Shamantika's Blog

A Religious Canine

shamantika — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:24:08 +0000

Doggy lives just across the street, in a mansion with spacious backyard and many fruit trees. He’s a good friend of mine, and he treats me as if I’m one of his masters. His owners are seldom home and the caretakers know almost nothing of canine health, so whenever I’ve got spare time, I’d go to his house to bathe him and give him his monthly dose of vermicide. He loves every visit I give him because there’s no one around who pets him. I like befriending him since he’s a very sweetly-disposed Doberman and the most religious dog I’ve ever known.
Religious???
Oh, yes. Believe it or not, Doggy always prays five times a day!
Whenever the muazin in our village mosque begins chanting the adzan (prayer call), he would lift up his head and howl – and he won’t stop until the chant ends!
Sometimes, I am embarrassed when noting this habit of his, because I often forget to say my prayers!
“Shame on you!” I sometimes say to myself. “Even the neighbor’s Doberman is more faithful in keeping the religious duty, although he’s got no idea what a religion is!”
There are plenty of blessings in store for those who are faithful in keeping God’s law and requirements: the blessing of eternal salvation, the blessing in the afterlife, the blessing in the present life, the blessing of long life, the blessing of offspring, the blessing of prosperity, etc. Nevertheless, amid the trials and sufferings of life, we sometimes falter and begin questioning whether or not God’s promises stand: the promise that He preserves the lives of those who are faithful to Him, the promise of His never-ending blessings.
God is not man that He should turn back on His word!
• Malachi 3:16-18 “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. ‘They shall be Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’ Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”
• Malachi 4:2 “But to you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.”
• Number 11:23b “Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.”
Take Doggy for instance!
This dog, who has never missed a single prayer for more than nine years (a Doberman living over nine years of age is OLD, for your information), has had many companions before. But through all those years, he always outlives each and every companion he ever had: his mother, his old friends, even his young puppy-friends.
Last year, he got run over by a speeding family wagon. Guess what? It didn’t kill him!
He managed to get up and walk home with a fractured leg. His owners didn’t take him to a vet, either. He recovers by nature. Now he can run and play as before, as if nothing had ever happened.
He survives! The Lord, who gives breath to all creations, is merciful to him.
Now, if that’s the way God rewards a canine for keeping the praying times, how much more will He reward us, “O ye of little faith?”

Chandra Wilwatikta

shamantika — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:21:44 +0000

Have you ever visited Taman Chandra Wilwatikta in Pandaan?
I have.
It’s located right in front of Dewi Sri Restaurant, on the border of Pandaan and Prigen (Pasuruan – East Java). You won’t miss the eye-catcher of the site: they’ve got a pack of deer confined right at the gateway. On weekends, parents take their children to see and feed these animals, as we often observe. In fact, the impression has taken root in my mind for years that I thought of the site as a sort of wildlife preservation.
I was badly mistaken!
Last week, I took a walk to the site and found out it’s got a main office, a large seminary room, a dining hall, some cottages, and an outdoor amphitheatre that can take in 1,000 audience!
I took a long time strolling around the amphitheatre, wondering what could possibly have happened to the site. Grand and spectacular it must have been! Even the two gigantic giant statues and the two humongous banyan trees (one on each side of the theatre) seemed small compared to the whole stone seats surrounding them.
But now, the place seems to be deserted. Moss and thickets overgrow on the stony paths and isles. The breeze sweeping the leafy trees around it whispers the coldness and forlornness of the site, as if weeping and recalling a long lost past.
Chandra Wilwatikta used to be the centre of art exhibition in East Java, from dancing, theatre, and wayang orang to music concerts. But its popularity began to diminish post-monetary crisis in 1998. More and more interests were drawn toward the recuperation of East Java’s economic condition that eventually art lost its importance and became mere accessory. Chandra Wilwatikta was then abandoned.
Nowadays, it is mostly used to hold seminars and trainings for civil servants. On several occasions, it also holds dancing and concerts, but none too often. In the midst of East Java’s busyness and financial growth, the site lies dormant – as still as a slumbering giant…

