A Quote from Avatamsaka Sutra

Avatamsaka Sutra (華嚴經), a Buddhist Sutra also known as The Flower Garland Sutra, is not only a good book to understand Buddha, but also a book providing profound wisdoms about views, which is a very important concept in investment.

I was helping my wife to print out my mother in law's lecture for a Buddhist meeting when I found something really astonishing in the Avatamsaka Sutra. I shall translate it from Chinese. Please note that my translation may not correct, but close. I will do it in English as well as Chinese, so that some of you can directly read it in Chinese.

無見即是見，能見一切法。於法若有見，此則無所見。

No-view is precisely a kind of view, those who have no view can witness every law (of the Buddha).
Should there be a view to the (Buddhist) law, that must be no-view.
(or, "If you have a view to the [Buddhist] law, then you can witness nothing." Sorry, I am not very sure for this.)

有見則為垢，此則未為見。遠離於諸見，如是乃見佛。

Those who have views are polluted, thus can witness nothing. Stay away from lay views, thus can witness the Buddha.

Well, next time you see someone eloquently talking about what's going on the market, please kindly remind yourself this little quote from Avatamsaka Sutra.

4images 1.7.1 and MySQL 5.0.x

Ever since my Chinese Painting Gallery moved to a new host, the site has been off for a serious database problem. My friend Ted told me that it was because 4images 1.7.1 is not compatible with MySQL 5.0.x.

Please see 4images forum for a solution.

I have to thank my friend Ted for providing this invaluable information.

How to Be Protected from the Young

People at about my age, which is forty something, may be wondering: why is that, when we were young, the old man had the ball; and when we are getting old (and obsolete), the ball is in the young man's hand. Well, that may be just my personal feeling, but I think to some extent it is true that the young is invading into our territory.

This morning, I read the headline on the newspaper: "Two Teenagers Won the Science Fair with Only 200NT". They are just junior high school girls. Their work, "A New Method to Measure Surface Tension: An Re-Application of the Connected Pipe Theory", won the first prize of the 2008 International Science Fair in Taiwan.

Every now and then we have this kind of news circulating around, and we take it for granted that young man are taking the lead in the world of science. We, the middle-ager, mostly engaged in business or social matters, do not have to worry, so we tell ourselves. But is it that safe to keep ourselves focusing on things other than natural science? I doubt.

My friend Su is a radio program moderator, and the program is about books. She invited me to her program and talk about Greenspan's book, The Age of Turbulence with another guest- to my surprise, her student. He is just an elementary school boy.

Oh, no. If a schoolboy can talk about economics on the air, then the young are not just invading in the fields of natural science. Fortunately, I found that boy can not understand the book, and he could only squeeze words out with difficulty. I felt relieved as well as compassionate.

But I still think that the middle aged can not protect themselves from the young with knowledge. In the era of Internet, information and knowledge is never an advantage of the aged. We can only at best keep up with the young. Never think about to leading or teaching them. Some of them can even be erudite.

So, what moat do we have? What 's so important and the young are lack of? Experience? May be. But mind you, the only thing that we can learn form experience is, as the famous history saying goes, we never learn from experience.

Money? May be. But that is not a real moat. The young are getting rich ever faster. They may be richer than you already.

Social connections? May be. But the young have their own social networks, and you have yours. You have already seen many companies run buy 'kids', and they run the companies pretty well, if not better than you did.

OK, I propose one. Credits. I mean not only the bank credits, but all kinds of credits, such as your work, papers, medals, honors, some good things, and most importantly, the prizes you've won.

In the business world, we tend to judge a person by historical records. And this is a very important vetting process. We don't have to evaluate a person in every aspects, we only count on his records. And a series of good records or credits is just something that the young can never acquired when young. Some may think that the credits now can be built up much faster than before, but I doubt.

Most of the Credits are built up through competitions. And it takes time to compete. That is perhaps something the old-timers already done.

So, next time when you see some young stars in your company about to compete you out of your position, don't try to start learning computers, take trainings, or even go to schools. It's too late and useless. Besides, it is not easy. Never try fighting your enemies in their wars.

