There are two best friends that I treasure the most throughout life, the sky and the breath.
They have been by my side all the time through various stages in life, never leaving me alone, while others have. Many people came and left leaving me different impressions and memories in different lands, in different times. However, the same sky and the same breath were always there for me to reach, to relish my dreamy longing whenever I needed. They are two of my good friends, of which I want you to become close also to bring about your happiness, your well-being, joy, harmony and balance in life.
I always loved looking at the sky. It runs my imagination in a dream like fantasy whenever look into that far away, glittering horizon up there. I can draw various shapes and pictures of my liking with the white clouds that are floating here and there. Sometime it looks like a staircase leading to the heaven, sometime like the image of God reaching out His hands from the famous Michelangelo’s drawing. I especially love the early morning sky, because I can look straight into the rising sun without having to squint my eyebrows. But the evening sky is just as awesome; you see birds flying in such magnificent orderliness and harmony across the sky that it is breathtaking.
The vast sky; sometimes so clear and deep blue, like the sea from my hometown, it gives me such indescribable sense of peace, belonging and wonder. Sometimes it’s dark and gray, with rain clouds hanging over and thunder coming down anytime; then, I have to run to the windows before the rooms get flooded or collect laundries before it get wet in rain water. I will sit by the window, watching the raindrops soaking houses, trees, roads, cars… it washes away all the dirt, impurities, worries, and concern to be reborn in its intrinsic beauty, purity and cleanness. The whole world once again becomes so fresh and anew like new beginning; so is our heart. In times of distress, one can find such solace, especially after heavy downpour, that it uplifts our spirit once more with surging energy. We can face our ordinary life with fresh enthusiasm and the blue sky like clarity. Life seems much easier when our awareness is expanded.
The sky has been always the place for me to return and compose my spirit whether be happy or unhappy. The vastly open space above brings me closer to the center of my being, my heart that I seldom feel boredom or the need to occupy with any kinds of sound or company. Lie down in the Savasana (the relaxation pose) and I would imagine myself floating in the clouds. I can feel myself merging into the infinite space within me, so tiny yet so huge space holding our spirit…my heart just swells with gratitude of life, of people, of nature. The spirit becomes full and free whenever I look up to the sky. It soars high without knowing its boundary. I could just fly if I could…
Another my best friend is the breath, the beautiful breath with its gentle, yet powerful rhythms, flowing in eternity throughout our life; it nourishes every cells in our body, in every corners of the mind and the spirit. It is very powerful, extraordinary, and yet surprisingly simple to uncover its delicate veil that showers us with bountiful love and blessing from beyond. We are connected with people, with the nature, with the whole universe through the beautiful breath.
All you needed to do to meet her is just to turn around within. You can see the breath that which is always within the reach. Its mysterious power, its grace, never leaves us from our first breath till the moment we die. And yet, it is so easy to forget or take it for granted that we seldom appreciate its perpetual current sustaining our life in such perfect harmony. Instead we get caught up in our petty daily concerns, in our numerous desires, cravings and insecurities, that we often feel miserable in life. We halt breath gasping for more air all the time. In turn many become either short breathers or hyper ventilators. They will keep inhale whenever reminded of breathing, thinking that taking in more air will solve their breathing shortage. Actually the real problem is not knowing that breathing has four parts; inhale, pause, exhale, pause, and taking enough time in each parts. We can’t keep breathing in. We have to exhale as well; finish the exhale first before you take in another one; don’t forget to take a break in between, pause; so that our system can maintain its equilibrium for the homeostatic balance; to make us feel better, healthier and happier. That’s the secret of any breathing techniques you can come across elsewhere; yoga, martial arts, or any other various body-works. Breathing itself is very simple but they make it complicated or sound difficult by adding too much spices of how to do.
The sole purpose of breathing is to exchange gas with atmosphere; we breathe in oxygen that which comes from the plants, in turn, we breathe out carbon dioxide for the plants to take.
Breathe in, breathe out… the interaction between us and nature goes on as long as we are alive. Breathe in, breath out… consciously turn your awareness in between, the pause, whenever you can, whenever you remember. Any posture will do, walking, standing, seating or lying down. Where the breathing actually happens, the chest or the tummy, doesn’t really matter because, in truth, we are breathing with our whole body. Every cells in our body needs oxygen to stay alive and need to remove its waste, carbon dioxide. We are breathing with the whole body. Sometimes your chest, sometimes your tummy, or sometimes even your fingers and toes… they are all breathing together.
Just turn your attention within, whenever you can, wherever you are. Notice its rhythm, feelings, temperature, without trying to control or change. Just simply notice. They change all the time, but it is always there. Sometimes fast or short, sometimes slow or long; however it changes, it is always there, never leaving us even a moment. Naturally your mind soon will wander, in a few minutes, like the floating clouds in the sky, thereby distracting your attention away from the breaths. It doesn’t matter. The thoughts, sensations, noises, etc…they are always there. The sky is still there; so is your breath. It will pass if you don’t pay attention. Keep come back to the ever present breath within you. Soon you will notice your breath becoming smooth and soft, almost disappearing; in turn, your body relaxes, your mind settles down; and then, it becomes the beautiful breath, the sweetest and the most graceful thing it ever can be. You are taming the wild horse into your liking, to be docile; enjoying its ride, stroll or run at your will. You can even meet your God in that junction of the beautiful breath.
For long, I held certain image of God; tall and handsome, with a white beard, a white clothes and with stern but compassionate smile. But when I actually met Him, He wasn’t what I had imagined at all. At first, He came in times of the greatest pain, that I couldn’t care any more, I just entrusted myself into the pain & kept breathing in, breathing out…then like a magic, I saw Him! It was amazing! I tried another time, with more painful experiences. Then He didn’t come. Instead, He came again, while I got engrossed in the Yoga classes with you, while teaching you how to breathe. I saw the sparks of inspiration from your eyes, all shining and glowing…!! Then I realized God has been living within us, within our breath, all this time, while we busy ourselves looking for Him elsewhere, with different expectations, sometimes with ridiculous demands to grant this and that, as though bargaining with Him…
In times of anguish, in times of great anger or frustration, you don’t have to wait for Him to rescue; you just finish Five breathings; slowly inhale, pause, then, finish the exhale in a long stretch, then pause… breathing in again… you will feel better in no time. It seems so much easier to accept life just as it is, no more or no less, just this much, then, it feels good enough. It no longer matters how life presents itself; sometimes good, sometimes difficult or challenging. It will go through its own motion according to its own rhythm and time, just like our breathing. And yet, there are always abundance of love, understanding, patience, gratitude and compassion within your reach as long as you don’t forget to breathe. It is the grace of God, the blessing, to live so near with our beautiful breath. Go to your window side, come closer with the sky and open the window; feel the breeze, feel your chest expanding and your tummy tinkling as you breathe in, breathe out…For me, that is the way I live close with my God…
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Story 7. Breathing in, Breathing out (1)
“You breathing in, breathing out like this, everything will be fine!”
