Only Once, Never Again, to have all of You

 

Life is so short…why wasting time on putting our attention to people and things that do not bring any good to us and others.

6 months…

From 11^th Sept until today, is my fastest pace I have ever went through

The fastest road of life I have ever taken in my life

(Photo credit to Taufiq: A photo taken in India during his tour)

I have learnt so many things and so many people I have know them better.

In this period of time, many hard choices have also been made.

Example, should I just continue this way of life? Is this what I am seeking for in my entire life? Do I just want to pass or to get as many distinctions or something more than that? Should I continue to call someone like these as my friends?

Thankfully, with parents, Dhamma, lecturers and friends, all these questions have been answered and accomplished well too.

Staying in the present…ponder upon the past… wonder about the future

(Another photo credit to Taufiq capturing a mesmerizing photo of another friend, Fakhrul)

I am grateful that by the end of this solid 6 months I am rewarded to have the time with friends and family for 3 weeks back home.

My most productive thing I have did for this 3 weeks will be able to change a person back to his life- as in his real life (regardless is happy or sad, but at least it is real). He controls his life better now. He listens to himself better now.

My memorable time will be also to be able to be back to Shah Alam, INTEC. I just get to meet 2 people though I have travelled so far there. But, I am satisfied very much because at least the 2 person I met is still as healthy as they were.

I went to Shah Alam Buddhist temple. But for this place, I just do not want to comment much. It is a place more I just want to keep it for myself.

I went to IMU. How excited can I be to meet a friend I have not met for a year? The lucky thing is also I have him to bring me around IMU campus, I thought this is once in a lifetime chance. I also met with other INTEC friends, and again just 2 of them. I do not know why, but I prefer to keep my visit a private one, so I did not inform anyone until I reach and whoever I get to meet, I did, whoever I don’t, till next time.

I was also in Nottingham University. I met most of them from INTEC. Memorable time in the Valentine’s Day Night Gathering, people were much sincere and talk anything they want, I thought just seeing them made me felt warm though some of them claimed that I look bored, now and here I just want to tell, I AM NOT! How much I would want to visit all of you again though my mouth have kept saying I am not stepping there anymore, so again, who knows what my heart say?

Back to school- S&D marching Competition

(Photo credit of Harinder Singh)

I was in Penang Free School, particularly for the S&D Marching competition. Wearing shorts and not tucking in, to me is one of the biggest sins a person can do when they attend such a formal event, yet I am forgiven, and is something I really appreciate! I am so sorry, it was so last minute I decided to attend. But I am not only being treated nicely, I am asked to give a speech, I rejected to punish myself for my attire as well as to realise I am just an old man now. But later, when I am asked to give evaluation, I just felt bad enough to say NO again. A very boring evaluation I have given, as I personally feel, tells me I have not entitled to comment on any current issues of Unit 25 anymore. I am seriously a Veteran of the Veterans in this Unit as years coming by.

CNY Potluck Party- my fist gathering once reach Penang

Photo credit of Nimmalan

I have duties with VAD 21 in Thaipusam as well as CNY Potluck, and I met again another few Unit 25 oldies and we discuss a few things. They felt excited to hear from me, but I am sure they did not know I am more excited to tell, after such a long time I did not get to talk with all of them.

Now, at this present moment, I missed all my friends in India. I can’t wait to see all of them. My friends ranged from the bookshop owner, bank officer, hostel wardens, food court food seller and last but of course not the least to me, my classmates!

Do you realise anything different with my writing this time? Interestingly, I just write anything I want today and more prominently, no philosophical articulation. This must be good news for those that have thought my previous posts as boring due to much “weird stuffs”.

 

Whether we like it or not, when the time come, we need to pack and continue with our journey

However, although this separated road we will be walking might be still  far and unsure, let us still put up a smile on our face, to feel so glad that at least on the previous road, we have walk together.

 

Only Once, Never Again, to have all of You

 

Time waits for no man…but it is OK, we can wait for time to come for us. When the time come again, old friends will surely meet again too.

 

 

Till next time,

May all be well and happy!

My Truth? Your Truth? Who has the Real Truth?

