Meditation - All Conditioned Things are Anicca

"Anicca vata sankhara, uppadavaya-dhammino;

uppajjitva nirujjhanti, tesam vupasamo sukho."
All conditioned things are impermanent; They arise and pass away.
To live in harmony with this truth; Brings the highest happiness.

This meditation is aimed to:

• practice to attain harmonious mind
• release negative reaction from your body, cells, molecules, till the smallest part
• be healthy and prosperous
• be calm, peaceful from within, and balance
• reach mindfulness and discernment

- G U I D AN C E -

• sit in a meditation posture (relax your head-neck, shoulder-arms, chest-tummy-sex, both feet, buttock and back)
• pray as per your beliefs
• emanate “May All Sentient Beings be Well and Happy” from your heart to 12 directions (this exercise is effective to expand your mind in a broader level):
1. entire body
2. entire place we're residing in (the house, meditation center, on the plane, etc.)
3. surrounding neighborhood
4. upward
5. downward
6. frontward
7. backward
8. right direction
9. left direction
10. the earth
11. the earth surrounding (solar system, milkyway, surrounding galaxies, etc.)
12. the entire universe

I. BREATHING / HEALING MEDITATION

1. Concentrate in observing breath when breathing in and out and be aware of Anicca (impermanence) → FEEL the breath characteristic on each nostril: warm/cold sensation (fire element), breath length/expansion (wind element), smooth/pause (water element), heavy/light (earth element); there are 12 breath characteristics.
2. FEEL the 36 body parts and 7 Chakras (while progressing, you may go back to concentrating on breathing at any time if you feel uneasy during releasing negative reaction from your physical body, indicating that your body requires more oxygen): head (+2 chakras); front neck (+chakra); right shoulder; right upper arm; right lower arm; right palm; right lower arm; right upper arm; right shoulder; base of the neck; left shoulder; left upper arm; left lower arm; left palm; left lower arm; left upper arm; left shoulder; chest (+chakra); abdominal (+chakra); sex organ (+chakra); right tight; right leg; right foot; right leg; right tight; sex area (+chakra); left tight; left leg; left foot; left leg; left tight; buttock (+base chakra); lower back; middle back; upper back; back neck.
3. To focus on the pain / not healthy / sick / uneasy part of your body, FEEL the respective chakra and the area.
4. To finish step 3: with your mind, wipe the entire front body from head to base, continued to back part from base to head (this is like the sensation of feeling water flowing from top to bottom of your body).

The 7 Body Chakras

II. LOVING-KINDNESS MEDITATION

1. Concentrate in observing breath during breathing in and out (no need to observe Anicca)
2. Exercise to expand loving-kindness wave: "May ... be Well and Happy" (I myself, 5 closest relatives, 5 closest friends, 5 neutral persons, 5 problematic persons; and consecutively back to I myself); mention the name.
3. Emit the loving-kindness aura to the entire universe
4. Emit the loving-kindness aura to the loved or the deceased ones or any particular target of being
5. Go back to observing breathing in and out
6. Recite 3x "May All Beings be Well and Happy"

"Train your muscles with heavy materials (dumbel, barbel) to make them stronger;
Train your mind with the lightest material (breath concentration) to make it sharper" (Ada, 2013)

Reference:
Bali Usada

DON'T JUDGE!

Within a glance, a person can make a very accurate judgment on a subject that he has been familiar with. The person himself sometimes can not explain on what basis he can make such an accurate judgment. He simply trusts his instinct interconnecting all related experiences from his conscious and unconscious mind.

People who have been exposed long enough to a subject can be very fast in giving accurate judgment to that subject. The longer the exposure to the subjet will be the more accurate the judgment he makes upon that subject. A long exposure is like a constant practice in improving your skill. Like people say, practice makes perfect.

An artist knows whether a piece of art is exclusive or cheap.
A pro saxophonist can directly tell whether someone is excellent or poor in playing the instrument.
A curator recognizes whether a collection is a fake or a real one.

In our daily life situation very often we make an instant judgment on something or someone, however eventually we realize that we misjudge them. The chance to make wrong judgment is higher when we are not familiar with the thing, person, task, or situation we are dealing with.

Often our judgment is also distorted by the benchmark, general idea, principal, common misbelief that have been implanted in our head. The combination of too easy judging thing and the distorted mind exacerbates the situation into an autistic state resulting in a very poor judgment eventually. This brings disadvantage not only to the one who is being judged, but also to the person who judges.

