31.10.2012 Be the change

這是我最喜歡的一句人生格言，是由印度國父甘地所說，全句是 ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’。

相信不少人也會對生命有抱怨和不滿，不過他們卻只會投訴，不愛行動。另外，也有不少人有心去以行動改變身邊的人與事、改變社會、改變世界，不過卻感到以卵擊石，無能為力。

其實要改變世界的秘密，就是甘地所說的這句話，在改變世界之前，要先讓自己成為改變。由內而外推展，才是最自然、最順勢、最不費氣力的方法。不管那轉變是多麼微不足道，但只要一步一步，有信心地走下去，你會看見你身邊的世界會因為自己內在的轉變而跟隨演變。

最近發現，原來有人把Be the change轉化為行動，正以前所未有的速度改變世界。這是一個名為 ‘Design For Change’（以下簡稱DFC）（www.dfcworld.com）的行動，由印度河濱學校（Riverside School）創辦人瑟吉校長（Kiran Bir Sethi）在09年8月展開。她相信每個孩子也有能力改變世界，正如她這個活動的標語：Every child can。而有別於傳統地問Can I？每個孩子也應該知道I Can。

這是一個十分有感染力的活動，以四個簡單但深刻的步驟讓小孩子改世界。

第一步是Feel：孩子們要感受一下身邊有麼問題是他們不喜歡，並希望改變的。

第二步是Imagine：利用想像力，他們要用一個星期的時間構思出解決問題的方法。

第三步是Do：落實方法後，便要以行動去實踐改變。

第四步是Share：把故事以影片或文字等方式放在網路上公諸同好。

瑟吉於第一年在全印度的學校推行DFC活動時，已獲得10萬名小朋友參加，在TED（http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dxJHcB5GO4&feature=share&list=PLA98391790A018C4F）的一次演講後，她引起了不同國家裡相同理念的人響應，現在，此活動已獲得全球35個國家，共2500萬名孩童參與。

看著網上分享的作品，我心裡有種莫名的感動，大人們何時才能謙虛地聆聽小孩子的意見？其實由小孩們不怕醜和不理成敗的那顆純真的心所推行的改變，才是最有創意和最具威力。印度的孩子希望令醫院裡患癌的小朋友重新掛上笑臉，他們組隊每星期到醫院與患病的小朋友玩耍、表演給他們看、又為他們佈置病房。不單孩子的臉上重展笑容，連父母也因此而獲減輕負擔。他們的創意更為患病孩童籌得可觀的善款，讓他們可加強和擴展有關行動。

有台灣的孩子希望能更了解學校裡的特殊學生，好讓他們免受排斥。於是以作為哥哥姐姐的方式陪他們玩耍，又教他們說話。結果這些哥哥姐姐發現原來所謂的特殊學生，與一般人無異，很聰明之餘，其實也很討人喜愛。

香港的孩子感動父母成功戒煙，也有游說家人和朋友填寫器官捐贈卡。

我們真的不能把天空塗成綠色，把樹塗成紫色嗎？其實，天空可以是綠色，樹也可以是紫色。而只要你再努力跳高一點點，就能把天上的星星摘下來。

不要小覷小孩子會幻想的能力，我們的世界正正就是缺乏了這一股能力，有看過《Pay it forward》這套戲嗎？善意也是由一個小孩子以其純真的心，從幫助身邊的吸毒者開始，其效應更如滾雪球般無遠弗屆。

我相信這個世界雖然充斥著很多問題，但也充滿著光明的一面，例如香港已有一批充滿熱誠的年青人舉辦了第一屆DFC挑戰賽（http://dfcworld.com/dfc/CHINA/），2013年的徵集也在進行中。來！鼓勵你的子女或學生參與，一同改變這個世界吧。

20.10.2012 Dream a little dream

阿謙希望擁有一間令人開心的Cafe，內裡能用耳機聽音樂、定期舉辦Board game／下棋比賽和作為自己出書寫作的平台；

阿強希望擁有一間向日葵小屋和農場，內裡同時進行自己的小手作；

阿Joe希望有一個無煙世界、發展自己的品牌T-Shirt和傳播福音；

Jamie希望能幫助街頭上貧困的公公婆婆，最終希望所有人也能安居樂業；

Howard希望擁有一間能給人「家的溫暖」感覺之青年旅館，同時義遊全世界……

這些不是這班年青人腦內的發的白日夢而已，他們已勇敢地踏出了第一步並嘗試把這些夢想付諸實行。

今天我去了一間聘請了聾啞人士的社企Go Inside Cafe（http://www.facebook.com/goinsidehk ）

舉行的「Dreamwalkers Time踏夢時光──夢想分享投票活動」，讓有夢想的年青人介紹自己的夢想計劃，獲得現場觀眾肯定並獲得最高票數者，將獲得5千元作為他實現夢想的種子。

姑勿論誰的計劃最獲得青睞，單是他們能有站出去人前、不怕人家的質疑和撥冷水、並鼓起勇起大談自己的夢想，在我眼中他們都已經嬴了。

知道有這個地方和活動，緣起在朋友家中看到了一本名為DreamMag的雜誌（http://www.facebook.com/DreamMagHK?fref=ts ）。封面標題是「夢不只是想，讓夢想和現實結合」。讀到創辦人之一Carrie寫的文章，她說：「……很清楚我的熱情和強項是燃點他人的生人命、喜歡寫文字、鼓勵每個人有勇氣地追求夢想……」

