OWL...

This picture is provided by National Geographic and so is the write-up. Isn't this snow owl beautiful? The feathers are so pure...and fluffy and makes you want to hug it. I love to have one as a pet but it won't survive in this harsh hot climate. We do have owls here but they are of the smaller and grey kind.

Extract: "The snowy owl's beautiful white plumage helps to hide it in its Arctic habitat. Only the males are completely white. Chicks are dark and spotted, while the females are white with spots on their wings.

Young owls, especially males, get whiter as they get older. Females are darker than males, with dusky spotting, and never become totally white. Some elderly males do become completely white, though many retain small flecks of dusky plumage.

The snowy owl is a patient hunter that perches and waits to identify its prey before soaring off in pursuit. Snowy owls have keen eyesight and great hearing, which can help them find prey that is invisible under thick vegetation or snow cover. The owls deftly snatch their quarry with their sharp talons."

Does Owls remind you of Harry Potter? Actually it does gives one an eerie feeling when it perch high up on a tree and looking at you with those ever So big and unblinking eyes that say..."I saw it all". Owls are associated with the Dark Forces, I don't know why. However this snow owl do not have the round big eyes which I think it makes me think of a sharp, focus, eagle eye instead.

In this part where I lived, people knows owls from their school books and movies etc but in real life we hardly see one. I know though, that owls are carnivorous. They eat rats and the like.

Looking at this beautiful snow owl, it makes me think of a video that someone sent me on FUR. In China, people are breeding animals with beautiful fur and killing them to sell off their fur to some fashion designers and those that love to wear fur. Thank goodness in this hot part of the world, we have no requirement for such. We are blessed. Do you know how these animals are killed, all those proverbs like...'Skin you alive'...'clubbed you to death'...are such cruel words. Well, these animals are literally that...and...left to die in pain. HOW would you like to wear a beautiful fur around your neck...and if you have the 'eye' to see, you will see Bloody dead animal around your neck instead. HOW would you like to be SKIN alive?

There are animals cruelty because there is a DEMAND. Stone age people do not have enough to cover their bodies from cold, so they need the animal skin. They only need something over their body BUT today people boast of owning MINKS an how much it cost. Talking about protecting the environment and kindness to animals? We should preached this to the rich and famous and the Vains! Well just remember - what goes around comes around. We do not need fur to keep us warm, we have enough natural fabrics to do so...PLEASE DO AWAY with all these cruelty!

The amount of harm we are doing to the environment, it is retaliating. I will not want to make bloody money to get rich. This is a funny world, when there is a need, there will be people who are not afraid to die to supply....SAD!

(A note of thanks to National Geographic and the photographer by making such a beautiful Owl photographs available.)

Watch this Video..if you still think that wearing fur is alright. If it does not raise your compassion, something in you must be blocked!

.....???? My attached video disappeared from this post. Anyway be it so. It is too cruel to enhance my blog. However hiding under anything will not earse the fact that animal cruelty is there. FOR those who has a strong stomach and a strong heart, go search for ...'animal fur, animal cruelty...etc', you find tons of them on Youtube.

Amitofo....may the Buddha blessed those that have committed such crime. May all those pitiful animals that die in such a painful manner take better rebirth.

Mooncakes Evolution

What comes into your mind when you think of "Zhong Qiu"? To me it is a merry making and sharing time for a year of good harvest. It is family reunion, it is a big round moon hanging in the sky with little clouds around it and it is feasting time.

Zhong Qiu is the Chinese word for Mid-Autumn. Once a upon a time, long long ago...it has something to do with revolution. To overthrow the wicked ruling party, people came together and planned a cope. To make sure it went unnoticed, they made rounded mooncakes and inserted message roll about the time, date and this made everyone ready to do so. It was successful and everyone rejoiced. The mooncake messenger became a delicacy for celebration.

There are many stories revolving around the Mid Autumn Festival. Other than the above, there is also a legend of a maiden flying to the moon after eating a special concocted pill which gave eternal life.

Mooncake had come a long way. It became a cake for celebration and gifts to each other to celebrate great harvest. Slowly this cake that was filled with white lotus paste changed. People started putting egg yolk to make it taste different. Subsequently from one yolk in a cake became double yolk in a cake. Families made these cakes as gifts and gradually it became a blooming business.

On this special mid Autumn night and it is the 15th day of the calender, families started setting out table and chairs, fill the tables with food and of course the prima dona of the night which cannot be missed is Maiden Mooncake. Slowly the food increased to having pameloes, small yam, cow horn nuts and we even have char mee hoon, curry chicken and anything palatable to fill our stomach.

