Para-Para Paradise

Paradise.
Funny that I still remember how I learnt this word.
I was six, eager to learn, excited to explore the world.
I had a kindergarden friend (her name rhymes with Petronas but I can't recall exactly), she told me how she had spent the weekend in Paradise Sandy Resort with her family. She told me how fun and beautiful Paradise Resort was.

I didn't care about sandy or resort, I just remembered Paradise, so I went home to ask my mother..
'Ma, where is Paradise?'

Her reply didn't satisfy me. She said she does not know where exactly paradise was, that it might be a place that does not exist here. Still unsatisfied, I went to my grandfather, demanding to know where Paradise was. Being a staunch Christian, he told me that its a place he will find Jesus and God waiting for him. Its where people loved by God would be, after they die.

I never understood why my grandfather loved to tell me about death and dying. He always reminded me, how we should not be afraid of dying, because there's a better place called paradise after death. I never gave much thought as a six year old back then. When he passed away, I went into his bedroom to look at his still body. I did not know how to handle a death in a family, but I guess my grandfather prepared me well. I knew my grandfather was happy in paradise and I should be happy for him. That's how I learnt one of the meanings of paradise. I finally found out where Paradise Sandy Resort was when I grew up :D

Where's paradise?
Is it above the fluffy blue clouds?
Or is it under the shades of the lush green trees?
Does it also appear when i'm in doubt?
Or only when I set my mind wild and free?

Where's paradise?
It might be just like what my grandpa used to tell me,
A place where he will be happy for eternity.
Will I lose sight of paradise?
If along the path I strayed aimlessly?


Where's paradise?

Akasaa Nominated for Great Women of Our Time Award

Reproduced from the Malaysian women's weekly blog.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2011

CATEGORY: Finance & Commerce

To vote via SMS for Akasaa: 

Send to 32733. Type MWW<space>GWOT<space>NAME<space>NRIC<space>08<space>EMAIL

Angela Yap, 30, Founder & Director, Akasaa 

When her former employer encountered financial difficulties and stopped paying her salary for eight months, she saw how even the most heavily regulated system was not foolproof against unethical practises.

“I saw how human greed could ruin lives, but felt that business still held that great potential to change lives.”

Combining her experience and knowledge as a corporate strategist, she set up Akasaa, a publications, communications and consulting specialist that does business with a difference – it helps companies execute business strategies with a conscience.

“I wanted Akasaa to become the change I wish to see in global business - by managing finances well, putting people before profits and to create strategies that will always be a force for good,” she explains.

Her social consciousness had an early start. Upon graduation, Angela worked with the United Nations Development Programme-TUGI, a regional programme dedicated to pursuing urban governance issues in South & Southeast Asia. At age 22, she became the youngest elected Board of Governor to Amnesty International in Malaysia.

In a short duration of three years, Akasaa has witnessed encouraging results, chalking up big names like Sunway, Astro and Public Mutual as clients. She has also contributed her knowledge to a diverse range of social, historical and economic issues by co-authoring or editing the critically acclaimed books like Answering is an Art, which has been praised by the Western Australian education council as an innovative approach to teaching business issues; Cities, Citizens & Civilizations: FAQ on Good Urban Governance for the United Nations Development Programmes (2004); Be Aware of Yourself C.C.C. (2009).

But like the breed of social entrepreneurs who go against the tide of "business as usual", Angela also likes to highlight lessons we can learn from the ordinary. Expressing her admiration for a popular burger seller, she writes in an editorial, “More than just a great meal, I'd just gained insight into a small business that chose to put people ahead of profits, a focus that many forgo.”

While social entrepreneurship is still a relatively new business model in Malaysia, pay-it-forward moments like this keep Angela motivated:

“After a motivational workshop I ran a session for refugees to help them overcome depression, a participant said the technique had worked so well for her that she taught other women. I'll never forget how that moment because it didn't hit me until then the immensity of what our work meant to others.”

“Every letter, card and thank you note sits on my shelf to remind me that Akasaa doesn't need to be a giant like Coca-Cola. We just need to do great work, with great sincerity and keep the courage to think different.”

“Everyone can choose to stand up and make a difference - to radically change humanity by using our knowledge the right way.”

Death & Depression: Stand up and speak!

As depression and suicide rates increase around the world, it's time we all reflect on life and ask: Is my life meaningful? Do I want this? and if it's not, what do I really want?

This New York Times piece talks about suicide in North Korea, but it's really reflective of all that's happening around the world as we all become more affluent, and life gets more meaningless for many.