看著她的文字，我產生了強烈的共嗚。我也是在默默地通過「Be the change」及寫作，希望向他人播下尋夢的種子。因此對這個畢業不久的小妮子，與一班同道中人創下了這本雜誌實在感到十分震撼！要知道搞一本雜誌並不是那麼容易，現在他們甚至還搞上了Cafe！我對他們的熱情和毅力實在佩服得五體投地。

因為這一班人的熱情，又吸引了更多相同理念的人，例如我便很想幫上一把，今天還有一個希望幫他們實踐夢想的設計師自動獻身。

你的夢想是甚麼？（請用一分鐘細想，誠實面對自己，不用理會他人會如何評論你的夢想。）

世界和平？環遊世界？結婚生仔？擁有自己的物業？開一間甜品店？

雖然有夢想了，但會否覺得夢想遙不可及？「我猜我永遠也不能實現夢想的了。」「除非我中了六合彩。」「還是不得不向現實低頭。」……。如此先否定你自己，沒錯，你的夢想一定不會實現。

在行動之前，首先就要培養自己要看事情的光明面。「我相信只要有夢想，凡事可成真。」「我相信對的人和事會在對的事機出現，只要我繼續努力，夢想必有實現的一刻。」「雖然前境充滿挑戰，但我知道這是為了考驗我是否有實現夢想的決心。」……。有樂觀的思想，已是成功的根基。

決定行定去實現夢想時，第一步就是要聽清楚內心的呼喚，放膽去Dream。內心的呼喚是怎樣的？那可能不乎合邏輯，也可能不乎合世俗的眼光，更加可能會惹來父母的反對。你可能感到害怕，以為自己瘋了，也想退縮，不過你卻仍然想去做一件事情。如是，那這件事情就是由你內心呼喚給予你的指示。

聽到了，你便要擁有不顧一切，死而後已去追尋的決心。不管前路有多艱難，你知道你願意放棄一切去做這件事情。如果你抱怨：「怎麼我就是不能達成夢想？」你不能怪責任何人，那只是因為你要實現夢想的決心並不夠大。一個人只要真心追求夢想，他便有移山填海的能力。

你真的能甘於平凡，營營役役地過一生？

生命可以比你想像中短促，不去追尋自己的夢想，你不怕臨咽氣的一刻才不瞑目？

既然只能活一次，為甚麼要怕失敗？

已經有這麼多人成功的例子了，你還是不相信自己有創造實相的本領？

我從小到大也在追夢，從小事情至希望有飯開、有書讀、大事情至環遊世界、不用工作也能過自己想過的理想生活等也一一達到了。我有先天性的條件嗎？可算是恰恰相反，就是甚麼也沒有，才會有破斧沉舟的追夢毅力和意志。最重要，是我心／深信我能實現自己的夢想。

所以，你再沒有給自己胡混過人生的藉口了，就由現在開始一起Dream a little dream吧。

13.10.2012 美食人生

最近看了柏林影展美食電影單元入圍的《The Raw and the Cooked》(中譯《台灣環島美食遊》)，令我再一次深思現代人飲食與人生的關係。

第一樣吸引我注意力的是一名在台北城市中，在天台栽種有機蔬菜的外國人。他提到古時候我們吃過食物後，廚餘和排泄物會被用作堆肥，並再回到植物身上，這是一個完整和諧的循環。可是現在，我們吃過食物後，多餘的都給丟棄，造成污染及破壞了這個大自然的循環。他甚至在家裡弄了一個能直接把排泄物轉化作堆肥的廁所，經數年以來累積下來的堆肥均已化作肥沃的土壤。

第二樣令我覺得感動的是在花蓮石梯坪，一個阿美族的原著名廚師，他說到，打魚只是為了自給自足，不是為了大量銷售，這樣才不會破壞生態。他頂著浪濤在岩石上採摘黑海藻，蹲在岩石上輕嚐那海藻時，他臉上的甜甜的笑容和眼中那一份天真，令我感到他那種愛惜和尊重大自然之情。而在他利用阿美族傳統的石烹煮方法烹調那些新鮮的海產前，他會通過一簡單的儀式，與祖先溝通，讓先人引導自己。這種沒有Ego，把自己當作是顯露宇宙神奇的工具之行為更令我動容。

第三樣沖擊我反思的是在高雄一間廟宇裡，一名加拿大的尼姑闡述素食能減少動物的痛苦，並主張要吃得簡單。然後鏡頭一轉，便讓廟宇裡的大廚示範烹調好幾味素菜，其他台灣的尼姑則在旁邊落力地介紹，儼然美食節目。特別深刻的是大廚炒了素雞，該名尼姑強調羌的香氣撲鼻，她們亦對眼前的美食表現興奮。美食當前，似乎連在修行的尼姑也食指大動。

第四樣令我為之驚訝的是看到在南投埔里鎮有那麼多農夫默默耕耘地栽種有機蔬菜，從可食的玫瑰花、山藥、甘庶、水露荀等，他們的眼神是那麼知足，是那麼與大自然聯繫。其後看那名廚利用這些簡單的蔬菜炮製出令人目不暇級的健康餸菜（主要也是素菜），更是令我咋咋稱奇。

我本身也很喜歡吃，也覺得通過吃由大自然孕育的蔬果能把我與大自然的能量連接起來。嘗試多吃在家用心烹調的有機蔬菜和食品，再比較在餐廳吃、甚至乎添加了味精和大量調味料的「大鑊飯」，你會感覺到前者能帶給你注滿能量的感覺，後者則帶給你負重感。

我也會在吃飯前多謝大自然之母供給我們一切所需，試想，如果沒有太陽，沒有泥土和雨水，即使我們有多少錢，也買不到食物。豐衣足食並非必然，小時候捱過餓的我更懂得珍惜每一粒米飯。

