'I' of the Hornbill

Like a hornbill searching a hundred meters above for the celestial plateau atop the existential range, no less a worm wriggling inches below to find a worm heaven, I feel out the world with its impressions of the present and fill up my senses with its intimations of the hidden; like a deer looking up its antlers, no less the forest, for signs of the divine, I look to my feet, no less the horizon, to tap into the beat of time. (Photo: Zaharan Razak; January 10, 2011)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

An Exchange with a Malay Christian

Zaharan: Hi, I'm a Malaysian Muslim. I have no wish to judge you. At the risk of being thought of as putting my foot in your door, let me raise a few questions. One, almost everybody seems to be anonymous here. Is this because you are afraid of being persecuted, ostracized or oppressed by some people? This anonymity may make some people wonder if you are a poseur, a non-Malay Christian pretending to be a Malay planted here for some secret agenda.
Even if you are a Malay and a Christian why belabor it and wear it on your shirt sleeve while at the same time hiding behind anonymity? A bit clashing, if not overcooked, don't you think? I apologize if I sound judgmental there.

Before becoming a Christian have you done any window-shopping and looking at catalogs of various beliefs like Buddhism, Hinduism, Atheism, Rationalism, Islam itself deeply enough and then decide to buy product A and not B or C? Have you studied comparative religions?

I'm not trying to throw a spanner into your mindset but just to share a common interest, assuming we do share a common interest - religions.

Coming a bit closer to your case, have you read any books touching on the subject of Islam-Christianity such as Ahmad Deedat, the story about Khatijah's cousin who was a Christian when he "anointed" Muhammad, the case about how Islam accepts Christianity but Christianity rejects Islam? I'm not defending or attacking either religion or any other for that matter. My standpoint is always one of impartiality when discussing inter-religious matters. My faith in Islam is a personal thing and it is not a standpoint in order to judge others. I don't believe religions more so God for that matter needs defending like he is your kid sister or can be "attacked" as God by definition is beyond such presumptuous human activities.

Finally I hope you can see this uninvited discussion of mine as an interesting and stimulating view that can only add rigor and vigor to whatever choices you make.

Thank you for your indulgence.

February 11, 2008 1:21 AM

Anonymous said...: Hi Zaharan Just to let you know that you have been very blessed by this blog. I am a Malay Christian and have searched both the Quran, five volumes of Sahih Muslim, had all literatures and videos of Ahmed Deedat, was a Muslim evangelist, research Muhd. and Isa Al-Masih. All these were my efforts to search for the truth of the one true God. In the end I cried to God for help. God showed me something that was beyond this world and in which made me completely happy. Yet I searched for another year till I gave up again and surrendered my life to God in 2003. Without knowing much I was set free, free from guilt, past, etc.I was a new creation..I don't even know why and dont knowanything about salvation?? Then that night I had a dream and was told to be baptised the following thursday afternoon. The next day, I saw a vision of Isa Al-masih on the cross, in my living room..It arrived right in front of me and He said " I died for u"..I searched the bible and my eyes were opened to Abraham sacrificing Issac..God revealed His love to me..then at the same time the Ka'abah played in my memory and that millions of Muslims went to Hajj to redeem their sins by sacrficing animals but God himself has came up with a sacrifice for us all..and that is Isa Al masih..the unblemished and the perfect one. You may not believe these but it is happening..many Muslims are accepting Isa Al Masih thru God revealing Himself in any way He chooses. One had met Isa Al Masih in Madina!! I want to encourage you to keep searching, probing and challenging any issues you have. God's spirit will show you the way. Bless you in Jesus Name.
January 6, 2009 9:24 PM

... and so on. Interested to read further? Go here: http://1flock1shepherd.blogspot.com/

0 comments:

Trengganuspeakeasy: Tganung Terms

Dang: several context dependent meanings - in time, got time, still has time (literally and figuratively), still finds an opportunity, when it comes to this ...
Sudu Sena: Praying mantis.
Pok Kor Angguk: A tree gecko.
Jilat Cok: To bite the dust; kick the bucket. Literally, to lick the hoe/shovel..
Ngomel: ... nitpicking, grumbling ...
Leceh: to pull back the foreskin ...
Eleh: Oh, really ... craps ...
Takmboh Pung: ... don't really want ...
Gipung: to save up (from himpun?)
Geluling: rolling
Guling: rolling or lying down
Guling bating: falling head over heel, literally
Lebong: lying through one's teetth
Hitam beletung: very, very black
Tunggeng nyior: upside down
Kelate blogeh, Teganu blogang; Kelate bageh, Teganu cenggang.
Agah: Daring to speak up, making a show of daring authority or seniority; showing off in a coltish manner; brazen. Said of someone who tends to bite more than he can chew.
Simbong: a convergence of conflicting interests.
Jokae (Besut)/Jokeng: verandah, patio, extra space or corner of the house just off its main wall.
Tungeng Langang: This one is easy. It means topsy-turvy.
Nelang: This one easily translates into the Kelantanese "gedebe" which translates into game for a fight; in a stand off, won't easily step down; feisty.
Kerah cokeng: Now how shall I translate this? A girly would go into a tizzy on seeing this lizzy.
Pah Ceroh: Looks like it is going to last till morning.
Ngecong is to ngacong as explosion is to implosion.
Kucar/Kubang Lanar: No this is not a lunar stop or a buffalo mud hole but the mess left by your "sixie" for you to clean up after a tiring day at the office. Also kucar hanyar.
Dok Dek: Not one bit.
Tang Malang: Slowly falls the night; oh, so slow
Hok ni pulok dua serakar sokmor: this pair is inseparable.
Tongue roller, cheek puller: Piang boh ni, boe lah aleh bon'h nyior, naik bah pulok.
Setarang: Used only with dok to mean not at all.
Kicoh is as different from kecuh as wash-n-rinse is from commotion!
bah bahang di boh: a bus stranded in flood water
Ulul al Bab: Beli buah hulu, makang nekbat
Sipang dalang payang, minung dalang cetong: stow water in a jar, drink from a dipper.
Berok Atah Jalang: Not a macaque chewing up the madame.
Jambang Berjalang: Mobile toilet
Jalang-jalang cari makang: A portmanteau of pros swaying like sea grass in darkened hallways, not.
Bahang Rambang: Talking without basis in fact
Bahang: Beat 'em! Git 'em! Go for it! Get it! Taking without permission
Pok: Uncle
boe: that's enough, spoken in the northern region of Besut
boh: a flood, op. cit. boe; bo'h: moo of a cow
Mempes: A variation of mepeh, used when talking with outsiders, such as: "Nak kemana, Wan Embong!" "Tak kemana, mempes je!"
Gayung: A cetong with a long handle
Jalang-jalang napok/igak ketang: Catching crabs with bare hands in shallow waters
Cetong: A water scoop fashioned from a condensed milk tin. Op cit, gayung
Cok Ko (pronounced, choke coe): Take Five
Mepeh: Lurching, slouching off like a wounded fighting cock with one wing on the ground for support; out of pocket, out of sorts
Tembam: a plump mound around a man hole spongy like freshly baked buns
makang belang jalang: band on the run
beng ikang: a van that smells of fish
bah: bus, op.cit. boh
demang wih de godang gang: the man with the golden gun
Peduk: Beat a drum or hit a ball as in rounders
Celakak: Celaka betul/goddammit
Godang: Got a beating/God be dang, op.cit, Bahang
Gudang: Godown
Kona: Turn a corner
Gostan: Go astern
Goik: Go ahead