The old man just coming back from his afternoon walk, pointed at his nose and said with smile.
I sort of gave him back a faint smile in acknowledgement but my heart shied away to be reminded of my own breathing. After all, I was also an ex-yoga teacher then. But he made me reflect; of something I have long forgotten since my boy was born, my root, my love of life…
He was in his mid 80, an ex-yoga teacher, but still looked hail & healthy. He lived few more good years before passed away in his sleep. He was the father of my neighbor friend whom I befriended from the same apartment block I lived then. Myself, still not yet quite adopted to the foreign land I came couple of years ago, was a depressed lot who seldom smile or laugh. He seemed to have sensed my unhappiness. Maybe it wasn’t difficult to know considering my heart still skips when I look back those first few years in here, the tears, the loneliness, that which I hid even from my husband.
He learned Yoga when he was 50-something and then started to teach from his own house, converting an intermediate single story terrace house in the Old Klang Road into a yoga studio. Yoga was not so well known then, in Malaysia. Yet he had a good number of students to be able to support the family of 8 children for 2 decades before he retired. My friend was thinking of continuing her father’s work by establishing a private Yoga institute to train yoga instructors. But it was too far crying ambition for someone whose experience and exposure of yoga was just his father. His knowledge and experience in Yoga was also much elementary but he could manage himself because it was within the same neighborhood that people came to learn. She was a different story. She was trying to set up a Yoga institute (she was a part-time lecturer in college) not just a studio without even having taught Yoga before!
After learned of my background a bit from our causal conversation that we exchanged in the playground, she was trying to include me in materializing her business plan. She was showing me around the town, her already-rented-yoga-studio and father’s place. Though I wasn’t impressed or had any intention to be her prospect partner, I couldn’t say ‘no’ straight in her face. She was a kind person but too naïve in her thinking at the same time persuasive. To my relief, I didn’t have to be troubled for too long trying to turn her down. Soon she left Malaysia for good because her husband got transferred to US permanently and their whole family had to follow. Without her realizing it, however, she brought back Yoga into my life; something I’ve been long forgotten and didn’t perceive continuing it in Malaysia. She showed me the way that I could pull out of the cocoon in which I had been feeling suffocated.
Breathing in, breathing out… I looked back the pathway of my breathing which felt so tight and congested. I wondered where my breathing had gone. I started to jog around the apartment block in early morning, keep breathing, keep turning my awareness within to find the junction where I had left. Once so bright and happy, to laugh every few minute as my teacher would say, I wondered why and where she had gone. Breathing in, breathing out… I saw the lost woman crying her heart’s out in front of her little baby feeling helplessly alone without knowing where to turn. In that tiny junction, the momentary gap in between out-breath and in-breath, I saw her suffering from self-imposed failure, impatience, guilt, blame, disappointment, and all that. Those negative emotions were draining life out of me as well as my loved ones’. My husband was clueless at my daily swinging mood. My little boy was afraid of mummy because he didn’t know when she would burst into anger…It was time to wake up, time to open my chest and arm to breathe and stretch…
Since we returned to Malaysia, I wasn’t adopting well to the weather, to the culture, especially the loneliness and financial difficulties. We left our secured life in US behind when our Edwin was l year old. We wanted Edwin to grow up as an Asian not as an American though his birth certificate says so. However, it turned out to be the worst time to have come back as the infamous 1997 financial crisis hit the whole of Asia right after our return. At first I planned to get a job so that Lee could start his own business straight away. But with huge retrenchment and economic downturn throughout the country, it wasn’t easy to find a job for me especially with the immigration restriction on foreign spouse. Moreover Lee was too long away to be able to start his own business. He was as much a foreigner as I was in his homeland. So he found himself a job instead of me. We hurriedly settled in Kuala Lumpur by renting an apartment in the foothill of Desa Petaling. The US dollars we brought, then, drop its value by half immediately after we exchanged to ringgits (the currency value against US dollar dropped to the lowest in the history, from 2.5++ to 5). They soon disappeared as we continued our US living standard for a while without realizing that Lee’s salary was much, much less than how it used to be. Then there was the water crisis around the Klang valley. The water tap ran dry for days, sometimes more than a week without a notice or JPJ water tank. It went on like that for more than 6 months.
So here I was. Confined in the small apartment alone with the baby to look after, with the four walls only as my company. Lee disappeared to his work early in the morning and came back late in the evening. He didn’t know my water woo because his office had plenty of water! With no water even to bath the baby or wash his bottle, and with no one to turn to, I was growing impatient and desperate. Lee also wasn’t happy subtly blaming me to have initiated all these trauma by asking him to uproot his otherwise well-established-clinic from where we lived before. He was taking bus and LRT to commute as we couldn’t afford a car then, and I was pushing up and down trolley under the hot sun to carry water or do marketing because our apartment was in the hillside. I felt like getting sucked up into a deep dark tunnel in where there is no end. Squat down in front of the guard house in a hope to see JPJ water tank anytime, I regretted deeply of my naïve dream that I fantasized before. How dared was I to pack everything so easy and flew for 16++ hours to live in the country that I didn’t even know where it was, how it was like? I could do nothing but cry after Lee had gone to work. I hid my tears from him, the least I could do at that time, not wanting to affect when he himself was struggling to find his place. And it was my pride not to regret over whatever happened before, the one trait that I was good at it from small. I knew from experience that everything will be alright eventually no matter how great the pain might seem in the present.…
The wheel of time, though it seemed slow, was turning bit by bit; days becoming months, months becoming already 3 years. Gradually as I become more familiar with my ways around, I made friends with the neighbors socializing and learning about the country, its multi-racial culture and lifestyles. I didn’t feel as much foreigner as I used to be. Lee’s work also became more stable and the baby was growing up too, becoming more independent to attend a kindergarten. Then reminded by the neighbor friend, who was like a Good Samaritan, I started to get back my practice and study of Yoga and meditation. Life started to come back. Yes, I was not breathing. I had long held my breathing, my inspiration and the sense of direction in life that I once envisioned so clearly and dearly. I should stop playing a victim by the choices I made, just because it didn’t turn out to be exactly the way I wished or planned before. Maybe I needed a wake-up call, to be reminded of the life cycles that which is in constant change and flux.