As a kid I was very excited and cannot wait for night to fall. Other than food, I looked forward to seeing all my neighbor kids. They gradually showed up and each holding a beautifully lit lanterns of different sizes and in the shapes of animals. By looking at the lantern, it is also parents showed off as to how affordable they can be...I loved the gold fishes. However we were not so well to do so we have paper lanterns. It did not made me feel inferior because the happiness is too much for me to bother. However there were years when my parents can afford...I had gold fishes lanterns too.

The mooncakes had evolved. From the traditional baked cake, it now have snow skin too and also ice-cream mooncake for those who needs variety. The filling too evolved. From white lotus paste to plus one egg yolk, two egg yoke, nutty with fats and vegetarians for those 'grass' eaters. As human advances, the mooncake evolved further to fillings with white chocolate and brown chocolate for chocolate lovers; filling with durian, filling with hazel nuts, filling with bird nest and anything the bakers can think off to boost marketing and sales.

The mooncakes wrapping also changed with time. From a simple rice paper, it comes in paper boxes and now the paper boxes has to be 'designer' to show off the 'expansiveness' of the gift. I received a few this year with really nice packaging. Talking about loving the environment, the boxes used to pack the mooncake now can be recycled to be used as gift boxes and even jewelry boxes.

If you are a Chinese, and if you still have old folks at home, you will be reminded on this culture. If you don't remember, you will see stalls selling mooncakes and paper lanterns to remind you; and if you don't, your friend will share a piece of the mooncake with you.

Sharing love and joy with you for this Season. No matter you are home or you are far away from home, Home is where the heart is. Look at the moon, think of your love ones and wish them peace, joy, safety, happiness and abundance.

For me, I will cut a piece of mooncake, hold a cup of fragrance hot Chinese tea and look at the Moon. I will cheer my parents wherever they are, may they always be with the Triple Gems. I will cheer all sentient beings, may they be well, be safe, be happy and may they have an opportunity to hear the Dharma and be liberated from sufferings.

Happy Mid Autum Festival 2010 my friends!

Sea Turtles...

I have been missing in action and left my blog posting as at 1st September 2010. I was busy with Guru in town giving teachings, initiations and pujas. This is a busy week, tired but happy.

Today I saw something from National Geographic about sea turtles and love to share it here. You may have missed this but again are you not awe by nature? When Buddha said we are not the only living beings on this Earth, he told the Truth. When we think that we human populated this Earth and we are counted in billions...may I remind you that if you check on all other living life forces around you, they can over run we humans in trillions and trillions. This are only those that we can see from the walking, crawling, flying and swimming...there are those that are invisible to naked eyes...bacteria, virus etc., not to mentioned those from another dimension. Therefore what is there to be so proud about being Human? Human is said to have higher wisdom and better merits to take this form but such merits need to be earned. Please do not forget merits expire when you use them. It is like a saving account, if you keep drawing and never putting back...you will go bankrupt one day. Therefore always remember to do good to increase blessings. I have side tracked.


Coming back to sea turtles, whether adult or kid, we all love a tortoise or a turtle. In my days in Phuket, every year Songkran, I will buy a turtle and after blessing from the monks, released it to the sea. This is because I love this creatures and it is in line with my teachings - give life to others is like giving life to yourself.

I also stayed at hotels around Maldives and Seychelles and these turtles will come up to the beaches to lay their eggs. People protected the eggs, wait for the little turtle to break shell and the cute little thing knows by instinct that it crawls towards to sea. However people keep them and let it grow bigger before releasing them so that the bigger sea animals do not eat them for food. Some marine people tagged the turtle and monitor its movement and no matter how far a turtle swim, if it is still alive, it will come back 'Home'. There was this turtle that came back home after three years and it is so heart warming. There are different types of sea turtles i.e leatherback sea turtles, green sea turtle, Hawksbill sea turtle and Kemp Ridley sea turtle. You can read about them in National Geographic.

I have also seen giant tortoises and even when you sit on it, it will still move. They roam around freely and kept as house pet. Do you like one?

Here is the facts from National Geographic...SEA TURTLES HAVE BEEN SWIMMING IN OUR OCEAN SINCE THE TIME OF DINOSAURS.

To the Chinese, turtles or tortoises mean Longevity and good luck. So when someone wish you long life like a turtle or tortoise, do not get angry. It is good intention.

WONDER EGG...(2)

Here is more facts about WONDER EGG. I love eggs and I don't eat just any kind of 'eggs'. I know there are people going for exotic eggs i.e like those with unborn chicks, turtle eggs and whatever eggs as any kind of eggs won't kill. So since I have the following article, lets continue to learn more about eggs. People refrained from it not knowing the facts and follow blindly just because someone said so.

" I was on a weekend trip with some friends recently and one of my friends was cooking breakfast for the whole group. I went over to see what he was cooking and saw he was getting ready to make a big batch of eggs.

