今天星期五

一夜无眠。小恙初愈。慵懒地起了床，才想起今早约了G大学的老师吃早餐。匆匆赶到Midtown, 摇摇晃晃得一个人走在城市的街头，面带微笑，迎着林立高楼中升起的朝阳......

相谈甚欢，也许过阵子去那边做个talk，顺便逛逛我喜欢的Freer Gallery. 分手时还兴致昂扬，回到办公室才发觉一夜无眠之后是如此的疲惫。索性今天不做事了，随手写写字吧。

一 火车

上周六坐了一个小时的火车，晃晃悠悠得到了新泽西中部。坐火车的感觉真好，仿佛又回到了今年夏天乘着德国、荷兰、比利时、法国的火车在欧洲兜兜转的日子。

坐火车的美妙之一是，不必费心做选择。上了车，就只有一条单行轨道，目的地是明确的， 不需要做选择，也不能够做选择。 没有选择的生活，有时是简单而快乐的。

坐火车的好处之二是，不必牵挂时间。早到也罢，晚点也好，都不是你能控制的。焦虑忧愁都于事无补。所以我在火车上总是踏踏实实的：下了火车见什么人做什么事，那是以后的事；现在我可以什么都不想，也可以海阔天空地胡思乱想。我的许多机灵古怪的小主意，小快乐都是在完全放松的遐想中得到的。有时候，有些事严肃认真地去想，反而什么也想不出来的；有些话一本正经地去说，反而失了情意。

二 眼睛

去新泽西是为了看望镎姐的女儿。柚柚一百天了，眼睛又大又亮。

为什么小孩子的眼睛总是清澈如水，而大人的眼睛却含了许多读不懂的东西？

Most people ever have a fresh, eager, curious mind. But why does the mind deteriorate, become old, heavy, and dull?

三 风铃

火车早到了15分钟，镎姐还没到。我沿着站台走来走去，突然听到一阵铃声。寻音而去，便看到了一幢小房子和门前的风铃。风吹过，又是一串铃声。

你可曾留意那些屋檐下的风铃弄出的声音？你听的是什么呢？是铃声，还是铃声空隙的安静？如果没有那安静，还会有铃声吗？也许正是因为那片刻的寂静，铃声才有如此的穿透力，如此的清晰。

记得我以前禅修的时候，老师曾说, "It's important to have space in the mind." 也许内心有了空间，思维有了空间，才能发现那些普通事物的美好。心思太多的人，是无法觉察这些美丽的。


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My European Trip 13 - Paris II

(Sketching when sitting in the Luxemburg Park)

Mais j'étais trop jeune pour savoir l'aimer.
But I was too young to know how to love her...
-- The Little Prince

Quiet Corners in Paris

Big cities mean crowds, confusion, hustle, bustle and noise -- they're like a giant with chronic indigestion. Parisians face the rumbling daily reality and seem to feel they have three options: put up with it, cocoon cozily at home, or get out. (New Yorkers share the same options. Having been in NY for almost two months, I finally started to get used to its rumbling reality. I still vividly remember how I was waken up from unknown noise in the early morning on my first day.)

The madding crowd is a predictable beast, rushing from one trendy, new, hip, must-see spot to the next. When it comes to still backwaters, to uncluttered nooks (a hidden, secluded spot) and noiseless crannies, the crowds simply shy away, uninterested.

Crowds draw crowds.

Quiet places stay quiet.


In Paris, you actually could have more than three options. What you need is a little bit spirit of exploration. At least, I found tranquil beauty in these places.

1. Mini garden behind a church, which is close to the City Hall.



2. Luxemburg Park, a beautiful spot with a pleasant green-garden atmosphere.



3. Walking along the Seine River



4. Public library, always a good place to check emails and rest mind.



5. Unknown antique shop, with a good companion like Tintin's dog, Snowy.



5. An ignored corner at the Versailles.



6. Roof garden at the Pompidou Center, where you could get a bird's-eye view of the whole Paris, including Eiffel Tower and Basilique du Sacre Coeur.



7. Watching a little princess playing at a fountain in the royal garden of Versailles .




What is nothing for the common people is probably everything for you. Open your eyes and heart, and you will always find beauty and tranquility in the mundane world.

Love is the simplicity of being sensitive.

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Hi, Vincent!

他来了，又走了。后来又来了，可还是又走了。来来去去，不留痕迹；但我相信他就在那些画里面，他会知道我来看他——我怀着这样隐秘的心思独自走在挨挨挤挤的MOMA.