Thankfully, there was yoga, there was meditation, to be able to put myself together as soon as I remembered. There was also astrology to remind me of the big picture. And then, beside my good husband and the fine boy, there were plenty of kind people and friends around. I wasn’t alone. I could feel the gentle breeze stroking my face as I stand in the Tree Pose. I could feel my finger reaching toward the sky as I balance in the Dancer Pose. There came deep relief, calmness, joy at the same time sense of expansion and freedom. Suddenly it felt so right to have come here! Everything is a blessing in disguise as they would say. Had I not been silly enough to dream of the fairyland in Malaysia, hadn’t there be the unforeseen challenges that came in my way without my inviting it, would I ever ventured myself to stand in front to teach and write in the language that my fellow Korean are forever dreadful? I don’t think so. Not in this life time. Hadn’t my hubby suffer his set-back, would I ever dared to take charge of my own life? I don’t think so. I would have been mostly happy to be just his shadow hiding behind him, waiting for him to do everything for me. That was how I was brought up and got ingrained culturally. We women were secondary to men, once married, we just serve the men and the rest will be taken care and provided by him (no wonder Korean men are so machos and women are like their maids, as you would see in some old Korean dramas).
Next time, when you are in the deep sea of troubled water, you can come to me. I will show you the way out of its difficulties. Breathing in, breathing out…observe the silence in between. The silence will mirror you back to clear off whatever holding your life. Breathing in, breathing out…you will find the mystic land that promises wellness, longevity, happiness and enlightenment. Want to learn more? The upcoming article is about the Beautiful Breath. You can keep posted. Meanwhile I wish you to continue your breathing in, breathing out… You will be just fine.
The old man just coming back from his afternoon walk, pointed at his nose and said with smile.
I sort of gave him back a faint smile in acknowledgement but my heart shied away to be reminded of my own breathing. After all, I was also an ex-yoga teacher then. But he made me reflect; of something I have long forgotten since my boy was born, my root, my love of life…
He was in his mid 80, an ex-yoga teacher, but still looked hail & healthy. He lived few more good years before passed away in his sleep. He was the father of my neighbor friend whom I befriended from the same apartment block I lived then. Myself, still not yet quite adopted to the foreign land I came couple of years ago, was a depressed lot who seldom smile or laugh. He seemed to have sensed my unhappiness. Maybe it wasn’t difficult to know considering my heart still skips when I look back those first few years in here, the tears, the loneliness, that which I hid even from my husband.
He learned Yoga when he was 50-something and then started to teach from his own house, converting an intermediate single story terrace house in the Old Klang Road into a yoga studio. Yoga was not so well known then, in Malaysia. Yet he had a good number of students to be able to support the family of 8 children for 2 decades before he retired. My friend was thinking of continuing her father’s work by establishing a private Yoga institute to train yoga instructors. But it was too far crying ambition for someone whose experience and exposure of yoga was just his father. His knowledge and experience in Yoga was also much elementary but he could manage himself because it was within the same neighborhood that people came to learn. She was a different story. She was trying to set up a Yoga institute (she was a part-time lecturer in college) not just a studio without even having taught Yoga before!
After learned of my background a bit from our causal conversation that we exchanged in the playground, she was trying to include me in materializing her business plan. She was showing me around the town, her already-rented-yoga-studio and father’s place. Though I wasn’t impressed or had any intention to be her prospect partner, I couldn’t say ‘no’ straight in her face. She was a kind person but too naïve in her thinking at the same time persuasive. To my relief, I didn’t have to be troubled for too long trying to turn her down. Soon she left Malaysia for good because her husband got transferred to US permanently and their whole family had to follow. Without her realizing it, however, she brought back Yoga into my life; something I’ve been long forgotten and didn’t perceive continuing it in Malaysia. She showed me the way that I could pull out of the cocoon in which I had been feeling suffocated.
Breathing in, breathing out… I looked back the pathway of my breathing which felt so tight and congested. I wondered where my breathing had gone. I started to jog around the apartment block in early morning, keep breathing, keep turning my awareness within to find the junction where I had left. Once so bright and happy, to laugh every few minute as my teacher would say, I wondered why and where she had gone. Breathing in, breathing out… I saw the lost woman crying her heart’s out in front of her little baby feeling helplessly alone without knowing where to turn. In that tiny junction, the momentary gap in between out-breath and in-breath, I saw her suffering from self-imposed failure, impatience, guilt, blame, disappointment, and all that. Those negative emotions were draining life out of me as well as my loved ones’. My husband was clueless at my daily swinging mood. My little boy was afraid of mummy because he didn’t know when she would burst into anger…It was time to wake up, time to open my chest and arm to breathe and stretch…
Since we returned to Malaysia, I wasn’t adopting well to the weather, to the culture, especially the loneliness and financial difficulties. We left our secured life in US behind when our Edwin was l year old. We wanted Edwin to grow up as an Asian not as an American though his birth certificate says so. However, it turned out to be the worst time to have come back as the infamous 1997 financial crisis hit the whole of Asia right after our return. At first I planned to get a job so that Lee could start his own business straight away. But with huge retrenchment and economic downturn throughout the country, it wasn’t easy to find a job for me especially with the immigration restriction on foreign spouse. Moreover Lee was too long away to be able to start his own business. He was as much a foreigner as I was in his homeland. So he found himself a job instead of me. We hurriedly settled in Kuala Lumpur by renting an apartment in the foothill of Desa Petaling. The US dollars we brought, then, drop its value by half immediately after we exchanged to ringgits (the currency value against US dollar dropped to the lowest in the history, from 2.5++ to 5). They soon disappeared as we continued our US living standard for a while without realizing that Lee’s salary was much, much less than how it used to be. Then there was the water crisis around the Klang valley. The water tap ran dry for days, sometimes more than a week without a notice or JPJ water tank. It went on like that for more than 6 months.
So here I was. Confined in the small apartment alone with the baby to look after, with the four walls only as my company. Lee disappeared to his work early in the morning and came back late in the evening. He didn’t know my water woo because his office had plenty of water! With no water even to bath the baby or wash his bottle, and with no one to turn to, I was growing impatient and desperate. Lee also wasn’t happy subtly blaming me to have initiated all these trauma by asking him to uproot his otherwise well-established-clinic from where we lived before. He was taking bus and LRT to commute as we couldn’t afford a car then, and I was pushing up and down trolley under the hot sun to carry water or do marketing because our apartment was in the hillside. I felt like getting sucked up into a deep dark tunnel in where there is no end. Squat down in front of the guard house in a hope to see JPJ water tank anytime, I regretted deeply of my naïve dream that I fantasized before. How dared was I to pack everything so easy and flew for 16++ hours to live in the country that I didn’t even know where it was, how it was like? I could do nothing but cry after Lee had gone to work. I hid my tears from him, the least I could do at that time, not wanting to affect when he himself was struggling to find his place. And it was my pride not to regret over whatever happened before, the one trait that I was good at it from small. I knew from experience that everything will be alright eventually no matter how great the pain might seem in the present.…
The wheel of time, though it seemed slow, was turning bit by bit; days becoming months, months becoming already 3 years. Gradually as I become more familiar with my ways around, I made friends with the neighbors socializing and learning about the country, its multi-racial culture and lifestyles. I didn’t feel as much foreigner as I used to be. Lee’s work also became more stable and the baby was growing up too, becoming more independent to attend a kindergarten. Then reminded by the neighbor friend, who was like a Good Samaritan, I started to get back my practice and study of Yoga and meditation. Life started to come back. Yes, I was not breathing. I had long held my breathing, my inspiration and the sense of direction in life that I once envisioned so clearly and dearly. I should stop playing a victim by the choices I made, just because it didn’t turn out to be exactly the way I wished or planned before. Maybe I needed a wake-up call, to be reminded of the life cycles that which is in constant change and flux.
