At the Rotary Club of Taipei

It was truly an honor and pleasure to be invited by the Rotary Club of Taipei as a motivational Guest Speaker, today. The topic of my talk was “Be Super Positive – Master your Thoughts, Emotions, and Energy”. 

It was a wonderful opportunity to meet some very interesting people and share our ideas. A special Thank You to the Rotary Club, and I look forward to speaking again at your future events.

Inspiring the Students

It’s the time of the year to inspire students for a fantastic 2016!

It was an honor to be invited by Fu Jen Catholic University TM to conduct my “Be Super Positive” workshop yesterday.

It was fun to interact with such a wonderful group of enthusiastic and engaging students.

Thank you FJU TM and I hope to offer more workshops at your campus soon!

-- About the workshop - Be Super Positive by managing your thoughts, emotions, and energy.

-- In this workshop you will learn:

• The benefits of being Super Positive

• Three energies that determine your positivity

• Four types of thoughts and how to manage them

• The effects of seven major emotions

• Technique to instantly clear unhealthy emotions

• Technique to enhance positive emotions

• Tips to avoid negativity within and around you

• The power of purpose

• …and much more…

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Receive Answers From the Universe in Your Dreams

One of the most exciting subjects that I explore with my clients is how to get answers from the Universe, either in their waking or dream state. I enjoy this subject as much as they do; it’s powerful and transformative. It brings so much clarity and a sense of oneness within them.

In many of my articles and videos, I have talked about how I’ve connected with beings of higher consciousness in my dreams to get answers to my questions, or simply explore what is possible beyond the physical dimensions. At times in may be Shirdi Sai Baba, Satya Sai Baba, Lord Krishna, Lord Shiva, Guru Nanik, ascended masters, angels, spirit guides or even my higher self.

So today, I decided to discuss this subject briefly so that you can get started on this exciting journey of receiving answers from the Universe in your dreams.

Allow me to illustrate this to you with a simple personal experience. For those of you who know me, my body has been diabetic for over 20 years and I inject insulin everyday. However, this was never a problem until I lost partial vision. When my vision reduced, I was unable to see the needle because it is extremely tiny, and I would be required to uncap and cap the needle back when I was finished. I try to cap the needle with my magnification glasses a couple times, but was unsuccessful. In fact, I even poked myself a few times. This needle poke was quite painful and created a fearful memory within me. Whenever I would attempt to cap the needle, the fearful memory would arise and send chills down my spine. However, I needed to find a solution to this, because I couldn’t depend on my parents help every time.

One evening it occurred to me that I should ask the Universe for an answer, and so I did. Early the next morning I woke up from a dream, which gave me the answer, on exactly how to solve the problem. Before breakfast, I followed the exact procedure on the insulin injection, and was able to cap the needle safely. What’s even more fascinating is that the fearful memory also cleared during my dream. I no longer felt the chills in my spine when my finger would get close to the needle. Today, I even cap the needle with my eyes closed.

We all have the capacity to connect with our higher self, sub-conscious mind, super-conscious (mind of God), angels, spirit guides, or ancestors etc. Unfortunately, many people believe that this is only the capability of certain elevated individuals. This is false. Everyone has this capability, but it must be cultivated and enhanced.

The easiest way to get answers is to use your dreams because this is the time when the bridge between the conscious, sub-conscious, and super-conscious mind is open. Information is able to freely flow across these states of mind. The challenge, however, is that many people are unaware of this state. For this reason, even though the answers are coming through, they are unable to see, hear or feel it.

The first step to get answers in your dreams is to first become aware that you are dreaming. With most individuals, there is no separation between the dream and the dreamer. Once you become aware that you are the dreamer during the dream, you can choose to remember the information that has come through. However, to be “awake” in your dream state, you must first become “awake” in your waking state.

Every person has different learning styles, and due to the limited scope of this article, I will not discuss this in depth. Although, if you want to experience a deeper connection with the Universe, then you can follow this simple technique to raise your awareness in your awaking state.

The technique is to simply cultivate the sense of wonder within you. Today, life has become so mundane for many people that they have lost this sense of wonder. But, they fail to realize how powerful this sense is.

The sense of wonder will instantly raise your level of awareness. For example, if you visit a new city, you’re excited to explore, so your sense of wonder and awareness is raised so that you don’t miss out on anything exciting. Alternately, when you walk down the same road to work everyday, there is no sense of wonder, no sense of awareness. You are lost in your own thoughts and are practically unconscious of your surroundings.

Therefore, to start receiving answers to your questions from the Universe, you must raise your ability to see, hear, and feel deeply. In fact, the universe is always answering your questions; it’s just that you’re not listening.

I invite you to start your journey of awareness with the desire of experiencing the magic of existence around and within you. I assure you that this will be the greatest gift that you will give to yourself and the world.

 “Your own self-realization is the greatest service you can render on the world” – Ramana Maharshi

Is Meditation Right for You?

In this video, Dino talks about Meditation. 

Three reasons why people don't meditate.

Is it right for you? Enjoy the video below. 

Is True Happiness Within You

Ask yourself a simple question before every action – “Why am I doing this?”

You will realize that the purpose of every action is to become happy, either today or in the future. This is the root cause of every action, regardless of whether the action is moral or not.

However, have you realized that many of your actions backfire? Instead of bringing you happiness it brings you sorrow? Think about this for a moment, we become excited to start a new job, and over the months we discover that our boss is a control freak, so we feel sorrow. We get married to be happy, and realize that we cannot change our husband or wife, and we feel sorrow. We buy a new car to feel happy, and then realize that our neighbor has bought a better car, and we feel sorrow. Our lives have become a roller coaster ride of peaks and valleys – feelings of joy and sorrow.

Many years ago, I was in this situation. My feelings of happiness were dependent on how life responded to my desires. If life was happening according to my wishes, I was happy, otherwise I wasn’t. It was that simple.

In 2009 when I realized that I would have to live the rest of my life with low-vision, this so called roller coaster of emotions came to a complete stop at the bottom – which was suicidal depression.  Basically, I considered suicide because I was moving away from my pain towards happiness and freedom, which would come after death. However, there was still a part of me that wanted to live, heal, and be able to enjoy life in spite of my low-vision condition.  

As I reflected on my life’s situation, I remembered the popular phrase of many wise saints - “true happiness is within you”. Haven’t you heard this before? But, they never tell us exactly where it is; they just say, “It’s within you”.

If true happiness is within us why it is so difficult to find it? Shouldn’t it be much easier to find a treasure within you, instead of having to search the entire planet?

So, I embarked on a journey to find the truth behind this statement. I began this inward journey to find true happiness.

I started to meditate and search inwards, and this is what I discovered within the darkness as I closed my eyes.

When we close our eyes, we see darkness, isn’t it? 
In the same way, for example, if you walk into a room and the lights are off, you will not see anything, because it is dark. 
But when you turn on the light, you will see there are objects, tables, chairs, and people. 
In the same way when we close our eyes, we see darkness, until we shine some light.

When we shine this light, in the form of awareness or attention, we start to see, hear, and feel what is within us. 
We experience our emotions, intentions, desires, fears, blame, regret, love, and much more. 
In this state, I experienced all these emotions, and more. 
In addition, I felt a sense of peace lingering from somewhere within me but I could not find the source of it. Although, I realized something strange – this sense of peace was giving me a feeling of happiness and freedom. I was awe-struck!

I realized that this feeling of peace and happiness was always within me, but I had suppressed it. I was so focused on gaining happiness from outside, that I did not even consider looking inwards. And, to make matters worse, my situation made me feel that I did not deserve happiness. This was another shocking revelation.

So, over the next few weeks, during my meditation, in a gentle manner, I started to shine more light (awareness) on this feeling of peace, happiness, as well as many limiting beliefs that I noticed.

As we treat a flower, I offered water and sunshine (nourishment) to my suppressed feelings and allowed it to blossom. Flowers of peace, happiness, confidence, and wisdom started to grow, and it continues even today. I can honestly say that most of the day, more than 90% of the time, I’m at peace, I’m happy, and there is an inner smile. At times, I even ask myself, “Why am I happy?” and I cannot find a reason – I am happy for no reason. But, the truth is that I’m happy and peaceful, not because of anything, but simply because that is who I am.

I have come to the conclusion that the wise men were always right – happiness is within you. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that many of you will not find this true happiness. Why?

Because you are too afraid to look within yourself. You are subconsciously aware that when you unlock this so called “treasure chest” within you, you will also encounter feelings and emotions that you have suppressed your entire life. In addition you are also afraid of the limitless potential that you will discover within, because you don’t believe that you will be able to live up to who you truly are. Marianne Williamson expresses this very well in a poem, where she writes, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us”.

As always, my number one suggestion is to practice meditation. But many of you will not choose this path, because you feel that it’s too difficult. That is false, however if you choose to believe it, then I will not change your belief. So, here is another technique.

Cultivate a sense of enthusiasm, since now you know that we are all motivated by the same force – happiness. However, the manner in which we approach happiness differs between individuals. Some of us seek happiness through extrinsic factors (outwards) such as wealth, fame, and beauty while others seek happiness intrinsically (inwards) through purpose or mastery in some discipline.

If you are extrinsically motivated, you may achieve your desires, but that journey will be filled with frustration and fatigue. Alternatively, if you are intrinsically motivated you will always be full of energy, grace, and creativity. And ironically, the intrinsically motivated individuals also attain the extrinsic rewards of wealth, fame, and inner beauty.

Finally once you’ve discovered this inner happiness and peace, it will become an expression of you. Whatever you choose to do will be from a place of happiness, instead of seeking happiness. Without a doubt you will experience moments of peace and happiness that are not dependent on any situation or person. This is when the flowers of peace and happiness have blossomed in your garden, and you will have no other choice but to share these flowers with everyone you encounter.

 “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” – Gandhi

Serve with Joy & Humility

The topic of my speech today was “service”, and I won the best speaker award. The following is a summary of the speech.

I have always been the type of person that would go out of my way to help others. Whether it may be repairing their computers, teaching them something, or even renovating their apartments. I would not help others because of any incentive, but simply because I enjoyed being of service.

A few years ago, after my eye surgeries, I felt like the tables had turned. I was no longer able to serve people; I was now on the receiving end of service. This situation tremendously hurt my ego, because I started to feel helpless and worthless. To make matters worse, people who would see me walking down the stairs with assistance would often ask if I was mentally challenged. This would pierce my heart like an arrow, and I would respond by saying, “No, I have low-vision, and by the way, I’m a network engineer”. I felt the need to justify myself by telling them about my successful career.

Fortunately, a few weeks later, an incident occurred that completely changed my perspective about being of service to others. One evening, once the elevator reached our floor, my mom assisted me to get on so that I would not trip on the step. There was an elderly man already in the elevator when we entered. He felt extremely sad when he looked at me, and asked my mom “What is wrong with this boy?”

I responded to him with a smile and said, “I have low-vision.”

I could feel the pain in his heart as he said to my mom again “but he is so young.”

We just smiled as the elevator continued to the ground floor, and my mom once again assisted me out of the elevator.

It was on that day that I realized one of my purposes in life – it’s to generate compassion within others. I would always feel offended when others would ask about my condition, or hold my hand while we walk. But today, I have realized that these individuals are not just doing me a favor, I’m also helping them by offering them an opportunity to serve. There have been many days during which it is bright enough for me to walk alone, but my friends or family members would still choose to hold my hand. Even when I would tell them that I’m fine walking, alone, they respond saying something like “why am I not allowed to hold you?” Sometimes there’s even a competition of who gets an opportunity to help me, from kids to elderly people.

It is the feeling of compassion that empowers a person to serve others. Compassion is a feeling of shared suffering for another form of life with the desire to alleviate that suffering. Compassion is often observed as a type of selfless service, generosity, or kindness.

Through my experience, I would like to emphasize that service is never a one-way street. If we serve others in some way, we are also receiving service in another form, whether it may be a sense of gratitude or a boost to our ego. Therefore, we must be humble when we are serving. We must remind ourselves that we are blessed to have the opportunity to serve others.

Similarly, if we are on the receiving end of service, we must also curb our pride. We must allow others to serve us. In addition, you may have noticed that many individuals who are on the receiving end of the service sometimes express a bitter or frustrated attitude. This is not because they do not appreciate the service they are receiving, it’s simply because they feel helpless in that situation and they do not know of any way to relieve that feeling. However, there is a way to calm this bitter and frustrated attitude. It is by practicing mindfulness such as meditation, which will enhance the person’s sense of gratitude as well as create inner peace and acceptance.

I invite you to start practicing compassion towards others, but most importantly towards yourself first. Simply observe your inner voice, is it critical or is it kind?

Compassionate individuals are those of us that have experienced our share of suffering, and feel empathy for others who are facing similar challenges. We realize that just like us, others are also seeking happiness and trying to avoid pain.

Finally, through compassion our hearts open and we experience oneness with all. The most elevated emotion radiated by the heart is compassion, and it benefits our health in addition to helping us develop spiritually.

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” – Tagore