"To think I'm living proof of what I believe in ...
that I'm living in a dream of my own creation."
--Deepak Chopra
"True wealth is wisdom, creativity and humanity."
"Wealth is a state of consciousness and money its abstraction."
"Wealth is defined as the enjoyment of abundance in all aspect of life."
"What we are experiencing now is a manifestation of our collective consciousness. We create the conditions that we are living in. Whether enjoyment or suffering, hope or despair, we have enabled it through our awareness and allowed it by our behavior. By our participation - through action or apathy - we have created a world around us. Who among you dares to make that journey within to realize what you are really worth? For only then will you lose the shackles of your indebtedness."
--Tessie Lim (tessielim@tessielim.com)
Can you afford such luxuries?
Do they provoke deep thoughts?
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
A Christmas Message from Sibu
Salute to A Courageous Lady
Posted by Dr Clement Chen (Sibu)
The amazing things about this lady were:
Her funeral is tomorrow . she had lived and would be remembered by many for a long long time . Her soul would sure rest in peace in Heaven !
Dr. Clement
------------------------
The above notes were posted by Margaret at the Kuching Toastmaster's web-group
------------------------
Posted by Dr Clement Chen (Sibu)
L.C. presented to my clinic in 2007 with a raised serum tumour marker CA 19.9 .She was in her earlier 30`s . There was a strong family history of cancers . Two siblings had already died of cancers . Two nieces died of leukemia before their 12th birthdays . One other sister subsequently diagnosed to have cancer and died shortly after diagnosis . .
L.C. was completely asymptomatic . Subsequent investigations found a lung cancer . There was the beginning of her long battle with cancers till her death 2 days ago . She was referred to KL to have part of her lung removed , followed with Chemo and radiotherapy . Unfortunately , in 2009, she was found to have another primary cancer in her right breast . She went through surgery , chemo , radio again . Life had not been fair to her , she was soon found to have metastatic lung cancer and have more chemo till she died 2 days ago .
It all sounded like just another case of cancer . Ya , she was a bit young but so many young ones had died of cancers . The WHO had already announced that 38% of us will die of cancers and certainly more will have cancers but survive with treatments .
The amazing things about this lady were:
1) throughout all these years , she continued a very active life : raising few children ( her husband was overseas most of the time ) popped in and out to have the ' killing ' treatment in hospitals in Sibu and Kuching in between her routines . Never saw her complaining . So many times , I had no good news for her : cancers growing , serum tumor markers rising ... She would just bow her head for a second or two and continue living !
2) she had been a very active volunteer with our cancer counseling group ( part of Sibu cancer society ) , visiting all the cancer sufferers . She wore head scarf most of the time as she was bold most of the time . The hair never had a chance to grow back with almost continuing treatment ! You could see her always smiling , laughing , joking . She lightened up many lives and had given great hopes to them too ! Last year , she wanted to join our trip to Similajau in Bintulu . She rush back from Kuching immediately after her Chemo but too weak to join us at the end .......... . .
3) I often looked at her with amazement , admiration and highest respect ! How could someone dying from cancers could still go around smiling , laughing , giving , helping ..... I was sure she was in pains , was crying .. but I just could not see a trace of that in her ..... She was a real fighter!
4) Her fighting spirit was extra ordinary . So many times this year , she had been admitted with shortness of breath ( lungs replaced with cancers ) and put on Oxygen etc ...Every time , I though this was going to be her last admission ! Before long , she was discharged and I bound into her around in town , gatherings .. walking around without oxygen !
5) Few days ago , I came back from overseas and was told that she was admitted again and was very sick ! I saw her , she was really in distress , gasping for breath . I put her on morphine to ease her sufferings . She asked " is this drug going to send me to haven quicker ? " I replied " Are you scared ? " She laughed through her Oxygen mask ,in between coughs ..and choking .......I could not hold back my tears , I knew her answers .................... Actually , she was such a brave soul throughout her ordeal ...She died at 6am the next morning .
Her funeral is tomorrow . she had lived and would be remembered by many for a long long time . Her soul would sure rest in peace in Heaven !
Dr. Clement
------------------------
The above notes were posted by Margaret at the Kuching Toastmaster's web-group
------------------------
Monday, August 15, 2011
1Malaysia New Vocabularies
13 AUGUST 2011
Malaysiakini.com
[QUOTE]
Umno Senator Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor said today he will wage war in defence of Islam, including burning two online news portals, which he claimed to be agents against Islam.
"We are saying here that we will launch an all-out war to defend our faith if they (anti-Islam elements) do not stop (and) use their agents - Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider - which were biadap (rude) towards the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais).
"Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider, we are giving you a very last warning. Our warning is a serious one. If you do not stop this rubbish, we are going to burn you down!" Ezam (left) declared.
Ezam issued his threats at a highly-charged rally of some 200 people inside the compound of the Selangor state mosque in Shah Alam.
Also present were Kulim Bandar Baru MP Zulkifli Nordin and Umno Youth exco member Lokman Noor Adam.
[UNQUOTE]
14 AUGUST 2011
Malaysiakini.com
[QUOTE]
Senator Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor has back-pedalled from his highly-charged attacks against news portals on Friday, denying he had meant plans to “burn” them over the coverage of the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) and the controversy.
In tweets sent out today, the former opposition-turned-Umno-activist said there is no way to burn news publications in cyberspace, and claimed that what he meant was to “burn” Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider as they have “burned” the hearts of Muslims over the issue of apostasy.
“MK/MI portal news dialam siber.mcmana BAKAR alamsiber?x ancam bakar reporter/bangunan.ianya simbolik kemarahan terhdp mrk yg BAKAR hati umat,” (MK/MI (Malaysiakini/Malaysian Insider) are cyber news portals. No threat to burn (any) reporters/building. (The remarks) were only symbolic of the anger towards them for burning the hearts of the Muslim community),” tweeted Senator Ezam.
“MK/MI portal news dialam siber.mcmana BAKAR alamsiber?x ancam bakar reporter/bangunan.ianya simbolik kemarahan terhdp mrk yg BAKAR hati umat,” (MK/MI (Malaysiakini/Malaysian Insider) are cyber news portals. No threat to burn (any) reporters/building. (The remarks) were only symbolic of the anger towards them for burning the hearts of the Muslim community),” tweeted Senator Ezam.
[UNQUOTE]
---------------------------------------
1Malaysia Vocab:
Burn can mean "burning the hearts" (it depends!)
I will Kill you can mean "I love U" (it depends!)
It depends on who said it ....
Anything can be seditious; or nothing can be seditious;
Anything can be threatening; or at times, when necessary and convenient, it will not be construed as threatening;
Then, what is apprehension? What constitute threats? What is discrimination? Check every dictionary but you will not get the right answer ..... in the Malaysian context.
The Answer: It depends; it depends on what our police want it to be construed; it depends on what the Attorney-General would have it interpreted.
Language is now flexible and esoteric! Because we are now 1Malaysia!
Saturday, May 14, 2011
A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing
A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and InvestingBy Jim Rogers
ISBN: 978-0-470-74268-6
Paperback; 106 pp.
US$16.00/S$26.70 including GST;
Available at all major bookstores
What makes for a successful investor? And more importantly, what makes for a happy and meaningful life? According to legendary investor Jim Rogers, the road to financial success and the road to happiness are one and the same.
Rogers co-founded the phenomenally successful Quantum Fund, which in ten years delivered a return of 4200 percent. He retired from Wall Street at the age of thirty-seven, and continued to manage and invest his own funds with great success.
A Gift to My Children marks his effort to share his wisdom and insights about finance, investing, and life in general with his two young children. It is anchored by the two basic rules Rogers invests and lives by:
A Gift to My Children marks his effort to share his wisdom and insights about finance, investing, and life in general with his two young children. It is anchored by the two basic rules Rogers invests and lives by:
The first is that you have to see the world up close if you're going to understand how it works.
Rogers begins with exhortations to work hard, think critically, trust your own judgment, and work to identify your passions and dreams beyond simply making money.
The second is that you must always question conventional wisdom, as many of his most successful investment strategies and ideas have resulted from swimming upstream.
Rogers is also a big proponent of the idea that it's essential for young people to study history and to experience world's culture first-hand through travel.
Rogers begins with exhortations to work hard, think critically, trust your own judgment, and work to identify your passions and dreams beyond simply making money.
The second is that you must always question conventional wisdom, as many of his most successful investment strategies and ideas have resulted from swimming upstream.
Rogers is also a big proponent of the idea that it's essential for young people to study history and to experience world's culture first-hand through travel.
Rogers reveals how to learn from his triumphs and mistakes in order to achieve a prosperity:
(1) Trust your own judgment
(2) Focus on what you like
(3) Be persistent
(4) See the world
In December 2007 Jim Rogers and his wife Paige Parker and their two daughters, 7-year-old Hilton Augusta, nicknamed Happy,and 3-year-old Beeland Anderson, sold their New York mansion for USD16 million and moved to Singapore so that Happy can learn Chinese in a Mandarin-speaking environment.
Jim is quoted as saying: "If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, if you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York City, and if you are smart in 2007 you move to Asia." In a CNBC interview with Maria Bartiromo broadcast on May 5, 2008, Rogers said that people in China are extremely motivated and driven, and he wants to be in that type of environment, so his daughters are motivated and driven. He also stated that this is how America and Europe used to be. He chose not to move to Chinese cities like Hong Kong or Shanghai due to the high levels of pollution causing potential health problems for his family; hence, he chose Singapore.
Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with legendary investor George Soros in the 1970s, has repeatedly said he believes China will be the next great country in the world.
"The best gift we can give our children is to let them learn Chinese and prepare them for the future," he tells The Straits Times, while carrying the baby in his arms.
Soon after Happy was born in 2003, they hired a mainland Chinese nanny in New York to teach her Mandarin. They also have a live-in nanny from Ningxia province here in Singapore.
This explains why the little girl is able to speak the language fluently, without the jarring accent that many non-native speakers have.