By the way, national suicide rates in Malaysia and for many Asian countries are hush-hush and kept under lock and key. Research methodologies are private and very few article address this deeply disturbing trend among us.

Suicide is one... but what about the number people who are depressed and don't have an outlet to talk to? What about other suicidal tendencies... self-mutilation, alcoholism, drug abuse.

When will we all grow up enough to be able to talk about this? Or are we waiting for it to happen to someone we know before we look life in the face and have the courage to address the ugly and work to turn things around.

Let's stop sweeping things under the carpet and start addressing things to make a change.

Read this NYT article: Stressed & Depressed, Koreans Avoid Therapy

You've got 15 SECONDS to make them HAPPY!!

For Sandy Greenawalt, this is her purpose every day as she wakes and goes for work as a toll collector.

I've heard about this HAPPY woman as i was watching another episode of Oprah Winfrey's farewell season show. She was interviewing "Happy People" with Goldie Hawn co-hosting. As an avid Oprah Winfrey show fan, she played a huge part in forming the person that I am today as I watch her interview countless inspirational individuals. (between you and me, and anyone who will read this, i cried like a newborn baby when her talk show ended.)

Today, I was inspired by a woman who collects tolls.

Here is an excerpt taken from Pennlive :

Winfrey marveled at Greenawalt’s ability to enjoy a job many might find dull and thankless.

“She said the worst job must be in a toll booth. She asked if I like coming to work,” the 56-year-old Greenawalt said.

Over a live Internet telephone/video connection — Skype — she told Oprah she loves it. Brief chats with drivers are sprinkled with endearments. Everyone is sweetie, or hon or darlin’. She makes change while singing to Beach Boys and other '50s and '60s tunes on the radio. She wears costumes on holidays. Regular commuters share good news and pictures of their children.

On a recent frigid day, Greenawalt revealed her celebrated charm. “You be careful out there now, OK?” she said to a driver.

She asked others about road conditions, their work day and health. “Out there in the lanes is where the fun is,” Greenawalt said. “I love people. I really do. You have 15 seconds to make them smile and 99 percent of them will smile.”

Some cherish her simple courtesies. A woman whose car hit a deer along the highway parked at the interchange, stepped out and wrung her hands in distress. Greenawalt consoled her. The next day, a lush poinsettia plant came with a note of gratitude."

Upon hearing about her, I can't help but smile. Her happiness is contagious and it made me realized that the power of happiness lies in our own hands. Happiness is LEARNED, therefore we can CHOOSE happiness. Greenawalt was taught Happiness by her mother, and she chose to live Happy.

If a toll collector all the way from Pennsylvania can make me smile in 15 seconds, then I know i can do the same for those around me. If everyone feels the same way, then the world would be a happier and better place wouldn't it?

We've Lost A Legend

 Woke up to the saddest news today - the world has lost a legend.

Steve Jobs is dead.

He defined the defiant spirit of a rebellious generation and typified the best of what it meant to be an intellectual rebel. Just spoke about him yesterday and he leaves an emptiness in the world of being a truthful individual, caring about consumers getting a good deal and making life beautifully seamless in technology.

Deeply influenced by indian spiritualism in his early days, he was a practitioner of the path who never said what was popular or politically correct, was deeply driven by a need to be honest in all aspects of work and changing the world. He's done more than any other thinker in the way we perceive and relate to technology.

http://www.tech24hours.com/2011/08/kainchi-ashram-in-nainital-uttarakhand.html

Some time for mourning for a great soul.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/business/steve-jobs-of-apple-dies-at-56.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

Who Are We?

In an ever-expanding Universe... who are we?

How we live in our comfort zone thinking and believing that we are important, that we make a difference, that our lives have a meaning. Yet when stacked up against an ever-expanding infinity - we're not even a speck in time and space.

This can only be seen in two ways:

#1 Nothing matters, so why bother?

#2 Nothing matters, so what do we have to lose?

I've always been in the let's-go-for-broke camp :)


Am reposting the article that triggered off this rambling... from the New York Times who took this off the wires:

Studies of Universe's Expansion Win Physics Nobel

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: October 4, 2011 at 8:51 AM ET

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STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three U.S.-born scientists won the Nobel Prizein physics on Tuesday for overturning a fundamental assumption in their field by showing that the expansion of the universe is constantly accelerating.

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Their discovery created a new portrait of the eventual fate of the universe: a place of super-low temperatures and black skies unbroken by the light of galaxies moving away from each other at incredible speed.

