Eye to Eye

This essay was written after I finished reading my two books, Power vs. Force and Zero Limits. The two books have interesting explanation about eye contact. Here I try to present what I understand from the books.

In the recent modern science, behavioral kinesiology is getting more and more popular and well investigated. One aspect in the study of behavioral kinesiology is to examine the strength and sensitive response of our muscle towards any object. Different qualities of similar object cause different responses to our muscle. This study reveals that muscle response and strength can be measured accurately*.

*) For example: An experiment was conducted where a group of examinees were given two sealed envelopes; one was enclosed with vitamin C and another with artificial sweetener. All examinees were not told what inside each envelope was. During the test, all examines gave exactly the same response. They showed positive response when holding the envelope with vitamin C, whereas the envelope with sweetener caused weaker muscle strength to them.

In Power vs. Force, Hawkins applied behavioral kinesiology technique to calibrate the state of human awareness to muscle strength. He found that level 200 (calibrated between 0-1000 in logarithmic scale) is the critical point for awareness shifting. At level 200 or above is obtained when people experience happiness, excitement, joy, peace, and universal love. Apparently, the highest state of human awareness which is calibrated at level 1000 is the universal love (Jesus, Lord Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna were the ones who had attained level 1000). Below 200 people emits weak energy aura. This is where humans experience all the negative state such as angry, sad, discontented, and desperate. Unfortunately, people nowadays are mostly under this critical limit!

In Zero Limits, there is a particular passage that really draws my attention: eye contact. What I found is that the ability to maintain eye contact is strongly related to the state of human awareness. It is showed in a behavioral experiment where a group of participants must stand up face to face toward their own partners who are completely strangers, and see right through their partner’s eyes for certain period. Apparently, not all participants were able to maintain eye contact within the defined period. The instructor said that the ones who are filled with love won’t get any problem with eye contact to a total stranger. People who are not in peace, not having pure heart, lack of love, having prejudice and all sort of negative thinking (below level 200), will not stand to maintain eye contact even for short time.

The ones who failed to maintain eye contact were asked to release their negative energy using ho’oponopono technique by saying I love you repetitively, emitting universal love towards all beings including their stranger counterpart. Some even dropped tears unconsciously during the progress as they felt embarrassed or guilty for having negativity that contaminated them selves as pure beings. The ho’oponopono was successful. Eventually they were able to hold eye contact with their counterpart. This indicates that our eyes can’t hide what inside our mind is. Eyes can't lie. That's why we have to release our negative energy and fill ourself with love. Wise men say, the purpose of life for every being is to love and to be loved.

Additional comment:
In Western culture, when you are talking, you have to maintain eye contact. You can tell that a person is lying or telling the truth from his/her eyes. Yet, it is a different situation in Asian culture where looking at someone straight in their eyes can be considered rude or impolite.

As someone who was raised in Asian culture, I have to adapt and get myself used to with maintaining eye contact when speaking to someone. This is an important cross cultural learning especially for Asian students who study in Western countries. The Westerners often misunderstand them because they don’t maintain eye contact when they speak. Luckily, now I am used to with it. It does help me to see whether some one tells a lie or truth. Eyes speak, and never lie.

References:
Power vs. Force (David R. Hawkins)
Zero Limits (Joe Vitale & Ihaleakala Hew Len)
Pictures from http://kingtay.blogsome.com/

Faith: accept and let go off

keywords: acceptance, power, force, grateful

Things which are meant to be for us will surely come to us. It’s a matter of time. Just be patient to wait for the right time!
Every time I had difficulty I always pray to get inspiration to solve the problem. Lately, it seemed that all answers to my pray have been provided through books. The books came out to me in various ways: through recommendation from my friends; through recommendation which came out from a stranger out of nowhere; through sudden intention to take a specific book when I browse in a bookstore.

When giving suggestion to my friends who have similar problematic situation that I had, very often I recommend them to read one particular book which, I think, seem to be appropriate to solve their problem. Yet, very often the book doesn’t suit them in term of its philosophy or overall content. And very often I heard most comment from them is that they can’t understand the main messages from the book even though they have read it over and over.

That is why I truly believe that things which are meant to be for us will surely come to us; on the contrary, things which are not meant to be, we won’t get it, we won’t understand it. For other persons with similar problem like what we had, maybe the universe has prepared another way to overcome their problem to make them able to draw the life lesson over such situation. We can help by sharing our experience in dealing with the same situation, but again, sometimes it may help to one person, sometimes it doesn’t work at all. One thing for sure, they will find the best way to overcome such situation. And the way out to the same problematic situation can be unique to every person.

Holding to that philosophy, now I can face everything with more acceptances. I realize when the thing I want can not be achieved, or the thing doesn’t work as I plan or aim for, I simply think that maybe it’s not meant to be for me at this time. Thus I have to work harder, I have to introspect and improve myself, and most importantly I have to let go off any negative thoughts for not meeting the expected target at this time. Maybe later, I deserve something better than before, something that’s meant to be best for me in the right time.

Previously, I realize that I used to apply force instead of power to get something. When we apply force, it has “tension of the opposites” (I borrow this term from Mitch Albom’s Tuesday with Morrie, as this is explained well about why we should use power instead of force). Imagine when you push a spring from its balance; you will get contraction and expansion. That is what happens when we use force. When I targeted on something with constant force, yes I can achieve the goal. But it takes most of my energy. Furthermore, it is also very exhausting to maintain what we get for using force.

