Love is the ocean which accepts all manner of rivers without questioning their origin.


-Author Unknown-

Treasure every moment that you have. And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time. Remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow a mystery. Today is a gift... That's why it's called the present.


-Author Unknown-

Courage
I cannot discover new oceans unless I have courage to lose sight of the shore.


-Author Unknown-

Be Creative
Every day is an opportunity to be creative - the canvas is your mind, the brushes and colours are your thoughts and feelings, the panorama is your story, the complete picture is a work of art called, 'my life'. Be careful what you put on the canvas of your mind today - it matters.



-Author Unknown-

The Colour of Flowers
Leave worries aside and you will be surprised by the beauty of the sky and the colour of flowers, of the freshness of the breeze and the generosity of the sun. You will feel you are part of creation, and life will start to make sense. The greatest wealth is to appreciate what we have and what we are.



-Author Unknown-

Dance In Happiness
The easy way to remain happy is to remain constantly light. Pure thoughts are light and waste thoughts are heavy. Therefore, keep your intellect busy with pure thoughts and you will become light and continue to dance in happiness.


-Author Unknown-

Contentment
Contentment is a great virtue, though it may not attract one's attention at first. Those who are truly content are usually quiet about it. It is a pleasure to be in their company, because they are full, peaceful, and generous.


-Author Unknown-

Honesty & Clarity
Honesty does not mean simply speaking your mind. Honesty means to be very clear about everything going on inside you. Where there is honesty, feelings become pure and clean. Honesty is where there are no other thoughts or feelings inside, other than those that God himself would have. Such clarity is reflected in your words; they will be filled with the power of truth, and spoken with ease and without hesitation. The genuine honesty cultivated within you is what will reach out and touch others.

-Author Unknown-

Thoughts are like seeds
When you sow a thought you reap an action, when you sow an action you reap a habit, when you sow a habit you reap a character and when you sow a character you reap a destiny. Thoughts are like seeds. You cannot sow the seed of one plant and get another: thistles will never produce daffodils! When your thoughts are positive, powerful and constructive, your life will reflect this.

-Author Unknown-

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.