Thankfully, there was yoga, there was meditation, to be able to put myself together as soon as I remembered. There was also astrology to remind me of the big picture. And then, beside my good husband and the fine boy, there were plenty of kind people and friends around. I wasn’t alone. I could feel the gentle breeze stroking my face as I stand in the Tree Pose. I could feel my finger reaching toward the sky as I balance in the Dancer Pose. There came deep relief, calmness, joy at the same time sense of expansion and freedom. Suddenly it felt so right to have come here! Everything is a blessing in disguise as they would say. Had I not been silly enough to dream of the fairyland in Malaysia, hadn’t there be the unforeseen challenges that came in my way without my inviting it, would I ever ventured myself to stand in front to teach and write in the language that my fellow Korean are forever dreadful? I don’t think so. Not in this life time. Hadn’t my hubby suffer his set-back, would I ever dared to take charge of my own life? I don’t think so. I would have been mostly happy to be just his shadow hiding behind him, waiting for him to do everything for me. That was how I was brought up and got ingrained culturally. We women were secondary to men, once married, we just serve the men and the rest will be taken care and provided by him (no wonder Korean men are so machos and women are like their maids, as you would see in some old Korean dramas).
Next time, when you are in the deep sea of troubled water, you can come to me. I will show you the way out of its difficulties. Breathing in, breathing out…observe the silence in between. The silence will mirror you back to clear off whatever holding your life. Breathing in, breathing out…you will find the mystic land that promises wellness, longevity, happiness and enlightenment. Want to learn more? The upcoming article is about the Beautiful Breath. You can keep posted. Meanwhile I wish you to continue your breathing in, breathing out… You will be just fine.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Story 6. Looking into crystal ball
There was an old retired professor who liked to hang out with Asian students in the campus. He was a sixty-plus-former-athletic-turned-to-physics-professor with a keen interest in spiritualism and astrology. Whether rain, shine or snow, he always carried this back pack, wore solid boots and walked all over the campus, appearing to the student dinning hall every day precisely at the same time. He would find his corner among the Asian students who were the poorest in their ability to communicate in English. He had this habit, whenever there was someone new, to ask their birth details and would give him/her a hand written astrological report within next few days. As though proving a hypothesis in physics, he would lay out his readings step by step in such a detail that he had fairly good reputation for his accuracy.
Soon after I started to appear in the dining hall as a new student, he asked my birth details and I got my report also. It was my first exposure with any kinds of astrology or occult reading that which was astonishing. How would he know about me so well of the facts that I wasn’t even aware? He wrote about my characters, inclinations, past, unhappy home life including mother, father, siblings, and other things with some future prediction. I started to be curious about how he did that rather than being flattered by the prediction that was quite optimistic. Not long after that, I met then-my-future husband Lee who was a Chinese Medicine physician living just outside of the campus. I was having some health trouble and my classmate referred me to him. As it turned out, he himself was an avid seeker of ancient knowledge like Taoism, Hinduism, anything else that is mysterious and esoteric including Western and Indian astrology.
As I shared my experience with the written astrology report, he recommended me to do a more professional reading by his good friend, Doug Adams. We arranged a personal one-to-one meeting which lasted for 2 hours with our conversation, questions and answers were being tape recorded for future reference. It was even more interesting than the written report. I wanted to learn that astrology. Lee knew some basics of Indian astrology and he offered me to teach it for free (of course, he had other intention as well). As I was to find out later, Doug had told Lee after our meeting that I might be his future wife! Doug knew of Lee’s astrological details and Lee was waiting for his wife to appear as it was about the time that was predicted. Sure, I was to become his wife but I didn’t know about the behind story between him and his astrologer friend. It was much later, after we become close, that Lee shared with me what was predicted about his life and wife not only by Doug but also by other astrologers from India.
It turned out that I was much intuitive and quick in grasping the language of stars beyond Lee’s ability. So I pursued it further by taking other courses and eventually met my astrology teacher Mr. K.N Rao. I learned it fast and started to do the readings for friends with fare rates of accuracy. However along the way, I started to notice of what people expect from astrologers and I disliked it. They didn’t want to know anything bad but only good and extraordinary. They didn’t like to wait and work harder to make good things happen. Instead they demanded to have everything almost immediately in the way they want it. They came to astrologers not to learn how to improve their life but to hear about what good is waiting without them doing much effort. I could not disappoint them or be harsh. I sugar coated anything negative in soft tone; to accept what was inevitable in the past as life lessons and to work toward future with patience and effort to get what they want out of their life. And yet with the limitation to fully express of what I see from their birth charts as how it might affect their psychic in positive or negative ways, and yet with the people’s absurd expectation to be special regardless of what they deserve, I started to wane away from doing astrology reading further.
Then I came to learn about Western astrology in where you don’t have to predict but can do very good psychology readings. It helped me to understand myself in more humanistic angle than Indian astrology that is more definitive about our selves and our past, present or future life. There was another important lesson came together to put all this together to make the picture more complete, the Liao Fan’s Four Lessons on how to change our astrological destiny. It is a true story that solved my predicament in knowing astrology that seems fixed and the role of spiritual cultivation in changing what seems to be fixed. Karma definitely exists but we had choice to be influenced or not. We had choice to choose our life as suffering or bliss. For that, we needed to cultivate our wisdom muscles to be able to make the wise choices every time, and accumulate merits to get what we want and to revert what we don’t want out of life.
Some say Western astrology advocates free will and choices of life, whereas Indian astrology is all about the fixed destiny that has no way escaping from it, thereby encouraging people to adopt fatalist approach toward life. Astrology is not about fate but is about destiny that we have the power to alter it by making wise choices rather than blindly believing or accepting. When we see life in terms of fate operating according to the karmic function, the laws of cause and effect, then, it seems to be life is more of fixture rather than fluid. That means we don’t have control but to accept because we are the victims of whatever is happening regardless of whether be good or bad, like it or not. There are some lucky ones who seem to have it all breezing through life with ease while many others suffer miserably from constant strings of misfortune one after another. How do we make sense out of that because it certainly looks unfair as no one wants to suffer misfortunes but to enjoy good luck and the best of all life has to offer?
