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.  :)

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 :)

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.

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!

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?

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)

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
,

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.

The eye

People say:
Beauty is in the eye 
of the beholder
But sometimes I feel
it is really in the things
 
I wonder:
Is there an eye
of any beholder
that 'd not find beauty
in the overwhelming elegance
of the wondrous shells
I found today
on the beach

Roots for everyone's heart

Roots For Everyone's Heart - (Aufie Zophy)

There is a tree
A wonderful tree
The tree of kindness
It is the fastest growing tree
In this world, God bless

There is a tree
The wonderful kindness tree
Taking deep roots forever to last
In a million people's heart
Spouting and growing enormously fast

There is a tree
That wonderful kindness tree
It grows so fast, that soon enough
The whole wide world on sea and earth
will be filled with comfort and love

There is a tree
That wonderful tree of kindness
Roots spreading in another million hearts
spouting and growing reaching high and wide
And then in another million hearts it starts

And then another two million
And five million more to come
A billion hearts soon will follow
I already smell its wonderful blossom
Roots in everyone's heart will show

Oh, it is growing so fast, this tree
let's sit and enjoy in its amazing shadow
And just let the roots in your heart grow!

Aufie Zophy

U-turn

This morning a busy clinic (polyclinic, follow up of the sick new-borns)
At about 1 pm it had finished.
A clinic, if done well is always a bit tiring but also satisfying.
I started my car to go for lunch and drove out of the parking space

That time, my telephone rings.
One of my neighbors: Doctor, are you in the hospital?
Me: No, actually I just left the hospital.
Neighbor: My uncle is admitted to the ward after a traffic accident. He fractured his ribs and is
.     in real pain. We asked the ward doctor, but did not understand why they do not give more
.     medication.
Me: I just left the hospital. After this I 'll be back and have teaching. Will you be in the ward
.     at 4 PM? I will be free then to drop by in the ward
Neighbor: OK, Doctor, I will be there.

Immediately after closing the telephone conversation, I thought: if the man is in pain and I will go and see him only 3 hours from now, what kind of animal am I? I immediately made a u-turn and parked back my car, went to the ward, sought clarification from the ward doctor, called the anesthesiologist who was very nice and came within a very short time. The anesthesiologist explained  the situation in very clear words to the wife, brother and nephew of the patient. She also agreed to increase the pain control gradually while monitoring the side effects closely.

Oh my God. I was so happy to have made that U-turn. I think it was You reminding me about my own values and principles at just the right time. Thanks so much.

A wonderful key

One of the most wonderful keys
to good living is perhaps comprised
in the following very short reflection:

People like sincerity and integrity. 
If we manage to be sincere and have integrity, 
happiness will be never far away. 

Every falsehood brings a thousand times more stress than comfort.
Falsehood brings a thousand times more stress than comfort
Yes, a thousand times more stress than comfort.

Pest, falsehood is pest, sincerity is health



.. 

Dangerous Harmony

Living in total harmony is dangerous
Dangerous to the huge alcohol industry
They may go bankrupt

Living in total harmony is dangerous
Dangerous to the enormous drug cartels
They may crumble down to nothing

Living in total harmony is dangerous
To some religious leaders preaching doom and hell
They thrive on creating discord and hatred

Living in total harmony is dangerous
Dangerous for some politicians
They get votes by creating illusions of threats

Living in total harmony is dangerous
Dangerous for our own (pre)judgements
Let us live in total harmony anyway

Let us live in complete harmony anyway
Let us live in all encompassing harmony anyway
Let us choose total harmony anyway.

Harmony, make it total
Make it complete
Make it all encompassing

The alcohol and drug industry can stop destroying lives
Let the people there convert their business to charity

Let the preachers of doom and wicked politicians alone
They can become real volunteers operating in anonymity

Choose total harmony anyway...

(inspired by a text from Osho)

Common

Each human is unique
No one is exactly like us, even not if we have twin or triplet brothers or sisters.
We can choose to focus on all our differences

But as humans we do have so many things in common.
We can choose to focus on what we have in common.

Recently I encountered clocks that turn counterclockwise
the numbers are arranged counterclockwise and everything seems inverted
There was some religious and astronomical explanation given on the why.
That is now a good example of focusing on the wrong thing.

Until recently the whole world has used clocks turning clockwise.
Everyone has been used to it and no one was ever having a doubt what is clockwise and what is counterclockwise. Turning counterclockwise is not worse or better than turning clockwise. It just had been a worldwide convention that clocks turn clockwise and if anyone in the whole world said clockwise, anyone else would know how something was turning

Now religious leaders come to tell that it should be turning the other way.
That creates yet another difference for the followers, they can be proud of.
Our clocks turn like that and the other people's clock turn differently.
Our clocks follow the true teachings and the others are wrong.
To be right while others are wrong is very much on the mind of our leaders.
That is why they feel so useful.