In fact, she is so confident in the language that she sang a Chinese song for the reporter and recited the national pledge in Mandarin, stumbling only towards the end as she forgot some parts of it.
"I like both Chinese and English lessons, but I like Chinese more," she says in Mandarin.
Her baby sister is also having an early start in learning the language--the nanny plays her Mandarin songs every day.
In the past few years, they have visited Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong many times to look for the perfect school for Happy, before deciding on Singapore.
"As much as we want to be in mainland China, the pollution there that you read about is real," says Parker.
"Singapore doesn't have that. It also has an extraordinary health-care system and great schools, and it's a wonderful place for a family."
Rogers says many people felt they were making a big mistake when they announced that they were uprooting to Asia.
"They thought we were crazy, because we were doing it voluntarily. Many people thought we moved to China. They don't know that Singapore is not China," he says.
"Some people told me I was smart to do it for my children, but they couldn't do it themselves."
Their plan is to "stay here forever, unless something else happens", he says, adding that he hopes to travel around China one day with his daughters as his interpreters.
When asked what his net worth is--believed to be billions of dollars--he replied: "I'm sorry, but I can't answer that."
After a pause, he adds, tenderly: "My net worth should not be measured in monetary terms, but it should be measured in how good a father I can be."
Jim is quoted as saying: "If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, if you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York City, and if you are smart in 2007 you move to Asia." In a CNBC interview with Maria Bartiromo broadcast on May 5, 2008, Rogers said that people in China are extremely motivated and driven, and he wants to be in that type of environment, so his daughters are motivated and driven. He also stated that this is how America and Europe used to be. He chose not to move to Chinese cities like Hong Kong or Shanghai due to the high levels of pollution causing potential health problems for his family; hence, he chose Singapore.
Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with legendary investor George Soros in the 1970s, has repeatedly said he believes China will be the next great country in the world.
"The best gift we can give our children is to let them learn Chinese and prepare them for the future," he tells The Straits Times, while carrying the baby in his arms.
Soon after Happy was born in 2003, they hired a mainland Chinese nanny in New York to teach her Mandarin. They also have a live-in nanny from Ningxia province here in Singapore.
This explains why the little girl is able to speak the language fluently, without the jarring accent that many non-native speakers have.
In fact, she is so confident in the language that she sang a Chinese song for the reporter and recited the national pledge in Mandarin, stumbling only towards the end as she forgot some parts of it.
"I like both Chinese and English lessons, but I like Chinese more," she says in Mandarin.
Her baby sister is also having an early start in learning the language--the nanny plays her Mandarin songs every day.
In the past few years, they have visited Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong many times to look for the perfect school for Happy, before deciding on Singapore.
"As much as we want to be in mainland China, the pollution there that you read about is real," says Parker.
"Singapore doesn't have that. It also has an extraordinary health-care system and great schools, and it's a wonderful place for a family."
Rogers says many people felt they were making a big mistake when they announced that they were uprooting to Asia.
"They thought we were crazy, because we were doing it voluntarily. Many people thought we moved to China. They don't know that Singapore is not China," he says.
"Some people told me I was smart to do it for my children, but they couldn't do it themselves."
Their plan is to "stay here forever, unless something else happens", he says, adding that he hopes to travel around China one day with his daughters as his interpreters.
When asked what his net worth is--believed to be billions of dollars--he replied: "I'm sorry, but I can't answer that."
After a pause, he adds, tenderly: "My net worth should not be measured in monetary terms, but it should be measured in how good a father I can be."
ABOUT MBA
Jim Rogers: I said before that one of the bubbles I see in the world is tertiary education in the United States. It’s bankrupt financially and probably other ways besides financially. Business school is basically a waste of time. Most of what you learn is inaccurate and incorrect. Learning things like efficient market theory and some of the other gibberish that they keep putting out and Black Scholes…
All that stuff is totally wrong.
Those poor kids who’ve spent a couple hundred thousand dollars going to business school – not only have they spent a lot of money, but the stuff they learned was wrong. It was inaccurate. Yes, it’s got to change. It’s got to change dramatically.
I certainly was telling students not to go to business school. If you want to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars, I would urge you to go down and short soybeans one day or start your own business. I tell you, you short soybeans a couple of times, you’ll learn more doing that than you could in 10 years at business school.
If you spend your time and money in the real world, you’re probably going to learn a whole lot more than what you would at business school, most of which is wrong.
To give you an idea, in 1958 America graduated 5,000 MBAs a year. In 1958, America was the richest, most powerful country in the world. There wasn’t a number two. Now we produce over 200,000 MBAs per year, and that doesn’t include all the MBAs in other countries. There are tens of thousands in other countries. Everybody else has jumped on this MBA bandwagon.
So MBAs are a dime a dozen at a time when finance is coming under more and more pressure from governments economically, financially and every other way. So MBAs are a terrible waste of time, energy and money. You should take your couple hundred grand and start a business. You’ll learn a whole lot more even if you go bankrupt and lose everything, then you will at business school.
I tell people frequently not to get an MBA but to become a farmer or a miner or whatever. I’m dead serious about it. People have no concept of history. Nobody bothers with history. Everybody thinks history started the day that they could start watching television or read the newspapers, but that’s not the way the world has ever worked. So finance is under great bubbles. There are great places to avoid going forward. The United States is certainly in decline. The U.K. is going into decline. European countries are in trouble.
Some of the little anecdotes:
"Always eat something before you go shopping in order to prevent yourself from purchasing things that you don’t want or just to satisfy particular cravings that you have at the time."
I would say one lesson we all need to learn is that after you’ve had a great success, you really should be very worried. Let’s say you sell and say you’ve made 10 times on your money. You should be extremely worried. You should close the curtains, not read, look at the TV, or anything because that’s when you’re full of hubris, arrogance, confidence. You think, “God, this is something easy,” and you’re desperate to jump around to something new. You should do your very best to avoid making another play until you’ve calmed down a lot. Just wait. It’s a very dangerous time.
You have to figure out a way to control your emotions and deal with your emotions if you’re going to survive.
The problem is we all think we need to jump around all the time and be jumping in and out.
Patience is what most investors need to learn. You don’t have to be doing things all the time. Most of the time the best thing is to do nothing. You just sit with what you have as an investment and let it ride or sit and wait until you see someone sitting in the corner.
One of the best things a person can study is history. Everybody – I tell students all the time what should be studied and I tell them to study history and philosophy, which they of course hate. They say, “Oh no, I want to be rich.” I say, “If you want to be rich you should study philosophy because history will teach you that everything is constantly changing.” No matter what it is you know today, it’s going to be totally different in 10 years whether it’s your life, your friend’s, your job – who knows?
One needs to understand this about everything one is looking at today in your business, in your personal life, in your professional life. That’s one of the most important lessons that people have to learn because the world – and life – is very unstable, even though we all think we have a stable life.
Everything changes. It has changed and will continue to. The way you become successful is to understand that and capitalize on it.
All that stuff is totally wrong.
Those poor kids who’ve spent a couple hundred thousand dollars going to business school – not only have they spent a lot of money, but the stuff they learned was wrong. It was inaccurate. Yes, it’s got to change. It’s got to change dramatically.
I certainly was telling students not to go to business school. If you want to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars, I would urge you to go down and short soybeans one day or start your own business. I tell you, you short soybeans a couple of times, you’ll learn more doing that than you could in 10 years at business school.
If you spend your time and money in the real world, you’re probably going to learn a whole lot more than what you would at business school, most of which is wrong.
To give you an idea, in 1958 America graduated 5,000 MBAs a year. In 1958, America was the richest, most powerful country in the world. There wasn’t a number two. Now we produce over 200,000 MBAs per year, and that doesn’t include all the MBAs in other countries. There are tens of thousands in other countries. Everybody else has jumped on this MBA bandwagon.
So MBAs are a dime a dozen at a time when finance is coming under more and more pressure from governments economically, financially and every other way. So MBAs are a terrible waste of time, energy and money. You should take your couple hundred grand and start a business. You’ll learn a whole lot more even if you go bankrupt and lose everything, then you will at business school.
I tell people frequently not to get an MBA but to become a farmer or a miner or whatever. I’m dead serious about it. People have no concept of history. Nobody bothers with history. Everybody thinks history started the day that they could start watching television or read the newspapers, but that’s not the way the world has ever worked. So finance is under great bubbles. There are great places to avoid going forward. The United States is certainly in decline. The U.K. is going into decline. European countries are in trouble.
Some of the little anecdotes:
"Always eat something before you go shopping in order to prevent yourself from purchasing things that you don’t want or just to satisfy particular cravings that you have at the time."
I would say one lesson we all need to learn is that after you’ve had a great success, you really should be very worried. Let’s say you sell and say you’ve made 10 times on your money. You should be extremely worried. You should close the curtains, not read, look at the TV, or anything because that’s when you’re full of hubris, arrogance, confidence. You think, “God, this is something easy,” and you’re desperate to jump around to something new. You should do your very best to avoid making another play until you’ve calmed down a lot. Just wait. It’s a very dangerous time.
You have to figure out a way to control your emotions and deal with your emotions if you’re going to survive.
The problem is we all think we need to jump around all the time and be jumping in and out.
Patience is what most investors need to learn. You don’t have to be doing things all the time. Most of the time the best thing is to do nothing. You just sit with what you have as an investment and let it ride or sit and wait until you see someone sitting in the corner.
One of the best things a person can study is history. Everybody – I tell students all the time what should be studied and I tell them to study history and philosophy, which they of course hate. They say, “Oh no, I want to be rich.” I say, “If you want to be rich you should study philosophy because history will teach you that everything is constantly changing.” No matter what it is you know today, it’s going to be totally different in 10 years whether it’s your life, your friend’s, your job – who knows?
One needs to understand this about everything one is looking at today in your business, in your personal life, in your professional life. That’s one of the most important lessons that people have to learn because the world – and life – is very unstable, even though we all think we have a stable life.
