This is, in fact, to ward off evil spirits and honor the Bhutanese’s favorite saint: Drukpa Kunley, the divine madmen – an irreverent figure, constantly ridiculing the establishment and corrupt priests in particular. Philosophically, he is an extravagant cross between Aristippus and Diogenes with a dash of Nassredin Hodja.

It is indeed easy to grow fond of the whimsical character after having heard of his many exploits, usually involving lots of drinking and use of his “flaming thunderbolt of wisdom” to subdue demons or enlighten women.

In the words of the “saint of 5000 women” himself:

“I am happy that I am a free yogi
So I grow more and more into my inner happiness
I can have sex with many women,
Because I help them to go the path of enlightenment.

Outwardly, I am a fool
And inwardly I live with a clear spiritual system.
Outwardly, I enjoy wine, women and song
And inwardly I work for the benefit of all human beings.

Outwardly, I live for my pleasure
And inwardly I do everything in the right moment.
Outwardly, I am a ragged beggar
And inwardly a blissful Buddha.”

Like my love,
the sakura blossom
dies too soon.

Started the day by going surfing with Jason and Mike, ended it sharing Intrige (one of my favorite board games).
This has got to be the best GDC kickoff ever! ^-^

Spent a few days in Kyoto.
Had never seen it in autumn.
Felt like sharing the beauty.

]]> http://www.lejade.org/2008/08/zanzibar-beaches/feed/ 0 http://www.lejade.org/2008/02/money-happiness/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=money-happiness http://www.lejade.org/2008/02/money-happiness/#comments Sun, 03 Feb 2008 11:15:33 +0000 Olivier http://www.lejade.org/2008/02/03/money-happiness/ Apparently, the good Dr Kawashima – who inspired the Brain Age games that sold over 17 million copies worldwide – does not want a single yen from the 22 million dollars in royalties he is due:

“Everyone in my family is mad at me but I tell them that if they want money, go out and earn it.”

he says, because

“to hear this may put you off, but my hobby is work.”

Score one for passion, zero for money!

Also interesting, his comment on work versus play:

“Having fun is not studying. Making them study is not to entertain children but to pressure them to make efforts. People fall to lower and lower places unless they are driven to go higher.”

This correlates with my own observation that strictly favoring fun over anything else prevents one from learning those skills that demand hard dedication and self-discipline. Unfortunately, there are some things in life we don’t (yet) know how to teach in a fun way but that still need to be learned…

As if that wasn’t cool enough, the slashdot reading, self-declared “contemplative hedonist”, says stuff like:

“I want intense pleasures from life. This means not spending too much time in a lab but finding balance between thinking and having fun”.

(loosely translated back to english from an interview in Le Monde)

and

“The best thing there is to do on this planet is surf. There’s just nothing else that even comes close to generating the feeling you experience as you paddle like crazy to catch a wave, drop down the face, crank a hard bottom turn in the pit, and pull into the barrel as the lip throws out over your head. The desire for those perfect waves wreaks holy hell with the rest of your life. It makes you spend all your dough on plane tickets to crazy places just so you can risk your butt paddling over jagged reef and camping out on lonely beaches.”

All that and he doesn’t believe in string theory. And he hangs out at Burning Man. And he still finds time to teach. So yeah, I’m a total fanboi but seriously: how much cooler can you be and what more do you need to revive your faith in humanity? Now if only kids would pick him up as a role model instead of the usual cretinous MTV celebs…

Live long, Garrett Lisi and keep catching those waves!

EDIT: another nice interview he gave, complete with a Douglas Adams reference and a picture of E8.