Christmas goodies - Catmasutra Wallpapers

We can't say 'peace' enough. I think beauty queens should wish for world peace and it shouldn't feel pathetic. I think Radio Dee-Jays should wish for peace without apologizing. I think before we can get drunk, we should wish for peace. Haha it's funny, really, how it has become a little embarrassing to wish for world peace... Maybe it's such an improbable wish that nobody really believes in any more.


It's not hard to know what we want; we basically want the same things (love, peace, happiness) and yet we do the very things that hurt others and ourselves in turn. So the karma continues and the cycle goes round and round. There are so many things that we lack control that we have given up, watching the news (the main channel for bad news), just wishing that nothing bad would happen to us. Our lives will change - that's a certainty, sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst. There is never a fixed way for life to happen. It happens in all kinds of ways, sometimes bizarre, surreal, beautiful or downright depressing. We just have to take and then let go. Peace starts right here...

Merry Christmas!
Peace, love, and everything nice under the blue sky...

Free catmasutra wallpapers -
get these goodies now!

18th - 28th DECEMBER 2008
@ UTTERLY ART
229A South Bridge Road Singapore 058778 2nd Level

Opening reception: Thursday 18th December 2008 at 7pm
Opening hours: 11am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday

;)

Catmasutra 5 art exhibition

CATMASUTRA 5

18th - 28th DECEMBER 2008
@ UTTERLY ART
229A South Bridge Road Singapore 058778 2nd Level

Opening reception: Thursday 18^th December 2008 at 7pm
Opening hours: 11am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday

When Seasons Change

Outside, the freezing desert night.
This other night inside grows warm, kindling.
Let the landscape be covered with thorny crust.
We have a soft garden in here.
The continents blasted,
cities, and little towns, everything
become a scorched, blackened ball.

the news we hear is full of grief for that future,
but the real news inside here
is there's no news at all.

Friend, our closeness is this:
anywhere you put your foot, feel me
in the firmness under you.

How is it with this love.
I see your world and not you?

listen to the presences inside poems.
Let them take you where they will.

Follow those private hints,
and never leave the premises

the tent - by Rumi

The tree of life


The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel.
None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

It occurred to me time and again, the importance of art simply because of its implied freedom to explore and express. Art, in all its forms, as paintings, or words that form images in our head, is a search within, the road seemingly less traveled in today's world...

it's Christmas time
peace ;)

Catmasutra 5 painting exhibition

It's that time of the year when the cats of CatmaSutra come out to play!

Back to his quirky best, Paul Koh tugs at the heartstrings yet again and takes you to a bewildering and delightful fairy-tale realm. Snuggling up to the knowing and mischievious Catmasutra cat, you'll discover a place where emotions are innocent enough to run free, and dreams more than just make-believe. Quirky, amusing and karmic, Paul's paintings unveil an “in-between” world where innocence and mischief go hand in hand.

Michelle Chang's series, A Blue Beginning is a story of Angel who thinks he's got a bout of blues. He's determined to rid himself of this and so begins his quest. Angel travels far and wide and arrives at villages beyond the hills and magical lands, all in the hopes of finding a cure. He basks under the sunlight hoping to turn orange like his friend Halo. He sleeps under the starry night praying for a silver lining so that maybe, just maybe, he will not be blue anymore. Michelle Chang is taking a 2-year hiatus to complete her largest collection of work about Angel and his blues which will be unveiled in 2010 so come experience the beginning of an exciting journey!

CATMASUTRA 5

18th - 28th DECEMBER 2008
@ UTTERLY ART
229A South Bridge Road Singapore 058778 2nd Level

Opening reception: Thursday 18^th December 2008 at 7pm
Opening hours: 11am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday

Tel: + 65 6226 2605 | Cell: 94872006 Contact: Keng Hock

Email: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg

December... it's the end of the year again... rains and showers are becoming more frequent... (I'm constantly getting drenched on the bike), the recession is hip again (you can hear about it all the time)... but no matter, the Christmas lights are out and time is the great reversal of things. Everything is just a matter of time - it just depends if you believe in whatever it is you believe enough. So here I am again - the traditional year-end Catmasutra exhibition, now in its fifth year! I could have sworn that once I woke up and saw Halo (my ginger cat) with her eyes wide shut and she had that famous "ear-to-ear" grin! Haha There will be quite a collection of works this year, a showcase of both new and old. I'm keeping the prices similar to that of Catmasutra 4 so do pop by and visit the gallery - and you might find yourself owning a little bit of mischief and good cheer...

