Emptiness and concepts

Everything is essentially empty.. Except for the concepts we have in our mind which was formed when events happened. If we realize that everything is essentially empty, then there is actually no right and wrong. With no holding of perceptions of right and wrong; armed with compassion, one can gracefully steer through samara with merits to his name. :)

It's there so that we can

As I was reading Bhagavad Gita, abt the song as a soul, fighting to release form maya (delusion) suddenly I had the thought that every lesson comes in our life to train us to be liberated. Even including maya. For without maya (delusion) we would not have the chance to learn to grow spiritually. Thus, in all hardships or sufferings it may seem, it's only because we needed it. Like how a lustful person has the karma of going into hell and suffer for his deeds, it's because his energy/mind needed this. It's to cleanse and purify his true nature. Without which, he would continue and would not have to chance to leave the lustful trait, which is not his true nature. So from a high point of view if it's not for cleansing our true nature and our attachments, the events would not manifest. 

Wealthiest person in the world

Couple of days ago, I wrote a post on my Facebook, inspired by a colleague that was constantly complaining to me all the time. 

I tried it just now. I closed my eyes, quiet my heart and mind down, and begin to count all the things that I still have with me.. 

My family..

My husband that dotes on me..

My house.. The sofa that I'm sitting so comfortably on..

My healthy body..

My parents still alive..

I still have a job..

I'm still alive..

The world is still going on.. 

Then suddenly I realized that I have all the conditions to be happy right now. I have no reason to be unhappy at anything. And anything that was irritating me before, now seems like a trival thing.

Suddenly I felt like I'm the wealthiest person in the world. I don't need a million dollars in my bank to feel like a million bucks. :)))

The mind knows no boundaries

The mind knows no boundaries. It's physical body has it's limitations. The mind travels back in time and to the future many times a day. It's only the physical body that cannot follow it. So sometimes if the mind is weak (which most of us are) we tend to be limited by the limitations of our physical body, forgetting that the mind is free and has no boundaries.

Choices

Every second we are making choices. Do we take a bigger step to overtake others or remain in our space, the food we eat, down to the drink that we drink, and people we meet. And it's these little choices we make each day that determines the eventual bigger choices we make in life. So if something big in our lives is going wrong, silent down, observe the everyday small choices we make in our lives. We will be surprised at how the bigger choice was already determined by the small choices way before the big decision was made. The small choices (aka habits) are habitual energy and has a life force of its own. It grows every time you choose it once more. And it's these little choices that makes up our character and personality and eventually decides all the choices, whether big or small, in our lives. 

So if you want to have a life that is guided by good choices instead of whims n habits, start by looking at the small choices. :)

P.S. There are no accidents. Everything is already set in place by our habits way way long before any accidents happens.

Accepting our feelings

Most of the times when we are feeling sad, or angry, it's not just pure anger or sadness. Usually anger accompanies other feelings underneath like guilt, fear and jealousy. Do we acknowledge these feelings and accept them? Denying them suppresses these feelings and make them explode out later on. We should learn to accept that we are feeling sad/angry/fearful/jealous and release these hurtful feelings from our body. So these negative energy will not stay in our body and continue to hurt us everytime any memory triggers these deep embedded emotions. Recognizing these emotions and learning to release them may very well serve our body from many mutated cells and many sicknesses. 

May all beings be well and free from suffering. Amituofo~

Path in life is almost always different from what we expect

"Passion can cause us great pain when we lose it. But our passion was not given to us to cause such pain. Sometimes it's just that our agreement is meant to be fulfilled differently than we expected, that's all."

Water Memory experiment

A few months ago I did an experiment with water memory. In the video of Dr. Masaru Emoto, he experimented with water. Different words were pasted outside the different water bottles and each of them were examined under the microscope to see if there were changes in the water form. Many words with good vibration such as Love, God, Amituofo, Jesus, Allah, were found to have crystallization resembling of a beautiful snowflake. Those that were written the words Hate, Jealousy, Adolf Hilter was also examined under the microscope. And was found that there were no crystallization. But instead was vacuums of space in between the water. 

The video can seen here:

http://youtu.be/L0JU03CGFrU

Here is my experiment.

