Last month, I was asked by one of my friends, an ex-would be catholic priest to accompany him to visit several villages in my regency during the Easter week or the Passion Week. My friend, who finally resigned from the Franciscan order, told me that our tour was somewhat spiritual because he was asked by the local parish father to help the parish as a deacon to lead a “mass” in several villages as scheduled by the parish.
The tour for me was a kind of new experience coz I had never had a chance to visit a village to do so. When we arrived at the first village, people greeted us warmly and told us they were waiting for us but they were not ready yet with the mass. They did not appoint the men for the reading, songs and etc. A friend of mine who knew better about catholic songs coz he was of course a not would be priest. He taught the women and the children to sing some songs and the reading as well.
Coming to the village was a struggle for us since the roads (if it can be called) are broken. If that night rained, we would cry to go home because of the road.
My friend on the previous day had asked me to prepare the topic for his sermon on the mass. He told me to find some inspiration on the theme “resurrection”
I finally found the inspirations on the theme and told my friend that the core message was how to get rid of our bad behaviors. Jesus’ resurrection must give us strength to revive and start improving our life.
In every village we visited, we saw the lack of catholic ministry in remote areas. Most villages don’t often hold Sunday Mass. My friend and I felt pity for such situation.
Selasa, 12 Mei 2009
Sabtu, 18 April 2009
Obese Democracy
A few weeks ago, hundreds of millions Indonesians cast their votes to choose the Indonesian House of Representative Members for the upcoming five years. As a good citizen, I went to the nearest vote station to do my duty to vote for parties and would be legislators which mostly are “blur” and unknown for me. Frankly speaking, I don’t really give a damn on Politics coz I don’t really believe in politics. Politics for me is just a vicious circle; nothing is worth appreciating in the politics of Indonesia. I am fed up with those rotten politicians being caught by the National Eradication Commission on TV, I am fed up with the Indonesian Political System since it is too “obese” for a developing country like Indonesia. I think it does not matter who becomes the president, the situation in Indonesia will not experience a better change, and it just remains the same.
If we take a closer look at our democracy system, I think our democracy is making us poorer and worse because the system of democracy in Indonesia is too complicated and “obese” for us. Just imagine if we eat so much and becomes so “fat”, our body digestive system won’t work well. Indonesia is implementing an obese democracy. Why is our democracy obese? It is because too many legislative members, too many parties, too complicated procedures, too administrative oriented procedures, too expensive. I can not imagine how those 500 and more legislative members work efficiently coz there are too many members. I think it is better if we make it simpler by reducing the members of House of Representative to 200 members only. Let’s say each province or regency sends 2 or 3 members only to the Senayan Office. It must be a lot better than today’s system. We can take America as an example of this system. It is not the numbers that matter but the quality does. The fewer the members, the better outcome for us since the elected member is the only well known and qualified person in that region. It also implies that somebody needs to prove himself o herself worthy first before hand.
With the obesity of our democracy, our democracy cannot attain its ultimate goal: welfare of the people. How can Indonesia attain welfare if the system is too costly and complicated? It is a nonsense talk. I have a dream that in the next 20 years our democracy is simpler and not too expensive as today. But, it seems still a long way to go!!!! Who knows then?
Kristian
If we take a closer look at our democracy system, I think our democracy is making us poorer and worse because the system of democracy in Indonesia is too complicated and “obese” for us. Just imagine if we eat so much and becomes so “fat”, our body digestive system won’t work well. Indonesia is implementing an obese democracy. Why is our democracy obese? It is because too many legislative members, too many parties, too complicated procedures, too administrative oriented procedures, too expensive. I can not imagine how those 500 and more legislative members work efficiently coz there are too many members. I think it is better if we make it simpler by reducing the members of House of Representative to 200 members only. Let’s say each province or regency sends 2 or 3 members only to the Senayan Office. It must be a lot better than today’s system. We can take America as an example of this system. It is not the numbers that matter but the quality does. The fewer the members, the better outcome for us since the elected member is the only well known and qualified person in that region. It also implies that somebody needs to prove himself o herself worthy first before hand.
