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Death Poems: A Unique Tradition
In Zen Buddhism, there is a tradition where monks write a short poem in the last minutes before they die, summarizing their life’s wisdom in just a few lines. It’s thought-provoking reading. The Norwegian poet and author Erling Kittelsen reminded me of a book called Diamantfjellene – dikt ved døden (The Diamond Mountains – Poem […]
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Mission Madness: LSD Trip with a Religious Twist
How easy is it to start a new religion? This topic is discussed in Mission Madness, where I tell Bai Hu and Cou Rong about a revelation influenced by LSD, which I got from my psychiatrist to get in better touch with myself (this is no longer a medical practice, and LSD is now illegal). […]
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Mission Madness: Buddha’s White Cat
There are several stories about Buddha’s white cat, and the Kung Fu master Cou Rong, who plays a vital role in Mission Madness, shared a version with me that is written down for the first time here. A fine little story from the book: When Buddhism came to China, it was believed that cats could […]
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Mission Madness: A Chinese Femme Fatale
In the Prologue, I mention that liquor is often served in large quantities during business dealings in China. However, this also happens privately, as I discovered when I accidentally encountered the tiger woman, Bai Hu. Here is an excerpt from the book about our first meeting: Bai Hu was an unmarried masseuse in her forties […]
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Mission Madness: The Beginning of It All
Several Norwegian initiatives encountered problems in China when a Chinese dissident was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. This also affected me, as I had optimistically traveled to the Middle Kingdom to help establish a film company there. Mission Madness is about what this led to for me, and I begin the book like […]
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Sunrise in Torre de la Horadada
I often go for an early morning walk carrying a small camera. Sunrise is always a winner, and there is probably no better motif, at least not at dawn 🙂 The Mediterranean Sea stretches to the east from Torre de la Horadada on Costa Blanca in Spain. Every morning, the sun rises and maintains one […]
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Quiet Days of the PandemicÂ
Spanish beach towns are mostly quiet in the winter. I have always associated silence with something poetic, but the extreme silence under the Coronavirus lockdown ripped that image. I live in Torre de la Horadada on the Southern end of Costa Blanca, Spain. Our town is dependent on tourism; the silence is far from idyllic. The […]