Why Worry, Have Faith.
I can make a hobby out of worrying. I worry about the noise and then complain when it is too quiet. I worry about having too many sunny dry spells and then complain when it rains. I may even be worried about worrying too much. It is essential to take an honest interest in what goes on around me, and of course it is always wise to analyse a situation and take the necessary precautions to avoid being influenced by anything negative. However, when all is said and done, my tense and burdened mind will not be able to function clearly enough to arrive at a suitable solution to a problem. Maybe I should just do the best that I can and beyond that leave it in the hands of God. To have faith in the self, faith in God and faith in God's plan is a sure way to remain clear and free of burdens.

-Author Unknown-

Determined
Single minded but flexible, like a river forging its eternal route, I am dedicated to completions and natural conclusions. There is nothing that cannot be achieved. There is nothing that remains permanent. I keep on moving with love and purpose towards my destination. My resolve is firm, my aims are clear.


-Author Unknown-

First Thought

Each morning before I begin the journey of my day let me sit still, in silence, and sow the seed of peace. Peace is harmony and balance. Peace is freedom - freedom from the burden of negativity and wastefulness. Let peace find its home within me. Peace is my original strength, my eternal tranquility of being. Let my first thought of the day simply be peaceful.

-Author Unknown-

Theatre Of Life
Ignorance makes us believe that life functions haphazardly. Wisdom teaches you that everything that happens in this theatre of life has profound significance. What we see today is not the fruit of chance but a fruit from seeds planted in the past. Plant seeds of peace now and you will create a life of peace in the future.


-Author Unknown-

The Beginner's Luck!

It is about a month ago out of pure curiosity, I read a book with its central theme being of instant transformation. Book with attractive title sells, especially with this atomic age of our fast food society when the desire of instant gratification firmly embedded in our psyche. People who has engaged themselves on this path must have been shopping and looking around of all sorts of programs, but would soon find out that the path of transformation is neither instant nor effortless.

To be fair to all the new age programs cropping up market, I want to point out that there is a part of our mind that is quite mysterious and work in synchronicity with whatever new program that we are engaging in, at least for a short period of time. I found out that whenever I review the customer testimony of a program, there is a common denominator in those messages basically saying that users often got positive result shortly after using the program. The testimony usually sent in the first three months of trying out. The phenomenon is called the beginner's luck. I will not be surprised if majority of people using whatever self-help program will undoubtedly abandon the program and start looking for another guru in short order.

The book that I read stressed that you need only get in touch with your feeling and the feeling itself is enough to unleash the blocks and the complexes that ailing us mentally or physically. What the book fails to mention is the fact that in order to achieve such intimate level of sensitivity and exude clear observer's detachment for the transformation to take place, it would take a life-long sustained effort. The beginner's luck is only the thunder that awakens the mind, it takes persistent and ongoing shower to make flora and fauna flourish.

Seven Year's Inner Climb

I have been walking the path of self-development for many years, but most intensive and consciously aware period was of the last seven years when I first discovered Dr. Jonathan Parker's Enlightenment Series in early year of 2001. At the time, I threw my heart and soul into the frenzied endeavor of trying to get rid of varied unwanted habits, to resolve the cluttered past bruises and wounds with the hope of transforming myself into a new and a better version.

For the first three years, my life was like a beautiful river flow; smooth, restful and unhurried. I had encountered many astral travel experiences that expanded my vision of reality into a world of mystics. I was constantly elated by my night travels, and through these inner experiences, I am convinced that we are not merely our body and senses. There is more to life than meets the eye.

The last four years have been difficult for me. No matter how wonderful my inner life is, eventually I will have to come face to face with the reality of living. In a way, I am grateful of how the way the difficulty emerged, it emerged when I was most ready to face it. I was equipped with three years worth of understanding of how the body, mind and soul work together to support our existence and the treacherous journey of our soul's evolution. This simple understanding was a gift to me. It shielded me from being thrown into vortex of highly charged emotional tornado that I had no control whatsoever. The past had lived and gone, but it haunted me day and night. I have now fully realized how timely my metaphysical training was, it was god send.

Life's challenge is undoubtedly ongoing. Whenever I believe I have climbed over the peak, there is always another one looming large above the horizon..

When Huai Flowers Bloom - A Book

On May of 1966, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was launched by the Chairman of Communist Party of Mao Zedong in China. The entire People's Republic of China was plunged into waves after waves of maelstrom of struggle and chaos. It was in this era of extreme cultural shock that the author, Shu Jiang of the book, "When Huai Flowers Bloom" told the mesmerizing stories of her experience of growing up in that momentous trying time.

Shu Jiang Lu is a wonderful storyteller. From her stories, the cultural revolution wasn't just some abstract historical moment, it was rather significant torturing event uprooted, overturned, and destroyed many families and lives. In the heat of the inferno, anything representative of old culture, old tradition and class of intellect was the target of inquisition. Many suffered from emotional and psychological breakdown due to the forced public display of repeated self-criticism and humiliation.

The book read like a beautiful poem, so meticulously exquisite; and I was despondently moved by the bewildering and grief-stricken fate oppressed upon the characters in the book.

The Spiral Staircase - A Book

I first read a book written by Karen Armstrong a year ago, I had good impression of her great literary talent and her scholarly in-depth research on the subject. It actually prompted me to write an article of honoring all faiths. Little did I know at the time that a year later, I would, through my love to read, establish a kind of affinity with her from her akin to autobiographical work revealing her struggle out of cocoon of spiritual darkness.

Hers was a life of uncommon path. She had experienced seven years of excruciating mental and spiritual pain and suffering as a Catholic nun, and another ten more years difficult time of searching for her own identity after leaving the convent and trying to find her place in a secular life. With decades of long and hard soul searching and bitter-sweet score settling with her past, she was finally able to appreciate that all the suffering she had undergone was spiritually necessary for her to break out of the narrow confine of the convent and reach out to all the world religions with equal revere and understanding.

The book that I read a year ago was "Mohammad - A Prophet for Our Time". After the momentous event of 9/11, the western world was still naive of Islamic world. We are fearful of the power of Islam, believing that Islam was fundamentally a violent and hateful religion. The Muslims were just a bloodletting mob always stand in the ready to instigate conflict and terror. This distorted view was further stereotyped by the five decades long of Middle East conflict. The book about Prophet Mohammad was needed to restore the true spirit of Islam, and Karen did a great job bringing the truth of Islam to the western world.

Now that I have finished reading the book, Spiral Staircase - My Climb out of Darkness, I have gained further understanding of her motive and contribution of writing several books in regards to the fundamental principle of world religions. Other than ritualistic difference, most of the world religions have shared common value and morality in its core. The book, Spiral Staircase was a journey of eventful life. Not many of us can live through life of trial and tribulation unscathed, but reading her book make me realize that at time, we can be remarkably resilient against all odds.

Blasphemy - A Novel

I don't remember how that I got hold of this novel. At the time, I was searching other books in Amazon.com. The Internet certainly has ways of sidetracking what I intend to do. I think it is one of the greatest distractions of all our invention. But on the other hand, sometimes I can be pleasantly surprised that after rummaging through the garbage, a gem can be unexpectedly found in a unsightly pile.

I took a good look of the name, and naturally I was curious of a book with such a profane title. With my entire being dedicated in searching the truth of our existence, you will think I toss the book in a mindless second. But my training in metaphysical study, especially from Jonathan Parker's Enlightenment Series, has taught me a kind of inquisitive marvel of well-rounded approach on all things metaphysical.

