MERDEKA!

Today is the Independence Day for Malaysia and I spent the night at the Museum along with 120 school kids and the museum staff of the Museum Gallery Tuanku Fauziah, MGTF. It was a tiring event for this getting old body but a very lively one to be there at the same time, it brought back memories of having spent over twelve years hanging out with the staff doing my own thing in creativity. I was able to sit and had a good chat with agroup four Indian kids and a Chinese school teacher about Art and mostly about how to face life as a journey of self discovery. Although just bare fifteen years of age except for the Chinese teacher, they were very attentive and I was able to make the connection with them. These are the future generation of Malaysians who will make or break the country further just as the present generation is doing and as such I feel it important to share as much as I can of what i have experienced in my life.

While in the middle of my chat with the group and old friend came by the Museum, he was the former Director of the Museum and a professor at the University, (USM). Hasnol is an enigma in my relationship with others as he can be overly self centered and likes to dominate over others like he is the man with all the answers. He came by also to meet with the wood carving artist whose solo exhibition was on in the gallery. I had qualms about writing about him here as I know he will not come out as the ideal friend to have by a long shot, but it has to made open as he played and still does an important role in my life as far as friendship goes. To me Hasnol is an opportunist who saw the light while he was running the Museum and gallery at USM and he took hold of this opportunity and paved his own way towards self serving and self aggrandizement at the expense of others regardless of who the are. He likes to take charge and run th show in any and every conversation that i was with him and he will blatantly try to shut me down from offering any view when in a group. Last evening proved to be exactly as i had expected, but i slammed him aside every time he tried to drown me and proceeded with a louder voice and intensity to let myself b heard while addressing the Artists present. To avoid going into too much details, suffice to say that to me Hasnol is another typical Malay intellectual who is a little more advanced in his ways because he has been able to adapt to the Western ways better than most. He is 'slick' as they say in the west; a smooth operator with a  self serving streak, sad to say who uses others for his purposes. I like him for his intelligence and diligence when it comes to doing his work.

Again the details of our daily life as we expose ourselves to others and allow them to expose themselves to us, these are episodes and moments that one has to sit through in order to better look at ourselves, people we encounter with are our mirrors, they reflect who we are and with my friend perhaps I am looking at myself. Anyway on this Day of Independence I feel that after 61 years of living as an independent nation the country is still is the grips of colonialism, an economic one that is holding us in s bind despite having the potential to become a very rich and developed nation. Personally i feel i am still struggling with my own personal independence from my dual thinking mind, a mind that is so preconditioned from the beginning that it has belief in itself and struggling to sabotage its own integrity and confidence. My battle for freedom is within me ans it is an ongoing battle that will never end, or so it seems.

Firbie the cat.

My niece and her family just left the house, their father was my second eldest brother who had passed away a few years ago. Everyone was scared of the cat, she is a fierce cat they they say and she bites, no friendly but very playful. Yep that's Firbie and she is no ordinary cat when it comes to how she treats people. She is part a wild cat and part domesticated cat, this is why she acts wild with others. We have come to learn about each  and it is a humbling experience for me. Through our reactions I saw my myself in anger and impatience sometimes towards her, this young female cat i took from my friend's house in Belantek, Sik, Kedah a few months ago when she was just a kitten. It shamed me sometimes when I hit her fro jumping out of the window and not overshooting and flying 12 floors down to the pavement; I told her she is not a bird, but...I had to give her a whack to remind her that i meant business. She keeps me company and will always has someways to wake me up with. Like she is shouting 'Be Here Now! Come home , Be at home! Play with Me!" I would raise my leg high in front of her when she least expected and goes shooting straight up into the air, like a rocket. We share quiet momenta while I try to sit in meditation she would come sniffing on my fingers demanding for me to Be in the moment, be at home, I am here and then she would lay down on my side as I sit. At five in the morning she would be sniffing up my face to wake me up and I sit after washing myself.

A blessing in disguise Firbie is in my life at this moment, attachment or other wise i am blessed to have this young lady feisty as she may be, for a companion. She gives me something to write about at this moment and time in my life and not all are good, if i might add. Sometimes she can be a real pain in my butt and it tests me as my egoic nature takes over and I become anger and then I would spend the rest of the time regretting it.  Such is, details in our lives that we have to endure in the effort to get to know who we truly are and how we are related to the rest of the world. Paying no mind or attention is the best way I find, that is hey you wish to jump out of the window no problem with me go for it, I will pick up what is left of you on the pavement and bury your body. Very little to do with Love and Compassion really except my daughter and I shall miss your presence and we will move on, I you have nine lives as they say you might even survive the long drop, but i will not count on it; you are not a bird, those pigeons out there, they got wings and you don't!  




  

Blessed are the ignorant...