Physicists had assumed for decades that the expansion of the universe was getting ever-slower, meaning that in billions of years it would resemble today's universe in many important ways.

Then, working in separate research teams during the 1990s, Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess found that the light from more than 50 distant exploding stars was far weaker than they expected, meaning that galaxies had to be racing away from each other at increasing speed.

The acceleration is driven by what scientists call dark energy, a cosmic force that is one of the great mysteries of the universe.

The Nobel-winning discovery implies instead that the universe will get increasingly colder as matter spreads across ever-vaster distances in space, said Lars Bergstrom, secretary of the Nobel physics committee.

He said galaxies that are 3 million light years away from Earth move at a speed of around 44 miles per second (70 kilometers per second). Galaxies that are 6 million light years away move twice as fast.

The research implies that billions of years from now, the universe will become "a very, very large, but very cold and lonely place," said Charles Blue, spokesman for the American Institute of Physics.

In contrast to the big bang, that fate has been called the "big rip" to indicate how galaxies would be torn apart, he said.

Galaxies will be flying away so quickly that their light could not travel across the universe to distant observers as it does today, making the sky appear black, he said.

"For almost a century the universe has been known to be expanding as a consequence of the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago," the citation said. "However the discovery that this expansion is accelerating is astounding. If the expansion will continue to speed up the universe will end in ice."

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Perlmutter would receive half of the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award, with Riess and Schmidt, a U.S.-born Australian, splitting the other half.

Perlmutter, 52, heads the Supernova Cosmology Project at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley.

Schmidt, 44, is the head of the High-z Supernova Search Team at the Australian National University in Weston Creek, Australia.

Riess, 41, is an astronomy professor at Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

Schmidt said he was just sitting down to have dinner with his family in Canberra, Australia, when the phone call came from the academy.

"I was somewhat suspicious when the Swedish voice came on," Schmidt told The Associated Press. "My knees sort of went weak and I had to walk around and sort my senses out."

Riess said his "jaw dropped" when he received an early-morning call at his home in Baltimore from a bunch of Swedish men and realized "it wasn't Ikea," the Swedish furniture retailer. "I'm dazed," he told AP.

The discovery was "the biggest shakeup in physics, in my opinion, in the last 30 years," said Phillip Schewe, a physicist and spokesman at the Joint Quantum Institute, which is operated by the University of Maryland and the federal government.

"I remember everyone thinking at the time (that) there was some mistake," Schewe said. But there was no mistake, and in fact the basic finding was confirmed later by other measurements. For example, other scientists found evidence for it when they analyzed the microwave radiation left over from the big bang that still bathes the universe, he said.

Perlmutter told AP his team made the discovery in steps, analyzing the data and assuming it was wrong.

"And after months, you finally believe it," he said. "It's not quite a surprise anymore. I tell people it's the longest "aha!" experience that you've ever had."

Fred Dylla, executive director of the American Institute of Physics, said the prize confirmed an idea from Albert Einstein, called the cosmological constant, that Einstein inserted in his general theory of relativity, a cornerstone of modern physics.

Einstein later repudiated that idea as his "biggest blunder," but it did lead to a lot of theoretical and experimental studies, Dylla said.

The physics prize was the second Nobel to be announced this year. On Monday the medicine prize went to American Bruce Beutler and French scientist Jules Hoffmann who shared it with Canadian-born Ralph Steinman for their discoveries about the immune system. Steinman died three days before the announcement but since his death was not known to the committee, they decided he should keep the Nobel. Since 1974, Nobels have been awarded only to living scientists.

The Nobel Prizes were established in the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, and have been handed out since 1901.

Last year's physics award went to Russian-born scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for groundbreaking experiments with graphene, the strongest and thinnest material known to mankind.

The prizes are handed out every year on Dec. 10, on the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

___

Malin Rising in Stockholm, Malcolm Ritter in New York, Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Jessica Gresko in Washington and Greg Moore in Phoenix, Arizona, contributed.

Malaysia Boleh! Malaysia Cane!

Rattan. Leather. Plastic.

You name it, my bottom has tasted it.

And if you asked which one I liked most, I would probably crown the rattan cane as my favourite..

(Leather belts or plastic pipes are literally a pain in the a**..)

The cane was a revered symbol in my household. 

Whoever who had a cane in his or her hand was seen as empowered and the center of authority.

I never had the chance to touch or hold the cane ( I was always the one on the receiving end ) maybe cause my parents kept in hidden away on top of a five feet refrigerator..

I wished secretly that I would take that cane and break it into two..One day...*evil laugh*

Writing this post brings back nostalgic memories..