To be fair and aware off, do not judge things, persons, tasks, or situations if you don't need to. Make professional judgment if only people ask for it as they might think that you are the expert. It is important to keep your mind opened, not to rush and take a little pause to allow your mind refreshed, then you can make a much better and fair judgment.

Reference:
Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)

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.

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

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!

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!

Mental Attitude: Whether or Not Environment Affects?

This experience happened in Surabaya airport. I was just walking around on the waiting hall. But then, something was catching my eyes. A guy smoked in the non-smoking hall while having chitchat with his friends. It's was very clear that the sign of "No Smoking" was just above his head.

a situation @ Surabaya airport (29/4/08)

I was so disappointed and mad seeing such thing. Can't he read the No-Smoking sign? Or he just selfishly felt that, "I do whatever I wanna do", as there was no security officers around (the smoking guy was in the far end of the waiting hall. Well, maybe security officers in Surabaya airport were too lazy to patrol up to that corner end, and if they did, maybe they were too "reluctant" to warn the smoking guy there!)

You won't see any regular patrol by security officers along the hall, at least not as much as the one in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, China, and any other place. It seems that Surabaya airport does not need such patrol, as everything is just always under control...hmm!)

That just made me wondering, how we can change the attitude of such people to be more discipline. Not to mention the discipline of time (arghh..."Indonesian Time!" We do have that phrase, and I'm certainly NOT proud of it).

It is very difficult indeed. People with such moral, eventhough they are moved to a better environment, an environment with high environmental awareness people and strict regulation, they will just be the same individuals with such attitude. It is not easy to change their behaviour to follow the system eventhough they have been inside the system. Once they get 'chance' to do the same thing like what they comfortably used to do, they will intentionally or unintentionally do it over and over...littering, spitting, and smoking not in the proper place!

...yeah, yeah...that takes time...takes time for such changing to adjust with the better system...but for how long?
And yes, I have seen my own Indonesian colleagues (not only one colleague) who did that when we’re studying in Australia. And I felt sorry about that! I did tell them though, and they just smiled, and I didn't know whether they smiled because they were ashamed or because they were too bothered with my words.

Having said that the effect of the environment is less influential than the root of the moral of each individual, it doesn’t always seem to be true for every case. I remember my experience in front of the lobby of Sheraton Hotel Surabaya (18/4/08). A caucasian person with a local chick were entering a taxi. His cigarette was just recently lit. The cab was full AC, so he had to turn it off. But what happened?

He entered the cab while sucking deep his cigarette, opened the window and dumped his cigarette in front of the Sheraton staff. I was really sick off his attitude. I assumed that this "bule" (an Indonesian word to refer white people) had lived in Surabaya quite a while. At least he had experience seeing locals littering not in the proper place. But, why a bule must downgrade his moral to do such thing, particularly in an exclusive place like in the gate of Sheraton Hotel. Want to show off his power? That he is an expat? That he comes from developed country? That he is a dollar/euro holder so he can afford to stay in 5 stars hotel? or to look down Indonesian people knowing that in Indonesia, we don't have such a heavy fine due to littering like in the Singapore strict regulation???

As the taxi moved away from us, the valet parking staff picked up the cigarette and dumped it to the closest rubbish bin.

If only I were a Harry Potter (or a least I had my own wand), I would put him under my spell to stick the dumped cigarette back into his mouth for 24 hrs, so he can not talk and kiss that bitch!!!%#~*)$#%@#*

***
This indicates that environment can change people's attitude, moral, and behaviour too! How significant it affects people's attitude and moral? I guess, it depends on the characteristic of individuals. Therefore, keep your mind open!

A Thought: THE MATRIX & BUDDHISM

I’ve watched all series of The Matrix several times. Last night, The Matrix Reloaded was shown again on TV. I didn’t know why after watching it, my head seemed to be filled with lots of inter-connection about things happened in that movie. Until this morning, I’m inspired to write my thought here. I found that the concept in The Matrix, to some extent, is similar to the concept of life according to Buddhism!!!

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)

Beggar in Indonesia, a profession?

…some of them seem to have been enjoying that living as a beggar is a kind of an "easy-money-making profession"...

What I had experienced recently really reminds me on what my friend had told me about beggars’ life in Indonesia...

Thanks to Arief “Ripe” Rahmawan for sharing his finding on the social study about street boys and beggars in Bogor, West Java.

It was about 9 a.m. I was in a small warung (small shop that sells daily needs) in Tuban waiting for the bus to Semarang. Sitting in the corner of the warung, was an old lady wearing dirty clothes. The first bus from Surabaya just arrived and stopped by a restaurant, next to the warung, for the passengers’ meals. The old lady quickly took a position, sitting on the ground near to the restaurant entrance, begging for money to anyone passing in front of her.

