Animals are also our "brothers" and "sisters"

They know where they have to go

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Have you ever seen birds flying in a flock in the sky? Did you ask yourself, "Where are they coming from, and where are they going?" In a certain season they look so coming out into our area. They land on the farm fields or lakes. And when the seasong is ended, they are gone to another places far away they know. They will come back again in the next same season after their long journey. Maybe they have stories from another sides of this planet earth.

 

Walt Disney could make films about them. Of course they have stories about their journey: how to get food for the colony, how to survive from enemies' attacks, how to find a right place to land and make their nests, how to teach their new generations to fly, etc. And above all: how to know the seasons!

 

Mother nature gives them everything to survive. I just imagine how they have "faith" about this! And look, lakes become lively with their chatter. The sky becomes so beauty not only with its blue, clouds, sunshine, but also with their flights. It's so beautiful when they are dancing in a formation in the sky, isn't it? We can see the mother nature provides an entertaining performance presented by the birds and their fellows in a proper season.

 

What do they do? I just think about a celebration of being creature and part of the harmony! ***

Manusia dan Alam Semesta

Ketika saya kembali ke judul blog ini - Natural Wisdom - seolah ada satu hal yang masih mengganjal dalam hati, sesuatu yang secara lugas harus saya pertanyakan sendiri: Bagaimana mungkin alam semesta mempunyai kebijaksanaan? Maka saya ingin mensharingkan kerangka pikir di balik proses permenungan dari setiap entry blog ini.

"Natural Wisdom", "kebijaksanaan alam" adalah hasil dari pengolahan akal budi atas pengalaman manusiawi bersama alam sekitar.

Alam semesta (universe) adalah suatu entitas mahaluas (enormous) dan menyimpan misteri yang selalu imanen sekaligus transenden bagi sosok manusia, makhluk berakal budi. Bagaimana persepsi manusia tentang alam ini akan menentukan bagaimana manusia berinteraksi dengannya.

Tetapi saya berpikir, semenjak manusia ada di alam semesta ini, semenjak itulah alam semesta bersifat human! Tentu saja itu sejauh alam semesta ini berada dalam jangkauan akal budi manusia.

Atas dasar pemikiran inilah, manusia mampu menangkap dan menterjemahkan nilai-nilai kehidupan yang dia jumpai (encountering) dalam kesehariannya bersama alam. Dari situlah istilah "kebijaksanaan" muncul dan berkembang. Bahkan kemudian "kebijaksanaan" yang dimengerti oleh manusia itu dalam perkembangannya membimbing manusia kepada sosok pribadi, personifikasi dari "kebijaksanaan tertinggi" - "the ultimate wisdom" yang merangkum (bahkan mengatasi) semua kebijaksanaan yang dikenal akal budi manusia.

Paradigma tentang alam semesta bergeser. Semesta yang semula dimengerti secara terpisah (bahkan infrahuman semata) menjadi semesta yang menginklusikan keberadaan manusia di dalamnya. De facto manusia adalah bagian dari semesta bersama makhluk-makhluk lain. Dalam arti tertentu ada "kesejajaran" antara manusia dengan makhluk-makhluk lain itu. Secara logis kesejajaran ini memungkinkan manusia "berdialog" dengan mereka. Dengan cara itu pula manusia berakal budi ini semakin mengenali dirinya di hadapan dan dalam rengkuhan semesta yang mempribadi.

Dalam paradigma inilah kita mengerti bahwa semesta "memancarkan" kebijaksanaannya yang dalam blog ini diterjemahkan dalam istilah "Natural Wisdom". Manusia bisa bercermin dari pancaran "kebijaksanaan" itu. ***

My little shoots, looking for the light!

Solution is already potentially within our being!

Well… I think everybody knows that sunlight is very vital for every living thing even every being on this planet earth. Who can imagine there is no sunlight? Darkness! Moonlight might be the second hero. Ok! But the moon has its light from the sun, and it only reflects the sunlight. The sun is still the super hero!

