The Monkey mind

Our thoughts are forever changing in and out of our mind. If we train our mind, it will be better and less exhausive thoughts making us restless and tired. Is a calm and trained mind, a good thing ? Everything have both sides to a coin, whatever good , there is also something bad. Having a calm and trained mind is not all good. If the water breaks the wall or in a moment of lapse, the impact and stress could be higher and more stressful than a mind which is always hitting the extreme. This brings me to Robin Sharma's advise that if we let our mind go beyond a limit, there is a new limit. IF we stress our mind to another level, the new level is our limit. This advise seems to hold water and if we break our limitation each time, our mind and body will be strong. But, if we keep within a limit by controlling ourselves , our limit will not expand but rather it will shrink. Is this true to everything including our mind ? Is a controlled mind better to control ourself or a controlled lead to more stress ? If protect it all the time, it will not grow. If we message our brain through the many thoughts make us stronger or a stronger mind. Based on the Buddhist teacvhing, to have a train and controlled mind help to to be aware of our emotions and control it before it becomes worst. I would rather believe this wisdom as it has evolved through thousand of years. A train and controlled mind is a reverse of going beyond another limit. Rather, training our mind to be stronger and calmer is a new limit rather letting our mind go to create another new limit. it is very stutle and you will realize it when you practice on it. The mind behaves differently , it does become stronger it you let it good but rather preventing it go wildly is another new limit. Namaste.

Who say business is bad ?

It all dependence on quality, location, price and service. Tonight, I had a family dinner a coffee shop in Farlim and they service family dinner. It was packed and I was make to wait for 30 minutes. The place serves family dinner . The normal home cooked style. I would say that the place is packed with families with young children. My rating is that the food is reasonably good, the price is manageable as it depends on your orders, the placenis located among apartments and flats in the Farlim area and the food isnreasonably fast for such setup. About 15 people working at the kitchen and front desk. The boss is in command. The same boss have tried to expand to next door but failed after 6 months using another chef. Food and F&B line is very particular and the taste is very personal. I have told my friends that when services is concern, the business goes with the service provider.in F&B,'it is the chef , for climic, it depends on the doctor and for an accounting firm it goes with accountant or the consultant. It is very personal and there is no value to the business if these people are no more there . I have seen many examples of such failures. This is my advise to May that F&B is a very difficult business. Namaste.

The traffic cowboys and girls

Thaipusam Yesterday, there was a news that a car plunged into a group of devotees walking to Batu cave to celebrate the holy festival of Thaipusam. The driver was a 24 years old salesman and have be driving recklessly before the accident . This reminds me of the driver for Karpal Singh who was under the influence of drugs before he got into an accident killing the famous lawyer. I have driving for many years and lately I could notice ,not only an increase in traffic on the road but the mentality of the drivers or motorbike riders. Nowadays , I could notice there are many cases of cars parking in the middle or corner of roads without driver while their vehicle occupied half the roads. I have also bike riders overtaking on the left or squeeze in between cars or not being tolerate to wait for your reversing . It is like the days of the Western where there is no law and order. Whatever way, as long as you prevail . Things are are changing for the worst for the behavior of the drivers and bike riders . Furthermore , there are considerable increase old aged drivers and riders, who are slow and clumsy . This is a fact that old people cannot respond properly and slow does not transform into safety on the road. Slow driving cannot transform into safety as other drivers and riders have no patience to wait and could end up with more accidents . I do not know what the transport ministry have done so far but whatever they have done is not enough to promote safety by changing the mindset of these " cowboy" drivers and riders . This is particularly dangerous in the heat of the day when temperature hit 40 degree C. The heat and the bad driving skill will caused more problems on the road . Namaste.

Nothing leads to something

When things are moving well, we could suddenly feel that something is not right. Just like doing the same thing and expecting a different result is crazy and nonsense. In our mind, there should be always something not going right and we have be aware and catch it because things are always changing and this environment, there should be something not right which needs our attention. When we slow down, we become more aware and there are so many activities eithe big or small. There is always fire to fight or to put off. The fire around is rampant and some of the fire is smoothering underneath and also create the feeling of uneasiness. It maybe the monkey mind playing the trick or it maybe a smoothering fire which is out of our sight but actually, there is a problem whether illusional or actual. We can sit still and we must be always moving on and dealing with the constant evolving issue. Life is forever changing whether internally or externally. If we just sit and watch ,maybe the problems will go away or increase in its intensity or explore and blow us to nowhere. It is a risk that we have to take and manage our life accordingly. It is our choice to exposre ourself to risk or let time heals itself and there is always a conclusion. Nothing happens or we get blown away. Like Lao Tze said " things are always changing and we have to change with it , otherwise, we gets redundant or blown away. Namaste.

The passing of Glenn Frey , an eagles legend.