I put newly cooked rice in 2 similar boxes. Then I pasted one box "LOVE" and the other box "HATE". I put them side by side and left it there for a few days.

These are the results:

1st day:

5 days later...

As we can see from the experiment, the rice that was in the "HATE" become mouldy much faster than the rice that was in the "LOVE" box. And there was even a different kind of white mould that was in the "LOVE" box that were not found in the "HATE" box. If we observe closely, even the mould in two boxes are even different color. The mould in the "LOVE" box was dark green in color, whereas the mould in the "HATE" box was already black.

This shows that words carry it's own energy vibrations. And every time we use these words, our body (70% is made of water) is affected by these very vibrations. Imagine the continual usage of such words for many years. Even without any emotions affected to it, our very body is affected all the same due to the vibration of the word itself as shown in this rice experiment. Thus we must be very selective with our words and our thoughts. 

Scared Contracts - quotes

When you do not seek or need external approval, you are at your most powerful.

Your Sacred Contract allows you countless chances to grow and change, dependent only on your willingness to pick up the subtle clues and cues that appear along the way. Dreams, intuitions, apparent coincidences, and 'chance' encounters are just a few of the cues that will lead you on the path to genuine transformation. 

Influence of karma in its life

Today as I was chanting my Di Zhang Jing, I was reading the part about what actions would lead to which karma, and how these bad actions will result in what suffering in hell. 

For example, there is a very well-known hell punishment for lust that makes the person who is lustful see a beautiful lady or a handsome man, who rushes to hug him/her; only to have the lady/man, turned into a burning red-hot pillar. The sufferer is immediately being scotched to ashes. Suddenly a wind blows by, and he is revived again, totally forgotten what has happened just a second ago. Then again the process is repeated until the karma ends. I believe this system is to erase lust from our character that was formed during human life. Thus we are not allowed to use our memory to guide us like in human life, but to let us repeat this enaction till it is eradicated. And the suffering will only stop when the karma for lust ends. In other words, it's only when this character trait is totally erased then we can be freed from this lessons.

So I asked this question before: if we are free from such sins, then why do some of us still have such bad karma to go through in life? Aren't we suppose to 'finished' all our bad karma in hell already? 

So while chanting the scripture, a realization suddenly come to me - those karma in life is to repay other people. Our own nature is wiped clean, like a totally clean slate in hell. The reason why we still have to go through karma on earth is because of the web karma we did. The parents we have, who will lead us to be either good or bad; are all seeds that we sowed before, that will either lead us to heaven or doom. Which is separated from our nature. Because a baby is truly pure to begin with. 

Astigmatism - Helpful words

Choice

Choice is your greatest power. It is an even greater power than love, because you must first choose to be a loving person. For example, take the simple matter of someone apologizing to you for having spoken thoughtlessly or hurtfully. In that one instant, the power of transformation rests entirely with you. You can transcend the density of your anger and choose to forgive, transmuting that instant into an exchange that restores energy to both of you. Or you can repress your divine nature and cause that potential opportunity for healing to become a contaminated energy transaction. Choosing to act in accordance with your divine potential consolidates the power of your many 'faces,' your inner and outer worlds. - Caroline Myss

Be in the Now with your partner

No matter what happens, at some point your relationship is going to end. Either you’re going to break up/get divorced, or one of you is going to die.

Morbid? Maybe. But once you accept that your relationship is “doomed” it can really free you up to be in The Now with your partner.

Being in The Now means focusing on what’s going on in your relation- ship RIGHT NOW. Seeing your partner for what they are and what they bring to the table, accepting the bad and loving the good and letting the emotional future take care of itself. 

Natural Vision Improvement and Vision Goggles

I received a present from a dear friend, vision goggles. I started trying them 3 days ago on 27th August. Its like a pair of sun glasses that has pin holes in them. They are suppose to help your vision improve naturally but cutting out the extra areas that confuses the eye image. I'm suppose to have a better eyesight by 2-4 weeks time with consistent usage and lessening of the powered lenses.

Jobs - Steve Jobs Movie

I just watched Steve Jobs movie over the weekend and I must say, that he is indeed a very inspiring model.

He is an asshole in the show though, and I think perhaps he could very well be, if not, Apple won't churn out so many amazing products if his people were not pushed to the limit.

