While impatiently awaiting my favourite TV series, "Heroes", "Medium", and "Desperate Housewives" to resume running after their season breaks (why all at the same time???!), I have to make do and keep myself entertained every night with old shows, like...

... The Eight Immortals ...

(Hong Kong TV Series "The Eight Immortals" circa 1985)

Well, I bought the above series VCDs sometime back for my Dad, and later on Cousin Hua, when they were still around, but after they'd both passed away, I kinda lost the discs until now...

It was great fun looking back at this TV series, which I was pretty fond of in my childhood days, and seeing how things were done in the good ole days of simple Television...

And I have always loved mythology, doesn't matter if it's Greek, Egyptian, India or Chinese... I love them all! And "The Eight Immortals" has always been a popular story about 8 separate individuals in ancient China who attained the Tao of Enlightenment, and ascended into immortal deities...

Just like how "Heroes" is about ordinary folks evolving into superhumans with their individual special powers, "The Eight Immortals" tells about how these eight characters gained immortality and became special...

In a weird sychronistic turn, just as I finished watching all 30 episodes of "The Eight Immortals", I turned on the TV this afternoon and discovered that Channel 8 is telecasting a rerun of its 1999 TV series...

... Dong You Ji - The Eight Immortals ... 

(Singapore TV series "Dong You Ji - The Eight Immortals" circa 1999)

I would love to act in a show or play about these Eight Immortals, and given a choice, I'll like to play either Lv Dong Bin (with his duo swords), Han Xiang Zi (his magic flute) or even the crippled Tie Guai Li (with healing powers). It'll be such fun!

Okay, on a serious note, one of the lessons I learned from watching the Hong Kong version, is this...

Wu Wei (Non Action)

This roughly translates into a way of life that is in harmony with Nature. Some find equivalence in the saying "go with the flow"...

Wikipedia explains it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei

An excerpt goes:

"Taoist philosophy recognizes that the universe already works harmoniously according to its own ways; as man exerts his will against the world he disrupts the harmony that already exists. This is not to say that man should not exert will. Rather, it is how he acts in relation to the natural processes already extant that is critical."

In a way, I am practicing "Wu Wei" too. Will explain more when I have the time, but right now, I need to just chill and "do nothing"...

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Well, there is much to be said about the topic of "Reincarnation", but we're not discussing it here today. Rather, I'll like to share the following music video of the same title, performed by the controversial Tibetan lama (monk), Singa Rinpoche...

REINCARNATION 

More info about Singa Rinpoche and his music and his controversy here: CLICK HERE!

Personally, I think releasing contemporary pop music albums and music videos to promote Buddhism is a rather good idea, in this day and age...

He's received much criticism by purists for his flamboyant lifestyle and dressing, but if the message he brings across to the modern world is a positive and enlightening one, then he has done a good job...

As I mentioned in Blackhumour's blog (thanks for sharing this video), perhaps it's his destiny was to share the teachings of Buddhism through contemporary media...

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Early in the morning, Bryan called and asked me to join Ian and him at his place for breakfast, before heading out to the temple for prayers and blessings...

Here's our breakfast, a traditional Hakka dish prepared by Bryan's mother...

After eating, we made our way over to Arumugam Road's cluster of temples, particularly the Lorong Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple, for our prayers...

(Read Inside If Interested...)

After our prayers, I left Bryan and Ian and headed over to my younger sister Alain's place for lunch, together with her kids and my younger brother, Eric...

Been eating so much these few days, but since I don't have the luxury of enjoying all these delicious home-cooked food very often, I'm neither complaining nor stopping just yet!

2 angel(s) visited

Something wasn't quite right today. In fact, I am having some difficulties typing this, and you'll see why soon enough...

After running some errands, I was in a hurry to find a cab that will take me to Kranji Primary School for a school performance. Seeing some empty taxis approaching from a distance, I rushed out from the market to the roadside...

In my haste, I accidentally stepped onto a curb that had some burnt offerings, candles and joss sticks. At the roadside, those cabs came by, but totally ignored me, even though I was frantically waving my arm to flag them...

