Enlightenment

A relaxed body, mind, and soul.

When you wake up in the morning and you feel at peace with everything. This is the best feeling ever. It is as if nothing else matters. It is as if everything in your life is as is because you want it to be. Everything is already in place for you. Everything you need you already have.

How many times have you ever had this feeling? If it is daily, congratulations. Perhaps your life is the ultimate life that everyone want to have. Perhaps you are leading the life of a saint. You can let go of all the sufferings. You can let go of all the happiness and sadness, all the joys and worries. Everything and anything that comes your way, you are able to neutralize to the point it is neither good nor bad.

How many people can achieve such enlightenment? If you think that only a handful, you may be right or wrong. Perhaps it is just the community we are all living in. Whatever everyone does is correct in our perception because majority always wins over minority. Perhaps it is just the environment we are all living in. Whatever we first see every single morning is the absolute truth we are living in.

Sometimes what we see might be true but most of the time it is not. Our eyes love to play tricks on us. Whenever we see something as good, we tend to follow to that same direction without realizing that every effect has its cause, every cause has its course, and every course has its effect. This is a vicious cycle of life. We are all connected whether we believe in it or not.

Connection between all lifeforms and the universe is inevitable. We can never see this with our naked eyes. It can only be felt through deep connection between ourselves and all there is. We, at this modern age lack the connection. The current way of life we are living in almost forbids us to see beyond our eyes. We have been led to believe in something the minority wants us to believe in.

Have you ever questioned the importance of education? This is the one most important part of the life of every living soul. But why are education in classroom settings? Why are certain subjects so important that we must study upon? How about spiritual lessons that have been intentionally left out and replaced with religious studies? What kind of moral are we teaching our children and ourselves?

These are perhaps some of the many questions that you might have asked yourself at some point of time. But because the vast majority are doing the same things, it is only natural for you to stop questioning and go with the norm, in order to be accepted by the society. Your parents told you that good grades secure great paying jobs. This will change your current situation for good.

But… WHO ARE WE?
What are we doing here? What is our purpose here?

If we are just here for the sake of being here then there is no purpose at all. There must be a higher meaning to everything that is in our lives. The next question is perhaps where… Where can we find our purpose of life?

The answer is simple.

Travel within. The only answer to whatever question you have is within. Somehow, we have been led to believe that information technology means everything and will be able to provide answers for any questions we ask. Do you know who are the people feeding the answers to the World Wide Web? They are just regular people like you and me with a slight difference.

They are the people who dare to dream. They are the people who put off all roadblocks in search of the truth. They may sound obscure. Whatever they say may sound too good to be true or too easy to achieve. In this day and life, simplicity is the hardest way of life. We have been trained to think in complicated ways. We have to let go of the past to live in the present to create the better future.

Life is really simple. Enlightenment comes from within.

 

When we wake up from our confused state of mind, that is enlightenment.

Karma Sungrap Ngedon Tenpa Gyaltsen (Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche), Abbot of Dzogchen Monastery, 1965-present

Journey

Where is the place you would like to explore?

The general public will probably name out the most interesting places they see that everyone else has been to. Very often, these are places of tourism that everyone wants to visit in their lifetime. When our eyes see as beautiful, our mind thinks it is beautiful. Therefore, this is the place we put in our bucket list of all the other beautiful places we must visit before the end of our lifetime here.

When can you finally finish off your bucket list?

Like most people, you would probably think that you need to work hard for money, save up most of it in order to be able to finally buy a ticket to get to the place where you want to visit. You would probably also think of the exchange rates which you might need to start buying the currency when the price is low, in preparation for the vacation that is coming.

What do you need to bring to enjoy fully the experience?

Many things. You will probably pack up a whole luggage full of what your mind thinks is a necessity. Wherever you go, you have to bring all the so called basic necessities in your life. You lunge along all your beautiful clothes, shoes, bath needs, facial needs, hygiene needs, vanity needs, and etcetera. Some will even go to the extreme to bring along a hair dryer, towel, blanket because of the insecurity of not having everything from home.

How do you enjoy your time there?

People of the current era have the luxury of digital devices being made smaller and more convenient. Everywhere everyone goes, there will be a whole bunch of people taking photos for remembrance. While this is to ensure that you have a record of the happy moments in life, this is also something that binds people in a responsibility to capture nicer angles each time a picture is taken.

