How rich will you be? How much wealth could you have during your whole life time ?
What I'd like to address is this question: What are the key factors that determine how much wealth someone could/might have?
I concluded that there are 3 factors:
1. Luck
2. IQ/EQ and some other "Q" or even new "Q" that might not be discovered yet. I consider attitude as part of EQ.
3. Hardwork
Luck: anything that you get (or do NOT get) but NOT because of IQ/EQ or Hardwork falls under "Luck".
Example:
1. you are stupid and lazy but still have millions to spend, how come? because you are LUCKy...you are probably the grandson of Bill Gates.
2. you don't truly have the knowledge needed to be someone at managerial post, but you are holding a title of "XXX Manager" and continuously drawing quite a good salary. How come? Because you are LUCKy!!! to have a NOT so intelligent boss who does NOT really understand what you are doing...Yes, you can continue sitting on your position because you boss is kind-of-stupid in your field..and as I said u r LUCKy.
3. and the examples continue....
IQ/EQ: you are born with it. A great IQ/EQ is supposedly a blessing because you have the power to contribute alot to society and make our human life better. But you also have the same power to destroy it/us. IQ/EQ is a double-edge sword. Use it wisely. Last, great IQ/EQ does not guarantee great wealth. With good/great IQ/EQ but without luck, you should NOT be in a bad shape though you might not go into the top 100 richest man in the world.
Hardwork: if you don't have luck and IQ/EQ, you better do this well. Unfortunately, without luck and/or IQ/EQ there is no possibility for you to go into the top 1,000,000 richest man in the world. But if you are hardworking, at least you won't have problem solving your family 3 meals. So you see, hardworking is still very important. Combining hardwork with great IQ/EQ and a little bit of LUCK, you will very likely make your way into the top 100 richest person in this UNPERFECT world..
have a nice day....
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Thursday, June 15, 2006
My Three Musketeers
Courage (the past), Determination (the present) and Faith (the future)
Have courage to look into your past actions and life experiences. Have courage to admit that you have done many things for your own selfishness. Have courage to admit that you are a bad person, a bad wife/husband, a bad mother/father, a bad brother/sister, a bad employee/employer, a bad friend, etc. Have courage to say you have done many wrong things. Have courage to admit your sins. Have the COURAGE to face your PAST!
Be determined to do the right things after you have courageously faced your mistakes. Give no single excuse to do the same mistake. Give no justification for another mistake. You need determination NOW, in the PRESENT!.
Have faith that what is good is NOT selfish. Have faith that what is bad is SELFISH. Let this be your ONLY core faith, Unshakable Faith. Do NOT let religion teachings to confuse you. Use religion to make this core faith of unselfishness stronger. The right religion teaching will make you a less selfish person and not the other way round. Hold this simple and powerful faith in any state of confusion. Always fall back to this when you lose your wisdom. You will NEVER be wrong if you hold on to this faith. God will NEVER like us to be selfish. Never harm others in the name of God as that is the MOST selfish reason in God's eyes.
Have courage to look into your past actions and life experiences. Have courage to admit that you have done many things for your own selfishness. Have courage to admit that you are a bad person, a bad wife/husband, a bad mother/father, a bad brother/sister, a bad employee/employer, a bad friend, etc. Have courage to say you have done many wrong things. Have courage to admit your sins. Have the COURAGE to face your PAST!
Be determined to do the right things after you have courageously faced your mistakes. Give no single excuse to do the same mistake. Give no justification for another mistake. You need determination NOW, in the PRESENT!.
Have faith that what is good is NOT selfish. Have faith that what is bad is SELFISH. Let this be your ONLY core faith, Unshakable Faith. Do NOT let religion teachings to confuse you. Use religion to make this core faith of unselfishness stronger. The right religion teaching will make you a less selfish person and not the other way round. Hold this simple and powerful faith in any state of confusion. Always fall back to this when you lose your wisdom. You will NEVER be wrong if you hold on to this faith. God will NEVER like us to be selfish. Never harm others in the name of God as that is the MOST selfish reason in God's eyes.
Monday, May 22, 2006
The DaVinci Code
I have watched the show last Saturday with my wife. It is quite an entertaining show to watch. At the central of the topic is the divine status of Jesus. Did Jesus truly marry to Mary Magdalene and have a daughter called Sarah ? Jesus is not God ? Jesus has descendant that might be still living ?
Honestly, I'm not sure. But whether Jesus married and had a daughter does not make me less believe in His Teaching. My faith in Christianity does NOT lie in the divine STATUS of Jesus, but in His Teaching. You are christian if you abide to His Teaching, and live the life that He teaches you. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is: Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37)
Understand truly the first and the second commandment. Remember, both commandments must be understood as one whole message. You must love BOTH, God and your neighbor --- not only God and not only your neighbor. In fact, if you truly love God, you will love your neighbor too. And if you hate your neighbor you cannot claim that you love God! There is NO way to separate first and second commandment, they are ONE!