Don Quixote (Teh-O-Ki) alias Pak Pandik alias Gadfly of Trojan Horse

Two of my favorite literary caricatures, Don and Pak. The insect is a bonus ammo in my Rambo belt. Or so my benighted imagination deceives me. Not being blessed with superior anything - birth, luck or intelligence - I've chosen to spend the rest of my life huffing away at the edifices erected by fellow humans who are far more superior than me. Since I'm no Socrates, I should be able to go the whole hog without hemlock. My ascendant is Aquarius. My horoscope says I'm a humanitarian who identifies with the world and the human race. Please, do not race-profile me. The bit don't fit. I am my own person who marches to my own drum beat, ahead of my time and thus liable to be labeled as an eccentric, weirdo or sesat (stray) by tribalists. The price to pay? I cannot fall back on tribal support when threatened or oppressed, often by thuggees thrown up by the tribe. I just have to learn to live with that, steep though the learning curve is. Having to fall back on my own resources will hopefully restock my coping armory. Insist I'm smart and I'll show who is an upstart. Me! I may disagree with you but I'll defend your right to disagree with me. I can identify with the old and young, traditional and non-traditional. Thus sprake Zoroastra, the Confused (Kohopiuh in Tranungspeak) One. Far, far, from the madding crowd.

Appeal To Crowd/Tribe/Authority/King Solomon

So some jerk insulted your right to your goatee below, your skull cap above and your unsheathed crease in between? So what, evoke stock Malay risibility by saying, "Don't make us Malays angry," especially if you are only a Penang mamak or a Melakan celup.
A DAPper raises a question on a point of law? Well if you are an Umnout, tell the dipper to remove his rocket from within view of the palace on pains of being clapped with the Sedition Act.
A tiger is about to eat you up? Tell Stripey you're just a mousedeer minding King Solomon's dinner.
So you said something libellous on your blog and is being sued for your pains? Tell the whole brigand of bloggers that their freedom to exact a pound of insult from a safe distance is being threatened. Oh, don't forget to start a ringgit a sympathiser campaign to pay your "correct-correct-correct" lawyer's fee.
Somebody insults you being wheel-chair bound? Tell MADD that they should feel insulted too and you'll become an overnight hero.

Think You've A Bead On Liberation/Moksha/Makrifat?

The omnipresent possibility of sudden and painful death increases the religious desire for penitence, but it also evokes a hysterical desire for amusement while still possible, a last dance as a cold comfort.
Quod fuimus, estis; quod sumus, vos eritis - What we were you are; what we are, you will be.
Don't curse the ogre sitting on your chest while you pray for your life; he's only the phenotype. His genotype goes all the way to the almighty. But if you can get away with it, poke him in the eye all the same.
It is now possible to create life in the lab from organic matter. Since organic matter consists of inorganic matter, it is a matter of time before the lab boys create life from recycled plastic. You're heading in the right direction if you don't see it as a threat to your what-is-after-all foisted faith.
You've got one foot in the door if you feel every square inch of earth is holy especially your backyard and not just Mecca or a golf course that is deserving of being kept spick-n-span so you will not hesitate to kiss the very ground you're standing on.
If you have been hanged for your crime, you've paid your dues and earned a ticket to get there.
If you are alone and not feel lonely, you're almost certainly there.
If some blighter you scythed down with an irrefutable argument reacts by using emotional appeals to the crowd/tribe/authority, see it for what it is and get a move on.
If you're stuck arguing over nothing with some jerk, you've come unstuck.
You're there if every kayak stroke you execute becomes an end unto itself.
You're there if you can paddle a kayak, stroke by stroke, in the middle of nowhere and not wonder why you're there or wishing you were some place else.
If you can see the shadow of God sweeping across the face of adversity, you're on the right track.
If you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, you're almost there.
If you can walk alone in the forest and not miss a beat, you've arrived.
If an apparition hoves into view and you extend your hand or say "Hi" in greeting, you're there.
You're there if you can watch wet paint dry and not feel bored.

Duh Differences

What is the diff bet an anonymous donor and an anonymous blogger? The one gives charity, the other takes it for granted.
In a hierarchy, it is not the duty of the one who knows to carry out the task; the task falls on the one who doesn't know how to do it.
What is the difference between Fu Tse Bulat and Fu Tse Bulu? One is an ulat (worm), the other comes from the hulu (country bumpkin).
To record a digital photo in RAW is as different from doing it in the raw as a raw wound is from a raw deal. Huh?
The difference between a beauty parlor and a funeral parlor is the former is where women go to curl up and dye while the latter is where many people end up when they give up living and die.
What is the diff btwn two similar looking Chinese shops on opposite sides of a street? It's in the name: one is WEE KEN FATT; the other is SOH KEN WEE.
A komodor is a dragon in name, a dragon is a komodor in vain.
To create is divine, to procreate is human.
What is the difference between a prostitute and a solicitor? In Singapore, prostituting is legal, soliciting isn't.
What is the diff betwixt a group and a crowd? A group begins at three and ends at six, a crowd is more.
What is the difference between Malaysia and Singapore? Malaysia is a tree besieged while Singapore is its offshoot unscathed. Singapore is a couch, Malaysia is a slouch. The difference between Singapore and Malaysia is the difference between GRO and prostitute.
The difference between orange and apple is, orange is insensitive while apple is sensitive; one is thicker-skinned than the other.
What is the difference between a child and an adult? A child will grow into an adult while an adult will regress into a child.
What is the difference between the sun and the moon? The sun gives out light while the moon reflects it.
What is the difference between a mountain and a valley? A mountain is phallic, a valley is pudendic.
What is the difference between a bus and a lorry? A bus carries passengers, a lorry carries goods.
What is the difference between an island and a lake? An island is land surrounded by water while lake is water surrounded by land.

