This is to announce that I have moved my blog into my own domain,
http://www.thurein-universe.com/
due to so many reasons. :)
Please continue your support . Thanks.
11:34 PM |
Category: |
I haven’t updated about this spiritual series for 2 years, and I do have a lot to say, and seems like every year has its special moment, but none will catch up this 2014 ever. Yes, my baby girl has arrived beautifully.
Without further ado (time is really limited right now, being a father with a whole lot more to do), I would like to open this read with Preface by Dalai Lama from the book “The Conscious Parent”.
“Although I am 75 years old, I still remember my mother’s spontaneous love and unselfish affection. Thinking about it today still gives me a sense of peace and inner calm. In our modern world one of the challenges we face is how to retain an appreciation of that kind of unselfish giving throughout our lives. When we grow up, our misguided intelligence tends to make us short-sighted, giving rise to fear, aggression, jealously, anger and frustration, which diminish our potential.”
I quoted Misguided Intelligence, how can intelligence can be misguided, how can human knowledge, experience can be misguided in this advanced modern age.
Here is the definition of intelligence from Wikipedia, Intelligence has been defined in many different ways such as in terms of one's capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving. It can also be more generally described as the ability to perceive and/or retain knowledge or information and apply it to itself or other instances of knowledge or information creating referable understanding models of any size, density, or complexity, due to any conscious or subconscious imposed will or instruction to do so.
Perfecto!
Human, each of us has our own level of intelligence with relate to our life experience, information created around us based on how our conscious or subconscious reflect or imposed to those surroundings.But, let me pause here and think about it, who in the world firstly show or teach us how to accumulate intelligence during our life time, in other words, how to perceive, react things around us.
Parents!
Just a little bit more, who will be Parents?
I just heard the final lines from the poem of William Wordsword, My Heart Leaps Up
A rainbow in the sky.
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I grow old,Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
My point is that each of us are destined to be a Better Parent and it is a very good chance that life gives us to become Children first and then be a Parent. Imagine life with, be a Parent first and then children later, it would be nightmare, I suppose.
So, here we go, almost reaching to my point, how do we be a better parent than our parents based on our childhood or based on our considerable amount of accumulated intelligence during our life time (for me is 33 years of intelligence).
But let me put terms and conditions first, before I further drifted to what I want to reach. When I say Better Parent, does not mean, my parents or our parents are at worst in disgrace.
NO, Not at all, I am not who I am without my parents, I will not be who I am today without my parents guidance. I am just saying that, as of now of who I am because of my parent, how I can make use of my childhood experience to become more efficient, more conscious and more meaningful to my kids. Period.And, one more thing, do not jump to conclusion that you will never be parent since you planned to be Single and stop reading, No, huh, No freaking way. One way or the other you will portray as Parent to others (consciously or unconsciously) because you have come through childhood experience which is already build up or to be Parent one way or the other. That is why we all have our thoughts about if I were a parent, I won’t do like this, like that, etc., especially during our teenage years. So be aware Single. (I like the tone of it)
So talking about Better Parent, we need first to know ourselves, because in order to reach to higher degree of superlatives, you need know basic degree of superlatives, your parent and yourself. Since most of us (including myself), have a view of our parent parenting from receiving end, as a child perspective, it is honest to say that we need to know ourselves first and foremost. And I dare to say one more step, we need to connect with ourselves first. Because in order to connect with your children, you need to connect with yourself first.
By saying connection, do you know the spiritual reason we birth our children?
to be continued in PART II
7:31 PM |
Category: |
(1) Samasara
The cycle of life and death
(2) Karma
Action or work
Seed in the mind come to fruition either in this life or subsequent rebirth
(3) Rebirth
The Continuation of a dynamic , ever changing process of "dependent arising " determined by the laws of cause and effect rather than that of one being, transmigrating or incarnating from one existence to the next
(4) Four Nobel Truth
the truth of dukkha
the truth of origin of dukkha
the truth of the cessation of dukkha
the truth of the path leading to the cessation of dukkha
(5) Nobel Eight Fold Path
Right View
Viewing Reality as it Is, not just as appear to be
Right Intention
Intention of renunciation, freedom and harmlessness
Right speech
speaking in a truthful and non-hurtful way
Right action
Acting in a non-hurtful way
Right Livelihood
A non-harmful livelihood
Right effort
Making an effort to improve
Right mindfulness
Awareness to see things for what they are with the Consciousness; being aware of the present reality within oneself without any craving or aversion
Right Concentration
Correct meditation or concentration
(6) Middle Way
the practice of non-extremism ; A path of moderation away from the extreme of self-indulgence and self-mortification; Another term for Emptiness
(7) Nature of Existence
There are three masks of Existence, impermance, suffering and not-self
Impermance (anicca)
All things and experiences are inconstant, unsteady, and impermanent. Since nothing lasts, there is no inherentor fixed nature to any object or experience
Because things are impermanent attachment to them is futile and leads to suffering
Suffering (dukkha)
Although the term is often translated as "suffering" its philosophical meaning is more "disquietude" as in condition of being disturbed. As such, suffering is too narrow a translation with negative emotional connotations that can give the impression that Buddhism is pessimistic, but Buddhism seeks to be neither pessimistic nor optimistic but realistic.