Why do you want to visit the place?

Perhaps this is the most important question of all. There is always a reason for every action. Sometimes you may argue that it is impromptu but there is an explanation for the way you react to any situation. Even if you feel that you are taking the trip because of the beautiful pictures you see on the internet, it means something has captured your heart. You just have to look deeper.

Life is simple and yet not so simple. As simple as we want life to be, there are always situations that come along that seems to make it complicated. It is not complicated at all, it is just our mind playing a trick on us. We are just used to the norm. Whatever that appears to be out of the norm is a problem. To our minds, problems are out of the way complicated.

It is all in the mind. If you think that all problems cause chaos, then that is what will come into your life. On the other hand, if you see all problems as opportunities for you to explore your strengths, everything becomes easier. We are so clogged up in our mind to think in one way we forgotten that there is always an alternative way to everything. We are too concentrated in the problem itself we lack the ability to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Find the light. If you understand nature well enough, you will understand. Perhaps the only place you need to visit is the place that keeps you sane and promotes your calmness. The place need not be somewhere only reachable by plane or ship or car. It can be near home. Perhaps you only need to take a stroll to the garden near your home in the heart of the night.

Everyone is asleep. There is stillness. There is total silence. There is tranquility. There is space. Dreams are travelling in every direction. The sky is almost pitch black. You concentrate in the darkness. You see some blinking spots amidst the darkness. All of a sudden, the sky is bright with beautiful stars lighting up your life. Life is beautiful. When daylight comes, your exploration continues.

When you remove all distractions, the journey of life begins.

 

We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

Valentin Louis Georges Eugene Marcel Proust (Marcel Proust), French author, 1871-1922

Stuck

Have you ever been in a situation whereby you feel like the world is coming to an end?

Now is perhaps the time where probably 99% of the world’s population is having the same feeling.
Job is unstable.
Government funding is ending.
Commitments are still commitments.
The virus is violently attacking.
You are stuck.

Human brains love to play tricks. It is normal to be worried when the numbers are unstable. This is true in all areas. It is true in the stock markets. It is true in the financial reports. It is true in the health reports. It is true in utilities supply. It is also true in the COVID-19 cases. Everything in this world is connected, whether or not we acknowledge it.

This is not the time to be worried. Perhaps it is easier said than done.

If 1% of the world’s population can do it, why not you? Why do you have to be amongst the 99%, and not the 1%? Why do you have to be the norm when you know you are special? Why do you limit yourself when your mind can be broad?

Everything we believe is everything that is true to us. It does not matter what everyone else thinks of us.
If your mind is strong, you will be able to influence the people around you.
If your mind is weak, you will be influenced by the people around you.
Ask yourself, who do you want to be?
The INFLUENCER, or be influenced?

There is no right or wrong in any decision.
There is no true or false in any statement.

This is not just an opinion, it is a fact. What you see as true today may be false tomorrow. It is all about the situation at that point of time. If everything were to remain unchanged for a hundred years, this world would be a super boring place. Would you still like to live in it? Or would you want to create some colours to brighten up the grey?

Even great scientists like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein who are considered the masters of equations go through the same process of life as us. They do make mistakes, not because they are wrong but because the technology back then only permitted them to go so far. If they were still alive today, they would have corrected their own equations with technology backing up their claims.

If great people can have setbacks, what makes us think that we are right all the time? Nobody is ever right or wrong all the time. People always learn from other people or through experience. Schools are created for this purpose, to educate the young to become a better generation. What our ancestors have gone through, we can have the shortcut.

However, never forget that time changes too. As the world grows, strategies can alter. If you are still contained in your old way of thinking, you will be left behind. Are you willing to be that 99% being left behind? Or are you ready to become that 1% of leaders to make the world better?

There are many ways to make your dreams come true. There is always the experience everything yourself way. This is the most conservative way. Your parents have thought you to be slow and steady and so you follow. Your parents told you that certain ways are too risky and you halt. You may not realize it but your parents have already instilled into you their values of life. You have been following instructions for way too long and you have forgotten that you are responsible for your own life. What will happen if one day your parents are no longer around to guide you?

