Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Happy Father's Day to me

I have listened to as many spiritual talks as i can on You Tube simply to keep reminding me that i must not allow for external events in my life take precedence over my inner sense of being who I am. During this Fasting Month of Ramadan my mind is pretty much preoccupied by the turn of events involving my two children who have now attain to adulthood and are in the process of cutting their chords and freeing themselves from my influences in their lives. As much as i look forward to their embarking upon a life of their own, I still feel a sense of attachment to them concern over their well being once they are on their own. However i also feel that both my son and daughter are more than ready to face the life on their own as they have proven in character to be rational and respectful of others, caring if not compassionate to a certain degree when dealing with those less fortunate than themselves,
There is no doubt in my mind that their characters and personality has yet to evolve that they may mature to the fullest of their capabilities that is inherent in them; that is for them to find out, seek out and actualize. It is for them to iron out all their petty grievances that life has ditched out through their lives thus far and the sooner they are able to let go of as much of these useless baggage the sooner will they come to terms of who they truly are and what their potential for success in this life can be. As it is both my children are still carrying scars of their negative childhood experiences through parental upbringing, peer pressures as well as spiritual and secular educational conditioning. 
The sooner they are able to see through these shortcomings and move beyond their negative impact the greater are their chances of becoming creative and productive with their lives. However if they keep carrying the baggage of their past negative experiences like badges on their chest, it would be very unfortunate for them as from my own personal experience I have realized how detrimental these have been for my own well being throughout my life. I have tried through my writings to shed as much light upon this important aspect of life and how the mind feeds upon the negative more so than the positive if it is allowed to do so, 
In his teachings, the Tibetan spiritual teacher Trungpa Rinpoche had at one time spoke of how one uses all the good and bad experiences of one's past as a compost or manure for our future spiritual growth. Collecting all the accumulation of our past trials and tribulations and mixing them all together like in a pot and fermenting them till they are ready to be reused as compost for the field, new and healthy thoughts and ideas can be fomented from them, just as one would recycle food waste to turn into fertilizers. I sincerely hope that my children can see through this and act accordingly. Life is too short to dwell upon what has been and too precious to waste trying to untangle what cannot be untangled; the past is always food for the future. 
My thoughts on this Father's Day is simply that they would drop the senseless and grab hold of the sensible. Remain in the present and build towards the future. For whatever it is worth, I am proud to be a father to all my four children. I may not have been the best but i have tried to be a good father in my own way.      












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