Be a Lamp

You must be your own lamp, Be your own refuge. Take refuge in nothing outside yourselves. Hold firm to the Dharma as a lamp and a refuge. Do not look for refuge to anything besides yourselves.

— From the Nirvana Sutra

"A mind is like a parachute, it only works when it is open."

To Be or not to be - decide every moment.

Embrace The Simplicity Of This Moment

Susila and all she is is a hologram of her mind. She thinks she is a certain way, in the way she looks, feels and thinks. Her world is self/mind created and she dwells in it, is immersed in it, thinks she is it, and limits herself thereby. She is a product of her mind. Her world is projected outwards by her inner programs run by her mind. She goes through life thinking life is dishing her this or that, her world is like this or that, thinking she is at the mercy of an impersonal world out there. Little does she understand that she is the director, producer and actor in her drama and the world stage projected outwards by none other than herself. She is the perceiver, the act of perceiving and that perceived. She is all of this. If she can penetrate this all dissapears....and what is left is no-thing....yet everything. That which expresses through susila, is much, much more than just her ego life or mind life. That which is the ensparking, ensouling Being-ness is pure Presence, pure essence to be experienced to be known. It is beyond all paradigms, boundaries, explanations.

We are not at the mercy of some external force which moulds our lives. We create and mould it ourselves by our thoughts, feelings and actions. Once we gain control over our thoughts and feelings then we will be able to consciously create our lives just the way we want to live it.

• 
  
  On Speech and Silence - a compilation
  
  
  He who speaks much cannot be truthful.
  
  Every useless word spoken adds a brick in the barrier with the Soul.
  
  He who has mastered the tongue has mastered all.
  
  Mastery of tongue (outer speech)
  Mastery of mind (inner speech)
  is the key to freedom.
  
  To master the tongue is to master the lower nature.
  
  Watch then - what you think and what you speak.
  
  
  Make a resolution every day just for this day to be
• watchful and careful of what is spoken and thought
• about.
  
  
  Mastery over mind and tongue will improve physical
• health because partly there is no loss of nervous
• energy through idle speech; partly there would not
• constantly arise the little karmic debts of wrong speech.
  
  
  
• One cannot climb up the spiritual ladder
  furthur till one has mastered one's tongue.
  
• 
  Before one speaks stop to think:
• is it kind? helpful? the truth?
  and then speak
  
• 
  Before great truths which r secrets r
• entrusted unto one's care one must
• demonstrate that :
• "I CAN HOLD MY TONGUE"
  
• The next step up the ladder can be climbed
• only when one has mastered one's mind.
• In simple everyday situations are we thus tested
• for spiritual ripeness.
• A promise is a promise and is a sacred thing.
• Talkative people fritter away their energy
• which ought to be employed in useful action.
• " TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL AND TO BE SILENT. "

• "We must know the truths of Nature and dare to
• use them. To use the Powers that become ours on
• this Path we must have a strong will that can control
• ourselves too. Then when these things are done we
• must know enough to be silent about them."
• We have all to learn by repeated dissapointments that we
• cannot help a man along the way which he is not yet ready
• to tread. Thus we become much quieter.

• Small Desires.
• Never wish to shine or to appear clever.
• Have no desire to speak unless you are
• quite sure that what you wish to say is
• true, kind, and helpful. This will make you
• slow in conversation. Gradually you will
• find you talk less and that will be a good thing.

The 12 Virtues of the Heart Center
Discipleship In The New Age II p.660

1. Group Love
2. Humility
3. Service
4. Patience
5. Life
6. Tolerance
7. Identification with others
8. Compassion
9. Sympathy
10. Wisdom
11. Sacrifice
12. ( )

It is wisdom which is seeking wisdom.

The reward in life will always be in proportion to the risk.

There is nothing kept from you
that you have not kept from yourself.

The softest of all things can subdue
the hardest things in the world.

When the student is ready
the teacher will appear.

The greatest carver does the least carving.

It is not brute force, but the art of doing
that gets things done effortlessly.

Do not speak of the ocean to the frog that lives in the well.

Mastering others requires power;
Mastering oneself requires strength.

Your self worth must be able to withstand
the rejection of others.

You don't get what you want; you get what you expect.
Expect Perfection.

Act without agitation; strive without strain.

The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.
Your teacher pointing the way is not that which is sought.

One who knows he has enough is wealthy.

The more you give away, the greater your abundance.

Before you can break out of prison
you must first realize you're locked up.

Experience which destroys innocence
also leads one back to it.

Some people try to tiptoe softly through life
so they can arrive at death safely.

Anger is passion.
Deny it and lose your zest for living;
Succumb to it and lose your zest for loving;
Balance it and use it to move forward.

Those who would conquer must yield.

Yield and remain whole;
Be empty and remain full.

Tranquility is master of turbulence

Courage is simply the willingness
to be afraid and act anyway.

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.

DARE to be happy.

Exalt not achievement, and people will not compete;
Exalt not possessions, and people will not steal.

http://www.advaita.org.uk/teachers/direct_path.htm

"You are perfect; uncover the person who feels something is missing, and what remains is perfection. … Leave the mind and body free to be what they are and you will no longer be their slave." - Jean Klein

"The attribution of reality to things which rise in thoughts is the cause of all bondage - Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon

"I feel that there is still, in you, some waiting for an event called 'enlightenment' at the end of a purification process. See the absurdity of this. It is more of the same game of rejecting the now. Consciousness is here and now. You are that, here and now and forever. Whatever may come up in the future can only be an illusion. That which is real doesn't come and go. It will not arise in the future. It is now and forever." -Francis Lucille.

http://www.soul-guidance.com/houseofthesun/index.htm#best protection


from an ancient alchemical manuscript...

