What is silence? We know it as the absence of sound. If we removed sound, do we have silence? If you sit with your eyes closed with no noise around you, can you experience silence or does your inner voice begin to chatter? In your mind, isn’t that chattering the same as the noise you hear? How about the thoughts floating in and out of your mind? How about the images, the smells, and the emotions from those thoughts? Don’t these things create noise in your mind? True silence is the absence of all thoughts, emotions, senses, stresses, and desires from your mind.

Today, life has many distractions and obstacles to keep our minds occupied. Our lives are filled with noise and it has become a part of who we are. How can we turn that off? This is why silence is hard find. It can’t be bought with money. Its price is practice and persistence to experience it. Millions are willing to pay with a lifetime of practice to experience it and to find clarity in life through it.

Some things to think about:

• Why do we want to experience silence?
• Have you noticed that our thoughts control the body? Fear increase our pulse, make our hand sweat, and make our breathing quickens.
• There are dozens of thoughts going through our mind each hour. What happens to our mind and body when we are caught up in these emotions and thoughts?
• If we spend most of our time working in stress or fear, what would happen to our mind and body? Don’t we develop anxiety and illnesses that need medication?
• What would happens if we can let go of these thoughts? How would our mind and body react? Would you feel calm and at peace?

Are canker sores causing you misery? Sometime, I bite the inside of my cheek and a few days later a canker sore shows up. For a week or two, every time I eat something it’s like chewing on glass or nails. Most of the time I just endure the pain as I wait for the canker sore to heals.

After seeing the effectiveness of alcohol on sore throat, I tried it on the canker sore. Surprisingly, it relieve the pain immediately. It stung when I applied it, but the canker sore is numbed soon after. This relief last for about 2 or 3 hours before having to reapply. After applying for a couple of days, the sore shrinks and disappear.

To apply,

• Pour 1 teaspoon of alcohol into your mouth, and maneuver the alcohol to the canker sore.
• Be prepare for a little sting!
• Sometime it’s easier to just tilt your head and let the alcohol flow to the right place.
• Move the alcohol around the area for about 10 seconds before swallowing.
• Reapply after 2 or 3 hours

After a couple of days, the canker sore should be gone.

Tip:
If you notice a canker sore just starting to develop, you can quickly apply the alcohol, and it should be gone within a day, saving you several days of mouth pain.

Note:
For some reason, using alcohol doesn’t seem to work for my wife’s canker sore. The alcohol stings the canker sore but doesn’t seem to shrink it and make it disappear. It’s good to know that it doesn’t work for everyone.

Starting to do the eye exercises is easy, especially when we are excited to see the results. Enthusiasm, however, does not last. I managed to do the eye exercises for about three weeks before getting distracted by something else.

I was inspired one day as I walked away from my car. After ten steps from the car, I stopped and asked myself, “did I lock the car?” I walked back to check and I had locked it without realizing. This habit was so ingrained in my mind that I didn’t need to think about doing it. I had an Aha! moment. I need to transform the exercise into a habit. When it’s a part of my daily routine, I don’t need to allocate time to do the exercise and more importantly, I will do the exercise without having to think about it.

What did I do?

I started doing the eye exercises when I was waiting for something or wasting time. I did the exercise:

• as I was on the toilet
• as I stopped at a traffic light
• as I was working
• as I was reading
• as I was watching TV

by making the exercise a part of my daily routines, it became a habit. I’m always doing the exercises so I didn’t worry about finding time to do it. This helps me to improve my eyesight without it turning into a chore.

What is the ego?

As a man, I expect and I am expected:

• to have a job to provide for my family
• to have authority and influence in work and in personal life
• to be clever and intelligent
• to look and act manly
• to defend my country
• to want to make a difference in the world
• etc.

There is a long list of things that culture and people demand in a man. This list influence our thoughts, behavior, and actions. Together it creates an image of how we will eventually see ourselves. We become this self image. We see the world and act through this self image. This self is our possession or property. We will defend this property against anyone who dares to damage or steal it. Our ego encompasses a large part of who we are, and what we do.

