to that equation, the sources say, are Mahathir’s own ambitions to see his third son Mukhriz, currently the deputy minister of international trade, as deputy prime minister. Muhyiddin also fits Mahathir’s political philosophy more than Najib does. He is an advocate of Ketuanan Melayu – ethnic Malay dominance of the economic and political landscape, in opposition to Najib, who is committed to his so-called 1Malaysia campaign, an attempt to bring other races back into the Barisan Nasional fold. Mahathir has become increasingly strident in his calls to preserve Malay dominance as well.
Sources in the United Malays National Organization blame the accusations on Pakatan Rakyat in an effort to blacken Najib’s reputation and hamstring the ruling national coalition in advance of elections expected later this year or early next. One aide to a top UMNO politician says neither Mukhriz or Muhyiddin would be likely to be attack Rosmah as Najib’s surrogate now. If serious infighting broke out within UMNO, the aide says, it would seriously cripple the party
Sources in the United Malays National Organization blame the accusations on Pakatan Rakyat in an effort to blacken Najib’s reputation and hamstring the ruling national coalition in advance of elections expected later this year or early next. One aide to a top UMNO politician says neither Mukhriz or Muhyiddin would be likely to be attack Rosmah as Najib’s surrogate now. If serious infighting broke out within UMNO, the aide says, it would seriously cripple the party
Tan Sri Abd Aziz Shamsuddin
a former minister, said today that he belief that there is a strong mutiny brewing within Umno.
“There is such thing. This is is not a misconception. Umno’s knife is out for Najib
observers point out, Muhyiddin hasn’t been publicly defending either Najib or Rosmah lately. One businessman in Kuala Lumpur told suarakeadilan malaysia: “Mahathir and
muhyiddin are both working towards the same objective together – get Najib out.”
a former minister, said today that he belief that there is a strong mutiny brewing within Umno.
“There is such thing. This is is not a misconception. Umno’s knife is out for Najib
observers point out, Muhyiddin hasn’t been publicly defending either Najib or Rosmah lately. One businessman in Kuala Lumpur told suarakeadilan malaysia: “Mahathir and
muhyiddin are both working towards the same objective together – get Najib out.”
It isn’t certain who is behind the attacks, but they are clearly tied to national elections The opposition and the dominant United Malays National Organization are blaming each other and both saying they aren’t involved. But the 60-year-old Rosmah has become a lightning rod for criticism of the administration, most of it centering on her alleged profligacy and her reported dominance of her husband’s political and social agenda. The attacks compare her to both Shakespeare’s Lady MacBeth, who drove her husband to murder and tragedy, and to former Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos, who gained fame for her extravagance including owning hundreds of pairs of shoes.More ominously, as Asia Sentinel has reported, she has been the subject of rumors for several years that she somehow was involved in the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu, to the extent that a businessman close to her allegedly paid a witness RM750,000 to get out of the country after he said the dead woman had an affair with her husband. In addition, court testimony has indicated that she met with a former aide to Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim prior to the aide’s accusing Anwar of raping him.
Those in Anwar’s Pakatan Rakyat coalition say the attacks on Rosmah are coming from Muhyiddin Yassin, the 64-year-old deputy prime minister and protégé of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Muhyiddin played a major role in driving former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from power and has long been regarded as being ambitious to succeed Najib should the prime minister stumble.
Added to that equation, the sources say, are Mahathir’s own ambitions to see his third son Mukhriz, currently the deputy minister of international trade, as deputy prime minister. Muhyiddin also fits Mahathir’s political philosophy more than Najib does. He is an advocate of Ketuanan Melayu – ethnic Malay dominance of the economic and political landscape, in opposition to Najib, who is committed to his so-called 1Malaysia campaign, an attempt to bring other races back into the Barisan Nasional fold. Mahathir has become increasingly strident in his calls to preserve Malay dominance as well.
