The Moment of Truth - Becoming A Living Angel Today

The is the first time I read a book, again and again, about 3 times, before I start my blogpost. There must be something special going on here :)

Master Ryuho Okawa 大川隆法, founder of Happy Science and a prolithic author who published 52 books in a year, has written more than 600 books, was actually in Singapore in mid Sep. I attended his night talk in Orchard hotel, and was sitting in the first VIP row since I come late. Ha.

To put it the least, I wasn't impressed at all on that night speech. Not sure was it only me :) Nevertheless I bumped into this book in Times bookstore on same weekend, and thought I should give it a go. It is on 30% off anyway.

Perhaps, Ryuho is a much better speaker when he delivered his speech in Japanese. This book is a compilation on his few key speeches on his week long travel to Brazil early this year.

It's a good book to have a glimpse of his spiritual mindset of El Cantare.

Few key pointers as a takeaway:

1. We are all spiritual beings with soul. Earth is our training ground, school, to live up our mission. All the setbacks, experiences, happy or bad moments are meant to polish our mind, as at the end of day, we can only bring our mind with us, and not any earthly belongings, back to our eternal home (heaven) and receive our report card.

2. We are the author of our lives. We decide our happiness or unhappiness. It's our mind that chooses one or another.

3. We are God's descendent. God is pure light and love, so we have trace of this within us, and we all have great and equal potential to bring this shine out - to help us, and people surround us. Always be the giver, not seeker of love. We have the duty to bring others happiness.

I particular like pp.12-13, so will quote few phrases directly there:

- Your Soul is your true self
- When you go home to the spirit world, you will be assessed on the clarity, pureness, beauty, and richness of your mind
- Since the mind is the only possession you can take with you to the other world, all of what you experience in this world are materials that help cleanse, buff, and polish your mind. This is the very purpose of life.
- What is essential is to use these events and experiences to polish your mind and give it a brilliant luster
- The world is meant to be a place for you to gain all kind of experiences. It is meant as an opportunity to cultivate a rich, round, and beautiful heart.
- When you feel lost in life and don't know where to turn, always choose faith. It takes great courage to believe in something that is completely invisible and to devote your life to values that cannot be perceived by the eyes.
- The work that you do here on Earth will have ten times more worth than if it was done in the spirit world
- You cannot see Heaven
- You cannot see God
- You cannot see Hell
- But those of you who keep walking on the path of God and the invisible world of Heaven with only faith as your guide are the very people who will become angels

The last quote which actually is part of the introduction is also very good:

"Countless angels in Heaven are working as servants of God, making effort night and day to decrease the unhappiness that is found in this world. I hope that you, too, will become angels who never hesitate in your daily efforts to help cleanse this world and actualize Heaven on our Earth."

I bump into Angels teachings, Heaven on Earth in my past 2 blogposts. Thus have a great affinity when I follow my inner voice to read this book in such a sequential manner. Am again in awe that "things happen for a reason. There is no accident"

I hope you can pick up a few new ideas from this post like I do. Have a great weekend folks! :)

Carnegie De-Stress Formulae

Found this book written by Taiwanese author 黑幼龍. A very special name. Black (surname) Small Dragon (middle names). Guess is real name, as his son is called 黑立行.

The author is Dale Carnegie Training Greater China partner and owner, so he surely is the best person to interpret and explain the teachings of Dale Carnegie. The book is written in Chinese, but in similar style with Carnegie's other books full of examples in between. If you have read "how to win friends and influence people", "how to stop worrying and start living" you will know what I mean.

The book is divided into ten chapters, each explaining one formula at a time:

1. Determine to live a more freedom lifestyle
Once we are stress free, our immune system will improve, and health will come back. Our mentality decides how we act and react to situation. Always maintain a positive attitude. 90% of our worries will not materialize anyway, so why live in the negative self sabotaging thoughts and be haunt by it?

2. Live in the Day time compartment
Compartmentalize our life timescale. Live in the current moment and heaven is NOW. No point worry over the spilled milk (PAST), and not to worry about tomorrow worries (FUTURE). Today is the Day that we all need to seize and treasure.

