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...

Well, if you have been following, I have given you a fair dosage of my encounters. I may write about it again if I recalled other experiences that are worth retelling. In conclusion, the most important question is - are there ghosts? If you are an atheist, you do not believe in God but some atheist believe in the devil. This is a bit strange because even the devil believe in God. There is always light and darkness. You can't make darkness darker as darkness is simply the absence of light just as hatred is the absence of love. There is always a constant battle going on between good and evil and this resides in all human hearts too. Very often, the devil need not rear its ugly face to frighten people. The devil can use stealth, cunning and deceit or it just use your greed, ego and pride and you become used and spent. You play into his hands and fall prey easily by means of temptation and temptation can come in any form and at any time. Why do I say this? Because oblivious to...

When I was in primary school, playing marbles was quite an in-thing. We do it in school all the time - before and sometimes after. At times, we became so sharp, we can hit another marble from quite a distance. Some friends would recommend the 20 cents type that are supposed to be superior than the 5 or 10 cents type and you have to go to certain shops to get it. Of course the expensive ones can crack up the cheap ones. Then one day, a joker came with a ball bearing.....   At home, children played with those colourful types that some folks used to decorate their flower vases or fish tanks and we all knew what it is like when some one drops marbles onto the floor as the marbles would scatter, bounce then roll all over the concrete floor and if you were living below an apartment, you will have irritating noises all over the ceiling. I am sure that many of you have experienced such a phenomenon at one time or another and perhaps all the time, even now. Maybe you didn...

Dimly Lit Kampung If you were not born during my time, you may never realised that in those days Singapore was much dimmer and not as brightly lit as today. There were kampungs where there were only lights at strategic places and you still have to walk a long way in the dark to get home. I used to have relatives and friends who lived at such places including at Bishan where there were attap houses and they walked in these dimly lit and dark places daily. We lived in a block where the highest floor is three storey high and on both sides of the stairway one unit each. There were two similar rows like this so the entire block has 18 units. Right behind our block was a kampung that if you walk all the way through, you will reach Potong Pasir. These blocks were constructed almost like those you would find at Prince Charles Crescent. I have an uncle who lived in this kampung with his mother and grandmother, both very strong women for their age. They were always fond of and very kind...

The Chinese 7th month Hungry Ghost Festival is here soon. When I was little, I was confused and befuddled so I asked an innocent question and got pounded by elders for being disrespectful. All I said was if the people we knew went to Heaven after they have passed on then how come they got released from Hell during the 7th month?  Yet I have know of people who are said to have the third eye as they see "things" that normal people don't and so they have told me that during the 7th month, they don't like to look around as from what they saw, they were unsure if they are humans or things from  another dimension, from the twilight zone:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKmySdCD77Y&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ8Mp_08rwk  (Manhattan Transfer) We have also heard those scary stories on Rediffusion or watched ghost story on television: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGNt69zZx1Q    (Ghost Story, TV) or simply eavesdroppin...