Jesus Christ

Who is Jesus?

It is an endless topic for discussion, but nevertheless an intriguing one for the last 2000+ years. Some say he is human, some say he is divine.

For the most part of my adult life so far, I have believed in the orthodox, traditional view of who Jesus was. So to me, Jesus was God in flesh, and Jesus was the Son of God. He came and die for humanity because humanity had fallen into sin: God himself had to pay the penalty of mankind's failure, shed the blood of atonement, so that mankind can be redeemed.

The other side of the coin, for me, of course - was 'How do I know what I believe is true"? Can it be false and can it be untrue that whatever I am believing in now is completely a fabrication of imaginative and superstitious who perhaps deified the man Jesus, who possibly lived as a great man but died with a family, as the recent Da Vinci code suggested?

Perhaps that could be true. And if it's true, whatever that I have believed in is false and silly. Whatever that I use to hang on to, I had wasted my life in holding on to.

 But what, and where then, is the solution of Pain and suffering?

Jesus himself said that " I have come that you may have Life, and life to the fullest". I believe he wasn't just referring to the physical , material world. He was probably referring to the spiritual world and our inner world - Do we have peace and love? Is our heart full of strength and joy? Do we have have all the courage to face an uncertain world? Do we feel comforted when things go wrong? Do we have the faith to believe in a better tomorrow when today goes completely haywire?

So Jesus offered an alternative way of thinking. Instead of leaving it to chance, he placed it on HIMSELF. He believed he was THE answer for Humanity's search for love. He placed himself on the conscious path to death - by crucifixion. He had to die, he believed, in order to deliver and save the world from spiritual death, and to give life to mankind.

And of course, there is the Resurrection account. So the gospel tells us that he was crucified, buried, but he rosed again on the 3rd day. He defeated death. He conquered the limitation of death. He arose triumphant....

For one who doesn't believe in this, it is just another story made up by superstitious people.

But for those that believes, it offers a hope - The hope that if Jesus triumph, we can believe in him. If Jesus defeated death, we can place our hope in Him, that we can defeat death. If Jesus demonstrated the ultimate miracle of resurrection, then perhaps our lives doesn't have to be caught up in the quamire of the rat race , of pain, of suffering - but we could, one day, be like him - we can be resurrected triumphantly, spiritual, emotional and physical .......

A point to consider.

Facing the Ghost of our lives

Everyone has a ghost, or multiple ghosts in their lives. No, I do not mean those spooky white stuff that fly around. I mean the negative thoughts in our lives that will destroy us or keep us in the bondage of fear, shame , guilt or pain - if we do not resolve it.

For me, my ghost is that I suffer guilt easily. Perhaps it has to do with my strict Catholic school-upbringing, a strict father, and going through most of my adolescence years in a system of pain and pleasure, punishment or rewards, accoding to my performance. So yes, for the most part of my life, I DID feel that I didn't measure up to many things. And although I have overcome many of those negative thoughts, there are much work today. Perhaps the bible is so true as to say, that we "got to work out our salvation day and night with fear and trembling" - No, I don't think we got to be scared of losing our salvation, but perhaps it does mean that we really to have make a conscious effort - without taking anything for granted - to find that inner peace and connection with God.

So what is "salvation"? I have been thinking for a long time that Salvation probably refers to some kind of life after we die. We imagine that, perhaps there are streets of gold and diamonds, huge mansions where our love ones could gather in peace and harmony. Perhaps that is my vision of paradise - a place of no pain , no suffering. But recently I got an insight from my brother......who challenged me to those thoughts. He argued , and I eventually gave in, that Salvation is a present-tense state. We all need to be "saved" from some kind of negative forces - Feelings of pain, depression, guilt, shame, lust, insecurity, self-destructive thoughts, etc. So we all need to be saved , and be delivered from our current state (of less-than-ideal-situation) to a state of bliss (ideal situation).

We all need to find that state of peace, love, joy . We all therefore need to be saved, everyday, every moment we face negativity and everytime our ghost resurfaced.

Sanity

Sometimes the difference between sanity and in-sanity is small. Can we be so sure as to say someone who looks 'normal' by our standards, is sane? while another character, while 'wierd' to us, may be completely sane and happy inside, even reaching the point of total disregard of other's opinions?

