Christmas and the Great Flood

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I would just like to let my fellow Christians that I am acquainted with know that you have the potential to spread 'joy to the world' because you are the joy itself!

Spare a thought for the flood victims in Johor and other parts of Malaysia as well as Sumatra. Such bad timing for a natural disaster to occur. Remember the Boxing Day tsunami 2 years ago? The flood serves as an early warning as deforestration continues to destroy the environment. Perhaps only the Main Mountain Range in the peninsula is shielding the folks in Klang Valley from experiencing a similar occurance.

In all my paintings, I can do anything that my imagination allows in my world. I can decide where to place the mountains, and whether I will have a river here or plant a big tree there. This is my artistic right! Similarly, the good news is that, no matter what situation you are in, you have total control over how it will affect your state of mind. You can choose to invite peace into your heart or feel lost amidst the chaos that envelops our hyperactive world esp during this end of the year holiday season. Right in the middle of the midnight countdown to Christmas Day, amid the shouting, the clapping, the blaring and the balloon popping, I was doing a little reflective prayer on my own, standing there among the crowd of revellers and happy children. This is the best gift you can give to yourself. Nothing, not even the tidal waves, can destroy your peace, if you do not allow it to happen.

If you are among the millions of bloggers who are writing for a better world, remember that change comes from within.

'Be the change you wish to see in the world' - Gandhi

Boxing Day falls on Dec 26th and is an English tradition - means boxes of food and cash given to the poor. They are traditionally given to those not able to celebrate Christmas dinners with their families eg the servants. Maybe we can celebrate this here with the less fortunate.

Seaside Magic

It is not uncommon for people to state that they belong to a certain religion and yet hold one or more views that are contrary to what he or she believes. I can tell you that I am a Christian and that I belong to a certain denomination. Yet, my belief system, is a synthesis of ancient Greek philosophy, post-modern existentialism plus some other Eastern thoughts besides the Christian creed. Yes, it does look more like a case of confused identity! Besides, there is so much more to learn in life. I guess, the best method to reveal who you really are, your thoughts and belief system, is to write them down, as what I am doing now online.

In fact, this blog is meant to be a spirituality blog, designed to help people with spiritual and emotional needs. It does not represent the views of any organised religion, as I do not wish to unintentionally offend anyone or cause misunderstanding. I also do not want to project a 'holier than thou' image of myself. Controversies on religious matters have often led to an 'us versus them' mentality which is very divisive. I see my attachment to spirituality as something of a passinate pursuit - believing that God is everywhere and only when you truly believe are you capable to connect to Him. As I have mentioned in my earlier post, imagine yourself standing at a beach and looking up to the beautiful evening sky. At that moment, you would feel that you are really not that significant and that the universe is much, much larger than you. As a fellow traveller in this short life, I can say that much of life is about suffering, although it is also only temporary. This is evidenced by the fact that many people in parts of this world are still living in poverty. A child dies every 5 seconds due to poverty related illnesses. Every minute, a child or newborn is diagnosed with HIV. I dream of one day when we will enter into a world without poverty and diseases.

Where do all the evil stuff in this world come from? Much as I would like to avoid talking about it, there is, at the back of my mind, an admission that we, because of our human nature, have an intrinsic dark side in us. This dark side is something that many of us would not want to come out and openly confess about. However, do not be afraid to bring it before God; His Light will illuminate us and overcome our sins, our weaknesses and imperfections. There is no point being pesimistic or have an obsessive guilty conscience about our sinful nature as if we are born to be wicked by nature as some people would want us to believe. That's why sometimes we hear people say that 'children are all snakes', or that if a man meets a misfortune, that's because of his hidden sinful past.

Therefore, because of who man is, when one comes before the Almighty, who is benevolent and all Light, there is at once, a feeling of fear as well as a sense of the sublime. We tremble as we worship God. More than just a fiction for children, here is an excerpt from the book The Wind in the Willow, by Kenneth Grahame which illustrates perfectly what I mean:

`This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to me,' whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. `Here, in this holy place, here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!'

Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no panic terror--indeed he felt wonderfully at peace and happy--but it was an awe that smote and held him and, without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august Presence was very, very near. With difficulty he turned to look for his friend. and saw him at his side cowed, stricken, and trembling violently. And still there was utter silence in the populous bird-haunted branches around them; and still the light grew and grew.

Perhaps he would never have dared to raise his eyes, but that, though the piping was now hushed, the call and the summons seemed still dominant and imperious. He might not refuse, were Death himself waiting to strike him instantly, once he had looked with mortal eye on things rightly kept hidden. Trembling he obeyed, and raised his humble head; and then, in that utter clearness of the imminent dawn, while Nature, flushed with fulness of incredible colour, seemed to hold her breath for the event, he looked in the very eyes of the Friend and Helper; saw the backward sweep of the curved horns, gleaming in the growing daylight; saw the stern, hooked nose between the kindly eyes that were looking down on them humourously, while the bearded mouth broke into a half-smile at the corners; saw the rippling muscles on the arm that lay across the broad chest, the long supple hand still holding the pan-pipes only just fallen away from the parted lips; saw the splendid curves of the shaggy limbs disposed in majestic ease on the sward; saw, last of all, nestling between his very hooves, sleeping soundly in entire peace and contentment, the little, round, podgy, childish form of the baby otter. All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.

'Rat!' he found breath to whisper, shaking. `Are you afraid?'

`Afraid?' murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. `Afraid! Of HIM? O, never, never! And yet--and yet-- O, Mole, I am afraid!'

Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.

