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? 

River

Few years back I read a poem, titled the river by Elena Sandu
It was a beautiful poem
It sounded like she had been praying next to a river and had a very spiritual experience

Praying is something so valuable
Especially in the full glory of nature

We do not pray to an imagined old bearded man, sitting somewhere high in the skies.
We cannot bring under words the nature of our God, we pray to, because our mind is too small to comprehend. But much more than a bearded man it feels like God is a stream of huge energy, love and wisdom, a force, the ether we are bathing in day and night. The spirit that is everywhere, anytime.

Once we manage to experience our true Creator in that way, we get such a positive certainty that our God exists and prayer becomes something so extremely valuable to our  personal growth and being.

Flowers

Flowers were made

to be beautiful.

The more we give

attention to flowers,

the more beauty

is entering our life

Philosophy for all

Far too long the access to philosophical works was restricted to a very small elite of the people.
Now through the internet and through many books written in simple language, philosophy can be read by a much larger public.

Philosophy means love for wisdom
I think, slowly, more and more people fall in love with wisdom
fall in love with philosophy.

I really think that wisdom in all humanity is on the rise
it is rising sharp and fast
Let us read so many wise text from old and new
and part of the wisdom revolution, which will be tightly intertwined with a kindness revolution
:)         : )

Two rivers

Imagine you are a successful adult
As a teenager you swum in the river of your life
You swum west all the time
Your river flowed west and 
Your education and career snowballed into huge successes
Your river widened, swimming west went easier
and soon you arrived in the sea of abundance

Imagine you are a child of this successful adult
As a teenager you are in your own river of your own life
Your river flows to the south, towards the sea of abundance
Your father encourages you to swim west all the time
You try to follow his advice but end up, time after time
on the banks of the river of your life
You seem not to move forward
Your father says swim harder west
You want to swim south but your father gets upset with you.
You keep trying your best but never reach the sea of abundance...

Blind obedience to parents is NOT filial piety
Blind obedience is not respect
Blind obedience is often self destructive

Sometimes we need to express our own calling,
Explain, full of respect, full of honour
A loving parent, truly loving parent will always understand.
 

The way to abundance

We are born with our specific talents and gifts.
A very specific calling resides inside of men and women.
This calling encompasses making a positive change in the world.

If you look deep into yourself in a very honest and open way,
you will find this internal craving for appreciation
you fill find this restlessness, this need for happiness,
this need for approval and respect from our family and friends.

If you look deep into yourself in a very honest and open way,
you will find that you like something more than anything else;
you will find that you love a little bit more to do something than anything else
You will find that you are a bit better at something than at anything else.

That little something is our calling.
It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who compared it to being in a river
We hit obstacles in every direction we want to move.
except into one direction, the direction of that little thing that we love best

If still in that river, we find that direction without obstacles,
the direction in which our talents and gifts are directing us
we will soon move forward, forward towards the wider part of the river
where navigation is easy and brings us soon to the sea of abundance

The sea of abundant peace of mind, abundant satisfaction
The sea of feeling good about ourselves, making this positive difference
Making these few or many others a bit better off, a bit happier, a bit more at ease.
The sea of abundance will be ours.

Sometimes we just want abundant money straight and only
and think there are shortcuts to that.
True enough there are shortcuts to material wealth but not to
mental emotional and spiritual wealth

If we find our talent, our calling,
we will find mental wealth
we will find emotional and spiritual wealth
With it comes material wealth

Material wealth alone is never leading to happiness
We need mental, emotional and spiritual wealth as much
Success is not getting rich, money wise and then commit suicide
Success lies in peace of mind and every type of wealth that is meant for humans

Abundant mental wealth (truth and knowledge)
Abundant emotional wealth (love and kindness)
Abundant spiritual wealth (faith and caringness)
Abundant material wealth (comfort and ease)

Follow your talent
Follow your calling...

The most successful people are not those of extremely strong will
They are the ones who resist least and let their talent flow freely...

Finding beauty

India, oh, India,
I just came back from my trip to India.

And I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Somehow reflecting more on it
I think we can see the beauty of it all
because we are actively looking for it.
If our mind is focused on chaos and negativity,
that is what we will find
If our mind is focused on finding beauty,
we will find beauty, even in the chaos.

India

I spent the last 5 days in India.
Before coming here, the stories of other visitors to India had scared me quite a bit
But the stories were in quite a sharp contrast with what I found.

Sure enough it is quite a poor area with a lot of agriculture
But the people look happy the beautiful smiles on their faces are so wonderful
The Food is a mixture of delicious  spice blended almost to perfection.
The colours of the saris, the buffaloes, the women wearing things on their heads
The wonderful children in their blue school uniforms
the cows on the street
The cheap shopping
The horning cars on the busy roads crisscrossing a roundabout
All so beautiful and amazing...

I am aware that Belgaum, the place I am visiting is perhaps different from other parts of India
But as for now, I have enjoyed the five days I was here and have not one regret coming.

Plucking

The sweet fragrance
of a white frangipani flower
showing her yellow heart

I was seduced
Enticed to pluck
The urge to possess

An idea of wilt and death
Came flying just in time
To prevent a deadly pluck

The best choice

Throughout the years I have made many choices
Many choices I have made impulsively
and a large number of these impulsive ones I regretted later.
I know that many people do the same.

I have tried to learn from these choices, wrong and right
I know many people do the same but
I also know that many people do not.

Perhaps among the most important things I have learned
is not to overreact in a situation where I am in power.
The easiest thing to do is to overreact in these situations
and break some fragile feelings.

Recently I was in a hotel in Langkawi, Malaysia
My two (late-) teenage sons were with us.
My nephew was visiting from Belgium.
We all had planned to go and eat dinner in a nearby town.
Just as I we planned to leave for dinner, they had ordered room service

If they did something so obviously wrong in the past, I used to explode.
I have learned that explosion into a bout of anger is not the best choice.
If they did something like this in the past, I used to immediately concoct a punishment
I have also learned that punishment is not the best choice.
If they did something like this in the past,
I often did things that would spoil the whole evening
for them, for me, for my wife and for whomever we were with.
I have learned that this is also not the best choice.
I often did things that even lingered on for days and managed to spoil a few days.
Not a good choice either.
I have learned a lot from so many mistakes.

I was clearly expressing myself that this behaviour was not pleasing me.
I was clearly explaining them why this type of behaviour was wasteful and wrong.
I have planned to bring it up in our next family meeting and discuss in it further detail
I have planned not to preach  but to bring them to an insight based on their own experiences


Maybe  I am a slow learner on how to be a good parent.
Maybe I am just navigating in quite stormy waters.
Maybe I am still wrong in my current approach.

Some choices are really obviously wrong to me.
Others are more grey.
Raising children, raising teenagers, guiding adolescents:
A challenge requiring the maximum of our patience.
I have learned that it is easier to break fragile "things"
than to preserve them whole or repair them afterwards,

If the moon could dream

If the moon could dream,
the moon would dream
that you and me
filled would be

with unconditional love

It has been all along
in the moon its song
of fine white light
the song of the night...

 

Somehow the night carries something magical. The darkness brings a silence. Our work is finished, our activities come to an end, some time to use for our own growth. I think the whole universe, (including the moon 😂) is wanting us to appreciate the joy that lies in loving each other unconditionally. No "what's in it for me", no suspicion, no revenge, just unconditional love. Wise men of the past have discovered this giant truth, but were unable to communicate to the rest of the world. Now with the internet so much more becomes possible and more and more people get access to the wisdom of the ages and learn to discover that altruism, kindness, unconditional love are here since a long time and that these are the main source of true happiness. The more we get of them, the more heavenly feelings we get.

 

Precious

(inspired by Prem Rawat)

To be rich is to have something precious 
and to have a lot of it.

Isn't our breath among the most precious things we have
and don't we have a lot of it?

Isn't our time among the most precious things we have
and don't we have a lot of it?

Isn't the sunlight among the most precious things we have
and don't we have a lot of it?

How about eyesight?
How about peaceful sleep?
How about flowers?
How about the colours in the sky?
How about water?

And then, kindness
Weren't we born with a heart full of it?
Don't we get filled with peace if we let our kindness flow?
Perhaps the most precious still, is our kindness,
sitting in our hearts.
The more we let it flow,
The more peace comes in
The more we let it flow,
The more new kindness comes in
The more we let it flow,
The richer we get
Contentment will be ours and is
contentment, peace and kindness not what makes us truly rich? 

Growing goodness

"The time is coming when all men will see that the gift of God to the soul is not a vaunting, overpowering excluding sanctity, but a sweet natural goodness, like thine and mine, and that so invites thine and mine to be and to grow." <quote of Ralph Waldo Emerson>

The above quote is something that really touches our heart.
It was written more than a hundred years ago and slowly,
slowly it is becoming true as if it had been a prophecy.

Still so many people think that God is somewhere far from here
but more and more people manage to get inspired
to get in-spirit by allowing the ever present huge divine wisdom
to trickle into their mind, their hearts and their souls.

Just the last weekend was a fantastic illustration.
With a group large group of lecturers and students from USM
interactive modules for instilling moral values to junior highschool students
had been prepared over a period of many months, using the best possible evidence
for interactive and effective communication with young people.

Yesterday and the day before has been the moment of truth.
The long prepared modules have been delivered and
they have been delivered successfully.
The young adolescents not only loved the modules but
I am sure they will have learned lessons from them for life.

And the people delivering the modules, devoting their weekend to help others
were among the most blessed and happy I have seen for long.

All of us want to help and we feel that it makes our soul genuinely grow.
This growth of our soul and our own goodness is an inexhaustible source of peace of mind
and true, true happiness.

The time is coming when all humans will be aware of this
And our world will be a wonderful place to live.

Treasure

An old Chinese tale:

There was a man in China whose son had committed a crime and was very likely to be sent to prison. That was a great shame to the family and the night before the trial the father brought one of the family treasures, a very rare and big gem, to the judge. He told the judge: "This gem belongs to our family since many generations. It is a very rare and precious treasure. I want to give it to you." The old judge responded: "This is indeed a huge treasure. Your most precious treasure. My own most precious treasure it my integrity. So if I accept this gem, both of us will lose our most precious treasure."

What is our own most precious treasure?

Sometimes

Sometimes you meet
- senior lecturers who behave like my ex-standard four teacher
- doctors who behave like bulldogs
- and I am sure you can make a whole list yourself

At these times such people may make
- your blood boil
- you flush with anger
- and I am sure you can make a whole list yourself

But then it may be good
- to stop and think
- to start pity these people experiencing the natural disaster of twisted personalities
- to take a deep breath
- to consider the beauty of creation

and subsequently
- send them unconditional love...
 ...
:)

Virtue

There is no virtuous deed that does not make the soul happy.
There is no vicious deed that does not make the soul suffer.

The soul is perfectly just.
We can try to quiet the soul
But never for too long

We were made to love ourselves when we help others
We were made to hate ourselves for selfishness.
I want to end here with a small rhyme:

Once we are aware that we find
only in altruism true peace of mind
we will live with total  focus on that
and leave the selfishness for the mad

A diamond bird

A diamond bird
Flaps its diamond wings
A thousand rainbows
Dance on the white sand
The blue sea dizzy

A diamond bird
Lands on my shoulder
I grab its feet
A look in my eyes
A whisper

A diamond bird
A thousand rainbows
I 'd like to possess
But set it free
And all of nature smiles with me

(Aufie Zophy)


I wrote this poem while thinking about my children.
They are more precious than diamonds,
but somehow we have to set them free.

A story

A story I do not want to forget.
I first want to write how I came to hear the story: on the plane I sat next to a man who recommended me to listen to Prem Rawat. I searched his name on the internet and found a few videos, one of which was only 5 minutes. I listened and this was the wonderful story he told:

Long time ago in China there was an archer who was very talented. 

One day the archer displayed his skills in front of the public.

Most of the ones who were there were standing in awe since time after time the arrows landed exactly where they were supposed to land. One man among the public however kept saying: "it is just practice, it is only practice". The archer who was quite proud of his skills, could hear and was quite irritated by the comments. He went to talk to man and delivered another perfect shot, asking the man: can you do this?The man answered he couldn't but he asked the archer: can you do this? while he was showing his own skill. The man was selling oil and he managed to pour oil from a large container into a bottle with an extremely narrow and long neck, very fast without spoiling a drop. The archer admitted that he could not do that and it was indeed practice that was most important to become good at something. 

Then Prem went on the ask what do we practice on a daily basis. Do we practice complaining or negative thinking. If we do, we will become excellent at it over time. Or do we practice kindness and positive thinking. If we do, we will become excellent at it over time.

Wonderful story, isn't it?😀