So, I checked it out in my local library, and was sufficiently amused for the next few days. Is science/technology really at odds with religion? Can they compliment each other with science peeling away and poking open the veil and the mystery of religion? The story in the blasphemy was mostly religion-bashing and understandably so. We have enough of the occultist's incitement causing colossal conflagration incinerated many thousands of lives throughout human history. Now the scientists, with high tech gadget and voluminous funding, is attempting to take over the role of religion with this four billion dollar project. I thought the story is a bit embellished but yet not overly impossible given the age in which we found ourselves with instant communication round the world through Internet making mobilizing mob demonstration an imminent possibility.

The novel is quite entertaining if not anything else. It is interesting that the last chapter is dedicated to accommodating the entire communication between Isabella and the scientists on site. I guess at the end of the day the author, Douglas Preston, does not want the reader to forget his new vision of god.

Change

Have you ever made a solemn new year resolution determining to eradicate some unwanted habit or to establish a more healthier one? For the first two weeks , you are buzzing with excitement and almost all the world could read your mind of what you are about to do. Yes, it shows, loudly and clearly in the twinkling of your eyes. The enigmatic beginner's luck kicks in and you are invincible. Everything you do seem to resonate with your newly forming habit.

As the humdrum daily routine set in, strangely, in a mysterious and subtle way, you find yourself gradually become unable to keep up with the demand of forming the new habit. You start to slack off, to make excuses for yourself. At the same time, the newness wears off, the excitement loses its steam and before you realize what is happening, you are squarely back to your good old self.

I often contemplate of why it is so hard for us to change. Psychotherapist's research informed us that the majority of our mental programming is hard-wired in our psyche through many years repetitive reinforcement and they reside not in our conscious but in a deeper recess of the mind where sheer determination has not shown much effectiveness to alter its course.

Over the years, the self-development community has devised some effective techniques dealing with this invisible beast of ours. There are worthy techniques like hypnosis, affirmation through alpha state, subliminal programming or other new age methods. All of them might have some measure of success. I personally enjoy using affirmation through alpha state as a way of hopefully creating a lasting change without hypnotherapy's help or the need to acquire some expensive gadget. Whichever method we choose, there is a common thread of persistent and sustained effort that is required on all fronts to ensure the success of our endeavor.

The year 2008 has gotten underway, I have once again set sight just high enough for me to mull over lest I should fall into a state of ignorant contentment.

Halfway Up the Mountain....

"Halfway up the mountain" is a book published in 1999 by Mariana Caplan. This book pointed out the numerous pitfalls and erroneous conception of what the spiritual enlightenment was all about. Many half-baked seekers driven by grandiose and pompous disillusion of showing off the psychic powers mistakenly believed that exhibition of psychic senses is equivalent to reaching enlightenment. Well, not so fast, my friend!

We have come of age with informational explosion through Internet, the once arcane wisdom and esoteric knowledge secretly guarded by the most hidden and impenetrable group of society can now be readily available through online stores with affordable installment payments. There are pseudo masters every where you turn with any topic of your choosing, including the invisible and unmeasurable spirituality.

Science offers concrete evidence and measurable result. Medicine cures and heals. But what exactly spirituality does? I can not pretend that I have the answer. I am very much committed on the path of self development. After seven years of on and off meditation, read dozens of books related to metaphysical teaching and most importantly enlightened by the knowledge and wisdom of mystical nature from Jonathan Parker's Enlightenment Series, I still feel I have some stubbornly unresolved neurosis. There is no quick fix, no fast food way to reach any level of self mastery.

One of the biggest traps of modern spirituality is the issue of ego. Ego is the final frontier that the inspiring aspirant is supposedly trying to confront and conquer. But with our society full of abundant materialism and with fame and fortune waving incessantly in the headline news, there aren't many who can resist the temptation to make a name of himself or herself in the realm of spiritual masters. In the process, Ego got bigger and stronger, the fall from grace is eventually inevitable. For the average seeker, we need not worry about falling from grace yet, but we do need to heed the danger of falling into the habit of perpetual spiritual shopping.

Overcoming Life's Disappointments- A Book

Most of us probably had seen the old movie " The Ten Commendments", made in 1950s, quite a long drawn movie, the runtime of almost 4 hours. I remember at time I fell asleep in the middle of it. But, I managed to wake up in a nick of time when the pivotal point of the movie just about to flex its theatrical prowess.

In order to demonstrate the awesome power of God in a way of intimidation to the Pharaoh of Egypt, Moses magically transformed the staff he carried into a viciously looking serpent. While desperately in need of crossing the Red Sea with Egyptian army hot in pursuit, Moses divided the sea for Israeli people to pass in safety. When the Pharaoh's army tried to follow them to pass the Red Sea, Moses again testify his almighty power by causing the roaring sea waves crumpling down, swallowed and drowned all of the enemy troop. In an era without computer generated special effect, I thought the visual and sound effect is no less powerful than the film made today.

We see the legendary hero like Moses not as a mortal human being like us, but a lot more like super human with a supernatural ability that can be bordered God-like, faultless, impeccable and virtuous. Well, you are about to change your perspective after reading this book of "Overcoming Life's Disappointment" about Moses or about any of our revered so-called saints. I can safely say that no one is really perfect in the land of living.

However, the point of the book is to use Moses's life as an example, showing us that in the course of our life, we are bound to encounter some minor inconveniences or other major tragedies that could throw us into the abyss of despair and disappointment. Life is not meant to be rose garden everyday, even rose garden does not bloom in all seasons. Moses had plenty of his share of exhibiting the dark side of human emotional roller coaster rides. If Moses, a hero favored by God, endowed a supernatural gift by God could fall into anger, despair and jealousy, we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves when life does not turn out the way we wanted and as a result we display some unwanted negative emotions.

It is not so much the destiny that we arrive that defines us, it is the struggle and the way we handle the struggle that really makes a mark of our existence. In a way, we are heroes in our spheres of influence that make up of our own unique world. Rabbie Harold S. Kushner has made a great contribution by showing us how we can overcome all of the life's disappointments and emerge in the end as a person wiser, and fulfilled knowing that we have risen above the circumstances however difficult it may be.

Six Principles of Enlightened Living - Buddha Mind, Buddha Body

This is a small part of the text in the book of "Buddha Mind, Buddha Body". I borrow most of my books from County Library, therefore I do not possess the book to refresh my mind of what I have learned six months later. The way to help me practice this profound teachings of "Buddha Mind, Buddha Body" is to painstakingly copying down in my journal so that I can remind myself from time to time. I found the message down-to-earth common sense. But in the midst of my busy daily living, how easily I forget them.

" You Must Know Yourself, Know Your Weakness" - E. J Gold
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• Giving

The first practice is the practice of giving. It is wonderful to give. When you are angry with someone, you have the tendency to punish him or her. You want to deprive him or her of this and of that; that is our natural tendency. But if you can bring yourself to give him or her something, your anger will vanish and you will go to the other shore right away, the shore of non-anger. Try it. Suppose from time to time, you get angry of your partner and you know that it will happen again in the future. So,you go and buy or you make a gift and you hide it somewhere. Next time you get angry at him or her, don't do or say anything, just take the gift and give it to him. You will no longer be angry with him. That is the recommendation of the Buddha.