I hope you can understand His Teaching and strive to practice it in your life, because that will bring you to His true kingdom.
Amen
Honestly, I'm not sure. But whether Jesus married and had a daughter does not make me less believe in His Teaching. My faith in Christianity does NOT lie in the divine STATUS of Jesus, but in His Teaching. You are christian if you abide to His Teaching, and live the life that He teaches you. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is: Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37)
Understand truly the first and the second commandment. Remember, both commandments must be understood as one whole message. You must love BOTH, God and your neighbor --- not only God and not only your neighbor. In fact, if you truly love God, you will love your neighbor too. And if you hate your neighbor you cannot claim that you love God! There is NO way to separate first and second commandment, they are ONE!
I hope you can understand His Teaching and strive to practice it in your life, because that will bring you to His true kingdom.
Amen
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
A brief on relegion and philosophy
These are complex topics, I probably would talk about these in more than one writing. Today, I'd just touch on a very simple guidline that I adopted for my ownself pertaining to religion.
Recently there was a discovery on n early Christian manuscript "The Gospel of Judas" which I read from TODAY newspaper. That prompted me to find out more about "Gnostic". And in the search for that, I found these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Philosophy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
In my circle of friends, colleagues and family, almost all except my youngest brother think that philosophy is NOT important, and has no practical value. Most of them don't really bother about some fundamental questions like "what's the meaning of life? what's the purpose my life? have I given the best out of my life?, etc. etc." To me such questions are so important, so I wonder why some people just prefer
to spend all their time with their family or work, and never bother to ask such questions and try to find out the answers. My conclusion is: maybe our brain is wired differently - somehow. Btw, just take a look here for the "technical" explanation on philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Philosophy
Let's talk about religion. Many think that their religion is the only one that is correct and true; but many also think that religion does not matter, they are all the same, they basically teach us to do good thing and should NOT do bad things.
I am one of those who think that right religions are the same. To me, the most basic fundamentals for a RIGHT religion is: it should teach people to do good things! Apart from that each religion can have it's own beliefs, but as long as they teach us to do good things, they are the RIGHT/GOOD religions.
Well, it might seem easy to determine whether a religion is a GOOD or RIGHT religion. But hold on, it depends. It depends on how do you define "Good" and "Bad".
To me, what is "Good" is things/acts that are less selfish (or not selfish). Something that we do NOT to gain benefit for ourselves, but for the benefits of others. Something that we sacrifice without hoping anything in return.
But BEWARE, we must be completely HONEST with ourself when doing such judgement, because too often, deep inside we are actually doing things that we like or for our own benefits, but we try to fool ourselves (consciously) to think that those are NOT selfish acts.
In conclusion, I would say that GOOD religion is the one that teaches us to be a LESS selfish person, the one that teaches us to break all the sufferings brought by our own selfinish. Note, I said GOOD or RIGHT and I don't mean TRUE, because NOBODY will be able to prove all the beliefs scientifically - as all of us are "INSIDE the box", so how can we complete prove if those religion believes are true or false. This is where faith plays the most important role. But I dun want to delve into the issue of faith now. Maybe next time...
God bless you.
Recently there was a discovery on n early Christian manuscript "The Gospel of Judas" which I read from TODAY newspaper. That prompted me to find out more about "Gnostic". And in the search for that, I found these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Philosophy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
In my circle of friends, colleagues and family, almost all except my youngest brother think that philosophy is NOT important, and has no practical value. Most of them don't really bother about some fundamental questions like "what's the meaning of life? what's the purpose my life? have I given the best out of my life?, etc. etc." To me such questions are so important, so I wonder why some people just prefer
to spend all their time with their family or work, and never bother to ask such questions and try to find out the answers. My conclusion is: maybe our brain is wired differently - somehow. Btw, just take a look here for the "technical" explanation on philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Philosophy
Let's talk about religion. Many think that their religion is the only one that is correct and true; but many also think that religion does not matter, they are all the same, they basically teach us to do good thing and should NOT do bad things.
I am one of those who think that right religions are the same. To me, the most basic fundamentals for a RIGHT religion is: it should teach people to do good things! Apart from that each religion can have it's own beliefs, but as long as they teach us to do good things, they are the RIGHT/GOOD religions.
Well, it might seem easy to determine whether a religion is a GOOD or RIGHT religion. But hold on, it depends. It depends on how do you define "Good" and "Bad".
To me, what is "Good" is things/acts that are less selfish (or not selfish). Something that we do NOT to gain benefit for ourselves, but for the benefits of others. Something that we sacrifice without hoping anything in return.
But BEWARE, we must be completely HONEST with ourself when doing such judgement, because too often, deep inside we are actually doing things that we like or for our own benefits, but we try to fool ourselves (consciously) to think that those are NOT selfish acts.