What I will share here now is not the scientific knowledge about the sun or the moon. But I’m talking about the light which is very essential for our living. When we are in darkness, we need light! We long for the light! No light, no living! The rest is a question: Is light the solution while the sun is still shining upon the earth?

I’ve got a lesson from my little shoots.

I like gardening. It sounds funny as I am living in a paying house with no landscape or space to grow plants like in a common garden. So I’m going with my little pots. The plants I attend are just popular ones. Some are so easy to grow, one of them is philodendron.

Several days ago I slipped of sticks of philodendron into my pots, two sticks in every pot. Each one of them had just two internodes with one leaf left. No real root they had except nodules at their internodes. Done! I gave them water, and place them on the floor in my veranda. Days went by, until I found something happening. There were small shoots breaking out of their leaves’ armpit! Of course they were still small leaves.

Now, they look like the picture shown above. You see, they are going to crawl, as if they’d want to reach something to hold on. And the growing is about to a certain direction. Yes! They are going to the direction of the sunlight! (I toke the picture in the morning at about 09.00 AM). Do you see anything special on my little philodendron? What about this one: the closer to the sunlight has grown longer than others! There are more leaves at that part. Why?

You can give me a scientific explanation on this phenomen. In simple words I would say that my philodendron needs the light for its growing. It has photo-sensory cells to detect the lights. As the cells get the light intensively they are stimulated to multiply themselves faster than others. As an individu the philodendron mobilizes supporting elements of its growing in great quantities to them shaping new branches and leaves. The results of the photosynthesis done by the cells will be spread to all parts of the plant. The cells grow extensively as they multiply themselves faster, while the others grow more intensively, they become thicker and stronger.

That’s a common and natural fact.

By the nature, plants need light “to grow well”. By the nature, the plants have all elements and potentiality “to grow”. I say so with quotation-marks on the two phrases “to grow” and “to grow well”. It means, when the plants get no enough light, they are still capable to grow, even with no light at all they still grow though it’s going hardly to mention easy to die. They will grow pale, and will be burnt as soon as you place them under the sunlight immediately. What I would like to say is that the light is just a catalystic factor more than a basic element of the plants.

When my philodendron is growing extensively to the direction of the sunlight, it seems like a process of looking for a solution! The sunlight is supposed to be the solution. In fact, it’s just a process of cells consentration. And it’s just a bio-chemical process as plants have no neural structure – like those of animals – to enable a kind of decission making. But, as I have to get the lesson from this process, I would like to say: to concentrate the supporting elements in great quantities to the lightened shoots is the exact and actual decission – and so the solution – my philodendron can make to grow better than before! My philodendron makes the potentiality actual as soon as the sunlight shines intensively upon it!

Human being is higher than vegetative beings. We have emotions, intelligence, and – don’t forget – spiritual-religious view. Even we have all dimensions of all beings including physical and vegetative ones. So, the experience with my philodendron looking for the sunlight above might give us insights to take. Some would be as follow:

• Inherently plants have sensitive photo-sensoric cells to detect the light source direction. (We have intelligence and capabilities to know better about our basic needs to be real human! Recognize your own talents!)
• Light is just a stimulus as well as catalyst factor for the proses of growing, not the basic element. Even in the darkness plants are still capable to grow! Sunlight is the best one among the others that will stimulate and catalize the process. (What is the most dream of your life? What is the goal of your life? Remember, it’s not the solution but the best direction you can go!)
• When they get the sunlight, the plants concentrate the supporting elements in greater quantities to the intensively-lightened-cells shaping shoots and leaves extensively. That’s a kind of exact decission, movement-for-solution, and actualization of potentiality which has existed in every vegetative being by the nature. (When you get the direction, and so believe in it, then go for it with all of your talents and energy! You have them already! Make them actual, and fulfil them in your move now! That’s the solution!)

I would like to recite a brief song from the “Sister Act II” soundtrack movie to end this post:

“If you wanna be somebody,
if you wanna go somewhere,
you better wake up and pay attention!”

