Like a hand

Life is like a hand. For so many people it resembles a fist,tightly clenched. Eager to take but only able to punch. More and more of humankind, start to release, to release the cramped, damned fist.

The hand slowly opens and the goodness of each and every finger becomes visible

The thumb is the thickest of them all and stands for kindness

It is the thumb that allows all of us to hold something

Kindness will hold the world together; the rule of thumb:

Kindness, holding us all in unity

The other fingers unfold.The index finger pointing at wisdom, not blurred philosophy, but true wisdom of loving selfless altruism. Life is like a hand

The  middle finger: the highway to truth, a simple everlasting hunger; a search and a findin, truth being bit by bit uncovered.Life is like a hand

The ring finger unity

The small finger humility

And in the middle of the open hand, the palm, making a lake

A lake of beauty peace and happiness, surrounded by the trees of kindness

Wisdom, truth, unity and humility.

Oh, my friends

Open your hands

Relax your fists

Turn your wrists

Oh my friends,

Please open your hands.

Turn them from deserts in oases, turn them from waste land to lofty forests

From stones of bitterness and greed, to seeds of kindness and love, to a soft and caring heart

Oh my friends open your hands, look at our hands in wonder; open our hands

Let the kindness, wisdom and truth, flow through our arms, straight into your heart, mind and soul Let the unity and humility inspire you, touch you make you love.

Soon that wonderful lake of the palms, will flow through our veins, reaching each and every cell. Peace and happiness, beauty, harmony, and sweet satisfaction will reign our life. Life is like a hand. 

I have expressed the idea also in a small rhyming poem: 

The lake of your palm
 
Imagine while looking at your hand
In your palm there is a wonderful lake
With amazing trees at every end

Your thumb is the kindness tree
You need it to hold or take
Kindness will hold together society

Your index the wisdom tree
joy, only nice simple thoughts can make
Not complex abstract philosophy

In the middle a tree standing tall
Reflecting truth in the clear blue lake
A highway to honesty for all

Finger four, tree of love and charity
Teaching us to give more, not always take
The little pinky standing for humility.

Let the superb water of the lake flow
Through your arms to your heart and soul
And help you personally and spiritually grow

And this is a wish to all my friends
Do not make a fist, do not turn your wrist
But at all time, open your hands.

Our expectations

A good way to know a bit about quantum physics and all the weird assumptions made
to come to hypotheses that work, is to learn about the double slit experiments.Yesterday, I saw a talk on quantum fields. Sounds more and more difficult but a bit less weird.

The most amazing still of all quantum science is how we can influence the behavior of electrons. If we look at them, expecting them to behave as particles, they behave as particles. If we do not, they behave as waves. Another amazing thing is how electrons apparently can communicate to other electrons, even at huge distances. And then how the trees and all plants make use of quantum mechanics during photo synthesis.

The more we seem to dig into the laws of nature, the more complex they seem and things like free will, once doubted after Newton came up with his laws of physics, now is undoubtedly a thing almost proven. What we think and do has an influence on electrons. What we think and do affects the world around us.

However limited my understanding of all of it, I know that I will choose from hereon to have positive expectations, positive thoughts. On and off we may get disappointments, but expecting the worst and hoping to be pleasantly surprised by positive outcomes makes no longer sense. I expect the best, I think positive thoughts and every bit of thought energy is worth to be put out in this universe of quantum fields. If enough people think thoughts of kindness, that is what we may see happening in our world: our next revolution, our next big step in our evolution, a kindness revolution.

Even without quantum mechanics, it makes so much sense to think kindness, to think the best, to act altruistically. Simple happiness belongs to the wise. Greed is so far away from wisdom, so far away from happiness. Kindness is so close to wisdom, so close to happiness. Let us expect a kindness revolution of enormous proportions. Here a small poem, I wrote many years ago:

Speck of significance

In the universe, a human so small,
Looking just like a speck of dust
But born with a mind and a soul
And able to think, love and trust.
Many think that as a human, just one
Not a positive change can be made, nothing great
What could a good deed selflessly done
Ever mean in a world full of hate?