De-expressing Our Faith

shamantika — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:20:09 +0000

A careless driver zigzagged on the streets, endangering others and causing a bunch of people hurled curses at him/her. Upon arriving at the traffic light, we discovered that a pathetic sticker had been stamped on the rear window, saying: JESUS’ BELOVED’S ON BOARD!
Sounds familiar?
Here’s another example:
A young friend of ours stated in his FACEBOOK profile that the Bible is his favorite book and serving the Lord is his activity. Not so long afterward, we found out that he’s a fan of Maria Ozawa (Japan notorious porn actress)!
Expressing our faith should never turn us into a laughingstock for the watching world – as in the cases of the above examples. When we proclaim our faith to others (no matter what we are – Moslems, Christians, Catholics, Buddhists, etc.) it is ultimately expected of us to live up to our faith! Many believers fail to understand that expressing one’s faith includes a great demand of living a prudent life in the eyes of the beholders. The failure in fulfilling this prime expectation will rank us no better than political campaigners!
Christians are demanded to have their light “SO SHINE before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by SO GREAT a cloud of WITNESSES, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our FAITH, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
As for you who are not Christians, take heed what Chuang Tzu once said, “If you cannot utter words more beautiful than silence, HUSH!”

Music and Wholesomeness

shamantika — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:08:50 +0000

What can be more soul-nourishing than listening to Debussy’s CLAIRE DE LUNE with a cup of hot coffee-milk in front of you, an apple in one hand and a pen in the other, ready to pour ideas into a sheet of paper? At least, that’s what I’m doing at present.
Music is said to have influence on people’s soul and mind, and they in turn affect the wholesomeness of one’s physical aspects. Each kind of music brings about different effects, however. Studies in botany show that seeds exposed to soft, instrumental music tend to sprout and grow faster than those that are not. But seeds exposed to country music seem to show similar growth rate to those that are not given any portion of music of whatsoever. And, guess what happens when they’re exposed to rock-and-roll? They don’t grow much at all!
If that’s the case with plants, how much greater the influence music has on human beings! It doesn’t merely affect people’s mood, but health, character and social behavior as well.
In some hospitals’ maternity wards, they play soft, classical music in aiding women in labor. The effects such music brings upon laboring mothers include the diminution of pain and a more relaxed, favorable atmosphere that prove to be much help in the delivery process.
Classical, romantic and impressionist music might help accelerate post-surgery recuperation process and benefit patients with chronic illnesses. On the other hand, hip-hop, contemporary rock and rap are best to be avoided!
Like said above, every kind of music brings about different outcome. While some heal, others may degenerate health. Some music drive people to be clear-headed, but some spread the root of rebellion. It can be said that what you hear determines who you are and what you’ll become.
I, for instance, play Beethoven’s MOONLIGHT SONATA and love Ravel’s PAVANE POUR UNE INFANTE DEFUNTE. What does that make me, then?

Choosing A Method of Contraception

shamantika — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:22:17 +0000

Our daughter, Sarah, was born 16 months after the birth of her brother. My husband and I call her conception “the will of God.” My midwife, however, calls it “carelessness for not using contraception method!”

Methods of contraception can be classified into “hormonal” and “non-hormonal.”

The hormonal methods include the use of pills and injection (monthly and/or tri-monthly). They are 99% effective, but not without side-effects. The usual side-effects cover rapid weight-gain and irregular menstrual period. They are not recommendable to tumor/cancer patients, and if you carelessly forget to take your pills or injection, it is likely you’ll conceive before the next menstrual period.

The non-hormonal methods include the use of condom, diaphragm, Dutch cap, Intrauterine Device (IUD), and sterilization (prohibited in Indonesia for couples with number of children less than three). The condom, diaphragm and Dutch cap shield the uterus from the flow of sperm, thus preventing conception. They can be disposed after intercourse. IUD is inserted into the uterus with the help of special device and left there to barricade the Fallopian tubes from the injection of sperm, thereby preventing conception for several years until the expiry date; then, with the help of a midwife or gynecologist, the former IUD is removed and replaced with a new one. In sterilization, a simple surgery is performed in order to cut or tie up the Fallopian tubes (in female) or vas deferens (in male), hence preventing conception for life. It is not permitted for couples with less than three children to undergo this operation in Indonesia, so far as I am informed.

