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 :-)

Mood Booster

We’ll never know what will come to us in the next couple second: news, occurrence, etc. It could be something good or bad. Those things can influence our mood significantly. Good thing is good for us. But bad things can affect us worse and worse. Bad things in the beginning of the day can really spoil the whole day. Bad mood EMITS negative vibration. Be aware of it!

That’s why it is important to identify something that can turn our mood better. People call it as mood booster. Mood booster has a significant role in controlling our energy. Mood booster could be things that make you relaxed, happy, warm-hearted, smile, laugh, peaceful, and other kind of good feeling. It could be memories, music, sport, hobby, pets, foods, nature, and many more. Different individuals have different choice of mood boosters. Environment is also a very influential factor in applying which mood booster is the most effective to use in a particular situation.

For me, I notice several mood boosters in different stages of my life:

Kindergarten: going to the beach swimming with my family, walking to explore the block around my house
Elementary school: get together with my musician friends
High school: sitting on a quiet beach enjoying my self alone looking at the horizon
University in Indonesia: going to China town for shopping and eating, praying in the old temple
University in Australia: going to the Strand and Sunday market, cooking, salsa night, going for trips
Working in Tuban: talking for hours on the phone to my close friends, reading self-management books accompanied with relaxing music, and for sure, playing tennis!

Doing some exercise might also release mental pressure, uneasy feeling due to stress, and all sort of negative energy, hence improving our mood. When I wake up in the morning, if my mind is drawn into too much worry, then I just push my self to jog, get sweat, and release all tension. After that, I feel much fresher and stop thinking such unnecessary worry. To relieve stress from work, I play ping pong, tennis, or practice taichi. It does help me to get out from such depressing situation.

However, like I said before, we’ll never know what will come to us in the next second. When something suddenly comes and makes us feel bad, then we need an instant mood booster. What I normally do when I face such situation is talk to my best friend. A suggestion from them on how to overcome the problem would be very helpful and such a precious gift. Nevertheless, that they are being available to listen to me is already an enormous blessing.

Another instant mood booster of mine is listening to music. I have prepared a bunch of good music in my mp3 player. They’re all the cheerful, funny, soft, relaxing ones. No hurt feeling, disappointment, nor broken heart kind of song; It’s all with positive lyrics. I just set my mp3 player on and simply enjoy it. It makes my mood better at anytime. So, find out what will your mood booster be :-)

Recently I read a book called "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. He proposes that only with the Power of Now we can gain our liberation from any unconscious thought that causes our negative feeling. To access the Power of now is basically to be fully aware on the present moment by observing our breathing or emotion. Simply just observe, be a silent observer.

I have been practicing the Power of Now and I’m in progress to get more familiar about it. Like the author said, keep practice until it is rooted into your habit then you can start to experience the joy of this power. Hmmm, I am inspired to write another essay regarding this technique.

A Review: The Alchemist (Coelho)

This book is very challenging to read! Coelho is such a genius!

What I understand from this book is that an Alchemist is basically a person who gets fully awakened spiritually. The main character, Santiago, seems to have this “talent” which allows him to become more aware on things he deals with.

He learns thing very fast from his surrounding. That is why through his journey he eventually understood the Alchemy principle which is the basic philosophy of life. It’s a deep understanding he got from his learning that was inspired by his sheeps, the sea, crystal, fire, dessert, and other things he encountered in his journey. When he got inspiration, he became silent and impressed by the aura of each element around him. Such a trance condition he experienced!

Follows are several quotes I like from this book:

It is "old and wise" to learn lessons from any thing you experience in your life (Santiago's thought, pg 73)

"If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man" (phrase from camel driver, pg 85)

"The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering it self" (phrase from the Alchemist, pg 130)

Don’t be scared, coz when you are, you won’t be able to listen to your heart (paraphrase from the Alchemist saying, pg 141)

The Secret Concept; the Power of Positive Thoughts

It seems that nowadays The Secret becomes a popular tool to achieve someone's dream and goal in their live. The concept is to use affirmative thoughts to emit the powerful positive vibration of our energy to attract what we want to achieve. Here, I found several examples that apply The Secret and how The Secret works.

Paulo Coelho, a very famous writer, seems to understand The Secret well. Many phrases in his books are the manifestation of The Secret concept. In his book, The Alchemist, he keeps emphasizing that, if you want something, the whole universe will conspire to make it true. He refers that in Alchemy discipline, the universe will unfold all things for you, this principle is known as "the Soul of the World" i.e. when you want something with all your heart, your soul will be the closest to the Soul of the World (the Universe), and it is in the form of positive force (the Alchemist, pg 78). This positive force will attract anything that corresponds to it.