You have already been brought up. You are an adult. You have to make decisions on your own. You can listen to the opinions of your parents, but you do not have to follow their ways. Challenge yourself to path your own way. You may be at a loss right now but you still have your parents to cherish. Never ever wait until one fine day, when you are left alone.

Life is short. If you feel stuck today, seek for answers and you will create your own path.

 

But there was a difference between being stuck and choosing to stay. Between being found and finding yourself.

Martina Boone, Writer of Compulsion

Listen

What do you hear the first thing in the morning?

Listen to yourself.

If you begin with a clear mind, very likely you will sleep peacefully at night too. You may start to question this because however clear the mind is in the morning, there will always be something that happens during the day that gathers over a period of time and soon clutters the mind. This is very true. But if you know exactly how you can declutter daily before you sleep, your mind will be cleared within minutes.

Very often, it is our usual practice to let things linger within for no particular reason. Perhaps you like to mull on happenings to find a solution to a problem. Perhaps there are things that you have not finished doing that is bothering you. Perhaps it is your health condition that is keeping you awake at night. Find the reason. Talk to people during the day.

If you are finding it hard to talk to people, just get a notebook and write down all your thoughts and feelings throughout the day. It does not take much effort to doing so. Manually writing things down give you the sense of belonging. You know you have actually thought about this problem you are facing. Perhaps, now is not the time you get the answers. So, it is time to just let go. Look through your notebook, think about what you have left out, and write it down. If there are still things lingering in your mind, just write it down. Place the notebook next to your bed and tell yourself that all your problems and worries are taken care of. Go to sleep with a sense of relief.

There is a reason why the notebook should follow you by your side at all times even when you sleep. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to think of the things that are bothering you, you still find it hard to remember to write it down. There may be times when you suddenly spring out of bed with your heart pumping so fast you feel all the negatives coming your way. It is like having the whole world fall onto you. With your notebook right next to you, it will be easy to just pick it up and write it down. Write whatever your heart tells you to. Just continue writing until you calm down. Listen to yourself. You will know when it is time to get back to your beauty sleep.

Listen to your inner self.

The human mind is a bag of tricks. It is always playing around with events of the past and the future. How often do you really observe what is happening now?

There is always a calling but we fail to listen. We are always thinking of the past success or failures. Many of times, we let the past success bring us to a level so high we cannot tolerate when the waves hit us right now. It is hard to understand why the past success is not continuous. It is unbelievable how we can be brought up so high only to fall deeper and harder. Sometimes we let past failures bog us down to thinking that it is impossible to excel now. This is just plain limiting beliefs. What we failed at in the past may not continue to be a failure now. Perhaps the time was just not right. Perhaps we have not met with the right people to enlighten us. Never ever give up your dreams.

There are people who are always busy thinking about the future instead of living life now. Are you one of them? Do you ask these questions? What if people laugh at me? What if I fail? “WHAT IF’s” can be turned into a positive notions if you are living here and now. What if I succeed? What if I am better than I thought I would be? What if I can help others achieve their goals too? These are very strong notable instincts that all animals have. These are the instincts that the top 1% of the people around the world have. The world “afraid” does not exist in their dictionary. The choice is in your hands. Choose to be just you or the better you.

Listen to your animal instincts. Attack when the time is right.

 

The word listen contains the same letters as the word silent.

Alfred Brendel KBE, Austrian pianist and lecturer, 1931-present

Self-Sufficient

We often question what it is in the world that we are looking for.

Each time we ask this question, we are placing ourselves in a situation of uncertainty. There are many realms in this world. Whatever we see is only limited to our own imagination. Some people are gifted with the vision of certainty. If you are to interview them, they will probably tell you stories of their travel through space and time to realms that we can only dream of going.

To the normal people, these gifted humans are mystiques and that they are strange. Just because they are the minority with such a gift, that does not make them strange at all. In fact, it only makes them stronger.

As humans, we usually side the part where we think is true, anything our five senses can detect.

Whatever we see is of utmost importance to every one of us. That is the reason why people often say see to believe. What do you make of magic? We often think of magic as a trick that has been carefully engineered to make audiences see the unbelievable possibilities. What if there is magic beyond explanation? Has anyone ever questioned how Wim Hof is able to walk up Mount Everest without prior training, proper clothing, or any special equipment? Perhaps you would say that he is the special being. Do you know that he can train people to do the same things as he did? How do you explain that?

