God Smiles at You ....

A Smile from God --- Sri Ramana Maharshi

Albert Einstein and Tagore

“A problem cannot be solved by the same level of consciousness that created it.  We must change our consciousness in order to solve the problem."

                                                     Albert Einstein

"Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it. Nirvana is not the blowing out of the candle,  it is the extinguishing of the flame  because day is come."

                                              Rabindranath Tagore

"The followers of different religions quarrel about Truth because they never have experienced it. Most of them don't even try to experience it; they are much happier to quarrelling, debating and fighting each other. The Truth is actually very simple: when individual self dies in the Heart, which is what happens if one successfully follows the quest, 'Who am I?', the Self alone remains, one without a second. That Self is Truth, the Self is God. What can be simpler than that? But people don't want simplicity, they want something  complicated so they can argue and fight over."

Sarada

“Know that the wondrous jnana vichara (Self-enquiry) is only for those who have attained purity of mind by softening and melting within. Without this softening and melting away of the mind, brought about by thinking of the feet of the Lord, the attachment to the “I” that adheres to the body will not cease to be.”

Sri Ramana Mahashi

Who is thinking? - David Godman

Question: I’m not clear how to make the best use of you as my teacher. I want to make the best use of my time here, but I’m not clear how I should use my time. What should I be doing that I am not doing at home?

Papaji: Take care of the purpose for which you have come. First, clarify your purpose. A relationship is not really necessary. That we can look after later. Purpose is the foremost, the most important thing.

When you are thirsty, you go to the river. Your purpose is to quench your thirst. It is not to ask the river what kind of relationship you have with it. You don’t need a relationship; you only need a purpose. You came here the day before yesterday and your purpose is to find out who you are. Find this out. Know who you are. If you first know who you are, then you will automatically know who I am.

So, your first priority is the question ‘Who am I?’ Once you have discovered that, you will know the real nature of all the other things and people that you see. First start with this question ‘Who am I?’ We started on this question the day before yesterday. You need to recognise yourself. Now, what was that question I asked you to ask?

Question: Who?

Papaji: Yes, what was the full question? 

Question: Who is thinking?

Papaji: Yes, this was the question I gave you. I told you to find the answer to this question. I asked you to return home to the Self through asking this question, and then to come back and tell me what you saw there.

Question: What do I see there?

Papaji: Yes, what do you see there? [There was a pause while Papaji wrote ‘who’ on a piece of paper and showed it to the questioner.] What do you see here?

Question: I see a word on a piece of paper.

Papaji: This simple word is your question.

Question: What do I see in here?

Papaji: Anywhere. Wherever the ‘who’ is. Your question is, ‘Who is thinking?’

Question: I can see the question.

Papaji: Can you see where the question comes from? Focus on this question and look to see where it arises from. Return back to the ‘who’. What do you see there?

Question: I see arising. I see things arising, one from another.

Papaji: Something arose that is the predicate. Now, what is the subject? Who is thinking? Return from this predicate of thinking and focus on the ‘who’. This is the finish. Now you are at the root, aren’t you? Find out who this ‘who’ is. What is its shape? What is the shape of this ‘who’? What is its form? How is it? What does it look like? [Long pause] What is happening?

Question: The question just arises out of nothing, out of emptiness, and disappears back into emptiness.

Papaji: That’s right. You say this question disappeared into the emptiness. The question was, ‘Who is thinking?’ For thinking you need a mind, don’t you? Now, the process of thinking has been arrested. It happened when you put the question, ‘Who is thinking?’ Now the process has been arrested. Then you said, very correctly, that the question disappears. That’s what you said. ‘There’s emptiness.’ What else do you say?

Question: It’s emptiness; just space.

Papaji: OK, it’s emptiness; it’s space. Emptiness is there; space is there. This is your inherent nature. You can call it presence or space or anything else. It is obstructed by desire and by thinking. It is always obstructed by desire. Emptiness is just the lack, the absence of thoughts and desires. When you have a burden on your shoulder, you are restless. Let us say that you are holding onto two hundred pounds and that you want to get rid of this trouble, this burden.

When you drop it, you have not gained anything. You have not attained some new state that was never there before. You have simply thrown something away that was troubling you and returned to your inherent nature, the inherent state that was there before you loaded yourself up with this weight.