It's That Pagan Christmas Tree Again

It's that most wonderful time of the year again. Today I'm going to reveal my rebellious side on the issue of celebrating a unique event in a religiously correct manner. I'm talking about Christmas, of course, which for many people will mark the beginning of a week long holiday all the way to New Year's Day. And despite all the ground rules telling me to look at this Christian calendar in a true and reflective Christian perspective, I'm still going to celebrate it in full pagan style, as I've always done so in the past.

The meaning of Christmas, to me and I'm sure to the majority of people of different faiths in this country, is nothing without the Christmas tree, which happened to be have originated from Pagan traditions. In fact, this year I'm going to light up a red Xmas tree for my house party. Then, I'm going to do something crazy - I'll get myself drunk and volunteer to be Santa at the shopping complex. (Don't worry - I'm still a sober doctor). The reality is, if we try to take away the tree, the gifts (and giving), the caroling, the food and alcohol, the pre-Christmas shopping and Santa Claus, we don't have much to celebrate. It's like having a dead tree without the lighting.

Going back to history, the early Christians in Roman times chose to celebrate Jesus' birthday in Dec 25th although it coincided with the pagan holiday celebrating the birth of their Sun God. So, we shouldn't blame anyone for putting pagan elements into a Christian event. If we try to 'purify' this festival by extracting the worldly pagan themes, this attempt will fail. The commercialisation of Christmas has a long, long tradition, so much so that it has become sentimental to so many people. There wouldn't be Christmas if we do not hear Christmas tunes in the shopping mall.

No, I'm not trying to downplay efforts by the church to spread the true message of the Nativity. I'll still be going to church on Christmas Eve. My daughter will be performing in a High School Musical dance number (I think a lot of teens are into HSM nowadays) and I will enjoy singing the Christmas hymms. I am looking forward to the message from the pastor. Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to hear carollers singing contemporary Christian worship songs like 'Give Thanks' and 'In Christ Alone' instead of just the usual traditional carols at a popular crowded shoping mall. This, at least to me, shows true diversity and extraordinary tolerance in our multireligious society as we move forward and try to understand one another. At the same time, we showed the foreigners, the Western and Arabian shoppers who happened to be there, how different but harmonious we can be. You have to be there to appreciate the moment.

So I don't see what's all the fuss about not celebrating the meaning of Christmas. Many people outside the Christian faith however, tend to take Christmas as a time for shopping, partying and revelling. Let's not complain about it. In fact, since Christmas is rooted in non - Christian tradition, let all people from all faiths take this opportunity and come together to celebrate this occasion in the spirit of Muhibbah and with peace and joy in their hearts. Don't go home to your pity party this Christmas - let's share this together. Let us be one voice.

The World Is Flattened / Your Real Home

Today's article in the Tech section of NST paints a rosy picture of the outsourcing industry as Malaysia is considered one of the more preferred country for this sort of business in the world (study done by Frost and Sullivan). Although the job is stressful and highly competitive, as was told to me by my patients, outsourcing really took off with the advent of the internet and fibreoptic cabling which sparked a new collaboration between America and other third world countries, in particular India. It is mostly taken up by young people, who do not mind working nights. Training for the post is stringent. Although they speak English but in their own accent, they were trained to speak in American or British accents, depending on which country they were assigned to. Some will take up common Western names like Thomas and Paul and Janet to help them better relate to their clients. When I have problems with my Ipaq PocketPC, I will just call up the toll free HP service centre based in Bangalore, India and the technicians there, who caters for clients in Msia, Singapore and the Philippines are usually very forthcoming in providing their assistance. What impressed me most is that they will just call me back a few days later to check if everything is ok (perhaps I should do the same for my patients). As in many Asian culture, many of these employees will apportion part of their salaries to their parents, while some will take day classes to aim for higher qualification and hopefully better pay one day.

We must be prepared to change and adapt, so says Thomas Friedman, the author of No.1 bestseller The World Is Flat. Globalisation is the trend because the world is shrinking. The playing field is flattened, and competition is thrown wide open. We must be reminded that multinational companies, like greedy individuals, will push for lower cost and increased productivity. Certain countries like China and Vietnam are much preferred because their goods are cheaper due to abundant and cheap labour. Even some traditional business in America, like the cotton mills, are closing down because of this globalisation effect.

Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall (and communism), the world had to depend on only one system, capitalism. Unfortunately, capitalism has its nasty flaws. It can make some people very rich, and some very poor. However, people who are ignorant will not survive, especially if they are slow to respond to market forces, are not competitive and not in-sync with global trends. Even in the beautiful city of Dalian, China where major corporations like Microsoft, HP, Sony and Dell have set up bases there, university grads, especially those in the IT line, were told to take up a year of study of English to improve communication.

In the medical line, Mr Friedman cited an example of the use of high speed internet connection to transmit radiological images from a hospital in America to a country half the world away, with a 12 hour time difference, to be interpreted by their on call radiologist who can provide an urgent diagnosis when most of the radiologists in America are sleeping at night. I think the same could be done for blood test and pathological specimen report. However, in all these cases, clinical correlation based on physical findings of the patient is very important. Furthermore, the administrators must address the question of online information security.

So, where do we fit in this globalised world? Globalisation doesn't mean going to a Western country and having to eat Western food everyday. In fact, its exactly the opposite. With outsourcing and homesourcing, the workers can stay put, keep in touch with family and friends and continue to enjoy local food and entertainment at a fraction of a cost. Its not like we are katak di bawah tempurung. In fact, Friedman says that if all the frogs living in their particular well were to be able to connect from one well to another, they will have greater feedom.

And, while we continue to seek out greener pastures to improve our living conditions, we must not be too comfortable with life in this world. Our real home is heaven (not a heavenly home but really in heaven!). The emotional believer will say that heaven is so real to him or her now while the sceptic will ask 'Izzit really? Are we anywhere closer to heaven?'

