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23 items tagged "Findings and Amusing"

October 13, 2011
22:03
Shark in bed 2
» ‎ Wanderer
September 19, 2011
0:12
Force of Friendship
» ‎ Wanderer

A sea-cow, a dugong, finds a special pearl
and brings it up on land at night. By the light it gives off
the dugong can graze on hyacinths and lilies.

The excrement of the dugong is precious ambergris
because it eats such beauty. Anyone who feeds on Majesty
becomes eloquent. The bee, from mystic inspiration,
fills its rooms with honey.

So the dugong grazes at night in the pearl-glow.
Presently, a merchant comes and drops black loam
over the pearl, then hides behind a tree to watch.

The dugong surges about the meadow like a blind bull.
Twenty times it rushes at nothing, passing the mound
where the pearl is.

So Satan couldn’t see the spirit-center inside Adam.

God says, *Descend*, and a huge pearl from Aden gets buried under dirt.
The merchant knows, but the dugong doesn’t.

Every clay-pile with a pearl inside
loves to be near any other clay-pile with a pearl,
but those without pearls cannot stand to be near
the hidden companionship.

Remember the mouse on the riverbank?
There’s a love-string stretching into the water
hoping for the frog.

Suddenly a raven grips the mouse
and flies off. The frog too, from the riverbottom,
with one foot entangled in the invisible string,
follows, suspended in the air.

Amazed faces ask,”When did a raven ever go underwater and catch a frog?”
The frog answers,
“This is the force of Friendship.”
What draws friends together
does not conform to Laws of Nature.
Form doesn’t know about spiritual closeness.
If a grain of barley approaches a grain of wheat,
an ant must be carrying it. A black ant on black felt.
You can’t see it, but if grains go toward each other,
it’s there.

A hand shifts our birdcages around.
Some are brought closer. Some move apart.
Do not try to reason it out. Be conscious
of who draws you and who not.

Gabriel was always there with Jesus, lifting him
above the dark-blue vault, the night-fortress world,
just as the raven of longing carries the flying frog.

~Rumi Mathnawi, VI, 2922-2973
August 18, 2011
11:04
Saint Roch (patron saint of the feet)
» ‎ Wanderer

So I was reading Paulo Coehlo’s blog a few days back and thought I should re-blog this poem by Saint Roch:

Wanderer, your footsteps are
the road, and nothing more;
Wanderer, there’s no road,
the road is made by walking.
By walking one makes the road,
and seeing behind the vista,
one sees the path that will
never be travelled again.
Wanderer, there’s no road,
only waves in the sea.
(Antonio Machado)
August 16, 2011
1:33
Sufi Master: Hisham Kabbani
» ‎ Wanderer

So a month ago I was still sulking at my desk at work contemplating the meaning of life. Since then, I have taken actions to rectify this including going to Quranic class and making the intention of going on a journey to find God. My Quranic teacher decided to go on a trip to see Sheikh Nazim in Cyprus next month and asked if I would like to join. Having heard of this great sufi sheikh and what he did for the Chillean Miners, I said yes without hesitation even though I know I am extremely low on holidays. This morning, I had a sudden text from a friend who told me that his sister told him that his second-in-line is in London and would be in Tarawih prayers – the prayer which I mentioned in my previous post. Hisham Kabbani has been a disciple of Shekh Nazim for over 50 years. After doing some research I realised that he has been here for 5 days now and tonight was the last night he was in town. He was leading prayers in Feltham. Those who hang out with me knows I love going to Feltham – for Nandos! So, a great sufi master was 15 minutes down the road from me: I thought I had to pay him a visit.

One thing I first notice when I got there was that this is not a normal Muslim meeting. You have White English kids, boys and girls, running around, you have Africans sitting next to white English woman next to Pakistani lady on the floor eating. Then you’ve got a man who looks like a great sufi master himself but spoke like a posh Oxford Englishman. Somehow it reminded me of the likes of Cat Stevens, Martin Lings (the great shakespearean scholar from Oxford Univeristy) and Rene Guenon (The French Orientalist philosopher) who converted into Islam and became great sufi masters themselves.

