Becoming Peace Advocators

This is my latest mandala, titled " Peace Garden". As I was sharing this mandala with a friend, we agreed that at this day and age, where many are raging with anger and hatred, we just can't take peace for granted anymore. We have to work hard for peace, and fight hard for it.

By fighting hard, I mean being Peace Advocators and Peacemakers. And these are not easy roles to play. Yet, we have to work hard at it because if we don't, the peaceful Malaysia that we have enjoyed through generations and generations would disappear right before our eyes.

And how to be Peace Advocators?

1. Start with ourselves first. Work with our own sense of despair, anger, hatred, the wanting of getting even, the wanting to hit back, bite back; understand what's happening out there serves as a mirror to what's happening inside us.
2. Daily, spend some time in moments of quietness and stillness. In our ever busy world of doing, doing and more doing, coming to ourselves and centering ourselves through stillness brings freshness and clarity to many of life's problems. We can start by meditating 15 mins everyday - 15 mins of just being at peace with ourselves.
3. Make Forgiveness an important part of our spiritual practice. With forgiveness, comes unconditional love. Can we forgive those that have harmed us, hurt us? It's difficult and what we want is to fight back, yes,....but forgiveness is the higher way; and it brings peace.
4. Embrace diversity. Understand that everyone of us are different, with different family, educational, religious and cultural backgrounds. And that there is beauty and strength in being different. If we were to observe the rainforest, we'll notice the whole forest is rich with different plants and trees, different height, different sizes, different species; and all of them create this rich,  mesmerizing, amazing rainforest. We humans are like this. Different, yet One.
5. Be an example of peace. Practice staying calm at all times; practice patience with the difficult customer; speak gently to the neighbours; practice listening to those around you. To become Peace Advocators, we must be Peace. We are Peace. 
6. Create art that have themes of peace in it. Art changes consciousness. And here I mean art in all forms: paintings, colouring, mandalas, music, dancing, singing, etc. Even food art can be a display of peace. A good example is the Japanese temple food. Just by looking at the colours and the arrangement of the food brings peace to the soul.
7. Share or highlight events or news that promote peace and unity in social media. What I am seeing right now is, people are very focused on sharing stories with drama, and anger and violence. Choose to share those about peace and kindness instead.
8. Share food with others. Food always connects and unites. Organize pot luck gatherings in your community and invite others of different culture and backgrounds to come over and join you. You just need to watch out for food sensitivities among those of different religion and respect the differences.

May we find peace in our hearts, and may humankind finds peace in every corner of the world.

Getting Into Embryonic Space

This morning, I supported a client as he went deep into his Womb Waters - a deep embryonic space within. It's a place where one becomes embryo-like ; with the formative, self-regulating forces of the embryo showing itself; thus healing, restoring, rejuvenating, repairing my client as he lay for 1 hour in that place of deep silence and stillness.

When one drops so deep like this, shifts happen: our brain and nervous system loves it; our cells soak deep into it; our mental and emotional chatter stops - we become silent and still; we reconnect with our womb memories and remember how life used to be; we become fluids; we become embryo.

When the session ended, I asked my client how he felt. He said, "Like I've just stepped out of deep waters".

(The image above is a mandala titled, " Womb Waters" I drew it on 28 April 2013, a day where I went into my own womb waters, hence its name)