Morning still reserves new things to receive. The show comes from blossoming flowers under the morning sunlight. Droplets of dew are on the stage as well. Focus on the yellow flower! It shows its ultimate beauty, I think. So, it seems to show the glory of nature. That should be a significant note: morning time should be a glory!
What about humankind? It the glory of nature, e.g. flowers, is shown by flowers when they are blooming, when should the glory of man be shown in the morning?
Morning time breaks a new day more. We start our activities. So, what is the first thing we do when waking up from the bed that shows our glory? Prayer, a morning prayer!
I give the picture "Laudes" as wondering if a flower were praying. At that moment, it should be the best performance of a flower! Laudes (Lat.) = Morning Service, Morning Prayer. [skd]
Friday, December 19, 2008
Glory of Flowers - Laudes
Monday, November 24, 2008
Get closer!
Get closer! and you will find more than when you stay away.
Human eyes are not only these two at your lovely face, but also those in your heart. That's why human being can understand more deeply about things than any other creatures. The more you get information, the more you get comprehensive understanding through which you will construct priorities and attitudes and so your responsibilities upon your life, particularly and generally. Even particular experiences on the spot can drive awareness of responsibilities in wider aspects.
For instant, I did not realize that in bushes there is a community of micro-living. When I got closer with my camera, I could see bugs in there. The picture above shows a little bug that I never saw before, a weird one of little fellows. I became so curious, and it was surprisingly incredible that the visitation sparked many thoughts of significant roles of the micro-living dwelling in such area for the whole universe.
Usually bushes are neglected area; even more everybody thought they are so insignificant that they could have it cut-off without any consideration. People do not think too much of where the little fellows will go for their living after the cleaning-up. They do not care about what will happen if some of the bugs are getting perish or do not exist any longer. "There will be some other places for them," they think so, while other people do think the same.
There are still gardens. Yes, I hope so! I am even dreaming of having a square of garden. I have only pots of plants in my veranda. Lucky me, I still can see some kinds of bugs living in there...
Really, I do not know the exact roles played by the bugs. However I am really aware that they have in a certain dimension of human living, furthermore in whole nature. At least, spiritually and religiously, I convince that they have their role in God's sustaining creative work!
That's why they are absolutely significant! So, are we responsible for their existence? [skd]
Friday, October 31, 2008
Dancing ant
Look at this ant! It's dancing! Even an ant is capable of dancing as charming as it can. I really do not know how it usually expresses its feelings as well as I do not know whether ants understand about beauty or not. However, what I know is that it was dancing and making me surprised and entertained when I got it shot. It's beautiful; more or less it showed a kind of beauty.
What about you, Guys? Even this ant is dancing! Don't say that you are not capable of doing so to express your soul in beauty. Human being is more precious than ants. We are intellectual and religious being with enhancing talents and potentialities of creativities. Human dance must be more creative and so more beautiful than the dance of all ants. Not only to express the soul in beauty, dancing is wonderful way to communicate our integrity of being beautiful humankind, even without words. Love, happiness, sorrows, passions… faith, hopes and dreams… tough and struggling… and all aspects of our life has style of movement, that can be articulated in a set of artistic and harmonic movements: DANCING!
Have a wonderful day, and don't miss to make a pure dance, pure human dance, for today! It can be a help to be happy. Be blessed! [skd]
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Flies - Morning Talk
Download: 1024*576
"Hi, Guy! Good morning!"
"Hey...Good morning! It's a wonderful day, isn't it?"
"Thanks be to God... We have another new day, a blessing day for us. So, what's your plan for today?"
"Nothing special but simply essential."
"Oh yeaaa?!"
"Meet friends... going around to find something to keep living... changing decaying materials into useful substances for our Mother Nature... dancing and singing! That's the way we always celebrate the day, you know."
"We do... OK, then. Be blessed my friend! All the best!"
