Chinese wedding - Chen Ning and Regan

Chen Ning and Regan invited me to their wedding.  I felt so lucky.  A friend drove four of us out to the country to Reagan's small village.  It was a bright sunny day and we drove a couple of hours through rural countryside.
When we arrived we were, of course, treated to snacks and Baizhou.  People were very welcoming.  I think no one in the village spoke English.  It was a chance to be present at an important event in their lives where normally you would never find a foreigner.

The main street had been set up with red carpet, pink heart archways and a stage. I learned to wish the happy couple a long and prosperous life and children.  This is not too hard to say in Chinese, but it took a while to get it right.  It was Chen Ning who invited me.  She looked gorgeous in her Western style white wedding dress.  They gave each other rings.   Apparently they had opted for Western clothing; although most of the event had a more traditional Chinese flavour.  There were lots of fireworks and speeches. A small child did a cute dance.  There were also traditional introductions of the bride to the parents of the groom and the groom to parents of the bride.  According to tradition she is leaving her family and going to live in his home where she will help look after his parents.

That's the tradition.  In fat they both live together in Xi'an.  There were so many photos.  I got myself in line for a photo with both of them together.  A wedding is so universal - always a joyful occasion.  This one was no exception.

There was soooo much food.  Its all cooked out of doors and certain dishes are obligatory - those are chickens on the right.  A lot of the cooking is done in huge pots over a coal fire.
Everything I tried was delicious; although I do have a personal rule to avoid eating the feet of anything.

Transcendentalism

 "Amidst materialists, zealots, and skeptics, the Transcendentalist believed in perpetual inspiration, the miraculous power of will, and a birthright to universal good. He sought to hold communion face to face with the unnameable Spirit of his spirit, and gave himself up to the embrace of nature's perfect joy, as a babe seeks the breast of a mother." - William Channing, sometime before 1844.
In the 1800s in the USA a diverse group of talented writers and artists were given the label 'Transcendentalists'.  They included Thoreau of Walden Pond fame, Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass  and Emerson's 
"Standing on the bare ground,--my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space,--all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God".
"What 19th century American poetry have to do with a retired English teacher in Xi'an, China 2015?" I hear you ask.  Good question.  I love it when my students start to question things I say.  It means they are actually thinking.  19th Century America had vast expanses of rich, luxuriant nature to inspire sublime poetry.  21st century Xi'an has vast crowds of noisy people bustling about, often enshrouded in thick clouds of smog.
     Chinese cities,  in a graphic and tangible fashion, embody many of the challenges facing the modern world.  There are far too many people; they consume countless kilo-watts of non-renewable energy; they pursue new and shiny  material possessions with alarming avidity; they produce mountains of non-recycled garbage on a daily basis.  Available resources are being rapidly consumed and the surrounding environment is becoming increasingly polluted.  The government makes the appropriate noises of concern, but power rests with decision-makers whose continuing prosperity depends on society continuing with more of the same.  I know its not a new story; many are the mighty civilizations that have destroyed themselves through their own behaviour. To a greater or lesser extent this painful reality is mirrored in every 'civilized' city on Earth - it just happens to be very obvious in Xi'an.  Collective humanity seems to lack the moral strength to change.
     Where can we find salvation, or even hope?  Don't count on any particular religion.  Some of our cruelest, most brutal, wantonly destructive wars have been sanctioned (if not caused) by religious zealotry.  Religions need to incorporate certain behaviours in order to survive; behaviours which attract to ordinary human beings - lust for wealth, fame and power..  In doing so they inevitably reflect ordinary human failings.  The original goodness of the founders always becomes submerged over time. 
So, back to the Transcendentalists.  Xi'an is my Walden Pond.  I meditate on the traffic.  There are dancing aunties exercising in the morning, laughing students seeking their lunch at noontime and weary commuters hustling homewards in the evening.  The shopping centres and malls are ubiquitous and  massive.  I'm surrounded by advertisers, but since everything is written in Chinese....I'm immune. A retired western person is uniquely situated to be 'In the world, but not OF the world.'  Because I only teach a little English - only to those that request it.  Because I have enough money to survive and I'm not craving more.  Because the pressures from home are far away and the customs of the land where I am living have no hold on me.  Because I'm moved by curiosity, by wonder, and sometimes by gratitude. The unnameable Spirit of my spirit has room to play.  And when....after some time....you know that personal preferences are arbitrary, inaccurate and fleeting.... you realize that the natural response of one human being to another....is love.
      There are about 10 million people in Xi'an.  Walt Whitman would see 10 million leaves of grass, all bound within the same root system so that there is no particular significance in what happens to one leaf. When you feel this truth the feeling is not death, it's joy.  
       Maybe you don't believe me.  Belief and non-belief don't matter for the leaves of grass.  They are waves in the thought patterns that blow like drifting winds from one cranium to another.  They come, they stay awhile and then they go.  See, here comes another...is it strong or is it gentle?  You cannot hold onto the wind.  Instead, just feel its caress.  Learn to say 'hello' with welcome and 'good bye' with gratitude.  See yourself in another yourself and laugh with the wind as it plays over the grass.
     