I am just taking the middle ground. There will always be questions like Is there really a heaven? Who is going there and what will it be like? What will I do there? Why should I think about it while I'm still on earth? I believe if you have a deep relationship with God, you will sometimes want to think about it. In the meantime, I have just browsed thru the book written by C.S. Lewis called The Great Divorce about a group of people who took a day trip by bus to the kingdom of heaven. Here is a glimpse of what they saw about how solid and real heaven is, thanks to Lewis' wonderful imagination:

I got out. The light and coolness that drenched me were like those of summer morning, early morning a minute or two before the sunrise, only that there was a certain difference......

It was the light, the grass, the trees that were different; made of some different substance, so much solider than things in our country......

I saw people coming to meet us. Because they were bright I saw them while they were still very distant ...... the earth shook under their tread as their strong feet sank into the wet turf. A tiny haze and a sweet smell went up where they had crushed the grass and scattered the dew ...... the robes did not disguise the massive grandeur of muscle and the radiant smoothness of flesh ...... no one struck me as being of any particular age. One gets glimpses even in our country of that which is ageless - heavy thought in the face of an infant, and frolic childhood in that of an old man. Here it was all like that.

Work in progress - Your Real Home

Dawn of a new day

This blog does not provide commentary on the latest issues as published in the mainstream news about the political landscape of our country. However, looking at the reaction of the people from other blogs, I think it is indeed sad and somewhat alarming. Some people will say, why worry about it? Why not just live the good life? Because your country's future is, after all, your own future as well. Anyway, it is good that people are talking and blogging about it because it helps to keep some public figures on their toes. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, or any other weapon for that matter!

Recently, I was rereading the works of the famous Russian writer who was sent to hard labour camp , Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose words continue to speak to people through the ages especially to our present time. Here, we have a responsible citizen of the former Soviet Union, a Nobel prize winner in literature in 1970, who had set about to write about the suffering of his people and what life was in the extreme condition of hard labour where 20 million people have perished. In his novels, especially One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich and the historical account The Gulag Archipelago, as well as the period of internal exile after his release from camp Cancer Ward, we were given a truthful portrayal of the police state rule which had stripped the population of the most basic of human rights.

And while he was living in the West when he left Russia, we would expect him to recommend the Western system with its free society as a model for a nation that had suppressed her people for decades. However, he had a different opinion. In his acceptance speech for an honorary degree at Harvard University in 1978, he talked, in his usual noble language, about the rights and wrongs of the Western society. For the sake of this blog, I would just pick up a few pointers which I feel are relevant:

The West had utter contempt for justice

The American people had taken their freedom for granted. While he had been living in a nation which was ruled by terror, he saw that the majority of the people in America do not have proper regard for the law, but only the letters of the law. He saw that the people do not have intrinsic moral values, but only care about the legality of the matter. Therefore, it had become the most litigious society in the world, with all its lawsuits and counter lawsuits. All that concerned them is to fight for what is legally theirs. Do we see a similar rising trend here?

The society is guided by money

Living in a capitalistic, democratic society, people follow the values that lead to materialism and commercialism. People are judged not by their hardwork and talent, but by how much they earn. Even the media are not interested in reporting the truth, but thrives on sensationalising an issue so that their paper can sell. He said America does not have the moral will power to lead the world because the people are preoccupied with their materialistic gain.

God continues to be marginalised

Since they have become so much in love with wealth, God is without meaning in the lives of ordinary individuals. Even with the brilliant technological progress in the West, including space exploration, no one could redeem the West from their moral poverty if their people do not believe that there is an intrinsic evil nature in man,which tends to despiritualise and dehumanise a person. Solzhenitsyn believed that in his old Russian culture, which is a God believing culture, and through the extreme sufferings of his people, lay his own salvation. This is one of the reasons, I believe, why he had returned to Russia in 1994, despite being deprived of his citizenship earlier.

The hardships of his people had brought about a spiritual strength that America and other western civilisation cannot compare with.

The full text of his speech can be found here.

Like a tormented prisoner, Solzhenitsyn spoke the truth. Here is an excerpt from his first novel One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, followed by a few quotes from this living legend.

"Senka was a quiet, luckless fellow. One of his eardrums had been smashed in '41. Then he was captured; he escaped, was recaptured and was sent to Buchenwald. There he evaded death by a miracle and now he was serving his time here quietly. If you show your pride too much, he said, you're lost.

There was truth in that. Better to growl and submit. If you were stubborn, they will break you.

Alyosha sat silent, his face buried in his hands. Praying.

Shukhov ate his bread down to his very fingers, keeping only a little bit of bare crust, the half-moon-shaped top of the loaf - because no spoon is as good for scraping a bowl of porridge clean as a bread crust. He wrapped the crust in his cloth and slipped it into his inside pocket for dinner, buttoned himself up against the cold and prepared for work."

"Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing" - quote

"Violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone. It is necessarily interwoven with falsehood" - quote

"I am of course confident that I will fulfill my tasks as a writer in all circumstances- from my grave even more successfully and more irrefutably than in my lifetime. No one can bar the road to truth, and to advance its cause I am prepared to accept even death. But may it be that repeated lessons will finally teach us not to stop the writer's pen during his lifetime? At no time has this ennobled our history" - quote

Work in progress

Work in progress

Seeing is Believing

What is real?

Does reality mean only external things - the happenings around us? Or does reality consist of what is without as well as within? Do we take into account our thoughts and ideas, our dreams and visions, our emotions? If yes, how are we to verify whether the spiritual experiences, for example as expressed by the mystics, are real? Many of us can relate to the testimonials of the mystics as if they are ours, especially pertaining to theme of the oneness of the universe, even though we come from different beliefs. However, we cannot subject these testimonies to scientific experimentation nor can we disapprove of them as untrue.