The Buddha taught us many ways to deal with our anger, and this is one of the ways. When you are very angry of someone, give him something, give her something; practice generosity. You don't need to be rich in order to practice giving. You don't have to go to supermarket in order to make a gift. The way you look at him is already a gift. There is compassion in your eye. The way you speak is a gift, because what you say is so sweet, is so liberating. A letter you write her can also be a gift. We are very wealthy in terms of thinking, in terms of speech, in terms of action; We can always be generous. Don't be thrifty. You can give at anytime, and that will inspire the happiness of people around you. Always give, and you become richer and richer every moment. That is the first practice of giving.

• The Mindfulness Training

The second practice is the practice of mindfulness training. The practice of mindfulness training is also a gift- a gift to you and a gift to people you love. If you abide by the practice of mindfulness trainings, you protect yourself, you make yourself beautiful, you make yourself wholesome, you make yourself safe, and that will support the happiness of the other people. By practicing the mindfulness trainings, you are protected by the energy of buddha, the dharma, you will not create suffering for yourself and for people around you. The mindfulness training deal with integrity, honesty and compassion. They encompass protecting life, preventing war and destruction of life, practicing generosity, preventing sexual misconduct, practicing mindful, loving speech and deep listening, and practicing mindful consumption.

• Inclusiveness

The third principle is the practice of inclusiveness, the practice of helping your heart to grow larger and larger all the time. How can we help our hearts to grow eneryday , to be able to embrace everything? When your heart is big, you have a lot of understanding and compassion, and then there is no problem, you don"t suffer, and you embrace him or her because your heart is big. We suffer because our heart is small. And we demand that the other person should change in order to be accepted by us. But when our heart is large, we don"t put forth any conditions, we accept them as they are, and they have a chance to transform. The secret is how to grow our hearts.

Helping our heart to grow big is the capacity of embracing everyone, everything, you don"t exclude anyone. Whatever a person's color, religion, or political beliefs, you accept them all with no discrimination whatsoever. Inclusiveness here means nondiscrimination.

• Diligence

When we study consciousness in buddhism, we understand the meaning of diligence in terms of Store consciousness (Subconsciousness), in terms of seeds. In our subconsciousness there are seeds of suffering and seeds of happiness, wholesome and unwholesome seeds. The practice of diligence consists of watering the wholesome seeds.

First of all, arrange your life in a way that the bad seeds will have no chance to manifest. This takes a little bit of organization. We have to organize our life, our environment in such a way that the seed of violence, the seed of anger, the seed of despair in us has no chance to be watered. There are those of us who live in the kind of environment where negative seeds are watered every day. And of by chance the negative seeds have been watered and manifest, what should you do? Arrange so that they can go back to their form of seeds as quickly as possible.

• Meditation

Meditation means to generate the energy of mindfulness and to maintain concentration. With mndfulness you can get in touch with the wonderful events of life for your nourishment and healing. Concentration helps you to look at everything deeply in order to discover the nature of impermanence, non-self and inter-being.

• Wisdom

We cultivate mindfulness, we cultivate concentration and understanding, and wisdom is the fruit of our cultivation. Wisdom is the fruit as well as the means to reach liberation. When w live deeply every moment with mindfulness, concentration and understanding, your insight grows. It is our understanding that brings compassion, that liberate us from afflictions like fear, like anger.

Missile Launch - A Meditative Experience

I was deep in meditation, sitting in a Burmese position for over an hour. I had no usual sweet swirling feeling on my head. My attention was focused on the third eye and crown chakra with very little thought popping in and out of my mental screen. To meditate without any intruding thought is still very difficult for me, but I manage to fend off most of them, keep them at bay without interfering my sense of tranquility.

All of a sudden, my entire being was vibrating and I felt I was catapulted upward as if a rocket was launched into space. I sensed the motion of spiraling towards the sky, when I looked down, the earth was dizzily whirling smaller and smaller beneath. Gradually I reached a higher altitude, and started falling down from above the cloud. As I slowly sky diving, I watched the barren sandy field, the stream and the waterfall got larger and closer to the ground. As my feet touched the solid earth, all the scene of desert, sand dung, the tiny stream vanished in an instant. I was back to my senses and found myself still in a sitting meditative posture and my mind immediately conjured up the phrase "Missile launch". The entire scenario lasted only seconds.

Buddha - A Novel from Deepak Chopra

When I got hold of this book a week ago, I wasn't convinced of anyone who lives in the 21st century largely insulated by modern technology and everyday convenience would have the necessary insight and penetrating understanding of how Buddha stumbled and struggled to achieve enlightenment in an era of hard and difficult living.

The name of Buddha is now a term universally recognized in four corners of the world. I can imagine the challenge of accurately portraitng a being vastly beyond our comprehension and is consider a supreme God in some culture. Well, I wasn't disappointed of Chopra's accomplishment. The story is very well plotted, but much more amazing feat is the Buddha's teaching weaving seamlessly in the tale of adventure seeking to end suffering for all humanity.

The book is read like a beautiful poem, blending philosophy, psychology and metaphysics in a panorama of mankind's evolution condensed and culminated in Buddha's life. Some sections of the story is like Zen meditation, it's paradoxical and yet it rings true to our inner self. I have to read several times to grasp it's profound meaning. The book is delightful to read as it is inspirational to the musing of the mind.

Spiritual Warrior !?

Whenever I look into the subject of spiritual advancement, I encountered several times a curious term called 'Spiritual Warrior", describing a fearless composure of an adept battling one's ego to reach higher order of mental plane. The term is oxymoron and it is kind of like saying a person is "cruel kindness", or "benevolent dictator", quite self contradictory in my humble opinion.

The history of mankind is riddled with conflict, dispute and warfare, it is hardly an appropriate way to label a person "warrior" when one's lofty goal in life is simply to achieve a sense of oneness, peace and tranquility in harmony with one's environment and to broaden the capacity of empathy in one's daily encounters.

After all, the major advancement in spirituality is not about doing battle with others externally or dragon slaying of our personal sin complex internally. It is more like letting go of our self- important ego; the ego that prevent us from seeing others as ourselves. A person who walks on the path of self discovery is merely trying to polish a mirror filled with a thick layer of greasy dust accumulated over thousands of years. Underlying that filthy dust, lies a shining, glittering mirror of perfection, some call it our "Buddha Nature".

The way I see it, the words of "Spiritual Warrior" probably come from our warring nature in the affair of the world. We seem to be constantly doing battle either with ourselves or with others. In this context, the realm of spiritual is considered one of the invisible domains that can be conquered at will by the earnest devotee. But still, "spiritual warrior" is unequivocally paradoxical to my understanding of the way of the spirit.

A New Day - Song That I Haven't Sung for Years!

MORNING HAS BROKEN

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day

How Starbucks Saved My Life - A Book

For all the self help books in the market, none can compare to this funny real life experience of a corporate high roller descended down to a lowly worker serving coffee in a busy New York neighborhood store of Starbucks Coffee.

Michael Gill did not live an ordinary life in his youth like most of us did. After graduated from one of the Ivy League, he joined a prestigious advertising company as an executive. Life was good. But through series of mysterious life events, he was brought down from an executive to having to look for a job to survive. It was in Starbucks, he truly realized the emptiness and shallowness of chasing rainbow in the corporate world. It was in Starbucks, he found genuine friendship, simple joy and profound happiness.

it is a fun book to read, delightful and full of humor.

Born on a Blue Day! - A Book

About a week ago, I accidentally stumbled on this book in my local library. To be honest, I had no idea what Autism was. I had to look up the dictionary to find its meaning. After reading several pages, I started to associate Daniel Tammet's Autistic symptom with that of the character in the movie "Rain Man" which was one of my all time favorites.

