Forgiving Is Healing

"That person is very disappointing. I took good care of him since he was a small child. He does not only forget my kindness, he is also very arrogant to me", that's the complain of an old mother few days before she got stroke.

This is a typical story of many parents who are lack of knowledge and wisdom. Do not talk about the mistakes that they have been committed in the past, even kind deeds that they have ever done chase them like enemies who bring dangerous guns.

When the body is no longer strong enough to carry such heavy burden like disappointments, anger, hatred, revenge, by then the body begins to collapse in the forms of dangerous diseases like stroke, heart attack, cancer.

And before this sad life actually happens, it is worth to contemplate the importance of loosening the grip of mind. As has been shared by a British lady who spent dozen years meditating alone in the slope of Himalaya, one of the important fruit of meditation, the grip of  mind is loosening from time to time.

Smile Heals

What is the spiritual practice which is simple but deep? That's the question of many younger generation. As long as you do it with sincerity and honesty, smile is a simple but deep spiritual practice. Especially because smile is much deeper than just curving lips.

In the areas where smile is still highly respected, such as Bali, Tengger, Tibet, Peru, India, etc. the quality of life is much different. Not simply because they have different smile, but also they have deeper friendship with life, nature and people as well.


A spiritual friend who was born in Tengger East Java shared a touching story. If someone walk behind the others, before he is suggested to go first, he will continue to walk behind. Even when people who are walking first take a rest for a moment, he will wait until he is recommended to walk first.

A series of example about the noble life. This is probably happen when people learn to smile diligently in the front of life. Not only smile to the people, but also smile to the environment and all blessings of life.

To put it simply, there are two impacts of smile. The impact of smile to the inner world and the outer world. Smile brings deep impact to the inner world. From increasing the quality of friendship with life, deepening one's understanding about life, and smile can beautify the heart as well.

The more a person smiles, the deeper they learn to accept life. As a result, the more light of healing that they bring to the inner wound. As experienced by many highly realized masters, much deeper than healing the inner wound, smile also help spiritual seekers to enter the gate of wholeness. Especially because deep smile not only smile to the positive, but also smile to all things that are considered negative.

From this gate of wholeness then one can give birth to beautiful heart. A heart which is very similar to a beautiful flower. This kind of heart does not just share deep beauty, but also take good care of life with deep smile. This is the secret behind many luminous souls like Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.

Beside giving impact to the inner world, smile also give impact to the outer world. One day there was a high level karate teacher on the island of Okinawa Japan who was intercepted and challenged to fight by an American drunken soldier. With a deep smile this karate teacher bow and simply walk away.

One of his karate student who saw what happened, in the following day asked impatiently like this: "why didn't you just hit the drunken soldier last night?". With a friendly smile this karate teacher replied: "to learn karate is to learn to be full of smile in life".

That is why in the deep spiritual world has been widely known a message like this: "smile is the only curve which can straighten all crooked things in life". Not only the problematic things outside that can be healed by smile, smile can also heal the inner wound as well.

Penulis: Gede Prama
Photo Courtesy: Twitter @PardueSuzanne

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Pesan Gede Prama dalam bahasa Indonesia bisa dibaca di new.gedeprama.blogdetik.com atau fb Gede Prama's Compassion

Ocean of Compassion

Responding to questions of a critical young man, a teacher asked two spoons of salt from his student. The first spoon of salt was poured into a small cup which is full of water. The second spoon of salt was mixed into water in a big pond. As a result, while in the little cup the water tasted very salty, in the big pond there is no sign that the water is salty.

 The spiritual message behind this story is simple, most suffering happened because the mind and the heart are very small and narrow. But once the mind and the heart can be broadened into as wide as space, then one can attain more peace and less suffering.

 The following question then, what should we do to broaden both the mind and the heart? Look deeply into the baby's eyes. It looks such bright and peaceful because they are free from any judgment. In the eyes of a baby, life is perfect as it is.

Home of Healing

"Searching for a place where there is no sorrow and suffering", that's the life theme of many spiritual seekers. That's also the strong reason why tourism industry continuously grow, without any sign of declining. Some people even have to sell their property to be able to go to the very far country to find this kind of place.

And as has been experienced by many seekers, everyone should be disappointed in the end. The idea of ​​finding place where there is no suffering, it is not only naive, it is also an important obstacle to spiritual growth. Mainly because without sorrow and suffering, deep love and deep compassion will never arise. 

Similar to the pond which is full of lotus trees. Without the dirty mud, without the hot sun shine the lotus flower will never bloom. In the same way, without sorrow and suffering any soul will never grow and glow.

Beautiful Path of Healing

One day a woman with a face full of wrinkles asked this touching question: "my soul has been deeply wounded for years, what should I do then?". Learning from a lot of friends who are sick in meditation sessions, be careful with the soul wound that has been accumulated for years.

Revenge, anger, resentment that have been accumulated over the years are inner energies that can evolve into threatening cancer and other frightening diseases. For that reason, the faster a person heal the soul wounds the better, at the same time the less likely a person will experience pain in old age.

The main characteristic of friends who have severe disease, they tend to be excessively gripped by the concept of self-importance. The higher a person value themselves, the more likely they are disturbed by angry and revenge.

That is why in meditation sessions many friends are invited to meditate on the self. Look at your body, it does not matter you pray or not, meditate or not, the body grow older and weaker. Medical technology and plastic surgery can only prolong life and delay aging. As a matter of time, the body will die.