Every night before we sleep, we wonder what if tomorrow never come. What will happen then? Have we say all the things we want to say or do all the things we want to do? We always assume that we will live the next day. The sun will be up and the wind will continue to blow. The thought of tomorrow may not come is when we are sick or in old age. Our habit is to procastinate the things to do or say for another day.
I have written an article that "live is uncertain, death is certain" about a very successful banker in Malaysia who die at a mid age of 60 plus. Another friend told me that he had a rich friend at 51, who took leave from his business in Penang to help his daughter to move her home in Australia and he died of acute ppendicities. When he was in pain, he was given pain killers by her daughter's doctor friends and the next day, the pain persist and he was rushed to hospital and he died of complications. Fate has its own ways and behave misterously.
So, lets live the day and do whatever we want to do and say whatever we want to say to our loved ones. Don't wait to rekindle your love and passions for them. Treat today as its last and enjoy every moment of it.
We should leave our will or words behind to ensure intention is known to our executors. Nothing is right or wrong and what other thinks is not important or matters anymore. The show must go on and our role on the stage is finished. We have to accept this fact.
In our daily life, we can do whatever we can to exercise regularly, eat properly and fine tune our mind-body condition and change our life style to ensure that we are well to live in ripe old age. All these preparation will help to preserve and prolong our health life but in the end, the outcome is never guaranteed to be in our own way.
I have friends who sacrifice their health for wealth or to ensure their the children is properly taken care or ensure a good life for them. Well, we can only our best but we should forget that we have own life to live and we should live it well. Like I say many times, we have be fair to ourself and live out our dreams and live without regret.
My message to all of you is that never hold back your feelings and never shy to express yourself or your desire. Not only that. Don't hold back because of someone's feeling as long as it don't hurt anyone. It is your life and your choice. You travel through your life only once and it will never be the same again.
Namaste.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
China's Long March
It was one of the famous phase in History when Chairman Mao of China lead his comrades on a Long March overing thousands of miles across China to avoid the Kumintang.Thousands of soldiers died on the way. This insight of the experience was revealed to me after watching the movie "Special forces". There have been many films on rescue mission in the East Eurpean countries and in the Middle East but this was quite a different one.
The story line tell of a French women journalizt who was caught by the Taliban in Pakistan because she wrote several articles about the brutality of the Taliban warloads.Finally, the spiritual leader ordered the kitnap and killing of this journalist. This news initiated a rescue mission which involves 6 French special forces.The actors and actress speak their own languages. The Americans speak English, the French spoke in french, the Pakistanis speak their local dialects. The rescue mission was initially a success until they lost their radio contacts and fleed from the Talibans.
The group of soliders and the female journalizt fleed to the mountains closely tracked by the Talibans.
While fleeding from their trackers, they pass through waste lands, hills, mountains,snow, cold rain, snipers, their attackers. Four of the special forces were killed while two were injured and finally, the lady journalist have to gone on by herself through a long stretch of deserts into Afganistan. Finally, she lead the French forces back into Pakistan to rescue the two inured soliders. All is well, ends well. It was a correct decision to push the lady to carry out the final mission. Otherwise, all of them could have been dead. ALthough, the story line have abit of the twist and turns but the acting was good and scenes were real as it was filmed in the mountainous terrains of Pakistan and Afganistan.
The show of comradeship and the scarifice of each member of the mission and their professional attitude towards executing a job shows enormous amount of teamwork spirit. It is not that they love to die on the mission but they die for a purpose and intention. In times of trouble, thier real characters will be revealed.
Everyone of us have a mission or a purpose to do something great. It maybe for your own self or for your loved ones, your village, your town , your country and the world. Just do it well alone or in a team. It maybe successful or it is a failure or you may die on the way, let fate die as you marches on with no regrets.
Namaste.
The story line tell of a French women journalizt who was caught by the Taliban in Pakistan because she wrote several articles about the brutality of the Taliban warloads.Finally, the spiritual leader ordered the kitnap and killing of this journalist. This news initiated a rescue mission which involves 6 French special forces.The actors and actress speak their own languages. The Americans speak English, the French spoke in french, the Pakistanis speak their local dialects. The rescue mission was initially a success until they lost their radio contacts and fleed from the Talibans.
The group of soliders and the female journalizt fleed to the mountains closely tracked by the Talibans.