Not-self
No phenomenon is really "I" or "mine"; Her concepts are in fact constructed by mind. Buddha reject both metaphysics assertions "I have self" and "I have no self".
(8) Emptiness
the most conflict interpretation ever
three main characteristics; no-self , no-conception and spaciousness.
Example with three elements, In every situation, there will always be 3 elements
(1) You, yourself and your views or thoughts
(2) another person, and his or her views or thoughts
(3) the entire event itself
In the event of boss yelling at you;
"No-self" means that your boss doesn't have any self-nature, no nature of his own; no nature coming from his own side, no nature that he was born with of being a screaming unpleasant person. If he did have any nature like this his wife would find him unpleasant but she doesn't. So "no-self" means that whatever you see in him is coming from you not form him. It doesn't mean he doesn't exist somehow or that it would somehow be useful to pretend he's not quite there.
the "No-Conception" part mean that you stop thinking about him the wrong way; stop conceiving
of him as being something that is bad from his own side and start thinking him as an empty screen; one that is filled with a hit movie for his wife and one that is a horror movie for you. And the projector is of course your own mind driven by the electricity called "imprints from what you have done same thing to others in the past. " Again the point is not at all that it would be any help not to think anything, not to judge anything as being good or bad, not to attach to any of your feeling or emotion; Remember the entire event and how you see yourself and
others, how your boss see to you and others ( three elements) is certainly real. Real people will get hurt, real company will suffer, real boss will blow your next holiday bonus, But not for the reason you used to think caused them. It is all coming from things you did before.
You will be spacious if you follow above two. when you are spacious instead of fear or goad at those moments, you have gratitude. You appreciate the given moment without needing to hold or control indefinitely. You relate to these moments with trust
instead of fear, with openness instead of greed, with letting go instead of holding.
(9) Three Jewels
the Buddha
the Dharma
the Sangha
(10) Buddhist ethics
1. To refrain from taking life
2. To refrain from taking that is not given
3. To refrain from sensual or sexual misconduct
4. To refrain from lying
5. To refrain from intoxicants
6. To refrain from eating at the wrong time
7. To refrain from dancing, playing music, wearing jewlery, attending shows and performance
8. To refrain from the use of garlands, perfumes, ointments and from things that tend to beautify and adorn
9. To refrain from using high or luxurious seats or bedding
10. To refrain from accepting gold and silver and money
2:53 AM |
Category: |
During these years, i have been struggling with the concept "Letting Go". And i slowly came to realize , hopefully this time it's true, that Letting Go has a sea of meanings especially with our Buddhism, of course, what am i thinking !?..
Here are a few words which are interconnected with the word "Letting Go".
Emptiness,
Potential,
Seed,
Imprint
Let's jump to a real life example to see how interrelated those words are.
Following is the excerpt from Diamond Cutter By Geshe Michael ; Mcnally, Lama Christie since i am no where near to them explaining about Letting Go
The author is working as VP in a large diamond business company. While he is on oversea , somewhere deep inside of India mountains and forests where the first generation of telephone is still in used by only at nearby village, his boss asked him to order ten thousand carats of diamonds within ten days. Conversation goes like this.
“We need stones! Got a huge order! Gotta have ten thousand carats in New York within ten days! Talk to Bombay! Talk to Antwerp! Get it going!”
Now ten thousand carats of these particular stones would mean maybe a million little diamonds; and for every one you actually buy on the market you might have to look at two or three. So you’re talking checking a few million diamonds in ten days. Suppose it takes you ten seconds to pick up one stone and look at it with your magnifying glass. This means 6 stones a minute, and 360 stones an hour, per person. Suppose you can keep this up for five hours a day without frying your eyes out completely—you’re talking maybe two thousand stones a day, max. So you’re going to have to get at least a thousand man days out of your crew just to get close to finishing the order. So I ask again:
“Ten thousand carats, right, Ofer? You’re sure—ten thousand?”
“Yes yes, right away; get on it tonight! Keep calling, wake everybody up around the world, it doesn’t matter! Good luck!” Click.
I make a note in my diary about the quantity and the type of stone that’s needed, and then proceed to spend several hours trying to reach all the international buyers around the world. By the time I leave the phone exchange on Madakeri it’s almost dark; we walk out to a little garden overlooking a huge beautiful valley, enjoy the evening air and the smell of the wild Indian flowers, and watch the stars come out. I feel good, the good feeling of keeping a promise to do something even when it’s a tremendous pain to do so. Then we pile into the rickety old monastery car and head back, for another week or so of intense studies with some of the greatest Lamas in the world.
About the time the diamonds pour into the New York headquarters from all over the world, I’m arriving too, dusty and sun burnt. Ofer calls me up to his office, and I saunter in with the self-confidence of an executive who’s delivered the goods, despite the odds. I sit and wait for the congratulations to begin.
“What in the world is going on?” he starts.
“What do you mean?”
“What’s with all the diamonds? Do you know what you’re doing to the cash flow? What are you, crazy?”
You know the feeling. The sinking feeling. It’s not just another miscommunication or business mistake—it’s a whole statement on the condition of the world, our world. Why is it that things can’t go right? I think you’re getting an idea by now. But let’s go on.
