創意會自然展現

昨晚是國曆新年跨年之夜，桃園楊梅的氣溫很冷，晚上伴隨著妻子、同事們飽餐了一頓火鍋之後，感覺到後腦勺有些疼痛，就先去睡了一會兒，然後才在夢中醒來……醒來後仍舊記得，在入睡之前，提醒自己在睡著之前一邊可以想想今天要寫的主題。在夢中，我夢到了自己用鉛筆嘗試著在紙上寫下標題「選一則明確的主題」。就在此時我便醒來了，因為在夢中，想起了平常在寫文章時，都是坐在造型靈巧的iMac G4前面完成的。

搖醒了我的iMac檯燈機，開始記錄思緒，一開始我連思考都沒思考，就在標題列打出「選一則明確的主題」。儘管如此，我依然記得夢中有些模糊的印象，在更改標題之前，原來的標題是「跳脫『掙扎』之四」。而我已經完全想不起其他我在夢中的其他經歷。所以，我現在有兩個主題在我的面前，那該怎麼辦呢？我發現自己被卡在這樣的猶豫裡。我告訴自己，此時正經驗著一個矛盾，無法敲定一個主題，但是也正因如此需要堅持下去，把今天該做的事情做完。我也知道，在最後，主題會自己跑出來……

我決定讓自己再讀一次並且體驗「跳脫『掙扎』之三」所述的幾個過程，才又記得自己其實還滿享受，也正又再一次地經驗著那樣一個蛻變的過程，在此過程中分享自己的心得點滴，而因此不會受到作品主題未定的不安情緒所牽絆。堅持當初所立下的決心讓自己再向前進，也期盼能夠釐清並記錄下所有的思緒「胚騰/pattern」。稍後，我把所想到的東西整理出一個大綱的草稿，忽然間似曾相識地認出那不就是所謂的「腦力激盪/brainstorming」，我學會這個英文字在英文作文課、以及設計的課程裡面。而在現在，想自己給「腦力激盪」下一個定義，就是「忠實地記錄下所有在腦海裡浮出的事物」。

正當還在挖掘整個大綱時，又有一個小小的聲音在腦海中閃過，我靜下來努力地尋找是什麼在嘀咕著。原來是跟「中英文寫作」有關。我依然記得在稍早曾經提起過要寫個這樣的主題，那是關於東西方文化差異的點點滴滴。現在，很清楚地覺知這不是今天的主題，而是另一個延伸主題值得加以著墨，索性就先把它給「剪掉」了！

在繼續往下介紹之前，我想要多分享一些關於腦海中閃過的靈光。有時候它被形容為「謬斯女神的探訪」、或是有名的「天外飛來一筆」。不管我是怎麼稱呼它，總之，這是一件非常明確、而又吸引人的事，至少對我來說是這樣的！我對它的認知是它應該是我們曾有過的生活經驗，只是被遺忘了；或者是在某個正在經歷的生活事件中，無意間它讓我們頓悟到一個巧思，而這個巧思正可以馬上解決一些以往我們無法解決的問題。只要我們在表意識中，對自己無所隱諱，掏空陳積的記憶，「創意會自然展現」，它從不枯竭，而一直地存在於我們的潛意識記憶中，亦或是在一個關鍵的重要時刻裡，我們就可以自虛空中信腦捻來。

找到靈感之後，我知道在最後要針對「胚騰/Pattern」加以著墨，胚騰在英文中有一個意思是象徵著某件事物，而這件事物能夠連結到其他看來似不相干的其他事物，但這正是能夠「匯聚成一個主題」的重要關鍵。到此為止，我已經經驗了前文掙扎過程中的第二到第七個步驟，從腦力激盪、立下大綱、修剪大綱、凝聚創意，而我現在終於能夠進入編輯的階段，做剩下最終的剪貼動作。