But if a butterfly in India, flapping its wings
could cause a storm over the Atlantic
Just see how one of the small insignificant things
Can have an effect, so gigantic
Then why would your simple random kind act
Just by chance or by divine intervention
Not snowball and have a huge impact,
Perhaps a kindness revolt of enormous dimension

So in each of our lives we must
Make a choice of incredible importance
Do we want to be just a speck of dust
Or a speck of significance.

Aufie Zophy

Rumi

I was reading some Rumi quotes today.
Each time I do that, I revel in their wit and beauty.

Here are three of them. You may like some and some not.
I like the three below quite a lot:

Let silence take you to the core of life.

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.

Whatever lifts the corners of your mouth, trust that

 Let silence take you to the core of life. The days on which I failed to make it silent for awhile to think and reflect on what happened, are a bit incomplete. I think my most complete days are those when I manage to go to the beach in the late evening and sit there by myself adoring the beauty of nature and enjoy the beauty of the day that passed or work a bit over the ugliness encountered.

The second one is a bit less practical, a bit more mystical perhaps, but worth to let it sink in for a while. All our experience, all our thoughts, all our feelings, are a world, an ocean. All the beauty we have seen, all the love we have felt, all the care we have given or received, an ocean. And yet all too often we feel small and insignificant, while we are an ocean in a drop :) That is at least how I experience this quote.

And then the third one, is perhaps the one, I like the best. What makes us feel good and what makes us smile, is perhaps close to the truth. Here it is not too much sugary sweets, we are talking about but the small greeting from a stranger, the unexpected response from a child, an idea that makes us smile. I have many times ideas that make me smile, but then afraid of what others might think, I keep it for myeslef or do not follow through. When I take up my courage and act on these impulses that make me smile, they tend to be the best experiences of my life.

Please share your own interpretation of these quotes in the comments or share your favorite quotes :)

Have a wonderful next second, a wonderful next minute, a wonderful next hour, a wonderful next 24h a wonderful next week, month, year :)  

Good or evil?

My sons and I have consciously chosen to be good men and not evil men.
I think most or all of the readers of this message are with us in this choice.
So I will continue as we and us meaning, you, me, my sons, and anyone
having made a similar choice.

We, good men and women, no matter where we live or what we do,
are quite often confronted with people and things that are not so good.

Just recently my son went to visit his auntie.
Four of her five children were at home, while one was at the adjacent house.
He could see her there through the wide open doors and he called her name.
Even though there was no doubt that she had heard him,
she  did not even look up and completely ignored his call.
When my son came home, he was fuming as he told me the story.
He made plans to pay her unkindness with a worse unkindness of his own.
That is when I reminded him about the choice we had made.
If whether or not we are kind depends on the behavior of others,
we are mere followers of others.
I asked him to be a leader in the good, which we had chosen consciously.
No matter how people treat us, we choose to be nice to them.
Actually he went to do just that and the one feeling bad and embarrassed
was no longer him.

Loving our enemies takes away our bad feelings.

Let us be leaders and stick to our choice to be good,
no matter what choices others have made in dealing with us.
Let us be good no matter what.
Enmity may disappear from the world's surface slowly
if just enough of us live according this simple principle.
---------------------------------------------------
PS: Just about a year ago, I had a similar experience with my son. 
I am happy to repeatedly teach him this bit of essential wisdom 
for a happy life. My previous experience I shared in this link: 
https://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/2018/01/leader.html

New

I have a simple new year resolution:

I want to dig deep into my heart
and hope to live a life filled with
love and friendship

I pray our Creator lets us all connect to all the love that was planted in our heart at birth...

Listening to the Universe

I was reading through the poems, I have shared on the net in 2018, and came across the poem, titled the universe talks. I put up the poem at the bottom of this message. I enjoyed reading it and indulged in my imagination in a talking universe. It does not talk in words, but the thoughts and feelings that we get when we spend some time in nature are truly a special experience. Let us all take a long walk today outside and try to tune in to the universe.

If you are about to ask, what did the universe talk about, I can tell it involves purity, beauty, light, and also love, peace and truth. With a small effort, an open mind, heart and soul, I am sure that almost all humans on earth can manage to tune in and get connected to all the principles and values that make up the universe and are the invariable clue and key to happiness. Even if I could bring under words what I get out of my quiet time with the 'universe', it may not make all too much sense to you, since each of us has to "listen" and will hear what resonates with our own soul.