From that show, I saw a true life story of karma that played out right in front of me.

I also saw how the subtle consciousness of Jobs from young had dragged him all the way to adulthood and possibly to the end of his life.

For the first story of karma, which I found really amazing, is that Jobs fired his many friends who started up the company with him, and also his many subordinates in his company. His way of firing people was tactless, fierce and generally pride-hurting.

And karma has him to go through that experience that he brought to many people whom he heartlessly fired over the 5 years. And he was fired from his OWN company that he started.

This is the exciting part (I say exciting part because I am always excited when I find literal proofs in life with the law of karma), that its literally IMPOSSIBLE to have Jobs fired from his own company. Apple is the company that Jobs started. His position is the highest in the company. Who else in the company can fire him? NOBODY. But he got fired anyways. He needed to go through this "medicine" that he was giving everybody around him. Jobs needed to know how it feels like to be fired heartlessly. This is the amazing part. How? The company got listed and Jobs was fired through a unified decision at a board meeting. This is how amazing karma law play out. It always gets even. Even through in the most amazing way where its literally impossible. But it will happen. Might not happen in this lifetime though. But trust me, it ALWAYS happen.

Such is the gentle yet all surrounding energy of karma that one does not have any capacity to escape from it when it comes, be it good or bad.

The second thing I got from the movie is the intensity of his subtle consciousness. For this I am purely doing it on my own guess. So please don't quote me right or wrong on this. This is just my own feelings about Jobs in general.

Its a pretty known fact that Jobs was adopted. And very often, as an adopted child feels lonely and abandoned. This subtle 'condition' of being abandoned and lonely can remain in the mind for a very long time, while the main host (Jobs, in this case) goes about his daily event. This 'condition' or 'belief' - that he should be abandoned and remained abandon (the mind often subconsciously prefers to stay in the 'condition' or 'belief' that one has been brought up with) actually drives all his decisions in his everyday life, whether big or small. The unaware man is unable to change that, unless he has a certain amount of meditation and awareness in the things that he do to note the very subtle frequency of his own mind.

This is how I see why Jobs was an asshole to the people around him. His 'condition' or 'belief' = feeling of abandonment. And his fierceness cause his co-workers and even his friends to abandon him, which was exactly what his mind state prefers to stay in as a comfort zone. One may think this is ridiculous, why would one sabotage ourselves? But if we quiet down and observe the actions he made, we can see that it is quite apparent. One may be outwardly looking for love and support, where in fact, its own subtle beliefs are the ones that are actually driving the vehicle of life, totally unknown to the host.

This is how important a child's life is. His beliefs from the age of 0 years to (I say) 3 years or 4 years, will shape his entire life. Until he has gathered enough power from his awareness to break through the chain energy of beliefs that has held his entire life.

We have to note that our beliefs have very strong interconnecting energy links to our entire physic and physical body, often extending out to our environment, due to the long time that this belief has built up a support system of its own.

This is the reason why meditation is so important. It allows us to go back to ourselves, gently, little by little and discover how our own mind works, and then go deeper into our own negative beliefs to lessen, or strengthen our positive beliefs.

Our mind and body have the natural tendency to heal ourselves. We just have to be aware that we have such power within us.

Holding onto resentment, anger and sadness blocks your creative energy

When holding onto negative emotions, one blocks his own creative energy. The creative energy here means the energy that is used to create things and produces things. In Think and Grow Rich book, its mentioned as the productive energy aka the sexual energy that produces and creates another living being in the world.

This creative energy is so powerful, it can make something appear in existence out from nothing at all. And its how this world reproduces itself constantly. And this force is greater then any other force in this earth.

And when one is holding onto negative emotions, it blocks our creative energy to produce and create. And we need to forgive in order to release that energy back to the person or place that gave us in order to be free again to create. Forgiveness is not only for someone else, it is also for ourselves. Its a personal thing. It has nothing to do with the other person. Most of the times when we are hurt, we want them to pay us for what they have done to us. That makes us have to see it through that they get what they deserve. Karma works in a way we have no way of planning when it will happen. And forcing ourselves to see that karma play through binds us even more tightly to the very person that hurt us. Forgiving someone can release that negative emotions and release the binding force between you and the person who hurt you. Only when you forgive them and release them from that binding force, then you are free to go do something that you really love and give you joy instead.