Sources in the United Malays National Organization blame the accusations on Pakatan Rakyat in an effort to blacken Najib’s reputation and hamstring the ruling national coalition in advance of elections expected later this year or early next. One aide to a top UMNO politician says neither Mukhriz or Muhyiddin would be likely to be attack Rosmah as Najib’s surrogate now. If serious infighting broke out within UMNO, the aide says, it would seriously cripple the party and the
Rosmah has been controversial since well before Najib became prime minister. The newest sensation appeared a few weeks ago with a report by a Kuala Lumpur-based opposition blog that she had received a US$24.8 million diamond ring from the New York-based Jacob & Co. jewelers and that the ring had passed through customs without duty being charged. Rosmah has said publicly that: “There is nothing I want to say (in relation to the purchase of ring) because I have no time to entertain such issue.” She later denied buying the ring.
She has also been photographed carrying what appears to be a Birkin handbag, designed and manufactured by Hermès of Paris and named for the actress and singer Jane Birkin. Prices of the bags range from US$9,000 to US$150,000 according to the type of material used. She has been photographed as well wearing what appears to be a 65.77 carat white and black Zebra safari bangle bracelet from also Jacob & Co. and made of white and black pave diamonds and 18-karat white gold.
In addition to her taste in jewelry, Rosmah has raised hackles about her influence on government, rumors that she is enriching the family and because of the social life she leads. Particularly galling to some is her claiming the title of Malaysia’s first lady, a title usually reserved for the wife of the king. A six-person unit has been established in the prime minister’s office, known as FLOM, an acronym for First Lady of Malaysia, to look after her needs, a far cry from the wives of previous prime ministers such as Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, Mahathir’s austere physician wife.
Sources say Rosmah has continually inserted herself in the political process and has been responsible for spending vast amounts of government money – for instance, as much as RM80 million in a 15-month campaign to refurbish the Prime Minister’s residence.
In April 2010, Joshua Wong, then the producer of the popular Malaysian current affairs program “Editor’s Time,” resigned, charging that the NTV7 channel, which is controlled by UMNO, buckled under from complaints from the Prime Minister’s Department and Rosmah personally about coverage of opposition politicians. Other newspaper editors complain that she frequently calls to complain about coverage of both her and her husband.
Last year, tongues began to wag in Kuala Lumpur over Rosmah’s taste for the high life in New York and other capitals, particularly because of her reported closeness to Low Taek Jho, who calls himself Jho Lo and spent an astonishing amount of money on starlets, movie actors and celebrities in New York. Low routinely dropped as much as US$60,000 a month in Manhattan night clubs, according to the New York Post, which said Low once sent 23 bottles of US$900 Cristal champagne to troubled actress Lindsay Lohan’s table as she was celebrating her 23rd birthday.
“This Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania graduate from Malaysia,” the New York Post reported Aug. 1, 2010 “has burned through hundreds of thousands of dollars at the city’s hottest nightspots in the last three months — and shows no signs of stopping.”
Low, who was said to be pals with Paris Hilton, is also believed to be the mystery man behind a US$180,000-US$230,000 advertisement that ran on April 2010 in the New York Times congratulating Rosmah for being Malaysia’s “first lady.” after she received the inaugural “International Peace and Harmony Award” from an obscure US-based business group. The Times first said the advertisement had been placed by the government, then reversed itself three weeks later and declined to say who was behind it.
On April 16, 2010 according to the New York Post, Rosmah and Najib were given a star-studded party in honor of the award that was emceed by actor-comedian Jamie Foxx and attended by a flock of movie stars including Charlize Theron and Robert De Niro and included performances by Grammy-award nominee Leona Lewis and the Harlem Boys Choir. The Nut Graph, a Malaysian Blog said the festivities included karaoke duet version of “You’ve Got a Friend” performed by Rosmah and De Niro, who was later invited by the Rosmah to visit Malaysia.
News media including the New York Post and Gawker in the United States say Low, the son of a wealthy Chinese family from Penang, owes much of his cachet to his friendship with a Kuwaiti and fellow Wharton graduate, Hamad Al Wazzan, the chairman and CEO of the Al Wazzan Group of Companies in the US.
