A woman has strengths that amaze men. She can handle trouble and carry heavy burdens. She holds happiness, love and opinions. She smiles when she feels like crying, cries when she is happy and laughs when she is afriad. Her love is unconditional! And her greatest strength is....she sometimes forgets what she is worth...

This is not a book for someone sitting on a rock contemplating on a lotus pond.  Not for someone who is retiring into a forest and walking the path of zen. This is not a self realization book and not meant for spiritual upliftment of mankind.

This is a day-to-day manual that can be used to create a dossier of one’s own progress thru life. The objective is to stop, think, reflect, introspect. It's is meant to question, challenge the standards that we have become accustomed to. We have allowed ourselves to fall into somewhat of a trap by allowing our habits to dictate our destiny from thought to word, word to deed, deed to habit, habit to character, character to destiny.

The objective of the book is to break the process at the very onset, when at the thinking stage. If thought is the architect of your destiny, then it’s the thought that needs to be the force of change. Its thought that needs to be addressed and challenged.

As we grow in material gains, acquiring various trappings of wealth, we are trapped, ensnared, and locked by it. We don’t seem to be able to get out of this comfort zone. Hence, the process of this book is designed to challenge it.

In essence, the book is designed to look simplistic and designed uniquely in a fashion that is meant to attract the reader's attention and draw him to every page. It's with this in mind that the words and the phrases used are all designed for a  specific purpose, to stop one in their tracks. The attempt here is not so much to overload the individual with information, but to make him find his own solutions within himself. It is my position per se that all of us have answers that are unique and specifically designed for our position in life. These answers though are sometimes very clearly in front of us, usually completely overlooked if not ignored. It’s the purpose of the book to search and find these answers ourselves. Atleast to begin the process that would lead the process.

Answers change, day to day as it were. If it does not, by then, by definition we have not changed. Our ability to analyse, assess and apply these answers in day to day life grows as we grow. Hence, the answers to these problems, appear different to different people. These answers have many levels of understanding and many levels of application. And this process is something that engages you at every level.

Life is not just in colors…its in hues.  Therein lies each of us, the answer within each of us. The quest to these answers actually leads to us asking better questions. And that would be the ultimate purpose of this book.

In essence all of us have an internal source of energy. Something that we acknowledge in many ways. Eastern culture refers to as 'Qi'. In Sanskrit it is referred to as 'Prana'.   It’s a mental/physical/spiritual energy source. Its an internal balance that this energy source creates. This internal balance is between the kinetic and potential, the yin and yang, the negative and positive, the shiva and shakti in Hinduism. This balance of energy is found within us. The sphere of silence forces one to basically tap into this energey and build up its reserves in a way. Its an application of self discipline everyday.  Keeping silent for one hour , we are forced to communicate with oneself.  This helps us get in touch with ourselves instead of living in a façade.

 
We create this artificial barrier between who we are and who we want the world to perceive us to be. We walk around with this mask, assuming the face behind the mask in reality is the mask itself. Here I refer to the masquerade that one is forced to put up to live in the social strata. The three essential questions we have to ask every day:

1. Who we are?
2. Where we are?
3. Where are we going?

 
We need to ask these questions everyday because the answer to these change everyday. The process of analysis helps keep us very much in touch with ourselves. In this process we build up the inner "Chi", the strength in action, the versatility in language.

 
The application of this doesn’t have an immediate or direct  objective. If one doesn’t even achieve the objective just the process of trying everyday is enough because you have embarked on the journey. There is no such thing as the proper time or proper place. There is no waiting for the right time. It must be done everyday, like breathing.  It is the trying that makes all the difference. Eventually, there are people without trying very hard, simply by virtue of their being manage to achieve an hour a day. They actually gain from the process can be lead. The trying is fundamental to the change.

Someone who managed one hour is maybe ahead mentally, physically, spiritually to someone who managed 20 mins a day.  But to someone to who this comes easily, is not growing. For someone who struggles to do this 20 mins, is pushing oneself and hence the percentage of growth is higher.

You cannot define the process by the  1 hour or the 21 days. But define it by how much of a struggle it is for you. Hence, naturally the process of struggling against oneself , however mediocre it may seem to the rest of the planet, is what is important.

I don’t lay any claim to the originality of the process. Something that I acquired gratefully…….. its a labour of love to take it across the planet. The effect it had on my life. By making it a process that I could share with others.