Below are 2 very good links to the topic of forgiveness and how beneficial it is to oneself.
http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Divination/Forgiveness.htm
http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Divination/Cruelty_Forgiveness_Fierce%20Teachers.htm

Forgiveness literally means "to give forth". In other words, forgiveness is the act of returning foreign energy, from out of your personal space. Forgiveness is a psychic mechanical action to "give it back" to them from whom it came.

• Forgiveness is the single biggest gift one can ever give to oneself.
• Forgiveness will release one from the psychic and emotional bondage that keeps one imprisoned in bitterness, resentment, anger, grief, and guilt.
• Forgiveness is the key to creativity, energy, and freedom.

---

Forgiveness does not mean condoning or justifying the harmful acts done by others.

• The laws of karma ensure that those who do harm will themselves be harmed, when their time comes. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, the basic tribal rules of social justice, apply in some version in all cultures.

"I complained I had no shoes until I met a man who has no feet."

Recently it got me thinking.. That a man's choices in life is reflected in his actions and also in his thoughts.

There are many people who sees other people who are richer, or more fortunate than themselves. And then get unhappy and start complaining about their own situation and want more stuffs.

At the same time, below this same group of people also have many others, whom are poorer than them, or less fortunate. And if they focus on this lower group, they can start feeling blessed that they are so lucky.

For the general people, we are floating somewhere in the middle. There are always people who are above us, below us, in all things, in certain things. We can't have the best of everything. That's reality. And we can't have the worst of everything too.

Upper Tier
Middle Tier **
Lower Tier

Most of us are always in the middle tier. There are always people who are richer than us, smarter than us, prettier/more handsome than us. And likewise vice versa, there is always people who are not so fortunate as us.

So how does the reaction to such things result?

The mind does the final picking. It can either pick itself to compare with the top, or pick the bottom. Or it can not pick at all, and remain happy and satisfied as it already is.

So the conditions of jealousy, anger, as well as feeling blissful, joyful, peaceful are all out there. Its just how the mind picks out which conditions to focus on that results in our emotions and actions.

Its all our own choices of picking which scenarios within the mind.

So to elaborate further, our actions/ reactions are actually a manifestation of what happens in the mind. Be it anger or joyfulness. When something keeps occurring that is unsatisfactory, for example, jealousy to others who seems more fortunate, its actually the imbalance of the self-esteem that caused the mind to nit pick at others who "looked more fortunate" and then display out our emotions.

And these manifestations of emotions are actually good, because its a sign or symptom to show out the imbalance of the inner self and if we are aware, we can go back to try and balance it.

Let me try and put it in equation terms.

 "Nothing happens to man that is not contained within man". -- -C Jung

Spirit of Peace

Most of us know whenever we have the spirit of peace with us.

Do we recognize the spirit of hate and guilt when it is there too?

Success Stories of Lee Kuan Yew

I just watched the DVD of the Success Stories of Lee Kuan Yew, and I was very lucky to borrow it from a neighbor.

I am very inspired by Mr Lee. Indeed, some may say that he was overly strong in his decisions and punishments, however, without it, I do wonder what route will Singapore take in these 40 years.

Particularly in one part of the show, it narrated that Lee Kuan Yew has not only given Singapore the direction to grow, but what moral values we should have, what languages we talk, who to marry, how many children to bear, even what are the things we should eat. Then at that very moment I realized.. Lee was not just a Prime Minister to us.. He acts more like our father, and showers us with his fatherly concern that I don't see any other Prime Minister doing anywhere else the world.

Perhaps I am not well informed, nor widely read on politics, but I have hardly, hear of any other Prime Minister anywhere else that is like a fatherly figure and thinks for his citizens the way a father thinks for his child.

And I also realized, just like a child that is rebellious and not grateful for his father's teachings, that's how most Singaporeans react to Lee (not to say all, but most, really).