在最後，當感覺到發掘不出什麼新鮮事的時候，這又引動了我的一個沈痛的經驗之談：我曾經在遭遇到如此的情況的時候，總讓自己不斷地嘗試能更平靜下來，繼續往內心底處探索，但卻沒有覺察到已在不知不覺間，其實早已挖掘出一份相當的大綱枝葉，只要把大綱再多添幾筆鮮麗的果實，作品慢慢地就會趨近於完成，這時候就是要能懂得如何做一個結束，而不再需要費心地永無止境地挖掘，卻沒有覺知到該進入下一個階段的潤色。此外，在今天的「編輯」過程中，我又覺察到另一件事，那就是，在自己來回不斷地閱讀文章時，必須讓自己隨時「保持空虛」的狀態，這樣才能夠去體會讀者是否能夠意會出我所想要表達的精義。就因為我不只是寫給自己看的，而願能分享自己的所學心得，但這類心得往往是沒有寫在一般的教學課本裡。

今天就差不多是這樣了！此刻，讓我想到且感到好奇的是，明朝的顧炎武在他的「日知錄」中，不知道他到底記錄著哪些他的每日生活經驗與智慧……¶

後記：胚騰是我前幾天在逛書店時，所看到對這個字的創新中文翻譯，一般字典裡的中文解釋，大多直接翻做「樣式」、「圖案」等，咀嚼過胚騰以後，覺得很有意思，中文的字義伴和著英文的原音，表達出「讓萬物奔騰的胚芽」之意，今天也在此與諸君一同分享。

Creativity Presents Itself

It’s the New Year eve tonight, quite freezing out here in Yangmei, Taoyuan. I had a big meal of hot pot with my wife and my colleagues. After the dinner, I started feeling dizzy, so I went to sleep for a short while, and then I woke up from my dream…I remembered, prior to when I went to bed, I told myself to aware something comes up to be my topic today. I dreamed myself using a pencil and trying to write down the topic on a piece of paper, with the title of the topic, “Picking A Right Topic.” I woke up immediately, since I noticed that I’ve been doing the blog in front of my lovely iMac G4.

I turned on my lamp-style iMac and started writing, I put the title to be “Picking A Right Topic” without thinking. However, I remembered in my dream, I changed it from “Free From ‘Struggling,’ Part IV.” I’ve already forgotten what I thought during the sleep. OK, now I have two topics in front of me. What do I do now? I found myself stocking in this hesitation. I told myself that I am experiencing a contradiction of picking a right topic, but I still need work even harder to keep my pace moving, and I know that, eventually, the title will appear by itself…

I decided to go through the same process as I addressed in the “Free From ‘Struggling,’ Part III,” which I realized that I was enjoying of writing it out so that to share my experience. While not stocked from choosing the right topic above, I kept moving on, and wish I could find out the pattern from all the thread I wrote down. Afterwards, I had an outline of my thinking. I recognized that it is the so-called “brainstorming” which I learned its name in my English writing course, as well as my design class. Now I would like to define “brainstorming” as “taking notes of the things flashing the brain.”

While I was digging out my outline, a little flashing thought came to me. It is something about writing in English versus in Chinese. I remembered that I would talk about it some other day. It is about the culture differences of the East and the West. Now, I just recognized that it would not be today’s topic, since it is another issue to amplify. So, just cut it out!

Yet, I would like to fill in more on the flashing. Sometimes people call it "Muse’s visiting," or "inspiration." Whatever it is called, it is something very specific, and very appealing, at least to me! I want to acknowledge that all the flashings might be our own living experiences, but just have been forgotten, or something that we just encountered would trigger an unsolved question in our past, and we can now solve the unsolved problem right away. As long as we hold nothing to hide consciously, Creativity presents itself. It never ends, and exists in our memory subconsciously, or we can just catch it from the air in a critical moment.

Ultimately, I see the last thing I would like to address here–PATTERN. A pattern of something is able to connect something else seemed to be unrelated. That is also something that is able to form a topic. Until now, I’ve been through the steps of 2 to 7 for countless times. From the brainstorming, outlining, cutting, generating creativities, and I finally am able to edit them, or do the copy-and-paste.

