Ha, where should I start.
It is weird holding the microphone.. perhaps the keyboard.. and
asking myself to write in public when I have nothing to say. Yet,
as I learnt as part of practice, doing, is undoing. My sour
pineapple could be another person's Ong Lai (Thus Wealth Come).
Hence, let's do it.
I am glad to say that I am loved before, and have loved before
too. Perhaps not so sure if I was loved before, but I did loved
before. If you catch the drift. Couple of years ago, I was studying
in a tertiary institution, and getting bored by project work and
tutorial assignments that seem to bring me nowhere. Hence, like all
my peers have already done, let's check out the opposite
gender.
National Service does horrible things to a male's hormonal
balances and chain of thoughts. If Forest-Monk Thai Buddhism was
one form of austerity, the Singapore National Service is a lesser
version of it. When you released from Green Colour and enter
civilian life, with all the shopping malls, business students and
cheap and yummy food, it takes a strong and firm mind to overcome
desire which is written all over the place.
Especially when you live in hostel and with nothing to do, and
the mirror in front of you suggests, why not sleep after 12 and
turn off the lights and peel the green apple?
And so, as the story went, I fell in love without checking out
her credentials properly. Basically you simply don't have the time
to check out the opposite gender's background and form a semantic
map of characteristics like you can do on dating websites nowadays
(blue eyes? height? weight? religion? race?) and like all guys
without Buddhist wisdom do (I was not a practitioner then), you
jump into the relationship and the exit point was nowhere to be
found subsequently.
You cannot blame anybody, when weeks into the relationship, she
suggests that she missed her former boyfriend, and shares with you
her need for you (i.e. me) to convert to Christianity. Her family
were non-Taoish-Taoists and she was thinking that with all the
education she received, she deserved a better religion.
Christianity sounded like it.
Especially when her ex was a Christian who introduced her to the
religion, but left her because of a higher calling to pursue more
education.
Where I am coming from, is to point out the demerits of a blind
an inexperienced boy (me) entering my first romance
rather late (read: late, as in singapore-late, not metteya pureland
late where girls are suitable for marriage at 500 years old
iirc)......... as a boy, i want to solve problems. If she had a ex
she could not forget, then let's solve it. If she has a family who
disapprove of christianity, then let's solve it. If I come from a
Buddhist family that opposes of Christian girlfriends as much as
the reverse applies, then let's solve it.
A anecdote which my ex shared with me through her personal blog
was, Ignorance is Bliss. Why, I cannot understand, because in
Buddhism, I finally started listening to Theravada talks by Ajahn
Brahm during my Internship when my manager realised I could
not concentrate at work and passed me Brahm's book).... in
Buddhism, Ignorance is the Root Cause of Suffering. So how can
anybody call it bliss?
Fast forwarding by almost 7-8 years, I was happy I changed to a
friend who follows a compatible life philosophy as I do. Notice
that nowadays I use the word "friend", because ... this is no
longer Buddhisto or Christiano wisdom... this is experience.
Ignorance is bliss. Until it meets craving (tanha). Then
suffering erupts. So my ex was not wrong. But ... good
riddance.
It is my humble encounter with her that I realise that romance
and desire for the opposite gender makes one go crazy and gaga, and
an entire world can revolve non-stop when two persons are in love.
But the Mee Siam Mai Hum theory I have to share today is, there was
never a Hum in Mee Siam. Just as there was no true love in a
romantic relationship. Yes I could be wrong and others have better
explanations for love, but this is MY experience. The point about
romance is not about I love you more today or you love me more
today, rather, it is the simple understanding that in romance, you
cannot swallow it, nor can you spit it out.
When she tells you that her baggage is too heavy, it simply
means that she can still carry it. She just want you to hold it,
and realise for yourself it IS heavy. Nothing to solve. Nothing to
solve.
And then we go for breakfast happily. My ex and I.
Roasted pork is yummy. And it is because it was put into the
burning heat. Take a few more steps in life and you discover there
is more than just roasted pork rice.. like dumpling noodle,
nasi lemak, and what have u got, then u start wanting to become
vegan.
Too gross, meat.