Reviewing Alexandra David-Néel (ADN)

I don't really know what came over me the day before yesterday, but I had a sudden urge to reread Mystiques et magiciens du Tibet by ADN. Now, this is the first ADN book I read and so it holds a special place in my heart's library. But since my Romanian copy was in... Romania, and my French one lent to a friend who never bothered to bring it back, I couldn't. I promised myself I would repurchase it though. (There is an English version on Scribd, but the translation is not great, and anyway, I much rather read the original).

Yesterday, on my way back from a Yoga class I had given in the afternoon, and having got out from the metro at Place D'italie, i decided i would walk home and though a d-tour at the Fnac would be a great idea. And so my feet carried me thorough the corridors to the shelves I usually examine, even though this time I had no objective. And so I stopped at the "Buddhist" section of the library, and I looked up and lo and behold: there was a copy of my book! 

A huge smile made its way on my face. 

Today I finally got to plunge into it and what a great read this was! I had forgotten loads of details, and I'm really surprised at the new flavor it leaves in my head. When I first read it, I had no knowledge of anything Buddhist, Tibetan, or exotic stuff (maybe just a few Indian ones, oh, and Milarepa). Now things have changed somewhat and I can picture more fully the characters described, the scenery and can better understand ADN's remarks. A great read indeed!

Magic in Nepal / Sensitive bodyparts training in China

I found this entertaining documentary about a Wastern Magician who goes to Nepal to meet with a Buddhist monk with very special powers...

Read the following after you've watched the video!

OK, the Western fellow is quite impressive. If the video is not fake and the whole documentary an act, He might actually master the elements. That said, why was he so shocked at the ld fellow levitating? I mean, if one does master the elements, that shouldn't be a problem (there are cases of such things). Maybe he can only master some elemnts at a "beginner's level"? What's up with the cave of the monk?! What's with all the candles? Oh and, what do you know, he turns out not only to be a nice fellow, but he can even speak English! And Even though he was presumably not waiting for them (fine, it must have been his powers), he was not troubled at all by the cameras... Now, I have heard a thing or two about ho Westerners interesting topics related to religion in Asia go about doing their documentaries: they pay people to do yoga poses in front of the Ganges, they tell them what to say. I also know that people in NEpal won't talk about this kind of things unless they know you well and have faith in you (so you must be arround and introduced to people and spend months, possibly years with them). So I smell forgery here.
 Eighter way, it was fun to watch.

 Here's another one!
Question: What do some people do when they're retired in China? What do some men do to regain their virility in China? :)))
Here.
Now, that I actually believe!

On Classical Chinese

I found this hilarious passage written by David Moser on Classical Chinese and couldn't help putting it here. "Whereas modern Mandarin is merely perversely hard, classical Chinese is deliberately impossible. Here's a secret that sinologists won't tell you: A passage in classical Chinese can be understood only if you already know what the passage says in the first place. This is because classical Chinese really consists of several centuries of esoteric anecdotes and in-jokes written in a kind of terse, miserly code for dissemination among a small, elite group of intellectually-inbred bookworms who already knew the whole literature backwards and forwards, anyway. An uninitiated westerner can no more be expected to understand such writing than Confucius himself, if transported to the present, could understand the entries in the "personal" section of the classified ads that say things like: "Hndsm. SWGM, 24, 160, sks BGM or WGM for gentle S&M, mod. bndg., some lthr., twosm or threesm ok, have own equip., wheels, 988-8752 lv. mssg. on ans. mach., no weirdos please." " It strikes me there are quite a few similarities between Chinese and Sanskrit. But my guess is the first is actually more difficult than the latter.