中環孖煙通生活雜誌: April 2023

Sunday, April 30, 2023

詩

如果新詩唔係神祇透過人類交流嘅少數合法途徑，我大概一世都唔會有其他方法明白新詩係咩一回事。

A story (v0.1)

This story happened long long ago, in the birthplace of the gods.

Long long ago, long and long ago,

the gods were born.

At first, they were young and naïve.

They knew nothing about the world.

They had no idea how the world was supposed to work.

Or what they were supposed to do.

As gods, they shaped the world as they fancied. The elements heeded their call. Animals recognized their dominance and submitted to their will. The heavens and the earth were their home, and there was abundance in the land.

But the gods were also curious. As they explored the world, they learned everything there was to learn about it.

They learned about food, and hunger;

they learned about life, and death;

they learned about competition, and scarcity;

they discovered patterns, the same things that tend to happen given similar circumstances,

and they called all these --

-- knowledge.

And the more knowledge the gods gained,

the less mastery they had over the world,

for they already knew.

They already knew.

They knew how to make fire, by rubbing wooden sticks together;

They knew how to make food, by hunting, fishing, and farming;

They knew the animals; they knew the land, the seas, and even the heavenly bodies.

They knew how things were supposed to work; they knew.

The patterns they discovered, called knowledge, were codified into laws.

Laws of nature, we still call them such.

Edicts by the wiser gods, that were not supposed to be broken.

They knew, ever so surely, how things were not supposed to work.

And one day, they realized, they were no longer masters of the realm,

But servants to hard-earned knowledge and laws.

Important men and women, learned and studied the knowledge passed down from time immemorial.

They became the most venerated servants of such sacred knowledge.

They were important. They were sacred. But they were servants no less.

And hence humanity-as-we-know-it was finally born. In the image of god, for sure.

-----------------------------------

After mediating between intuition and ChatGPT (the actual one from OpenAI, we get this)....

Long, long ago, in the gods' birthplace, They were young and full of grace. Naive and curious, they roamed free, Shaping the world as they please. The elements obeyed their call, Animals cowered, they stood tall. But as the gods learned, they lost their edge, Knowledge bound them and made them pledge. The wisest ones diligently taught students of knowledge so very sure What was truth and what was not. So their potent powers became no more. This is how our story starts, Mortal men and kindred hearts, In the garden, we too were once placed, With the power to shape, and free will embraced. But like the fruit on the tree, Knowledge consumed us, as it ate us, you and me. Our eyes opened, and we knew too much, Bound by knowledge, we lost our touch. Yet hope remains, if we are true, And revel in wonder in all we do. For in our hearts, we can again find, The keys to freedom in our mind. --- me-me-me

Friday, April 28, 2023

Make Something Wonderful

I got this email too.

(Taken from "Make Something Wonderful")

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Poor

Obviously people are dealt very different starting hands.

But still, in general, why are there poor people?

This is just an exploratory note, but it seems that:

- Those who are satisfied with being poor stay that way

- Those who are not satisfied with being poor:

- either work their way and become not-poor (usually 20~30 years is good enough), or

- work hard but don't actually take/accept take the chances given to them to become not poor (surprisingly common in my experience -- is this due to a genuine lack of insight or a subconscious rejection?)

- harm themselves by trying too hard via so called "greedy" ways (or more precisely, less-than-zero-sum methods), or

- bicker and complain but don't do anything (this can arguably be categorized into the satisfied camp)

The real question is, are there exceptions to these case? I can't think of any, but I have access to so little empirical data.

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

王陽明

朋友講起先發現，原來陽明心學就係「主觀事實」。良知係「愛」（同埋 intuition），知行合一係「愛就係選擇」。

That said 條友經過科舉洗禮係唔同啲，佢嘅《大學問》可以超譯到咁多嘢出嚟真係痴線。本身明清兩代偏重「四書」搞到《大學》頭幾句咁多詮譯，佢可以夾硬將「定義自己」呢個課題塞入去，不愧為一代大哲。

但我比較有興趣嘅係佢啲武功、氣功、同埋魔法⋯ "友人王思典等來訪先生命侯過之且歷語其本貢似先知者眾驚異以為得道久之先生悟曰此義弄精魄非道也"

無我

呢個世界係冇魔法嘅，所有神奇都來自「我」。準確啲講，唔係「世界定義嘅我」，而係比「我」更深層嘅，「世界源頭嘅我」。

所以，貌似係，作為假定嘅係：如果你在意其他人點睇自己，咁你就係主動將「外在世界」輸入咗自己度。記住「外在世界」係冇乜魔法嘅，越在意外在，人自身嘅力量就越薄弱。

例如進入咗所謂「flow state」嗰陣，「自我意識」減少，心無雜念，只專注諗做要做嗰樣嘢，效果會特別強大。

雜念唔係純粹對專注力嘅干擾，亦都會直接干擾結果。意識同潛意識都會嘗試構築呢啲雜念所代表嘅世界，會選擇呢啲雜念所代表嘅世界，然後，大概唔會出現你最想要嘅世界。如果你做嘢嗰陣諗住世界會點樣「睇」你，就好似俾幾十億人捉住你隻手，基本上你係會冇咗自主力，亦都會失去「我」獨有嘅神奇。

不過留意嘅係，世俗嘅「我」其實都係呢個世界嘅產物。「我」嘅思想、價值觀、欲望，大概都係呢個世界嘅產物。排除咗呢啲之後，先有機會實踐比較強大嘅魔法。

然後，點樣排除世界加諸於「我」嘅一切呢？我諗，唯有靠最純粹嘅「愛」。

孫子兵法講「先知」

《孫子》曰：先知者，不可取于鬼神，不可象于事，不可驗于度；必取于人，知敵之情者也。

計埋孔子唔講鬼神，睇嚟主流魔法喺兩千五百年前已經消失咗。

點解魔法會消失都真係一個千古之謎嚟，仍然要研究研究。

Monday, April 24, 2023

Schrödinger 老師

“Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.”

― Erwin Schrödinger

He apparently "believes" in "entropy" (might as well call it Prana or Qi), but I suppose he still has a good connection to the Source of Truth.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/189820.Erwin_Schr_dinger#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIf%20a%20man%20never%20contradicts,never%20says%20anything%20at%20all.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CThe%20present%20is%20the%20only%20things%20that%20has%20no%20end.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CThe%20scientist%20only%20imposes%20two,himself%20and%20upon%20other%20scientists.%E2%80%9D