He also raises a good point on gratitude; that we should be grateful for whatever things we receive everyday; that the things we receive everyday are miracles. So be grateful on miracles you receive everyday, otherwise you have wasted your life!

I presume that anyone who can successfully achieve their goals using The Secret concept, no matter obtaining small or big thing, can be assumed as an Alchemist. Anything can be achieved with your pure heart. That's why in Alchemy discipline, according to Coelho, the process of achieving can be analogized as the power that is able to transform from no value thing into gold.

Another book of Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, he also highlights a similar phrase, "The universe always conspires to help the dreamer" (pg 53). In this book, he also proposes that in realizing your dream, you must tackle all forms of your own worry and fear, which he refers this as "the Other" of yourself. Thus, by controlling the Other, your motivation to achieve your goal will be synergic between your thinking and your heart. There is no more paradox within your self. It's all pure motivation with faith. He suggests that even tiny faith as a grain of sand can move a mountain (pg 82). Hence, your goal your dream will definitely be fulfilled.

Second example of the power of positive thought: Loving-kindness meditation. During this practice, first we have to relax our meditation posture, scan the whole body, then start emitting loving-kindness vibration towards all sentient beings. Initially, it is much easier to emit this positive energy to people whom we love, people close to us, then to someone whom we are not familiar with, eventually to people whom we have problem with, upset with. Once we can do that, then we can emit this loving-kindness energy to all sentient beings. It gives such a peaceful feeling wherever we are. Also, it will be much easier next time we deal with people whom we have problem with. Simply keep blessing them to be well and happy. We can reduce and eventually remove our negative thought on them, and replace it with loving-kindness instead. It is the power of positive thought that makes us a better person.

I realize that blocking our negative thoughts is not an easy thing to do. It requires lots more practice. The more we practice will be the better. The animation movie, Kungfu Panda, also inspires me that the most powerful technique to learn to be the greatest kungfu master is to be able to conquer our self. It's how we can control our fear, worry, and all sort of negativity. That's all reflected in the forbidden parchment: nothing except the shadow of our own. The truth of the greatest power we can achieve is simply within our self.

Even in Harry Potter, the scariest nastiest creature in the wizard world, the dementors, can be defeated using the warm-happy spell Expecto Patronum, simply by concentrating to the thing that makes you happy, then the spell will work effectively. This idea is the analogy where any form of fear and worry must be directly expelled by shifting our mind using mood booster which makes us feel better. The mood booster is something that makes your mood better and happier. Mood boosters could be any memories that make you laugh, favorite things you enjoy to do, or anything that can alter your mood into a better stage. (See my other essay on Mood booster).

To summary, be grateful for anything you get in your life, it's all your miracle. Keep blessing to people, all sentient beings, the universe, to be well and happy.

About "The Secret"

The Secret really affects my life. After reading it through, I feel that I become more optimistic in dealing with anything in my life.

I suggest anyone who has not experienced the outcome from reading The Secret, DO read it one more time! Try to understand the essence and apply it into daily practice. It's easy to understand though. The most important thing is that you must read it open mindedly! It's not discrediting God, any beliefs, teaching, nor any religion.

I'm sure that The Secret is not against any beliefs. Even in Christianity and Buddhism, the two teachings which are so different, The Secret seems to include both phylosophies appropriately.

Christianity emphasizes on faith. Simply, you must believe in God. God is everything related to positive things!

At first, I was a bit difficult to accept the "you must believe" kind of teaching. But now, I can understand the concept of having faith to ourselves. We are creators of our universe. God is living within our selves. When you have affirmative faith on yourself, then everything will work to fulfill what you want to achieve positively. So, trust yourself, believe in your own capacity. Accordingly, you'll have no more negative sequel in your life dictionary.

This is just like in the Christian teaching, "You believe in God (positive), your sin will be washed away". Or I can say in other words: Once you do things positively and live yourself in a positive attitude (as they call it "to live in God's way"), then you are not going to think of doing sin nor to live your life with sin, hence no more sin (or "washed away").

Whereas Buddhism is more into "Ehipassiko": come and see you'll know (You'll prove it by yourself). There is no such doctrine to insist on people to believe in 'something'. Just prove it (the teaching) by your self! This is the reason why Karma becomes a very famous teaching in Buddhism. Whatever you do, it will fruit to you.

The bad things happened to us were simply the result of our own Karma. You were the one who created that scenario of bad thing. It WAS your OWN THOUGHT which you can't control in the past, creating negative thinking or imagination or visualization or even just a pretense, which eventually fruited to you. That's why how the bad thing happened to you.