And if you wanna get a Catmasutra skin for your laptop, visit
skinweaver!
(Drop me a line if you have a favorite Catmasutra painting that you would like me to convert into skins)


peace

;)

History of time

"Tell me what do you think about death?"

"That's my line."

"Answer me, anyway."

"Death is nothing special."

"Death is nothing special. Everyone dies someday, so it's not special at all. But that's easy for you to say. I mean... you see lots of people as they die. But, you don't see any of them as they live. So you don't really know life. That's the reason you can say death is nothing special."

"Is life special?"

"Against the whole world or all of history, one's life is nothing special. But... for those of us living it, it's very important."

"Not special, but important?"

"Yes. The sun in the sky is nothing unusual. But, it's important that it be there. Death's like that, maybe."

"I'm sorry, but I've never seen a blue sky."

"That's right."


"So you can see that, can't you?"

"I've never seen it before. It really is blue. Yes. its beautiful. So this is what the ordinary and not-special looks like?"

"Yes. But it's very, very important."

Lines from the movie, "Accuracy of Death".

Catmasutra 5
coming your way soon!
18th to 28 Dec
Utterly Art
29A South Bridge Road 2nd Level

;)

Momentary lapse of reason

" I made him walk on a lead and he jumped for joy, the way creatures do, and children do and adults don't do, and spent their lives wondering where the leap went...

He had the kind of legs that go round in circles. He orbited me. He was a universe of play. Why did I walk so purposefully in a straight line? Where would it take me? He went round and round and we got there all the same...

The light had the quality of water. I was moving through a conscious element. Time is a player. Time is part of today, not simply a measure of its passing. The dimensionality of time is not usually apparent. I felt it today in the light like water. I knew I was moving through something that had substance...

Something serious. Here was the dog, me, the sun, the sky, in a pattern, in a dance, and time was dancing with us, in the motes of light. The day was in the form of us and we were in the form of the day. Time would return it, as memory and as futurity; I looked at him, trusting, vulnerable, love without caution. He was a new beginning and every new beginning returns the world. In him, the rain forests were pristine and the sea had not been blunted. He was a map of clear outlines and unnamed hope. He was time before or time after. Time now had not spoilt him. In the space between chaos and shape, there was another chance."

Some snippets from the short story by Jeanette Winterson, the 24-hour dog. I really love the way she writes and you must wonder about the soul of the person - the things she sees and feels. I think if you can see real beauty in the world, you can see real darkness as well . They're both sides of the same coin. The closer you are to one, the closer you will be to the other. (Maybe that's why so many artists, poets and the like suffer for their art) Beauty is born and will pass away. Time is a great reversal of things. It's like everything you ever think, feel, and do are all there, like dust particles floating in time, a trail that you leave behind for your future.

To get really close to something is to realize the darkness when that something is no longer there, that everything is transient, momentary. Maybe that's why most people prefer to be in the middle, to be swept away by the superficiality of everything. It has become that easy to get lost with all that our consumer society can offer and promise us. Of course, they're empty promises. Maybe that's why we always need one more thing that we think will really make us happy.

True wisdom is to "go above and beyond cause and effect, to go above birth and beyond death - to go above happiness and beyond suffering". But we're "modern" people living in a "modern world" where there are always more important things... haha only life and the mess it brings can teach us...

;)
Catmasutra V
coming your way this December...

The Art of Water

The Art of Water.

Many an artist have been inspired by the gentle beauty of water. Aaron Lye (for PURE magazine Oct-Dec 2008) talks to artist PAUL KOH about how water inspires him in his art.

So Paul. Tell us a bit about yourself. I have always been interested in drawing since I was a kid. I have no idea where that inclination comes from, but I always preferred looking at pictures and drawing them rather than reading books. Of course, the belief then as is now, is that art has no viable career path. It took me a long time to come back to it, and as it happened, I started work as an editor for a publisher of children’s books, and that opened my eyes to a rich and multi-layered world of illustration and magic. I started clamoring to do some of the illustrations, and in my next job, I got involved with web design. That’s when I knew this is where I want to be. They’re two different things, art and design, but they belong to the same family tree.

