旁觀者清，當局者迷

Lookers-on see most of the game.

I once played a game on remembering music tones, the computer play the tones once and we key it in. At first it was very easy, but when it get to later stage, I start to realise I can easily remember the tones when the other person is keying it in but when it comes to my turn I can’t. I tried it many times and it’s still the same, it helps by just telling myself I’m just observing… it’s very interesting how the mind works!

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Many of us would hope everything to go well, goal to be accomplished easily, good things to happen to us, be healthy all the time and so on. There is nothing wrong to be wishing for the best but it can be good when things don’t go so well, depends how we look at it.. Here is another way of looking at it (sorry in Chinese only, would be nice to have it translated to English):

1. 念身不求无病。身无病，则贪欲乃生，贪欲生，必破戒退道。知病性空，病不能恼，以病苦为良药。
2. 处世不求无难。世无难，则骄奢心起，骄奢心起，必欺压一切。体难本妄，难亦奚伤，以犯难为解脱。
3. 究心不求无障。心无障，则所学躐等，学躐等，必未得谓得。解障无根，即障自寂，以障碍为消遥。
4. 立行不求无魔。行无魔，则誓愿不坚，愿不坚，必未证谓证。究魔无根，魔何能挠，以群魔为法侣。
5. 谋事不求易成。事易成，则志存轻慢，必称我有能。成事随业，事不由能，以事难为安乐。
6. 交情不求益我。情益我，则亏道义，亏道义，必见人之非。察情有因，情乃依缘，以弊交为资粮。
7. 于人不求顺适，人顺适，则内必自矜，内自矜，必执我之是。悟人处世，人但酬报，以逆人为园林。
8. 施德不求望报。德望报，则意有所图，意有图，必华名欲扬。明德无性，德亦非实，以施德为弃履。
9. 见利不求占分。利占分，则痴心必动，痴心动，必恶利毁已。世利本空，利莫妄求，以疏利为富贵。
10. 被抑不求申明。抑申明，则人我未忘，存人我，必怨恨滋生。忍抑为歉，抑我何伤？以受抑为行门。

详夫一心平等，体性无亏，虽缠绵于业识之中，靡不有出尘之志，方欲究道。魔影先彰，一事亏心，万善俱失，成小败广，得者还稀。况乎物欲交领，死生变争相仿 效，易也皆然。使如来三大阿僧祗劫不惜身命所得法门，因兹障碍，退其心故。一旦在我灭，可不痛伤！暨为释迦之子，不以力争，坐令法界群有，永失慧目，甚于 割切身肉也！今依经立十种大碍之行，名十不求行。此十摄一切碍，惟上智堪任，中下之人不敢希冀。若照察觉悟，省身体道，持之不失，则能入诸魔界，不为群魔 沮伤，循诸色声，不为名声惑乱。乃至憎爱利名之境，人我得失之伤，我必先居碍中，彼碍岂能为碍？碍若无碍，道行可以直进。
摘錄自《宝王三昧念佛直指》元妙叶禅师

佛祖圣贤，未有不以逆境为大炉鞲者，佛四圣谛，苦谛居初，又称八苦为八师，苟稍存喜顺恶逆之情，终与夏草同腐而已，安能如 松柏之亭亭霜雪间哉！美玉不琢不成器，黄金不锻不致精，钟不击不鸣，刀不磨不利，岂有天生弥勒，自然释迦？欲为圣贤佛祖，必受恶骂如饮甘露，遇横逆如获至 宝，方名素患难，行乎患难，方可于秽土，植净土因，方如莲出淤泥，超登不退。倘无事则驾言念佛求生净土，一遇不如意，辄悔愠咨嗟，吾恐三昧不成，生西未 保。须于此十大碍行，一一自验。果于病时、难时，乃至被抑时，惟增念佛心，明苦空观，不怨不忧，庶莲萼日滋，可称三昧宝王矣。
摘錄自《十大碍行跋》明藕益大师

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Tags:佛教
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Went to tried out a lot of other OS and at the end realising what I have is already is the best (for me). I now have 3 OS installed, i.e. Ubuntu, OpenSUSE and Windows. The Gnome 2 in OpenSUSE 10.3 kind of worked but I still prefer Ubuntu 7.04 which is what I had been using. I believe the main problem for me is the different resolution for the laptop screen and the external screen, just couldn’t get the Gnome 2 to display correctly. Anyway tried out Debian, FreeBSD, PC-BSD, DesktopBSD but none of them works with my laptop, either problems with the graphics card or the wireless card. So enough time wasted (well not really wasted since there is something to learn in everything), back to original Ubuntu 7.04 and I am happy . Always have to go the long way, always have to learn from mistakes…

These two days, got to spent some time with my mum. Walked around Bracknell and Martins Heron, found some nice parks around my house, had breakfast in the garden and shop for baby clothes which I really enjoyed . I always know that I don’t want much from the world and prefer a “simple” life. I know that I’ve gone round and round for many times already, endless searching, time to stop going round in circle. Now that I believe I’ve found it, I just need to do it before it’s too late!

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For some reason I didn’t keep up to date this time, I only found out about the new Ubuntu 7.10 Gusty release being told by a friend. I think my demand for my home PC is dropping, mainly using it for surfing the internet really! Surprisingly the new release doesn’t work for me!

So no luck for me with Ubuntu this time because firstly the upgrade manager (7.04 to 7.10) wouldn’t work… so I did a fresh install (keeping my /home directory). After that everything seems to work but it wouldn’t display correctly on the external montior (Xerox XA7), I tried almost all the settings I can think of including manually editing the xorg.conf and using the auto-config tools, just wouldn’t go above 800×600! Imagine a 19″ monitor on 800×600 resolution! I can stand a lot of the features not working, but working on a proper resolution is one of the min. requirements.

As much as I like Ubuntu, I have decided that I will try something different, may be something very simple, something very fast and stable, doesn’t have to look good but run very fast on my laptop (Toshiba Tecra-S1), and of course supporting 1280×1024. Decided to try out FreeBSD and may be with gnome 2 since the main upgrade in Ubuntu 7.10 is the support of the new gnome, but I know that it’s very possible that it’s gnome 2 which is not compatible with my monitor and or my ATI graphics card! Will see how that goes, but conclusion is, simple is good…

On a side note, about simplicity, I have come to like a very old text editor (VI) very much. It must be one of the oldest text editor that comes with Linux, it’s great because it’s so simple, don’t even need the mouse to operate it, your hand can stand on the keyboard all the time while performing search, replace, etc… There are Windows version (e.g. VIM) which people have developed. Also I’m using a web browser called Epiphany is great too, very simple and fast, but less feature as compare to FireFox. Something that’s worth trying out.

Tags:7.04-Feisty-Fawn, ati, computer, freebsd, gnome, laptop, Linux, Toshiba-Tecra-S1, Ubuntu, vi, Weblog, xorg
Categories: Linux, Ubuntu, Weblog
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