This day I spet all day for cleaned up my home ; Kitchen room and my room, and watched TV for The celebrations for the 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King’s accession to the throne.MORE THAN A MONARCH
The King rekindles our belief in humanity - and ourselves
Story by Sanitsuda Ekachai
The Pillar of Stability. The Father of a Nation. The Guiding Light. His Majesty the King is all of this to the Thai people. And much more.
Foreign newcomers often express astonishment at our deep love for the King. That astonishment quickly fades, however, once they learn of the King's longstanding dedication to the Thai people, particularly to the majority who are poor.
So they conclude for themselves that Thais love the King dearly because of his good deeds. In a world where meritocracy prevails, this is the ultimate virtue; for what you earn must be through commitment and hard work, not birthright. Under this rationale, the King receives so much love from his subjects because he has given so much of himself. As simple as that.
But is our reverence for His Majesty as simple as that?
His Majesty is often described as the world's hardest-working monarch. And he is. During his 60-year reign, the King has initiated thousands of projects to improve the quality of life of the rural poor and to nurture the severely degraded environment back to health.
Over the past six decades, the King has spent most of each year in the rugged countryside. He has visited villagers in every nook and cranny to listen to their problems, to ask them what they need to ease their difficulties, and to empower them by providing what it takes to help them become self-reliant in the long run.
The King also has used his passion for science to offer his country several cost-effective technologies to deal with the problems of drought, flash floods, water pollution, soil erosion, energy shortages and public health.
Thanks to modern communication technologies, the King still closely monitors the situations of his people with deep concern so they get fitting help in their time of need.
Yet our devotion for the King goes much beyond the tangible.
We are ever grateful for what he has done for the country. But our deep reverence for him comes not only from what he does, but also from what he is.
In the eyes of the Thai people, His Majesty is the embodiment of virtue, the symbol of purity. He is the one person who keeps our faith in goodness alive in an era of dirty politics and cut-throat competition where anything goes.
Thailand is now a different country from what it was 60 years ago. From a sleepy agrarian society governed by traditional values on what was right and wrong, it is now an urbanised, consumer society where money talks loudest.
From a society where group norms kept people's behaviour in check, it is now a jungle of individualistic pursuits for material gain and sensory pleasure.
Thailand has seen many bumps in between. The Cold War. The communist insurgency. Military coups. Environmental devastation. Street uprisings. Corrupt governments. The economic crash. The tsunami. Southern strife.
These bumps elevate public anxiety and insecurity. Throw in a corrupt police force and flawed judicial process, and morality flies out the window because people cannot rely on the rule of law, but only on their personal connections and the ability to pay their way.
Had it not been for the King, we might have lost our faith in goodness long ago.
When we are up to our necks in corrupt and arrogant politicians, our hearts light up when we see our King walking tirelessly under the scorching sun in faraway villages, or sitting on the ground talking with simple folk, however dirt-stained .
When it is fashionable for the rich and powerful to flaunt their wealth, our heart warms to know that our King uses locally made, simple sneakers, never throws away half-used pencils, eats brown rice despite its stigma as food for prisoners, and adopts street dogs as his pets.
When sensory pursuits are the country's main obsession, it is good to know that our King is a serious meditator.
Where few dare to tread, such as the areas infested with insurgency, the King makes it a point to go there because it is where help is most needed.
When the country is reluctant to embrace ethnic minorities, the King leads the way by being there with them so the rest of the country knows all must be friends if peace is our goal.
When the greed-driven economy crashed, he guided the country back to its senses with his self-sufficiency philosophy.
In His Majesty the King, we see the beauty of simplicity. We see courage. Indiscriminate giving. Compassion. Perseverance. And spirituality.
By feeling close to him, we feel close to his virtues which makes us feel much better about ourselves when we are constantly sucked into a world of competition and selfishness.
We may feel hopeless over the country's general decline of morality. We may feel disappointed with ourselves when we cannot resist the surrounding temptations. But we have not lost touch with goodness, thanks to the King.
Because of what the King is, we know what we should strive to be.
Life may be strewn with difficulties. And we may be weak and imperfect. But knowing that we are loved by such a great person who is the embodiment of virtue gives us magical strength to face come what may. To follow in his footsteps. To rediscover the good in ourselves.
More than a monarch, His Majesty is the one person who in times of darkness and despair rekindles our belief in humanity - and in ourselves. This is why we love and revere our King so much.
