"Journey to the East"

In pursuit of knowledge,
every day something is added.
In the practice of the Tao,
every day something is dropped.

- Dao De Jing, Ch. 48

For the past seven years, I have been on a "Journey to the West", in pursuit of knowledge -- Reason, Science, Modernity, and Progress. At 17, I headed West from China to Germany. At 18, I went across the Atlantic to college on the East Coast of the US. Four years after that, I moved further West to the San Francisco Bay Area to live and work.

The Journey to the West is not over, nor will it ever. But as this pilgrim of knowledge heads further and further West, he has encountered more and more of the perils and contradictions of this path. At the edge of its logical limit, West turns into East; the "pursuit of knowledge" turns into "the practice of the Tao", into the longing for wisdom, for embodiment, for returning home, for rediscovering what he has left behind at the beginning of the Journey.

Pilgrimage Prep: Gift Ecology and Financial Transparency

Of all that I have learned over the past two years, one of the most important is Gift Ecology. Thus, a key intention of the upcoming pilgrimage (of bicycling around the globe, hereafter referred to as "Pilgrimage") is to deepen into the experiments of Gift Ecology.

Our dear friend and teacher, Nipun, has courageously lived and thoroughly reflected on Gift Ecology for decades. As a toddler on this path, I will just quote that Gift Ecology is "a shift from consumption to contribution, transaction to trust, scarcity to abundance, and isolation to community." Gift Ecology recognizes that there are many forms of "capital", beyond the familiar financial value.

Below, I would like to follow a particular line of inquiry around "financial transparency", within the vast and unfolding world of Gift Ecology, in order the lay the foundation for further living that truth.

Pilgrimage Vows: A First Draft

What makes a journey a pilgrimage? Many things, of course, but a journey without vows could hardly qualify as a pilgrimage. Vows, not as an end in themselves, or as dogmas to obsess with, but as sincere intention, proper protection, necessary boundaries, and wise choices.

Below is the first draft of the vows that I am taking for the upcoming pilgrimage. A work in progress, and feedback are always appreciated.

Reflections From Recent Meditation Courses

Recently returned from a 10-day + Satipatthana Sutta combo meditation sit. I signed up for the back-to-back sits, creating a 25-day of my own, because it had become clear that the dullness and agitation of my mind required longer “pressure cooking” than a regular 10-day :) I also realized how weak my samadhi (concentration of mind) was, and thus held the intention to strengthen my practice so that I could maintain the daily sits when I go on the bicycling pilgrimage for the next 2-3 years.

Would like to share some reflections as gratitude and as reinforcing of the learnings.

China at a Tipping Point: Ecological and Spiritual Awakening

There is the China we hear about in the news: largest economy in the world; lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty and into urban areas; largest CO2 emitter; entrenched corruption; toxic air; poisoned food and water; growing disparity; political uncertainties; global expansion and entanglement…

Yes, that’s perhaps all true. But, on my recent 4-week trip across the country, I saw a different China – different from my impression just a year ago, and different from what I thought I knew. Yet deep down, it felt strangely familiar.

I sensed an ecological and spiritual awakening in the country, at a tipping point. I saw countless people and groups doing their small and inspiring parts. Many of them do not know each other. But they are essentially doing the “same work”: being the change they want to see in the world.

Below are some snapshots of the emerging landscape of change.

Rain Flower Hut: 300+ gift-ecology, vegetarian cafes in China

Starting about a year ago, here and there, I start to hear mentions of a blossoming vegetarian restaurant network in China, called Rain Flower Hut (Yu Hua Zhai 雨花斋). I heard it was started by an old Buddhist monk (now called the Rain Flower elder by many), who gave his whole life’s savings of 50,000 Yuan (about USD 8,000) to create a free, all-volunteer-run, vegetarian cafe for the elderly and (financially) poor members of the community. And the model spread across the entire country like wildfire – or more appropriately, like rain and flower!

Having been a volunteer at Karma Kitchen, a pay-it-forward restaurant in Berkeley, I am eager to experience firsthand the sister endeavor in my homeland :)

Depart Again, To Return Home

We shall not cease from exploration, 

and the end of all our exploring 

will be to arrive where we started 

and know the place for the first time.

Not knowing

It is an uncomfortable place to be, not knowing “what am I going to do in life.”

To have the leisure of pondering this question, is already a privilege that one can not take lightly. To have options, none of them a bad one, is an even more precious gift -- and a first world problem.

Over the past year, I have been answering this question in the negative, through a process of elimination. “I don’t want to do this.” “No, not that one, either.” And on and on. 

But, there’s only that many negative answers one can give, and only that many months of inaction one can endure, before the obvious ultimatum arrives: so, what exactly do you want to do?

Knew It, Start Again

I am tempted to say that “I knew it.”

After college, I chose the safe and rational path of going into the business world -- corporate environmental sustainability consulting, to be precise. It offered a “real job” (comprehensible and acceptable by family acquaintances back home in China), steady income, health insurance, work visa, a deck of hip business cards printed on 100% recycled paper, and a platform to “change the world for the better.”

However, deep down, my gut knew that this is not it. If you ask me since when have I known that I would leave this work, I would say, “before I started.”