Thank you, and God bless you all! *** (",)

What a stink!

A Paradoxical Consideration of Bad Experiences

I was working in my garden when I got in need for some fertilizer to make my plants grow well. I like using organic fertilizers, e.g.: compost and dungs. I had none of it now. I went to my friend’s house where I knew there was much of dung of his goats. When I got there, I found the stable cleaned. He had threw the dung away to a certain place in his garden. I looked for it, and found it swarmed over by some flies. What a stink! I had to inhale such a smell hardly unless I got nothing. Of course I didn’t take the wet and fresh putrifying dung. It’s too hot for my plants, and capable enough to make them withered in hours. I had to set it aside to get the completely decayed dung. It looked like humus. Then I had a plastic bag of it. Done! I got away from that damned stinky place to inhale fresh air soon. Easy relieves…! And I went home to have my plants manured.

I know, and so do people, that waste things always generate smells. They make air polution by it. No one like them! I’m sure you know which one has the stinkiest smell! I’ll tell you as far as I can memorize the smells:

Human feces seems to be the number one! Agree? (LOL!)
Number two goes to animal dungs! (chickens, goats, cows, etc.)
Number three goes to decomposing rubbish..

Ironically, as far as I know, the most stinkiest waste things is the best manure for plants! Probably it’s because of the rich minerals in it. Manure from human feces is the most expensive to buy, prove it! (Lol!) And one more thing you’d agree is that organic fertilizer is better than chemical one. We have to thank to bacterias that do such a great function to decompose the waste things and change them to be useful nutrient for plants. The organic fertilizers make soil pretty good for anyplant, while chemicals make it tough.

Insights:

I found something disturbing in my mind. It’s a paradox! Life’s cycle seems need this paradox to keep running:

• What if there is no bacterias on this earth? What if there is no worms and maggots? Who would be the hero?
• What if there is no decomposition process?
• What if there is no transformations?
• What kind of living is imagined to be?

Life is passing by with many kind of residual experiences. Some of them are painful to memorize. If we do not “decompose” them, they can be poisons instead of fertilizers for our going life. The can be corrupting fiercely. Like the dungs have to be in a proper place to decompose, so would be that of dark sides of our experiences. If stinky smell’s generated temporarily, let it happen. Everything needs time to go. But let it be something meaningful. That would be a sign of transformation. Be with paradoxical thinking upon them to experience the spot of decomposition! It would be the spot of salvation where all blessings are! Dungs are blessings for plants, so be it the dark sides of our life for us! Such a thinking would bear reversions by which we will consider our life in a new way.

Such a thinking has borne millions of odes, poetries, lyrics, songs, verses and wisdoms. They are powerful words we human can get towards a true life. They build any of our convictions, and above all our faith to God the Merciful One!

“Verily, verily, I say unto you: Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” – Joh 12,24 ***

Learning from Ant, The Discoverer

"Teacher of Achievement"


I bought a fried egg-coated milkfish and three slices of soybeans for dinner. But I couldn’t use them up at once. To prevent them of being spoiled, then I re-fried the rest and saved them in my locker for my breakfast for the next morning. I was sure they would not be stolen by cats or rats. So I did not worry about that side-dishes.

Breakfast time had come. Imagining the delicious milkfish, I opened the locker. How disappointed I was! No cats or rats had stolen my milkfish and soybeans, but ants! They swarmed over it! There was a line of troopers coming and going directly to and from my locker. I was so annoyed by them! They was out of my estimation that there might be a “spy” watching me putting them in my locker. Poor I was, luck for the colony…

It was an ordinary event actually. Nothing’s odd with it. But something occurs in my mind: So, the ants got the hiden milkfish! How could “the spy” find it and then told the others to “celebrate” the discovery?

