Peter's Blog

Google TV - Logitech Revue

2012-01-10T07:56:00.000-08:00

Google TV has been on the market for over a year and it is now updated to Honeycomb (3.x) version. There were quite a bit of excitement from tech-bloggers regarding this software upgrade and Eric's recent announcement on Google's renewed focus on this line of products. By chance, I saw a refurbish unit on Amazon, so, I purchased one to replace my old WDTV (Gen 1) box. The WDTV (Gen 1) can only play files (AVI, WMV, MKV, MOV, etc) from an external USB drive and display the content, via HDMI, to the screen. The remote control is small and simple and my wife can use that without much problem. Here comes the newer Google TV with a keyboard as the control unit. I know the "wife acceptance factor" will be a barrier that may not be breach-able. But I am willing to give it a try. Here are my thoughts after four days of uses. My first thought is, "HOW DID THIS MESS MADE IT ONTO THE MARKET!"

First, the product is CONFUSING! I am a technical person and one that like to tinker with stuff and I am running out of patience. I have two other Android devices (smartphone and a tablet) and I am somewhat confused with using this Google TV. How does Google expect regular consumers to interact and buy this product? To watch content on my USB drive, I have to try each of the apps in app menu to find out which of them actually plays video files and when I find the correct app, it doesn't have an option for sort ordering. I ended up having to hunt and pick for the videos that I want to watch from out of all of the contents in my USB drive. There was no intro guidebook or other instructions that came with the device (yes, there was at least a small piece of paper that tells you how to connect the device to the TV and power). This, in many regards, is the first major fail of this product.
Second is that there is NO power off or suspend button or timer (software or hardware). What? Do I suppose to just leave the unit on all day and night? It is an Intel Atom CPU powered machine and it is running with a small fan (on all the time). This IS NOT green! I ended up just pulling the power cord to the device to power down the unit.
Third, the app selection from the Android Marketplace for Google TV is minimal. I was trying to find an app that can stream contents from my home server using SMB or NFS and found only one pay app - GTV Box ($1.99). It is not very mature, but minimally serviceable for now. But really, aren't these suppose to come with the product? It is with WDTV Live! When I try to find MediaFly or other ways to stream video podcasts, they are not available! I am currently using a trial version of Beyondpod. Not ideal, but minimally serviceable. Again! Same with YouTube, and many other services, including Google Music.

I am not very happy with the product and may have to return this. How, again, did Google release this less than beta product and how did Logitech and Sony, along with many others, make hardware devices for this?

American-ism Reflection

2011-11-26T19:41:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving, an unique American holiday, is a good time to be with families and giving thanks to God for His providential blessings. However, when I look upon this and think of where our state and country is right now, I don’t know where we will be in another few years and decades. Looking around, we have taken our country and piecemealing that off to others in small and large chunks. My profession, IT, has been “outsourcing” or “off-shoring” for years all in the name of cost reduction and “cannot find qualified candidate locally”. Our companies, including healthcare, have no compunctions in moving departments or tasks to other countries, including India, Mexico, and Philippines. Our state has very little manufacturing companies left due to our legislature (overly active regulations, heavy worker compensation rules, insurances, and environmental oversights and fees) and now farming is also endangered. I wonder if we reread this period of time half a century from now, will we be commenting “another failed Walden Pond” experiment.

Online Backup Selection

2011-10-30T21:16:00.001-07:00

Now that we all have large collection of photos and files on our laptops and home servers, the next step is offsite backup. Since I have a large collection of these, this issue is on my mind. I have been making periodic (OK, sporadic) hard drive backup (1.5TB) and put that drive at my mom’s house for “offsite” storage. However, it is sporadic and she’s not really that far away from me (<50 miles instead of several states and >1,000 miles away). I have been thinking about building a plug-computer solution and leverage rsync with ssh to accomplish the regular part of the backup routine. But I have found the plug-computer trashes my hard drives more then I anticipated (gone thru 2 drives already in the last 4 months already). Therefore, that may not be a good solution. Need to find something else at this point. So, I want to find out if these online backup solutions are all that cracked up to be – reliable and somewhat inexpensive. I want to backup my local storage from my laptops, Android devices and my home network servers. I wonder if these solutions will fit the bill. Also, I want to have the solution encrypt my files before transmitting onto the Internet so that I don’t have them sprayed all over the Internet, free for everyone to snoop. I will look into these and try to find out:

	Cost	Network Shares	Unlimited Storage	Pre-Internet Encryption	Windows	Linux	Android
Carbonite
Backblaze
Backify
Crashplan

A Matter Of Perspective

2011-09-10T20:22:00.001-07:00

One of my classes at Talbot this semester is Hermeneutics. This is from one of the chapter of my reading (Wm W Klein, Craig Blomberg, Robert Hubbard)…

“The poor you will always have with you” (Mark 14:7) is a familiar passage from the gospel according to Mark. In our N. American context, we often read this from the viewpoint of the benefactor – we always have time and obligation to help the needy. Quite differently, the impoverished Third-World Christian living in a regime that abuses human rights will more likely see it as a tragic reminder that there will always be oppressors in the world for God to judge.

This is, of cause, a matter for interpretation and of perspective and precisely why I am studying in this class. But how often do I, in a normal everyday context, view from the perspective of the other person; of the disenfranchised, of the unlovely, of the oppressed, or even of the different gender or ethnicity? It is so easy for me to speak and form opinion from my own perspective and position and glibly ignore the rest. Perhaps it is also very true for the rest of the society. This is not only true for Biblical or philosophical matters, but for headline news, for technology, or for the price of gasoline! On the eve of the tenth anniversary of that unforgettable event, 911, I am somber and pondering what it is that I should remember.

What Is Required

2011-08-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

Inscribed on Temple Emanu-El is a familiar passage from the Bible (Micah 6:8). The inscription reads, “Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly With Thy God” and the full passage reference is, “He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?" or
הגיד לך אדם מה־טוב ומה־יהוה דורש ממך כי אם־עשות משפט ואהבת חסד והצנע
לכת עם־אלהיך׃ פ
The requirements, although seemly simple, are extremely difficult for me. Our conception of Justice is just a legal concept, but in the TNK, it is deeper than that - it is to act “rightly” as God is “right”. And mercy (tzedakah) is another concept that involves not the “left-overs” or the “disposable cash” or “leisure time” from me but to give from the essential to support those in need. And there will always be someone that's in need! While “Humbly With Thy God” is to know my place, a creature before God, and the right and joyous relationship with Him.
Where do I stand? I stand distant and far from these requirements and not having the right framework or tool to approach. Yet, I can see the beauty that is within; within the confines of these requirements and how this will improve the person and the society that he resides within! I am also glad that this relationship with the Creator is restored without my completion of these requirements via Jesus. Yet, where do we stand as a society? By knowing that I am restored, I can also be less “me-centric” and allows for mercy to flourish. To act “rightly”, then, is an outward expression of an inward sense of restoration and realigned position. What is required? I think I have found that for myself. But what is required of the country?

A Matter For The Prince

2011-08-30T12:35:00.001-07:00

What style of leadership is it proper for a 21st century church in America? On the one hand, a strong Machiavellian-esque leader provides for assurance. On the other hand, a consensus building type facilitates the expressions of ideas. Surveying, the dearth of consensus building type illustrates the progression of political reality in all areas of life – from the body politics to ecclesiastical concerns. While it is ideal to look toward The Prince Of Peace as model, often time, we seek for Il Principe instead. In the final analysis, is there any illustration necessary for the fallen nature of Man when all we seek for are expedience and security?