Well, to my shock and horror, I noticed that he was cracking the eggs open and screening the egg whites into a bowl and throwing out the egg yolks. I asked him why the heck he was throwing out the egg yolks, and he replied something like this...

"because I thought the egg yolks were terrible for
you..that's where all the nasty fat and cholesterol is".

And I replied, "you mean that's where all the nutrition is!" .

This is a perfect example of how confused most people are about nutrition. In a world full of misinformation, somehow most people now mistakenly think that the egg yolk is the worst part of the egg, when in fact, the YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE EGG !

By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites, you're essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense, antioxidant-rich, vitamin and mineral loaded portion of the egg. The yolks contain so many B-vitamins, trace minerals, vitamin A, folate, choline, lutein, and other powerful nutrients... it's not even worth trying to list them all.

In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition compared to the yolks.

Even the protein in egg whites isn't as powerful without the yolks to balance out the amino acid profile and make the protein more bio-available. Not to even mention that the egg yolks from free range chickens are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids.

Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids.

And now the common objection I get all the time when I say that the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg...
"But I heard that whole eggs will skyrocket my cholesterol through the roof"

No, this is FALSE!
First of all, when you eat a food that contains a high amount of dietary cholesterol such as eggs, your body down-regulates it's internal production of cholesterol to balance things out.

On the other hand, if you don't eat enough cholesterol, your body simply produces more since cholesterol has tons of important functions in the body.

And here's where it gets even more interesting...
There are indications that eating whole eggs actually raises your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree than LDL cholesterol, thereby improving your overall cholesterol ratio and blood chemistry.

And 3rd... high cholesterol is NOT a disease! Heart disease is a disease...but high cholesterol is NOT. Cholesterol is actually a VERY important substance in your body and has vitally important functions... it is DEAD WRONG to try to "lower your cholesterol" just because of pharmaceutical companies propaganda that everyone on the planet should be on statin drugs.

You can read the following article about why trying to attack cholesterol is a mistake, and what the REAL deadly risk factors actually are... Cholesterol Myths

In addition, the yolks contain the antioxidant lutein as well as other antioxidants which can help protect you from inflammation within your body (the REAL culprit in heart disease, not dietary cholesterol!), giving yet another reason why the yolks are actually GOOD for you, and not detrimental.

To help bring even more proof that whole eggs are better for you than egg whites, I recently read a University of Connecticut study that showed that a group of men in the study that ate 3 eggs per day for 12 weeks while on a reduced carb, higher fat diet increased their HDL good cholesterol by 20%, while their LDL bad cholesterol stayed the same during the study. However, the group that ate egg substitutes (egg whites) saw no change in either and did not see the improvement in good cholesterol (remember that higher HDL levels are associated with lower risk of heart disease) that the whole egg eaters did.

So I hope we've established that whole eggs are not some evil food that will wreck your body... instead whole eggs are FAR superior to egg whites.

Also, your normal supermarket eggs coming from mass factory farming just don't compare nutritionally with organic free range eggs from healthy chickens that are allowed to roam freely and eat a more natural diet. Your typical cheap grocery store eggs will have lower nutrient levels and a higher omega-6 level and lower omega-3 level. On the other hand, the cage-free organic eggs from healthier chickens allowed to eat more natural feed and roam freely will have much higher vitamin and mineral levels and a more balanced healthier omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio.

I recently compared eggs I bought at the grocery store with a batch of eggs I got at a farm stand where the chickens were free roaming and healthy.

Most people don't realize that there's a major difference because they've never bought real eggs from healthy chickens... The eggs from the grocery store had pale yellow yolks and thin weak shells. On the other hand, the healthier free range eggs from the local farm had strong thick shells and deep orange colored yolks indicating much higher nutrition levels and carotenoids... and just a healthier egg in general.

So next time a health or fitness professional tells you that egg whites are superior, you can quietly ignore their advice knowing that you understand the REAL deal about egg yolks.

And can we all please STOP with this silliness about eating an omelet with 4-5 egg whites and only 1 egg yolk... If you want real taste and real health benefits, we'd all be better off eating ALL of our eggs with the yolks.

Another interesting thing about eggs...
I read a study recently that compared groups of people that ate egg breakfasts vs groups of people that ate cereal or bagel based breakfasts. The results of the study showed that the egg eaters lost or maintained a healthier body weight, while the cereal/bagel eaters gained weight.

It was hypothesized that the egg eaters actually ate less calories during the remainder of the day because their appetite was more satisfied compared to the cereal/bagel eaters who would have been more prone to wild blood sugar swings and food cravings.

Enjoy your eggs and get a leaner body!