-The Prophet-
Takraw
Things are going pretty well? Not really but its better than before certainly – is this just a short pause or as they say it, the calm before the storm, until something big happens? The emptiness still visits often… leaving him in despair and caught in claustrophobic darkness. The material world filled with tests, pain and struggle. Only the act of thinking of the omniscient and the omnipotence does solace and gratitude resurfaces.
Most of the time paranoia, a despicable close companion constantly a reminder on what and what could and might eventually happen. The soul shivers from the thought that its own mind delivers.
Though he had found what is important and gives him a sense of living but everything else are enablers, that enables him to continue walking into the journey of learning.
This is a reminder; as a friend would – a repetition to look at the bigger picture, do not be afraid of your superiors, and remember your dreams and the bigger goals. What we are doing here are enablers that enable us to do of what is of most importance to us though not entirely all significant to this world. One sacrifices a bigger part of his self and time so that when he has that little time, he could use it to realize his most important dream…
The perils, the faces and the phases one is put through, never easy to the human eyes, each one his own universe, with his own beliefs and perceptions…Despite the fact that most are short sighted, easily taunted and a product of conjectures.
The sinking of the heart, the trembling inside, and insecurity that leads to emptiness. Like a dark cloud blurring the vision, focusing on something of insignificance – All these feelings and emotions corrupting the mind, deforming it and weakening and encourages one to go astray.
And as usual the struggle goes on, walking down the path with thorns and fears of all kind all around, ever so carefully especially from the subtle whispers that most of the time goes unaware of. It is known that the self encompasses of both good and evil, man capable of both good and evil… To be in constant control and tame the self within. A duty for the ordinary man—to extend his hand, to what he's preaching.
Merely Quoting
Seeing that I don’t really have the leisurely time to come up with my own fiction for the time being…this time around, I decided that I would just quote others in their beliefs and thoughts. This however would probably be the first part of perhaps a couple more. The Subject, mainly being on the ways and beliefs towards the pursuit of happiness, according to some highly esteemed people.
My purpose in writing this is mainly to share with others on how people have different beliefs and methods of thinking. I have always been interested in people and the way they think and how diversify and interesting thoughts can get. By knowing these thoughts, I am assuming one would be more opened and be able to reflect on their own beliefs and perhaps study themselves and their beliefs a little more.
According to the Spanish philosopher Seneca, happiness can only be achieved by having a sound mind in constant possession of its soundness; then a brave and energetic mind. Which is also gifted with the noblest form of endurance; able to deal with circumstances of the moment..Everlasting freedom and tranquility follow once we have banished all that vexes and frightens us.
Emboldened by the stoic belief that happiness is independent of mere circumstance, he accepted the ’blessings of fortune’ without embarrassment or shame, yet remained fully prepared to relinquish them a t a moment’s notice.
On a different note, Marcus Aurelius the Roman explains that happiness feels more like wrestling than dancing because it requires us to, “stand prepared and unshaken to meet what comes and what we did not foresee.”
Epicurus said, ‘Those who least needs extravagance enjoy it most. The happy man is not he who drinks when thirsty but he who has no thirst. It is not that we want food, drink and shelter (although that’s how we appear to feel) but we want not to be hungry, not to be hungry and not to be cold; we become truly happy not when we satisfy our desires but in the next moment: the moment we realize there are no desire left to satisfy.”
Lucretius a student of Epicurus, on addressing the people said, “Their ‘greatest joy’ was to stand aloof in a quiet citadel, stoutly fortified by the teaching of the wise, and to gaze down from that elevation on others wandering aimlessly in a vain search for the way of life, pitting their wits against one with unstinted effort to scale the pinnacles of wealth and power of joyless hearts of men! O minds without visions.”
Cicero on Epicurus who have claimed to become insensitive to pain while having memories of conversation with close friends said, “No memory however ecstatic can prevent anyone from feeling pain. A man exposed to unbearable heat does not comfort himself by remembering that he once took a cool bath.”
This from one of the Indian kitabs entitled, Yoga: path to happiness
“An old Indian story tells of Viveka, a new born prince, whose enemies in the royal household put him into a basket and sent it floating down the river. The infant was rescued from death by a peasant couple who raised him as their own. (This is the story of Mosses but with the social classes reversed.) Unaware of his true birth, Viveka nonetheless suspected that he had come from somewhere else, because his true mother, true family and true home all appeared to him in dreams. On his sixteenth birthday he left to search for them. After journeying for more than seven years, he found his way back to his true home. When he reached the royal palace, where his family had waited so long for his return, he discovered that the king his father, had died. Viveka knew that he was now king, yet struggled to find his kingly nature; raised in a world of poverty and hardship, he knew only how to be a peasant, overtime, and under the patient guidance of his teachers, Viveka cast off his comfortable yet mistaken identity and embraced the strange new reality of the person that, unbeknown to himself, he had been all along.
Of course, Viveka is not a real person, and there never was a peasant who, by some outrageous good fortune, turned out to be a prince. Viveka cannot be real because he is something more than real: he is an archetype, a revealing pattern for the course of human life. In this pattern of separation and reunion we might recognize, perhaps to our astonishment that we ourselves feel divorced from our true nature and long to be reunited with it. Viveka’s mythical search through the jungles of north india is the symbol of our actual search for our true but hidden self, yet waiting for us to find it, waiting for us to come home.”
I’ll end with this paragraph derived from Ramakrishna
“Man is always restless; always moving from place to place…fact that he is dissatisfied with his finite nature shows that it is not his natural condition. The fact that he has infinite ambition, that he has insatiable hunger for more and more, proves that he is infinite by nature.”
Feel free to come up with your own opinions and probably agree on the quotes you find agreeable. Thank you.
Manggis
Mysterious on the outside,
Green, purple, brownish and red,
A mystery you are, till your ugly skin is pressed and spread,
Like a diamond covered in a blood bounded ball,
White, pure, perfectly shaped in slices of eights,
And again a portrayal of the ugly side,
Sticky, foul, ill mannered, I contemplate,
Reminds me of a girl I used to date,
Sweet and memorable when the taste buds get a taste,
But more than often infested with insects and pests,
Most of the time only pleasant to the visible eyes,
Till the foulth hath gone into the mouth,
you realized you've misinterpret,
And just like a fly, you keep inviting yourself back again.