Of all the three ailments that the Buddha had ascribed as the cause of the suffering of man, I fear Ignorance the most. The other two bein Greed and Hatred are the result of this negative virtue, they are the by product.Our egotistical mind thrives upon this negative virtue of ignorance, stupidity, the lack of spirit in wanting to learn or come to understand about life itself as it affects us, is the fear that is at the key of my understanding; I fear having lived this life like a blind man, ignorant of  who I truly am. I fear not being able to see beyond this veil of ignorance what lies in truth on the other side of the river, Is this all there to it? Is this the summit of the Mystic Mountain?I have tasted being in the state of both form and emptiness even while in this physical form, by tasted I mean I experienced them in both their forms of light and darkness or at least I felt them as much as my consciousness could perceive. I had seen before my eyes how a round tray rack of  White China bowls the last of the last of the batch I had just pulled out of the steam washer, transformed into a white lotus of a thousand petals floating from the tray. It blew my mind till today I can never forget the feeling I had looking into the eyes the only other person present, my Practice Period Instructor, who presence I did not even notice before the incidence and how all he said to me was, "Sometimes it happens," bowed and Gasho, with a big smile on his face walked away in his black robes.

There is no summit at the peak of the mystic mountain, there is only the next moment in space and time to be experienced and the next and the next. If closely observed, i feel we are most of us stuck in a rut of existence that leads us around in circles along the same groove, perhaps until we wear out the groove one day. We will keep repeating our ways and our episodes and stories but we will never be able to leave the circle without awakening to the fact that something is not quite right with our human life, what is wrong with this picture? If I am a 'Star Dust' or the Universe Manifesting Itself in order to witness itself through me, as Deepak Chopra had suggested in one of his videos, I for one am quite happy to know and willing to accept this scientific/spiritual formulation that he had coined. It makes sense and is one of the most positive way of looking at who or what we are in a Collective sense. Yes perhaps we originated outof the same source, the explosion that resulted in the creation of the Super Nova, but from the individual being's perspective i have reservations about how to come to terms with the basic human fault of having a dual thinking mind. The mind that seperates right from wrong, white from black, the mind that has the capacity to create and destroy at will if not checked; a destructive mind that is Maya or Delusion itself.

In my meditation i tell myself that, 'I am not the body nor am I the mind. The mind and body are my tools of expression as i manifest my physical form onto this realm of existence; who am I? I can keep asking this question till doomsday or my end of days, but I highly would receive the answer and when and if i do it would most probably on my final breath on this earth and thus would make very little difference to me then as the whole game has taken a complete change, form has become emptiness, no ears, no nose, no eyes, no touch or taste...all gone; who am I that is left to witness this moment in time and space? My sum of accumulated knowledge throughout my life would mean very little when I am struggling to take my last last breath as fear overcomes my thinking mind that is still conscious of what is happening at the moment, that i am about to take the 'One Step Beyond', into The Twilight Zone;the Absolute Unknown.  Mortality is man's greatest fear, the moment when it all comes to an end, this physical realm of existence will be no more your concern and what do we understand of life after death. or is there life after death?

Blessed are the Ignorant for their ignorance is Bliss.  

Rambling of the past and prestent.

I was once called in by the Principal of The Methodist Boys Secondary School where Karim, my son attended. he was a difficult student needless to say, no better than his dad at his age. Anyway there we were in the Principal's office along with Karim's class teacher and his counselling  teacher, the Principal, a tall Chinese gentleman and myself. He had a long cane across his table and he was grilling me about my responsibilities I had towards my children. It came to a point where he mentioned that if i cannot afford to live in Georgetown I should move out to where it is much cheaper to live, like across the channel, out of the Island, this was how my mind read him and I blew up. Thank God I did not grab the cane and used it on him, I was tempted, but then I thought how it would look like to my children and so I talked to him.

I told him to get off his high horse and he had no right to tell me how to and where to live my life. That I was born here not too far from the school and that my Grand Uncle, we called him Martin Sia, was the caretaker of the school for most of his life and died at the school worker's quarters. That my grand Father had left a legacy in the form murals covering the walls of the Mahinderama, Buddhist Temple across the street not too far from the school. I told him that I had lived and raised my children in the UNited States and Japan and the rest of the story. He and the two ladies were stumped and that was taht. Karim made it through without killing himself or trapped into bad habits other than most probably smoke a cigarette with his buddies after school.  He had just lost his mother ...the rest is his-story, as they say. Karim now I am proud to say becoming a very good salesman in the phone industry. 

The incident jarred my mind to slow down and awaken to some simple truth life and living in the city, the real deal, the naked truth about reality, this was it; I had to reevaluate myself . come up with a strategy for survival for the three of us, including my daughter, and her's is another story. I watched and helped my tow children find themselves as best i could, I trusted them to do what they feel is right and only if they have doubts do I get to help them. What was most important was that I was always there if and when they needed me. Just as i had longtime accepted life as an experiment, theirs are part of this experiment. I watched i observe and I take action if and when I have to, in order to help ease their growth. I was never a good provider for my children after their mother's departure from the country back  to the United States; she was diagnosed suffering fro Rapid Dementia a more serious from of Alzheimer's disease. To dwell back on these memory lanes is one of my mind's favorite pastime is and the theme never changes and the outcome is supposed to reveal a lesson, a revelation you might say. 

