Friends making, books reading.

Some say, you can know a person by the books he/she reads. Hmm... i take 50% of this sentence; very much whether the person practice after reading... is yet another 50%.

Looking from a big picture, making friends is like reading books. Pauline once said, " The choice of the book cover, reflects the personality of the author".
Judging a book by its cover? Yes and no. What we see is not the cover, but the choice made by te author.

When we were younger, we read all kinds of books. We made all kinds of friends. May be out of curiosity or a desire to explore. As we mature, we pick up books that are dressed closely to our taste and contents that matches our characters--- and of course, reading all other categories... jokes, news, philosophies, thrillers, mysteries, business-related, travel books, nursery picture books, magazines, fashions, cookbooks....

Just like meeting people. We used to move in a big group, and soon we learn how to select; friends who think like us. Others become entertainments, like comics books.
When the contents of the book is worth drilling into, the cover is not at all important. But before flipping into the pages, the cover does play a role. Its again, the choice of the readers.

We are not oblige to finish every book we start. If the first few pages does not lead me to the next, i put it away. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed. A few of them to be chewed and digested--- that nourishes us. Good reads to be pass on, few to keep by your side to re-read again and again.

Not all people we meet in parties or in some gatherings can be friends. Just like how we put them into categories of: Hi-Bye!, acquaintances, colleagues, partners, friends, close- friend, BFF ( best friend forever), buddies... Some to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and few are worthwhile for the effort to chew and be digested.

As the saying goes, " Our friends the reflection of us; and we are also the reflection of the people we are with. Nevertheless, we can decide who we want to reflect and being reflected". What's your reflection?

They told you that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What they failed to tell you that what you look like isn't important. What is important is who you are inside and the choices you are making in your life. ~ Tiana Tozer

Our choices, makes up our life story.

614 steps to Gomateshvara (Bahubali) statue

A vertical climb up 614 steps, will bring you to the peak of Vindhyagiri Hill; viewing the statue of the Jain deity, Gomateshvara (Bahubali) (17.5m), said to be the world's tallest colossal status one can see.

Putting the bare soles on the first step at the foot of the hill, it’s the start of your own little pilgrimage. Considerably a comfortable climb, as the coolness of the stone-ground is not affected by the blazing sun.

While still fixing the eyes at the hill top, do take some intervals and turn around for a breath-taking view during the journey. Not to be surprise to have companions of local young children, monks and elders making their way up hill.

 

Do take a breather when hitting the first entrance, you are half way through. There are more steps leading into the temples and to the statue. On the way, drop into a place of worshipping, while appreciating the ancient architecture of the building.

More than 800 inscriptions have been originate at Shravanabelagola, dating to various times from 600 to 1830.

A great number of these are found in the Chandragiri and the rest can be seen in the Indragiri and the town. Most of the inscriptions at the Chandragiri date back before the 10th century. These inscriptions include texts in the Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, Marathi, Konkani, Marwari and Mahajani languages. The second volume of Epigraphia Carnatica, written by Benjamin L. Rice, is dedicated to the inscriptions found here.

Every 12 years, crowds gather here to attend the Masrakabhisheka ceremony. The statue is quenched in holy waters, pastes, powders, precious metals and stones.

The upcoming is in 2018.

Know your promises

Bad events happened, only for us to see the good ones. There are so many times we dispensed so many promises, both to ourselves and to others. " To be a better person... to get back my health... to stop such bad habits....i am going to do this..."  Yet, not ready to I actually fulfil them... and the list keeps on rolling.

Ego tells us that we're the parent of our life; that we can do whatever we like without bearing any sentences. As when the body is shouting, " Come'on! i need a rest...even a robot get to switch off and recharge!". The mind is too busy with the external activities, making the body to work harder.

One fine day, something happened... and the body breaks down. And suddenly, we surrender everything to the body. Those plans that the mind has once commanded got to be push off. Life now give us a great opportunity for self-reflection. Plenty of quiet moments to run some good thoughts, and re-prioritise our journey. Realising that how our mind knows how take control by inflating our inner-ego.

