JUDGMENT - IT'S SIMPLY A MATTER OF CHOOSING SIDES.

Have you ever had to choose sides? Have you ever strangely ended up choosing to be possessed by a particular appliance, a brand of car, a type of job or even a lifestyle which isn't the one you had planned to afford in the first place and all just because a salesman, girl/boyfriend or parent was so good at convincing that it is for you? Have ever chosen to believe in a lie you were told to tell because you needed to be convincing enough to keep your job or your family appeased? If you answer yes to any one of these two questions then you have been a victim and/or a perpetrator of some of the most extensive lies that has kept the world enslaved in confusion and dissatisfaction, tracing back beyond the duration of civilization.

A lie grows and grows like your nose Pinocchio!

Ask yourself if you have supported this way of life just by not actively being aware and taking charge of avoiding it? And then ask yourself if you're a part of the problem?

In all my travels, I see a plight that is plaguing the world around me. I see a world in chaos and confusion whereby each individual is selling the other an empty dream. A dream of finely woven clothes made of nakedness to be draped upon the stupidity of blind faith and vanity... whereby each, proudly dressed in nothingness are too afraid to be ridiculed by the other for not wearing the latest line of 'new clothes' marked by the 'Emperor'. Everywhere I go, communities are frozen with inability to voice out the truth for fear of losing their jobs and their family's approval. What we have here is an emotional condition so viral that our youths are unsuspectingly embracing the disconcerting belief that lies are compulsory and that truth is a democratic decision determined by a ruling majority. We now live in a society whereby our children are liken to believe in upholding the law only when dealing with authorities whilst proclaiming crime as a natural progression to a hard life when faced with criminal intent.



Do not mistake me for a pessimist or even a doom prophet, for I am mostly a man who enjoys staying out of trouble and one whom chooses to focus my wonderful time on this earth admiring the many great things about this world. However, this is one occasion where I am not going to sit here and list all its wonderful talents coupled with its obvious good intentions. I need to maintain this stance because I can go on and on and make a big impression on pointing out its beauty and attributes for days on ends, but right now if I do not highlight upon the desperate lack of clarity which each of us are so in dire need of at this point in our evolution, then I fear that a lifetime of weariness wouldn't be enough to get us to its destination.



So, sadly today I look out into the world and sadly I say to you that this is your world. A world where black is sometimes white and white is often gray. A world ruled by survivors who thrive on the two faced hypocrisy of relative truths while only a handful of humble inhabitants reap from the liberation of absolute truths. This world needs to wake up and realize that its very own population is a part of this whole mess. Your collective persistence on playing both sides of right and wrong to your own gains is a limitation that keeps you from advancing towards a more wholesome and fulfilling life of honesty and integrity.

Truth be told, to survive in a multi-layered society in all it's complexities we have to observe that there is a time for everything... However, let it be noted that despite all the facade which we carry around with us in our everyday dealings, you need to maintain with utmost clarity, your own personal truths and integrity. You need to know where you as an individual stand with your core values. And truth is that the time comes, and it indeed has, to give up the folly of youth gracefully and finally with definite strokes, to draw the lines clearly.

The day comes to make up our minds and put together a set of principles which is sound and stable; something we can be proud to pass on to the next generation. It's time to take sides as to what is good and bad, right and wrong and black and white without sitting on the grays. To inspire and be an example for our fellowmen - in these bleak times - who are so ever in need of light and guidance.

There comes a time when we will say that this is wrong and thus is right. And not be wishy-washy with our way of life. And to be able to make this stand is a mark of a mature and wise being. Heed my words that righteousness, as often misunderstood, is not the work of a proud and boastful man but on the contrary it is the making of a man of great courage, integrity and conviction.




Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela are such men to name a few. Men who are ready to be put on trial, and questioned and battered and bruised for the sake of righteousness.

I am not one who is great enough to take on the world in my stand for righteousness. I avoid conflict in the world by staying out of its way. But if I am confronted, as safely as I can keep my close ones and myself, I will stand up and speak my truth with passion and courage.

So, to you my friends whom I feel safe and secure enough to speak truth, I will say this... Do not misunderstand my commitment to your well-being as false pride or blasphemous. I take pride in the the integrity of my being and I so proudly share my truth with you.

