www.Go To The Mountain - Musings of a Potential Guru

This time of the year is terrible for me. First the haze then at times the Sumatran squall. Now it is the Hungry Ghost Festival with burning and all. Haze, smoke, weather change is killing me through my ultra-sensitive nose. Fortunately, Indonesians do not practise burning during the 7th month or we will become the walking dead. If I got hit by a bad bout of allergic rhinitis and you saw me on the street, you might think I just walked out from the gate of hell. Then you see me holding a glass of beer and you know I am human.  Those who drink too much are called 酒 鬼 (jiu gui). They say you should not go swimming around this time because the 水 鬼 will drag your leg and pull you down to drown you. Then those who were DOM (dirty old men) may have become "hum sup kwai". Then you have the hungry ghosts or yao gui - words used to describe greedy people.  You see some Chinese people like to have a lot of Gods as we have many types of ghosts. I wonder if Chinese ghosts wi...

( Since my last publication till now, a total of 45 countries have visited. I welcome the latest friends and readers from Belgium, Israel, Italy, Slovenia and the Ukraine.) Next time you walk past a big tree take a look at its roots. Very often we see a small tree but down below the surface the roots can go a long way spreading deep and extensively throughout the ground and when you see a big tree you can imagine how much deeper and more extensive its reach. The roots can be so strong that sometimes it cracks up cemented ground and makes man-made path uneven. Much like an iceberg. What we often see is only the tip of the iceberg. Just like our teeth, when you go to the dentist in the old days, the place looked hard and cold. Throw in the stern look of the dentist and drilling sound, it was small wonder that most people fear the visit to the dentist. Even adults cringed. Besides, in the absence of high tech x-ray machines, they could only try their luck if i...

What Is Fear? Fear is a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence and imminence of danger. It is state or condition marked by such a feeling. It is an emotional response to a perceived threat. Actually, it is an in-built basic survival mechanism. It is an instinct. We all have fears. Fear of the monstrous cockroaches, lizards and some people even fear cats or dogs. Others fear simple things like water because they can't swim while some are afraid of aliens and UFO. Lots of people are afraid of the dark because they think there are ghosts waiting to devour them. Students fear exams or suffer from exam fatigue. Lots of people fear they have no money or do not have enough, yet when they have more or too much they fear again of losing it. Too much fear and it becomes a phobia. Why do people fear and what exactly is fear? How do we overcome it? Or at worse get used to it and make fear your friend. "F ear is the main source of superstition and one of the main sourc...

I was asked: "Do men look for other partners when their wife reached menopause". I have to ponder over it. Is this a sex question? A marriage question? A question of commitment or morals? Or simply just a trick question? I think more appropriately the question relates to "why do men stray?" Is it out of ignorance? Sometimes out of a question, bigger questions are begging. I also should not generalise and be more correct by saying "why do people cheat?" so that there is no gender-biased. Some people don't even have to wait till menopause. Such questions may be prompted when we see the things around us. Haven't you heard that "Women are from Venus and Men from Mars"? Men are physical while women are emotional. When men were boys they were mostly shy in fact they seem more inhibited than girls. So what became of them when they grew up? Most people know what they can or cannot do and because we have a built-in conscience, we too kno...