“Wait a minute, Ofer. You told me to buy them—you told me you needed ten thousand carats as soon as possible.”
“Ten thousand carats! Are you kidding! I told you a thousand! What are you talking about? Why in the world would I order ten thousand carats!”
“But you did tell me to buy ten thousand. I remember, I asked you two or three times. I even made a note in my diary right there, while you were on the phone. Look, it’s right here—it says ten thousand.”
“How do I know when you wrote that? It could have been this morning! I never said ten thousand. Who would say ten thousand?”
Let’s connect those words , i have listed above to this real-life situation. We’ll use the “three elements” that the Buddha mentioned.The “three elements” refer to three parts of the situation going on at this moment: the yelling boss (Ofer); the VP getting yelled at (me, unfortunately); and the fact that the whole event is taking place at all. Each one has its own emptiness, or “potential.” In fact, there’s a whole pile of emptinesses in this situation that are contributing to the mess, and which will contribute as well to the fix, which is why emptiness (the “potential”) of things is so wonderful.
What’s the potential in the boss? He seems pretty ugly at the moment, but remember that if his partner walked in—that is, his wife Aya—she’d say that he looks wonderful right now, saving the company from an irresponsible dumb head who’s gone wild buying diamonds we don’t need and can’t pay for. So he’s not a monster or a genius from his own side, it just depends on who’s looking; he’s just blank or empty on his part, and whether he seems good or bad at the moment depends purely on what kind of imprints I’ve put in my mind from the past.
Remember too the other thing we always mention at this point: That, although it’s true that how he looks right now is something that’s being conditioned and even created by my own mind, this doesn’t at all imply that I can just wish him into a nice guy in the moment. And this is because I (unlike his wife) have imprints in my mind that are forcing me to see him as a very upset boss right now. The best I can do then is to be very careful not to plant any new imprints in my mind right now.
What kind of new imprints are we talking about? Well, how about an imprint to see a boss yelling at you for doing exactly what he told you to do? And how would a person get an imprint like this? Actually there’s only one way to get this kind of imprint—and that would be to yell at someone like your boss, who’s trying to address what he honestly believes is a serious and costly mistake. So what would be the stupidest thing to do at this moment, when you’re getting yelled at? You’ve got it: yelling back.
If you let your mind go through this process, or even a significant chunk of this process, during the three seconds before frustration and anger sweep you downstream, a couple of things happen. First of all, you avoid a mental imprint that would give you a lot of trouble later. Imagine going to pick up a coffee on the edge of your desk and accidentally grabbing a cup of hydrochloric acid instead (something that could really happen in a jewelry factory if you were careless enough). You’re having an animated conversation with someone so you don’t notice; you raise the cup to your face; you start to tip it; and then at the last minute you catch a tiny whiff of the acid and set the cup down pronto, with a sigh of relief. The accomplishment of stopping your frustration and anger at the last minute—the victory of responding to your mind during the three-second window of opportunity and heading off your anger, and the time bomb imprint it’s about to burn into your mind—is no less a relief.
Remember, a single moment of anger, a single moment of burning this kind of negative imprint into your mind, can lead to days or weeks or even longer periods in the future when you have to experience the result of this imprint in the world around you. You have just saved yourself from loads of trouble and pain; you have just taken a different road, and you will never have the accident you were going to have if you hadn’t made that turn just now.
So what about the “no-self,” and the “no conceptions”? Now that we’ve gone over an actual incident, these are easy. “No-self” means that your boss doesn’t have any self-nature—no nature of his own, no nature coming from his own side, no nature that he was born with—of being a screaming unpleasant person, even at this moment. If he did have any nature like this, then even his wife would find him unpleasant right then—but she doesn’t. So “no-self” means that whatever you see in him is coming from you, not from him. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist somehow, or that it would somehow be useful to pretend he’s not quite there.
The “no conceptions” part means that you stop thinking about him the wrong way: Stop conceiving of him as being something that is bad from his own side, and start thinking of him as an empty screen, one that is filled with a hit movie for his wife, and one that’s a horror movie for you right then. And the projector is, of course, your own mind, driven by the electricity called “imprints from what you’ve done to others in the past.” Again, the point is not at all that it would be of any help not to think anything, not to judge anything as being good or bad, not to attach to any of your feelings or emotions. Remember: the entire event, and how you seem to yourself and others, and how your boss seems to you and others (these being the three elements), is certainly real. Real people will get hurt, real companies will suffer damage, real VP’s will blow their next holiday bonus, but not for the reason you used to think caused them. It’s all coming from things you did before.
So what’s there to do now? It’s one thing to understand clearly that—if you respond negatively at the end of the three seconds—you are going to plant some new negative imprints of the same flavor and have to eat them again later on. Let’s talk now about the immediate consequences of negativity: Let’s face it, getting mad just doesn’t help anything at all.
There’s a famous verse from an ancient Indian Buddhist book that says,
If a situation can be fixed,
Why get upset about it?
If a situation cannot be fixed,
What’s the use of getting upset?
