Inner brilliance is a language that can only be understood by a mind of Gratitude

Edge Gratitude Out [EGO]

Experiencing gratitude is the express-dial-direct line to connect to our being. Our lesser self (ego) thrives on comparison. Abundance can only be extracted and invited by getting in touch with gratitude. Gratitude is independent of people's opinion, experience, circumstance, and situation. Gratitude is a pure fountain of joy. The joy gushes out forcefully, elevating the most distressful pain. Hope solidifies into iron determination, to will oneself to live each moment with invigorating spirit.

Anna walked into the hall and shook the people's hands as they extended them out to greet her. Very graciously, she touched them all but always paused briefly enough to connect with their eyes. Brief though it may have been, I sensed a deep, compassionate force engulfed my being. Even though I didn't know her, her spirit recognised me instantly. She went up to the podium and related the most soul-gratifying story I've ever heard. Anna's village was under attack. She was one of the thousands who witnessed and suffered the abominable cruelty of human beings. Innocent people were caught, imprisoned, and tortured, simply out of a conflict which wasn't even about them. She saw her daughter being raped and killed.

"A mother's greatest sorrow is to see her own child die before her. Not in this manner. Tragic! Awfully tragic," said Anna. After the ordeal, Anna came out broken. She was so wounded by this chapter of her life that trust was a language she had buried with her daughter. She held a deep grudge and mistrust. All she wanted was just to survive until the day her soul was called to rest. Nothing interested her. She was eager to kill any form of happiness by herself, rather than to be taken away mercilessly by others. Life became a battle of will—the will just to get through the day. Nothing else mattered. Life was grey, and she preferred it that way. Because this way, the pain of being hurt again would not, and did not hurt as bad. Any form of kindness was never reciprocated.

"Why should I? Life owes me this, and I'm taking it! Don't expect me to give!" reflected Anna. Her ego got in the way. She argued with anyone who suggested to her that life would get better, and she loathed anyone telling her to look on the bright side. She was quick to proclaim how life had betrayed her and killed the dream she'd dreamed. But this was about to shift. Puja sat across from Anna at the canteen of the factory where they worked. Puja had started work at the factory almost a year ago. Anna noticed that Puja had a sparkle about her that she couldn't fathom, and she felt drawn to Puja. Whenever Puja was nearby, Anna was less reactive and defensive. They became friends. Anna found a confidante to unload all her pain. Puja listened attentively; cried when the tragedy got too strong; gave Anna her shoulder to lean on; nodded when she needed approval; laughed when she joked. And at times, Puja simply sat silently beside her when talking about her pain wasn't possible. Puja never spoke much. Her presence was soothing enough for Anna.

One afternoon, during Anna's routine venting of her life's hardships, Puja extended her hands to embrace Anna. Puja's sleeves fell to her elbow and revealed a scar marked with a series of numbers. Anna took a closer look and confirmed that it resembled a serial number. As Anna examined Puja's face, there was another scar, marked with foreign writing unfamiliar to Anna. Puja, when asked by Anna, shared her traumatic experience as a child slave. Puja was sold to the illegal child trade and forced to prostitute her body at age eleven. At fifteen, she attempted to run away but was recaptured. They marred her face and coded her, so that even if she escaped, she would be tracked down. Even if she were not to be tracked down, with a scarred face, her future would be doomed.

Every hurt, wound, pain, and suffering brought Puja closer to her light within, because she refused to be defeated by the pain inflicted on her. She refused to let hatred overwhelm her, even though many times it seemed she could lose the battle within. Her healing began when she turned towards gratitude. Puja embodied that being grateful for the gift life has offered is power. Being alive is a gift. And with this sense of being alive, she began her healing. Puja said that healing is not without damage, but rather the damages no longer had power over her. Anna was slapped back to life by Puja's humility. Puja had lived through her pain, but never once did she compare her pain to Anna's.