***
In practicing The Secret, I realize that sometimes I can't concentrate well, my thought goes deep melancholically, my fear or worry comes especially when I'm tired physically or mentally. Thus, the ways I practice The Secret are:

1. When I'm on my happy or good mood, I concentrate to emit my energy to the universe and focus on what I want to achieve
2. When I have my disturbance (tired, which causes worry, which eventually causes fear), I stop emitting my energy. Scream out loud "STOP" to my mind. I use my Samatha meditation* to concentrate on the present moment. Hence, my negative thought won't pop up in my mind.
3. Once I'm able to control my mind, then it's the time to change my mood again to "good state". To do this, I use my mood enhancers. And I have heaps of mood enhancers: listening to my favorite music, talking to my close friends, etc.
   

*) Samatha meditation focuses on cultivating high levels of concentration. There are 40 different themes you can choose. Each person has their own suitable theme. I always focus on the white light that enlightens my body and mind. Thus, whenever my mind thinks something negative, it will be burnt down by the very bright white light.

Some people may comment that what The Secret tells you is just something persuasive. I think, as long as this can lead to a better mood and positive energy, then what's the big deal?! It brings more positive aura, more confidence, eventually rises up your energy! Once you are on your optimum energy, everything is going to be much easier to achieve!

The essence of The Secret book is simply to keep you doing affirmative thought, thinking, attitude, imagination, inspiration, and positive aspect to look at things in our lives. Simply like that! No discrediting God, any beliefs, teaching, nor any religion.

Thank You Rhonda Byrne for sharing The Secret.

Bite your new shoes!!! Sound Ridiculous?

I wore a pair of new white-color and never-been-used tennis shoes. Not even 10 minutes playing, I felt down, maybe because my feet were not comfortable enough yet with the new shoes. My right ankle got twisted.

So, I told my friends about that. A friend who is a Singaporean Born Indian told me whenever you are going to wear new shoes, bite them 3 times each. My Thai friend also suggested the same thing. Well, I simply did it with my other new running shoes, nothing to lose though heheh... and so far I was okay running with my new shoes ^_^

Is there such "tradition" in other parts of the world?

Note: Some people habit when they wear a pair of new shoes of their own for the first time: Just dirty it up!

Hoarding

Here is another thing happened at home. Mum always collects plastic bags, meal boxes, and unused paper wrap. Then she just stacks them around the kitchen and our TV room.

This situation seems so similar to the one in other Chinese families' house. Not to deny, I've also been noticing those mums' habit in many Chinese families. Since they don't want to lose benefit for the things they got for free (sounds so Chinese huh?), so they keep plastic bags, nice cake boxes, nice paper wrap; stack them in the corner of their living room, in their kitchen shelves, here, there, everywhere... Yet, they don't even need those things soon, not even for the next 1 year!

I know that my mum's point of view is more into keeping those things, so whenever she needs it, she doesn't need to buy the new one. It is good though, to some extent, saving more money, less buying plastic and paper stuff, and perhaps discouraging people to sell those hard-to-decompose materials in nature.

But when this habit tends to become compulsive hoarding, hmm...that can be very annoying anyone who's living under the same roof! The house would be very uncomfortable to live in. Moreover, the environment can be so unhealthy due to too much stacks, providing media for germs and other insects to grow. (Lucky, my mum is not so compulsive, yet she needs to be alerted).

Whenever I went back home, normally I was the one who cleared out the stacks, dumping those old plastic bags and moldy boxes. Yet, my mum still halfheartedly let me do it. So, I usually clear them out when she’s not there...

I am just worried that her behaviour might indicate that she has a tendency to be an obsessive hoarder. However, after I clear them out, she just loves to see the clean and neat room... But not for long, she’ll start again and again collecting and stacking plastic bags, boxes, paper wrap, old magazines, stuff 1, stuff 2, stuff 3...stuff 13... Well, I guess I’ll always have my cleaning activities on my holiday back home.

Poinciana, The Flame of the Forest

No wonder this tree is also called Flamboyant (Delonix regia), as the bright scarlet petals become the whole canopy during the flowering season, drawing attention and amusement to anyone who passes this tree.

Beautiful and elegant, those were my first impression looking at this tree during my childhood time. Those days, every Sunday my mum and dad used to take me to the beach. That was my happiest moment during the olden days. We passed a pleasant road where Poinciana trees always shaded us from the hot tropical sun.

In the mid shiny day, the green leaves was so soothing to my eyes. In the cloudy day, the brilliant reddish blossom really cheered up the gloomy atmosphere. Would this be the reason why I’m getting more and more admiring this tree; or is it simply because of the pleasant memory aroused every time I see Poinciana flame.

The only thing I know is that anytime I see Poinciana, it does really make me very happy.