I was always caned as a child. Its either I broke a porcelain figure, a cup, did not clean up my room, talked back to my parents or fought with my sister. 

I was caned up until I was 12 years old. Now you would think I was a really bad child because my mother resorted to caning even until I had hit puberty..The fact is that she knew she could not hit me with her bare hands because she revealed that her hands were in agonizing pain after hitting my butt that my dad had to apply ointment later after the smacking. I'm sorry that I was a fat kid. Fat kids have their advantage too!

The chances are when I look back, I was never that rebellious rude child going around kicking cats, dogs and cows..I was a studious kid who was polite to my teachers with good behaviour in school..So why the caning? Just because it inflicts pain, a child associates the pain with the mistake he or she had done? But again, would I be the way I am today if my mum has not disciplined me the way she did when I was younger? Would I be a spoilt brat or would I turn out better without the caning? 

Which actually brings me to what I just read today..There's an issue of the refugee swap between Australia and Malaysia that brought me to this article: Gruesome Punishment In Malaysia

Caning is rather a norm in Malaysia. We read about it, we hear about it, but I've never seen someone being caned by the police. After watching the video, I was petrified and disgusted at the practice. The wounds on the man's buttocks?! I believe criminals (murder and rape specifically) deserve to be caned but imposing caning on refugees? That's just way overboard! The fundamental human rights; dignity and worth is snatched away simply because of the inability to produce proper papers. Now where is the justice?

You may question me of my double standards where murder and rape convicts deserve to be caned. I believe that if you take away the dignity and worth of another person, then your rights to claim your self worth is automatically void. 

Yes, I believe that the article tries to invoke outrage and criticism towards our country's method of punishment and it is biased at times but ladies and gentlemen, it is the true reality of our homeland. The article highlights Malaysia's issues with corruption and violation of human rights. 

The sad thing is that the true perpetrators are those holding the cane instead of the ones at the receiving end.
How often do you hear normal citizens like you and me harassing a refugee?  

Now how often do you hear the authorities betraying the trust of vulnerable people instead of safeguarding their rights?

Does your company look like this?

When top level guys look down, they see only shit heads.

When bottom level guys look up, they see only ass holes.

Note: Thanks to Ruma for this forward... and to its creator - postmodern yet classic :p

Unwrapping the 'God Particle' by Christmas?

When the Large Hadron Collider went live several years back, they said that its data would be enough to keep physicists involved in research for the next 50 years.

Looks like Christmas came early then.

Professor Guido Tonelli announced that their first set of data for the public could come as early as Christmas this year.

Unlocking the mysteries of the Universe... what could this possibly hold for mankind? Wave manipulation, scalar technology, the theory to debunk supergravity or string theory... or just a deeper 'hole' within the black hole?

Like children round the ol' tree, we eagerly await....

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/09/we-want-god-particle-christmas/42031/

Arabian Waltz makes the world go round

Nothing beats the work that's been painstakingly built through the Silk Road Project. 


From it's ambitious early days of bridging existences, if there was any group that deserved a true Nobel prize for making this world a better place, it would be this.


Where music becomes alive, living breathing ecstasy. 


The video is described as "Driven by complex additive rhythms and improvisatory melodic lines, "Arabian Waltz" is a propulsive work by Lebanese-born composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, whose works fuse the musical traditions of the Arabic world with jazz improvisation and European classical.." bla bla bla 


Don't use Words.

LISTEN...

Forgiveness

Have you ever experienced that Divine moment, when abstract occurences in a day suddenly combine to give you the whole picture? When all disparate pieces of the puzzle suddenly make sense?

It is synchronicity in action, the unlikely relation between many events that seem to occur by chance... but actually reflects the greater design and elegance of the Cosmos. This is God's realm - The Universe that Speaks without Words. Carl Jung just put it in one neat term :)

At that moment of revelation, when the design or plan is revealed to you, one is confronted with the Truth. And irrespective of how ugly it is, if a pattern is seen again and again... you must be a fool to deny its authenticity. 

But a seeker after Truth should always have the courage to accept Truth, even painful ones. 

Truth is revealed not in one's words - people often cultivate the sweetest of tongues to gain something. 

Truth is revealed in one's actions.

In spirituality, or practices of ancient mysticism, understanding the Hand of God in all things, the feeling of synchronicity, creates more balance, awareness and forgiveness within.

To forgive without needing to hear the words 'I'm sorry' from another, we do the greatest justice to no one but ourselves.