It saddens me to see most Singaporeans talking bad about the one Prime Minister in the world that managed to curb corruption, bring prosperity and harmony to its citizens. And not acknowledging, that what Singapore is today, is the results of what Lee did in the past 40 years. And I have heard with my own ears that many Singaporeans did not even want to pay tax (which is very little compared to other countries) and they feel that the government owes it to them to make the roads, bridges, clean places for them to stay. The people of Singapore and the government are not tied up as one, but separated in the mind. And I do feel that its because the Singapore government has spoiled us badly. We grew up all in a super clean environment and has never seen nor experience anything drastic before, because we had a super efficient government to protect us from all that. We are very much like children who are blessedly protected by Lee and his good governing of this country. Just like how a father protects his family from harm.

Most people do talk about the ministers taking too much pay, that its just like corruption, but in the legal way. I do not deny the the ministers pay are high. But what most Singaporeans do not see, as they were bred here and raised here in this CLEAN Singapore, how it is to be a corrupted country with corrupted ministers on top. Because Singaporeans had not experienced it before, most do not know the consequences. If ever, corruption is given even the slighted chance to remotely develop, business will take more than double the time to set up, the rich gets richer, the poor will find it super hard to make a living, and have any dreams of prosperity. Even the rich will find it difficult to do business, as the officials come every now and then to create trouble and ask for money. And the nation's prosperity will fall. The top officials, who are corrupted, will find it much easier to extort money from the rich businessman, than to want to govern the country properly.

Lee, on the other hand, grew up in a period where he saw many corruptions and social unrest going on. To make a comparison with low pay for ministers and chance of corruption to breed, I am pretty sure that the logical way is to give a higher pay and get corruption completely out of the way.

Lee fought hard to keep peace in this small vulnerable country of four races. If any of the four races gain any slight power, it would have been so easy to tip over the whole harmony of this place. So Lee was strong and firm in his punishments in social unrest. Which, I personally do not think its a bad thing. Imagine Singapore fighting the way that Indonesia was fighting 1998, Singapore would have been completely gone. We are a small country, and we simply cannot afford this kind of social unrest. It would take us decades to repair.

And for Lee, he has never had any scandals in this political life, which I greatly admire him for. Most ministers, being men, have many affairs or many secret events. But clearly he is one clean man who thinks for his country and his citizens ahead of his own pleasures.

I am grateful to be a citizen of his country and am honored to have known him in his lifetime.

Good quote

Renowned Jungian psychologist James Hillman once said,"You have to give up the life you have to get to the life that's waiting for you.'

Complete power of our lives

Whatever our lives are right now, we have allowed it to happen. By choice to endure or to change, is the only way to gain full responsibility and power over our own lives.

My new house to furnished

I got my house in 2nd October 2011. And I haven't been able to post the before and after pictures.

Let me try to recall the entire process. :)

These are pictures of our empty new house. It is a new house, so there are many things that we could skip already. So its not as difficult as renovating an old house. The walls are all plastered straight, the white paint is new, the windows let lots of sunlight in, which is one of my favorite parts of the house. :)

This is the main door.

I invite Goddess KuanYin in to help me bless the house before I go in. :))

The view of our living room. I love it, gives me a big area of sky that I can just stare at for hours. :)

The back of my living room.

Sneak peek into my small kitchen.

The view at my kitchen area. I love this view as well coz I can see Guang Ming San from here. 

A close up view on the blocks and beyond.

Given by Qing Jian, on electrolux microwave and oven.

I'm taking a picture in the masterbedroom toilet. Yes you heard me right, masterbedroom TOILET. So bright with windows right???

Master bedroom toilet too.

Master bedroom.

Common toilet

Common room 02. As you can see we already have some white shelves delivered to our place and some Ikea boards(I think they used to be doors of wardrobes that we bought for $20 per piece for our bay window)

Common room 01: we already have the curtains and fans up. :)

And after long months of thinking, discussing and debating, we finally finished furnishing our flat! :))

Our living room. We used a beige color sofa, and a light cream color wallpaper. I want to have a feeling of "Home" when I come back, so neutral colors were adopted. 

This dining table is from Cellini. Glass top with wood-backed chairs. The wood fits our TV consol beautifully. And the dining light that we picked out fits the theme simply beautifully. Although the dining light looks small in this picture, but its actually nicely sized with the table, but its position is a bit off, so we did some adjustments with the lighting later on with the electrician.