We’re talking here about the immediate benefit of refusing to give into anger. The main challenge has passed: You refuse to respond negatively, and thereby protect yourself from the same thing happening again in the future. Now go into your mind and refuse even an inkling of anger; in fact, go further, and wrestle your mind into a positive attitude. Instead of arguing about whose fault it was that the diamonds were bought, instead of fighting about who it was that messed up the cash flow, turn your mind immediately to the solution of the present moment. Here is perhaps the most important point of the whole exercise in this context: You’ll find that, because you fought the anger off even before it got fully into your mind, you’re able immediately to turn all your energy to solving the problem. Your mind is clear. Your face is calm. Your heart is beating normally, your breath is steady.
This is how you want to be when you deal with a serious problem, and this is absolutely the best thing for your body and your long-term health. Every time you refuse another few moments of anger or any other negative emotion, you are tacking onto your life and your business career several more hours of health and happiness, because it all adds up at the end. And for your immediate business it’s just a lot more intelligent to attack your problems with a completely clear and calm state of mind.
A final note of advice. The whole approach presented in this book is very similar to gardening. Our premise is that problems are created by seeds or imprints you have planted in your mind in the past. Once these imprints have reached a certain level of power, once they are going off or about to go off and grow into a plant, it’s essentially too late to do much about them. Conversely, it’s naive to think that you can plant a seed in the morning and expect much of a result by the evening.
The point is that you should train yourself, in advance, to view the immediate results of your actions with a grain of salt. You may be able to calm your own mind immediately and be ready to deal with a problem with cool rationality, but this doesn’t at all mean that everyone else in the room will calm down. Nor does it mean that the solution you come up with in your cooled-down state of mind is necessarily going to work: Don’t forget that this depends upon seeds planted long ago. It does mean though that you are gardening for your future—it does mean that fewer and fewer tense situations will be happening in your world to come.
End of Excerpt
So what the heck does it relate to "Letting Go"?
In this above example, you are supposed to let go of all things that you are thinking, seeing, believing since day one and only get hold of the truth at the moment (three elements), in other words, emptiness.
Quite deep, isn't it. Letting go of all the things you are believing and getting hold of emptiness. What do you left with?
Do you know another characteristics of emptiness apart from being empty? Spaciousness !
Without spaciousness, good turns to bad very quickly. Nothing satisfies. Everything is a problem, and no amount of money, fame, or outward success is ever enough.
When we are spacious with the good, however, instead of fear or greed at those above mentioned moments, we have gratitude. We appreciate a given moment without needing to control or hold it indefinitely. We relate to these moments with trust instead of fear, with openness instead of greed, with letting go instead of holding. We see that the best way to have something is often to let it go. As such, we become a place where the creative visits more often and stays longer when it does.
References: Wisdom 2.0 , Diamond Cutter.
12:27 AM |
Category: |
In a study of 1,848 adults conducted by the American Psychological Association, during one month nearly half of all respondents (943 percent) overate or ate unhealthy foods, and more than one-third (36 percent) skipped a meal because of stress.
I don't know the exact reasons, but in times of frustration and difficulty, we often think eating will help the situation. Can't figure out a coding issue on a Web site glitch... report not coming together... manager angry at us for making a mistake... if we just eat, the issue will be solved. Of course, eating a healthy meal my be beneficial in such moments, but when our eating arises from frustration or compulsion, it rarely helps and ,often hinders, the situation. In fact, eating is probably one of the most difficult areas with which to bring consciousness.
Most of us know quite well how to eat unconsciously: eat as fast as you can, doing as many other things as you can, in as noisy and hectic an environment as you can find. That's easy. In this daily practice, we do just the opposite: we eat slowly, don't do other things at that time, and eat the most peaceful environment we can find.
If we pay attention, our relationship to eating is often less about nourishing our body or how the food tastes and more about satisfying our desire system. You may notice that even before you have chewed and swallowed one mouthful, you already crave the next bite: even though the desired next amount is exactly the same as the one in your mouth.. I notice this with my favorite snack, cashews. As soon as i put three of them in my mouth, I start craving the next three I see in the bowl, even though i have yet to enjoy the ones in my mouth. Oddly, i want what i already have!! In such times, what we crave is not the food, but the satisfaction of getting what we want, of having our desires filled. Ironically, however, our desire is rarely filled because the moment of satisfaction is so fleeting. It exists only at the time when our desire for food is satiated by putting it in our mouth. That's it. Once it is there and before we have chewed and tasted it, the desire for more arises.
Here is my take on it. I am a very health conscious person. And i religiously swim and go to gym every weekday. Plus whenever i am about to eat, i choose the meal very consciously not only by ingredients but also the amount. For example, i won't drink a large amount of water within 30 minutes of every meal. My counter force is quite clear, if you have spent more than one hour a day work out, there is no reason, you cannot control your meal consciously. Guess what, whenever i have that counter force, the only strong enemy to me is not the food i like but the desire to eat that food unconsciously.
People, says, you are not happy because you don't eat the food you want to eat because of your one hour pain you sacrifice in your work out routine. So what's the point of having double pain?
Here is the answer. If you follow my Wisdom 2.0 Highlights closely , there are 2 pains, the one which is familiar and used to us , in this case, not doing work out and not eating consciously , meaning , eating whatever you like, to me it is really a double pain. The other way is getting out of comfort zone, doing work out and eating consciously, less pain i presume , compared to the former one.
Again, the end of this duality is to bring consciousness to the act, in this case, eating consciously.