"You, too!" [skd]
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Fishing morning
Download: 1024*768
For some people morning is wonderful time to enjoy new day. Sunrise, fresh air, dews are things we love not to skip at every beautiful daybreak. They are like the most roles of beautiful shows in the morning.
However, morning time has more than just entertaining moment. It is moment to start activities of all mankind, even of all living things. See the pictures above! An old fisherman is ready to throw his net into the water. The collages would like to show how he does his fishing in that morning. He does it every morning.
When I see the picture more deeply, some insight comes into my mind, that morning time has to be beautiful moment of celebration: celebration of life in hope and readiness to face all things new! [skd]
Friday, September 12, 2008
Do you see a fish up there?
Download: 1024*780
Look up there on to the sky! You will find different configurations of clouds from time to time. Every single configuration is unique, sometimes so entertaining and amazing. When you see it, it would be a gift for you! It will not happen twice, will it?
I got the picture above on my way home from a suburb of metropolitan. I just stopped for a while as seeing beautiful scenery in front of my eyes: the sun was hiding behind a clump of cloud, giving a fantastic silhouette of a fish-alike. It seemed that nature was entertaining me with that kind of cloud's configuration. I thought that was just me enjoying the show. It might be a lucky, but to me it's more than just a good luck. Spiritually it could be a sign: a call for intimacy with nature to get closer to the Creator of all things....
Glory be to God, for giving me life in your providence, for keeping Thy eyes upon my ways... [skd]
Read another insight about sky: "Messages from the sky".
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Time to change
Download: 880*640
Intentionally I made this card to greet the Muslim people during a month-long of fasting in this Ramadan 1429 H. However the picture of a cocoon above can be an analogical sign for everyone dealing with everyone's own life in progress to be mature. There is a period in a life time, which has to be nothing but introspection. Internal actions should be done to drive spiritual powers for the next stage of life, a new life of a human being in the universe.
Look at the chrysalis! It's just counting down to metamorphosis, said Gerry Ryder the photographer of the beautiful picture. Of course it is man's point of view, but it is more than just so for the creature. Something happens inside. It is a self-construction to be a beautiful butterfly from a disgusting and horrible caterpillar. There is a process of metamorphosis, a naturally perfect metamorphosis. What's next? A beautiful butterfly will do a new life with a new mission in this universe. As a butterfly, it will be no longer a destructive creature: it will be a pollination agent for all flowers; it will be an agent of recreation. What a great butterfly it will be! However... it will be so after this critical period of being a fragile chrysalis in its silence...
Happy Fasting, brothers and sisters! [skd]
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Limited & Unlimited
Sea has no limit! Maybe you agree with the sentence. People can go anywhere they want to. However, everyone has to accept, that he or she is still in the boat by which they sail over the sea! There are still barriers they should not break. [skd]
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Patience
Every morning after parking my bike in the parking area I always see many ball-sized fruits spreading on my way to the office. I do not know what kind of fruit they are. Some lay on the hot-mixed road. Oooh... how poor they are! Many of them are smashed, run over by wheels. Some lay on the ground on the sideway. How lucky they must be, as they lay on the right place to grow. Though it is just for a while before being swept away by the gardener, they have beautiful moment to build their hope for new living. At least, they have moment posing before my lens! Hahaha...
One of the lucky fruits caught my eyes. It laid neatly. I got it captured. See the picture above!
In a natural condition, I'm sure that the fruit just needs times to grow well, as it lays on the fertile soil. It has potentiallity already to be a big tree. "Just be patient!" it says to me. [skd]
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Grow in a wrong place
I toke this picture in front of my office a couple of days ago. The sprout was growing next to the rolling-door. I didn't know what sprout of it was. It doesn't exist anymore. Yes, it became dry and died few days after the shot. Of course, for such of seed it grew in a wrong place.
