Why Preaching? Part 1

  I've been preaching on non self limitating and self limitation, since it has been proven to be beneficial universally, again, without limitation. One famous Indonesian motivation speaker once mentioned that if everything in our life is the same, then we will not improve ourselves, since we'll learn nothing new. We have nothing to compare, i'd like to add. When we find things, including people, to be different, than it's not a reason not to study (or to cower away as many westerner and their impostors do) Instead, it's exactly the reason to study.

  Then, how we'd be able to extract lesson from those differences? By looking at the similarities that tie them in, that is embedded in all of them! Just because something is abstract, doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist. Take electricity for example. Can we really always see or touch electrical current? You get to be electrified first then to admit its existence?

  If we human don't study continuously, openly, and dare themselves to accept anything new (not necessarily agree with it though), however despicable it might be, we'd still be in caves by now.

  When we base our judgements only on personal knowledge and personal wish, instead of the one great universal truth (this isn't abstract either), we'll never reach peace, unity, and harmony, since human knowledge is limited and there are billions of human being here. Each with their own personal believe.

  So, it is not about the right to think, but about what is really right. Please differ what is truly right with thinking oneself as being right.

  At best, we'll attain peace by not adhering to the one real truth, peace between human, rarely with nature (to our own disaster). Like the Palestinians and israelis. Smiling in front, knives behind. What separate it from hypocrisy. Not to mention it will never endure, such "peace". Just postponing underlying conflicts. Unless we enjoy conflicts? I experienced the 1996-1998 riots in Jakarta and its surrounding, and it wasn't fun.

  To study is to step out of long held comfort (If it is comfortable at all. Be honest to yourselves).

  Well, thanks for being around. May Allah shines His light on us all.

Ego 2#

For all these times, Islam has been mis-understood and mis-interpreted, taken as a source of threat. Simply because it mainly teaches human (and jins) not to take their own self as the ground for determining right or wrong, but to take God as the basis for doing so. Simply because it teaches humans (and jins) not to rely on their own selfish ego to judge anything.

Just imagine. If we take what the north americans (and perhaps also the rest of the white people including the europeans) believe, that "truth is personal", then we'll come up with different versions of truth almost as much as living and even deceased persons ever live (and still live) on this planet. Yet, the fact is, we all live in the same plane, the same realm. Like it or not, and believe it or not, anything we did, do, and will do, will affect others.  The question is simply directly or indirectly, in short, middle, or after a long term. Still, we're interconnected.

So, take for example a bunch of natives in amazon or kalahari or papua or simply elsewhere, anywhere where we can find indigenuous people and rich land or body of water. They have their version of truth. Since "truth is personal", a big company planning on extracting and manipulating those rich soil or water simply has to hire expert(s), lawyer(s), to define what is "right" and "beneficial" etc. It doesn't have to be true, just has to make sense and right sounding. So, they gain the contract and start plundering the soil or water area. Will the result be different than a destruction of earth, regardless of they have all the public relation announcement explanation through the media, all the papers etc, describing them as doing something rightfully? The results, the facts, speak, and for us to carry the burden. Not all the justification been made up.

Or, prostitution. Say "what the heck, i play by myself, who will i do hurt then?" or "let them be, as long as me and my family have nothing to do with it". Sure. You play yourself, you keep that activity going on in your neighbourhood. You catch hiv aids, you get sick You yourself get hurt? No. You can't work. The place you've been working for loses its productivity. You can't afford your family. Me and my family have nothing to do with it? One day, either one of the prostitutes or their consumers gets hiv aids, then have a wound, and incidentally bruise over the skin of one of your family member, since you all live in the same neighbourhood. The same. And the above are just some of the misfortunes that might take place for using yourself as the basis for right or wrong.

So, rely on ourselves to determine which is right and which is wrong. It instantly turn out to be a simple contest of brute strength, wether physical, monetary, thinking strength, etc. Whatever the results, it will we ourselves again who have to live with it.

Still want to rely on our own self then to define the truth?

Find the truth. Consult God. Learn and study Islam. Get rid of those selfish ego of ours. Of me and you.

Ps/nb: and don't tell me you don't care about what happens to others, to nature, it won't affect you...It does.  And people still complain whenever something bad happens on them, even when they have their share in making it happen.

Ibu Theresa

Pesan Ibu Theresa dari Calcutta,

Orang sering sulit dimengerti.Tidak berpikir panjang dan mementingkan diri sendiri. Namun demikian, ampunilah mereka.