We pay attention not only before eating, but also while eating and after eating. Any kind of counter forces will arise but make sure to register them and do not force to deny them because they are bad or good, forget all your judgmental conflicts and enjoy the moment.
Here is to fuel your thought. Remember, Buddhist way is the middle way. Let me ask you how do you know it is middle. Quite obvious right? You need to know two extreme ends first , then you know the middle. Well here it is. You already have your two extremes in this story. All you have to do is find the middle way.
7:58 AM |
Category:
Wisdom 2.0
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Because the outer responds to the inner, sometimes the best way to address the external is to align the internal.
Consider the person in the following story:
A young woman once walked into an Internet cafe and saw a man with gray hair and a wrinkled face sitting hunched over at a table, actively engaged wit his computer. He was typing fast and moving his mouse around with great speed.
Wow, she thought, that old man seems quite skilled at computers sitting at a table behind him, she noticed he was playing World of War craft and doing very well. A few minutes later, the man took off his headset and went to pick up a cup of coffee. On his return, the woman said, "I was watching you, and i noticed you're quite skilled with computers. What's your secret?"
"Ah," said the man, as he slowly lowered himself into his chair, his bones creaking as he did, "I play twelve hours a day, almost never go outside, survive on Doritos and Twinkies, and down a cup of coffee every hour".
"Impressive," said the woman. "And you have managed to live to a ripe old age while being so tech savvy. If you don't mind my asking, just how old are you?"
"I'm twenty-eight," the man replied.
Hilarious, right, at least that's what I am thinking. It does have a point though: our actions have consequences. In telling it, my intention is not to lay judgment on the choices people make. The man in the story may be living a very conscious life or he may be living largely unconsciously. Either way, these are his choices. However, for those of us who seek to live consciously and with less stress, it helps to align the internal and external, to see if our external actions do justice to what internally matters to us.
For example, if someone says, "My health and well-being are important to me," and she lives like the man in the story, there is little alignment. And if she says, "Eating sweets and playing online games are all that matter to me," and lives that life, her actions have integrity. Other people may agree or disagree with her choices, but the actions are aligned with what matters to her.
So, what matters to us? here is the another story.
A techie guy was walking down the street in a rare break from his computer and noticed a frog on the ground.
"If you kiss me," the frog called out to him, "I will turn into a princess and stay with you forever."
The techie picked up the frog, smiled at it , and put it in his pocket.
A few minutes later, the frog spoke again. "Didn't you hear me? I said that if you just kiss me, I will be yours. In fact, I will be completely devoted to you and be the best sexual partner you can ever imagine. I will satisfy your every desire."
The techie looked down at the frog again and kept walking.
Finally, in desperation the frog asked, "What's the matter? I am offering you so much devotion, so much love, and so much sex. All you have to do is kiss me."
The techie responded, "Listen, I am a techie. I spend all my time on the computer. I don't have time for sex or a girlfriend, but having a talking frog... that's cool."
So , What really does matter to us? If we live like the man in the cafe, aging faster and surviving on Twinkies and Doritos, the central question is, is this aligned with what matters to us? If it is, fine. If not, then some adjustment is needed. We can make such changes not because one way is bad and another way is good, but because one way is more aligned with what truly matters to us.
As this adjustment takes place, as we better understand, clarify and give attention to the internal, we often experience a shift in the external. How many times, for example, have you greatly desired something and not been able to get it, but the moment you let go of it, the moment you released the desire, it came to you? Through an internal shift, the external responded. Or after months looking for work and finding nothing, the day you became very clear on exactly what kind of job would be best for you, it appeared. Of course, even with such an alignment, struggle and challenges still arise, but we can handle them better since we have deeper integrity and stability to your life.
7:19 AM |
Category:
Wisdom 2.0
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Consider the following:
You wake up and before your foot touches the floor on the way to the bathroom, you are hit with the list of tasks you need to complete: the report to your manager that you must review and send off, the e-mail from a colleague that has been in your inbox for the last week and needs a reply, the call to the irate customer that you have been avoiding but know you can't much longer, and the social network you have not checked for days and has numerous messages awaiting your reply.
The list weighs on you as you attend to your morning activities. As a result, you shower quickly, down a strong cup of coffee, gobble up a pastry, and head out the door, hoping to start work early so you can get a jump start on this every-increasing list.
I should have done these things last week, you think to yourself as you commute to work. How could i have fallen so behind? As such, you arrive at your destination agitated and scattered, beginning your short walk to your office.
If you are not aware, this pattern can stay with us throughout the day. How, we might ask, do we attend to our to-do list but not carry the weight and stress of it? To answer this, we need to know following teaching by the Zen master, the art of just doing.
A renowned martial artist once went to visit a Zen master. The martial artist had spent years mastering his skills such that he was the toughest samurai in the land. He was an amazing swordsman and legendary for his ability to fight numerous attackers.
When he met the Zen master, the samurai talked about all the powers he had developed in this life how he could defeat a hundred man in battle, jump on buildings, and perform other extraordinary feats. He then looked at the master and said, "I have told you all the powers I have gained. You are well-known as a great master, but what can you do? What powers do you possess?"