Read about Daniel's upbringing as an Autistic Savant was most fascinating. He described how numbers have soothing effect on him; he felt calm and happy around numbers and every number has distinctive color, shape, textures and personality. Somehow magically, he can do complex calculation in seconds without any mental exertion. Whenever he felt anxious, he will count numbers to himself. With numbers floating around his mental screen, he is sound and safe again.

People has Autism Spectrum Disorder live most comfortably with rigid set of routine, order and familiarity. Any sudden change in routine could cause severe anxiety. Normally, social interaction and communication proves to be impossible for people with ASD, as a result, most of them are institutionalized for life. But Daniel is different in a sense that he is able to interact and communicate with others. Not only that he has a brilliant mind in mathematical calculation and a phenomenal photographic memory, but also in the age of only 20something he now leads a normal functioning life without the need for institutional support.

This book, " Born On a Blue Day" takes us to the fascinating world of Daniel Tammet that is quite foreign to our own and yet very awe-inspiring. The mind of Autistic Savant is so out of this world that scientist still can not explain how an Autistic Savant is able to calculate large series of numbers in lightening speed.

How Am I?

Year 2007 is rapidly coming to a close. I found myself asking, "what have I achieved in my inner world of experience?" I consider myself an explorer of human consciousness and yet the vast sea of consciousness is still elusive to me. The water is uncharted and off-limit as if there is an invisible veil stubbornly and steadfastly unyielding to my insistent probe.

Over the last six years, I have enjoyed many good books and filled my brain with all sorts of intellectual understanding of the most profound phenomenon found only in the mind of a mystic. In the depth of the night, I occasionally experience a brief but mind exhilarating out of body experience where I travel to unknown locale sampling what I can only describe as first hand experience of our timeless, ageless energy body. There is no book, however meticulously and vividly narrated, can give me a taste of what is like to be experiencing an invisible, non-physical part of me. It is the knowing that is beyond belief.

It is comforting at least to have a glimpse of my invisible self. Last several months I found myself losing that ability fast. On one hand, I am afraid that my sense of connection with the invisible plane could fail and I will be back to square one as a kindergartener learning baby steps in my advancing age. But on the other hand, I just come to realize that whatever experience and non-experience that come my way, it must be a part of the necessary learning on my inner development. No growth is going straight up to the roof. Growth is more like a gentle wave moving in a formation of a spiral. Some said that inner journey of awakening and transformation is like climbing a wilding mountain; one can easily get lost without proper direction and guidance.

" Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it, you will land among the stars." - Les Brown

Energy Surge in Meditation

All life form have energy body that is best demonstrated by Kirlian photography. The dictionary definition of Kirlian Photography is a photographic process that supposedly records electrical discharges naturally emanating from living objects, producing an aura like glow surrounding the object on a photographic plate or film with which the object is in direct contact.

There are times when I am in a deep meditation, my body is asleep and relaxed, but my mind is sharp and focused. I can detect the slightest sound and stir in my room. After maintaining this focused mental state in a duration of an hour or so, I would experience a surge of energy pulsing through my body accompany it with a warm sensation. It happens when I am able to hold my body-mind in a still state for at least an hour.

There is not much information about energy surge during meditation. I am speculating that meditation is a very personalized practice, and not everyone experience the same kind of phenomenon due to the uniqueness of our individual life experience. Could it be that the energy body of ours is most likely to surface even in a minuscule second when mind-body is in an intensely aware and profoundly relaxed state? It is a glimpse of our true being, the essence of who we really are.

Lost My Way in Corporate World - A Dream

I am leisurely walking down the mass hall of the company that I am working for. One end of this mega company is in one city and the other end happens to be in another city, the length of the corporation stretches over several miles long.

It's been known that each department has its own unique architectural design. marketing department particularly, is hailed as one of the marvels of technological prowess and I have not gotten the chance of witnessing it until now. I walk a long way down and finally reach the marketing department. I swear I have not seen the inside of Plaza Hotel in New York, but the spectacular lighting, high ceiling with exquisite design and sparkling floor give me the impression of what Plaza Hotel must look like.

My accounting department is usually a quite place. We are a bunch of unassuming, down-to-earth people spending hours immersing ourselves in seemingly endless number crunching loop. But not here in marketing department. This is the place buzzing with people coming and going with posters and notebooks in their hands, walking with great sense of posture and purpose. The scene seems to have a dizzily hypnotic effect on me.

Suddenly, I remember that I have a 10:30 meeting to attend and it's time to get going. I search my mind for what is the fastest way to get back, instantly my logic ( however faulty it is ) tells me to get on a train ride. But I don't know which train I should be taking, so I ask one of the conductors for the correct train number, I do not receive any verbal confirmation but I get on the first train that roll on the station anyway. When the train is moving out of the station, I suddenly realize that it is heading the wrong direction toward Hollywood. I start to panic and feel anxious that I would not be able to get back in time for the meeting.

As the train snail its way, I see rundown inner city littering with trash and graffiti, with youths carrying an air of idly, indifferent attitude chatting away on the sidewalk looking rather bored! It is definitely not scenic for my taste. Gradually the scene fades, I regain my senses and wake up with a great relief that I am soundly in bed and there is no meeting. The time is 4:35 am.

A delightful Surprise - Fluff's New Behavior

One of the headaches of taking care of bird is that I can't train it going to specific place to poo like most of dog or cat do. I gather that may be it's because of its puny sized brain that it couldn't comprehend such a civilized habit like our designated bathroom as a place to relieve ourselves. Under normal circumstance, after a passage of a full week, Fluff's cage would be full of shit (not a curse) that cleaning her cage is the last thing I want to spend my weekend on. But obligation is obligation, there is no way out except the times that James volunteered for the chore, which is not a common occurrence.

I always tried to avoid having Fluff standing on my shoulder too long because I know that the bomb shell can drop on my somewhat clean shirt in any moment without notice. It was quite embarrassing walking around with bird poo on my back. I have personally experienced several awkward moments like that so I am now making darn sure that there was none of those ugly stuff on my clothes before I walk out of the door to my office.

Fluff is now busy hatching almost 24 hours a day saved the time we take her out for a little break and for her humongous-sized pooing opportunity. For the last three weeks, I was excused of cleaning her cage. Why? Because Fluff is suddenly very conscientious of her hygiene in the cage. I can not see even a single drop of poo in the cage in the last three weeks. I can't say the cage is sparkling clean, but it is unstained and unpolluted. It is nothing like what we have known of her the last twelve years. It is amazing that laying four eggs have totally changed her pooing behavior.

Nature has inbuilt certain safety net into Fluff's instinct, when event triggered that sensor, like laying eggs for reproductive purpose, she instinctively knows what is good and what is bad for her upcoming offspring even though the eggs will not be hatched because they are infertile. But Fluff doesn't know it yet. She is willing to sacrifice her carefree bomb dropping habit to ensure that the eggs are not contaminated by her own excrement.

Just for the fun of it - My Name

Name Analysis: Ming Fong Chen

Your name at birth was a set up! It set the stage for who you would become and the people and events you would be likely to attract. It helped to shape your perspective of life, your energy level and your attitudes. It helped to determine your level of self-esteem and your future potential for success or for struggle. Everything is energy in motion. Everything, including you - is like a powerful, broadcasting satellite - emanating distinct, vibrational frequencies that magnetically attract your experiences. What frequency is your name set to?