Drop anger, drop hurt, there goes expectations... it is an odd feeling because you become the observer. Standing outside of this instance, this feeling of betrayal, you are angry and yet... not angry.

You watch the emotion rise, you watch the emotion fall... and realise you were never a part of it all. Although emanating from you, it is not you. 

These instances may come in just pockets, but who is to say that transformation cannot be achieved in that split second? It is only a matter of whether we have enough faith to take the quantum leap... or will we continue living in our comfort zone, perpetuating the myth that it is always The Other at fault.

Most times, we hang on to the past, repeating the same pattern... is it really surprising then, we end up with the same outcome?

If I wish to change the outcome, I should stop blaming The Other. It is my shortcoming that I was not aware. I should have cultivated a deeper awareness of the situation, of the individuals at hand, of human nature. I accept that I was not working at my full potential. And my mission is to work towards cultivating that.

Then... a new outcome is possible. A new door opens to an infinity of possibilities.

When I change, the future once more becomes pregnant with meaning, full of potential. 

So today, I understood Ahimsa in a new way - to transform yourself, to accept responsibility for even things which are not remotely yours... one then does not harm any living being. Not even yourself. 

To close, an excerpt from Idries Shah's recounting of the teaching of Moulana Jalaludin Rumi, this one titled The Inward Eye:

"It is also narrated that Moulana Shamsuddin Malti reported that one day Moulana was giving a discourse of mystical subjects at the Seminary, when he said that he loved Shamsuddin much, but he had but one fault.


Shamsuddin begged to be enlightened as to what that fault was; and Moulana said 'Whatever he (Shamsuddin) perceives and sees, he thinks that God's most blessed thing and God's most blessed person is that thing or that person'. Then Moulana recited these verses:

'As many a man has

The Inwardness of Satan;

Should one hail everyone

As a Saint?

When your Inward Eye 

Is opened; -

The Real Master

Can then be perceived!'

Is it so difficult to believes that the most elegant solution, most truthful answer, is so simple that it involves no one. 

The Inward Eye is but a turning into Oneself, perceiving that we are the source and solution to each problem. It's never been anyone but... 

Griot - History's Keeper

With so few traditions left intact, on Merdeka eve, we pay tribute to the keepers of history... through music.

Griots, a term synonymous with West African storytellers who, through music, ensure the lineage of wisdom lives on in successive generations. How can any society live, breath and be reinvigorated on those weary days without a helping hand from the past?

Like the transformative touch of Adam and God, so too does the griot breathe power into the lives of its people through oral tradition. For Paul Oliver:


"Though [the griot] has to know many traditional songs without error, he must also have the ability to extemporize on current events, chance incidents and the passing scene. His wit can be devastating and his knowledge of local history formidable."


Essentially, these musicians were walking history books, preserving their ancient stories and traditions through song. Their inherited tradition was passed down through generations. Their name, jeli, means "blood" in Manika language. They were said to have deep connections to spiritual, social, or political powers as music is associated as such. Speech is also said to have power as it can recreate history and relationships.


Where are we today as Malaysians? WHO are we? Can we possibly be free, if we don't know who we are?

Some inspiration from Mali's most famous griot - Salif Keita.

Babar Turns 80!

The world's most (and only) beloved elephant in a green suit has had it all... adopted by a really rich lady after being orphaned by poachers, drove a smashing red sports convertible as a teenager, crowned King of the Jungle in adolescence, married the Heaven's (his wife's name is Celeste), is father to triplets, travelled the world and has a monkey for a friend :D

What more is there to life?

Except for the symbolic importance that Babar the Elephant plays in our lives. 

He was the harbinger of a better world, a gentle one. Of Peace and Humanity in the land of Animals. Of giving and and learning and feeling that the human world was a wonderful mysterious place for an Outsider. This is what childhood memories evoke.

So Babar at 80 isn't just about Babar at 80. 

It's about all the things we dream about to make life a better place. It's the Rin Tin Tin's and the Smurfs, the Road Runners and the Tasmanian Devils who keep chasing each other. It's the representation that even after 80 years, the battle still goes on... but we survive because of works of art which inspire us all that a better world is possible. 

Happy Birthday, Babar!

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/the-80th-anniversary-of-babar/?WT.mc_id=AR-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M215-ROS-0811-L1&WT.mc_ev=click

Breathing

A painting by Jody Uttal which I find
captures what it feels to breathe & flow
freely - without dogma, no inhibitions,
just... Breath.

The simplest and most inspirational explanation on the power within each Breath.