3. Three Magical steps to overcome all the worries
a) Ask ourselves what could be the worst situation?
b) Accept the worst situation
c) Try our best to improve from the worst situation

Similar to Chinese idiom saying 否極泰來, when one reaches rock bottom worst situation, we could not go any more down but have to improve. Always have high hopes. There are many ways to improve the situation, and don't be paralyzed by the issues we currently facing.

4. Three principles to analyze and resolve issue
As taught by Greek philosopher Aristotle, the three key principles are:
a) Collect the facts
b) Evaluate the facts
c) Make the decision, and take immediate action

To be factual one needs to calm down left brain and invoke our logical reasoning mind.

Two techniques:
- count the color items in the room and surroundings
- ask the famous 6Ws: who, where, what, when, why and how

Once decided, back by facts and evaluated, we should march forward and don't look back.

5. The four questions need to be asked before solving any problem:
a) What is the problem? Define it.
b) What causes the problem? The real root cause.
c) What are the possible solutions?
d) What is the best option?
Many times before finish answering these questions, the problem is no longer an issue. :)

6. Have fun in our work, job
- boost morale everyday is a new day
- do things one at a time, like the sand passes thru the funnel "one grain at a time"
- take a 5 mins break to rejuvenate our energy before getting too tired

7. Set stop loss for worry
When situation can't be improved, after we have tried our best, we should simply accept the fact, and move on.
At least we won't lose every hopes if we have set a stop loss.

8. Divert our attention by being occupied with positive work
Often time when our mind is free, we will become negative and feeling down. To combat this, we should make ourselves busy and take actions continuously, no matter how small or trivial it is.

9. Forgive and Forget
Don't expect people will reciprocate when you have helped others. Don't take it for granted. Be kind, forgive and forget, don't hold grudges with your enemies or those who had hurt you.

10. Peace at mind
Count our blessings that we already have. Be grateful, and have gratitude on things happening to us. Don't let our lives become monotonous. Our children will follow parents when they make it a habit to have gratitude in everyday living.

The final chapter says it all. These are not new teachings. We all know these and aware of it, but not practicing it only. Start by changing our mind, thought, and our action will start to change for the better.

I am glad that I didn't return this book to the library too early before finish reading it, and got to renew it. I had dragged too long to write this post to remind what I have read and learnt. I hope you can pick up some good pointers to combat your stress when you are feeling stressful next time. Now go play! Have a good weekend folks! :)

How to hear your Angels

I finished reading this book by author Doreen Virtue in less than 24 hours. A record for me. Hopefully I can turn out my blog post within another 24 hours. That will be another record :).

I was able to read (or skim thru) this book so quickly probably because this is not the first book I read by the same author. I had read her other angel book before talking solely on archangel Michael I think. Besides, on a recent Borders clearance sale, I managed to grab a few audio CDs from her at bargain price. I listened to the Angel 101 CD on the same day which gave a good recap and foundation :) on what Angel therapy is about.

Angels are Gods servant/ messengers. They are cross religions. In order for them to help us, one ought to give permission as we all have our free will. This can be easily achieved by simply Asking for help. Ask and thou shall receive. It's as simple as that. Of course, this involves surrendering, patience and faith.

There is no task too small that Angels or other ascended masters is not able to or not willing to help. Each named archangel is having specialty (eg Michael for Protection/ strength, Raphael for healing, Gabriel for communication etc) when one is unsure who to call upon, can leave it to angels to send the appropriate helper :)

The author went on in great details on how to sharpen our already posses 4 senses to receive messages, namely our hearing, sight, feeling and thought. Guess I am gonna to try out some method one day. The key is to calm our mind and senses, and be able to receive, by picking up the nuisances first, and develop a more continuum communication channel.

One may ask how to differentiate and ascertain that we are hearing angel/ god's message, but not our own Ego's sabotage or from other negative sources disguising it? The right message will always leave us positive feelings, consistent and with the intent of bringing us upward (improvement). If in doubt, we can always ask for confirmation (by observing the signs).

There are few techniques that I find quite interesting.

A) Vacuuming - imagine Archangel Michael is to help to cleanse the negativity we get exposed to or trapped inside our body by visualizing him using a vacuum cleaner to suck out all the -ve stuff from our top to bottom, and finish by filling our body up with thick white light to fill up the void once occupied by the negativity.