I think it is easy for any common sense person, that how our clocks or watches are turning, does not carry a dime of importance to the world or to our God.
So often I hope that one day we can really give up on finding all the differences between our cultures and the cultures of others soooo important.
So often I hope that one day we can really be aware that what we feel and think in common is what tends to really matter.

There are principles and values that are common to all people, no matter where we live.
Let us get focused on these. There is nothing wrong in appreciating our cultures and rites, practicing them conscientiously. But our culture and our rites do not make us superior or inferior to anyone else.

Just good

Just be good, my friends!
Just do good, my friends!
The answer to the question,
"what makes us happy?"
is that simple, just be good, just do good.

Giving an excessive tip to person who surely is not wealthy;
trying to inspire a friend not to give up;
stroking a cat over the head until it purrs that it's a pleasure;
laughing together with a child for no good reason.

Just be good, my friends
Just do good, my friends

I invite you, my friends
to write  in the comments
a few examples of when
you were just good,
you just did good
It will inspire others,
It will help speed up
the upcoming inevitable kindness revolution

Suffering 1.01

Suffering
All of us have been suffering to a certain extent
If you say, you didn't, you may be not most truthful to yourself at this moment.

But why do we have to suffer?
Why can the world not be without it?

Some people believe that suffering is brought about by human errors
Somehow we were given a big freedom at birth
and through our errors, we have created suffering for our self.
... that is only partly true.
Some suffering is indeed self-inflicted to a certain degree
A good example is the person seeking relief in alcohol abuse
Sure the person started with a level of suffering, but the abuse of alcohol makes it worse.

Other more delicate examples of self inflicted suffering may lay in the wrong use of our mind.
Pessimism, negativity, unnecessary worries, unfounded fears may all lead to unnecessary suffering.

But definitely not all suffering is self inflicted. Did a child choose something wrong or think in a wrong way if it gets a malignancy? The answer is no. The loss of a loved one. Even though some diseases such as stomach ulcers may be related to stress and wrong living and a lot of diseases are related to unhealthy life style, still a lot of disease are not .

When in 2010, only 7 months apart, I fractured my vertebra and my shoulder, I underwent a great deal of suffering. But a bad part of my suffering came about through my lack of acceptance, especially after the second fracture.

Sometimes we suffer for prolonged times, because we cannot accept. I truly suffered after the death of my mother. I suffered a long time. True enough I was missing her madly. But during prayerful reflection, I received some insight that alleviated this type of suffering. Rather than focusing on the absence of my mother now, I was trying to focus on the wonderful, the many fantastic moments we had enjoyed together. The bitterness of missing made gradually place for the gratitude of having had.
The way we accept difficulties may play an important role in the degree and the way we experience some types of suffering.

Suffering cannot be avoided. All of us do suffer to a certain extent in our lives. We do not enjoy it. Some suffering can be prevented by our way of living. Some can be prevented by our way of thinking. The unpreventable suffering can be altered sometimes by the way we accept it.

I am not an expert on suffering. But the above is based and originated/built up from a prayerful reflection I had written down in 1992.

I wish you a life with minimal suffering. If suffering comes anyhow, realizing that it often makes us wiser and stronger, can give some relief. The song, "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" has some truth in it.

The Eagle

The firm wind caresses
each of my brown eagle feathers
The softness of the fresh air
kisses my white eagle cheeks

Below, the long nipah leaves
wave me a warmhearted welcome
The ripples on the shallow river
greet me with a thousand lights

I soar, i flap once and soar a lot more
Steering a bit to the left and to the right
I reach the beach and the shore,
Turquoise and blue, a lovely sight

A lone unshaven man stands
close to the breaking waves
His arms spread, his eyes closed,
his face towards the winds of the sea

I sincerely wonder:
what kind of poetry can a man write,

If he has never seen the world
Through the eyes of an eagle
If he has never floated above the world
High in the skies like me, the eagle

Street children

I came back from Manila.
I was for four days visiting the oldest University in Asia,
The University Santo Tomas.
A wonderful place.

On the way from and to the airport,
we saw some "street children" selling things near the traffic lights
The sight was really touching my heart

Is there something we can do for these children?
Somehow they need warmth of caring persons
Somehow they need education.

If you have good ideas
If you are willing to support a project for educating
the street children of Manila,
please do comment below.

All ideas are welcome.

VVIPs

My family,
My wife,
my two sons,
The VVIPs of my heart...

Do you believe?

Do you believe in a God?
Do you believe in one God?
Do you believe that you do NOT know
 the exact nature of that God?
Or do you believe you know?

Our ancestors believed there was a God
One God. They believed.
They believed they did not know the exact nature of God
So they searched to know more
They searched for Truth

Do you believe our ancestors found the complete and final truth?
Do you believe that between them then and now
quite a number of people have lived who would twist the truth
if they could themselves benefit from it?

Our ancestors have discovered wonderful truths
Not complete and final truths but wonderful truths
In the process they taught us some wonderful prayers
If we sincerely search for truth in our life
we do not have to start from scratch

If we sincerely search for truth
We need knowledge
We do need critical interpretation
We need rational thinking
We need silence and contemplation
We need to connect
We need spirituality

If we are serious in our search
our search will never end.
We will search all traditions
We will distill essentials and try to separate
essentials from corrupted elements that may have crept in
throughout the ages

Sometimes we adopt blindly beliefs from scholars
Sometimes we have done this for decades
If we did this, we may never get back to a sincere search for truth
A search may reveal truths that do not match exactly
what was stamped into our minds by our teachers
This may be much too painful, to go on searching
And that is why searchers for Truth are not liked in many places

Do you believe?
Do you search?
Do you experience?

With Globalization, more people start to search sincerely
Sincere searching will solidify belief in our God
It will weaken the importance of rituals
It will strengthen the kindness, love and wisdom
It will diminish extremism
It will bring people from all races and cultures much closer together

Live a life of love

I want to make a positive difference in the world
I want a happy family life.
I want to perform so many random acts of kindness

.       I want to do this today

I want health, perfect health and harmony
I want to be a source of inspiration
I want to write, write, write

.       I want to live a life of love

I want to be grateful today
for the many blessings in my life
I want to live a life of love

Enough

I just saw an amazing video.
a lady was talking about the biggest problem in the world:
So many people feel they are not enough.
You are enough
I am enough
We are enough

So true.
If we feel not enough, we will never be happy.
So convince yourself now that you are enough
Write it on a note you hang above your desk
Write it on the mirror in your bathroom
I am enough
You are enough
We are enough

I think that lady made so much sense.
Feeling to be enough is soooo important.

Only if we are aware

Life is a miracle
A wonderful tree thrills my eyes
It is a miracle
A magnificant song enters my ears
It is a miracle
A delicious soup amuses my tongue
It is a miracle
The warm sunlight cuddles my skin
It is a miracle
The smell of sweet lavender reaches my brain
It is a miracle

My feet touch the grass while I walk
It is a miracle
An original thought crosses my mind
It is a miracle
A lovely gesture moves my heart
It is a miracle
A heart felt prayer hugs my soul
It is a miracle
Oh yes, life is a miracle
But only if we are aware
of the miracle

Aufie Zophy

Wishing

Wishing someone something wonderful
has something extra-ordinary

I read recently:
the moment you read this
I am wishing something wonderful
to happen to you in the next 24 hours

This touched me and had a strange effect on me
I hope it touches you too:

I wish something wonderful for you
in the next 24 hours. :)

No worries about the world

Tonight I witnessed a completely compassionate doctor-patient relationship.
My niece, Jannah, needs an operation for the heart.
The surgeon from Italy came to explain everything about the operation.
He did it in a very compassionate way.
His medical officer translated the whole story in a very compassionate way.
The parents of Jannah were aware of all risks but at the same time very confident.

After i had witnessed the whole event,
I thought for awhile about compassion in this world
There is soooo much of it.
We do not need to worry too much for the world of tomorrow
Compassion is almost everywhere and
almost everywhere it is on the increase

I am so confident.
We are moving to a more compassionate world.
Compassion and kindness increase exponentially
I can't wait for us to reach the inflection point
Once we reach that, we can only dream
what a nice world it will be.

Soft And Lovely Mood

Deep inside my heart and mind
a soft and lovely mood, I find
it warms and lights a gentle spark
my soul no longer in the dark
A flame of gold, a superb light
A lovely fire, sweet and bright

Humble, gentle, passionately kind
Smooth simplicity endlessly refined
Slow and tender, flames increase
Fueled by truth and love and peace
I can see so clearly, feel so good
It started with a soft and lovely mood

Aufie Zophy

Give us Words

Give us words

Give us the words
The words that can cut deep into
And destroy the soul of arrogance

Give us the words
The words that can fuel the flames
Of passion for truth and honesty

Give us the words
That can destroy the seeds
The seeds of greed and envy

Give us the words
The words that can fertilise and help to bloom
Perpetual pink cherry blossoms of helpfulness

Give us the words
Words that can pulverise and make to dust
The ugly rocks of Egotism and selfishness

Give us the words
That ignite the rocket engines to never stop
a huge world changing kindness revolution

O my God, give us the words
that lead to endless unconditional love
for every human soul in this amazing world

Aufie Zophy

Mushrooms for the heart

Mushrooms are delicious!

