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?