Going to Lhasa

In a few days I'll be leaving for Tibet.  I'm an assistant on the University of St. Thomas Ethics in Tibet program.  I'm pretty excited to be able to go back (I lived in Lhasa for two years, but I haven't been back in the last three).  I hope I didn't forget all my Tibetan though ... Anyway, since I'll have limited internet access (and since blogger.com is blocked in China) I won't be posting too much in the next month.  

Another watercolor

Here's another watercolor showing my poor Tibetan brushmanship.  The text is also a line from Gyalse Thogme Zangpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas.  It's the first line from the ninth stanza; here is the stanza with a rough translation:

སྲིད་གསུམ་བདེ་བ་རྩྭ་རྩེའི་ཟིལ་པ་བཞིན།།

ཡུད་ཙམ་ཞིག་གིས་འཇིག་པའི་ཆོས་ཅན་ཡིན།།

ནམ་ཡང་མི་འགྱུར་ཐར་པའི་གོ་འཕང་མཆོག།

དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

srid gsum bde ba rtswa rtse'i zil pa bzhin

yud tsam zhig gis 'jig pa'i chos can yin

nam yang mi 'gyur thar pa'i go 'phang mchog

don du gnyer ba rgyal sras lag len yin

Happiness in the Three Worlds is like dew on a blade of grass,

In just an instant it is gone.

The supreme unchanging state of liberation,

Strive for this goal!  This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.

Here the "Three Worlds" refers to the worlds of gods, humans, and the nāgas (snake-like spirits that live in the water).  The point is that for all life that is under, on, or above the Earth, happiness is fragile, temporary, and liable to disappear in an instant.  That sounds a little depressing, but the next lines, are more encouraging.  The idea being that if you take a good, hard look at what happiness is like for creatures like us, you end up with a kind of freedom.  In one sense, you at least quit expecting something that life cannot deliver.  But I sometimes find when I think about how the praise or job or novelty I want won't last, I get a better perspective on it and it doesn't seem like such a tragedy if I don't get it.  And when it does come along, I'm more likely to appreciate it and try to share it with others rather than hoarding it for myself.  One of my favorite bands, Do Make Say Think doesn't often sing but I thought they put it nicely in their song "In Mind": 

     When you die,

     You'll have to leave them behind.

     You should keep that in mind.

     When you keep that in mind, 

     You'll find 

     A love as big as the sky

So sadly, I don't seem to be getting much better at watercolors.  I think I'll go back to ink.  That's it for today.  

Kind of Blue ...

Yesterday was laundry day.  The blues looked neat enough to take a picture (but not neat enough to fold).

Waiting waiting waiting

It felt like most of my day today was spend either in waiting rooms or waiting in lines.  Sort of relaxing in a way when there is nothing you can do about it.  Anyway, here's this drawing.

Jizō

This is a drawing I did while I was on the phone of a little Jizō statue that Alex brought me from her trip to the west coast.  The weather is cloudy and a little cold so it's kind of a low-key day today, which is fine by me.

One way to respond to a valid argument

Everybody loves an ad hominem, right?  Some days I just don't feel like doing philosophy.  I call those "tuesdays" (weekdays?) ... wah-wah.  Anyway, here's the sort of drawing I do on those days.

A Cat's Yawn

This cat I drew says a Tibetan proverb:

          མི་ཚེ་ཞི་མིའི་ཨ་སྟོང་ཙམ་ལས་མེད་པར་སྟོང་ཟད་མ་གཏོང་ལ།
          mi tshe zhi mi'i a stong tsam las med par stong zad ma gtong la

          Human life is just (as short as) a cat's yawn; don't waste it.
人の寿命は単に猫のあくびです。浪費止めて。

Though my Japanese translation is just a guess, but I thought maybe it would work as a Haiku:

人寿命  
ただ猫欠伸
浪費止めて

hito jumyou
tada neko akubi
rouhi yamete

Which as a Haiku in English would be:

The human lifespan
Is only but a cat's yawn
Don't waste it away

I like this proverb and occasionally think about it when I find myself doing some totally trivial task that I don't enjoy anyway ... that's it for wasting time today (at least by blogging!).

