8 Comments
Aug 16Liked by Peck Gee Chua

'Granny' hobbies are totally underrated. I've loved them all my life and they have me looking forward to old age! When I was little I also prayed to become wise, until I realised how one becomes wise (most commonly) and quickly took it back πŸ™ˆ

Expand full comment
author

Nice! You got wise young. It’s also a balancing skill. We need to cultivate both merchant skills and granny hobbies across different seasons in our life.

Expand full comment

Reading this piece reminds me of a familiar saying from Nan Huai Jin 南懷瑾: "Confucianism is like a grain store, Buddhism is a grocery store, while Taoism is a pharmacy." I believe he said this in his book θ«–θͺžεˆ₯裁 (I have not seen an English version of this book yet.)

My intuition is that we all have some elements of religion, spirituality, and intellect. It's just that some aspects are more noticeable in a person. To some extent, a person is a representation of a culture. So, seeing the differences in cultures is a beautiful and enriching experience, like trying new flavors of tea?

Expand full comment
author

Interesting saying by Nan Huai Jin! I can see why Taoism is a pharmacy (medicinal aid for our difficult to times), Confucianism like a grain store (essential food and nutrition for our everyday life). But am still thinking why Buddhism is equated to a grocery store… 😊perhaps it means, many options to choose from for our spiritual wellbeing?

I agree with your sentiment that everyone’s born with some sort of innate religious/ spiritual abilities, I.e multiple intelligence that grows more with cultivation but dies out if we don’t water these seeds.

Expand full comment

I have similar confusion. It might also be like this scenario: we go into a grocery store with some purpose in mind, but we might also encounter other items and end up being overwhelmed by those many choices. Or the existence of a grocery store is just an appearance θ‘—η›Έ, and we are very much captivated by it. I need to read more of his writings on Buddhism to truly understand his meaning.

Expand full comment
author

I like your interpretation. Yea, it could be, going into grocery store with some intention and then you realize that the store has many more options to choose from. So choose wisely as we have finite attention and cannot buy them all 😊

Expand full comment

Simplicity prevailsπŸ™‚

Expand full comment

Personally, spirituality comes to me naturally, often unnoticed. As I accumulate more experiences, moments of inner conversations become more frequent. They become materials for me to reflect on and look within.

As a voluntary and interactive process, becoming spiritual means returning to what is most natural to me, being more connected to my inborn nature instead of primarily seeking what is external.

Expand full comment