An UMNO source in Kuala Lumpur says Low used his links with Rosmah to become the middleman in a massive land deal in Kuala Lumpur — the redevelopment of the 152-hectare 80-year-old Sungei Besi Air Force Base, a prime, centrally located site that appears to have been awarded without tender to a joint venture between 1Malaysia Development Sdn Bhd and Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT), the armed forces retirement fund.
According to local media, the project is being developed through a joint venture with the Qatar Investment Authority, possibly with the involvement of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co.
Whether it is fair or not, the flying letters are giving a growing segment of the Malaysian public the impression that Rosmah has become a major detriment to her husband.
Whichever side is delivering the allegations, they may be having an impact. Mustapha Ali, the secretary-general of the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia told a press conference Wednesday that a revolt is brewing in UMNO because Najib and his wife had become a liability to the Barisan. Reportedly, Mustapha told the reporters, party officials fear the long string of scandals are affecting voter sentiment.
That, of course, is the opposition trying to stir up trouble in the Barisan. An UMNO source told Asia Sentinel that “this is the opposition intensifying their attacks before the election. They are weak ”
But clearly the surat laying are flying indeed.
ruling Barisan Nasional coalition in advance of the polls.
Those in Anwar’s Pakatan Rakyat coalition say the attacks on Rosmah are coming from Muhyiddin Yassin, the 64-year-old deputy prime minister and protégé of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Muhyiddin played a major role in driving former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from power and has long been regarded as being ambitious to succeed Najib should the prime minister stumble.
Added to that equation, the sources say, are Mahathir’s own ambitions to see his third son Mukhriz, currently the deputy minister of international trade, as deputy prime minister. Muhyiddin also fits Mahathir’s political philosophy more than Najib does. He is an advocate of Ketuanan Melayu – ethnic Malay dominance of the economic and political landscape, in opposition to Najib, who is committed to his so-called 1Malaysia campaign, an attempt to bring other races back into the Barisan Nasional fold. Mahathir has become increasingly strident in his calls to preserve Malay dominance as well.
Sources in the United Malays National Organization blame the accusations on Pakatan Rakyat in an effort to blacken Najib’s reputation and hamstring the ruling national coalition in advance of elections expected later this year or early next. One aide to a top UMNO politician says neither Mukhriz or Muhyiddin would be likely to be attack Rosmah as Najib’s surrogate now. If serious infighting broke out within UMNO, the aide says, it would seriously cripple the party and the
Rosmah has been controversial since well before Najib became prime minister. The newest sensation appeared a few weeks ago with a report by a Kuala Lumpur-based opposition blog that she had received a US$24.8 million diamond ring from the New York-based Jacob & Co. jewelers and that the ring had passed through customs without duty being charged. Rosmah has said publicly that: “There is nothing I want to say (in relation to the purchase of ring) because I have no time to entertain such issue.” She later denied buying the ring.
She has also been photographed carrying what appears to be a Birkin handbag, designed and manufactured by Hermès of Paris and named for the actress and singer Jane Birkin. Prices of the bags range from US$9,000 to US$150,000 according to the type of material used. She has been photographed as well wearing what appears to be a 65.77 carat white and black Zebra safari bangle bracelet from also Jacob & Co. and made of white and black pave diamonds and 18-karat white gold.
In addition to her taste in jewelry, Rosmah has raised hackles about her influence on government, rumors that she is enriching the family and because of the social life she leads. Particularly galling to some is her claiming the title of Malaysia’s first lady, a title usually reserved for the wife of the king. A six-person unit has been established in the prime minister’s office, known as FLOM, an acronym for First Lady of Malaysia, to look after her needs, a far cry from the wives of previous prime ministers such as Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, Mahathir’s austere physician wife.