I manage to greet Kabbani at the car when he arrived and then subsequently shook his hand, I can’t help but notice, he is just a man. However, there is this feeling of being ‘in awe’ which I cannot explain when I met him. I almost wanted to hide in shame for I know so little of how to conduct myself in front of him, and adhab or manners is so important in Sufi-Islam. Anyway, after the prayers he gave us some sweets and chocolates so it was all good!
July 26, 2011
21:16
Sheep and Shepherd
» ‎ Wanderer

I have been using this analogy for a while now. I have been saying that the sheep needs to find it’s shepherd. As you can tell from my previous blog posts that I have been trying to find some sort of guidance. For a long time I have been in turmoil thinking that I have been forgotten by God. This has come from my search for God since I came back from Japan in 2007. After Randy commented on the other post, I got a bit upset and that night I sat for more than an hour writing a very heart-felt blog post. I remembered how just when I was about to finish the last sentence there was a glitch in the iPad and the post got deleted. After telling one of my good friend, he told me that it was a blog-post to God. Indeed that post, probably one of the most important blog post I have ever written had become “the blog post to God”.

If one accepts the notion that there is a reality beyond the materialistic empirical truth, one has to believe there is a way to have an unveiling. I can’t say that I have come to understand ‘the’ esoteric truth. However, if, according to some Islamic beliefs, Buddha was possibly a prophet, the one thing he would’ve brought is the ability to unveil. I am not suggesting that the Buddha is a prophet, I am merely suggesting that if he was, this was one thing he would’ve shown mankind: the path to enlightenment. I am not a Buddhist, and I shall not dwell on that fact.

Possibly being a bit too spiritual lately, but if you read the link I placed on that blog post about finding a sheikh, it would say that it would help me find a sheikh in the local vicinity. Lo and behold, on Sunday we finally met in person for the first time, and I was struck by the things he said, the sources he quoted. It was as if I had already heard them before and I could recognise him from the things he said. Anyway, I have found a Quran teacher who will teach me the Quran from scratch using prophetic tradition: in a small group sitting on the floor. The thought which went through my mind was, “The sheep has found it’s shepherd”, but as I was told prior meeting him by someone else, “The shepherd would recognise his sheep.” Indeed, he recognised me and it’s something I cannot explain in writing – an experience which one must go through.

This is by no means the end of the story. This is just the start to something which I have wanted for a long time. Incidentally, there was a tweet appearing on my thread today which reads, “Dawn does not come twice to awaken a man. Wake up.”

So…yeah…baah…I am happily following the herd of sheep in which I belong.
July 09, 2011
0:17
Social activation energy
» ‎ Wanderer

I realise today that my will to stay away from people has intensified. I made a graph of what I think my will to spend time with people and time spent thinking about spirituality against how much I socialise and anti-socialise. I find that the amount of “real energy” depends on how much I want to spend time with people and how much time I actually spend with them. Then the “spiritual energy” depends on how much time I spend away from people thinking. Energy = the integral of the will spent with people with respect to time spent socialising. In other words, my life is dependent on people and without people I have no real energy.
June 28, 2011
0:43
Saadi the poet
» ‎ Wanderer

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you’ve no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain!

According to Wikipedia (although not really a great academic source):

Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī (Persian: ابومحمد مصلح الدین بن عبدالله شیرازی) better known by his pen-name as Saʿdī (Persian: سعدی) or, simply, Saadi, was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is not only famous in Persian-speaking countries, but he has also been quoted in western sources. He is recognized for the quality of his writings, and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts.
December 04, 2010
2:36
ENFP and Corporate World
» ‎ Wanderer

I stumbled upon a site which made a lot of sense to me. I think we all suffer the same fate: we, the ENFP bunch. I guess I am quite lucky in the fact that I have quite a strong mind in terms of what I want. I wonder if or how this would work to my benefit. Oh and not to mention, I realised I pick up ideas and concepts really fast. So, let hope it’ll work to my advantage.

