ADV - Guided Meditation Download

Some people have problems going into meditation and I don't blame them. When I first started out with this thing, it irked me....which is not a good thing since we are trying to do the exact OPPOSITE! lol.

So, I download a whole lot of MP3s to help guide me into meditation. And you know what? It sucks that Malaysians can't download from Amazon because there are so many out there! It's amazing. You've got ones for kids, for business people, for stressed out, for the sick, for elderly...everything!

But meditation is a very universal kind of thing and most of the time, one meditation guide video works for everyone in general. Here's one for you, a great nature-based meditation video you might find useful.

There's a QR Code if you want to hop over onto a mobile-friendly website.

Click Here!

Look Mom, The Trees Are Dancing!!

We were rushing back from school, and then rushed to get showered, and then rushing to get to tuition when this happened.

Rushing around is something I really abhor. I want to take my own sweet time to do my things, at my own pace. But such is the world that we are living in...most of the time, we can't escape it. But today, as we were rushing out of the house for tuition class, one my boys stopped me my tracks and said very loudly, 'Look, mom! The trees are dancing!'

Such a simple statement but I thought we have a spare second to watch the dancing trees. It. Was. Awesome.

I mean, we don't put enough time into our daily lives to do this, do we? To stop and watch. To stop and listen. To stop everything in our tracks and just be with the things around us. We are always struggling to get somewhere, some place, accomplish something, meet someone....endless! LOL

But we have a choice. For me, I take refuge in my daily yoga practice whereby I have no other choice but to slow down. It isn't yoga if you rush it. For others, you might run although it is not my cup of tea, I think putting one foot in front of another with one goal in mind is good mental practice.

For all you others who are rushing here and there and everywhere else on a daily basis, try this video. Just 4:48mins of your time. Yes, you have 4:48 minutes to spare. This is the Epic Deepak Chopra and his soothing voice.

Hope it helped you. And have fun with it.

Ajahn Brahm: Letting Go

I've always thought that listening to Monks talk must be the most boring thing to do on this planet. On a bright sunny day, why do people sit around and listen to a man in robe talk??! Isn't there swimming to be done? Is there no work? Wow, you must be living a mighty fine life!

That was before I found Ajahn Branhm, a profoundly famous monk. Not only is he gentle, makes a lot of sense but he is FARNIEEEE!! He even said the word 'bastards' in this video. LOL. Imagine that.

His talks are not just for Buddhists, seriously. His talks is often about life, about people, about justice, about love, about happiness...hence, he is for EVERYONE.

I challenge you to watch this video and not laugh at his prediction about Australia. Anyway, it's an incredibly useful talk about Letting Go. About how to find happiness by not hanging onto so many things from the past. It is, I'm sure, something that many of us can relate to. =)

Happy Friday, everyone! Have a blessed weekend.

Accepting Loss

My son lost something today. Something that he failed to value much but have kept him company for a long time. Funny that it is that it took him all of 30 minutes to recover and I spent much of the day mulling the loss. After crying and sobbing into the pillow, he found a way to accept it and let it go.

It dawned on me that the reason why I kept mulling over it was not the fact that it was expensive. It was because I was dependent on that device to keep my son entertained while I did my things. A babysitter of sort. Wrong, I know. I guess that is the reason why the device is lost. The reason behind it is that I need to stop using these devices to keep my kids from being in the real world and for me to spend more time with them, connecting the way parents should.

The difference between how he dealt with it and how I did it was that he spent some time crying over it, regretting it and then finding a way to accept the fact. And I spent much of the time wishing I could turn back time and remind him to bring the device back. I wish he still had it and it wasn't lost. That we could suddenly find it in a corner of the home or in the car. Or some kind-hearted individual finally thought about it and returned it to us.

It didn't happen the way I wished for it to happen. Reality is the way reality is.

Instead of mulling over it, refusing to cry and accept the fact, we hurt ourselves. We run around in circles of impossible wishes.

Yes, we can replace it and get another one but I don't think I should.