Almost immediately, I felt a sharp pain in my right foot, as if a giant red ant had crawled into my shoe and bit me...

So I swatted at the pain with my right hand, and was surprised to find instead of an ant or bug, a small white moth flying out from my shoe!!!

Then a empty taxi pulled over and I got on. Halfway through the journey, I picked up a magazine to read, and discovered to my horror that the tip of the middle finger on my right hand was bent!!!

I was stunned, mostly because I didn't feel anything wrong with the finger at all. There wasn't any pain or crick in the bone structure or anything. I have a suspicion it might be a problem with the nerves...

I later realised that this finger was getting a bit weak, as if paralysis was setting in, and by now I need to exert some effort to make it effective like the other fingers...

What is going on???

The school show went pretty well despite my panic. It was pretty fun and having Izzat taking over Fared's role, we had some truly wacky moments on stage... 

Janet had to rush off, but Izzat, Elnie and I kept each other company on the MRT...

I reached Bryan's place at about 3pm and his mum had boiled some delicious herbal drink. Bryan and I soon got to work on the Omhealth products...

I had some time to play with his two adorable and well-fed Guinea Pigs, Chi Chi and No No...

Then Bryan's parents started asking me about my finger, and kind of "agreed" that it was probably due to my stepping on unlucky stuff this morning. His mum made me drink some blessed water which had received some prayers on their family's Guanyin altar, which I did...

When we've got all the aromatherapy stuff cleared, Bryan and I made our way to Suntec City's Eng Wah Cinema and watched the local horror movie, "The Maid"... 

We both felt the show had some truly scary moments, and I found the story pretty local and touching, well acted, and quite worth watching...

On the other hand, I found many striking similarities between "The Maid" and "Strings (Hong Xian)"...

Both had similar elements like the tragic figure in a red cheongsam dress, a girl peeking where she shouldn't be, a son in each story who was "barely there", a woman killed by a speeding car, a father resorting to violence, etc etc...

Even the Chinese fonts on both posters have that similar handwritten feel...

Speaking of similarities, "The Maid" also have something in common with my very first short film called "The Postal Rule", in which I played a postman who, like Mohd Haizad in the movie, delivered mail on a bicycle (is this still in practice??), and was interested to find out why a certain domestic maid has been crying outside her employers' house... hmm...

Oh well, I do love a good horror film, and both these home-grown movies did pretty well in my books...

Anyway, "The Maid" pointed out that there are several things we ought NOT to do during the Lunar 7th Month, which is our traditional Hungry Ghost Festival, such as kicking or sweeping the ashes of burnt offerings and other offensive actions to the spirits...

Is this yet another confirmation that what I had gotten (my bent finger, remember?) had been a punishment from some disturbed spirits due to my carelessness?

That's not all for today, for this evening's episode of "Incredible Tales 2" showed a pregnant woman who had her baby's soul snatched out of her womb because she disturbed a spirit by sitting and spitting on it's old tomb...

I have restrained myself from burning any paper offerings this year, which was customary in my family. But I guess I shall have to make peace with the spirits by doing so tomorrow...

Better to be safe than suffer a bent finger...

2 angel(s) visited

It's here...

The 7th Lunar Month of the year, where in Singapore we celebrate the Hungry Ghosts Festival...

That's when the supposed Gates of Hell would open for an entire month, and allow spirits a chance to return and spook visit the human realm... 

Well, I don't believe there is a 18-storeyed Hell or that a person's spirit gets sentenced upstairs or downstairs after passing on...

What I personally believe is that everything is based on energy. Everything from our body to our thoughts consist of energy...

When a person dies, the energy matter (spirit) leaves the physical realm (body) and enters another dimension (different level of consciousness)...

Whether it is a higher consciousness or lower consciousness depends on the density or lightness of the energy matter...

And no matter if the energy is of a higher or lower consciousness, it all forms part of a Oneness (God/Nature/Universe), where everything is connected by energy... 