Fallacies of False Comparison

Contrary to conventional wisdom, you can compare anything to anything: apples to oranges, buses to lorries, gods to humans. Start with a commonality and proceed therefrom.
Why should we waste taxpayers' money to send one Malaysian into space when we could better spend it to send hundreds of Tamil urban poor children to schools and avoid losing the Indian vote?
Knee-jerk response every time Malaysia is unfavourably compared to Singapore: Singapore is different.
Why should we help Sufiah Farouk get out of her morass while thousands of our own citizens deserving help are not?

Ironies

A wise man said that life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take away our breath. Hmm. If this is true my life counts for zero. I'll stick to trite and true, good old fashioned breathing then.
Many of the things I thought I couldn't do without are stashed away used once, unused or still in the box, presenting a different possibility to young fingers such as prising parts off.
When I was young and impoverished, I dreamt of having all sorts of things; now that I am somewhat better off, I don't feel like having them any more.
All the trails to run, the rivers to paddle and all I do is mind my two youngest kids.
When I was free of responsibilities I didn't have enough money to do some of the things I wanted to; now that I have enough, they tie me down.

Come Again?

A bait, a bite, but don't bate your breath.
A self-respecting Malay would rather die than be caught dead boning up on English grammar a day before E-day.
KFC: Here or to go? TESL: Go where?
Students copy in a desperate attempt to pass muster; Chinese manufacturers copy because they are past masters.
Exam Technique: When you panic upon seeing other candidates have started scribbling away on their answer papers, don't. Just copy the questions. The others are doing just that too, sending you into the scare hole you're in.
Casting Net Exam Technique: When you don't know the what-is-in-all-likelihood a one-word answer, copy the whole para from the given text which you think contains the single dang word.
Race: Something that you wear to fill in the blank.
Religion: Something that you wear to hide your weird thoughts.
Sixth Finger: Something that you hide so as not to appear odd.
Exam Technique: When you don't know the answer, copy the question to look busy. This is a sure-fire tactic to send the other jerks sitting closest to you into a frenzy of copying questions and writing long drawn answers when a single-word answer would have aced. This will create a ripple effect of frenzied copying down the whole exam hall, pleasing the VC or Education Minister if either happens by. Duh.
Kennel: A horse that looks like a dog.
Relationship: A ship carrying refugee families and their rations.

Oxymorons, Paradoxes, Tautologies

Conspicuously absent.
Sleepy eyes.
Whispering loudly.
Deafening silence.
Mutual bonding.
A dead corpse.
Kill it until it is dead.
Can God exist independent of creation? Can an artist exist independent of his art?
If there are no humans, who is going to say God exists?
All statements starting with all are false.
There is no such thing as absolute truth including the purported truth in this sentence.
Mental constipation is likely to result in verbal diarhoea.
There is nothing in the empty glass.
Group discussion
Participate actively
John first started to play the piano ...
God cannot, has not, will not, without going through human agency, a car build. But Malaysia can!
Scream loudly
My personal opinion
Repeat again one more time
New beginning, new dawning
If God is so loving, why does he allow so much injustice and evil? Test? Test a new born by having him thrown into a thrash bin? To make the grade to enter Paradise? There has gotta be a better way to run a baby exam!
Bloggers, Unite!
Does God exist outside or inside limitless space?
All Existence Is Contingent
God Exists
Misanthropes United

More Aphorisms

The purpose of life is to find patience; those who have found it, go live your life.
Loss and gain is only the surface trough and crest of a zero sum sea of life.
Life is a school of hard knocks, stoicism is the master.
Some people say the true test of character is not how we handle adversity, but how we handle power; that may be true but my candidate is the lack of both.
The human body is designed to walk and run, so a sedentary life is not only unnatural but wreaks havoc on its function.
Prince or pauper, saint or sinner, victim or villain, everyone is assigned a role in the unfolding cosmic drama.
Every negative thing you do or say is a chip off the block.
Breath is the exercise of patience.
When we are patient we connect with the Universal.
Patience is to the soul as eternity is to the moment and energy is to the atom.
Patience is only a step or second behind instinct waiting to serve.
Patience is a tap into the hidden meaning below surface data.
Patience is the substance of soul.
Every knock in life is a knead to leaven the soul.
Comfort is to the soul as lack of exercise is to health.
Adversity is to the soul as exercise is to health.

