Showing posts with label My Thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My Thoughts. Show all posts

Sunday, 8 February 2015

頂天立地傻人塔


人塔的起源和五位祖師
人塔遺址位於沙田區獅子山獅尾中段斜坡上,塔高約十五呎,由自稱傻人的陳十根,黎水皮,曾唯恕,陳普聲及廖之初幾位長者馱沙負石建成。塔身分數層,上刻有對聯題字,其中第二層塔身刻有"雙山抱海浮游鯉,一塔擎天起睡獅",對以太平山與獅子山為首的港九群峰,維多利亞港,鯉魚門及傻人塔作出最簡潔神絕的描繪。一九六四年颱風將塔攔腰摧折,上段滾下山坡,需識途者才得一窺原貌。

傻人塔掌門人及大傻、二傻、三傻
想當年、大概是在一九六零年春天,(又可能是五九年的秋天),傻人塔掌門人、即我們中學一位體育老師、帶着我班 (Form 4) 幾位同學、一行十多人一起登上沙田獅子旁的傻人塔拜見祖師們辛辛苦苦建立的塔。我們一羣人中、當然有大傻和二傻及這個剛被封為三傻的我。

大傻和二傻的趣史已傳遍校園,但事隔這麽多個年頭,很多趣事都已經模糊記不清楚了,不過有一件事情最令我印象深刻的是:有一次她們上完化學堂,大傻二傻很高興地從實驗室跑出來,手裡拿着一個瓶,裏面有白色的奶油,她們說是面霜,是自製的、與市面上賣的沒有分別,還叫我試塗在臉上,她們一邊說一邊已把自製的面霜塗在自己的臉上以作示範,我當然也照做了。

今非昔比,現在傻人塔已經遭天災摧毀,而人亦各散東西!掌門人是個談笑風生的老師,她有說有笑,是個開心菓,可惜大約十年前已仙遊了!大傻本是個品學兼優的高材生,她在 F6 畢業後便跑到美國留學,一去不返,失去了聯絡已多年!二傻天生麗質,性格溫柔,當了護士後不久便來了加拿大,隨著和一位外籍人士結婚,當了賢妻良母,現居安省一小鎮,很少外出!

至於我這個三傻嗎?是啊!四十多年前我在港教書時曽封了一位學生為四傻,好待彵可以絃續傻人一族的傳統和意念、希望我們五位祖師和前掌門人在天之靈、有所安慰!


傻人塔已倒塌了 -  現今樣貌



還記得、我這個三傻曾在校園內的荷花池旁、經同學介紹與一位主修哲學的同級同學閒談,發覺他有很多獨特思想和理論,於是對哲學產生興趣,但自己已經選讀了歷史系,不可能轉科,於是便報讀一科校外課程:《存在主義  Existentialism》,開始認識了尼采 (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche -- 1844 - 1900) 齊克果Søren Aabye Kierkegaard -- 1813-1855);保羅·薩特(Jean-Paul Sartre -- 1905-1980);加缪Albert Camus,1913-1960)等等。他們一致的理論是:世界沒有終極的目標;人們發現自己處於一個隱隱約約而有敵意的世界中;人們選擇而且無法避免選擇他們的品格、目標和觀點;不選擇就是一種選擇,即是選擇了「不選擇」;世界和我們的處境的真相最清楚地反映在茫然的心理不安或恐懼的瞬間。我讀了尼采的《上帝已死 - God Is Dead》,看了薩特的存在與虛無 - Being and Nothingness》,更看過加繆寫的《異鄉人/局外人 - Outsider/Stranger》。

存在主義的哲學是一種激進的自由意志主義:這種理論和決定論相對,認為人類有絕對的自由。他們認為“上帝已死” - 結果是人被拋棄了。因為在人的身內身外,都無法找到依託的東西。人沒有存在的理由。而如果確實是存在先於本質,人就不​​能用一種天生的現有的人性來解釋自己的行動;也就是說,沒有決定論。人是自由的。人就是自由。另一方面,如果上帝不存在,人就沒有價值和戒律說明人的行為是正當的。沒有價值領域。人孤寂獨處,無可辯解。這就是薩特所說的:“人是被判定為自由” 。因為一個人並不是自願存在於世的,然而一旦存在,他就是自由的;但同時他要對自己所做的一切負責。