Everything changes. It has changed and will continue to. The way you become successful is to understand that and capitalize on it.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Yong Vui Kong: Me and my life
This letter from Yong Vui Kong was published at Malaysiakini.com
-------------------------------------
Yetian,
Yun Leong brought your letter when he came to visit me on Monday. He told me that the first letter has been published.
Thank you, and thank you to all the kind-hearted strangers who have helped me. Thank you to all those who read my letters. I hope that everyone can read them. This is the only way for me to connect with the outside world.
Yetian, you said that life is very precious.
To me, life is the most important thing in the world. There are many things that mean a lot to me. But even if you have a lot of money, or many material possessions, you still only have one life.
In the past, I did not value or respect my life. It was only later that I realised those who do not respect their own lives, cannot expect others to respect them.
After turning to Buddhism, I realised that I have a responsibility in life.
I watch my fellow inmates losing their lives, one by one, because of they were ignorant, or easily misled. It breaks my heart. Amitabha. I know I'll be just like them. So I would like to use every remaining day of my life to tell people my story.
I want to use the Buddhist philosophy to tell everyone not to make mistakes, not to end up on death row because of drugs. I want to tell them never to take drugs and destroy their lives.
Of course, I hope that I can have more time to meditate, to read more Buddhist books and to absorb more Buddhist philosophy so that I can continue teaching others. But ultimately, this will all depend on fate.
Thinking back to the day Yun Leong came to see me at the detention centre, I was crying like a child. I was so afraid. My hands and legs were trembling as I cried. I had broken down. All my macho bravado had disappeared.
I was very afraid of death. I didn't know what would happen to me after I die.
'I don't blame the Singapore government'
After reading the scriptures, I dreamed of the Earth Bodhisattva. I saw through many things, and learnt not to cling on to life. This life has been given to me by Buddha. He has made all the arrangements for me, and I accept them.
I am very grateful for my life. I am very grateful towards all those who have worked hard to try to save me, and to ask for the Singaporean president to grant me clemency. If I were to give up now, wouldn't I be letting them down?
I really don't want those who have supported me, helped me and encouraged me to be sad.
I don't know why, but I know that my case has caused a lot of quarrels between people. I said before that life is not something to be wasted, but to be cherished. Quarreling is a waste of life.
I don't blame the Singapore government. I don't blame anyone. I believe that every country has its laws. If you make a mistake and get caught, then you deserve to be punished. I also know that Singapore is governed by rule of law. Asking a country to change its law is a very difficult thing.
I don't yearn for anything. All I want is more time.
I am a death row inmate. I have no right to ask for the abolishment of the death penalty. But I still feel that the death penalty is not a workable solution.
I am grateful to those who have been able to forgive me. It is a miracle that I have been able to live this long. I will take good care of myself, study hard and improve myself.
'I don't yearn to leave prison'
You asked me what I would do if I were granted clemency.
I don't yearn to leave prison. In fact, that I think this is an excellent place to meditate. I've already devoted myself to Buddhism, but I hope to find a priest who will ordain me one day and officially accept me as a monk.
While I'm alive, I will work hard to share my experience with everyone. I want to be like the priest who visits me here regularly, and tirelessly share the wisdom of Buddhism with everyone.
I will devote my whole life to help those who other people are unable to reach.
Even if I do not get a second chance, I hope that everyone will always remember to give themselves a second chance. Life will be fuller this way.
Yetian, it's been hard on you. You have to write to me even though you have to work. I am really happy, and hope to keep writing. I will stop here today. Amitabha.
*******************
SOURCE: Letter from death row: Me and my life
***
YONG VUI KONG, a Sabahan, was sentenced in November 2009 to death for drug trafficking. He was 19. On April 4, Yong lost his final appeal against a mandatory death sentence. He will be executed in three months unless he is granted clemency by Singapore's president.
I believe we can learn a few things from him and his experience, in particular, the young boys and those who do not treasure and appreciate what life and freedom means.
I believe we can learn a few things from him and his experience, in particular, the young boys and those who do not treasure and appreciate what life and freedom means.
-------------------------------------
Yetian,
Yun Leong brought your letter when he came to visit me on Monday. He told me that the first letter has been published.
Thank you, and thank you to all the kind-hearted strangers who have helped me. Thank you to all those who read my letters. I hope that everyone can read them. This is the only way for me to connect with the outside world.
Yetian, you said that life is very precious.
To me, life is the most important thing in the world. There are many things that mean a lot to me. But even if you have a lot of money, or many material possessions, you still only have one life.
In the past, I did not value or respect my life. It was only later that I realised those who do not respect their own lives, cannot expect others to respect them.
After turning to Buddhism, I realised that I have a responsibility in life.
I watch my fellow inmates losing their lives, one by one, because of they were ignorant, or easily misled. It breaks my heart. Amitabha. I know I'll be just like them. So I would like to use every remaining day of my life to tell people my story.
I want to use the Buddhist philosophy to tell everyone not to make mistakes, not to end up on death row because of drugs. I want to tell them never to take drugs and destroy their lives.
Of course, I hope that I can have more time to meditate, to read more Buddhist books and to absorb more Buddhist philosophy so that I can continue teaching others. But ultimately, this will all depend on fate.
Thinking back to the day Yun Leong came to see me at the detention centre, I was crying like a child. I was so afraid. My hands and legs were trembling as I cried. I had broken down. All my macho bravado had disappeared.
I was very afraid of death. I didn't know what would happen to me after I die.
'I don't blame the Singapore government'
After reading the scriptures, I dreamed of the Earth Bodhisattva. I saw through many things, and learnt not to cling on to life. This life has been given to me by Buddha. He has made all the arrangements for me, and I accept them.
I am very grateful for my life. I am very grateful towards all those who have worked hard to try to save me, and to ask for the Singaporean president to grant me clemency. If I were to give up now, wouldn't I be letting them down?
I really don't want those who have supported me, helped me and encouraged me to be sad.
I don't know why, but I know that my case has caused a lot of quarrels between people. I said before that life is not something to be wasted, but to be cherished. Quarreling is a waste of life.
I don't blame the Singapore government. I don't blame anyone. I believe that every country has its laws. If you make a mistake and get caught, then you deserve to be punished. I also know that Singapore is governed by rule of law. Asking a country to change its law is a very difficult thing.
I don't yearn for anything. All I want is more time.
I am a death row inmate. I have no right to ask for the abolishment of the death penalty. But I still feel that the death penalty is not a workable solution.
I am grateful to those who have been able to forgive me. It is a miracle that I have been able to live this long. I will take good care of myself, study hard and improve myself.
'I don't yearn to leave prison'
You asked me what I would do if I were granted clemency.
I don't yearn to leave prison. In fact, that I think this is an excellent place to meditate. I've already devoted myself to Buddhism, but I hope to find a priest who will ordain me one day and officially accept me as a monk.
While I'm alive, I will work hard to share my experience with everyone. I want to be like the priest who visits me here regularly, and tirelessly share the wisdom of Buddhism with everyone.
I will devote my whole life to help those who other people are unable to reach.
Even if I do not get a second chance, I hope that everyone will always remember to give themselves a second chance. Life will be fuller this way.
Yetian, it's been hard on you. You have to write to me even though you have to work. I am really happy, and hope to keep writing. I will stop here today. Amitabha.
*******************
SOURCE: Letter from death row: Me and my life
***
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Real Madrid President's speech in 2011 Insignia presentation
Dear Honorary President, Members of the Board, Club Members and friends of Real Madrid.Every year, we celebrate a ceremony like today's, one of the events most anticipated by the Madridista family. It is an emotive act that fills us with great pride and, especially, of gratitude. It is an act of recognition, loyalty, solidarity and love for an institution that is proud of its 109-year history, and that possesses enormous strength and excitement to continue building the future.
It is also a day of reflection. It is a day in which we must ask ourselves why we are here. I always say that, withouot a doubt, the best thing this club has are its members. You have all contributed to make Real Madrid's legend eternal. Some with a 25-year passion, others with an unshakeable loyalty of 50 years, and others by keeping the essence of our values for 60 years. That is why I, as President, regard this act as one of our greatest examples. You are the strength that has turned Real Madrid into an unquestionable team and a worldwide icon.
The sentiment you have shown for the Club throughout all this time is part of a culture that has been maintained throughout our history. An identity that has allowed us to become what we are, and to face the utmost demands without a care for difficulties.
With your devotion, you have contributed to help Real Madrid be acknowledged in the entire world, not just for its achievements in sports, but also for its values. These are indestructible principles that last generation after generation and that constitute this club's raison d'etre. Talent, respect for opponents, honesty, devotion, sacrifice, solidarity and the constant strive for victory are, and must always be, the unchangeable signs of our identity.
You and your dreams are the most powerful reference we have to guide our work and our strategy at the helm of this institution.
You've spent a great part of your lives -in some cases all your lives- devoting your passion and love to Real Madrid. You've shared difficult times and moments of unforgettable victories. You've felt the sadness that comes from unrealised dreams, and also the satisfaction of seeing your wishes come true.
This devotion makes us wish to acknowledge you and express our gratitude today. My words as President carry more affection for all of you today because you are the strength of our institution, our guarantee for success and the security for our future.
We have all walked on common ground together and we humbly feel unquestionable pride for belonging to Real Madrid.
This pride allows us to face the greatest sports challenges in order to keep the worldwide prestige that turned Real Madrid into a universal club and a leading international institution admired by millions of supporters.
In order to face all of the great challenges that lie ahead, it is essential that we all unite. Our strength has been, is and forever will be, our unity. You have proven this for 25, 50 or 60 years of complete devotion and fidelity to our history. This tenacity and fortitude will help us continue to be a leading sports, financial and charitable institution.
To belong to Real Madrid is all this, and also to assume great responsibility. We all have the responsibility to maintain and improve this immense legacy so that future generations feel the same respect, devotion and pride for the Club we feel right now.
Throughout is more than 100-year old history, Real Madrid has always set an example for modernity and has placed us at the forefront of any sports institution.