"It was not necessary. I'm here to help Anna, not to remind her of each other's pain. The best revenge is to live your life to the fullest. And that requires gratitude!" said Puja. Anna's healing journey began with this sense of gratitude. Today she leads many to reveal gratitude from within. I've had the pleasure to hear her talk.

After the devastating ruins of the Kobe tsunami, victims thronged to the hospitals of Japan. Two brothers occupied two beds at the hospital, with two machines helping them breathed. Their mother fought relentlessly to protect the beds for her children. Both brothers lived with an illness that deteriorated their muscles. Eventually they'd die when their muscles fail them. Doctors said that they couldn't live past thirty years old. The older brother was already thirty-two years old and loved poetry. The younger was twenty-six and enjoyed painting. They used modern computers to assist them with their works. When the tragedy struck Japan, these two brothers felt they were depriving others of the two hospital beds. They felt their lives were too insignificant and wanted the doctors to shut down the machines keeping them alive. They were willing to sacrifice their lives and give their beds to the victims. This act, though it may seem like an act of martyrdom, is actually an act of cowardice. Both brothers had edged gratitude out. They looked at their lives as insignificant and felt that life could be tapered by them. Unknowingly, they had begrudged their existence. Their father came to the scene when he heard from the doctor that the brothers wanted to take their own lives away.

"Do you think by ending your life is going to save the victims' lives? Your beds can only fit two more persons. Is that selfless? No! You are selfish to think that your life is unworthy, lacks beauty, and has no possibility to inspire others!

"Inspiration is not based on how physically strong you are. If you lack gratitude for being alive, you are a complainer. Then what use would it be to be physically agile, but you are a complainer? Even if you are in paradise, you would still complain! Be thankful. Being thankful will transform your inner world to witness abundance. Then you'll know in your heart of hearts that you are enough just the way you are; you will start to look at the beauty of your mind and create something to inspire others to build their lives up from this tsunami. Believe me, you will recognise that you will have more than enough!" Their father put every ounce of his life force into those words.

The painter searched for joyful pictures in his head, and the brother composed poems alongside his art. Both inspired millions to rise up with hope just the way they are! Nothing has changed around them, only their mindset for gratitude.

Inner brilliance is a language that can only be understood by the mind of gratitude.

Gratitude is the spiritual GPS to navigate one's life towards light, joy, and hope!

When one is determined, One is never deterred.

En-lovely 1

Isn't it lovely to know that your determination is all that matters? That nothing can deter your spirit once you have settled affirmatively on your choice?

Taking responsibility for one's choice takes a polished inner character. When one has decided that "no matter what, I'm still not discouraged," miracles tend to flood our entire being! The first miracle is the expansive life-state not to blame circumstances, persons, and conditions for adversities befalling oneself. The second miracle is the recognition to work on one's own weaknesses, and the third, the clarity that these adversities are gifts of life to mould one's inner castle of hope.

Recently, a newfound friend of mine taught me to reconnect with my inner castle, when she so determinedly wanted to be above her predicaments. Her resilience brought me back to reclaim my choice to be happy. She brought back a forgotten phrase from the Lotus Sutra that states, "I have never for a moment neglected the Buddha's work."

My desire to help her rid her predicaments sent me back to my inner original self—the bigger self. A Buddha can be prided as a person who unceasingly strives to take actions to liberate people from all kinds of sufferings. She's a person who takes painstaking steps (but joyfully), to develop inner affluence. How nice to be sent back to this inner palace and soaked in its blessedness!

Isn't it lovely to be bathed in this realm of hopefulness? How wondrous it is to be in contact with our own inner brilliance? When one is determined, one is never deterred. Here, in his earnest words of passionate living, Victor Hugo wrote:

If just one thousand remain, okay, I'll make a stand!

If just one hundred remain, still I'll resist Sulla.

If ten remain, I'll be the tenth.

And, if only one remains, I will be THAT one!

With this determination, let's make each year "The Year of

the Capable People and Dynamic Development," a fantabulous departure point. I'll thrive to be the capable person and leap in all areas of my life ... oh! How lovely!