Soundbites: 99 Names of this Blog

Consider yourself almost there if you can feel not getting is of equal value as getting and count yourself as having arrived if you can feel not having is of greater value than having.
I'm a beat in god's heart, an impulse in his veins and an uptake in his breath.
From the Ground Beneath to the Ground of Being
A Journey Into the Deathless Country
Word a Blunt Instrument
Into the Country of the Awakened Dead
Decline to Enter the Gate Until the Last Cow Has Come Home
A Rush of Thoughts Taking Flight as a Pattern of Words
Winged Thoughts Take Flight in a Patttern of Words
Imaginative Writing Is A Celebration of Life
A Rush of Emotions, A Flight of Thoughts, A Pattern of Words
Awake the Dead, Await the Living
Into The Awakened State
Sensory Inputs, Literary Outputs
From Lust We Came, To Dust We Return
As Here, So There; As There, So Here
Critical Mass, Creative Mess
Making Sense of the Undifferentiated Mass
A Vent To The Creative Impulse
Take A Bead On Life
Like an eagle from its nest on the precipice a mile high, no less a worm in its hole in the ground inches deep, surveying the celestial plateau atop the existential range, I feel out the world around me and fill up my senses with its impressions and intimations; unlike a deer who looks up its antlers, no less the heavens, for signs of the divine, I look to my feet to tap into the beat of time.
The Games God Play
WormHole
Hell's Safe Haven
The Here-After In The Here-n-Now
FingerUp
No Flock To Fleece, No Fleece To Flock
PeepDeep: A Look At Life (100)
Abiding Self-Image: Packraft On My Back, Dog By My Feet, Austropithecus On My Mind
No Road But The River
Water Walker, Trail Treader
Godstruck, Soul Unstuck
All Cranked Up But No Track To Race
Baby Thrown Out With The Bath Water
Running the Gauntlet of Life
Walk the Word, Word the Walk
Wordwalker
Return to TaringAnu
"I" of the Storm
Clipped Wings, Spiritual Wings (88)
Surveying The Celestial Plateau Atop The Existential Range
Ridding Accumulated Clutter
Weaning Away From Dependencies, Pride & Prejudices
All the Sound and Fury Coming to Nought
Fly On The Wall
A Misanthrope's Musings
Cosmic Interface
A Speck On The Ocean Of Life
Bird On A Wire (79)
Wings of Whimsy
Flight of Fancy
Blogspoof
PhiloSufi
This Spoofing Life
Black Spy Vs White Spy
Yak-Yakety-Yak
Existential Watch
Seruan Al-Maarri
PedalPlanetPaddle
Teh-O-Ki
Kitting Out Thoughts With Words
CrankedUp
Step Into The River
Running The River Of Life
Running The Gauntlet In Echo Canyon Of Life
A Chasm Of Ricochetting Echoes
Where There Be Drums, There Be Me
Drum Beat
Beat Of Drums
Sun In Cancer, Sagittarian Moon: Bits Don't Fit
What Is, Is Not, What Is Not, Is
Tell It Like It Is
Zero Sum Loss
Traversing the Wasteland of the Mind
Ground Zero
Aquarius Rising, Sun in Cancer, Sagittarian Moon: Destiny, my Friends, is in the Pull of Gravity and the Pool of Genes.
Tears of the Travailer
Teasing Out The Splinter In the Cosmos
Sound N Fury
Macho Ado About Nothingness
Be Me
Mindminer
Mining the Mind
As Uncanny A Life
My Life's Journey
Silvery Tongue, Savory Words
Nothing Is but What Is Not
Simple As That
Blogshot
Blogsport: Writing this blog is like running a marathon through a canyon where thoughts ricochet off its walls and reverberate back as a thunder of words smiting the runner to a new level of writer's high.
Selling My Soul To The Canny Blogshop
Demythologising God
Human Farm
The World In The Palm
Viewing the World from the Seat of my Pants
The View From Here
Kicking Stones, Skimming Pebbles
For Whom Time Tolls
No Telling
Time To Tell
Tis Time
Soundbites
Peduk Buah Gharik: Last Hurray
Foot Loose, Fancy Free
FeetUp
Feet, Take Me There
FootFalls
Marathoning Into The Nineties
Patter of Feet
Feet, Don't Fail Me Now
PhiloSufic Verses
Nothing Better To Do Than Blogging My Life Away
If So, So Be It
Bits Don't Fit
Random Bits
Kosher Closure (1)

Fellowship of Cancerians

Yasmin Ahmad, July 1, 1958
Dr Raymond Moody, June 30, 1944
Dr Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, July 8, 1926
Maimun Yusof, June 24, 1917
V S Naipaul, July 17, 1932
Herman Hesse, July 2, 1877
Nathaniel Hawthorne, July 4
Hart Crane, July 21
Mary Baker Eddy, July 16
Alice Munro, July 10
Henry-David Thoreau, July 12
Hunter S. Thompson, July 18
Jean-Paul Sarte, June 21
Marcel Proust, July 10
George Orwell, June 25
Iris Murdoch, July 15
Dean Koontz, July 9
Franz Kafka, July 3
Robert A. Heinlein, July 7
H. Rider Haggard, June 22
Barbara Cartland, July 9
Nelson Rockefeller, July 8, 1908
Ingmar Bergman, July 14, 1918
Meryl Streep, June 22, 1949
Kris Kristofferson, June 22, 1936
George Bush, July 6, 1946
Nelson Mandela, July 18, 1918
Tom Hanks, July 9, 1956
Dalai Lama, July 6, 1935
Ernest Hemingway, July 21, 1899
Sara Yanis, June 22, 2002
Helen Keller, June 27, 1880
Sylvester Stallone, July 6, 1946
Siti Hasmah Ismail, July 12, 1926
Mahathir Mohammad, July 10, 1926
Zaharan Razak, July 11, 1946