Power on the other hand, encompasses everything. It doesn’t consume our energy, it recharges our energy instead. We can use power only when we are in line with our heart and in fully acceptance to the situation at any moment we live our lives. Initially, I felt a bit difficult to accept some situation in my daily basis. But when I can align with it, everything suddenly seems to unfold for me so easily. I am grateful to know this universal secret that we should work with power. Now even small things works perfectly for me as long as I’m in line with any situation in my present moment.

I still need to practice acceptance to any situation in my present moment. Sometimes, I still complain for unwanted situation I must face. Sometimes, I use force to deal with it. But then I realize, when something hectic happens, it alerts me to go in line again with my present moment, and not to use force to agitate the balance, the yin yang of the universe.

I thank all respective authors for all precious books.

References:
Power vs. Force (David R. Hawkins)
Tuesday with Morrie (Mitch Albom)

How to control our emotion and be spiritually conscious?

After dealing with some crucial life experiences and applying philosophy from several guidances about accessing spirituality, I feel that I need to share what and how I feel about my new prespective about life. A new chapter of my life has just been started.
Human beings might have advantage over other living beings in this world in the extent of having ability to be aware of their emotion, or “to be conscious” spiritually speaking. However, most human beings are not aware of this ability. Consequently, they don’t know how great the effect of this ability when it is being implemented.

Ideally, we have to be able to control our emotion and not the other way around; no matter it is driven by good or bad things in response to our surrounding environment. When it is stimulated due to good thing, we don’t lose control for not being overly excited. On the other hand, when our emotion is affected by bad thing, we don’t drag ourselves into deep despair.

The state of our emotion of being balance and not being affected by external factors is what in Buddhism is well known as Equanimity (Uppekha). It is “a spacious stillness of the mind, a radiant calm” (Salzberg, 1999), where we dwell in our peace and tranquility, emitting our highest aura and greatest inner power which can affect our surrounding environment in return (Hawkins, 2002).

Unfortunately, most people do not know how to apply this ability, and if they know, they don’t really put this into real daily practice. This fact has been confirmed in Hawkins’ investigation about the level of human consciousness where he found that most people in current modern days are below the consciousness threshold, i.e. below point 200 in logarithmic scale (the scale is between 0-1000, less than 200 is heading to chaotic state, 200 more is getting affirmative, 1000 is fully enlightened). Even in our daily life we can see that very often people are occupied with their own emotion. They become the slave of their own emotion. Consequently, a lot of people do erroneous acts, thoughts, talks, and other sort of irrational things.

Concentrate to pay attention to observe our emotional states

The question is how to control our emotion; how to perform our innate ability to be aware of our emotion and be spiritually conscious? The answer is simply to pay more attention to observe our emotional states in every moment. Paying more attention requires concentration. So, just concentrate to pay attention to observe our emotional states⁽*⁾. When we apply this once, we will experience a glimpse of tranquility; the awakening has just started. Practicing this every moment, our mind awareness becomes more and more conscious.

*) Practically, this is just the same as meditating. Meditating doesn't necessarily mean that you have to sit down like Buddha's posture closing your eyes and stay silent. Meditation can be done anywhere anytime as long as you concentrate to access the present moment, that is to pay attention to what you are presently doing.

Dwelling at conscious state offers several benefits. It does dissolve any emotional disturbance. Conscious people have acceptance to acknowledge that every single emotion influenced by external factors is only temporary, no matter good or bad. Since the power of being fully conscious is much greater than any state of world duality (good-bad, happy-sad, rich-poor, etc), it can also recharge our energy effectively and optimally. In contrast, drifting with our emotional flux consumes our energy a lot.

The pristine state of fully conscious beings is peacefulness. This is the last stage to achieve for every being in the universe. This is the highest state which is everlasting and unaffected by external environment. There is only peace inside. So, practice to observe your emotional states, be the witness on your emotional flux, and keep your heart at peace.

Happy Independence Teeth

It is important to align our teeth so they can support each other in a nice and neat formation.
In the late age, our teeth can be tilted easily due to deteriorating support of the gum. In spite of that, teeth with straight formation might restrain them being tilted by giving strong support holding each other. For this reason, a lot of people with inadequate teeth formation wear brace to align their teeth.

The dentist said that anyone in any age is still possible to align their teeth using the brace providing the gum is still strong enough to support the alignment. The gum in the age of forties is still considered okay for such treatment. In some case, people in the age of fifties are still likely to do so.

Initially, the dentist normally asks you to have an X-ray photograph to check your jaw structure. Some people have a wide jaw structure causing their teeth formation very loose, or it could be the other way round where the narrow jaw causes the crooked or the overlapping teeth formation due to not enough space for the teeth to grow in line. The former case is easier to align simply by tightening the teeth using the brace. The later case requires more treatment which is to pull several teeth out or to file down some teeth into smaller size. Either way has the same purpose which is to give some space on the jaw enabling each tooth to align in the limited jaw structure.


How long a patient must wear the brace depends on how worse the initial teeth formation was. It may take about 1 to 1.5 years under the brace control to straighten either the loose or the overlapping teeth formation. Some case such as slanted-front teeth might take longer time to handle. For my case, I had worn the brace for about 16 months with a monthly brace control.