Bila engkau orang baik; Orang mungkin menuduhmu egois atau ada pamrih. Namun demikian, tetaplah berbuat baik

Bila engkau sukses; engkau akan menemui teman-teman yang tidak bersahabat. Namun demikian, teruskanlah kesuksesanmu

Bila engkau jujur dan tulus hati; Orang mungkin akan menipumu. Namun demikian, tetaplah jujur dan tulus hati

Hasil karyamu bertahun-tahun; Dapat dihancurkan orang dalam semalam. Namun demikian, tetaplah berkarya

Bila engkau menemukan ketenangan dan kebahagiaan; mungkin ada yang iri. Namun demikian, syukurilah kebahagiaanmu

Kebaikanmu hari ini; sering mudah dilupakan orang. Namun demikian, teruslah berbuat baik

Berikan yang terbaik darimu. Dan itupun tidak akan pernah memuaskan orang. Namun demikian, tetaplah memberi yang terbaik.

Pada akhirnya...perkaranya adalah antara engkau dan Tuhan, dan bukan antara engkau dengan mereka

Kata-kata orang yang insyaAllah bijak

• Orang lain bisa saja membenci anda,tetapi mereka tidak akan menang kalau anda tidak balas membenci. Kalau anda membenci juga,anda merusak diri anda sendiri (Richard M.Nixon)

• Ajarilah kami menikmati hal-hal yang sederhana (Rudyard Kipling)

• Jika kita tahu apa tepatnya yang kita risaukan,kita tidak akan begitu risau (Mignon Mc.Laughlin)

• Orang yang paling tidak berbahagia ialah orang yang paling takut perubahan (Mignon Mc.Laughlin)

• Semangat adalah perangsang terkuat untuk mencintai, berkreasi, dan hidup lebih lama(Alexander A.Bogomeletz)

• Masa depan harus difikirkan, direncanakan, dan dipersiapkan sebaik-baiknya, tetapi jangan sekali-kali anda khawatir akan hari esok (Dale Carnegie)

• Kesedihan hanya bisa ditanggulangi oleh orang yang merasakannya sendiri (William Shakespeare)

• Sesuatu yang besar tidak pernah dicapai tanpa semangat yang besar (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

• Hendaknya kita berani membaca, berfikir, berbicara, dan menulis (John Adams)

• Anda tidak pernah tahu apa yang mampu anda kerjakan sebelum anda mencobanya(Pepatah Tibet)

• Tidak pernah kebencian diredakan dengan kebencian. Kebencian hanya bisa diredakan dengan ketidakbencian (Siddharta Gautama/Buddha)

• Kalau anda tidak membajak pada musim semi, apa yang akan anda panen pada musim gugur? (Pepatah Tibet)

• Tempat untuk berbahagia itu di sini, waktu untuk berbahagia itu kini, cara untuk berbahagia ialah dengan membuat orang lain berbahagia (Robert G.Ingersoll)

• Kita jatuh untuk bangkit, berhenti untuk berjuang lebih gigih, tidur untuk bangun (Robert Browning)

• Hal yang dikatakan tidak mungkin seringkali hanya belum dicoba (Robert Browning)

• Kegagalan tidak berarti saya telah menyia-nyiakan hidup, tetapi berarti saya harus mulai lagi dengan (mungkin,red.) cara lain, dengan lebih giat,dan dengan sabar (Dr.Robert H.Schuller)

• Mungkin hasil paling berharga dari pendidikan ialah kemampuan kita untuk mengerjakan hal-hal yang harus kita kerjakan, tidak perduli pekerjaan itu kita sukai atau tidak (Thomas Henry Huxley)

• Kalau kita kehilangan kesabaran, lawan mendapat kesempatan menghunjamkan senjatanya yang paling tajam (Bishop Horne)

• Orang yang tidak sabar tidak dapat mencintai (Aretino Pietro)

• Orang bijak belajar banyak dari musuh-musuhnya (Aristophanes)

• Kita tidak dapat belajar tanpa mengalami kesulitan (Aristoteles)

• Hari tidak selalu malam (Livius)

• Belajar tanpa berfikir adalah membuang-buang tenaga, berfikir tanpa belajar adalah penuh bahaya (Qong Fu Tse)

• Ilmu pengetahuan tanpa agama adalah pincang, agama tanpa ilmu pengetahuan adalah buta (Albert Einstein)

• Kebijaksanaan hanya ditemukan dalam kebenaran (Goethe)

• Seseorang harus memeluk kehidupan seperti memeluk seorang kekasih (Morris West)

• Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. (dr.Livingstone)

• Keindahan persahabatan adalah engkau tahu pada siapa engkau mempercayakan rahasia (Alessandro Manzoni)

• Love is being honest with yourself at all times, being honest with other persons at all times, telling, listening, respecting the truth, never pretending. Love is the source of reality (Susan Polis Schutz)

• Jadilah kamu seperti pohon yang dilempari dengan batu. Tapi pohon itu membalasnya dengan buah (imam Hasan Al Banna)

• A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it, is committing another mistake (Kong Fu Tse)

• If you support any offensive war, consider yourself just as culpable of murder as the most insane serial killer (Sarah Bellum)

• Wherever i go,everyone is a little bit safer because I am there.
  Wherever i am,anyone in need has a friend.
  Whenever i return home,everyone is happy I am there."It's a better life!"
  