 

Words without thought,
are leaves swirling in the wind,
tumultous yet lasting but only a moment,
leaving just a movement in the pattern

Thought without words,
are as the clouds on a clear day,
leaving mere shadows that fade as the sun leaves the day,

Thought with words
are as footprints in the sand,
to be swept away with the next play of the wind or wave

Thoughts pondered, written and then spoken
are like a force of nature
a whirlwind that leaves in its wake,
a change in all that it touches.

But in the rare few instances when such thoughts carried by
such words are written again.
they remain as the milestones of man,
written across the pages of history
leaving a message for generations to come.

Vijay Eswaran

The difference between silence and speech is the difference between sms and talking via the phone, email and chat or wisdom and mere intelligence. Silence can take you to many places, a journey that is often subtle yet profound while speech, without the resonance of reflection, has the transience and futility of writing on water.

Talking is curiously deflating and it is a wonder how many people fool themselves that they are working when they are actually just talking. The exquisite suspense of the sms or email, the reflection, thought and commitment behind the written word is truly thought provoking as opposed to reactive talk. If practised well, the ego is also distanced by the lack of attachment to the personality allowing the intellect to focus on the issue. Talkers find the writing process taxing as the mind requires more substance than the mouth to address the same point.

The trick is not to write as you talk. Don't react, interact!

Don't let the words flow from your mouth to your hand, rather let it trickle from the mind. Only in silence can you envision, speech only blinds you…

Muhibbah. Merdeka.

These are words that I grew up with. It was virtually impossible for us to move from Merdeka to Muhibbah and from Merdeka to Maju. That was the first ten years that I remember of my school days - “Majulah Malaysia”. The concept still stays in my mind.

It’s the amazing fact that as Malaysians we are a nation that is clearly defined, purely by the geography and the concept of a nation as opposed to racial, religious and cultural barriers or parameters. Hence the only thing that makes a Malaysian, Malaysian has always been in my mind, his affinity for the land, of his birthplace, his love and his loyalty for the soil that we have all grown up on and learnt to love.

Malaysia has been a safe harbour for the various people who have populated this place. There are the various Chinese, races from the Chinese Mainland. Remember that at the time they came over that there was no China to speak of. And they themselves came from different lands, be it from Ghuangzhou, from Hainan, from Fookien – these were different nations. So to construe that there was one China that populated Malaysia is by itself wrong.  Same thing applies to the Indians, because when they came over, there was no India per se. At that time it consisted of 500 different princely states. And this applies also to the influx of Malays from various parts of the Indonesian archipelago – Sulawesi, Molukas, Java, Sumatera, Lombok, Banda and so on. Each bringing with them a whole different cultural heritage. But none of these nations existed when Malaysia was being formed as its own set. So the definition of us in the form that we are looking at today which is the Indian, Chinese and Malay context is by itself wrong because none of these existed when these people reached our soil. We are a conglomeration of people who came together because we were seeking new frontiers, facing new challenges, people who dared to be different and on arriving on this soil of hospitable safe harbour of the peninsula, we then basically became sons of the soil. If one were to look back historically for instance during the Larut War from 1861 to 1874 between the Gee Hin and the Hai San, who were on two different opposing factions,this was traditional going right back to the Malacca sultanate. There wasn’t a Chinese Malaysia, a Malay or Indian polarisation of any kind in our history. If Kedah waged a war in Kelantan or Pahang, there were Chinese on both sides just as there were Malays or Indians on both sides.

To be proud of this cultural heritage is to be proud of the fact that we have interwoven from this myriad of different humanity, into a fabric that is not only strong as hem but also smooth as silk and versatile.  This fabric is now Malaysia today; our own red, white, blue and yellow. Our own corner of the planet which we call home is not just about being proud of being 50 years old because we were a nation long before the flag was hoisted. We are proud to have single-handedly proven that despite the differences that we have brought to this land, we have learned to celebrate the similarities. In Malaysia you can see the unison of men which gives hope for the rest of the planet. Not only are we a melting pot per se, we are in fact a smelting pot. There is a term in Sanskrit called “panchaloga” which is the coming together of five different rare metals - gold, silver, copper, brass and iron – the “panchaloga” is supposedly a metal which was greatly revered in ancient times for its strength, for the fact that it never corroded.

For the intrinsic beauty and purity of Malaysia, we have created our own smelting pot. We have created our own brand, our precious metal. And we celebrate this oneness on this coming 31st August 2007 – we are a nation from which hope is reborn for the planet. It’s a gift we have received and fostered that we today present to the rest of the human race. Let us all be Malaysia. It is not about Malaysia for the Malaysians anymore. Let the world be Malaysia.
Salam Merdeka!

Warm regards,
Dato’ Vijay Eswaran