In conclusion, I would say that GOOD religion is the one that teaches us to be a LESS selfish person, the one that teaches us to break all the sufferings brought by our own selfinish. Note, I said GOOD or RIGHT and I don't mean TRUE, because NOBODY will be able to prove all the beliefs scientifically - as all of us are "INSIDE the box", so how can we complete prove if those religion believes are true or false. This is where faith plays the most important role. But I dun want to delve into the issue of faith now. Maybe next time...
God bless you.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Success
I'd like to talk about success this round.
Most of us want to be successful. Many of us, who do not consider ourselves as a sucessful person (yet), are striving to be successful. Well, some who do NOT have the courage to success, will simply kill their dreams and try to be contented (may be by saying "I'm a simple person, I'm happy with what I have now"). I see people who killed their dreams as people who do NOT have courage, people who are afraid of challenges, people with tonne of excuses for NOT performing to their best possible.
My message to these people is: "Wake up, you are not a simple person and you are wasting your life if you do NOT try to give the BEST out of you. Be courageous!"
For those who are like me, trying to give the best out of us, I have few words of caution too: "do NOT be attached with the RESULTs that we are trying to achieve". There is no need to feel disappointed when you did not achieve your results. Pause, relax and try again. Never give up.
That's why it is so important for us to do/work according to our PASSION. When you do what you are passionate about, there is NO such thing called "failure" - you will always be successful, you will always win - because you ENJOY the journey, and the destination becomes secondary. The best scenario of course is to achieve the results we want, but REMEMBER,in reality results are affected NOT ONLY by our own efforts, but also but many EXTERNAL factors that are NOT in our control. When the results are not as what you are expecting, take them as NEW challenges and continue to ENJOY the NEW JOURNEY to success.
So, do NOT define success as "the result", but define it as "the JOURNEY"!
I'd like to close this with a quote from Booker T Washington (1856-1915):
"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed."
see ya next time :)
Most of us want to be successful. Many of us, who do not consider ourselves as a sucessful person (yet), are striving to be successful. Well, some who do NOT have the courage to success, will simply kill their dreams and try to be contented (may be by saying "I'm a simple person, I'm happy with what I have now"). I see people who killed their dreams as people who do NOT have courage, people who are afraid of challenges, people with tonne of excuses for NOT performing to their best possible.
My message to these people is: "Wake up, you are not a simple person and you are wasting your life if you do NOT try to give the BEST out of you. Be courageous!"
For those who are like me, trying to give the best out of us, I have few words of caution too: "do NOT be attached with the RESULTs that we are trying to achieve". There is no need to feel disappointed when you did not achieve your results. Pause, relax and try again. Never give up.
That's why it is so important for us to do/work according to our PASSION. When you do what you are passionate about, there is NO such thing called "failure" - you will always be successful, you will always win - because you ENJOY the journey, and the destination becomes secondary. The best scenario of course is to achieve the results we want, but REMEMBER,in reality results are affected NOT ONLY by our own efforts, but also but many EXTERNAL factors that are NOT in our control. When the results are not as what you are expecting, take them as NEW challenges and continue to ENJOY the NEW JOURNEY to success.
So, do NOT define success as "the result", but define it as "the JOURNEY"!
I'd like to close this with a quote from Booker T Washington (1856-1915):
"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed."
see ya next time :)
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
My Love
Undoubtedly, the person that I love most is my wife. I first met her when I moved from primary 6 afternoon class to secondary 1, morning class. If not because of my parents deliberate choice, I would have continued my secondary 1 in the afternoon class. My parents heard from some of our silly neighbours that morning class is of a better quality and because my parents thought highly on me (well, yeah..I'm pretty smart actually :) they put in much efforts to enroll me into that morning class where I eventually met my wife...thanks dad & mom for unknowingly arranged a partner of life for me.
My dearest...I promise you, I'll try my best to always bring you happiness. I'll help you fufill your dreams...and one of them is to have a long and nice holiday in Europe :) Now is not possible as both of us are too busy with our work and study. Hopefully, in another 2 more years dear...
I love my dad too. Dad, though you are no longer in this world, the memory of you will always live in my heart. I pray for you that God will provide you with the best in that other world. I know you love us too and want us to be happy. We will dad..
I pray for all others that I love, my mom, my brothers. I pray that all of you could have a healthy life till the end and may you walk through this life with a clarity of mind. I hope you all will live this life to its best. It's not about how long we can live, but how good we have lived our life. I pray the same for my wife's parents, brothers and sisters too. God, please guide us always....
I know, all of you don't read blog...but hopefully one day, one of you will reach here...
With Love
My dearest...I promise you, I'll try my best to always bring you happiness. I'll help you fufill your dreams...and one of them is to have a long and nice holiday in Europe :) Now is not possible as both of us are too busy with our work and study. Hopefully, in another 2 more years dear...
I love my dad too. Dad, though you are no longer in this world, the memory of you will always live in my heart. I pray for you that God will provide you with the best in that other world. I know you love us too and want us to be happy. We will dad..