The Zen master took a deep breath, and then responded, "I only have one power: When i walk, i just walk. When I eat, I just eat. When I talk, I just talk."
You may think, What kind of power is that? That doesn't sound so hard to me.
Let's pick up when we left it, you were about to go to work and what we have is before arriving to office, we are burdened with all our to-do lists. One way is to carry the weight of your to-do list; the second is to drop it like the Zen master and just do it.
Think about it and here is to fuel your thoughts.
"It's no accident that things are more likely to go your way when you stop worrying about whether you're going to win or lose and focus your full attention on what is happening right this moment."
The power of just doing may not seem like much, but we can compare it to the headlights on a car at night. We could think, They only let you see fifteen yards in front of us. That is not a lot. How much help can they be? However, with only that amount of visibility, we can travel across the entire country. All we really need to see is what's directly in front of us. This may also be true in our larger life: we can do more not by focusing on what is two hundred miles ahead, on what we need to accomplish later today or next week, but on what is in the next fifteen yards, on the task at hand.
4:39 AM |
Category:
Wisdom 2.0
|
One evening Nasruddin was looking through the grass in his backyard. A neighbor came by and asked, "What are you looking for?"
"I am trying to find my keys," Nasruddin responded.
"Oh, let me help," offered the neighbor, and the two men spent the next hour combing every inch of the backyard. Finally, the neighbor concluded, "We have looked in every possible spot back here. Are you sure you lost your keys in the backyard?"
"Oh, no," replied Nasruddin, "I am most certain that I dropped them while in my front yard."
"Then why on earth did we just spend the last hour looking in your backyard?" replied the neighbor in exasperation.
"Well, that is easy. You see, the light is better in the backyard so it is easier to look back here."
You will probably don't understand this story with feeling , what an idiot .
But we are not much different with Nasruddin. We know what helps us to live with less stress but we always fail to act.
For example, "You know if you spend more than eight straight hours on the computer you get a headache, yet you still do it" Or "You know that trying to send a text message while driving your car is dangerous, so why are you doing it?" Our response is much like that of the man in the story. We are simply doing what is easy and familiar.
We are not letting ourselves feel that impact because "the light is better in the backyard".
However, when we let awareness guide us, we are less motivated by the thought, This is not good, not familiar, I should not do this. Instead, we feel the "not goodness." Who knows? It could be that in this deepening of awareness, we discover that a particular pattern is not so painful, or that that pain we receive is worth the pleasure it also provides. Or it could be that through this deeper knowledge we feel the pain more completely, and a desire to suffer less arises in us such that the old pattern is no longer desirable.
We simply do not want to hold the burning ember any longer. In this approach our entire system makes the shift, not just our mind.
We could say there are two kinds of pain. One is the pain of continuing an unskillful or stressful pattern; for example, of reacting by yelling back at the person who upset us. Another is the pain we experience when we no longer repeat a particular patter. We felt this pain, for example, in not yelling back in anger after we have done so the last hundred times. The former we could say is the pain that leads to more pain, while the latter is the pain that leads to less.
In this story, we look where the light is not good and feel the unpleasantness that can lead to more pleasant change in the end by changing through awareness.
Always bring awareness to every state. If you find yourself habitually snacking on potato chips while you work and do not want to do so as much due to weight problem, bring awareness to the act. Often we experience a duality at such times, with one force saying, "I want to snack all day long. It feels so good." At the same time, a counterfoce says, "You should not be snacking all day long. It's not good for your health." We then snack, but feel guilty as we do, and by doing so not only do we enjoy the food less but we add more stress to our lives since we eat with guilt. One way to end the duality is to bring consciousness to the act, in this case snacking.
We pay attention to the process with curiosity instead of judgment noticing the desire for the snack , the reaching to get it, the putting it in our mouth, and the swallowing. We snack consciously.
As you bring consciousness to a pattern , see if another action wants to emerge, if it is time for it to change. It is fine if it does and fine it does not. Notice the tendency to label it as good or bad and instead focus on your direct experience.
9:56 PM |
Category:
Wisdom 2.0
|
Some year ago, a student was sitting with his teacher when the teacher received a much anticipated letter from an old friend. Knowing his teacher had been waiting a long time for the letter and must have been very eager to read its contents, the student started to excuse himself.
"Stop," the teacher boomed. "Please stay. I will open the letter later."
"Don't you want to open the letter now?" the student inquired, surprised. "I know how long you've waited for this letter and news form your friend is right there in the envelope."
"Yes," said the teacher, "I have waited long, but I cannot open the letter until I have conquered the haste i felt. Once that has run its course, I will open it."
Here is my take on it, in a busy world, multitasking is a must, and how you handle and prioritize things, projects does really matter a lot. But have you ever prioritize your consciousness? Driven by haste, we unconsciously switch channel , email, cell phone etc. and jump from doing one report to other. Do you think how much of our mind can juggle at one time consciously? The answer is only one. So do prioritize your consciousness skillfully as we shift from one action to anther.
One at a time my friend, one at a time.
8:55 PM |
Category:
Wisdom 2.0
|
It has been very long long time, that I haven't updated my Universe. Well, here I am.