The truth is, not by some luck or misfortune, but by how we choose it to be, that our life become how it is today. In every moment, life presents us with variety of choices to make, ranging from as simple as choosing brands for grocery or clothes to more weighty ones like what to study, what kinds of job, house or cars to get, love or commitment to marriages, etc, there are as many other choices as we can think of to make. We constantly face dilemma in various life situation, not because the issues are difficult to handle but because we are not sure what to choose from the multiple options available out there. People often turn to religious authority, counselors, occultists or astrologers to get the answer when they are confused. They are afraid of making choices their own not because it is difficult but because of what we might miss out if you choose one for another (nice term for it “kiasu”). It is a fact that we can’t have everything in life, then, we have to know what we are willing to give to gain another. To find out that answer, we have to search within, not without. Parents, friends, teachers, spouses or children, they are all part of it but not everything in life. No matter how significant their roles might be, they cannot substitute the inner voice in leading our life in the way we want it to be. We need to tune into our inner voice, to listen and be clear with the priorities in our life. So that we can make conscious decision in every step of the way and become fully responsible for whatever the outcomes are.
When we are clear with what we want, then it really doesn’t matter whatever we choose to become in life, a busy businessman who amasses fortune but don’t have time to enjoy, or a fisherman who enjoys leisurely peaceful life but poor. Each choice comes with pros and cons. We just need to be aware of what each path entails and consciously choose according to our tendency. If you are an active and zealous person who can’t stay still, then it will be better to be like the businessman. If you are a solitude loving person with very simple needs, then becoming like the fisherman will brings you more happiness. Conflicts happen when either of them trying to impose each other’s preference to another. The businessman can never be happy in the fisherman’s shoes, so is the fisherman. Let others be their own way while you live in your own way. We don’t have to be uniform in the way of living and pursuing. Diversity amongst millions different kinds of forms and name and tendency are what make the universe unique. Its intrinsic beauty, diversity in infinite stretch of time and space, the universe keeps on rolling to exist in eternity. Our body in the present is the transient holder of our soul that exists within the same wave patterns of this vast universe. How do we know what we will become of when this body perishes or born again in another body in next life. They are all nothing but speculation. Our concern is knowing what we have and how we are made of, for which astrology can give good insights into it. And then move on to make this life fuller and more complete by cultivating wisdom and merits, instead of eyeing over the other side and keep hesitating or regretting over how it could have been different. Time has wings to fly and our karma comes around to catch up with us unless we do something about by doing goods and make efforts to turn about in our favor. The best is knowing that you will get your turn, work toward what you aspire to become in life with compassion and patience while being content but can be better with the person you are at the moment. Happiness is always around the corner.
Soon after I started to appear in the dining hall as a new student, he asked my birth details and I got my report also. It was my first exposure with any kinds of astrology or occult reading that which was astonishing. How would he know about me so well of the facts that I wasn’t even aware? He wrote about my characters, inclinations, past, unhappy home life including mother, father, siblings, and other things with some future prediction. I started to be curious about how he did that rather than being flattered by the prediction that was quite optimistic. Not long after that, I met then-my-future husband Lee who was a Chinese Medicine physician living just outside of the campus. I was having some health trouble and my classmate referred me to him. As it turned out, he himself was an avid seeker of ancient knowledge like Taoism, Hinduism, anything else that is mysterious and esoteric including Western and Indian astrology.
As I shared my experience with the written astrology report, he recommended me to do a more professional reading by his good friend, Doug Adams. We arranged a personal one-to-one meeting which lasted for 2 hours with our conversation, questions and answers were being tape recorded for future reference. It was even more interesting than the written report. I wanted to learn that astrology. Lee knew some basics of Indian astrology and he offered me to teach it for free (of course, he had other intention as well). As I was to find out later, Doug had told Lee after our meeting that I might be his future wife! Doug knew of Lee’s astrological details and Lee was waiting for his wife to appear as it was about the time that was predicted. Sure, I was to become his wife but I didn’t know about the behind story between him and his astrologer friend. It was much later, after we become close, that Lee shared with me what was predicted about his life and wife not only by Doug but also by other astrologers from India.
It turned out that I was much intuitive and quick in grasping the language of stars beyond Lee’s ability. So I pursued it further by taking other courses and eventually met my astrology teacher Mr. K.N Rao. I learned it fast and started to do the readings for friends with fare rates of accuracy. However along the way, I started to notice of what people expect from astrologers and I disliked it. They didn’t want to know anything bad but only good and extraordinary. They didn’t like to wait and work harder to make good things happen. Instead they demanded to have everything almost immediately in the way they want it. They came to astrologers not to learn how to improve their life but to hear about what good is waiting without them doing much effort. I could not disappoint them or be harsh. I sugar coated anything negative in soft tone; to accept what was inevitable in the past as life lessons and to work toward future with patience and effort to get what they want out of their life. And yet with the limitation to fully express of what I see from their birth charts as how it might affect their psychic in positive or negative ways, and yet with the people’s absurd expectation to be special regardless of what they deserve, I started to wane away from doing astrology reading further.
Then I came to learn about Western astrology in where you don’t have to predict but can do very good psychology readings. It helped me to understand myself in more humanistic angle than Indian astrology that is more definitive about our selves and our past, present or future life. There was another important lesson came together to put all this together to make the picture more complete, the Liao Fan’s Four Lessons on how to change our astrological destiny. It is a true story that solved my predicament in knowing astrology that seems fixed and the role of spiritual cultivation in changing what seems to be fixed. Karma definitely exists but we had choice to be influenced or not. We had choice to choose our life as suffering or bliss. For that, we needed to cultivate our wisdom muscles to be able to make the wise choices every time, and accumulate merits to get what we want and to revert what we don’t want out of life.
Some say Western astrology advocates free will and choices of life, whereas Indian astrology is all about the fixed destiny that has no way escaping from it, thereby encouraging people to adopt fatalist approach toward life. Astrology is not about fate but is about destiny that we have the power to alter it by making wise choices rather than blindly believing or accepting. When we see life in terms of fate operating according to the karmic function, the laws of cause and effect, then, it seems to be life is more of fixture rather than fluid. That means we don’t have control but to accept because we are the victims of whatever is happening regardless of whether be good or bad, like it or not. There are some lucky ones who seem to have it all breezing through life with ease while many others suffer miserably from constant strings of misfortune one after another. How do we make sense out of that because it certainly looks unfair as no one wants to suffer misfortunes but to enjoy good luck and the best of all life has to offer?