I pray for all others that I love, my mom, my brothers. I pray that all of you could have a healthy life till the end and may you walk through this life with a clarity of mind. I hope you all will live this life to its best. It's not about how long we can live, but how good we have lived our life. I pray the same for my wife's parents, brothers and sisters too. God, please guide us always....
I know, all of you don't read blog...but hopefully one day, one of you will reach here...
With Love
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Interesting conversation with a colleague
I had an interesting conversation with a colleague on the way to office this morning.
She (let's just call her MN) told me that few years back she was offerred a job by our biggest competitor. The job offered a better pay, but she said she did not take it. Initially she told me that she rejected the offer because she still remember that the boss of the current company she is working now has been treating her very good, and have guided her from the lowest rank to what she had at that moment.
The reason given surprised me, as it seems to against my believe that there is basically no true loyalty exist between employee and employer.
I was guessing that she was not swayed by the offer because she did NOT have confident on how the new boss will be treating her in the future. And she is not a risk taker, so she prefers a secure job. That was my analysis.
True enough, after further conversation, she revealed that beside that the good treatment that she got from her current boss, she canNOT be sure also on HOW the NEW boss will be treating her in the future when she is not able to perform up to the NEW boss expectation. She afraid that she might lose the job and she still has family to take care of.
From this conversation I learn that if we want to find such "loyal" employee, we must:
1. In the first place, find a person which is a risk averse (prefer a job security)
2. Build a trust by giving them chances when the do mistakes. This will show them that we are tolerance to their mistake. But be careful not to send a wrong signal that underperforming is fine
3. For such people we do NOT need to use money, in fact be cautious to increase their basic salary, the best is to use bonus. This type of people normally will not be a GREAT performer, but they are on the average and can be considered "loyal" (stay at least > 5 years)
Basically, my thinking that true loyalty (unselfish reason) does NOT exist still hold. However we (the company) can create an environment which give people more reasons to stay. Job security is one of the main reason why many people stay for a long period of time in a company.
She (let's just call her MN) told me that few years back she was offerred a job by our biggest competitor. The job offered a better pay, but she said she did not take it. Initially she told me that she rejected the offer because she still remember that the boss of the current company she is working now has been treating her very good, and have guided her from the lowest rank to what she had at that moment.
The reason given surprised me, as it seems to against my believe that there is basically no true loyalty exist between employee and employer.
I was guessing that she was not swayed by the offer because she did NOT have confident on how the new boss will be treating her in the future. And she is not a risk taker, so she prefers a secure job. That was my analysis.
True enough, after further conversation, she revealed that beside that the good treatment that she got from her current boss, she canNOT be sure also on HOW the NEW boss will be treating her in the future when she is not able to perform up to the NEW boss expectation. She afraid that she might lose the job and she still has family to take care of.
From this conversation I learn that if we want to find such "loyal" employee, we must:
1. In the first place, find a person which is a risk averse (prefer a job security)
2. Build a trust by giving them chances when the do mistakes. This will show them that we are tolerance to their mistake. But be careful not to send a wrong signal that underperforming is fine
3. For such people we do NOT need to use money, in fact be cautious to increase their basic salary, the best is to use bonus. This type of people normally will not be a GREAT performer, but they are on the average and can be considered "loyal" (stay at least > 5 years)
Basically, my thinking that true loyalty (unselfish reason) does NOT exist still hold. However we (the company) can create an environment which give people more reasons to stay. Job security is one of the main reason why many people stay for a long period of time in a company.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Live life as if it's our last day
I believe many of you have heard "Live life as if it's our last day". But how many of us really ABLE to do so? Worse, how many of us really BOTHER to do so?
Recently, one of my close friend had just passed away (suddenly). She is just 32, with no sickness (as far as I know). What caused her death is still not clear to me, as her family does not really want to reveal it. But for sure, 6 months before her death she looked to be in her pink of health. Also, few days before her death (on 18th Nov 2005) she did not mention anything about any health problem in her emails and she sounded perfectly fine.
The reason I'm sharing this is because that event sent a strong reminder to me that life is fragile and unpredictable. We REALLY cannot take days for granted. Live life as if it's our last day. Do not die as if we have not lived! Live a BALANCED life, you and your family is important, but you have capablities to do EVEN MORE for people other than your familiy. If you live only for yourself or your family, it's NOT a balanced life (i think now you probably will come out with lot of EXCUSES for not living for others, but please be truly honest with yourself). Be humble, and KEEP IN TOUCH with God and He will give us the power we need!
Recently, one of my close friend had just passed away (suddenly). She is just 32, with no sickness (as far as I know). What caused her death is still not clear to me, as her family does not really want to reveal it. But for sure, 6 months before her death she looked to be in her pink of health. Also, few days before her death (on 18th Nov 2005) she did not mention anything about any health problem in her emails and she sounded perfectly fine.