  
  

  (Robert L. Humphrey)

  
  
• True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what is right (Brigham Young)

Dari sini berkacalah. Benarkah kalimat-kalimat berikut dan kalau benar, apa
lantas tindakan yang paling tepat adalah mengiyakan saja

• Every man is of importance to himself (Samuel Johnson)
  

• The egoist does not tolerate egoism (Joseph Roux)
  

• Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself (Oscar Wilde)
  

• The best known evil is the most tolerable (Livy)
  

• Fear is stronger than love (Thomas Fuller)
  

• Fear, the beadle of the law (George Herbert)
  

• They who forgive most shall be forgiven (P.J. Bailey)
  

• The offender never pardon (George Herbert)
  

• Forgive others often, yourself never (Publilius Syrus)
  

• When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. (Alexander Graham Bell)
  

• Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. (Abraham Lincoln)
  

• The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws, only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them (Albert Einstein)
  

• Kekayaan atas apa yang diberikan. Kita dilahirkan dalam keadaan lupa dan Tuhan menciptakan alam semesta untuk kita lebih mengenal diriNya dan Rasul diutus untuk mengingatkan kita. Kita dihidupkan ke dunia untuk dapat terus mengenal dan mencari diriNya. Fitrah manusia adalah cinta. (Jalaluddin Rumi)
  

• Berbahagialah manusia yang kekuatannya adalah percaya pada Tuhan. Mereka berjalan semakin lama semakin kuat (Gitit Bani Korah)
  

• Kebaikan bekerja di dalam diri kita sebagai kerinduan kita akan kebaikan (Plato)
  

• The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity (Bernard Shaw)
  

• Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow--it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it (Shakti Gawain)
  

• Mula-mula kamu dianggap anak bawang…kemudian diolok-olok…lalu dimusuhi...tiba-tiba kamu jadi pemenang! (Mahatma Gandhi)
  

• "No es porque las cosas son difíciles que no osamos, es porque no osamos que son difíciles." "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult." De/From Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD).
  

• Bumi ini cukup untuk tujuh generasi, namun tidak cukup untuk tujuh orang serakah (Mahatma Gandhi)
  

• The problem is not to outrun death, but to outrun evil/crime, for evil/crime runs faster than death (Socrates)
  

• There's only one virtue, which is knowledge, and one evil/crime, which is ignorance (and stupidity included) (Socrates)
  

• Love is one soul living in two bodies (Aristoteles)

• THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING {Edmund Burke (1729-97)}
  

• Learn from your past struggle so as not to slip in your future struggle (Sukarno)

• Ignorant, evil persons run with nobody chasing, while righteous persons are like young spiritful lions (present Bible)

• You won't find security anywhere by doing anything. You'll find it by doing what your God ordains you to do (certain navy Admiral)

• It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society (J. Krishnamurti)
  

• The beauty of life is, while we cannot undo what is done,
  we can see it, understand it, learn from it and change.
  So that every new moment is spent not in regret, guilt, fear or anger,
  but in wisdom, understanding and love.
  (Jennifer Edwards)
  

• One person can make a difference and every person should try (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

• Education is the jewel/ornament in prosperity, the protection in troubled times (Aristoteleus)

• Sejarah mencatat bahwa para pemenang biasanya mengalami kisah memilukan ketika menghadapi tantangan sebelum meraih kemenangan (B. C. Forbes)

• "It ain't about how hard you hit, but how hard you can get hit, how much you can take and keep moving forward - thats how winning is done!" (Rocky Balboa, yea, i know he's fictional, but admit it: it's good and true) 
•  “The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with the flick of a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again. Take this great power away from the bankers and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a better and happier world to live in. But if you want to continue (to be) the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and to control credit.” (Sir Josiah Stamp, Director and President of the Bank of England during the 1920′s)

“The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements, arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the worlds’ central banks which were themselves private corporations. The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and the indirect injury of all other economic groups.” (Tragedy and Hope: A History of The World in Our Time (Macmillan Company, 1966,) Professor Carroll Quigley of Georgetown University, highly esteemed by his former student, William Jefferson Blythe Clinton)  

•  Don't depend on anyone too much in this world because even your own shadow leaves you when you are in darkness ~ibn taymiyyah
• "One should be just towards his enemies and those whom he dislikes. His hatred should not cause him to be unjust to them, just as his love for himself and his kin should not prevent him from establishing justice against them. This hatred should not make him do wrong, just as that love should not stop him from doing right" - Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyyah 