This thinking process, this burden, is a desire that we always carry with us. I am showing you how to drop this unwanted burden. When you ask the question, ‘Who is thinking?’ you arrest the process of thinking and return back to your true nature, your inherent nature, your spontaneous nature, the pure source that is empty. This is your own nature, and this is what you are always. The mind does not enter there. Time does not enter. Death does not enter. Fear does not enter. This is your inherent, eternal nature. If you stay there, there will be no fear. If you step out of it, you step into samsara, manifestation, and there you are in trouble all the time. 

鄭丁賢‧波斯商人‧華人廟宇‧世界觀

一個波斯裔商人之死，和一間華人廟宇有關；難以想像之外，也難免蒙上神秘色彩。

警方披露，波斯裔的阿馬銀行創辦人，胡先納加迪因為阻止吉隆坡觀音堂被拆除，土地被出售，而與人結怨；或許是阻礙了別人的財路，而被殺害。

胡先的華裔妻子是這間廟宇的理事，她本身也中鎗受傷。案情還未全面明朗，然而，從警方的發現，大致可歸納胡先之死有兩種可能原因，一是保護這間廟宇免因發展之名而被拆，二是阻止一宗非道德的交易。

如此推測，胡先很可能為了一個高尚的因由而犧牲。一個擁有財富、名聲和地位的穆斯林，卻為了一間華人的廟宇而失去生命；胡先納加迪究竟是甚麼人？

這是一個多麼引人探索的題目。

正好，胡先納加迪去年出版了他的自傳《海洋與山丘》（The Sea and The Hills），通過這本書，讓我發掘了他的世界。他是波斯裔（伊朗），在阿拉伯的巴林出生；父親是市場的菜販，每天收入少過一美元，生活窮苦。但是，回憶過去，他說，和父母一起生活的日子，是他一生最幸福的時光。

50年代，正值青年時期，他參加地下組織，反抗英國殖民地統治，結果被驅逐出境。當他流浪到黎巴嫩，在地中海的海岸，前途茫茫之際，碰上一個德國人。德國人問他對未來的期望，他說要到西方國家去學習；結果，德國人給了他旅費，並收留了他。

這建立了他的生命觀，當一道門關閉的時候，不要放棄，老天其實替你開啟了另一道門。

在德國，他學會金融投資的知識和竅門，在銀行界發展順利，還收購了瑞士一家製造水翼船的公司。在60年代，他已經發覺東亞才是世界經濟發展的重地，於是把業務搬到新加坡，做東南亞、香港、日本和韓國的生意。

70年代石油危機，阿拉伯國家成為暴發戶，他和大馬政府研商之後，引進資金，成立阿馬發展銀行。當胡先翁要設立伊斯蘭中心，他大力捐助，在吉隆坡成立這個研究中心和博物館。

當馬哈迪告訴他要在馬來西亞創辦一間像是牛津、劍橋水準的大學，他感動之餘，脫售手上的阿馬銀行股票，協助創建了國際伊斯蘭大學。他最後的心願，是準備成立納加迪基金，幫助貧苦兒童受教育；他從自己的身世和成長經驗，瞭解只有教育能夠改變人的命運，而腦力遠比財富重要。

有人問他，他是波斯血緣，阿拉伯出生，在德國成長，在馬來西亞成功；那他的歸屬究竟在哪裡？他回答：他屬於全世界。

而他對大馬最為鍾情，因為這裡是多元種族，多元文化的國家，正是他理想的世界之所在。最終，他因一間華人廟宇而喪命吉隆坡，為不平凡的生命寫下一個離奇，也可能是高尚的句號。

這起事件，對今年的開齋節，或有特別的啟發。開齋節快樂！

Note:

On July 29th 2013, banker Hussain Ahmad Najadi was shot dead while his Malaysian wife Chong Mei Kuen, 49, sustained serious injuries when they were shot from close range at a parking lot, after leaving the Guan Yin Temple in Lorong Ceylon. A gunman who crept from behind, fired randomly at Hussain Ahmad, 75, and his 49-year-old wife at close range, killing the renowned banker on the spot near a car park.

Najadi sustained two shots in the chest while his wife was hit in the left hand and right leg in the 2pm incident.Initial police investigations revealed that the gunman was among three people who waited outside the temple for Hussain Ahmad, who was in a private discussion with a colleague involving a share transaction. The gunman, who wore sports attire, dark glasses and a cap, was believed to have escaped in a taxi together with his accomplices.

Motive behind the killing is still unknown which until this moment police have not made any arrest yet.