The reason I'm sharing this is because that event sent a strong reminder to me that life is fragile and unpredictable. We REALLY cannot take days for granted. Live life as if it's our last day. Do not die as if we have not lived! Live a BALANCED life, you and your family is important, but you have capablities to do EVEN MORE for people other than your familiy. If you live only for yourself or your family, it's NOT a balanced life (i think now you probably will come out with lot of EXCUSES for not living for others, but please be truly honest with yourself). Be humble, and KEEP IN TOUCH with God and He will give us the power we need!
Saturday, August 20, 2005
What on Earth Am I here for?
Have you ever asked this question before? Most likely "yes". Have you found the answer? Does your answer change every now and then? Do you truely sure about the answer? Well, I'd like to share with you some of my thoughts on that, and I hope you could use them in your own search for the answers.
The first question that we need to answer: Does it matter? Does it matter to know what am i here for? I truly pray and hope that you will NOT answer "NO". On this point I can assure you that "YES, it does matter". And the following thoughts will only be relevant if you believe that the answer to the above question is "YES".
Some of the common answers that I found when asking such question:
1. I'm here for my kids
2. I never think about that (too busy, etc.)
3. What for? (no use...)
I believe there are plenty more answers to it. I'm here not to say that those answers are right or wrong. What I'm trying to share with you is an answer that will be true for now and then (and not only true for certain period of time or under certain circumstances).
The answer is: (1) to learn (2) to give/practise
You might ask, is it really that simple? My answer is yes, however we need to define learn and give with their BROADEST possible sense.
EVERYTHING (and not just formal education/training) that makes you wiser is part of learning process. So the whole purpose of point no.1 is to ATTAIN WISDOM (and hence to become a BETTER SOUL). A wisdom to be ABLE to do RIGHT things at ANY situation. The words ABLE, RIGHT and ANY are crucial. ABLE & ANY could be easily understood, but RIGHT is too subjective. What I call right is: if the MOTIVES/INTENTIONS are to benefit others rather than ourselves, to benefit all rather than a small group of people. ABLE is no less important than RIGHT, because without having certain abilities/knowledge we will NOT be able to participate. Each of us are given different talents and wasting those talents by being lazy to learn (or ignorant) is WRONG.
The second point of the answer is to give/practise. We could not give or practise without first learning and understanding. Learning leads to understanding, and understanding leads to capablity of giving.
Let's just take a very SIMPLIFIED example: Ability to donate money. For most of us, in order to make money we need to work, and to work we need knowledge, and to acquire knowledge we need to put in effort to learn.
I'd like to stress that GIVE should be defined in its broadest sense. Which means not only giving money, but ANYTHING that could BENEFIT human and everthing else in this world, for example: giving time and skills (sharing knowledge, curing sick patients, etc.).
From the moment I found the answer to the above question, learning and giving have been my internal compass that is leading me in all sort of scenario of life that I've ever encountered. What I've achieved is a life filled with MORE peace, love and fulfillment. And that is precisely why finding an answer to "What on earth am I here for?" is important and worth the time. It does matter.
There is one book that I'll like to recommend to you: The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren (http://www.purposedrivenlife.com). There is no conflict at all between what Rick Warren said and what I've mentioned to you here (if you could define learn and give at their broadest sense).
And if you read my other blogs, many of them are related to learning ("Why continuous learing?" ) and "giving/practising" ("How to reach Heaven?", "How to Live a Meaningful Life?", "Finding the true meaning of your life?").
Wishing you all the best in your search.
The first question that we need to answer: Does it matter? Does it matter to know what am i here for? I truly pray and hope that you will NOT answer "NO". On this point I can assure you that "YES, it does matter". And the following thoughts will only be relevant if you believe that the answer to the above question is "YES".
Some of the common answers that I found when asking such question:
1. I'm here for my kids
2. I never think about that (too busy, etc.)
3. What for? (no use...)
I believe there are plenty more answers to it. I'm here not to say that those answers are right or wrong. What I'm trying to share with you is an answer that will be true for now and then (and not only true for certain period of time or under certain circumstances).
The answer is: (1) to learn (2) to give/practise
You might ask, is it really that simple? My answer is yes, however we need to define learn and give with their BROADEST possible sense.
EVERYTHING (and not just formal education/training) that makes you wiser is part of learning process. So the whole purpose of point no.1 is to ATTAIN WISDOM (and hence to become a BETTER SOUL). A wisdom to be ABLE to do RIGHT things at ANY situation. The words ABLE, RIGHT and ANY are crucial. ABLE & ANY could be easily understood, but RIGHT is too subjective. What I call right is: if the MOTIVES/INTENTIONS are to benefit others rather than ourselves, to benefit all rather than a small group of people. ABLE is no less important than RIGHT, because without having certain abilities/knowledge we will NOT be able to participate. Each of us are given different talents and wasting those talents by being lazy to learn (or ignorant) is WRONG.
The second point of the answer is to give/practise. We could not give or practise without first learning and understanding. Learning leads to understanding, and understanding leads to capablity of giving.
Let's just take a very SIMPLIFIED example: Ability to donate money. For most of us, in order to make money we need to work, and to work we need knowledge, and to acquire knowledge we need to put in effort to learn.