I, on the other hand, failed to apply any of the methods explained above!

“I’ve told you so,” scowled my midwife, as I wailed and howled on the delivery stool, struggling to push the baby into open air. “I’ve told you to use contraception and you didn’t listen!”

“Now, relax. That’s it. Rest your butts on the bed,” she ordered – and pulled – and a couple seconds later Sarah’s cry filled the room. “It’s a girl! You’ve got a beautiful daughter this time! Alright, now I’m going to stitch you up, and you make sure you come back here in 40 days for contraception!”

This time, I didn’t dare to disobey her. Forty days later, I returned to her clinic, where she had an IUD prepared for me. It took five minutes of pain. Afterward, I no longer need to worry about anything for the next eight years.

Talking About Shoes

shamantika — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:20:16 +0000

“Honey, you really should enrich your taste in footwear, you know,” Octavian once complained. “You’ve got half-a-dozen shoes that look pretty much the same!”

Oh, well… I can’t deny that my fondness of high-heeled, revealing shoes is a little over the line. There are little variations in my collection of shoes. If there are any shoes I’ve got that are not high-heeled and revealing, you can bet I didn’t buy them. They must be gifts, either from my husband or his sister.

I simply love wearing high-heels (despite the pain they cause me after hours of wearing them), primarily due to my lack of height. I’m considerably petite (only 5’3”), so wearing high-heels really helps to boost my self-confidence. Also, I don’t like to cramp my toes, so I prefer my shoes to be revealing.

Several months ago, however, I read a short-story by Takashi Atoda, entitled The Destiny of Shoes. It tells of an old shoemaker who fell into a conversation with a young woman on a train. The old man told the young woman that shoes actually had souls. Some shoes were destined to keep their wearers traveling on and on, some enticed women to flirt, and some energized the people wearing them. But there was also the kind of shoes that wanted to die. Later on, the young woman found out that the shoemaker had committed suicide. Only then had she realized how notably extraordinary the dead man’s shoes were… the shoes that wanted to die.

So, last month, when Octavian took me to a shoe counter in Sidoarjo, I picked for myself a pair of silvery slippers. He raised an eyebrow and asked, “Slippers? Since when do you have an eye for slippers?”

“Well, Dear,” I smiled. “It’s about time I make a little change of taste in fashionable footwear.”

But still, I maintain the heels considerably high.

Text and Interpretation

shamantika — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:18:39 +0000

“The death of the writer”

Have you ever heard of the phrase? Post-modern theory of literature claims that a writer is dead, even when he/she is still alive. When? As soon as his/her work is published!

The point is: once a literary work goes out into the open, it is no longer regarded as sole property of the writer. From the moment it comes into publication, it becomes the reader’s and society’s full right to give interpretations of the context. Hence: publication is the death of the writer.

Shakespeare (bless his soul!) would have no right to refute in case someone came up with conclusions that Hamlet was a double-minded man and Macbeth a total psycho. Ayu Utami cannot object when others judge her novels, Saman and Larung as obscene, and Dan Brown must remain silent as public denounce Da Vinci Code as heresy.

Regardless of the author’s idea and intention, public interpretation of a literary work can grow broad and unlimited. Sometimes, interpretations vary and take on a new course in keeping up with the trend of time. Here are some examples:

• Luc Besson’s The Messenger gives us a brand new angle at viewing the legend of Jeanne D’Arc. Instead of a saint, we are presented with an ordinary peasant girl who’s mentally disturbed from childhood at the heart of the story. So, we wonder: are the voices she hears truly a message from God or mere delusions?

• Peter Jackson made a wonderful interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings when he transferred the role of Arwen Undomiel from the appendix to the core of the story. I doubt if Tolkien would consent to it, but it certainly made the whole story more understandable and enjoyable to fans and movie-goers worldwide.

• And these days, we’ve got Daniel Craig playing Agent 007. Contradictory to the classical version of Ian Fleming’s James Bond, this British secret agent actually falls in love with a single woman, no longer beds hot chicks and cares nothing if his martini’s shaken or stirred.