Long Live the King!
posted by moamon at 10:36 PM
1 Comments:
I am sure you have heard the song "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club but have you ever given much thought to its meaning? While on Earth, you are living in a world of reincarnation which is governed by the law of karma. Karma begins to propel you as Soul on a personal journey through the universe. Karma ends when you have reached enlightenment and fully realise that this physical reality and the Universe itself is just an illusion. When you reach a state of knowingness that there is but One all pervading essence and that essence or consciousness is You!
So what is Karma and how does it work? While in the illusion you have a soul. This soul lives past, present, and future lives. To grow in love, joy, and awareness, you reincarnate into a series of physical bodies to experience different existences. This road leads to the experiences of being both sexes, all races, religions, and ethnic types throughout many lifetimes.
Karma in its simplicist terms can be described by the biblical statement "as you sow, so also shall you reap". Karma is the principle of cause and effect, action and reaction, total cosmic justice and personal responsibility. It brings 'good' experiences as well as 'bad' - a debt must be repaid and a blessing rewarded.
A more indepth esoteric look at karma gives us the following distinctions: Sanchita Karma: the accumulated result of all your actions from all your past lifetimes. This is your total cosmic debt. Every moment of every day either you are adding to it or you are reducing this cosmic debt. Prarabdha Karma: the portion of your "sanchita" karma being worked on in the present life. If you work down your agreed upon debt in this lifetime, then more past debts surface to be worked on. Agami Karma: the portion of actions in the present life that add to your "sanchita" karma. If you fail to work off your debt, then more debts are added to "sanchita" karma and are sent to future lives. Kriyamana Karma: daily, instant karma created in this life that is worked off immediately. These are debts that are created and worked off - ie. you do wrong, you get caught and you spend time in jail.
As a soul, you experience a constant cycle of births and deaths with a series of bodies for the purpose of experiencing this illusionary world gaining spiritual insights into your own true nature until the totality of all experiences show you Who you really are - the I AM! Until you have learned, you will find that pretending that the rules of karma do not exist or trying to escape the consequences of your actions is futile.
Although it may often "feel" like punishment, the purpose of karma is to teach not to punish. Often the way we learn is to endure the same type of suffering that we have inflicted on others and also rexperience circumstances until we learn to change our thinking and attitudes.
We are all here to learn lessons as spiritual beings in human form. These lessons are designed to help us grow into greater levels of love, joy, and awareness. They teach us our true nature of love. Where we do not choose love, show forgiveness, teach tolerance, or display compassion, karma intervenes to put us back on the path of these lessons. Quite simply, the only way to achieve a state of karmic balance is to be love.
Before you incarnated into your present personality, you agreed to put yourself in the path of all that is you need to learn. Once you got here, you agreed to forget this. Karma is impersonal and has the same effect for everyone. It is completely fair in its workings and it is predictable - "do onto others as you would have them do unto you" is a way to ensure peace and tranquillity in your own life as well as the lives of those you come into contact with. The law of karma is predictable - "as you sow, so shall you reap" what is done to you is the net result of what you have done to others!
Karma gives you the opportunity at every moment to become a better person than you are and to open up to the realization that you are the master of your own fate.
The goal of karma is to give you all the experiences that you need to evolve into greater levels of love, joy, awareness, and responsibility. Karma teaches that you are totally responsible for the circumstances of your life. They keep you on the straight and narrow until you have mastered your vehicle and can ride freely on your own. Once you understand that you are the master of your own circumstances and that everything you experience is a direct result of your past actions due to your thinking and emotional responses you can overcome its seeming negative effects by creating only 'good' karma.
Karma forces us to look beyond ourselves (oneness) so that we can see ourselves as we truly are Whole, Complete, at One with everything. Once we truly understand ourselves, we can see our divinity and our unity with all life.
Karma drives us to service. Love means service. Once you accept total responsibility for your life, you see yourself as a soul in service to God. Once you do, you become a fully realized being, allowing God to experience the illusion through you.
Belief in karma and an understanding of its workings will lead you to a life of bliss. Only your own deeds can hinder you. Until the time comes when we release ourselves from our own self-imposed shackles of limitation and fully understand who and what we are we will live under the mantle of karma. So until that day why not create some wonderful experiences for ourselves by "doing onto others, as we would have them do unto us". subliminal
8:14 AM
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