My review and reflection for The Garden of Words

I just watched this short animation work from Makoto Shinkai. I had previously watched his grand hit 'Your Name' and absolutely fell in love with his work.

Garden of Words is interesting in its own way. It is a story of serendipity and budding romance of a young man still in high school with an adult woman. While it is not hard to believe that age gap did not prevent someone from falling in love, I believe the more subtle message is that the man actually matured beyond his age and the woman had not been that much of a grown-up and that would had close the gap for both are actually in the same level of 'spiritual' connection and understanding.

In essences, Age is just a sentient meaning and beyond the physical realm, there are much more in us that we have in common. One such thing as depicted in The Garden of Words as well, we all have our emotional baggages such as fear and uncertainties for our dream and for what we are going to become as well as have own restriction in our inner and outside world.

This is regardless of whether we are 15, 27 or 37. At 15, we have limited resources like money and our dream to grow up and make a living was so far away. At 27, we probably at the edge of contemplating a career move or thinking what is the next step for us given that we have worked for few year and surely face some challenges at work and life as well. At 37, well, I guess we start to realize that sometimes what we want in life may be different from what we have done so far and doing now. We might have caught a glimpse of the meaning of life and we continue to try to find those in our life before it is too late.

At every of these stages, we yearn and aspire to be better than we are now and there are these pivots at different ages that cause us to change course in life sometimes.

Thus, I greatly appreciate watching work like The Garden of Words. Thank you, Makoto Shinkai for keeping my fire in animation films aflame and my emotion heightened after I have gone beyond all Hayao Miyasaki's works which had once triggerred so much emotion in me. (As much as I can rewatch Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle,and other great works, the feeling aren't the same each times I rewatched versus I watched them for the first time)

If I can summarize with just one sentence about that I believe it evokes in me, that is  - Although we are very different in each stages of life but we are also much the same.

I lie

I lie.

I am not really that passionate about life from where I see myself now.  Sometimes I am, but sometimes I am not.

As I get older, life is not one way or the other. It is not just white or black. It is both and gray.

So, I want to continue this blog as honest as I can be. And I am definitely going to write more about bad stuffs , negative feelings and gossips because life has this aspect. It sucks sometimes!

And I am hoping those who read this blog before had already forgot about my identity. Because if only I can feel unknown, I can start afresh in a very open way.

Life is not always facing this amazing view all the time...

Life can be like this ... 

But, I don't care and would like to just say this - f*** u!

Good Will Hunting (1997) - Superb Script and Memorable Scenes

Weekend was incredible for me as I re-watched the movie "Good Will Hunting". And I was amazed to find out the script was written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon when they were in their early twenties. And to watch the magnificent performance by Robin Williams - I was divinely touched!

And here I am,  thrilled and blessed, with the movie, 17 years later after it was made. I feel something is calling for me....

Scene 1: Park Scene



Scene 2: It is not your fault

New Year Resolution

My New Year Resolution for 2014 is........................

First and foremost:

To let go of the past, 
Connect with myself, 
to Wake Up and, 
and be Present.

And:

Be forgiving - to give love, kindness and peace to All, especially to people who don't like me.
Speak with Purpose
Dream Bigger

To realize and accept that:

I will continue to encounter different things and people in my life.
Some will give me laughs, some will give me smiles, some will give me tears. Some will give me all three.
Sometimes I will give up or lose something, other times I will gain or learn something.

And last but not least:

To wake up each day with refreshing thoughts, positive outlook and determination to become better than yesterday.

On Human Stupidity

Calvin, my favourite comic character, pondered on this:

With the wave of frivolity which has entered my life recently, I cannot help but wonder on the same thing. 

The play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines.

It's hard to feel whether we're in a tragedy or a farce.

They sound just right. :)

And we do not need to be Albert Einstein to muse this - Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

Bucky on Humanity, Integrity, and Transcendental Meditation

Here is a remarkably inspiring session between Mr Buckminster Fuller (Bucky) and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi where they talked about the universal basis of the life of individual and cosmos.