在七十年代這段動盪及無方向的日子中,我這個三傻不知不覺地被存在主義的思想影響以為上帝真的死了或離棄我們人類了,於是漸漸覺得人生漫無目的、又似是心靈空虛、好不容易才捱過了好幾個年頭,直至有一天,一個神蹟把我喚醒過來,才知道上帝沒有死,祂一直倍伴在我左右!我恍然大悟、原來我一直追的存在主義思想是錯誤的選擇,這是一種悲觀避世及頹癈的學說,我趕忙把尼采的《上帝之死》扔掉了,再把聖經拿出來!這一來、人也好像復活了一樣、心頭有着一種無名的喜悅!這便是我這三傻得到重生的故事,現在只相信我們生存在這世上,一切事情是神早已替我們預先安排好,至於我們得到的、是神賜給我們的,得不到的、亦無需強求!

四傻本是位律師兼教授、現在都已退休了!年前回港與他見面,他告訴我他退休後選讀了神學,我還以為他想當牧師,他忙搖頭說不!

最欣賞他說現代科學發達,萬種事情的發生、都是基於科學根據,而科學與神學是對立的,他說科學根據是靠做實驗結果得來的,而科學理論便是憑著實驗結果的八至九成〔80 to 90%〕來推斷的,即是有兩成至一成〔10 - 20%〕的事情發生,是無法解釋的!

其實神要行神蹟,是隨時隨地,不是任何科學能衡量的!
PS -〔在這裡、我不知我是否清楚地解釋到四傻的理論,若不清楚的話,還望四傻能補充!〕
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以下是四傻的補充,及我、三傻的回應:
(1) 三傻姐,退休後其實我只是讀了兩年哲學,還未開始讀神學,但已啟發良多。我覺得人生的起點和終局主都已安排,但其他的都給予我們自由,就如置身於一列不停站的火車中,起點和終點已不能改變,但過程中我們可以有自由,可以靜坐,車頭行到車尾,聽音樂,唱歌,看書等不同選擇,這就是存在!

(2)  再補充一下,科學與神學並不是對立,只是人們太迷信科學,不能解釋或實驗證明不到的便說不科學,迷信,不存在!其實科學的理論一般基於實驗而作出結論,若不能實驗的,便作出不同假設,再提取其中最合乎邏輯的成為公式。可能一百萬次實驗結果相同,但誰敢說第一百萬零一次的實驗結果是一樣?只要有不同實驗結果,這結論就有機會被打破!再說公式亦只是假設,未被實驗證明,但人們仍相信,不說不科學,不存在,是否自相矛盾?

、三傻的回:-- 儍人看人生、完全相同啊! 唉!若是存在主義能選擇神還是活在我們當中、那麼人的存在意義便不再是 Albert Camus 在 Outsider 的選擇、走向 Nothingness 及頹癈的方向!只可惜他們相信活著的價值只是為身旁的人、所以對自己沒有要求、正如 Charles Dickens 在雙城記寫的 Sydney Carton 一樣!他們實在太悲觀了!
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1959 或 1960 年代攝於沙田頂天立地傻人


                                                                 
  掌門人和大傻二傻三傻合照                                                                                                

Friday, 20 June 2014

Crazy Notions...

It just dawned on me that we are not living in the present!

We are in fact living in the past!  Everything now and in our future had happened already and we are merely "acting" our parts to make it fall into place!  Our future had already took place because no matter what we tried to do, the results have been crafted for us.  Why?  Because it had happened!  So we are living in the present which is in fact our past!

One of my former students mentioned to me once, "Time equals space."  That means, if we can travel in space, we can also travel in time.  Somehow, we had made our choice before, perhaps in another dimension.

Just think again.  Jesus had prophesied that one of his disciples would betray Him.  He also prophesied that Peter would deny Him thrice.  If Judas knew that Jesus knew one of the 12 disciples would betray Him, he would have guessed that Jesus would know who that disciple was.  Then why couldn't Judas change the fate by changing his mind during the last moment?  No, he couldn't, because it had already happened and Judas had to finish acting his part correctly by betraying Jesus.  The same applied to Peter!  I really think we just travelled back in time to act our parts.

Also, we were, we have been and we are told about the end of the world will happen one day...and the Bible even describes it in the Book of Revelation as if it had happened already and someone just wrote it down for records.