While fleeding from their trackers, they pass through waste lands, hills, mountains,snow, cold rain, snipers, their attackers. Four of the special forces were killed while two were injured and finally, the lady journalist have to gone on by herself through a long stretch of deserts into Afganistan. Finally, she lead the French forces back into Pakistan to rescue the two inured soliders. All is well, ends well. It was a correct decision to push the lady to carry out the final mission. Otherwise, all of them could have been dead. ALthough, the story line have abit of the twist and turns but the acting was good and scenes were real as it was filmed in the mountainous terrains of Pakistan and Afganistan.
The show of comradeship and the scarifice of each member of the mission and their professional attitude towards executing a job shows enormous amount of teamwork spirit. It is not that they love to die on the mission but they die for a purpose and intention. In times of trouble, thier real characters will be revealed.
Everyone of us have a mission or a purpose to do something great. It maybe for your own self or for your loved ones, your village, your town , your country and the world. Just do it well alone or in a team. It maybe successful or it is a failure or you may die on the way, let fate die as you marches on with no regrets.
Namaste.
The Earth Hour
I am now in total darkness and operating my laptop using the battery. If I don't the laptop, the battery will run flat out. Maybe,you think that it is only my excuse. Well, it is half truth. If I don't use my battery, the battery could run abit longer after the Earth hour observation.
I just want to share this insight with my readers. Learning to live in darkness is a very good experience. We cut out the radio and the TV and we are not distracted and we come back to ourself. We have the chance to be with ourself and our thoughts. It is a very rare opportunity that we can be with ourself in darkness apart from the time, when you are drifting off to sleep.
Most of the time, we are doing things for others or rushing here and there for others and ourself and there is no moment of break and for us to quiet down and bring our thoughts and awareness to ourselves. If we look back in the years that have passed, how many times we have slowed down and think for ourself. The rat race and chasing for wealth and fame keeps driving us at full speed.
Living in darkness is like listening and not talking. I liken "not talking" is good listening or small talking. After we listen thoroughly first, then we analyse and reply. This habit and managed response is the best means of communication. If we shoot off at each remarkor comments from our companions, then we can make a lot of mistakes or wrong judgements. The same principle of living in darkness, we can focus internally or travel inside our mind and observe and have a proper understanding of ourselves.
So, folks, with a bit of hardship or inconvenience, we should not only obsever this one hour of darkness during this earth day but consistently to have such moments of living in darkness to preserve energy and save the mother Earth. So, Oh Shanti!
Namaste.
I just want to share this insight with my readers. Learning to live in darkness is a very good experience. We cut out the radio and the TV and we are not distracted and we come back to ourself. We have the chance to be with ourself and our thoughts. It is a very rare opportunity that we can be with ourself in darkness apart from the time, when you are drifting off to sleep.
Most of the time, we are doing things for others or rushing here and there for others and ourself and there is no moment of break and for us to quiet down and bring our thoughts and awareness to ourselves. If we look back in the years that have passed, how many times we have slowed down and think for ourself. The rat race and chasing for wealth and fame keeps driving us at full speed.
Living in darkness is like listening and not talking. I liken "not talking" is good listening or small talking. After we listen thoroughly first, then we analyse and reply. This habit and managed response is the best means of communication. If we shoot off at each remarkor comments from our companions, then we can make a lot of mistakes or wrong judgements. The same principle of living in darkness, we can focus internally or travel inside our mind and observe and have a proper understanding of ourselves.
So, folks, with a bit of hardship or inconvenience, we should not only obsever this one hour of darkness during this earth day but consistently to have such moments of living in darkness to preserve energy and save the mother Earth. So, Oh Shanti!
Namaste.
If you believe , truth is not necessary
The full philosophy is "If you believe, truth is not necessary but if you don't believe, truth is not enough". This another insight I receive from watching the TV series, "the criminal mind". If you look at the philosophy deelply, you will understand the basic nature of the human mind and behaviour.
This philosophy also illustrate the wide spread belief in supernatural, fung shui, bomoh mind reading or palm reading,etc. Because of this nature, some people can be very superstitious and do not want to understand logic. Just like my article on Ching Ming, the Chinese all souls' day. We give offering of real food to our ancestals and invite them to "eat" first and we eat the real food afterwards. It defies logic and common sense but we keep this custom alive without thinking rationally.