The basis of this exchange:

Bucky said he first started to explore the untapped faculties of the human mind in 1927, which is when he first began investigating meditation. However, he was not impressed with what he learned because he concluded people were meditating for their own personal advantage, rather than to help the world.
Bucky’s impression changed dramatically 44 years later when he met Maharishi at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

It came as a great delight to me in meeting Maharishi to learn that he, in his studies, had discovered that in the very earliest recorded thinking in India, that the meditator was exploring these faculties … on behalf of his fellow man.

And Bucky revealed the “great news” of the time:

What is really news is that there have people contemplating and isolating themselves for thousands of years, not apparently trying to bring the advantage to the many except in mysterious ways. I am sure what has made Maharishi beloved and understood is that he has manifest love. You could not meet with Maharishi without recognizing instantly his integrity. You look in his eyes, and there it is. 

I would like to say to the news media that the great news is that America has its arms open for the truth, love, tenderness, compassion, and the only way we can know the truth, is through our mind. And the world is demonstrating in this wave of inspiration by Maharishi, its yearning and its determination for humanity to survive on our planet. 

Very deep forces are operative here, the forces of the great intellect of the universe itself. This is the news. It is not easy to report this kind of news, but this is the news.

Watch these videos for more of the exchange.



It takes quite an effort for me to understand fully the exchange between Bucky and Maharishi, both are Enlightened Masters. Perhaps, someone can help explain more to me in the comment section. Thank you in advance.

And again, in the simplest term, what transpire is love and love is all that is real, as taught in A Course in Miracles.

"Love does not conquer all things, but it does set all things right."
- Excerpted from A Course in Miracles

Know Thyself

Have you try any personality tests? 

I have tried Myers-Briggs Personality (MBTI) and Dominance-Influence-Steadiness-Conscientiousness (DISC), Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI), Audio-Visual-Kinesthetic and even some animals categories - Hare-Tortoise-Owl-Squirrel. I have also done my Enneagram test 2 months ago and re-did my DISC profile (And I got different profile result this time). In Enneagram, I am called a Four - The Individualist from the nine personality types. Below is one of the reminder note for me as a four.

The overall keynote of Fours is subjectivity. In order to keep their sense of self alive, Fours need to have a personal and emotional resonance with their experiences. They therefore "take everything personally," and for better or worse, often invest meaning or find intention where there is none. Notice today when you are taking everything personally. 

Thus, this is my favourite prayer to help me when I am taking things too personally until it hurts:

Dear God, please help me. This is it. Right here. There is where the sword enters my heart. This is where I blow it every time. 

I read occasionally what it tells about my Greek Zodiac (I am an Aries) and Chinese Zodiac. Recently, I also have my BaZi profiling done on my career and relationship. BaZi tells me when are the years I most likely to find my pot of gold or find the right man to have a relationship. It seems I need to be a bit more patient for both.

Now, I wonder how much I traverse the road of knowing myself. 

How many more tests out there that are attempting to tell us more about ourselves but also put us in different categories?

If there is only one certain distinction that any test can tell for me, I would be categorised to those who always need to find out about things. (Now, you can take a guess at my DISC personality). Sometimes I feel I am taking it too broad, may be shallow. Sometimes, I think I am diving too deep. I am constantly curious - I accept that fact. I am really passionate about learning. I feel alive when I am gaining knowledge and become wiser.

But I found the more I learn, the more I know that I know nothing. Okay, that came from Socrates. It is a proof that wisdom and generalised principle can really transcend space and time. I am talking about what Socrates believe more than 2000 years ago is still applicable up to these days. It certainly resonates with me and I think it does with a lot of people.

Perhaps when we meet a divine and transcendent guru, and we ask him questions, most probably we will NOT get direct answers. A lot of things are neither black nor white. A lot of things are not set in stones. It comes from where we are looking at it. A Course in Miracles says Only Love is real. All others that are negatives are just illusions. And we are surrounded by illusions until we surrender to love. And I just learnt from Money and You program that Clarity Leads to Power. I know now that no matter how complex things are, there are always some generalised principles that govern everything.

I do not need to know everything to know all things.

I think I am getting it. Things are getting clearer for me. I am really starting to know myself. I don't really know it, but I can feel it.

How about you? What do you think? Do you know yourself?