As for the kitchen, there wasn't much to be done, as just added the kitchen light, cheaply from Ikea. It looks like it belonged there even before we came in.

This is a closer up look of the TV consol. We got this also from Cellini. Their wood is beautiful and we could not resist getting this piece.

The 2 side lamps adds to the sleek looking TV with the minimum frame like a picture frame, and sets the mood to chill out and feel of the hotel rooms that I have been to before.

Overlooking out to the view. Creamy pastel color curtains day curtains (thin fabric so as to let the light though, I love my living to be bright and airy) was chosen to also give the mood of soothing feel. When the wind is blowing, the curtain sway with the wind, and I get sleepy sitting on the couch!

Our sofa is a little big, and the space to put a table in between the TV consol and the sofa is rather tight, so Naguchi table was chosen as a piece in our living room as its made of glass, transparent, and doesn't look too bulky. I love the wooden legs beneath the Naguchi table that is spreaded out so artfully yet balances so well. 

The white carpet was chosen to put beneath the Naguchi table to give a sense of function area, to link the sofa with the table as a piece and to add to the light, airy feel of the whole place.

Master bedroom: I initially wanted to buy a woody bedframe to unify most of our furniture, but decided to reuse back our old bed frame instead. We bought 2 Ikea carpets and put them side by side. As a big one would costs almost twice the price, I remember we got them both for a steal at only around $200 that covers the entire bedroom floor! I love the bedsheets that have pictures of bamboo and the lush materials for the serene soothing feel for my sleeping room.

LED spotlights was used at the window bay so I can use it when I'm up reading. The curtain fabric we chose a black-out goldy color one tone fabric, but with some wrinkles to give it some lush texture. We also added a bay window cushion tailor made that costs around $400, which is totally worth it.

The wallpaper we chose was a brown color with a slight texture to it, giving a feel of how I normally liked in hotel rooms.

I'm a Buddhist, and I love water feature, thus, when I saw this water feature in I WANNA GO HOME, I felt that this is it, as this costs only around $120! My friend came to my house and thought this was made of copper and thought this was really expensive. Hhahaha, I have a good vibe of getting expensive looking things with a cheap price tag! ;)

My balcony, sometimes I just like to lay here to relax and chill and stare out into the different building lighting and see the moon and stars above.

We got this chairs at Ikea As-is corner, for around a cheap $50+ each. And the Ikea table costs only $25.

This is one of my favorite piece in my house. Guess what is this space initially?? Its a window! That overlooks out into a blank wall, complete with bay windows! So we thought, since the window looks out into the blank wall doesn't make much sense, we decided to change this space into an altar. On top I have my Amituofo in the middle, accompanied with Di Zang Wang Pu Sha on the left, and Zi Zai Kuan Yin on the right. And also a small Zambala slightly in the front.

The milo color was chosen as a background after long hours of debating which is the best color. It brings out the whiteness on the Amituofo in the middle and both Boddhisattvas on the right and left as well. I have a friend who came by to our house the other day, and commented that this is the most stylish and new type of altar that she has ever seen. Made her feel like having one too in her home. LOL. :)

And now for the Ikea doors that we bought from As-Is corner for $20 per piece.

Wanna know what we did with it??

Da-dang!! We asked the carpenter to help us cut it and glue it properly to our bay windows as he was making our altar. This extra bay window fixing is completely free, so we got both bay windows covered nicely for $40! An actual bay window would cost around $400 to cover with some wood. 2 bay windows would costs around $800. And we got both ours for only $40. I'm still amazed at this super idea.

Overall, we completed our renovation complete with furnishings for a steal at under $30k! It includes everything, even the mattresses, TVs and sofas, vacuum cleaner and washing machine and even lightings, etc!

So now I am helping my friend revamp his place. :) Hopefully it turns out well and I shall post the pictures here on my blog. But as we are under a very tight budget, there is very little things that we could change. But I'm helping him to change it to a better, more comfortable environment as much as I can. :)

Lesson that I learnt from Trading - I can't handle my fear

Recently, I was out of a job, my previous company went bankrupt, and I got a contract job that promised to turn me into a permanent job soon, but it didn't materialize either, so I told myself that I would just try to go into trading.

