Eyes-wide-opened!

Eyes-wide-opened. Life is so personal and yet impersonal. Remembering the movie, "Accuracy of Death", it is indeed a wonder how death in general is "nothing special", and yet to the individual, it means everything or everything else. If you look at our history as a human race, and simply by the number of wars we have fought, the death toll must be a staggering number. Yet it means almost nothing to the living. We may watch some really bad news over the telly, but as long as it doesn't really affect us, life goes on as usual. It's as if nothing changes. Young people become old people, new generations replace old ones. Nothing lasts - it is just another drop in the puddle, another wave in the coming and going of the tide. Nothing really matters. So how to live?

Death is a good way to learn how to live. That should be the first rule, because it takes away most of our problems. Faced with death, everything else seems trivial, and the seemingly little things that we take for granted become important - the simple beauty of life becomes apparant. This is our the spirituality regardless of religious inclinations. To understand our own true nature is the road towards spirituality, and for that, nature is the best teacher (personally it's the cat, the sky and currently a lime plant haha ;)! The second rule, for me, is the practice - that's one of the hardest thing to do as we're caught up in so many things. So take time to stop (and that includes playing your PSP when you have nothing to do, or fiddling with that i-touch). Visit with nature. Have faith that you will find yourself, and you will.


We all walk two paths. One is based on physical reality and the day-to-day. The day-to-day has a big hold on us. It grinds us down with the same old things, make us weary, impatient, and will leave us complaining and frittering our days away. It becomes important then to break that hold in whatever ways you can think of!

The other path is the inner journey (or the spiritual path), and that is always a great adventure. It'll take you to places you'll never dream of...

Collect catmaSutra zen-inspired cat art collectibles!

;)

Orange Sky!

One of the most beautiful piece of nature you can find anywhere is the sky. What makes it so great is that it can be part of your home. You just need a window (I love balconies but that's such a rare commodity these days) - one window to one sky that houses the rest of the world. You can't help but feel that everything is connected that way...

So lie on the floor and look up, or turn upside down and look down at it, touch it, play with it. It's a beautiful, ever-changing landscape. In the afternoons, my cats always come down to sun themselves for a while before moving to slumber in the shade. Watching the cats sleep, like watching the sky, is a great way to stop and do nothing for a while. Sometimes I think we're too concerned about using time. We do whatever we need to do, and when're we free, we still do whatever we need to do (like watching TV...). We never stop.


The weather is terribly hot these days, but the sunsets are awesome! Once, the entire sky was painted with yellow hues and as the sun set, the entire canvas turned orange (the photos below were not treated in any way). I'm moving again to another place. It has been a real adventure moving from one part of Singapore to another, (feels like an expat in your own country) although it's one of the most energy-sapping exercise that you'll swear that you'll never do it again. Also realized how attached I am to so many things, things that you probably wouldn't need and couldn't bring anywhere in the end. It's probably time to let go.

And is there anything you would withhold?
Some day, all that you have shall be given.
The trees give that they may live,
for to withhold is to perish.
~Khalil Gibran

This we have now
is not imagination.

This is not
grief or joy.

Not a judging state,
or an elation,
or sadness.

those come
and go.

This is the presence
that doesn't.

~Rumi

;)

squiggles

Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?
Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty
and sees the moon reflected in it?

Chase a deer and end up everywhere!
An oyster opens his mouth to swallow one drop.
Now's there's a pearl.
A vagrant wanders empty ruins.
Suddenly he's wealthy.

But don't be satisfied with stories, how things
have gone with others. Unfold
your own myth...

...Your legs will get heavy
and tired. Then comes a moment
of feeling the wings you've grown,
lifting.
~Rumi

Let go of expectation. Go for intention. Find and enjoy what you can on the journey. Life is a merry-go-round and we think it's a straight line. Be grateful if you're thrown out of it ;) at least now, you can rejoin knowing it can be fun, regardless.


Life’s a mess, a bunch of squiggles and doodles, and never a straight line. It's the imperfections that make something perfect. I love the mess. No matter how hard I try to keep my desk tidy, I know it'll end up a mess again, a beautiful recycled mess. Put life against the ruler. If you can measure it, then it's not worth it. Haha Life is never fair. One can always find someone else having a larger slice of the pie, or in a better position and vice-versa. These are the trojan horses on the merry-go-round; sometimes you go up, and sometimes you go down. So it's a matter of practice and patience to slow down a bit and really see. Prescribe your own myth, find the things that are hidden at first glance. Life is no worse or better, but when it's no longer a straight line, we're free to choose.

Catmasutra Collectibles: Smile-Getters Tile Coasters

"Because we do not rest, we lose our way.
We miss the compass points that show us where to go,
the nourishment that gives us succor,
the quiet that gives us wisdom.”
~Wayne Muller

;)

New cat art collectibles from Catmasutra!

Collect all 5 elements from the catmaSutra 'Enlightened Series'
(Highly recommended: the keepsake boxes, tile coasters, and framed tiles!)

The modern world is never about balance. It's the imbalance that makes her go round. The world is huge, but we want to squeeze everything into the palms of our hand. And we call it a good thing. We used to play in the rain out in the open, now young children are glued to their PSPs. There's no way we can find balance in the modern world, as she sells us another version of "balance" on her terms. There's always another version.

When we lose our balance, we try to plan for the future, set new year resolutions... plan to give ourselves more time (which is a near impossibility sometimes). Truth is we can never find balance out there. No matter how we plan, we just can't seem to get the balance right. So stop. Just be with yourself for a while (forget about the world) and breathe. Haha ;) The best way to prepare for the future is to take care of the present. When we stop chasing the future, we realize we're actually good right here in the present moment. If we can't stay still; if we can't stop awhile, we would already have missed our appointment with life. You can never find a way that'll lead you to balance, peace or happiness. Balance, peace or happiness are themselves the way. All we have is our inner compass. Everything points to the present. Live. Live in the present.

Water for
an overwhelmingly 'earthy' year
with the ox being an earth animal,
and this being an earth year...

;)

Lucky Star

Time is not constant. Time in stories least of all. Anyone can fall asleep and lose generations in their dreams. There are times when all the stories that are folded into this one can be shaken out and let loose, but until then, like the lives of saints, more is contained than can be revealed. The world itself will roll up like a scroll taking time and space away. All stories end here.

There are people who will be whisked away in closed cars to comfortable beds. The rest of us will search for the bus. Luggage. Heaven or hell in the hereafter will be luggage or the lack of it. The ones who recognized that love is enough and that possessions are borrowed pastimes, will float free through the exit sign, their arms ready to hug their friends, their toothbrush in their pocket. The one who stayed up late, gathering and gathering like demented bees, will find that you can take it with you. The joke is that you have to carry it yourself.

The moon and the white clouds at the window. How many times have I seen it before? Perhaps it is true that the world is made new again every day but our minds are not. The clamp that holds me will not let me go.

How shall i live? I was living wasn't I?

lucky star (2008)

I dreamed I was a single moment in a single day.

Quotes _ jeanette winterson

;)