Quality living

Time has passed since my last posting, and today I added many I wrote during the past few weeks. I returned to my home in the Philippines from vacation, and then traveled to Europe again to visit Sweden for work. I came back to my home in the Philippines again, and my body is still confused in the morning (how to get up) and in the night (how to get to sleep). I managed to get up rather early this Sunday morning – having a delicious double espresso helped to help me get started. My attractive retro-styled coffeemaker churned out a delicious if somewhat sour brew from two Nespresso capsules, one black Ristretto and one yellow Finezzo.

I enjoyed the company of several friends in the Nordic capital of Stockholm last week. A visit of contrasts, from a tiny hotel room in a designer hotel, to the wide-spaced city of waters and old buildings and passages filled with domestic and international tourists of all origins. Most of all, the visit reminded me of the importance of quality living. A colleague became a friend as he unwittingly showed me how to live life with high standards, intensity of purpose, and unceasing humor. Others I rarely meet because of distance demonstrated that friendships last and can deepen every time. Flowing wine added to the color and flavor of our meetings, amidst exuberant Stockholmers celebrating life in the street in the short span of their summer.

On the way back aboard the Thai jumbo, I unexpectedly found myself talking for hours with a seat mate about life, music, relationships, burning out, living in the present moment, and training dogs. I was empty of expectations for this return trip, and found that space was created for another traveler and me to share quality time and develop friendship.


Purple

Purple covers warm
souls exchanging unexpectedly –
Opportunities that knock brightly


Photographs: Stockholm waterfront, Modern boutique hotel

Less can be more

18 August. I cannot possess everything. The things I have are for my use and sharing. Mike George’s 2nd Aha! advises that I need nothing to be truly happy. If I have less, I can be more. Having less, and practicing detachment help to gain freedom from fear and from living in scarcity.

Paradoxes get life going: do less of this, gain more of that. If I can let go of more, more opportunities can show up, ideas to come, people to enter. In contrast, it seems that attachments lead to death, ending, stiffness, suffering. How to I relate to the things I have, to the people in my life?

Mike George advises to see myself as a trustee. My travel headphones, my car, my ideas, I don’t own them. They have been given to me in trust. To hold everything in trust, and let go when the moment comes to do so, brings true freedom. I can feel deep inside me that this is true. I will shift attachments to trusteeship. I don’t own anything, I can harness the energy and power of having “enough” as a trustee.

I write this as the day starts high up flying over Latvia, with a smile.

Photograph: Trust, Osho Zen Tarot

Hari Raya

17 August. I found a nice capuccino at Hari Raya’s. Located on top of Ninoy Aquino airport’s aged terminal, Hari Raya is a simple place that has catered to multitudes of people passing through. In contrast to their movement, some of the waiters have been there for a decade and more, and their service is always friendly and attentive. Departing on my recent trip to Sweden, I was surprised they could make a nice cappuccino, and I ordered a second one while writing in my journal. I lost sense of time until my colleague texted me from the airline lounge below if I planned on making the flight or not. I did, and that was the start of a nice journey together that taught me more about living life with quality.

Photograph: Home-made capuccino in a good friend's cup.

My way

I feel lucky to experience growth, awakening, parting, love, renewal. I need more energy from the inside. I do not depend on anything or anyone for how I feel. It is entirely from me, my initiative, my response. I can be happy no matter what. My red color is smooth. My path is ahead. I don’t know what’s on it. I will see, find out. Each moment has a middle way. I will find it. It is an enjoyable measured response or a choice. It’s part of finding my way. Uniquely my way.

Water

I keep growing
With love –
Refreshing water

Photograph: Singapore street decoration

Listening

Listening comes from being quiet. It is about opening, receptivity, forgetting about self. A true connection of dots, because nothing stands in the way. The art of listening is passive, with full being. Mike George advises to be more quiet, to speak slower, to speak softer. Fusion happens in quietness, internally. The world abounds with great words and noise. I set out to find my own source.