This is the site: http://enfp.tribe.net/thread/d9376b38-3574-4922-bf67-8c04cf4ac19d

Just some quotes from it:

…I have an attention span of about 1,5 or 2 years in a certain profession. If the organization is large enough, I’m convinced ENFP’s can carry on growing or climbing up (at least till they reach a certain point). The advantage of a large organisation is that, even when you change to a different job, the people you know with in the company (your network) still remain partially the same.

What about focus? If there’s nothing but chaos, a problem that appears to be too complex to solve, or a work environment full of emotional minefields and people working in clans rather than together… I gain access to an undepletable energy source, and can accomplish amazing things. ENFP’s are excellent change managers in my opinion. Unfortunately when details, procedures and day in day out issues become the menu of the day, things quickly become boring.

Todo lists are useful until the next brilliant idea makes me forget about the todo list and run off in a different direction. There are a few tools or techniques I use to reduce the effect of my ‘randomness’.

The list of good quotes continues…sigh; Sometimes I wish the world could understand us and not criticise us for our inability to conform to the -NT or -TJ base society.
October 26, 2010
0:24
Microfinance
» ‎ Wanderer

It is interesting what new things you find out everyday by talking to different people. Today I talked to Alvaro online about various things. He asked me what was my ideal job. So I told him, in a world where we are not governed by money, I would love to be a photographer and travel the world. So cutting the story short, he showed me a link to a video on www.ted.com:

You must take some time out to watch it if you are a humanitarian like me. Even if you are not, you should still watch it. I just realised I have the wiki page of 2 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates opened on my browser: Liu Xiaobo and Muhammad Yunus. The former was one of the student leaders in the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 and the latter was the Bangladeshi ‘Banker’ who managed to change the lives of millions. After reading about Yunus’ life, I think he’s become my new role model. A well-deserving recipient of the Nobel Peace price, Yunus came up with the concept of microfinancing. Instead of donation to the poor, Yunus created a bank, Grameen Bank, that gives out micro-credits to the poor. He found that a small amount of money can make a world of difference to the poorest of the population. Instead of building schools and so forth, the idea is to fund entrepreneurs in poor parts of Africa, Indian subcontinents etc who might have nothing. Instead of donations, they are given a loan of maybe up to 100 USD to help start their business. In this way, people are given a sense of purpose and they found that this also boost the rate of education amongst the poor as they begin to see the importance of education and knowledge.

I think this is a great idea. Perhaps I will talk to Richard about it next time we meet and see if we could implement similar projects in Zimbabwe where I plan to visit next year. So much to think about…
March 29, 2010
0:44
Birthdays
» ‎ Wanderer

I forgot today was my birthday cause there were no txt messages, emails and facebook message. Lol…perhaps it shows I’m too old to care anymore.
April 23, 2008
19:41
SPINVOXed
» ‎ Wanderer

Ummm, yes, I am all spinvoxed. I applied to Spinvox (www.spinvox.com) yesterday, and I got a reply straight away, which is very very efficient of them I must say. I am quite excited by this company. Its got a cool name, a fun atmosphere and its almost like the Google of Voice Recognition.

I signed up to their supposedly 7 days free trail of voicemail to text service so I really want to see if this whole fuss actually works. I will let you all know when it does, so if you are calling and I don’t answer, leave a voice-(to-text)-mail

—-Update—-

Well, nothing much to update about except for the fact that I have asked around more and more about this opportunity in Spinvox and Dr Tony Robinson. So, here is the deal. Tony Robinson is looking to hire around 10 people to join his team. He is definitely one of the most well-known speech recognition scientists and entrepreneur out there, and this is like getting hired by House. He graduated in Cambridge and helped BBC build their automatic subtitles back in the 90s. So if I do get this job it would probably be one of my fastest learning curve yet in my life. So lets see if I get this interview.