You try to be the sales of the year, to take part in an important task force, to lead a challenging project, and so on. And DON'T FOCUS ON ROUTINE WORKS ONLY. Leave them to the young. You'd better make mistakes instead of making no noise.

It’s Different to Be Different

About two thousand years ago, Suma Chien(司馬遷) in his famous book, The Historical Records(史記), described Tao Ju Gong(陶朱公),the richest man in ancient China, as follows. “Sell the expensive in a way as if it were dirt, buy the cheep in a way as if it were pearls.” One would consider that is a matter of price. But price is just a phenomenon and every person has his own view, therefore, it might not be the real point. I think it is about “being different”.

If everyone, including your mother in law, thinks that something is of no value, then you just buy it as if it were invaluable. If everyone thinks that something is very valuable, then you just sell it as if it were of no value. All you have to do is being different to all the others. Some may say that this is a kind of contrarians. But it is not that simple. Being different is never that simple.

Consider a teenager who wants to be different. He does not want to be similar to his parents, brothers, sisters, and even classmates. He wants to be different in clothing, hairstyle, talking, and even foods to the extent that he manages to be as different as he can and finally turns to the fads for help. As a result, in one way or another, those teenagers that turn to fads all become similar. They are so similar that they may even look like their parents twenty years ago. Their difference is just of no difference.

If you want to be really different, you just can’t make it by being against everything mechanically. The difference has to be originated from the bottom of your heart.

I remember that thirty years ago, when I was in high school, there was a naïve painter, Hong Tung(洪通, 1920-1987). To everyone’s surprise, he suddenly became famous. Hong had never learned painting. Actually, he had never gone to any schools. He was an illiterate, and lived in a very poor and remote village in southern Taiwan. He made a living by temporary jobs.

One day, when he was about fifty years old, he suddenly found that he had a passion in painting and started painting. The villagers looked down on him and took him as a lunatic, for he made no money and could not make a living except relying on his wife. He was considered as garbage, but he’d never mind.

Amazingly, it only took several years for him to become a hot shot in Taiwan. How he succeeded will be skipped here. You only have to know that somehow he became the headlines. A lot of tourists went to that remote village just to see him. I confess here, I did, too. Taipei elites had organized an art exhibition for Hong in the U.S. Information Agency(美新處) in 1976. Everybody in Taiwan was crazy for him, even the President Chiang Ching-kuo.

But he never sold his paintings. Some had offered a price so high that the villagers can never imagine. He just refused to sell any of his work. Recall the phrase quoted from The Historical Records: ” Sell the expensive in a way as if it were dirt.” Quite a lot of people would advise him to sell at least some. Please also note that he was still very poor at that time. I think, in this case, it is a conventional wisdom to sell.

But Hong was different, again. He insisted. None was sold.

Years after, he had passed away. But people still consider him a great painter. Nowadays, a lot of so called naïve painters imitate his style of painting. Every year, children in his hometown would paint a lot of Hong’s style painting to memorize him.

One may say aftermath that had he sold his painting then, he would already be out of our consciousness, because we might take him as an ordinary painter.

He was so different to be different.

The Flower of Chikushi

The Flower of Chikushi(筑紫之華) is a variety of Cymbidium sinense(報歲蘭). The location and time it was found are still unknown today. But one thing can be sure, it was not from Chikushi.

There are white lines called "art"(藝) on its leaves. The "arts" has various patterns. Usually, the pattern of this variety is called "nakahu"(中斑). That means the white or yellow lines are located in the inner part of the leaves, while the outer part of the leaves, especially the tip of the leave is green.


The Flower of Chikushi has a strange property. If a young shoot starts growing in spring time, its leaves will all be ordinary green, no white lines on those leaves. But if the young shoots start growing in autumn, then, it will have splendid and flashy leaves. People consider its "art" unstable and therefore The Flower of Chikushi is inexpensive.

But I think this property is quite interesting. The combination of green shoots and "art" shoots makes them easier to grow and let the whole plant look more beautiful. Further more, sometimes, there are also "arts" on its flowers, and the pattern is "nakahu" as well. But not every flower of it has "arts". Sometimes, you can see different types of flower on a scape.


Twenty years ago, people think that these "arts" can not be reproduced by pollination . Nowadays, some people have shown that if the female parent has "art", then there may be some chances to have "art" offspring.

We still don't know the exact mechanism. But it is interesting, and I have tried to make one pollinated. So, let's see what's going to happen several years later, no kidding.

The last picture shows the flowers of an ordinary Cym. sinense.

AM 729

I seldom listen to the AM radios. Today, I tune the radio back and forth without any specific program to listen. It happened that I found AM 729, the Shih Hsin Radio Station(世新電台).It was Deutsche Welle(德國之音) on the air. For me, the Deutsche Welle is not the same to the BBC world service, DW is in more depth with no-big-deal kind of news, and you won't have American election or Afghanistan news all day long.

To my surprise, they had a special on how the Indonesian ex-Chinese are doing after Suharto's death. These ex-Chinese have been through a terrible life under Suharto's anti-Chinese policy. They are a bit confused. They consider themselves as Indonesian, but why is that they have to be treated differently just because they have a Chinese strain. Some are proud of being both Indonesian and Chinese.

There were some interviews in the program, so I can hear the voices directly from those Indonesian ex-Chinese. That's quite a contact.

My point here is not to discuss the Indonesian ex-Chinese problem, but the media from German that is so different from the U.S. or British ones. We all have been for too long a time reading, watching, and listening to the U.S. media, and unintentionally getting an American view. It's a situation that I thought I can do nothing about it. For if we want to keep receiving world views, we have to receive them in English, which automatically conveys an American view. I am not saying that the American view is bad, actually it is quite good, and I have been enjoying it very much. But we just want to have some other voices to listen to.

I am glad that Deutsche Welle does it in English. From now on, I have BBC, ICRT, and DW to choose.

Whatever Will Be, Will Be

It is Chinese New Year now, and suddenly, it came up on my mind that I'd better write my Blog in English from now on, at least, once in a while.

I am forty eight years old. It is a long way for me to have a computer and start exploiting the cyberspace, and, perhaps, typing as well. But that is not the most difficult part. I find writing something that is in a flash quite challenging, especially in English.

This Blog has been written in Chinese to record my life. Somehow, I think it is time for me to write in English to share with the world. You will never know how hard it is.

I was an executive of a local securities firm and futures trading company. One day, I found I'd better start my own investment business, and I did. Currently, I am an investment free lancer, to invest for my own good. I believe that value investment is what I do, I am serious.

As an value investor, I am doing fine and have a lot of time hanging around. Usually, people think I am unemployed, or I may not have so plenty of time doing nothing. But they have no idea that I am making money, perhaps more than they are doing. And that is quite strange a feeling. I am far from super rich, but enough for a humble life.

However, while doing nothing all day is my goal, it is quite boring just sit there. So I have a lot of hobbies, such as Chinese Painting, music, orchid growing, and Go, and I also translate English to Chinese for a local publisher. Among my works are The Walmart Effect by Charles Fishman and The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan.

You should see how the publisher react to me at the very first time we encounter. Anyway, translation is fun and free for me but certainly not a good business to make a living. All translators in Taiwan know that. But it is something that you would spend a lot of time to do. It is so worthwhile to have a good book in hand to translate.

That's all I have to say for now, and, I hope you like it.

泰北行簡

原先以為泰北是偏僻之處，理當頹圮凋敝，再加上有著《異域》的印象，總是認為泰北應該是個蠻荒之地才對。但真正到了泰北，走出清邁機場，立即完全改觀，這裡富饒美麗宛如人間仙境。

清邁是個古城，有許多古剎，各個寺廟都只能用精緻美麗莊嚴來形容。導遊介紹了許多古寺的由來典故，但我已記不清楚，倒是拍了不少照片。

泰國人好客溫和，再加上物價便宜，悠遊其間，讓人感到心曠神怡。不過這裡幾乎凡事都要小費，還好是二十泰銖，我覺得尚能接受。

泰北行一般是遊古寺、看長頸族、到金三角、泰緬邊境、美斯樂，以及蘭園（我的最愛）、猴園、大象學校等。其中看長頸族一事最讓我感到不安，大家拿著相機對著長頸族少女拍攝，好像在拍動物一樣，我實在不忍拍，因此沒拍下來。

泰緬邊境是最刺激的了，各色人種混雜，充滿了生命力，但也明顯對比出泰國的富庶和緬甸的窮困。緬甸街頭上還有不少持槍軍人，尚存一股肅殺之氣。

但清邁還是最美的，沒有高樓大廈，多是精緻美屋，城裡有個洋人街，裡頭的咖啡館從Starbucks到當地的特色咖啡屋，間間暴滿，多是年輕人，還有不少像業務的人在裡頭用notebook和客人交談。

當然，清邁的高爾夫球場也很棒，不過此行沒有安排打球行程，也許將來有機會在去那裡揮桿。

泰北非常進步，非常美，值得一遊。







長頸族我只在遠遠拍街景。


這三尊緬甸的佛像其實是同一尊，非常特別，緬甸人運用特殊雕刻技巧，讓你從各個方向看佛像都覺得佛也在看著你。




緬甸一角，像不像早年的眷村？

1/10-1/15出國旅遊

原本要去澳洲當澳客的，無奈旅行社通知取消我所報的團，緊急改為泰北，無魚蝦也好。

有什麼事回來再說了。

四季蘭無菌播種後續２－－長龍根

長龍根了，播種至今已半年。培養基已乾燥，因為我只用鋁箔紙包住瓶口，而且播種當時沒有添加無菌水，幾個月下來，瓶子裡的水分已蒸發殆盡，許多瓶都完了。只剩下二、三瓶還沒乾死。

下次播種我得另外再多加一些無菌水才是。

四季蘭無菌播種ＤＩＹ

四季蘭無菌播種後續１

四季蘭無菌播種後續２－－長龍根

四季蘭無菌播種後續３

四季蘭無菌播種後續４

高雄半日遊

十二月三十一日早上突然心血來潮，與太太搭高鐵到高雄玩。由於是臨時起義，所以很晚才出門，幸好一路很順，中午十二點半準時抵達左營。

我二十年前曾經在左營服役，因此還略有印象，我們先逛蓮池潭，不料蓮池潭正在整治，整個都封了起來，於是只好先到孔廟。二十年前，左營孔廟裡設了圖書室供民眾閱讀，我放假日常在那裡看書，如今已改為餐廳。但餐廳裡的簡餐一客要三百多元，我發現中午時根本就沒人在那裡用餐，殊為可惜。

後來我們到左營北站搭205號公車到美術館。到了之後才知道，高雄美術館原來是一大座美麗的親水公園，不輸宜蘭的羅東公園。我們順便看了一下附近的房子，都是美麗的建築，真不敢相信，一坪只要十二、三萬。這相當於泰山或三峽的價錢。差點衝動要下訂了。還好，終於忍了下來。

其實高雄美術館附近讓我想到台北的大直，但價位有如天壤之別，我要不是親眼見到，還真不敢相信。我想，這大概就是冪法則或Pareto's Law發揮作用吧。

財富會自然集中，連房地產的價格也有同樣現象。

螃蟹蘭

螃蟹蘭（Schlumbergera truncatus），原產於巴西，葉狀莖扁平多節，肥厚呈卵圓形，形狀類似蟹足，故又名「蟹爪蘭」，其實並非蘭科植物。冬春開花，花著生於莖頂端，花瓣反捲後曲，花色繁多，有白、黃、紫紅、濃紅等色，豔麗非凡，可惜花期不長，每朵花花期不到一週，這大概是仙人掌植物的特色。

栽培容易，置於遮蔽處，多噴水，加上通風即可。入秋後盡量晒太陽，減少遮蔭，但維持短日照，年底開花時更旺。

我小時候就種了一盆，印象非常深刻。如今每年過年總不忘來上一盆螃蟹蘭。

平溪線鐵道之旅

今天趁著天氣難得出晴，心血來潮，跑去平溪線玩。主要是十分和菁桐。很美。可惜時間不容細細品味。最好是自己開車，搭火車雖方便，但班次間隔太長，除非規劃得很好，否則只好挑喜歡的玩。

但平溪線之美，真是言語無法形容。也不是我的照片所能表達。

水墨園4images修復

花了點時間把系統重灌，終於修好了。採用4images 1.7.1版而不是最新的1.7.4版。因為1.7.4版有bug，中文檔名有問題。

這次重灌，有些資料還是喪失了。少數幾位註冊的朋友，其ID和留言不見了。這是唯一一憾之處。

另外模板我找了一個大紅色，改變一下氣氛。

董壽平

董壽平是我喜歡的水墨畫大師，原來他也是學經濟的，一九二六年於北京東方大學經濟系畢業後，便以自己所熱愛的繪畫為業，這點頗令我敬佩。他善畫梅竹和黃山，往往聊聊數筆即氣蘊生動。我最欣賞他大筆揮灑之後，以巧妙的幾筆小筆墨，營造出靈動的意象出來。

活版自由詩

從冷青靜綠兄的Blog上看來的，有趣的拼湊詩遊戲。詳情請看活版自由詩和刻骨銘詩打印店。

我立即發揮蒙地卡羅法的精神，先以人工把二字湊成一詞，再來就是擲骰子了，多擲幾次會出現有趣的句子。最後再以人工修飾定稿。

我的遊戲之作為「愛是不用收拾」：

愛是不用收拾

微微冬雪
聽天下　唱不了
四音

清清夏蛙
見男女　翻過了
一晚

野蘋花　瓣瓣飛
春泥淚　山山紅

你看
愛是不用收拾

只要跟著大師做就行了

這星期三晚上，我很榮幸受邀到誠品信義店向讀者介紹價值投資。這是沈雲驄先生為誠品所籌劃的「閱讀現場 週三財富群像：邁向2008你必須掌握的大趨勢Ⅲ──金融世界」講座。講座的主辦人，誠品的朱福銘先生對圍棋很有興趣，我們多次聊到圍棋。

朱先生提到，圍棋要進步，最大的關鍵是體會有捨才有得的觀念，下棋時，要能權衡輕重，進而取捨。我深表贊同。

就以我跟我女兒對弈的經驗來說吧，我女兒反應快，攻殺能力比我強。如果我不能儘早割捨小戰局，去佈大局，多半落得被殺大龍而全盤皆輸的下場。但如果我遇到挑釁攻擊，能夠不被激起應戰的反應，忍痛去找更大的棋，則往往可以贏棋。

問題是，要「捨」很難，違反人性。因此，我對朱先生說，不妨從打譜著手。打譜就是看著別人下過的棋，也就是大師下過的棋譜，一步一步地擺出來，慢慢體會。

以前打譜很辛苦，現在有電腦程式就輕鬆多了。打譜程式可以參考「讓電腦當你的藤原佐為」這篇。其中StoneBase是免費的程式，雖然為簡體版，但台灣有熱心人士轉成繁體。而棋譜則是公共財，由許多熱心人士集結成電腦檔。

跟著大師，一步一步地走，自然就可以克服自己的人性弱點！

我在講座中提到，價值投資最大的問題就是違反人性。也在Q&A時間裡告訴聽眾，不妨去track大師過去的投資軌跡，體驗他的感受。我自己就從Neff和巴菲特的進出記錄中，得到許多體會。這是非常重要而且珍貴的學習經驗。

無獨有偶，The Motley Fool最近有一篇文章，談的就是跟著巴菲特買股票就可以打敗專家：「Copy Warren Buffett and Beat the Pros」。文章中還提到一篇學術論文「Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway」，這篇論文的作者當然不是什麼碩學鴻儒，但學術界開始檢視投資技能，漸漸認為投資的確有一些skill在裡面則是不爭的事實。論文中的許多reference也很值得參考。（啊，我是不是該去讀個博士學位。）

但與投資人關係最直接的，則是文中提到，要模仿巴菲特投資，只要去看波克夏公司向美國證管會所申報的10-K、13D、13F、和13G就可以了。這些資訊，請參考波克夏網頁上的連結，或是這裡。

當然，你也可以更省事一些，直接買波克夏的股票，然後隨時關心波克夏的動態（放心，波克夏的一舉一動，MSN Money和Yahoo Finance都會報導）。我當年就是這樣做的。不過，買股票時請切記，即使是買巴菲特的股票，也要遵循價值投資的精神，千萬不要追高。

大頭

「大頭大頭下雨不愁，人有雨傘，我有大頭。」看到亞力山大垮台，我想到的是這句童謠。

據亞力山大企業說，近年來因為經濟不景氣、金融雙卡風暴、通貨膨脹與健身俱樂部定型化契約的實施，都嚴重影響到健身產業的發展；亞力山大因此在經營上出現困難，二年半來，業績急速滑落，每月營運虧損。

亞力山大企業集團為台灣最大連鎖健身中心，根據亞力山大企業指出，1982年從雅姿韻律起家，目前集團旗下的台灣市場亞力山大有15家、亞爵3家、君SPA1 家，此外中國市場是北京2家、上海3家。

會員數外界粗估達四十萬名，當中有不少吸收自佳姿歇業之後的會員。

我個人因朋友有入會的關係，幾年前，去亞爵會館體驗過，當時的感覺是，這家會館在景氣熱絡時，熱門時段的場地設備不夠用；但不景氣時，我想，恐怕是經營不易。當時股市正熱，會館裡人還不少，但用餐休息的感覺雖然還可以，卻完全沒有那種讓人非去不可的感覺。也就是普普啦。

可是仔細觀察其建材和裝潢，即使外行人也該感覺得出來非常高檔，成本一定不俗。其實，台灣的高級會員俱樂部似乎不容易經營，像早年專業的Banker's Club就在台灣鎩羽而歸。運動出身的亞力山大，要經營俱樂部不是不可以，但要量力而為，培養自己的專業。俱樂部之經營，可不只是叫人來加入會員就可以賺錢了。

只知在順境時一味擴充，一旦景氣反轉，命運也就跟著反轉了。

我在多頭市場中的鴨子這篇中提到Munger的話，他說：「假設你是一隻池塘裡的鴨子，池水因大雨而高漲，於是你的身體也隨著不斷上升。但是你會認為是自己變高了，而不是水漲上來。」

這就是大頭。我也常犯這個毛病，應時時自我警惕：「一個笨蛋縱使再有錢，還是個笨蛋。」

我的水墨園畫譜4images系統故障了

好久沒有掛畫到水墨園畫譜網站上了，昨日週末，想說掛一幅上去看看，結果才發現我掛的4images系統有問題，不能貼圖了。原因不明。過幾天我再找時間試試，不行的話就真的要放棄了。自己maintain一個website實在太辛苦了，還是用Blogger輕鬆多了。

喔，卡拉ＯＫ吧！

這篇不是打廣告，各位不要誤會了。家中原有一台數年前的卡拉ＯＫ，那是在卡拉ＯＫ點唱機剛興起的年代出的機器，採MIDI格式，歌曲不多，且版權多半有問題。不過對想要飆歌的人來說，當時這種機器可真是一大福音。

最近女兒一直嫌家中那台卡拉ＯＫ的歌太老，想想，也該換新機了。於是我上網研究了一下，呵，台灣的卡拉ＯＫ機產業還真是與時俱進，日新月異。除了MIDI之外，有原聲原影和真人導唱，再加上有硬碟可以自行錄、灌歌曲，真是一應俱全。

上面所提的功能，可能許多不熟悉點唱機的朋友完全看不懂，不過，沒關係，只要知道卡拉ＯＫ機現在都很先進就可以了。

但歌曲的版權部分呢？我發現正廠業者多半嚴守分際，謹慎小心。畢竟，如果不小心觸法，代價是很慘痛的。但是，消費者端，或是小商家則不然。今日P2P之興盛，不止影響mp3而已，卡拉ＯＫ生態更是完全改變。

市場有免費的電腦點歌程式，免費的P2P歌曲下載、還有便宜的「硬碟卡拉ＯＫ」，一台二千元搞定，如果你會P2P下載的話。

我survey了多家之後，終於決定買「點將家」這台DCC-320G，內建320GB硬碟，歌曲又多，各種功能都有，而且便宜。最重要的是他的MIDI編曲很不錯，而且用Yamaha的音源，聽起來很舒服。（沒辦法，我還是活在MIDI時代。）

機器昨天送來了，女兒高興極了，立刻唱起周杰倫的「聽媽媽的話」。我說，爸爸的話也要聽喔！