Does it hurt?
This is the most frequently asked question by someone regarding wearing teeth brace. Again, it is very relative to each person. Some said that they feel painful to chew for a week after the brace tightening hence losing appetite and weight consequently; some even said that they got fever. But for me, I normally had only two days to adapt after the brace being tightened. Those were the two days where I had to chew my meals extra slowly, but no fever at all, thank God.


Post Treatment
My dentist recommends me to wear teeth retainer after removing my brace. The retainer can prevent the recently straightened teeth from being deformed as the new formation is still unstable without the brace. The retainer can be easily removed any time, but it is recommended to wear it at most time. Normally, I just remove it during my meal, after that I wear it again and keep wearing it even when I sleep.


Thank my orthodontist for his professional treatment handling my teeth. Now, I can smile as wide as possible showing my tidy teeth to everyone

Tuban Eats

Traditional Tuban cuisine is characterized by the extremely hot chili flavor. I guess, the majority of local Tubanese loves to eat very spicy foods. To them, the more their mouths numb and their bodies sweat when eating spicy foods mean that the more they enjoy eating the food. Accordingly, some Indonesian food that is not supposed to be spicy, such as sayur bening (spinach soup) and sayur asam (mixed vegetable in sour soup), here they also put chilies within.

In relation to my interest to explore traditional Tuban cuisines, I usually ask my local friends to accompany me on my food safari. Not to forget, I always bring stomach-relieving tablets, promag, to prevent discomfort due to excessive gastric acid, chewed before and after having the very spicy food.

Here, I recommend some popular place to eat traditional spicy foods in Tuban (I challenge if you dare to try). I put 1 star (mild) to 5 stars (extremely hot) just to indicate the ‘hot’ level of the food.

Pecel Pincuk Patung*
Description: A mixed vegetable (agati flower, cassava leaves, bean sprout, petai cina (a kind of bean), and basil with peanut sauce, served with rice.
Place: Near Patung round about in Kalijogo St. The small warung (food stand) is in the left side if you come from the round about. ASK locals which one pecel pincuk stand is.
Open time: around 6 p.m. till mid night.
Other info: They also have empal (spice-flavored beef), fried eggs, chicken egg satay, perkedel (potato cake), rempeyek kacang (peanut chip), rempeyek teri (anchovy chip), salted duck egg, and soy bean milk.

Lontong Tahu Tri Dharma*
Description: Lontong (rice cake) and fried tofu with peanut sauce.
Place: Sutomo St. in the intersection to Ronggolawe St.
Open time: around 6:30 p.m. –

Wader MU**
Description: Fried fresh water fish with sambal (chili paste). I give 2 stars for the sambal, the fried fish itself is not spicy.
Place: Warung Moeloeng. Go toward Semen Gresik mess, if you come from Tuban, the place is about 1 km after passing the mess in the left side. Phone number: +6281335304014.
Open time: morning till night around 10 p.m.

Lontong Kikil**
Description: Kikil soup served with lontong (rice cake). Kikil is the chewy part around the cartilage and foot part of the ox meat. The soup is rich in traditional spice of the typical East Javanese cooking.
Place: Near Patung round about in Kalijogo St. The small warung (food stand) is in the left side if you come from the round about. ASK locals which one Lontong Kikil stand is.
Open time: morning till afternoon.

Bechek Menthog (Duck Curry)**
Description: Duck curry and satay, served with steamed grounded corn or lontong (rice cake).
Place: go to Medika Mulia hospital, pass it heading south for another 300 m, then ASK locals for more detail guidance. The place is on the right side, under pohon sawo (big sapodilla tree).
Open time: morning-afternoon.
Other info: curry will be ready after 12 p.m. better come on time otherwise they run out of stock quickly due to so many customers.

Nasi Pasar Baru***
Description: Various Tuban cuisines including delicious seafood cooking, served with warm rice on a piece of teak leaf. Famous for all sorts of curry: catfish, sting ray, squid curry cooked with squid ink. Ask for the sambal (chili paste).
Place: Pasar Baru (central market of Tuban), go in through eastern gate (main entrance), and you’ll notice a warung there.
Open time: 6 p.m. – 3 a.m.
Other info: Ask for the teak leaf on the plate.

Ikan Bakar Nurhamidah***
Description: Grilled fish served with rice and fresh vegetables. The sambal (chili paste) is very tasty. The way they grill the fish is excellent, well cooked but not too dry making the taste of the grilled fish so marvelous. I give 3 stars for the sambal.
Place: Tuban-Semarang Highway km. 4, the place is precisely on the beach.
Open time: morning-night.
Other info: They also serve other seafood; fried shrimp/squid are highly recommended. Arrange your time to come earlier as they take at least 45 minutes to bake and prepare the meal.

Nasi Jagung Jangkar****
Description: Fried eels/frogs/catfish coated with red chili sauce, served with steamed grounded corn wrapped in banana leaves. The sauce can be separated by request.
Place: go to Medika Mulia hospital, pass it heading south for another 1 km, then ASK locals for more detail guidance.
Open time: morning, normally by 12 p.m. the foods have been sold out.
Other info: Tuak, a traditional drink that contains alcohol is also served here. (See also my other posting about this place).

