Temple and Dessert - Taipei Trip Day 3

According to Chinese Lunar Calender, today is the first day of the month. We pay a visit to Longshan Temple and prayed. It is located at Wanhua(Manga) District. Longshan Temple is one of the most popular temple in Taiwan and it is also one of the tourists attraction.

Offerings were put on the tables

We bought some souvenirs from the temple. It is an amulet which bring peacefulness.

Located near the temple, there are some hawker stalls selling a variety of local food. We just have a look but didn't try.

We walked around the street near the temple and search around for the Herbal Tea Shop that had mentioned by the taxi's driver.

After walking a while, we still couldn't find the Herbal Tea Shop and we thought of giving up.

However, instead of finding the Herbal Tea Shop, we found a desserts shop. We were so tempted to have some hot desserts as the weather was quite cold.

Little do we know, the desserts shop had also been introduced in their local newspaper before. It is also one of the famous desserts shop.

Yam and Lentils Soup

The soup taste was just average but the Yam and the Lentils taste was good.

Red Bean Soup with Glutinous Rice Ball

Yummy! I love Red Bean Soup and Glutinous Rice Ball. It wasn't too sweet and the red bean was cooked till it was soften. The Glutinous Rice Ball was chewy and tasteless at its own but really goes well with Red Bean Soup.

We also bought a Portugese Egg Tart from 85 Degrees Bakery which is just located around the corner at Wanhua District, near the temple. It was so-so.

Peanut Soup with Yau Char Kwai

The Peanut Soup was great. Fragrantly good and wasn't too sweet. The Yau Char Kwai wasn't doughy and tasteless on its own. Dipped to the Peanut Soup, it will taste very flavourful.

Today's Meditation:

It's not the length but the quality of life that matters to me. It has always been important to me to write one sentence at a time, to live every day as if it were my last and judge it in those terms,

often badly, not because it lacked grand gesture or grand passion but because it failed in the daily virtues of self-discipline, kindness, and laughter. It is love, very ordinary, human love,

and not fear, which is the good teacher and the wisest judge. 

Jane Rule

We're all surrounded by things that are supposed to improve our quality of life. And in many ways, these things do so. We have refrigerators that keep our food cold so that we don't get sick, water heaters that provide us with hot water when we need it, furnaces that keep us warm in the winter. But these are all outside things, and Jane is talking about what comes from inside that improves the quality of the lives we live.

What she's saying is that we determine the quality of our own lives. We determine how we look at a day, how we look at a situation, how we will act and what we will say. We determine how we will respond to other people's actions or words, and we determine whether or not we're going to hold a grudge or practice forgiveness.

For Jane, it sounds like the "daily virtues" are much more important than those things that make up "the grand scheme of life." If I'm able to discipline myself and share my kindness and my laughter, then the quality of my life for this day shall be very high. And isn't this day all that truly matters? Right now is the only moment over which I have control over what I do and how I do it, and if I were to know that I was going to die tonight, how would I live my right now?

If I were to know that, I think that I'd be spending my time telling the people who have done so much for me just how much they mean to me, and I'd be trying to leave those last words of encouragement with the people who most could use them. I don't know if I could accomplish that in one day, but who knows? And if I had any time left over, then I would go for a long walk in the woods. For only then would I know that I had left something of lasting value for people who could use it.

Living life in terms of your vision and working toward your goals must be done in the context of today's activities. Do not focus too heavily on the results of your efforts. Do not live for the future
attainment of your goal. Live your life through the lens of your vision and what can be done in the present moment. Living your vision is not about reaching your goals. It is about living and working toward them. It is not about producing results but about living your life in a more meaningful and personally rewarding way.

Ari Kiev