其實吃東西時就如一個神聖的儀式，如果你全神貫注於每一個吃的時刻，那也是一種Meditation，能讓你真徹嚐到食物的真味。因此如果可以，吃的時候應專注於食物上，不應看電視或看書，也不應談話（我知道這在香港很難，盡力而為吧），那樣才可以領略到人生的真味──存在和祥和的感覺。

綠色生活教育基金旗下的Club O每逢星期四和六均有免費的禪食，餸菜除了是義工用心烹調外，大家也是在寧靜的環境下進食。數年前第一次嚐試時，從中獲得的那種專注和快樂感，竟令我在吃的時候不禁流下淚來。禪食不用預約，有時間不妨到旺角這個心靈綠洲試試看。

29.9.2012 食環園──Food recycling

本人居住的小島之婦女會近數月發起了廚餘回收計劃，名為食環園，我很喜歡這個名字，甚有循環再用，生生不息之意。該婦女會有一小園圃用作栽種植物，因此生產所得的廚餘將重新投入大地之母。

我最欣賞的是她們推行這個項目的認真和熱誠，逢星期一至六的早上，他們均會在街市對面設置回收站，風雨不改。登記了的島民可以獲得一個耐用結實的回收盒（有大有小，例如我這些獨居人士，一個小的已足夠用上數日），把盛滿廚餘的盒子交到回收站，她們便會發放一個新的乾淨盒子給你，還可以獲得一個蓋章，儲夠一定數目便可獲得小禮物（最能吸引師奶們吧）。

還記得在塱原工作營當義工時，那裡也有收集廚餘，但只限未煮過的蔬果，也不可以混了油。但該婦女會似乎擁有一部十分強力的廚餘機，因此基本上是甚麼廚餘也能回收，無論是熟或生，是肉或菜，紙張例外。因此作為鼓勵島民回收廚餘可算十分有效，因為一旦要分類，相信不少人均會怕麻煩而卻步。

還記得計劃實施的第一周，因為島民反應熱烈，該婦女會要再加碼訂購回收盒。看到島民的熱心，我發現如果有適當的配套，很多人也會願意為環保出一分力。

從小到大，我也被訓練得從不浪費食物，因此連碗裡的一粒飯，我也會吃得乾乾淨淨。從前當財經記者，看到企業宴客盡出珍饈百味。往大陸出差，更是送上舖天蓋地的食物，他就是要你吃不完，否則他覺得款待不周兼沒面子。我每每看著桌上的食物，也覺得很痛心，在世界不同角落看到多少人沒有東西吃啊。

所以雖然本人住在島的山上，卻十分支持這個食環園計劃，即使每天早上要刻意下山再騎單車更換回收盒，也在所不辭。如果你住的地方沒有廚餘回收計劃，其也可以考慮自製一個廚餘筒，我在印度聽過一個相關的講座，感覺上並不難，最重要是有心！詳情請參考這個英文網站：https://sites.google.com/site/basiccomposting/sawdust-composting

不過個人認為，要幫助地球減少廢物，在自製廚餘之前，第一步應該是減少購買和煮那麼多食物。很多時，我們也是「眼闊肚窄」，點了或煮了一桌的餸，卻沒有辦法吃完，那何不先點／煮小量一點，不夠再加量？那豈不省錢又能減少浪費？況且，其實要能促進消化，我們的胃裡應該只有五成食物、兩成半液體和兩成半空氣才是。

What are the benefits of meditation?

Find a quiet and peaceful place to meditate can create a multiplier effect

Many people ask, 'What are the benefits of meditation?', 'To what state can meditation bring oneself to?', 'Am I suitable for meditation?'

I am not a teacher, but I would like to share my past few years meditation experience.

In Chinese, meditation gives an impression that a person has to sit still. In fact, one can meditate while he is sitting, walking, lying down, standing or even when he is engaging in different kinds of activities. Meditation means when we are highly concentrated, it is thoughtless in our mind, and it creates a strong experience of living in the moment and the sense of existence.

Simple meditation starts from breathing, meaning focusing completely on the process of breathing in and breathing out. The process of observing breathing is just like chaining a monkey, making him can only climb up and down along the rod, therefore unable to do whatever he likes. Our minds are just like monkey, so it is always called, 'Monkey mind.'

In fact, many people don't even know that they have a monkey mind, they let their brains occupied by different thoughts and images. If they are not indulging in the memories of yesterday, they are expecting for the fruits in future. They cannot stop thinking for even one moment. They may feel tired mentally, but they don't understand why.

Therefore, meditation can raise the consciousness of people. First, through observing breathing, you will notice that you cannot rest your mind on the process of observing breathing for even a single moment. Your mind is always in the past and in the future. Afterwords, you can try to put all your attention on breathing in place of that unbroken thinking stream. You have to do it with all your effort and persistently. If you could achieve the stage of thoughtlessness, even for one minute, you would find that your mind would be very sharp and refreshing.

So in daily life, meditation not only increase one's productivity and also his energy level.

I should skip the part that some people can achieve Samadhi (Sanskrit, meaning a state of non-dualistic consciousness, and in which the mind become still and one-pointed), because I don't have such an experience.

However, I do experience that thoughtless and blissful state through long hours of meditation. The first time was during the 10 days Vipassana Retreat in India, I strongly felt and experience the EXISTENCE of myself. The second time was also during a Vipassana Retreat in Nepal, some traumas and knots were dissolved and I could clearly listen to my heart and my soul. And through meditating every day in the past few years, I was sometimes inspired and got revelation in life situations after meditation.

