酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

Deep in Contemplation

I sat in my chair deep in contemplation. Contemplation? Yes, just did nothing. It was a state of non-action.

Living in a workaholic society, contemplation is gradually gaining its popularity among white-collar stressed-out people. If you pay attention to ads in Economics Today, The Business World, and Taiwan Today, there are a lot of them advocating a one-day to one-week retreat from work to a remote or hillside contemplation center for relaxation and to further improve work productivity. I have no money to join these kinds of trendy clubs. What I could do was to give myself a fashionable excuse for a break from my tiring work. Particularly in the computer field, the work it is body-and-mind exhausting. Sometimes, it took me one whole day to find one bug in a spaghetti-like program. How productive I was!

At this moment, I just sat in my chair and did nothing. I didn't put my mind on work because I was torn apart by my wife's biting complaint and my boss' harsh words. It had been weeks since I had quarrelled with my wife about my job. My wife, Christian, desperately wanted me to succeed in my career. She consistently and persistently, pushed me to move up through the company. She thought I was too cowardly to fight for my promotion. But, she had no idea of so-called "office politics." If I fought for my promotion under the authoritarian regime of my boss, I had no doubt of my running the risk of getting fired. The opportunity to get promotion happened on boss retiring, but there was no such chance because he was a person obsessed with work and power. Although he was 65 years old, at the age of retirement, and had once had a heart attack, retiring never crossed his mind. I thought my boss loved to torture me and my colleagues, and he felt empowered by humiliating us publicly. Everyone in this company hated him and wished him to retire as soon as possible. Facing this kind of situation everyday, I often felt helpless, exhausted, and needing a break.

One week ago, I couldn't stand this torturing situation, and decided to seek for the help from fortune-telling; thus I visited a famous fortune teller. Surprisingly, she told me that I would be the boss within a month. I didn't pay much attention to her words because it was almost impossible and the only way I would get a promotion was if my boss retired. No, there was another way. It was if he died. Oh! My God! I couldn't believe this. I was lost to this kind of vicious thought. But, be honest. Death will visit each of us sooner or latter. Sometimes, I couldn't help but pray for its earlier visit to my boss when he yelled at me without any reason.

“Eric! Come to my office.” I heard his shouting from his big, fancy office. When I went into his office, I was quite impressed by his pale face. He seemed to be sick for a while.

“How are things going with our new MIS?” he shouted at me as usual but with a little faint voice.

“Boss! I’m still working on it.” I said.

“Unbelievable! You’re still working on it! For God’s sake, it has been almost four months. What are you doing all day along?” he raised his voice with an angry tone.

“Boss! You gave me only three persons to design this new and more complicated MIS! I have already done my best to …,” he interrupted my talking, and kept yelling,
“Shut up! You’re the laziest, stupidest subordinate I’ve ever worked with. You …”

All of a sudden, he fell out of his chair onto the ground. He seemed to lose his breath and had a deadly heart attack. At this moment, the fortune teller’s words lurked in the back of my mind. I couldn't help it. I was too cowardly to fight against my Destiny.

I was dead to all sense of myself and to his condition. I stood still. Deep in contemplation.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Deep in Contemplation

I sat in my chair deep in contemplation. Contemplation? Yes, just did nothing. It was a state of non-action.

Living in a workaholic society, contemplation is gradually gaining its popularity among white-collar stressed-out people. If you pay attention to ads in Economics Today, The Business World, and Taiwan Today, there are a lot of them advocating a one-day to one-week retreat from work to a remote or hillside contemplation center for relaxation and to further improve work productivity. I have no money to join these kinds of trendy clubs. What I could do was to give myself a fashionable excuse for a break from my tiring work. Particularly in the computer field, the work it is body-and-mind exhausting. Sometimes, it took me one whole day to find one bug in a spaghetti-like program. How productive I was!

At this moment, I just sat in my chair and did nothing. I didn't put my mind on work because I was torn apart by my wife's biting complaint and my boss' harsh words. It had been weeks since I had quarrelled with my wife about my job. My wife, Christian, desperately wanted me to succeed in my career. She consistently and persistently, pushed me to move up through the company. She thought I was too cowardly to fight for my promotion. But, she had no idea of so-called "office politics." If I fought for my promotion under the authoritarian regime of my boss, I had no doubt of my running the risk of getting fired. The opportunity to get promotion happened on boss retiring, but there was no such chance because he was a person obsessed with work and power. Although he was 65 years old, at the age of retirement, and had once had a heart attack, retiring never crossed his mind. I thought my boss loved to torture me and my colleagues, and he felt empowered by humiliating us publicly. Everyone in this company hated him and wished him to retire as soon as possible. Facing this kind of situation everyday, I often felt helpless, exhausted, and needing a break.

One week ago, I couldn't stand this torturing situation, and decided to seek for the help from fortune-telling; thus I visited a famous fortune teller. Surprisingly, she told me that I would be the boss within a month. I didn't pay much attention to her words because it was almost impossible and the only way I would get a promotion was if my boss retired. No, there was another way. It was if he died. Oh! My God! I couldn't believe this. I was lost to this kind of vicious thought. But, be honest. Death will visit each of us sooner or latter. Sometimes, I couldn't help but pray for its earlier visit to my boss when he yelled at me without any reason.

“Eric! Come to my office.” I heard his shouting from his big, fancy office. When I went into his office, I was quite impressed by his pale face. He seemed to be sick for a while.

“How are things going with our new MIS?” he shouted at me as usual but with a little faint voice.

“Boss! I’m still working on it.” I said.

“Unbelievable! You’re still working on it! For God’s sake, it has been almost four months. What are you doing all day along?” he raised his voice with an angry tone.

“Boss! You gave me only three persons to design this new and more complicated MIS! I have already done my best to …,” he interrupted my talking, and kept yelling,
“Shut up! You’re the laziest, stupidest subordinate I’ve ever worked with. You …”

All of a sudden, he fell out of his chair onto the ground. He seemed to lose his breath and had a deadly heart attack. At this moment, the fortune teller’s words lurked in the back of my mind. I couldn't help it. I was too cowardly to fight against my Destiny.

I was dead to all sense of myself and to his condition. I stood still. Deep in contemplation.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[anna]

Retreat to a quiet place is really helpful.

That is why now spa and other sort of means booming.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Retreat to a quiet place is really helpful.

That is why now spa and other sort of means booming.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

Retreat to a quiet place is really helpful.

That is why now spa and other sort of means booming.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Retreat to a quiet place is really helpful.

That is why now spa and other sort of means booming.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[ericcoliu]

In Taiwan, a lot of Buddhist retreat centres are nestled in the breath-taking mountains. Wondrous scenery, comfortable rooms, great hospitality, and more importantly, a concisely packaged the Buddha’s teachings pump up the desiccated lives of participants.

The root cause of human suffering – attachment – is one thing missing in these kinds of trendy Buddhist retreat centres.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

In Taiwan, a lot of Buddhist retreat centres are nestled in the breath-taking mountains. Wondrous scenery, comfortable rooms, great hospitality, and more importantly, a concisely packaged the Buddha’s teachings pump up the desiccated lives of participants.

The root cause of human suffering – attachment – is one thing missing in these kinds of trendy Buddhist retreat centres.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul