Taoist…Confucius…Christ…Buddhist Reading books about great minds of the four paradigmatic figures, Lao tzu, Confucius, Jesus, Buddha, who had the most profound and lasting impact on our thought, education, belief, I have vainly tried to put those teachings into perspective. The simplest way for me, a novice reader, is to put them in parallel to our stages of growing up. A new born child is a free spirit with a mind opening and accepting to anything without judging them. And that we could perhaps say we were born Taoist. Growing up, in order to be a good member in the society, the

Zero Expectation ‘How could you be number one in your class?’ ‘I don’t know because I had never tried to be the top of the class.’ I told my aunty who came to my graduation in 1973 and went on to tell her that perhaps it was because I had never thought that I could afford to be a college student. I then embraced pretty much everything including study; never missed a class in four years, received scholarship yearly from being the top in my class of 174 students and every year went to receive the medal from the late King

Monkhood I didn’t know some monks ate only one meal a day, until I became one of them. Buddhist monks don’t eat after 12.00 pm, most of them eat twice a day, breakfast and lunch.        It was 1992, I wore saffron robes, went out walking on the streets and along the edges of rice paddies begging for food. We, there were three of us, my colleague and my master, waited until dawn to start our morning routine. We went on different routes in order to cover the areas which were wide spread in a small rural town. It took about a couple

Being Alone Lately, I have been doing physical therapy everyday; working on my right shoulder for two days and the other three days for my left knee. During each an hour session, there are a few therapists taking turn to assess the conditions and treated me accordingly. We normally start with laying down on an adjustable bed for treatments; simple massage gun, muscle scrapping, ultra sound, manual hand massage. Then, I will go to the equipment and biking is what I have to do every session. During the 10 minutes of constantly pedaling and reeling, I close my eyes and keep

Living in According with Nature It was a usual morning when I was meditating on the front porch. The temperature was in the low seventies which was considered cool at this time of the year, late summer. The weather though, was the best; dry air was breezed through leaves and the sway of their branches. It’s indeed one of the best days in this summer. With songs from birds, noises from cars and various thoughts streaming into my mind while I was regulating my breathing, all the sudden a whiff of fresh pristine air was detected. It was very subtle but

Wholesomeness I found myself greeting the fellow jokers this morning, even said hello to a neighbor who usually turned her back on me every time I was getting closer. During a mile walk, I seemed to notice and feel everything; the pace of my walk, the long interval of my breathing, the smell of the flowers along the path, how ripen of the mangoes hanging high up at the top canopies, the assorted colors of pomegranates surrounded by their dazzling delicate twigs and leaves. And the chorus from birds had resonated the rhythm of my body all along. It’s an ironic

True Being Time went by rather quickly when I was running on the court chasing tennis balls. I guessed I was totally focus on hitting the balls and forgot about time. As the matter of fact, I never wanted to stop playing tennis even after two hours of running non-stop. There are Zen-Tennis tips : -Get an image of where you want the ball to go and let the body take it over. -Let the body experiment and by-pass the mind. -Visualize the whole shot before you hit it. -Let the serve, serve itself. -Look at the seems on the ball.

Empty Your Mind “In Buddhist Emptiness there is no time, no space, no becoming, no-thing-ness; it is   what makes all things possible.”  -D. T. Suzuki   The state of emptiness always has open the possibility of accepting things as they are, and can appreciate everything. This doesn’t mean suppress your thoughts, but step back from them. When we step out of self-consciousness, we step into nature by letting things flow. Flow is the state of self forgetfulness. People in flow exhibit a masterly control of what they are doing, their responses perfectly attuned to the changing demand of the task. And although

Where did Niwat Name Come from Niwat was the name given to me when our family adopted Thai names. Our last name ‘Loaw’ was changed to Kitirattragarn when I was in elementary school. It took me a while to get used to it. But it took my kids years to feel comfortable of their last name. Nonetheless, Andrew, as the students speaker, took advantage of it by proudly addressing his last name K I T I R A T T R A G A R N in front of the five thousand students who graduated UCSB Class of 2008. I however,

พรหมลิขิต บุพเพสันนิวาสภาคสองกำลังจะออกอากาศให้พวกเราดูอีกไม่กี่เดือนข้างหน้า เรามาทำความรู้จักกับคำว่า’พรหมลิขิต’กันไปพลางๆดีใหม พอดีช่วงนี้ดู Our Universe สารคดีNetflix ที่เอาชีวิตการเป็นอยู่ของสัตว์มาผูกโยงกับความเป็นมาของโลก ดวงดาว กาแลคซี่และจักรวาล โดย Morgan Freeman ได้บรรยายถึงอากาศ น้ำ แร่ธาตุ พลังงาน แรงโน้มถ่วงบนโลกที่มีความเป็นมากว่า ๑๓.๘ พันล้านปี ว่ามีความอิทธิพลกับสัตว์โลกอย่างไร เช่น เต่าทะเลกลับมาวางไข่ที่หาดทรายเดิมได้เพราะตั้งแต่ฟักตัวเองในไข่ เต่าทะเลมีแผ่นแม่เหล็กเล็กๆเรียงตัวในแนวเส้นที่ช่วยบันทึกตำแหน่งที่เกิดไว้ และได้พูดถึงนก King Penguin ที่เลือกคู่กันด้วยสีสันของจงอยปาก คาง และขน ในสายตาสัตว์ทั่วไปรวมถึงมนุษย์ นกแพนกวินมีสีสันเหมือนกันทุกตัวเพียงแต่ตาเราแยกสี ultraviolet ไม่ได้ แต่ในสายตาของนกแพนกวินจะแยกแยะสีสันของพรรคพวกเดียวกันได้ถนัดชัดเจน และสีที่ถูกใจที่สุดคือสีสันของคู่ชีวิต (soul mate) ก็ได้ถูกระบุไว้ตั้งแต่แรกเกิด คุณฟรีแมนย้ำด้วยว่า ถึงแม้จะมีนกแพนกวินเต็มหาดเป็นพันเป็นหมื่นตัว คู่นี้ก็จะเสาะหากันจนเจอ แบบนี้คงเรียกได้ว่าเป็นพรหมลิขิต เอ้… แต่แม่หญิงการะเกดหน้าตา(สีสัน) ก็ไม่ต่างจากเกศสุรางค์ ทำไมพ่อเดช หมื่นสุนทรเทวาจึงเกลียดคนแรกแต่รักคนหลัง อ้อนึกได้แล้ว อุปนิสัยใจคอกิริยามารยาทนี่เอง คือสีสัน ultraviolet ของมนุษย์เรา ๗ ธันวาคม ๒๕๖๖