Perseverance

It got cloudy at first. And then it rained. Quite a lot. Some people flocked together and moved their morning usually-stiff bodies. But more and more water dropped. They stopped eventually twenty minutes later in amounting fear that the rain would soak them wet. 

Perserverance always stuns me. 

--

Verstuurd vanaaf mijn iPhone 5

Attachment Issue and Diet

I'm not talking about attachments we send with emails. 

Let me define it in the first place. Attachment is our bond to things in life, both tangible and intangible. Tangible attachments would perhaps materialize in our bond to our home, our family members, our laptop, our gadgets, our comfort foods. Anything. In the meantime, intangible attachments can manifest in various bonds with more subtle, abstract entities, for example fame, acknowledgment, etc. They're less detectable, less obvious but do exist.

Someone I know has tried to release himself from the curse of attachment. He has been trying to untie himself from things which bring him one of the best forms of pleasure in life. And it's essentially about his comfort foods. He is a vegan and he finds meat-like foods (such as mushrooms cooked and processed in such a way to resemble the texture of meat) delicious, which was why he consumed it more and more. And at a certain point, he found this attachment to be perilous. 

We're not talking about diet methods or balanced way of eating but in my observation, I really think dieting is also about cutting our attachment to our comfort foods. These are foods that can offer us home, that bring us memories from the pleasant chunk of our past. 

In this first month of 2018, there may be a lot of us or people around us wanting to go on diet. But being on diet is more than quit consuming certain foods or drinks. It goes deeper to our psychological and spiritual level. 

And to some people they can break this attachment by means of sickness or certain heath conditions. And to the rest of the population, it's a life-long struggle to undergo and a constant battle to endure. A lot of people fail because the struggle and battle don't take place in the physical level. It's at the deeper level of our consciousness that all this things are occuring.  

Our takeaway from here would be a question to ourselves: "What makes us attached to these favorite foods or whatever that is?" And from there, we can proceed further to discover the bright and dim side of having them and then finally decide if we're ready enough to sacrifice and shift to another unpleasant stage or phase of life where that comfort things are nonexistent, or if they're still available, they're less accessible for you to indulge.  (*/ akhlispenulis@gmail.com)

Redefining Dreams

Humans then and now have always been trapped in the ilusion of wealth. They want to have more possessions, assets, money, etc. It's not because they have not been told about the danger of obsession of wealth over and over again. They already know that and understand that perfectly. Yet, putting it into practice is totally another side of story.

So it's time to reevaluate our dreams. The materialistic dreams, I mean (maybe because it's easier to achieve and easier to measure the degree of success or failure). Everyone naturally wants a life of dream, in which no poverty exists, we have no need to work so hard, there's no worry in mind. All is good, and healthy and rich and sufficient. And that usually entails the availability of home, means of transportation (cars for example), assets (so you don't have to work again and never worry about the future).

But is that kind of dream wrong? Is it wrong to want your life to be filled with money and possessions that can prevent you from being sad, anxious and disappointed?

Kahlil Gibran, the renowned philosopher, states that pitiful are those who alter their dreams into gold and silver.  

That got me into thinking that this could be true in our increasingly materialistic world. Too true to be denied, even. 

That being said, a guru of mine asked me whether or not we should aim ourselves to such materialistic dream, which is in essence is worth LESS than ourselves. Gold and silver and those valuable metals or mansions or jewelry and other similar stuff. Are they worth more or less than ourselves? If we think these metals are worth less, then why do we wish to be after them so much as of posssessing them would secure us our best life quality?

"Instead of aiming our life towards dreams worth less than ourselves, why don't we start to work on dreams which are more precious and offer greater value than ourselves?" says he.

In this second week of 2018, it may not be way too late to start going after one dream greater than our own personal gains. Ready? (*/ akhlispenulis@gmail.com)

Pet as anti-loneliness strategy

I notice that some people around me begin to pick pets after they feel LONELY. They feel:

Lonesome because they just get retired.

Lonesome because their children have just grown up into adulthood and left town either for good or a long time.

Lonesome because they are single and unhappy and discontent.

Lonesome because they are unemployed or miserably exploited at work by the system.

Lonesome because their peers have begun dying and disappearing.

Pets come to rescue these lonely souls.

Pets are there to be patted whenever they feel like caressing ones they wish to caress but cannot. Pets are always amazingly dedicated. They don't or perhaps rarely rebel against them. Unlike humans, pets don't betray them. No pets can abuse their owners. Pets are way more manageable than humans. Having a relationship with animals is simple and drama-free (unless your pet is maybe getting its allergic attack in the middle of the night and you have no other choice but rush immediately to an intensive care unit).

But the drawback of keeping a pet is you cannot control their life span. They die too soon. And then you are once again struck with grief. So grief-ridden until you are resolved to stop adopting one or taking care of one. Because losing and letting go of them is just too painful to feel.

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Typed on iPhone.

Finding Meaning in Rituals

When you're a male muslim, you have to attend the weekly prayer at a nearby mosque. I used to find it quite boring as I view this as a meaningless ritual during which one is only 'brainwashed' with an overflowing supply of good advice. 

As one gets older, however, such meaningless rituals have increasingly become oases in a massive stretch of desert called life.

At least that was what I just discovered today. 

I was half awake when the preacher in front of us the mass bombarded us with beautifully arranged words sounding to our ears like a lullaby sung over and over again. Some of these men at the mosque listened, half listened or did not listen at all. As for me, I did listen with my heavy head, ready to fall asleep anytime soon but simply couldn't. 

I heard him saying:"Repent like there will be no tomorrow. Like you will die soon. Like you know that God will forgive you no matter how many sins you have committed throughout your life, so long as you promise you will never ever commit the same sin again...."

I slightly woke up to that line. And I seemed to commit that to my memory. 