Every breathe holds the magic of transformation and it exists in all cultures. Defined as Pranayam to yoga practitioners, essential in Zazen practice and key to managing Chi, this is by far, the most beautiful interpretation to remind us that the world is within:


"In deep breathing together, something of deep empathy arises; you become one - because breath is life. Then feeling can be transferred, thoughts can be transferred. 


Pranayam means to breathe with the whole. That is my translation, not "control of breath" but to breathe with the whole. It is absolutely uncontrolled! If you control, how can you breathe with the whole? So to translate pranayam as "breath control" is a misunderstanding. It is not only incorrect, inadequate, it is certainly wrong. Just the opposite is the case.


To breathe with the whole, to become the breath of the eternal and the whole, is pranayam. then you expand. Then your life energy goes on expanding with the trees and mountains and sky and you have completely disappeared. Now you no longer breathe; the whole breathes in you. Now your breathing and the whole's breathing are never apart; they are always together. So much so that it is now useless to say. "This is my breath.""


~ Osho

Tantra: The Great Teaching

"You are fast asleep, so deeply asleep, as if you are not there. A person fast asleep, in a come in the house - is he really there? There is no distinction to be made. Whether he is there or not makes no distinction - he is in a coma. If thieves come and rob the whole house, will you call that man responsible who is lying down in a coma, unconscious? Will he be responsible? Will he be asked and judged: "Thieves came! What were you doing here?" How can you make a man responsible who is in a coma, unconscious?

Tantra says in all your lives you have remained in a coma - you are not responsible. This is the first liberation that tantra gives you. And on the base of it, many things immediately become possible. Then you need not wait for millions of lives - this very moment the door can open. It is not a gradual process, it is a sudden awakening - and it has to be so.

When you are fast asleep and somebody tries to wake you up, is it a gradual process or a sudden thing? Even in ordinary sleep, is it a gradual process or a sudden thing? Even in ordinary sleep, is it a gradual process? Either you are awake or you are asleep; there are no gradual steps in it. If you have heard the man who is calling your name, you are awake, not ten percent awake. Eyes may be closed, but if you have become aware that somebody is calling you, you are already awake.

Love, Life, Death, they all happen suddenly.

Tantra says: Don't focus your attention on the acts, focus your attention on the person who has done the acts. Yoga focuses on the acts. Tantra focuses on the person, on the consciousness, on you.

If you are ignorant, tantra says you are bound to commit sin. Even if you try to be virtuous, your virtue will be a sort of sin - because how can an ignorant man, fast asleep, be virtuous? How can virtue arise out of ignorance, unconsciousness? Impossible! Your virtue must be just a mask; behind it will be the real face, the real face of sin.

You may talk about love, but you cannot love - you will hate. You can talk about compassion, but compassion must be just a covering of your anger, greed, jealousy...

Tantra is a great teaching. It doesn't teach about acts, it teaches only about your being. who you are is the point - fast asleep, snoring or awake? Who are you - alert, conscious or moving in a hypnosis? Are you a sleepwalker? Or are you awake, alert, whatsoever you do?" ~ Osho

I'm Moving On

I've never had a liking for country music. It sounds so old, so yesterday, so my parents. YUCK.

Somehow I stumbled upon Rascal Flatts and that changed my perception a hundred and eighty degrees.

What they do is simply incredible;

they sing about life.

Songs these days are all about going down low or getting it on, being in some club where you can't handle me right now or probably just catching a grenade for someone you really love.

Rascal Flatts does not have all those cheesy stuff in their songs. And that's what I really love about them.

They are so real, genuine and touching. Realistic perhaps..My all time favourite would be What Hurts The Most & My Wish but I found another song recently which really coincides with the objective of our meeting last week: Moving On.

I've dealt with my ghosts and I've faced all my demons
Finally content with a past I regret
I've found you find strength in your moments of weakness
For once I'm at peace with myself
I've been burdened with blame, trapped in the past for too long
I'm movin' on

I've lived in this place and I know all the faces
Each one is different but they're always the same
They mean me no harm but it's time that I face it
They'll never allow me to change
But I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong
I'm movin' on

I'm movin' on
At last I can see life has been patiently waiting for me
And I know there's no guarantees, but I'm not alone
There comes a time in everyone's life
When all you can see are the years passing by
And I have made up my mind that those days are gone

I sold what I could and packed what I couldn't
Stopped to fill up on my way out of town
I've loved like I should but lived like I shouldn't
I had to lose everything to find out
Maybe forgiveness will find me somewhere down this road
I'm movin' on

I'm movin' on
I'm movin' on

Unmistaken Child

What does it mean to know one's true journey, the reason for YOUR existence?