And I would quote one of my favourite quotes from the Old Boy, Lao Tzu,
"A man who justifies,
Does not convince,
Not even to himself."

This another thing the mind enjoys oing, justifying its own existence through experiences of every moment in time and space of the past and the present, the mind has yet to be to project itself into the future although it may happen in dreams while sleeping, not really proven but,a possibility as the human brain is a "pandora box" that if and when opened it has to be done one step at a time, with geat patience and strong moral and physical fibre. When proper aligned and balanced in all elements and energy matter, the human brain unleashed can wrought havoc in the psyche; most goes insane, living most of their lives talking to themselves or sitting and staring at the wall. Giving it a name we call it Zazen or Sitting Meditation. Off course there are other forms of healing practices that cna help one in the times of need, like listening to TED talk or to Satsang   on You Tube. Take up Yoga is what i fully recommend for those who are looking for the way out of this trap we call life. Use the Internet to help you make your choices and  try to adopt a practice that you feel will be most healing for you. It does not have to be a Sufi school or dervish dances, it does not have to be any system, create your own, but make sure it is for what it is, healing. 

The Malay Fisherman's Jetty -Revisited.

The path that leads to nowhere begins here, dare you take a walk to discover that which your true nature resides?

It is in the rustic nature of  life that you find the pure gold and diamond where they lie hidden among the shades and reflections; if you could only see with your awareness and your presence.

The impermanent nature of  thing are what makes it more attractive than those far off solid structures that stands forever like tombstones on the horizon.

The path that leads into the lgiht, dare you take it and discover who you truly are?

It is all a reflection of my mind, what is out there is in here within me.

Keep it together as you get older.

Truth be told, I am running out of steam in keeping up with making these Blog entries as I have not much to share but the simple banal daily existence of a man who is running out of his course. It is said that the very virtue of the Bodhisattva of Infinite  Compassion or Avalokiteshvara, better known among the Chinese as Kuan Yin or the Goddess of mercy is in hearing and attending to the call for help from the suffering multitudes, and thus this is why He/She has a thousand arms so as to serve greater numbers of suffering beings in the six realms, the ten directions. To listen with the heart and ears of Compassion is the Way of those who have taken the Vows of the Bodhisattva and thus I will continue to serve as best  can by not giving up on my self realization and awakening through Blogging. If i can still share my experience with but one single soul anywhere in the world i would have done my share of servitude for the day. After all what else is there to do with my time and my mind?

I spent a few hours reading Jung's " Psychology and the Occult" while sitting and facing the Penang Bridge from one of the fisherman's hut off the Jelutung Highway. This is where I spend my time chilling with the sea breeze and the hightide all around me, this is where you find me when I am not home. It is considered the "Hunter's Point" of Georgetown when  like the one on the San Francisco Bay area of Third Street, where the drug enforcement teams often makes a raid, and most Cadillacs and Lincol. This where I have been hanging out for over ten years sitting in huts built over water. I find myself a home here and have done allot of sketching of the landscape and huts over the years. Most of the folks here knows me and have treated me with father like love and respect, young and old alike; I am an enigma to them. I treat each and everyone of them no matter with form addiction they have with equal respect and giving them my full attention when engaged. I have learned a great deal about life hanging out among the down and trodden, often am at the their gracious hospitality; may I bum a cigarette, please.

This whole area of the Jelutung waterfront will soon disappear as the encroachment of development keeps driving the Malay fishermen further out into the sea. The Malays of Penang will go through a tough time in trying to keep themselves alive on this island as the Chinese has taken control of the Government. At the risk of being accused of being a bigot i am sad to say that from my observation the situation for the Malays economically as well as social; they are becoming pariahs in their own home state. However, it is by and large the fault of the Malays themselves that they find themselves in this sorry state, for one thing, to be allowed to be hoodwinked by their elected politicians in the past. It is said that most of the Malays reserved lands or "tanah wakaf' were sold from under their feet by these corrupted politicians. On the one hand Malays can be said to be mostly pious Muslims, however, they can also be said be some of the most greedy and corrupt individuals, unscrupulous and full of envy towards others who are successful or better off than themselves. Most Malays uses religion as a tool to gain their intentions and attentions from the rest of society and it is and will be their downfall if not realized and corrections made.  

There is no fresh water supply to this fisherman's jetty and thus they have to carry water from nearby apartment blocks in order to wash and clean. In the recent General Election, the State Government won a large majority and i asked the Malays here to ask for water supply to be installed for the fisherman's jetty area but no action was taken up. I am not a politician nor am i an activist for any cause except my own which covers just about everything and anything that i encounter at the moment, further from this moment I am not interested to think about. I live day to day now more or less as a watcher, a witness, removed and detached from what I see or listen to. As I approach the age ripe old age of 70, I feel the need to invest my self and energy into just any mental or physical phenomena that does not have any affect on me or my well being; I have learned to conserve my outflow of energy and focus into my inner being and consciousness to keep doing what it is now that I am doing; like keeping a well balanced mind and body synchronicity. 

Eid Mubarak - The Collective Spirit of Islam.

"The secret of  life is to die before you die, death is the stripping away of all that is not you." - Eckhart Tolle.

"What is at this moment lasking?" -Zen master Rinzai.

"The Sufi is the son of time present. Past and future veils God  from our sight, burn both of them with fire." -Rumi.

The Eid Mubarak or as the Malays calls it, Hari raya Haji came and went and with it all the sacrifices and the meat consuming diet came and went too. The question that intrigues me every time this time of the year comes by is still the question, it is the age old question of . "Who did Abraham, the father of the Judeo Christian and Islamic religion, offered as a sacrifice to his Lord, was it Ishmael or was it Isaac?" There is no answer to this question truly as it would depend on who you ask, a Jew, a Christian or a Muslim and each would defend their answers to the death if needs be. read the Torah or the Bible or the Quran they would say and these, the word of the Lord do not lie. Well till this day and age these three religions which grew from under eh same roof has become almost common enemies down through the ages and nothing in the annals of history or the archaeological search has shed any light unto this subject and we have taken it for granted that it is written and so shall it be,  

The performance of the Haj is mandatory in Islam with a stipulation that one is exempted if one cannot afford to or is too ill to fulfill this commandment. I personally believe that I am not yet invited to the Lord's abode and perhaps never will be. Either way I have accepted the matter and if i am to be punished for not having done so, so shall it be, added to the many other transgressions I have committed in my life. I highly doubt that performing the Haj would make me a better Muslim as i have been observing those that have done so revert back to their old self as before they became haji, some even turn out to become worse in character, more judgemental, arrogant or self righteous towards their fellow man. However a vast majority of those who have performed the Haj came home with a more religiously subdued and tolerant attitude toward others and in themselves. It is as though they have found themselves in who they truly are.

Every year, since the time of the Prophet or even before then man has converged at Mecca and Madina, the two Holy Cities of Islam from every corners of the Earth to perform the Haj. Today it is in the millions and the number keeps growing each year. This is human Collective Consciousness manifesting in it religious form in the worship of the One Divine Spirit. Man's visit to the home of his Maker, to fulfill a covenant that was instructed by the Lord to His Prophet Abraham who was instructed to built the Kaabah along with his son Ishmael. It is indeed a monumental task to have kept this practice alive through the ages, but it is today one of the most awesome sight that is sadi could be seen from outer space when the Muslims circumambulate the Kaaba that originally was nothing more than perhaps a pile of rocks and a small hut erected in the middle of nowhere, by father and son to mark the decree of the Lord in calling man to His presence. Farmers and fishermen, Kings and Presidents till this day approaches the Cube draped in in thick embroidered blanket wiht the same status, none higher or lower in  status, all equal in the eyes of the Lord. This is the Haj, this is where the Collective minds of the Muslims gather and manifest the awesomeness of the Lord of Creation. 
"

Art will Never Die- The Artist does.

My daughter caught me by surprise by walking in the doorway on the evening of my birthday. She told me she had given in her resignation letter if she were not allowed to return to be with me for a few days and her bosses gave in. I was genuinely surprised and imy heart swell at the sight of her trying to catch my surprise look on her phone camera. What else can one expect in life when your daughter made such sacrifice by laying her job on the line to be with you on your birthday; Alhamdulillah! She has a mind of her own from the day she could walk. She grew up being bullied since kindergarten as she attended a Japanese school in Sendai, Japan where she was a 'henna gaijin' kid among rich parent kids as the school was among the best in the City. Later when we moved to Malaysia from Japan she became a victim of bullying by the Malay girls at her Malay schools for being yet a foreigner of mixed blood. She survived these challenges and today the experiences has made her strong in character. My words of advice to her has always been to remember who she is as a person who had been through life's trials and tribulations at an early age.

At the age of 12-13, she and elder brother who is one year older had accompanied their sick mother on a flight from KLIA to St. Louse Mo. in the United States. My late wife was suffering from what was called rapid dementia, a more critical form of alzheimer and I was not allowed to follow as i was not a US citizen by the American Embassy in Kuala LUmpur. I had to go through a waiting process as the ven happened just after the 911 incident in New York. I could only pray and surrender to the Lord's Will to make it all happen safely and it did. Imagine two children having to go through all the airports while making sure their mother did not break down in the process. After a month in Illinois their grandmother decided to send them back to me in Malaysia as she could not handle the situation, and so they travelled again halfway across the world to meet their fate in this country. The All Mighty could not have given a greater challenge for all three of us and I count it as a Grace and a Blessing.

On another note, millions of Ringgit Malaysia has been donated to the Malaysian government  by the citizens of this country rich and poor alike in order to meet the debts and economic crisis we are facing; it is unprecedented in the annals of any country in the world. This is what makes one proud to be of the society one grew up in. After a land slide victory to end the kleptocratic system that had ruled for sixty years, the citizens of this country, multiracial as it i to come together and bear the common burden of chipping out to save the Nation from bankruptcy; this is an eye opener and a whole new ball game of patriotism. With the eldest Prime Minister of 93 years old at the helm, Malaysia is going to attempt the impossible of turning around a beleaguered economic, political as well as religious harmony that has become the rallying call of this Nation. There is hope yet for the generations to come as their future is now being paved for them through acts of great courage and sacrifice of those elected newly into power. I pray that this too is yet another Grace and Blessing of the All Mighty for us as a whole.

I got my first commission to paint a mural on the walls of a School building which is close to where I grew up. It is a small project but it is a good start for me to get back into being creative as i have practically divorced myself from making Art for almost two years now. I still do keep sketching and writing to keep myself from getting too rusted to start again, but i feel a whole confidence in myself and look forward to creating my best yet. 

“From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75 I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am 80 you will see real progress. At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At 100, I shall be a marvelous artist. At 110, everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokusai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.”
― Hokusai Katsushika

    

A Very Happy Birthday to Me!

A Very Happy Birthday to me! 69 years it has been since i was delivered into this realm of existence under very dire and wanting circumstances that resulted in me having to be given up for adoption. I came into this life about half an hour after my twin brother who was fortunate to have been raised by my family and as a result of being seperated till this day we never see eye to eye; sad but true. It has been never easy to know that you have been an unwanted child of the family even by your own mother and this too was a fact as it was revealed to me by my Auntie who was also the midwife for the delivery. This is the result of a bad marriage and poverty that forced my family to take drastic measures in order to survive in the old days, but the seven of us in the family survived and as i am the youngest I feel that we have not done too bad.

My journey of self healing began sometime in 1978 when I started to keep my journals while I was at the university in Wisconsin and has now been transformed into this Blogging which I started to keep since 2005 while living on the East Coast of the state of Terengganu. In trying to seek the answer to the simple question of who I am  I have transported myself back and forth while dealing with deep rooted karma that had haunted my mind causing much anger and sadness in my life. I am still at it despite all the revelations that has emerged in all kinds of negative expressions and self mortifications through all kinds of studies and practices, but I feel a whole lot at peace now, more so than ever before. It is my hope that this long quest to divest myself of the negative impact of my childhood and young adult life as a lesson for those who are similarly undergoing the same trials and tribulations in their lives; that nothing, not a sickness, physical or emotional that has no cure. only you can cure your splintered soul and it takes a great deal of work and commitment and a whole lot of faith and trust if not courage to dive into the deepest levels of the our subconscious mind and root out the negativity  that is buried there.

Acceptance and forgiveness is the key to unlocking these deep rooted karmic consequences and letting go and moving forward is the key to unburdening the load of sorrow and pain that they have caused; easier said than done. Thus, at this age, when most of my childhood friends have departed one by one, I am still on the road towards self discovery enlightening myself from the baggage that i have been carrying a piece at a time until they are totally disposed off leaving no more traces to haunt me. It is like breaking the chain of bondage link by link towards liberating my soul from the bondage of self ignorance, self doubt and self low esteem. As I have often mentioned in the past, I am getting close to turning what is negative into the positive, what don't make sense to sensibility, what was destructive into creativity; this is my Art of Living.

"Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder."- Rumi  

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Home is where the heart is.

At the beginning of my latest sketchbook that I am currently working with I had written a short line, " Wherever you are, be at Home. the is where the Heart is." While having my coffee at at the restaurant where I have been hanging out for the over ten years now and where most of the water colors and sketching were being done, I tried to explain to one of the young man who was browsing through the sketchbook what this statement meant. I had to translate the lines for him as he was not well versed in English. I shared with him what it meant to me when i wrote it as it came to my mind as a realization. I told him that in my life, home had always been on the road, where ever I was and has been and is at today, that's my home. My family are those that are around me at the time and I treat others like they are my brothers and sisters or my loved ones and that includes all, young and old and those who are strangers to me, meeting for the first time.It does not matter whether they are Black, White or Blue in color. I greet them like they are my family, the rich, the poor, the educated or the drug addicts.

His eyes lit up and he nodded his head at me like he had just had an awakening, "Yes! it is true!" This is why I told him further that I can walk into this place at three in the morning and not feel intimidated or afraid even though this is a 'Red Zone Area' for drug trafficking, gambling and so forth and that it is forever under police surveillance and narcotic raids. I have never been confronted or attacked as a matter of fact not even a harsh word had ever been uttered in my face here, only respect. The taste of the black coffee in my mouth made me want a cigarette, which I had stopped buying to cut down on smoking, but the yearn for it was too strong that i told him to find me one and he immediately went off to find me one. After about fifteen minutes later another friend came by and asked me if i like the local Indonesian cigarette, and handed me an unopened pack which he had got for free. I looked at my young friend and asked him if he now understands what I had written and he smiled wide and nodded his head. I told him had i been patient enough for another fifteen minutes i would not have to asked for a cigarette, I would have been offered a whole pack instead; this is being at home.

When you open your heart to the rest of the world, it opens its heart to you and anything you ask for is given as the world watches over you and your needs. I always like to look good or at least presentable wherever i go, and my friends would would often comment of this and I would tell them, I may not have a dime in my pocket but that does not mean I have to look it. It is not meant to show off that i wear a Tissot watch worth a couple of thousand dollars, a gift from my son and stopped working when the battery ran out, or the Adidas sneakers, or the American Eagle jeans, all of which were given to me  i still wear simply because they gives me a sense of character. They call me 'the Professor', as a term of endearment here or the Artist but they treat me like I am their grandfather, most of the young adults who hang around to buy or sell drugs. I learned earlier on in life. that in respecting your self, your manners and appearance, the chances are you would be treated with respect and in treating others with an open heart and mind you will be treated the same. This is when you, "Ask and it shall be given." In giving your self unconditionally, the world gives back to you likewise; if you have doubts about this, put it to the test. Like try being a Dick and see how you will be responded.

"True life is not about what you have but who you are." - Mooji. 


  

Whose way?

"Knocking at the door, it opens,
And I realize I was knocking from Inside." -  Rumi.

Sometimes when listening to Mooji Baba's Satsang is like listening to a shrink entertaining a group of whining ladies and over zealous wannabe truth seekers who like their predecessors made it to India and found themselves at the feet of a Guru. Most already knew their pwn answers before they even asked but the need to let it be known, the need to be able to say that they stood before the 'Rasta Man' himself has become a schick. With all due respect to the Great Man, and yes he is no doubt an awakened being who has been able to transcend this physical body mind realm, I say this with great respect for a teacher. This day and age we need teachers of the Mind and Body who can guide us through the thick and thin of our daily mental delusions and for this to happen we have to surrender ourselves to such beings no doubt but not grovel at their feet and keep on feeding them with our thoughts and emotions so they can 'cure' us; you pay good money to shrinks for that.

Am I being arrogant in my perception and it is really any of my business to make such observations? I often 'fast forward' all these whining and slobbering , questioners, thanks to You Tube Videos for beig able to do so. I am sure Mooji himself is much aware that his mind is being fed by these followers who came from all over the world to be at his feet and listen to him talk of how to get rid of the mental formations or the mind itself. It is the mind itself that is answering these questions and for every right insight and on the mark answer or solving an issue, Mooji's mind is tap dancing itself to the bank or yet to a larger audience. This is  common to most religious teachers and speakers as they are not unlike the science and history or art instructors, this is how they make their living; the more the merrier. Satguru Jagjit Vasudev, Eckhart Tolle and the now paralyzed and incoherent Ram Dass,  these are among the great names today that are on the roll when it comes to Spiritual Awakening. Deepak Chopra, Michio Kaku, are among those who have made it big in the Sciences and people like me ad you we are the followers and will always will be no matter how far or how near we are from the Truth of who we truly are. Our voices trickles down the drain into the sewer of life to merge with the Ocean of Consciousness that they are yapping about; that's okay too cause we need them to spread the word. 

If and I say if, i have to choose to be among my most revered Gurus or Spiritual Guides of this century, I would have to say, HH The Dalai Lama, J. Krishnamurti, Alan Watts, Shunryu Suzuki and Thich Nhat Hanh would be among them.However my spiritual teachers in my life were those that i grew up with both as a Buddhist and as a Muslim. I am most blessed to have had the opportunity to be mentored by a few of the most wise men in my younger days even as early as my childhood days. I may not remember the lessons the y had taught me but i remember what it felt like to be at their feet back then. I remember being well treated by the elderly Buddhist Monks from Sri Lanka who ran the Mahindarama Buddhist Community in Georgetown Penang, back in the early 1950s when I was a disciple of the Buddha learning the Pali Canon. Till this day i can still pray in the same language if and when i choose to. I had one of the most well read and well informed Muslim teacher who was also my Martial Arts Instructor when i was growing up as a teenager and he was also the Head of the Islamic religious Department of the State of Terengganu, where I spent my teenage years. Dose it make me a good Buddhist or Muslim? No, their teachings and guidance gave me plenty of food for thoughts and I became a 'truth seeker', for lack of better term. Having been exposed to both Buddhism and islam at an early age has opened my mind towards the freedom of seeking my own destiny, my own Way.    


   

The World needs Healing, we need Healing.

And how I love to get the hell out of here and be in the forest somewhere helping yet another village grow more organic food while I keep my body and mind healthy doing it. I made a commitment however to myself also to be by my daughter's side in these days when she still needs my moral and physical support and to the cat that I had adopted for her. In essence I am stuck fo a while in this situation which is really not too bad but still very constraining for one who loves to wander and soak in the outdoor especially the rustic life of the rural areas. I am beginning to find the City too negative to live in, it is manifesting too much negative vibes in the form of racial bigotry and lack of sensitivity towards each  other; in short is is becoming a dog eat dog life in the City. Perhaps i am the one being overly sensitive about it all, perhaps I should make greater effort towards looking within than without. Yes it is easier said than done as there is so much distraction that pulls the mind towards what is happening out there and nothing escapes the mind's eye to project upon and add on to what it sees.

This is an age old phenomena that everyone has to live with, the mind is here to be with us like our shadow, inescapable. I tried to understand this phenomena is every possible way that i can, through meditation, yoga, reading, listening to and prayers, but nothing can hold the mind back although a few can manage to slow it down to almost a moment of silence. The mind is one of God's gift to man that he may transcend the animal realm and become the Khalifah or Guardian of the phenomenal world, or so it is said. However how we have employed the mind or the mind has eluded us is, apparent in the outcome of the state of our existence that is deceased with Greed, Hate and Ignorance, how has this come to be. Where did we go wrong in our charge to keep this Planet a better place for those yet to come? Our legacy today is not a cause to be proud of, this so called life we have lived and are leaving behind is no a model of a life that our future generation can emulate and be proud of; it is deceased and we are the cancer virus that is causing this disease. 

Science and technology has helped us to understand and give us tools to work with and the philosophers and religious teachers are hammering at our door for us to wake up before it is too late. Sadly it seems we are sinking deeper and deeper into a state of unconsciousness, living our lives in limbo making believe what is impermanent and transient for that which is everlasting and eternal. We seem oblivious to our own self destruction as we inch our ways towards so called progress and material affluence, we pursue wealth and happiness in the form of money and creature comforts, such as fancy cars and exorbitant homes. We neglect to care for our environment often assuming that others will care for it instead. We rob and pillage what we can in the most clandestine ways we can just to stay ahead of others and call it success. We most of us have become so deeply corrupted in our ways that we often do not even recognize ourselves doing so...and we pray five time a day, we go to the church every Sunday and to the temples to cleanse our souls and listen Satsangs to better understand who we truly are.

The planet is heating up fast all over causing death tolls in some countries while a 7 point earthquake hit Indonesia for the second time in a a few days causing 80 odd people dead and so it goes with wildfires lighting up in many areas and flash floods causing damages to land and property; yet we are still living like a bunch of sheep sleep walking to the slaughter house. The latest in Chicago is that there has been shootings and killings of teenagers mostly that has reached worrying numbers and the Gaza Strip is still s hell hole of human suffering as with Syria and the rest of the insane world. Anything to do with me and you? Nope, we can pretend like all is well and that our lives goes on as it does day in day out so long as we steer away from getting involved. We are well prepared at living in denial, we only see life as we choose to see it and we hide what is negative and detrimental to our well being, so long as it happens elsewhere and to someone else.

The World needs healing, We need healing.

Time Out.

If all of us could find something worthwhile to do in life and truly stay focused in its accomplishment, the world would be a better place, we would be pretty much minding our own business and not become a sucker for the external distractions.

No one demand that i do this except the man who gave me this 100 feet long piece of  heavy duty paper to paint as i please and so i did and since 2008 till today i still am working on it off and on like a piece of my unfinished  life.  This 100 ft. long painting depicts scenes in and around Georgetown, Penang, my hometown. It is done in mixed media but mostly acrylic and water color.

So why do I do this? Why spend so muc time and energy trying to fulfill a request by a friend who most probably has forgotten about it and me  ever since he gae this piece of paper to me? What else is there to do in life other than taking up challenges that may take you to  who knows where in time. Anyway it has been my meditational piece and comes out every no wan then when i feel the need to be creative.

His Kingdom of Heaven.

I asked my secondary school Islamic teacher once whether people like Mahatma Gandhi and Gautama Buddha goes to hell at the end of their lives. I got a nasty reply for asking such dumb question and cannot remember if he answered me or not. This is a favourite issue that is often raised  by non Muslims in many instances and the answer has always been that, if you die without having not said the Profess of Lailahaillallah, Muhammad Rasulullah or that there is no God, only Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger, you will not enter Heaven. It has been a question i my have a whole lot of understanding to come to grip with. I do not doubt that God has the answer to this in one form or another as he is Omniscience and as is said to work in mysterious ways, but as a thinking man I needed to work the answer out for myself; some of my loved ones and families and friends are non Muslims while many so called Muslims that would rather not spend time with.

Ar Rahman is The Beneficent, Ar rahim is the Merciful, this is the Lord i surrender to as a Muslim and he is a Loving God and I am sure he extends His Love and Compassion to all who deserve it and so His wrath. I am positive that there are verses in the Quran and the Hadith on this matter of which I am not aware of. Personally, I believe that heaven and hell are already within us, at least in the mental and emotional levels; we experience pain and pleasure in everything we do through out our lives. What is hell but a place of suffering and so heaven a place of blissfulness. However most of us passes through life without being fully aware of these ups and down and most religions agrees that life is suffering, from the day we were conceived till the day we die. We are living in heaven and hell all the time switching from moment to moment as nothing is permanent, all things changes and we are never certain of when it all comes to an end; we live on borrowed time and the fear of death is always at the back of our minds.

It is my understanding that if you had lived your life well, you will move on to a higher life in your afterlife; you reap what you sow. How it will work out as far as who goes to heaven or to hell I leave  it up to The Creator to decide because it is beyond me as my mind is not capable of unravelling such delicate matters of the Soul. I know my soul will transcend all these and return to the Rightful Owner or Al Hak, He that blew the first breath of air into Adam. As a Muslim i understand as i was told form the Quran that, my soul and all souls have made a covenant with the Lord through acknowledging that he is the Creator, Lord of the Universe seen and unseen. That He is Omnipotent and Fair in Judgement as to right or wrong and that i have surrendered my will to His Will when i started my spiritual journey. I am merely an actor on the stage playing my role to the best of my ability in keeping my vows to Him. He is and has always been by my side closer than my jugular vein and without His Grace, I could not have taken one step forward on this journey.

As I have mentioned every so often in the past, I have taken a vow as a Buddhist called the Bodhisattva Vow and t is not a light commitment to have made. It is something i hold to be sacred in my life. I took the vow to serve all sentient beings I come into contact with while i am alive, at least alleviate their suffering the best way I know or can afford to do, as i am a servant of my Lord, I am serving Him through fulfilling this Bodhisattva vow of serving His creation. How well or how genuine I am in doing so is what i have to work on by my practices, my words thoughts and deeds in relation to others. Even if my hear tells me that it is all just and illusion and that I do not exist in reality, I still have to abide in being in the here and now to serve as a Bodhisattva; I am a Muslim Bodhisattva. I will remain true to my vows until there  is no more soul left crying in pain and suffering before i enter His Kingdom of Heaven.  

  


  

Ponder on these.

Although I have studied through reading, listening, contemplating and meditating as much a all the religions of the world, I have yet to fully realize the whole truth behind what i perceive. I am blessed to have had the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world in my lifetime and living among people whose lifestyle, thoughts and practices differ from mine, I see many similarities in most cases underlying their circumstances. We all wish for the same basic life that is peaceful and rewarding but we each and everyone of us are working our ways in our own quest to discover the same truth of who we truly are beyond what is. Most of us question the validity of what we experience daily and some of us doubt this validity with the feeling that there is a whole lot more than meets the eye. Are we living in a menagerie that is self created through eons of evolution of body mind and spirit or are we merely part and parcel of some big master plan that keeps us trapped in a dimensional time capsule by some higher intelligence?

Great Prophets and Saints, Enlightened Beings and Rishis had in the past left us with knowledge and wisdom about the nature of our existence and most has claimed that we are as a human specie living in a world of Maya or delusion and illusion and that it is our birthright to discover this for ourselves and attain towards liberation from this phenomenal realm. What does it mean to be liberated and from what? I know I have been asking this same question forever ever since i started asking and I am still not anywhere close to the truth. Given one life to live it has become my eternal quest to get to the bottom of this paramount issue about being alive. As a Muslim I can surrender it all to the Wisdom of the All Mighty, Wallahualam or God only knows. Perhaps as Christians one would say, The Lord works in mysterious ways, but as a thinking man I cannot merely accept what is fed to me by religions or belief and philosophies, I have to experience, feel and be awakened to the truth through every sense faculty I am endowed with, that is what my God given brain is for.

Science is inching closer towards unravelling the workings of the physical nature of things and manifesting the principles of how the human mind works and its connections to spirituality, but science is still groping in the dark of the nature of death and the afterlife. Science is as a matter of fact declaring the non existent of the physical world itself, you and me do not exist, at least not in the way we think we do and many sitting on the fence of spirituality and atheism are falling into this newly dug pit of uncertainty. Blessed are those who never question nor doubt? The answer cannot be found out there, it lies within each and every one of us and as such it is up tu us to seek deep within for the truth and not be swayed by all the influences that had been leading us towards our so called freedom from ignorance.

"Dont Run Away...Run Inward," - Rumi.

Learn to trust the matrix within you that has been embedded in you since the day you were conceived and not the external matrix that has been propagated to enshrine you in a gilded cage of ignorance. Nothing you see or that is that is created is permanent, only you are that which is ture and continues to evolve towards enlightenment. It is your inherent Birthright; it is that which you were created for.

The mind is everything. What you think you become.

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, 

the truth...Gautama Buddha.