The Tree of Life

My daughter and I had our first Half-Open House for the Eid Mubarak and I made my specialty, Spaghetti ala Bahari.Got very good response from our guests especially her boss who helped himself to three helpings! My fears that it would not be enough to last the day was quashed at the end of the evening and we even had some spare for the of us for dinner; perfect! The turn out was also very surprising as it turned out a diverse group of closest friends and relatives turned up with a few girls from Sarawak who are here to do their internship at my daughter's work place. I was pretty much beat by the time i finished cooking which started at 7am. and lasted almost 3 hours by the time I got everything I needed for the event, like fork and spoons and dishing containers and hot drink and cold drinks plates and napkins etc.I was so bushed, I took a short nap when i got home, It revitalized my energy and got me through the day entertaining old and young, friends and family; it felt good.

It does not take much to make others yourself happy and harmonious, it just takes a small commitment upon yourself to make things happen with a genuine effort and 'ikhlas' or sincerity.
But when it happens it becomes a moment to remember for the rest of everyone's life those who were there. In Islam it is called 'Tali 'siratalRahim.' The bonds between brothers and sisters, friends and relatives, between a community or the Umah, ties between all humanity; its the Universal Spirit of Unity; and we are slowly but surely loosing this human if not spiritual connections. Just to keep family ties alone  has become an effort and as our family extends into larger circles we have a greater commitment it becomes our human consciousness to foster stronger ties of Love and Friendship between us. It is often said that we are all one family and that we originated from the One  call it by whatever name you will, so long as we recognize this principle in our lineage man will go on living side by side till the end of Days. It is when this principle deteriorates that we become an adversary to one another often creating pain and suffering unnecessarily; we forget who we truly are. We struggle and compete to stay ahead, we eat up and throw up those that stands in our way and we become inhuman towards just about every living being that does not benefit our intentions.

The ancient wisdom of great yogic and Buddhist thoughts, the teachings of Zoroaster and the Hermes Trimejestus, the philosophy of the Tao Te Ching, and the Islam ic teachings to name a few have one common thread that is woven into them and that is the interconnection of all into the One. We came from the One and will return to the One unified whole. This is the Cosmic principle, the Merging of Differences, the Collective Universal Spirit and is called by various names accordingly. In short we are an interdependent beings existing in a collective whole alongside each and every being, however most of us humans have failed to feel this connection and developed an independent self serving spirit that is better known as the egoistic personality. Our minds has developed a sense of survival mode through fear to 'take care of number one', and those closest to our well being or benefit us. From this sense we become competitive, we develop greed and hate and jealousy, envy and so forth; our mind becomes corrupted. From all these we experience life with through ignorance as the mind becomes more and more infected with the craving for more and greater things, things that we do not even need anymore than we have to. The problems humanity faces today is this; the fact that we have forgotten who we truly are in relationship towards our fellow man and the rest of the Universe at large. 

Wars and famine, economic collapse and the decadence of society, are but a few of the symptoms of humanity's failure to coexist and becoming aware of our codependent of each and every single being on this planet and this includes Nature and the elements or Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. Perhaps it is out of our arrogance that we deny the need for others, that we can live and survive without the help and assistance of those around us and that we do not have to feel obligated to do any favors much less be charitable towards those who could use our assistance if; perhaps we are right.However, just looking at this lap top from which I am typing the post itself reminds me of how many minds has come together to create such a tool, it took a whole groups of people that has fed upon a whole bunch of animals and plants, not to mention breathed the air, drink the water and walk the earth and kept warm by the fire, to come together to create the computer; the farmers and the fishermen helped to create the computer; this is the Tree of Life.

We are like plants growing out of the earth with our roots planted deep within and our branches stretching outwards as far as they are able to. We flower and our fruits ripen and falls to the earth to create more of our kind; our progeny. We each and everyone of us has the desire to leave behind a legacy that can be looked upon as inspiring and beneficial for those that will come after us, we try not to leave behind us bad seeds and decadence, We leave behind us the gifts of Love and Compassion towards others and the Peace throughout the Universe and this can only be attain if and when we have come to fully understand who we truly are and our interrelationship with the rest of humanity: we indeed are the Universe, within and without.