Eventually, I could dig out nothing more while focusing on this issue. This reminds me my old experiences. I used to be over calm down to look for something else more when I experienced digging out, but I was not aware the existence of the already-did outline, and just to flourish it. During the editing process, I also noticed something else. I need to keep emptying myself so that I can feel if the readers could understand the writings or not. Because I am not only writing it for myself, I am sharing something that I have learned, and this is something not stated in any tutorial book.

This is the end for today. Now I just wondered how many wise experiences have been recorded in an old Chinese book in the Ming dynasty–「日知錄」, or “A Record of the Daily Knows,” written by Ku, Yen-Wu…¶

跳脫「掙扎」之三

English→Free from "Struggling," Part III

唉，真是忙碌的一天！

今天就要進入尾聲，我仍舊想著今天該寫什麼？在腦海裡檢視著今天做了些什麼事，尋找有哪些事情值得與諸君一提分享的。我一直以為在今日已經過去的廿一個小時中，沒有什麼事情感到特別的。

一如往常，我嘗著讓自己靜心檢視自己，感覺不到很大的煩雜思緒，只覺得有一點點不平靜。就在幾分鐘以前，我還沒有覺察到是什麼事情干擾著我。忽然間，我意識到有個不明思緒逐漸地浮上意識的表面，才注意到這就是今天恰巧可以值得一提的事情。「什麼？」「您不知道是什麼事情值得一提？」哎，繼續往下讀，您應該可以看到那是什麼！

想知道我如何發掘出這份忐忑？不知您依然記得前一篇文章提到過的「煩惱即菩提」？我才發現到這找尋、看清、及去除不平心思的步驟中，真的非常有趣：

1. 忙與盲：記得很久以前張艾嘉曾經唱過的這首歌「忙與盲」，唸起來有些韻律，而那種忙碌又迷茫的感覺，在我們日常生活中一定都有過這種經驗。所以在此也就不再贅述。

2. 生與死：如果當自己知道即將離開這個世界，那想說的遺言會是什麼？當我方才在經歷這個階段的時候，也察覺到其實長久以來就一直想跟大家一起分享屬於我的「忙與盲」心得。

3. 遺物：這世間總是有太多人想從這個世界多得到些什麼，卻只有較少數的人，真正地想過該遺留些什麼給我們的後代子孫。

4. 沒有存積，就不後悔：當沒有任何遺言、或遺物存積在心裡時，也就會感覺到今生無悔。

5. 什麼是「結果」：「結果」在此代表兩層意義，一個是終結忐忑的心；另外一個是去完成工作。完成什麼工作呢？這讓我想起過去我的同事曾經問過我的一個問題，「你怎麼知道你把一件作品完成了？」在那個時候，我一直難以回答她的問題，而我一直到今天剛剛才找到這個答案！

6. 感覺「掏空」：這部份可以呼應第四個段落的「沒有存積，就不後悔」。其實，我剛剛也往返在第四到第六個過程中，直到我把一到七的大綱釐清出來。

7. 蝴蝶：先讓我們看看蝴蝶的DNA是怎麼一回事兒。它的DNA記錄著如何從一個受精卵成長為一隻毛毛蟲，然後最後才又蛻變成一隻蝴蝶。如果我們檢視自己的創作DNA，當我們感覺到想表達的、想完成的都已經去做了的時候，那個新生生命也就完成了！

這又是今晚的一個巧合！我才在幾個小時前，看完一部法國電影DVD "Le Papillon"，中文翻譯做「蝴蝶」。這讓我感覺到那就是個結尾，那就是那種「結束」的感覺。而今天這篇文章的DNA，也彷彿在冥冥中安排著如何經由自己去將它呈現出來！（或這也不是巧合，而是因為想到今晚剛剛看的電影後，乘著「蝴蝶」如何生成的隱喻，藉此也來表達這個過程的結尾。）