The worse is when one knows where he/she stands, thinks it's wrong, but repress it inside their minds. As Albert Estein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again"

So what is on your mind, or my mind, that we keep repeating /reminding ourselves, but that makes us unhappy, unhealthy, depressed or upset? Sometimes we choosed the repetitive, self-destructive mode of thinking without even realising it - and when we do realise it, but not do anything about it, that to me is the start of insanity....but are we any more insane than another, and are we any more sane than the rest?

Cest La Vie

Lots has changed since I last wrote. Lots.

Life is never certain. You really, really never know what you are going to get. And probably just when you think you are getting what you are getting you probably realise that you are losing it, or experiencing it at a different level. Well, what is certain anyway?

I'm reminded how important it is to find an Anchor in our soul. Because with anchor in our lives, we become very lost, we get swept by the winds and changes of life. And if there is no anchor, we lose sight of the bigger picture when crisis or unexpected things happen. For some people, their anchor could be their Faith , their religion. For some, maybe they don't have an anchor, so they drift according to the winds of change.

Anyway - So many things has changed. I now work for an American company, the largest Computer chip maker in the world (Hint, they love Blue). Fast moving, aggressive, unbureacractic, but a complete and utter maze in some sense. I'm nevertheless enjoying the process - it has never been so exciting and scary at the same time. I have moved on from my previous relationship (Long distance) to be with a girl in the same city as me. After 2 years of leaving the corporate world into the world of business development, sales and marketing and start-up in a torturous and frustrating business environment, I am now back to the corporate world where I do feel very much at home but feeling the heat stronger than ever. Well, what is certain in life anyway? I'm just going to try my best.

I'm hoping to find a greater connection between my intellectual understanding and the "Greater Being". I want to find a balance in life - a "Spirtual awakening". I'm not sure what the best road to take is, but I do believe strongly that Faith should be our Anchor......Job changes all the time. You could be rich today and poor tomorrow - Financially. You could have lots materially but none tomorrow. But I think with Faith, your belief and experiences in life goes beyond the material and the physical - and that is much more endearing and meaningful. I have tried my best to understand christianity. I have tried my luck with Taoism and Buddhism. I am both driven by Pain and Pleasure. But I know I have to keep on searching........to ask myself "What is the ultimate purpose of life for me on earth while I'm working the journey of life?" I think everyone is different.

I will continue this journey - the journey of searching, finding, and discovering.

Watching Jay Chou on MTV, I was reminded of a scene in Shanghai about 4 weeks ago. It was just right before Christmas and I was with 2 friends - one Taiwanese and one Asian American - in Guandi, a club whose partners include people like David Wu Dawei, that "poser" Taiwanese-American whose poster boy face has been splashed from underwears, suits and ties, to English training CDs.

Anyway a bunch of early 20something year old kids were getting ready for the big competition - It was what I saw on "8 miles" , the movie featuring Eminem. Basically you have 2 people trashing out at each other (it could be blantantly  racist for who you care) by rapping according to a predescribed beat...

So off they go. First it was a white boy rapping against a chinese boy. Chinese boy was "KO-ed" in no time. Then interestingly another Chinese guy came up, and he lambasted the white boy. The interesting thing was he was able to rap both in Mandarin and in English, whereas the white boy was able to do so in English. I think he (Chinese boy) manage to get the crowd excited - soon the crowd was roaring with estasy...!

What I found really interesting was the fact the Chinese music scenes are now increasingly "fused" with American pop , R&B, and Rap. Of course this phenomenon isn't new, but I think the expression of it all couldn't be more blantant especially in the last few years. Starting from Jay Chou to Wilber Pan and many others (not so famous), they dance in Afro-American fashion, dressed like a Detroit junkie, and sing in Mandarin Chinese.

I see this as an expression of what will come in the generation to come. As the world continues to integrate and 'fused', as globalisation takes its natural course and as China speed towards becoming the largest economy in the world, many cultural expression in the world will take on Chinese characteristics, or Chinese popular culture in itself will take on more and more of western and other features.

The driving force of it all - probably economics.

"Yo yo yo, whassup man, dont give me no shit dude..." is now "yo yo yo, gan ma ya ni"...