I have also told you that during CNY, Chinese New Year, I was praying with burning joss sticks to the "Goddes of Mercy" and this foreigner told photograph of the people praying and looking amazed and in disbelief. At the temple after we plant the joss sticks into the urns, the caretaker will quickly take out some times within minutes and perhaps, he can re-cycle more later and re-sale and raise funds for the temple. I find it illogical but I have been doing it for years. The belief is that the joss sticks is served to feed the "Gods".
Now, we are in the 21st century yet we still kept this mentality and live in a confused state of mind. However, the belief in our mind can do marvellous and have incredible power. If we believe that we are creativethen we are creative. If we believe we can break the 9 seconds mark in the 100 metre, you can do it if you focus and believe you have the skill. People like Usain Bolt thinks that he can do it and he is moving towards it. Such happenings help to keep this belief alive.
There are many unexplanable things that happen because of the mind and also our strong belief. It works for different people. For some people, they believe that there is ghost but for others, it is all in our mind and no such dimension exist in this world.
Lets drift in this uncertainty and let our wisdom and experience drive us to where we are but at the same time be aware of the Mind.
Namaste.
This philosophy also illustrate the wide spread belief in supernatural, fung shui, bomoh mind reading or palm reading,etc. Because of this nature, some people can be very superstitious and do not want to understand logic. Just like my article on Ching Ming, the Chinese all souls' day. We give offering of real food to our ancestals and invite them to "eat" first and we eat the real food afterwards. It defies logic and common sense but we keep this custom alive without thinking rationally.
I have also told you that during CNY, Chinese New Year, I was praying with burning joss sticks to the "Goddes of Mercy" and this foreigner told photograph of the people praying and looking amazed and in disbelief. At the temple after we plant the joss sticks into the urns, the caretaker will quickly take out some times within minutes and perhaps, he can re-cycle more later and re-sale and raise funds for the temple. I find it illogical but I have been doing it for years. The belief is that the joss sticks is served to feed the "Gods".
Now, we are in the 21st century yet we still kept this mentality and live in a confused state of mind. However, the belief in our mind can do marvellous and have incredible power. If we believe that we are creativethen we are creative. If we believe we can break the 9 seconds mark in the 100 metre, you can do it if you focus and believe you have the skill. People like Usain Bolt thinks that he can do it and he is moving towards it. Such happenings help to keep this belief alive.
There are many unexplanable things that happen because of the mind and also our strong belief. It works for different people. For some people, they believe that there is ghost but for others, it is all in our mind and no such dimension exist in this world.
Lets drift in this uncertainty and let our wisdom and experience drive us to where we are but at the same time be aware of the Mind.
Namaste.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Tonight's dinner at Tao Egate , Penang
My wife have to work late, so I cancel dinner with my 2nd sister and invite her and my daughter and her boyfriend to join me at Tao, a Japanese buffet restaurant at Egate, Penang. We have to reserve a place , otherwise, it was almost full house very night. For RM50 right, you get to eat a lot of varieties of Japanese food.
Of course, they have also alacate but the buffet wsa like that you can eat anything or any amount you like. My wife ordered sashimi, scallop, oyster, maki and rolls , chicken and back to sashimi and it went around and around with different varieties. This is actually very bad for health because we tend to eat more that we need to eat.
We ended with ice cream and ooffee by the end of the dinner, we have over eaten so many times and start to feel heavy My daughter and her boyfriend went over to Tesco to walk around while I sent my wife and my sister home.
Come to think about it, it was fairly cheap to eat in this type of buffet and it was like eat all you can and also at your own risk. We tend ot overeat because of our greed, not hunger.
Egate is filled with restaurants, pubs and cafe. At one end is Paparich and the other end is Starbuck coffee. Both ends were crowded with people and filled to full house. Maybe, tonight was a Friday night and most of the youngsters would take this time to hang out late as tomorrow is a rsst day. Egate is near the sea side but it si separated by a veyr wide road. It is impossible to cross over to the beach area and currently, the beach front is earmarked for property development by IJM who is developing " the light" in this area.
Well, I have been to the Tao several times and each time after eating there, I will shy away for a few months or a year as I will feel I have enough. IN chinese, Tao means the way. So, the way to our stomach or the way to food paradise and you can eat all you want.