The truth is, not by some luck or misfortune, but by how we choose it to be, that our life become how it is today. In every moment, life presents us with variety of choices to make, ranging from as simple as choosing brands for grocery or clothes to more weighty ones like what to study, what kinds of job, house or cars to get, love or commitment to marriages, etc, there are as many other choices as we can think of to make. We constantly face dilemma in various life situation, not because the issues are difficult to handle but because we are not sure what to choose from the multiple options available out there. People often turn to religious authority, counselors, occultists or astrologers to get the answer when they are confused. They are afraid of making choices their own not because it is difficult but because of what we might miss out if you choose one for another (nice term for it “kiasu”). It is a fact that we can’t have everything in life, then, we have to know what we are willing to give to gain another. To find out that answer, we have to search within, not without. Parents, friends, teachers, spouses or children, they are all part of it but not everything in life. No matter how significant their roles might be, they cannot substitute the inner voice in leading our life in the way we want it to be. We need to tune into our inner voice, to listen and be clear with the priorities in our life. So that we can make conscious decision in every step of the way and become fully responsible for whatever the outcomes are.
When we are clear with what we want, then it really doesn’t matter whatever we choose to become in life, a busy businessman who amasses fortune but don’t have time to enjoy, or a fisherman who enjoys leisurely peaceful life but poor. Each choice comes with pros and cons. We just need to be aware of what each path entails and consciously choose according to our tendency. If you are an active and zealous person who can’t stay still, then it will be better to be like the businessman. If you are a solitude loving person with very simple needs, then becoming like the fisherman will brings you more happiness. Conflicts happen when either of them trying to impose each other’s preference to another. The businessman can never be happy in the fisherman’s shoes, so is the fisherman. Let others be their own way while you live in your own way. We don’t have to be uniform in the way of living and pursuing. Diversity amongst millions different kinds of forms and name and tendency are what make the universe unique. Its intrinsic beauty, diversity in infinite stretch of time and space, the universe keeps on rolling to exist in eternity. Our body in the present is the transient holder of our soul that exists within the same wave patterns of this vast universe. How do we know what we will become of when this body perishes or born again in another body in next life. They are all nothing but speculation. Our concern is knowing what we have and how we are made of, for which astrology can give good insights into it. And then move on to make this life fuller and more complete by cultivating wisdom and merits, instead of eyeing over the other side and keep hesitating or regretting over how it could have been different. Time has wings to fly and our karma comes around to catch up with us unless we do something about by doing goods and make efforts to turn about in our favor. The best is knowing that you will get your turn, work toward what you aspire to become in life with compassion and patience while being content but can be better with the person you are at the moment. Happiness is always around the corner.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Announcement of the Free Talks in June 08
Dear Friends,
How are you? How fast time flies, it’s already middle of the year!
Theses days, the world around us is going through much turbulent times in national as well as global levels. Whenever we open up newspapers or hear the media, they report nothing cheery but depressing news only—rising inflation, violence, earthquake, flood, food shortage, etc, to cause our breaths short, chests tight and mind spins with worries and concerns. We wonder how the remaining of the year is going to be; will there be any ease? I sincerely hope so as you would do too.
Why don’t you take a break from all the heavy-heartening daily stuffs, and come by to our Yoga Center to freshen yourself up. There is two Free Talks in the month of June. You are most welcomed to bring your family and friends to share lighter moments in this beautiful and peaceful surrounding. It seems the skyline is brighter and nearer, air is much fresher and cleaner in here, the new center of Putra Heights. Here are the details,
1. 7th June, Saturday is a public holiday and there will be no classes. Please arrange your time for replacement.
2. 14th June, Saturday, 6—7.30 pm: Free Introduction on the Benefits and Effects of Meditation. Everybody is welcome to participate if you wish to have better understanding about mediation.
3. The one hour of One-to-one Personal Mediation Instruction will be held on 15th June, Sunday and needs to be arranged individually. The follow up Group Classes are the 4 subsequent Tuesdays 8-9.30pm (17th, 24th June, 1st, 8th July). If you wish to take the course or have already attended the talk before, please call me to book the instruction time (03.5198.0311 or 012.2742.012).
4. 21st June, Saturday, 5—7pm: Free Talk on How to Start Using Chinese Herbs For Self-Care. The free booklet with the same title, written by the author Lee Jok-Keng, is in the center for you to pick up. Those who already have the copy, this talk will be a good chance for you to meet the author to get more tips on how to use the book. As a part of goodwill projects of the Yoga center, he also offers you and your family a free health consultation which can be arranged during Saturday mornings if you have any chronicle health issues that need attention. Catch me from the center to arrange the appointment.
I think that is it for today. Have a good day and looking forward to hear from you!
Beth.
How are you? How fast time flies, it’s already middle of the year!
Theses days, the world around us is going through much turbulent times in national as well as global levels. Whenever we open up newspapers or hear the media, they report nothing cheery but depressing news only—rising inflation, violence, earthquake, flood, food shortage, etc, to cause our breaths short, chests tight and mind spins with worries and concerns. We wonder how the remaining of the year is going to be; will there be any ease? I sincerely hope so as you would do too.
Why don’t you take a break from all the heavy-heartening daily stuffs, and come by to our Yoga Center to freshen yourself up. There is two Free Talks in the month of June. You are most welcomed to bring your family and friends to share lighter moments in this beautiful and peaceful surrounding. It seems the skyline is brighter and nearer, air is much fresher and cleaner in here, the new center of Putra Heights. Here are the details,
1. 7th June, Saturday is a public holiday and there will be no classes. Please arrange your time for replacement.
2. 14th June, Saturday, 6—7.30 pm: Free Introduction on the Benefits and Effects of Meditation. Everybody is welcome to participate if you wish to have better understanding about mediation.
3. The one hour of One-to-one Personal Mediation Instruction will be held on 15th June, Sunday and needs to be arranged individually. The follow up Group Classes are the 4 subsequent Tuesdays 8-9.30pm (17th, 24th June, 1st, 8th July). If you wish to take the course or have already attended the talk before, please call me to book the instruction time (03.5198.0311 or 012.2742.012).
4. 21st June, Saturday, 5—7pm: Free Talk on How to Start Using Chinese Herbs For Self-Care. The free booklet with the same title, written by the author Lee Jok-Keng, is in the center for you to pick up. Those who already have the copy, this talk will be a good chance for you to meet the author to get more tips on how to use the book. As a part of goodwill projects of the Yoga center, he also offers you and your family a free health consultation which can be arranged during Saturday mornings if you have any chronicle health issues that need attention. Catch me from the center to arrange the appointment.
I think that is it for today. Have a good day and looking forward to hear from you!