There are mushrooms that are nice and nutritious
but there are also mushrooms that are toxic and dangerous.
The food that we eat makes our body grow and healthy, or not
The food for our body, we swallow and literally internalize it.

What we read and hear is food for our mind and our heart.
Some of it helps us to grow and be healthy spiritually.
To become good and compassionate persons
To become respectful and loving, humble and successful
To follow truly the path of our God

Some of it is toxic and dangerous.
It tends to make us feel superior and intolerant.
Hateful and snobbish
This is bad food for our mind and soul


That is why we always have to be careful
Careful if we choose to eat mushrooms
Careful before we internalize any message
be it from other persons, teachers,
the news or the internet.

Messages that give our ego a boost of superiority
are most likely a bit toxic for our soul

If we eat a wrong mushroom, we may have stomach upset
and our life may be messed up for a day
If we internalize the wrong thoughts or messages
our life may be messed up for years to come

Love entails a spiritual growth together,
looking together for fantastic food for mind and soul
perhaps during a delicious dinner conversation.
Spiritual health, humility, compassion
The true path of our God.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please visit also:
1. the archive of this blog (right side of the screen)
- can also browse the blog by label, under the archive -
2.  inspirational/motivational quotes from Hans

3. Small Prayers For a Big World (by Hans)

and Poems by Aufie Zophy

What a unique family!

You are a unique person.
You have a unique family.

Do you remember the times
you were grateful for your family
you were praying for them?

Do you remember the times
you could feel their love
you could feel their care

Do you remember those meals together
those vacations, those single moments
Those well wishes, the small acts of kindness
the small acts of love?

Unique, isn't it?
It is so unique.

All mothers care, all fathers love
But none loves and cares exactly like yours
All sons love, all daughters care
But none loves and cares like yours

Unique, isn't it?

I think a great way to end this little reflection
is with a sense of gratitude, a sense of pride
for the unique ties we have with our family
for the superbly unique human beings we are.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Care and talk

Recently I have been quite busy with administrative tasks.
But on Thursdays I have made it my commitment to do the rounds in the newborn ward
At the very least, once a week,
I can taste the full beauty of the medical profession.

The full beauty but also the full burden, because not all is going well all the time.
Yesterday, I had a round and there were so many problems.
Around five pm, I managed to make some time to talk to parents
Compassionate care and talk is still such a valuable thing
Valuable for the patients, but also valuable for the doctors.

Whenever I manage to care and talk,
it makes me really feel good
I came home way after 7 pm
but it felt good.

And yes, the ward rounds pose a big burden
but if we  tackle the burden with a compassionate heart
the care and talk, resulting, make up moments of true beauty.

Who am I ??

Who I am?

I think all of us are asked by others, who we are on and off.
We tend to start the answer with or name, our job, our place of origin,
where we live, something about our family, our hobbies and so on.

If however we ask this very existential question to ourselves,
it gets a completely different meaning.
It encourages us to probe in the deepest of our being,
which, I think, is not easy at all.

We can start to think about a few things we are not.
I am not my body but at the same time I am at least a bit my body, I think.
If I would lose a part of my body,
the I who experiences the loss, would not be diminished
but the I could not help but feel a loss.

I am not my thoughts, or my mind
and yet my thoughts and mind are such an important part of me.
I can try to choose my thoughts, I can try to control my mind.
So I am not thoughts nor mind, but still without them
I would definitely not be who I am.

The very same thing could be said about my emotions.
So, no I am not my emotions but they make up a big and essential part of me

Remains, the question, if I am not my body, my mind or my heart (my emotions),
who am I?

The obvious answer would be: I am my soul and my soul uses body, mind and heart.
But who then is this soul?
Where sits my conscience? Is it part of my soul, of the I or is it residing in my mind?
Where does my ambition come from? Is it imposed by the world, or does it come from inside?
Why it needs to be really quiet to connect to my soul.
If I connect to my soul, does this imply I am not my soul or does it mean I connect to myself, my deepest self?
Who am I? Is that part I call I immaterial or not?
Who am I?
A difficult but very interesting question to consider from time to time.

Wandering in the depths of our interior being
has somehow a calming and peaceful effect.

Inspiration

For 21 years, I have been teaching medical students.
Initially I thought I need to teach them knowledge, knowledge, knowledge.
But along the way, knowledge has become available at our fingertips.

A good teacher is no longer a provider of knowledge.
A good teacher is a guide.
A better teacher still is one who can inspire.