Expression: 7

The Expression number shows us who we truly are, what we came into this life already knowing. This is where we feel most comfortable and how we automatically act. We attract people and situations to us that require our Expression so that they can further evolve. In this way we play the role of teacher. Naturally we are attracted to occupations that we resonate to, so the Expression number can be a strong factor in our choice of a career as well. Our Expression is the vehicle, with all its virtues and vices, that drives us along the path of our Destiny. It is the essence of our identity.

Yours is the path of the mind. Silence and solitude are your doorways into the deep recesses of the mind and the universe. You are the philosopher, the analyst, the seeker and if you'd be willing, the teacher. The time and energy that you spend discovering the microscopic core of things has gifted you with the ability to tap into psychic energy. It is with this energy that you can separate the true from the false.

Soul Urge: 2

The Soul Urge number has also been called Heart's Desire and Spiritual Urge. It is our secret, innermost longing. Our dream, our motivation, the fuel that energizes our journey. The Soul Urge number reveals what we secretly strive to be or accomplish. Some have said that this number tells us what we have been in previous lifetimes, the accumulated growth of our soul.

Peace and harmony is your desire. You are a natural mediator as you are genuine, tactful and adaptable. You tend to put your own will aside for others and it is difficult for you to make decisions. This may cause others to see you as shy, or lacking confidence. Your sensitivity and gentleness can be a great healing force bringing harmony and support to others.

Persona: 5

The Persona number describes the way we appear to the outside world, the first impression people have of us. We may not even be aware of how we are perceived by others because we are so often focused on our inner world, and many times the inner does not match the outer. Persona gives us a peek at some hidden talents we have. The talents that we use to get along in the world and in some instances, protect us from it. It is likened to a bag of tools (jewels) that we carry with us along the way.

You've got charisma, and a following to prove it. You live by your belief that change is progress, and so there tends to be a quick turn over in your relationships, jobs and even educational interests. You are the proverbial, " jack of all trades-master of none.", and this gives you a multi-dimensionality that befriends you to people of every walk of life. You are colorful in your dress and possess a magnetic sensuality.

Kite Runner - A novel

It was a chance encounter that I had the opportunity to read this book. Ever since Starbucks Coffee raised its coffee price, forever conscientious of how I spend my money on luxurious indulgence, I have not set foot to the store for over several months. But on one of the recent Sundays, weather was hot and humid, I suddenly remembered how refreshing and invigorating a cup of ice Coffee would do to jump start my precious, fleeting weekend.

Not only was I satisfied with that particular cup of coffee that cooled and flavored my Sunday morning, I also came away with an introduction of a book called Kite Runner. A story that was so engrossed that I even dreamed of some characters as if I was a part of it. That had never happened before. I have read countless books over the years, but not many books were so gripping that it will occupy my mind almost day and night even after I have finished reading it.

The background of the story is in the war torn era of Afghanistan. The novel brilliantly embodied and illustrated the whole array of human emotion of friendship, acceptance, humility, loyalty, betrayal and redemption in its most vivid and engaging plot that will hold your attention and interest all the way to the end.

Life is a boomerang after all!

Barometer of Spiritual Progress

In the world of money worship, power seeking and success materialization, we mortals tend to measure our worthiness against these yardsticks. I bet most of us will look down some of the following situations as undesirable, unbearable and could consider them outright failure. Are they really?

The following list is unbelievably short and there are as many ways to count our misery and misfortune as of billions of population living in the planet earth.

Let's see what the wise man from India had to say about our soul's progression through adversity.

"Here is an infallible barometer to find out the degree of your spiritual progress. How would you feel, if:

1. Your clean hands or best clothes are stained.
2. You stumbled down or commit a blunder and are laughed at.
3. You are hurt accidentally or stung by an insect or scorpion.
4. You suffer from illness or pain.
5. You do not succeed in your efforts.
6. You do not get a thing that you want, or find that some thing you possess is missing.
7. You are kept waiting for a long time by some other person.
8. You are insulted or abused for no reason.
9. Others fail in their duties towards you.
10. You suffer a loss or bereavement.

If none of these can disturb your peace of mind and you are indifferent to them, you have won the struggle and achieved 50% self control.

God sends trials and troubles to strengthen your character: Greet them and test yourself." Swami Sivananda

The Forgotten 500 - A book

The World War II was an incredibly magnificent event in human history. Up to this day, the war had ended over six decades ago, there are still many untold heart warming stories guaranteed to lift up your spirit and make your day. This is the story that you will not want to miss. "The Forgotten 500" is such a mesmerizing book that it will take your breath away. You will not want to put it down till the end.

The background was in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia during the war. American airmen were trapped behind enemy lines. An innocent, casual conversation between husband and wife set the stage of major clandestine rescue mission. Author, Gregory Freeman, did an extensive study and meticulous research interviewing the downed and survived airmen, some of them are now in their eighties and nineties. The story unfolded in stunning suspense with heroes being slayed and lies, glorified. While reading it, I couldn't help but shaking my head with disbelief of how convenient that the truth be swept under the rug of propaganda to serve the Superpower's agenda. It is a story that could stay with you for years; a tribute to the greatest rescue mission of World War II.


"Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible"

A Revelation - Fluff's Identity

On one of the beautiful days of Autumn back in 1996, our family welcomed a new member to our home, a lovely yellow-orange colorful hand-fed Cockatiel. it was a gift given by my sister and James cousin. The Cockatiel was boarded on an airplane with my parents flying over 3,000 miles across the US continent in a cardboard box. We in Walnut, California were excited but weren't prepared of what to do.

At the time of his arrival, Fluff was only four months old. We adored him very much but weren't sure how to handle him, and he was visibly nervous and agitated being in an unfamiliar environment. As time went on, we adapted to each other. He loves eating from our palms, hanging out on our shoulders, snuggling and rubbing his head against our hair. He is especially fond of us giving him message on his yellow head and orange cheeks.

Every weekend like clockwork, he will be whistling out loud early in the morning and make sure we take him out of his cage. Time passes and in a blink of an eye, Fluff is now twelve years old. He is always in good health and we make sure he has a lot of exercise by having him flying around the house several rounds a day. Occasionally, James will take him out of the cage and do a wrestling match. We ( James and I) always enjoy several rounds of frivolous provoking of Fluff, the idea is to stimulate his senses lest it should become senile since he is fast approaching the advancing age. On average, the Cockatiel's lifespan is about fifteen years.

Two weeks ago, he started a very strange behavior. He chewed up all the newspaper covering the bottom of the cage and curl up itself in a protective posture. Every time we tried to get him out of the cage, he attacked us vehemently. We thought Fluff was crazy and we joked that Fluff might be depressed since he now entered into the midlife crisis. We simply brushed off his odd behavior offhandedly.

Last Sunday night, while James and I were again curiously observing his behavior, suddenly when he was ready to attack, James looked, Lo and Behold, there were two eggs in the cage. We were both shocked and incredulous of what's happening. Fluff, a "He" that we were so sure of for the last twelve years, laid two eggs. I told James, this is serious. How could a single male Cockatiel lay eggs? We immediately searched the Internet for answer, and it turns out that "he", is definitely a "she", and it was not uncommon for single female to lay eggs at all. The fact that Fluff has very bright, unfading orange cheeks and yellow feather for all these years fooled us all.

5 - Exit Point

Sylvia Browne is quite famous in the circle of psychic phenomenon. She has published many books and I have read some. Despite of the controversy surrounding her prediction or reading about some missing person's whereabouts and their ultimate destiny, I will say her attitude is quite genuine and sincere when comes to impart her knowledge and wisdom of the mystery of life in many of her books.