My message is that enjoy the food but don't waste. It is s bad karma to waste food and pay back to bad karma is uncertain and depend on the timing. To all you folks, it is a choice that you must exercise " live to eat or eat to live. It is all up to you.
Namaste.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Why are we so protective ?
Human beings are very protective of themselves. Why? There are many reasons and one of them is from our experience. We are hurt by our fellow human beings or we see other people been hurt. From this experiences or sight, we form a protective barrier around us. There are layers and layers of such experiences as we live through our journey of life.
From these protective layers, we formulate a defensive plan to prevent us to be hurt. This defensive plan will prevent us to stretch ourselves to the maximum limits. Lets take a simple example,a bending exercise. When we bend forward to touch our toes, our body will stop the bending if we start to feel a pain in our back. This re-action prevent us from bending forward to touch our toes. If we force ourself, there will be more pain but we will be able to touch our toe. Our body and mind will stop us to exercise our body to the maximum.
Lets say one car suddenly come into your lane, your own protective instinct will make you stamp on the brakes or honk that fella or shout four letter words to scold them. The car could be three or four cars away but your body and mind will act without your controlling it. It is an auto pilot re-action.
The protective instinct also do not trust your own body. When your body feel the pain, you body will shy away from that action or though your body can perform the difficult action. In order to break this mindset, we have to learn to love and trust ourself. If we can remove the protective cover, we can do things which we cannot do in the past. Such action will deem impossible but we can do it now if we break the mindset.
Our body and mind have limitless ability and we must learn to unleash it if we are able to think positive and believe that we can. This ability lies within us and only we can do something about it or change it. It is the power to break a rock if we believe we can do it. Remove the protective instinct and live freely.
Namaste.
From these protective layers, we formulate a defensive plan to prevent us to be hurt. This defensive plan will prevent us to stretch ourselves to the maximum limits. Lets take a simple example,a bending exercise. When we bend forward to touch our toes, our body will stop the bending if we start to feel a pain in our back. This re-action prevent us from bending forward to touch our toes. If we force ourself, there will be more pain but we will be able to touch our toe. Our body and mind will stop us to exercise our body to the maximum.
Lets say one car suddenly come into your lane, your own protective instinct will make you stamp on the brakes or honk that fella or shout four letter words to scold them. The car could be three or four cars away but your body and mind will act without your controlling it. It is an auto pilot re-action.
The protective instinct also do not trust your own body. When your body feel the pain, you body will shy away from that action or though your body can perform the difficult action. In order to break this mindset, we have to learn to love and trust ourself. If we can remove the protective cover, we can do things which we cannot do in the past. Such action will deem impossible but we can do it now if we break the mindset.
Our body and mind have limitless ability and we must learn to unleash it if we are able to think positive and believe that we can. This ability lies within us and only we can do something about it or change it. It is the power to break a rock if we believe we can do it. Remove the protective instinct and live freely.
Namaste.
How I love thee? A book review
How do I love thee? Numbers tell all in book
Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:44AM EDT
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO (Reuters) - When a man thinks his partner is cheating on him, chances are fifty-fifty that he's right. But if a woman suspects her nearest and dearest of being unfaithful, she's correct a whopping 85 percent of the time.
Special intuition? No, simply numbers - as compiled in "Love by Numbers," a wide-ranging and sometimes wacky look at the figures and trends behind how and who people love, drawn up by Australian statistician John Croucher as a tongue-in-cheek way, so to speak, of making sense out of romance and sex.
"Ask men what makes their blood run cold when your partner says it to you and number one in all the surveys I've seen is, 'We have to talk.' Men don't want to talk and if she does she's either going to leave him, found somebody else or found something out about him," said Croucher, a professor at Macquarie University, as an example.
"The second one was 'Who was that woman I saw you talking to?' I think for women it was 'What's for dinner?'"
Among the many tidbits in Croucher's book, the result of years of research plus a study of people's behavior in speed dating, are things as disparate as the fact that 68 percent of men think a woman's invitation to have coffee is really an invitation to have sex, or that 11 percent of respondents in the United States have ended a relationship because of a cat.
Given that some 60 to 90 percent of physical communication between humans is due to unspoken signals, a sizeable chunk of the book is devoted to how to translate that body language in the most useful way.