そろそろ (soro soro)

そろそろ (soro soro) is a Japanese word that means something like "slowly", "gradually", "quietly", "soon", or "almost."   I'm told it is often used as a suggestion as in "Let's start to [verb]" or "Lets move towards [verb]." Anyway, It's a nice sunday here in Providence so I'm going outside.

Rain

Late At Night 2:30 Disco

When I was in Lhasa for the first time about eight years ago, my friend Aaron found this beat up cassette on the ground.  After acquiring a crappy portable player we listened to it and found that it contained the most ridiculous techno ever.  The title is 深夜2：30的土高 (shenye 2:30 de tugao) - "Late At Night 2:30 Disco."  Classic.

When I moved back to Lhasa after college I would sometimes go out to dance clubs there (at that time it was either Babi-La or Tang Hui depending on which was open), and believe me this is pretty representative of what they played.  At first I hated it, but after a while its bizarre charm grew on me.

Anyway, I had planned to make an mp3 of the tape for a long time and since it is a miserable and rainy spring break here in Providence, today felt like the day.  So after eight years, here it is in all its glory, Late At Night 2:30 Disco:

• Side A (33:20, 69.4 mb) 
• Side B (33:34, 69.8 mb)

There is some clicking at the start of the tracks, but what do you want from an eight year-old cassette that was found in the street.  For my money, the best part is at about thirteen minutes into Side A which features a segue from Aqua Smile.dk to Bon Jovi to Bonnie Tyler.  Magnificent!

"Paradoxical, Socrates ..."

It's spring break here and since most people are gone I'm trying to use the week to catch up on all the stuff I told myself I'd do when I got some free time.  It's going pretty well so far (*knock on wood*) ...

Rebel without logical coherence ...

Here's a little drawing I did on a handout at a pretty interesting talk on epistemology.  In the course of talking about how one might obey the advice "Don't trust any rule completely" there was an example featuring a bug.  So that explains that I guess.

Spalding, get your foot off the boat ...

Here's a little watercolor I did a while ago.  As you can see, I write Tibetan the same way I write English - like drunken four year-old with a broken wrist.  Anyway, the Tibetan is from a text I'm reading by Gyalse Thogme Zangpo called The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas.  The line is the first line from the very first stanza after the dedication; here it is with a rough translation:

དལ་འབྱོར་གྲུ་ཆེན་རྙེད་དཀའ་ཐོབ་དུས་འདིར།།

བདག་གཞན་འཁོར་བའི་མཚོ་ལས་བསྒྲལ་བྱའི་ཕྱིར།།

ཉིན་དང་མཚན་དུ་གཡེལ་བ་མེད་པར་ནི།།

ཉན་སེམས་བསྒོམ་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

dal 'byor gru chen rnyed dka' thob dus 'dir

bdag gzhan 'khor ba'i mtsho las bsgral bya'i phir

nyin dang mtshan du g.yel ba med par ni

nyan sems bsgom pa rgyal sras lag len yin

That great ship of money and free time is hard to find in this life

In order to save yourself and others from the Ocean of Suffering,

Day and night, incessantly and carefully,

Listen, think, and meditate.  This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.

So there you have it.  On a lighter note, you might enjoy this list of funny boat names.  They're pretty bad, but I liked the "Maid of Plywood" ... 

Dissertation topics are hard.

I've been trying to come up with a topic for my dissertation.  Today was better, but this pretty much captures how I've felt about it the last few days. 

A Yawn

I can't seem to get enough sleep this week.  I drew this on an index card that was on my desk while getting ready for bed.  Now I am going to bed.  Hopefully tomorrow holds fewer yawns ...