就在這整個過程後，我感覺到忐忑的自己才降落在地上，而所完成的工作也在最後全然地攤在意識的表面。這也像著生命一般，真正美麗精彩的是那個過程，不是那個終點，而剛剛上面所描述的一切，也已經儼然成為今日的這篇文章！ ¶

後記：您是否找到了一開始所指的「值得一提」的事情是什麼呢？正是那「忙與盲」的感覺，為今天開啟了這扇門，也是那已經過往的掙扎！

Free from "Struggling", Part III

What a busy day today!

Today is getting to the end. I was just wondering what to write tonight. I checked my memories for what I have done today, and searching for something that is worth to share. I thought there was nothing special in the past twenty-one hours of the day.

As usual, I tried to meditate a while and look into myself. I felt that there was no big noisy thread today, but just a little bit of anxiety. I was not aware what bothers me couple minutes ago. At all of the sudden, something started floating to the surface. I noticed that there is a good match to share my feeling today. "What?" "You don’t know what the good match is?" Well, just keep your reading. You should be able to see it!

How did I dig the anxiety? Do you still remember the “Distress is wisdom” in the previous article? It’s very interesting. I just realized the whole thing of identifying and removing the anxiety to be a sequential process:

1. Busy and blind–There was a popular Chinese song 「忙與盲」sang by Sylvia Chang long time ago. 「忙」means “busy,” while 「盲」equals to “blind.” In Chinese, they share the same pronunciation, which makes reading the title of the song a little rhythm feeling. I believe we all share the same feeling of busy and blindness in our daily life. There is nothing more to address here.

2. Life and death–If I know that I am going to leave this world very soon, what is the envoi of mine? When I was in this stage, I noticed that I would really like to talk about “busy and blind” for a long time.

3. Legacy–Too many people are trying to get something from this world ALWAYS, while fewer people are really thinking what to bequeath to posterity.

4. No hoard, no regret–When there is no hoard of envoi or legacy to leave behind, there will be no regret to leave this world.

5. What is “the End”–“The End” here means both the end of the anxiety, as well as the completion of the work. This also reminds me something I was asked by a colleague, “How can you tell you have finished your creation?” I did not know how to answer her question at that time, but now I just found it today!

6. Sense the emptiness-This recalls the “No hoard, no regret” section. Actually, I repeated the stage 4 to 6 a couple times, and then I outlined the stage 1 to 7 finally.

7. The butterfly–Let’s examine the DNA of a butterfly. Its DNA records how a zygote can grow to a worm, and finally turn into a butterfly. If we examine the DNA of our own, when we leave no hoard of our DNA instructions unfinished, the life is complete!

What a good coincidence of tonight! I accidentally watched a French DVD movie “Le Papillon” hours ago. Le papillon is the butterfly if you do not know the French. I sensed the sign of the ending; it’s the feeling of the “FIN.” The DNA of today’s creation has arranged itself transparently!

After all, I felt that I have landed on the ground, and the finished work eventually exposed to the surface. Just like how life is, the beautiful thing is about its flow, but not it’s ending. And the completed work now is already presented as the above!¶

Post Script: Have you found the good match previously mentioned? The busy and blind feeling has opened the door, as of my struggle today!

Free from "Struggling," Part I

中文→跳脫「掙扎」之一

It must be a good start if one is really committed to do something from its beginning to the end no matter what; however, to keep on track and being unstoppable till completion is another issue. Yet, it is always true when we experience a problem first so that we have the change to solve the problem! If we do not start to do something, we will not encounter any obstacles, and then that is truly miserable. To retrospect these couple days, I felt an inner peaceful joy and steadiness after I started to work on this site, and I did not sense any darkness, horror, or fear; nonetheless, a deep-inside struggle underneath has been hiding and fermenting…

