All Things But None

I want to see this: Chris & Don! It looks lovely. Here's the movie trailer. Catch it this June.

And oh it's 'nothing'! :-)

Who dares it, has no courage;
To whom it is missing - feels well;
Who owns it, is bitterly poor;
Who is successful - is damaged;
Who gives it, is as hard as stone;
Who loves it, stays alone...

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It's fun to rehash old material innit? It's wacky re-reading some of my old entries. This one was from January 7th, 2004, not that I came up with it, but this has to be my fave riddle of them all... I'll post the answer on my next entry! Toodle-pip! xoxo

IN YOUR HEARTBEAT
In my travels as a teacher, I often speak to groups in diverse religious settings. These include Christian churches, Jewish synagogues, Islamic mosques, and Hindu or Buddhist temples. Some are mixed gatherings made up of people from all kinds of religious and cultural groups. Often I make it a point to begin my lectures with a message reminding my audience that we are all true equals on this planet.

I usually say, "For a moment, let's put aside our religious and other identities and personal beliefs. Let us recognize that first we are all human beings, and only next come our personal beliefs or identities. We have gathered here to share the truth and explore spiritual wisdom that will help all of us realize our common goal to find happiness and live in peace. In this moment, let us remind ourselves that we are all human beings whose hearts need to be nurtured."

In spite of all the knowledge that we have accumulated in the arts and sciences and the technological progress we have made, we have much work to do to realize that we are all members of one family. We need to expand our hearts so that we can love, care for, and show compassion to all people who inhabit this planet of ours.

Nature makes us all equal in human worth, and it is only biological or survival needs (such as the dark skin color of those whose ancestors had to cope with intense sun) that make us look different. It is ego that causes people to take these differences and label others as either superior or inferior.

We are divided by color, class, nationality, and race. We are divided by language, wealth, and religion. Nature's gift of diversity among human beings, which adds magnificent beauty to the human community, has been wrongfully used for perverted applications such as discrimination and war.

Our spiritual journey requires that we take bold and brave steps to look beyond society-defined reality and see the truth of oneness. Let us always remind ourselves that we belong to only one race, the human race. Let us step beyond the external differences and look into people's hearts and minds, to see that everyone really is the same.

Here again we can learn an important lesson from children. Human babies come to this earth having pure, unadulterated minds. Unlike adults, they do not carry judgmental attitudes, dogmas, labels, mistrust, and fears that produce discriminatory attitudes. In my travels around the world, I have held babies of all kinds - black, white, Asian. The emotional warmth that they provide is so pure that one can only respond to them with love and care.

Observe how very young children of different backgrounds relate to one another when they are together. Because barriers such as color, nationality, race, and sex are not part of a child's world, their togetherness is one of purity. To any objective observer, the way children interact among themselves would undoubtedly be the ideal model of harmonious coexistence. Their harmony is due to accepting things as they are; in other words, they do not wish that the other person be like them.

Why can't adults live in harmony like children? As we discussed in the first chapter, it's because as we grew up we were exposed to various forms of mental pollution within the family and at different societal levels. In the process, the natural instinct to live harmoniously was replaced by various man-made prejudices based on nationality, skin color, language, and the like.

There is a wonderful lesson that we adults can learn from children: the need to shed those acquired prejudices, which are based on trivial superficialities, and begin to relate to one another as human beings with the same essence, the same inner beauty.

Text: Bhante Y. Wimala - Lessons of The Lotus

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The above was first posted back in February of 2006. Were you here? :-) I was re-reading the book last night and it made me smile. I believe that was the first book on Buddhism I've ever read... and it's been a fantastic journey since. Anyway, I've turned off the comments, for I'm thinking around early May I should be done with this blog. A new life awaits... Have a great day everyone!! xoxo

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Currently listening:
Thomas Otten - A Quiet Moment

Y'know I've always wanted to pair this song up with a particular picture. I'll use this one! And nope, no more uploading to Flickr! In fact, I will delete my account up there soon enough and just do a page with a simple picture viewer. It'll be my own little thing.

Enjoy your day everyone!

