Saturday 31 October 2015

Simple walk

A simple walk in nature
may turn out to be a magnificent experience

This morning I just went for a short walk on the beach
The clouds above the sea were so magically beautiful
The way they embraced a youthful tree
The capricious shapes and whirls within
So enchanting

I captured a few on pictures,
I hope you go for the real thing soon.
Just make a small walk in nature
It may not be the sky,
perhaps just an amazing ant.
But quite sure something will amaze


 





Friday 30 October 2015

Endless search

Most of us are in an endless search for happiness.
Some of us equate this endless search for happiness
with an endless search for wealth and comfort

Once we achieve a decent level of wealth and comfort,
many feel not too happy still and go and search for
more and more wealth and comfort, resulting in an endless search.

Luckily, more and more people are discovering the giant truth
that happiness is found more in a life of purpose, a life of service
and not so much in endlessly achieving and striving and achieving more wealth

Media portray a must-be-happy-all-the-time culture and
want to make us believe it is found in what they advertise.

Real life is not a happy-all-the-time event
Sad events bring sadness and that is very much OK
Simple service and a life of purpose
bring us enough happiness to have a good life,
without us having to pursue an endless search for anything...

Wednesday 28 October 2015

Positive difference

A very good morning to you.
I am aware you may read this in the evening.
A very good evening to you.

About any time of the day, but especially in the morning
is a good time to stop for a while our hectic routine
create a few moments of true silence
Silence within at least
and think thoughts of love and positivity for this wonderful world

Can you imagine if everyone in the world
would make 2 minutes free every day for thoughts of love
how much love this would mean

Let us be the pioneers for creating a few minutes of silence
with thoughts, only thoughts of love and kindness.
And reminisce for a while how we want to make
a positive difference in the world around us today...

Monday 26 October 2015

Don't touch it

A little poem, I wrote for my two boys, about 3 years back:

Don't touch it

Have you seen a fire?
I mean a big one with high flames?
Any human touching it
Will suffer intense and lasting pains

Such is the law of nature
Nothing else could happen or be
Touching flames causes pains
Isn 't that easy to see?

Hatred is also like fire
It burns upon every touch
Pain is intense and lasting
Excruciating destruction, so much

Such is the law of nature
Nothing else could happen or be
Touching hatred causes pain
It is not difficult to see

And so is also anger
A blaze of uncontrolled heat
You touch it and bad burns
Are the only outcome to meet

Such is the law of nature
Nothing else could happen or be
Touching anger causes pain
It is not difficult to see

Lies of any nature or kind
Like smouldering ashes so hot
Touch lies and you suffer
Lies may seem ok but they're not

Such is the law of nature
Nothing else could happen or be
Touching lies causes pain
It may not be easy to see

Honesty love and kindness
Are like a cool breeze on a hot day
My boys, these laws of nature
Are here forever to stay





 

Sunday 25 October 2015

Revolution

Rolling waves are roaring
One word they roar:
Revolution

Revolution of love
Revolution of life
Revolution of caring kindness

My flying feathered friends
One word they sing:
Revolution

Revolution of love
Revolution of life
Revolution caring kindness

Flaming orange clouds are painting
One word they paint:
Revolution

Revolution of love
Revolution of life
Revolution of caring kindness

Whizzing winds are whispering
One word they whisper:
Revolution

Revolution of love
Revolution of life
Revolution of caring kindness

Oh, yes it is
in the waves of the sea
in the song of the birds
in the clouds in the sky
in the sound of the winds
A huge kindness revolution
And it is coming soon.

Listen, look,
Plunge in, float towards
Embrace, Enjoy

Best

"What is your best work?" was the question asked to Wald, the Sculptor.
"My next one", was the answer of Wald.

I read the above passage in a work by Orison S. Marden.

Upon reading it, I felt a wave of inspiration and motivation flow over me, towards me, in me. I hope so much you feel something similar.

Isn't that superb?

Saturday 24 October 2015

Just thanks

I want to give thanks
for all these good souls
for all these wonderful youths
for all the goodness in this world

Today we had a fun event for children
The efforts from our students were amazing
Selfless contributions, nameless just for the children
All young people fully engaged in doing good.