While it is necessary for there be a leader in any group that purports to have a mission for the purpose to facilitate the making of decisions, it is the purpose that drives the structure and not the other way around. In so many of our institutions, political or otherwise, we have ceded our responsibilities to others and traded for security instead. Our national government, our state government, our local government, our schools… On and on the list grows and we continue to seek the security to be able to blame someone else for our inaction and non-participation. Is this ethical and biblical? Ancient Israel was a loose confederation of tribes before the united nation-state under Saul. God didn’t call for the formation of a king and a nation-state, yet the people wanted the security and the ability to blame someone else. Judas Maccabee lead the revote against the Seleucid/Antiochus IV rule, but somehow the people allowed for the formation of the Hasmonean dynasty afterward. In all, our political systems work toward the protection of the status quo and the continuation of its existence. Is this biblical? I wonder. God called for a theocratic rule because that’s what the people understand at that time. In the progressive revelation view, have we learned more during the intervening three plus millennia? Are we so comfortable and lazy to the form that we cannot see outside of the box? Which prince are we following?

Plug Computer

2011-08-25T08:50:00.001-07:00

The PogoPlug is a "Plug Computer" that runs Linux with only 5W power. It has 4 USB 2.0 plugs, and an Ethernet port. I had wiped the original OS and replaced one of my own, which is still a Linux variant. This is now acting as my VPN gateway, SSH server, reactive firewall, CIFS file server and DLNA media server (for my TV to stream videos from). I am attaching laptop drives to this device via the USB connection so that I can have some “local” storage without using another power module for the drive. All together, I am using less than 10W power, I think. I am still working on a method for hierarchical storage where I cache my files this on device locally and have it wake up my main file server for sync and backup periodically. Hopefully, I will also be able to create a WAN secure tunnel with another device that I will place at my mom’s house for important file backup. I am quite happy with this setup right now. Maybe after the hierarchical storage project, I will work on a CMS (Content Management System) and a pictures/file sharing solution.

More Techo Rant

2011-08-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

As we are moving past the middle of 2011, the stock market took a nose dive and Apple is now the #1 company on Wall Street, I am not feeling “peace”. Perhaps we are looking at Armageddon at the nose.

Recently, I read more and more companies are tacitly allowing for i-products (iPad2, iPhone, etc) into the enterprise and I really have to ask the stupid question, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME????” These toys are consumer gadgets and a little better than my microwave oven or toaster in my kitchen and people are allowing them for accesses to sensitive information? Where’s the capability of assuring for 2-factors authentication before connection? Where’s the AES-256 encryption for connection and remote data wipe if the user has lost control of the device? Apple products = all flash and shallow substance. Apple can make consumer level appliances like toasters or microwave ovens, but PLEASE GET OUT OF THE ENTERPRISES! The sad thing is that most twenties are Apple zombies and there will be a day when these no-brain consumer appliances be placed into critical infrastructure positions and we still believe the Jedi mind-trick of Steve Jobs. At least Apple has the sense to discontinue their Xserve and XRaid products, which are slick packages but again, little substance and enterprise support. But the more sad thing is that most enterprises cannot decide or configure their data security and connectivity strategies. Most server administrators just want flat and open network without firewalls and security (LAZY) and there are really few and knowledgeable enterprise architects left to lead the charge. Perhaps the best thing is just going back to the old days of green terminal screens and mainframes and the high priesthood of datacenters (reminding me of Tron all over again). As most poli-sci students will know, what’s after democracy and a short period of anarchy is dictatorship and perhaps we are witnessing this right now. Apple Inc is a dictatorially run organization and perhaps Americans (at least the so-called tech journalists) are enamored with that and wishing for a better and pretty America ruled by a dictator.

Back From Tumblr

2011-08-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

Been away from Blogger to Tumblr for a few months and I think I am back at this point. The main idea with Tumblr was to make things a little easier for me. While it is reasonably easy for putting thoughts into Tumblr, the tagging system and search system aren't as nice. And now that I am trying to be less involved on Facebook, I think it is time to rethink my strategy of self-publishing or thought-publishing. I am hoping to flow from Blogger automatically to Tumblr and sometime in the future, automatically into Google+ as well.

