The Mid Autumn Festival - The Equinox

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the eight lunar month of the chinese calendar which this year falls on the 22 September 2010 today. The 15th day of the lunar month is a time when the moon is at its fullest and coincides with the autumn equinox of the solar calendar. The fullest and brightest moon is expected at about 3.10 am after midnight the 23 Sept 2009 thats when it will be at its equinox.

The White Tiger Part II

Cycles
Cycle is defined from a mathematical and scientific viewpoint as a basic permutation that is caused by a force and that all permutations are a product of cycles. There had been an earlier description of cycle in the earlier article of the Year of the Tiger. This is part of a series of articles which is intended to be published here during this period of the Chinese New Year celebrations, which is part of an ongoing research and study over many years.

Anwar Ibrahim to Ride the White Tiger of 2010?

Gong Xi Gong Xi! Wishing all a Happy Chinese New Year!

In view of the Lunar New Year we will explore and take a peep at what's up ahead in the year of the White Tiger, based on cycle analysis of Chinese astrology, the year of the Metal Tiger, popularly called the Golden Tiger and here we will refer to it as the White Tiger because the color white in Chinese elemental cycles of the five elements white is the colour of the metal element.

The Righteous Man

Reading RPK’s latest article in Malaysia Today of the title “Musa Hassan’s failing fishing expedition” reminds me of a story in history during the period of the Warring States, the period of chaos and upheaval leading to the founding of the Qin Dynasty of Shih Huang Ti (The First Emperor).

The state of Wei was ruled by Marquis Wen (Lord Wen) who was a wise and virtuous ruler of the state and had decided to attack the neighboring state of Zhongshan who was ruled by an immoral and corrupt tyrant.

Story of a Secular Muslim

I am by no means an expert on the topic of Islam or Muslims. However, by accident of birth, being Muslim was thrust upon me.

My chances going in were not too bad — about a quarter of the world’s population is Muslim. I live with the title and try to make sense of the daily newsworthy events that keep my people in the news.

It was not until the fourth grade that I even knew I was Muslim. I was in grade school in Karachi, Pakistan, checking out a library book — an illustrated Bible — when my friend pointed out to me that I had picked the “wrong” book.

He appeared to be a little upset by my choice, as did some of the other kids. Any deviations from the norm, I concluded, would raise unnecessary alarm. My friend, since then, has become a militant atheist, but that is a story for another time.

I continued along a peaceful yet godless path until 8th grade when another friend confronted me with a deep philosophical question: Was I a Sunni or a Shiite?

Being Muslim, it appeared was not really as simple as I had thought — I would need to make some difficult choices. My friend gave me a well rehearsed summary of the pros of cons of each group (heavily biased in favor of being Shiite, of course, because he was one) and provided me with the choice.

At last, I could exercise my free will! I decided to be Shiite until my grandmother stepped in after a week and in a matter-of-fact manner said that I was a Sunni, not a Shiite, and these things “cannot be changed.”

Many more years of peaceful indifference toward religious matters passed and I ended up a freshman at New York University. It was then that the conflicts associated with being Muslim came to light.

My suite-mate hypothesized, a week into living together, that the college must have been trying to do an experiment on me by making me live with a Jew, a Hindu and a Catholic. Muslims, it appeared, had a lot of enemies and, for the first time, being one appeared to have more to do with the conflicts rather than any particular philosophical doctrine.

The few Islamic Center meetings I attended at college would invariably extend into speeches about the Palestinian conflict, the Kashmir conflict, the Chechnya conflict, the Bosnian conflict. Somewhat dispassionate about such issues, I chose to define myself as an undefined creature with no real place in society — the secular Muslim.

Since 9/11 the nature of the dialogue has changed quite a bit. I experienced the strong backlash against Muslims. Medical school interviews in the weeks after 9/11 were uncomfortable and borderline racist. Even my closest friends appear to place me on the wrong side of a line of “danger.” Everyone is more aware of the fact that I have a Muslim name. The more cultured among them show a genuine curiosity about “our kind.” Others mask their fear with jokes and frustrated questions along the lines of: “Why every time a bomb goes off, a Muslim person is behind it?” Yet others try to be unnaturally polite, likely suppressing undesirable emotions.

