I received one question in my email from A., who wants to know what does the man whom she met and lost contact with represents in her life. Why did he came in her life so suddenly and beautifuly and then completely withdrew. This is a very good question to put to gain more insight, by using the tarot cards. Once the question was clear in my mind, and after focusing, I drew the cards as follows. The picture is just below. Before drawing the cards I assigned to each one an intention and a role. The first card drawn, the one in the left, represents A., the person who requested the reading. Right now she is represented by the Wheel of Fortune. This suggests that A. is in a situation that is testing her, challenging her to grow, so that it needs serious reflection for eventually making a conscious … Continue reading
Spiritual
Nature vs Humanity
I am living in Indonesia for almost 8 months now and during this time I had the chance to connect more and more with nature. I live in an urban area, the Special District of Yogyakarta, but in an area where rice fields are reachable in a 5 minutes walk. Actually, Indonesian houses, even in the cities, used to be surrounded by a lot of nature, having each their own jackfruit, banana, mango trees and maybe a small rice field hidden in the back of the house. But now things are changing. Concrete is making its way in every neighborhood for facilitating transportation, primarily by motorbikes, and people have started selling their land to support their urban lifestyle which requires owning a car and a motorbike.. or several motorbikes, one for which member of the family. I am not saying that urban development is good or bad, what I am … Continue reading
Why is ‘being water’ one of the best ways to live your life?
We are all living these hyper-fast times in which changes occur every day. Few things stay the same and this apparent lack of stability or security stir up in each of us anxieties and fears. Each of us looks for her or his ways to cope with this situation: some develop addictions and attachments to food or drinks or drugs or other persons, others choose to go on regular visits to psychologists, psychiatrists and other mind therapists, other look for spiritual meanings and solutions such as meditation, yoga, qigong etc.. I’ve been through my own process of finding my way to be me in this world and I chose meditation and Qigong. About my meditation learning I wrote previously here. As about my Qigong experience it’s a lot to be said, but for the moment I want to focus on the awareness that it brought to me over the theory of … Continue reading
A visit at the Borobudur temple
When you come to Indonesia you shouldn’t miss visiting the largest Buddhist temple in the world, located in Central Java: Borobudur. It is impressive! It is actually the number one sightseeing site on the list of every tourist coming to the Java island. Borobudur is basically built in a hill, consists of six square platforms and three circular platforms at the top, being in a shape of a Buddhist mandala, as it can be seen from the photos below: The temple is decorated with 2 672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. On the top platform there is a main dome surrounded by 72 Buddha statues which are each placed inside a perforated stupa (a stupa is a hemispherical structure which contains Buddhist relics. Stupas all over the world have slightly different designs. However, one beautiful symbolism of the stupa that I’ve been told of is that of a water … Continue reading
What I have learnt by practicing meditation …
I’ve been an on/off meditator for the last 6 years. I’ve been practicing it more regularly in the last 3 years and I’ve been working on making it a regular daily practice because I am utterly convinced of its benefits! About its concrete benefits neuroscientists have undergone some recent studies that demonstrate that it actually helps reshape our brain. My interest lies more in how this reshape of the brain shifts our behavior – which is defined as the action and/or reaction each of us takes in response to external or internal stimuli. My biggest meditation lesson and challenge in the same time was attending a 10 days Vipassana meditation in silence. The word vipassana means seeing things as they really are. This meditation technique was re-discovered by Gautama Siddhartha Buddha more than 2500 years ago and it was taught to me in its original form, by attending one of … Continue reading
Happy new year of the Wooden Sheep! Selamat tahun baru imlek! Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Happy new year everybody! We have officialy entered into the Wooden Sheep (Goat), according to Chinese astrology! It looks like it is going to be a year of blooming creativity and of peace finding… I stumbled here upon this poem which would best describe the Sheep and its characteristics for the new year: I am nature’s child, fortune smiles upon me. All things bloom in the gentleness of my love. I strive to find beauty in all I behold. I AM THE SHEEP. So, the advice for this year is: get in touch with your inner child, find peace with everyone including yourself and create create create!
Traveling, Travelers …and the Universe
Why do people travel? People have always traveled, but the reasons for it have changed their shape (but now their nature) throughout the centuries. Originally, people have started traveling, migrating, mainly out of bare necessity: to find better soils, better natural resources, better life conditions. Another reason of traveling is represented by the military campaigns and interventions that have the goal of conquering or preserving lands and resources, ultimately for the same above mentioned goal: better life conditions. Besides these strictly material/economical/political determinants, there’s also a spiritual cause illustrated by the religious missionaries. Nevertheless, in the last century, with the rapid development of technologies, new slightly different shaped reasons have emerged that determine people to choose to travel, such as getting a better (and sometimes cheaper) education in another area than the one in which you were born in or getting a better paid job abroad. Essentially economic, these two … Continue reading
5 months after. Beyond all good or bad there is a space: Indonesia
Just a couple of days after my 5 months anniversary of my Indonesian experience. These months have been really, really intense! I was eager to start my Asian adventure and I was expecting a huge cultural shock, which actually happened (it always does when traveling)! On one hand, landing in the airport in Jakarta, I felt immediately extremely familiar to these people here, on the other hand, their behavior and reactions are different… Indonesia is a fascinating destination and I wasn’t ready for it, at all! Well, I believe it is hard to be totally prepared for another culture, there will always be things that will get you out of the comfort zone … Which is actually good! It is great to be out of your comfort zone because this is when u grow! And that is what I am experiencing: I am growing and I am becoming stronger! I … Continue reading
On bullying (I)
“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us” – Herman Hesse Recently, I’ve been reflection on bullying. It is only of very recent date (less than I year) that I realized that I’ve been bullied at school. It’s a perfect illustration of the fact that if one doesn’t know “the name” or “the label” of something, it might pass by as being normal in a way, socially accepted. That is why knowledge is power! And why education is essential! Now, most commonly, one would find bullying related to pre-teen and teen behavior. But it just doesn’t end here (nor does it start there). Let’s just define bullying for a start. My American heritage dictionary informs me that a bully is 1. A person who is habitually cruel or overbearing, especially to smaller or weaker … Continue reading
Russell Brand is rocking the world!
I agree&love&know&feel that everything he says it’s true, from: our reality is the result of our intention and attention … to the very last word! ps: I am bit jealous on how fast he can speak!! 😛