There is a Vipassana Retreat in Sheung Shui, Hong Kong. During these 10days, one has to meditate 10.5 hours per day, beginners may feel scared. But I strong recommend the retreat to those who are really willing to learn meditation. If you could free just 10 days in your lifetime to face the naked self, you would be rewarded.

For those who don't want to take this challenge, I recommend you to get up 10mins earlier every morning. Find a comfortable and quiet spot to sit, no matter you want to sit in cross-leg or on a chair, the point is to sit with your spine straight, so as to let the Chi/Prana flow freely. Close your eyes, slowly breathe in and notice that the cold air is flowing into your nostrils, trachea, lungs. Then slowly breathe out, and notice that the already warm air is flowing out from your lungs, then trachea and nostrils. Repeat this cycle for at least 5 to 10mins, if there are thoughts occuring and take away your attention, just slowing bring your attention back to observing the process of breathing.

If you can be persistent and do this exercise for a few months, and even prolong the mins of observing breathing, I think you will definitely notice the benefits of meditation by yourself.

Fasting for better health

I am doing my weekly fasting while I am writing this article.

What is fasting? Fasting is not to eat anything voluntarily. It can be as short as one day, and as long as a few days or a week. In all the traditions of different religions, there is the practice of fasting. Eg, Muslims fast for a month in the annual Ramadan, they only eat or drink anything before sunrise and after sunset. Also, Indians are used to fast in different festivals.

I remember why did I start my first time fasting a few years ago. I was in Amma's Ashram (Amma is my guru, she is famous for giving hugs to everyone) in South India, learning different kinds of spiritual practices, eg meditation, yoga, chanting, selfless service etc. Besides, in silence and fasting are also part of it.

Although I always heard people in the ashram fast regularly, but I couldn't make the determination. You have to know that I really love eating, only by just imagining that I should not eat, I suffer. Until one of my ashram friends told me one day, 'Amma said, if we cannot even control our senses, how can we control our mind?' She really woke me up immediately, because if I put so much effort to calm my mind through meditation, but I forgot to laid a good foundation, wasn't it like learning running before I could even walk?

Since then, I started to fast once a week, in between I paused because of different reasons, I resumed it again, stopped and resumed again. At first, I allowed myself to do a fruit fast, that's to eat one kind of fruit on that day. I tried once, but I found that it was worse than not eating anything, because if I allowed myself to eat fruit (I chose banana), on the contrary, I ate a lot and it caused discomfort in my stomach.

So I tried not to eat anything at all, but just drinking water. The duration of fasting is from the time after dinner on the previous day, until before breakfast on the following day, that's around 36hours. Although at first I struggled a lot and I always felt I was hungry, but once I could keep up until a certain time of the day, I didn't feel hungry anymore. On the day after fasting, my mind was so sharp and so clear, I also felt very light, and I found that meditation was especially good after fasting.

Fasting is not only good on the mind and heart level, it is very important on the physical level also. In Indian Ayurveda, it says as our bodies are susceptible to different toxins, fasting is the best way to detox. Ayurveda also says, fasting is the best healing method as it can remove the sources of diseases through detoxification.

Moreover, fasting can cleanse our bodies, boost up immunity and balance metabolism.

Amma even explains it in a much better way, 'Our digestion system is like a machine, unless we fast, it will never take a break. Any machine which works 24hours a day can easily break down. So fasting once a week can maintain our machines in a better way.'

Of course I have to say that, not everyone is suitable for fasting, some people may experience stomachache or feeling weak, if so, you need to do it according to your ability. For example, you can try to fast after lunch, like Buddhist monks, or you can do the fruit fast or juice fast (drink only fruit juice or grass juice), and you should choose a day which you don't need to work. When your body get used to it, then you can try the whole day fasting.

Crazy for bread

Home-made, super yummy whole grain raisin bread.

I love bread, especially those dense and super think whole grain bread. But here in HK, except in the Western bakery and Western supermarkt, you can only find those fluffy white sliced bread, baked with lots of yeast and air. I remember when I first came back to HK, I spot out the so-called 'Whole grain bread' in the local pastry shop, I asked, 'Why is it still so white?' 'Whole grain bread is like this.' It seems that there is a different definition of whole grain bread among us.

As a result, at that time, in order to buy a real loaf of whole grain bread, I would deliberately take the ferry to Central (of course I would do other shopping as well). When I came to know that there was bread machine in the world, I was really excited, and I was so lucky that I got it as a house-warming gift from my good friend. Since then, my house was always full the the aroma of freshly baked bread.

The great invention────Bread machine.

By then, my house was always open to international couchsurfers. Obviously, Europeans and Americans are bread-eating people, so the 1kg bread was always not enough for us every morning. But I remember that sharing real bread, plus putting different spread like fruit jam, peanut butter and fresh fruits was one of the happiest moments in life.

I love to go to a particular Western supermarket to buy bread flour, normally the products they sell are really expensive, but I find that bread flour is particular cheaper than other places. The one I use most to make bread is the already mixed Six Seeds Bread Flour (with Sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, linseeds etc), very convenient to use and the bread tastes exactly the same as those in Europe.

Next is Pumpernickel Bread Flour, it is a kind of very German bread, very very dense and heavy in texture, not everyone like it, but I love it. I love it especially when I can taste the caraway seed when it gives me a spike of taste.

The above are all pre-mix flour, it is not easy to get it done wrongly. But I do love to mix my own flour, esp with Whole Grain Bread Flour and Spelt Flour (An ancient floor widely used in and before Middle Age, it is the ancestor of modern wheat and is very nutritional), also add my favourite sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried fruits and nuts etc, it tastes great.