But if we want to inspire others,
motivate them and even share values,
that is not an easy thing to do.

Sometimes we tend to get too excited about our own beliefs, opinions, and get judgmental.
If that happens, we miserably fail to motivate and inspire and rather demotivate the students.
Especially in the field of medicine, so often we are dealing with difficult situations.
Most of these situations demand a lot of strength from doctors and students emotionally and spiritually.

As a teacher I feel these issues have to be addressed.
The way we address these issues is very important.
We do need to listen more than speak
We do need to ask questions more than give advice
We need to be more sensitive and less judgmental.
We need to put our ego aside and teach with soul.

All these things are much easier said than done.
and even though we often try to be good listeners,
all too often we may impose our own opinions and judgements.
We may hurt some feelings along the way and
our well intended inspiring session may become a demotivating session in the end.

I often pray for guidance during my teachings.
I know that sometimes I have truly failed to inspire
I know that sometimes I have inspired students too.

Perhaps it is OK to make mistakes, as long as we learn from mistakes.
I am a normal human being and like positive feedback and
do not like much to read negative feed back
But it is the negative feed back that allows us to grow;
it is the negative feed back that allows us to learn from our mistakes.
I do not get upset about negative feedback
I honestly admit that I do not like it
but I still embrace it as an opportunity to learn and improve myself.

I have not lost my ideals along the way
I still want to become the best teacher in the world
The best doctor in the world
The best father in the world
The best husband in the world
The best brother, the best uncle and so on
For each of the above I have a long way to go and time may be much too short.
I am aware I may not achieve any of these goals in my lifetime but they remain ideals to work towards.  :)

The cat and the wall

A twelve year old boy was walking down a narrow lane and met a wall. 
The wall was not very high but extremely slippery. 
He tried to climb over it, around it or under it, but did not manage to pass the wall
After an hour of intense effort he sat down and a tear left his right eye.

At that moment a very small cat came by
It tried to climb the wall but failed miserably
It started to meow and cry loudly. 
The mother cat came
The baby cat jumped on the shoulders of the mother
and the mother elegantly jumped over the wall.

The boy went home, asked help from his mom
His mom lifted him gently over the wall 


click here for the story in poem format

Hope

It is dark, no moon, no light
Just darkness, a starless sky
The wind blows, the waves break
A single firefly passes by

Soon the firefly is gone
Leaving me in the darkest of nights
The tiny fly made me anticipate
A sunrise with the finest of lights
----------------------------------------------
This is still my one of my favorite poems
and perhaps the one receiving most visits.
More poems by Aufie Zophy (my author name) 
by clicking on this webpage link

My way (?)

" Be reasonable
DO IT MY WAY"

I saw this written on a small plate in a souvenir shop in Gent.

It was striking my mind enough for me to share it here with a little reflection.
Sure I have been guilty of the above.
While talking to my children, to my wife, and to so many others.
We tend to stick to what we feel, to what we believe, to our own principles
 If only the others could be reasonable and live and do according these feelings, believes and principles too.

The huge problem perhaps in the world is that all of us tend to have a set of different feelings, believes and principles and all to often we consider each other as being unreasonable. Rather then carefully listening and practice some true empathy and "give and take", we tend to listen so often only to our own inner voice, our own ego and consider all those not following our feelings, believes and principles as unreasonable.

I have made it my small intention, aim, for today to try to listen a bit more, "be reasonable" and to try and understand a bit more of my fellow friends, family's feelings, believes and principles before judging them as unreasonable. I will perhaps try to 'give and take' and do it a little bit their way :)

This is not a call to give up our own feelings and principles, but to understand a bit more the feelings and principles of others.

Receiving

When I got of the boat at the Venice train station, there was a porter.
He offered help for carrying the luggage.
I know they do that not for free.
Somehow I thought I was in a generous mood and made up my mind to give him 15 euro, which I had in my pocket for his  less than 2 minutes of help with the luggage.
When we reached the train station, to my surprise he asked for his services 15 euro.
So I gave him the 15 euro without any discussion.

If you are not familiar with the euro currency, to give you an idea, my taxi from the train station to the hotel cost me ten euro (the distance was not very far)

For me the net monetary effect was the same, but psychologically it was suddenly very different.
For him I think it was quite a bit different too.
Let us say, if he had asked for a reasonable amount of money for the few (certainly not more than 2) minutes of help, he would have gotten 15 euro and he would have really felt appreciated.
But now he asked for the unreasonable 15 euro. He got 15 euro, but within, he must have experienced the bitter taste of having cheated this tourist by charging him extraordinarily high.