Three months passed since I saw Vincent Van Gogh's works in Amsterdam (see the article "Vincent Van Gogh"). Now I saw him again in the recently opened "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night" at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. This exhibition, tiny but immensely touching, pays tribute to the artist’s twilight rhapsodies, to the solace he found in stars, and to the sway of his nocturnal muse.

Watching paintings at different stages of his career, I seemingly re-read Van Gogh's life as I did in Amsterdam. But this time bears more warm and close sensations and new-found awe. I greet this old friend in each of his dazzling nightscapes, especially in the "Starry Night on the Rhone River".

This painting for me seems to have a magic power. The velvety blue spreads out my visual perception; stars ablaze with their luminescence; the night provides a view of the tenderness, urgency and brilliance, -- each inch of canvas carrying its own sense of life. Gazing this painting for a long time, I felt warm current freely flowing from eyes to toes.

“colors have a beauty of their own which must be preserved, as one strives to preserve pure tones in music. ... the beautiful freshness of color ... what counts most with color are relationships. ” - Henri Matisse

Van Gogh saw the darkened sky opening into boundless dreams, and at the same time offering a series of mournful endings – of the day, of the season, of life. Night meant despair and enlightenment. “You surely know that one of the fundamental truths of the Bible,” Vincent wrote to Theo, is “the light that dawns in the darkness.”

"And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me." -- Genesis 37:9

Van Gogh discovered new colors everywhere, especially at night. For him, night was symbol and metaphor, mood and meaning.

I discover new beauty everywhere, especially at Karma. For me, Karma is experience and process, hardship and happiness.

这一切的颠沛，只是一个过程。命途的多舛，是为了求证最终的圆满。 -- 安意如

My European Trip 12 - L'amour et L'amitie

"Predestined happened to us,
we have no choice but peace.
Lying in the endless nights,
warm your soul with the hottest kiss.
As space apart and time flies,
my heart right here forevermore stands!"

I visited Rodin Museum in July, which has the largest collection of Auguste Rodin's works. What impressed me most are not his representative works like the thinker and Balzac, but a series of sculptures themed love. I perceived exquisite details which in turn reminded me of the novel "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho. Walking in the garden of the museum, I came to the idea of this article, L'amour et L'amitie. In this article, all my feelings and descriptions are redundant; let Rodin's sculptures and Coelho's words tell you everything.

"Here was her man, who was giving her pleasure and joy, with whom she could be the person she really was, with whom she could talk about her problems, and tell him how much she would like to stay with him for the rest of the night, for the rest of the week, for the rest of her life. " -- Paul Coelho

"It hurt when I lost each of the various men I fell in love with. Now, though, I am convinced that no one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. ... That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it. " -- Paul Coelho

Bodies always understand each other, even when souls do not.

"She wanted to tell him that she loved him. But that would spoil everything, it might frighten him or, worse, might make him say that he loved her too. Maria didn't want that: the freedom of her love depend on asking nothing and expecting nothing." -- Paul Coelho

"If I were to tell someone about my life today, I could do it in a way that would make them think me a brave, happy, independent woman. Rubbish: I am not even allowed to mention the only word that is more important than the eleven minutes -- love."

Reference reading:

• Eleven Minutes, Paulo Coelho

• On Love and Loneliness, Juddu Krishnamurti

My European Trip 11 - Paris I

Like it, dislike it, and love it -- my feelings on Paris evolved so over three weekends. Paris first astonished me with her romantic fresh air. I spent my first night at the Left Bank with a friend and his family. As you probably know, this is the Paris of another era; the Paris of artists, writers, and philosophers, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, and dozens of other members of the great artistic community at Montparnasse (see another incoming article "Montparnasse Cemetery").

It was almost midnight. We enjoyed a terrific Japanese dinner and walked along the Seine. Cathedral Notre Dame gracefully stood on Ile de la Cite, looking down at the people who were savoring the sweet noctune. All the scenery looks like a midsummer night's dream, echoing Shakespeare's words:

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

On the way back I found subway advertising murals in the underground world, which were so different from what I ever saw in NewYork, London, Beijing, and other metropolitan cities. C'est la Paris!





An opera poster, Louis performed at the National Opera of Paris. It's a pity that I didn't get chance to watch an opera in Paris, which has one of the best opera halls in the world.

Advertisement for a contemporary art gallery.




Indeed, l'amour was the theme throughout my journey to France. One of my favorite photos is the following one. I was taking a boat tour on the Seine, while thunderstorm came at the very corner. When the boat was passing through a bridge, I turned around, looked up and caught this picture. The red color sparkled my heart, and was forever engraved in my memory.