Belut (eel) Pak Min****
Description: Same dishes of spicy eels and steamed grounded corn, except the sauce is slightly different, a bit yellowy color due to turmeric use in the ingredient.
Place: go to Medika Mulia hospital, pass it heading south for couple miles until the road ends at a T-junction, turn right until you find the 1st alley on the left. Car is not accessible to this alley but the place is in walking distance (5 min walk). ASK locals for more detail guidance.
Open time: around 5 to 9 p.m.

Belut (eel) MU*****
Description: Eels in spicy thick sauce, served with steamed grounded corn. A half spoonful of the sauce is enough to burn your mouth! Suggestion: keep eating till you finish, a pause will make you suffer even more.
Place: go to Merak Urak (MU) market, from the T-junction, drive another 2 km to Suruan village, heading to Tuwiri Wetan until you find the first alley in the left side. ASK locals for more detail guidance.
Open time: morning-afternoon.

Rajungan Rhemason*****
Description: A very hot addictive crab curry.
Place: Manunggal Jaya in Manunggal St. in front of SMUN 3. Phone number: +6281357388219.
Open time: morning-night.
Other info: They also serve black squid curry, goat satay, and goat curry.

Happy Eating!

Soto Ayam Sleko

“The best of soto ayam I’ve ever had” is the reason why I compose this essay and dedicate it to Ibu Narto, for her brilliant recipe of a perfect spice mixture creating such a great taste of a traditional East Javanese style of Soto Ayam.

Soto ayam is an Indonesian type of chicken soup (soto=soup; ayam=chicken) characterized by its yellow color due to the use of turmeric and other spice. Talking about soto ayam, Indonesian people normally refer to East Java as the place where you can find the original taste of this soto. Soto ayam in East Java is slightly different from the one in West Java. Soto ayam in West Java is with coconut milk whereas the one in East Java is without. I myself prefer the East Java one since the exotic taste is purely from the perfect mixture of the spice. As reference, Lamongan in East Java is the most popular place for soto ayam. I often drop by there on the way from Tuban to Surabaya to eat soto ayam.

Lamongan soto ayam is good but not until I found this place called Warung Soto Sleko during my food safari in Tuban. This place offers a really great taste of soto ayam, the best I’ve ever had so far. I got information about this place from local Tuban people. From them I can tell that this place is pretty well-known among the old generation of Tubanese. They said that this place has been popular since long time ago. However, not so many young Tubanese know about the place.

The owner of this small warung is a 72 year old lady called Ibu Narto. In her late age, she is still active to run her business selling soto ayam. She uses a small patch in the front part of her house with a nice little garden in one side. She told me that every morning she has to go to the market to buy free-range organic chickens, then prepare the ingredient based on her excellent recipe and finish her cooking by mid noon. The place previously opened from 5 to 9 p.m. but now opens from lunch time to 9 p.m. everyday except on Sunday for the church.

Ibu Narto told me that in the beginning she ran her business, she didn’t utilize the front part of the house for the warung. When she had finished the cooking, her late husband would bring the big pot full of soto to the nearest market. They opened a stand there because there were more customers around the market than around the house since the area around her house was not convenient for access. But after couple years passed, Tuban city council had fixed the area up and facilitated it with street lights. Since then, they opened this nice comfortable little warung at home. Her loyal customers still come to the current place in Pahlawan St. no. 7, just in front of a monument in the T-junction. Her customers are not only from down town Tuban, but also from Jakarta, Surabaya, and other areas.


Apart from serving soto ayam, Warung Soto Sleko also serves fried chicken and sambal lalapan (fresh vegetables and chili paste). Both soto ayam and the fried chicken are from free-range organic chickens therefore the taste are very delicious. Soto ayam here can be served with rice or lontong (rice cake). Normally the rice is poured with the hot soto within one bowl, but you can ask to separate the rice from the soup as what I usually do. Before, this place also offered grilled chicken, but they have withdrawn it from the menu. The reason is simply due to ease to prepare soto ayam and fried chicken only, said Bu Narto. So, I strongly recommend you, try this marvelous soto ayam and the fried chicken. Bon Appetit ;)


Price info:
A bowl of soto ayam + rice: IDR Rp. 7,500.00
A piece of fried chicken: IDR Rp. 10,000.00
A glass of tea: IDR Rp. 1,000.00

Batik Gedog, a nice souvenir from Tuban

Batik Gedog, one of the Indonesian traditional hand-painted batik, is a well-preserved cultural heritage which is originally from Tuban, East Java. The artistic feature of this batik is characterized by its coloration. The base color of the fabric could be any color. Red, blue, green, brown, black and white are common among other basic colors. The conspicuous pattern of this batik makes it unique relatively to other Indonesian batik. The patterns are mostly inspired from nature for example flowers, leaves, marble, insects, lizards, peacocks, and many other types of birds.

Batik Gedog can be worn as informal or formal clothing. Pajama, casual T-shirt, short- or long-sleeves shirt, and formal gown are common clothing made from this batik. The highest to lowest quality of the fabric used for painting Batik Gedog are silk, juantiu, and primis (local term) respectively. Cotton is the most suitable fabric to make Gedog T-shirts. Any fabric other than those types is less appropriate to apply for batik painting.

The center of Batik Gedog making can be found in several villages in Kerek, the western suburb of Tuban. A village called Margorejo, about 30 km from down town Tuban, is a very popular Gedog making center where you can see the process of drawing Batik Gedog by most female local workers.