Thank you so much,
It has been so wonderful today.

Today we had this fun even for kids.
The past few days had been full of haze
Last night it had rained in Bachok.
It was still raining in Kota Bharu
But our skies were clear
and a pleasant breeze stood firm

I want to give thanks
thanks for the weather
and these beautiful coincidence
that sound more like magic than coincidence

Today we had this fun event for special kids
It was so super. A fantastic clown came

Thank you so much,
Our youth, our students have a warm heart in their chest
I am so grateful and just wanted to write a small thank you prayer

Friday 23 October 2015

Peace

Every day, we get so many opportunities to do something good
to perform a small deed that can make a big difference
Be it a smile
a friendly word
a hand
a simple gesture

Every day we get opportunities
Let us look out for them and take them with both hands
because it is these small deeds that give us peace
peace of mind
peace of heart
PEACE

Upsetting

Today something makes me really angry
Netenyahu claims that a Muslim Mufti inspired Hitler to perform the Holocaust.

Stupidity at it extremely highest level
How can any homo sapiens give a leader like this still a grain of credibiility

Not any Muslim, Not any German, Not any Jew, who had any say in the politics of the 1920s or 1940's  is still alive today. So whoever performed cruelties during world war 1 and 2 is now in the grave.

So what can be done now? Are you responsible for the sins of your grandparents?
All that can be reasonably done today is to watch these cruelties performed.
Shiver and vomit on them in ultimate disgust.
And do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to make sure that NOT ONE human again in this century is repeating similar cruelties.

It is so amazing that even though as humans we have made it to the moon
We are analysing our very own DNAs
But still we kill each other as the worst living beasts over things that have happened in a distant past when no one alive today had any hand in the things happening.

Please let us come to our senses,
Please please please...

Holocaust has been cruel and should be carved in our memories as a enormous stupidity of our human ancestors. To seek revenge or do anything that even smells like this in today's world is continuing that enormous stupidity.

Please let us come to our senses,
please please please

Lock up people like Netenyahu immediately. Or at least remove him from politics. World press, journalist, ignore anything what this moron says or tries to insinuate to justify his own cruelties against a whole nation. These are dangerous men in powerful positions. Let us  not allow anyone to rise or better descend to the level of Hitler...

We are much more advanced and there is no place in this world for politicians thinking like devils of the last century.

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Every thing

Every little thing
has some good in it

Every big thing
too

Every little person
has some good inside

Every big person
too

let's search for the good
in every little and big thing
in every little and big person.

:) Love and Peace to you :)

Monday 19 October 2015

Purple, my heart



A lone purple flower of amazing beauty
In the white sand not far from the sea
Moves my heart, touches my soul

The sand get softer, becomes fluid art
It allows the flower to move into my heart
In a very special place that is secret to all

The flower sits there, kindles my mood
Soft purple beauty, it’s doing me good
A giant effect of a flower so small

Aufie Zophy 



poetry by Aufie Zophy 

Saturday 17 October 2015

Master

"When the master governs, the people
are hardly aware that he exists

The master does not talk, he acts

And when his work is done, 
the people say: amazing, 
we did it all  by ourselves!"

The above comes from the Tao Te Ching, a wonderful booklet written about 2500 years ago.
I think a bit of a different version with similar meaning goes as follows: It is amazing what we can achieve when we do not care who gets the credit.

Even though it feels unjust if others get the credit for our ideas,
our ideas may not fall in any fertile grounds and the seeds may wither away before even spouting, if we remain too concerned about getting credit for all we think or do.

There is an other saying that it is in giving that we receive; once we start really giving without the expectation of any returned benefits, that is when we get to understand this difficult to grasp axiom.


Friday 16 October 2015

A gentle focus

When I read an essay by Dr Bremer on focus on essentials, a wave of remorse swept over me.
Haven't we all succumbed to trivia determining our day?

When there is so much beauty and love all around us, how can we allow a glass of spoiled water ruin the happiness of being together having a meal.

This is not the most original idea but at least myself, i need so regularly reminders about this giant truth:

Just let the beauty in. Ignore the trivia

Thursday 15 October 2015

Race to comfort

Happiness for many of us, seems like a race towards wealth, luxury and comfort.
While it is super pleasant to spend time in luxury and comfort,
the race towards it seems like never ending never fully satisfying.