From the warung owner, I got information about this lady. She said that this lady lives quite far from the restaurant, definitely not a walking distance for an old lady. She has to spend about Rp. 3000.00 (US$ 0.3) for the transportation fee to get into this place (in front of the warung) every day just before 9 a.m.

Before going home, the old lady always sits in front of her warung to count the amount of money she has collected. That’s why the warung owner knows that she can get at least Rp. 75.000.00 to 80.000.00 per day. Sometimes she could earn up to Rp. 150.000.00 per day.

Big amount of money!!! said the warung owner with heavy tone to me. I can understand her tonal expression of dissatisfaction. The warung owner who’s also an old granny said that even running a warung selling sugar, rice, soap, and other stuff, she rarely can reach such amount of net margin within a day compared to the beggar who does nothing except sitting and waiting patiently begging people for money!!!

Surprising!? Let’s play a simple math, say the beggar earns Rp. 50.000.00 per day. That equals to Rp. 1.500.000.00 per month, an amount which is even more than the standard salary of fresh bachelor graduate in most places in Indonesia!!!

While waiting all passengers going back to the bus, I saw the first young guy gave the old begging lady Rp. 3000.00. Well, that’s already enough to cover her transportation fee. And that’s just from one person, from the 1st bus. The bus comes every 1.5 hour in average from 9 a.m. till 2 a.m. next morning. So, I guess, she can go back home anytime she wants from her “work place”. A home with 4 bedrooms and a proper family bathroom, described by the warung owner as she had visited her before. Doesn’t sound like a beggar’s property, huh?

This is only one example of a beggar’s life in Indonesia. Well, I’m sure that most of them are struggling to live their life and have no other choice to desperately become a beggar because of the situation that makes them to. However, some of them seem to have been enjoying that living as a beggar is a kind of an “easy-money-making profession” which requires an “art” behind that.

The art of acting! Yes, they have to act with a sorrowful expression when begging people. Bandage the healthy legs and pour some yellowy fermented liquid on it so then lots of flies attached in, try to make an impression of a guy with terrible illness that he can’t afford to cure it, hence expecting people’s sympathy and of course, charity! (Rahmawan, 2001)

Very often they exploit little kiddies, let them beg under the traffic light. The middle-aged women rent or borrow the baby of their group, intentionally let the baby cry loudly, and then they beg for money asking donation to buy milk and food for their “poor baby”. This art of begging can be performed in any public place, along the road, city corner, pavement, in front of shopping malls, under traffic lights, and other busy places.

Talking about exploitation, they even exploit themselves. I know that most beggars are handicapped, blind, or having other physical disabilities. However, they tend to dramatize their disabilities to draw people’s sympathy. I don’t know whether such thing can be considered as a self exploitation, or should I consider it, again, as the art of begging. One real example I’ve experienced was with a guy who has eyes disability, thus wearing black glasses, begging for money on the train. A donation box he brought was in his left hand and a stick for guiding him was in another hand; passing slowly behind a standing woman. He intentionally almost-dropped his body towards the woman, pretending that he hadn’t enough strength like other “non-disability” people had to restrain the train shaking. It looked really awkward to see his exaggerated action just to respond the constant train shaking. The woman just helped to stabilize him. I really noticed that he deliberately did that. I knew that! I had been noticing his behaviour, since he entered our compartment.

My friend who did a social study about street boys and beggars has visited their home. What he found was quite surprising him: a set of VCD player and TV in a comfortable living room, cell-phone...totally beyond his expectation!

Once, my friend saw a guy with a nasty appearance begging in a train station. Another occasion, he noticed the same guy, but with a proper shirt talking on his cell-phone in another train station!

From all points above, it seems that being a beggar in Indonesia appears to be the last easiest solution to make money. Lots of people from remote area, who are stimulated with the glamour of metropolitan life, come to the big city expecting to get a good job, good money, without well preparation or without being equipped with any skill to get a job. Eventually, they desperately start begging people. Very soon, they will discover the art of begging to earn enough money; just like the old lady I saw next to the restaurant. So, the art of begging = technique to make money? The higher the art of begging they can master, to more money they can collect, I suppose.

But, would that be a good future for a developing country like Indonesia? Would this lead to an effortless Indonesian generation that do thing without careful thinking or preparation? Or can “beggar” be considered as a title of a profession? What and where’s the best way to donate our money then? How can we trust that the institution doesn’t corrupt our donation?