In many ways, the true story of finding a child's reincarnation thrust upon a follower and disciple in Unmistaken Child, a documentary by Nati Baratz, reminds us that a lifetime can be defined by our ability to fulfil our responsibility, no matter how long or short that journey should take. One's life's work is greater than life itself.

The feeling of great responsibility thrust upon your shoulders when the young monk, tasked by the Dalai Lama to find his master's reincarnation with the words, "When you face the child, you will recognise him." Such is the power of absolute faith in another.

"I just cannot trust my feeling. I am not Buddha." says the astonished young monk.

Baratz spent 5 years filming this, a story which he stumbled upon while working on another documentary on Tibetan Jews. Relocating with his wife and 2 year old daughter, it is a labour of love.

I feel the same way, having spent over 6 years researching a book which seems to land itself on the wayside every now and then... one wonders will there ever be a day when it will see the light.

Elegance is...

What would happen if we approached each day as if it were Ramadhan?

Our 30 days of fasting for Ramadhan is accompanied by watching one's own thoughts, words, motives and actions. But what happens after 30 days? In fact, what happens after one 'breaks' fast each day? 

When calligraphy, artistry, spirituality, poetry, history collide... 

Today, a receipt was delivered to account for a gifts bought for charity from a small home for handicapped children in Penang. The donation was made several weeks ago via a friend in Penang, and I mentioned that a receipt was not necessary. But when the receipt did arrived today, it spoke volumes of the sender and the ethics of the organisation itself. 

In contrast, another established organisation whom we've been assisting has never offered to do the same and did not send any receipt, despite being more established. 

Assisting brothers and sisters of the Islamic faith, one must ask oneself what it means to be honest and ethical in thoughts, actions, words.

For me, Ramadhan is more than just knocking down dates on a calendar. It is, each year, a new call to once again to do what we were not able to. God's only exhortation, in Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi's words, is not to be perfect but understand that one should never be ashamed to have fallen:

Come, come, whoever you are. 

Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. 

It doesn't matter. 

Ours is not a caravan of despair. 

Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. 

Come, yet again , come , come.

What would happen if we approached each day as if it were Ramadhan?

When Ramadhan is every day, 30 days lasts a lifetime. Therein is the True Elegance we seek each day...

Elegance

It

Is not easy

To stop thinking ill

Of others.

Usually one must enter into a friendship

With a person

Who has accomplished that great feat himself.

Then

Something

Might start to rub off on you

Of that

True

Elegance.

~ Hafez-e Shirazi

Another... EARTH?

Note: Dedicated to the misfits, to Wanderers, to those who Despair. And all who wonder if fresh beginnings are possible.

What if there was another Earth out there. A parallel universe in which there was another you... the Alternative You. YOU 2?

What would that world be? Who would YOU 2 be? If we believe the proportions of String Theory and Supergravity... there are 11 dimensions in this world and these 11 dimensions are in contact with another 11, then another...

The possibilities are infinite. What does this mean for us?

A new beginning? A way to undo all the things we might not have done? Would you gain comfort knowing that out there... in at least ONE alternate universe... you probably got it RIGHT?

It is a startling reality to realise. That we are not alone. That perhaps in an infinite world of choice, we got one life right.

A brilliant movie that explores the complex theme of the frontiers of physics. "Another Earth" talks about the dreams of a young brilliant astrophysicist who's been admitted into MIT, whose life takes on a tangential turn when she crashes her car in a night of drunken partying. No more MIT, no more dreams of science but instead she is jailed, destined for a life of obscurity as a janitor, post-incarceration.

In the backdrop, science has just discovered another Earth... dubbed Earth 2. An alternate reality, with the same living conditions and homosapiens who inhabit this Earth. She looks up into the big alternate planet, Earth 2, and wonders in that world... what if I got it right?

The trailer here: 

4 Great Thinkers

History is written by the victors... Charles Darwin was not the first to come up with the Theory of Evolution yet claimed glory for it. Volkswagon was the brainchild of Hitler, but its survivors have erased its Nazi past.

True knowledge is dangerous. There is a pantheon of uncelebrated geniuses who have changed and shaped our world, but whose views were censured for the implications on our world - the mathematician George Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann... the aspect of spirituality has been left out in our textbooks, education, despite its crucial place in the evolution of mathematics, science, humanities.

We have censored our own understanding because it is 'uncool' to be spiritual beings, to have inspired moments that give insight into our inner beings... that reveal the deeper mysteries of infinity.