Favorite Songs

Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield
Cotton Fields - CCRevival
My Old Kentucky Home - Johnny Cash
Beren & Tinuviel - Colin Rudd
Rangeela (Various) - AR Rahman
Chaiya, Chaiya - AR Rahman
Hare Krishna, Hare Rama - Dum Maro Dum
Various Arabic - Hakim
Lodi - CCRevival
Words - Bee Gees
Lady in Black - Uriah Heep
Days of 49 - Bob Dylan
I Want You - Bob Dylan
Maroc - Chlouh
Wassiye - Habib Koite
Music Project from Mali - Desert Blues
Ichichila Holiyana - Tartit
YoyoMa - Bobby McFerrin
Don't Worry, Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin
World of Music - Ini Kamoze, Sly, Robbie
Hot Stepper - Ini Komoze
A Little Bit Of Soap - The Fabulous Echoes
Oh Malaya - Anneke Gronloh
I Know - Naomi & The Boys
Blame It On The Bossa Nova - Eydie Gorme
Follow That Dream - Elvis Presley
I Got Lucky - Elvis Presley
G. I. Blues - Elvis Presley
All Shook Up - Elvis Presley
Let's Twist Again - Chubby Checker
Lambada - Kaoma
Rivers of Babylon - Boney M
Waiting For A Girl Like You - Foreigner
Nights In White Satin - Moody Blues
Little Red Riding Hood - The Animals
Wooly Bully - Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
I Walk The Line - Connie Francis
Que Sera, Sera - Connie Francis
Besame Mucho - Connie Francis
Kopi Susu - Sandra Reemer
Sergio Leone - Jackson Browne
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Ennio Morricone
For A Few Dollars More - Ennio Morricone
Spiel Mir das Lied Vom Tod - Sergio Leone
AMV Val Noir - Shigeru Umebayashi
Polonaise - Shigeru Umebayashi
Silence-Delirium - Sarah McLachlan
Wait For Me - Maggie
When I Grow Up - Pussycat Dolls
Deli Oglan - Hadise
Blue Monday - New Order
We're Alone Now - Tiffany
Is This Love - Bob Marley
Under Pressure - David Bowie
Bersabarlah Sayang - Anis Suraya
Listen to the Music - Doobie Brothers
Running On Empty - Jackson Browne
Sukiyaki - Kyu Sakamoto
Perhaps, Perhaps - Anastasia
Sweet Baby James - James Taylor
Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell
Hot Stuff - Donna Sommer
Funky Town - Lipps Inc
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Black and Gold - Sam Sparro
Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
Every Breath You Take - Police
So Jah Say - Bob Marley
Let Love In - Dennis Brown
Thick As A Brick - Jethro Tull
Gypsies, Tramps, Thieves - Cher
Romani Gypsy Trail Dances - Miriam Peretz
Habibi - Alabina
Ya Rauyah - Rachid Taha
I Can't Go For That - Hall & Oates
Like A Virgin - Modonna
Take A Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed
Tie A Yellow Ribbon - Dawn
Knock Three Times - Dawn
Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini - Brian Hyland
The Voice of Love - Johnny Nash
Stir It Up - Johnny Nash
Bagdat - Sagopa Kajmer
Arthas Destiny - Loreena Mckennitt
Feel Me Heaven - Enigma
Eyes of Truth - Enigma
The Future - Leonard Cohen
A Singer Must Die - Leonard Cohen
That's No Way To Say Goodbye - Leonard Cohen
Bad Company - Bad Company
Under Pressure - Queen
Mustafa, Mustafa - A R Rahman
Dil Se Re - A R Rahman
Self Control - Laura Branigan
Gloria - Laura Branigan
Maga Dog - Peter Tosh
Could You Be Loved - Bob Marley
Stir It Up - Bob Marley
Allegro Moderato - Bach
Loy Krathong
Arpegiateur - Jean Michel Jarre
Bells (Tubular Bells II) - Mike Oldfield
I Love You - Lionel Richie
Apache - The Shadows
Ready for Love - Bad Company
Don't Play That Song - Keith Locke & The Quests
Lady (Reggae) - Wayne Wade
Let It Be - Beatles
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Wild World - Cat Stevens
Allahu Allahu Allahu - Nasheed
Sufic Chanting, Various
Bengawan Solo, Tantowi Yahya
Ice Ice Baby, Justin Timberlake
Funky Town, Lipp Inc
Heart of Gold, Neil Young
Al Di La, Connie Francis
Never on Sunday, Connie Francis
Billie Jean, Michael Jackson
Rain Maker, Yanni
Je T'aime, Jane Birkin
I Can See Clearly Now, Roberta Flack
Fu Man Chu, Desmond Dekker
The Israelites, Desmond Dekker
I Can See Clearly Now, Holly Cole
Rivers of Babylon, Boney M
Rasputin, Boney M
Cicak, Cikgu Naim
The Thrill Is Gone, BB King
Dreams, Fleetwood Mac
San Francisco, Scott Mackenzie
Sayur Kace, Mat Rof
Oghe Kecek Besar, Mat Rof
Soul Sacrifice (Woodstock 1969), Santana
What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
Papa Was A Rolling Stone, The Temptations
Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin
Stolen Child, Loreena Mckennitt
Apo Kono Jang, Ally Nor & Mastura
La Oba, Kassim Selamat
Tell Every Little Star, Linda Scott
Dost, Dost Na Raha, Sangam
If, David Gates
Save the Last Dance for Me, Michael Buble
Summertime, Janis Joplin
Toccata & Fugue, Bach
Dance of Wolves, Loreena McKennitt
Only The Lonely, Roy Orbison
Tell Laura, Ricky Valance
Eat It, Weird Yankovich
I'm A Surgeon, Weird Yankovich
Candle In The Wind, Elton John
Your Song, Elton John
Coconut Woman, Harry Belafonte
Jamaica Farewell, Harry Belafonte
American Pie, Don Mclean
Always On My Mind, Willie Nelson
Seasons In The Sun, Terry Jacks
Sabre Dance, Vanessa Mae
Laughing Buddha, Vanessa Mae
Seroja, S.Effendi
Apo Nok Di Kato, Blues Gang
Oh Susanna, Stephen Foster
Terkenang Jauh Di Kampung, Oslan Hussein
Jambalaya, CCR
Bad Moon Rising, CCR
Let There Be Drums, Roger Taylor
Let There Be Drums, Sandy Nelson
Eye In The Sky, Alan Parsons Project
You're So Vain, Carly Simon
Cradle of Love, Johnny Preston
All For The Love Of A Girl, Johnny Horton
Out in New Mexico, Johnny Horton
Bird on the Wire, Judy Collins
Bird on the Wire, Johnny Cash
Soldier of Fortune, Deep Purple
Anak/Child, Freddie Aguilar
Temple of the King, Rainbow
Bakit Asal, Halim Yazid
Mystic Man, Peter Tosh
Indian Reservation, Paul Revere
Horse With No Name, America
I Fell In Love With DJ, Che'Nelle
Ipoh Mali, Kenny Sia
Smack That, Akon
Hotel California, Eagles
Sacrifice, Elton John
Eye of the Tiger, Survivor
Sara, Stevie Nick/Fleetwood Mac
Circle in the Sand, Belinda Carlisle
Street Lights, BB King
Bobby McGhee, Janis Joplin
Suzanne, Lenny Cohen

Books I Know A Little About

Evening is the Whole Day - Preeta Samarasan
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield
A Brief History Of Time - Stephen Hawking
God Is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens
Sea Kayaking - John Dowd
God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Native Son - Richard Wright
Of Mice and Men - John Stenbeck
Brown Water White River, Alan Holman
Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
Siddharta, Herman Hesse
Yoga Sutras, Patanjali
Nonsense, How To Overcome It, Robert J Gula
Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham
The Outsider, Colin Wilson
A Speck On The Sea, William Longyard
1985, Anthony Burgess
1984, George Orwell
Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger
To Kill A Mocking Bird, Harper Lee
The God Boy, Ian Cross

Monitoring the Manitou Within

The solution to the world's problems, as much as the personal, lies in the soul. The key to unlock the soul is meditation or the focusing of the mind to look deep within. The anchor of meditation is the breath. Tend your breath and you'll mend the world.
No matter the storm raging, the challenge looming, ride it out on the stillness within.
Show me the range of a wolf, show me the flight of a raven, and I'll show you the living proof of the pathway to heaven.
Being in the now, as much as in the know, erases the ifs and buts, ain'ts and pains.
Embrace earth, lever gravity, monitor the breath, be the stillness.
Stillness is the spot where Buddha sits.
Ultimately life has no meaning, reason or purpose, but along the way it is a matter of survive-and-thrive to speculate or invent one.
So you've got a whole cache of dem rich men's diseases? Diabetes, CHD, gout, osteoporosis? Don't go for expensive treatment or/and invasive surgery. Try eating frugally for three months.
Replacing anger with a smile is the best therapy.
Not reacting is the best form of defence.
Keeping well and fit is doing the daily dozen.
Living well, staying fit and being able to put thoughts into words is the sweetest form of getting even with life's adversities and injustices.
Living well is more a question of getting more from less than getting less from more.