With the obesity of our democracy, our democracy cannot attain its ultimate goal: welfare of the people. How can Indonesia attain welfare if the system is too costly and complicated? It is a nonsense talk. I have a dream that in the next 20 years our democracy is simpler and not too expensive as today. But, it seems still a long way to go!!!! Who knows then?
Kristian
Sabtu, 07 Maret 2009
Sabtu, 07 Februari 2009
My Vipassana Experience
Last year in December 24 – 5 January 2009, due to my curiosity on the word of “meditation”, I decided to attend a ten-day residential course of Vipassana Meditation in Klaten, Central Java. Having no prior experience on the so called meditation, my ten day residential course was a totally different experience. The experience was different coz it mixed everything up. I felt sad, happy, inspired during the course. It was not an easy experience to describe in words. At the first glance, I was somewhat interested in joining the course after reading some notes on the net on Vipassana and the information told by my lecturer that Vipassana, that if practiced diligently, rightly, can improve our life better. This is just an example of an experience, and as told by the guru Goenka, himself, that no one ever experiences the same experience. Therefore, this experience is my experience. In the course, I tried to test my endurance toward something.
After riding motorbike for about half hour from Jogja, finally I reached a very beautiful building in Klaten called Dhamaguna Home. I arrived there at 3.30 PM and directly registered my self at the committee. Before submitting the registration paper, I was told by one of the committee to reread the rules and information on Vipassana meditation before deciding to attend the course. On that moment, I told myself that this course was going to be uneasy and different. Actually, I have read those rules on Vipassana several times and have been pretty determined to join the course. But, the woman insisted me on reading the rules and instruction on Vipassana. Afterward, she gave me the form to be filled by new students of Vipassana. Based on my experience, these are several rules in joining a Vipassana course.
a. During the ten day course, every student will follow a strict timetable starting from 4 am to 9.30 pm. In a day, there will be ten hours of meditation time.
b. No more meals after the midday. Each student will only have one meal for the whole day. Meal time is at 11.am. Morning and afternoon will be just tea time or coffee time. All the menus served are vegetarian menus.
c. The most difficult rule is the noble silence. Every student must remain silent for the whole nine days. No communication is permitted. No eye contact and speaking among students. Absolute silent is a must.
Other than these rules, of course there are other rules explained during the orientation time on the noon before starting the first day. But, those rules, in my opinion, are so universal. After joining the whole ten day course, here are the experiences that I felt during the course.
Day 1. On day 1, we were taught to concentrate on our breath that comes in and out. We focus our attention on the area of our nose. The whole day, we observed the coming and outgoing breath through our nose. We observed whatever we felt during breathing. The main point is Observation of the breath. Day 1 was somewhat hard and boring for me. I could not stand sitting for a long time in observing my breath.
Day 2. We were still asked to concentrate on our breath, but we narrowed the area of the concentration. The area was the inner walls of our nose, the outer walls and the tip of our nose. Just the nose. We were asked to feel the sensations we felt during breathing. Day 2 was the most boring day. I started to think of leaving the course because it was so hard of remaining silent and just sat for hours to observe my breath.
Day 3. On day 3, we still did the same things as day 2, but we narrowed our concentration to a smaller area, that is, the area below our nose and above our upper lips. We concentrated on this area and felt the sensations on this part. Whatever sensations must be observed.
All those three days, we were doing the so called ANAPANNA. Concentration on the Breath. In the lecture session every 07 pm – 08 pm, we were informed that Anapana is the basic requirement in doing Vipassana. Only when somebody is successful enough in doing Anapana, Then we can continue practicing Vipassana Meditation. In Anapana, we tried to calm and control our mind. We tried to be alert, aware the nature of our breath.
Day 4. Day 4 is the day where we actually began doing Vipassana Meditation. We started Vipassana by moving our attention to the top of our head. An area, precisely located in the middle of our head. We spread our focus on our head. We were asked to observe every sensation we felt on our head. We started the concentration by observing our skull and each individual part of the head. We felt different sensations such hot, cold, itchy, solidified sensations everywhere on the head.