In fact, there are many benefits of baking your own bread. First, as I live on an island, so I don't need to deliberately go to town to buy bread anymore; it is more economical, as a loaf of read bread in the Western bakery costs more than 30HKD, a package of bread flour only costs 45HKD, and it is sufficient to back 3 loaves of bread; these kinds of bread do not use too much yeast (the function is to help them to expand a lot in size), so it won't create too much gas in your body; for sure there will not be preservatives and chemical in home-made bread; you can select your own organic floor and ingredients, and you don't need to tolerant those unhealthy white bread anymore; you can add as many seeds and nuts as you want, as they are usually kept like jewels that you can only find a few in a loaf; you can eat freshly baked bread whenever and wherever you like, isn't it like dreaming?

Except using bread as sweet like putting jam, I like using bread to make Italian Bruschetta. However, in order to suit my specific vegetarian diet, I skip the favourite ingredient in Italian cooking──galic, but in my opinion, they are more light and delicious!

I first take a slice of thick bread (usually they use baguette, but I think it is very airy, without that dense texture) to toast, can toast it until it is crispy also, then put a spread of thick avocado paste on it (choose the most ripen one, then you can use them like jam), add a pinch of Himalayan salt and toss some extra virgin olive oil on it, you can also put some slices of black olives on it. The secret is, you have to eat it while it is still hot......Yum! With such simple ingredients, the taste is incredibly delicious, quickly try it out!

My specific vegetarian diet

As I was overseas in the past few years, I have developed a specific diet which not everyone can comprehend easily.

My lovely Sweet Basil, not only it is good looking, its fragrance helps to expel mosquitoes, and it is a very delicious salad ingredient.

First of all, I am vegetarian, but I am not a simple vegetarian. From the original philosophy, it is an integrated spiritual diet which infuses Chinese medicine, Indian Ayurveda (A natural therapy which mainly uses herbs, its philosophy is very similar to Chinese medicine), European biological concept and wisdoms from everywhere in the world. I found that I can choose to extract the best from them, they are complementary, but not conflicting.

I believe ‘What you eat is what you are.’ And our body is just like a temple, we have to respect and love it. Will you offer rubbish to the deities in the temp? Of course not! So why would we eat junk food? This is totally unreasonable, so we have to make sure we know what we put in our mouths.

In the perspective of Chinese medicine, my body constitution is cold. So since young, I had quit eating cold food, 99% of the time I don’t drink cold drink and cold sweet soup. Since then, my menstruation pain had lessened. I even tested it when I was a student by drinking a few cans of cold drinks in the month, my pain was increased (of course this is one of the reasons only). I hadn’t eaten watermelon (its property is cold) for ages, but I couldn’t resist eating with other volunteers, after I finished my farm work under the hot sun in Long Vally workcamp. The result was my cycle came 5days earlier!

From the perspective of Ayurveda, my body constitution is air and fire (Vata-Pitta), so I should avoid eating dry, gas-producing, chili and bitter food. In order to balance my body constitution (just like the five-elements concept in Chinese medicine), I have to eat more oily and heavier food. Therefore, I always remember to replenish my oil, like always eating avocados and I generously put a lot of extra virgin olive oil in my salad, to balance my dry body.

From the perspective of European biological food, I have tasted the differences between organic and not organic food, I have also tasted the differences between food with added preservatives and chemicals. There are plenty of fresh, organic and suitable for vegetarians delicacies in the supermarkets or cooperatives in Europe, such as quinoa, couscous, polenta (grains made with maize), spelt and tempeh (fermented food made with soy beans) etc. And the most important point is that they are much cheaper than those in Hong Kong!

From the meditation spiritual perspective, I don’t eat the five strong smell food (like onion, galic and chives etc) and ginger. 2500 years ago, Buddha had already pointed out that these kinds of food will arouse our sentiment and desires (one Italian friend jokingly pointed out that, no wonder they are so passionate, because Italian cuisine is full of onion and garlic.). If the purpose of your meditation is to empty all your emotion and five senses, you wouldn’t want to put double efforts if you could just put half.

Besides, learning bit by bit from different part of the world, I also learnt that not to drink one hour before and after eating, nor during eating. Because liquid can dilute the gastric acid, slow down the digestion. There are reports about drinking a glass of cold drink during meal increases the risk of having heart diseases.

Although I love eating different kinds of cheese when I was in Europe, my body is still not European, just like we don’t have the enzyme that helps to decompose alcohol, so our faces easily turn red and we are drunk easily, my stomach also feel slow when I have eaten cheese and milk products. So I seldom eat them. As I also don’t eat eggs, I am almost a vegan.

I don’t drink because my liver is not so good. I don’t take caffeine, because this is not the essential nutrition for our body, its diuretic nature is also a burden to my dry body (not suitable to Vata-Pitta). Except boosting one’s energy, I really don’t see any other positive functions for our body.

As a result of all the above factors, my specific diet is developed.

Many people asked, ‘If you don’t eat this and don’t eat that, you don’t have anything to eat then?’ If you speak from a Chinese style vegetarian perspective, yes, because the Chinese style just has mixed veggies hot pot, mixed veggies hot pot with red yeast, mock chicken, mock goose, stir fry veggies etc. They are boring and do not provide enough nutrients.

However, the world of vegetarian is very open, wide and colourful, the food is also incredibly delicious. Let me share my secret, for example, we can get everything we need from a bowl of salad.