So these couple of weeks I just went into contra trading. And I lost terribly in it.
Whilst losing money, I finally realized some things about myself.
Its really all over my life, as I begin to see, but its really apparent when it comes to trading - money.

1) I can't deal with my fear to think rationally.
2) I don't have enough faith in divine help.

So many times, I always go to one of the websites to look for help (its a divine lot website, I always believe the truly sincere can definitely get help from divine on all matters). And several times, during the contra trade, I would ask for advice. This particular trade yesterday, I bought in at $0.570 on Monday. But it begin dropping on Tuesday. I drew a lot, and on the money part, it says - "You won't be much affected, and if you are hoping to make big buck out of it, you won't be able to make much out of it though."

So I thought, maybe then I can at least sell at $0.575, meaning I only earn $40 after the contra money.
(At least this part I did decipher correctly)

Then it suddenly dropped to $0.555, and lower.. I tried to go chanting to distract myself from selling it and making a loss. Halfway through the chanting, the immense fear of losing a big bulk of my savings came.. I can't handle it, I actually stopped my chanting halfway, and made a beeline for the internet. Once I saw the price dropped to $0.545 $0.550, I panicked and got angry and cut everything. Realizing my loss of $560, including my trading fees.

And the very next day, this particular counter went right back up to $0.575 $0.580.

And I thought, wow the lot is really accurate.
But I didn't have enough faith to hold through.

And I stopped my chanting to cut my losses. I can't deal with my fear and have a leap of faith.

So after these few weeks of contra trading, I have decided to go back to my long term investing.
Anyways, my first lot about my contra trading is an analogy to a person who is wealthy and retired, but decided to open a restaurant with a group of friends because of the boredom of retirement. And in the end his money is all cheated. And he lives with regret.

自足常乐。 That's what's the lot is all about. :)

看破，放下

“看破，放下 - 能解决很多人生的问题。
但不是每个人都做得到。

如果不能看破，看淡。
如果不能放下，放轻松。”

Awareness - 5:45pm @ 23/03/2013

When we start being aware of our own actions, we start to realise that we (our body) are doing (action) what the mind is thinking, we can actually go deep into the very source of beliefs we had (that's why we do certain things in a certain way).
- being aware of our own body, mind and feelings,
   - we can stop bad habits from forming and change some bad habits into something good.
   - we can have the realisation why we are doing things in a certain way
   - can trace back to any set of beliefs (origin) and change them.

                 
Cause -> set of beliefs ->  action ->  habit ->  (awareness) ->  break habit -> (awareness + wisdom) ->  know which set of beliefs ->  (constant awareness + wisdom) ->  break or change and even do programmative beliefs

We can only break or change these chain of actions by being aware.

Book Review

Recently I am reading this book from a friend of mine who attended the MIP course.

Its quite lengthy. So its taking me a longggg time to read this. Hopefully I can finish this asap.

Theravada retreat - 2D and 3D objects - 1:30pm - 23/03/2013

My small little insight

I saw a kid's drawing on the wall. It literally looks 2D. Lol. Very cute. Even though it's drawn at an perspective angle, the carpet looks like it's viewed on top.

One thought came to my mind, why is it that our eyes viewed the world in 3D format (with am angle, obviously), even starting right from the time we were born, but why do we have to learn to draw in 3D perspective? And its so difficult to learn?

Is it - a skill we picked up?
         - we are not really looking at objects? But only briefly seeing them, and let the rest register in our minds ( that's why we failed to capture the 3D aspect and let the mind do the rest of the generating to recognize it as 2D instead?
        - and if we learn to be aware of our sight, to really 'see' carefully, will our drawings tremendously improve? And all those drawing lessons where the teacher pinpoint the nook and corners of ankles, feet, etc will be unnecessary?

Company cutting costs

Currently I'm now contracted to this company that just went thru a big revamp one week before I started my work. The studio manager was axed suddenly and without reason nor notice. And that was the first week that the new CEO came in from India parent company.

