The Street Was Alive!

On the 6th and seventh 0f July the Aceh Street area near the Aceh Mosque  came to life from all the artists from various groups of performers and fine painters and sketchers got together to have fun.

The Kompang group was a sound to behold, the sound of the hand held drums beat in perfect unison raises goosebums. It always reminds one of the Malay wedding as the Groom arrives at the bride's house.

 It is nice to see that everyone is an artist of one kind or another and never too young nor too old to get involved and have fun.

Hanging out with the different kind of crowd every now and then helps to place one into different perspective and there is always new lessons to be learned.

Makes you wish you wer twenty years younger!

The mat salleh will always be a mat salleh, 

I was a healthy feeling to see the younger generation still very into the traditional martial Arts and there is still a great sense of pride in being who or what group one belongs to. albeit Silat Cekak or Silat Seni Gayong, Silat lincah or Silat Pa'Mat Hamdan, they all belongs in the Malay annals of cultural history kept alive till this day.

There is beauty in all forms of appearance and colors, of art and creativity. For those who took the trouble to venture and be with us there and then it was hoped that they too had a ball of a time!

Aceh Street Art Festival.

The Armenian Street Rapsody.

On the 6th of July I was invidted to participate  in the Art festival in conjunction with the Penang Art Festival organized  by my friend Joe Sidek. These shots were taken as I was walking towards the place where i was to do my stuff

It did not felt like I was walking down an 'Aremnain street at all but I could have been anywhere in Hong Kong or Singapore. But that's okay, this is still Georgetown at least to me.

It promised to be another scorcher, hot and humid, I will sketching all day long entertaining the guests and customers to the event. There will be  people !

Lets give this area an identity! HMM... say Chinese? Yes definitely Chinese! It looks and feels Chinese. But why call Armenian Street? Heritage ...ma!!

Looik all that renovation! Pretty! Who pays fro them ...Heritage ma!!

Yessir! fence it all in and block them all out!! then we will scream Ayo! why no parking one ...la!!

"Krisis pernilaian hidup", the crisis of the quality of Life.In serving others you are served in self serving there is only a temporary high, doing what you love doing and at the same you serve the whole, what more could you ask? This is a quality of life that is noble among man throughout history; it is the art of living by giving not taking. As 'Only a Buddha sees a Buddha; someone once said, ' when two minds meet it becomes a presence of meeting of great minds where anything is possible and when this happens we have very little to say and nothing to solve, we meet as two great souls that has evolved and earned the rights of passage to Being who we are...it is yours and my 'Birth-right'.

We grow out of the earth not into it, we return into it when we die; hence when we desecrate nature remember where we our final physical resting place would be. Becoming more compassionate towards each other no matter what the origin of species  might not be such a bad and far fetched idea come to think of it.

It was said that when the Buddha gave Dharma talk on Vulture  Peak, He held a Udumbara flower in His fingers and sat in silence for a long time till the crowd became restless, wondering if he had lost it altogether. But out in the crowd one man looked, smiled and bowed to the Buddha's- Direct Tansmission of the essence of Buddhism...The direct transmission that was wordless, that which was not said in words only few would understand and fewer still will make it an effort to practice and preserve the Heritage and Teachings; Mahakasyapa became the next in line after the Buddha's Pari Nirvana..I, AM NO MORE!!. Gate, Gate, Parasam Gate,...Bodhi...Svaha! Gone, Gone, Gone beyond the concept of that which is gone... All Hail!

Fana! Void? Emptiness; that which is awareness of Being that which Is.. 'Mati lah kamu sebelum kamu di matikan...Man goes through two deaths in his lifetime, he dies his spiritual death and his physical death...the death of his ego and the death of his essence; when he merges into the essence of his Creator returning that which Is.. The Light of Truth to its Owner..I call Him Allah! (SWT)..

How small and insignificant you think you r self to be when within you exist that which is the essence of the Universe itself.
The prophet (SAW), may the Glory be unto him and his lineage.

    

"Just Being Me!"