During the past few years, I clung more into spiritual reading , learning and development of inner peace. Wonder why? Before I give you the answer, here is the fact, like it or not, in this era of technology, people emphasize more on externalization , for example, frequent upgrade of mobile phones, ipad, touchpad, various app and software version we use day to day, and not to mention, follow up of latest technology like Cloud Computing, Social Media Services Facebook, Twitter, User Generated Crowd Sourcing services Reddit, Digg, Youtube, the list is never ending.
However, We tend to put little effort on internalization, defined by Answers.com as,"To take in and make an integral part of one's attitudes or beliefs". So, what have you done to improve your integral part of attitudes , beliefs , last but not least, awareness.
I am not going to discuss about religion here, and regardless, of any religion you are in, I bet you this book will suit you and play along with you as soon as you grab it especially if you are a busy IT bee , just like me. Yes right this is it, Wisdom 2.0, one of my life changing books. This book is truly a master piece of how to bridge your internal to external with relaxed and calm state of mind. Who else don't want to be working on thousands of projects with relaxed and calm state of mind? The answer is will you choose to fail a project with calm and relaxed state of mind or stressed and depressed state of mind. The choice is all yours.
I will be sharing all the examples mentioned in this book One by One with my inference not only targeting for sharing, but also targeting to myself as a true reminder and daily dose of my mental state.
Enjoy and Be Cool!
8:00 PM |
Category:
Wisdom 2.0
|
This poem really touched my soft spot and it will always be....
From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.
Alone by Edgar Allan Poe
8:48 AM |
Category: |
It's been quite a long time i haven't updated my blog. Actually, i have a group called poem and short stories in facebook about, of course, quite obvious, Poems and Short Stories. But haven't publish in my blog yet, so here you go.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
It makes you realize that life is full of choices. there is no turning back and even if you wish you could travel both ways it is impossible. think and think not only twice but a couple of times when making decision. no matter what happen, whether we make or not the right decision, let us not be afraid to try.
8:38 AM |
Category: |
Let Evening Come
Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.
Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.
Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.
Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.
To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.
Let it come, as it will, and don't
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.
Jane Kenyon
1:41 AM |
Category:
Poems
|
I carry your heart with me
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)
i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
ee cummings
1:37 AM |
Category:
Poems
|
Change what you believe in ; change what you wish for ; don't say there is no option ; it is just that you don't choose while options are available.
I was attending Robert Kiyoski 3 days seminar on last month and quite excited as i did manage to talk face to face with him. I even break in tears at the time he was coming on the stage at Day one. As i was following every books of his and his advisors since after my high school due to one of my best friend introduction.
The first day was not tiresome but filled with so many things to learn even though Robert says those are introductory mindset preparation lecture. Though i am quite familiar with all of his work, advice, guideline, i still found myself , damn.. i don't know yet. A lot of area was touched even in first day; Real Estate, Stock, Gold/Silver, Foreign Exchange, and strangely Robert teamed up with her sister, Buddhist Nun and his heart surgeon who both of them mainly discuss on Health Vs Wealth.
Seminar room is very convincing, with very good sound system at Expo Hall providing translation service on the fly for 4 languages Chinese, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japanese. At the back end of seminar room there are several booths where you can buy Roberts and His Business team Products, Books, Cash Flow game, etc.
People coming from different regions and countries UK, Hong Kong, Chian, Indonesia, US. We have got only a short break time 5 to 10 minutes once every 3 hour. And everytime Robert taught new idea and thinking, we have to discuss among peers and digest, debate, learn from each other. Becasue of that i have met with alot of new people on that 3 days.
9:16 AM |
Category:
Before I Self-Destruct
|
hm.. i believe every Asian feel insulted by this title, me too,.. i m one of the Asians. This can be insult but, on second thought, are we really the inferior being to West. There can be 3 answers to the questions. YES, NO or MAY BE.
Let's take a look at the answer YES first. I think one perspective will be hard enough to support this answer. "Colonization". Like Singapore, with a few million of population (3 million) it is a source of great wonder that a small state like Portugal, also with a few million, could carve out territories like Goa, Macao and Malacca from larger and more ancient civilisations. It was an amazing feat. But the amaze is just the beginning and continue with the follow of colonisers like Spanish, the Dutch, the French then the British.
Almost 3 centuries or more, Asian societies lay under and allowed themselves to be colonised by far smaller societies. This is just physical. What more impact or still impact is the mental colonization. Many Asians believe (most of my ancestors) that they are inferior being to West and still that metal institution is rooted very strong and we are struggling to break it free.
Nevertheless, hope is arise, 500 years after the arrival of first Portuguese colonisers in Asian, only one.. Asian society has reached the level of development that have in Europe and North America . The Japanese mind is the first to be awakened in Asia.
Why? why? only one can reach within 500 years. It is not 50 years, 500 years. Why only one can catch up? I wonder...
11:07 AM |
Category:
Globalisation
|
IF
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling
12:28 AM |
Category:
Poems
|

Throughout the history, the role of men have changed greatly. Beginning from the hard-labor work like agricultural jobs which emphasis on male physical ability, and shifting to the roles like hard manual labor (Blue-collar worker) especially in the industrialized aged, and now ending with a move to jobs which are less physically demanding with a general reduction in the percentage of manual labor needed in the work force (White-collar worker).