I'd like to stress that GIVE should be defined in its broadest sense. Which means not only giving money, but ANYTHING that could BENEFIT human and everthing else in this world, for example: giving time and skills (sharing knowledge, curing sick patients, etc.).
From the moment I found the answer to the above question, learning and giving have been my internal compass that is leading me in all sort of scenario of life that I've ever encountered. What I've achieved is a life filled with MORE peace, love and fulfillment. And that is precisely why finding an answer to "What on earth am I here for?" is important and worth the time. It does matter.
There is one book that I'll like to recommend to you: The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren (http://www.purposedrivenlife.com). There is no conflict at all between what Rick Warren said and what I've mentioned to you here (if you could define learn and give at their broadest sense).
And if you read my other blogs, many of them are related to learning ("Why continuous learing?" ) and "giving/practising" ("How to reach Heaven?", "How to Live a Meaningful Life?", "Finding the true meaning of your life?").
Wishing you all the best in your search.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
How to reach Heaven?
What is Heaven? According to Webster "Christian Science : a state of thought in which sin is absent and the harmony of divine Mind is manifest". I think this is the best definition of "Heaven" found in webster. However I'd like to add my own version: "Heaven is for those who have attained WISDOM of God and successfully practise it in their life".
There are two important things in reaching Heaven:
1. Attaining the WISDOM or the RIGHT understanding of God wills.
2. The POWER to practise such understanding in our own life.
Wisdom can be found if we seek for it. Our live experiences are teaching us a lot about it. The important thing to watch for when looking for it, is to be COMPLETELY honest with ourselves, with our motives and have courage to admit our wrongdoings and weaknesses. If you do read my blogs here, I'm sure your soul is seeking for the wisdom. My blogs are not meant to teach anyone, but just some sharing for you to consider in your search.
Having a RIGHT understanding (or Wisdom or the TRUTH), is not enough. We need to have POWER to practise it. The good thing is we accumulate more POWER as we continue to practise the TRUTH. To accumulate power we must :
1. Practise the TRUTH (bit by bit) daily
2. Always keep our soul in touch with God (example via prayer or meditation)
The PATH is NOT an easy one, but it's definitely a POSSIBLE one.
There are two important things in reaching Heaven:
1. Attaining the WISDOM or the RIGHT understanding of God wills.
2. The POWER to practise such understanding in our own life.
Wisdom can be found if we seek for it. Our live experiences are teaching us a lot about it. The important thing to watch for when looking for it, is to be COMPLETELY honest with ourselves, with our motives and have courage to admit our wrongdoings and weaknesses. If you do read my blogs here, I'm sure your soul is seeking for the wisdom. My blogs are not meant to teach anyone, but just some sharing for you to consider in your search.
Having a RIGHT understanding (or Wisdom or the TRUTH), is not enough. We need to have POWER to practise it. The good thing is we accumulate more POWER as we continue to practise the TRUTH. To accumulate power we must :
1. Practise the TRUTH (bit by bit) daily
2. Always keep our soul in touch with God (example via prayer or meditation)
The PATH is NOT an easy one, but it's definitely a POSSIBLE one.
Friday, January 07, 2005
How to Live a Meaningful Life?
If you have somewhat understood why you exist, or are merely looking for some guidance on how to live a meaningful life, think of these ways of life:
1. Spend what you have earned on you and your family wisely.
If you earned a lot, do not spend too much of the extras on you or your family pleasures. It's fine to spend some to relax your mind and body, but NEVER too often or too much. Even if you need to save for your future, do not save until you cannot help others.
2. Make a commitment to donate your savings to others on monthly basis.
Do not be stingy on this. Do not give yourself excuses not to make such commitment. You will have thousands reason to save for yourself or your family, but remember that you are living in the present, and not for the future. Your meaningful life is determined by what you have done in the past and what you do now, NOT what you are going to do in the future. Do not be too worry about your future and have faith in God that He will give what is best for you.
3. Use your talents to the max.
Give the best out of your talents. Do not waste the talents given to you. It does not matter whether your talents earn you a lot of money or not. But if your talents can bring a lot of money to you, go for it, do not hesitate (as long as you are earning it in a righteous way). But after you earned so much, remember point no.1 and no.2.
1. Spend what you have earned on you and your family wisely.
If you earned a lot, do not spend too much of the extras on you or your family pleasures. It's fine to spend some to relax your mind and body, but NEVER too often or too much. Even if you need to save for your future, do not save until you cannot help others.
2. Make a commitment to donate your savings to others on monthly basis.
Do not be stingy on this. Do not give yourself excuses not to make such commitment. You will have thousands reason to save for yourself or your family, but remember that you are living in the present, and not for the future. Your meaningful life is determined by what you have done in the past and what you do now, NOT what you are going to do in the future. Do not be too worry about your future and have faith in God that He will give what is best for you.
