What else is there to ramble about?

                                                       It is hard on the lower back!
Delivered my 100feet long painting entitled 'Penang Heart and Soul' to the Penang State Art Gallery office on Macalister Road as today is the final day for entry of works for the Penang State Art Competition, the first place winner will receive RM8000.
This a painting that I have been working on since I received the roll of 199feet of drawing paper from my friend and former Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University Sains Malaysia in Penang. He had brought it with him from England when he was a student there and had kept it in his office ever since till the day he was cleaning out his office to move to Kuala Lumpur where he took up office as the Director of the National Art Gallery.
I started working on this painting sometime in 2008 going to locations where i sat and sketched scenes that I felt most attractive to me in more than in looks but also places I had connections with in terms of familiarity through having grown up in the Georgetown area. The theme of choice is 'Ubah' or Change, which the present elected government is promoting in its move towards making significant changes in and around the city.

I have exposed this painting in three different solo exhibitions and each exhibit was done at the different stages of which the painting was in, the first was all black and white sketches, the next water color was added and finally acrylic was added. It is really still not a finished work as I still keep on adding more and more into it to make it come alive, but as it is my policy, my work is done when I receive a cheque for its purchase or it belongs to someone else. I intend to keep it and work on it as my on going meditational 'master piece' if it finds no interested buyer.
I have the feeling that i am suffering from high blood pressure as my head sometimes feels like it is about to explode and at time my whole shoulder areas seems to be on fire, numb with pain as if the bones within are subjected to frost bite. It is part of getting old and the little pressures that life has to offer does not help either. So i will grit my teeth and bear these physical inconveniences. The only problem is that these aches and pains interferes tremendously with my ability to create in peace. But Such Is, them are the breaks, win some loose some as I move along trying not to give up...and the show must go on. Perhaps i am attached too mcuh to is externally happening in my life and letting myself being subjected to falling down or maybe it is the weather, being cloudy all day and raining all night! I hope and pray i can get back on track of my practice.
After dropping off my work for the competition I took my daughter who accompanied me to the "Jimat' store, the Salvation Army Outlet, where one can get second hand items for practically nothing and where my daughter will spend an hour or so rummaging for good deals and where I found the book "Power Shift" by Alvin Toffler for the price of RM2. Years ago i had read his two earlier works, the "Future Shock" which was read as a college text and later in Japan I read "The Third Wave". These books had great impact on my outlook towards what is happening around me and it was when encountering the Third Wave that i realized the similarity in Buddha's teaching of the three illnesses that man is inflicted with, i.e. Greed, Hate and Ignorance; the flip side of the coin to Toffler's, Wealth, Power and Knowledge.
Although published sometime in 1991 I never came across the book until yesterday and as always on reading the first few chapters i realized that what I have been writing about the Buddha's teaching of Greed, hate and ignorance was actually quite appropriate in conjunction with Toffler's works as he expounds the 'power of knowledge' in his last of the triads. The sword, the jewel and the mirror are the three symbols of Imperial Japan and it is related in their legend of the great Sun Goddess Amaterasu-omi-kami who was given these three objects . Never found out who gave them to her, but it is suffice to say that these three objects reflects upon the three sources of power that if wield with intelligence can rule the world. The United States has come very close to accomplishing this, but their Central Intelligence Agency has yet to fully comprehend what is Intelligence other than trying to dominate and subjugate others, through greed, hate and violence; which is ignorance in its vilest form. America has what it takes but lacks Wisdom, Compassion and the true desire for Peace; the country is not at peace with itself. A policeman carries a gun not just to protect the public but to defend himself, America manufactures weapons not to bring peace to the world but to maintain a strong military force as well as generate an economic stability within the country; it is self serving in the most blatant of intentions.
In today's world we need the policeman but we need the policeman who has no self interest in performing his duties, a man who can transcend above and beyond any corruption and prejudices, a man who truly serves his duty without fear or favour, this is what America should aspire if it is to become an International Marshal or Ranger or Cop. But off course this is too far fetched and altruistic a dream and one would be naive to think that such a venture can ever be propagate by one country even if it holds all three trump cards giving it the power  to rule. Greed, Hate, and ignorance will always prevail over the skilfull use of power, wealth and Knowledge; there are more worldly kings than there will ever be divine ones; the sin of vanity is Satan's greatest tool for corruption of man. Every man dreams of  becoming a movie star, an idol, demi-God , a Julius Caesar in his lifetime and nothing will stand in his way till he is one, the longest ruling monarch, the most wealthiest of men, the most powerful dictator, the most, the most , the most! I want my name to go down in history, yes! I want to be known as the greatest nation on earth...yada, yada! Hail Mahathir! Lord of the Twin Towers! Hail Obama, The first Black President!
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
P. B. Shelly

And this too will pass...Insha'Allah! Change is inevitable and the one consolation that mankind has over all the three sources of 'Power'. The most powerful will one day succumb to being crumbled under its own weight, the most weak will rise to play its legitimate role over nations of the earth as China is proving itself fulfilling its own legacy of rags to riches. This is the legacy of the Dharma Wheel of the Buddha; up one day and down the next. For so long as I am ridng this train I am subjected to its bumpy rides as well as it pristine landscapes passing by the window.