How did you first find yourself getting into art? Where did your love for painting come from?
It’s a natural inclination. I’m the only one in my family who has this passion. As a child, I’m already very visual. It’s a more emotional and direct way of expression, especially when you have a vivid imagination. I think drawing or art has a more direct relationship with imagination. When you are using your imagination, you’re more likely to think in pictures than words. Even now, I don’t really ‘read’ magazines but ‘consume’ the emotional content of the images. So my love for painting comes from this desire to make my imaginings come true, so to speak.

I understand you’ve experimented with a unique, abstract style of painting that makes use of water. How did this start? Where did the inspiration come from? Can you describe the process of working in this style? When I was working on “Fluid Abstractions”, it was a platform for me to become more intimate with the act of painting. You become an extension to the painting process. As you delve deeper and deeper into an art piece, you begin to explore your relationship with it. Brushes are used as whips, hands as brushes, water as paints. The spontaneity becomes important; the ‘natural’ way in which each painting reveals itself becomes the source of inspiration and creativity. Water – its fluidity – becomes central in developing this series. One of the inspirations comes from trying to fuse Chinese ink brush paintings with abstract art.

In your opinion, what is it about this particular style that makes it stand out from more traditional methods of painting? It alludes to the mysterious space between matter and spirit. There is a gap separating the intent of the artist, and the spontaneous manifestation of the paints on the canvas. It is a very intuitive mode of painting even though it can be frustrating. It can take you round and round until you are able to find it in yourself to say that it is finally finished, that it has reached an agreement with your heart and emotions.

Do you still use this technique in your paintings today? Has it influenced your later works in any way? I still use certain techniques in my later works. It becomes part of my repertoire of adding depth and texture, especially the pattern and flow of water.

Tell us a bit about your more current works – the Catmasutra series of paintings. Well, I have been illustrating since young, and growing up with cats means that my two passions seem destined to be linked together. And it did - when my first painting of a happy cat was sold in 2003 from the exhibition, Project Mooch. The first Catmasutra exhibition in 2004 was a sold out, and the series developed from there. For me, Catmasutra is about telling a happy story, a reminder to see the positive side of things, and even possibly the magic in between. I take stuff that we commonly come into contact through our surroundings, the media, etc. and present a moment in a story that is personal and yet universal. I'm fascinated with the flow of energy that vibrates in between, that blurs the line between reality and myth, between the power of everyday and the power of imagination. I conceptualize Catmasutra as part of this in-between world. The "eyes-wide-shut" and irrepressible "ear-to-ear" grins of the cats are representative of this energy - that in spite of life's imperfections, there is always a positive side, good enough for a smile!

I’ve noticed that quite a few of your Catmasutra paintings feature water scenes. Any particular reason for this? I love the spontaneity and fluidity of water. This was evident in the Fluid Abstraction series and this follows through to the Catmasutra series. Personally, I love the sky and rain. Water has a calming effect, rain a redemptive quality and sky, freedom. These are the most beautiful things and they are always here with us. Perhaps that’s why, inadvertently these elements find their way into many of my paintings.

What do you usually do for inspiration for your art? I get my inspiration from everywhere, magazines, movies, art, design, illustration, popular culture, etc. There are a myriad of energies all around us, so we can tap into these energies, distill them and re-energise them in a way that works for ourselves. In essence, there's beauty and freshness everywhere once we choose to see it.

Where’s your favourite water-related location in Singapore? In the world? I love Marina Bay, especially the view from the highest point of the ECP, where the city looms in front, flanked by the bay and sea beyond. As for the world, it has to be Venice. It has a unique colour, a reflective luminance unlike any other city.

;)

sunlight on catmasutra street...

The morning wind spreads its fresh smell.
We must get up and take that in,
that wind that lets us live.
Breathe before it's gone.

Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.

The sun is love. the lover
a speck circling the sun.

A Spring wind moves to dance
any branch that isn't dead.

Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings. Move within,
but don't move the way fear makes you move.

words by Rumi
;)

Catmasutra Street

I haven't written for a while and the first line that came into my head is that "there are no coincidences in this world", that's there's a reason for everything. When you start seeing the world in this manner, you're actually moving in a different plane, one filled with a little magic.