REPENT

And it kept resounding in my head.

(((((REPENT))))))

As I thought in retrospect, the advice rang true.   If there are so many things going wrong in our life, we sometimes wonder whether we do it wrong or we don't make enough efforts. It's all about evaluating and correcting and identifying. For the sake of progress.

But not all things in life occurs because we do them wrongly or direct towards a wrong goal or apply the wrong strategy.

It's maybe because we forget cleansing ourselves, forget washing away all this dirt from our very souls, forget reallign ourselves to the ultimate aim of our life: truth and God as a unity.

It felt so good to go home with your head filled with something new or something you already know but are reminded again that you have this already and you can make changes in life by consciously stopping wrongdoings and starting to make improvement in life. (*/ akhlispenulis@gmail.com)

--

The message you read was crafted on iPhone. Kindly excuse any typos or lack of nuances.

Collective Ego and Its Dangers

I've lived in Jakarta for about 8 years. And ever since, I've come to terms with all of its madness and hospitality and surprises. Really, it is a city that is just like a Pandora box. Once you open it, you encounter a massive amount of life problems.

What a place to live...

But I've also been learning to love living here. Loving and living it unconditionally. There's no buts. You can either love it completely or hate it absolutely. Just like a friend of mine now residing in Yogyakarta. He once tried living in Jakarta but said the city failed him. He was entitled to his own opinion.

In this city, I also learn the hard way the cost of COLLECTIVE EGO.

It occurs naturally in the civilization actually. It all starts from identification to one single concept or worldview or belief or idea.

This is the place where I see directly the war of notions in debates (mostly in politics), and the debates lead to conflicts and anger and mayhem.

The case of an ill-fated governor [Mr You-Know-Who] is just one of the turmoils I despise most. It really exhausted us as a society and questions us how far we have been but now we're drawn to the age of darkness once again.

Collective ego, regardless of the forms, is always perilous and must be controlled in such a way.

And instead of going out, exploring our external world too often, we're frequently too afraid to deal with our own Self. That's why to know ourselves is the hardest thing for human beings. The journey inside is always the hardest because every human shall see him or herself in the most raw, vulnerable, exposed, fragile state that s/he cannot endure. (*/akhlispenulis@gmail.com)

Is Sharing Always Caring?

A wise friend of mine says that sharing has always been his long-time passion. He cannot live without sharing something from his possession. It could be his wealth, his knowledge, his experience, his words, anything.

He feels satisfied and happy and relieved every time he has shared something.

And then I query:" Is that really sharing which shows caring or just an outlet of your selfishness?"

Selfishness that you want to draw some benefits from giving something to others. It may not be bad to other people but if we look inside, does giving make us a better person (a more sincere person) or just a person who loves giving because it feels good. Nothing else matters. It's only about yourself. That's what I mean about selfishness here. But the meaning is way more subtle.

There're times when we feel happy after sharing things, and at this point, try to ask ourselves whether our sharing is faithful to its real objective of giving, i.e. sharing virtue.

We may love sharing because of these following meaning reasons.

Sharing provides us a bunch of PRAISES, a shower of attention and admiration.

Sharing gives us what our ego really needs: ACKNOWLEDGMENT. It may be one of our hard work, of our achievement, of our perseverance, of our virtue, of our good deeds, of our service for other creatures in earth, etc.

When we already come to the point of realizing this in our life, that's good. That's called AWAKENING. You're awake so that you can control of your ego. Admit that your ego is there and take control of it afterwards. Don't let it run wildly and crash everything in our life.

When we have arrived to this point, we may form an acceptance that our hard work, our achievement and so on may not be acknowledged and praised as we think they deserve but we realize that we must keep going forward and consistent and fully concentrate on our path, regardless of other people's opinion on us.

And then the mind game  with ego never ceases. It follows us wherever we go.

So we may think that we no longer need all the praises, and admiration and acknowledgment we valued highly previously. But now we have to be cautious as well, cautious of the possibility that we mistake ENJOYMENT for HAPPINESS.

Why so? Because enjoyment is never ending. It's like drinking sea water to quench your thirst. It's a vicious circle of addiction which seems okay, less dangerous but in the long run is equally destructive.

Let's define what ENJOYMENT is. It's something that your ego desires and once you obtain that, we feel 'high'. This is where our ego takes control. Because if what we feel is a real happiness, why then are we addicted to it?

So how can we differentiate between enjoyment and happiness?

ENJOYMENT is like drugs, basically. It causes addiction. When you cannot get it, you get restless. Suddenly you think something is wrong but you don't know why exactly the reason is. This also explains why you feel bad for yourself whenever you cannot share things.

If you allow yourself to contemplate (and meditation helps us a lot to find this tendency), we may discover the root of the 'problem'. It is the notion that GIVING IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN ACCEPTING. We've been preached about it from our childhood regardless of our faiths and religious beliefs. Givers may not get any tangible benefits but most givers are prone to the idea that givers are higher than accepters.

That comes down to this overly subtle idea:

"I AM BETTER THAN THOSE ACCEPTING MY GIVINGS..."

That's it!

Now we know that our ego resurfaces between the cracks of our heart, catching us off-guard. Damn!

But don't be too sad. Because naturally, ego follows us till the last day we breathe in this world.

This is our constant battle control of our ego. Ego, therefore, is NOT something to fight against. No matter how hard we try to combat it, it's always there. So rather than trying so hard to conquer it, why can't we embrace it with one condition that they're under our Self control?

It's our homework until we die to fully comprehend that in this life, there is finally no once can give or accept or nothing can be given or accepted. It's all nothingness. It's just VOID. When we experience nothingness, that's when we really can embrace our ego and that ego vanishes, imerses in that nothingness as well. (*/ AkhlisPenulis@gmail.com)