KSblog

A  google search (at Pew Research Center etc) or a wikipedia check will tell you the top six religions of the world consist of the following (ranked by # of followers for each group - data is a few years old, when world population stood at 7.3 billion): Christianity, 2.3 billion Islam, 1.8B Atheism/Irreligion, 1.2B Hinduism, 1.15B Buddhism, 521 million Chinese Traditional Religions, 300-400M As someone fascinated by all things religious, I am not surprised that most of the world is religious (83%) vs irreligious (1.2B/7.3B or 17%). What surprised me, as someone born in China, an officially atheist country, is that the majority (or at least half) of Chinese are found to be religious (50-53%). 30% of us adhere to one of our traditional religions (Taoism, Confucianism etc), 18.2% are Buddhists, while 5% practice other religions (mainly Islam or Christianity). Atheists or irreligious people make up 47-50% of China''s population. In absolute numbers, China has the largest number of...

I  came to the US many years ago. I first went to a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. China had just opened up, so I, like everyone else I knew then, didn''t know much about the outside world. Not surprisingly, as a shy, boyish 20-year-old, soon after I arrived in rural middle America, I began to feel really lonely and completely out of place!  Anyhow, I was working in the library one afternoon, heard people mentioning next day being "Thanksgiving," though I had no idea what that was. Honestly, I could care less as I was hearing so many new words daily that it felt overwhelming and confusing most of the time. I vaguely sensed this Thanksgiving thing must be the name of a holiday as there was no school the next day. Most of my classmates had left campus by that afternoon and the library was unusually quiet. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a slender, middle-aged blonde lady showed up in front of me and introduced herself. "My name is Judy," she said,...

I am ashamed to admit but I will do it anyway -- I am addicted to food. I like to eat, indeed, I like it so much, to the point I will eat the foods I like, also the stuff I do not like. I will eat foods that are good for me, and also those bad for me. I will eat at mealtime and also in between meals.... This has created problems: weight, health, to name just a few. That is why I say I am an addict. What is wrong with addiction? Well, an addict like me can say a lot here. To begin with, you are a slave to your addiction. Does anyone prefer being enslaved to being free? I think not. Addictions make you miserable. I cannot imagine anyone will enjoy misery. If your food addiction is as bad as mine, you get fat and sick. And quickly. And you get depressed too, because you constantly struggle between what you want to do (of course eating for me), which is usually not good, and what you should do, which is usually good. For an addict, your worst "want" almost always wins despite you...

Nick Keomahavong, the California psychotherapist turned Buddhist monk and author, shares in this YouTube video how Buddhist monks are taught to eat. As someone with an eating problem (mainly overeating, which brought health problems such as overweight, high blood pressure, diabetes etc.), I almost wish I could quit what I am doing and become a Buddhist monk. My wife and kids wouldn't like this but at least I could bring some sanity to my eating and maybe get healthy again! I suppose the next best thing if I can't become a monk but still benefit from it is to learn how to eat like a monk. Venerable Nick, or Ven. Nick, as he is known following the Buddhist tradition, talks about five things Buddhists practice in their eating: give blessings, consideration of the food, develop the skill of observation, eating 2 meals a day, and eating mindfully and with manners. Having lived in America for a long time, I know devoted Christians "say grace" before each meal, but I didn...

In the popular Jeopardy! quiz show this week, law student Jack Weller, a top contestant, made an embarrassing mistake, but most Americans were sympathetic and ready to forgive him. Under the category “Plurals That Don''t End in S,” he answered that "Meese" is the plural for "Moose." The correct answer is, of course, that the plural for moose is still moose, not "meese," even though the word for more than one goose is "geese." English is a confusing language, even "smart" native speakers make mistakes. I still think Chinese (my native language) is the hardest language, followed closely by English - but I only know these two languages! Maybe languages are hard, period. English is not easy to learn, though compared to other Indo-European languages such as Spanish, French, German or Russian (I tried to learn these languages a little bit myself), I think it is grammatically easier for a Chinese speaker, for example, similar word orde...