When we promise to treat our health better without any action; life simply give us a chance to work things out by..... breaking the body down. Knowing that, we can't control life; but we can choose how we want to move while living.

" When we ask Lord for us to have a little more patience, does He give us Patience; or a chance for us to practice it?"

Going Home

Loved the feeling of "going home", enjoyed the anticipation each second i know i am closer to home. The airlines been a little messed up this period. A trip up to Mumbai from Bangalore and back to Singapore, bypassing Bangalore. Not too bad though; screened a good movie " Badmash Company" on Air India.

Touched homeland, grabbed a cab and wow " smooth journey" for some times since. For a moment, i thought i probably will knocked on the wrong door. Ten years of habits, the blue gate, the shoes rack--- i pressed the bell.

The door opened, ma ma face popped from behind the door with a smile, " Ah Leng, you're back!". Then pa pa at the back, " leng leng.. you good?" They had not grown older any inch, with radiance.  I thought Dad's had finally gotten a little more hair and mum's has few missing facial lines.

And we started chatting for the whole morning. Dad's tired eyes brightened up when we talked about the tea plantation and the coffee in India. And wanting deliver our own piece of story to share. The laughter was good and heart-warming.

Home. The house doesn't matter. The location is not important. The roots lie not in any particular land; its the bonding that deep rooted in each of our heart.

Home is not build by pieces of bricks and cement; but with unconditional love, trust and faith. A sacred place where we start discovering our real self.

To go home, first... i have to go out.

We’re all kids, anyway

The day we are born, we’re starting to die; even now.  We all have to grow, a process that’s unavoidable. One way is to grow old; the other is to become mature. Remember how carefree our laughter can be during childhood, and when we started to move into adulthood… we simply smile. And with all the struggles of life, we forgot how to smile. Yes, sadly.

I remember watching a new report: in Japan, there are “Smiling training” courses for the student, because those hippie youth had lost the ability to smile! They were in some confusion of expressions. It was pretty shocking for me though.

“When was the last time you laugh?”--- This is one question I’ve like to ask in random.  Huh… What a question?!

Yes, I am curious… when was the last time you’ve laugh like a child? If I ever post this question to you--- feel free to laugh at me; and there!  You will be given a chance to laugh a child.

Look at the children, see how they play with one another, how they are so willing to share their stuff and happiness and listen to their giggling conversations. Children response to according to situation, while adults react based on their memory. That’s why we see that children are temperamental, and adult suppressed their emotions.

Surely I don’t mean that we should behave like a child as we grow, but we can live like them. Not childish, just child-like. No doubt, each of us has a child inside us; we’re piling layers and layers of “conditioning” as we grow, unknowingly. Just as we peel them of one at a time, there you see a child hiding inside you.

An incident in my first year of yoga teaching, I was only 22. Based on my age, it’s pretty normal for the little credibility people had for me. With this pretty establish firm, I was running a workshop for the corporate. The guy in charge reminded me repeatedly before the class that I need to be very tactful with the group, as they were from the top management with very tight schedule.

The group came in with suits and ties… as the class started, I got them to remove their shoes, then their coat, then their ties; some even pulled out their shirt, unbuttoned the collars and pull of their socks. At the end of the session, who I’m dealing with were not anyone from the top management… they were all kids having games.

I was just a kid, playing with a bunch of children:)

Reflection from iRobot

1 December 2010, 10pm, Kovalam Beach in Kerala

Lazing on the bed; stalling a little more time for some digestion work to be done in my stomach after munching a sandwich and fruit platter. Located on the beach, I can hear the sea waves from my room… just like those recorded sea waves we can find in the music stores. The TV was screening iRobot, it’s probably the 5^th time I’ve watched it. For which ever reason, it is a good show… and of course for Will Smith! If you’ve watched it, do have a thinker about the messages in their conversations.

In the show, Spooner had a strong dislike for robots, all because they were too logical. That caused the death of a 12 year-old girl. And that ticked me a little that 95% of us are living like robots. We’re being programmed, that we often trained to follow instructions from the 5% of the population. We’re given a “life manual” and tries to follow the instruction as closely as possible--- satisfied and comfortable, a false believe that’s life all about; no desire to question.