When we don't trust ourselves, we are insulting our creator's wisdom.

En-Lovely 2

Isn't it lovely to know that our inner spirit knows no bound? If the universe could not fit in another soul, then what is the point of it expanding boundlessly? Wouldn't it be a total waste of space? If our resilient practices of mastering our inner weakness result in an unhappy existence, than what is the use of forbearance? What is the use of light if it could not dispel darkness?

It is precisely because nothing could deter a polished spirit that we press on assiduously. Why would you fear adversities when you know for sure that you already possess that inner strength to rise above it? Isn't it lovely to have this realisation? The resilient spirit to fight until the end, regardless, is one of the many characteristics that we as human beings must hone. I have become the lover of me. I trust my inner Buddhahood too much to betray it. I have too much conviction in it to doubt it.

Isn't it lovely to know that everything that has occurred and is occurring at this moment is simply perfect?

We are all a work of perfection unfolding moment by moment. The unpleasant experience we witnessed is nothing short of perfect. It was never flawed because we needed that life lesson to perceive the nature of our lives. The great teacher T'ien-t'ai states, "Unless one perceives the nature of one's life, one cannot eradicate one's great offence."

The lesson we need to learn must be learnt or else we will be swept into an endless cycle of pain. Even after learning the lesson, there will be tests to remind us to reconnect ourselves with that lesson. When we think we have learnt the lesson, life throws back something at you to see if you have grasped it. Everything we've learnt must be alive. Lessons are never dead. Just when you think you have forgiven, a circumstance will show up to keep that forgiveness alive. Just when you think you are calm, a tumultuous circumstance will show up to keep that calmness alive.

The mystic law is so compassionate that it allows us to keep growing and expanding. It keeps reminding us that we are made of perfection. The many writings of Nichiren, a 13th century monk in Japan states, "It is because of the Law that the Buddhas are worthy of respect."

Therefore, if the law is worthy of respect, then we ordinary people embracing it are also worthy of respect. How could we believe that we are not worthy of ourselves when we are also enveloped by this grace? When we don't trust ourselves, we are insulting our creator's wisdom.

Isn't this realisation so en-lovely?

I think so.

"Little by little, an egg will walk."

An African proverb

En-Lovely 3

Isn't it lovely that growth has the inherent genius to transform your inner and outer reality? This inner growth can bring sublime clarity, creativity, courage, compassion, confidence, and cleverness.

Each year my business students were given RM 400 to run a business project to raise funds for charity. One of my students told me that he may be poor in his language, weak in his studies, ridiculed by his relatives and friends for his lack of skills, but he has will power. His will power is his key to sever the chains of foolishness and misfortunes. He said, 'Ms. Seko, my will to persevere speaks a universal language that can be understood by all phenomena'. When I heard him said that, all I needed to do was waiting for that glorious day to arrive. And it did arrive just three months later. He and the other groups managed to raise a whopping RM 170,000! I was stunned!

When inner growth begins to expand, and no matter how heavy the weight of cowardice may appear, it cannot remain there for long. The courageous will to win over oneself, will take centre stage. In the words of the famous Greek philosopher Plato, he said,

"A man has to fight and conquer his feelings of cowardice before he can achieve perfect courage"

This particular student of mine ignited a brilliant bon fire of hope among his teammates as well as his classmates. They all had nothing to fear because they wanted to grow. There's nothing growth cannot overcome. All it takes is faith.

Isn't it lovely to live by your conviction that you are not insignificant and that your actions can be an example for others to conquer their lesser self?

People get inspiration from others. Why can't 'I' be that source of inspiration? Why can't 'I' be a fabulous example for people to aspire to be? This journey has to begin with oneself. Let me be the first. I am the first person to change. I am the first person to rise. I am the first person to grow! It doesn't have to start from afar. Right here at the bosom of my heart will I begin this journey of growth. Like one of the African proverbs that says,

"Little by little, an egg will walk."

That was what I saw from this amazing young student of mine – the will to grow!

Isn't this lovely?

I think so.