I feel you trust my intentions so I beg of you once more to take heed my words and give it real value and depth of thought. Do it intelligently, question it if you must but all I ask is that you give it full attention and consideration before you decide to take or leave what I have to say.

My concern is this: If you stand on the fence and see everyone's point of view unbiased, you will achieve nothing and continue to be yet undefined for the duration of infinity. Consider this: There will always be food that is edifying and that which is poisonous. There will always be actions and decisions that will benefit the soul and that which will weaken the spirit to pain. There will always be good people to strengthen your life and those with lack of integrity to mislead you. We must each make these judgment for ourselves and our kindred each day courageously. And so I implore you to execute these judgments. Judge your surrounding, judge your company, judge your actions, judge your intentions, judge your desires. Do this and make your decisions about your life and where you are going with it. Remember, judge others fairly that ye shall be fairly judged upon.

If you will continue being a people-pleaser, one who refuse to take a risk in committing upon good judgments, you will be lost in the mass of confusion that is the current state of the world which has neither heads nor tails, going back and forth in a circular waste of time. This childish meandering is inconsistent with your true will and results in a detour from your real achievements (which if I may remind you, is foremostly, one of self-empowerment.)

I have taken the dare to state my personal judgments and I hope that I have exemplified a good enough life for you to believe in my righteousness. If you consider me arrogant and hypocritical, if you believe that I am playing God and that I am without authority to speak truth, then it is with regret that I have to accept your truth has finally taken a different route from mine.

Our journey together will continue if you still have faith that my intentions and actions are on par with all that which is goodness. Make the judgment. Make the choice.



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Looking into the world wide web(www.) and SEEING through your heart.

  "See truth with your heart"                         

There is a viral email spreading through the internet with an excerpt from Nonie Darwish's The Joys of Muslim Women. (The article can also be found at this link: http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/joys-of-muslim-women/blog-183834/)

The email begins with the introduction line....

"Remember to tell your children, even from a young age, never to marry a Muslim.  Don't take it for granted...  "

It goes on to read a frightful list of Shariah laws citing how a Muslim man is allowed to purchase a wife as a 'toy', have sexual intimacy (from age 1) and beat her up at will amongst other atrocities. There is also the horrifying account of how if a woman is raped, parents have the right to execute her in order to restore honor.

I continued reading the article. And whilst I was half nauseous from the thought that such laws exist, I became disconcerted by the writer's prejudicial stance against ALL Muslims. I have a handful of Muslim friends from Australia, Malaysia, Singapore & Indonesia and in my travels met a number of acquaintances from as far as Oman and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East. It will be an awful injustice to suggest that a girl should not marry any one of them for the aforementioned reasons.

For someone like me who has endearingly grown up with Muslim childhood friends around me, the excerpt came across as the ramblings of a woman with a boxed-up phobia against the muslims. Don't get me wrong. I can totally imagine the validity of her statements under the conditions of strict Middle Eastern rules in particular parts. However what I am concerned with, is how extreme her viewpoints may be if taken out of context... for example in a Australian/Singaporean conditioning where the Shariah law(or Nonie Darwish's version) isn't applicable. 

One of the absurd questions that comes straight to mind is...  Should ALL women(even those protected by the civil law of modern society in western(ized) countries) who are potentially marrying a (Singaporean/Australian)Muslim man be afraid of being EXECUTED in the event of dishonor? What's more disturbing is that the intro line in the email version, "remember to tell your children.. never to marry a Muslim" seems to lean dangerously upon bigotry. Perhaps in the right context of the writer's personal history, it all makes sense. However, as it stands, the excerpt comes across as an outright persecution of all Muslims and is likely to encourage unjust prejudice amongst mankind's brotherhood. This is something that the world does not need... like tales of wolves eating up children in the dark... and telling your children that the boogeyman will get them if they misbehave.. I would hesitate to use fear as a tool for protection, as history has proven that the instillation of fear(often when unadulterated as in this case) in an individual or society can perpetuate fearful behavior beyond control/understanding to the core of society itself!

I agree that we should be educated about the dangers of the world, but as with any good education there must be an equal view from both sides of the coins. It is acceptable to educate the truth in gradual steps given that the educator have undertaken the oath to see it through to its full understanding. However, any generic once-off email like this which begins and ends with one side of the argument must be questioned of its integrity.

Ask yourself... What is the motive in the written piece? Who is Nonie Darwish and are these truly her exact words that you read here in this excerpt? (I have searched the internet and have yet to find the origins of this piece of writing or even one with the malicious introduction line attached.) If they are indeed her complete words,  given that her credibility is sound, then what are the circumstances in which her words were written? Does it apply in your state and situation? Consider all these carefully before going on a witch-hunt with the irrepressible forward button.

In this era of progressive technological advancement, when an individual is sold so much information at such a dazzling, blinding rate one must choose and discern intelligently sifting out what is and isn't good for the spirit. We simply cannot accept everything that we read as absolute.

Look real close. Things are usually not what it looks on the surface.

For example, take a moment and ask yourselves what this article is about. Is it about Nonie Darwish? Is it about Muslims? Given the amount of reference there is to Darwish and Muslims, the perspective you would tend to accept is that, this is an article about my disdain towards Nonie Darwish and her views on Shariah laws and Muslim men in general.

But those of you who look closely enough will realize that the subtext, as the title suggests, is about how one's reality can be influenced by perspective.

Let me demonstrate further by asking you this. What were you doing earlier before you started reading this article? Just before you logged on to the internet...

If you start to think about it... you will probably begin to see that you have been completely distracted from the reason why you logged onto the internet.  I bet just a moment ago, when you came online to surf the net or check your emails, you weren't looking forward to pondering over the cruelty of Shariah laws against Muslim women, let alone expecting to be told that you are being led by my words!

Ah! Now that you get what I mean...  you will see that not every random detail you read, see or hear is exactly what your reality has to be. So what can we do? I say, stay sharp! Be on the lookout for intrusive perspectives, then discern and choose the perspective that aligns with all the love you feel from your heart! After all, it is your reality! Whatever it is, just don't believe everything you read blindly.

Anyways, before I go back to enjoy that email I am expecting from my sweet sweet mother, I would like to remind anybody who cares enough to forward me an 'educational' email, to take a closer scrutiny of the pretext in the material and how it may effect the next person before hitting the forward button.  Either that or attach it with the above message along with it or something to this effect.

And as for salvation from diving into a bad marriage, I have no advice other than to pray earnestly and ask for guidance in each decision that we make in life... to whomever your gods are, or what you perceive it to be... a higher power, the greater good, love, Jesus, Muhammad or Buddha. If we truly seek, somewhere deep within our hearts we will know how to love another, Muslim or otherwise... or at least we know from how we truly want to be loved, embraced and be treated with honesty and kindness.

© S-leap! Think of it as the SUPER LEAP to success!

This is especially for Irianto (How I envy those who doesn't have sleeping problems.)
and all those of you who suffers some form of insomnia at various points of your lives.

Try jotting down your thoughts often and spend some time sorting it out into categories. Then focus on clearing your utmost priorities one by one to that of least importance... Clearing your preoccupations systematically is what helps cure insomnia in the long run. Don't forget to include simple priorities like proper food and regular water intake throughout the day(This helps immensely with sleeping well too!). Most people only focus on work activities and it drives them to the grave. .

Now, the other advantage of jotting things down is that it helps you in letting go. Knowing that your thoughts are on paper for you to refer to later, clears your head from having to hold on to it during sleep... This is what will help you sleep better instantly.

On a last note, the most important factor in curing insomnia is mindset. You have to want to sleep! Those of you who think that sleep is a waste of time, consider this... good sleep gives you focus on your daily tasks at hand, resulting in efficiency thus saving you time that you can use on more sleep!!! So, don't say you don't have time to sleep! Think of it as S-LEAP(the SUPER-LEAP to success!!!) The more you sleep, the more successful you'll be... it all balances up in the end!

Not too happy today...:(

The Balancing Act 

 

Balance. This is one of the keys to success often undermined by those reaching for their highest potentials. It is disconcerting that so many people with great skills, diligence and good intentions fail due to their lack of observation in the yin and yang of nature.

