To abstain from all evil
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/
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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).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:
*) 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.
World Dimension
In The Matrix: they are struggling in the real world, riding a hovercraft ship observing all things that happened in the “programmed” world, called as the matrix. They have transporters to move them from the ship to the matrix; and the other way round, from the matrix to their ship using particular portals such as public phones and any other hard line.
In Buddhism: Buddhism believes in Karma. Depending on the karma, after one death, a creature can be born in any of these 31 (4+1+26) dimensions: hells (there are 4 different hells), 1 universe (our universe, but not necessarily in one place, could be in separate planet in any galaxy; earth is only one out of many other places), and heavens (there are 26 different heavens). Just like in The Matrix, a creature can also “move” from one dimension to any others and returns back again to the initial dimension. This concept in Buddhism is known as karma and punarbhava, a continuous birth and rebirth from one realm to any others before reaching Nirvana, the highest state of eternal happiness where the wheel of rebirth has been stopped.
I remember a short story told by my spiritual teacher:
A couple of husband and wife lived in heaven. One day the husband went out to pick some fruit. But then, he accidentally fell down from the tree, dropped off from heaven to earth. He’s born as a human baby, becoming adult, getting married, having children, getting old and eventually died. He then was born again in heaven, the same heaven as his previous place. His wife suddenly came and asked him, “Where have you been this whole morning? ... I thought you were picking some fruit!”***
I guess the story may give you a clearer idea, right? …that we all also live inside the “matrix”. But of course, we would not be able to move at anytime from one world to any other dimensions like in the movie using transporters and portals.
The rule of life
The matrix is created by the “Architect”. Within the matrix, all evil creatures like vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and demons are the form of system anomalies which are ruled by a programmer called the Merovingian. It is the Oracle the one who guides humans to free from the attachment of the matrix.
In Buddhism, the primary concept of Buddhism is “Life is suffering”. Since the 1st time a human is born, he/she will struggle with his/her craving (tanha), the main cause of all physical and mental suffering. Consequently, controlling our self from such desire leads only to 2 things: good or bad motivation/action. You have good motivation, you are making a good karma; bad motivation bad karma! That’s why where we lead our life depends on our self. It’s we are the one who have power to control our self.
To illustrate: when you lose a competition, you should congratulate the winner and say “I’m happy for you, I will put my effort to improve my self, so wait for me in the next competition”. This is a good thing, good motivation, hence a good karma. However, if you can’t accept this condition for not becoming the first, the winner, the best; you even talk some nasty swearing and do destructive action due to jealousy, you are accumulating your bad karma!
Furthermore, each of us is the “Architect” of our own life. We plan, control, decide what we WANT to do in living our life. Of course, in this process of living, there will be good things (as what our “Oracle” guides and advises us to do) and also bad things (as characteristics programmed by the Merovingian that leads to our own upheaval). Finally, it takes our hard effort to control our self, to free us from any attachment, to liberate us from suffering. Peace!
Acknowledgement: Diyono Puji Harjoko (Pak Puji)
Neem tree, also known as Imbo tree (Azadirachta indica), gives lots of benefit to human beings. In Tuban, people plant them as shade trees all along the road. They also boil the leaves and drink the water as an antiseptic for stomach as well as curing itchiness or any skin disease. Other sources also mention that the extract of Neem leaves has medicinal properties as anti cancer, anti bacteria, and anti intestinal infection.
Neem trees are very abundant in Tuban, so it’s very easy to get the leaves. Once, I boiled the leaves and drank the water. The taste and the color of boiled neem are similar to Chinese bitter tea (kuding cha - 苦丁茶), one of my favorite tea. There is one big tree just next to my house in Tuban, so I can enjoy my bitter "Imbo" tea any time. ^_^
The sweating effect of chili is very helpful to people living under high air humidity like Sichuan province in China. That's the reason why Sichuan foods use lots of chili. People there eat lots of chili because they want to sweat more, so they don't get humidity-related diseases due to a long-term exposure of wet condition.
