The Liebster Blog Award: 11 Answers for 11 Questions – Part I

I've had just enough time to...   receive an award for blogging!

It is not the Oscar but it will do, taken in Kuala Lumpur of a recycled statue

“A Thousand Reasons” was nominated for the Liebster Blog Award by Alena, a teacher of Belarusian language and literature who maintained an excellent blog “My Native Belarus” (please check it out). 

What is the Liebster Blog Award? “The Liebster Blog Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. “Liebster” is German for “favorite”. This award is the “favorite blog award” then. The rules for this one state that you answer the 11 questions asked of you by the Blogger who gave you this award.” 

Well, the Liebster Award is unfortunately not the Nobel Price or even Oscar of Blogging. (*smile*) If you are interested you can check out the Liebster Award’s origin in this very informative post of “Sopphey Says”. Still, it is nice to be recognized by a fellow blogger that your blog is one of her favourite. Thanks, Alena.

So in the spirit of things, I will answer these 11 questions in “A Thousand Reasons” traditional and unique way. An image and a former post (click the links) with explanations to answer each of the 11 questions. So here goes –

Living well in an imperfect world is my motto.

1. Your life motto?

I like what Mr. Spock does, lifts up one hand, divide his fingers and said “Live long and prosper” so I have a somewhat similar motto – “Live an interesting life”. If you can’t, then try to make it as interesting as you can wherever you are.

Why “The Beauty of Imperfection”?

Because it encompassed my principle of living an interesting life in an imperfect world. To take beauty where I find it, to look for it when it when it is not apparent to the casual eyes, and to know I will find it if I just look hard enough. To live instead of waiting only to find -

Alas, I realized too late –

I was only meant to live

Freedom is the ability to cross the road when you want to.

2. What do you mean the word "freedom"?

The first thing I learned in Economics is the differentiation between “Needs” and “Wants”. Needs are what is needed for survival. Wants are what we desire. To have true freedom, we must first be free of the essentials of need to survive. After that, freedom to me is the ability to do what I want without hurting others. And the freedom to not allow others to hurt me. Idealism such as freedom can only survive after the needs have been reasonably fulfilled.

Why “Why Did the Monkeys Cross the Road?”?

Because the monkeys have the freedom to do as they pleased including crossing or not crossing the road. But even they have to conform to the rules of the tribe and abide by them – freedom within boundary is the only true form of freedom or we are wilder than the monkeys.

The Minions know more about wardrobe than I do.

3. Name 5 things in your wardrobe, without which you cannot live.

I swear this is a more difficult question than “freedom”! For a man that is. For there is nothing in the wardrobe I cannot NOT live with except maybe one. Like the Minions Sang “Underwear! Like the moon and the star above, without them, naked I swear – underwear!”

Why “Minions Rule the World”?
Because they answered the difficult question more eloquently with a song than I can with words -

It is a miracle I found this Buddha by the wood in Munich

4. Do you believe in miracles?

I am not really a religious man. More spiritual than religious if you must. I don’t know if I believe in miracles. But I do pray for miracles to occur – mostly, to help someone beyond help. I am not even sure which God I prayed to but I prayed to him to deliver. It does not make me a believer should the miracle comes true, I do not blame Him when it doesn’t. If that makes me human or hypocritical, you are right.

Why “Buddha By The Wood”?
Because, the last thing I would expect to find why wandering in an apartment block in Munich; is –

When I found Buddha on a walk

In a distant land

By a pile of cut wood

Sitting there, serenely 

Where he belongs

The century old rain tree that soothes my heart.

5. What kind of tree you associate yourself?

The rain tree for I’m most at peace under its spreading branches and million tiny leaves. Whether when the sun blinks at me through the tiny leaves or when rain drops dripped down to soak me, I always feel a closeness with the rain trees more than any other trees.

Why “Saving the Rain Trees of Taiping?”

Because in it I wrote –

The trees soothe my heart with a gift of memory

That may not last as long as the trees

Only as long as I live…

These are the answers to the first 5 questions. Come back for the next 6 answers :)

Buddha By The Wood

I've had just enough time to...   meet Buddha by the wood

Came across this Buddha exploring and strolling around an apartment block in Munich

It is said -

You can find Buddha anywhere

In every person that you meet

In the calm of every storm

In the silence of every noise

In the depth of every night

In the beauty of every sunrise

Still I was surprised –

When I found Buddha on a walk

In a distant land

By a pile of cut wood

Sitting there, serenely

Where he belongs

The Secret of the Indian Thorn Apple (in The Patan Golden Temple).

I've had just enough time to...   learn about the Indian Thorn Apple

Taken inside the Golden Temple of Patan...

Thank you all for your interest in the thorny fruits carried by the monkeys in the images that was shot in the monastery in Nepal. Thanks to Kismet who supplied the lead and some of your suggestions, we have together solved its mystery. The thorny fruit is the fruit of the Indian Thorn Apple or “Datura Metel” (see earlier posts). But first, something about the temple itself.

The temple is situated just two hundred meters north of the famous Patan Durbar Square and was built in the 12^th Century AD. Its original location was in Bahalkot and according to legends, the Buddhist monastery was built because of a dream by the disgraced Queen Pingala of Patan as the way to win back her husband’s affection. And it worked. 

where mouse or...

King Vaskar Deva Dutta had a dream that the idol of Buddha that was moved from Bahalkot disapproved of the new location and the temple should be built in a place shown by a mouse chasing a cat. One day, he did see a golden mouse chasing a cat and ordered it to be constructed there and named it “Hiranya Varna Mahavihar” or the Golden Buddhist Monastery. I guess that is why the rats are sacred in that temple.

According to Sanskrit literature, the Indian Thorn Apple is said to be grown from the chest of the Hindu god Shiva, the god of inebriants. In Nepal, the plant is considered sacred to Shiva and thorn apple flowers and fruits are the most important offering gifts and are offered at every “puja” or offering ceremony to please the god. The Indian Thorn Apple flowers are often depicted in Hindu Tantric Arts often in connection of the incarnation of Shiva. The plant is poisonous but is used for medicinal, ritual or intoxicating purposes and is also abused for criminal purposes. If by now, you are confused about Hindu god and Buddhist temple, it is because in Nepal and large part of India as well; Hinduism and Buddhism coexist for centuries and much of the culture and beliefs have spilled over from one to the other.

The Indian Thorn Apple is not as exotic as you may believe. It belongs to the same family as that of the Angel’s Trumpets.

pigeons and human happily co-exist.