Adversity Quotes

When I've nothing better to do, I monitor the traffic in my nostril.
Now that I've become me, I'm free from the fetters of becoming.
The strongest man in the world is the man who stands alone. Ibsen
Adversity is the punctuation marks which give pauses, stops and new starts in life to make it readable - to the literate.
The soul is like the ocean where adversity is the storms on its surface and the currents underneath while a calm sea is the equivalent of a fortunate period; both are the opposite ends of what kneads the ocean - and soul - over.
Adversity is like weight-training, one uses resistance to strengthen the body, the other the soul.
Adversity is the anvil on which we hammer out our lives. ZR
Thorns and stings, and all such things, just make stronger our spiritual wings.
Don't dwell on your misfortunes for the longer you delay the more they will affect you. ZR
To become a deeper person is the honor of those who have suffered but only if they reflect and write. ZR
Adversity has the unintended effect of bringing out a talent which in its absence would have lain fallow. ZR
There is no rainbow without rain; there is no joy without tears. ZR
Instead of deluding yourself that everything happen for the best, try to make the best of everything. ZR
Every fallen fruit of trouble gives cause to a growing seed of opportunity. ZR
Often we lose the why of living and find it back after going through hell. ZR
We find ease and comfort but remain static among those who agree with us; we find strength and growth among those who don't. ZR
Health is greater than material wealth and social status and rarely the three coincide. ZR
The simplest and grandest pleasure is the fact of being alive. ZR
When adversity hits you, google adversity. ZR
When adversity hits you, try writing. ZR
If you can't change the thing you don't like, change the way you look at it.
You can see the stars only when it is dark.
Things are never so bad they can't be made worse.
We turn to God when a storm hits us only to realize it was him who sent the storm.
Bad is always no good until worse happens.
All troubles lead to home. ZR
Trouble touches everyone; it is just that they don't show it, so we think we are the only one and don't want to show it.
You think your troubles are hard? Try toothache. ZR
The world is a hard place; the only easy spot is the grave.
The heavier the burden, the stronger the shoulders.
The path to the soul is through character.
God takes away something from you because he has a different course for you.
Adversity is a speech delivered by God to you.
Think of adversity as the silent language of the gods.
Constructive stoicism is the closest to ultimate reality.
Don't get round trouble but handle it to gain capacity. Don't embrace it either or treat it as an enemy. Regard it as a friend and be on speaking terms with it as life is full of them.
A self-righteous person does not seek a second opinion. ZR
A delusion strongly believed gives a form of inebriated courage. ZR
A folly is a teacher disguised in fool's clothing.
Most people can overcome adversity; the shallow-minded is usually quicker off the mark than the creative soul who tends to stay back a bit to savor the pain to suit a deeper if not higher purpose.
Strength comes with overcoming.
A loss marks the end of a chapter. A new one begins.
A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.
Every wrong loses a point, every right earns one. Stay on the credit side.
The victim who forgives the one who did him wrong gets to keep his soul to be bargained back later. ZR
The victim of theft who smiles steals something back from the thief. ZR
Adversity, no less good fortune, is an impostor who wants to steal your attention away from reality.
Adversity lurks around every bend and turn of life.
A life of ease and comfort is a form of hidden adversity.
The whole of existence is adversity.
A fat man will never say he is fat; he says it is normal just as a smoker denies smoking is unhealthy. ZR
Adversity is a school for souls where scoundrels play truant. ZR
A boy who cried because he had no shoes saw a man with no leg.
If you are going through hell, keep going.
In a storm if all that can be done has been done bunker down and sit it out.
When adversity strikes you it is the shock that makes it seems big and everything else small. ZR

Ten Tenets of Islamic Yoga

1. Every step you take, every move you make, start with a bismillah, linger your breath a little longer, and smile a beatific smile - that is the essence of Islamic yoga.
2. Don't have to do yoga in a formalized, formulaic way, you can do yoga anytime you do the dishes or while waiting to toss a pancake.
3. When performing formal yoga asanas, face the kiblat and recite Al-Fatihah where appropriate. This is Islamic fengshui.
4. If we say there is a Hindu god and a Muslim god, it is as good as saying there are two gods. Since both Islam and Hinduism say there is only one god, it must be the same god though numerous are their names - Ar-Rahman, Brahman, Al-Jabbar, Shiva, Al-Kabeer, Krishna ...
5. You may not incorporate particular yoga asanas into the prescribed solat routines, but you can put the spirit of solat in yoga which is to be near god which is as good as to be one in spirit with god, methinks.
6. Start and finish with a solat sunat or hajat if appropriate.
7. In a mixed yoga class, dress appropriately either neutrally or to reflect an Islamic identity.
8. Instead of humming "Aum," hum "Mim." Both vibrate the roof of the mouth sending the practitioner into ecstasy.
9. Instead of thinking of the image of Ganesh or Shiva when meditating, concentrate on the name Allah, which, let it be said, is also the name of god used by Christian Arabs and Malay Christians.
10. Replace chanting with zikir.

Celestial Ship to Ground Control: This is God Speaking ...

