[MD] Navigating Quality

[Khoo Hock Aun]

Hi Marsha,

I have the inspiration to introduce to you an author who passed away
recently in November last year.

Han Suyin lived until 95 and was most famous for her book, Love is a Many
Splendoured Thing which was made into a movie and "Love Is a
Many-Splendored
Thing<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_a_Many-Splendored_Thing_(song)>",
won the Academy Award for Best Original
Song<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Original_Song>.
Her mixed heritage ensured a continuing tension between East and West all
throughout her life born as a Eurasain in a large Chinese household. Her
obituary in the Guardian can be found here :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/nov/04/han-suyin

According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Suyin, in 1952, she
married Leon F. Comber, a British officer in the Malayan Special Branch,
and went with him to Johore <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johore>,
Malaya<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_of_Malaya>(present-day
Malaysia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia>), where she worked in the
Johore Bahru General Hospital and opened a clinic in Johore Bahru and Upper
Pickering Street, Singapore.

Uncle Comber is a friend of my wife's family whom Han Su Yin married after Tang
Pao-Huang<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tang_Pao-Huang&action=edit&redlink=1>her
first husband died in the Chinese Civil War, There are many stories my
wife tells me about her and Uncle Comber, especially about her high society
ways she was used to when her Gen Tang ensured for her during her time
in London completing her medical degree.

n 1956, she published the novel *And the Rain My
Drink<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Rain_My_Drink>
*, whose description of the guerrilla
war<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayan_emergency>of the Malayan
Chinese rubber workers against the government was perceived
very anti-British, and her husband is said to have resigned as acting
Assistant Commissioner of Police [Special Branch] mainly because of this.

Between the time she was married to Gen Tang and Uncle Comber  she met and
fell in love with Ian Morrison <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Morrison>,
a married Australian war correspondent based in Singapore, who was killed
in Korea in 1950. She portrayed their relationship in that famous novel and
the factual basis of their relationship is documented in her autobiography *My
House Has Two Doors* (1980). She has a long list of novels,
autobiographical books and on recent Chinese history from which you could
pick out something worthwhile.

In 1955, Han Suyin contributed efforts to the establishment of Nanyang
University <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanyang_University> in
Singapore<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore>.
Specifically, she offered her services and served as physician to the
institution, after having refused an offer to teach literature. Chinese
writer Lin Yutang <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Yutang>, first
president of the university, had recruited her for the latter field, but
she declined, indicating her desire "to make a new Asian literature, not
teach Dickens", according to the Warring States Project at the University
of Massachusetts
Amherst<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Massachusetts_Amherst>
.[8] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Suyin#cite_note-umass-8>

The rest of Han Suyin's story is well documented, and the stories she tells
are of a China and civilisation trying to come to terms with the 20th
Century. Her life is in many ways one of a immensely talented woman,
trapped between two worlds, seeking expression and fulfilment through her
words in response to the vicissitudes she experienced.

I have never met Han Suyin although I visited Lausanne for other business
regularly in the last few years and there was no reason to.  But she
embodied both a distant celebrity and yet someone you know intimately
through Uncle Comber. You know, the stuff of Hollywood and the stuff in
your very own backyard.

I think the contrast between east and west is captured in many ways, and
much more so in a life like hers, where the tensions play out in the books
she wrote.

The last scene from the movie here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goD9ZezCMoA

Rgds
Khoo Hock Aun



On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 4:37 PM, MarshaV <valkyr at att.net> wrote:

>
> Hello Khoo,
>
> You wrote:  Dynamic is preferable to static for an advanced soul seeking
> the Source. But how do we get to Dynamic when we can’t say what it is ?
>
> Marsha:
> One approach that has been suggested is by discovering what it is not: not
> this, not that.  Here's where the critical thinking of a skeptic (inquiry)
> might be useful.  But also I remember you suggesting to me to stay in a
> state of mindfulness.
>
> While you are present, do you any names of the great books from East Asia
> to recommend?  I have read The Heart Sutra, The Diamond Sutra, The Platform
> Sutra and I'm presently reading the The Lankavatara Sutra.  I would
> appreciate your recommendation.
>
>
> Marsha
>
>
>
>
> On Feb 10, 2013, at 1:07 PM, Khoo Hock Aun <khoohockaun at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Dear All,
> >
> >
> >
> > Its been a long while. Here is a short reflection on navigating Quality
> (or
> > getting a grip on Reality).
> >
> >
> >
> > Between Chaos and Order is a place where patterns of static quality are
> > best used as griphandles when we weave from point to point across the
> > multiverses of Dynamic Quality. Our consciousness constantly projects
> both
> > these experienced and created static patterns from the everchanging
> > dynamic, to seek an explanation for the Chaos.
> >
> >
> > We all navigate to get somewhere in each of our realities and sometimes
> > mistake these griphandles of static patterns as ends in themselves. We
> can
> > actually end up in the grip of the griphandle. The truth is that none of
> > these griphandles ever last, formed for our purposes, dissolving after we
> > are gone and our need passed, but perpetuated by a humanity in search of
> > something that is permanent.
> >
> > An order of things, or if you like, patterns of static quality, have been
> > constructed to navigate the oceans of seeming chaos. The order of things
> > that emanates from our primary griphandle; that of a static self, is
> > regarded the only reality we know as long as our self exists. This sense
> of
> > self persists even as the set of energy patterns that make up our
> > biological person change constantly. No one second are they exactly the
> > same.
> >
> >
> > What is the "us", then that does this navigating of the dynamic
> multiverses
> > ? The Hindus would have us as the smaller souls seeking the Greater Soul,
> > or generalising, little pockets of dynamic quality seeking return to the
> > Source. In the Eastern worldview, the "self" is but the epitome of only
> the
> > social level. It diminishes when the idea of community emerges. It
> > dissolves when the idea of universality takes hold.
> >
> > The Western worldview sets the individual "self" as the height of the
> > intellectual level; because it’s our "self" that does the thinking of
> > thoughts, the basic building blocks of all intellect. Sounds terribly
> > Cartesian, but as a static grip handle, it has persisted and been
> > perpetuated.
> >
> > In the Eastern worldview, the individual is a temporary grip handle,
> > incidental to the intellect. The intellectual level transcends the
> person.
> > The thoughts once expressed belong to humanity. The personal fortune or
> > destiny of the individual thinker is not a function of the intellect. No
> > individual self determination here. It’s all karma, and thoughts find the
> > thinker, creativity becomes synchronicity, when the universes conspires
> > with you to come together.
> >
> > Yes, human rights belong at the intellectual level, but not at the
> expense
> > of humanity or the planet for at the hands of a social greedy acquisitive
> > individual for that matter. Some may argue the free enterprise economic
> > system is the best evolved template for human progress. Yet it has not
> > eliminated universal human suffering, nor caused a major treatise on
> human
> > happiness to be written. Maybe with the possible exception of the
> > Metaphysics of Quality.
> >
> >
> >
> > At the physical level, energy is not equally distributed among static
> > patterns. At the biological level, complex self sustaining systems
> compete
> > to draw energy from the physical world. At the human level, evolving
> power
> > structures are social static patterns competing for limited resources.
> The
> > thoughts of the intellectual level of the Western world are everywhere in
> > chains, bounded by the levers of the levels below. For all our great
> ideas,
> > injustice prevails everywhere on the planet and self serving systems
> ensure
> > that the world's resources are in the hands of a few.
> >
> >
> >
> > Even as these are the subjects for political or social discourse, left or
> > right, socialist or capitalist, the intellect may have a field day
> amongst
> > those who have the most faculties, but is of little help for the
> individual
> > interested to navigate the projections of static quality in the quest for
> > dynamic quality to achieve equanimity, harmony and peace.
> >
> >
> >
> > He or she would be more interested in a guide for navigating Quality.
> Maybe
> > the Tao of Grip handles may work. : )
> >
> >
> >
> > Is there a way to wean the individual from his or her dependency on
> static
> > patterns and to consider them only as stepping stones on a pathway ? I
> can
> > understand on MD Discuss we use the currency of commonly understood
> static
> > patterns. In discussing Dynamic Quality we fall short and fear the fall
> > into the Chaos. Its the fear of flying, you see.
> >
> >
> > But seriously, in the combined worldview, would not the individual "self"
> > of the intellectual level transcend each of our own lives and across our
> > lifetimes connecting the dots amongst the multitude that would otherwise
> be
> > the Chaos that engulfs us all. Because you are not attached and prepared
> to
> > let go, the imagery of this everchanging interdependent lattice of
> > griphandles keep you from falling and helps you straddle the comfort of
> > Order and the calamity of Chaos.
> >
> >
> >
> > A mastery of what static qualities are and how to navigate them is
> > essential. Thinking of them as griphandles requires us to know which ones
> > to clutch, how long to hold on to them and when to let go as we hurtle It
> > follows that the strategic goal is not a vaultful of static qualities,
> but
> > using them adeptly to get to the next point in indeterminate environment
> of
> > dynamic quality. Pirsig has already designated static quality the lesser
> of
> > the two. Static quality serves the purposes of those who cannot grasp the
> > fluidity of change. Dynamic is preferable to static for an advanced soul
> > seeking the Source. But how do we get to Dynamic when we can’t say what
> it
> > is ?
> >
> >
> >
> > One view shows you nothing but Chaos, another, nothing but a static rigid
> > Order. As a human on the cusp of awareness, in all likelihood,
> > enlightenment could be when these projections of Order dissolve away, and
> > with them, our fear of Chaos. Welcome, then, to the World of the Buddhas
> > Regards
> > Khoo Hock Aun
> >
> > --
> >
> > khoohockaun at gmail.com
> > 6016-301 4079
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-- 

khoohockaun at gmail.com
6016-301 4079