Some things to think about:

• Why is it important to understand the ego?
• In order to see who we are, we must understand this fog of self image that surround us. If we can fan away each part of the list and allow the fog to slowly clear, what do we have left that makes up our self?
• Can our ego exist without this list?
• Should we maintain an ego?
• Have you defended your thoughts or ideas before? Did it cause tension and anger? Why must you defend it? Did you want to be right? When did your ego come in?
• Does the ego separate men and women’s role such as job, house chores, caring for children, and cooking? How does this affect the man and the woman?
• Does this separation apply to skin color, culture, wealth, age, etc.? What does this separation do to humanity? How much killing and destruction has it caused?

Hate getting sick? Here’s a good trick you can use to avoid getting sick this cold and flu season.

We all know and maybe even used tricks like:

1. Holding our breathe when someone coughs or sneezed in front of us
2. Avoiding people who has a cold or flu
3. Washing our hands often
4. Avoid touching our face with contaminated hands

Despite our best efforts, most of us still catch a cold or flu at least once during the year.

I noticed that when I catch a cold or flu my body goes through a cycle.

THE CYCLE:

1. Sore throat
2. Fever
3. Runny nose
4. Cough
5. Recover

Depending on the strength of the bug and my immune system, each step will vary in length.

I noticed that if I can stop the sore throat from moving on to the next step, I am able to stop the cycle before it gathers strength and turns into a full blown cold or flu. Once it passes the sore throat step, I am doomed to run the entire cycle.

I have tried many things to stop the sore throat:

• Cough drops
• Cough Syrup
• Honey
• Vitamin C

Most of the time, it provides temporarily relief but the cycle continues. One day I tried alcohol and the sore throat withered away.

How to Apply the Alcohol
The trick is to sip one or two tablespoon of alcohol (whether it is brandy, vodka, wine, beer or whichever alcoholic drink you have) and coat as much of the throat as you can. You want to keep the alcohol at the sore spot for as long as possible. You can reapply every three to four hours, or when you feel the sore throat coming back. It should take a day or two to disappear completely.

It works consistently for me, hopefully this can help you stop the cold and flu in its tracks.

The next time you feel a sore throat starting, pour yourself a shot of your favorite alcoholic beverage, slowly sip and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that you are saving yourself a few weeks of suffering.

For over 20 years, I wore glasses from the moment I woke until the time I went to bed. I am nearsighted. I depend on my glasses to see far things clearly. I shouldn’t use it when working on things that are near, but I kept it on. It never occurred to me take them off. After reading Dr. Bates book, I decided to use my glasses only when it’s necessary to see distance things clearly.

First Try

I took off my glasses. It was unpleasant. Everything was blurry; I couldn’t see near and I couldn’t see far. Only things eight inches or closer were clear. It felt so uncomfortable to see everything in depths of blurriness. After struggling for five minutes, I had to put them back on.

Second Try

Saturday morning, I tried again. I removed my glasses. Again, it felt uncomfortable. My eyes strained to see clearly. Everything was blurry and in doubles. I went to the garden and my eyes watered and strained from the bright light and blurriness. It took all my will power to keep my glasses off.

After an hour, my eyes adjusted to the blurriness, and it felt less uncomfortable. I am so used to the glasses that something doesn’t seem right without them on like my eyes were naked. What felt distressing was that I saw doubles without my glasses on. Why was I seeing doubles? I didn’t know, but I persevered and fought off the urge to put on my glasses.

Continuing

Day after day, I took off my glasses when I didn’t need to see something far away clearly. Slowly over many weeks, I felt comfortable seeing without my glasses. Slowly, the double image merged to one, although there was still a gap along the edge sometimes. It takes discipline, effort, and time to break the habit of wearing my glasses all the time. To break the dependence in my glasses and improve my eyesight, it’s worth any effort.

Challenge

Fighting the urge to wear my glasses all the time was challenging. We depend on our eyes and not being able to see clearly can be frustrating and unnerving. For all of us who wear glasses and want to improve our eyesight, this is the first and biggest hurdle we must fight to overcome.