Daily Archives: February 18, 2012

Brutus —–> “Batik, Geo, Peace, Vegan, Wayang”

München, 17.02.2012

23:30 p.m

Today I break my internet (especially blogging, and facebooking) fasting. Why? Because the last 10 days I dedicated my energy, focus, and concentration to face Mathematical Geophysics exam. And today, after the exam, I can start blogging again, before the next exam will come.

If somebody ask me : Describe yourself in 5 words?! Not more, not less.

I will answer this way (alphabetically): “Batik, Geo, Peace, Vegan, Wayang

1. Batik :

I wore Batik intensively from 2006, when I was travelling along over Indonesia. I love to wear it. Since 2010, I continued wearing Batik in Germany, it is nice to wear in Summer, but in winter, you need to combine it with sweater and thick jacket.

BATIK is a symbol of Indonesian national cultural heritage (UNESCO has also given its acknowledgement to batik as a world heritage in 2009).

People like to wear batik due to their elegant designs and attractive motifs. For those people their precious batik will only be worn at special occasions like wedding or formal receptions, religious services, state ceremony, etc. While for ordinary occasions like going to work they also like to wear batik although not the exclusive ones.

For batik preservation, see my link here

Christmas celebration in Munich (mid Dec 2011) : Colorful of Batik

2. Geo/Earth : This blue planet is home for 7 billion people !!! WOW!!! You and me, we are living in this blue planet!

I began to learn about the Earth and the processes inside it since I took undergraduate course in Geophysics at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. And now, since I continued my higher education at Geophysics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, my sense of belonging of Mother Earth became growing and growing.

I even take a simple analogy, that the Earth and human being is almost similar. The Earth consists 70% of water, and so does a human being. All the water flow from spring in the mountain through the river, and end at the ocean. So, from that I make a reflection that if I love and take care of my body & soul, that what should I do to our Mother Earth.

3. PEACE : 

There is nothing more in the world that I want but peace. And what this world need is only peace. Money, prosperity, popularity do not guarantee happiness for human-being. Poor people, even disabled people can be happy!

The question is : how to gain peace? how to gain happiness in life? As far as I did, I dropped my attachment to those material things (money, prosperity, popularity) and have awareness in my life. By becoming an aware person, I know that my happiness does not depend on any human-being and situations in life. Every moment in life is neither bad nor good, they are just consequences. And I really give thanks for every single minute of my life.

A detail explanation about how to attain peace, can be find here

And why I insert the Chakra picture as the symbol of peace ? Because if we want to go deeper inside to our soul, we will find the entity of ourselves by always ready to question : “Who I am?” ; “How is my being?” ; “What the most thing my soul wants?”

4. Vegan :

I started to become a vegan since February 2011. My intention is purely coming from my mind. No pressure from religion, environmentalist, animal activists, etc. I did pure because of my mind, my thought. And I recall it as a tiny step of enlightenment.  For my self, enlightenment does not have to do with huge thing. Being enlighten means seeing things in a different way, having another way of seeing and looking at something. And in my case, by seeing that food is not only a matter of taste satisfaction, desire fulfillment, but beyond that, food is the energy for my body and also my soul, and I should not harm my self, nor other human beings or creatures (animals).

I am Vegan and I am happy 🙂

5. Wayang :

Wayang is a Javanese word for particular kinds of theater. When the term is used to refer to kinds of puppet theatre, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang. Performances of shadow puppet theatre are accompanied by gamelan in Java. UNESCO designated Wayang Kulit, a shadow puppet theatre and the best known of the Indonesian wayang, as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on 7 November 2003. In return for the acknowledgment, UNESCO required Indonesians to preserve their heritage. Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayang

I felt in love in wayang since I was in elementary school. My mother was used to listen the wayang story from local radio (usually they played from 21 p.m to 5 a.m). As I was a kid, of course I could not follow the complete story, but that habits of listening to wayang story have shaped my personality also. Once I grew up as a teenager, I prefer listening to wayang, rather to go to band concert. I did not know why, but I found it was interesting. Once I become adult, I still enjoy listening to wayang story rather than go to a party or club and become drunk (especially here in Europe). I feel that wayang has filled my soul with its great philosophical thinking, not just entertaining.

And by the way, my favorite dalang (wayang leader) is Ki Hadi Sugito from Jogjakarta, Indonesia. My favorite wayang character are Wisanggeni, Ontoseno, and Gatotkaca. Even now, I am still enjoy listening to wayang story through radio streaming : http://www.jogjastreamers.com , especially when I miss my home and family.

So, that’s all from me at the moment.

If somebody is asking you right now : “Describe your self in 5 words! What would be the answers ?!”