During my last trip, I realized that one of the most difficult things for me to achieve is to be my own best friend. I have to find my own innermost core by myself, the original, no copies. I don’t like everything I see on the way there. So I keep observing, and drop what I can. To go deeper. There is no guide, except myself and the Universe. It is a dark night, this journey. An intense fire of inquiry leads to the morning, the sunrise.

Osho remarked that everyone in history who has had the intensity of inquiry, will find the sunrise. I learn about choices, that it is best to drop everything for emptiness, no-thingness. Going with my heart, my inner voice. I am not split, I am whole, but it takes my own unique journey to realize this, deep into the core of my being.


Photograph: Beyond Illusion, Osho Zen Tarot

Quiet

Quiet comes from inside. To be has no activity; it is at state of non-action. But it is full, it has its own fullness. Being quiet is a conscious state. It is a choice, and a good one. It is the first of seven positive changes recommended by Mike George in his The 7 Aha!s of Highly Enlightened Souls.

I find that quietness is the source of creativity. But I wonder if creativity also needs chaos? How is creative chaos connected to quiet being? Or to a special sense of being connected – the dots – with the dots around us? I am into quietness now. I find that it is enough. My back straighter, not slumped, helps to conserve and circulate energy. Quietness is full. It really has power. The power of silence allows me to paint on my own canvas. It feels like glass, but not etched, just very smooth, and endless in size. A canvas to express my creativity. Very colorful and beyond the conventions of others, but it could reflect some of those.

Language of love and the heart… silence.


Photograph: Mike George's book

Buyers

8 August. Last night I met my high-school friend and we shared some of the developments in our lives. We had some similar experiences in the past years, and found that we have both learned to adopt a positive attitude towards living happily, no matter what happens. We talked over red wine (me) and bitter lemon (friend) about relationships, the never-ending topic. It turned out that we both like to be “buyers” in the relationship with our significant other, and that we have grown to that experience from being “renters” earlier.


Photograph: Willard Harvey's book on Buyers, Renters, and Freeloaders

Blue

Today I was blue. It was the kind of low mood day where lifting my spirit seemed like the heaviest task. I severely scratched my rented car in a narrow parking garage. It took me a while to get over that emotionally! A cost of Euro 200 for liability was incurred in a second, and my pride was hurt for not being able to do better. Even before that, it was heavy. I had a frog to eat (task to finish) but did not get to it. So it keeps croaking in front of me.

Later in the afternoon the Universe kicked me to help me regain perspective. While shopping in the supermarket, I found myself surrounded by boisterous teenagers talking loudly about life in general and chicks in particular. I realized that life keeps moving, and it is up to me to throw myself into the flow. Then I ran into a shop selling the nice Linksys Skype phone which I have been eyeing, and I decided on the spot to buy it. A treat to myself on a blue day.

At night I took a walk to the railway station right in front of the apartment where I am staying. On entering the unusually clean building, I was surprised to see the hall taken over by dancers practicing the Tango. What a fantastic use of a railway station at 10:30 on a Friday night! And most of the dancers had left at home their unflattering casual attire which is so common in this country, and opted for fancy clothes and dancing shoes. After watching them for a while, I discovered that the station’s minimart was still open and found the eggs I needed for breakfast tomorrow.

Last Sunday I watched the show of the Blue Man Group in Boston. Several of their messages hit me, including the notion that a lot of time in life is spent on discharging things “away” from ourselves, which the Blue Men vividly depicted with a system of sewer pipes, which then became musical instruments. The Blue Men challenged the audience to be interactive, and to consume wisely. Connections are meant to be two-way. We need to get unplugged, in more ways than one.

They also showed how people sit in internet cafés talking to other people who are not there, and ignore the people sitting right next to them. I also liked their hilarious advice how to perform rock on stage. And the show ended dramatically with rolls of pseudo toilet paper being “waved” by the audience to the front of the stage, in a direct form of interaction and flow reversal. Audience participation in the show was great from beginning to end. To me it underlined the notion that we as dots can get better connected. It is up to us to see it and do it. It is the underlying concept of this blog too.

So after all, I recovered and started all over from scratch as I found that the Universe keeps vibrating around me.

PS: Blogger won't upload my pics, so they will come later!