Just today, I was surfing the musician union's website when I came across an interesting article on balance. It reminded me of the staggering number of people I know who allude to this practice in our hurried lifestyle while struggling to get their head around things. So, for those of you seeking happiness in the real world, let me start by reassuring you that the practice of balance is not reserved for illusive zen masters in a barren land.

We are all destined for great things and as we evolve into better understanding of that greatness, we will be reminded of the fundamental truth that even the best of us are often not immune to being off-balanced on every odd day or so. Thus, if you find yourselves feeling a bit under the weather every now and then, just hang in there.

Even when I think back on those lousy mornings, swamped and pathetically incapable of peeling my body off the mattress, as I lay sprawled in my dreams in search of higher incentives to do so... nostalgia plays it's weight upon me. Though effectively, I manage to resist entertaining that sinking feeling with a perky little one-liner that Candy and I made-up once, to remind ourselves to get on top. It goes like this:


"If people do not feel robbed of their enjoyment in life, they will utterly refuse to be kept on the curb."


Incredibly, most times staying upbeat is just about remembering the enjoyable things in life. The reality for most is that life is never ALL that bad. It's just that some days we wake up clouded with heavy thoughts on one particular area of our life and it precariously spirals us into a succession of blue Mondays. Other days we wake with a happy thought; a sudden stroke of appreciation for a certain discovery or an old obsession.. and all at once everything is hunky dory for days on end.

So, if you ever find yourself victimize by one of these seemingly unpredictable lows of nature, the first thing you can do to stop this from happening is to simply zoom out and look at the bigger picture of your life.

             +   zoom out   +

What you'll see is that, it's just an emotional feeling(usually of one imbalance area of your entire life) right at this moment that is spiraling you downwards. You will start to see that this one heavy roadblock blinds you to many other areas of your life that has accumulated great value. You will also notice how this gives the illusion that everything seem so unbearable right now.

I am not suggesting that you ignore the problematic area and I cannot stress enough about the priority of finding some kind of resolution to amend it...

But the idea here, is by first zooming out to focus on other areas of your life where you have had success with, this will defiantly give you a quick lift, infusing you with the energy and faith to overcome your current roadblock.

See where this problem area lies in the context of your entire life-map! This will lessen the magnification of it's intensity and make it easier to go forth and find solutions for that mere little thorn in your side.

Ultimately, a balance view of your life in general will greatly increase your confidence in tackling specific little areas. It will also speed you up to effective problem solving, a quality which makes for great leadership.

So, make sure you take a good look at where you fair well in your life before you tackle the imbalance areas that need your immediate attention! This way you'll be feeling all tip top and ready to go to war each day. (Solving imbalanced areas would be a whole new topic but for now here's a tip:- googling the right words to the problem areas of your life will lead to many ideas and feedback from others that will enable you to form a personal solution.)

Peace - Colorful Blac

Do as you feel!

In the past 3 years, we've been going through a kinda purging process... We put ourselves under house arrest... going out only for work and food shopping, immersing ourselves in the tranquility of space... immense personal space... we eventually even stopped watching TV completely, for 3 months now!!!

Boy, do we feel good!!!

Crazy?

I don't know... But it's sure good to live without all the fears that's constantly being impounded through our numb-skulls by today's consumer driven world. Buy this... you'll feel better! EAt this, with that and this... you'll look thinner! Run like this... sit on this $1999 massage chair... aaand quick! pop a panadol.. you'll be back on your feet!

Whatever happened to... Take some time out... you'll feel better! Eat moderately... take no more than what you need! Run and sit as you feel comfortable. I mean... you'd think that your body will instinctively instruct you.... no?

Anyways, one day, we awaken ourselves to the spirit and decided to cut the madness out, get rid of that outside noise and those abiding voices. Replacing it with an inner silence that instructs upon the soul as to the healing movements and actions.... with an unspoken nudge... that beckons naturally.

And the result...

It's great! ...for us anyways!!!

Try it for yourselves. See what your spirit have to say.




In spiritus,

Candy and Bobz