I was shocked to hear that Glenn Frey , the guitarist which co-found the Eagles have passed away at 69. He was an excellent song writer during my time and have many songs to his credit including Hotel California, take it easy and love will keep you alive ,etc. I have hearing these songs quite often and it always lift me up after hearing these songs. These songs are the evergreens and we don't get fedup with. The passing of the legend start to make me aware that the people in my generation is dropping death sunddenly before their time. Well, before their time is my judgement but this may be their time to move on. It is hard to say nowadays that the dying age is 75 to 80. Looks like life beyond 80 is a bonus. All the great legends ie David Bowie, the Bee Gees , Glenn never oassed the age of 70. Some of them by suicide after under depression. At lunch time, my colleague told me that he thinking of retiring as his elders which is close to him are getting stroke and become speechless and motionless. I told him not to worry about this, there is a time for everything. Even if he retire and have a quiet life, things could still happen to him. Retiring does not mean we can escape death. The end is very clear is that all of us have to die and it is a matter of time. Some live longer and some live shorter but the conclusion is the same. We don't worry over something that we cannot control but we have to be aware and take care of ourself to live a longer and healthy life. We have to die someday. So, I am looking at life in a different light and will take care , live well, have a healthy like through eating and doing yoga. In the end, I will missed the Eagles and their magical sound of their singing and guitarship. Namaste.

The negative emotion

Suddenly, there is a feeling of helplessness. Where am I going to ? A lost in transit again and a feeling of desperation. Actually, there is nothing wrong with the daily routine but the mind is playing things up. When there is nothing, the mind creates something and put you in the fear mode. The day have been hectic and alot of things or events are unfolding but I am still in control. In the silence of the day, a fear suddenly crips up. The future is uncertain, directionless and unpredictible. You are just groppling in the dark. Pitch dark. My day's achievement is nothing important, my life is shorten by another day. Is it worth it ? My feets start to wobble and my thoughts gets shady. In Buddhism , everything is changing , evolving, impermanence and in the end is nothing. Nothingness. What is achievement? What is a day? Just expect nothing, and there will be no regrets of frustration. Let the event float by and live a day at a time and be in the present. I feel the urge to write and expressed my emotions , I think in this way , I will feel better and more in touch with reality. I have an uneven sleep last nite and my mind becomes unstable and easy upset. Why ? how can I let my emotions control me. I am real and must be in control of myslef. Yeah, finally, I am awake from the nothingness. Namaste.

The fortune cat ?

I have looking around for a fortune cat statue in Penang and kl for May's cafe. I don't know whether this will help the cafe to bring in business especially at this bad time when the cost of living have caused much suffering to the low and medium income earners. However I have to try. In business catering for the medium and low income group, the competition is getting very stiff with people cutting prices to attract customers. With a price cut , there goes the profits to over the cost of business. The people at a place could be full with low priced food , it does not necessary that the outlet is making profits but it benefits their customers. With this business, strategy it will kill off its competitors and after that they raise their prices again. This is the business strategy employed by most businessman. Therefore, the business owner have to decide whether to follow this strategy for fight for business by their own way. It is a difficult road to walk by oneself and it depends on how deep is his or her financial strength if he or she choose whichever way. Can the fortune cat help? Whatever hope or not, it is a hope . Namaste

The passing of another legend, David Bowie

Today, another legend , David Bowie passed away at 69 from Cancer. Yes, I was talking to my staff about life which is pre=destinated most of the time. Our life is guided by fate which has sets in from birth. I told my colleague that yesterday , I have watch a film by a prominent mind reader who show case two case where he can determine the exact spot or table after letting two girls lead him through the streets of Barcelona. The option and decision of the two girls was not interrupted and they have the absolute discretion to choose the streets and the restuarant that they will have final decision and yet, he can read their mind and their future exactly as they acted out. Another case, the mind reader offered a race car driver to choose between two big screen and marked it "X" and " Y" and asked the driver to drive through anyone of them at their own choice and discretion and he choose to stand behind one of them. The driver was blinded for a second for the mind reader to walk and choose which screen to stand behind. Just like magic, the driver choose to ram through the screen which was empty. The mind reader can choose the driver's choice and future thoughts. Just like David Bowie, he died at 69, an age which is not too old and I believe that his time is up and the creator wants him to exit and he exit. Cancer is an unpredictable thing and it can happens to anyone and anytime and everything is pre-destined . Namaste.

The year of 2016

Each time at this day, I felt the year have passed so fast and I have not done all the things I wanted to do or I have not live enough. This has been a pathetic trend for so many years. We have never enough and we will have this feeling until the end unless we changed our mindset and be contented and not to be greedy. In the past year, there have been so many unhappy news and the latest is the selling of our national assets like land and energy to outsiders to solve the debts of 1MDB. This is really a shame to call the deal a success. Others like GST, toll hike, subsidy cuts and dwelling exonomy have raised the cost of living of the people and the weak exonomic growth have caused a lot of jobless people which caused a social problem with increase in crime rate. The country is going to the dogs. All these happenings will set the mood for 2016. With a terbukent external environment, it is better to control our life, thoughts and expectations internally. We must not increase our risk , manage our investments, live a simple life, manage our spending and consolidate our investments if we have over invested in certain sectors and watch out for opportunities in downtime. For those not enough income, you either needs to cut your expenditure or increase your income or balance the two sources to stay over the bad times. When you try to increase your income, you must manage your risk exposure and never be too optimistic but remain prudent in your risk exposure. To manage your expenses , try to find joy in cooking yourself and your family if any. Eating out cost a lot of money and cooking yourself can reduce your expenses tremendously. What we need is a roof over our head and three meals on the table. This is the minimum to keep us alive. The bad time cannot stay forever and good times will come again. A happy new year to all of you, Namaste.