The struggle yesterday has gone like smoke. How did I get rid of it? Please be patient and listen to me. There was one thing bothering me that is to complete an article in both Chinese and English on the same day as my wish. I acknowledged that it is not allowed in the reality that I do not have so much free time to spare. To finish them together on the same day is not easy to accomplish. I was not aware its existence which stopping me to go forward like a reef in the ocean. Hesitation came up from my mind, and the progress was naturally hoarded. I was hesitating and thinking when to write the mirrored English translations? Let’s say, if it is OK to write them some other days, while to find an alternative time to write, the scheduled daily progress might possibly be delayed. When the mirrored translations are not completed, the inner contradiction will grow automatically. Since the contradiction grew inside, the struggle is followed afterwards. Could I finish both together, how shall I make this wish come true? “Distress is wisdom,” says the Buddhism idiom nicely. To explain it in plain English, it can be known as, “The answer of a question is usually sitting inside this question.” Things are turned out to be so struggling that is actually a human nature instinct, and its intension is to alert one to enlighten oneself from that. Let’s say that I am encountering the hidden reef, how should I break the reef and remove the obstacles? Calm down a little bit, and look into the whole thing. If I still followed my current plan to work on this project, the reality is telling me the truth that these tasks are overdriving me. I really hope that I could finish them, but I am incapable of doing that. When my emotion gets interferences, struggle must raise within. I acknowledged the reality, asked myself to work first in Chinese, my native language, and then the speed of writing must be faster. Why shouldn’t I drop in to do this? I’ll just leave the work of translation to its following day, and my wish may come true, while the progress could just be late for one day; thus, there is no hoard. When the cause of struggling is erased, this inner weed of struggle is also removed!

A peaceful mind is very critical. It helps one to filter out unnecessary thoughts.

While observing the whole process of removing struggle, I followed the smooth let-it-be philosophy as usual. For someone who has never sensed this logic, it gets very easy to only see the passive side of it, while lost the flip side of “taking it easy.” During this process, I learned to have the high-flyer land on the ground, and to accomplish my goal step-by-step; thus, I can see it clearly what my next move is…

If you ask me why I insist to write “a mirrored English,” I can write another article to explain it to you targeting to this topic. Well, let’s talk about it some other day!

Post Script:
The experience today is really fabulous. You can see the completed work alternating between modern plain text and classical four-character term (editorial note: in Chinese version only.) Until today, I experienced the ease of writing in the compact form of classical Chinese for the first time in my life. I was trying to write that paragraph in plain text at the beginning. While reading and editing the text back and forth, I discovered that the threads in my mind are countless. I kept changing the sentences, while I couldn’t finish this article consistently. Suddenly, a flash enlightened me, “Why am I not using the compact classical Chinese to write!” I took my action, while focusing on editing the text aequo animo, and tried my best to make the article expressing my mind, but not to contain too much redundant messages. Therefore, I would not fail myself before I finish the work. These are my discoveries and feelings today. What do you think?¶

The Truth about Love

中文→愛的真諦

No matter whether it is the Chinese character 「愛」 which combines 「受」(receive), with「心」(heart), and「友」(friend), or the English word spelled "L.O.V.E.", or any translation of this word from different cultures, the world is overflowing with the use of these symbols.

Digging into its original meaning, and referring to Dr. Emoto's research, what is "love" exactly? When one compares the vibration frequency emitted from these symbols to every action that one takes, every word one speaks, and even every thought in one's mind, what is the result?

That kind of thinking, speaking and being must be able to resonate with these symbols. It is a natural expression beyond subjectivity or objectivity. It is beyond one's likes or dislikes, and is not an exchange like doing business. When "love" is the motivating force behind interacting with people, then it is easy enough to dissolve all kinds of conflicts and contradictions, without pressuring others too much in the name of love, or bringing fear to others by giving love. Moreover, when one loses one’s best love, while being the source of love (every living creature is a product of the love of their parents), one does not regret what one has given.