There are lessons to be learned here. Number one, we should appreciate the things or people that we have right now because one day, they might go away. Impermanence. Number two, I should be a better parent and stop using all these electronic devices as a babysitter. There's no better babysitter than me. Number three, that my son should be more appreciative and careful about the things that he has and others don't. Number four, people are greedy. Although I am the kind of person who would return $1 or $1 million that did not belong to me if I could find the owner, not everyone is the same way.

And since we can't singularly change the world, we should just cry. Cry at the top of our lungs and then move on. Just like my son...not me. We hurt because we try to be too strong.

I like to apply simple things in life to life. The logic, I hope you can apply to your life as well. A loss in the family, bankruptcy, a job, a friend....well, your cell phone. =) If it's lost, it's lost. Allow yourself a period of grief, and find a way in your heart to move on and stop wishing it wasn't the way it was.

It just is.

How To Love Your Authentic Self

by by Lori Deschene

Our past actions shaped today. But we are not what we’ve been. We don’t need to carry around labels or mistakes from yesterday as if they define us. Whatever you’ve done, it’s over. It doesn’t have to brand you, particularly not if you’re making the conscious choice to do things differently now.

We can judge ourselves by the weakest moments or the strongest—that’s our choice. Choose to focus on the strongest, and then leverage that pride for more of those moments. Every time you feel good about what you do it’s one more reminder to love who you are.

Read more>> (TinyBuddha)

charity

I know of some really great people in this world who gives kindly to others, to charitable organizations and also to poor people who are suffering from health ailments and have no way to getting medical attention.  bless these people. bless their hearts and the people that they love.

when one gives from the bottom of one's heart, this is called altruistic love. love born out of compassion and kindness to another human being who is less blessed.

there are all forms of charity. all good for the recipient but it makes a difference to the person who is offering the aid.

one, someone who gives because he or she feels responsible. for a sick aunt, a gambler of a grandfather. a loathesome neighbor in order to protect the wife because he or she feels responsible as a neighbor.

two, someone who gives because of fear. confronted with an aggressive beggar or someone who was asking for money in a threatening way, he or she gives in. this is charity under duress.

three, someone who gives money because of karma. while it is true that if you lend a helping hand to others in your lifetime will improve your karma, it should not be the ONLY reason we are sharing our money with others. it is only a by-product of a kind act.

four, someone who gives to charity because of sympathy. this is the strongest, most selfless act in the world and yet the easiest to exploit. i have had people tell me 'don't give lah, don't be stupid. this person might be cheating you or going to buy drugs with the money'.

my answer to that one would be this - i answer to myself and my divinity, not to this person. this person, if he or she had cheated me, would have to answer to himself or herself in the end. i have done my job. i have shared love and compassion and now, i am entitled to feel good about having being kind to someone who shares my race.

the human race.

i did it not for personal gains. i did it not for fear. i did it not because of responsibility. i did it out of the kindness of my heart and if that is exploited, i trust karma to do its thing and balance it out for me.

Replacing Negative Thoughts With Positive Ones - My Struggle

It is challenging to become more Zen-like when you are absolutely sooooo human.

One of the principles that I am really struggling to learn is learning how to prevent bad thoughts from making an appearance in my head. Buddhism stresses a whole lot mindfulness and the controlling your thoughts, you see.

Why i am struggling is because of a recent incident with a friend i thought was a good friend. I had it in me that this was someone i really wanted to be close to. I open up to him in many ways that i don't usually do for others. Hence, it hurt more to have him behave the way he did when things went wrong.

I was extremely hurt.

Therefore, till this very day, I find it hard not to feel angry and hurt whenever his name pops up in a conversation. It is as if the wounds were still fresh, that they were inflicted yesterday. But I have to move past these feelings...there isn't any point in keeping them in me. I must learn how to eradicate these bad thoughts whenever they appear in my head because it serves me none at all.

On top of that, i also need to learn how to change the bad thoughts into good ones. Send him loving thoughts.

Now, in Christianity, there is something similar - when someone slaps you on the right cheek, give him your left one.

Very hard to do, indeed. Although it is hard to achieve this, I don't think it is impossible to think good thoughts for someone who has hurt you.