But with this increased awareness of the Muslim, there is a lack of appreciation of the nuances within our group. The reality is that many Muslims are secular. We do not pray five times a day, do not read the Koran and have not spent much time inside a mosque. We only turn to Islam when a child is born, someone gets married or someone dies.

We certainly have no interest in participating in civilizational battles. We are, in fact, loathed by the religious minority. And yet we have no clear voice, no representation and no one in the Western world appears to be aware of our existence. Every time a terrorist attack occurs, we suffer the most.

We are trying to succeed in life, trying to be effective doctors, lawyers, business people, artists and other kinds of professionals, and it hurts us, not the jihadists, when society keeps us at more and more of a safe distance “just in case.”

To defeat the threat of radical Islam, I suggest that the answer lies among the people who are the least Muslim.

It is only the secular forces within Islam that can subdue the screams of radicalism. We are united by a lack of indoctrination, a belief in personal freedom and a similar accident of birth and we must unite to properly forge a positive and progressive future for Muslims worldwide.

"The Price of Being Born Muslim"
By TARIQ AHMAD
Published: December 4, 2009
The Herald Tribune

Tariq Ahmad is a doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

The King Fisher Part VI - Fishing for Talent

“He who finds himself teachers, will rule the greatest area;

He who says no one is his equal, will fall.

He who is willing to ask, becomes greater;

He who relies entirely on himself, will be humbled and made small.”

- Tao Te Ching -   

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Been a bit overdue, this series on the King Fisher, nevertheless, for those who seek to acquire the wisdom of the ancient sages in political thoughts and strategies should not miss this writings as it can also be applied to the world of business, management and economics.

This is the works of the Grand Duke of Zhou or Jiang ZiYa and popularly known as Jiang Tai Kung, more than 3000 years ago that help to establish the Zhou Dynasty (1045 B.C.) and this writings have been simplified and condensed for easy reading and understanding.in this series. (For the First Time reader i suggest that you start with Part I HERE)

Part VI is still in volume one titled Civil Secret Teaching  out of  a total of six volumes of different titles as mentioned in earlier parts. The first part of the Civil Secret Teachings as covered under Part V deals with the underlying  foundation and philosophy of good governance and the correct thoughts to be cultivated by the rulers or the leaders.

And here the second part of the Civil Secret Teaching shares the philosophy of seeking out talents or as described in ancient times "True Men of Worth". Please read the proverb as from the Tao Te Ching as  stated above and to give yourself a moment to reflect and ponder on these ancient proverb, as it summaries the essence of this chapter. However the Grand Duke has describe in great detail the process and the ability to seek out and identify these talents.

It has been shown many a time the founding empires had many talents and expertise to tap on and in many a stories there will be the sage teacher or advisers or strategists that are found from amongst the common people. The search for talent has been of great emphasis of the many great empires in the history of China and even the Great Emperor Gaodi (Liu Bang), founder of the Han dynasty imposed a ruling that mandated that all court officials must present the talent that they happen to encounter and failing to do so will be in breach of the law.

And so wherein lies the “True Men of Worth” and as the Grand Duke has said they will arise and gather in times of injustice and turmoil and from here you might find your great warriors, generals, tacticians, planners, engineers and maybe a glimpse of the dragon if he appears and disappears and seen and not seen as the sage comes and goes quietly shrouded in mystery. A nation requires many talents in different skills and knowledge but the sage is universal and is multi talented and the most difficult to come across and if you happen to see him you might not be able to recognize him and as such he can only be found by those who seek.

A conversation between King Wen of the Zhou state and his teacher the Grand Duke as follows:

King Wen asked: "How does it happen that a ruler may exert himself to advance the Worthy but is unable to obtain any results from such efforts, and in fact the world grows increasingly turbulent, even to the point he is endangered and perishes?"

Grand Duke: "If one advances the Worthy but doesn't employ them, this is attaining the name of "advancing the Worthy" but lacking the substance of using the Worthy."

King Wen asked: "Whence comes the error?"

Grand Duke: "The error lies in wanting to employ men who are popularly praised rather than obtaining true Worthies."

King Wen: "How is that?"

Grand Duke: "If the ruler takes those that the world commonly praises as being Worthies and those that they condemn as being worthless, than the larger cliques will advance and the smaller ones will retreat. In this situation groups of evil individuals will associate together to obscure the Worthy. Loyal subordinates will die even though innocent. and perverse subordinates will obtain rank and position through empty fame. In this way, in this way as turbulence continues to grow in the world, the state cannot avoid danger and destruction."