Today's Real Madrid has nothing to do with the Real Madrid that was founded by several enthusiasts back in 1902. It is now a universal, modern and exemplary club. But we're here because those who created the Club were able to instill this special feeling of Madridismo in future generations. We inherited this from our elders and we have the responsibility to hand it down to our children.
And we must continue to advance firmly placed in modernity and defending our values, in which we have great faith. That must be the path to follow.
Those of us who are privileged to belong to this institution must work without rest to continue being leaders on and off the pitch. It is always difficult to win; history has taught us that. But if we head in the right direction, if we are patient enough, and if we offer total devotion, then success and victory will come our way. We have already laid the solid ground work, the essential stability and the adequate strategy to achieve this.
Institutional stability and serenity is an essential strength to have nowadays, and we have it mainly thanks to you.
This Real Madrid has a mission and a chellenge before it: to some day become the Best Club in the 21st Century, just as it was the Best Club in the 20th Century. And not just on the sporting field. We must take a new and important leap to perfect the functioning of our infrastructure, and to further boost and promote the image and international projection of Real Madrid.
We must continue to grow financially so that this team always belongs to its Club Members and may always compete with any opponent, no matter how powerful.
We must also set a charitable example through our Real Madrid Foundation in every country. Our charitable compromise should become increasingly significant. That's why we strive to turn the Foundation into the best tool by which to help the world be better and more just. I also know we will stand together in this charitable endeavour.
The 21st Century Real Madrid will be exemplary, more active, stronger, more modern, more agile and -naturally- always in pursuit of victory, just as we learned from our master: Honorary President Alfredo di Stefano.
You must never forget that you, the Club Members, are responsible for, and the owners of, this club. That is why it is your duty to continue making of Real Madrid an unquestionable example to follow.
During more than 100 years, we've become leaders in sports, finances, facilities, solidarity and the reaffirmation of our values.
Real Madrid was born to win through hard work and sacrifice. We Madridistas believe that hard work and sacrifice are not incompatible with fair play. The constant search for success and fair play are no doubt part of the special DNA that defines both us and the behaviour we've had throughout our history. We have strongly defended our institution against wrong behaviour and we will continue to do so.
But if we are ready to co
ntinue defending fair play and blameless ethics within our institution, then we must fight for this also in the sporting world we belong to. For many years, this institution has showcased what we've come to define as 'class'. Class is earned by acknowledging the merits of our opponents, but also by defending what we believe is just. Class is also earned by denouncing irregular behaviour both on or off the pitch. It is also an example of true Madridismo to defend Real Madrid from what we believe to be unjust, irregular or arbitrary. And that is exactly what our coach, Jose Mourinho, does. What Jose Mourinho says is also an example of Madridismo.
I ask you to continue to feel proud of what you are, of your sense of belonging and of that feeling called Madridismo. And of that responsibility, too. Because pride for this club comes from knowing that we, the Club Members -who regard ourselves as the owners of Real Madrid-, are just the administrators of this universal feeling. And that feeling we administer is a service to millions of supporters we must never forget.
Real Madrid belongs to all and there are no age, ideological, national or cultural differences here. Real Madrid has no frontiers. It is universal, and the diversity and plurality of its members and supporters makes the unity of Madridistas even greater and stronger.
I hope today proves unforgettable for you because it is no doubt a very important day for this club. It is a day of just and fair recognition of you all and of those who may not be here today, but who once taught you about the spirit of Real Madrid.
Thank you for your support, your firmness, your strength and for everything you give to Real Madrid each day. Thank you for your everlasting passion for Real Madrid. Thank you for your devotion. Thank you for everything you've felt along the way. Thank you, because you are Real Madrid.
Thank you all.
------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: www.realmadrid.com
-------------------------------------------------------
It is also a day of reflection. It is a day in which we must ask ourselves why we are here. I always say that, withouot a doubt, the best thing this club has are its members. You have all contributed to make Real Madrid's legend eternal. Some with a 25-year passion, others with an unshakeable loyalty of 50 years, and others by keeping the essence of our values for 60 years. That is why I, as President, regard this act as one of our greatest examples. You are the strength that has turned Real Madrid into an unquestionable team and a worldwide icon.
The sentiment you have shown for the Club throughout all this time is part of a culture that has been maintained throughout our history. An identity that has allowed us to become what we are, and to face the utmost demands without a care for difficulties.
With your devotion, you have contributed to help Real Madrid be acknowledged in the entire world, not just for its achievements in sports, but also for its values. These are indestructible principles that last generation after generation and that constitute this club's raison d'etre. Talent, respect for opponents, honesty, devotion, sacrifice, solidarity and the constant strive for victory are, and must always be, the unchangeable signs of our identity.
You and your dreams are the most powerful reference we have to guide our work and our strategy at the helm of this institution.
You've spent a great part of your lives -in some cases all your lives- devoting your passion and love to Real Madrid. You've shared difficult times and moments of unforgettable victories. You've felt the sadness that comes from unrealised dreams, and also the satisfaction of seeing your wishes come true.
This devotion makes us wish to acknowledge you and express our gratitude today. My words as President carry more affection for all of you today because you are the strength of our institution, our guarantee for success and the security for our future.
We have all walked on common ground together and we humbly feel unquestionable pride for belonging to Real Madrid.
This pride allows us to face the greatest sports challenges in order to keep the worldwide prestige that turned Real Madrid into a universal club and a leading international institution admired by millions of supporters.
In order to face all of the great challenges that lie ahead, it is essential that we all unite. Our strength has been, is and forever will be, our unity. You have proven this for 25, 50 or 60 years of complete devotion and fidelity to our history. This tenacity and fortitude will help us continue to be a leading sports, financial and charitable institution.
To belong to Real Madrid is all this, and also to assume great responsibility. We all have the responsibility to maintain and improve this immense legacy so that future generations feel the same respect, devotion and pride for the Club we feel right now.
Throughout is more than 100-year old history, Real Madrid has always set an example for modernity and has placed us at the forefront of any sports institution.
Today's Real Madrid has nothing to do with the Real Madrid that was founded by several enthusiasts back in 1902. It is now a universal, modern and exemplary club. But we're here because those who created the Club were able to instill this special feeling of Madridismo in future generations. We inherited this from our elders and we have the responsibility to hand it down to our children.
And we must continue to advance firmly placed in modernity and defending our values, in which we have great faith. That must be the path to follow.
Those of us who are privileged to belong to this institution must work without rest to continue being leaders on and off the pitch. It is always difficult to win; history has taught us that. But if we head in the right direction, if we are patient enough, and if we offer total devotion, then success and victory will come our way. We have already laid the solid ground work, the essential stability and the adequate strategy to achieve this.
Institutional stability and serenity is an essential strength to have nowadays, and we have it mainly thanks to you.
This Real Madrid has a mission and a chellenge before it: to some day become the Best Club in the 21st Century, just as it was the Best Club in the 20th Century. And not just on the sporting field. We must take a new and important leap to perfect the functioning of our infrastructure, and to further boost and promote the image and international projection of Real Madrid.
We must continue to grow financially so that this team always belongs to its Club Members and may always compete with any opponent, no matter how powerful.
We must also set a charitable example through our Real Madrid Foundation in every country. Our charitable compromise should become increasingly significant. That's why we strive to turn the Foundation into the best tool by which to help the world be better and more just. I also know we will stand together in this charitable endeavour.
The 21st Century Real Madrid will be exemplary, more active, stronger, more modern, more agile and -naturally- always in pursuit of victory, just as we learned from our master: Honorary President Alfredo di Stefano.
You must never forget that you, the Club Members, are responsible for, and the owners of, this club. That is why it is your duty to continue making of Real Madrid an unquestionable example to follow.
During more than 100 years, we've become leaders in sports, finances, facilities, solidarity and the reaffirmation of our values.
Real Madrid was born to win through hard work and sacrifice. We Madridistas believe that hard work and sacrifice are not incompatible with fair play. The constant search for success and fair play are no doubt part of the special DNA that defines both us and the behaviour we've had throughout our history. We have strongly defended our institution against wrong behaviour and we will continue to do so.
But if we are ready to co
ntinue defending fair play and blameless ethics within our institution, then we must fight for this also in the sporting world we belong to. For many years, this institution has showcased what we've come to define as 'class'. Class is earned by acknowledging the merits of our opponents, but also by defending what we believe is just. Class is also earned by denouncing irregular behaviour both on or off the pitch. It is also an example of true Madridismo to defend Real Madrid from what we believe to be unjust, irregular or arbitrary. And that is exactly what our coach, Jose Mourinho, does. What Jose Mourinho says is also an example of Madridismo.I ask you to continue to feel proud of what you are, of your sense of belonging and of that feeling called Madridismo. And of that responsibility, too. Because pride for this club comes from knowing that we, the Club Members -who regard ourselves as the owners of Real Madrid-, are just the administrators of this universal feeling. And that feeling we administer is a service to millions of supporters we must never forget.
Real Madrid belongs to all and there are no age, ideological, national or cultural differences here. Real Madrid has no frontiers. It is universal, and the diversity and plurality of its members and supporters makes the unity of Madridistas even greater and stronger.
I hope today proves unforgettable for you because it is no doubt a very important day for this club. It is a day of just and fair recognition of you all and of those who may not be here today, but who once taught you about the spirit of Real Madrid.
Thank you for your support, your firmness, your strength and for everything you give to Real Madrid each day. Thank you for your everlasting passion for Real Madrid. Thank you for your devotion. Thank you for everything you've felt along the way. Thank you, because you are Real Madrid.
Thank you all.
------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: www.realmadrid.com
-------------------------------------------------------
Monday, February 14, 2011
Constitution: Words & it's chosen Interpretation
In a battle of knowledge between politicians with power and the public, the people fight unarmed. An elite group dominates through pseudo-legal finesse. It holds the high ground, established arbitrary rules and selectively interpreted them to suit their fancies with nothing more than discretionarily interpreting words written on paper and adopt selected words within an Article of Law, such as 'Privilege' discretionarily replacing by 'Rights', and special privileges for trading licence and scholarships taken to include rights to equity ownership without payment, and the free-distribution of the nation's wealth to special self-anointed breeds without the need to labor, and lately, the use of a few simple principles and the adoption of geographical name, nowhere officially recorded, to confer special rights of a class of migrants against other migrants. Its real power emanates from control of political institutions, primarily those dealing directly with monetary and fiscal policies. Misuse of this power for its own purpose and self-interest, with considerable encouragement from the privy class expecting to get something for nothing, led the nation's current economic predicament. The entire Political System desperately need renovation, if not, constructive destruction and revamping the entire culture that had accepted kleptomania as the chosen way of life.