We pretend that the brilliance, elegance and beauty of science... is secular.

Here's a great BBC documentary that brings out the beauty and religiousity of life.

Angkor's Calling

Some lands can only be experienced. Cambodia is one of them and will always be my land of dreams. It's brought humbling perspective, great peace and invigorated me on each sojourn.

But nothing can equal the first touch down. The awe of approaching Angkor's main gates, the diamond waters sparkling under the sweltering Cambodian heat... the first step is pure magic.

Alone, with little money, knowing no one, caring for little except to find a little peace in my soul searching... Cambodia remains an unknowable, mysterious country whose depth is one of an ancient civilisation lost in the New World Order.

One of my more ignorant moments came riding pillion on a motodop. We had taken the journey from Angkor Wat moving onto Bayon, when I asked an extremely arrogant question without knowing it.

"Why aren't all these children in school?"

My moto driver, a lovely quiet man who spoke some English, was silent.

It was a question that I wondered many times.

Only years later did I realise the superiority complex one has of what a Third World nation needs. Education is secondary when Life is about Surviving the next day.

One of the many lessons that Angkor and Cambodia has taught me. It continues to teach me on each journey - that hard, tough country that has seen little mercy but people blossom and have shown me outstanding kindness.

The height of Angkor is in her people as well as her architectural splendour. The first brought peace, the second blessings... and who knows where the third will go...

Here is one advertorial that captures in some ways, a great culture and enduring legacy that is the Cambodian spirit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX2OKv2TCtI&feature=aso

And a beautiful guide: http://www.theangkorguide.com/images/download/Angkor.pdf

About Turn for Charter Schools?

Everyone would have thought that Charter schools would be supported under all circumstances. Yes? Think again.

Affluent Americans are lobbying against specialised Charter schools which cannot prove necessity in areas where local school education is already deemed to be good and available for all.

Is the jury still out? Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/education/17charters.html?_r=1&nl=nyregion&emc=ura1

Social Entrepreneurs: Real Change, please?

New proposed Legislation in New York

Another salvo for Asian movements to wake up and administer greater MEANINGFUL change for social entrepreneurs... tax break, classification rules, more relevant business structures to aid, not hinder, growth for good business.

What constitutes a social enterprise? Many structures and enterprises in the world classify themselves as Social Enterprises but when queried on the metrics which they use to properly administer their social enterprises - bottom line, profit margins, breakeven point and mechanisms, per unit cost... it normally draws blanks.

It's to be expected that Social Enterprise will eventually go the way of CSR... totally basterdisation of a very good concept for cheap PR spin.

When will we insist on measurable results and quantifiable change?

Accountability is not an option... we should all voluntarily adopt best practices because... well... it's the best practice possible. Social enterprises should be leading the way for better business practices, not following in its footsteps of opt-in clauses when it comes to being accountable and transparent, whilst in the meantime saying to all and sundry, "Thanks, we appreciate the cash. Will get back to ya about that accountability thang, ya!"

Link here with commentary at Columbia Business School: http://columbiasocialenterprise.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/benefit-corporations/

Crazy = Genius?

Jim Henson, the genius who made the world a better, funnies 

place with the beloved Muppets, Sesame Street & Fraggle

Rock... where would millions of children be if someone had

told him that puppets were for losers? BTW, his drawings are 

also the inspiration behind the Awake Minds logo.  

Every proclaimed genius today, was once labelled a misfit, an agitator, an instigator, a rebel, a threat to society, a ne'er do well...

How we forget about the crazy ones.... The people whom we owe everything because they've shaped the very world we live in today.

John Maynard Keynes revolutionised economics by going against the bandwagon of classical economists.

Einstein, told everyone that Newton wasn't all that right... and later admitted he may not be either...

Gandhi, who changed the world with love.

Jose Antonio Abreu, who said there's a better way forward.

Steve Jobs, who proved that everything functional should be coupled with artisty. 

And what better way to remember and pay tribute to these revolutionaries, these Crazies, than to remember and once again re-live this brilliant campaign, run by Apple and titled "Think Different" in the late 90's...

They, and many others in the world, have proved that what society once regarded as sheer Craziness was indeed utter Genius! 

"They push the human race forward."

Here's to the crazy ones. 

The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. 

The round pegs in square holes. 

The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. 

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify and vilify them. 

But the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. 

They push the human race forward. 

And while some may see them as crazy, we see genius. 

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world...are the ones who do."

Note: Thanks to Ramesh for this link.