Here is the poem (in free verse)

The soft morning breeze
sways the tiny casuarina leaves,
and caresses softly our skin.
It talks to our soul.

The midday sun plays with the waves:
a thousand lights in the wide-open sea,
touching and illuminating our mind
It talks to our soul.

The pastel colours in the evening skies,
a canvas, a pure joy for our eyes,
touching and beautifying our heart
It talks to our soul

Oh yes, the universe talks.
Let us make it quiet, right now
and listen to its soft sweet voice
to pacify our mind, heart and soul

Some Simple Sharing

If we share a cookie
it makes us feel good
If we share a bit of rice
it makes us feel good
If we share a bit of kindness
it makes us feel good

If we could manage a bit more
to practice some simple sharing,
life would be so different
for us and for those we shared with...

Just a short contemplation :)

Dedication in my food

This morning I drunk a mug of orange juice.
While I held it in my hands, I thought of all the love
all the service and dedication that had gone into it.
The planters of the trees, years of sunlight and rain
to let the trees grow and then the fruits ripen.
The pluckers, the makers of the boxes
the lorry drivers the store keepers,
the ones putting it on the shelves of the shop
the cashier, the hands pressing the juice
so much love, service and dedication had to happen
to make this mug of orange juice possible
Even the makers of he earthen mug and all knowledge
that was needed to make the mug and the plastic spoon I used.
With a grateful heart, I drunk the juice and all its vitamins and minerals
I hope the vitamins circulate in my veins the whole day to make me healthy
I hope all the love and service and dedication equally circulate in my veins,
to help me being loving, dedicated and filled with selfless service, the whole day long...

And then I drunk some coffee, ate some bread with butter and had a spoon of honey.
For each a superb love and dedication of society and so many people was absolutely necessary
in order to make it possible. Thanks humanity, thanks society, thanks my friends and to all strangers to all ancestors transmitting the experience and knowledge to make a wonderful breakfast possible.
Oh, my God, let me be an equally contributing member of our humanity and society today.
I pray to contribute selflessly, dedicated, lovingly serving my fellow humans....


PS: I have written a similar reflection about two years back (an orange miracle), but I thought the extension to put the love of all of it into my own day, was worth to write this post too. :) 

A matter of focus

Many times our life is a bit like the picture above. 

The bottom part is filled with not so nice things, 

but the top is amazingly beautiful, isn't it?

Some people tend to focus about half of the time on each

Some people tend to focus 90% of the time on the dirt

Some people tend to focus 90%  of the time on the beauty

While it would be madness to completely ignore the dirt

We can accept that our life is not perfect

and go on and enjoy all beautiful things in it

Let us be wise enough to deal with the dirt

clean it where we can, accept it will never be perfectly clean

and then enjoy all beauty :) (for at least 90% of the time)

 

Writing

I am writing for quite some time now.
I remember when I was 18, i had so many ideas.
I wrote so many things, so many poems,...
all for myself.

I did not dare to publish or even let anyone know, I wrote poetry.
Only in 2010 (aged 46), I published my first poem on the net.
On PoemHunter. And then still I felt so much that my poem
was more of a nursery rhyme than anything worth the name poetry.
So I chose an almost unrecognizable pen name, Aufie Zophy.

It takes a while to get some confidence.
Still when I write something now, the fear of "what will they think" is there,
but along the way one gets some confidence that some of our writings are inspiring others
and that makes it all worth it so much.

I got a friend in Kenya who just started a blog and writes exactly and in a wonderful way about this fear. I recommend to all of you to read her first poem in her blog. It is good and so wise:
 http://poetkamau.blogspot.com/2018/12/her.html

Enjoy the poem, her (by clicking the link above) and if you feel like, publish something too.

 

Lucky boys

I went for a walk on the beach
and saw a group of boys playing football.
The sea was quite rough;
the sky was looking magical.
Dark clouds with a few colorful holes in them
were adorning and giving almost surreal hues to the sea.

I thought by myself:
These must be among the most lucky boys on the planet
to be able to play in such a wonderful super-beautiful natural setting,
and perhaps not only today but many days in a week.

But then, I thought, how lucky am I too,
to have an opportunity to watch them play
in this wonderful spot of nature!

If just more often we appreciate the simple things in life,
life would become suddenly a bit less difficult...  ☺

Peace in a bubble

If we are grateful for a moment
a giant bubble of peace comes and surrounds our being
and then every so often we allow ourselves to smash it
just because of life's small imperfections.