There are some esoteric knowledge to which the ordinary mind just could not have access. I found them quite fascinating and just plain comforting to know that our existence is not a random, haphazard, dice tossing probability. According to Sylvia, our lives were carefully charted and meticulously planned in minute detail with best intention from our creator, and accompanied by an array of guides and angels overseeing our treacherous journey on earth.

During the planning stage on the other side, we got to choose where we will be born, who will be our parents, how many siblings we will have, what kind of occupation we will hold, what are the challenges we will face throughout the path and ultimately overcome and what kind of lessons we set to learn in this life time. In the soul level, we actually have known all these in advance. All the seeming tragedy and triumph are all a stage play being very well rehearsed before we embark on this journey. It was way back in year 2001 when I first encounter this mystical knowledge from Dr. Jonathan Parker's "Enlightenment Series". I surely need a lot of reminder to stay put on my path.

The other piece of information is about 5 exit points that we planned during the sojourn of our journey. Since we have painstakingly mapped out our on stage play, it seems logical to believe that we should have also planned ahead of how we are going to exit off stage. Well, it turns out that we have five chances during our life to say "enough is enough, I am out of here". I thought it is generous that we are given that many opportunities to say "yes". We heard stories of "close call"of varied life and death situations in many sources. Could it be that, those "close call" may well be one of the 5 destined exit point that we deliberately set up while on the other side? At the moment of crucial juncture, we tell ourselves that "net yet, I am not ready" and we missed the whatever means of exit plan we devised for ourselves so that we can complete our life's mission and purpose. I thought whoever created us is pretty ingenious and compassionate enough that we are given that many choices.

Inner Crisis of a Saint - Mother Theresa

There was a news report a few weeks ago talking about Mother Theresa's spiritual crisis lasted nearly half of a century. In the public eye, she was kind, self sacrificing and compassionately living among the poorest of the poor, but deep inside she was desperate, empty and frustrated longing for heavenly confirmation of her deeds and actions. She captured the heart and soul of millions worldwide, but she thought she failed to capture the attention and encouragement of her heavenly father.

This previously private undisclosed diary of hers has flared up a tiny vortex of debate and discussion, and some atheists use this piece of information claiming that her private thought has proved that religion and spirituality is merely human construct of illusory nature and god do not exist, pure and simple.

That is not so. Over the history, there were saints walking the path of serving humanity all due to the vision that they received earlier in their lives. There are some souls have charted their lives for specific missions to fulfill. Vision or voice of god in dream is one of the many ways of arousing their attention in the midest of their seemingly uneventful daily living. Saint Francis had a dream in which god spoke to him asking him to repair the downtrodden and dilapidated churches in his time. That was the first step that had led him to his life path. There are many ways that we can be awaken to the call and duty of what we are here to do. It is just that some souls have more grander and heavier responsibility than that of the ordinary soul like you and me, at least in this life time.

When everything goes well with us, we don't need god. Life is a wonderful merry-go-round. I have read countless books about how crisis in life disguised itself as an opportunity for us to look at our life from a higher perspective. The vision that Mother Theresa received earlier in her life was a nudge from heaven reminding her to be true to her path. She heeded the vision and the rest is history. During the course, she got several more visions all were revealed when a critical juncture was reached and decision needed to be made at that time. She was so dedicated to her calling, there was no need for god to remind her of what she supposed to do during later part of her life. Her spiritual crisis was not crisis in a practical sense, she just missed and longed for even tiny hint that god approved, confirmed and appreciated what she has done.

It is just human that we all need constant psychological inner nourishment. Once you have a tiny unearthly inner experience like Mother Theresa's vision of calling, the experience is often life changing and life takes a dramatic turn. The soul gets a big boost and there is nothing like it in the whole wide world. As a person heeds that inner calling and walks the path with diligence and dedication, like Mother Theresa did, over time the phenomena become less frequent. The journey of the soul has reached the phase of spiritual maturity. At this stage, the soul is doing its chart and fulfilling its life purpose, therefore there is no need for another (vision) harassment from god. Let me sum up with a mystic's understanding of nature of phenomenal vision.

"As one unfolds spiritually, the inner experiences become less phenomenal. Soul is gradually being led from the phenomenal worlds toward the worlds of true being at the soul plane and beyond", " Yet some feel unhappy when they no longer have the experiences that date back to their spiritual childhood". "It is like a high-school student demanding to become a first grader again because he was happier then. Life always takes us forward if we will go".

Middle East Conflict - The Saga Continues

In a span of about two months, I have read in a succession of three books all of them were related to the topic of Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Each of these three books looked at the situation in a different angle and each presented a valid viewpoint from that particular outlook. As I always believe, there is no good or bad, it is a matter of perspective.

The first book with Ariel Sharon, a former Prime Minister of Israel, as a centerpiece, chronicled his military and political career. Sharon was a controversial figure while on his political stage. Much of his childhood experience biased against Palestinian people has set the tone of how he went about setting the Israeli Administration in West Bank and Gaza Strip trying to systematically and deliberately limit, humble and humiliate Palestinian people's existence. There are curfews, road blocks, separation walls and check points that Palestinian people need to endure every day. In the occupied territory, Palestinian people are treated as sub-human, living in a submissive condition constantly harassed by Israeli's police. The policy under Sharon is that of rapid expansion of Israeli settlement. The goal is to drive Palestinian people to leave the territory out of despondence.

The next book I read is "One Country" by Ali Abuniman, a Palestinian-America. The interesting point is that he proposed a quite radical approach on the problem. Instead of maintaining two states, he proposed one country housing Palestinian and Israeli under one central administration with ample autonomy and equal rights for both camp. I think the idea is good, but it will take a
government with very enlightened top officials and cabinet members to devise policies and procedures equitably to benefit all people. The hurdle is likely to be from decades old of prejudice and cultural conditioning that has become ingrained as part of social fabrics of both people. Apart from Language and cultural difference, we have a formidable religious barrier to contend with. Throughout history, religion is one of the causes of obsession, oppression and aggression of blood shedding and conflict sustaining painful dramas played out in many regions of the world. If we put religious aspect in that Palestinian-Israeli melting pot, we may as well introduce an explosive time bomb in the already delicate and volatile situation. From my humble opinion, the idea is sound and good, but it is decades or may be century ahead of its time.

I thought this book should have caused an uproar if not a mass demonstration on the part of Palestinian people. "My Enemy, My Self" was written in Hebrew by an Israeli journalist and later was translated to English. In order to better understand how Arabs managed to live in the looming shadow of Israeli's tight control, Yoram Binur disguised himself as a lowly Arabic cheap laborer in occupied territories. The book revealed the first hand moccasin walking experience of being an Arab subject to the whim and oppression of his Israeli employer. Throughout the years of occupation, Israeli confiscated most of Palestinian people's properties and its livelihood therefore most of the Palestinians have to make their living employed by Israeli as unskilled cheap labor grossly underpaid and overworked. The Israeli's exploitation of Palestinian people is pervasive and humiliating. I was quite taken aback by his wrenching experience. You have to read the book to fully realize why Intifada uprising was a natural course of action of Palestinian people. It was an outcry of their many years debilitating frustration dealing with Israeli authority. They simply weren't given any chance of dignified living.

I can't help but reiterating the old cliche of "History tends to repeat itself". From the Biblical time, the land of Israel fell under the ruling of many other empires and regions. Particularly, the Roman Empire implemented a systematic and large-scale expulsion of Jews. There was a time that Jews were under the control and conquest of Muslims. Yes, Jewish State of Israeli did not come into its existence easily. It was a cornerstone in human history that through third party intervention a State of Israel was declared of legitimate existence. Now that table is turned in the twentieth century that Israel has become economically prosperous and has superior military presence in the middle east. Now it is their turn to oppress Muslims in the name of survival. How little have we learned from our bloody history!