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Currently Listening:
Cocteau Twins - An Elan

Love is divine. If anything is divine on the earth, it is love -- and love also makes everything else divine. Love is the true alchemy of life, because it transforms base metal into gold.

There are ancient stories, many stories in almost all the languages of the world, that somebody kisses a frog and the frog becomes a prince. The frog had been cursed; he was simply waiting for some kiss to be showered on him. He was waiting for love to come and transform him.

Love transforms -- that is the message of all those stories. The stories are beautiful, very indicative, symbolic. It is only love that transforms the animal into the human; otherwise there is no difference between humans and other animals. The only difference, the possible difference, is love. And the more you live through love, as love, the more humanity is born in you. The ultimate, the omega point, is when one has become love. Then not only is the animal transcended, even the human is transcended. Then one is divine, one is God. The whole of human growth is love's growth. Without love we are animals. With love we are human. And when love has become your natural being, your very flavor, you are God.

Text: Osho

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Is this love we seek but the love we give?

Do you watch the BBC? If do you, you may have seen this nature segment on the flying penguins about a week ago! Thanks to Alec, in case you missed it, here again is that fascinating promotional video! You'll love it and it's definitely worth a look! :-)

Happy Monday! ehehe!

Sometimes I blog/write when I'm at work... All this week I've been trying to write something, and got nothing. I just stared at the blank screen... cursor waiting. Nothing I really want to write about, but small things that I want to put down. A disjointed post.

I was chatting online with a friend earlier, telling him that I still don't know what I want to do in life, as far as my profession goes. Got me thinking back when I was young and my partying days! I was in my early 20's maybe? Met this one guy who was a fancy magazine publisher and that night somehow he ended up asking me what I wanted to do/be in life. I told him something, obviously something that was important to me at the time, but right now, I don't even remember what that 'something' was! Sad innit? But at the time, that was what I really wanted to do or become. And then he asked another question: Now. What do you REALLY want to do in life? I was floored. The question echoed again and I was lost for words. On certain days, I feel much haven't changed, but the answer is getting clearer...

I've been having recurring dreams lately... I don't remember my dreams mostly but the ones that I do remember are about my oldest sister Medina. I remember two specifically, but now when I think about them, I could only remember one. Though I do recall, all of them were sad, I always end up crying in the dreams. As I remember this particular one, my family and I were at this gathering and I was sitting next to my grandmother. This lady walked up to us and to comfort my grandmother, she told her that Medina is running a little late but that she'll be in later that evening. I heard what she said and I got really excited!! But after my grandmother walked away, the lady turned to me and said: You KNOW she won't be coming! Then I started to cry...

I listen to buddhist chanting almost everyday when I drive to/back from work [either that or some really hard techno/electronic/dance stuff or 70's oldies or disco, I flip back n' forth!]. At any rate, I made this chant compilation that I listen to often, almost 3 or 4 times a week, I never get tired of it. There's this one particular track called The Initial Joy, which is quite... well, joyous! It's more upbeat and 'glorious' compared to other tracks. I usually listen to the slower tracks which are more melodic and soothing, and I used to tear up in the car just from listening to the melodies, but I have not done that in a long time now. So this past Tuesday while driving, I fast forwarded to that one 'happy' track and before you know it, I was weeping for about 10 minutes. Later I asked myself: How did that happen?!? Sometimes things just happen unexpectedly and that life often catches you by surprise... and I like that. And without the opposites, we cannot grow.

I finally dug up my old [circa 2000] cover letter and résumé this week and so it's time to make the necessary updates. It sort of made me laugh when I saw my old résumé, where on top it has the graphic of a boy puking and on the very bottom, in small print, reads: ...world turns for reasons... When I applied for my current job here, the résumé was formatted to be corporate-friendly. This time, I might just leave them there the way they were intended.

Lastly, I read the below from a book a few weeks back. Whether I believe if there's a heaven or not, it still put a smile on my face:

Thanks for all the encouraging words a couple of posts back, I'd like to reply to them some time this weekend. Have a nice Friday everyone and a good weekend, too! Be good to yourselves!! xoxo

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Currently listening:
佛光山 Buddhist Choir - 準提咒