This is the 21st century. Interpretation is in the hand of the readers. Let’s see who’ll come up next and set the world onto a brand new course in defining the classic.

Two Men Disagreed

shamantika — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:44:24 +0000

A true story is told about two devout men who argued over a certain matter. So sharp was their argument that eventually they decided to go their separate ways. One of them complained to his pastor’s wife, and after a long, bitter explanation, he concluded, “I don’t think we’ll ever get along. I’d better be anywhere else than share the same table with that man!”

The pastor’s wife fell silent for a while, then said, “I see. But suppose at the end of time he happens to sit at the Lord’s table, where will you be?”

It’s no laughingstock. Disputes, arguments and disagreements happen everywhere around the globe – and it is normal. It’s a part of our nature to have free mind and freedom of thoughts.

The point is, whatever the case may be, don’t take it to the extreme. There will be time when we realize that being overly-determined over a certain matter isn’t really worth it.

A Thought on Intermarriage

shamantika — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:43:05 +0000

Have you ever thought of the term “hybrid”? A hybrid is the output of interbreed between two different species or varieties of animals or plants. For example: you mate a donkey and a horse, and you’ll get a mule as a hybrid. The method of cross-breeding different varieties of plants has also been practiced for years by agriculturists in the effort of producing higher-quality crops.The aim is to minimize the downside and maximize the upside of each parent variety’s characteristics. The hybrid process has resulted in more abundant, larger and sweeter fruit than the parent varieties. It is also quite true in case of people. It’s just that we don’t call it “cross-breeding;” it’s labeled “intermarriage”: the marital union between two people of different tribes or races. You might be familiar with the term “mulatto” (descendant from parents of black and white races). Mariah Carey and Melanie “Scary Spice” Brown are mulattos. Have you ever noticed how gorgeous and talented they are? In my country, we’ve got dozens of tribes scattered all over the archipelago; some permit intertribe marriage, some don’t. Nonetheless, I can’t help but notice that children with parents of different tribes tend to possess higher intelligence and better physical features and stamina than those who are not. Curious, isn’t it? Is it all about DNA or intercultural family life? Beat me… All I’m suggesting is that we really should be open to options, and when it comes to getting eternally bound to someone outside our tribe or race, I’d say: right on!

Music and Pregnancy

shamantika — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:41:57 +0000

Several years ago, as some of us might have heard, there was a discovery in popular science called the “Mozart Effect.” Some experts claimed that listening to classical music (Mozart’s works, in particular) beginning as early as the second trimester of pregnancy might enhance the development of cerebral cells of the fetus, thus producing children with IQ superior to the average. After the publication of the discovery, listening to classical music started to become a booming trend among expectant and nursing mothers. Who wouldn’t want to have children with superior IQ?
However, not so long ago, another theory emerged that refuted and exposed the faulty of Mozart Effect. Now, which theory is true, one may wonder?
No one can be sure.
But in my opinion, music talks to and has more influence on our mood, feelings and character instead of physical aspects. Every kind of music has its own sould, which communicates primarily with our soul instead of brain.
Whenever I listen to Bach or Mozart, I feel calm, peaceful and mentally nourished. Jazz tends to expand my creative thoughts, while Flamenco and Salsa energize me so much that my body wants to dance, dance, dance! It’s amazingly true throughout both pregnancies I’ve undergone.
When I was having Dharma, Octavian kept on playing a mixture of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Debussy on the WinAmp for hours and hours on end. I had no problems during prenatal period because the baby was so calm inside me. Even after he was born and has grown into a toddler, we never find any difficulty caring for him, since he’s so calm, thoughtful and orderly-minded.
It isn’t so with my second pregnancy. When I was having Sarah, my husband was so into Jazz that most of the day I listened to Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Martin Taylor and Chick Corea – not to mention Weather Report and Java Jazz. The baby has learned to kick my ribs real hard even before reaching the third trimester. She has now grown into a vigorous, agile baby with a strong free-will and very good sense of humor.
Those months of listening to different kinds of music during two pregnancies really speak a lot!
So, does Mozart Effect really work?
I can’t assure you that. All I can say is that if you are expecting or nursing a baby, it’s best to listen to as much good music as you can. There’s nothing you can lose by doing that!