Media play a nasty role in demonizing sadness.
If we want to spend time with butterflies,
chasing them may make them just fly faster away from them while
spending some peaceful time in a wonderful garden may make them just land on our shoulder.

I like the butterfly comparison to happiness.
If we just stop chasing, give up the phobia of its absence
it may just come and sit with us and follow us on many ways.

I love comfort and luxury.
I am blessed with some means to purchase it.
But still my most happy moments are when I manage to contribute something,
contribute something to the world, by serving someone else in a nice way.

I am dreaming of a wold where we all happily serve others and others serve us in the same way
Giving comfort, receiving comfort, enjoying the giving, enjoying the receiving.

Wow, I think this getting perhaps a bit too feely.
Still I hope you have enjoyed this small reflection.

PS: I am not a big believer in magic 
but this really works like magic:
The more comfort we give, the more we receive.

Skype with a stranger



Just an idea crossed my mind.
May be workable or not.

If all of us subscribe to a google community called skype with a stranger, 
It may create endless opportunities to talk people from all over the world. 
Would it not be mind boggling, spirit expanding to have short chat every day or every week with someone from a completely different country than our own?
Would it not be super to have chat with a kid on and off.
Would it not be amazing if in the process we can even reduce a bit of the loneliness in the world. 

It would not mean a dating service, not a phishing service, not a commercial or advertising place and we have to think on how to keep these activities out of the community.
But still it may be an interesting thing to do.

To put some strength in the idea 
I have already created a community on google+ named, skype with a stranger 
I have left my own skype address there.
Let us start meeting strangers on the internet without any intentions of getting or selling something, just to have an interesting conersation. 
For it to work anyone has to invite their own friends who are strangers to others, to joint the community.

Here is the link to the community. 

Happy skyping.


 https://plus.google.com/communities/107165376405821026823

Tuesday 13 October 2015

Love is in the air

Love is in the air,
It has been always in the air
We just have to tune in to the love in the air
To tune in, to open up, to feel, to really feel.
It is never far away, it is in the air.

Love is in our heart,
not a little bit, no, a whole lot
It has been always in our heart
We just have to connect
We just have to say yes and pour it out

We are swimming in love
Love is swimming in us.

Love is in the air.

And so is wisdom
And so is truth
And so is enthusiasm

Monday 12 October 2015

2 growing TGVs

You know,
there is a wisdom revolution evolving right now
there is a kindness revolution evolving right now
The whole thing grows exponentially

The last ones to know about it
will be perhaps our politicians
or perhaps our scholars
or perhaps the jet set

Let us jump early on the ever growing train
It 'll be fun to see all get on the wisdom train
to see all get on the kindness train.
and to see the very last ones get on too.

Sunday 11 October 2015

Mathematics

Today I thought to write something light
But many among us will think maths is not light :)
And yet...

Mathematics is fabulous.
I think too many people nowadays use calculators even for the simplest of calculations.
There are so many peculiarities in the multiplication table alone

Whenever you have a square:
4x4 = 16
9x9 = 81
14x14 = 196
then the multiplication of its immediate neighboring numbers  is one less:
3x5 = 15              (16-1)
8x10 = 80            (81-1)
13x15 = 195         (196-1)
If you multiply numbers two units away from the square it is always 4 (2 to the power of 2) less:
2x6 = 12               (16-4)
7x11 = 77             (81-4)
12x16 = 192         (196-4)
If you multiply numbers three units away from the square, it is always 9 (3 to the power of 2) less:
1x7 =7                  (16-9)
6x12 =72             (81-9)
11x17 = 187         (196-9)

And this goes for all numbers, even the really big ones.
And it goes on for numbers further away from the square as well (e.g. 5 away, will be 25 (5 to the power of 2 less)
-1x9 = -9               (16-25)
4x14 =56               (81-25)
9x19 = 171          (196-25)

50x50 = 2500
49x51 = 2499 (1 less than 2500)
45x55 = 2475 (25 less than 2500)

Amazing? I think it is.
Does it matter? Perhaps not.
All of us will not stop checking our own calculus with our electronic calculators.
In the mean time, playing with numbers in your mind can be fun
And giving the solution to apparently complex calculus in a wink without access to electronics can impress bystanders quite a lot.  :)




Saturday 10 October 2015

the well

Let's start with the story of the frog in the well.
If you have heard or read it before, surely you will enjoy it again
If you read it here for the first time, surely you will enjoy it.