Durian contains a sulfuric compound called mercaptan which strongly absorbs water from your body system, hence you'll feel dehydrated. The reason why we can not drink alcohol at the close period after eating durian is because alcohol performs a fast hydrolysis process which also breaks down water from your body, exacerbating your dehydration. The double effect of losing your body fluid will extremely suffer your brain, that's why you'll experience a hangover.
Tips: After you drink alcohol, you have to compensate it by drinking an amount of water at least at the same amount of alcohol you took. And after eating durian, drinking much water will be a wise thing to do. Never ever drink alcohol after eating durian, or the other way round!
During rainy season, so many people get flu. When you have the flu symptom, try to do following things:
Drink more water
Have you heard about water therapy? It can prevent and get rid of a lot of disease in your body. However, when you already feel discomfort due to flu symptom, just think that drinking lots of water may flush the virus around nasal areas (pharynx, throat), hence preventing worse illness or infection.
Eat more
As your body fights flu virus, you need an extra amount of energy from your intake to win the battle. Push your self to eat eventhough you lose your appetite during this period, if necessary increase the quantity of your intake!
Tips: Eat as much fresh garlic as you can. The fresh garlic contains allicin which is good for antibiotic in our body. Allicin will be gone if you cook the garlic, thus eating the fresh one might be more powerful in combating flu.
Worrying about terrible breath after eating fresh garlic? It’s the sulfur compound which is responsible to make people dizzy when you open your mouth. But, don’t worry about that! Eat tomatoes while taking your fresh garlic. The substance contained within tomatoes can neutralize the strong smell of garlic.
Take vitamin C
A 1000 gram vitamin C is recommended when you are combating flu as it can increase your body immunity.
Get enough sleep
Go to sleep earlier. Allow your body to have more rest to support your recovery. This makes the healing faster.
Take medicine
This is when you feel really terrible and can’t take it anymore. Then take flu relieving pills, or as a better option, ask your doctor for a prescription. Still apply what I’ve suggested above, hopefully after taking your medicine, in the following morning you wake up, you’ll feel much better.
Do exercise
After taking enough rest during recovery process, usually your body will feel “saturated”. This makes you really want to re-activate your body. Indeed, this is a good sign of successful recovery. Do some physical exercise, but not too heavy one. After sweating, you’ll feel much refreshed.
The new zodiac sign, Ophiuchus-the serpent bearer, is incorporated due to "precession", the corrected position of the sun within constellation boundaries. So...just recheck your zodiac sign again. (Ref: The real solar zodiac)
Aries (19 April - 13 May)
Taurus (14 May - 19 June)
Gemini (20 June - 20 July)
Cancer (21 July - 9 August)
Leo (10 August - 15 September)
Virgo (16 September - 30 October)
Libra (31 October - 22 November)
Scorpio (23 November - 29 November)
*Ophiucus (30 November - 17 December)*
Sagittarius (18 December - 18 January)
Capricorn (19 January - 15 February)
Aquarius (16 February - 11 March)
Pisces (12 March - 18 April)
Regarding my writing on Aweto, the winter insect summer herb (冬虫夏草), here I got further information about it.
It is actually a parasitic symbiosis between ascomycete fungi (species Cordyceps sinensis) and caterpillars, the host.
"When infected by C. sinensis, the bug's entire body cavity is filled by the fungus mycelium, killing the host, and the caterpillars die near the tops of their burrows." (wikipedia, 2007)
"When the caterpillar dies the fungus produces a stalked fruiting body that produces spores. The spores are spread in the wind to the next generation of caterpillars. Uninfected caterpillars pupate into relatively large primitive moths." (caterpillar fungus, 1998)
Thus, the infected host will definitely be dead. It is not a cyclic life stage as what I thought before. Since this fungi attacks hosts during summer, that’s why the Chinese called it “the winter worm summer grass” 冬虫夏草 (dōng chóng xià cǎo).