Why should I do what others are doing? Has this question ever pop out in the head for all these years of slogging and complaints? This is what happened when we behave like a robot. Robot has a mind, no heart. Robot is highly logical, no emotion.  That’s pretty much are happening to most people. Too logical, too afraid to do crazy things, too much fear to move into changes--- missing a big chunk in life. 

Our mind is just like fire. A good servant, but a real bad master; fire disasters happened and we get burnt if we don’t know how to used them. Just like the mind; our life will turn disastrous when we burnt our heart if we don’t how to make the mind work for us.

Life’s not too difficult if we want it not to be. All we need is to stay still for a while, close the eyes and listen to ourselves, and with a pinch of the logical mind--- that will do. 

The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us while we live

~Norman Cousins

Is there miracle?

...still bumping around in Kerala, there's so much thoughts running through; trying to get some of them sorted out and splash them onto my blog posts.
Collection of information started when i was seeping into India. Along the way, i'm witnessing more sights, soaking colourful experiences and great chats.

Am totally shacked physically by the 5 hours of bumpy trip; going to let my body rest for a bit... and today let's talk about Miracles...

When i was still a silly little kid, i started not to believe in miracles... the time my grades started sliding down. And still don't think such stuff when i started working. Or let's put it this way: i do not really understand what miricale is and how it works.
At the third stage of the seventh year in my life, things flipped. Yes, miracles do happen... only if we want to.

This trip to Kerala is surely a good one, at least for a spiritual discovery. When one can get such a close touch with the nature, one eventually become part of the nature. My vision had sort of upgraded from a magnifying glass to a telescope! I'm exceptionally in love with the wild flowers, blooming along the road side, the borders of the hills and all over the rough-patched wall. They don't share the fame of roses and sunflowers; fancy in their own little way, shouting out loud for the zest of life.

" Let wait for miracles to happen"... and nothing's gonna happen. With just a little more of awareness to the surrounding, miracles is all around us. Very close to us actually, and we just need to put in a little more effort for the magical moment happen. We don't create miracles, because it has already been created by the Creator. And our job is to discover them, and everyday can be a miracle.

On the second day in Munnar, there was a strike among the taxi driver ( yellow plate). We had a wonderful guide, Jee jee. We decided to drive out as much as we could, while the rest of the cabbies closed for the day. And when as when we thought we probably get to experience some stone-throwing in town, nothing actually happened. We managed to move according to plan.
If we have not persisted, we've have not seen so much. If Jee jee would have refused to drive us around, we'll be staying in for the day. It's a miracle.

And this reminded me of a talk with the sawmi who's staying in the cave. He who pointed that a plan will always remain a plan, a dream will always remind a dream--- nothing will happen, unless you put them into action. To act is one of an important element for magical moments to happen...

Colour me Up!

2010, another brick-house is standing in Operation Shanthi--- a home to stop straying life for the cats and dogs. Thanks to Tracy, we got a great opportunity to splash some creativity on the walls. And we decided to flow with the theme--- Animals.

"Make me a White House"

Tama Mahesh @ work

Painted by lovable kids... check out the faceless monkey & cat

Colour mixing station ( myself & shirly)

Jo-anne the joker

Under the Sea



Clown or cow?



Animals in Sunset

It was yet another enjoyable time splashing paints on the wall; great therapy to unleash some of my creativity! Whether its "Chapatti making" or "Mural Arts", it gave me great opportunities to interact with the kids to understand a little bit more. Some of the bigger kids ran straight to the wall after school--- for an Art Appreciation period; where they had contributed their brush strokes with dignity.

They may not have the most exciting days... am sure they're leading colourful ones!

Volunteerism

The very first touch of a volunteer was picking up rubbish along the beach at Pasir Ris Park. On and off, volunteer works were part of the school curriculum. Truthfully, I would think those were transactions instead---in exchange for the points on my report cards to move on to the next level.