One time, long ago, a frog was living in a well
It had its own stones and puddles and the frog had never been out of the well
One day he got a visit from a frog who lived in the sea. 
They chatted for a while and then came up the topic of where the visitor lived:
The visitor: it  is a vast extension of water
The frog from the well: Is it  bigger than that puddle? as he pointed at his biggest puddle
The visitor: much bigger
The frog from the well: Twice as big?
The visitor: No much, much bigger
The frog from the well: Ten times as big?
The visitor: No perhaps a million times a million times as big
The frog from the well: Get out of my well you liar!

Sometimes we tend to live in our own well
Doing so we may miss the beauty of the vastness of the sea
the beauty of the vastness of the mountains, the beauty of so many sunrises
the beauty of the forest and flowers in this world

Sometimes we tend to live in our own well
missing out on the supreme health of fresh air and
aromatic smells of nature
Missing out on the many healthy fruits and natural products

Sometimes we tend to live in our well
Missing out on the wonderful knowledge
that will enrich our lives to unimaginable extents

Sometimes we tend to live in our own emotional well.
Closing ourselves off of the huge amount of love and kindness
keeping the ocean of love that sits in our hearts since birth
guarded to ourselves and become lonely and lonely only

Sometimes we tend to keep our soul in the well
deprive it of so much spirituality, so much miracle and wonder
So much wisdom.

Let us get out of our physical wells and
enjoy full health and a forest of beauty all around us
Let us get out of our mental wells and
gain access to all sources of knowledge all around us
Let us get out of our emotional wells and
enjoy the kindness and huge love all around us
Let us get out of our spiritual wells
and enrich our souls with the brightest wisdom that is all around us.

Time to get out of the well today :)

Friday 9 October 2015

The shower of doubt

I opened my mind
The water started running
Thoughts were kind
The effect was stunning

All of us have our own beliefs
Some believe absolutely in God
Other believe absolutely that there is no God
Some believe in one scripture as the final truth
Others believe in other scriptures as the final truth
Still others believe in no scriptures.

As humans we have to believe
There are so many existential questions
that are in each our mind.
All search for truth, Truth with capital T

We tend to believe what our eyes tell us
But then our eyes see rainbows and horizons
which are not really there

We tend to believe what scientists tell us
Even far fetched hypothesis like the big bang*
But there is often no proof and theories keep changing

(*they claim since the universe is expanding,
once it must have been extremely small,
They forget that almost everything in the universe oscillates
like waves. It may well be that after a few thousand years of expansion
it shrinks for a few thousand years and then expands again )

We tend to believe what preachers tell us
Religions are many but within each religion
beliefs are strong.

Beliefs are good. They guide us through our life
But many a times, our beliefs become certainties
Once we allow beliefs to become certainties,
the certainty locks our mind,
Nothing else can enter, Nothing can go out
We stop growing

Certainties make further growth impossible:
mental growth
emotional growth
spiritual growth
completely impossible.

If on and off, we check our beliefs
Put a filter on what preachers, scientists and our senses tell us
let the shower of doubt flow
It may help us grow in unexpected amazing, yes stunning ways

Keep the windows of the mind open
Every other human being can teach us something
If filtered with the filter of our soul and ratio
We will keep growing
bit by bit closer to the truth, the Truth

Let us try to avoid the madness of certainty
because it blocks all growth

Let the shower of doubt on and off flow
It may clean our pores and heart
of fallacies, hypocrisy and prejudice.


Wednesday 7 October 2015

Unconditional love

Somewhere deep inside,
I know that to live a life to the fullest
unconditional love is the only way

But o my God, how difficult is this!
To throw away all our anger,
To throw away all our negativity
and just be filled with unconditional love

Unconditional love, the trait of Saints
We all have a bit of it
but Saints have nothing else than
Unconditional love

I try to increase it in myself
everyday a bit,
but then something happens
and I seem to have lost more than a bit

Unconditional love....
Unconditional love!

