etoiles

“Labeling tends to create demarcation walls, separating one human from another just because we affiliate ourselves to this specific identity or that identity” My name is a label, my family name is a label, my religion or faith is a label, my school is a label, my cultural background is a label, my nationality is a label, my ideology is a label, everything that defines me as a person, a someone, is a label. But how we can transcend those labels and realize the fundamental essence of ourselves, that we are all a part of humankind is of most importance. Because the problem is not in the idea of the label itself, but it is when we are so attached to that label or this label, our minds become clouded & our hearts become blinded towards all the things that we have in common, the fact that we are all human beings. One example: My name is Riri. I’m proud to have gone to SMAK 1 BPK Penabur for my high school. For many years, it was hard for me to separate myself from this proud ide...

Earthlings is one of the most talked about documentaries in vegan and animal rights circles. I avoided watching it for a year because I thought I ‘knew it all’ already. Little did I know that I still had something to learn. I learned that no matter how many facts you know, how many books you read, how many rallies you attend or how many recipes you look at, nothing, NOTHING compares to actually seeing an animal suffer. This documentary uses a lot of what some people call ‘emotive’ images. I call them truthful images. It goes through all of the various industries that we humans have created that exploit animals and use them as commodities: fashion, food, pets, circuses, research. I recommend this for anyone who is having trouble connecting what is on their plate to something that is a living, sentient being that is capable of feeling pain and knowing suffering.  WARNING:   This movie is very graphic. "People might hope that the meat they buy came from...

Sorry but somehow I don't believe in total reconciliation.

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Can you overcome loneliness? Whatever you conquer has to be conquered again and again, does it not? What you understand comes to an end, but that which you conquer can never come to an end... Now, what is this loneliness of which most of us are aware? We know it, and we run away from it, do we not? We take flight from it in every form of activity. We are empty, lonely, and we are afraid of it, so we try to cover it up by some means or other - meditation, the search for God, social activity, the radio, drink, or what you will - we would do anything rather than face it, be with it, understand it. Running away is the same, whether we do it through the idea of God, or through drink. As long as one is escaping from loneliness, there is no essential difference between the worship of God and addiction to alcohol. Socially, there may be a difference but psychologically, the man who runs away from himself, from his own emptiness, whose escape is his search for God, ...