What if you take reality to be represented by a timeline? I was eating at a crowded mamak corner when this man whom I was sharing a table with opened up a conversation about his concept of reality being the here and now - this very moment. It seems from the Big Bang till many generations ahead of us, the only reality that matters is this very moment when I am breathing the air and holding the cup. He seems like a preacher full of fiery enthusiasm, and he was actually practising what he had preached, trying to convince me that this very second is the only reality - and if he were to squash my brain between the palm of his hands, I would (obviously) cease to exist. But we don't live for the moment. We are creatures that can reflect, dream, enjoy music, appreciate art, marvel at the Twin Towers, get angry when we miss a U turn, get frightened when we lost our way!

Here, I thought this man was probably one of the many frenzied individuals who believed in the familiar saying, 'eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die'. In other words, life is short. But this person is more neurotic than I thought because he actually believed in living only for that very moment whether he was breathing or eating or whatever. I was actually looking very hard for any sign of neurodermatitis in him!

If, as I have mentioned earlier, we are to take the universe as a whole, then the whole process of past, present and future should also be taken as a whole, as if they exist together in a way that only a Creator would know how. And the Creator would also have to exist outside that timeline in order to see through everything. It's like looking at a straight line ( a 2D object), in a 3D environment.

I remember watching The Polar Express, which was shown at the IMAX 3D theatre at Berjaya Times Square.It has a beautiful storyline about a little boy, along with a few other children still in their pyjamas, taking a magical train ride to the North Pole. During the show, I could see many children as well as adults sitting in front of me, actually reaching out to try to catch the falling snow. The hissing and squeking of the Polar Express were more real and scary. Even the artwork looked more outstanding. In future, we will all be watching movies like that. Would you like the feel of cobwebs dancing on your nose, water sprinkling on your face, or a canonball hitting you as you watch the Pirates of the Carribean ? And how about sitting in a computer controlled mechanical chair as you watch the Batmobile maneuvering a tight corner somewhere in Gotham City. If you are coming to KL during these long holidays with your children, you may want to bring them to IMAX for it is now Open Season!

Still on the topic of reality, the following excerpts from Margery Williams in her book The Velveteen Rabbit illustrates this beautifully (with apologies to plastic surgeons ) -

'What is real?' , asked the Rabbit one day when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender before Nana came to tidy the room. 'Does it mean having things that buzz inside you or a stickout handle?'

'Real isn't how you were made,' said the Skin Horse, 'It is a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with but really loves you, then you become real.'

'Does it hurt?', asked the Rabbit

'Sometimes', said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful, 'When you are real, you don't mind being hurt.'

'Does it happen all at once, or bit by bit?'

'It doesn't happen all at once', said the Skin Horse, 'you become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hairs have been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all because once you are real, you can't be ugly except to people who don't understand.'

A faceless and voiceless society

The internet community is becoming a faceless and voiceless society especially with the increasing popularity of blogging and text messaging. The same holds true for the 16 million mobile phone users in this country with their SMS and voice messaging. As technology gets better and better, we will sooon have video messaging. A new platform streaming into our internet blogging lifestyle is podcasting or audioblogging. This is the seduction of new technology and we must reap its benefit before it goes out of fashion.

Yes, this is a great time for the autistic individuals to make their presence felt in society! Autistics are inward looking people who lack social skills and the sensitivities belonging to a normal social person like establishing eye contact, facial and bodily expressions and proper voice tone. These conditions are predetermined genetically (God bless them). It is becoming a dream come true for them because they are known to be attached to computers and IT know-how. The same may hold true for other unfortunate individuals like the social phobics, the speech impaired, the stutterer, the deaf and dumb, the semi-paralysed and the handicapped (God bless them all). Do you know that Bill Gates, a very capable and high functioning person, has some autistics traits and poor social skills? In a book written by John Locke titled Why We Don't Talk To Each Other Anymore, it was mentioned that he would comb his hair to look presentable before emailing. He would rock his chair repeated during meetings when the tension was high; he had dated on a virtual romance and would rather chat to his date online and over the mobile phone about a movie that they had watched together than to do it face to face.

Now, blogging has entered the mainstream. There are many 'ready to go' free blogging service like this one that makes your entry into the blogosphere so much easier these days. I believe bloggers will supplant the mainstream newspaper one day.

There are also many people who do not blog. There are people are witty and outstanding when it comes to actual conversations. They would effortlessly talk about everything under the sun including politics, business, childen's education and current issues. We sometimes need an environment of such nature (eg in a local kopitiam) where the spirit of conversation, the humour, the color of various emotions are given full freedom of expression. For this reason, I have also purposely left out many issues of daily concerns in my blog because I knew they could be found in other blogs but more importantly because these are best discussed in an open, face-to-face settings with friends and relatives.

However, bloggers would argue whether you would sacrifice your time and money to travel 10km for a business meeting when you can easily do it online. I say we need a balance of both. I am not against building your blog into a social network platform as, hey, I am a blogger myself! Some activities like virtual dating, internet TV gospel, online counseling service and virtual job interview are making their presence felt and we cannot stop them. Living in a global village, it is hoped that we can bring people living everywhere, especially in remote areas, together. Connecting humans, as the Nokia slogan says. But we must move away from our computer screens into a more personal, interactive lifestyle. We cannot afford to turn from becoming TV addicts to computer addicts.

If society as a whole, even among the majority of us who are not socially impaired, begin to embrace this speechless and faceless technology without the intimacy of human warmth, I see a future where we enter into a newer version of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

And now, I am just happy to let my painting do the talking.....

A wet path

I would like to devote an article today to a man who had been an inspiration to many. A nobel prize winner, a seasoned politician whose motto was 'never give up', a writer, orator and last but not least a painter whose art now hangs in numerous galleries and museums. He was the man who led Britain to victory during the WW2. His name is none other than the great Sir Winston Churchill, whom many believed to be the man of the 20th century.