Therefore, nowadays, the male goal in these circumstances is pursuing a quality education and securing a dependable, often office-environment, source of income.
Having said that male dominant , as of the nature of social environment and globalization, women are also hired for their professions and in some societies now men are compete with women for jobs that traditionally excluded women.
What I'm trying to say (for that long) is that our burmese male counterparts are still saying "No" for the recognition of equality of opportunity with women. Let's take this example first. If your girl have her own career and have opportunity to earn appropriate income and you two are going to get married. You want to take her to abroad but her work cannot be pursued in abroad.
And here is your choice.First, ask her to quit, bring her to come, settle in abroad. Second, let her continue pursuing her career and will meet frequently after marriage (come back and fort, home and abroad)
Here comes burmese values, traditional words (Yaung Naung Sa Tone Par). Needless to say, 95% of burmese women will come to abroad to stay with their hubby. Well, until now there is no case. What matter is that "unfortunately, that burmese girl is not in 95%, the very rare 5%, and she want to pursue her career in motherland. Would you give her a chance?
This is for the second thought if you say "Of Course". Firstly, you need to break rule (Yaung Naung Sa Tone Par), meaning, you have to fight with both parents (if they disagree), fight with burmese environment (society) which is the main barrier for most burmese women, as burmese people are very care about the enviroment. (even though they don't care about you). They are afraid of hearing "No" from society. (even though all are based on pessimistic).
Secondly, I think this one is the most difficult, you need to break your "burmese male pride". When it comes to the form of partnership on marriage, our male concept is to stay on top although female can come up and take equal opportunity, burmese males are reluctant to give them permit, give them a chance to be rival with them.
I have just highlighted a very typical example for the ease of consideration. Above is the table about male and female roles model A and B. Based on that you can consider more widely and wisely than my article, I hope.
This is just a general case. Roles can be changed based on cultural environment and individuals concern.
Ref: Wikipedia
8:19 AM |
Category:
Evolutionary
|
Next "Gender Issue". Singapore surveys show that its work force and GDP was doubled in recent years according to the fact that women can work as very well as men do. May be that is one of the driving factors of low percentage of marriage in Singapore, as from the view of population, let it be.
Back to the point, when it comes to the status of burmese women, the answer is unsatisfactory, while putting aside male counterpart. Excluding status of burmese ladies on abroad, even in mother land, they all are, mostly are in the state of immature. Truth be told, I prefer saying the fact that women are very much dwelling in the closed system more than men are.
For example, I came across with the saying of one burmese women who is studying (whenever in abroad or in region) "I won't let myself in going for group discussion or even though i join, i am afraid to let me say or contribute to a discussion as other people will gain more or less of my ideas or knowledge resulting in higher grade than mine". This is just a very fundamental mind set in our female society; only few and far between accept the open system.
However, in other ethnic groups, those kinds of thought in female are gradually lost, some entirely. In this era of globalization, sharing is everything and human beings strive from the bottom to the top by nothing but sharing, of course, through open-minded mind set. I am not discriminating our gender but what bear in my mind is that i want to see our female group taking step together with other women across globe.
Another issue is that, our ladies are so much dependent, i m not going to say about marriage concern here, but to say about leading role and confident. Who is the one establishing the idea of women must be the second whenever in which situation comparing with their husband? I want to kill that idea badly very badly.
The fact that women are not getting equal opportunities is not true but the fact that they are not seeking available opportunities is making me sad very badly.
8:17 AM |
Category:
Evolutionary
|
A typical burmese one stucks in a shadow of so called culture or perception of burmesenism as a result of native environment, system, surrounding especially of predecessors while taking into consideration of Buddhism, at the same time by not blaming it. There are some issues which arise from the realm of one's burmese perception whether staying in abroad or not. Not before saying too deeply in details, let's start from the basic common ground issue "Family".
When every burmese comes to it, we are bound with very traditional ways. Obeying elders, heritage family rules such as following the career advice of one's parents, for example, although one's passion is in singing or painting, one is sure to be forced to do due to his or her parent career advice such as doctor or may be something they admire to or something they want their child to be. In addition, one's has to sacrifice the career of what he want to do as for the support of his elder one's path, in other words, after the elder one finish or make or reach some distance in his chosen career, the previous sacrificed one can benefit from it or can depend on it, I , even, don't know who started that, but my burmese unconscious says it's true.
As far as i know, those kind of traditional ways of thinking style really slower the pace of mature as well as future trend of the next generation. In some cases, those sacrifices don't even have chances to explore their passion or knowledge in interested area throughout the entire life as sacrifice and creativity never comes together, ever. Besides, even in a small matter like drinking alcohol or smoking, off springs are strictly prohibited from them although their father do them in more or less. Those are just typical case studies of burmese family. Situations can vary based on different family cultural styles, though, core concept is undeniable.
Does those affect the future of burmese young generation although it was enough destroyed by the system itself, however, what about people? If changes have to be made indeed, shall we wait or try to make the system change first or make the changes on people first? Like saying "Creativity never blooms in a Room", in this first pacing era, we can't be still in closed system as well as, of course, close perception, thoughts, ideas. I hope that future family culture of burma will shift in favor of our next generation blossom, as one's person root perception coming from it's root, "Family".
8:14 AM |
Category:
Evolutionary
|