Time After Time

Shamsul Ikhmal (MGTF- media dept.), made a Videoprofile of me doing a few of the things i do in my daily life these days and we tried to get it loaded onto the blog but failed. Its entitled Time after Time and the background theme song is of the same title. I was surprised when I first saw the video and felt strange looking at me on the TV screen at the Muzium Tuanku Fauziah at USM. I looked old and for the first time noticed this in myself. It also felt like i was looking at the very personality of my twin brother in every movement and action..scary!! My children loved it, all of them the ones here and the one in Switzerland. I dont think the one in Dubai has seen it yet or i would have heard of it from him one way or another. He has been very occupied lately as he had just moved from his apartment to a bungalow type housing for the Emerates Pilots, what a life!! and all he does is bitch and moan like his Dad. He had to move a salt water fish tank the size of a swimming pool and a home movie theatre that had all the comforts of a mini movie theatre and then some and now has reconstructed a new one which is even more grand and not to mention lugging all his Ice Hockey goal keeper equipments and finding storage rooms for them.

Ahh... such is life...who would have thought that my life would be so full of dichotomy and paradoxes. I may be relatively a poor sod financially but time and again i have to keep reminding myself of how wealthy i am when is comes to my life experiences and what i have to show for in terms of my children. I may not be the most well behaved and debonaire of a gentleman often times but i sure had my share of the ladies both here and in the west. I may not be the most pious or holy guaka molly of a seeker but i have had my share of temples and monasteries, Teachers and Gurus in my days on the road to becoming who I am in my spiritual quest. This reminds me of a news paper article i read a week or so ago of one of my former Buddhist teachers is visiting this Malaysia and it would be nice to see the old monk again not that he would remember me as the man he assigned his 'Bell Master' when he carried out a Vipassana retreat at Green Gulch Farm cum Zen Center in Sausalito, California. His name is Thich Nat Hahn and everyone called him Tay or Teacher in Vietnamese. He lives in france when he is not hopping around the world teaching his 'Mindfullness Walking Meditation' to the spiritually hungry like me and has a center of his own called Plum Village somewhere in France. I would not mind visiting this old master to say." Hi, you know you have helped to change my life!"

Thích Nhất Hạnh (pronounced [tʰǐk ɲə̌t hâːˀɲ] ( listen)) (born October 11, 1926) is a Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist now based in France.
He joined a Zen (Vietnamese: Thiền) monastery at the age of 16, studied Buddhism as a novice, and was fully ordained as a monk in 1949. The title Thích is used by all Vietnamese monks and nuns, meaning that they are part of the Shakya (Shakyamuni Buddha) clan.[1] In the early 1960s, he founded the School of Youth for Social Services (SYSS) in Saigon. This grassroots relief organization rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools, established medical centers, and resettled families left homeless during the Vietnam War.[2] He traveled to the U.S. to study at Princeton University, and later to lecture at Cornell University and Columbia University. His focus at the time, was to urge the U.S. government to withdraw from Vietnam. He urged Martin Luther King, Jr. to publicly oppose the Vietnam War; King nominated Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in January 1967. He created the (non-Zen) Order of Interbeing in 1966, establishing monastic and practice centers around the world. In 1973, the Vietnamese government denied Nhat Hanh permission to return to Vietnam and he went into exile in France. From 1976-1977 he led efforts to rescue Vietnamese boat people in the Gulf of Siam.
Nhat Hanh has become an important influence in the development of Western Buddhism.[3][4] His teachings and practices aim to appeal to people from various religious, spiritual, and political backgrounds, intending to offer mindfulness practices for more Western sensibilities. As of 2007, he has been based at the Plum Village Monastery in the Dordogne region in the South of France [2], travelling internationally to give retreats and talks. He coined the term Engaged Buddhism in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire.[5] A long-term exile, he was given permission to make his first return trip to Vietnam in 2005 and has returned regularly since.[6] He was awarded the Courage of Conscience award in 1991.[7]
Nhat Hanh has published more than 100 books, including more than 40 in English. A journal for the Order of Interbeing, The Mindfulness Bell, is published quarterly which includes a Dharma talk by him. Nhat Hanh continues to be active in the peace movement, promoting non-violent solutions to conflict.[8] He has also been featured in many films, including The Power of Forgiveness showcased at the Dawn Breakers International Film Festival[9].

Yes i had the opportunity to sit before this monk for seven days at a retreat and got to know him as much as he got to know me. Sometime on the fifth or sixth day of the meditation retreat I got tired and decided to play hooky and kept myself in bed instead of joining the meditation in the Zendo (Meditation Hall) where some seventy od people from all over the SanFrancisco Bay Area as well as those from as far as Germany and other countries to join in the retreat. I had a dream and in it I found myself sittin in a corner more like hiding or the Green Gulch Valley which runs it way all the way to the Pacific Ocean at Muir beach. I decided to give a 'Kia' or yell from the depth of my being, the pit of my stomach where my Chi rested and called out in Japanese "Uma'!!!" (means Horse) sedning my energy all the way across the valley at the low hills across from where I was hiding and where usually there were horses grazing along them. (In wakeful state my japanese friend Tsuyoshi Miyoshi and i would do this to challenge who could do it loud enough to stopp the horses from eating and raise their heads startled. That was what I was doing in my dream.
Then to my horror I saw the whole hillside streched in front of me began to shiver and shook and within minutes the part that reaches the sea began to crumble and sank into the waters! I said OO Shit! Now I have done it! Blanch (Blanch Hartmant) and Paul, (Paul Discoe) will chew my uts off!! However somewhere in my mind my little friendly voice was saying look at how ignorant you are, you are scared of these what these Practice Teachers can do to when you have the power to move mountains!! I snapped! I jumped out of my futton and dashed out of the gaitan ( living quarters of what ussed to be for cattles) and made for the Big Boncho bell. Grabbing the huge wooden striker i swung and struck the bell sending beautiful bell tones across the valley all the way to the ocean. I struck it seven times in a long sequence as we have been taught to strike to make a great impact. Then I went back to my little room and layed down. There i told myself quietly, i have got rid of my paranoia about being punished and turned away from my sense of comfort and security, let the worse come.
Sure enough after a while a gentle knock on the door and it opened slowly a little and the face of Paul peekd in funny with its thick round glasses that made his eyes twice their normal sizes and the bald head, "Sham! how are you doin? Are you Okay? Take a good rest and join us when you can.." He closed the door and was gone. The sitting session ended in the Zendo and everyone headed for breakfast. Everyone were silent at the Kitchen Table when i walked in, a few smiled and got back to eating the breafast 'minfully' as it was a 'Silent'Practice period, like no talking unecessarily. Thank God or the Buddhas i told myself for little practice favours. After the breakfast we had a short break and while walking back to our rooms a few of my friends walked up to me ans said thanks Sham! Bowed and walked away. One or two said hey man softly that was great! I began to feel funny at all these gratefullness what have I done? They were supposed to yell at me or threaten me! A day ort wo latter after the practice period of the Vipassana retreat I learned howed i had "awakened" a few sleepy heads who were having the toughest time keeping themselves from falling asleep or keeping their minds from wanting to give up from the physical torture of the six days of sitting meditation.
Later on when we sat in the Library to have 'tea' with Tay and a dharma talk, Thich Naht Hahn said to me, "So you like to ring bells do you?" in his small melodious Vietnamese voice." Well I have a job for you, duirng my talks as of now, you will ring the bell every fifteen minutes at which everyone will cease all thoughts and take a few deep breaths to return to their awareness like fully enjoying eating the tangerine or sipping this tea! You are my Bell Master!"