Another effect his behavior had is that when I got off the train, there were porters too. Instead of letting them help me, I chose to carry the luggage myself. So, not only he deprived himself of the good feeling of being appreciated and created his own bitterness of having charged too much, but he also gave a bad name to the porters in Italy in general. They are depriving themselves and their whole group of peers from a lot of opportunities to help others and get their business to be successful.

A mushroom in the grass near the beach

I sat down on the grass near the beach

And noticed a small brown mushroom

Not too far from where I sat down

Some of the grass carried flower like crowns

 of short white hairs, all along their stalks

Not only the small brown mushroom 

Enchanted with its exquisite beauty

But the grass itself had its own 

Peculiar texture exuding attractiveness 

The white beach was almost hiding the banded sea

Of brown and deep green turquoise taints

When a dark cloud moved quickly, 

Blocking the astonishing sunlight from view

Everything became gray for awhile

A few rain drops hit my naked arms

But then the wonders of light won from the cloud

And shone the pastel miracle of bands again on the sea

Tips

Today I received a mail from a friend asking for tips for doctors who are in a training program for specialists. It was my pleasure to express my thoughts on it as follows. (MMed stands for Master of Medicine, the name of our local 4-year specialists training program)

A. How to be an excellent MMed Student

1. Enjoy the journey (things we enjoy, we do best)

2. Everyday, clerk one case as if you prepare for a long case in exam (exam becomes a routine, a second nature)

3. Discover and let bloom your natural curiosity (yes, in the deepest of our heart we want to know everything about every of our patients). Give  your patients care beyond their own expectations

4. Ask questions and actively look for answers (own reading followed by discussion with lecturers and colleagues)

5. Have a study method, make mind maps, 

B.  Time management

1. Plan your study time

2. Plan your leisure time

3. Plan short term, medium term and long term

(i could make it five times plan, but will try to come up with two different ones)

4. timed revisions of summaries of readings (same day, next day, after 1 week, after 1 month)

5. Insert now and then an unplanned day

(this section B was the toughest for me since my own time management is somewhere near to the freezing point)

C. How to reduce stress

1. Find every day one flower, tree, or other wonderfully beautiful thing, take a picture of it and share it with your friends (sharing beauty works wonders). Life is not easy but oh so beautiful.

2. Try to make everyday one stranger smile and then do the same to your family and colleagues (Our steno in paeds used to say: make one friend smile and Allah will smile at you)

3. Write down your feelings, reflect on them, create a blog, write poetry, make a painting, sing under the shower (especially when no one can hear you)

4. Call your mom or dad or a lonely aunty

5  Read a few jokes, until you find one that makes you laugh

A+B+C

Believe in your self, think positive, remain humble and honest, eat a good diet and take on and off a deep breath.

And  a final one (initially I thought I would never come up with enough tips and now i seem to overdo it   ): 

Whatever task at hand, read about it before you do it (be it giving a presentation, chairing a meeting, introducing a speaker, ....) All things have experts who have tried, erred and learned and written about it. We can learn from them and do not have to try and err so much along the way.

The beauty of reality

This morning I woke up from a dream
and the next small poem came about:

I traveled in a blue bus, on its side a white line
We rode through a landscape wonderfully fine
and a man sitting in the seat in front of me
was reading the paper absorbing all negativity
while missing completely the beauty of reality

Kaya

Kaya in Malaysia is the name of coconut jam, a pure and fantastic delicacy to spread on your bread.
Kaya is also an adjective meaning rich.

A few days ago I posted in this blog something on richness and precious things
Indeed richness means that we have precious things and that we have a lot of it.

I have been thinking and one super important element of the meaning or richness was not addressed in the above: we have to be aware of having the precious things.

Imagine a man whose parents had put an immensely large amount of money in an account with his name but had planned to tell him later. But both died in a tragic accident before they could tell him about it. Is that man rich? He has a lot of money but is not aware of it. So he is actually not rich

Imagine a woman who has a garden. In her garden, deep under the soil is a gold mine. She does not know. She has a tremendous amount of gold but she does not know and thus is not rich.

Imagine a man who has received perfect eyesight and on top of that all his days are filled with light shining on the most beautiful elements and objects in nature. But this man is too busy with worries and greed and jealousy to see any of these treasures. This man is not aware of the huge treasure he gets on a daily basis and is not rich

And so is it with our health, our knowledge, our capability to think, our love. Most of us are so rich with it, but if we are not aware and consciously enjoy all these we are in a matter of fact poor.

