life

Success

Image | | Reflections in a teacup by Noor Reflection

From last few days I have been reflecting upon this word “Success”.  I guess my anxiety flared up with a fast approaching change in my work place and new job positions opening up with tough criteria and assessment exams involved.  It will be total wrong of me to not accept that yes I got nervous, anxious of losing out.

One day, as per my usual practice in the morning, I was reading my affirmations from “Motivational Moments” by Mufti Menk who is a famous Muslim scholar from Zimbabwe and the following quote gave me much mental clarity and helped me change my thought process around the dictionary definition of the word success which means, ”

a performance or achievement that is marked by success, as by the attainment of honors.”

Rather I found total relief in the following words,

“Don’t be frustrated when you see no results after trying. There’s a lesson there. You may be struggling but it doesn’t mean you are failing. “

After reading this I must admit I felt lighter knowing that even trying out for something new and going through a selection process is also a success in itself. After gaining this understanding, I was able to cope up with my feeling of anxiety and nervousness and was able to develop a plan to follow to achieve a positive experience.

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Noor Reflection

http://www.reflectionsinateacup.com

@rinateacup

 

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Book review – Far Away Friends

| Reflections in a teacup by Noor Reflection

Far Away Friends

Written By Baljit Ghuman.

Books cast a mystic spell over me that is hard to explain at times. For me buying a book, reading a book even holding a book in my hands drifts me away for few minutes and serves to be very relaxing.

I recently got a beautiful book on poetry called Far Away Friends written by Baljit Ghuman. As always I like to hold the book in my hands and feel the cover, the pages, the texture, the print, the weight. I must say I was thrilled to hold this book in my hands. What caught my eyes and attention was the title “Far Away Friends” printed on red background with white font. After the title there is a total white space followed by the author’s name again on the red background with white font. For some of us, this would be just a matter of picking up a simple design but for me it held more meaning than just a design layout. It gave me a hint of some one remembering their friends, memories associated with them from the realm of their thoughts, searching in the deep corners of their brain thus the white space signified  the quietness and stillness to get those memories out to share with the world.

The cover was inspiring enough for me to read the book, so I made a cup of tea this time not coffee and started to read it on my comfy couch. 🙂 I must say I was right about my predictions earlier. Each and every poem in the book was very relate-able with one’s life personal experience. What inspired me to keep on reading without lifting my mug of tea, was the layout of the poem on each page. The poems, thoughts and words are organized in a unique but very interesting, searchable way I must say, that tempts the reader to keep reading, searching, and relating to themselves. After some poems, there is a white page that I say is added for a reason – to self reflect, to remember, to take a break, to breathe and then to move on.

I thought of adding my personal favorite poem and inspiring words but I couldn’t narrow it down to just one poem or saying. The whole book and all the words are inspiring thus eliminating the need to pin point to just one personal favorite.

I can strongly recommend this beautiful, enlightening, inspiring collection of poetry around friendship, love, loss, freedom, wisdom, nature, divine light to my friends and followers and I can certainly see myself going back to this book for inspirational thoughts, motivation and courage later in coming years.

For all my followers who are also interested in exploring this book. It can be found easily at Amazon.

Far Away Friends by Baljit Ghuman https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1530385393/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_7nWoybEQMWZ37 via @amazon

#Friendship #love #nature #poetry #poems #goodreads #bookreview #inspiringreads #writing #literature

For more interesting reads please visit the author’s blog listed below:

http://www.baljitghuman.com

 

 

 

 

Book review by Noor Reflection

 

 

Book review – Tao Te Ching

Image | | Reflections in a teacup by Noor Reflection

Always being curious about new books and looking into good reads, one day I decided to read the English translation by Jonathan Star of the book called Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu.

After reading the first few pages of the book, I was very eager to explore the history of the book. Curious to find out the origin of this sacred Chinese scripture, I googled the web for the meaning of the word Tao. 

The understanding I got after reading various definitions was that Tao or Dao (English pronunciation) is a Chinese word signifying ‘way’, ‘path’, ‘route’, ‘road’, ‘choose’, ‘key’ or sometimes more loosely ‘doctrine’, ‘principle’ or ‘holistic science’.

Hence the word Tao Te Ching  can be translated as “The Classic of the Way’s Virtues” or “The Book of the Way of Virtue.”

The Tao Te Ching is a Chinese Classic text also referred to as Laozi.

Laozi also known as Lao Tzu was an ancient Chinese philosopher, writer, and the founder of philosophical Taoism. Taoism is a religious or philosophical tradition of Chinese origin which emphasizes living in harmony.

The Tao Te Ching is a fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism. 

After gaining the understanding of Tao, Taoism, and reading about Laozi,  I found the book very inspiring and composed of many philosophical views about life.

The book is about ancient Chinese wisdom that was written around 500 B.C.

Tao Te Ching is an eastern text that has been translated by many scholars. The translation I read from Jonathan Star, is considered to be very close to the original text and is considered to be very relate-able to one’s life. It is also acclaimed that Star has done a great job in preserving the poetic phenomena of the text as well.

Throughout the book, the reference is made to Tao and Sage. For my understanding, I googled Sage again. As per Wikipedia definition, a Sage is someone who has attained the wisdom which a philosopher seeks.

The book is divided in to 81 verses. Each verse conveys a very important message related to life. Each verse grabs the reader’s attention by teaching the important message of living in harmony, and focusing on various wise teachings. The philosophy presented in the book embodies deep meanings of the existence of universe and how to live in peace. It talks about power of giving and not expecting back like water who nurtures every thing on Earth and need no return. The Tao Te Ching is the route in itself, the path to emptying the human mind of ambitions, schemes and desires and allow it to be flooded with humility, stillness, calmness and leading simple life. To summarize each verse of Tao Te Ching will take away from it’s original essence. One must read each verse over and over again to understanding the philosophy of Taoism.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is eager to learn and understand new dimensions and meaning of life.

Happy reading.

Review completed by N. Reflection

Resources referred: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi

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Book review – The Supreme Gift by Paulo Coelho. 

Image | | Reflections in a teacup by Noor Reflection

Browsing through the collection of my Kindle books, I decided to read a book called “The Supreme Gift” by Paulo Coelho. This time unlike other times, I decided to start the book without reading its excerpt. After finishing the book, I must say it left me wondering about various aspects of life and true essence of the definition of love. The author has taken a unique yet beautiful approach in explaining the meaning of life and love to many of those who are still in search of this answer.

The Supreme Gift, by Coelho is a short book that focuses on Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, a passage from the Bible. Adapted from the original work of Henry Drummond, Coelho has narrated about love by sharing his own perspective thus embarking inspiration and pouring wisdom into his readers. The book talks about 9 ingredients of love which are summarized below , in the form of a sermon delivered by a young Scottish preacher. The 9 ingredients of love according to Drummond are:

1- Patience
2- Kindness
3- Generosity
4- Humility
5- Courtesy
6- Unselfishness
7- Good Temper
8- Guilelessness
9- Sincerity

After reading the book on my Kindle, I will definitely invest in buying a paper copy of this book to refer back to it in the upcoming days when I am faced with a quest to find the purpose of life. This book definitely gets 5 stars from me.

Book review by N. Reflection