Tao Te Ching - On Life!

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.


If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.


Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow.


Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.


Rejoice in the way things are.When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.


Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.


Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.


Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.


The words of truth are always paradoxical.


Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful.
Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

(Courtesy http://paulocoelhoblog.com/)

In Pain lies cure - Life is crazy or God must be crazy!!

I am a big fan of Paulo Coelho, I love his wisdom and I simply can't describe in words what I feel every time I listen to this wonderful man or when I read his books. He is one of the most amazing people on this planet from my point of view and I just can't get enough of what he has to share with us all. What I want to share with you today is a short story about a tribe in South Africa called the Babemba.

What does this have to do with Paulo Coelho? Well, Firtly I heard about this tribe from him and I was really touched and I though it might be nice to tell you what I have read and also to share with you my thought regarding this. Secondly I am personally learning a lot on human emotion from my share of blunders that life has got for me as a part of living and growing.


In South Africa the Babemba tribe treats people who step out of line in a remarkable way. Instead of treating the person with judgment and punishment, the tribe treats the offender with love and appreciation.

If a member of the Babemba acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he or she is placed at the center of the village, alone. All work ceases, and the entire tribe gathers in a large circle around the violator. Then each person in the tribe, regardless of age, speaks to the accused, one at a time, recalling all the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his or her lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted. All the individual’s positive attributes, good deeds, strengths and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. No one is permitted to fabricate, exaggerate or be facetious about the accomplishments or the positive aspects of the person. This tribal ceremony often lasts for several days and does not end until everyone is drained of every positive comment he or she can state about the person in question.


At the end, the circle is broken and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe with joyful celebration.”(Excerpted from “Contact, The First Four Minutes” by Leonard Sunin).


Can you imagine something like this happening in our modern and so called "civilized" society? Do you believe we are capable of such a thing? All I know is that we are taught to point our finger at those who make mistakes, even if those people are our family, friends or children. Why is it that we have to treat people this way? Why is it that we are constantly judging one another, hurting them and making them feel inferior and worthless? Why not try to understand their behaviors, why not go beyond it? Why not respond with love rather than reacting and judging? (I wish I had these question a little earlier in life, I already lost a lot before it motivated me to go soul searching)

You see, the more a person feels the need to attack others, to hurt them and make them suffer the closer that person is to the edge, it is a sign that they are in real pain and that they can't seem to find a way out. I personally have changed my attitude toward this type of people (now that I have been into their shoes), I have become more compassionate toward their suffering, anger, frustration and pain, because I now know that there is something going on inside them, something that they don't want to share with the world from one reason or another and they constantly feel the need to hurt those around them. There is something deep down inside them that are making them act the way they do.


It is a mask they wear because they have lost their faith, they feel the need to hide their pain and to hurt those around them and with the response they get, they are reassuring themselves that their behavior is right and that they are doing exactly what needs to be done, just what those around them deserve, because the world reacts to their behavior instead of responding and they will continue their journey on the path of self destruction.


It is a way for them to punish themselves. They see themselves as failures, as people that are not entitled to beautiful relations, they are not entitled to love. They see themselves as not being worthy and whether they are conscious of it this or not, they are punishing themselves with this behavior.


If somebody is treating me in a bad way just because they choose to, if they get mad and frustrated about a simple thing that I do "wrong", I know that it is not because of me and what I did, but because the pain is already in them and they project that on me, they want me to take blame for their problems and frustration. It's now very important how you choose to respond to this situation. You can either choose to make it your problem or you can choose to respond to it and see it as something that does not belong to you. It's like a present given to you by somebody. If you refuse to accept it, it is not yours. I love how Viktor Frankl talks about this in his book Man's Search for Meaning: "Between what happens to us, the stimulus and our response to that stimulus, there is a space, and in that space lies is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.


It might be possible that most people (include myself) don't know that the problem is inside them or maybe they know but don't want to take responsibility for it. Believe me, no matter how bad somebody is treating you, no matter how bad they make/ made you suffer, if you respond with love instead of reacting to their behavior, what you will discover about them and especially about yourself will amaze you.


Can you believe that from the viewpoint of the human genome, we are are 99.9% identical and in spite of that we choose to focus our attention on that 0.1% ? Is this insanity or what? Because it is easier, we prefer to focus our attention on our differences, to criticize, complain and condemn rather than trying to see, trying to understand that we are all part of a whole, that we are all one.

"See the world as yourself. Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as yourself, then you can care for all beings." Lao Tzu.

Identity Crisis!!!

The sculptor carves the stone
On the walls of tiny hidden caves
And the poet recites the ode
While the audience scream & rave.

As the silence darkened the sullen skies
The sage marvels the mind
With wit and maxim to inspire
The hearts & souls of human kind.

And the writer composes the words
The stories of truths & lies
While the earth turns dusk to dawn
One life breeds another dies.

How my mind wonders? Why?

Where do I stand? Who am I?