It is very interesting to see those skillful hands of the ladies drawing particular pattern on the fabric. They use a wax-based ink to make permanent color on the pattern so it can hardly bleach for long.


The only thing you should be aware of when you wash a new clothing of Batik Gedog for the first time is that you have to separate it from other clothes as the remaining ink will dissolve and can contaminate other clothes. The second wash will be perfectly okay to mix up.

Life Journey: Evolution of Spirituality

Source: Zero Limits (Joe Vitale & Ihaleakala Hew Len) & The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle)

After reading and reviewing several literatures regarding self-improvement by visualization, affirmation, self-awareness technique, EFT, etc; I must say that I totally agree with Joe Vitale’s concept that the evolution of spirituality among human beings in general can be summarized into three different stages:

We are as a victim
In this stage, we are the typical ordinary people in the daily life. We feel that we don’t have influence, totally powerless. This stage is often characterized by people complaining, blaming, judging easily, which are still considered acceptable as ‘normal’ behavior in our life. We act almost entirely based on our ego, unconsciously.

Start gaining control
In this stage people start to know about the power of intention. With a powerful visualization of affirmative mindset, they start to attract good thing as expected. True, it is the law of attraction that works behind this as they emit high vibrating energy due to excitement. Recently, more and more people practice “The Secret” to attract better things in their life. Yet, such technique is not necessarily always successful. It really depends on the degree of intense craving and how strong they can visualize the thing they want to attract. Sometime, a person is not “thirsty” enough to empower the attracting force towards the thing he or she wants. Apparently, this power is still based on human’s ego, only in a more controlled form which is performing intense visualization of what a person wants.

The common characteristic of people is never feeling satisfied with something. Moreover, we all have things we want to posses. However, after one thing has been fulfilled then we start craving for another thing, and so on. Sometimes we push the situation by applying the power of intention to satisfy our craving. Yet, when the thing doesn’t work as we expect, we tend to find a more powerful way to fulfill our own needs.

It would be very lucky enough if people, with time and experience through different life situation, can shift into higher awareness which is the very last stage of spiritual evolution. That is to realize that it is not by letting our own craving always be satisfied to get true happiness. We can achieve the true happiness only when we get rid of our own ego and craving. Hence, there will be only peace inside. That is the highest state of happiness. (For more information, read Power versus Force in which Richard Hawkins has scientifically investigated about the lowest to highest level of human energy in relation to the state of mind).

Awakening
In this very last stage of spirituality, people start to realize that their own intention is the limiting factor to access the greatest power of life. People in this stage look inward them selves; enjoy every single present moment of their lives. They start to feel deep peace inside, the peace that comes from within, not because of outer environment. When this is happening, the power of forgiving, forgiveness, love, gratitude simply emanate from inside towards the universe, affecting people, animals, plants, things, and all beings. This is where the law of paradox begins to happen, i.e. the universe unfolds for you when you surrender, agree to each moment of life, or what is referred as you are inline with God. Hence, you start receiving miracles. And you simply enjoy the miracles you receive with gratefulness as you already know that you are going to receive it.

* * *

Regarding my life journey, if I look at back through my life experience, at the first stage of my life I realize that most things I did were not based on my conscious mind, but were ego-based instead, an extremely determined ego-based. I labeled anything good or bad according to my limited own beliefs based on my ego’s importance.

The second stage was started when I encountered one very crucial life problem that made me so desperate. Just by chance, a stranger had a little chat to me and mentioned about “The Secret”. So, I bought the book. After reading it through, I was so excited to try this technique. As recommended from the book: keep practice to sharpen this power, start by visualizing small thing in our daily life. So, I did that excitedly. I remember that on one particular day I was out of town, I had seven small tasks done using the Secret technique. I felt so great! To some extent, I had experienced the power of intention which had been successfully worked for me due to my intense craving. Nevertheless, not every life task can be easily accomplished with it despite I have developed my mood enhancing technique. When I feel down, I hardly can visualize the “happy” thing that I want to attract or achieve. This seems to be the weakness of this method.

Under my confusion and sickness of life, I kept looking for an answer. It was in the bookshop I browsed for a good book about life. I simply grabbed The Power of Now. This book really helped me to open my mind and to look at life situation with clearer perspective. Thank Eckhart Tolle. I felt so blessed that I got the answer to my prayer. It provides me guidance to enter the last stage of spiritual life. The book might be kinda “heavy” reading, but the principle is simple and very logical. Till now, I practice to live my world in every single present moment. At least I can start to feel at peace. And I try to keep that state anytime anywhere.

For that reason I feel very grateful, that I’ve experienced each stage progressively. I was wondering why not since a long time ago I’ve found the book. But then I think I should experienced each stage gradually, otherwise I won’t have capacity to understand on what has been explained by Tolle in The Power of Now.

By reading such literature, I have also revised and sorted out many of my ego-based philosophies. Previously, I really admired and implemented Julius Caesar’s famous Veni Vidi Vici as he expanded his empire and conquered his enemies. But now, I feel that such principle seems to be impractical in current life situation and no more appropriate for me to apply.