My teacher once said, “Many people do volunteer activities not for the needy; they do that for themselves. How do you feel when you’re volunteering? Feel good.  

We are all selfish. People volunteers because they want to feel nice, feeding the desire of inner-emptiness. You walk down the street, give some money to a street beggar--- and you feel good. Are you really helping the beggar? You are using them to make you feel superior. “

I couldn’t quite catch this idea at first. It probably sounded a little too harsh for me. From time to time, I started to be more awareness of my emotions and thoughts. Quite right though.

Commonly in Singapore we would hear “Please call 1800-112-XXXX to donate” after screening the life stories of the needy. Tearing in front of the screen; grabbed the phone and pressed the buttons. And right after, a surge of good feeling slipped in! Ah… done a good deed today. One may not witness this coming, while still enjoying the gush of emotions.  Why?

When the act of helping is part of our everyday activities, whether it is for your neighbors, family, friends or strangers--- it’s a norm to us. If this act is not something that we used to do; and do it only for certain reason--- it’s an occasion, especially different.  

Of course, there’s absolutely nothing bad about being a volunteer for which ever reasons. We all have to start somewhere--- selfishness to self-less ness.

Having myself to be involved with small-scale projects has given me opportunities to know myself better. It doesn’t matter whether the needy are from Singapore or India--- there’s no ground of comparison.

Instead of looking for the differences that create bricks between you and me; why not discover our similarities which encourage unity among humanity?

A place worth going: The Tibetian Settlement, Byla Kuppe

One place that probably worth for a second or maybe few more trips is.... Byla Kuppe. A Tibetan settlement located near Mysore ( 2 hours drive); where the Tibetan refugees started their own town in this part of the land--- villages, monasteries, universities, shopping area, temples.

Monks and nuns from Bhutan, Tibet, India for Tibetan studies and practices.

Golden temple, one of the big temple where most tourist will visit. Where the monks and nuns lodge and study here. 



 

In the chanting room. Stacks of scripture wrapped in cloth cover.

At the back wall of the temple. Turning the wheel of Karma.

 

Another University, 4 km ride off the main temple.
Serajay Monastic University, for advanced Buddhist students.

Just ended their 7 days of pooja (ritual). The rice grains will there after the ceremony for 3 days, beforethe place is clean up.

meditation lamp made from butter

Beautiful designs... its just so colourful!

All knackered!

Living India. Clean your lungs.

The pattern of your breathing shows the pattern of your thoughts;

The quality of your air reflects the quality of your health.

Travelling on the roads in India, dusty air is probably unavoidable. Black gas oozing from the back of vehicles, sands flying everywhere, the smokes from the burning of rubbish and even the particles from road-side constructions; and most of the time I would try to hold my breath till the “sand storm”  is over, however still, I do breathe in a good amount of street air unconsciously.

And most people who are not aware of this, probably has been overloading their lungs with bad air daily. A friend told me, “Our life span probably will cut by half, with this quality of air we’re taking in…” I do agree. I’ve heard some started having breathing difficulties and suffer from bronchitis.

I had mentioned about this cleaning technique in my previous post, and I’m going to highlight it once more here:

Kapalabati (skull cleansing), is not a pranayama (vital energy expansion). This is a cleansing technique for the lungs, through the pressure of the air in the lungs.

How it is practice:

Technique

1)      Sit upright in crossed legs. Option: sit against the wall to keep the spine erect.

2)      Be aware of the movement of the tummy. Take in 3 deep breaths slowly--- tummy expands with inhales; contracts with exhales.

Get use to the movement. Option: place your hand on the tummy lightly.

3)      To start: quickly exhale forcefully (1 pump), and the inhale will come naturally to the original position--- do not bloat the tummy intentionally. Option: Look into the mirror to check that only the tummy is moving, keeping the chest down.

4)      The inhale and exhale requires different amount of effort--- Active exhale; passive inhale

Guide

Once you are good with the fundamental technique--- direction of the breaths, movement of the tummy, relaxing the chest and shoulders; you are ready for the practice.

