Thursday, October 22, 2009

Tough gets going

This is for a week where all sorts of bad things have to come together. Feeling mentally drained. Overwhelmed. Fortunately I belong to the sort who is easily inspired (or the d-advocates may say, manipulated) by all sorts of maxims of life, like the following: when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. (Maybe it's because of Billy Ocean, but that's another story).

Or maybe I like to think of myself as tough. It's a man's ego. It's the same ego that you will never catch me confessing that I'm emo. Not that I am emo la, just stating figuratively.

According to the Taoist calender, the year is a bad one for myself, due to the alignment of the constellations in outer space. Fan4 tai4 sui4. I think Taoism as a philosophy has been too overlooked because of its receptiveness to Chinese superstitious folk beliefs. Yet you probably won't have many of your modern day technology without Taoism, for many advanced computations behind some of these modern-day inventions are based upon the I-Ching. It may (or may not) supposedly be a bad year but I think Fate and how you live your life is ultimately decided by mankind themselves. Not on some movement of the stars.

I think spirituality is not a dirty word, nor does the lack of it puts you upon a pedestal of arrogance. I think everybody at different stages would require different forms of spiritual refuge. That's why I see it perfectly fine and necessary to have diverse forms of faith and creed. You can never have an one-size-fits-all solution to everything in this world.

And there is still a lot of work for me to do, in terms of my spirituality. I am a strong subscriber to Theravadan Buddhism because it borders very closely upon atheism. In fact, I will even call it atheistic. An atheistic religion is itself an oxymoron to many, but not to myself. I see spirituality as a quest to strengthen your mind and to soothe the monster within you, ultimately removing it. Pacify and put out all the flames of anger and hypocrisy. It is never possible to live a life that is wholly blameless. I see myself still constantly falling into the faults of anger and hypocrisy and on hindsight, it has been a real disappointment. Something to work on still.

As for the obstacles that keeps popping up, what to do? Just sing along to



For a more suitable rendition for our generation, try Boyzone (RIP, Gately):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMgaq6H6kD0 (embedding disabled)

I think I hear you when you say "when the going gets tough, the tough gets going"

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