Wrong places make ones unhappy! [skd]
Monday, July 14, 2008
The droplet time
Rain had just stopped falling when I enjoyed that evening. It seemed to be the last rain to close the past season. Recently the air is getting hotter and rainy day is very seldom already. The summer season had just begun. Therefore, the last rain might be like a farewell to the rains. Nevertheless, it made the air and surroundings quite fresh sweeping the dusts away from every leaf and surface. The dusty turned into the clear. That was so exciting.
Among the evening scenery, something little caught my eyes. It was a droplet! Yeah, not all the rainwater reached the ground successfully. Some left on leaves showed like pearly earrings swinging about to fall. They looked like dews in the morning. What a beautiful!
I played with them by shocking the leaf gently. Some droplets on the critical points really dropped into the ground, some were just swinging and still on the same place. There was a droplet, which was really catching my eyes. This one was bigger than another was. I thought it was just by one more gently shock – by me or by wind - and it would drop too. However, I did not do that. Wondering about the time it would drop, something occurred in my mind: a thought about life’s time!
Life is as fragile as the droplet! One shocking movement is enough to make it critical: drop-off or still hang-on! That is the moment of life! Of course human’s life is not just like a swinging droplet as he/she has power to survive more than any other creature. Time is not something from outside, which make barriers for his/her space. Time is what every human can create with his/her life to go. What about replacing the word "life" with "love"? That will be so human time!
Be blessed! [skd]
Monday, July 07, 2008
Close-up your view!
Recently I have been craving for photography! That's so wonderful world that I have to figure out what I've done. Yeah... My eyes become opened more widely after knowing that there are so many beauties shown by the mother nature! I even am being captured by nature rather than I capture things before my eyes with my camera!
Look around you! Perhaps you do not realize that spectacular shows have been just going on. But when you take a close-up angle onto things before you, you'll find out something spectacular! Natural entertainments will catch your eyes and attention. From one scenery to another will just lead you into an amazing world you've never realized before! At least that's what I experience until this post.
What I can say about this world before my lens is, "Oh my God, you are so beautiful!" And I got a wisdom from this restarted hobby: Close-up your view, and you'll understand deeper! [skd]
Visit my portfolio at EyeFetch.com or Flickr.com.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
You are the most!
Being well-designed from the beginning...
You are THE MOST!
On the previous post, I shared my reflection on a separated fly. Such disgusting insects usually stay in dirty and vile places. Some days ago, I got a picture of another fly, which perched on a leaf in my veranda. Still inspired by the reflection, I write an insight as shown on the picture.
Flies may be insignificant creatures as they are supposed to be animal that brings many of epidemics. A question may occur in our mind, “Why do they exist? Why does God create such of dangerous animals? Etc…” We may ask this question for being the most superior amongst all creatures.
Instead of being more arrogant, why do not we think of our responsibility as human? Being human must be more responsible, mustn’t we? If flies have been well design by the nature from the beginning, moreover we human are! It is our responsibility to be thankful more significantly! [skd]
Friday, May 23, 2008
Resonating nature
When I see a grasp of beautiful flowers, still on their tree, I feel something. If they were human being, they would tell a story. It is a story of being creature, blessed creature. What is appearing on my eyes is nothing but beauty. Furthermore, there is a show of expression. They just express a smile and cheerfulness. An author will say that they are welcoming everyone. They are entertaining. Even in a wake, fresh buckets of condolence flowers will present such an entertainment. The effects are cool.
Beautiful flowers upon our eyes are sending messages of invitation. It is an invitation into a smiley world of nature. I am just thinking that by nature flowers are to be smiley, cheerful, cool, entertaining, and nothing gloomy. Life is a big deal, big enough to us so that we should not miss the celebration of it. Moreover, celebration must be like feast! It is full of joy!
Lovely flowers - resonating nature - are inviting us to join in the celebration! [skd]
Monday, May 05, 2008
Morning Dew
Once I missed of morning dews. Maybe that’s because the wet-season was so long. There was no mist when the dawn’s falling. It was, maybe. But the drizzling always wiped them out before they sprinkled over the ground.