B) Autowriting - put down our question on a piece of paper, ask for divine guidance and protection, before start to allow our hand to free flow writing the responses.

Once we can quiet our minds, who knows we could be calling on the needed help that we have been yearning for so long?

Magical iPOD show

Got this video from my sister.  Was a great one.  Really magical, with 3 iPods.  Enjoy the show!



In case you can't view the show from your mobile device, try this link instead.  Thanks.

The Law of Attraction - Plain and Simple

The Law of Attraction Plan and Simple book

Saw this small book from Marine Parade Library when I was searching for other book.  It was a simple read, can be finished in 1 day or 2.  The author Sonia Ricotti used to be a corporate high flyer, but quit her job and took 1 year off travelling the world. 

She wrote the book from ground up, with lotsa personal insights and perspective.  She outlined in 11 steps the gist of LOA and how to practise it.  Each step by itself can be elaborated into a book.




Step1: Decide What You Want
Step2: Choose Your Thoughts and Feelings
Step3: Keep the End in Mind
Step4: Remove Meaning
Step5: Let Go
Step6: Forgive
Step7: Unleash the Past
Step8: Be Grateful
Step9: Choose Your Friends Carefully
Step10: Connect Mind, Body, and Spirit
Step11: Allow It

The key theme is about maintaining Positivity in order for LOA to work (like attracts like, good attracts good)

Among the steps, there are few particular intrigue me, which I shall highlight in below sections:

Step5:  LET GO

Quote on Letting Go:
"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."  -- Helen Keller

What we resist persist.  Resisting is futile as the more we resist, the more we emit negative energy and attract the same negative situation into our life.  What we should do is simply accept "As It is", and just let go.  The release of resistance will shift the negative energy into a positive one.

Step6:  FORGIVE

Quote on Forgiveness:
"In fact, not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die"  -- author Ann Lamott

Similarly, we should practise Forgive to release the anchor and free ourselves from the grudges and negative feelings that have been dragging our feet.  Rather than seeing it negatively, we should be thankful for the learning experience.  Other than forgiving others, we should also forgive ourselves.  The past is who we once were.

Step8:  BE GRATEFUL

Quote on Gratitude:

"Let us rise up and be thankful

for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little,

and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick,

and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful"

-- Buddha

This is about focusing on what we already have.  We can create a Gratitude Manifesto, begin with "I am grateful for ..." as a regular ritual to reflect what we already have.  This will shift our focus into a Feel Good mood, and begin to attract more good things into our lives when we are appreciative.

Step11:  ALLOW IT

Quote on Doubt:
"The only limit to out realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today" -- Franklin Roosevelt

For final step to work, key is to have no doubt to allow it to manifest in our life.  We must remove all doubt (a negative emotion and energy) and believe the thing we are asking for is coming to us, by simply: "Feel IT, Believe IT and Achieve IT".  We should be present and become keenly aware when opportunities arise.  Constantly taking action will help us to be ready, when the universe is answering to our request.

ENJOY the JOURNEY

Quote on Live Life:
"We are always getting ready to live but never living" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The parting chapter is also very touching.  As we become more aware about the miraculous things begin coming into our lives, we should keep our feet on the ground and never lose sight about connecting with other human beings.  We should strive to be uplifting to people around us: by giving compliments, doing good deeds, or simply just a simple smile.  We should take the time to reflect, love and enjoy every waking moments of this beautiful journey.  Peace.

In Pursuit of Happiness

Long time no write. Nope, this is not related to Will Smith's "The Pursuit of Happyness" movie, though I would say it is a great and touching show. This post is about a free talk I attended on last Sunday in Suntec City, organized by Happy Science Singapore chapter. Speaker is Mr Hiroshi Yaita (picture).

Whether Happy Science is a cult or not, I think I will leave it caveat emptor, and we should view it with our eyes wide open. The talk did give some good insights on how to attract Wealth (or whatever topics you are after), which I am gonna to share on the key points that Mr Yaita had covered. Basically, the content was from Master Ryuho Okawa's teachings. Okawa is the founder of Happy Science, and a prolitheic writer with over 700 books written.