Imagine a women, born with a heart full of kindness but it is hidden under a mountain of greed.
She has something more valuable than all the gold on earth but her treasure is hidden and she is not rich

To the fullest

Every human has in her or himself
the love of truth
the love of good and
the love of beauty

We search for knowledge, we search for truth.
The more knowledge we get, the more we are aware of the gaps in our knowledge
The more we read, the more we are we aware we are knowing a little, little bit
Higher than knowledge is still is our search for the truth.
The truth about life, about spirituality
Truth is different from knowledge.
The search for truth inevitably involves reflection and thought
deep thinking and inspiration. The higher our hunger for truth,
the further we reach. When we discover a giant truth
we bask for a while in the glory and sweet satisfaction of having discovered it
but if our heart remains humble in the process our mind and soul
will boil over the rim of the recently discovered truth and search for the next higher truth.

Our love for good, for doing well is another wonderful love we all share.
If we do make a positive difference in the life of another person
we experience close to perfect bliss.
Try to remember the time you saved a life, you saved a person from getting depressed or just did something nice that turned a wonderful smile on the face of the person next to you. Remember the time you managed to listen, the time you gave that small but significant gift, the time you walked with the child the extra mile. Then think about the feeling you got. The peace you experienced.
Wonderful isn't it.
 I do not understand how not most of us are hungering much more every day for doing some of these things. All of us have experienced the joy of helping, but we keep struggling to get richer and richer and higher and higher ourselves often at the cost of others. Never that brings us a real good feeling. Our love for good, let us keep it alive.

Our love for beauty is the next big love. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We need to keep our mind open for the beauty> often at the end of the day, I realize I forgot to look actively at the beauty of nature that surrounds my house, the beauty of the souls of people in my workplace and of so much more. When at night I manage to see some beauty it fulfills me with a sense of bliss More so if we manage to express our perception of beauty through a wonderful quote or text or poem. Expression of beauty is so much a part of men and women, that we live only partial lives if we fail to express what we experience. Our expression of beauty makes our life more complete

let us all be a bit more more aware of the three big loves.
The love of truth, the knower in us
The love of good, the doer in us
The love of beauty, the artist in us

Let us keep it all alive and live our life to the very fullest

Small intentions

Every day we have so many small intentions.
Some of them we accomplish.
Some of them we ignore.

The very nice thing about the intentions we ignore
is that we did not lose big things in the process
because we always get second and third and...
yes a hundredth chance to still try

We have this wonderful mind, this wonderful heart
this wonderful soul, that enables to connect to our ideals
our ideals of old, our ideals of new
and strengthen our small positive intentions

One day we will reach, accomplish a small one
then another one and then another one
Keep the intentions coming
Keep trying, enjoy the next chance.

Rituals

During a walk on the beach at dawn,
I was thinking about life and some thoughts entered my mind.

I was thinking about my life as a child
I was raised in strictly Catholic environment
The rituals were almost a purpose in itself and perhaps the main purpose
As a child I used to condemn those not following the same rituals as I
I was convinced God was on my side and was condemning these people too

Through long term prayerful reflection,
I could see that the rituals practiced in religion
are part of the culture.
Through long term prayerful reflection,
I could see that the essentials of a religion include three main components:

1. The vertical component, which means the belief in God and the devotion
The devotion is mainly a way to get a little bit closer to that incomprehensible
supreme divinity
2. The horizontal component, which means the love to our family and neighbours
the love for our colleagues, the purposeful positive difference we want to make
for our fellow human beings in this world.
3. The inward component, which mans the reflection, the introspection, when we manage to think about ourselves, look at how we did during that day, the connection to our own soul, getting to know our selves a bit better.

The rituals of the religion are meant to be tools to achieve the essentials.
But for far too many people, the rituals become a purpose in itself
For far too many people the rituals become not mere tools to achieve the essentials
but rituals tend to become everything, they become the religion.

Rituals are tools to achieve the essentials.
Rituals can also bring communities together in practicing their own cultural values
It makes me sometimes a bit sad to see people practicing rituals becoming arrogant,
getting a false feeling of superiority out of the rituals they practice
glorifying themselves and those who practice exactly as they do
condemning to hell people who practice even slightly differently
and carrying the false certainty that people who practice
very differently from them will meet with hell fire for sure.
I have met people like this in Christianity
I have met people like this in Islam
I have seen people like this in the community of Jehovah witnesses

I think it is high time for the big religions to leave behind this sect-like behaviour
It is high time to get our focus right.
To get our focus on the essentials and not merely on the rituals.
If we all manage to do that, we will suddenly realise how similar we are
not only as humans but also in our beliefs, in our shortcomings, in our strengths
in our devotion, in our charity in our introspection.