Beth.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Story 5. Time is God
Story 5. Time is God
The story of Mahabarat, one of the greatest epic in the ancient Indian literature, starts its opening with “Time is God.” Mahabarat, one of the oldest and lengthiest epic in the world, is nearly three times as long as the Judaeo-Christian Bible, which contains many interpolated stories and moral treaties, with its treatment of time swinging back and forward in very much Indian style that which is not always chronological. My American astrologer friend, Doug Adams, loaned me the Mahabarat movie tapes during one of school holiday. Maybe it was more than twenty volumes set or so. By the time I finished watching it day and nights, the old VCD player also was spoiled. It was a long movie with much unfamiliar Indian mythology and religious cultural nuisances blended together in the narrative pattern.
Though I didn’t understand it all at first, I could at least capture the entire story in fairly good grasp, of which it would have been impossible by reading the books. In the story, its time is intertwined multifold usually in eons and the various characters of the epic—mystical gods, demons, sages and humans with fantastic supernatural powers, etc—do not always appeal to our normal sense of time and space. If one doesn’t believe in the theory of reincarnation and karma, the epic can look like a fake or else s/he can be convinced to believe it by the end of the story. I was the later.
Time is God?? What does that mean? To fully understand its statement, I had to wait more than a decade with the planetary configurations always swirling in my head. As I learned the language of the stars and lived with it, I gradually come to understand that they are not just some shining masses of gases in the night sky up there, but the very entities of concentrated life energy that are constantly watching, living, and breathing into our everyday life. Just we are not aware how closely influenced and intimately connected with them in everything we do and everything that happens to us. Each planet holds unique life stories to each of us, and the language of the stars can reveal that to you.
As for me, it was first through Doug Adams, and then later Mr. K. N Rao, from whom I heard my own planetary stories, got fascinated and became an astrologer myself, so that I can tell others their story! It gives much relief, not fear, to know how our life runs independently in the best way for us in the long run, despite whatever we think of ourselves at the present. If you know your own planetary story, you will be amazed also. They are not our threats but the very best friends, aids and companions life after life when you know how to appreciate and approach them. They are our guardian gods, and Time within which frame they function is the Big Head, God.
The way its Time unfold in our individual life has its predetermined pattern of which we need to do some astronomical calculation based on our birth details. Our life is beautiful and candid stories of the nine planets—Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn and Mecury— each are pregnant with certain promises, determined by our past action, that which will influence our present and future life. When they will come to actually manifest, however, is all depends on “Time” or “Dasha” in astrological term. Each planet has its own story to tell, intermixed with good and bad indications. Their effects will be more obvious when they get their “Turn” that which operates in the sequence mentioned above. Their governing time is usually very long; the shortest, like Sun’s time, lasting for 6years while the longest, Venus, lasting for 20 years! To finish all their turn one by one, it takes total 120 years. Since we can’t live up to that good, old age, some planetary dasha we will get while some others won’t. It all depends on individual’s birth details. That doesn’t mean any of the nine planets are irrelevant to us. One way or another, they all come to influence our life in very intimate way. You just wait and see.
Because each planetary time is so long, each major dasha is again divided into few levels of nine sub-sub dashas, usually lasting much shorter, from few months to 2 ½ years, so that all the nine planets can exert their power in the course of our limited lifespan on earth. Whether we could accept or not, could wait or not, they never give all at once but one at a time, when the time is right, despite whatever wishes we might have otherwise. Even the mighty gods and super humans in the mythology, not to mention us, the mere mortals, all fall into victims. Thereby Time is God.
It is our natural tendency to avoid anything that is unpleasant or painful while desiring for something pleasant, comforting and happy at all cost. Yet, in life, there is no such thing as continuous euphoric rise or hellish downhill. Our fortune or misfortune always alternates according to its seasons; rain today and sunshine tomorrow; success and happiness today, and failure and sadness tomorrow, etc, that which is governed by our own planetary configuration and Time sequence.
Sometimes, when we are caught up in the present ups or downs, we might forget that there is such a thing as “Time” exists. Very often, we want to rush or postpone the results of our action according to our own wishes. Time is God because it is never influenced by anything else but by its own eternal rhythm that rolls according to its own preconceived Divine Plan. Whether we want it right away or not, be aware of what is coming or not, it never forgets its due, to exercise its Power only when the Time is right. Sometimes it gives so much just to take away after a breath of excitement from those who raced against time by force. How many high achievers we know or heard of, who faced spiral downhill or suddenly passed away leaving behind all that they had sought with hearts and souls through their entire life?
Many people are short sighted to function in two-dimensional world, thinking that they can get away with what they can’t see or hear at the time. However, karma always catches up with us. The planets that live in us await for their turn in the three-dimensional world to give what they supposed to. The better strategy will be, instead of fearing them, we learn to be humble and modest despite any Time we are in. When we are in good time, we don’t forget to remember difficult times and share the good fortunes with others; when we are in bad time, we remember the saying from the wise “this shall pass” so that we can handle challenges with perspective. That takes wisdom, far-sightedness and sense of direction to be able to see through what our five senses can’t perceive.
Indian astrology, or Jyotish, meaning light of life, renders a good aid into that. It reveals very well of our inherent tendency as well as individual dasha that which is mapped when we were born. If we can know of what our individual jyotish entails, then, we can save much of our head bangs against the walls in our quest to find the ultimate utopia while slaying the devil on the way. The story of Mahabarat, full of magic, mystery, gods and demons, shows the mighty power of Time that which is God. All the heroes, heroines or demons alike in the story, their rise and fall are all subject to Time. When the Time is right, either be good or evil, they will rise but when the Time is up, they just have to give way no matter how unfair it seems at times.
In the Wheel of Eternal Time or Kalachakra, no one is free but forced to learn its mighty power till one can achieve eternal freedom or enlightenment. The field of Kurushetra, in where the great epic war of Mahabarat was held, is our very life from where we play and pursue different roles and aspirations. The mighty gods and demons are all but our alter egos of which we go through in daily basis—generosity, loving kindness, gratitude, greed, anger, fear, desperation, etc, they are all in us. Just that sometimes one face is more obvious than the other, but we all are divine as well as demon. However, if we can tune ourselves into the wisdom of Time, and know how to act accordingly, then one day we become one with God in times to come, that which is the supreme goal of human spirit to be united with the Highest Power. Union with God, small self becoming big Self, that is the actual meaning, the highest form of Yoga we can achieve; yoga means union, to bring together of body, mind and spirit with breath through which means we become united with God. Since we have entered in the path of yoga, why not aim for the highest? Through the daily, weekly sweats we perspire, thought you are just trying to shed some weights or stresses, in fact, you are becoming that much close to God. I bow down to the eternal being in you, God, Namaste!
P.S. If you wish to find out about yourself, your jyotish and Time, to have better understanding of your past, present, and future life, you are most welcomed to contact me.