Hmmm. Another never-ending chaotic social problem in Indonesia to discuss. May everyone be well and happy. –S–

Prevent flu! Combat flu!

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.

Source: advice from my parents, my senior, health magazine, the internet, and of course my own experience ^-^

Tourism impact in Bali: Local vs. international visitors

Bali is such an exotic paradise to the eyes of the world. Lots of visitors from Australia, America, Europe, Japan, Taiwan, and many other countries, come to Bali for their holiday, honeymoon, business, or even for the international class conference.

As majority of Balinese people earns for living in tourism sector, I notice that there’s an interesting phenomenon in the behaviour among locals especially the ones who are mainly involved in tourism industries. For those who work in a highly competitive touristy place, they tend to prioritize their service to tourists who can pay more to them. So, they always tend to be “nicer” to tourists who hold yen or dollar in their hands. Local visitors seem to be the second class guests that deserve secondary services.

My friend who’s a Singaporean told me that when she was in Bali, her friend and she had queued for a table for a half hour in a very popular restaurant in Seminyak. But the staff let the other caucasian guests to come in without having to queue first. She could not understand why the queuing system was so crap, or was it because that she looks like a local, thus she didn’t deserved to be prioritized for the table. Well, from what she told me, I myself was not really sure, either the staff was a bit picky for the dollar holder guests, or could be that those groups might have booked the table before they came.

Another “interesting” thing that you might find out is the price deviation within a place for dinning. In a certain touristy area, a restaurant might provide different price lists for the same menu. They have an image that Japanese guests generally have more financial ability to spend their money for food. Thus, menus written in Japanese usually follow the standard of yen price, which appears to be the most expensive one compared to menu price written in other currencies. But yes, you’ll be surprised that they do have menu written in different languages with prices that have been “adapted”.Well, certainly it’s more beneficial for the local as they get cheaper prices, but, of course with the standard “local” service which is totally different from the “international” one in term of their hospitality.

Well, what I’ve exposed here doesn’t intend to discredit the popular image of the great hospitality of local Balinese. As a matter of fact, Balinese people naturally are very friendly. This you still can see in the remote area in Bali where local villagers are really willing to talk and curious to make friend with you, no matter you are dollar holders, caucasians, locals, or whatever your performance and background are.

Again, what I’m trying to point out here is not about a racial issue, but simply showing the impact of tourism among locals, especially the doers of tourism industries which seems to have a behavioral alteration of their attitude. Interesting phenomenon, isn’t it!

Good Friends

I wish that my life could always be surrounded with my best friends. Well, this is just my ideal thought. Yet, I still realize that there’s nothing perfectly ideal as what I expect in this real world.

I’ve been thinking about this since the past couple weeks of my stay in Tuban. At least, what it’s in my mind may explain why dealing with people in the working place seems to be tougher than at school.

It’s simply because at school, I just interacted with someone whom I’d considered to be good to be my friend, and the rest, I wasn’t really bothered. But in the working place, I have no choice to interact with every staff within a shared space, eventhough I don’t like the person.

The funny thing is that my first impression about someone is used to be wrong. I thought…hmm… this person can not be my friend, but in the end we’re such a close friend. Or the other way round, in the beginning we were too pushy to became a good friend, but then after all, we just became “hi and passing by” friend.

No one to blame; it just goes with time and natural selection

A and B are two individuals who just come into a new place. They haven’t had friends yet. Then A and B start to get to know each other, often have chitchat, then decide to do something together. After sometimes, they know that they don’t have similar preferences. Then as time goes by, each of them has their new friends; eventually A hangs out more with A’s new friends, B also enjoys more to be with B’s new friends. Sometimes, if by chance A meets B, then they just say hi, talk only one or two sentences, then… ok, see you, I gtg now. They don’t seem to be bothered with that changing, both of them realize on that, and they are just ok, as they know that this situation is better for both of them...

Friendship, relationship: Does it work?

When establishing a new friendship or relationship with someone, it may work but also may not. If it doesn’t work or becomes worse, do not too emotionally respond it! Once you have introspected yourself and believed that you have done nothing wrong, then NO need to try to be nice or to clarify anything. Don’t get too far on him/her. Maybe s/he is the one who has problem, for example an overly sensitive type of person. And to this kind of person, you really must keep distance!

In the worse situation, if s/he says something cynical to you, don’t take the bait; just don’t give a damn on what s/he has said.
Indeed it’s a good practice to develop compassion and patience. Any single cynical word you’ve heard, let’s hope it will bring satisfaction and happiness to the person who delivers those words. Then you’ll be able to smile freely and feel much better, meaning that your practice of compassion is successful.