I don’t remember the last time I was occupied with morning dews. It’s just a memory of the gentle sensations at my feet when stepping on the lawn sowed with dews along my path. Immediately my legs got wet by those clear and pearly little-dots. Some dry grasses clang to them. It's creepy. When I turned my head I saw images of my own footsteps left behind. They looked dark-green amongst the silvery sheen. When passing through a clump of bushes, 
I saw cute earrings alike swinging at the end of their leaves. There was a scenery of a world across inside wrapped so beautifully. It’s reversed, but showing an amazing contrast.Again and again, morning dew is romantic when boredom of wet season comes up. That’s a romance of nature showing their beauty in time. The beauty will be remembered attaching memories of mornings. Shiny dews reflecting lights are the accent of morning shots. Their gentleness store millions of stories and songs of hopes in the beginning of days. That’s the episode of nature which gently welcomes the wriggle of every creature to walk on their stepping history.
Enjoy the morning before the dew’s gone! Learn from them how to bridge the stars-and-moon world to the lively world of sunlight.
Doesn’t it come with a rug of carpet at dawn to welcome every creature into a celebration of a new and refreshing day? Every morning presents a new re-creation day, doesn’t it? Learn from them about gentleness and tenderness, as they come down without force but gently cuddling over every surface. Learn from the dews about honesty, as they come to every living: inviting dusts to lay-down on the ground, refreshing the earth with coolness, beautifying every face of leaves which will meet the sun in a while, permeating every niche until the deep-down roots; and the rest will fly away in union with the winds while the sun is shining to lead the universe.Dear morning-jewels, let me welcome you tomorrow dew. [skd]
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Beaches and Wind Blows
In my home-town, province of Jogjakarta, there are many favorite beaches: Parangtritis, Parang Kusuma, Samas, Baron, Kukup, Krakal, Kobaran, Wedi Ombo, etc. All are along the southern coast of the Java Island, straight to the Indian Ocean. Some of them are still virgin or less of human touch. When I am in Jogja I always try to spare my times to go to one of the beaches. I like going to such of places to get refreshed after a hard-working-week, or just to have a relaxation and to search for inspirations.
Now I live in Jakarta a metropolitan city and capital of Indonesia. It is about 650 kilometers away from Jogja. Though it has the famous Ancol Beach, during 4 years living in the big city, I just visited the place once. However it was treating enough to my missing of the beaches in my hometown.
Inspiring beaches
For me, beaches are always romantic as well as poetic. We can find enjoyable moments of breaking waves against corals, beautiful scenery of colorful sailing boats in the midst of the sea, swimming various little fishes, a spread out area of white sands, and waving coconut trees. How many songs, poetries, stories, paintings and pictures are inspired by the place? How many blessings could we get in the beach? Harmony, peace, serenity, faith, life, love and hope, longings and dreams are themes amongst many. From there we even can see a real analogy of horizon of our live. We can find a line which separates and unite at the same time two different worlds: world of sea and world of dry land. What if I say that a beach is a spot of interconnections between human and the ultimate orientation of all creatures? In the beaches there are always opportunities to discover mysteries of our lives in a kind of intimacy with The Creator, The Origin and The Orientation.
Beach, it’s windy!
Well, recently I am impressed by a simple fact: beach is always windy! When I realize it more deeply, it is not mere a simple fact, it is really a great-great one. Eliminate the wind (if you can) from the beach if you want a strange place! If it could be, there are no waves, no sailing boats, and no waving palm-leaves. I guarantee the beach will be so hot and boring. You even will be so exhausted on your surfing board by rowing with your hand all the time! No wind means there are no sea-water flows and no cycles of replacement. The water on your seashore will stay motionless. Furthermore, all wastes from the land will stuck in front of you to produce vile smell in time. What a dead place! Wind blow is the spirit behind the beach which makes it so vivid and wipes all the terrible imaginations above!
Wind, what are you?