President's Day Reflection

2011-02-22T09:54:00.001-08:00

President's Day Reflection 2
Originally uploaded by pchow98.

President's Day - a celebration in the US of the past presidents' that we had and their contributions to this union. However, it seems that we are more focused on shopping and sales promotions than the actual remembrance of these men and the office. Have we "lost" our ways as a country? Are we "prisoners" on our own economic construct? As we journey perilously toward another decade in this new century and the perceived fading of the dominance of the United States, are we staring into oblivion contentedly with the beloved "30% off" sales sign or can we reinvigorate ourselves? President's Day and 4th Of July are good reminders that we still have a country and we'll need to be good stewards of her instead of intending to sell her off piece-by-piece, along with her soul, to whichever buyer that would have her.

Council of dads

2011-02-18T06:22:00.001-08:00

Amazing

It is clear that as one approaches “the end”, there are a great deal that are “yet to be done” – things that you wish others will remember you by. Legacies that you wish to leave behind. Lessons that you wish your children learned. Bruce’s “council of dads” left me thinking about the power of the community or the importance of building one. Yet, he also left me thinking about how many of us are devoid of God. In the absence of our Heavenly Father, is there even a legacy to be left behind or a child to nourish?

Scaling The Technical Ladder

2011-02-11T09:34:00.001-08:00

Just received my RedHat Certified System Administrator certification. I have not been actively pursuing technical certifications for 2 years now and it is rather invigorating, in a sense, to be back in doing that again. Planning to take the RHCE (RedHat Certified Engineer) in April and the 3 exams needed for RHCSS (RedHat Certified Security Specialist) throughout this year and next. In the meantime, studying for and perhaps to take the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) this year. However, plans are just that, plans and they can always change. At the end of the day, what these really are, are just “pieces-of-paper” that means nothing to many managers at my workplace. I am looking to “move up” in this company that I work for. But if they don’t really “appreciate” the body of knowledge and skills that I bring to the table, well…

In the end, what do all these mean? I am involved in some small part of the Data Center Program here at work -- specifically the consolidation and virtualization pieces. However, the company being a 120 year old company, it is extremely difficult to move in any one direction where the course has been set decades ago and things are moving by shear inertia alone. Technical stuff is easy, people and mindsets are the most difficult and “change agents” usually work themselves out of a position. This is what I learned over the decades of experience. It is very difficult to teach an old dog new tricks, especially this old dog – myself. It seems I can’t help myself to move and be put into this “change agent” role.

So, what is the point in “scaling” this technical ladder? Moving up in the organizational chain? Command higher salary? Is that really a goal of mine that I should put resources behind? I am very involved at my church and am I bringing this “change agent” attitude to there as well? Is scaling the technical ladder a worthwhile pursuit?

Challenges

2011-01-21T09:55:00.001-08:00

Don Quixote is one of those stories that I use often in my mind as analogy to futile and foolish quests that I often engage myself in. Perhaps it is my personality, perhaps it is circumstance, but there are projects that I volunteer myself into that no other people would want to engage – the rewards are few and the outcomes are uncertain. Why?

Recently, I am involved in my workplace’s IT infrastructure. I am hired as an Unix administrator although I am really experienced in Windows and Microsoft enterprise stack (Active Directory, Exchange, SQL server, SharePoint, BizTalk, etc). When I work on the implementation of AIX’s Live Partition Mobility (kind of like VMWare’s vMotion), I become aware of the many implementation short-comings here at work in the SAN, networking, AIX and other areas. Questions revolving in my mind regarding “why did others implemented solutions this way many years ago?” So here I am, not really hired to do this, but am looking at decade-old implementations of HACMP/XD, MetroMirror, extended VLAN, spanning tree protocol and others and see if the rationale and configurations are valid or in need of re-architecture. All of these are not in my so called “core competence” but who will want to re-architect enterprise datacenter infrastructure?

Am I charging at a windmill and thinking it a dragon? Why am I putting myself into these seemingly futile quests?