Speed: Take the second hand of the clock as a guide.

1 pumping breath = 1 second

 ½ second for the exhale, ½ second for the inhale

Effort: The purpose of forceful exhale is to increase the pressure of the lungs; expelling the stale gas from the bottom of the lungs; in exchange for the oxygenated air into the lungs.

The greater the effort on the exhalation = higher pressure = more air circulation.

Common Effects: When this is done correctly, you may feel,

Abs--- rectus, transversal, oblique abdominis  

Mid to lower back--- Latissimus dorsi

Blood pressure: Light headedness, numbness at some parts of the body

Practice routine

Taking 1 pump=1 breath= 1 second

Week	No. of pumps	No. of rounds	Options
1	10	5	Increases to 10 rounds
2	20	5	Increases to 10 rounds
3	30	5	Increases to 10 rounds
4	40	5	Increases to 10 rounds

* Take 3-5 breaths to in each round of interval to recover, and move on to the next round.

* You can either increase the number of pumps; or the rounds of practice

When you should not practice?

-          Pregnancy

-          Menstruating

-          After food

-          Before going to bed

Who should not practice?

This is a general guide for self-practice. If you have any health condition (high blood under medication, lungs related diseases, heart problem…) it is important to practice under the guidance of an experience teacher.  

When is the best time to practice?

Morning (before breakfast) --- for its good quality of air with high level of oxygenated in the air.

Evening (before dinner) --- for releasing the bad air accumulated throughout the day.

Alternative: Afternoon (before lunch) ---- for cleansing purposes, except if the weather is very hot.

Note: Practices are to be done indoors.

The hilarious Darshan

The last time I saw little Darshan 2009, he was always shouting, “boom! Boom! bOOOm!”.

This year he had obviously grown taller and up to more mischiefs.  Walking them home after school, this little boy with a mushroom button haircut; would either tries his very best to step on my flip-flop from the back or come dashing his head into my bum.

Today, Darshan patted me on my back; I turned around and he quickly lie down on the ground and performed a yoga wheel pose. He was bobbing up and down, with a wide smile that revealed his sparkling teeth.

He signaled me to stand, and started pulling my arms, “melleh (up)… melleh (up)”; dragging me to the boy’s bunk at the second level.  We ran in, he climbed the chair and showed me an “ashtanga yoga primary series chart” on the wall. Darshan pointed the photo of the wheel pose and demonstrated a wheel again in a corner.

I exclaimed in exaggeration, “Wow… good!”

Cheekily, he laughed… showing a face of satisfaction.

… Oh, he could be the next arising yogi…

The Painless pain

“Who don’t have pain… everybody in this room has pain.” Ajay was voicing across the room.

Yes, I agreed. Each of us in this room sure to carry some amount of pain since yesterday’s back-bending class; I too find myself struggling out of the bed this morning…even  washing up became a chore.

Interestingly, some teacher prefers the student to “listen to your body, and don’t push yourself too much.  Release the pose if you feel pain.” However some teachers would go for, “You have to go through some physical pain to release your tightness.  But, don’t jerk and injure yourself.”  

It is important to know what our pain is. Not all pains are bad, and not all pains are good too.

Those who love to live in contradictions would usually end up in a mess:

A good number of people suffer from the usual discomfort--- chronic back, knees and shoulders aches (bad pains which lead us to more sufferings). Upon having awareness of these pains, most people choose to accept them and live with pains in silence.  

The mind tells them “Its ok, the pain is bearable, I can still move around without any problem. It’s endurable.”

Some may decide to opt for yoga classes, and prepare to give up when they feel great amount of discomfort in a pose. They drag the aches and pains that last for days--- (good pains that lead us to freedom of pains).

The mind says, “I’m here to release my pain, but ended up having more pains… why should I make myself suffer like this. The aches are terrible; I can’t even walk properly… I think I’m going get injured, i better stop.”

“Listen to your body”, a common term we can get from teachers. But most of us ended up listening to our mind. The mind is a beautiful slave, but an ugly master. That’s probably the reason why most yoga  pages mention to “follow your heart” and “listen to your body”; Instead of bringing the mind to take charge of our life.