Scientifically, when there are two air areas with different pressures there is a gap between them. The tension of the gap will drive an air-flow from the higher pressure to the lower one until they reach one same pressure degree. 1 mb (milibar) pressure (even less) is capable enough to make a motion, a flow of air. That is called “wind”. The bigger difference between two areas is, the stronger the power of the wind will be, and so the faster the wind will flow. Of course, it causes impacts that depend on how strong the power is. Hurricane is a terrible example to mention. It can strongly damage everything. But a breeze is a kind of wind that we are familiar with as it blows softly and can make us sleepy. We even create such of wind by turning on a fan when our room is getting hot.
Let’s go deeper from this natural fact of winds!
I wonder of equilibrium of the universe. By nature this universe provides a wonderful self-management system to maintain its existence. Something is “on” in this universe, which keeps everything in it alive, unless there are just dead matters in this planet earth. Wind blow is just a phenomenon of the existence of the “thing” in one kind of its actions.
Scientists will mention “energy” to name the thing. The scientific notion of energy comes from the Greek “energos”, means "active, working". Scientifically it is “a scalar physical quantity that is a property of objects and systems which is conserved by nature. Energy is often defined as the ability to do work” (Wikipedia).
At this point, when I tried to understand the words “active”, “working”, and “ability to do work”, I was drawn into an ancient understanding upon the original movement, nothing else than the causa prima which made the first movement (action) in the universe. In the new-age literatures (e.g.: The Secret by Rhonda Byrne) the concept of energy is a way to understand the existence of God, even though “God” is just a notion to mention the ultimate reality.
Keep the winds of heaven blowing!
For the Christians it is not hard to associate wind blows with God’s Spirit. On the Pentecost Day it was told that Jesus Christ blows upon the heads of his apostles as a sign of his giving The Holy Spirit to them. He gave them the holy power to continue his mission. Long time before Christ, the great prophet Elijah had a spiritual vision of Yahweh who appeared to him in the breeze. Even in the book of Genesis, God blew the dusty-made man with his spirit to make him live.
The biblical tradition has provided a spiritual understanding of a wind blow or a “blowing action”. Literally the second means an action of making an air-flow out of the mouth. In the light of the tradition it has special meanings which contain missions to carry out, actions to complete. What else but to actualize our humanity which contains the Spirit of God himself blown upon us from the time being? What else but to spread the God's love to every creatures all over the world?
Everyone has a special richness, a unique goodness or talents, and superiorities towards others. It is like a milibar degree in terms of air pressure. Agree or not, gaps do really exist among our milieus. Why don’t you make a flow of blessings by sharing yours to others? If so you represent the Pentecostal Spirit! Don’t let the atmosphere become hot and the air smell vile! Keep the winds of heaven blowing upon us all!
Every kind of winds has its impacts to the circumstances. What kind of impacts will you choose to make? What kind of winds of yours? What about your speeches, your words and the way you speak? Your moving actions are also your wind blows! Your pro-activities in the community are your flowing spirit given to them. And what a beautiful day to come if yours is a fragrant breeze, not a hurricane! ***
Thursday, March 27, 2008
HAPPY EASTER 2008!
"Verily, verily, I say unto you:
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abides alone:
but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." ~ John 12,24.
Click on here to read "Glorious Shoot" - Poetry.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
My “Black Chili” is burnt!
It is a gift when I get some insight to deal with my life. As I believe that infra-human beings accompany me, there could be kind of coincidental events between them and me. They stand alike mirrors before my eyes. Sometimes they seem to be speakers on behalf of The Ultimate Person. They tell me warnings, supports or words of consolation. As results, they could lead me to have new or better attitudes in my life. Maybe, they couldn’t give me solutions. Otherwise, they could reflect what the matter with me is. The process of objectification is helpful enough for me to re-evaluate my passing life. That is what I want to share with you below; it’s an experience with my black-chili – one of special plants that I have.
