Truly Alive

A quote: 

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures" by Thornton Wilder

I read the above quote in a chicken soup for the soul book on random acts of kindness. It is filled with heart warming stories of strangers doing just a simple small random kind act and making a huge difference for the person that was on the receiving end. 

I feel there is so much wisdom in the quote. 

Tonight I went outside for awhile to see the moon reflecting in the water of the sea. I was on the beach and a few Casuarina trees were giving extra shadows and frames to the extreme beauty of the moon and its giant reflection in the sea. My heart was conscious of a superb treasure and I felt like becoming truly alive. 

I thought for awhile and became so grateful to the universe for the gift of eyesight. 

I thought for awhile longer and a sense of gratitude for so many other things flooded my heart and mind. It is when we are conscious of so many treasures that our soul comes to the surface and makes us feel like we are truly, truly alive. 

 

Best growth

 My dear readers,

The other day I read somewhere that one of the most important, if not THE most important ingredient of living a life of purpose that is filled with job satisfaction, feeling good and peace of mind is to ensure our continued growth. And it is not physical growth. At my age physical growth can only happen in the width (getting fatter) and that is certainly not what we talk about here :) 😆😅.

Somehow to keep growing, we have to keep an open mind. Today I learned an important lesson, I want to share here with you. One old friend who was many years my junior, an ex student at the university I work for, has really advanced in life to a very important position. His social media messages get lots of attention and while many of them are truly humorous giving us a good laugh, some are didactic and others are opinion based. It was on some of the opinion based messages, that I had exchanged differences in opinion in private with him. He indicated before already, that he did not want to debate about these opinions with me. I should perhaps have respected that. Today however, I gave him a bit of honest feedback on one of his recent messages, particularly harsh on a very junior person that had inadvertently reached the news of Malaysia, after being barred from an exam in her university for a controversial reason. 

The response I received: unfriended from Facebook. Up to now I had rejoiced to see this friend of mine go up to a high position in the capital of our country. I was quite sure that he would keep rising to great heights. Now with quite some sadness in my heart, I became aware that he is facing some major obstacles to continued growth. It are not the "friends" who always agree with what you say that help you grow. It is the ones who express their different opinions, who dare to give some criticism now and then, who ensure our continued growth. I am most grateful for friends who do on and off disagree, who do give critical feed back. In the moment it may hurt, but in the long run, I do know that these are my best and most valuable friends.They help me grow.

The internet is supposed to help the world grow towards unity. But if we use it in an immature way; if we block out all information that is a bit disturbing to us; if we avoid reading different opinions; if we just want to bask in glory and get hundreds of likes, for whatever we say or do, we are on a dangerous path of limited or reverse growth. It may taste nice for awhile but it tends not to last. I pray for that friend in the above true story, that sooner rather than later he comes to his senses and keeps a truly open mind. 

A truly open mind means NOT to absorb all information that comes our way, but to read and be open for all information, using a very good filter. Filtering out the toxic food for our mind (the nonsense), but letting in what is valuable and keeping in a separate room things that we cannot accept right now but might make sense if look from a different point of view. 

I wish you, my dear readers a life filled with continued growth, not in belly fat, but in terms of spiritual, emotional, personality, character growth. It involves a basic humility and courage: we need to dare to doubt and avoid to be to easily certain about things that appear right on first sight. It was Voltaire who said: doubt is not comfortable but certainty is madness. Voltaire said it in a specific context but I think we can apply this to many areas of our life.

 

Nice and warm

My heart felt nice and warm

My soul was lightly afloat

My brain wanted me to feel like stupid,

but i didn't let it.  

A woman sitting on the floor

trying to sell kerupuk

my heart told me she was happy

my soul kept seeing her smile

My brain told me: she cheated you.

I didn't care

The woman had 50 ringgit

I had peace of mind

I had love in my soul

I had 50 ringgit less

She may have cheated me

But I did not care

I talked back to my mind

Please dear mind,

Intelligence is kindness

nothing more, nothing less

It is your task to help me be intelligent

Thanks dear heart, Thanks dear soul

And thanks my mind, for giving in so easily

and accepting that your greatest gift, intelligence

is kindness, the highest form of intelligence.

 

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A small explanation: outside of the bank, there are always some people begging. In the past, i felt that that was a bit opportunistic. Today, it was quite late, not many people around. The lady sitting outside of the bank was selling kerupuk (fish crackers). Somehow my heart took pity on her and i gave her RM 50. Immediately after that, my mind was not happy about it, but in my heart I was convinced that I did the right thing :)

Start walking

 A Rumi Quote:

"As you start to walk on the way, the way appears"

 

Rumi was one of these great poets and a search beyond the obvious meaning in his quotes is always a worthy mental exercise. The obvious meaning seems that even if we do not see how to achieve our goals, once we start acting to achieve them anyhow, ways will appear to reach them.  I love this wisdom and encourage everyone to live by it. 

 

But upon my second reading of the quote, it did not merely say, as you start to walk, the way will appear. It said: as you start to walk ON THE WAY, the way appears.

 

All of us are walking on this journey called life. Some of us aimlessly, some of us with a clear aim in front of our eyes. We often see the aims as endpoints but when we reach these points, we go through an initial joy, followed often by a dip. We had imagined the endpoint as a state of permanent bliss, but once we cross the line to achieve the point, we see it is a mere beginning of something much bigger still. 

 

Now let us build in THE WAY. 

 

The way is that diamond path. Not just any way. It is the diamond path of kindness, unconditional kindness, unconditional love, unconditional friendliness. It is the diamond path of searching and finding the good in everyone, no longer judging, no longer condemning, just seeing other beings as worthy of reverence and unconditional love. It is the diamond path of grace and forgiveness. It is the diamond path of our Creator. 

 

As we start to walk on that way, ON THE WAY, we will see the full beauty of it. 

Once you choose the path 

That stunning path of kindness 

You'll see its beauty

Try to imagine 

Unconditional kindness

For all in the world 

Beauty, harmony 

Peace and serendipity 

Will flow in our lives 

 

No matter how muddy your current path, seems to be, get the courage, get the strength, from some positive thoughts, from a sincere prayer, and start to walk on the path of our Creator. Start to walk on the path and it will show itself in all its grandeur, in all its beauty. Forces in the world may pull you back to the muddy areas at the sides of the path or the swampy areas far away from the path, but once you have walked the path, you will know how wonderful it is, and coming back to it will be easier. The more we walk on path, the more beauty we discover, Start walking on the way and the way will appear. 

 

To stay on the way, will become our aim. That path leads to true peace, beauty, love and creativity, that will make any of the classical aims easy to grasp. Our classical aims will be ours, but it will be easy to see our next task to reach a place a bit closer and closer and closer to that big creative Power in the Universe, Our Creator, who gave us a heart containing an inexhaustible source of love, kindness and wisdom.  

 

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The little poem in the middle consists of 3 senryus. A senryu is follows the structure of a haiku (5-7-5 syllables) but is about human character, instead of about nature and seasons.