Every one of us has pain--- Every one of us has moments of sadness--- Every one of us has experience falls and hurdles.  We can either take them with love, or with hatred. One can embrace the existing pains; bring the pains through a more intense of soreness to release the agony; that’s when we start to love life.

One can also choose an easier option to watch the pains grow and prolong; suffer and live with the bad pains for the rest of the days; that’s when we start to hate life… because it’s full of sufferings.

Listen to what the mind says and stay stupid. Listen to what the heart says and stay wise.

An unexpected lunch invitation

It was the second time I met Jamanagiri Sawmiji at Operation Shanthi, where he makes frequent visit to the center. Later to leant that he’s the Director of the center. We greeted him at the gate, and got an invitation to his place for a lunch. Upon knowing that we’re from Singapore, he exclaimed, “Oh… Changi airport! Very nice place, I was there.”

“Come at 12pm tomorrow, I have good idlis for lunch...” he repeated a few times warmly.  

Swamiji stays up at Chamundi Hill in Mysore, in Shiva Temple (which is one of a tourist spot). One could climb up a thousand steps to reach the temple, that didn’t happen to us… we hopped onto our usual auto rickshaw, Shreka ( with his 10 year old vehicle, transporting us to and fro to the center).

We entered the temple from the side gate, up the steps leading to the top-left side of the temple.  Ushered to a small opening, we bent down low curling our body as we nibbled our way into the cave. There was Sawmiji sitting down giving his blessings to the devotees entering from the main opening. We exchanged smiles and sat down to join two other guests by the side.

Shortly, Sawmiji got up and brought us out of the “cave for worshiping” and showed us his room--- another cave just at the side. Practically, it was a hole created from a huge rock.  Small, very humble and very interesting space. The coolness in the room comes from the stone wall, and unexplainable good energy I could feel.

When the clock strikes 2pm, we sat down on the ground mat in the open space. Swaiji poured some water in his palm and rained them around his plate; he nodded as a gesture to start the meal. Three fresh idlies with gravy and coconut chutney by the side, we served the food into our mouth with fingers.

We spent some times sitting and chatting, as Swamiji was telling us about the art of meditation. The most wonderful thing a human being can do in life is to be able to meditate, because we have a mind… to choose how we want to live. But first, you have to make up your mind what you want to do. And very important, you have to stand firmly… always. Be patient, it’ll come.

Immediately, i thought of what Paulo Coelho had wrote in " Manual of the Warrior of Light":
The warrior of light meditates.

He sits in a quiet place in his tent and surrenders himself to the divine light. When he does this, he tries not to think about anything; he shuts himself off from the search of pleasure,from challenges and revelations, and allow his gifts and powers to reveal themselves.

Even of he does not recognise them then, these gifts and powers are taking care of his life and will influence his day-today existence.
While he meditates, the warrior is not himself, but a spark from the Soul of the World. These are the moments that give him an understanding of his responsibilities and of how he should behave accordingly.
A warrior of light knows that in silence of his heart he will hear an order that will guide him.

I could see the enthusiasm in his eyes; as he continued about having good thoughts in the mind can lead to good action and outcomes. Thoughts are just thoughts, it’s not real. Acting on your thoughts make things happen… but on good thoughts only.

Despite the bustling of visitors at the main gate of the temple, the serenity at the top was just so settled. Our “philosophy lesson” reminded me of the conversations in the class back in the studio. Today, it was under a big trees, fresh air and beautiful drop-back of the Mysore city.   

We knelt down to touch his feet in gratitude, as he patted on our head as blessings. It was my first time doing this, and it's something delicately special.

A huge Nandi ( bull, where Lord Shiva rides on) at the main gate, was curved out from a huge granite rock; which was already here before the temple was built.

Leading a life of a sadhu (monk), Swamiji speaks a mouthful of good English (he studied Literature in college), dresses humbly in orange clothes, with his shoulder length grey hair and white beard… always a smile on his face.