Whatever we hear is often taken as the second truth. However, we do not realize that our minds work in a very susceptible way to the negative side. Has anyone ever questioned why the news is always showing terrible events happening around the world? Is it because there are no great things happening that is worth reporting? It has all got to do with the audience. Making news is also a kind of business. Reporters will only make news that sells, and negative news are the most sellable ones. Somehow, majority of the common people just like to learn about disasters rather than enrichment.

Whatever we smell is what makes our mood for the day. Scent is something more subtle that the body processes differently from the rest of the other senses. It is something that can make our imagination run wild. If you smell something delicious, you will somehow feel a little urge to eat even though you know that you are not hungry. If you smell something calming, you can have a better night’s sleep compared to when you smell a stench of animal droppings. Everything has a scent to it. Somehow, because of sight and sound, we have neglected our sense of scent.

Whatever we eat has a taste to it. Some people are labelled as gourmet because their taste buds have much greater sense than the rest of the other people. This used to be a very important tool to let us get through life in the jungle. We have just forgotten the use of them along the way while we excel in the modern age. By just having a little taste of a plant in the tip of the tongue, we should be able to tell if it is food or poison. Losing touch with nature makes us more susceptible to ingesting unhealthy foods thinking they are for the best of us. Perhaps it is easier to explain that convenience is never nature intended for living.

Whatever we can feel by touch is what we deem real. Anything that we cannot touch is just talk. Humans love the fact that things come in cold hard evidence. While something we can touch is also something we can see, something people talk about that probably has a smell and taste to it, it does not mean that otherwise do not exist. What seems real can be from imagination. Everything that the mind can imagine can become a reality. We may not see it in our lifetime but it sure will become a reality in future. Before the Wright brothers invented the first flying machine, humans can never fly. It is through their imagination and perseverance that we are now able to go around the globe in less than 60 days.

There is one more sense that we have definitely lost touch with, the sixth sense. This is the most powerful of all senses. This is the one sense that keeps our ancestors alive in the harsh environment they had to live through in order to bring us to this world. This is not mystical, it is real. All babies had this but it is lost over time. It is lost because of the material things we feed our minds with. If you are a person who keeps asking “why he is so successful while I am not?” perhaps you are looking into the wrong direction. The answer is within. Only you can answer this question for yourself, nobody else can do it for you.

Always travel within for answers. Success will only come to people who are self-sufficient.

 

The snow itself is lonely or, if you prefer, self-sufficient. There is no other time when the whole world seems composed of one thing and one thing only.

Joseph Wood Krutch, American writer and naturalist, 1893-1970

Matters

What is the important thing we should focus on right now?

We have different perception at different stages in life. There is no one size fits all for anyone because whenever we encounter something new, we get enlightenment one way or the other. Whichever way we choose, it seems to be the right choice at that moment itself but then becomes irrelevant when we reach another stage of life.

Children tend to focus solely on play. This is because they feel play is fun and provides happiness. At that moment, joy is of utmost importance in their life. Nothing else seem to matter. However, there are those not so fun activities that they still have to deal with in the midst of having fun; school and studies. Some children find it interesting to learn something new in class and make friends along the way. There are always some who end up piling stress on their shoulders because they simply do not like the way classroom works. There are also some who become somebody else when they are in class because they want to be a top performer.

Guardians play an important role to guide the young minds to become better each day. As adults, it is our responsibility to nurture a better generation to come, not to impose upon them the dreams we have not achieved. Each individual should be allowed their own choice of life. Whether or not they make it through school with flying colours really does not matter. What matters most is that they become someone whom they want to become. As long as they are kind to themselves, others and nature, everything is worth-while.

People in the working environment tend to be obsessed with climbing up that career path or the total opposite, just working for the sake of money to pay the bills. While everyone makes their own choices, what really matters is the satisfaction within.

The hardworking people sometimes work too hard they have forgotten that life has many other elements to it. There should be time to spend with the family, friends, and oneself. Life is not just about being in the office and work through the day with minimal time for family, some time for friends, and no time at all for yourself. Life is about balancing between what seems important and what seems can be neglected.

Has it ever occurred to you that you are important?
Have you ever questioned what life is about?
How do you want to live the rest of your remaining life?
Is it living day to day?
Or you want that sense of fulfillment till your last breathe?

