"Past and future obviously have no reality of their own. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can only reflect the light of the sun, so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power, and reality of the eternal present."

I am amazed once again on the author's point about our mind.

"Question: Isn't thinking essential in order to survive in this world?

Answer: Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down. As it is, I would say about 80 to 90 percent of most people's thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true. It causes a serious leakage of vital energy." --Author Eckhart Tolle

I do agree. When I observe my own mind in a relax state, I am usually thinking stuffs either from the PAST or the FUTURE. For example, as I am sitting in my room and typing blog contents, my mind is wandering about the future: 'Am I going to do good on Wednesday for my work presentation? I should check my class schedule for tomorrow. Should I do the resume formatting next week?...' and so on. As I observed my mind, I resumed my self back to the NOW. Still need more practice for me to focus more on the NOW because everything is happening in the NOW moment. The PAST happened in the NOW moment. The FUTURE will happen in the NOW moment. The NOW moment is like a scanner line, scanning from the the past to the future. Once you focus on this thin but powerful line, your life will be enlightened

My commute takes me about 30 minutes round trip, which is below average. This implies that I may have more time to spend with my family and doing things I enjoy after work. Sounds good to me

1. Family, Friends, and social companionship
2. Helping others
3. Appreciating what you have and not feeling wistful about what you don't have
4. Making a difference in someone else's life
5. Pursuing a passion
6. Taking pride in one's work
7. Forgiving someone for an offense and moving on
8. Not trying to keep up with the joneses (which I searched the definition from the web, means: "referring to the comparison to one's neighbour as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods")

Over the last weekend, I experienced one of the happiness factor above(Family companionship). My cousin Ting came over from LA to visit me, and I showed her around SF and Sac. I learned that my cousin and I had a lot of similarities. We both like to read psychology and subconscious books, and we get along with each other very well even though the last time we met was 8 years ago

Anyways, back to the happiness topic, what's better than spending some time with your family, when laughing together at the dinner tables and talking about the past, present and the future. To me, I am very grateful I can spend the past weekend with my cousin (-:

Frank Offner, quoted from Creativity by Csikszentmihalyi, has an advice on solving a problem:

I will tell you one thing that I found in both science and technology: If you have a problem, don't sit down and try to solve it. Because I will never solve it if I am just sitting down and thinking about it. It will hit me maybe in the middle of the night, while I am driving my car or taking a shower, or something like that.

Next time, if you are stuck on a homework problem or work problem, don't just sitting still and looking at the problem. Go for a walk outside and drink more water since water is the main element of your brain. Drink more water to energize your brain when you are stuck on a problem. It works well for me.

I just Finished my reading of "Creativity" yesterday. One of the intriguing idea I get from this book is what creative people do everyday. I have learned that creative people always eager to start the day.

Author Mihaly mentions that "Most of us don't feel our actions are that meaningful. Yet everyone can discover at least one thing every day that is worth waking up for. It could be meeting a certain person, shopping for a special item, potting a plant, cleaning the office desk, writing a letter, trying on a new dress...The important thing is to take the easy first steps until you master the habit, and then slowly work up to more complex goals. Eventually most of the day should consist of tasks you look forward to, until you feel that getting up in the morning is a privilege, not a chore."

I used this method the past weekend. At Friday night before I slept, I thought of some of the simple tasks I wanted to accomplish the next day. I chose two things, one was to buy grocery with my mom and the other was to finish my reading of The Book of Awesome. I did accomplish my tasks and felt a sense of accomplishment. Because after you finish your set goals, other things you also accomplished are just extra rewards for you.

Now, before I go to bed, I will be thinking some tasks, as simple as watering the plants in the backyard, or as complex as creating an Android app.

"Discover at least one thing that worth waking up for!"