A prostitute is a metaphor for anyone who does things in an alienating, depersonalizing way or perfunctory manner. Your heart and mind are not in what you are doing but you derive some form of indirect benefit. However if you derive fun and funds from it, heck , you're one happy hooker!
"Today's religion will be the future's mythology. Both believed at one time by many; but proved wrong by the clever." ~ Steven Crocker
Carried to its logical conclusion, the whole of existence is a delusion, a dream; you wake up one day and realize you didn't exist, that you were just dreaming!
You do derive strength from a belief; the reason does not matter. Even believing in a frog as the son of god will give you strength.
A belief is like money. It is a valid currency by decree. In itself it is only paper.
A religious belief is like the economy. It is strong only because you believe in it .
A keeper or defender of religion is like the mousedeer who presides over cow crap by naming it King Solomon's Dinner. ZR
Adversity is enlightenment you wear back to front; turn it around and you'll see it in its real set.
"Religion subverts science, fosters fanaticism, encourages bigotry." Dawkins.
"The religious indoctrination of children by parents and teachers in faith schools is a form of mental abuse." Richard Dawkins.
The idea that god should be worshipped is as illogical as saying we should worship the universe. God is the universe for there is nothing else outside the universe. Space has no intrinsic boundary; it is defined by its content, transcendental god as much as the transacting bodies from the smallest to the biggest.
"When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity; when many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." Robert Pirsig.
A life of ease and riches, if it doesn't lead to enlightenment, will lead to disillusionment.
The vast and intricate tapestry that is the universe is but a template for the tapestry of the human brain, no less a tapestry for the boundless reaches of the human imagination.
Listening to the sufic music of Mercan Dede, you just know Paradise awaits, despite, and because of, everything.
All sacred texts are written by humans. Period. Ok, they are divinely inspired. So is this blog!
Contrary to consensus, every sacred text does not so much talk about gods and angels as about humans! Even if they talk about gods and angels, or god himself purports to talk, it is in anthropomorphic terms! Even depicting them in human images! Hehehehe!
A writer who uses writing as a tool to explore existence and its meaning is closer to God than one who writes trash, who says there are no words to describe anything, and, farthest, are those who write nothing. Tissokay if you write for money only ... just like prostitutes.
God is a piece of blank paper on which we its human author writes on. For, without humans, there is no history; without history, there is nothing to write about.
Talking of mirrored worlds, every micro pattern and drama in our lives is a reflection of God's cosmic pattern and drama; the particular is a chip off the universal; as here, thus there; as above, so below.
Mundane existence is like a roller coaster - after the ups and downs, twists and turns, you exit at where you got in, feeling more alive.
In gain there is loss, in loss there is gain.
God is as complex and simple as you make him out to be: complex because he encompasses and transcends existence; simple because he is made up of three letters.
Whether God is supra or participates, as a neutral or a partisan, in history, depends on one's point of view.
God is ultimately all good, but he has to put himself and his creations through the bad of history to arrive at the good at its end.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, God is not all-knowing, all-powerful. Otherwise creation and existence is utterly meaningless.
Creation like war is a serious game, a game to the death and like all games the outcome will depend on how the game is played out.
God cries oceans in seeing his children suffer for him but he will recompense them with the end of history; in its place is everlasting peace.
God is in utter pain when he subjects man to pain but this self-flagellation is part of God's process in rounding himself off.
God creates women to complement men in the same way he creates humans to complement himself.
God is in utter need to humanize himself before he can feel godly, just as a man must walk in the shoes of another before he can know him.
We are most godlike when we are patient, when we see that gains and losses cancel out in existence's zero sum game.

Blog Ethos

If you can't change adversity, strengthen your heart and sharpen the mind.
This blog throws pies in the face disguised as opinions - all offa dirty day's done deeds.
This blog dishes out opinions up close and impersonal.
The difference between an anonymous blogger and his hidden identity is the same as between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - a split personality.
What is the difference between an anonymous comment and a catfish? The one is a bottom-dwelling, scum-sucking, lowlife nitwit. The other is just a fish.
Don't react to the "fist-in-your-face," it is only a particular pheno to the collective geno, evincing specifics of the species.
If you cannot make the world a better place, don't make it any worse.
Reach out and embrace the Universal.
As thick and multi-layered our sense of alienation is, as tarried our journey to ultimate union will be.
To love "if" is easy, it is to love without "ifs" that is difficult.
I'm just a mixed-up, kick-assed, knock-kneed, eyebrows-down, nostrils-flared, bleary-eyed blighter from the next bunker, having been spat off the pages of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress onto this blogoscape and likely to be swallowed back like a video in reverse for further editing.
In case anyone feels rubbed up the wrong way by my words, fret not, I'm only disguising myself as you!
In case you haven't noticed, the style of this blog is deadpan, serious, humor. Tissokay if you don't laugh.
The comments page is set to anonymous, without monitoring, as a snare to catch small game from the far side of the human psyche.
This blog is written primarily as fallible, thought-provoking, imaginative essays with truth and facts as means, not ends.

Quotes From Literary Field

"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things." TS Elliot
"Always be a poet, even in prose." Charles Baudelaire
"At every crossroad on the path that leads to the future, tradition has placed 10,000 men to guard the past." Maurice Maeterlinck
"I believe that always, or almost always, in all childhoods and in all the lives that follow them, the mother represents madness. Our mothers always remain the strangest, craziest people we've ever met." Marguerite Duras
"If you are in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones." John Stenbeck
"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us from." Marcel Proust
"Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason." Andre Gide
"No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored, solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength." Jack Kerouac
"It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it." - Anais Nin
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." - Ezra Pound
"There are only three things to be done with a woman. You can love her, suffer for her, or turn her into literature." - Lawrence Durrell
"A work of art has no importance whatever to society; it is only important to the individual." Vladimir Nabokov
"Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life trying to untie. - Jean Cocteau
"Take it on the chin and move on." - Naipaul to Theroux on a London street.
"The artist's role is to ask questions, not to answer them." - Chekhov
"Medicine is my lawful wife; literature is my mistress." - Anton Chekhov

The Writer's Prompt

Fine writing called literature is nothing more than the nakedness of the human heart dressed up in varied clothings.
Art invites us to reflect upon this world we live in; without art, the world is just a reflex.
The art of writing is chaos made to order.
Writing, if nothing else, is a culture medium in which brain cells grow.
"If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it." Anais Nin.
Paint with words, write with color.
Just as black is the background color of choice for online slideshows, silence is the frame of sound and the punctuation mark of music.
Silence is the sound of the universe.
I read quotes of famous writers only to spin my own.
"No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written. He may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing." - T. S. Elliot
Don't send off Mat Rempit or Mat Junkie to a penal island, put him on an obstacle course or race in which he has to learn to write and compose regular reports and stories.
Cross the "t" and dot the "i" to steady the word for a smooth and seamless landing in a sentence.
Life is a film in which all roles and sets have been cast and drawn according to a pre-written script in which you the individual actor can only micro-improvise aka wriggle within its straightjacket in the name of creativity or free will.
Life is a snake-n-ladder game in which you bet and lost everything including the shirt off your back.
Life, as much as love, is often said to be a minefield in which you trip and get blown to pieces. You pick up the pieces to reconstruct yourself Terminator II style, ready to carry on where you left off, only to be blown again, and again. It is a game called God's Call.
Helen Keller was blind, deaf and dumb but she learned to read and write and that made all the difference.
A writer dribbles a word past recalcitrant meaning within the rules of grammar to get it into the head of the reader just as a soccer player dribbles a ball past lunging legs within the rules of the game to put it at the back of the net.
The aim of the writer is to remove the smirk on the jaded reader's face which says "So what else is new?" and replace it with "Now, this is something else!"
Writing is both art and craft. Art is about being creative, craft is about using technique. The purpose is to take a new and refreshing look at old questions or come up with new ones. A writer does not repeat known things using the same hackneyed words. The aim is always to surprise even if only to a degree.
Animals, we are them; animals don't write, they use other means, including vocalizations, which we also do, to communicate, only moment to moment, sans history. It is the use of writing which differentiates us from them, but I'm not sure if that should be a priority!
All great civilizations write, even if in hieroglyphics, on clay or hide. By extension, no individual can be great if he doesn't write; and he is nothing if not great for greatness is nothing if not soul itself.
Writing is evocative; mathematics is calculative; it is the latter that has done damage to the environment, not the former.
The first person to sail around the world was a Malay named Enrique but he was no writer and for that his descendants are the poorer. The latest Malay to sail around the world, and this time alone, is Azhar Mansor. He is no writer too but a writer Shareem Amry gets under his skin and writes his story.
The Malays lost a whole continent called southern australis because having sailed and landed there, their ancestors failed to write about their feats and their descendants are none the wiser for that.
No tell, no tale; no tale, no truth; no truth, no take; no take, no "terror."
Truth is in the telling; eveything else is inchoate.
The unspoken universe is the undiscovered crime, the illegal logging hidden in the forest that had not happened until Karam Singh Walia reports it.
Taking out my word for a walk; I shan't be gone long.
Walk the word and word the walk.
Each time a writer strains to give birth to a word, he dies a little death from which rises a little bird.
A writer is an independent spirit, the not are hacks.
A writer's task is to see greatness in the small and smallness in the great.
"Nothing can be done except little by little." - Charles Baudelaire
Madness, coming in from the far left, makes half of brainsphere and blogosphere, the other half is made up of reason.
Madness plus reason equals creativity.
There's a way to dem da hill; there is a method to dem da madness.
Those whom God wants to make writers, first He makes them mad.
Mad as a writer.
People who are never mad will still enter Paradise, they just take a more circuitous route and longer time.
You need a moment of madness to get into the mood of writing.
A runner's or sexual high is a magical spell that could easily be broken by words.
What the trampled heart cries out, the gentle hand of the mind puts in writing.
Writing is kindled by a spark of madness, reason builds it into a steady flame.