Thus far, I considered my self very lucky because I was born and raised in a very conservative Chinese ethnic descent family which is strict in applying Taoism and Confucianism principle, combined with typical Chinese norms of living in a transitional period toward a modern millennium life. Moreover, to me, living as minority among indigenous Indonesian people is considered as another blessing since I can learn how to position myself within any community to avoid racism issue and conflict upon social strata. Another lucky thing I have in my life is being associated with Buddhism which initially I learned during my previous 12-year basic formal education. The teaching is very useful and influential in guiding me to understand about what’s happening in this world, a world which is full with chaos and unconsciousness. Finally, I am so grateful because I had opportunity to experience living in a very complex modern big city to a small simple little town and quiet suburban village, in developing and developed country, in western, eastern, and multiracial culture. Living in various dynamic places, interacting with people, and encountering various life problem play a very important role to open my mind, identify my weaknesses, find out my strength, improve my tolerance and adaptability skill during social interaction, enrich my learning, and eventually gain deeper understanding about universal life.

Supporting References:
-A New Earth (Eckhart Tolle)
-Power vs Force (David R. Hawkins)
-The Law of Attraction (Michael Losier)
-The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle)
-The Secret (Rhonda Byrnes)

Be successful at work!

“The more you include others, the more smoothly things flow and the more easily things come to you. When you give little help or no help to others or put obstacles in their path, the universe – in the form of people and circumstances – gives little or no help to you because you have cut yourself off from the whole.” (Eckhart Tolle, 2005: A New Earth; pg 123)
* * *
“Your resentment of another person’s success curtails your own chances of success. In order to attract success, you need to welcome it wherever you see it.” (Eckhart Tolle: A New Earth, pg 123)

Ginger ice cream, cooling and warming

Temperature today is so hot! Spontaneously I just remember ginger flavored ice cream. So, I just write this essay, dedicated to my favorite things ^_^

Ice cream with ginger flavor might not be as popular as strawberry, vanilla, or chocolate one. I my self knew about this very late. At the very first time I tried, this ginger ice cream already made me addicted totally!

It was in Frosty Mango, a nice comfortable little stop-over in between Townsville and Cairns I found this ginger ice cream. We were on the way back from Orpheus Island to Townsville, and we dropped by there. From the name of the place, I thought they must be specializing in processing fresh mangoes for the ice cream since they have their own mango farm around the shop. Certainly you can get ice cream with mango flavor, but there are many more unique flavors such as coconut, lemon, jackfruit, longan, lychee, sapodilla, and ginger!

ice cream bar in Frosty Mango
So, I decided to try this ginger flavored ice cream. The color looked quite similar to vanilla ice cream. The taste was so great. I had the cooling sensation under the hot North Queensland climate, and at the same time I felt warm and comfortable in my throat. What a great ice cream!!!

Unfortunately, ice cream with ginger flavor was not so common. I can hardly find it in Stockland and any other ice cream stands. So, I had kept asking my friends who went for a field trip to Orpheus, to get me a box of ginger ice cream on the way back.

Until now, ginger flavor is still my best favorite choice of ice cream!... mmmm yummy...

God, The Creator, The Divine One, The Source…or Energy?

All material in this universe consists of molecules. Each molecule has atoms that consist of nucleus with its orbiting electrons. Within the nucleus there are protons and neutrons. (Quantum Physics).
Now compare it to our universe! It’s a very similar pattern.

The space contains billions of galaxy clouds. Each galaxy cloud contains billion of galaxies. Each galaxy contains billions of stars. Each star has its own system consisting of orbiting planets with their own orbiting satellites. (Astronomy-Cosmology).
So, ever wondered who creates all of these?

Scientifically, people will point out ‘energy’ that maintain the system balance. Energy can’t be created or destroyed. It moves its form to another form. Energy enables the big bang that forms the galaxy system in the empty space... Theologically, people will say ‘God’. God can not be created or destroyed, just moving into form, through form, out of form.” (James Ray, the Secret pg 159). So, it is the same essence, only different terminology. If I use the following equation:

God = Energy = mc²; where m = mass, c = speed of light in a vacuum

It does make more sense now to a scientific explanation-minded type of person like me to see what people mean by God is everywhere and within your selves!!!

All materials have mass in this physical universe. Therefore, they have potential energy, or so-called God essence in a spiritual context. I’m not saying that we have to worship any material as they have God essence (read: potential energy). To me worshiping is more into religious culture and habit. And I’m not talking in a religious context, but in spirituality instead.

Talking about energy in relation to human being, ever wonder how we produce heat? We get energy from foods so then we can produce energy to act. It’s all about energy transformation. Every time, our body also emits energy. In the spiritual context, it is referred as the aura of our body that emanates towards the universe.

The emitted aura is strongly influenced by the state of mind. So if our mind is happy, compassionate, and always positive, then we emit the positive aura. Similarly when we are imbued with bad thoughts, unhappy feeling, resentment, and other kind of negativity, we’re emitting bad vibration.

When we emit bad energy vibration, we attract bad thing; good energy only vibrates to good things to attract. This is what is defined as the universal Law of Attraction. So, when we’re aware that we’re in negative state then we must immediately dissolve our bad energy.

It is not an easy thing to overcome our negativity. At worse, most people are not even aware enough when they’re doing something negative. Thus, it really takes lots of practice until we find the best way to lessen our negativity along with improving our affirmative thoughts and developing positive mental attitude.

The way I deal with it is simply to apply the principle of LET IT GO into my daily practice. It here refers to things that might trigger my negative thought; those are things such as my bad experience or dissatisfaction in the past that might lead into potential resentment, hatred, depression, personality disorder, or even taking revenge. Despite the fact that such things exist no more in the present moment, very often they come back again and easily pop up in the mind of most human beings. So, there is absolutely no use to keep such memory in our mind. Just LET IT GO! And only by doing that, I can access and enjoy my present moment peacefully.

