A New (Cold) War? The NBR July 2011 Special Report

This report first discusses what is at stake in the East and South China Seas, and the Gulf of Thailand. Second, it assesses both positive and negative trends in recent years, and the benefits afforded by these maritime spaces. Third, it assesses the potential ways claimant countries and other stakeholders could move forward. Finally, it recommends viable policies that may contribute to a more stable maritime regime, and to better economic prospects of the region.

1. Sea land Security; Oil, Gas, Alternative Ocean Energy Resources, Biota or Living Resources....

2. 2.a. Positive trends include incremental progress in defining maritime boundaries, a clearer approach to maritime delimitation, emerging trends on the treatment of islands,joint maritime development arrangements, states making their positions clearer, workshops process, increased dialogues between experts, internationalization of the disputes.

2.b. Negative trends are increasing tension over resource scarcity, intractable disputes, growing complexity in claims, ASEAN and China's failure to implement the DoC, the South China Sea dispute in the context of Sino-US relations, the downward trends in Sino-Japanese relations, Thai-Cambodia tensions.

3. 3.1. Moving Forward: useful mechanisms for states to implement:
3.1.a. Proper valuation of the resources
3.1.b. Including Taiwan in the dispute resolution discussion
3.1.c. More resources for the workshop processes
3.1.d. Implementation of the confidence-building measures in the DoC (telephone hotlines, advanced nitifications of military exercises, combating transnational threats, search, and rescue training, incidents at sea agreement, transparency, code of conduct...)

3.2. Overcoming Uncertainties and Delivering Benefits: the value of maritime dispute resolution:
3.2.a Toward jurisdictional certainty
3.2.b Enhanced environmental and food security
3.2.c Reduced risk of confrontations at sea
3.2.d Improved regional relationships

Conclusion:

Multilateral solutions offer best chances to move forward. Harness political will and courage to look past differences and focus on opportunities --> critically important. Enhance norms of cooperation and build trusts. Establish foundations for long-term solutions.

Source:

Special Report #30 (July 2011)from the National Bureau of Asian Research
http://www.nbr.org/publications/specialreport/pdf/free/SR30_MERA.pdf

Religion

Your religion is not important. Whether you are religious or not is not important, either. Still, religion is supposed to make humans and life on earth better, happier, more peaceful, and full of love and compassion. Let's follow this talk between Leonardo Boff and the Dalai Lama:

http://sharonsaw.typepad.com/blog/2010/05/a-conversation-between-hh-the-dalai-lama-and-leonardo-boff.html

Remember:

Thoughts--> Words--> Actions--> Habits--> Character--> Destiny--> Life

The best religion is the one that makes you a better person.

What is important?
Your behaviors in front of your peers, family,work,community, and in front of the world.

Being happy is not a matter of destiny. It is a matter of options.

A New Cold War?

A Contest for Supremacy (2011) was written by Aaron L. Friedberg, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and a former deputy assistant for national security affairs in the Office of the Vice President. In the book, after examining the history of America's China strategy from 1949 to the present, the author interprets China's strategy for dealing with the United States after the Cold War. Chinese policy makers want to displace the USA as the leading power in Asia without direct confrontation. The message in the book is a clear wake-up call to US leaders and policymakers. The USA must secure its position in Asia and in the world; otherwise its prosperity, security, and freedom will be in grave danger.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858



Source:

Friedberg, Aaron L. (2011). A Contest for Supremacy --China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Karma --Part II

Karma (the manifestations with a volition in actions, words, and mental states) can be good, bad or neutral. For so many past lives, each of us has accumulated multiple vestiges of our own ways of thinking, saying and doing. These make up the individual's propensity or inclination. It is just like a tree leaning toward a certain direction so long that, when it falls, it must fall in that direction. The same with the individual's karma. If we sow good or bad karma seeds day after day, the results we reap must be either good or bad. The corresponding results will definitely appear when there are ripe conditions for them. In other words, our own karma is always there waiting for the right time to emerge. It is not necessarily an instant emergence. It could be a long time (e.g., after so many lives) before the result of a certain karma appears. However, the traces of our volitional actions, words and mental states are always with us, latent but powerful.

Buddhist practitioners who understand the Buddha's teachings about Karma, the interdependent nature of phenomena, and the laws of cause and effect are carefully observant about every action, word and thought(mental state) in their daily life. They train themselves with meditation. Buddhist wholesome meditative practice includes calm abiding (Pāli: samatha), which steadies, composes, unifies and concentrates the mind, and insight (Pāli: vipassanā), which enables one to see, explore and discern "formations" (conditioned phenomena based on the five aggregates). This practice helps transform one's karma for the better. Basically, every second in life, the practitioner must be fully aware of his/her body movements, feelings, mental states, as well as the impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and no-self of all phenomena, within and without.