Guys, want to look attractive to women? Wear a red shirt and chat up another woman - or better yet, two women. But if you're a woman, men find you more appealing if you're alone.
A woman who flips her hair or crosses her legs is trying to get a man's attention, as is one who strokes a rounded object like her drinks glass. But if she puts her purse behind her this is not a good sign - the bag is an extension of herself, and she's hiding.
Though Croucher acknowledges that some of the answers, particularly those dealing with sexual partners, are subject to some adjustment, many are a useful guide to how humans think.
"It just tells us about human nature, I suppose... It's like asking a man how tall he is, he'll add on 2 to 3 cm (0.8-1.2 inches) - but if you ask a woman her weight she'll take off 3 kg (6.6 lb)," he said.
"It's a fun thing but it's also a serious thing because you can actually look at the way the rest of the world behaves and their attitudes and human nature and relationships."
One of his personal favorites? The question about whether people would marry their current partner if they knew then what they know now - which in some cases yields negative replies from up to 70 percent of women.
"They ask people do you still believe in love at first sight and do you think you married your soulmate, and only 39 percent of people think they've married their soulmate," he said.
"Twenty-one percent thought they'd married their soulmate but turned out to be wrong, and 32 percent were sure that they didn't. So fewer than 2 in 5 married their soulmate."
Oh, and to answer another one of a relationship's more treacherous questions: 52 percent of men say they would lie if asked by their partner, "Does my bum look big in this?"
(Writing by Elaine Lies, editing by Paul Casciato)
Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:44AM EDT
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO (Reuters) - When a man thinks his partner is cheating on him, chances are fifty-fifty that he's right. But if a woman suspects her nearest and dearest of being unfaithful, she's correct a whopping 85 percent of the time.
Special intuition? No, simply numbers - as compiled in "Love by Numbers," a wide-ranging and sometimes wacky look at the figures and trends behind how and who people love, drawn up by Australian statistician John Croucher as a tongue-in-cheek way, so to speak, of making sense out of romance and sex.
"Ask men what makes their blood run cold when your partner says it to you and number one in all the surveys I've seen is, 'We have to talk.' Men don't want to talk and if she does she's either going to leave him, found somebody else or found something out about him," said Croucher, a professor at Macquarie University, as an example.
"The second one was 'Who was that woman I saw you talking to?' I think for women it was 'What's for dinner?'"
Among the many tidbits in Croucher's book, the result of years of research plus a study of people's behavior in speed dating, are things as disparate as the fact that 68 percent of men think a woman's invitation to have coffee is really an invitation to have sex, or that 11 percent of respondents in the United States have ended a relationship because of a cat.
Given that some 60 to 90 percent of physical communication between humans is due to unspoken signals, a sizeable chunk of the book is devoted to how to translate that body language in the most useful way.
Guys, want to look attractive to women? Wear a red shirt and chat up another woman - or better yet, two women. But if you're a woman, men find you more appealing if you're alone.
A woman who flips her hair or crosses her legs is trying to get a man's attention, as is one who strokes a rounded object like her drinks glass. But if she puts her purse behind her this is not a good sign - the bag is an extension of herself, and she's hiding.
Though Croucher acknowledges that some of the answers, particularly those dealing with sexual partners, are subject to some adjustment, many are a useful guide to how humans think.
"It just tells us about human nature, I suppose... It's like asking a man how tall he is, he'll add on 2 to 3 cm (0.8-1.2 inches) - but if you ask a woman her weight she'll take off 3 kg (6.6 lb)," he said.
"It's a fun thing but it's also a serious thing because you can actually look at the way the rest of the world behaves and their attitudes and human nature and relationships."
One of his personal favorites? The question about whether people would marry their current partner if they knew then what they know now - which in some cases yields negative replies from up to 70 percent of women.
"They ask people do you still believe in love at first sight and do you think you married your soulmate, and only 39 percent of people think they've married their soulmate," he said.
"Twenty-one percent thought they'd married their soulmate but turned out to be wrong, and 32 percent were sure that they didn't. So fewer than 2 in 5 married their soulmate."
Oh, and to answer another one of a relationship's more treacherous questions: 52 percent of men say they would lie if asked by their partner, "Does my bum look big in this?"
(Writing by Elaine Lies, editing by Paul Casciato)
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