I wrote a small poem around this thought:

Peace in a bubble 

If you manage to be grateful for a moment or two
a giant bubble of peace starts to envelop you
But then more often than ever should be,
for small imperfections or a bit of ennui
we smash the peace, turn it into nought
with bouts of anger and negative thought. 

Aufie Zophy

A simple idea for a complex world

Problem 
Some years ago, I spent some time in Vienna and visited a wonderful park.
I was struck by the many lonely people sitting alone on a bench, or walking,
enjoying the beauty of the park, but visibly lonely.

Just two days ago, I was in Taiwan and went to a wonderful park there too.
Exactly the same scenario was seen

I think there are far too many lonely people.

Idea 
Why not we do something creative that could bring them together,
not for a date, but simply for a talk or walk with a friendly companion.

If we could try to have near the entrance of the park a few benches
which are marked or color coded as benches on which people sit,
who would not mind having a friendly talk with someone else or
have a walk through the park with someone else.

There may be different coded benches in the park for people who
prefer to enjoy the park all by themselves.

Anticipated result
When a new person enters the park and feels like talking or walking
together with a friendly companion, he could pick someone from the bench
or take a seat on one of the benches waiting for a friendly companion to enter.

If a creative approach like this would solve a bit of loneliness for just
a few people every day, it would be worth already the small investment.
😊😉😊😃

Carpe diem

"even as we speak, the envious time is flying away; Carpe diem"
The second last line and the first words of the last line of the famous poem.

Carpe diem has been interpreted in so many ways,
but the one which is the very closest to my heart is:
Pluck the day and cherish it like we would cherish a plucked flower.
Then share its beauty with our loved ones
or give it away to someone more still, in need of beauty than ourselves

Enough, or not?

"When you shift from a compulsion to survive
to a heartfelt commitment to serve
your life will automatically explode in success"
(Quote from Robin Sharma)

We have all been trained to compete
We have been trained to win and rejoice if the other loses
We have been trained to care for ourselves
and hoard as much as we can for the future
which is absolutely uncertain.
We have been trained to live and fear and gather things.

And yet, with this kind of training we want our children
still to live happy lives filled with purpose and peace.

Let us retrain a bit.
Life is not a competition
the universe has enough of everything
Service, selfless service is the way to peace,
the way to success.

I end this small reflection with a poem

Abundance

 Waves of enchanting orange morning light
broke on the shore of sand so white.
The sea, colored by it in pastel, wonderfully,
whispered to the sun, a bit angrily:

'Hey, this is MY shore, to break my waves.
Please, dear sun, take back your wavy rays'.

The sun, smiling a warm, kind smile at once,
explained gently, the principle of abundance:
' Of everything created, God gives more than enough
We can truly share all things on earth with love'. 

Aufie Zophy

(https://aufiezophypoems.blogspot.com/)

Every day

One day at a time,
our age moves, a bit further from the day we were born
One day at a time,
our life moves slowly a bit closer to our final day

Let us become fully aware,
that every one of these days is a precious gift.
I feel a bit bad If I have been squandering time
I feel good if have spent some time, usefully.

The more we are aware of the precious gift of time,
the more we will be grateful for it.
the more we will reflect and try to use it better, day by day.

I think a sincere reflection at the end of the day
and a sincere prayer filled with thanks
can make a huge difference in each of our lives

A thing of beauty

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever"
A famous line from John Keats.

While this sounds so true on first reading,
most things of beauty do not last forever.
We may remember and cherish the joy the things of beauty gave us
and they may live on in our mind, heart and soul as a sweet dream.
But all too often we tend to weep over the demise or destruction
of the things of beauty in our life.
 
John Keats, a poet who died at age 26.
He may have not lived long enough to reach the wisdom
of William Blake, a poet who lived up to the age of seventy:

"He who binds himself to a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise."

When I had first heard and read this poem, I wrote in the comments
below the poem the following reflection (in 2010).

 Upon reading this wonderful poem I was immediately carried along the thought path, to one experience. I am living near the sea and one day I noticed a wonderful branch of a casuarina tree hanging almost horizontally, framing an astonishing view of the blue South China Sea.

A thing of beauty that moved my soul. Almost every day I took a long look and swallowed the beauty. But not long after I had first noticed it, the wonderful branch had come down in a storm. A thing of beauty is not a joy forever. I realized that many of the wonderful things in our lives are only temporary. They are ours to enjoy, to kiss it while it passes by. At the same time it is good to realize that it is flying and not permanent. And after it is gone, it is our duty to go and find more and other things of beauty, sometimes looking alike but never the same, sometimes more beautiful, sometimes a little less.

Since the above mentioned branch came down, other branches have grown giving me similar delights.

This piece of wisdom is easy to apply to amazingly beautiful branches of trees. It makes me a bit nervous if we start to apply it to the babyhood of our children, than the toddlerhood and so on until they will be out of the house. It makes me shiver to think in these terms if it comes to our intensest of human relationships. I hope so much to be the first to die in my own small cluster family.

I can detach with quite some ease from beautiful things, and find others in their place, but I cannot get detached from my family members. I am not so sure whether at all this would be desirable. Even though some Buddhists believe we should be detached from everything and everyone? ? ?

I remember when my mother died I was heartbroken, completely. And 15 years later, the sadness of the loss is still with me. It is however not a bitter sadness, but one filled with grace and thankfulness, a sadness that somehow gave me meaning; a motivation to live according to the beautiful values that were so dear to her. If I had managed not to be attached to her, I think I would miss this dimension of my life.

What do you all feel?

Sounds phony or not?

Appreciation

We don't want to be phony
That's OK
We don't want to sound phony
We don't want to look phony
That's not OK
Well quite often it is not OK

Why?
Because there are so many good things coming straight from our heart, that we refuse to say or do because we are too afraid that we may sound or look phony.

One example: appreciation.
There are many things we appreciate very much in our family, in our friends, in nature, in our life. Things that we truly appreciate. But how often do we express that appreciation? We are so afraid to sound or look phony.

Real phony people use flattery and quite often get their way. Flattery is actually quite easy to differentiate from heartfelt appreciation. But since we express so rarely heartfelt appreciation to each other we tend to lose the skills to see straight through phony flattery.

Let us reverse this pattern. Stop worrying about sounding or looking phony, and express your heartfelt appreciation to at least 5 people every day. The more we become familiar with heartfelt appreciation, the easier the phony flatterers will be noticed and the world of complimenting each other will be one of pleasure instead of one of fear to sound or look phony

Let's be moved

Let's be moved
by the fabulous beauty of nature 
and stand in awe 
for every tree along our way 

Let us be moved
by the amazing health we enjoy
and be grateful
every second of the day

Let us be moved
by the wonderful power to help
and give a loving service
to anyone in need

Let us be moved
by the marvelous power to speak
and give a friendly word
to all people we meet

Not always sweet

Deep under my skin
a special love flows
through my veins

the love for the sea,
who whispers sweet words
in her soft and wavy voice.

But when the waves
become roaring and loud
my heart feels bruised.

When my sea allows
a jellyfish to come my way
i feel a bit betrayed.

But still, I love the sea.
In my heart
there is an ocean of love :)

---------------------------------------------------
I hope you enjoy the little poem above 

Alertness

Today, I want to pray,
to pray in a special way,
not to have or to get more
but to be a bit better
to live a bit better

I pray for enough alertness
to see and act on the many opportunities
that today, as each other day,
will present themselves to me
to help, to assist, to elevate others a bit
to inspire, to alleviate some sorrow,
to create a simple smile.

I pray for the wisdom
to walk through the day
with an open heart, an open mind
ever ready to understand something new
to know a bit more
to see the world from many angles

I pray for my wife and sons,
that they may get the same alertness
that they may get the same wisdom,
that they may find joy in selfless service
that they may walk Your path
that wonderful path filled with grace
filled with love and kindness
filled with harmony and peace
filled with strength and inspiration
filled mercy and tenderness
filled with gratefulness

I pray for my larger family
for all who work with me, for me,
for all my neighbours, my patients,
my friends and foes
I pray that the world will move fast
to this wonderful kindness revolution,
that is really standing in front of our door.

Let us live a life towards that great Vision
Use my body, my heart, my mind and soul
to achieve that greater Vision for humanity
I am ready to serve.
Please help me to be ready to serve forever...