Yuan jia cun

Sometimes I feel there must be some guardian angels working full time for me.  The ladies in my adult class invited me for a trip to Yuan jia cun.  Its about an hour from Xi'an near the tomb of Taizong, one of the Middle Kingdom's greatest Emperors.  But our goal was not the tomb.  Yuan jia cun means the village of the Yuan family.  Formerly they were very poor, but after the new 'openness'

of the 1980s they gradually transformed.  The headman of the village found out that people from the city like to have somewhere to go in the country to relax.  So he encouraged development of traditional crafts such as weaving, spinning, making tofu, various delicious soups, handicrafts and music. It worked.  People came by the thousands and they spent money.  This success allowed a considerable expansion of the village supplementing ancient buildings with new structures designed in traditional styles.  There are several hotels, one of which

has beds heated by fires that are lit in the base; traditional furniture with modern bathrooms.
On the left is a place for spinning and weaving of cotton.  I tried my hand at weaving, but I am very bad at it.  Takes a lot of practice to co-ordinate feet and hands.  I think to make one meter of cotton would take me a long time.  The traditional cart was supplied with a number of weapons, so Lucy is

demonstrating her ferocity with a sword. The streets are all paved and lined with many shops selling beef noodle soup, sheep's stomachs, flat bread and other delicacies such as fried scorpions.
         
I was very impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit that has brought prosperity to the village.
There are lots of signs from the communist era - pictures and statues of Mao and traditional attire.  On the right is one of the longest swings I've seen.  Lucy and Lili managed to get it working, but I'm not quite convinced it would pass a safety inspection.
We were very lucky with the weather- bright sunshine and blue skies.  Even though the air was a bit cold we were able to eat outside and explore in comfort.  Not bad for a December afternoon.  In the evening we had hotpot in one of the restaurants of Lucy's family.
The ladies practice their English very well, but it was also a great chance to work

 on my Chinese.  Many thanks to Lucy, Lili, Ana and Grace for a golden day in the heart of China which will live in my memory for a long time.

Peace - Be still

Whenever people talk about stress I feel that there's some information about the mind that everyone ought to be told.  I'm presenting it here in the form of three questions that kids might ask in school if they had be taught to ask questions instead of being given lists of politically correct answers to produce on demand.
1)  How can I get what I want?
      It's a good question, but the answer is,
"You can't."  Sorry.  You can't get what you want because what you want will always be the next thing.  As soon as you get a present you'll start to wonder if someone else has a better one and what is the next present.  People always want something.  You will never get a present that is so good it will end the wanting.  In fact, getting presents may actually increase the wanting.  You keep thinking and your mind is made up of thoughts.  Wanting stuff is the nature of your mind - that's what it does.  If you can stop a moment and watch the flow of thoughts you'll see how it keeps thinking about the next big thing to want.  Let's get round the next corner and maybe it will be there.  Let's make more money.  Let's find the right partner.  Sometimes it seems you have got it, but the mind soon finds something new to want.  If you've been paying attention you realize that there must be something else for which you are yearning.  But what is it? What to do?  Can you rise above this eternal drama?
2)   How can I get beyond this cycle of wanting?
"Well, yes actually you can."  The mind will never stop wanting, but you are not the mind.  Just watch it for a while.  It will lead you in a merry chase.  It will never stop and will continue to weave complicated patterns and get you tangled up in them.  Stop. Wait a minute.  If you can watch the mind that means you are somewhere 'outside' of the mind. Careful with that because it may be another entanglement.  You may feel as if you took off a mask, but then found that there's another mask beneath, and then another, and so on.  The whole drama takes place within a larger context.  Every time you become aware of the drama you also become a deeper player (watching the play of the mind) and in doing so you create a new drama.  Is someone aware of the whole enchilada?  I use the word enchilada because there's no way to really encompass it in words.  Nevertheless, at some level the whole thing takes place within stillness; within emptiness.  You have been curious about the self, but maybe there is no self.
3)  How can there be no self; there is me.  Who am I really?
"That's the most important question you can ask."  Keep asking it.  If there is an answer it cannot be found in the past or in the future.  You want to know who you are NOW - the self that is asking the question.  To know the self there must be a knower of the self which is the one who asks the question.
Its a paradox for the mind, but is there more than the mind?  What if the mind were to become still?
4)  If the mind became still wouldn't I get into a lot of problems?  How could I live?
"You are living now. You are on the intersection between many forces, many thoughts and many feelings. There’s only one present moment for us and we must live it.  We DO live it.  Remember that only the present moment exists.  All else is illusion. You have no choice about what is in the present moment; your choice is in how you respond to it. If it is happening, it is supposed to happen.  You respond, but there is no 'i' who is responding.  There is just appropriate action.

The Buddha taught that the cause of suffering is desire, and desire is caused by attachment. Everything changes and there is no self to be attached - it's an illusion.  This doesn't mean death; at least not the death of anything real. Rather than any negative sense it means the casting off of limitations.  Death thou shalt die.
It may seem as if these are only thoughts.  Yes, well, maybe.  Everything we experience is in the form of thoughts.  You are the victim of the patterns of thought.  You mistake thought for reality.  We do not try to create a dream world, we try to become aware of the dream world in which we live so we can begin to awaken.

Random shots of daily life

The view outside my apartment

Its great to have goals, but Life is what happens along the way.

Not a terrorist shooting a luck lion

I came to encourage music education

I had no idea how the photo on the right would look when I took it.  The smoke is from fire crackers. These guys are simply heading into the store.

Unexpected lunchtime bonus

 I was invited to speak to parents at a music school.  They actually paid me! (I might have done it for free.)  The girls on the right were awesome.  They are celebrating the opening of a new store.  I think in Xi'an you can find someone for everything.

Love this photo.  He is six.

The little guy on the left played with such confidence!  My job was to tell the parents that they should keep the kids practising regularly because it will be very good for them in the future.

I must head off for my lunch in the nearby plaza.  I usually have a subway sandwich.  Its surprising how sunny the plaza gets in the afternoon, even though the area is a bit hazy (to put it politely)

Today I used the Ubike to go to a local museum.  I love to look at the ancient Buddha statues.

My usual lunchtime hangout

They continue to dig stuff out of the ground in the area around Xi'an.  The museum has very many treasures like the one below.  Only a fraction of them are actually on display.

This gorgeous 6th century Buddha was dug up near Xi'an in the 1970s.