I am dreaming of a world where peace and unity will be!
I am dreaming of a world where we respect each other!
I am dreaming of a world where religions will recognize their common essentials
and accept, tolerate and respect and even enjoy the differences between them!
I am dreaming of a unity of the different people.
I can see God is preparing the world for that
All tools have gradually become available
Wisdom literature is now becoming available in simple language in many translations
All of us are getting better and slowly more kind

Soon there will be a huge wisdom revolution
Soon there will be a huge kindness revolution
this is more than a dream of me
It has become a knowing.

The magic of dawn

It is always pleasant to be outside
during these very special moments
where the dark of the night
gives way to the day's light

I never regretted waking
to make a walk early in the morn

This morning, was one of these mornings
I woke up at 6.20, said some prayers with a grateful heart
and went for my walk on the beach
That time of the day there is palpable magic in the air
an un-name-able beauty hangs around in the skies
the softness of the light gives a surreal appearance to the meanest of things

I jogged a few tens of meters
then walked, moving the shallow water with my feet
Wonderful thoughts entering my mind
Deep contemplation

On the way back I made an effort to mindfulness
Just concentrating on the walking, on my breath
Feeling the sand under my feet, feeling the fresh air
enjoying the sight of the birds, adorning the sky

I made the intention to do this every day.
I have made this intention countless times before
I hope now I can follow up with it a bit longer than usually.

Thought

Thought is very important
but thinking is not easy
That is why many avoid it
They avoid it by taking flight
in TV, in movies, in novels.
This keeps our mind busy,
so we don't have to think.

If we are free, we need to think
Let us not be afraid of thinking.

Inspired by a text by WD Wattles 

Laughing

Just yesterday, I visited some joke websites.
While the majority of jokes may give you at best a smile
If you a read a large enough number you will come across some jokes
that give you a hearty laugh.

Laughing is good

Here was one that made me laugh.

the teacher says: who can answer my following question correctly, can go home
Upon hearing this, John throws his schoolbag through the window
The teacher asks: who did this?
John says: I did and I am going home.

Maybe you have to search for another joke to make yourself laugh.

Blood

We can donate 10 % of our blood and still feel good about it
Not only psychologically and spiritually but also physically.

Isn't this wonderful?
We were really made as such.
We were born with the power to give
Even to give "pieces" of ourselves.

And it is this giving that makes us truly happy
That gives us bliss and peace of mind, lasting bliss and peace

Most of us search for happiness in fun which is often only a source of trouble
Let us be aware of who we are, how our mind, heart and soul truly works:

Giving brings long lasting happiness,
resulting often in indestructible peace of mind.
Taking gives us short lasting fun or pleasure but 
in the long run may spell trouble

Now and Here

One student went to see a master and asked:
If I become your disciple, how long would it take to become a master?
The master replied: about 3 years.
The student replied:
If I work extra hard and am supremely motivated, how long would it take then
The master: 5 years.
The student: I think you misunderstood. I am willing to work and study until late at night. Can i make it shorter than 3 years?
The master said: in that case it will take ten years
The student did not understand and asked for an explanation
The master explained. If you have on eye on the target, then there is only one eye left on the work and study you need to perform. That 's why if you are very eager to finish early, it will take you actually longer to become a  master.

I read the above story in book with Zen stories.
I think it contains such a great wisdom.
It makes me think of the religious fanats who spend all the time thinking about the hereafter.
Some of them even forget their duties here and now.
Some of them leave family behind to spend long hours in places of worship
Some of them forgo opportunities to help others because they are heading off to worship

If we always think about the hereafter,
We may forget about the here and now
With one eye on the target you may take much longer to reach
With both eyes on the target, you may keep stumbling and falling and not be aware why.

Spirit

Life is like a great book.
The material stuff is just a small chapter.
If I could not feel
the wonder that surrounds me
and is in me all the time,
I would miss all remaining chapters...

The Surface

I read the following amazing story from Thich Nhat Hanh

A person had been traveling very far and was thirsty
He felt very hot. He asked the people he met where he could find a lake. 
When he reached the lake he found it to be covered by straw and algae.
He felt a bit disgusted 
But then he decided to use his hand to push aside the straw and algae
and found deep clear water underneath it. He enjoyed bathing in the deep clear water.

Many people may speak words of hatred, words of anger but underneath their surface their is a loving soul. Can you see the analogy to the lake?

While this does not apply to all people who are nasty, most of us do have a good heart but temporary frustration, upset, worries, tensions or stress may make us say things that are not cool, not clean, not likeable, not amicable.

Rather than allowing ourselves to be filled with hatred for persons talking angrily, let us try to stir the water a bit, try to get some of the floating dirt pushed aside and discover the nice human just below the surface.

This is easier said than done. But I still think that the above story is a very nice one with a lot wisdom in it. What do you think?

Nice?