December 6th - Trying Meditation

Trying out that Transcendental Meditation

My Thoughts 💭 个人想法

Thanks to all my coworkers for checking out and reading my posts!

Yup, I have gotten caught up in my old routine of come home, eat, fall asleep and feel too tired to do much besides prepare for work. I have to keep fighting and flowing with that feeling as I feel this will at least prepare me for Maling Kung Fu School when I'm tired and exhausted. Even though I've been tired and lazy I've still done pushups and situps plus some stretching each day. At the end of December I'll post my workout recap.

I decided to try out some Transcendental Meditation that my Uncle told me about at my sister's wedding. It basically is just closing your eyes, sitting down (or standing up) and relaxing. You can say a mantra, a phrase, in your head or aloud to help you and just try to "zone out" while controlling your thoughts. I think that is what it really is about it figuring out how your mind works and learning to control/calm it. I don't remember how long I did it for but it was certainly relaxing but not big revelations for me yet.

I'm just hoping this combination of meditation, prayer, study, and training will help me have a long healthy life. Not just a long one or just a healthy one... but both.

This weekend I'm actually doing something too, I'm heading out with a childhood friend to go watch some MMA fights. Hopefully it will be fun and it is different than our original plan to train but... we're both out of training right now focusing on work and study.

It will be great.

Daily Tao ☯ 期望

"I expect nothing yet am ready for anything" 

- Thinking Body, Dancing Mind p. 135

Today's Taoism "lesson" is about expectations and how expectations can get in the way of your goals or performance. So I'm trying a little exercise that is in the book; List my [your] expectations for an upcoming event then rewrite it as a preference. After the event see if your expectations were met or not and write your thoughts.

For my "event" it will be my Kung Fu School, I expect that after the Kung Fu School I will have learned:

-How to do the splits; I would like to do the splits

-Do flips; I would like to know how to do flips

-Use various weapons; I would like to know how to use the Shuang Dao

-Know various Kung Fu forms; I would like to know how to do Luohan 18 Shou

-My Chinese will have improved; I would like to be able to speak Chinese

-Be stronger; I would like to be stronger

-Do hand stand pushups; I would like to be able to do hand stand pushups

-Have way better flexibility; I would like to have better flexibility

Even though these things may or may not happen, I will not limit myself. The best will happen for me. (This sentence is apart of the exercise)

I was happy I was able to read the Chinese calligraphy of 期望  (qī wàng) which means "to earnestly hope" or "to expect".

Mandarin 📖 普通话

I'm still studying Chinese slowly each day as I hope to continue to speak this through the rest of my life. I also think its fun to study Chinese because it is a very interesting and fun. I don't quite know why.

Anyways, I am using DuChinese to study as it provides stories every week in various difficulty levels. Today I'm reading the "Collecting Cardboard" story which, though advanced for me, provides a lot of new vocabulary for my to study and learn how to use.

捡 Jiǎn "to pick up, to gather" (Verb)

纸箱 zhǐ xiāng "cardboard" (Noun)

捡纸箱的大爷

杭州 háng zhōu "Hang Zhou" (Pronoun)

最近杭州一位大爷在网站红了...

豪华 háo huá "luxurious" (Adjective)

别墅 bié shù "Villa" (Noun)

因为是这位大爷虽然家住豪华别墅

 

平时 píng shí "Ordinarily" (Noun, time)

却 què "yet, however" (Adverb)

平时最大的爱好却是捡纸箱...

送去 sòng qù "to send, to deliver" (Verb)

快递 kuài dì "to send by express" (Verb)

回收 huí shōu "to recover, to recycle" (Verb)

...然后送去快递站回收。

之所以 zhī suǒyǐ "the reason why" (成语）

他说，之所以这么做...

居住 jū zhù "to reside, to live, to dwell" (Verb)

环境 huán jìng "environment" (Noun)

脏乱 zàng luàn "dirty and disordered" (Adjective)

是因为不想看到自己居住的环境太脏乱。

除了 chú le "in addition to"

以外 yǐ wài "apart from, other than"

除了“买买”以外...

环保 huán bǎo "environmental protection" (Noun)

受到 shòu dào "to receive" (Verb)

关注 guān zhù "to pay attention to" (Verb)

环保问题也受到了越来越多的关注...

大量 dà liàng "great amount, large quantity" (Noun)

意味 yì wèi "meaning, implication" (Noun)

产生 chǎn shēng "to arise, to give rise to" (Verb)

因为大量的快递意味着产生大量的垃圾...

特别 tè bié "Especially"

包装 bāo zhuāng "to package" (Verb)

胶带 jiāo dài "tape" (Noun)

特别是包装用的纸箱，胶带等...

假如 jiǎ rú "if, in case"

处理 chǔ lǐ "to handle, to treat, to deal with" (verb)

假如不做好回收处理工作

不仅 bù jǐn "not only"

资源 zī yuán "natural resource" (Noun)

不仅浪费资源

造成 zào chéng "to bring about, to cause" (Verb)

严重 yán zhòng "serious, severe" (Adjective)

污染 wū rǎn "pollution" (Noun)

...也会对环境造成严重污染。

因此 yīn cǐ "Thus, as a result"

迅速 xùn sù "rapid, speedy, fast" (Adjective)

得到 dé dào "to get, to obtain" (Verb)

赞同 zàn tóng "to approve, to endorse" (Verb)

支持 zhī chí "to support" (Verb)

因此，这位大爷的做法迅速得到了大家的赞同和支持。

联合 lián hé "to combine, to unite" (Verb)

发起 fā qǐ "to originate, to initiate, to launch" (Verb)

几家快递公司联合发起“全国纸箱回收日”...

行动 xíng dòng "Operation" (Noun)

...加入“绿色收货”行动。

Now, I know some people reading might not study Chinese but maybe this gives you motivation or ideas on how you could continue to do your own projects or studies. I've finally found out a way for me to stay interested in learning Chinese (thanks DuChinese, Chinese Music and 女朋友！）and would like others to do the same in whatever hobbies they pursue.

Anyways, hope you're all doing well. I'm thinking tomorrows post will be about MMA and some Chinese music I found.

What are you doing this weekend?

-Johnny "白武龙"