Buddhist doctrine of Karma emphasizes the important role of the practitioner on the path to Enlightenment. There is no one else but the practitioner who must take the full responsibility to liberate him-/herself from the perpetual cycle of sufferings, and to attain Enlightenment right here and now. Nirvava (freedom from greed, anger, and delusion; or liberation from suffering) and samsara (suffering caused by greed, anger, and delusion) are reality. It is our mind that matters and that transforms it from one state into another.

Karma

Karma is a fundamental concept in Buddhism. Karma is the manifestation with a volition of our mind in actions, words, and thoughts (mental states). Such manifestations are possible because of the laws of cause and effect, and of the interdependence and interconnectedness of all phenomena, things and events. Those laws are often expressed in the following simple statements from the Buddha:

If this exists, then that is formed; if this emerges, then that emerges; if this does not exist, then that is not formed; and if this does not emerge, then that does not emerge.

According to the Dalai Lama, "karma refers to an act engaged in with intent. The quality of our intention --itself a mental karma--determines the quality of the physical action it motivates, thereby establishing the quality of the resultant experience of the pleasure or pain we undergo. The role of karma is therefore understood in relation to our experience of suffering and happiness." (p. 49)

Suffering and happiness stem from our mistaken notion of self. But we are our own masters, and our future is in our hands. (pp. 52-53)

Our ignorance leads to our karma. If we would like to transform our karma, to break the cycle of samsara, and attain liberation from life and death within our lifetime, we need meditation practice and wisdom/spiritual cultivation. With meditation practice, we may gradually develop insights about impermanence, suffering, emptiness and no self. The cultivation of the right view is the first step for us to control our own actions, words and mental states. Thanks to diligent practice, we may transform our karma.

Source;
The Dalai Lama. A Profound Mind: Cultivating Wisdom in Everyday Life. Edited by Nicholas Vreeland. (New York, NY: Harmony Books, 2011).

Two Poems-- Nostalgic Feelings from a Mid-August Visit

A Human's View:

Nostalgia for the Ancient Thang Long Citadel

O Lord why did you cause such a farce-like arena,
Upon which swiftly elapsed eons of times when morning dew had come and gone?
The old busy paths along which there used to be many horse-drawn carriages are now overgrown with withered autumn grass.
The capital citadel with its ancient foundation is a silhouette in the setting sun.
The rocks and stones lie indifferently in the eternal moonlight,
while the water bears a grouchy face against life changes.
For thousands of years good examples have been set for teaching generations after generations.
Watching scenes of vicissitudes, the viewer feels as if her guts were cut into pieces.

by Madame Thanh Quan (1802)

Tạo hóa gây chi cuộc hí trường
Đến nay thấm thoắt mấy tinh sương
Dấu xưa xe ngựa hồn thu thảo,
Nền cũ lâu đài bóng tịch dương,
Đá vẫn trơ gan cùng tuế nguyệt,
Nước còn cau mặt với tang thương.
Ngàn năm gương cũ soi kim cổ.
Cảnh đấy người đây luống đoạn trường.

(Madame Thanh Quan composed this poem when Nguyễn Ánh was enthroned as King Gia Long, and decided to move the Capital of Vietnam from Thăng Long to Huế. The poem reveals the Citadel's scene of desolation and the poetess's nostalgia.)

A Zen Master's View:

Everything that appears with a form
Must be looked upon as dreams and bubbles,
As morning dews and thunder lightnings.
Let's develop such insights while observing things and events in life.

Memories

We usually cherish memories, sweet ones as well as bitter ones. Sometimes memories help us understand ourselves and others better. Each past image or event has its own history, and it evokes a chain of other images and events. All evolve, each in its own way.

Last August I had a chance to visit some old people and places, and noticed dramatic life changes. Some will definitely have lasting emotional impacts on me, I'm sure. I don't want to dwell in the past, nor in past memories, but I should say I have discovered and learned a lot from my one-week visit to the people and the places that I have been related to at some point during my lifetime.

I had to admit that I felt estranged most of the time. There was no place for me where I used to be. I felt like an alien among some familiar faces. Although some of them were very nice, I didn't think I could share all my thoughts and feelings with them easily. Some sense of loss, sadness, and helpless made me numb.

I cannot expect much from what I have left behind. It's all gone, or replaced, and I know that it is the natural way of life. Yes, each life must go on its own course.