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It does not take much for the mind to be derailed from what it is focused upon especially if the object of its attention is of positive in nature, like doing good or the intention to do so, or getting rid of bad habits and so forth. The mind is like an unruly eel that will never be caught so easily and it takes all kinds of traps to catch it and yet after it is caught it is still as slippery as an eel would be. Throughout human history, the study of the human mind has been the highest priority for not to understand the workings of the mind, (mental formations), mankind would have not come this far attaining higher states of consciousness and achieving greater heights of self discoveries and making leaps and bounds in the quest for material glory. To neglect this course of study would at its most extreme case would be insanity, mankind would not have survived had it not evolved the way it had with the mind being fully kept in conscious scrutiny. From the times of the ancient Masters to the present Gurus and savants, saints and philosophers, scientists and psychologists, human evolution has been kept from being derailed by chaos and insanity. 

While at the SRI LOVELY Organic Farm, my retreat space, i me a young man doing his practical research on insects and how to repel them from attacking the rice crop. He was a Chinese and very bright and intelligent young man, with an eagerness seldom found in young adults these days. We became friends and I was so impressed by his genuine desire to learn the i took him under my wings. My first genuine student i dare say because i felt the connection between us was earned and born out of mutual respect. We talked abotu all there was to talk about and i did not held back my imparting of my two cents worth of wisdom to him. I showed him the martial arts techniques of how to use the staff and as well as how to prepare a good chicken curry. What was special with the whole episode was that I felt like a teacher, i felt like I found someone who can comprehend what i was telling him and I am positive that he will carry it with him into his future.
When I first started talking about religions and Islam in particular his immediate reaction was, " OH but, I am a free thinker!" Instead of saying nothing is free, not even your thoughts in this life, i went on talking about things that matters for one to be a respectable individual in a society and so forth. By the end of my two weeks stay at the farm he was more attentive and I told him not to be in such a hurry to claim himself a free thinker,(a cop-out), I told him first he has to understand where thoughts come from and where they disappear to. The day i was leaving I told him I needed to ask him for RM10 as i was short of cash for the Toll to get home. He went into his hut and came out with RM100 and handed it to me saying, "I don't want anything to happen to you along the way with no cash on you, so please accept this."

"The great lady Rabi'a al-Adwiyya, may Allah be pleased with her, used to pray begging Allah, O Lord, give all my share of the world to the non-believers, and if i have any share of the hereafter, distribute it among your faithful servants. All i wish for in this world is to yearn for You, and all i wish for in the hereafter is to be be with you, for both man and what comes to his hands for a short while belong on,ly to the owner of both."... 'The Secret of Secrets'. 

  
" By no means shall you attain righteousness unless you give (freely) of that which you love; and whatever you give in truth Allah knows it well"...(Sura Al'Imran,92) 

I left my favorite bamboo staff and my fishing rod with him seeing these items will keep him occupied in my absence. I might get the chance to see him again then again i might not, all depending upon my financial state, and if my daughter needs my presence in dealing with her business issues.