Part Time Scholar

This year, I left Hong Kong and landed back in Canada. That’s the headline, but it barely captures what actually happened.  Moving across continents forced me to slow down, notice patterns, and re-evaluate routines I didn’t even realize I was carrying with me. Relocation: Learning to See Life Anew At first, everything felt bigger: houses, streets, coffee shops, even the way people walk and talk. In Hong Kong, life moves like a high-speed train; in Canada, it feels like a tram--or should I say, street car-- that occasionally stops and makes you think. The change wasn’t just geographic.  It was mental.  I had to ask myself: what do I bring with me, and what can I leave behind?  The discipline, curiosity, and late-night ponders came along.  The constant rush, the pressure to always perform, and the noise quietly fell away. Perspective arrived almost automatically. In a new place, it’s hard not to notice the context you’ve been operating in your whole life....

Towards the end of 2024, I left the 9 to 5 routine given my financial goals were achieved.  It felt great not needing to hug my phone to sleep and being able to wake up at whatever godly (or ungodly) hour desired.  Fast forward six months, the retirement routine became mundane.  I needed to find meaningful use of my newly found time.  Between street and league soccer, writing a book, exotic getaways, relocation back to my adopted home country, all the while taking on advisory gigs with interesting companies, life seemed like a handful.  Somehow, I managed to find time to study various topics of interest.  One topic that really caught on was game theory.   Learning game theory was a self-improvement initiative.  I wanted a life broader horizon and be better equipped when when dealing with others.  My definition of game theory is the study of interactive decision making of more than one party, where the outcome of each particpant or player...

I have long wanted to study Buddhism, because its teachings are quite cryptic in nature and to me, thought provoking.  In fact, I took a trip to China's Shaolin Temple in recent weeks to soak in some zen.  Shaolin is also known for its Chinese kung fu, so I also signed up for a private martial arts lesson with a warrior monk.  That was a great experience in itself, but the story will have to wait for another day.  Instead, I wanted to share a great read called Think Like a Monk  by Jay Shetty.  It portrays a few keystones of Buddhism and how a purposeful life can be led without subccumbing to the distractions we encounter on a daily basis.  Reading the book provided an egaging experience as it uses real life examples to illustrate its points.   Here is what I learnt:  We are what we think people think we are: we often project the "right image" to impress others.  This is the direct result of us overthinking our importance in t...