"As men, whose intentions require no concealment, generally employ the words which most directly and aptly express the ideas they intend to convey, the enlightened patriots who framed our constitution, and the people who adopted it, must be understood to have employed words in their natural sense, and to have intended what they have said."
--- Chief Justice Marshall, 1824
"To evade clear constitutional intent by changing the meaning of words, Parliament cannot by any definition it may adopt conclude the matter, since it cannot by legislation alter the constitution, from which it derives its power to legislate, and within whose limitations alone that power can be lawfully exercised."
--- Justice Mahion Pitney, 1920
***
"As men, whose intentions require no concealment, generally employ the words which most directly and aptly express the ideas they intend to convey, the enlightened patriots who framed our constitution, and the people who adopted it, must be understood to have employed words in their natural sense, and to have intended what they have said."
--- Chief Justice Marshall, 1824
"To evade clear constitutional intent by changing the meaning of words, Parliament cannot by any definition it may adopt conclude the matter, since it cannot by legislation alter the constitution, from which it derives its power to legislate, and within whose limitations alone that power can be lawfully exercised."
--- Justice Mahion Pitney, 1920
***
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
A Letter to all sons
Following is a letter to his son from a renown Hong Kong TV broadcaster cum Child Psychologist.
My Son,
Your Dad
***************************
SOURCE: BayiSingh
*****************************
My Son,
I am writing this to you because of 3 reasons:
(1) Life is unpredictable, nobody knows how long he lives. Some words are better said early.
(2) I am your father, and if I don't tell you these, no one else will.
(3) What is written is my own personal bitter experiences that perhaps could save you a lot of unnecessary heartache.
Remember the following as you go through life:
1.對你不好的人，你不要太介意:在你一生中，沒有人有義務要對你好，除了我和你媽媽。至於那些對你好的人，你除了要珍惜、感恩外，也請多防備一點，因為，每個人做每件事，總有一個原因，他對你好，未必真的是因為喜歡你，請你必須搞清楚，而不必太快將對方看作真朋友
Do not bear grudge towards those who are not good to you. No one has the responsibility of treating you well, except your mother and I. To those who are good to you, you have to treasure it and be thankful, and ALSO you have to be cautious, because, everyone has a motive for every move. When a person is good to you, it does not mean he really likes you. You have to be careful, don't hastily regard him as a real friend.
2.沒有人是不可代替，沒有東西是必須擁有:看透了這一點，將來你身邊的人不再要你，或許失去了世間上最愛的一切時，也應該明白，這並不是甚麼大不了的事
No one is indispensable, nothing in the world that you must possess. Once you understand this idea, it would be easier for you to go through life when people around you don't want you anymore, or when you lose what/who you love most.
3.生命是短暫的，今日你還在浪費著生命，明日會發覺生命已遠離你了:因此，愈早珍惜生命，你享受生命的日子也愈多，與其盼望長壽，倒不如早點享受
Life is short. When you waste your life today, tomorrow you would find that life is leaving you. The earlier you treasure your life, the better you enjoy life.
4.世界上並沒有最愛這回事:愛情只是一種霎時的感覺，而這感覺絕對會隨時日、心境而改變。如果你的所謂最愛離開你，請耐心地等候一下，讓時日慢慢沖洗，讓心靈慢慢沉澱，你的苦就會慢慢淡化。不要過分憧憬愛情的美，不要過分誇大失戀的悲.
Love is but a transient feeling, and this feeling would fade with time and with one's mood. If your so called loved one leaves you, be patient, time will wash away your aches and sadness. Don't over exaggerate the beauty and sweetness of love, and don't over exaggerate the sadness of falling out of love.
5.雖然，很多有成就的人士都有没受過很多教育，但並不等如不用功讀書，就一定可以成功:你學到的知識，就是你擁有的武器!人，可以白手興家，但不可以手無寸鐵，緊記！
A lot of successful people did not receive a good education, that does not mean that you can be successful by not studying hard! Whatever knowledge you gain is your weapon in life. One can go from rags to riches, but one has to start from some rags!
6.我不會要求你供養我下半輩子，同樣地我也不會供養你的下半輩子，當你長大到可以獨立的時候，我的責任已經完結:以後，你要坐巴士還是Benz，吃魚翅還是粉絲，都要自己負責
I do not expect you to financially support me when I am old, either would I financially support your whole life. My responsibility as a supporter ends when you are grown up. After that, you decide whether you want to travel in a public transport or in your limousine, whether rich or poor.
7.你可以要求自己守信，但不能要求別人守信，你可以要求自己對人好，但不能期待人家對你好:你怎樣對人，並不代表人家就會怎樣對你，如果看不透這一點，你只會徒添不必要的煩惱.
You honour your words, but don't expect others to be so. You can be good to people, but don't expect people to be good to you. If you don't understand this, you would end up with unnecessary troubles.
8.我買了十多二十年六合彩，還是一窮二白，連三獎也沒有中，這證明人要發達，還是要努力工作才可以，世界上並沒有免費午餐
I have bought lotteries for umpteen years, but I never strike any prize. That shows if you want to be rich, you have to work hard! There is no free lunch!
9.親人只有一次的緣份，無論這輩子我和你會相處多久，也請好好珍惜共聚的時光，下輩子，無論愛與不愛，都不會再見.
No matter how much time I have with you, let's treasure the time we have together. We do not know if we would meet again in our next life.
***************************
SOURCE: BayiSingh
*****************************
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
A New Way of Thinking (Part 2)
SOURCE: From the Book 'A New Way Of Thinking, A New Way Of Being - Experiencing The TAO TE CHING by Dr Wayne W. Dyer
###
Sunday, November 14, 2010
A New Way of Thinking (Part 1)
SOURCE: From the Book 'A New Way Of Thinking, A New Way Of Being - Experiencing The TAO TE CHING by Dr Wayne W. Dyer
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Social Contract: Present Shock
To understand what is happening to us as we move into this age of super-capitalism, we must analyze the processes of acceleration and confront the concept of transience. If acceleration is a new social force, transience is its psychological counterpart, and without an understanding of the role it plays in contemporary human behavior, all our theories of personality, all our psychology, must remain pre-modern. Psychology without the concept of transience cannot take account of precisely those phenomena that are peculiarly contemporary.
For our society have not merely extended the scope and scale of change, we have radically altered the pace. We have released a totally new social force - a stream of change, so accelerated that it influences our sense of time, revolutionizes the tempo of daily life, and affects the very way we feel the world around us. We no longer feel life as our forefathers did in the past. And this is the ultimate difference, the distinction that separates the truly contemporary man from all others. For this acceleration lies behind the impermanence - the transience - that penetrates and tinctures our consciousness, radically affecting the way we relate to other people, to things, to the entire universe of ideas, art and values.
The changing of our relationship to the resources that surround us, the violent expanding of the scope of change, and most crucially, the accelerating pace, we have broken irretrievably with the past. We have cut ourselves off from the old ways of thinking, of feeling, of adapting. We have set the stage for a completely new society and we are now racing toward it. This is the crux of our lifetime.
For the first time, we will have to face the potential explosive future shock! (The FUTURE arrived YESTERDAY, says Michael Malone!)
--- Alvin Toffler; Future Shock.
***
For our society have not merely extended the scope and scale of change, we have radically altered the pace. We have released a totally new social force - a stream of change, so accelerated that it influences our sense of time, revolutionizes the tempo of daily life, and affects the very way we feel the world around us. We no longer feel life as our forefathers did in the past. And this is the ultimate difference, the distinction that separates the truly contemporary man from all others. For this acceleration lies behind the impermanence - the transience - that penetrates and tinctures our consciousness, radically affecting the way we relate to other people, to things, to the entire universe of ideas, art and values.
The changing of our relationship to the resources that surround us, the violent expanding of the scope of change, and most crucially, the accelerating pace, we have broken irretrievably with the past. We have cut ourselves off from the old ways of thinking, of feeling, of adapting. We have set the stage for a completely new society and we are now racing toward it. This is the crux of our lifetime.
For the first time, we will have to face the potential explosive future shock! (The FUTURE arrived YESTERDAY, says Michael Malone!)
--- Alvin Toffler; Future Shock.
***
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Gandhi: The End & The Beginning
January 30, 1948, Friday"Bapu (father), your watch must be feeling very neglected. You would not look at it today," said Abha, the young wife of Kanu Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma's cousin.
"Why should I, since you are my timekeepers?" Gandhi retorted.
"But you don't look at the timekeepers," Manu noted. Manu is the granddaughter of another cousin.
Gandhi laughed.
By this time Gandhi was walking on the grass near the prayer ground. A congregation of about 500 had assembled for the regular evening devotions.
"I am late by ten minutes," Gandhi mused aloud. "I hate being late. I should be here at the stroke of five."
He quickly cleared the five steps up the level of the prayer ground. Most of the people rose; many edged forward; some helped to clear a lane for him; those who were nearest bowed to his feet.
Just then, a man elbowed his way out of the congregation into the lane. He looked as if he wished to prostrate himself in the customary obeisance of the devout. Manu tried to stop him and caught hold of his hand. He pushed her away so that she fell and, planting himself about two feet in front of Gandhi, fired three shots from a small automatic pistol.
The first bullet entered Gandhi's abdomen three and a half inches to the right down the middle of the body and two and a half inches above the navel and came out through the back.
The second bullet penetrated the seventh intercostal space one inch to the right of the midlde line and likewise came out at the back.
Gandhi laughed.
