My UmonHon Indian teacher, Pierre said to me, appropriately after I had hurried to the Clinic of the tribe, without much attention to the blue skies, and an eagle following my track :
All things in life are FREE only if you pay attention.
Then he continued:
Be grateful for what you have and do not be sorry for things you do not have
It was Pierre, who reminded me one day: All the beautiful things in life are free. It becomes unreal when you begin to chase the unreal lie.
When you keep your eyes open, you tend to see more things. If you let your heart feel, more emotions would be given to you.
Being a teacher, I have always known that only the student who is ready will encounter the right teacher
in 2008, i was ready to listen to Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the teacher came in the form of a tourist who was also waiting to go to my Burmese brothers hotel in Siem Reap.
I learned about Gratitude or the importance of Gratitude in my life.
I learned about the List of five people that I must thank before I even begin my day
Initially it would be the familiar faces , mother father teacher lovers and friends
as you continue to do this every day, people who deserve your gratitude and that you have forgotten them in the mists of memories would begin to appear
If I close my eyes right now
the lady at the cash register at the cafeteria in Adelaide comes into my mind.. thank you.. i even remember the gift of the star of david you gave me .. i thank you ..
My Meskwakia indian teacher had taught me : stop looking for people, they will come your way. In the same manner, on a night like tonight , when there are multiple emotions fighting in your brain for primacy, things i need to read or view appears. Nothing could have been more appropriate than a TED talk that I saw tonight on YouTube.
In it he was talking about the wandering nature of the mind. It is one of the outcomes of Vipassana meditation that you learn to control that wandering. I was astonished to hear that our brains are wandering most of the time but we can learn to FOCUS our thoughts .
I was so happy to hear also of the speaker talking about the List of Gratitude.
Choose mental fitness and emotional strength
We place so much importance on the physical fitness in the western societies (exercises, gym membership, running ) but do not pay attention at all to our EMOTIONAL strength or Mental Fitness.
The emphasis is on the OUTER ( material ) and not on the INNER (emotions, spirituality)
I was able to use this thought in the practice of medicine today.
A colleague called to say that her husband had been taken to the Casualty department of a hospital, complaining of lack of vision in one eye.
After a long wait he was seen and the doctor said: You have a case of macular oedema (related to the vessels in the retina of the eyes) and we will make an appointment for you to have treatment.
I realized that in a society that emphasizes the outer and the superficial, the doctors also would emphasize the outer and the superficial . Treatment of the Outcome rather than the further prevention of the origin.
The patient is a Diabetic and obviously this problem is related to his lack of control of Diabetes. So treating the complications does not deal with the origin of those complications.
I told his wife
Exercise, whether in a Gym or a Cardio specific will take care of your outer, your muscles and make them stronger. some people may even feel better exercising but the INNER aspect of your metabolism is altered , which is necessary for the prevention of further complications, only by Nutrition and reduction of life's stresses.
I have noticed dramatic changes in the USA and especially in the city I visit often, Miami. People have become more aggressive, more selfish, greedy and definitely more unhappy. We cannot project it to the Covid isolation or the large number of immigrants (majority of the population are immigrants in this city, a situation very seldom found elsewhere in the world, more than Marseilles). There is no central theme of life here, apart from greed, fraud and money..
I talk to all my patients about happiness and talk about Yogic and Buddhist philosophies in addition to the Native American Indian philosophy. As Hippocrates had said. Treat the patient who has the disease rather than just treating the disease in that person.
So I am today grateful to
YMC and our meeting in Siem Reap International Airport in Feb 2008
All the people from IRAN who have put in an appearance in my life over the years
Since February 2020 to the end of 2021, life was supported by friends on line from various countries: Brasil, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico. I thank all of you
La petite poete de Cote Sauvage, obviously
My friends in USA Mexico Argentina Cuba Morocco Spain Qatar Israel India and other places
Friends and other lovers from distant past who deposited a part of their lives and hearts Merci Beaucoup Gracias
I truly feel emotionally refreshed after writing this piece.
So, Mashhad, Sri Racha, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Malaga, Tehran, Cochin. I will be there .. soon.
Even Yasawa islands ..
Happiness comes from within and is there any perception of the reality that makes you happier (let us forget negativity here)?
If you have an iphone or ipad , Google Arts and Culture would fill your days and hours with happiness... looking at art, reading about culture and learning...