Let’s look at what I usually put in my salad:

The core food: Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots (full of dietary fibre) and extra virgin olive oil.

My secret receipt is to put: Red beetroots (full of iron), Jicamas (help to quench our thirst, full of proteins and vitamin C), quinoa (full of proteins and calcium), avocados (fat, vitamin B and E etc), different nuts like cashew, walnuts and hazelnuts (proteins, carbohydrate, vitamin B, different minerals and calcium), different seeds like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds (full of proteins, vitamin B and E), different dried fruits (iron, vitamin C and antioxidant), flaxseed powder (only the grounded one release its omega 3 nutrient), brewer’s yeast (full of proteins).

The nutrient which vegans always lack of is vitamin B12, usually people eat vitamin supplements, but I found the oat mix with grains’ essence by Greenmax with fortified vitamin B12. So I usually add this powder instead of milk into my porridge in the morning breakfast.

So you see, only s bowl of salad plus a glass of oat mix drink can supply you with all the nutrients your body needs, so do you still have excuses that eating animals is for your health?

The all-encompassing salad, plus heavy taste pumpkin soup with different vitamins and minerals. They can fill your stomach, but you will feel light and healthy after eating them.

In fact, it is not difficult to be a vegetarian, it all depends if you have the heart, persistency and determination. Be the change you want to see! If you want the world to be better, you should start off from yourself! Let me introduce my favourite vegetarian restaurants next time.

Long Valley Rice Harvesting Workcamp (6)(The end) - The people

Before the workcamp, I was once occupied by the thoughts that how would the volunteers be.  At the end, I just surrendered and let it be.  I know life will bring the best to me.  So to my little surprise, the whole group of volunteers was just in a perfect state of harmony.  It was just like a bowl of very well-mixed salad, there were different ingredients from all over the world and they were all distinct in taste.  But once the ingredients were mixed, the overall taste was enhanced and there was no conflict between different tastes.  On the contrary, each ingredient helped to bring out the best taste of the other ingredients.

We had a beautiful experience in Long Valley.

The following introduction follows alphabetical order.

Audia，Rice

A devoted Indonesian Muslim whose appearance is more like a Hong Kong guy than Ben.  I really respect Audia, who is only 20, can diligently observe the rule of Ramadan that he could only eat after sunset everyday.  Especially in this workcamp, where delicacies from all over the world and different food in every meal were provided.  Moreover he was also unmoved when listening to our eating sound.  Later I knew that he started fasting 30 days in Ramadan when he was 6, no wonder he had such a high standard of determination.

His action did inspired me to pick up my fasting practice again.  If he could do it in such an adverse workcamp condition, how could I have any excuses not to do it?

If he could experience the hungry of the poor during Ramadan every year, I believe there was nothing could worry him, so I always saw he was smiling and laughing whole-heartedly.  Although I really didn’t know what he was laughing sometimes, the atmosphere around was indeed brightened up by him.

On the cultural exchange night, in addition of bringing over two pieces of traditional Indonesian musical instruments, Angklung, he also taught us to dance two pieces of traditional dance.

Rice was teaching all volunteers Indonesia traditional dance.

Ben，Uncle Ben

Why he was called Uncle Ben?  Except the fact that he looked more mature than his real age which was 21, it was also because he had a specific diet which resembled that of Hong Kong uncles, eg, eating meat every meal, not used to eat oatmeal as breakfast, not used to western cuisine like raw salad, pesto bread and lasagna etc.

However, he should be praised for his excellent skill in cutting and chopping food.  So when his skill was discovered, he was then turned into the official cutter of our workcamp, whatever it was watermelon, carrots, bread or apples, they were all under his ‘jurisdiction’.   Besides, as he was planning to apply to be a fireman, his muscle and labour did lessen much of our workloads!

In order to introduce the concept of reducing our carbon consumption, there was the Tanabata campaign in the last day of the workcamp and every one had to make a promise about how to help lowering the carbon on earth.  Unlike the most common promise like eating more vegetarian food, after a long and serious thinking, he did make a big step forward, ‘I promise I will not eat beef…in the morning.’

Ben, who could not live without meat, was buying chicken wings.

Candy，Watermelon

Candy is like her name, sweet and love eating candies very much.  That’s why she had chosen to use watermelon as her nickname in the workcamp, because watermelon is sweet but also has a hard shell to protect herself.

Because she was always natural high and full of energy, bringing us lots of joy and laughter, that was how we survived in those typhoon days as we were trapped indoor all the time.

When we were leaving Cheung Chau and heading back to Long Valley, the still sleepy Candy slipped a flight of stairs!  She got bruised in her arms and legs, her hips were shocked and almost hurt her old injury on her back.  However, she was so tough that she didn’t cry and even smiled after the slip.  A loss may turn out to be a gain, because of this, she could go back home rest comfortably in air-conditioning and ate lots of her favourite candies and snacks.  After resting for a few days, though she could not move freely, she still helped in the farm and cleaning the house, I really respect a 19 years old young girl like her has such a strong mind and toughness.

Candy, who was always energetic.

Dima，Forest

Except being called, ‘Forest’, he was also called, ‘Russian Bear’ and ‘Russian Power’, mainly due to his powerful muscle and never tiring body.  Everytime when we were half dead after work, he was always still full of energy.  Because of his presence, our workloads were much lighter, even though we didn’t request, he always actively seeking areas to help, like moving the heaviest stuff and responsible for the toughest working procedure.

On the contrary to most of us, he ate very slowly.  He ate so slow that he didn’t even mind us eating like wild beasts and continue on his food bite by bit.  Therefore, it was always me who worried that he didn’t have enough and put the food on his plate before it would be eaten by us.