3. Use your talents to the max.
Give the best out of your talents. Do not waste the talents given to you. It does not matter whether your talents earn you a lot of money or not. But if your talents can bring a lot of money to you, go for it, do not hesitate (as long as you are earning it in a righteous way). But after you earned so much, remember point no.1 and no.2.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Finding the true meaning of your life?
This writing is only meaningful if you believe that God exist.
Q: Who am I living for?
A: I'm living for God.
Q: How should I live the life for God?
A: Love thy neighbors. This means to love people around me, including but not limited to my family. This part is hard and has never been easy, but it is not impossible. One thing that I've been keeping in mind is that all of us are the children of God, so we are actually brothers and sisters. So treat others like member of the family.
****
Life is actually quite simple, if we are able to see through all the complex illusions.
Here are the key thinking that could help us see through the complexity of such illusions:
1. Life is temporary; there is a fix amount of time given to each and everyone. We MUST die one day. So we HAVE TO be really WISE in using our time, remember: the amount of time given is FINITE.
2. Basically what we are really looking for is happiness. Money seems to be the only key. But the truth is we need money ONLY to survive (i.e to have just enough food and shelter). To be happy, money is not needed. Look at the people and things (animals, flowers, green grass, buildings, etc.) around you, appreciate and enjoy their goodness and you will be able to find happiness there.
3. If there is one thing in this world that we can ask from God, we should ask for a GRACE EXIT (i.e. to die in peace and without any physical suffering). That is the greatest bless. Many of us are working for monies and saving hard just because we are afraid of the sickness in old days.
So pray to Him for such "EXIT" and put in conscious efforts to achieve it (that is to take good care of your health by eating correctly and exercise enough). The key here is really to BALANCE what you need to save for your sickness LATER and what you need to contribute to help others NOW(while you are healthy and young).
You should live your MEANINGFUL life NOW and NOT for the future.
Q: Who am I living for?
A: I'm living for God.
Q: How should I live the life for God?
A: Love thy neighbors. This means to love people around me, including but not limited to my family. This part is hard and has never been easy, but it is not impossible. One thing that I've been keeping in mind is that all of us are the children of God, so we are actually brothers and sisters. So treat others like member of the family.
****
Life is actually quite simple, if we are able to see through all the complex illusions.
Here are the key thinking that could help us see through the complexity of such illusions:
1. Life is temporary; there is a fix amount of time given to each and everyone. We MUST die one day. So we HAVE TO be really WISE in using our time, remember: the amount of time given is FINITE.
2. Basically what we are really looking for is happiness. Money seems to be the only key. But the truth is we need money ONLY to survive (i.e to have just enough food and shelter). To be happy, money is not needed. Look at the people and things (animals, flowers, green grass, buildings, etc.) around you, appreciate and enjoy their goodness and you will be able to find happiness there.
3. If there is one thing in this world that we can ask from God, we should ask for a GRACE EXIT (i.e. to die in peace and without any physical suffering). That is the greatest bless. Many of us are working for monies and saving hard just because we are afraid of the sickness in old days.
So pray to Him for such "EXIT" and put in conscious efforts to achieve it (that is to take good care of your health by eating correctly and exercise enough). The key here is really to BALANCE what you need to save for your sickness LATER and what you need to contribute to help others NOW(while you are healthy and young).
You should live your MEANINGFUL life NOW and NOT for the future.
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Why "continuous learing" ?
My passion to learn started since the first day of my job, as a Cobol programmer. And it lives in me without question until one time, where I started to wonder whether continous learning is something that I've been doing right all this while? What prompted me to question my believe was that I realized that some people who don't put any effort in continous learning are getting a good monetary return (or perhaps more) too. My believe in learning was really shaken for a period, until I again realized after so much thought that what MOTIVATED me to learn WAS WRONG. My motivation to keep on learning was to get a good MONEY :) But I finally realized that was totally wrong, to get good MONEY, LUCK is also an important factor.
I finally know WHY I SHOULD KEEP ON LEARNING and LEARNING. Not because of better paycheck, but because of the values, as a human, that I can give back to other people. And that has since become my believe until now.
Who do you think can SAVE MORE lives ? A doctor who knows how to cure only one disease, or a doctor who knows how to cure many diseases?
If you know more, you can help your kids more.
If you know more, you can contribute to your society more.
If you know more, you can give back more.
To know more, you have to learn more.
Try NOT to give EXCUSES to yourself for not embracing life long learning.
Be positive about your capacity to learn (some experts say, even genius used only 5% of their brains). If you think you can, you can.
You learn more, you might not necessary get a better paychek, but if you are willing to give back more, you definitely can contribute more to this world.
I hope this sharing will be useful to you, friends.
I finally know WHY I SHOULD KEEP ON LEARNING and LEARNING. Not because of better paycheck, but because of the values, as a human, that I can give back to other people. And that has since become my believe until now.
Who do you think can SAVE MORE lives ? A doctor who knows how to cure only one disease, or a doctor who knows how to cure many diseases?
If you know more, you can help your kids more.
If you know more, you can contribute to your society more.