1. Use the power of our Mind
Our thoughts are and have very strong power. During the day, we have been engraving a lot of thoughts (without our knowing) into our subconsciousness. So be mindful of what comes in and has been imprinting into our subconscious mind. Always look at our mind as the starting point or bulls eye. When we change the mind, life will start to change (hopefully to the better, not worse)

Everything external depends on what seeds you sow in your mind.

That gives rise to the importance of Setting Goals - Keep it and not give up.

The Law of Attraction (like attracts like) simply put in another way is Happy people attract Happiness. Being Positive at all times is paramount.

How do we attract Wealth then? By tuning in our mind to the Wealth of Heaven.
"Heavenly world = The world filled with Wealth"

Wealth is the foundation essential for accomplishing greater and even more marvelous work, thus there is no shame of accumulating wealth, as long as one is not being attached to it, and forget to contribute back to society for those less fortunate.

2. Abandon the Thoughts that keep you Poor
The world we live in changes according to the attitudes we accept and affirm. As long as a person holds onto proverty in his own mind, he will never be wealthy. (Marxism)

a) Victim mentality - turnaround it by
i. Focus on your Goals
ii. Make the best effort to achieve success
b) Jealously - turnaround it by
i. Celebrate others' success
ii. Learn from others

There is a great short video on What is Wealth given by Ryuho Okawa in 1989, unfortunately I couldn't find it from YouTube yet.

3. Make efforts with Love and Ideals
We need to establish the right view on money.
o Money can be good or evil. In fact, it is neutral. It is up to our mind see it.
o To build a fortune through hard work for positive ends can be viewed as enormously good!

The final parting words on the mechanism for the expansion of Wealth:

"Good attracts Good and Happiness invites happiness"
"This world will be a better place when good people, those who have honest & pure hearts, become affluent and influential"

I am reading Ryuho's Philosophy of Progress book now (which contains the material covered in the talk and more). It is a small book and easy read. Will share my book report afterwards shortly, before I forget or get busy with work again :)

TIISG & The Secret of Money

The Attractor Factor book by Joe Vitale

Reckon if I never get started to type this post, I will never get this done, so here we are, on an overdue post that I should have posted weeks ago :P

I borrowed the original first "Zero Limits" book from Marine Parade library and found this other book "Attractor Factor" from the same shelf. 3 weeks has passed, and I have not touched a single page on "Zero Limit" but I finished this other book in first few days :)

In fact, the Attractor Factor book is an early version of "the Secret", which is all about Law of Attraction. The five steps it outlines to achieve what you want are:

1. Be clear of what you don't want
2. Then you'll be clearer of what you do want
3. Emotionalize your thoughts
4. Take inspired action, now
5. Be detached, and let go [this part is key]

The book was a good easy read with a lot of self reflection and personal experience by the author Joe Vitale. I realise the first book I read from Joe was the one I bought in the US airport during transit, called "Life's Missing Instruction Manual". Maybe I should dig it up and re-read it one day :)

Apart from the 5 steps outlined, there are other few key points I picked up and particular like. They are:

A) The acronym TIISG - "Turn It into Something Good".

Napoleon Hill, Andrew Carnegie and other successful gurus all understand the importance of the mind and the powerful impact from the right thinking. They are all master of this trick "How do I turn it into something good".

When looking at how to turn the (perceived) bad situation or experience into something good, you are instantly changing your perspective (thought) to focus on the solution, rather than the problem. How brilliant and powerful is this paradigm shift!

As Bob Proctor aptly says "Everything that happens in your life is bringing you closer to your goals", why not start practicing TIISG from now onwards?

B) Money Loves Speed

This another secret about money is easy but often overlook. The faster you take action, the quicker money will start to flow to you. Act on your hunches or intuition. Don't let your thought drift. The longer you delay your act, the slower money or good fortune will start flowing to you.

C) Take Inspired Action

Money, good fortune (or whatever you desire) will not just come from thin air. Once you have set your intention, what follow next naturally is to take action, to make things happen. Take action, now. Not any action but inspired action. The kind of action that is inspired by your intuition. Just listen to your heart, and execute. You will be amazed and pleased at what you have done when looking back.

So much for now. Have a good weekend. Take care, and talk soon!