He had been in and out of parliament so many times during his more than 50 years of political ups and downs but in the end, it was always his resourcefulness, optimism and courage that pulled him through. He was a controversial man and not everything he did was successful. He was made a scapegoat for every bad things that had happened to England including the Great Depression in 1930. His judgements were increasingly being criticised by his colleagues before WW2.

He was a successful and extraordinary writer. His style of writing protrayed his personality. He wrote about history, the 1st WW, and thought provoking essays about the contemporary political situation around the world. During his years out of parliament in the 1930s, this great soul wrote about the increasing aggression of the Nazis and evil deeds of Adolf Hitler. However, his warnings were simply ignored. It was a case of passive injustice. The people were guilty by association. By keeping silent. Here, there is a saying 'jaga tepi kain sendiri'. We cannot always be sitting on the fence. We have to look at the big picture and speak out against cases of corruption and misuse of power, for example. We are doing a great disservice to ourselves and the future generation if we remain silent. The British people had failed to foresee the events that led to the outbreak of WW2 and allowed an evil empire to rise.


Fortunately, honor was in his blood. He was called back to office in 1940 and delivered a great speech, declaring that Britain would never surrender. Similarly, his approach to life was one of courage, openness and a willingness to try new things. He took up painting, by accident, at the age of 41 when he was in near despair due to political strife. He was looking at a blank canvas and did not know what to paint until a painter friend told him to just get started. Painting brought joy to his life. He was so enthusiastic that he wrote a booklet called 'Painting as a pastime'. Here he urged others to take up painting. He said ' Painting is a companion with whom one may hope to walk a great part of one's own journey - happy are the painters for they shall not be lonely. Light and color, peace and hope - will keep them company to the end, or almost to the end of the day'. He was quite modest though about his art unlike his political achievements and speeches where he was more confident. He learned how to paint by copying the works of artists, by immersing himself in the galleries studying the techniques of the great masters and sometimes by taking art lessons from his painter friends. He did win first prize in an amateur art competition, painting a red brick house in a winter scene.


Therefore, my friends, I would also like to encourage you to take up 'the joy of painting'. You could also try to do something that you do not normally do in your daily routine. It would be a great stress reliever.

We will be facing a wet season till the end of the year. We are bound to have flash floods, fallen trees, inaccessible roads and maybe a few leaking roofs. Hopefully, we won't have another landslide in another hillside project. However, it is good that the air has cleared. The haze has enveloped much of the city for about a month. Studies have shown that it does not matter how high the air pollution index is, whether it is above or below 100. The danger lies in the particle size. If the particle is small enough, they could seep through our respiratory system and cause irreversible tissue damage or lung scarring, especially in children and the elderly. This is the reality.

Going back to Churchill, his paintings provide a look into his soul. His optimism. His struggles. He believed everything was planned by God. Everything has a destiny. When he reached heaven, he already expected to spend the first million years painting. His affinity to art continues with these words ' we must not be too ambitious, we cannot aspire to masterpieces but we may content ourselves with a joyride in a paintbox'.

I dream one day we would not do anything for the sake of money, fame or power but merely for the sheer joy of doing it.

Hidden Stream

For those who are having emotional conflicts in life, I would just like to let you know that all of us who are living in this 21st century, especially in the urban setting, will always have some troubles that will cause some sort of emotional disturbance in us. Those troubles can come from within us or from the society we interact with. The secret of living a happy and successful life lies in how you manage those conflicting emotions in you.


Aristotle said that to be happy, one must find some pleasurable activity to indulge in, even more so if you enjoy doing it very well and doing it for the good of society. Happiness does not mean you have to feel good all the time, drive yourself crazy by going to wild parties, indulge in expensive things etc. These are all transcient emotions and superficial forms of happiness. You can put up a cheerful disposition but you cannot be forever cheerful and laughing. Genuine happiness is actually a reflective form of emotion. Happiness as in joy is something we all hope to attain in our lives. However, we cannot always reach that emotional high. It is like wanting to scale up the mountain peak everyday.


Each one of us have this thing called temperament. It is a more profound and long lasting emotion which we inherit from our genes and from our upbringing and environment. This temperament or mood is what makes some people to be mild mannered, some to have a wonderful sense of humour and some to be gregarious and some to be depressed. But because I believe our emotions have intelligence and rationality, we can learn to perceive our emotions in the right way, to understand why we feel angry, hurt, embarrassed etc and to make correct decisions regarding how we can manage those negative emotions. We cannot always make the right decisions based on our emotions but we can try. We must also learn to perceive other people's emotions based on their way of life, their culture and language. For example, some Chinese dialects are spoken aloud as if there is a shouting competition and may put off a foreign tourist.

Lastly, human beings are capable of emotions that connect with the universe. Emotions are not just about everyday petty things like hate, jealousy, vengeance etc. Imagine yourself lying on the field and looking up at the stars. You will have that sense of humility in that you are not the most important person in the world. At the other end of the spectrum, you will also have an elevated feeling in that a great God can create an entire universe filled with galaxies and stars and you are part of that creation.

God will make a way

Oftentimes when I paint seascapes, I am reminded of the major tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean 2 years ago, mainly in Sumatra, Sri Lanka and India. Our country too is not spared. Although we cannot with our human mind comprehend why this happened especially when the majority who died were helpness women and children, we must know that there is an ocean of little 'tsunamis' happening in the lives of ordinary folks like you and me across the planet everyday. Lives of sorrow and darkness and confusion - these are quite prevalent in our society today. Interestingly, with each technological advance, our lives become more and more isolated.