So far it grew well
About two months ago my youngest brother gave me a plant of “black chili”. It is a kind of vegetables, but it is just for decoration not for eaten. The entire body of this plant is black. Weird, isn’t it? I did not see such of plant ever before. So I love it, and I should have to be careful of it.
I always watered the plant every morning and evening. I placed it in my veranda, sometimes in the yard where it could get enough sunlight. It grew well after I replaced the pot and the medium. Periodically I gave it (and the others) organic fertilizers. Everything was going normal, until something happened to my black-chili.
It was over-dosed!A week ago my beloved black-chili started to bear fruits. They looked so tiny but cute. Wonderful! I felt happy, and couldn’t help waiting for the mature fruits to come. What would they be like? I hoped for a fast growing black-chili! So, there was an idea to give it more fertilizer. Instead of organic one, I bought a pack of NPK (a composition of chemical fertilizers) in a nursery house. Then I gave it some before watering it at morning. I didn’t know what dosage for the plant was. I just gave it. It was ridiculous and stupid actually, I think.
How shocked I was two days ago when my wife told me that the black-chili was getting dry! I checked it out, and it was! Oh, My… What a stupid thing I did with the poor black-chili! The reason was clear: it was over-dosed! As seeing it burnt, and the leaves were withered and getting down one by one, and the branches were faint, I felt sad badly. I was so sorry… As a treat, I poured it with a pail of water in order to neutralize the concentrated substances which made the plant burnt.Why did it distract me out?
I was in a bad situation when I found that fact. I felt bored and tired of my work. I had dreams with many expectations. Some of my efforts to get more income seemed going for nothing. I had tried to focus on something prospective, but it seemed to consume so much of my energy that I felt exhausted. The worst thing was I had neglected some of my responsibilities. All was going in an unorganized way. I felt guilty of it. I was also sorry of being unable to help my youngest brother out of his problem. Again, I got a bad news from him about my mother who was ill.
By those thoughts and emotions I was “burnt out”!
There are still green shoots
Now my entertaining black-chili was dying! Analogically, it was imaging my recent life. It was not hard to me if the black-chili drew my attention as there was a kind of similarities between the plant and me! The dying black-chili was articulating my life while I was looking for some enlightenment.
When I realized the lesson from my poor black-chili, I was so impressed and so stupefied by what had happened. My wife gave me an advice last night, “When you feel tired, please take a rest and refreshing! Do your routine schedules, and don’t forget to come back home earlier than ever! Remember, you still have a wife!” (Hehehe…I was always late for home!) I think she is right, and by her advice I get enlightened. Thanks, Honey!Do you know what? There is always hope in the end of passion. It is hope which makes everyone survived and optimistic. This morning I found my black-chili having green shoots at one of its tips. It was an invitation for me to smile. Yes, it wasn’t an end of world, and the future is coming… ***
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
It is no little wisdom for you...
This morning I got an email from from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By as I've subscribed to The Thought for the Day, by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation. I like to share the email to you:
"It is no little wisdom for you to keep yourself in silence and in good peace when evil words are spoken to you, and to turn your heart to God and not to be troubled with the judgment of others."
Most of us appreciate praise, but it is disastrous to become dependent on it. If we are going to allow our security to be bolstered up by the praise, appreciation, and applause of others, we are done for. I have heard about a well-known movie star who goes to sleep at night with a tape of recorded applause playing. This is going to make him more and more insecure.
Why should we get agitated if someone ignores us? There are, after all, advantages to being ignored. We can go anywhere in freedom. Nobody recognizes us - how good it is! In life, there are occasions when we are ignored and sometimes forgotten. That is the time for us to remind ourselves, "Why do I need anybody's attention?" This attitude can be cultivated skillfully.
Even those of us who are the most sensitive to praise and appreciation can learn to be so secure within ourselves that the word rejected can be expelled from our dictionary. The one person who will never reject us is the divine Self within, and that is enough to make up for all the rejections we may have to undergo at the hands of everyone else. ***
Thursday, February 28, 2008
That's how they live in a mutual relationship
I've just found an article about mutual relationship between trees and ants. It is not new to us, but it resounds that we live with them and we can learn from them about our living as a community.