 

Realising I have a big load of PBL assignment to read, I chose to sit here to write something.

I realised I have abandoned my blog for a long time, not because I am really that busy, but simply because of I am obeying the Principle of Conservation of Energy which will be:

“Energy is not destroyed or either created, but preserved or converted into other form”.

Why do I say so?

The initial energy when I reach India when I first came here have stopped me from blogging, and this energy or stopping force is not destroyed or disappeared but simply converted into procrastination and giving self-excuses that I cannot do certain things.

As it gets on day after day, it became a common way to carry out my life and so I do not ever question whether am I really that busy to not update this blog.

It just goes on until I have time to made reflection and convert the energy into a kinetic force to move me.

And so I am here….

We do such things many times in life.

For example, we always feel we cannot do certain subject in our studies no matter how hard we try or even to the smallest thing in life such as facing difficulty to talk to a particular person.

Why?

This is what I call the culture of the mind.

When we have to attempt or carry out anything, when condition is suitable and it arises, we put up a perception or we group certain things under certain category.

For example, A is good and so B is bad, A is nice and so B is ugly, A is hard and so B is easy.

Some think the above is longer some think  it is shorter, but mostly that think it is the same

It does not matter what they think, the point is people made different perceptions upon their conditions that had arised

 

That perception will then be kept in our mind, and we hold on to it without even any questions to them.

That perception before even we realise, become a system of belief in us.

That system of belief before we realise again, make us thought it was a truth.

Everyone is seeking for Truth… Everyone claim to have the Best Truth… However, how true is Truth? Are they true?

As we accepted the truth, it became our practise and soon it became part of us- as I will call it as a habit.

And anything that go against that habit will be taken as WRONG and NOT THE TRUTH.

Because of that, we resisted our self from doing things we think we cannot do.

Because of that, we see certain things as truth when they might not be actually.

Because of that, people that do anything that is not align to our truth, we call them disobedient or unknowledgeable.

Because of that, we dislike people, we discriminate people- to whoever we think that have against “our self-perceived truth”.

Therefore, we find this set of judgement within the society among the diverse community.

Therefore, in our daily cultivation, if we are not aware we are developing the resistance to see the real truth by letting the mind to accept the un-truth then sooner or later, our eyes will be filled by the dust even without realising.

What we belief and undertake might not be the real truth, it is just our mind projection.

We see who we are, we are who we see

 

What should I do to prevent that then?

Unlearn, relearn and learn is the ultimate process I must learn.

Belief that nothing is permanent and when the time comes for its cessation, contemplation has to be made, rather than feeling upset and revengeful.

To only do that, we need to let go and hold nothing in life no matter how much we think we need it.

Letting go is not the end of what belong to us…

Letting go is the beginning of our ability to control what we had

 

This includes letting go to what I am saying now.

Whatever I am saying now, you must also let go and do not hold it strongly.

 

Why do I say so?

In Buddhism, it thought us that the Noble Truth is not to have desire.

However, not to have desire is a kind of desire.

Therefore, having no desire by also not having the desire to not have desire is the actual ultimate goal we try to attain.

Same goes to what is happening here, preaching the truth of not holding any truth strongly so we can see the truth is including to let go of this current truth.

If people have always wondered what the Middle Path is, this is what the Middle Path means.

To keep yourself in the Middle Path, trying it too hard even for the Middle Path will make you not in the Middle Path anymore; therefore the real Middle Path is the ultimate stillness of mind or in simple- REAL MIDDLE.

Middle Path

Therefore, practice anything we want in life with simplicity and balance, then we can see this world a simpler and in a more harmony way.

 

Free ourself from perception, free ourself from ideas as how the Great Tao Master had beautifully said to begin Tao Te Ching and how  I will use it to beautifully end my piece:

 

The tao that can be told

is not the eternal Tao

The name that can be named

is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.

 

Naming is the origin

of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.

Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

…

Therefore the Master

acts without doing anything

and teaches without saying anything.

Things arise and she lets them come;

things disappear and she lets them go.

She has but doesn't possess,

acts but doesn't expect.

When her work is done, she forgets it.

That is why it lasts forever.

 

 

May all be well and happy!