May "love" return to its former frequency prior to the existence of languages…

May sense and sensibility be united and return to its glowing natural character…

May oneself be able to love…

May love treasure the beloved and leave no regret in its path…

May everyone be nourished and healed by love…

May each one "receive" the "heart" of others and become "friends"…

May everything be able to realize its perfection! ¶

愛的真諦

English→The Truth about Love

不論是「受心友」所組成的這個漢字、「Ｌ．Ｏ．Ｖ．Ｅ」所組合的這個英文字、或者是世界各文化所發展出來的這個字的翻譯，這些字早已被人們使用到氾濫。

探究其造字本意，且依照江本勝先生所獲得的實驗結果來看，其所綻放出來的波動頻率，對於一個人的所作所為、所說的每一句話、甚且是浮現腦海的每一個念頭來說，究竟什麼是「愛」？

那必然是能夠與這個字產生共鳴的所思、所言、所行，是一種超脫主觀、客觀而生的自然表現，將個人的喜厭好惡置之於度外，不流於做買賣似的交換，以「愛」為出發點作為原動力來待人處世，當足以排除所有的紛爭與矛盾，不至於藉愛之名而成為對方太大的壓力，也不會為了愛而實際上卻給人帶來恐懼。且在失去摯愛之時，基於身為愛的本源（原來每個生命都是父母的愛的結晶），無悔於曾有的付出……

願所謂的「愛」恢復到文字不存在以前的頻率本能……

願理性結合感性回歸發光發熱的本性……

願自己有能力去愛……

願愛能珍惜所愛、了無遺憾……

願每個人都因為愛而滋潤、療癒……

願彼此皆「受」一份「心」而成為朋「友」……

願每一件事物都能夠成長而臻至圓滿！¶

From Zero to Infinity; 0=1=∞, Part I

What a title with mathematical expression this is! Although we are not going to totally talking about math here at all, if you have taken the calculus in the college, you should familiar with the meaning of “x=0 →∞.” If you have never seen this, that’s all right. I’ll translate it for you now in a plain text form. It could be something like “Let’s talk about ‘everything’.” Ironically, I feel ‘everything’ might not be able to express what I mean here enough, so I played a little guessing game here. Besides, the whole expression potentially speaks something underneath itself, while to catch your attention in the title as well. Yet, if we are really talking about everything here, this article will be going very wild, while something I am going to talk here now is very specific!

I. The definition:
Zero: In mathematics, it represents “nothingness.” While in my terminology here, I would define it as “a state of emptiness.”

Infinity: In mathematics, it represents a number that is countless. While in my terminology here, I would just define it as the way it is.

II. The application:
From zero to infinity, not only it is counting everything, but also it implies a sense of creation, a process of creating from nothing (zero) to something (at least one), while make it everlasting (infinity).

III. Oneness–the simplicity of One Truth:
We all live in the same ONE world now in the 21st Century. At the modern time, knowledge has been divided into many different domains, and its quantity is still increasing by the human being’s creation. (I state this here to recall the feature article “Rambling about *Eternity.*) Will it turn into infinity? Definitely for sure, it already is. Then, how are we going to survive from the tons of knowledge? There is one pattern of the Truth I believe. I have seen that people applies mathematics in the profession, such as finance, physics, or nutrition. Or people use physics in daily our lives, such as to rescue a car hanging on a curb, or to play golf or billiard ball. The important thing is that we are just simply living in our live, but not living in the knowledge. All the knowledge came from one source–the human living experience.

IV. Emptiness versus Humbleness:
When one empties one’s heart to other things, things are possibility to fill in, whereas an empty cup is able to fill anything inside. If one holds one’s professional dogma on something else, it is very easily to get lost in other domains, since the Universe is so wild, abundant, or sometimes even mysterious. That was my personal experience. I used to be so arrogance, before I met my mentor Mr. T.C. Wu, and how he applied his experiences on natural therapy so that I had a chance to study more about the way the human body works.

To be continued…