Once our mind is in the present moment, it is easier to bring acceptance and forgiveness within our self. These are the acceptance and forgiveness on any condition that has happened to us, particularly past occasion that may activate our bad mood or self-blaming, which is known as painful memory. Only by focusing on the present moment, such memory can be dissolved from our mind, hence less and less painful memory popping up in our mind and eventually gone totally.

Another benefit of living in the present moment is that you are more aware of any thing in your surroundings. People mostly talk, act, and think about something without being fully conscious! But when you are totally in the present moment, you will be conscious enough to witness that any things around you has God essence that always reminds you to return back to God’s path, leading to deep peacefulness and enlightenment.

In this state, any inspiration can easily come to us. Inspiration is the creative thinking. And only with creative thinking, we can easily unlock anything in our life: career, wealth, good health, and many other life tasks. That is to say, the universe unfolds for you as you’re in God’s path. You’re returning to God, back to zero. And that’s where you are experiencing the truth happiness.

Key:
God is within you means God dwells in you, this you can sense only when you’re at peace, or at transcendental state.
God is everywhere means that every single thing around you will remind you to return to the universality of God.

Source:
-A new earth (Eckhart Tolle)
-Power vs Force (David R. Hawkins)
-The Law of Attraction (Michael Losier)
-The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle)
-The Secrets (Rhonda Byrne)
-Zero Limits (Joe Vitale & Ihaleakala Hew Len)

Images:
quantum: http://www.quantumenergywellness.com/
atom: http://www.bartleby.com/
milky way: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/
solar system: www.gcsescience.com
solar sketch: http://fascinatingly.com

Dear Friend, Life Must Go On

It’s always good to hang out and get together with friends. As we’re getting along with our friends, we must still keep focusing on what we want to achieve in our life. While each of our friends has different goals in their life, we must also focus on ours, otherwise we will be left behind in our life.

Our friends one day may leave us to reach their dream, or it could be the other way around. It is such a common phenomenon in life. Have you ever thought about your old friends in elementary school, high school, or university? Where are they now? ... Yes, it is great if we still meet up or keep in touch with them. But some might have been disappeared from our radar. And again, that is just perfectly normal. They have to continue their life journey, and so do we.

Often I found very good friends in different places. But after some period of interaction, it is time to say good bye again. I’m not regretting that. To have such a high-quality friendship is a precious gift in this world. It’s a matter of whether we can deal with the sudden change of a situation where we have less and less time to interact with our friends. After all, true friends will always be close to our heart although they are separated thousand miles away from us.

The wise saying tells us that we should not have too much attachment to our friends in many respects. Indeed, experiences teach me that too much attachment to our close friends eventually causes more emotional pain when thing doesn’t work as what we expect. Unless, you are spiritually awakened enough to control your emotion, or in other words to say, you are free from attachment, that would be great! However, most people suffer “gloomy” period due to this emotional pain. It may take one week, a month, or even longer to dissolve such feeling.

“You may not know that you’re attached to something until you lose it or there is the threat of loss” (Tolle, 2005: A New Earth)

My colleague, Y. Apriliansyah, gave me a very good advice on how not to be overly attached to our fellow friends. Follows are the paraphrase on what he said: Attachment is caused by strong emotional bound, i.e. love, implicitly. Therefore, we must prioritize the distribution of our love. The first two highest priorities are to our Creator and to our parents (My comment: Most Indonesian believes that God is supposed to be the 1st priority to love then followed by our parents, but in India is the other way around. Despite different reasons in each country, both still agree that God and parents are the first two highest priorities to love. This is typical in most Eastern countries). Then we can dedicate our love to our spouse or sibling. Apparently, friends are relatively the last priority to love. The closest our bound with someone will be the more painful we suffer when we break up. In that case, only by shifting our love to the higher priorities we can dissolve such emotional pain.

My very personal suggestion is to be grateful always for those who still have good friends around. Be communicative and open to your good friends to avoid any misunderstanding. And ideally, we should not have overly attachment and too much dependency towards our friends, then we can enjoy our friendship without any prejudice, jealousy, and other kind of negative attitude.

So in this chance, I’d like to say to all my dearest friends: I’m sorry for my negative thoughts that have caused any problem and misunderstanding between you and I; Please forgive me; I love you; Thank you for being my friends and becoming part of my life (Ho'oponopono Teaching).

Many thanks to Mr. Thayalan and Yudi Apriliansyah

Earth Day'09

Love Our Planet Earth

Bali's Day of Silence

Mindset: How Can I Do More?

"Can I do that?" That sounds doubting our own capability; "How can I do better?" This is a more positive attitude.
I believe that in any life situation, we surely can do things to improve our lives. However, some people complain that most often they always run out of time to do their daily tasks, hence no more time to do other things that might enhance their life quality. In the end, they always say that their life situation is not as ideal as what they expect.

It’s very common to hear statement like “I wish I have more time to do that”, “I wish I could do more to get additional income”, “I wish I can cram that activity into my schedule”, etc. As a matter of fact, sure we can manage everything in a defined period. There is no time limitation as an excuse. Any life situation is certainly manageable. It’s all about whether or not a person knows how to manage it and really wants to do so.