In A Hierarchy ...

... it may cost thousands of ringgit to deliver a single letter which may contain only a single ringgit.
... a larger proportion of monies is expended to prop up structures and fund the toing and froing than going to the intended recipients.
... to score in a test is more important than the acquisition of competency.
... filling forms to conform to expectations ride rough shod on the realities they purport to reflect.
... pride, prejudices and positions get in the way of real competencies.
... rituals, rules, repetitions, reports and formal rectitude are emphasized as surrogates for real work which never gets done.

Bucking Conventional Wisdom

Religion is like a hockey game. Outside, you look ridiculous holding a hockey stick.
Religion is a tool to manipulate and subjugate the masses into propping up the entrenched powers, turning its followers into slavish drones, becalmed martyrs and frenzied fighters for its cause, weeding out the odd ones who question or rebel; if the odd wins the odds, a new religion arises and a new cycle begins.
If space is boundless, invisible, without beginning or end, is the first cause of all that exists, speaks a language called the laws of nature and physics, is so close to us as to be part of us, then God has a competitor!
God created Saddam Hussein. Culling Saddam is culling the messenger.
If God is all powerful and all knowing, then he causes disasters, manmade or natural. What does that make him? A mass murderer?
If God goes AWOL leaving his children at home alone, he is liable to be prosecuted under the Child Neglect Act.
The God that the word or concept god refers to is not the same thing; going by the word alone, God is full of inconsistencies and contradictions.
If God is perfect, he does not want; if he does not want, he does not create; if he still creates when he does not want, then he is either a child or mad.
Religion is only useful in gaining power, position and place by churning over the compost heap of the fetid mass.
You don't have to know God through religion; you can know God directly through consciousness; religion is only for the undifferentiated mass.
A religion is the problem it promises to solve; it only salves but does not heal; devoid of external sustenance, it feeds upon itself.
A religion is no more than a multilayered myth growing bigger by an accretion of beliefs.
The best way to deal with a problem is through dissection; religion is only a bandaid and without practical followups, worsens it.
Religion is a means of indirect coping, a symbolic diversion, a stopgap salve using rituals and symbols; why not deal with your problems directly as they come?
Religion is only one more offered solution to a problem, If you don't have a problem, you don't need a solution.
Racism is just another vent hole through which tribal man lets off excess steam.
There is no such thing as a clash of religions, inter or intra. It is only the field on which human nature pits against human nature.
Money, it is said, is the root of all evil. Disagree. Money is the visible tree. The unseen root is the Ego.
We've been told power corrupts, but the lack of it is even more a spawning ground.

My 41 Greatest Songs

Under Pressure - Queen
SuficDreams/Various - Mercan Dede
Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
Staying Alive - Bee Gees
Apache - The Shadows
Brandend Zand (Oh Malaysia) - Anneke Gronloh
Amapola - Los Indios Tabajaras
Samba Pa Ti - Santana
Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
Yumeji's Theme - Shigeru Umebayashi
For a Fistful of Dollars - Ennio Morricone
Sabilulungan - Sundanese Gamelan
Ik Mek Israelite - Desmond Dekker
Ya Mustafa - Bob Azzam
Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell
Matsuri - Kitaro
I Want To Break Free - Queen
Mea Culpa - Enigma
Vande Mataram - A R Rahman
Age of Loneliness - Enigma
Degung Geugeut - Sunda Gamelan
Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield
Om Mani Padme Hum, Ravi Shankar
I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash
Quizas - Nat King Cole
Ulek Mayang - Azian Mazwan Safuan
Green River - Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Mystic's Dream - Loreena McKennitt
Sway - Michael Buble
Banana Boat Song - Harry Belafonte
Matrah Waiya - Betty Banafe
Bird on the Wire - Lenny Cohen
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Gene Pitney
Ayam Den Lapeh - Oslan Hussein
North to Alaska - Johnny Horton
Honey - Bobby Goldsboro
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
Mercedes Benz - Janis Joplin
The Lonely Goatherd - Julie Andrews
Beethoven Symphony No 5
Running Bear - Johnny Preston
Vincent (Starry Night) - Don McLean

It Is Only Human ...

One of the first things an employed Orang Asli will want to do is sit on his haunches on the five-foot way along, say, the main street of Gua Musang leading to the KTM station and finger a fat wrist watch on display to consider strapping it to his wrist by way of telling, no, not time, but his arrival or move one notch above his unemployed peers.
Wherever crowds gather, two parallel circuits soon emerge - one goes eat-drink-litter, the other goes pick-sweep-collect, in a perfect symbiosis of mutual respect and tolerance, like two big snakes in a small cage touching each other at several points.
In conjunction with WED, we write a nice poem or letter declaring our commitment to its cause only to lose its sight out of the door.
Moving into a new house, we have to clear up the mess left by others; vacating it, we become sorely tempted to leave an equal measure in our wake.

Writer's High

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

An Exchange with a Malay Christian

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