If you know more, you can give back more.
To know more, you have to learn more.
Try NOT to give EXCUSES to yourself for not embracing life long learning.
Be positive about your capacity to learn (some experts say, even genius used only 5% of their brains). If you think you can, you can.
You learn more, you might not necessary get a better paychek, but if you are willing to give back more, you definitely can contribute more to this world.
I hope this sharing will be useful to you, friends.
The love for our parents Vs The love for our kids
Observation:
I found that generally it seems to be very natural for parents to really love their kids. When the kids did something wrong, it is easy to forgive. It also looks natural for parents to sacrifice for their kids. So, parents naturally love their kids very much.But it doesn't seem to be the case for people (adult) to love their parents that much. Fact: both (parents and kids) are tied by blood, so it's NOT blood VS water. But, here I'm excluding cases where kids have been ill-treated by their parents.In fact, I believe parents actually have sacrificed for us MORE than our kids have.
[*** Question *** ]: So why a lot of us find it difficult to love our parents as much as we love our kids? Strange.Can we sacrifice for our parents as much as we can for our children ???
My learning and conclusions:
1. We think like this: parents care for us is their obligation or duty. I think this is a very wrong attitude. We are taking their sacrifices for granted.
2. When parents or kids made mistakes: we think kids are simply ignorance (and not because of some sort of selfish reasons), so we tend to forgive them easily. On the other hand, we think that parents should know exactly what is wrong and right, and they did what they did for selfish reasons. What I believe is there many adults who are as ignorance as kids, and the ignorance in kids is somehow rooted to the seed of selfishness. I believe if we adopt the same perspective towards both kids and parents, there is no reason why we can't be as forgiven to parents as to our kids. Where there is forgiveness there is seed of love. So, we should be able to love our parents as much as we love our kids.
3. Kids are weak. This is the only valid reason why we love our kids more than our parents. But, after they grew up, are we still bias in our love towards our parents ? If yes, then read point no.4
4. It's because of our very own nature, selfishness. Very likely, deep inside we are hoping that our children will be good to us when we are old. We know our parents can't, because they are going to leave us earlier. Only our children can. In fact, our parents might be a burden to us. I think consciously or unconsciously, inside us, we see more benefits for being good to our children as compare to our parents. But it's extremely difficut for us to accept this as a fact. Only when we are fully honest with ourselves we will able to find the truth. So, can we sacrifice for our parents as much as we can for our children ???
I believe we can love our parents as much as we love our children, if we :
1. change our attitude and perception (point no.1 and no.2 above)
2. be less selfish (point no.4 above)
I'll put in effort to practice and live what I've learned, and hope those who agreed with me to do the same. Practice and live what we have learned, otherwise it is a big ZERO.
I found that generally it seems to be very natural for parents to really love their kids. When the kids did something wrong, it is easy to forgive. It also looks natural for parents to sacrifice for their kids. So, parents naturally love their kids very much.But it doesn't seem to be the case for people (adult) to love their parents that much. Fact: both (parents and kids) are tied by blood, so it's NOT blood VS water. But, here I'm excluding cases where kids have been ill-treated by their parents.In fact, I believe parents actually have sacrificed for us MORE than our kids have.
[*** Question *** ]: So why a lot of us find it difficult to love our parents as much as we love our kids? Strange.Can we sacrifice for our parents as much as we can for our children ???
My learning and conclusions:
1. We think like this: parents care for us is their obligation or duty. I think this is a very wrong attitude. We are taking their sacrifices for granted.
2. When parents or kids made mistakes: we think kids are simply ignorance (and not because of some sort of selfish reasons), so we tend to forgive them easily. On the other hand, we think that parents should know exactly what is wrong and right, and they did what they did for selfish reasons. What I believe is there many adults who are as ignorance as kids, and the ignorance in kids is somehow rooted to the seed of selfishness. I believe if we adopt the same perspective towards both kids and parents, there is no reason why we can't be as forgiven to parents as to our kids. Where there is forgiveness there is seed of love. So, we should be able to love our parents as much as we love our kids.
3. Kids are weak. This is the only valid reason why we love our kids more than our parents. But, after they grew up, are we still bias in our love towards our parents ? If yes, then read point no.4
4. It's because of our very own nature, selfishness. Very likely, deep inside we are hoping that our children will be good to us when we are old. We know our parents can't, because they are going to leave us earlier. Only our children can. In fact, our parents might be a burden to us. I think consciously or unconsciously, inside us, we see more benefits for being good to our children as compare to our parents. But it's extremely difficut for us to accept this as a fact. Only when we are fully honest with ourselves we will able to find the truth. So, can we sacrifice for our parents as much as we can for our children ???
I believe we can love our parents as much as we love our children, if we :
1. change our attitude and perception (point no.1 and no.2 above)
2. be less selfish (point no.4 above)
I'll put in effort to practice and live what I've learned, and hope those who agreed with me to do the same. Practice and live what we have learned, otherwise it is a big ZERO.
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