at night when road traffic was low. We were having some problems to get the data in from the GPS device and we were resolving the problem right outside the main gate of the PD campus (FICT campus in Section 13 PJ). It was dark and I noticed some people drove by. I look into their faces and I could sense these people were not good people based on their facial appearance. I was on all alert while the students resolving the problems. I also saw a few students who stayed back in school to complete their assignments/project came out from the campus. Male and female. I noticed they did not have the alertness while leaving the campus. They talked and laughed all the way from the campus to their cars parked outside the campus gate. I had also noticed the two security guards were staring at the female students.

A few months ago, a female student at one of UTAR campus in PJ (Section 13) was almost raped by a security guard. Why didn’t this incident ring the alarm and knock some alertness and commonsense into students, the DSA (Department of Student Affairs), local police and the public?

I was talking (Skyping) to a female friend last night. She was working as a kindergarten teacher in Cheras and had moved back to her Penang home with her parents some time ago. She was kind of lonely in the new environment. A couple of months ago, one day, she Skyped me and told me that she was not in a good mood. She sounded scary as though something had happened to her. I got her to talk about her feeling and she told me that she had been drug-raped by a guy appeared to be her new found boy friend. Now she is working in KL and we chatted for a while. During the conversation, I found that she was kind of materialistic. I asked her what was her goal in life and she told me she wanted to make a lot of money. I asked her why so. She told me without money she could not survive in this capitalism world so couldn’t anyone.

I told her that she could not be rich just because she was a kindergarten teacher. She agreed but she argued that she could make more money with other job and she sounded like she wanted to get another job. I told her that she should not have an objective just to make more money. She refused to agree with me. The conversation did not last very long simply because I did not want to talk to her further in this topic. She is extremely stubborn and has very shallow vision and her thinking is so simple and naive.

I personally think that it was her objective which led her into her ordeal. She was having an “objective” so that she would not be lonely. She was having an “objective” to venture into opening a cafe in Penang hoping to make more money and friends. I feel sorry for her and I don’t think I can change her taking into account that she is stubborn and with very low education level. She left school after her SPM (form 5 or 9th grade and how could she involve herself as an educator while she does not have enough education?) I will write about the education issue later when I have inspiration and time for it.

Young people (particularly those local university students) nowadays lack of social skills. I encountered many who simply refused or ignored the importance of getting socialized. Socialize in this context means having a communication with people outside of university and their circle of friends. I have, many times, told the students who worked with me to pick up the phone and call the vendors to check prices and availability of certain components. They did not want to call. They emailed instead. And most often times, they did not receive any reply. They liked to resort to quick and easy solution by asking friends or lecturers to help acquiring the necessary components. And these friends and lecturers would most willing want to help. This leads to the lack of social skills which can develop a person’s instinct to identify good and evil intention of a person.

Like the aforementioned friend of mine, she lacks social skills while she is so engrossed in her money-making objective and at the same time, her loneliness and desperation (to make more money) led her to suffer an ordeal.

The number of cases of break-in burglary has increased tremendously at Bukit Beruang (Malacca) where I live. Many of these victims are university students, and of course, include some local residents. The students’ attitude, ignorant, carelessness and senseless mind have created a great opportunity for criminals to lurk and grow in the area. Many of these young students’ left their home for the first time to study in university which they feel so prestigious to be a “University Students” and therefore having the naive thinking and lacking commonsense of security. Many of them think highly of themselves and ignore the facts that danger is always stalking them without their consciousnes. These naive senseless young people put their own security into other hands. If you drive around the neighborhood, it is not difficult to find these “houses” infested by careless young people have the doors and gates wide opened inviting the watchful eyes of criminals.

Having good exam results and being a university student or scholar does not mean they can take care of themselves. Many of these adolescents have not learned to take care of themselves and to be independent.

It is a very common scenario to see these university students going to cafe in downtown Taman Melaka Raya and many other parts of the town to take a moment out of their busy studying and “exam” schedule, gossiping and usually with aimless objectives. They should be studying or discussing in school library. But they choose to have an easy and relaxing moment with their “friends”. It is a huge difference you will see in these local university students and university students in the western world. They feel lonely away from home and they are desperate to find partners and friends to fill in the vacuum in their heart. Some of them who are fortunate that their homes are not too far away, will go back to their mommies and daddies for a good indulgence during a two-day weekend break.

IMHO, these teenagers have been excessively pampered by their caring and loving parents to the extent that ignorance, naiveness, carelessness and senseless mind have developed in these precious “children” of the wonderful parents.

Last night chat and the brutal crime have inspired me to write this post/essay which I think it will be a good reading material and food for thoughts for some good and wise samaritans to realize what the hell is going wrong in our society. I also hope those ignorant, naive, senseless and obnoxious folks will open their eyes and hearts after reading this article and realize the danger and begin to make a change in their attitudes so make our society/world a better place to live.

I noticed some beautiful flowers and plants along the way so I took some pictures of them to share here.

Too bad I have no idea the name of the plants. If anyone knows, please share here using the comments. Thanks.

The bud of this Cycad is really huge. Cycad is one of my favorite plant. I used to have a few at home but they did not flourishe. Whenever new bud (small) is growing, it got chewed up by caterpillars. I gave away some and left one in a pot when we remodeled our garden last month.