By this time Gandhi was walking on the grass near the prayer ground. A congregation of about 500 had assembled for the regular evening devotions.
"I am late by ten minutes," Gandhi mused aloud. "I hate being late. I should be here at the stroke of five."
He quickly cleared the five steps up the level of the prayer ground. Most of the people rose; many edged forward; some helped to clear a lane for him; those who were nearest bowed to his feet.
Just then, a man elbowed his way out of the congregation into the lane. He looked as if he wished to prostrate himself in the customary obeisance of the devout. Manu tried to stop him and caught hold of his hand. He pushed her away so that she fell and, planting himself about two feet in front of Gandhi, fired three shots from a small automatic pistol.
The first bullet entered Gandhi's abdomen three and a half inches to the right down the middle of the body and two and a half inches above the navel and came out through the back.
The second bullet penetrated the seventh intercostal space one inch to the right of the midlde line and likewise came out at the back.
The third shot hit one inch above the right nipple and four inches to the right of the middle line and embedded itself in the lung.
One bullet, Dr Bhargava says, probably passed through the heart and another might have cut a big blood vessel.
Devadas, Gandhi's youngest son, touched his father's skin and gently pressed his arm. Gandhi's head lays in Abha's lap. His face wore a peaceful smile. He seemed asleep.
"So serene was the face and so mellow the halo of divine light that surrounded the body that it seemed almost sacrilegious to grieve ..." Devadas wrote later.
That was 30 January, 1948, the day Mahatma Gandhi at 78 died. Mahatma was what he had always been: a private citizen without wealth, property, official title, official post, academic distinction, scientific achievement, or artistic gift.
Mahatma was a moral man, and a civilization not richly endowed with morality felt still further impoverished when the assassin's bullets ended his life.
'I never saw Gandhi. I do not know his language. I never set foot in his country and yet I feel the same sorrow as if I had lost someone near and dear.' Leon Blum, the French Socialist wrote.
Professor Albert Einstein wrote: 'Gandhi had demonstrated that a powerful human following can be assembled not only through the cunning game of the usual political manoeuvres and trickeries but through the cogent example of a morally superior conduct of life. In our time of utter moral decadence he was the only statesman to stand for a higher human relationship in the political sphere.'
General Douglas MacArthur, supreme Allied military commander said: 'In the evolution of civilization, if it is to survive, all men cannot fail eventually to adopt Gandhi's belief that the process of mass application of force to resolve contentious issues is fundamentally not only wrong but contains within itself the germs of self-destruction.'
"I know no other man of any time or indeed in recent history who so forcefully and convincingly demonstrated the power of spirit over material things," Sir Stafford Cripps wrote.
In New York, a 12-year-old girl had gone into the kitchen for breakfast. The radio was on and it brought the news of the shooting of Gandhi. There, in the kitchen, the girl, the maid and the gardener held a prayer meeting and prayed and wept.
General Douglas MacArthur, supreme Allied military commander said: 'In the evolution of civilization, if it is to survive, all men cannot fail eventually to adopt Gandhi's belief that the process of mass application of force to resolve contentious issues is fundamentally not only wrong but contains within itself the germs of self-destruction.'
"I know no other man of any time or indeed in recent history who so forcefully and convincingly demonstrated the power of spirit over material things," Sir Stafford Cripps wrote.
In New York, a 12-year-old girl had gone into the kitchen for breakfast. The radio was on and it brought the news of the shooting of Gandhi. There, in the kitchen, the girl, the maid and the gardener held a prayer meeting and prayed and wept.
Just so, millions in all countries mourned Gandhi's death. The whole world has been plunged into mourning by the death of this extraordinary man. They did not quite know why; they did not quite know what he stood for. But he was a 'good man' and good men are rare.
Nathuram Vinayak Godse, age 35, was the editor and publisher of a Hindu Mahasabha weekly in Poona and he was a high-degree Chitpawan Brahman. Godse resented Mahatma's insistence that refugees be evacuated from the mosques and he was bitter because no demands were made on the Muslims. At the trial Godse said he was brooding intensely on the atrocities perpetrated on Hinduism and its dark and deadly future if left to face Islam outside and Gandhi inside. Gose testified, 'and ... I decided all of a sudden to take the extreme step against Gandhi.' Hindus like Madan Lal and Godse and their ideological sponsors were incensed by the presence of Muslims at Hindu services and the reading of selections from the Quran. Godse said at his trial, at which he was sentenced to be hanged: "Before I fired the shots I actually wished him well and bowed to him in reverence."
Gandhi had always insisted that those who differ with him are not necessarily evil. Instead, they should try to convert him to right thinking and right doing. "I deserve no praise; I would deserve praise only if I fell as a result of an explosion and yet retained a smile on my face and no malice against the doer. No one should look down on the misguided youth who had thrown the bomb," Gandhi told his devout followers.
In response to Godse's obeisance and the bows Gandhi touched his palm together, smiled and blessed him. At that moment Godse pulled the trigger. Gandhi fell, and died murmuring, :Oh, God!"
All around us, material things had power over spirit. The sudden flash of Gandhi's death revealed a vast darkness. No one who survived him had tried so hard - and with so much success - to live a life of truth, kindness, self-effacement, humility, service and non-violence throughout a long, difficult struggle against mighty adversaries. He fought passionately and unremittingly but he kept his hands clean in the midst of battle. He fought without malice or falsehood or hate.
****
SOURCE:
The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer; Harper Collins Publishers 1997
*****
Some Thought-seeds
True knowledge is spiritual consciousness. It is awareness of one's real nature. Knowledge means right discernment or correct evaluation, wisdom and a perfect understanding of oneself and of others. Right thought results in right action and right life.
Beauty is essentially spiritual. Real beauty lies in one's heart. It is in one's character. Beauty dwells in purity. Beauty shines in virtues.
Love is a refined, innate sense of oneness with the entire creation. Love is self-denial, selflessness. Love is sacredness of heart. Love is unrestrained goodwill, mercy, compassion and tolerance. Love is absence of sensuality.
Everything passeth away. Nothing is to accompany man except his Karma!
***********************
SOURCE: SWAMI SIVANANDA - THOUGHT POWER
**************************
P/S: This book was a gift from Dr. Punitha. Thank you and it is truly a pleasant thought!
Beauty is essentially spiritual. Real beauty lies in one's heart. It is in one's character. Beauty dwells in purity. Beauty shines in virtues.
Love is a refined, innate sense of oneness with the entire creation. Love is self-denial, selflessness. Love is sacredness of heart. Love is unrestrained goodwill, mercy, compassion and tolerance. Love is absence of sensuality.
Everything passeth away. Nothing is to accompany man except his Karma!
***********************
SOURCE: SWAMI SIVANANDA - THOUGHT POWER
**************************
P/S: This book was a gift from Dr. Punitha. Thank you and it is truly a pleasant thought!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Nietzsche's last prose (Part 2)
"The strength of the aggressor can be measured by the opposition which he needs; every increase of growth betrays itself by a seeking out of more formidable opponents. The task is not to overcome opponents in general, but only those opponents against whom one has to summon all one's strength, one's skill, and one's swordsmanship - in fact, opponents who are one's equals ... to be one's enemy's equal - this is the first condition of an honorable duel.
The Four principles of war tactics:
Firstly, I attack only things that are triumphant - if necessary I wait until they become triumphant.
Secondly, I attack only those things against which I find no allies, against which I stand alone - against which I compromise nobody but myself.
Thirdly, I never make personal attacks - I use a personality merely as a magnifying-glass, by means of which I render a general, but elusive and scarcely noticeable evil, more apparent.
Fourthly, I attack only those things from which all personal differences are excluded, in which any such thing as a background of disagreeable experiences is lacking.
--- Friedrich Nietzsche; ECCE HOMO - How One Becomes What One is.
***
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Severe Crisis to force Change
We have been taking a system operating past its capacity and driving it faster and harder. No matter how wonderful the system is, the laws of physics and biology still apply. And those laws are telling us that we, as an endangered species, cannot continue on the path we are on.
The problem is that it is very difficult to get those inhuman beings to appreciate and undertake the change we now need without an even bigger crisis than what we are already experiencing. History indicates that we don't accept large-scale change easily, especially when this change challenges the accepted behavior and beliefs of those inhuman beings.
It generally takes a severe and fatal crisis to overcome such resistance. Unfortunately this means the crisis will have to be very large and completely undeniable before the society respond.
So when the crisis is big enough to force change, it will also have great and unstoppable momentum. As a result it will be far more damaging, irreversible damages, and the impacts will continue to worsen long after we had restored order and acted on the causes.
This is why it is doubly urgent for our leaders and We the People to heed our warning and develop a more sustainable way of creating harmony with our natural world - and to begin doing it now, while we have a chance to do it in a reasonably orderly way. If we wait for our Pearl Harbour, we will make the scale of the problem so obvious to all and it will be too late as the impact and disruptions by then will likely to be unimaginable.
There is no longer just a social issue as how we respond now will decide the future of our nation and the human civilization of this land.
There is no one else; there is no other time; it is us and it is now!
******************************
Adapted from:
Hot, Flat and Crowded
by Thomas Friedman
********************
The problem is that it is very difficult to get those inhuman beings to appreciate and undertake the change we now need without an even bigger crisis than what we are already experiencing. History indicates that we don't accept large-scale change easily, especially when this change challenges the accepted behavior and beliefs of those inhuman beings.
It generally takes a severe and fatal crisis to overcome such resistance. Unfortunately this means the crisis will have to be very large and completely undeniable before the society respond.
So when the crisis is big enough to force change, it will also have great and unstoppable momentum. As a result it will be far more damaging, irreversible damages, and the impacts will continue to worsen long after we had restored order and acted on the causes.
This is why it is doubly urgent for our leaders and We the People to heed our warning and develop a more sustainable way of creating harmony with our natural world - and to begin doing it now, while we have a chance to do it in a reasonably orderly way. If we wait for our Pearl Harbour, we will make the scale of the problem so obvious to all and it will be too late as the impact and disruptions by then will likely to be unimaginable.