• Knowing is not enough-we must apply                                                Willing is not enough-we must do (Bruce Lee)
• Saat wanita baik-baik dihina-aku memuliakan wanita                     Saat wanita memuliakan diriku-aku menghinaan diriku-karena masih banyak kesalahan dan kekuranganku (Jeffry al Bukhari)
• Pada akhirnya...Semua akan menemukan yang namanya titik jenuh...Dan pada saat itu...kembali adalah yang terbaik...Kembali pada siapa???Kepada "DIA" pastinya...Bismika Allahumma ahya wa amud

this all from Richard Branson:

•  “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.”
• “I think the most important thing is that in the last seven days we’ve just had the greatest adventure of our lifetimes.”
• “I’m inquisitive … and I love a new challenge… and if I feel that we can do it better than it’s been done by other people, we’ll have a go.”
• “Some 80% of your life is spent working. You want to have fun at home; why shouldn’t you have fun at work?”
• “Throwing yourself into a job you enjoy is one of the life’s greatest pleasures!”
• “We’d love to be involved with the creation of something very special, something quite large and something quite exciting.”
• “Business opportunities are like buses, there`s always another one coming.”
• “Every business, like a painting, operates according to its own rules. There are many ways to run a successful company. What works once may never work again. What everyone tells you never to do may just work, once.”
•  ”My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.”
• “My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.”
• “Records are made to be broken. It is in man’s nature to continue to strive to do just that.”
• “I think a lot of becoming an entrepreneur is something which people have to learn just from getting out there and giving it a go, and having to learn the art of survival.”
• “You shouldn’t blindly accept a leader’s advice.  You’ve got to question leaders on occasions.”
• “I am impressed with just the enthusiasm for life and the fact that some of these people are in their 80’s, even 90’s, and they’re absolutely determined to get out there and make a difference.”
• “As we drifted to earth I sat up on the glass roof of the capsule, watching the beauty of the golden dawn as it broke over the desert. This was a day I never thought I’d see and the rising sun and growing warmth of the day seemed very precious. It made me aware that hard-won things are more valuable than those that come too easily. It reminded me to always enjoy the moment. “
• “Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won’t make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa – and it’s about getting a balance.”
• “You only live once, and I just don’t want to waste a minute of my life.”
• “A company is people … employees want to know … am I being listened to or am I a cog in the wheel? People really need to feel wanted.”
• “Having a personality of caring about people is important. You can’t be a good leader unless you generally like people. That is how you bring out the best in them.”
• “For a successful entrepreneur it can mean extreme wealth. But with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility. And the responsibility for me is to invest in creating new businesses, create jobs, employ people, and to put money aside to tackle issues where we can make a difference.”
• “I’ve had to create companies that I believe in 100%. These are companies I feel will make a genuine difference. Then I have to be willing to find the time myself to talk about them, promote them and market them. I don’t want to spend my life doing something that I’m not proud of.”
• “Look, if you can indulge in your passion, life will be far more interesting than if you’re just working.  You’ll work harder at it, and you’ll know more about it. But first you must go out and educate yourself on whatever it is that you’ve decided to do – know more about kite-surfing than anyone else. That’s where the work comes in. But if you’re doing things you’re passionate about, that will come naturally.”
• “People have to decide on priorities if they want to get anywhere.  The best lessons I learned was to just do it.”
• “The important thing is that you’ve got a strong foundation before you start to try to save the world or help other people.”
• “Well, I’m somebody who is just living …living life, and if I get frustrated by something, then I like to try to put it right.”
• Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.
• To me, business isn't about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It's about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials. 
• The jet stream is a very strong force and pushing a balloon into it is like pushing up against a brick wall, but once we got into it, we found that, remarkably, the balloon went whatever speed the wind went.
•  One thing is certain in business. You and everyone around you will make mistakes.
• The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.
• Well, the odds must be against anybody being able to fly around the world in a balloon on the first attempt. All of us who are attempting to go around the world in balloons are effectively flying in experimental craft because these craft cannot be tested.
• (He said something moretheless like this) It is not about how big a change (help, remedy, improvement) you can make...it is about make a change, however small it may be. 

• We are not making mistakes. We are making experiences (Dan Bergstein)

• Affirm your value. Tell the world "i am an artist", not "i want to be an artist" (Mitchell Maxwell)

• The mind is everything. What you think you become (Siddharta Gautama)

• Realizing you're completely unique...even in a crowd (Antony John)

• Believe in yourself and all that(who) you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle (Christian D. Larson)

• Having iner peace means committing to letting go of self criticism (this is just a human opinion, mind you editor) and self doubt (Sanaya Roman)

• Fear is the thief of dreams (Brian Krans)

• Don't dream your life, live your dreams (www.behappy.me)

• When you have the ability to do good things to other, than you're morally obliged to do it. It is about responsibility (uncle Ben Parker)

• “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived – that is to have succeeded” – Ralph Waldo Emerson