This conversation shows that in seeking out talents, one must not fall for the reputation of fame and scholarly attainment which reminds me of the Prime Minister of Singapore than Mr Lee Kuan Yew who once remark that Singapore needs to seek out the "Mavericks" to help serve the nation rather than just employing people of high scholarly achievements. Academic achievements alone is not enough and could be an illusions as the real qualities of the talents are not just the papers that they carry.

It further states that recommendations from the officials or associates alone is not the best approach and one will need to seek out from the masses the "True Men of Worth". The true worthies are normally the reluctant politicians but will serve or assist in a sincere desire to see change and good governance.

The search for talent has been of great emphasis all throughout the dynasties of over 3000 years in the history of China and most will have heard of Liu Pei of the Three Kingdom era towards the end of the Han dynasty, where Liu Pei set out in search of Zhuge Liang, who than was a recluse dwelling high in the remote village of the hill of bamboo grove, as Liu Pei had to make numerous trip through the difficult passes all through the changing seasons before finally getting the assistance of the great strategist, Zhuge Liang aka Kung Ming aka The Sleeping Dragon and from thereon founded the Kingdom of Shu.

Liu Bang who later became the Great Emperor Gaodi the founder of the Han Dynasty had the assistance of Zhang Liang, who was a fugitive during the rule of Qin, another great strategist in the history of China.

And in recent times, President George W.Bush had the assistance of Karl Rove who became his Chief Strategist, Karl was a college dropout and a relative unknown in the political world and is today renown for making George Bush the President of the USA. You can read the book titled simply "How Karl Rove Made George W.Bush Presidential" by the authors James Moore and Wayne Slater. Karl Rove was appointed Senior Advisor and the Deputy Chief of Staff  and held many other appointments in the White House. The President had publicly acknowledged the contribution from Karl Rove and called him "The Architect" in his victory speech in the 2004 Presidential Election. Karl Rove armed with only a secondary school education is an amazing strategist and maybe some of you should read about his voter targeting and registration strategy, hahaha.. sounds familiar? You want to win the next General Election?

Watch out for the next Part VII coming soon..

Read Part V HERE

Read Part I HERE

The Quintessence of Strategy – King Fisher Part V

This story in history is written with the hope that some of our politicians get to be enlightened and see that politics requires sincerity and truth and not otherwise. Virtue and benevolence is the foundation towards good politics and good governance and there can be no good strategy without this foundation.

Corruption and oppression of the people is the most evil of crime of all and history has repeatedly proven that it does not pay and I can quote you 1001 of such instances where it has failed when the values are not intact. It is with hope that these writings are able to change the mindset of our politicians and that there is still time for the wayward to repent and help transform positively this nation of ours which we all call home.

King Fisher II - The Era

King Fisher II – The Era

For a better grasp of the events in this story at this stage and time, which has a significant impact on the early history of China, producing many famous events, personalities and philosophies at the same time of Jiang Ziya, we will expand a bit more on the scenario and passage of this early history in order to have an overview and better understanding.

You will see here one of the most cruel tyrant in the history of China as in King Zi Shou and his concubine Daji being one of the most beautiful and influential maiden of the fame of the top four maidens in history.

King Wen of the Zhou to whom was accredited with the expansion of the science of the I Ching with the sequence of the 64 hexagram, and there was JiZi one of the princes of Shang who refused to come under the rule of Zhou than migrated with his army and later founded the early Korean states. And of course the progenitor of the Art of Strategy as in the Secret Teaching of Liu Tao from Jiang ZiYa (The Grand Duke of Zhou).

The Red Hearse

(The Red Hearse which is very unusual and seen for the first time here)

The procession was lead by the Hearse tied with red cloths and ribbons which signify a tragic death and in accordance with ancient rites the colour red used in a funeral is to evoke the spirits of the departed souls to rise from the Hades as in the Chinese mythical stories of the 18 depths of Hades and from the abyss the most ghoulish spirits shall rise to seek out the perpetrators of this hideous crimes and to avenge and seek justice for the victim. In a normal chinese funeral the colour red are taboo and avoided.