There is no longer just a social issue as how we respond now will decide the future of our nation and the human civilization of this land.
There is no one else; there is no other time; it is us and it is now!
******************************
Adapted from:
Hot, Flat and Crowded
by Thomas Friedman
********************
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Affluence & the Goddess of Wealth
Once upon a time in a faraway land, a young man went to the forest and said to his spiritual master, "I want to have unlimited wealth, and with that unlimited wealth, I want to help and heal the world. Will you please tell me the secret to creating affluence?"
And the spiritual master replied, "There are two Goddesses that reside in the heart of every human being. But there is a certain secret that you need to know, and I will tell you what it is.
"Although you love both Goddesses, you must pay more attention to one of them. She is the Goddess of Knowledge, and her name is Sarasvati. Pursue her, love her, and give her your attention. The other Goddess, whose name is Lakshmi, is the Goddess of Wealth. When you pay more attention to Sarasvati, Lakshmi will become extremely jealous and pay more attention to you. The more you seek the Goddess of Knowledge, the more the Goddess of Wealth will seek you. She will follow you wherever you go and never leave you. And the wealth you desire will be yours forever."
And the spiritual master replied, "There are two Goddesses that reside in the heart of every human being. But there is a certain secret that you need to know, and I will tell you what it is.
"Although you love both Goddesses, you must pay more attention to one of them. She is the Goddess of Knowledge, and her name is Sarasvati. Pursue her, love her, and give her your attention. The other Goddess, whose name is Lakshmi, is the Goddess of Wealth. When you pay more attention to Sarasvati, Lakshmi will become extremely jealous and pay more attention to you. The more you seek the Goddess of Knowledge, the more the Goddess of Wealth will seek you. She will follow you wherever you go and never leave you. And the wealth you desire will be yours forever."
There is power in Knowledge, desire, and spirit. And this power within you is the key to creating affluence.
Wealth consciousness is a state of mind, a sense, not of believing, but really knowing that what we need is available to us. Affluence is indeed our natural state of being.
Infinite worlds appear and disappear in the vast expanse of our own consciousness, like motes of dust dancing in a beam of light.
Affluence is reality. When we are grounded in the nature of reality and we also know that this same reality is our own nature, then we realize that we can create anything, because all of material creation has the same origin.
All of material creation is made from the same stuff and comes from the same source. Experiential knowledge of this fact gives us the ability to fulfill any desire we have, acquire any material object we want, and experience fulfillment and happiness to any extent we aspire.
Life experiences are the continuum in the seamless matrix of nothingness. They are our experiences of joy and sorrow, of success and failure, of wealth and poverty. All these events seemingly happen to us, but at very primordial levels we are making them happen. The impulse of energy and information that create our life experiences are reflected in our attitude towards life.
Knowledge has organizing power inherent in it. It is simply enough to know, to be aware of the principles; the knowledge will be processed and metabolized by our bodies, and the result will be spontaneous. The results do not occur overnight, but beguin to manifest gradually over a period of time.
You are where your attention takes you. In fact, you are your attention. When your attention is in the past, you are in the past. When you attention is in your present moment, you are in the presence of God and God is present in you. Simply be aware of the present, of what you are doing. The presence of God is everywhere, and you have only to consciously embrace it with your attention.
****************************************************Wealth consciousness is a state of mind, a sense, not of believing, but really knowing that what we need is available to us. Affluence is indeed our natural state of being.
Infinite worlds appear and disappear in the vast expanse of our own consciousness, like motes of dust dancing in a beam of light.
Affluence is reality. When we are grounded in the nature of reality and we also know that this same reality is our own nature, then we realize that we can create anything, because all of material creation has the same origin.
All of material creation is made from the same stuff and comes from the same source. Experiential knowledge of this fact gives us the ability to fulfill any desire we have, acquire any material object we want, and experience fulfillment and happiness to any extent we aspire.
Life experiences are the continuum in the seamless matrix of nothingness. They are our experiences of joy and sorrow, of success and failure, of wealth and poverty. All these events seemingly happen to us, but at very primordial levels we are making them happen. The impulse of energy and information that create our life experiences are reflected in our attitude towards life.
Knowledge has organizing power inherent in it. It is simply enough to know, to be aware of the principles; the knowledge will be processed and metabolized by our bodies, and the result will be spontaneous. The results do not occur overnight, but beguin to manifest gradually over a period of time.
You are where your attention takes you. In fact, you are your attention. When your attention is in the past, you are in the past. When you attention is in your present moment, you are in the presence of God and God is present in you. Simply be aware of the present, of what you are doing. The presence of God is everywhere, and you have only to consciously embrace it with your attention.
Extracted from:
Creating Affluence by Deepak Chopra
Amber-Allen Publishing and New World Library, 1993
******************************************************
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Learning from Barack Obama
BARACK OBAMA The Audacity of Hope"We have a stake in one another, and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and that if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done."
_______________________________________________________
When I decided to run for the United States Senate (Senate seat for Illinois in 2004), I wasn't so sure of myself. I had preserved my independence, my good name, and my marriage, all of which, statistically speaking, had been placed at risk the moment I set foot in the state capital.
But the years had also taken their toll. Some of it was just a function of my getting older; each successive year will make you more intimately acquainted with all of your flaws - the blind spots, the recurring habits of thought that will almost certainly worsen with time, as surely as the hitch in your walk turns to pain in your hip. In me, one of those flaws had proven to be a chronic restlessness; an inability to appreciate, no matter how well things were going, those blessings that were right there in front of me. It's a flaw that is endemic to modern life and one that is nowhere more evident than in the field of politics. Whether politics actually encourages the trait or simply attracts those who possess it is unclear.
Someone once said that: "Every man is trying to either live up to his father's expectation or make up for his father's mistakes."
I suppose that may explain my particular malady as well as anything else.
In any event, it was a consequence of that relentlessness that I decided to challenge a sitting Democratic incumbent for his congressional seat in the 2000 election cycle.
It was an ill-considered race, and I lost badly - the sort of drubbing that awakens you to the fact that:
"Life is not Obliged to Work Out as you'd Planned."
A year and a half later, the scars of that loss sufficiently healed, I had lunch with a media consultant who had been encouraging me for some time to run for statewide office. As it happened, the lunch was scheduled for late September 2001.
"You realize, don't you, that the political dynamics have changed," he said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
We both looked down at the newspaper. There, on the front page, was Osama bin Laden.
"Hell of a thing, isn't it?" he said, shaking his head.
"Really bad luck. You can't change your name of course. Voters are suspicious of that kind of thing. Maybe if you were at the start of your career, you know, you could use a nickname or something. But now ..." His voice trailed off and he shrugged apologetically before signaling the waiter to bring us the check.
I suspected he was right, and that realization ate away at me. For the first time in my career, I began to experience the envy of seeing younger politicians succeed where I had failed.
The pleasure of politics began to pale against the meaner tasks of the jobs: the begging for money, the long drives home and clipped phone conversation with a wife who had stuck by me so far but was pretty fed up with raising our children alone and was beginning to question my priorities.
I began to harbor doubts about the path I had chosen. I began to feel, after years of commitment to a particular dream, after years of waiting, to realize that it's gone just about as far as talent or fortune will take me. The dream will not happen, and I now faces the choice of accepting this fact like a grown-up and moving on to more sensible pursuits, or refusing the truth and ending up bitter, quarrelsome, and slightly pathetic.
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Despair - I'm not sure I went through all the stages prescribed by the experts. At some point, though, I arrived at acceptance - of my limits, and, in a way, my mortality. I refocused on my work in the state senate and took satisfaction from the reforms and initiatives that my position afforded. I spent more time at home, and watched my daughters grow, and properly cherished my wife, and thought about my long-term financial obligations. I exercised, and read novels, and came to appreciate how the earth rotated around the sun and the seasons came and went without any particular exertions on my part.
And it was this acceptance that allowed me to come up with the thoroughly cockeyed idea of running for the Illinois Senate seat in 2004.
An up-or-out strategy was how I described it to my wife, one last shot to test out my ideas before I settled into a calmer, more stable, and better-paying existence. And she - perhaps more out of pity than conviction - agreed to this one last race, though she also suggested that given the orderly life she preferred for our family, I shouldn't necessarily count on her vote.
I let her take comfort in the long odds against me.
********************************************
In 2000, Barack Obama was unsuccessful in his bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
On March 2004, Barack Obama won the Democratic primary election to become the States Senator of Illinois.
On February 2007, Barack Obama began his run for the US Presidency. He later beats Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential primaries.
In the 2008 United States General Election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain.
On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States.
***********************************************
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current president of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii.
Obama previously served as the junior United States Senator from Illinois from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008.
Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for United States Senate in 2004. His victory in the March 2004 Democratic primary election for the United States Senator from Illinois brought him to national attention. His prime-time televised keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004 made him a rising star nationally in the Democratic Party. He comfortably won election to the U.S. Senate in November 2004.
He began his run for the presidency in February 2007. After a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 general election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. On October 9, 2009, Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.[4]
Obama previously served as the junior United States Senator from Illinois from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008.
Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for United States Senate in 2004. His victory in the March 2004 Democratic primary election for the United States Senator from Illinois brought him to national attention. His prime-time televised keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004 made him a rising star nationally in the Democratic Party. He comfortably won election to the U.S. Senate in November 2004.
He began his run for the presidency in February 2007. After a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 general election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. On October 9, 2009, Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.[4]
Saturday, October 03, 2009
The Allegory of the Cave
Do you remember the movie "The Shawshank Redemption"?
There was a very poignant part of the story where a man who had been in prison for most of his life finally gets released at the age of 70. But he has no way to live in the world outside of prison, and he ends up committing suicide.
That story reminds us of the difficulties of adjusting to a reality that differs from the world that's familiar and comfortable, even if that reality is one where we're "free" and aligns much more with what we truly value.