Day 5. Day 5 is the continuation of day 4. We broadened our area of observation. We moved down to lower parts such as shoulder, neck, elbow, arms. We still observed sensations and told not to react toward any sensations we felt. Just observe. On day 5, we began doing the so called ADHITANNA sitting. Adhitanna is A sitting of strong determination where we sit for an hour without moving our position. This sitting was the most difficult mediation practice. I felt extreme pain on my leg.
Day 6 – day 9, we still observed our body, but we moved down till the lowest part of our body, the toe. We then moved down and up through all parts of our body. The whole ten day course was a worth trying meditation.
Cheers
Kristian
After riding motorbike for about half hour from Jogja, finally I reached a very beautiful building in Klaten called Dhamaguna Home. I arrived there at 3.30 PM and directly registered my self at the committee. Before submitting the registration paper, I was told by one of the committee to reread the rules and information on Vipassana meditation before deciding to attend the course. On that moment, I told myself that this course was going to be uneasy and different. Actually, I have read those rules on Vipassana several times and have been pretty determined to join the course. But, the woman insisted me on reading the rules and instruction on Vipassana. Afterward, she gave me the form to be filled by new students of Vipassana. Based on my experience, these are several rules in joining a Vipassana course.
a. During the ten day course, every student will follow a strict timetable starting from 4 am to 9.30 pm. In a day, there will be ten hours of meditation time.
b. No more meals after the midday. Each student will only have one meal for the whole day. Meal time is at 11.am. Morning and afternoon will be just tea time or coffee time. All the menus served are vegetarian menus.
c. The most difficult rule is the noble silence. Every student must remain silent for the whole nine days. No communication is permitted. No eye contact and speaking among students. Absolute silent is a must.
Other than these rules, of course there are other rules explained during the orientation time on the noon before starting the first day. But, those rules, in my opinion, are so universal. After joining the whole ten day course, here are the experiences that I felt during the course.
Day 1. On day 1, we were taught to concentrate on our breath that comes in and out. We focus our attention on the area of our nose. The whole day, we observed the coming and outgoing breath through our nose. We observed whatever we felt during breathing. The main point is Observation of the breath. Day 1 was somewhat hard and boring for me. I could not stand sitting for a long time in observing my breath.
Day 2. We were still asked to concentrate on our breath, but we narrowed the area of the concentration. The area was the inner walls of our nose, the outer walls and the tip of our nose. Just the nose. We were asked to feel the sensations we felt during breathing. Day 2 was the most boring day. I started to think of leaving the course because it was so hard of remaining silent and just sat for hours to observe my breath.
Day 3. On day 3, we still did the same things as day 2, but we narrowed our concentration to a smaller area, that is, the area below our nose and above our upper lips. We concentrated on this area and felt the sensations on this part. Whatever sensations must be observed.
All those three days, we were doing the so called ANAPANNA. Concentration on the Breath. In the lecture session every 07 pm – 08 pm, we were informed that Anapana is the basic requirement in doing Vipassana. Only when somebody is successful enough in doing Anapana, Then we can continue practicing Vipassana Meditation. In Anapana, we tried to calm and control our mind. We tried to be alert, aware the nature of our breath.
Day 4. Day 4 is the day where we actually began doing Vipassana Meditation. We started Vipassana by moving our attention to the top of our head. An area, precisely located in the middle of our head. We spread our focus on our head. We were asked to observe every sensation we felt on our head. We started the concentration by observing our skull and each individual part of the head. We felt different sensations such hot, cold, itchy, solidified sensations everywhere on the head.
Day 5. Day 5 is the continuation of day 4. We broadened our area of observation. We moved down to lower parts such as shoulder, neck, elbow, arms. We still observed sensations and told not to react toward any sensations we felt. Just observe. On day 5, we began doing the so called ADHITANNA sitting. Adhitanna is A sitting of strong determination where we sit for an hour without moving our position. This sitting was the most difficult mediation practice. I felt extreme pain on my leg.
Day 6 – day 9, we still observed our body, but we moved down till the lowest part of our body, the toe. We then moved down and up through all parts of our body. The whole ten day course was a worth trying meditation.
Cheers
Kristian
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