Tomorrow the seventh of July I have been invited to join a few fellow Penang Malay artists to have a workshop or demo at the Penang Art festival event which will take place at Armenian Street close to the Masjid Aceh or the Aceh Mosque. The event is being sponsored by the Penang Ilamic department and along with the Museum Galleri Tuanku Fauziah, USM. The event will begin at nine in the morning and there will be other cultural events in conjunction with the Penang Festival.
Enthusiasm!! It will be a sure test of enthusiasm as I am really not up to anymore in entertaining the public with my works but the promise has been made and the Way demands that the service to others comes first, not my personal grievances or whether i am up to it even physically not to mention how my mind will take it after being under so much external pressures. It would be easy to stand up and yell I HATE MY GOD GIVEN TALENT!! and slip away into oblivion waiting for death to end it all... it is also called retirement. But it would be nice to retire with a package all set like working for the government for most of your life or the pickle factory day in day out accumulating your KWSP or whatever... I have been spared all these luxuries, I was too busy most of my life with my'Self' and my self does not pay well.
Acceptance works in times like these where the mind is looking back in regret at what could have been or what should have been, the mind is doing regressive tour of the old fuck- ups, something or someone to lay the blame on for having doubts now. I am sure I will enjoy the show like I always did in the past, its all in my earlier blogs.We had a great time last year, hanging out on Armenian Street! I have bought what I need for tomorrow and I have a good idea what i will end up doing, Insha' Allah. If you have time come hang out with us, it would be nice, we could start something like the Haight Ashbury of Penang or the Bangsar of Penang.
In my old age i am beginning to get a little more cranky i am finding out and having a meaningless converstaion for the sake of talking is becoming a pain for me. I hate when someone comes up to me while i am deep into doing a piece of drawing and say,"Are you an Artist?". Duh!!.
But in life you will have to accept that the fish is always tastier on the other guy's plate and the power of the ego is much alive on this planet we live. Making the ego an enemy is not such a wise idea even if it is your own and you are looking for liberation or enlightenment, the freedom from the bonds of your egoic mind.. The Ego is something you subdue through Compassion and right Understanding, through Acceptance of the fact that the ego has its role to play in life no matter how insignificant a role the ego fulfills a need of the spirit in order that the spirit can become aware of the need to liberate itself.Just as God needs Satan in order to make man, His creation more human in nature.Man would be no better than the angels if he had no adversary such as the Archangel to con him into believing that Satan really exist, the scapegoat, the fallen angel...blame it on him for all your woes and surrender to God your will Insha'Allah that you may do no wrong at the End of Days. I know I am being placed at here at this moment in time for a reason most of which too far -out or too tedious to explain but here I am! Sitting here and writing all these and not getting paid a single cent while on the other hand spending my own to get here and so forth...shit! Why? God made me do it? The Universal Spirit or the Collective Consciousness make me do it? Why? What for? Am I doing any good to the whole? Am I contributing, am i serving?
When I think of politics in my country I visit Raja Petra Kamarudin's Blog, The Corridors of Power or No Holds Barred.at the Malaysia Today website. The man spells it all out for me and then some. I wish every clear minded open heart educated Malaysian could spend sometime reading RPK and his insights into the politics in Malaysia. His taking whacks at Powers that be on both sides of the political divide makes for food for thoughts.Why does he do it? What does he hope to gain other than being exiled from his country and threatened with all kinds of accusations. Why does a man who has almost all that he needs in life and then some would spend his life being a pain in so many butts in this country? He has a cause and he is pursuing his calling, right or wrong for better of for worse he will keep on taking to task all who deserve his rage and he does it like it is a form of art. His is the creative act of politics, his ways, thoughts and ideas and not to mention the sacrifices he has to make are all part and parcel of Being in the Now, being who you are being Enthusiastic about living and acceptance of what comes with Being who you are. Having attained this stage in life you are destined to become larger than life.
This is the responsibility one takes upon oneself and no one offers it or forces it upon one, it is a role one has been selected by the Universal Unconscious for you to play in this life or at least to help keep check and balances when things gets too out of hand albeit the government or the opposition. They call them the 'Equalizers." In some traditions they are known as the 'Watchers or Winesses." They are awakened and they are serving humanity in their own ways.    
" In the past ages, they would probably have been called contemplatives. There is no place for them , it seems, in our contemporary civilization. on the arising new earth, however their role is just as vital as that of the creators, the doers, the reformers. Their function is to anchor the frequency of the new consciousness on this planet... they are here to generate consciousness through the activities of daily life, through with the interactions with others as well as through "just being."
In this way  they endow the seemingly insignificant with profound meaning. Their task is to bring spacious stillness into this world by being absolutely present in whatever they do, even the simplest task. Their purpose is to do everything in a sacred manner. As each human being is an integral part of the collective human consciousness, they affect the world much more deeply than is visible on the surface of their lives."
                                                                                                           A NEW EARTH
                                                                                                           Eckhart Tolle.

             

Bottom line is...The Joy of Being.

You make every effort you can to know who you are, not just your personal identity and life story but more  so than that, what is your connection to the whole? What is it that by your being here is a major contribution towards the fate of humanity, how do you serve your Lord; how do you say thank you  to that source where you original came from. Only in realizing this every minute of your day every breath you take is awareness Being 'Aware', awake! Only in coming to know who you really are that you can have the faith to take that leap of faith into venturing further to find out; this is the journey within, untangling the tangles and unravelling the mystery of who you truly are. Ride this quest with great sense of urgency and enthusiasm as it is said that only in this human form are we capable of returning to That which Is...I Am Thah I Am..
I used to listen the Eckhart Tolle's You tube talks for hours while living with my son in Dubai for seven months last year and I was taken and impressed by the man, his simplicity in skillful  means while delivering his thoughts on life. I first came upon his first book "The Power of Now" while I was travelling in Bali, Indonesia where I came upon fellow travelers from Vienna. Austria one of them had the book and loaned it to me to read,( re: earlier Blogs on Bali) .I read most of the book on the way from Ubud in Bali to the town of Bromo in Central Java ? While together we had allot of philosophical- religious discussions, my two young city slicks from Vienna and me from the muddy village used to be called Sungai Pinang, Kampung Selut. The whole place lost its original identity and appearance since the early sixties when the old atap homes were buried under red earth form the hills and as children we watched one house after another being torn down before our eyes. Well whatever...as i was saying, I got to know Eckhart Tolle by accident just as I had stumbled upon Alan Watts and Jedu Krishnamurti, I studied their thoughts most of my adult life after narrowing down all the others, the likes of my one time Teacher the Rev. Thich Nhat Hahn, the Vietnamese Monk who took the Freedom March alongside Martin Luther King and the late Katagiri Rosh, at one time the Abbot of the Minnesota Zen Center; These were some great men I have come to make my studies based upon like my Text Books of life.
At one of my 'Dokusan' or the one on one talk with the Roshi the late Katagiri Roshi told me to always remember my original intention, my original motive and stay on the track with it throughout life.'Nawaitu', or niat or hajat, what was it that set me off to become a seeker of Truth? Call it what you may, but the words of the Roshi stuck in my kind and every now and then it pops up on my mental screen to remind me of who I am. Why was I born into this world in the first place.
At one of my Dharma Talk with Thict Nhat Hahn the Vietnamese monk told me to continue on Being who I am and let life takes its course. I was his student at the Vipassana Retreat he led at the Green Gulch Green Dragon Temple, on Star Route One, Sausalito, California.We took many long walks around the Muir Woods and Muir Beach areas around Green Gulch farm.
I will relate an experience i had while I was doing the seven days Vipassan retreat because it was something that brought us close, the Monk and I.After the third or fourth days of meditation we call sittings, my mind began to rebel and i played hooky by falling asleep through one sitting. While everyone else was sitting in the Zendo i was taking a nap in my room# 7 in the Gaitan. I had a dream. I dreamt that i had given a loud 'Kia!!" or yell! and caused the side of the hills along the Muir beach area into the Paciffic Ocean. BUTA!! ( which in Japanese means Pig!) Imagine watching the whole hillside crumbling like in a major earthquake. I was scared, I told myself "Oh shit now Blanch and Paul will really get my Ass and kick me out of the Zen Community. While still in my dream it dawned on me hey you who could shtter the side of this mountain and make it crumble into the ocean and you are afraid of facing the two American wannabe Zen teachers? Shit! What am i becoming? Who am I? I woke Up.
I walked out of my room straight outside the back door to the Gaitan and to the Big 'Boncho' bell hanging from the old Cypress and I stood there paying my respects to the four winds and my homage to the bell and my apologies for what i was about to do...BONG!! I struck the bell with the five feet long piece of log that swing from the tree. BONG!! For seven time and each with complete awareness while i followed my breath with every strike.I silently chanted in my heart what the Monk had thought us when hitting the bell and that was to send out this sound to all beings in the six realms and the ten directions with the wish for their freedom in liberation from the cycles of birth life and death.I was with my full Buddhist mind at the time.
Then I went to my room and laid down for more nap feeling scared for what I had done, waiting for the retribution! A gentle knock on the door and Paul was at the door asking me if i was alright. I mumbled i was not feeling well and he said its was OK and join the group when I could and left. I was more guilt ridden by his cool and healing response. Later I left my room to join everyone at the dinning room again afraid of being torn to pieces by those who already were no at peace with my being there. But none was forthcoming and as a matter of fact a few even whispered thanks for the break, Shamsul, boy was I falling asleep!! When the sound of that bell came out of the blue I was awakened literally!!.Phew!! I told myself that was close, I thought the lady was going to give me a tongue trashing for disturbing the peace or as they called me at the Gulch 'The Disruptor!'
Later still while at the Tea Talk with the Monk, he addressed the issue at me asking if i enjoy ringing bells and I told i enjoyed it at the time and most probably enjoy it when the time presents itself again. Oh? Good now you are my 'Time keeper and we will call you 'The bell Master'', every fifteen minutes you will hit the bell and we will all stop and do some breathing.then continue. This I felt was what he meant by continuing on with Being who I am and doing what I enjoy doing..or allowing the Universe to express itself through me what it needs to in order to share in our awareness of Being who we Truly are.

"The New Earth arises as more and more peoplediscover that their main purpose in life is to being the lgiht of consciousness into this world and so use whatever they do as a vehicle for consciousness.
The joy of Beaing is the joy of being conscious."
                                               A New Earth' by Echkart Tolle   .

Being in the Now?- You can be anywhere

Have You ever been to San Francisco?

A walk through the Golden Gate Park will give you a taste of what is San Francisco. This area is close to what is known as the 'Hippy Hill because durng the Flower Power years Hippieswould have love ins in this part of the park. 

The little things of our everyday life that we took for granted, these are the mementos of our minds and our relationships we had in the past. The sketch was done of some items sitting on Debbie's mantel piece may be while we were living on San Bruno Ave.

How do you serve humanity? How do you Pray? Solat or prayer in Arabic is said to also mean 'servitude' that is to serrve, to give, to perform ones allotted duty towards what has been assigned to you as a covenant between you and God. You serve God by serving humanity and it includes all that what humanity entails.
What good is all your prayers day in day out when you are not sensitive to cry of suffering and pain among you. When you choose to judge and turn a deaf ear even when they are your relatives and friends. How do you serve humanity, how do you serve your God?

What is the sense of occupying the space and sucking and out the fresh air all your life and not being able to say who you truly are in the eyes of your Maker, when you present yourself before Him in prayer. Allahu Akhbar!! Who is making this declaration? For those who have no faith in whatever religion and pray not in whatever form or ritual, well you are exempted from answering.  

All these years on scraping and digging into my mind to get a glimpse at who I am I have yet to be able to say ,Yes, this is who I am!! or in the Hindu way of saying , "I am, That I am." I cannot seem to lay my finger on that which is Me. I have come to accept this state of not knowing it is another fact of Being...who I am.   

I f ever you ask me what it is that I am looking for, i would have to say , perhaps in my ignorance, I am looking for the formless me. I am looking for that which is not what my thoughts have put together ,me, but that which is before my thoughts began to manifest itself. 

What do I want at this moment in life? I wish to return to that which is unblemished, pure in form and emptiness in its Being, that which is unapproachable in this form that I am. Call it the Lord of Power if you may or the Most Compassionate or the Great, call it by whatever name you will, I wish to return to my original nature, that which was before my parents conceived me to be.. 

How do i hope to attain this that is the liberation from this what is known as the cycle of Birth -Life and Death, this realm of Sangsara or the land of Maya? From this delusion that I I have lived for so long calling it life. How do I exit from this realm of ignorance, greed and hate and at the same time liberate those who are sentient  Beings like me.. How do i awaken myself  from this sleep of  Maya?  

I sincerely hope that my little effort of putting all these thoughts I have  in my blog would in some small way help to enlighten the "Way Seeking Mind.." Even as I ramble on dayt in day out to myself like this I know there is one or two out there who takes an interest in what I say and if by chance a single thought or idea hits the right tone or target and pink! the light bulb turns on, well then it is all well worth the journey.