OPINION
Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
January 2, 2017
Volume 27 Number 1
January 2, 2017
ISSN: 1094-9453
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MY TURN
n Wayne Chan
Not enough time
for meditation
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ou need to manage your stress better,” my
wife Maya would say. “You should try
meditating.”
Have I been stressed? Well, yes, I probably have.
But meditation? Really?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure meditation can do
wonders to manage stress and anxiety. But just as
some people love Brussells sprouts and other people
think they are little vegetable balls of revulsion,
I’m just not sure meditation is for me. And believe
me, I’ve seen a lot of meditation up close and
personal.
Every morning, when I get up for breakfast, I find
Maya sitting on the family room floor, legs crossed
with her arms resting comfortably on her thighs,
palms turned upward in a kind of Buddha-trance-
like state. In the background, there is a recording of
a soft-spoken man with an Indian accent calmly
repeating various mantras.
This is where I have a problem.
I’ve heard many of the mantras. It’s just that I
hear all of them one mantra at a time. By the time
the soft-spoken, Indian-accented guy gets to the
second mantra, I’ve inevitably tuned out and
started thinking about something else. It goes
somewhat like this:
Mantra: Center your thoughts and let feelings of
compassion, spirituality, and hopefulness bring you
wellbeing.
My next thought: I wonder if that leftover slice of
pizza is still in the fridge or did one of the kids
already get to it? I should hide that slice somewhere
before somebody swipes it. Is it too much to ask to
have one leftover slice of pizza without having to
think about where I need to hide it so nobody eats it?
Y
What kind of world do we live in where I have to
stow away a slice of pizza to keep someone from
snatching it?
The next thing I hear on the tape is, “Namaste.”
Wait, what? That was it? I’m still totally stressing
out about the pizza!
My other issue with meditation is that, being a
little neurotic anyway, I’m afraid if I ever did
manage to lose myself in the soft-spoken, Indian-
accented guy’s mantras, it would leave me in such a
vulnerable position that I could be talked into doing
just about anything. I’m worried it might go
something like this:
Mantra: Release all the stress and anxiety of your
life. Focus on the next breath, and imagine that with
each breath, your body is floating toward a calming
sea of tranquility. As you drift deeper and deeper
into complete mindfulness, know that your life is at
peace, and think about how serene it might be to pull
out your credit card and log onto <www.themindful
indianaccentedguysmeditationcandles.com> to re-
ceive a 20-percent discount on your next order.
Me: “Wait a minute. What was that last part?”
Maybe I’m just being paranoid. Meditation could
probably do wonders in reducing my stress and
helping me better deal with the things we all go
through in everyday life that cause so much anxiety.
Tell you what … I’m going to give this meditation
thing a chance. I’m going to do a cost-benefit
analysis, I’m going to chart my progress on a
risk/reward scale, and if I can fit in a 15-minute
meditation session in between the stock market
close and my upcoming “Making More Time In Your
Day” seminar, I’m all in with this meditation thing.
I need help … serious help.
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Ex-PM’s forgotten Pearl Harbor visit
Wham!’s influence felt in China
Continued from page 3
Mainichi showed Yoshida’s face nearly buried in
Hawaiian flower necklaces because he had received
so many of them at the airport.
At the September 12, 1951 reception attended by
U.S. military and Hawai‘i officials, Yoshida sought
further U.S. economic assistance and cooperation to
reconstruct his war-devastated country and pledged
to never use aggression.
Two days later, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin
welcomed his speech as “a notably frank admission
of Japan’s war guilt and a pledge that Japan will do
everything possible to repair the enormous damage
done by her armies, navy, and air force.”
Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy
in Honolulu contributed to this report.
Continued from page 4
Wham!, many instantly recognize his well-loved
songs “Last Christmas” and “Careless Whisper.”
The latter song was translated into Chinese and
sung in several versions before the 1985 concert.
AP researcher Yu Bing in Beijing and news assistant
Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.
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