The story of Mahabarat, one of the greatest epic in the ancient Indian literature, starts its opening with “Time is God.” Mahabarat, one of the oldest and lengthiest epic in the world, is nearly three times as long as the Judaeo-Christian Bible, which contains many interpolated stories and moral treaties, with its treatment of time swinging back and forward in very much Indian style that which is not always chronological. My American astrologer friend, Doug Adams, loaned me the Mahabarat movie tapes during one of school holiday. Maybe it was more than twenty volumes set or so. By the time I finished watching it day and nights, the old VCD player also was spoiled. It was a long movie with much unfamiliar Indian mythology and religious cultural nuisances blended together in the narrative pattern.
Though I didn’t understand it all at first, I could at least capture the entire story in fairly good grasp, of which it would have been impossible by reading the books. In the story, its time is intertwined multifold usually in eons and the various characters of the epic—mystical gods, demons, sages and humans with fantastic supernatural powers, etc—do not always appeal to our normal sense of time and space. If one doesn’t believe in the theory of reincarnation and karma, the epic can look like a fake or else s/he can be convinced to believe it by the end of the story. I was the later.
Time is God?? What does that mean? To fully understand its statement, I had to wait more than a decade with the planetary configurations always swirling in my head. As I learned the language of the stars and lived with it, I gradually come to understand that they are not just some shining masses of gases in the night sky up there, but the very entities of concentrated life energy that are constantly watching, living, and breathing into our everyday life. Just we are not aware how closely influenced and intimately connected with them in everything we do and everything that happens to us. Each planet holds unique life stories to each of us, and the language of the stars can reveal that to you.
As for me, it was first through Doug Adams, and then later Mr. K. N Rao, from whom I heard my own planetary stories, got fascinated and became an astrologer myself, so that I can tell others their story! It gives much relief, not fear, to know how our life runs independently in the best way for us in the long run, despite whatever we think of ourselves at the present. If you know your own planetary story, you will be amazed also. They are not our threats but the very best friends, aids and companions life after life when you know how to appreciate and approach them. They are our guardian gods, and Time within which frame they function is the Big Head, God.
The way its Time unfold in our individual life has its predetermined pattern of which we need to do some astronomical calculation based on our birth details. Our life is beautiful and candid stories of the nine planets—Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn and Mecury— each are pregnant with certain promises, determined by our past action, that which will influence our present and future life. When they will come to actually manifest, however, is all depends on “Time” or “Dasha” in astrological term. Each planet has its own story to tell, intermixed with good and bad indications. Their effects will be more obvious when they get their “Turn” that which operates in the sequence mentioned above. Their governing time is usually very long; the shortest, like Sun’s time, lasting for 6years while the longest, Venus, lasting for 20 years! To finish all their turn one by one, it takes total 120 years. Since we can’t live up to that good, old age, some planetary dasha we will get while some others won’t. It all depends on individual’s birth details. That doesn’t mean any of the nine planets are irrelevant to us. One way or another, they all come to influence our life in very intimate way. You just wait and see.
Because each planetary time is so long, each major dasha is again divided into few levels of nine sub-sub dashas, usually lasting much shorter, from few months to 2 ½ years, so that all the nine planets can exert their power in the course of our limited lifespan on earth. Whether we could accept or not, could wait or not, they never give all at once but one at a time, when the time is right, despite whatever wishes we might have otherwise. Even the mighty gods and super humans in the mythology, not to mention us, the mere mortals, all fall into victims. Thereby Time is God.
It is our natural tendency to avoid anything that is unpleasant or painful while desiring for something pleasant, comforting and happy at all cost. Yet, in life, there is no such thing as continuous euphoric rise or hellish downhill. Our fortune or misfortune always alternates according to its seasons; rain today and sunshine tomorrow; success and happiness today, and failure and sadness tomorrow, etc, that which is governed by our own planetary configuration and Time sequence.
Sometimes, when we are caught up in the present ups or downs, we might forget that there is such a thing as “Time” exists. Very often, we want to rush or postpone the results of our action according to our own wishes. Time is God because it is never influenced by anything else but by its own eternal rhythm that rolls according to its own preconceived Divine Plan. Whether we want it right away or not, be aware of what is coming or not, it never forgets its due, to exercise its Power only when the Time is right. Sometimes it gives so much just to take away after a breath of excitement from those who raced against time by force. How many high achievers we know or heard of, who faced spiral downhill or suddenly passed away leaving behind all that they had sought with hearts and souls through their entire life?
Many people are short sighted to function in two-dimensional world, thinking that they can get away with what they can’t see or hear at the time. However, karma always catches up with us. The planets that live in us await for their turn in the three-dimensional world to give what they supposed to. The better strategy will be, instead of fearing them, we learn to be humble and modest despite any Time we are in. When we are in good time, we don’t forget to remember difficult times and share the good fortunes with others; when we are in bad time, we remember the saying from the wise “this shall pass” so that we can handle challenges with perspective. That takes wisdom, far-sightedness and sense of direction to be able to see through what our five senses can’t perceive.
Indian astrology, or Jyotish, meaning light of life, renders a good aid into that. It reveals very well of our inherent tendency as well as individual dasha that which is mapped when we were born. If we can know of what our individual jyotish entails, then, we can save much of our head bangs against the walls in our quest to find the ultimate utopia while slaying the devil on the way. The story of Mahabarat, full of magic, mystery, gods and demons, shows the mighty power of Time that which is God. All the heroes, heroines or demons alike in the story, their rise and fall are all subject to Time. When the Time is right, either be good or evil, they will rise but when the Time is up, they just have to give way no matter how unfair it seems at times.
In the Wheel of Eternal Time or Kalachakra, no one is free but forced to learn its mighty power till one can achieve eternal freedom or enlightenment. The field of Kurushetra, in where the great epic war of Mahabarat was held, is our very life from where we play and pursue different roles and aspirations. The mighty gods and demons are all but our alter egos of which we go through in daily basis—generosity, loving kindness, gratitude, greed, anger, fear, desperation, etc, they are all in us. Just that sometimes one face is more obvious than the other, but we all are divine as well as demon. However, if we can tune ourselves into the wisdom of Time, and know how to act accordingly, then one day we become one with God in times to come, that which is the supreme goal of human spirit to be united with the Highest Power. Union with God, small self becoming big Self, that is the actual meaning, the highest form of Yoga we can achieve; yoga means union, to bring together of body, mind and spirit with breath through which means we become united with God. Since we have entered in the path of yoga, why not aim for the highest? Through the daily, weekly sweats we perspire, thought you are just trying to shed some weights or stresses, in fact, you are becoming that much close to God. I bow down to the eternal being in you, God, Namaste!
P.S. If you wish to find out about yourself, your jyotish and Time, to have better understanding of your past, present, and future life, you are most welcomed to contact me.
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