Sources say Rosmah has continually inserted herself in the political process and has been responsible for spending vast amounts of government money – for instance, as much as RM80 million in a 15-month campaign to refurbish the Prime Minister’s residence.
In April 2010, Joshua Wong, then the producer of the popular Malaysian current affairs program “Editor’s Time,” resigned, charging that the NTV7 channel, which is controlled by UMNO, buckled under from complaints from the Prime Minister’s Department and Rosmah personally about coverage of opposition politicians. Other newspaper editors complain that she frequently calls to complain about coverage of both her and her husband.
Last year, tongues began to wag in Kuala Lumpur over Rosmah’s taste for the high life in New York and other capitals, particularly because of her reported closeness to Low Taek Jho, who calls himself Jho Lo and spent an astonishing amount of money on starlets, movie actors and celebrities in New York. Low routinely dropped as much as US$60,000 a month in Manhattan night clubs, according to the New York Post, which said Low once sent 23 bottles of US$900 Cristal champagne to troubled actress Lindsay Lohan’s table as she was celebrating her 23rd birthday.
“This Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania graduate from Malaysia,” the New York Post reported Aug. 1, 2010 “has burned through hundreds of thousands of dollars at the city’s hottest nightspots in the last three months — and shows no signs of stopping.”
Low, who was said to be pals with Paris Hilton, is also believed to be the mystery man behind a US$180,000-US$230,000 advertisement that ran on April 2010 in the New York Times congratulating Rosmah for being Malaysia’s “first lady.” after she received the inaugural “International Peace and Harmony Award” from an obscure US-based business group. The Times first said the advertisement had been placed by the government, then reversed itself three weeks later and declined to say who was behind it.
On April 16, 2010 according to the New York Post, Rosmah and Najib were given a star-studded party in honor of the award that was emceed by actor-comedian Jamie Foxx and attended by a flock of movie stars including Charlize Theron and Robert De Niro and included performances by Grammy-award nominee Leona Lewis and the Harlem Boys Choir. The Nut Graph, a Malaysian Blog said the festivities included karaoke duet version of “You’ve Got a Friend” performed by Rosmah and De Niro, who was later invited by the Rosmah to visit Malaysia.
News media including the New York Post and Gawker in the United States say Low, the son of a wealthy Chinese family from Penang, owes much of his cachet to his friendship with a Kuwaiti and fellow Wharton graduate, Hamad Al Wazzan, the chairman and CEO of the Al Wazzan Group of Companies in the US.
An UMNO source in Kuala Lumpur says Low used his links with Rosmah to become the middleman in a massive land deal in Kuala Lumpur — the redevelopment of the 152-hectare 80-year-old Sungei Besi Air Force Base, a prime, centrally located site that appears to have been awarded without tender to a joint venture between 1Malaysia Development Sdn Bhd and Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT), the armed forces retirement fund.
According to local media, the project is being developed through a joint venture with the Qatar Investment Authority, possibly with the involvement of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co.
Whether it is fair or not, the flying letters are giving a growing segment of the Malaysian public the impression that Rosmah has become a major detriment to her husband.
Whichever side is delivering the allegations, they may be having an impact. Mustapha Ali, the secretary-general of the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia told a press conference Wednesday that a revolt is brewing in UMNO because Najib and his wife had become a liability to the Barisan. Reportedly, Mustapha told the reporters, party officials fear the long string of scandals are affecting voter sentiment.
That, of course, is the opposition trying to stir up trouble in the Barisan. An UMNO source told Asia Sentinel that “this is the opposition intensifying their attacks before the election. They are weak ”
But clearly the surat laying are flying indeed.
ruling Barisan Nasional coalition in advance of the polls.