Another article about ants on this blog: Teacher of Achievement.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Simple heart
“The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity” ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein
“Nature is what we know - Yet have not art to say - So impotent our wisdom is to her simplicity” ~ Emily Dickinson
To learn wisdoms from the nature we should put on “simplicity” (simplicitas cordis means “simple heart”). By nature everything comes from simple matter. Due to this simplicity we often do not pay attention to progresses that really happen to things around us. Do you notice: the growth of the grass in the yard, flowing water in small river, shaping clouds in the sky, lining ants on the wall, falling leaves from their tress, sunshine in the morning, buzzing bugs over there, wind blow, etc.? As far as we do not notice them, we do not realize that they could be so special.Simple is beautiful. However beautiful could be not so simple. We have to find something special from a subject to say that it is beautiful. To detect such of sense of beauty we may notice what Socrates said, “Wisdom begins in wonder!” and “The right way to begin is to pay attention to the young, and make them just as good as possible!” and again “True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” I hope you could understand the words “simple”, “little” and “young” in the term of wisdom.
This modern world has been supported and accelerated by many inventions of machines. Theories to explain natural phenomena have also led humankind to know deeper about this planet and its facts. But those happened since ones did not let simple facts go away from their attention. Put Isaac Newton for instance. He was so astonished by an apple dropping down from its tree, and then he tried to formulate the fact into a theory of gravitation! What a special dropping apple!
“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” ~ Isaac Newton
Monday, February 18, 2008
Inspirational Pictures
These are my collections of inspirational pictures. I made them by my own camera. Hopefully you like them. To look at the bigger size, just click on the thumbnails.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
SILENCE, it’s a world of precious treasures!
Type “silence” into your Google search toolbar (or others) and you will find many quotes provided by the sites that are displayed on as results. I did it too. I would like to share with you my reflection on “silence” at least inspired by two of them from thinkexist.com. One is quoted from the Book of Proverb, and another one is from Mother Theresa.
“We need to find God,
and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.
God is the friend of silence.
See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence;
see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...
We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
While reading the quotes, my mind was traveling around a world of treasure that everyone could dig from for their own. It even will never be gone though every one of us takes from it as much as we can do! Really, it is a world of treasure without limit.
What kind of treasure it could be?
There is a saying, “Silence is gold!” I think you agree that it is just a metaphor to express how precious silence is. The author of the saying did not mention “quietness” to point the meaning. Silence is more than just no noise, no voice, or no sound. It is an inner state of human minds rather than physical and superficial situation around our senses. Silence is coming from inside, while quietness is from outside.
That is the point of silence: it has something to do with human being. Silence is so human! It involves human attitudes “from within”. That’s also why silence could be a choice to keep our mind always in a state of awareness. Silence gives us a mirror that reflects our own self: our dignity in simplicity. In silence, we could find our own being as a subject and so an agent in this universe - a subject who is listening to and accepting “others” with no reaction as well as no rejection. Let “them” come into our soul and stimulate us to reach a proper disposition in harmony with the universe.
In silence, there are “friends” instead of “enemies”. Indeed, we are not lonely anymore when we can get and so enjoy silence. We could be alone, but not lonely.
“In the laughing times we know that we are lucky,
and in the quiet times we know that we are blessed.
And we will not be alone.”~ Quotes
“The quiet conscience is an invention of the devil.”
Quietness might generate aversion, but silence love. Moreover, love leads us to pure happiness. Imagine, how your works will be if you go with them from and within silence! Being in silence doesn’t mean that the environment has to restrict any voice. We could even play a classical music to set it up. Still we could be in silence though we are in a crowded and noisy place. Remember, silence is our inner state of minds!
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
“Music, even in situations of the greatest horror,
should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it,
and thereby always remain music.”
