Hodge-podge of things that travel through....

.......my brain in a day.

Books - I juggle several at a time. Currently, I am alternately reading Jane Austen's Persuasion and the Eckhart Tolle book ' A New Earth'. This is a fabulous book and I can highly recommend it - it discusses how you can be a spiritual person without having to identify solely with one dogmatic religion.

My interest in Tibetan Buddhism has given me some deeply inspiring perspectives on Life and this book can potentially do the same for me.

I love how he talks about modern man's obsession with things and stuff and yet he doesn't suggest that the solution is for us to renounce it all but instead to investigate and really understand our relationship with these 'things' - jobs, relationships, cash, cars etc.

The crux of it is that many people use 'things' to define who they are and so are desperately fearful of losing them for fear of 'losing themselves'.

Interestingly he discusses that 'there are people who have renounced all possessions but have a bigger ego than some millionaires'. They have used their 'renouncement' to define themselves again and consider themselves better spiritually than those who haven't.

I cannot bear to think about things in TIBET at the moment. The fear has been that another Tiananmen might happen again but I have just read the 'protesters have surrendered' - it doesn't bear thinking about what the future holds for them.

I am deeply proud of my Chinese heritage but on this topic I am also deeply ashamed. Guess the blessing and the curse of being mixed race is that you get to be proud of 2 heritages but also frustrated and angry with them as well. I',m not exactly proud of the British government's stance of certain issues in recent times either.

However, my thoughts are with those in Tibet and the Dalai Lama - honestly the nonsense that is being written about him and his 'agenda' in the propaganda is embarrassing!! Anyone who has ever bothered to read 15 mins worth of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism would see how laughable the 'allegations' the Chinese make about him!!!