2nd time he came, he came to axe another programmer. Whom I really liked and just had a beautiful baby girl borned in India just one week ago. Whilst wishing for my own contract to be changed to permanent job, I started to think about the Diamond Cutter theory. I remember it says very clearly that when a company start to cut down on welfare and etc, which is expected to help the company financially, but in fact, the company will be much worse off then before. Now I really see this with my own eyes. This is the perfect example, unfolding right before my eyes.

This team that I'm currently working with is an amazing team. They have the best people, and a perfect conducive learning environment. Even when I was lazy and lack of motivation in my last job, here, in this company, I saw myself stretched forward and taking things on my own and further then I have honestly ever tried to.  And it's easy here to do so, because there are so many great people with talent here.

But when the new CEO started to come in and axe people, the entire atmosphere of the company changed. Initially people stayed till really late, working overtime without complaining, taking full pride in their own work. But the second time the boss came in to axe another staff, the entire staff started to panic, and actually start looking out for jobs right away. It's really irony, because, this is one team that I would say, could have the ability to make anything happen. So strong was this team that I never saw it before. It's a self-sustaining team that's so hard to come by.

So the Diamond Cutter theory IS correct. Once the company cuts thread benefits, down the company goes. Now no one really even have the mood to do late nights anymore. So theorically, we have actually become MORE expensive to hire.

Strange isn't it?

Feels like I've gone home

Yesterday I went for my dentist appointment, and went back to Buddha Tooth temple for lunch. As I was offering incense, I made the wish to always be able to practise Buddhism in my future lives, whether I am in Pureland, or not in Pureland. And as I was traveling back from my dentist back to my work place, a feeling hit me suddenly, as I was walking down the steps of Bouna Vista mrt.

It felt like I had truely gone home, by saying this vow silently to Buddha and myself. Suddenly the feeling of thousands of repeated vows came flooding back to me. I felt like crying.. I was embraced by the familiar loving kindness of Buddhas and Boddhisattvas. I knew then its not the first time I made such a wish. I have found my true path in life again.

I am finally home.

Abnormality

Recently it has been increasingly obvious.. that I don't belong in normal crowd.. and the things that occupy my mind day and night is hardly on one's dinner conversations. I wish I can talk about nail polish all day long too.. but I just can't.

Now with more awareness, I'm beginning to see that I was made differently all along. I thought others was weird and insisted that they are missing something. Now, then I realize, its me that's the odd one out, not them! They are normal!

My birth day :)

Today I made a card for my parents, inspired by the card I saw during my retreat in end March.

It was made by a small kid apparently, and on it, it writes: "感恩父母养育之恩。"

When I saw that, I was very touched. Even a small kid has done it, yet I have never wrote a card for my parents before to thank them for bringing me up (which is a difficult thing to do, lol. I wasn't the easiest kid).

Thus, I wrote some things for my parents today. :)

谢谢父母养育之恩！ : )

Marriage by Jing Kong Fa shi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sTg9Y7uH5Q&list=PL01141C255B5B6436

Energy talk by Jing Kong Fa shi!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_OUzJhTxS0&list=PL01141C255B5B6436

New Book - New Path by Kriyananda

I'm now reading this book recommended by my dear friend, Lynn.
This is a sequel to Yogananda's Life of a Yogi, written by his disciple, Kriyananda. :)

http://www.ananda.org/inspiration/books/path/

What is the TRUTH? Is it the same as what we see?

What we see = what is happening?

or 

What we see + perceptions =/ what is happening?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or is it,

From our point of view (lets see the other way round):

What we think is happening = (What we see + Perceptions)

and

Truth = (What we see + Perceptions) - Perceptions

If we minus the perceptions away, and let there be no perceptions, (+ Perceptions - Perceptions = 0) then what is "what we see" is actually the truth.

Truth = What we see

If "what we see" is the truth, then,

Isn't "what we see" essentially empty ?

From a mathematical psychological point of view. :)

House Inspirations :)

Recently I was helping a friend do up his house renovation and giving design ideas.

Again I felt the joy of house renovation.
And thanks to him, I found quite a few pictures that 'wowed' me. Lol.

Enjoy! :)


Living room color scheme:
                       

                       

Bedroom ideas:

Kitchen ideas:

Bathroom ideas:

 Now for what I like:

Country style cute little kitchen! :)

Amazing grandeur feel!