Sometimes the energy patterns remain and leave their signature imprints on the physical realm, and the more sensitive of us will then interpret these as "ghosts" or "spirits"...

So I don't really buy the idea that energy patterns will choose only one certain month out of the whole year to visit us. They are here all along...

Or that we have to burn offerings or make sacrifices to connect to them. We are already and will always be connected...

But then again, to devote a special month of rituals and remembrance for our dearly departed loved ones serve to give us sometime to look forward to, and a chance to pay our respects, express our longings and love towards them...

Of course, all this is just my own theory, derived from observations and books, and some of it just came to my mind as I type along, but it all make sense to me...

Does it make sense to you?

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Today had been a very special day...

Shawn had arranged for me to meet a fortune-teller at Beauty World Shopping Centre this afternoon, so I met him and his new girlfriend Peipei there for lunch beforehand...

At the fortune-teller's shop, which also specialises in jade, crystals and beaddress (according to the business card), I noticed that she shared the same Chinese name, and also her first name, as my Mother!

That's a good sign indeed that I'm on the right track, but there's more...

I started first, and I found out several interesting things about myself from the fortune-teller, Irene, and it's all based on the "8 Characters" (八字) of my birthdate, as well as the lines on my palms...

According to her, I...

• have all the necessary Five Elements: Water, Fire, Wood, Earth and Metal, which means I'm pretty much well-balanced...

• would do well in careers in teaching (drama classes?), media (acting? modelling?) and/or food businesses (cafe? coffee shop?), and could consider dabbling in properties (selling my flat?)...

• had experienced my worst luck when I was turning 30 (that's when I quit my job to try acting fulltime and also broke up a long term relationship)...
  

• will be experiencing my best financial luck from right about NOW onwards, especially in 2006, and become more and more successful as I grow older...

• should avoid any jobs that are illegal, eg. Bookie. Ha!...
  

• am not destined to stay in Singapore, and should consider living or working overseas, and Irene suggested, of all places, Australia, especially Southern Australia (Melbourne?)!...

• will do well to move house, ideally next year. Good to start planning now... 

• should move to a unit that is located in the South, with the main door opening out to the South too, as that is my lucky direction...
  

• should chose a unit on higher floors, preferably on the 9th or 18th level, which are "Fire" floors...

• should, after getting the above unit, buy 4D with this new apartment's unit numbers, or phone numbers, which will bring me financial luck...
  

• was born on the "Emperor's Shoulder", indicating I would often be the one taking on family burdens...

• was supposed to settle down with my soulmate, who was the last person I had a steady relationship with, but if I didn't, I might never marry. (I broke up with my last ex but we're still very close, still soulmates!) Instead...
  

• will have plenty of "Peach Blossom Luck", meaning many romantic encounters in my lifetime...

• need to beware of health problems relating to the urinary areas and kidneys (as in I should use the bathroom when I need to)...
  

• should wear more Yellow, Black, Blue or Brown coloured clothes for luck, but overall colour for 2005 is Green, and for 2006 it's Red or Pink...

• have the ability to predict or dream of events before they occur, and have psychic sensibilities...

• am meant to suffer a major surgery when I was born. Indeed I was born with a part of my intestines entangled and a scar still remains from the surgery...
  

• am born protected by Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy, and should often pay respects to her...

• need to do more prayers and donation offerings to temples, as I owed these in my past life...

• need to assist my late parents' souls to pass on smoothly to the next life by paying for these prayers under my own name...

• have brought home a female spirit, during my younger days, which is still residing in my current house! Could she be the one playing with my electric toothbrush? It would be wise to invite a monk or priest to pray over this spirit so she could move on to her next life. For now, I'll just let it be...
  

• should consider changing my current Chinese name by consulting another master (she recommended one at Clarke Quay area)...
  

That's about it, which turned out to be quite a lot of information with just my birthdate and my palms. And almost everything turned out pretty accurate as had happened or as I had planned... 