But the good news is that God, is here for us all the time, like a father who will never forsake his children. His light will shine on you even through your darkness night, even as you walk through your valley of sorrow. Like a lighthouse. When God closes one door, He will always open another one. You may not understand His plans for you, but if you will only have faith (and faith can start small like a seed), what most people will notice initially is that they are trading their heavy hearts with hearts of joy. It is as simple as that. It starts with a humble bow before Him, and a promise. A promise that is so good - eternal life, and new mercies (or grace) that you will receive throughout your time on earth.

So, make no mistake. Take that leap of faith from the cliff. Reason has an end as it also has a beginning. God has been here for you 24/7. You have been looking out for God all your life. But events have taken a turning. The hunter becomes the hunted. You are stopped dead in your track. Suddenly you hear footsteps...... it is not you searching for God; it is God that is searching for you all this while. Searching for a long lost child.

So let all creation sing. Let the earth proclaim - this is the God of Love. Let us celebrate Love. Hear the oceans roar - God will make a way where there seems to be no way.

Everlasting Joy

What is your personal view about faith? Is it a difficult subject to talk about? To me, faith has many levels.

When you are a student, you may be living in a care-free environment. Life offers many pleasures to indulge in. You may also be the one of the 'wild' type who has 'been there, done that'. Many issues about life still look a bit hazy to you and you are not ready to live a life of devotion, at least not until you are committed to get married. After marriage, life is beautiful. There is a stable relationship and you feel satisfied with what you have. You go to church, you send your children to Sunday school and you live a moralistic kind of life. You may also indulge in other forms of pleasures but find that you are actually missing out on something. You may also turn to a socratic kind of wisdom about life. Questioning life. Questioning faith.

If you are stuck in any of these stages in life, you have to move on. Otherwise life will become stale, rusty and full of strife and agony.

If you say you belong to a certain faith, here's something I personally don't agree. Faith is not something that you register into and have it printed out. It is not about infants lining up to be baptised. It is not about compulsary attendance of Sunday service. It is not about listening to professors talk theology to you. These are too easy. You are living in your own comfort zone. To me, faith has to be a little more difficult to grasp - to be authentic.

Faith is about direct communication with God, no mediator needed. It is presenting yourself as a person before Him, all your imperfections, sins, suffering, everything. Faith is something subjective (there is no absolute certainty in life) but it involves a pro-active effort on your part to seek the Truth. It is giving everything back to God. It is losing your life, so that you can find it back. It is like immersing yourself as if you are part of the Great Story. That is the power of faith.

Before I end, here is a wager for the modern skeptics. Nobody can scientifically prove the existence of God. As I have said in my earlier posting, God is perceived only through the mind, not the senses. My wager is, if there is no God, then you don't gain anything at all. On the other hand, if there is a God, well, here, you lose nothing but you gain everything in life and have everlasting joy. Think about it, my friend.

Work in progress

I'm taking a short break. The above is a work in progress of a seascape. Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll be able to show some peaceful waves lapping towards the beach against a bright sky (in fact, the sky is too bright until I had to wear sunglasses, just kidding!). I love to do seascapes - it gives me great peace but at the same time, reminds me that life can be rocky. I was also reminded about the time during my university years when I was passionately searching for answers to life. I was lost until I found God. Without faith, a person will be like struggling in the ocean looking for a distant land to swim to. We all need a spiritual compass in life.

Another thing is, faith has to be dynamic. We don't stop at the point when we have found God. There must always be this passion of the pursuit of God. Faith must also be strong enough so that we are willing to give everything we have back to God. Imagine throwing everything you own back to God for eternal truth. All finite things washed away by the waves. You will be surprised. God will honour your effort and give it all back to you. For example, a person vowed to celibacy may find himself happily married and blessed with children.

In the next posting, I will contemplate on what exactly is faith. What is faith to you?



While we are on the subject of giving things up, you can try giving up your favourite food. This is the season to celebrate Chinese mooncake festival. It is also a time to hang lanterns around the house. What joy to see the lantern lights glowing on the faces of happy children. Unlike today's battery powered, Power Rangers lanterns, I remember the time of my childhood when I would happily carry lanterns which I made by myself. However, a word of caution from the doctor - each piece of mooncake is a lump of sugar and fat. Even the low sugar variety still contains sufficient amount of it. My mother even has to reject mooncakes given by relatives and friends - we can't finish what we already have. So, please eat with moderation.

The Problem of Pain (and Suffering)

I would never qualify myself to be able to discuss the great problem of human suffering. In his book The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis, a prominent Christian writer, said 'God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience but shouts in our pains'. However, I know many people, including many who profess to belong to a certain faith, who cannot reconcile the existence of a good, all powerful and kind God with innocent human suffering.

There are many solutions to this dilemma given by major religions of this world. The commonest would be that suffering is for our own good - this is to show that we are not as self-sufficient as we think we are - so we all need God.

Another would be suffering in this life is only temporal. We shall attain a better life in the hereafter / nirvana as a reward. Anyway, life is short here on earth compared to eternity.

Still another solution is that we all deserve it as a form of punishment since from the beginning, all humans are fallen - this is the concept of the original sin.

There's also another solution formulated since the ancient of times - that there is always a cosmological battle between good and evil. This is called dualism - a struggle in which humans are the pawns.

Another solution would be to leave God out of the picture and blame the major catastrophes to nature itself and the great wars of the world to human greed. It looks like a rational solution at first, only this position called atheism is untenable in the long run.

Here is another solution which I will call the painterly answer - light stands out best in darkness. In any painting, there is always an interplay between light against dark, and dark against light. In order to let the highlights of my trees and bushes stand out, I need to block in a dark base - the darker, the more outstanding will be my trees. Also, for contrast, I must remember not to kill all my dark areas so that I can bring out individual trees and bushes. So you see, if you are in a difficult situation, don't forget to light a candle in the dark period of your life - it will be a life giving source to you!