Meanwhile, I’m still waiting…You can read a BBC article with Tony Robinson explaining how Spinvox works.
February 25, 2008
1:02
If there were only 100 of us…
» ‎ Wanderer

Vincent sent me this today. Check [www.miniature-earth.com] out.

It does make me wonder why all of us still try to get a better job, to earn more money, just being selfish basically. What can I do more as my little part to combat poverty? Giving money is not enough…

Why do people laugh at me when I say I want to take a year out and do some volunteering work whereas people praise you and admire you for getting a job in a bank?

Why do we ignore God’s presence when we are living happily and comfortably, but when we see poverty staring at us we wonder whether God had abandoned us?

What is this world coming to?
February 19, 2008
17:18
Blogs
» ‎ Wanderer

Randy made an interesting statement on his blog…Not sure if he was meant to put that there…
February 08, 2008
17:24
Hearing with our Eyes
» ‎ Wanderer

This is what you call the McGurk effect. Play it and see what you hear. Then close your eyes and hear it again. Finally, switch your sound off, and see what you think the guy is saying.

You can see this explained in Japanese.
January 18, 2008
2:58
Kids songs!
» ‎ Wanderer

Oh my…Sun has got me started!!!! Then I got NN started. Its like 1:30am and I am listening to Bili Bala from the HK version of Maruko. Here are some links for your enjoyment and feeling nostalgic: 阿花的故事生命有價小丸子 Yeah, that will get you going for a while….
January 17, 2008
5:48
Working in Japan?
» ‎ Wanderer

Planning to work in Japan? I came across this article. You better know your Kanji or else even the finger prints won’t do the job!
November 22, 2007
2:26
Definition redefined
» ‎ Wanderer

I watched Lions for lamb today. The story was very well told. Before the movie, there was an advertisement by a swedish furniture shop. Its quite an interesting advertisement. Here is a blog post I am trying to reply to. I find it very true. It wasn’t the first time I advocated for this. There is [...]
October 15, 2007
13:44
Blogging
» ‎ Wanderer

Stealing from Randy’s blog… The dark side of internet…
September 26, 2007
17:30
モロンの旅第二話：香港
» ‎ Wanderer

Great picture editing by Randy! Just had to blog it. Click on the photo to go to his album. I still have to sit down to edit my pics. I doubt I will have time until I get back to London. Yup, flying back to London on Friday. I don’t know what to say. But [...]
7:14
The greater Issues
» ‎ Wanderer

Yesterday night, when I was sitting there in front of the TV, there was a documentary on Fair Trade. It caught my attention. It was quite interesting actually this program as it analysed companies such as Starbucks, to look at their coffee beans and how much of that HK$27 goes to the actual coffee farmers [...]
August 30, 2007
4:12
The advocate
» ‎ Wanderer

I just did a personality test. I am a ENFP - The Advocate. This is the description: ENFP - The “Advocate” ENFPs are introspective, values-oriented, inspiring, social and extremely expressive. They actively send their thoughts and ideas out into the world as a way to bring attention to what they feel to be important, which often has to [...]
August 28, 2007
18:13
Brush your teeth
» ‎ Wanderer

Thanks Randy for helping me take this photo, and Atsuko and Randy for this great evening!
June 19, 2007
9:15
Want some Cucumber?
» ‎ Wanderer

Don’t need to eat a cucumber - drink Pepsi! Pepsi has newly released Cucumber flavoured Pepsi in our convenient stores. Thought that is weird, it just made it to the 10th place of Japan’s top 10 bizarre softdrinks. Thanks to Zac who distributed the article. Take a look at Pepsi ICE Cucumber on Randy’s blog.

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23 items tagged "Findings and Amusing"