When there was the last piece of food on the plates, we always asked if he would like to have them.  Although it was very obvious that he did want them, he was often very polite and gave them to others.  After one week, he asked me, ‘Pink, weren’t you say that we could draw a new angel’s quality after one week? (When the workcamp started, I asked them to draw a specific angel’s quality to learn from, eg compassionate, caring, patient and selfless etc).  At that moment, I got a blink and I finally understood that why was he always so polite in eating, because his angel’s quality was humble!  After I realized that, he smirked.  Afterwards in every meal, he was happily grabbing the last piece of food because his new quality was joyful!

The hard-working Dima.

Estelle， Get (means Green Eiffel Tower)

A Parisian who started to join workcamp since she was 15, so she had joined seven workcamps until then.  Because of this, her mental age was the most mature despite the fact that she was only 21.  However, she still had the innocence of a young girl, eg, one day she was bugged by a bee and she accidentally knocked down two jars of water.  Another example is that she loves spiders, she even has a spider tattoo on her left foot.  But when she saw a palm-sized spider on her mosquito net, she was freaked out and at the end, a man had to help and caught the spider.  She loves frogs also, so when she went for the night safari, she crazily 200 photos of frogs.

Although coming from a metropolitan like Paris, and is studying costume design, she is a very tough girl.  Her only weakness is unbearable of heat, so she was always full of energy when we started working at 6am, and she could harvest tons of rice.  Once the sun came up, she would be like under spells, not moving much and her facing expression was really dull.  Only until sunset, she would become alive again, making lots of jokes and kept calling Uncle Ben as her ‘wife’.

The little bit boylish Get.

Hyorin，Tree

The one who most afraid to get tanned, she always had double hats and covered her face 90% with a mask when she went to work in the farm.  I believe people who bypassed always wondered who this mysterious person on the field was.  Although she was a typical girl who loved beauty, eg she needed to put make up before going out to the city and loved using iphone to take photos, she was a very tough girl.  She always worked in the farm whole-heartedly and silently, you would never hear her complain, on the opposite, you need to remind her to take a rest.

She was not very good in spoken English, at first I thought it would be difficult to communicate with her about matters like working instructions and house rules etc, but then I found out she understood most of the messages I delivered.  She was only too shy and lack of English practices.  In the later stage of the workcamp, she had already come out from her shyness, not only regularly asked other volunteers ‘Why’ in a funny tone, but also admitted that she was hungry all the time.

Thanks for her teaching in lyrics and motions, after almost the whole period of training, the volunteers were finally filmed singing and dancing the Korean children song, the three bears, which was sung by Korean actress Song Hye Kyo in the drama series, the Full house.

Tree was teaching how to dance the Three Bears.

Mr Kan

Last but not least, there is still Mr Kan, who fought with us in the front line.  His presence brought out a deeper essence of just a simple workcamp for us, he reminded us the way of living in harmony with nature.  I respect his hard work very much, whenever I saw him totally absorbed working in the field, I could feel his love towards this piece of land and nature.

The most astonishing thing is about his physical strength and efficiency.  I believe the work that seven of us had done in these two weeks, he could have easily finished within the same period of time.  If you have ever seen this superman working in the farm, you will know that I am not joking!

Thank you very much, Mr. Kan.

Mr Kan is ‘The man behind the curtain’ in our workcamp.

Long Valley Rice Harvesting Workcamp (5) - Free days

Just before the typhoon Vicente came on Sunday, it was the free days for all the campers.  I invited the six of them to have a holiday in my house on Cheung Chau island.  It was already typhoon signal number 3 in the afternoon, but as the wind was not so strong, the weather was still not bad with only little rainfall, so we went straight away to have fun on the beach. 

Holiday!

A cloudy day was really a good day on the beach, we didn’t even need to use sun block cream.  After we rented a volleyball from the shop, we started to play the once popular game when I was in secondary school—the number ball game.  Though this game was really simple, it bought us so much joy and laughter.  The best time was watching the shows of those who lost the game, starting from dancing performance from Russia, Korea and France, and last but not least, the Hong Kong sexy dance.  Finally, as Get from France who had lost so many rounds, she even needed to use Cantonese to ask a Hong Kong guy his name in front of his girlfriend, as well as to borrow the cap from a Hong Kong guy who was watching our game all the time.

Punishment!  Get became a mermaid!

Punishment again!  Get was asked to borrow the cap from a local guy.

When we were buying souvenirs on the way to the ferry pier the following day, the staff of CA, Jin Pan called me that typhoon signal number eight would be hoisted in the evening, so instead of going up to the peak to see the skyline of Hong Kong, we went for a hike on Cheung Chau under the rain.  As you know, we were all wild beasts, so the most important thing for us to do in these two days was eating!  I brought them to local tea restaurant, outdoor food stall, Shanghai restaurant, Chiuchow noodles and the most local sweet soup shop.  We even visited the same sweet shop three times in two days, even the young staff in the shop was amazed by our frequencies of eating sweet soup.

Though my house is small, it could still fit 7 of us.

In fact, because we taught the Korean volunteer, Tree to say ‘Leng zai’ (means handsome guy) to please the staff there, it also became the highlight of their days.  They even took a peek in her iphone to see her Facebook’s username.

Tree loved the local Hong Kong sweet soup very much.

In fact, because we taught the Korean volunteer, Tree to say ‘Leng zai’ (means handsome guy) to please the staff there, it also became the highlight of their days.  They even took a peek in her iphone to see her Facebook’s username.