Are We the "endangered species" ?

History of mankind has gone a long way and we have literally become caretaker of the myriad species on land, in water around the entire planet earth. In the last hundreds of years, mankind's technological knowledge and application surpassed the last many thousands by leap and bound. We have come to the age of quantum physics, Laser technology and nuclear weapon, a point of our advancing civilization where we are at a technological crossroad.

On the other hand, human nature seems to stay pretty much the same throughout history. We are just as easily provoked by our neighbor at the slightest implication as of a cave man fighting for food and survival. It is undeniable that entire human history is littered with bloodshed and conflict. But we have learned a great deal as a species and we are much more conscious and aware of the impact affecting the ecosystem as a result of our actions, our exploitation of natural habitation and resources.

As a naturally warring species, we come to the point of our civilization that we do have the technology to obliterate our very existence if we do not carefully plan ahead of how we are using the technology in the future. I am introducing a book called, "endangered species - How we can avoid mass destruction and build a lasting Peace" written by a former Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Stephen Younger. His analysis is very well rounded, bringing the forefront of political diplomacy, economic development and military capabilities into the round table of peace initiative intending to stabilize the troublesome regimes in the world. The fact that there are a score of countries now having the capability to construct nuclear weapon of mass destruction is worrisome. Now that the enemy that we are facing is not so much of technology in nature, but that of humanity itself. If we are not careful, We can become a very efficient killing machine having potential to plunge entire human race along with the natural world to the brink of extinction.

Out of these three fronts, I am particularly interested in the illustration of economic factor. Most of us has an inherent desire to better ourselves if given the opportunity. Much of the troubled spots of the world are politically unstable and the citizens are deprived of basic and essential living needs. Ever since the instant communication and rapid transportation become the reality worldwide, no one and no nation can be isolated for long. With the ever expanding information and resources now available to people all corners of the globe, this phenomena is increasingly becoming a double-edged sword for the safety of nation and its people. The book,"endangered species"brings vast knowledge and wisdom to the thorny issue of nuclear technology.

A Parable - Middle East Conflict

The conflict between Israeli and Palestinian has been an ongoing saga ever since the
United Nation's partition plan after the WWII. I read a website using Parable to illustrate the situation very empathically and it seems to bring over half century old family feud a little closer to our heart. Unfortunately, with current state of mind of mankind, happily ever after for Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains a mirage, an optical illusion. Perhaps time, patience and understanding will illuminate the hearts and souls of millions and guide us to a more peaceful and enlightened path.
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R. Jerry Adams, Ph.D. Evaluation and Development Institute

Parable of the Family with an Orphan
A large family takes in an orphan. The house is already crowded so the orphan must share an attic room with a child too weak to protest the intrusion. The parents give each of the two children half of the room but ask each child to share a beautiful cabinet, treasured by both. The parents take a long trip, leaving their strongest son in charge.

When the parents leave, other children in the family attack the orphan and try to get him to leave. The weakest child, in particular, fights unfairly. He waits for the orphan to sleep and then attacks him. The orphan wakes up each time and hurts the weak child; he also takes over more of the room, including the beautiful cabinet.

As the orphan continues to take over more of the room, the weak child continues to take revenge. The strongest son tries to bring peace and sometimes succeeds for short periods. The basic problem, however, is that each child believes that he should have the entire attic room to himself.

Finally, the parents return. They realize that they made a mistake by leaving home while there was such a difficult situation in the attic. They don't just ask the two children to stop fighting, however. Instead, they take immediate action.

The parents decide that the boys need temporary separation, something constructive to keep them busy, and careful supervision. The parents work with the two boys to build shelves and cabinets down the middle of the room, with private storage space for each boy on each side. They install plumbing so each side of the room has plenty of fresh water. Finally, when the crisis is over, the parents set up a way for the boys to share the beautiful cabinet.

The parents do more than just provide better space, however. They provide the love, kindness, and supervision that each child needs to do well. They also make sure that the other children support the solution.

Each boy reverts to his old behavior a few times, but the parents remove his privileges each time and the old behaviors stop. Besides, each boy becomes too busy pursuing his own goals to be distracted by fighting.

They lived happily ever after...with a few disagreements here and there.

The "large family" is the United Nations. The "orphan" is Israel. The "other children" are the Arab states. The "weakest son" is the Palestinian people. Attacking the orphan unfairly means "terrorist attacks." The "attic room" is the territory of Palestine before the United Nations carved Israel into it. The "beautiful cabinet" is Jerusalem.

The "strongest son" is the United States. Alas, there are no wise parents to supervise the boys. The UN Security Council has not been able to perform this essential role.

The "strongest son," therefore, must work with the "other children" to implement peace. If the "strongest son" and the "other children" work together effectively, then peace will spread throughout the entire family.

Recently, this has not happened. Instead, extremist Palestinians have engaged in bombings when Israelis agreed to work on peace. Extremist Israelis have engaged in assassinations or other acts of aggression when Palestinians agreed to work on peace. Israelis are swiftly completing a wall between Israel and Palestinian territory, but the wall is not on the 1967 border. Rather, it snakes into Palestinian territory to unlawfully take land and water rights from 200,000 Palestinians. Extremists from both sides have destroyed the peace process.
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Crashing Through - A Book

Several years ago, I read a book " Shadow Divers" from an author named Robert Kurson. This book ingrained a great impression on me for the adventure of sea diving not for the treasure hunting but for solving the mystery of U-Boat identity of shipwreck in WWII. Robert Kurson took us on this incredible journey of the seven-year search with exquisite detail and suspense. I got the chance to learn a bit about history of U-Boat, but most fascinating is the exciting and painful drama of human spirit intertwining while the story unfolded.

Several years later of today, I got another chance enjoying his second book, "Crashing Through". It is every bit of adventure and exploration considering our hero this time was blind, a victim of chemical explosion when he was only three-year old. But was Mike May a victim? Absolutely not!

As the title indicated, he lived by crashing through life day after day. He has this adventurous spirit that I often thought he was more alive than I am. Ordinary people has all of the five physical senses intact but despite of these "blessings", we often live a life quite ordinary. To May, everything is fascinating, life is literally an adventure for him. After forty some years of full, happy and joyful life, he will be facing another life changing as well as life threatening challenge. Will he dare taking the chance to become ordinary so that he can "see" the sunset and endure all the ordeal that go with the so-called privilege that is normally unavailable for the blind? Well, you shall see!

shining brass horse exhibition - Astral Travel

I have been away from my posting for a month mainly due to the lack of inner experience that was worthwhile for recording. I often have sporadic and vague memory of dream fragments, but most of them were just pure non sense so I did not bother to write them down. Last night's astral travel was the first after six-month of drought.

It started as my routine one and half hour meditation. After chanting the mantra, I laid down for relaxation, and then several minutes later, I felt a spiral and swirling sensation and up I went touring around my bedroom. When I was floating near the wall of my room, the incredible thing happened, I saw thousands of thousands of shining, silvery brass horse images stretching beyond my eyes can see. All the while, a shimmering fog was making these three-dimensional brass images a little more mysterious. I could not believe what I saw, so I turned around and floated to the other side of the wall for confirmation. Again, there were rows and rows of horse images stretching as if there was no more boundary of what we call wall.

