Reflections on Meaning of Life

Patience

Webmaster June 22nd, 2008

by Cindy L. 

They always say, patience is a virtue.
Do people ever question whether it is indeed one?

What if tomorrow never comes?
What is it that you want,
but feels you can’t,
until later?

There are some things that definitely can’t wait.
Like loving your loved ones, and letting them know.

Yet strangely, some things can’t be rushed.

Otherwise, it takes another turn and heads another way,
such that it isn’t the same as it would have been in the first place.
Then having it just before the last today,
would not have meant so much,
as half of what it would have been, if it wasn’t rushed.

Do the people who have left have regrets?
Or do they leave in peace for the better world?
Then only the ones left in this world have them….

Tests on the spiritual road

Webmaster June 22nd, 2008

 Anonymous

The two hardest tests on the spiritual road :

the Patience to wait for the right moment, and the Courage not to be disappointed with what you encounter.

Why work ?

Webmaster June 22nd, 2008

by Cindy L. 

Whether you are old or young, a genius or a commoner, rich or poor…
even if you choose to work for interest, rather than just to earn a living…
if you work,
you are SURE to face stress and frustrations.

Yet strangely, it is this search for money, this need to earn a living..
that poses us the very frustrations that we need to grow.
It is through the “search” for money that we come to learn that it is ultimately not the thing that will make us happy or fulfilled.

Remember your successes

Webmaster January 6th, 2008

By Cindy L.

Today, my friend shared with me through sms that she had found some purpose to live for. She reminded me that now long ago, she was feeling that there was none that she wanted to live for. I am happy for her and wished that she would always remember the experience - of having survived the low point of her life where she felt purposeless, to the higher point where she felt she could live for something. Somehow this sms conversation reminded me of my own experience. Although the nature and severity of both our experiences are different, I saw some similarity in what both our experiences might teach us about life, so I made a mental note to do some reflections when I return home tonight.

Not very long ago, somewhere starting Oct, I felt overwhelmed by feelings of stress, incompetence, lack of recognition and alienation. In an area of my life that used to mean a lot to me. I lost direction, hope and motivation. I have never felt like that before. From someone who had always looked forward to the next day, to someone who dreaded it. And it didn’t help that I lost my usual sense of hope and optimism that had always helped pick me up when I fell. Everything added together, and I started becoming depressed.

But I am glad this loss was temporary. Fortunately, things turned for the better just the last week. I am still searching for direction, but at least now, I feel slightly more assured, more hopeful. I may need more time to be back on track with my usual optimism, but at least now, I feel stronger to battle my setbacks.

Back to the lesson that my friend and my experiences offered — I hope we will always remember how the low points of our life are not permanent, and that we will be over it in time (whether long or short). These experiences will not be the end of all the setbacks we will ever encounter in our lives. But they are opportunities for us to grow stronger. And for us to learn what we will need to do to pull ourselves out of these lowest points much sooner, the next time it happens. I really hope I remember these.

Did God mean for us to do it this way?

Webmaster December 29th, 2007

By Cindy L.

Did God mean for us to do it this way?

To clad images of our gods in gold and other precious metals?

To mediate in a crowded midst where everyone is moving about noisily?

To ask for God’s help to resolve life’s challenges, and afterwhich return to man’s race without attempting to do things differently? In other words, returning to square one?

To quote God’s words on what is correct and what is not, what will win you God’s favour and what will not?

Maybe God exposed us to whatever will confuse us, so that the journey of discovery the Truth in itself will be a lesson…

Truth in a single place

Webmaster December 29th, 2007

by Cindy L.  

God holds the Truth.

But would God give this Truth to Man in a single all-correct religion?

Would the complete Truth, in a single place, deprive Man of life’s most important journey — the search for meaning?

(This contribution may also be found at

Hope

Webmaster December 6th, 2007

Vaclav Havel

 Hope is a state of mind, not of the world.

Either we have hope within us or we don’t.

It is a dimension of the soul, and it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world, or estimate of the situation.

Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart.

It transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons…

Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy. That things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success.

But rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is.

 Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism.

It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

If

Webmaster December 6th, 2007

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too.

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting; or being lied about, don’t deal in lies; or being hated, don’t give way to hating; and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise.

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master.

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim.

If you can meet with triump and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same.

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools. Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, and stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings, and never breath a word about your loss.

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”.

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch.

If neither foes not loving friends can hurt you.

If all men count with you, but none too much.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run - yours is the earth and everthing that’s in it, and - which is more.

You’ll be a Man, my son!