Scientist has told us that ants have antennas as radars. That’s why they can detect objects to find. From this information I try to make a reconstruction: Smelling milkfish has been detected by a certain ant. It made an identification on the smell that led it to the source. The ant knew what it was looking for! Then it moved back and forth looking for the source of the smell ceaselessly. Footprints were made as a clue for the coming back to the colony. (Has an ant ever been lost? Hehehe…) After a long journey of tracking, and only led by the smell, finally the ant found the object, my delicious milkfish! “Hurrrraaay…!!!” it shouted cheerfully. It picked up a bite of sample and went back to the colony. It told everybody about the discovery by clinking their antennas ones to another. And they just followed the trace to the object. “It’s time to feast!” the shouted happily. And so the celebration began!

“Congratulations!” If I were one of them, surely I’d like to say that for the achievement. Why not? The discovery of the hiden milkfish was a kind of achievement, wasn’t it?

Insights:
Lessons I’ve got from the discoverer ant would be:
• Identify the real target to achieve!
• I should know what I’m looking for so that I could recognize when I find it.
• I should not give up for the achievement.
• Keep in mind the clues to prevent of repeating the same mistakes.
• I should share what I’ve got to others.
• Celebrate the achievement as a thanksgiving!

Thank you discoverer ant! You are a good teacher of achievement and sharing of life! ***


NB.: The picture above was uploaded by my friend s_bala, myLotter from India, with title "Ant, one of wise creatures". Thanks for it!

Have you ever felt accompanied, even when you're alone?

I had once in 2001 when I was lost in a jungle. While I was taking a rest from walking without any certain direction, I found a beautiful flower next to the place where I was sitting. It's blooming from the ground in the heap of dry leaves. I didn't know what flower it was. It was very impressive and looked like a subject which wanted to say something to me. As if the lonely flower said, "I am here with you!" I was entertained and felt accompanied by that flower.

What actually occured in my mind was I felt accompanied by someone in whom I believed. I did not worry about being lost lonely in the jungle then. Even a flower could be a partner of communication though it's just internally. I think, it was a process of internal communication in a sense of symbolism. The flower had became a symbol for the presence of God. It presented my memories of God with his words, the words of accompaniment.

"I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." - Matthew 28,20. ***

Living A Dream

What does motivate your life? It could be something that makes you happy. It is! How could we be motivated by a tragic thing without any virtue inside? A virtue or meaning gives us spirit to strive, to struggle and to fight against any threat. Life is not rolling smoothly. Sometimes the path is up, sometimes down. It could happen that we immerse in desolations as well as consolations. What does make us still holding on our life?

It should be our faith, our confidence, our hope, our dream of a certain happiness.

"Climb Every Mountain" - Richard Chamberlain in "The Sound of Music"

Climb every mountain,
search high and low...
Follow every byway,
every patch you know...

Climb every mountain,
ford every stream...
Follow every rainbow,
till you find your dream...

A dream that will need all the love you can give...
Every day of your life for as long as you live...

Climb every mountain,
ford every stream...
Follow every rainbow,
till you find your dream...

So, be not afraid of dreaming, it just keeps us awake! It prepares us to climb every mountain! ***

Messages from The Sky

Look at the horizon when the dawn’s breaking, or when the twilight’s coming. Have you ever seen the unique configuration of the clouds with the sunlight flashing through from behind? Sometimes it looks like a flock of lambs trooping out of the stable. Sometimes it paints a blazing fire. Sometimes it makes a figure of a certain face.

If you’ve watched “The Agony and The Ecstasy” movie, you could remind this: inspired by the silhouete of the clouds viewed from the top of mountain, Michael Angelo made a wonderful fresco on the ceiling of Chapel Sistine. It became a masterpiece of the maestro, telling us about the history of creation in the Book of Genesis.

The brushing golden-red sleazy clouds in the sky may create a beautiful scenes that everyone’s never seen before, and after. Yes...it’s just once for all the time. We'll not see the same configuration again in some other time or opportunities. But when someone doesn’t miss it, and keeps it in his/her mind, or even contemplates on it, he/she cannot resist the spirit behind to express every single messages of the configurations.