For my life purposes and destiny, Irene consulted a beautiful traditionally illustrated "Book of Three Lifetimes" (三世书) that contained plenty of complicated words and text that served as an almanac of sorts...

And it didn't cost me an arm or leg, for all that took me just S$40, which was $20 for the "8 Characters" reading, and $20 for the Palmistry...

Peipei had her reading right after me, and much of it appeared to be accurate too, and matched those of Shawn's. They're meant to be together, at least for now! LOL

For those who might wish to pay a visit to this motherly yet candid and chirpy fortune-teller, here are her contacts:

Irene Chong

S & A Shop 缘晶轩

144 Upper Bukit Timah Road

#01-K6 Beauty World Centre

Tel: 64691187 (Appointments) 

Daily 12.30pm to 8pm, Close on Sundays

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For a change, I decided to do a 7-Card Reading for this week using The Bright Idea Deck again, indicating what I should be aware of from Monday to Sunday.

Out of the 78 cards in the deck, I have randomly picked 7 cards, and amazingly indeed, 4 of them turned out to be cards I have picked over the past few days!

Here they are...

Monday:

Green Feeling - Comfort (a person sleeping comfortably leaving all cares behind...)

Tuesday:

Trump 9 - Experience (a learned man sits chained amidst his achievements, and it's his own fault...) 

Wednesday:

Blue 4 - Restlessness (a boy is distracted by other leisurely activities and doesn't pay attention to some instructions for his well-being...)

Thursday:

Red Feeling - Collaboration (a person makes a firm decision during a discussion and gains supports...)

Friday:

Blue 8 - Dissatisfaction (a person leaves behind lucrative issues and heads for better prospects elsewhere...)

Saturday:

Green 3 - Expression (a painter paints herself many times and finally added new items to liven the painting...)

Sunday:

Trump 3 - Nurturing (a motherly figure sits amidst a garden offering some tidbits, while a doorway stands right behind...)

I am no mathematician but I am sure the odds are extremely high against my randomly selecting 7 cards and getting the same 4 that I've just picked the week before...

Perhaps these issues have not been successfully dealt with last week, and are resurfacing again so I can have a second chance...

Well, the card for today, Monday, indicated a lot of sleep and rest and getting comfortable. Indeed, that was all I've been doing today... 

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For 9th July 2005, I have again selected three cards from the Bright Idea Deck...

1st, the Topic Card, something I need to know or be aware of:

Red 8 - Response (a person adeptly catches a falling object just in time while others look on...)

2nd, the Reason Card, why this topic is important today:

Green Feeling - Comfort (a person who manages to feel comfortable sleeping anywhere, even perched atop a tree and far away from home...)

3rd, the Action Card, a suggestion for what I can do:

Blue 8 - Dissatisfaction (a person packs up and leaves a financially secure job behind...)

My interpretation goes:

I should keep alert and respond and react to anything, as this way I will be able to find comfort and peace of mind, and a possible way would be to get ready to move on to new adventures where I would feel better...

Stay tuned... 

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This is my 3-Card Reading for 8th July 2005...

1st, the Topic Card, something I need to know or be aware of:

Trump 13 - Passage (a depressed man bemoans the passage of time, yet it is time that allows all things to grow into being. In his hands, he holds the key to different doors and options which could set himself free...)

2nd, the Reason Card, why this topic is important today:

Trump 3 - Nurturing (in front of a door, a matronly lady - who looks very uncannily like my late Mother - sits amidst the flower blossoms she had cultivated and offers a plate of cookies she has baked...)

3rd, the Action Card, a suggestion for what I can do:

Blue 4 - Restlessness (a motherly figure was teaching a little boy some safety rules, but the boy was distracted by other kids playing with the sands of time...)

My interpretation goes:

 I have been dwelling too much on the past even as I hold the key to different options in life, and one of these options would allow me a glimpse back to a time when my Mother would provide for everything I'll ever need. But I often neglected her teachings and warnings, and might end up distracted and restless in life...

Can't wait to see what the day brings forth... 

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