Many friends who had visited my place, often asked the same question when they were standing on the balcony, looking at the 180 degree seaview, ‘How would that be if it would be typhoon signal number eight?’  The fact is that we didn’t even know that it was signal number 10 as it was too quiet outside!  Why was it so?  Since my house was facing north west, and the typhoon was coming from north east this time, and there was a hill behind protecting us from the wind, so even though the wind speed had reached 200KM per hour on that night, we were sleeping like pigs!  Only until the next day, then we knew it was typhoon signal number 10!

When we walked out of the house, we finally saw the destructions of this super typhoon that there was a railing on the rooftop of a house was bent because of a falling tree, a canvas rooftop was blown on the pedestrian way and many trees were uprooted.  I was feeling so grateful when I heard that the canvas rooftop on our little house in Long Valley was blown off, leading to water leakage in the house.  We were so lucky that we could stay in a safe place during this typhoon.

The destruction after the typhoon signal no. 10.

The destruction after the typhoon signal no. 10.

As a result, we again stayed in Cheung Chau for an extra night.  Since we were trapped indoor by the rainy weather, this group of volunteers was so hard-working that they turned this workcamp into a language exchange camp, from Indonesian, Russian, Korean, French to even Cantonese.  Hearing them bla bla bla for the whole day just like parrots, thanks for them, I know if I would be cast away in Indonesia one day, I would still know how to show my love and even propose to an Indonesian man!

When it was raining after the typhoon had gone, we visited the local farmer, Mr Lam and his wife, we cooked and had lunch with them.  Although they were already over 80 years old and owned a big family with four generations, they were still so strong and healthy.  Whenever we saw them bending their waist and working under the hot sun, and  we looked at ourselves—half-lying under the tent, almost dying after the work, we were always feeling a profound respect to them.  I think the quote from Dima’s grandmother best described the situation, ‘We started working in the field when we were very young and we are still very healthy today, we can walk and we can even run.  But look at the young people nowadays, why are they feeling pain everywhere in their bodies?’

We were like the grand children of Mr Lam!

Long Valley Rice Harvesting Workcamp (4)—Food

I believe that eating is the biggest hobby of all of us during the workcamp.  Starting from morning till the night, we were always eating.  Especially everyday only after working for one hour in the morning, Tree  from Korea would tell us that she was hungry.  Though others didn’t say anything, if you see how fast and how much quantity of food that we ate in every meal, you would know that how hungry was this group of wild beasts.

Dinner time!

A characteristic of workcamp is that volunteers are always responsible for all the meals, so everyone can always enjoy the delicacies from all over the world.  Our food varieties were so wide and broad, from the Russian mixed veggie soup, the French crepe, the Korean bibimbop, the Indonesia baby food porridge and the Hong Kong fried eggs with tomatoes and tofu mixed veggie soup.  Eating, was definitely our biggest enjoyment after a day of hard work.

Tree from Korea was preparing the dinner.

A unique or challenging characteristic of this workcamp was that, I was the camp leader and I had a very specific diet.  Those who know me well know that I am almost a vegan, I don’t eat fish, meat and eggs, and almost no dairy products (except the Indian Ghee which is clarified butter).  For the benefits of meditation, I also don’t eat five kinds of strong smelling vegetables (eg garlic and onion).  I don’t take any drinks which have caffeine and I don’t take alcohol.  In order to help in digestion, I don’t drink right before, during and after meals.  And, I am allergic to mango.

We always went to the Sheung Shu wet market to buy food together.

Beside me, Rice from Indonesia is a devoted Muslim, so he doesn’t eat pork and doesn’t take alcohol as well.  And this workcamp just coincided with the once a year Ramadan, so he would only eat and drink before sunrise and after sunset.

Rice from Indonesia drank his first sip after a whole day of fasting.

On the contrary, there was a ‘carnivore’ among our volunteers--Ben from Hong Kong.  He said he didn’t eat any vegetables except broccoli, and he ate meat in every meal.

So you can imagine, there would be so many jokes coming out among us in this period.

The most classical one was that on the first dinner after a day of work, it was Ben and Rice responsible for the meal.  As I knew Ben well, so I kept reminding him to cook something for me while we were buying the food and even during he was cooking.  Unfortunately, as there was a miscommunication between him and Rice, so the only vegetable dish on the disk was cooked with garlic!

Thanks Get for making vegan crepe for me.

Then the next day, it was Candy from Hong Kong and Dima from Russia responsible for the cooking.  As Candy kept reminding herself that what I didn’t eat, so she finally forgot that Rice didn’t eat pork!  Luckily, Rice didn’t mind to eat the vegetarian dish with me.

Except cooking team, others were in the cleaning team, responsible for washing dishes and cleaning the floor.

On the first day when Rice observed Ramadan, the weather was super hot and sunny.  We had worked under the sun for half of the day, I found that Rice was very slow and tired, I thought that he must be very hungry.  Only until when I reminded him to drink plenty of water in the afternoon, then I was shocked to know that he couldn’t even drink any water during the fasting period!  My negligence was all because I was used to the fasting way of Hindu, which allowed drinking water.  Oh my god!  Luckily, he also thought that it was a very dangerous way of fasting, so he decided to postpone the fasting days.

Finally on the last day of workcamp, Rice still put chicken powder into the tofu mixed veggie soup carelessly…And when we were eating out in the Sheung Shui cooked food center, I forgot that there was pork in the dishes of omelette rice, Singapore style fried rice, sweet and sour pork and barbecue pork!

Lunch time!  There were only six people, because Rice was fast, so he would hide himself inside the house whenever it was the meal time.