The best way to manage our life is to get rid any inefficiency in our daily routine. Indeed, everyone has capability to live their life efficiently. Unfortunately, people tend to underestimate their own capacity to overcome such condition. I believe it is simply just a mindset problem. They accuse that their daily routine has killed most of their time.

A typical common example of a life situation is when your boss assigns you for a new task. The first reaction could be excited, nervous, doubtful, not confident, or mix between them. That’s still normal response. Yet, some people might feel stress or under pressure as they take it as more burdens to bear.

But lets we take a look at it through rose-tinted glasses. Would that be a big chance to get more precious experience? The boss might have considered several candidates, but then you’re the one who has been chosen and entrusted to perform the task.

In some case people are urged by their life situation to do more additional works to support their life. They still can manage it eventually. The key to success in managing more works is simply doing better time management, thus allocating time more efficiently within our daily routine.

Another point to bear in mind is to keep positive mindset: We can do anything as long as we put extra effort physically and mentally. Never ever give up! That is the moral value.

“How much we can do depends on how much we think we can do” (Schwartz, 1979: The Magic of Thinking Big)

Aris, our friend, can’t move his left hand after having an accident. Yet, he does not give up doing his normal activity even with one hand paralyzed. Playing pool is one of his hobby. He develops a technique to strike the ball with one hand. Now, he plays as great as other two-handed pro pool players. He enjoys his hobby till now. I really admire his inspiring spirit!!!

Ost: The Matrix

Clubbed To Death
by Rob Dougan

...is dance music that you could never dance to. (Wikipedia)

Just a little part I tried to play on my piano

I love this composition very much, so COOL!!!
Take a look at my other essay related to The Matrix here.

Happy Chinese New Year 2009

Gong Xi Fa Cai 2560

May We Always be Fulfilled with Positive Energy

May All Sentient Beings be Well and Happy

Xin Nian Kuaile, Wanshi Ruyi

The Greatest Blessing

It was typical for me not to tell my family, close friends, or anyone about my big project before I reach my final goal. Good though, to some extent! Despite the high pressure I had when dealing with the task, I learn to be strong to stand up on my own feet, and not to depend on other people, an absolute single fighter very often!

The moment I announce that I have achieved my ultimate goal, that would the most euphoric climax for me. I love to surprise my family and my close friends. I really enjoy that moment with all joy and excitement!

However, it's not easy to accomplish every single task. It requires big effort and wouldn’t be as easy as snapping finger. Perhaps I just realized that every task I do will run more smoothly when I ask my mum for her blessing. I believe that mother’s blessing to her children is absolutely powerful in any situation. So every time I have chance to tell my mum about my tasks, I’ll ask for her special blessing.

Dare to Dream

Edensor, a popular Indonesian novel by Andrea Hirata, tells about the author’s life reflection in attaining his dream. The story begins in a little village in Belitung, Indonesia. There lived a boy who had strong will in which his life journey led him to end up in France to study his master higher degree. France was the place of his dream, inspired by the old picture of Eiffel Tower hung in the almost-broken class room wall during his early school days.

Through his effort, he got a scholarship for his post graduate program. This was his starting point of his life adventure. A boy who previously lived in a low-level-society district, who thought that going overseas is only for someone economically capable, eventually just started to experience the world thousand miles away from his village. He learnt lots of things from his journey. There he realized that whatever he dreamed about during his early days, it would come true. Even by chance he found the most beautiful scenery of Edensor, a place that he could only see and imagine from a book given by someone important in his life when he was just a kid.

***
This novel of Edensor inspires me to write this essay, an essay about having dreams in our life. Many people don’t want to realize their dreams. They think that the world is such a threatening place. That's why it’s better to be secure by not taking possible risks to chase what they really want to do, what they really dream about. Once you have a thought like this, then that is your world going to be. (Coelho, from the Alchemist)

It is very true that in realizing our dream, there will be lots of obstacle blocking up our way. But the essence behind that is how we learn to overcome such blockage by applying patience, hard work, effort, and persistence, so that we become a better individual. Unfortunately, most people give up in that situation. They don’t want to live their “personal legend” in making their dreams come true.

“Personal legend” is a term mentioned by the alchemist to refer to several processes that must be accomplished by someone to achieve the goal of their life. (Gee...I really like to refer to Coelho’s work. Coelho is such a genius!)

Regarding achieving our dream, here are best notes that I quote from another Coelho’s work “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept”, part of the wisdom saying from the padre to Pilar:

“Follow your dreams, transform your life, take the path that leads to God. Perform you miracles. Cure. Make Prophecies. Listen to your guardian angel. Transform yourself. Be a warrior, and be happy as you wage the good fight. Take risks” (River Piedra, pg 132)
I would add a bit of my own interpretation and note.
Listen to your heart to chase your dream. There will be so many miracles for you to experience on the way to reach your dream and be grateful for every single miracle you receive. Be brave and take risks in moving forward to make the dream comes true. How soon your dream can come true depends on whether or not you move your step toward the realization of your dream.

So have your big dreams. Enjoy the journeys in achieving your dreams. Finally celebrate the moment when your dreams come true!

Season's Greetings

The picture of Snowflake here is published with permission from Nancy Hamlin-Vogler of Eastern Sun Printworks. Thanks a lot Nancy for sharing your beautiful master piece to me :-)