What is “Human-ness”?

2011-01-17T11:43:00.001-08:00

Amber Case’s presentation at TED gives me a chance to think about what’s the meaning of “being human”. There has always been tension between our conception of self and non-self. My wife will tell me that the Droid X can never be near our dining table – there seems to be a “hate” or “jealousy” between her and technologies. But people are extremely comfortable with calling others on the phone or heating food in a microwave. So, will technologies enable us to be more “human” or we are just extending our “human-ness” using tools as we have been for tens of thousands of years?

The Hero With A Thousand Faces

2011-01-15T22:15:00.001-08:00

I was viewing a documentary of Star Wars a few nights ago and the commentator mentioned George Lucas borrowed some ideas from the seminal work of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Yes, I was intrigued and convinced of his theory on comparative mythologies and comparative religions way back in my younger days. I was also immediately brought back to my early teens about reading Michael Moorcock’s Elric and Eternal Campion. I believe Moorcock, along with everyone since 1949, believed and convinced of Campbell’s assertions and the Eternal Campion mythos is the result of that meme.

But how true is that assertion? Concerning comparative religions, I can say that in today’s culture, it is quite engrained. The syncretistic tendencies of most Americans are astounding. The “all roads leads to god” idea even starts to creep in to some mainline Protestant denominations! How can that be? Can an idea be so intrinsically compelling that further examinations are unnecessary? Why is it that academic group think is call concurrence and religious concurrence is called blind faith or groundless dogmatism?

Time, What Happened?

2011-01-10T10:57:00.001-08:00

Second week into the new year already and I am lamenting about time! It is indeed a rare commodity that I don’t seem to appreciate well enough and may cause others around me to loss it as well. For all those I have inadvertently “wasted” this precious resource, I am sorry! There is still a great deal that I need to learn to be a good steward.

Also coming into my email this morning at work is a reminder that the technical training class I signed up for last December already is filled and I got “bumped” off the list! And, my company’s 401(k) plan changed and I’ll need to redo my 401(k) details. Came to find out from the 401(k) site that I will be slightly below the poverty line if I am to retire at 65 (and 67 according to Social Security) and my currently contribution and distributions remain the same and there will not be another economic collapse in the intervening two or so decades. This is quite a rude realization that with the vast amount of money that I had already put into 401(k) retirement planning in the past three decades, I am still woefully short. Can I pronounce the evaporation and doom of the middle-class America? How can we be in this state? Perhaps I worry too much, as my wife constantly reminds me – I don’t trust God enough to provide for my needs, including the act of contributing into the 401(k). I don’t know and perhaps I will never know and I just need to trust – a very hard lesson for me.

A Year In Trials

2010-12-30T16:28:00.001-08:00

2010 is a year that is unlike every other year for me. Although work has be stable, thought not uneventful (another reorganization), church and personal life are the complete opposite – unlike the little gadget here that is quite reliable and relatively unobtrusive. I have written a newsletter for my friends and family and that outlines some of what’s been going on. Needless to say, I am hoping that 2011 will be different. I hope I have learned how to manage church issues better, which is very different from what I have been doing in the past 2 decades of corporate management. I hope I will be able to manage personal life a little better as well – too many classes, other obligations. Most importantly, I hope that I will be able to help to find and install a senior pastor at my church so that I will be able to relieve myself. There’s a great deal of truth to “you can’t pastor at the church that you attend”.

Essence Of The Human Condition

2010-12-29T10:11:00.001-08:00

The Aftermath Of Office Holidays Indulgence
Originally uploaded by pchow98.

Selfishness and greed are the hallmarks of our essential "human-ness", as prescribed by Christian believe. This is no more evident by this pile of emptied paper cookie holders at my office. We all enjoyed the holidays' butter cookies and we thought we are nice enough to put the emptied holders in a basket instead of just on the table. But no one takes the time to empty the basket out to a nearby trash can! We like the cookies, but we don't like to chore that comes with the enjoyment. Nor did we voluntarily buy a can of cookies for everyone - this is provided by the manager who would expense it on her account. Are we basically just ignorant and uneducated good souls as our public education would have you believe or are we born broken and in need of a change? A change of our human nature and a shift in our collective human condition; a reconditioning back to our God.

