Happy Fasting, Ramadan 1430 H

The holy fasting month for the Moslems is coming. It’s Ramadan 1430 H. After a year of common life, today they have to retreat from lusty way of life into holiness, framed with fasting, and filled with prayers, listening to /reading Qurans, good deed and charity.

I just want to give respect to this special time with a brief insight, taken from my garden. I found a caterpillar, swinging on a banyan leaf. It just hung on with a tiny fiber from its spittle. The creature started to wrap its whole body with salivary fiber coming out from the mouth. A new stage of life began, a crucial one of metamorphose: to be a chrysalis - a silent chrysalis. It ceased eating leaves and everything, and spent the time by fasting. That’s a beautiful period for such creature to change its character: from being a greedy animal to be a beautiful and helpful one – from being an ugly caterpillar to be a fabulous butterfly.

So, chrysalis has become a spiritual symbol of fasting time for inner change of life.

However, all is begun with a little movement of the caterpillar: to let itself ‘drop down’ to be ‘hanging on’ a leaf! What does it mean? This is my spiritual insight: fasting should be based on humbleness. To be mature in faith, ones have to trust their lives humbly to God, not to their selves! Then, fasting is a process of letting this self go, and letting God come into the deepest heart and drive all the purity of human dignity.

The perfection of fasting does not depend on how strong ones can keep out from eating and drinking, but it depends on how ‘keeping out from eating and drinking’ has led them into the purity of being human before God! [skd]

Happy fasting, Ramadan 1430 H
my beloved Brothers & Sisters!

Some place to perch on

I wish I could tell you the vibration of this Javanese song "Kupu Kuwi", hoping that you could feel the cheerful atmosphere brought by the gamelan music. Or, maybe you could make a dance with the harmony! It's about butterflies. Well, here you are the lyrics, in Javanese and English:

Kupu Kuwi
kupu kuwi dak incupé
mung aburé ngéwuhaké
ngalor ngidul ngétan bali ngulon
mrana mréné mung saparan paran
katoné ra ngerti sayah
mentas méncok cégrok banjur mabur bleber

Translation:

The Butterfly
I would like to catch the butterfly
but it's flying busily
going to the north, flying to the south, to the east and back to the west
going around where it loves to
it seems to have no tired
after perching on here, then fly away somewhere

In many ways, butterflies may inspire ones who want to grasp the spot of their lives. The composer of the simply short and beautiful song just captured regular activities of them. He might think of nothing but describing the creature when it’s flying and perching. Of course it’s just looking for nectar, sometimes just enjoy flying. No relationship, so far. However, he made it when he wanted to catch one of the beautiful, and he realized that it was hard to do. This could generate many ideas for one's life!

One of my friends means it as a process of his struggle to survive. Like catching butterflies, he feels so when working for livelihood. Another one means himself like the butterflies, which will perch on some place after flying around. Everyone needs a place to stand on, temporarily or permanently!

So, let's dance with butterflies! [skd]


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Download: Kupu Kuwi - MP3.

Glory of Flowers - Laudes

Flower - Laudes, originally uploaded by BornJavanese.

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]

The droplet time

The droplet time
Originally uploaded by BornJavanese

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]

My “Black Chili” is burnt!

I like gardening. Not only for refreshing, gardening has become a therapy for me. It’s a therapy to release stress. I have entertained by the growing plants from their shoots to their lovely flowers. At some point it also gives me inspirations of living a value. I have many spiritual insights from the activities of gardening and have shared some of them with you in this blog. Yes, it has accompanied me in the adventure with infra-human beings, and above all in the journey of living faith. The activities involve not only my physical interventions but also my personality: mind, heart, emotions, passions and empathy. There are spots of experience that will resonate within my soul in a way of analogical thought. In such of way, the experiences will become extrapolated so that they will stimulate many ideas for life.

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… ***