Post Graduation's Musings

Copyright by LuMaxArt

Graduation from study at university represents a significant milestone in one's life, for it is the point where one has garnered considerable knowledge in a subject domain and is ready to enter the working world. More importantly, it represents a new phase of life where one will be officially entering adulthood, leaving the cocoon granted by family and then like a mature bird letting go of its feet on the ground to fly skyward. Whether one is about to embrace newfound freedom can be subjective. For me, it definitely is a great time for I know I shall be enjoying a serious long break and laze after about 16 years of receiving formal education.

The three-month interval where I have my break before getting my first job is rather inspirational. There is a slight change in my routines. While I continue my usual love of reading, I catch up with some old friends and chat more with my family members. Even more significant is that I learn to relax myself more as I used to take things seriously and have high expectation of myself. Being a dragon-born, I reckon it is usual to exhibit a bit of such persona.

During this white space (the break as I would like to call it), I rearrange my priorities in life and live more wholly. This is in contrast to my past behaviour where I always focus on my goals to the extent that I sometimes forget about other aspects of life. I cherish every bit of this white-space period for it allows me to connect with my inner self and to know what is really important.

Graduating may not be fun especially if one don't know what one really wants to work, which is the case for quite some people. A lack of a clear sense of direction is perfectly okay because as a fresh graduate, one may need a bit of exploration to find what one really wants. I for one has been in such situation too. After about 1.5 months getting my result, I get my job at a local public-listed company as a business analyst. The subsidiary I am working with serves clients in the stock broking industry. So it means learning the ins and outs of share trading.

I first get interested in stock market and investment in general when a friend shared a book on George Soros two years ago. A bit of exploration was done back then. But that was just pure learning. Learning and actually doing it are two different things altogether. No amount of knowledge is comparable to the experience one gains from actually doing something, regardless of however huge the knowledge base is. Now armed with some basic knowledge on share trading, I hope one day I will be able to "play the stock market" too after amassing a certain amount of investment fund.

And of course to pray to be able to pursue my passion full time some time in the future!

A Collection Of Great Zen Quotes

Copyright by Laura

I mentioned about the book called Zen and Reality by Robert Powell in the post written in June 2010. This is the book that is the official maiden work that opens my mind to the many teachings from great Zen masters; those that have gained enlightenment, obtained a higher level of consciousness, able to really see things as it is.

The idea of writing this post came out of the blue today while I was in my morning Tai Chi session. Or to be more specific, it resulted from me picking up this book yesterday night to reread it before I slept.

In my own understanding, the core of Zen addressess one thing that helps us to comprehend who we are today. Of why are the way we behave today and why we are such and such of a person. This one thing is thought. The approach through which this subject is explored is different from that explored in psychology or in the domain of personal development. Instead, it is philosophical and paradoxical at times.

Okay, I should pause for now. For to continue to explain the truth is to continue to not explain it. For if a truth were to be explained, it is not a truth. Everyone's experience is different; so everything is experiential. As such, we can't really explain our experience to others on a verbal level. Okay, I'd have to KISS now.

So here I leave for you ten quotes extracted from the book and let you explore more of it!

1. 'Nature abhors a vacum' - similarly thought abhors a void. In order not to have to face its empty nature - nothingness, thought invents the thinker to give itself substantiality. Yet the Void is the plenitude of all things; everything in phenomenal existence has its roots in that Void.

2. Let us live as though every day was our last, we would soon discover the difference between 'being' and 'becoming'.

3. The vital energy which in the ordinary person is drained off by the emotions to be converted into some form of action or thought, is in the awakened man conserved and accumulated for the final explosion of satori.

4. You want to get rid of the ego, the source of all suffering...Yet how can you get rid of it, this thing which is put together, without knowing it for what it is. Only when you can consciously put it together, can you take it apart and so do away with it.

5. The Void, Emptiness, Let-go, Desireless, Nirvana, Kingdom of Heaven, etc., whilst different on the verbal level, are in the essence the same experience - viz, that of the fusion of the thinker and his thought.

6. Our imaginative life is only real in the sense that a lie is real. Desire, imagination, the mind, is never Reality - it is always either past of future, for it always operates through memory, through recognition.

7. Zen is everyday life. if the quality of one's Zen improves, the quality of one's everyday life improves too.

8. Until the emptiness of all attachments, of all efforts at building 'security' is realised, there can be no cessation of the feeling of insecurity.

9. Only when you have no thing in your mind and no mind in things, are you vacant and spiritual, empty and marvellous.

10. Let your heart be wholly empty, then only will it be filled. The mind is an efficient instrument only when in this condition.

Please don't complain that it is difficult to understand or that 'it is Greek for me'. Else I will give you a Tai Chi slam courtesy from a new Tai Chi student.

The Greatest Endeavour You Can Make

Going Zen For Six Months And Gaining One Big Realization

Copyright by One man's perspectives

Zen - an Eastern philosophy for living that is continuing to gain popular acceptance among western folks, is a concept that I was first acquainted in July 2008 after having picked up a book called Zen and Reality: An Approach to Sanity and Happiness on a Non-Sectarian Basis by Robert Powell. Although the concepts explained in Zen seem a little hard to digest and may at times appear contradictory to conventional understanding, I nevertheless found myself being able to smoothly flow with the ideas expounded, picking one after another in a very comfortable manner. Since then I was hooked with Zen. Like a humble disciple in hunger for more knowledge from its master, I went in search for more knowledge in this domain. Fast forward one year later and beginning in September 2009 I started to achieve a series of "breakthrough" in my understanding of Zen through actually living it...

By living it I mean applying the principles to my work, mostly in the course of doing my works as a student (though I did apply it to other more mundane activities such as eating, sleeping and even taking bath!). The result was greater productivity in the tasks that I did and the "the quality of Zen" also improved. The improvement of my Zen can be attributed to a few important works that I came across for the last 10 months. I give thanks for stumbling across these works in September 2009; it was during this period when I was undergoing a trying interval to complete my final-year project at college. Coming to read these works at that juncture enabled me to be really productive and delivered my works effortlessly. It was sheer luck! I was not consciously looking for them; instead, they came to me out of pure coincidence. Here are the three works that I got to know and that will be of immense benefits for readers to explore and apply them to their works.

SImple-ology

Zen Habits, The Power of Less

Inner Excellence

Simple Quotes With Compact Wisdom

Copyright from ChangingAging

I have been on the look out for quotes since last year. They are just wonderful - encapsulating so much wisdom in so few words.

Here are some Buddhist quotes from Lama Atisha that I particularly like. Hope they are every bit as inspirational to everyone.

The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the world ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.