Hell

In so many sects gullible young people are threatened with hell fire if they do not as the preacher preaches. Please my brothers and sisters, do not believe a preacher who is talking half of the time about hell and most of the other half about paradise. Do not fall for such hypocrisy.

No preacher will ever have any say in 
who or why someone will go to hell.
If he has to resort to such threats to make his message powerful,
the true power of his message is highly likely to be minuscule.

Sadly these things happen not only in small sects but also in big religions.
If a preacher starts talking about hell, we can safely conclude that we have to take the rest of what he says with a huge grain of salt.

Harmony

I am dreaming of harmony
Harmony in the world
Harmony in my country
Harmony in my city
Harmony in my family
Harmony within my heart

For now it still just a dream
One day, I hope, reality.

Prayer

 Prayer to many people is one way talk to God, done in order to please God.
Truth is that we cannot please God.
It sounds like supreme arrogance if we believe that God
could be affected in any way by any of our actions.
Only God can affect us, only God can please us.

Prayer is a gift of God to us that allows us to be a bit closer to God.
It is essentially something we do for ourselves.

If we pray quietly with  our heart and mind and soul,
it has a wonderful effect on our lives.
It brings peace, bliss, love in our lives.
Not that God is suddenly sending these things to us from somewhere far away.
We are continuously literally bathing in peace, love and bliss
All we have to do is open our hearts and open our souls,
let it all flow in and act.

Prayer is meant to help us tune in, tune in to the love and peace that is around us at all time.
If I read Al Fatihah (part of the Muslim prayer) and think deeply about the meaning, one cannot but feel but more peaceful, loving and blissful after it.
If one reads our Father (Christian prayer), the meaning of the words in it are amazingly similar and if one thinks deep about the meaning , one cannot feel but more peaceful, loving and blissful
I am sure the same goes for the prayers in other religions.

Let us upgrade our prayers from just reciting mindlessly something we learned by heart many years ago, to giving some deep thoughts about the meaning of these words we have memorized, let the meaning soak into our hearts and souls and let it change us for the better.

Every day

Every day, every day can be a beautiful day.
every day, every day

Everyday counts a full 1440 minutes
An infinite number of things can happen in 1440 minutes
An infinite number of thoughts can cross our minds
An infinite number of good deeds
An infinite number of inspiring words can be spoken

Isn't it a sin, that so many people
waste so many days?

Searching

I once read this wonderful quote:

If you go searching for love
you may be loveless.
If you 're loveless
you will never find love.
Only the loving find love
and they never have to search for it.

At first sight the above may be a bit difficult to understand.
When thinking a bit deeper, it becomes so logical

Equality is not equity

Are we all equal?
Surely not.
Do we want all to be equal
Surely not

We can work for equity, which implies fairness and justice.
equality is not always fair and just as illustrated in the image below:



Some leaders like to talk about equality for the staff, as an excuse not to give privileges to the higher ranking staff. Often these bosses themselves have a long list of privileges themselves they tend to enjoy on a daily basis.

Whenever I encounter such a situation, I think about the quote from the famous book, animal farm:
"All animals are equal except the pigs"The animals had taken over the farm after chasing away the farmer who was abusing them. Everyone seemed to be united and the slogan was that all animals were equal. The pigs who had led the revolution took on a leadership position. Soon they claimed privileges not very different from what the farmer was doing and after they had become actually worse than the farmer, the slogan was changed: all animals are equal except the pigs.

When I hear leaders of today denying people privileges in the name of equality while hanging on their own privileges like a fool, that phrase keeps propping up in my mind. Thank God we are not equal. We are all so different. Too often equality is confused with equity which is a very different thing.

Wise people tend to be full of doubt, because they know the truth is so complex
Dumb people are sure of what they think and are extremely loud and tend to take on the leadership positions.

The world is changing fast however. Sooner rather than later the service to humanity of the wise will be so obviously great that the dumb will have no choice but to follow.

A restful mind

the sounds of the sea
are softly soothing my soul;
I try to stop the thoughts train
just for awhile;I close my eyes;
a healing energy flows though me;
a dose of liveliness
is injected in my tired heart;

the train of thoughts
seems a bit impatient to start back:
But I pray for silence
I pray for peace
and only one word
keeps propping up
in my restful mind:

Kindness

More love

More love

Love may be the best medicine,
the best vitamin, the best herb

Much more love is needed in the world.
Like one famous song says:
We have enough mountains to climb,
enough rivers and oceans to cross.
What we need now is much more love.

Where to get that so much needed love?

We were born with heart full of it,
a river that keeps flowing
from an inexhaustible source.

If we decide to give some of it away
the universe is ready with a double dose
to fill everything up again.

the problem is that the flow of love is blocked
the flow of love is obstructed
by the sandbanks of greed
the sandbanks of self-importance
the self-banks of narcissism

If we just manage to bulldoze one of these sandbanks away,
the accumulated love behind the banks will cause a flood
A flood of love, a flood of kindness
Our whole world will be flooded, flooded by love
a wonderful giant wave of love and peace.

Daily love

Every day,
some love
comes our way

Every day
some beauty
comes our way

But in every street
there are some people
consumed by greed

They do not see
they do not feel
the daily love and beauty

Family

When I got my two sons, I had one aim in mind: to become the best father ever.
Now, 18 years later, I don't think I am even near to that

But the fire for my children is still burning inside.
Sure enough I have made mistakes in parenting
Sure enough
But the will and longing to still be the best father ever is still very much alive
Alive in my heart, in my mind, in my soul.
I pray that I may start doing things a bit more right
that I can give unconditional love without pampering too much
I know unconditional love is the way
but I know also now that unconditional love is not the same as giving everything they long for
Values, I have to teach more values,
Oh, my God, I do hope and pray it is not too late to teach my children more values.
Teaching values while practicing unconditional love...
I hope I can.
I hope so much to still be the best father to them.

While I was walking on the beach just now,
I was wondering why I had failed so badly in parenting
But then the thought came to my mind:
On calm seas every captain is a good captain.
It is on rough seas one can distinguish good from not so good captains
I truly hope that I can bring after quite a stormy ride, the ship still safely in a beautiful harbor.

Cleaning

Today,
I enjoyed my breakfast.
I loved the ride to work.
I took pride in my visit to the ethics committee.
I was enthralled by my small group discussion session with my students.
I delighted in my lunch meeting with pizza.
I liked the role play of my students.
I was pleased with my interactive teaching session on ethics.
I loved the ride home.
But most of all,
    I loved, enjoyed and adored cleaning the beach with my son
    in front of an amazing sky above the South China Sea.

Boarding

I do know parents who like to send their children to prestigious boarding schools.
They believe in the necessity of this for their future education and believe that boarding schools make them truly " stand on their own legs"

Most of the time my first thought if I hear this, is: 'oh, no, does your teenager not need the warmth of home most in his or her often very challenging teenage years?'

This is at least my opinion. It may be wrong. I am sure many great achievers have come out of boarding schools. But I shiver if I hear the stories of bullying as much pitying the bullied as the the twisted personalities of the bullies.

I read a quote today that education is more like lighting a fire, rather than like filling a bucket.
Is there a better place than home to light the fire of the soul of teenagers?