Our cultural dominant story is a kind of prison. It's about separation - from one another, from nature, and ultimately even from ourselves. In extraordinary moments, we break out of the story. We encounter a world of being one with ourselves, others, nature, and life in a very direct way. It shifts our awareness of our world and ourselves in radical ways. It brings a great sense of hope and possibility but also great emotional uncertainties. It can be hard suddenly finding ourselves outside the story that has organized our life up to that point. It may be wonderful to be free, but it is also terrifying.
More and more people are getting out of "prison" today. The situation is like what Plato described in the "Allegory of the Cave". If you have been living all your life in a cave, looking at shadows moving across the wall, suddenly finding yourself outside can be blinding.
Our cultural dominant story is also part of us, and the pressures to pull ourselves back into the cave or prison, to go back to our habitual ways of living, can be overwhelming sometimes.
It is one thing to have momentary transcendent experiences, to be outside the prison or cave, but it's another to stabilize the awareness they bring. But going back to the cave can also be painful, because you no longer quite fit there. We feel caught between both worlds. Part of us wants to flee the sunlight and return to the cave, but we are also more and more out of sync with life in the cave.
At the heart of our culture's dominant story sit core myths, and these myths shape how we make sense of the world. However, reductive science and redemptive religion are now breaking down and we can no longer simply wait around for a great leader to come along and lead us nor protect us. The economic myth we've been in for the past decade isn't serving us well either. People are waking up to the inadequacies of the economic myth and they are questioning whether it is all about short-term self-interest.
The important point is that in exploring the future, you aren't exploring a future someone else has written for you. It is instrumental of life itself, to accomplish what life wishes for you to accomplish. We had to use ourselves as an instrument for something better to emerge, being open to our larger purpose.
Everyone is born with a destiny or a purpose, and the journey of our life is to find it. The ultimate aim is to find the resources of character to meet your destiny, and to find the wisdom and power to serve life that way.
But without free choice or free will, that dance with destiny may not begin. Freedom and destiny are solemnly promised to us and linked together with meaning. However, when the sort of commitment we observe and see are happening, we feel as if we're freer than before and freer to be poor as well as much more freer to be much further discriminated. It's a huge paradox.
People can no longer trust traditional institutional forms and structures, and if any one of institution sets itself up as the protector of such, it will backfire. Today the mysteries or the magical no longer take place in sanctuaries but in the main station, in the midst of everyday life.
We may not be able to change the larger systems overnight, but we can commit to the continual development of awareness and the capacity to choose. The capacity to choose is key, and that's always linked to our awareness.
Our fate is still very much in our hands. There must be profound transformation of our spirit and mind and of our relationships to each other and to the earth. We must be conscious and aware that every choice we make has the power to affect things one way or another. And those choices are a direct result of how deeply we're sensing.
We need to give ourselves to something larger than ourselves, and to become what we were meant to become. Then we can attain the goals that we're supposed to achieve.
Until the larger community start to master their thoughts, to pacify the minds, we won't be able to escape this prison of ours.
As Phil Lane says, "The longest road we will ever walk is the sacred journey from our head to our heart."
*******************************************************************
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies"
"Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying."
"You were right, Salvation lay within..."
*******************************************************************
Extracted from: "Presence"
Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers
Nicholas Brealey, 2005
There was a very poignant part of the story where a man who had been in prison for most of his life finally gets released at the age of 70. But he has no way to live in the world outside of prison, and he ends up committing suicide.
That story reminds us of the difficulties of adjusting to a reality that differs from the world that's familiar and comfortable, even if that reality is one where we're "free" and aligns much more with what we truly value.
Our cultural dominant story is a kind of prison. It's about separation - from one another, from nature, and ultimately even from ourselves. In extraordinary moments, we break out of the story. We encounter a world of being one with ourselves, others, nature, and life in a very direct way. It shifts our awareness of our world and ourselves in radical ways. It brings a great sense of hope and possibility but also great emotional uncertainties. It can be hard suddenly finding ourselves outside the story that has organized our life up to that point. It may be wonderful to be free, but it is also terrifying.
More and more people are getting out of "prison" today. The situation is like what Plato described in the "Allegory of the Cave". If you have been living all your life in a cave, looking at shadows moving across the wall, suddenly finding yourself outside can be blinding.
Our cultural dominant story is also part of us, and the pressures to pull ourselves back into the cave or prison, to go back to our habitual ways of living, can be overwhelming sometimes.
It is one thing to have momentary transcendent experiences, to be outside the prison or cave, but it's another to stabilize the awareness they bring. But going back to the cave can also be painful, because you no longer quite fit there. We feel caught between both worlds. Part of us wants to flee the sunlight and return to the cave, but we are also more and more out of sync with life in the cave.
At the heart of our culture's dominant story sit core myths, and these myths shape how we make sense of the world. However, reductive science and redemptive religion are now breaking down and we can no longer simply wait around for a great leader to come along and lead us nor protect us. The economic myth we've been in for the past decade isn't serving us well either. People are waking up to the inadequacies of the economic myth and they are questioning whether it is all about short-term self-interest.
The important point is that in exploring the future, you aren't exploring a future someone else has written for you. It is instrumental of life itself, to accomplish what life wishes for you to accomplish. We had to use ourselves as an instrument for something better to emerge, being open to our larger purpose.
Everyone is born with a destiny or a purpose, and the journey of our life is to find it. The ultimate aim is to find the resources of character to meet your destiny, and to find the wisdom and power to serve life that way.
But without free choice or free will, that dance with destiny may not begin. Freedom and destiny are solemnly promised to us and linked together with meaning. However, when the sort of commitment we observe and see are happening, we feel as if we're freer than before and freer to be poor as well as much more freer to be much further discriminated. It's a huge paradox.
People can no longer trust traditional institutional forms and structures, and if any one of institution sets itself up as the protector of such, it will backfire. Today the mysteries or the magical no longer take place in sanctuaries but in the main station, in the midst of everyday life.
We may not be able to change the larger systems overnight, but we can commit to the continual development of awareness and the capacity to choose. The capacity to choose is key, and that's always linked to our awareness.
Our fate is still very much in our hands. There must be profound transformation of our spirit and mind and of our relationships to each other and to the earth. We must be conscious and aware that every choice we make has the power to affect things one way or another. And those choices are a direct result of how deeply we're sensing.
We need to give ourselves to something larger than ourselves, and to become what we were meant to become. Then we can attain the goals that we're supposed to achieve.
Until the larger community start to master their thoughts, to pacify the minds, we won't be able to escape this prison of ours.
As Phil Lane says, "The longest road we will ever walk is the sacred journey from our head to our heart."
*******************************************************************
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies"
"Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying."
"You were right, Salvation lay within..."
*******************************************************************
Extracted from: "Presence"
Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers
Nicholas Brealey, 2005
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Journey of Life: The Philosophy
People come into your life for a REASON, a SEASON or a LIFE TIME.
When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person..
REASON
When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support,
To aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end..
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on..
A SEASON
Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.
A LIFE TIME
LIFETIME relationships teach you life time lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other
relationships and areas of your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
Thank you for being a part of my life,
whether you were a reason, a season or a life time.
When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person..
REASON
When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support,
To aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end..
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on..
A SEASON
Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.
A LIFE TIME
LIFETIME relationships teach you life time lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other
relationships and areas of your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
Thank you for being a part of my life,
whether you were a reason, a season or a life time.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Karpal: An Uncommon Man
“I do not choose to be a common man”
An American's Creed
by Dean Alfange
I do not choose to be a common man
It is my right to be uncommon...
If I can. I seek opportunity... Not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen,
Humbled and dulled by having the state to dream and build, to
Fail and succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole.
I prefer the challenges of life to the
Guaranteed existence; the thrill of
Fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence
Nor my dignity for a hand out. I will
Never cower before any master nor bend
to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect,
proud, and unafraid; to think and act for
myself; enjoy the benefits of my
creations; and to face the world boldly
and say, "This I have done with my own hand,
I am a man. I am an American.
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It is also A Malaysian's Creed
- Karpal Singh
Question: You mentioned that Singh is King. Did you watch the movie?
Karpal: I watched the movie and there is nothing like seeing a Sikh James Bond. It was very entertaining.
Q: Can you relate to any character in the movie?
Read the full text of the interview at: The Star
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Lessons to be Learned:
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An American's Creed
by Dean Alfange
I do not choose to be a common man
It is my right to be uncommon...
If I can. I seek opportunity... Not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen,
Humbled and dulled by having the state to dream and build, to
Fail and succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole.
I prefer the challenges of life to the
Guaranteed existence; the thrill of
Fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence
Nor my dignity for a hand out. I will
Never cower before any master nor bend
to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect,
proud, and unafraid; to think and act for
myself; enjoy the benefits of my
creations; and to face the world boldly
and say, "This I have done with my own hand,
I am a man. I am an American.
************************************************************************************
*Originally published in This Week Magazine.
Later printed in The Reader’s Digest, October 1952 and January 1954.
The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was raised in upstate New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of 1922.
**************************************************************************************Later printed in The Reader’s Digest, October 1952 and January 1954.
The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was raised in upstate New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of 1922.
It is also A Malaysian's Creed
- Karpal Singh
Question: You mentioned that Singh is King. Did you watch the movie?
Karpal: I watched the movie and there is nothing like seeing a Sikh James Bond. It was very entertaining.
Q: Can you relate to any character in the movie?
A: Not that I want to relate. I just came out that day and said look here, don’t play around with me – Singh is King. Then you find (Datuk) Mukhriz Mahathir saying that I have insulted the Rulers by saying that. Then what about Burger King? I think there should be a limit to these things. I did not mean it in any derogatory way. It was more to say don’t play around with me. I think it’s gone quite well with the people. They can laugh and it’s nothing beyond that to say that I have insulted the monarchy.
Read the full text of the interview at: The Star
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Lessons to be Learned:
There are just so many things and so many disturbing events in today's world economics and especially our Malaysian political landscape, that can make even an optimistic person ponder whether our leaders are concerned with whether our cups are full or half empty, or going to be empty soon, and as such, it takes to be reminded that it is okay to be uncommon.
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