My sabbatical as a full-time artist seemed to have come full cycle on the opening day of my Imagine-Nation exhibition as it was also my first day of work in a design agency. I've been very busy since, transiting from an almost contemplative and meditative mode to a fast-paced work environment. Anyway, here are some pics from recent exhibitions - a little detour along "Catmasutra Street", which in time will start again (art, after all is my first love and my next exhibiton is in December)... Most importantly, my heartfelt thanks to all who have supported the Catmasutra series one way or another!

Haha On another detour, I recently rode over something on my bike, and my back wheel punctured in a matter of seconds. Normally I would curse and swear at my rotten luck, but I didn't. It happened because it was supposed to happen. That's it. Simple and sweet. And I went about all the inconveniences of looking for a tow truck and sending the bike for repairs and maintainance which costs a bomb as well. I have to take the MRT which is a foreign experience for me (haha) but perhaps it was better that I took the MRT for a couple of days. It doesn't matter. And the "accident" passed without any trace.

We leave traces all the time... traces are like seeds we plant; they may stay hidden for a while but when all the circumstances are favorable, they germinate and grow whether the outcome is positive or negative. When you start to see your own journeys and unexpected detours in this manner, you'll begin to notice things that you would not normally see...


This reminds me of the M. Night Shyamalan's "SIGNS" which I thought was a pretty decent movie (although people tend to thrash it when the movie concludes with a showing of aliens - similar to "AI" ). Graham Hess (the main protagonist) indicated that there are two groups of people, "People break down into two groups when they experience something lucky. Group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them.


Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in Group number two are looking at those fourteen lights (UFO lights) in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation isn't fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people.But there's a whole lot of people in the Group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.


See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences? "

;)

Bird-wings

"...Your deepest presence is in every small contracting
and expanding...

...the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as birdwings."

"... Some nights stay up till dawn,
as the moon sometimes does for the sun.
be a full bucket pulled up the dark way
of a well, then lifted out into light..."

"...You knock at the door of reality,
shake your thought-wings, loosen
your shoulders,
and open."

~Rumi

The cycles never stop turning, do they?
But stop, and they stop.

;)

Catmasutra- Imagine your life...

Catmasutra, imagine-Nation

We live in a paradoxical country where everything, it seems is a contradiction in terms. I can list a thousand and one things that are contradictory of life in Singapore, and most of these things, have something to do with the government or "gahmen" as it is affectionately coined in Singlish. According to the Singlish-English dictionary in talkingcock.com, the term is "usually attributed to incensed taxi drivers offering unsolicited political opinions. Taxi driver: "The gahmen always charge for everything. Increase ERP, increase taxi rental, then go and cut CPF. Like that how can?")

Obedience School 101

With the gahmen so pervasive in our daily lives, through the various institutions (from the education system, the housing system, the transport system, the army, the media, the utilities...), that it's a wonder if we can really find ourselves. In most cases, we 're all so caught up in the Singaporean lifestyle - loosely defined as the need to do well academically so that we can find a good job, so as to achieve stability and prosperity so as to get married in order to own a subsidised HDB flat (which is getting smaller and without any balcony), so as to have children before the marriage breaks down, so as to have the comfort of children in old age, before passing on... In all matters that have political or economic value, the gahmen does well. In other areas, it does not do so well as there is no real insight, empathy, will or motivation.

Speakers' Corner

So along the way, we need lots of distraction just to get out of these constraints. Going for dream holidays, hoping to touch lottery, indulging in branded goods, shopping, ... just to lose ourselves. It's no wonder that we feel lost most of the time. We can't really know where we're going if we don't ask questions of ourselves and our path. What is the purpose of our life? If we can't answer that question, we're lost. If we think the question is superfluous, we're probably running around in circles on the tiny island of the "Lost" TV series, manipulated one way or another by "invisible" forces. Truth is, the gahmen don't owe us anything and we don't owe them anyway. This life is yours and yours only. We always have the freedom to choose; we can either choose our own life or let someone else or the gahmen or some system choose for you.

The Great Singapore Rush

Here're some relevant snippets taken from "Mr Wang Says so" blog, of a speech by Adrain Tan (a litigation lawyer at one of Singapore's leading law firms) for the graduating class of 2008, NTU convocation ceremony last week...

"You’ve probably been told the big lie that “Learning is a lifelong process” and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they’re wrong.

The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.


What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free...

The most important is this: do not work."

Absolutely Shiok!

