I have decided to live in Taiwan. This is my blog about it.
It's been a first week that has been full of problems. Natural Disasters you could call them. The kind of stuff that I have absolutely no control over - stuff that first affects other people and in turn affects me. But I have a lot of control over myself, which makes wading in a week full of problems an enriching experience, although it is also trying.
There was a horrible typhoon that flew out of Taiwan just as I flew in. It's being covered on the news 24/7 here and there are hundreds of missing, probably dead, people. It flooded the south of Taiwan, but my girlfriend Ai-Ai and I live in the north so we are fortunate. The news is mostly in Chinese and I can't understand it; I have seen some news of this in English too, though. People have lost their entire families - had them washed away in mud. They're completely devastated and break down in the streets as they pray for their brothers and sisters while news crews tape and interview them. What I haven't seen on the news yet is the answer to the question: What do you do when your home and business get destroyed? Say you were the owner of a small business. You needed money to start the business, and in the first few years you probably lost a lot of money, but eventually as time went on you built a steady clientele and your business improved. You developed a reputation locally and if you made good decisions, you kept your business afloat and maybe even earned a little extra on the side. But now, that whole town is submerged in dirty, muggy, diseased water. In other words, do these people have some kind of a plan? I suppose it's something like Step 1: Survive. Step 2: Rebuild.
Taiwan is a great place. It seems like there is a strong sense of community here.
My girlfriend is having a really tough time this week. First was her period. I have dated 7 girls in my life, and none of them ever had periods as bad as my baby does. We actually just got back from the doctor's office today because just as she finished the most horrible part of it, she begins to have severe aches in her stomach and sides when she stands up. To top it off, she insists on going to teach 2 or 3 classes every day and returns home from work around 10PM. It seems more and more like companies are working their employees like racehorses these days. 90% of the time I've been with her since I got here, she's been in some kind of pain.
I was once in a Buddhist compassion research study. I had to meditate every day while imagining the pain of other people in order to effectively wish them to be free from their suffering. It made me realize that compassion is an action, not a reaction. As is love, I believe.
Television and video games have trained us to survive better in this age of electronic tools, but they've also encouraged our society to be in a reactive state - always waiting. It's because we're spending so much time immersed in the situation of "If I sit here and wait, something really cool and fun will happen!" That never happens in the outside world where there are problems. In the outside world, you have to actively approach problems, and actively search for beauty. If you do, you will be happy, and if you don't you will suffer.
Practicing Buddhist compassion and being aware of my tendency to go into a reactive "waiting" state in order to prevent and overcome it has helped me through this week. I was able to make some sense of the Typhoon disaster instead of just changing the channel and ignoring it, and I was able to be there for my girlfriend as a present, supportive light.
Being a jazz musician I see more and more that my happiness and sometimes the happiness of those around me is influenced by my approach to RIGHT NOW as a unique and truthful moment. If you are honest with yourself about whatever your situation is RIGHT NOW and you don't ignore anything about your situation RIGHT NOW because it might be painful, then you will have a pretty good chance of doing something positive with it, because you'll have a better idea of what you have to work with.
Finally, I've been killing all the time spent alone in my apartment while my girlfriend is at work by reading the book Lila. It's the sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. There were several issues that have been really on my mind lately, and this book seems to be addressing them all in a really insightful and spooky way. Not only does it confirm what I've already been thinking, but it's also showing me new sides of it.