Shocking of what I just saw, I swirled out of my window. As I made my way out, I felt that my feet tripped over something as if there was physical part of me banged on the concrete wall. Once I was outdoor, I floated past buildings and trees and made a daring loop so that I floated in the air with my back against a field of gravel road. There were times that I floated so low that I could easily touch the ground. From that position, I could see clearly the blue sky and the lazily drifting cloud. I had astral travel many times like this before, after a while I started thinking to myself, "what is the purpose of this flying?" Immediately, as if responding to my thought, the motion, the sensation of floating and the scenery gradually evaporated into the thin air....
________________________________

Perhaps there was no purpose of my astral flying other than that it was an interesting experience. What worth noting is that I had done swirling around my room many times, this was the first that the so called wall was not really a wall when I past through it. It was rather other worldly looking, especially the vivid fog-like mist that shrouded the entire exhibition.

All About Marie - A Dream

I had a young and pretty lady aged around 25 living with me along with her two year old child born out of wedlock. She was easy going, adaptive and full of street smart and uncommon wit.

During the day, Marie would stroll down the neighborhood with her child. Most of the neighbors would play with the child and chatted with her. At the end of the leisurely walk, she usually brought back some household items like bags of candies for the child, mop or broom and pots and pans for her.

She had a not-too-popular habit of borrowing things from the neighbor and then later on insisted that she was given the items as gifts. Since she was a single mom, most of us were sympathetic of her situation and we just let go of it. One day, she told me she was going to shop on supermarket, but when she came back, instead of on foot as usual, she rode on this shining red scooter with all her groceries somehow magnetically adhered to the scooter. I could see cartons of milk, juice, cereal and all kinds of baby foods piled up high on the scooter. I asked her how did she get the scooter, she just beamed with a big broad smile.

I was annoyed with her when she brought some street people into my house and insisted it was a right thing to do. I scorned her for not consulted me first. She usually got away with many things fully aware of her power of charm and wit. All of us suffered from Marie Syndrome. We all loved her and hated her at the same time. The last scene in my dream was that I vehemently argued over her selfish and notorious behavior that generated lively gossip in the community.....

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I awoke from the middle of argument feeling incredulous of why that I dreamed of a person that does not fit into my present life personality. I certainly appreciate the charm of that lady, but no one in my life has this kind of dynamic persona that I can relate to. Well, you can say that dream content is sometimes way out of league with our physical reality. But who knows? I can not be certain that our physical reality is the only reality in the universe.

" The great Taoist master Chuang Tzu once dreamed that he was a butterfly fluttering here and there. In the dream he had no awareness of his individuality as a person. He was only a butterfly. Suddenly, he awoke and found himself laying there, a person once again. But then he thought to himself, "Was I before a man who dreamed about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?"

A Wolf Pack - A dream

I decided to change my environment and moved into a remote village. Since land was cheap there, I afforded myself a good sized piece of land. We built a house with screen door and secured yard in place knowing that a pack of wolf was known to be roaming around the village preying on small animal.

I had a partner and a child living with me in the woods therefore the urgency of security was paramount. The house was built in a way that there was an iron-clad screen door separating a 20 feet long patio so that during the day, the child can play in the sunlight without exposing itself to the wild life surrounding it. The door to the house was double lock. I believed we had taken safety measure to the highest level given the seemingly beautiful nearby forest where we lived but potentially hidden danger looming all around.

At night, I spotted two wolves hanging close to our property. They will get close to the screen door and banged on it to test its vulnerability. Then one night, after a day's tiring activities, I suddenly realized that we forgot to have screen door locked tight. I told my partner to hurry and get that door locked before the wolves found out and got in. But it was too late. From the inside of my home, I clearly saw the wolves were jumping and banging inside of our patio. A rush of adrenaline swelled in my heart, a sense of terror and panic coursed through my body. A split second later, I found myself holding and hitting the wolf on the head when it tried to open and enter the door. I hit so hard that its head was bloody and broken and from the strength of wolf's struggle I was wounded myself. After the incident, I told myself that this was not the good place to raise a child, and I can't live like this anymore...... I woke up from my dream feeling very disturbed. I looked at the time on my alarm clock, it was only about 2:30 am.

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It has been quite a while since I remembered my dream a few months ago. Never was I awoke in the middle of night with such a vivid and emotionally draining feeling. I could not make out of why a dream of wolves when things happening in my daily life are pretty much routine and uneventful. I certainly have issues that I am dealing with, but nothing unusually alarming. Dream seems trivial and frivolous but according to the esoteric teaching, a dream is a way of communication among various levels of our consciousness. I hope to understand its meaning and how it relates to my current life situation.

Black Gold - A book

Once in a while I will read a book that is practical and useful for a modern living that is nothing to do with the realm of metaphysical. I found the book "Black Gold"very informative and recommend highly for it informs and educates the reader the urgent issue of rapidly depleting natural resources that so much of our modern living is depending on.

Oil, indeed is a driving force of our economy, modern amenities and comfort. As a consumer, we tend to focus only on the gas pump. About one or two years ago, whenever I saw the gasoline price soared above $3.00 mark, I got a little concern. Now we finally got used to the gasoline price hover around $3.00 to $4.00 range depending on the location and the provider.

Fossil fuel is indispensable for modern living now more than ever. This book gives us the biography and history of fossil fuel, its distribution and current estimated reserve around the world. It addressed the issues of how the discovery and usage of technology and fossil fuel advanced, modernized the world economy. Due to the limited supply can not keep up with the ferocious demand of modern living, the volatile oil producing regions could very well become the focal point of the conflict zone. As a fact it is not too dramatic to say that it is possible that our entire civilization could collapse if one day fossil fuel is completely dispensed and there is no alternative renewable energy source available to replace it. Could it be possible that the next world war will be fought on the ground of nations willing to risk millions of lives to gain control of the precious natural resources? I hope we don't come to see that!

Novel - A Novelty Experience for the Mind

Have you read a good novel lately? For me it has been a long while since I took up the hobby of reading novels a few years back. Not that I don't enjoy novel, but every time when I finished reading it, I felt there was something amiss either in the ending or in the plot. I felt that I did not learn much about it except a momentary thrilling sensation that got me up all night just so that I knew what happened next.

A novel that I enjoy is a mixed blend of ancient mythology with modern technology; a novel that touch base with our mythical side of human nature and yet boggle the mind with futuristic scientific discovery that could radically revolutionize the definition of what is human. I think that is probably one of the reasons I enjoyed so much watching the "Star trek, the next generation" several years ago. It is not just about technology, it is the exploration of human consciousness beyond the present. Much of the concept in the Next Generation was ahead of its time and resonated nicely with the metaphysical realm of human consciousness.

Some mind researchers asserted that mind seeks novelty to explore and expand itself. As much as we desire stability and certainty of our daily routine, the predictability and numbness of some daily chores could be a stumbling block to prevent us from stimulating the brain for creative expression. One of the things that we can do to keep our brain cells properly stimulated and neural pathways strengthened is to regularly engage our mind in some novelty activities that are not part of our daily routine.

Reading a good novel takes our mind off to the land of imagination and visualization. Instead of watching movie with our vision, we take the imaginary ride along the story line with our mind, we savor the vividness of exquisite literary expression, we explore a far out world with landscape and scenery foreign and fresh and most importantly is the conflict, the plot, the battle of good against evil and all the convoluted schemes of story telling that keep us thoroughly entertained. In a sense, it provides us a fictional mind travel experience beyond the confine of space and time.