End Of A Class

2010-12-15T10:29:00.001-08:00

Some Of My Small Collection Of Biblical Commentaries
Originally uploaded by pchow98.

Done with a very stressful class last Saturday (12/11/10). This is a class on my research paper - titled "Reach On The Leadership Principles Of A Senior Pastor". Of the many literature citations, some are from secular sources and some from biblical ones. I am hoping the paper will pass. Originally, I was hoping to conduct statistical analysis between C&MA district officers and S.Cal church pastors versus church members along with literature research. However, due to time constraint, I briefly employed the survey analysis that I had done a year ago with my church plus the literature research.

Of cause, analysis and recommendations are one thing, leading and conducting the pastor search is another all together. My church still needs a senior pastor and I am extremely stressed out from my involvements in that project. It isn't only the search itself, but the huge gap in expectations between the pastoral search committee members, governing board members and regular lay leaders. It is not clear how I can bridge the differences and how compromises can be struck. I can only lift this up to God and pray this project will be done in 2011.

Professional Certificates

2010-12-01T15:26:00.001-08:00

Just signed up for a training class for RedHat Certified System Administrator. It should not be hard to get RHCSA and RHCE for me and that will be 2011’s Q1 goal. Hopefully, the company will also pay for my RHCSS (Red Hat Certified Security Specialist) next year as well. However, CISSP should be a much more important certificate for me and a more desirable and valuable one. Yet, what good will these be if they are not really valued here at work?

Teaching and Learning

2010-11-30T10:01:00.001-08:00

TED Talk - Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers

Really impressed with Conrad Wolfram’s analysis of the educational issue that we are facing in America right now (and many, many Asian countries as well) – we are not teaching our kids to think!

We are living in an age that thinking and problem solving is much more important than working out with pencil and paper some 18th and 19th century ideal of pedagogical teaching method. It was really puzzling to me when I was barred from using a simple calculator years ago in an examine. If the main idea of learning math is to solve some real-world problem, then why do I have to slowed down my train of thoughts with long-hand pencil and paper or some mechanical calculating process? Similarly, if I am to implement IPSec or PKI in a company, why am I not suppose to google some procedures in Windows servers or Linux servers configuration. After all, the point is to solve a problem and not knowing switch little knob to turn to make things work!

Math is not just calculating and learning isn’t just memorization! We are so comfortable with teaching techniques from centuries ago and too lazy to device other methods of measuring learning that we are forfeiting and condemning the next generation to the ever loosing battle of not able to find a job. Not even in what we called the “Dark Ages” of feudal medieval Europe did people stop innovating and why is it that we are in 21st century America and we institutionalize rote memorization and slow innovations (by burdening kids with simple, unworkable mechanics and procedures)?

Windows Home Server And Drive Extender

2010-11-29T14:52:00.001-08:00

With the recent announcement from Microsoft on their intent to discontinue Drive Extender technology on their next version of Microsoft Home Server and SBS Aurora, there is a possible need for me to start to look elsewhere for my home storage needs. Here is a list of what I think I'll need:

Simple and easy to maintain!
Headless and web admin interface
Automatic client laptop / workstation backup (GFS schedule)
JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) support for single storage pool (SATA)
5+ hot-swap drive-bays and eSATA to support another enclosure
Low power consumption
Folder level file redundancy so that drive failure will not cause data corruption
Hot-add of disks for continual expansion of storage
Migration of files out of a disk for planned replacement
Files can be read from an off-lined drive using another computer/server in the event of a system level failure
Cold/Warm-removal of failed disk
Automatic and background drive leveling and files balancing
Active Directory Native Mode support
Protocols to support

iSCSI Target and Initiator
CIFS / SMB2 (signed SMB, IPSec, and WAN acceleration)
NFSv4
WebDAV
FTP / FTPS / sFTP / SCP
rsync

Backup to external USB drive(s)
Music, picture, and movie streaming

Feeling Upside Down

2010-11-20T22:32:00.001-08:00

Familiar story of St. Peter requested to be crucified upside down because he didn’t feel he was worthy to be killed like his Lord, Jesus. From the vantage point of seeing the world upside down for the first and the last time in his life, Peter must be in shock and no small amount of anguish. I dare not equate with that Peter, but I too feel the world is upside down and I am in anguish.