The imagination doesn’t stop. Lucky are we as we are living in the era of imaging, so that we can capture the unique moments of the dawns or twilights into many beautiful pictures. Everyone else can enjoy them without seeing the sceneries with their own eyes. Yet, they can still get the messages from the beauty ones.

So, happy and blessed are those who can get the messages from the sky, like Michael Angelo. Through his artistic fresco Michael Angelo has brought to us the message: the divinity of the sky by which God tells us about the creation of the nature in its dignity.

Every single moments under the sky is worthy and meaningful, some even contains messages from the divine. Michael Angelo had his fresco. What do you have to record the message?

Maybe you have it in photos, paintings, poetry, or writings in your diary book. Some of them could be deeply enjoyable for others, some could be only for your own. But why don't you tell such the message to everybody? Sky is granted to every creature, so the messages from beyond should be told to everyone for the goodness of all creatures, for the glory of The Creator.

Anything you do with the messages from the sky, I think, would be memorable part of your simple growing faith... love... hope ...and freedom. As simple as it would be, it would be meaningful for the history of messages.

So, don’t miss the moments! ***

Note: This article has been posted also to AssociatedContent. Please give note or rate on there.

"Glorious Shoot" - Poetry

How could I say about you
Little stuff in the morning dew
Laying on the ground
Dying near the pond

Ooh dear...
Permiate your water, you said,
to let my body wet

Poor little seed...
be joyful for the lit
shining upon you
flashing from the blue

It's time to grow
You're not lonely
The wind softly blow
Cheering you up lovely

Don't you realize:
Your death is a grace
for a new living
for what we're waiting?

Be a glorious shoot...
Cheer up your little leaves!
Look at us around you!
Lively garden welcome you!

*** Happy Easter 2007 ***

"Verily, verily, I say unto you: Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." - John 12,24

A separated bluebottle (fly)

It's a bluebottle (fly), showing its beauty than its disgust.

I pictured it in Kaliurang, Jogjakarta, Indonesia on January 10th, 2007.

When I was in a park at Merapi View Guardhouse on January 10th, 2007, I was very much attracted by a bluebottle settling down on a leaf of a beautiful plant. There is an opinion that bluebottle is a disgusting animal as well as commonly we suspect flies. They accustom to swarm over stinky carrion, or organic things that’s going to putrefy. That's why they are accused to be responsible of the spreading of bad microbas. Seeing them we may feel loathing. Extreemly different was this bluebottle! What I saw was a beautiful one! Do you see the picture above? I think you agree it won’t make us feel loathing. Does a question why raise in your mind?

I asked my friend to comment on this. He said, the bluebottle looks so beautiful because of the circumstances. It was in a beautiful place, so it does seem like. Thus, its beauty came from outside.

It makes sense I think. But, what about the bluebottle itself? Has it no beauty at all? I’m afraid my friend just had a kind of negative opinion doe to the common opinion about this creature.

I did’t know actually what happened to this bluebottle. Why didn’t it fly away when I got very close to have it pictured? Was is sick? Was it sad? Was it dying? What was it doing? I didn’t know... What I knew was it was alone, separated from the others. And it’d chosen the right place, I thought. The leafs and little fruities arround just gave it impression on its inner-beauty. It has taken for granted that God created such creature. It has no wrong being a bluebottle, beautiful one.

Note:
Separation enables us to consider our objective existence. Supported by the right circumstances, we could find our own beauty before the Creator.

“... and God saw that it was good.” - (Gen 1,20-25) ***

Small fishes in my pool ...

I've just been in the corner of my office building yard, looking at a pool with some fishes in there. They were swimming naturally while picking something to eat from the bottom of the pool. Sometimes they got some food from the root of some plants flooding over it. View months ago there was no pool in the yard. But now, there is a living even some small fishes in a little bit of water, fishes with little mouths picking food that I just don't know where it is from. My friend and I've never given them pellets or whatsoever. But they can eat and alive, growing up day by day.

I wondered...
There is abundance of living for everyone who knows how to get it and then struggle for it. ***