Humans have been searching for centuries of what life means. Everyone have different findings as each one has a different perception of how life should be. However vast the differences in opinion is, it only comes down to one thing.

Nothing really matters if one has no health.

You can have a bucket list full of things you want to achieve in life. But if you have no health, how are you going to achieve it? It is not impossible, you just need to find alternative paths to finally reach your goals.

How can you climb Mount Everest if you are 80 years old and laying in the hospital bed almost taking your last breath? Is there a way to go around it? Do you just lay there full of regrets for not taking great care of your health when you were younger and when you had the chance? Or do you keep on fighting till the end, telling yourself that you will walk again like you were in your twenties? The choice is yours.

It does not matter how limited your resources is, it only matters how resourceful you are. The human mind is the magical tool we each have. How we choose to use it is entirely up to us. You can choose to keep thinking of your limited resources, or you can choose to think of different solutions to a situation. Be the person you really want to be and live with no regrets.

Be kind to yourself, others, and nature. Nothing else matters.

 

Everyone goes through adversity in life, but what matters is how you learn from it.

Louis Leo Holtz (Lou Holtz), former American football player and coach, 1937-present

Anew

What is the meaning of life in the absence of a chance?

Everyone gets their chance at life. Sometimes, it is easy to see but most of the time, we lost the connection with our inner self. Every time we face with a challenge that is the time we need to remember to first look within.

Many people out there will say that there are so many ways to solve a problem if we just look outside. The world is at large and there is bound to be a solution somewhere. We love to surf the internet in search for that one suitable way of overcoming the obstacle. Sometimes, it is great to see what others do when they are facing the same problem as us. However, we have to understand one thing, we are all individuals. Even the slightest difference in ourselves will create a totally different outcome.

Sometimes, we might even become overloaded with information. With the minds of over 7 billion people in the world, everyone seems to be resolving their own problems in their own ways. While we are in search of the best solution, we can also get confused with the vast information we find over the web. What are we going to do about it?

First choice we see is probably through trial and error. This is the fastest way to set ourselves through the learning process. We take action to do our best to hopefully reap results of our hard work. We learn through failure. We learn through success. Each and every step of the way is a crucial learning point. It is only important that we actually learn from experience.

Second choice we choose is probably find a mentor. This is a great way to become a better person with the guidance of a successful one. Great mentors produces successful mentees. However, if we are just following blindly what the mentor says without incorporating our own ideas, we will succeed one way or the other but we sometimes also lose ourselves in the process. This may be a good thing in some cases, but may not be so in most. We have to remember one thing that we are all built differently for a reason.

Many people forget that there is a third choice that is the most ignored choice but is also the wisest choice. Amidst all the learning over the years from machine or other humans, we are ourselves. We can only learn so much to be someone but it will only make sense if we look deep within to find ourselves. We are so immersed in the outside world we keep forgetting that the most powerful source of energy is from within. The sun is the mother source of all energy on earth but our minds is the ultimate source of all energy in the universe. There is a universe within us.

Living through life over the years seem to be great. Day in day out we do the things that we think is for the best of ourselves and the people around us. With each challenge we face, we learn a little bit more. However, we forget one very important action, to have checkpoints.

Each one of us should have checkpoints every now and then to measure ourselves as a whole. We love to live day by day thinking that our life is perfect. Just because we managed to solve all the problems that arise along the way. Just because we went through each challenge easily. This only means that we are able to overcome life as we live by. Have we ever stop and take a look at ourselves every now and then? Have we ever taken the liberty to just remember to check-in to ourselves to see how we are doing? Have we ever taken time to understand ourselves the way we should?

There is a calling. A wakeup call. This is not the usual wakeup call in the morning to make us get out of bed. This is one that we really need to wake up to see that we need to change and start anew. The current life is great but we have forgotten to check in. This checkpoint tells us that we have not been taking good care of ourselves. This checkpoint is the result of our misunderstanding in life. This very checkpoint is the turning point that makes all the difference, it is a matter of life and death.

Search within to find your calling. It is time to start anew.

 

I always liked the story of Noah’s Ark and the idea of starting anew by rescuing the things you like and leaving the rest behind.

Zachary Israel Braff (Zach Braff), American actor, 1975-present