Category: P. Runner

That sound.

Based on a true story… Many years ago…

A man is driving down the road and his car breaks down near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, “My car broke down. Do you think I could stay the night?” The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, tow his car to the monastery and even fix it.

As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound. A sound unlike anything he’s ever heard before. The sound is very peaceful and healing. He doesn’t sleep that night. Instead he stays up studying the sound. Measuring the rhythm… It’s almost as if he can measure the hertz as well…

The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, “We can’t tell you. You’re not a monk.” His car gets fixed and the man leaves. Years later, after never being able to forget that sound, the man goes back to the monastery and asks for the answer again. The monks reply, “We can’t tell you. You’re not a monk.” The man says, “If the only way I can find out what is making that beautiful sound is to become a monk, then please, make me a monk.” The monks reply, “You must travel the earth and tell us how many blades of grass there are and the exact number of grains of sand. When you find these answers, you will have become a monk.” The man sets about his task.

After years of searching, it is now present day. He returns and knocks on the door of the monastery. A monk answers. He is taken before a gathering of all the monks. “In my quest to find what makes that beautiful sound, I traveled the earth and have found what you asked for: By design, the world is in a state of perpetual change. Only the Universe knows what you ask. All a man can know is himself, and only then if he is honest and reflective and willing to strip away self deception.” The monks reply, “Congratulations. You have become a monk. We shall now show you the way to the mystery of the sacred sound.”

The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, “The sound is beyond that door.” The monks give him the key, and he opens the door. Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone. The man is given the key to the stone door and he opens it, only to find a door made of ruby. And so it went that he needed keys to doors of emerald, pearl and diamond. Finally, they come to a door made of solid gold. The sound has become very clear and definite. The monks say, “This is the last key to the last door.” His life’s wish is behind that door. With trembling hands, he unlocks the door, turns the knob, and slowly pushes the door open. Finally he is utterly amazed to discover the source of that peaceful sound… But, of course, I can’t tell you what it is because you’re not a monk.

An ultimate sacrifice

When Siddhartha left his son and wife to find the Noble truth and ultimate wisdom of the world, some people looked at it as irresponsible. But no, he made the biggest sacrifice in the world. For you cutting ties with friends and “family” is the biggest sacrifice you can ever make. Some times the situation is in a matter which you have to cut out specific people in life. Whether it’s for a greater good or if it’s because they are toxic. Life is change. All we can do is adapt. The outcome of Siddhartha’s sacrifice lead him to become the Buddha. What will your sacrifice lead you to?

This is P. Runner, and these are my thoughts.

[12:28AM]

Macau: Guia Circuit

Guia Circuit, the home to the Macau Touring Car Race, GP & Moto GP. Background info found here.

Thoughts:

Whether you’re watching Kazuhiro (Osaka JDM), Joe (Car Make Across), Temple, the Sharks of NGR or members of Zero Fighter 555, you can see the kanjozoku spirit in their driving. With no street circuits in Japan, I can only imagine that street circuit racing like this is what the kanjozoku’s dreamed of back in the golden age of Japanese car culture. Of course they eventually made Loop 1 their street circuit.

Seeing that this circuit is in China, I feel that it was these type of races on street circuits that inspired HK movies like Off Track (1991).

When I watch races on Guia circuit, I find very similar mannerisms of a kanjozoku; the erratic and abrupt maneuvers to over take the opponent. Just watching the starting grid is like watching a bunch of fighter planes about to take off, and soon after take off is when the dog fights begin.

Disecting Guia:
The first turn on Guia

Leading onto the first straight away.

Turn 2, Mandarin Corner. Many take this turn at high speed so that they can over take at Lisboa.

The infamous Lisboa corner… Watch any race on this circuit. There will be either spinouts and/or pileups on this turn.

San Francisco Hill, an up hill stretch. I always liked the name because if you ever been to the city of San Francisco, CA, there are many steep hills such as this one (even more steeper actually).

A good exit speed and torque is your best friend here.

A down hill look of San Francisco

After San Francisco is a S-turn that leads to a 90 degree right hand turn

Then it’s a down hill stretch

Which leads to a series of turns that get narrow and as slithery as a snake.

Just wide enough for two cars… Leaving little to no room for mistakes.

Melco hairpin

Rules state, absolutely no passing at this hairpin… But I swore I seen people pass here before 🤔

Supposedly it’s only during Moto GP races that passing is allowed at this section.

Fisherman’s Bend, second to the last turn of the track which leads to a medium length straight away.

R- Bend, the last turn before the finish line.

Final Thoughts:

Even though many different divisions race here, I feel this is where Touring Car racing belong. When ever I think of this track I automatically picture cars of the touring races in the late 90′ to early 2000’s battling it out. I see the starting grid and I imagine the Kanjozoku’s lining up at the entrance of Loop 1. You don’t need crazy aero on your car when you race on this course, just skills.

It’s the swarm of noise, violent driving and the car pileups that echos nostalgia. It’s more exciting than the rat race of life and death we witness everyday in traffic and daily commutes.

You can find many videos of these older to current races online. When I watch them, I can almost picture myself there, maybe on of a high rise hotel suite watching from a birds eye view. Sipping on a martini or something haha, one day.

“There aren’t many places that make Monaco look easy, but Macau is one of them.”

[1:55 AM]

Don’t object to it

“In the popular Buddhism of Tibet and China and Japan, people worship the great bodhisattvas—as saviors.”

“People loved Guanyin because she/he—could be a buddha, but has come back into the world to save all beings. The Japanese call he/she Kannon, and they have, in Kyoto, an image of Kannon with one thousand arms, radiating like a great aureole all around this great golden figure.”

“These one thousand arms are one thousand different ways of rescuing beings from ignorance.”

“I remember one night when I suddenly realized that Kannon was incarnate in the whole city of Kyoto; that this whole city was Kannon.”

“That the police department, the taxi drivers, the fire department, the mayor and corporation, the shopkeepers—in so far as this whole city was a collaborate effort to sustain human life, however bumbling, however inefficient, however corrupt—it was still a manifestation of Kannon with its thousand arms, all working independently, and yet one.”

“You don’t have to go anywhere to find nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa is where you are, provided you don’t object to it.”