Another notion is that we are actually actors and actresses living on a world stage playing our parts.  But our parts have been written out already for us.  Oh yes, sometimes it seemed that we were given a few choices in life, but those are equivalent to ad-libs on stage; we couldn't be far off.  Somehow, the director(s) would send other actors to correct us so that eventually we would still go into the right direction, or else our part(s) would be eliminated!

That explained why we sometimes didn't want to do certain things; but somehow we did it and we couldn't understand why on earth we did what we did!

Then there were places we never had been before, and yet when we first saw it, it seemed familiar!

Somebody out there is watching us and He also directs the play and guides us along - He is our God!

Friday, 17 May 2013

My Space Adventure


Ever since Star Trek NG, there hadn’t been any good Syfy shows on TV except, maybe Babylon 5.  Then there was Star Trek Enterprise, with Scott Bakula as Capt Johathan Archer.  That was good in the first 2 seasons, but as time went by, the storylines became weaker and weaker.  So it ended without a boom!  My guess is,  Gene Roddenberry wasn’t around to provide good scripts for the show!  The show ran from 2001 to 2005, and Roddenberry went to Space Heaven in 1991!

Andromeda came about in 2000 and stayed for 5 seasons with Kevin Sorbo (the former Hercules) playing Capt Dylan Hunt.  Of course, Sorbo was good as the Captain.  But what a drag!  The space ship was run by him and a few of his crew members who dressed themselves as a high school rock band!  After about 2 seasons, I simply dropped it.

I wasn’t any fan for Battlestar Galactica, the series, old or new.  The original movie was good.  In fact, the original movie was too good that whatever stories that ensued on TV were too pale to compare to its predecessor.

So I spent most of my time watching Stargate SG-1 with Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping.  For 10 seasons!  Not bad at all.  But the spin-off series such as Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe were not the same without Anderson.

Now there is Defiance, premiered April 15, 2013.  I only started to watch episode 5 the other day and found it intriguing.  Thus, I went to the Showcase website and finally caught up with all the previous episodes.  I think the pilot was done  badly for it never explained how and why the aliens and humans came to live together in Defiance.  So much history was not accounted for!  They can’t expect all of us know its history before watching the show? 

Because the pilot was so badly done with a lot being unexplained, it made you want to find out more.  So people will tune in again for the second episode, and the third, and …   Suddenly there’s a Romeo and Juliet situation, and then the old fashioned conflict between a father and son, and the love and hate between two sisters…   Cliché, cliché, cliché…  Yet people will still want to see more…

Also, the show was supposed to base on the MMO video game with the same name.  However, the storylines are so different between the game and the show, except for the names of a few characters that appeared both in the game and on the show.

By watching Star Trek for so many years, I have already familiarized myself with names of different species and races such as the Ferengi, Bajorans, Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans, Cardassians, etc.  Now with Defiance, I’ll have to learn to know names such as the Votans, the Castithans, the Aranthients, and so on and so forth…

After reading the above, you must think I come from another planet.  And maybe I did.  But which planet did I come from?  Let me see…I can’t seem to recall…  My memories must have been erased!  By humans?

Thursday, 27 September 2012

A Stroll Along Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario

I took a stroll along my old neighbourhood, Queen Street West today...OMG, a lot has changed...Silver Snail is now moved to 329 Yonge, the bookstore that used to sell small-press books is gone, the 360 Club (where Nicole sang there one Saturday night) was closed...many new trendy shops are now in their place including a huge Shoppers Drug Mart...Steve's Music Store is still there, so are Drake Hotel, Condom Shack, Starbuck, Sushi Time (where I took Ileana to try out her first Japanese food). City TV - of course now - is the home of CP24 and Much Music (City TV has since moved to Yonge and Dundas). But like before, it's always fun to walk along here! I saw a great-looking young man wearing a fur coat today (it's 16C with sunshine)...a pretty lady dyed her hair in bright red colour...another dyed hers in bright green (they don't know each other)...a guy in the old mohawk hairstyle...a band singing on the street (they sound better than the subway musicians who are usually quite boring to listen to)...old hippies, young urban weirdos...except this time, I didn't see any girl wearing any nightie, (trust me, a few years ago at the same Starbuck on Q St W, I did see one wearing a pink night gown sipping coffee with her friends!)