People talk about “abundance” since “The Secret” book by Rhonda Byrne becomes the most favorable book in this planet earth. Positive thoughts become the core powerful energy that every man should have to gain it. They send positive vibrations out to the universe. In addition, the law of attraction applies the rule with three steps: ask, answer and receive. The emotions behind the thoughts will magnify the energy of the vibrations. Thought plus emotion equals to attraction. The thing is how to recognize the pure need that we really want. Along with this is how to control our emotions to have the proper ones behind it. We have to get into the deep of our heart. It is in silence!
How to get the treasures of silence?
“[T]o talk well and eloquently is a very great art,
but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.”
Just stop talking; it’s time of listening!
Paradoxically silence will tell us about the abundance. It is. Silence doesn’t mean there is no communication. Indeed, it is an event of communication. To listen is an important action of communicating. How do we get involved in intensive dialog, how do we understand what others are talking about unless we do listening in turn? Just stop talking; it’s time of listening!
Turn the quiet into silence!Well, usually people do not like quietness and being alone. Besides there is no other people to talk to, we are afraid of hearing our own voices in our head. Sometimes they come like turbulence in unconstructive words. They make us sick! Therefore, we become a victim of quietness and loneliness. People do not like it also because in silence, everything looks going slower. That’s a ridiculous thing in this hurried world where is no heart for patience. However, that is a path to the abundance! Why don’t you turn the quiet into silence? (To turn the quiet into silence needs exercises. I would not discuss about it. You could get them from The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation and many other resources.) Tranquil or separated place would be a good help for it. However, when we do not have it, we can set up the circumstance around so that we have many accessible supporting resources. We also have to arrange the best occasion for this listening (morning, evening, or night).
Establish mediations to access the treasures!
We need mediations to have communication in silence. Mediation is useful as a mirror. By the mirror we can recognize our own personality as objective as possible. It is a process of objectification. We can use plants, animals, stones, etc. as mediations. The more attractive they are, the more proper they can be your mediations. Moreover, they can be “friends” that will accompany us during our journey to the treasures. They even will tell us about the treasures! In addition, analogically they also can be teachers of wisdoms!
Welcome to silence, the world of precious treasures!
Be blessed! ***
Monday, February 11, 2008
Law of Attraction Quiz
"The Secret" book by Rhonda Byrne has become the most notable self-helping book since it was launched. Both the book and DVD versions are available worldwidely. Have you read the book, or watched the DVD? If so, I think you'll agree that the inpirations behind it is coming from our daily lives. Rhonda Byrne and her team explain the concept into 12 systematic chapters that will help the reader/audience to realize the most applying power in this universe that works amongst us: the law of attraction! I like to quote one quotation from the book: What we resist, persist!
This quiz will help us to taste the prompted ideas behind the book. And I think that what is working on is more than just ideas! You could have your own opinion. So, don't miss it!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Morning call: Singing Birds!
Singing birds may become a morning call. That’s so inspiring, especially to me. I think of joy and pure bliss as a human being. Differences between birds and humankind do not impact my gratitude every morning. I focus on the joyness and cheers of the birds tweeting out there. I just feel the spirit of a lively morning. There is invitation to me to join with them to sing my own song, welcoming and celebrating a new life. That is the granted life which absolutely becomes my responsibility. That is the song of love as I have been loved with the first breath I can take when I wake up from a deep sleep.
The birds “know” how to be grateful, and practise it every morning after the cockcrows. What happens then is that their singing raises the inner power of my being and resonate all strings of possitive mind.
The birds are singing, and I’m smiling. Do you know what? When I open the door for the first fresh air I can breath, my soul is filled with natural joy and invitation to a better life. Then I don’t want to miss the spirit of every morning as I know there are many blessings I can get when I take a walk for a while in the garden under the first sunlight flashing through upon my face. Then I so believe, today will be better than yesterday.
Thank God for the singing birds! They are representing the hugs of the universe you’ve created with your love. Be blessed, everyone! ***