Now, having said all this, you may ask why do the innocent suffer the most - you will not find a better example than the recent Indian Ocean tsunami that happened to our neighbour - where mostly children and women perish in a twinkling of an eye. To this, a friend of mine gave me a remarkable answer - God also suffers along with us. Sometimes, in the face of great suffering, human empathy is worth much more than all the knowledge we acquire about the problem of evil and divine justice.....

Some stress relieving technique:

Sometimes, I find my patients are trying too hard to get better. Do not think that you must or you should get well soon, because if you put a demand on yourselves like saying you must fall asleep by 12 am, you are putting unnecessary pressure on yourself and your insomnia will get worse. Similarly, if you are someone who likes to work on a job to impress other people, or fear others will look down on you if you didn't do well, your performance will deteriorate. Instead, do something for your own personal improvement and stop thinking the perfectionist attitude. This is a matter of self-esteem.

Living Stream

Hi! Just as there are many religions in this world, you can expect many different viewpoints when it comes to the philosophy of life. People come from different geographical background, have different genetic predisposition and are made up of different personalities and temperaments. One set of ideas may suit a group of people but not others. We see things through different perspectives.

Just like the management of chronic anxiety and depression. A person can consult 3 psychiatrists and get 3 different opinions and treatment strategies. One psychiatrist will focus more on psychoanalysis eg. talking to the patient and exploring his childhood, upbringing, bad experiences, personal tragedies and family history of psychiatric disorders, apart from the immediate source of anxiety like relationship problems, financial, facing a major public exam etc. Another well trained psychiatrist in behavioural science may like the patient to tackle his anxiety head-on. For example, if he has fear of speaking in front of a group of people, the psychiatrist may recommend that he joins a drama class and practice public speaking. This is called exposure therapy. A third but no less prominent psychiatrist may not even want to talk at length with his patient but is more interested in prescribing antianxiety and antidepressant medication. Perhaps this doctor has more understanding of biochemistry of the brain. We know that major depression is due to too little serotonin or epinephrine in the neurological brain system and drugs are effective either in stimulating the release of these neurotransmitters or letting them stay longer in the system before they are broken down. Or perhaps the psychiatrist has a long list of patients in the waiting room and he just wants to send the patient off with the medication. We don't know!

What we are interested here is to focus on the fact that even though we see things as an organised whole, we each have different ways of interpreting what those things mean to us. What is unfortunate is a certain perspective in life may blind us from ever seeing another perspective. However, this is better than to have no perspective at all! Throughout this journey that we are in, I will try to fit in all major opinions from the history books regarding fundamental questions about life.

And one of them which I will tackle in the next posting is: how do we reconcile ourselves to the fact that a good, benevolent and all powerful God can allow such great human sufferring throughout history. Some solutions from major religions you have heard before, and some may surprise you.

From faith to faith

Before, I go on, I just want to let you know that many times I will quote examples from Christianity, or from the ancient Christian era simply because I happen to belong to that faith and also because literature abound with such examples. I am not trying to convert anybody but I want to let you know that I believe in a monotheistic God. I do not even quote from scriptures of any religion. I come from a Christian background where attending Sunday service, cell group support prayer meetings, family camps and worship singing and meditating on bible verses are all part of the routine of this church culture. I fully emphatise with people who stand outside this circle. However, this website is for people with emotional problems, whichever faith you belong to.

In the last posting, I mentioned that sometimes religion can function to fill a social need, i.e. to form a group identity. For example people with economic hardship in one locality may congregate to worship God. Such gatherings and networkings can also function as emotional support groups, just as individuals need support from family and friends to pull them through difficult times.

However, while this is good, we cannot turn our backs to philosophy and all its relevant rich history of ideas. Fundamental questions like what's the meaning of life, what's the destiny of mankind, how does this universe exist are of cosmological importance. Philosophy, in my humble opinion, can act as a compass but not as a sole guide to living. Skepticism about the wisdom of the ancient pagans like Plato and Aristotle, had already arisen during the early Christian era. This is because, if you read books like The Republic written by Plato or similar ones, you will find that in certain parts, they seem to promote a sectarian society, an upper class elitist society that many in the past find to run contrary to the life of faith, of devotion and the universal brotherhood of man. Therefore, we get an anti-intellectual climate where early Christians did not need the Greek philosophers to teach them how to live. In the extreme case, Martin Luther, though a man of broad learning himself, had ordered that every school should burn the books of every Greek pagan because he considered them as a danger to the mind. As the intellectual climate began to further erode, witchcraft, superstition and unhealthy rituals took place.

Before, I go on, you can post your comments on any postings anytime. Its okay if you want to criticise me in any aspect. You can poke me, stretch me or tear me into pieces, I don't mind. But please don't burn me at the stake, or this weblog will not exist anymore!

Some stress relieving technique

You may say to me, Hey, all these are irrelevant to me! I'm facing an emotional situation and here you are rambling about philosophy. Perhaps you have recurring negative thoughts that seem to pop out of your mind every now and then. You would like to put a stop to them but you don't know how. It is possible to try to do something that uses more of the right brain function. The left brain is more for reasoning and speaking. The right side, on the other hand, involves more of eye-hand coordination work like fixing your car, cooking, gardening, painting. Try to exercise,turn on the music and hum along with a song. All these activities will keep your mind away from the negative thinking tract. But let's be realistic. Those negative thoughts will not disappear overnight. However, if you keep working on the distractions, which I find to be very effective, your brain will come to accept that mode of thinking and those automatic unhealthy thoughts will start to fade away.

We do not enter heaven by being clever

To refresh your mind on what we have covered last week, philosophy is a form of passionate pursuit for wisdom. But one cannot just find wisdom by one's free will - it takes grace or divine intervention from above to do so. You will find it in your everyday activities - only you have not noticed it!

I do not think that in our age, we are wiser than our ancestors. If we are, then how come there were 2 great world wars in the last century? We may be faster (think broadband), stronger (tanks and military equipments) and healthier (better healthcare facilities), but we are certainly not more rational than our forefathers. Parents may send their children to tuition after school hours which may only make them smarter but not wiser! Attributes like tolerance, love, kindness, losing one's life in order to find it etc, can only be learned in real life stage.

However, I must confess that there is one field that we have picked up in the past century which the ancients had not - and that is human psychology. Aristotle spent much of his life examining nature. His writings were consumed with little animals, elephants and how much they eat, human anatomy - well, just things of this world. He laid the foundation for medical and biological science. Aristotle, in fact, said very little about the soul, the heavens, life of devotion etc which are of prime concern for a religious person. What he did say was that if humans were the most superior living beings on earth, then we would do well to study human life itself, in this sense what we know to be psychology today.

There seem to be a psychological explanation for everything that we do. Humans have needs that sometimes drive us into religion. There is also the subconscious. Dreams sometimes allow us to do what we cannot do in real life. Even society as a whole has a need (like individual needs) that brings them together.

The journey to heaven is not by way of understanding human psychology (the emotions) or serious study of philosophy (the intellect). But we must always keep these two subjects in mind as we go along. Pascal did say that every rational being must admit that at the end of human reasoning, there is still a huge gap between reason and the heavens.

Only By Grace

Let's begin from the very beginning. When I mention non-bodily mode, I'm saying that we are going into something that is not perceived by the senses, something of a spiritual dimension. Well then, you may say, how are we to conceive of something that we cannot see with our own eyes? This is where philosophers, thru the ages, have been passionately waiting to answer that question. First of all, philosophy is not providing some boring evidence or debate. Philosophy actually means a love of wisdom. It is especially applicable for people with emotional hurts. It is a way of entering that into an emotional understanding. I find it an attractive avenue where the search for wisdom will end up in a moment of intellectual joy. "Aha - now I see!" is that kind of moment that I hope to convey in you.

The majority of psychologists will try to overcome your anxieties and depression head-on with the only method they are trained i.e. using stress relieving techniques. I want to differ in my approach here. To be honest, I am not good with clever arguments, persuasion and especially eloquence. I am not the new smart kid on the 'blog'! Sometimes, my thought presentation may appear haphazard. I am only an amateur in philosophy.

If you were to ask me to tell you more about myself, I can tell you firstly that my life is mainly a life of thoughts. I have my fair share of sufferring and tragedies just like everyone else but my greatest spiritual encounters are encounters with books, though not always. Something I read may ignite the desire to search for more wisdom. Just like Blaise Pascal, the great French mathematician and thinker, whom at the age of thirty one, described how his thoughts are at one moment inflamed with the light of God which gave him "joy, joy, joy, tears of joy" .

So, back to the question on how we can conceive of the presence of God - I can only say that we can only see God thru the eyes of the mind. But, I can assure you, once you do see it, though it is not palpable, it is more real than you think, more eternal and forever true and beautiful. It may even provide you with a climax - a moment of intellectual and emotional purity which is not of this world. And it will provide you with a stable, everlasting foundation - unlike a house which may erode, or have leaking roofs or peeling paints.

To get this form of love, one's free will should have a ready avenue for divine intervention or grace. The best state of mind I can recommend to achieve this, is a state of longing for a country far, far away - longing to get back to - and be on the path home....

Some basic stress relieving technique

Try to relax and breath slowly. Use your diaphragm to breath rather than your upper chest muscles as it will give you more breathing space. Take in 2 seconds of breath and exhale for 4 seconds, repeating the process. As you do that many times, you will find that your body becoming less tense. Sometimes, in a panic situation, you may need to cup your mouth and nose with the palm of your hands, leaving a small space between the palms and breath for about 5 minutes. This technique takes time to get used to but try it for a week.

Healing In His Wings

Hello Readers and welcome aboard! This blog is created for all who thirst for spiritual insight and especially for people with emotional hurts. Through my many years in general practice, I have come across many patients with lifelong unresolved emotional problems. They make up 10 to 20% of my patient load everyday. Many have deferred seeing doctors for fear of opening up their psychological 'weaknesses' or face 'rejection' by their family physicians or whatever. Soon, these fears and emotional problems will be chanelled to become bodily symptoms. I don't believe any good doctor can relieve your hurts on one or two sessions. Many have turned to traditional healers, herbalists, acupuncturists etc for a more holistic treatment. What is it that turn many patients to seek healing outside modern medicine? What is the missing link?

This blog is meant to be inspirational. It is not a platform to discuss religious doctrines or debate about religious issues. It is also not a weblog for breaking news or even present concerns. We are only here for the spiritual experience. It is unique because I am going to do it thru a mixture of art, literature, medical tips and a sprinkling of humour. If I can also get you interested in painting, praise God!

To tell you the truth, I do not think I have the talent to paint. I paint firstly because I love God. There is also no research that says a person is more genetically inclined to paint or play musical instrument. You only need to be more patient and develop your eye-hand coordination. If you like to draw since childhood, if you like to tell stories or write journals(!), if you love music, or if you see your daily work and activities like home repair, gardening or cooking a meal as works of art, then you are missing out by not engaging in some craft like painting.

There is such a great wealth of information on the web that it all boils down to who or what you want to believe. My approach is to always let you decide. So, just relax and enjoy the ride. It may be a little slow, so don't forget to take in the sceneries along the way. If you are ready to go into non-bodily mode, then let's begin...