Before you head over to read his speech (which I encourage everyone to)... think about the last sentence. If you know what that means now and are practicing it, then you're already absolutely shioked or free. You already know your purpose in life. The next thing to do is to hold on to that purpose for dear life! It may change and morph and evolve, but it will be from the same source...

Happy National Day and May you find your own star...

;)

Catmasutra Art Exhibition - Imagine-Nation!

Catmasutra presents Imagine-Nation, another quirky and irreverent
painting show coming your way this August!
www.catmasutra.com

About the exhibition...

Singapore is considered one of the most efficient countries in the world. Just as this systematic efficiency has brought us success, it has also left an indelible imprint on our subconscious, where "truth" is seen and valued in terms of a prescribed path to success and happiness. This exhibition, "Imagine-Nation" asks us to look within instead, to listen to our own thoughts for a change, and plant these thoughts and consciously choose the path that we really want to take. Inherently, it attempts to expose our collective delusions about the"pre-programmed" nature of our life, and the prescribed notions on the best way to live...

Using the Catmasutra cats in social and surreal settings, this collection aims to provoke thoughts about our lives in our urbanized city in a quirky and irreverent way. References from popular and local culture are used and weaved as a counterpoint in each painting. The essence of the Catmasutra cats is based on their eyes-wide-shut, ear-to-ear grin, which translates to a deep-seated childhood innocence cum devil-may-care bravado, with a healthy dosage of self-belief and unpretentiousness... This serves as an anchor for all of Catmasutra paintings...

CATMASUTRA : IMAGINE-NATION

6th - 17th AUGUST 2008
@ FORTH GALLERY
69A pagoda street

Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Sunday 1130am to 7pm
Monday and public holidays by appt only

;)
More about the new paintings soon...

Viewing a cat

How would you view a cat? There are of course, cat lovers, and those who go all the way to help them, bringing injured cats to the vets, paying for their medical bills, feeding them, and finding ways to ensure their well-being. And these are the people who will do the same for other animals in similar plight, just that, the cats are the creatures that open their hearts to this path.


Then there are those who joke and laugh at these people and consider them trivial or overly-sympathetic to a non-issue (or pests) as remarked by Class 95 FM Morning Express Glenn Ong and the Flying Dutchman, that "stray cats should be sent to Peru to be eaten and stray cat feeders should be fined." Of course, they were only trying to get attention, to show how nonchalant they are, or to perpetuate their radio personalities. Whether they will eat the cats in Peru or not is another question. There are others who worry instead that their brand new cars would be scratched by the cats or that cats are filthy and will spread disease, etc. Then they are those who abuse the cats, torturing and killing them with imagination. Lastly, we have the "authorities", the AVA and the town councils who seem to be the slaves to people with lots to complain. The cats were culled during the SARS episode without contacting any animal groups, and they have traps for rent for anyone who wants to get rid of cats who might be scratching their brand new cars. (Cats don't really want to scratch metallic bodies. It's just not their thing or yours. Try scratching your car and see if you derive any kind of joy in it).


So how do you view a cat? Everybody looks out their own window. Everything external is everything internal. Everything has to be manifested as a thought first before it can become a speech, an action, or a feeling. If a certain thought is repeated and reinforced enough times, it becomes part of who you are. In short, the feelings and thoughts come automatically and "naturally" when a particular situation occurs - you are what you say, do or feel. For some, the egos are a too inflated, so it's easier to trivialize things. This makes them feel bigger and above all these "little" things. If for some reason, their ego or pride is taken away, they will struggle and this may be a good thing. For others, material things are more important than life. If you value your Mercedes Benz more than the lives of cats, it's equally true that you value material things more than your own life. If you lose your wealth, you will struggle terribly but you may learn more about life wahahaha! And for people who torture and kill cats, their lives are filled with fear (fear of life, of being a nobody, and have a very weak sense of self), and hence the irrepressible need to cover that fear with power, anger, hatred. If that fear is removed, then there will be nothing left to cover up.


Well, as for the cat lovers, there's nothing that we can take away from them. Their compassion and love are theirs to give away, and in that way, they receive much more. Sometimes, it seems easier to help cats or dogs as they are simple and pure, with no hidden agenda. If we can recognise that in them, then we have also recognised it in ourselves. People are always more complicated. Perhaps, when we have become strong enough, we can recognise this in other people and help them recognise it too. We are not that different.

At the end, we only receive what we give, good or bad.
In the act of interpreting the universe, we are creating the universe...

;)