Solum Omnium Lumen is a Latin expression which means "The Sun shines everywhere".

Another powerful phrase is Amor Vincit Omnia, the Latin expression for "Love Conquers Everything".

Why March By Former Bar Council President‏

***Why Do Malaysians March?***

Yeo Yang Poh

(The Sun, 3 Aug 2009)

WHY march, when the government has said that it will review the Internal Security Act? Why march, when there are other very cosy ways of giving your views and feedback?

One would understand if these were questions posed by nine-year-olds. But they are not. They are questions posed by the prime minister of this nation we call our home. Answer we must. So, why?

Because thousands who died while in detention cannot march or speak anymore. That is why others have to do it for them.

Because persons in the corridors of power, persons who have amassed tremendous wealth and live in mansions, and persons who are in the position to right wrongs but won’t, continue to rule our nation with suffocating might. And they certainly would not march. They would prevent others from marching.

Because the have-nots, the sidelined, the oppressed, the discriminated and the persecuted have no effective line to the powerful.

Because the nice ways have been tried ad nauseam for decades, but have fallen on deaf ears. Because none of the major recommendations of Suhakam (including on peaceful assembly), or of the commissions of inquiry, has been implemented.

Because the proposed Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) is not in sight, while corruption and insecurity live in every neighbourhood; and (despite reasoned views expressed ever so nicely in opposition) Rela (people’s volunteer corps) is being brought in to make matters even worse.

The proponents in “Su Qiu” (remember them?) were not marchers.

In fact it is hard to find nicer ways than “su qiu”, because the term means“present and request” or “inform and request”. In terms of putting forward a view or a request, it is the height of politeness. Yet they were labelled “extremists” – they who did not march.

And now you ask, why march?

Because you gave non-marchers a false name! You called them the “silent majority”, who by virtue of their silence (so you proudly argued with twisted logic) were supporters of government policies since they were not vocal in raising objections. You claimed to be protecting the interest of the “silent majority”. Now some of them do not want to be silent anymore, and you are asking why?

Yes, because double standards and hypocrisy cannot be covered up or explained away forever; and incompetence cannot be indefinitely propped up by depleting resources.

Because cronyism can only take care of a few people, and the rest will eventually wake up to realise the repeated lies that things were done in certain ways purportedly “for their benefit”.

Because the race card, cleverly played for such a long time, is beginning to be seen for what it really is – a despicable tool to divide the rakyat for easier political manipulation.

Because it does not take much to figure out that there is no good reason why Malaysia, a country with abundant human resources and rich natural resources, does not have a standard of living many times higher than that of Singapore, an island state with no natural resources and that has to import human resources from Malaysia and elsewhere.

Because, in general, countries that do not persecute marchers are prosperous or are improving from their previous state of affairs, and those that do are declining.

Because Gandhi marched, Mandela marched, Martin Luther King marched, and Tunku Abdul Rahman marched.

Because more and more people realise that peaceful assemblies are no threat at all to the security of the nation, although they are a threat to the security of tenure of the ruling elite.

Because politicians do not mean it when they say with a straight face or a smile that they are the servants and that the people are the masters. No servant would treat his master with tear gas, batons and handcuffs.

Because if the marchers in history had been stopped in their tracks, places like India, Malaysia and many others would still be colonies today, apartheid would still be thriving in South Africa, Nelson Mandela would still be scribbling on the walls of Cell 5, and Obama would probably be a slave somewhere in Mississippi plotting to make his next midnight dash for the river.

And because liberty, freedom and dignity are not free vouchers posted out to each household.

They do not come to those who just sit and wait. They have to be fought for, and gained.

And if you still want to ask: why march; I can go on and on until the last tree is felled. But I shall obviously not.

I will end with the following lines from one of the songs sung in the 1960s by civil rights marchers in the US, without whom Obama would not be able to even sit with the whites in a bus, let alone reside in the White House:

“It isn’t nice to block the doorway

It isn’t nice to go to jail.

There are nicer ways to do it

But the nice ways have all failed

It isn’t nice; it isn’t nice

You’ve told us once,

you’ve told us twice

But if that’s freedom’s price

We don’t mind ...”

(Yeo Yang Poh is a former Bar Council president.)

Pictures speak a thousand words

Mt. Kailash

Wild Horses

Camping on the Himalayas

Quetzal bird

Iceberg

Borobudur, Indonesia

Wave

Multi coloured wild flower

Deer

Rare white peacock

Contemplation

UFO cloud

sunset

solar flares

Peace and calm

northern lights

himalayas

Moonshine

Dolphins at sunset

Mothering instinct

Begin the journey now

Australian Bee Eater

St. Theresa's Prayer:

May today there be peace within.
May you trust that you are exactly

where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities

that are born of faith in yourself and others.
May you use the gifts that you have received,

and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content with yourself just the way you are.
Let this knowledge settle into your bones,

and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and everyone of us.

ஏல்லாம் என் நன்மேக்காக தான்.

In all things a balance has to be found....

George Eliot:
It is good to be helpful and kindly, but don't give yourself to be melted into candle grease for the benefit of the tallow trade.

Barbara De Angelis:
Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.

Truisms of the day

“Life is always about the journey, never about the destination,”

“Go with the flow.”

“Roll with the punches.”

“Let go of ideas you have about life.”

“Take life as it comes.”

“Life is ever shifting and re-forming.”

“It is now the time to let go of all paradigms.”

“Life is changing and taking new meaning.”

“The old is no more; let go; embrace the new.”

“Nothing ever dies; it merely changes forms.”

“People come and go, learn to make new friends.”

"A mind is like a parachute, it only works when it's open."

Issues explained are issues resolved. No carry forward.