I studied management for years (academically and personally) and I was a manager and director in the business arena. I am steeped in the study of psychology and philosophy as well. And yet, I am unable to work out my own conundrums at church with church management. I begin to really admire the pastors that worked at a church for a long time and still be able to hold it together! Perhaps this is God’s way of saying that “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

What are the next steps? Are there ways to improve where some church leaders do not value my opinions and contributions? Is there room to strive for compromise where there is not equal footing or is compartmentalize for a season is the solution? Should washing of the hands, a la Pilate, the answer? Perhaps “waiting upon the Lord” is the way, but it is not easy and the world seems so strange being upside down!

Domain of Competency – Physics & Religion

2010-11-08T08:48:00.001-08:00

Another brilliant post from XKCD. Although the observation and validation of the theoretical elementary particle, Higgs boson, is extremely important for the Standard Model, it is presumptuous to call it the “God particle”. Is God subjugated to be an observable and testable phenomenon? Perhaps this belongs to the same line of reasoning as “make God appear in front of me right now and I’ll believe”. Maybe we can attempt to question that when we can create another life-form from scratch (along with creating new quantum physics, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, DNA, molecular biology, genetics, biology, ecology, and a whole host of other basic supporting phenomena, because knowing is different from making and there’s no making when it already exists here in this universe).

Empty Handed

2010-11-03T05:51:00.001-07:00

The thought of “empty handedness” is one that comes to my mind in two different religious traditions – Christianity and Buddhism (Mahayana Buddhism). Which one do most Chinese Christian embraces, however, is one that interests me the most.

In traditional Mahayana Buddhism, the idea of Śūnyatā is that everything is “empty” or without root (devoid of essence or enduring identify) and the sooner one comes into a realization and acceptance of it, the happier that person will be. BTW, this weirdly sounds like physic’s quantum field theory and how we can explain and observe quantum entanglement because everything is related and entangled with everything else, therefore, there is no independent identity and no permanence.

In traditional Christianity, we believe that everything comes from God and is given by God. We are, but stewards to these gifts – learning how to care for things and souls for just some time until we return them back to God, the Creator. Therefore, there is no need to hoard or accumulate because they are never ours to begin with. I think the “teacher” in Ecclesiastes saw the wisdom of this finally. Therefore, Job’s admission to “naked I came… and naked I will depart” is not fatalism, but a simple admission to this wisdom. Although from voyeuristic glance, the concept of emptiness from both religious traditions may be similar, but at closer inspection, they are vastly different. Christians’ view has a purpose for admitting to emptiness and a method of what to do while in this “emptiness” condition that is constructive – being a good steward.

However, the nominal Chinese Christian’s actual practice is something that I am highly interested with and in. Perhaps the easiest manifestation and practice of this is the compartmentalization approach where we compartmentalize our secular pursuits and our sacred practices – we give the requisite portion and retain complete control of the rest and all the while feeling somewhat guilty. Or the dualistic approach where we feel the materials that we have are inherently evil and dirty and wanting to part with them, yet psychologically unable (rationalization is a powerful mind-trick). Again, the overwhelming sense of guilt is a good lead-in for compartmentalization or schizophrenia. Or the “work it out” or penance approach where there is a “bargain” with God. Or a Zen Buddhist approach – passive resignation to the world and our involvement. In any case, these are all not the healthy approaches. Which is the dominant approach, however, in the population?