Sunday 4 October 2015

Candle

Today, just sharing a quote by Hazrat Inayat Khan:

"There are those who are like a lighted candle: they can light other candles, but the other candles must be of wax - if they are of steel, they cannot be lighted."

Beautiful?
Sometimes we are the lighted candle, 
sometimes we are the other candle. 
No matter which one we are, 
we should not be of steel, should we?

Saturday 3 October 2015

Please write



Please my friends, do write.
Write about your feelings, about your soul
Write about your thoughts, about your heart
Write about the beauty in your life, your gifts

It is so important that we express ourselves.
Half of you is you
The other half is your expression.

You just write. Initially we tend to keep it for ourselves
Then we put a small verse on the internet.
We are a bit afraid, a bit shy, but no need.
Our expressions are ours.
In the whole wide world of more than 7 billion,
there will be people who can connect to your expression.

I was reflecting just now on the upcoming monsoon season
and I bumped into one of my writings. It was a joy for my heart.
I relived the moment and yes, here it is:
Elegant violence

After five days of gloom
and dark monsoon,
sparks of colour in the sunrise
betray an enticing pause in the season

Strong winds still stand
and sweep up white chunks of water
that jump out of the sea
in violent bouts of elegance


(Aufie Zophy)

Friday 2 October 2015

Change

I was just hearing the song,
Non, non, ne rien a changé;
Tout, tout a continué
from les Poppy's

It is a French song from a young girl
She had been praying and hoping for the world to change.
But after one year she still could see all the guns and canons in the television
and she concluded that nothing was changing.

Perhaps true, if you look from year to year, we cannot see a lot of change.
However, if we start looking decade per decade, life is changing so fast.
Can you remember how smoking has changed during the last ten years
from a fashionable habit to a despicable addiction. Smokers are caged in smoking rooms .
Sometimes I pity them, but within another decade smoking and the whole industry around it may cease to exist. World opinion about so many things is changing fast. Wisdom is on the increase.
Motivational books are at anyone's fingertips. Charity is a trend

Oh, yes greed and violence is still not out of the world.
If that girl who was singing her song perhaps in the late seventies,
is still basing her world view on what she sees in TV, she may still be convinced that nothing is changing.

IF you do not manage to see major changes in the past decade, try thinking in centuries.
last century we were in the middle of world war 1. The Germans had invaded so many countries.
The great depression was still on its way, antibiotics had not been invented, travel was for most people mainly by foot.

Even though I like the rhythm of the song by les Poppy's, the text makes not sense at all.
If we base our worldview on the guns we see in television, we are sooo far from reality.
We will see guns in television long time after all guns have been rusted away from disuse.

Yes, yes, everything is changing
And it is changing fast and for the better.
Dare to see it. This is not naive optimism
It is a simple sense for reality
,

Thursday 1 October 2015

Urgent

Slowly humankind is moving from greed to kindness.
We do have very good reasons to speed up this movement

Technology and science keep advancing exponentially
posing exponentially big dangers to the existence of our humans

Greedy malicious men or women may do greedy malicious things
leading to malicious results for our species.

It is high time we manage to replace the greed and malice by overwhelming kindness
It is the most logical thing to happen. We have been on the slow limb of the exponential curve
for tremendously long. We have slowly improved the care for orphans, we have slowly done away with the oppression of women, we have slowly done away with slavery, we have slowly removed apartheid, ...

Surely the inflection point and the sharply upwards limb of the exponential curve of our kindness revolution cannot be far away. It is the most logical thing to happen. We have been far too long searching for happiness in the very wrong place. Hard working farmers enjoy often more peace and happiness than cheating billionaires who get only stress and worry about the possibility of being caught. How much clearer can it become, how much cleverness does one need to see that peace and happiness reside in kindness and honesty. It is the most logical thing to expect that humanity gets wise enough soon to enjoy everlasting kindnesses from each other.

It becomes a bit urgent however. Let us all speed it up by performing at least one random act of kindness every day. Who knows one of your 365 kind acts in a year may inspire a thousand others and snowball into a hurricane of kindness that makes up the critical point of the exponential curve.