President Eisenhower once said ” you are either a workhorse or a showhorse” . Unfortunately for PM Najib, he is just a show horse. All talk only . Just like, in his time back then, Harold Wilson who as PM always held that the best approach strategically was to “keep his options open” — which he did: until he had no options, and no time, left .. .. If you spend all your time waiting for the right moment, you may find that the right moment never comes! .. .. And when you realize it, you may be tempted to make a sudden, rash, ill-advised “bolt” for freedom, a desperate attempt to “break out”. Let us see what now happens No substance.With an approval rating of over 65%, Najib can be the most popular opposition leader in history in this country. PM use our hard-earned taxpayers money and throw it back to us and expect us to vote for him and give him and UMNO-BN the power for another 5 years to plunder the country’s wealth? You gotta be kidding me With all the scandals around him, particularly the Scorpene Scandal and his possible summon to either attend a hearing in France or be declared an international fugitive, Najib Razak, this moron knows his days as an unelected PM are numbered. He knows the ominous signs on the UMNO wall, he will not only lose the election but UMNO will be in the petty opposition. Hence, Najib will drag on as long as he could until the last days before calling on election in which the government will go to Pakatan Rakyat and that Anwar Ibrahim will be the next PM of a new Malaysia.The tun mahathir never allow setting up of Rare-Earth plant in his own home state. Instead, the plant was built on a Chinese-Majority backyard at Bukit Merah. Our HP6-PM chooses to build new Rare-Earth plant in his home state let alone it is a Malay-Majority state. His guts has shrunk till No-Balls to call “ERECTION”Globalisation and the world economy will bring Najib down on his knees….no point former glory….40% of Malaysians are young people looking for change…you think they still listen to their grand parents
Time and tide wait no man, and for Najib who has been tagged internationally as a false democrat sharing the same club with Milosevik and Mubarak, his seeking for the best time is in no time exposing himself as a true faked leader. What has him to be a truly good leader when he gets everything on a silver platter. How could he be a true leader when his lives are shrouded with doubts and uncertainties.Whether the GE13 is held now or delayed, the prospects for the BN look bleak. Just now we have the ‘hang Ambiga’ thing, which has upset even the MIC. In Sabah, we find the ‘Ini kali, guru’ (This time around, Teacher) cry ringing through the rural areas. That translates as ‘This time around, get rid of the BN’. In Sarawak, Ibans in Ulu Niah are preparing for war. They have received a notice that ordered them to vacate their longhouse within 14 days, and no compensation would be given for their longhouse, land and any other assets. They have vowed that they would fight to the death. The situation there is tense. Thanks to Radio Free Sarawak, Ibans in many other areas would have heard of the matter by now; they would not be too pleased, either. One of Taib’s cronies is going to bulldoze their area to plant oil palm. So, it looks like the BN’s bank accounts there are about to close—and let us hope that it will be so. Even his UMNO Midas has labelled him as a general without soldiers. A true leader and a true fighter harnesses time like other resources for his best kill. Only monkey waits for the best time for nuts there is no more any good time to look forward to for BN to call GE Its credibility has sunk low and perhaps may even go lower with the ongoing Scorpene case and the LRT dubious tender rearing its ugly head ! Who knows there may even be more scandals in the offing! BN is at its last gasps!
“Perfect weather..Perfect storm”are superlatives that don’t apply to Najib and the BN.They are in choppy waters with a broken down scandulous BN.The “oarsmen”(taxpaying rakyaat) are screaming tired,while the overfed passengers(ministers and cronies) are hilirious riding on a roller coaster.The hidden coral outcrop is where they are heading for,come GE13.Shakespeare”There is a tide in the lives of people,when taken….
“Perfect weather..Perfect storm”are superlatives that don’t apply to Najib and the BN.They are in choppy waters with a broken down scandulous BN.The “oarsmen”(taxpaying rakyaat) are screaming tired,while the overfed passengers(ministers and cronies) are hilirious riding on a roller coaster.The hidden coral outcrop is where they are heading for,come GE13.Shakespeare”There is a tide in the lives of people,when taken….
“Put the blame entirely on the politicians. Their lack of leadership ability, true wisdom, knowledge and understanding of what it entails to rule and govern a nation has led to the stage being set for Malaysia to see their clock of whatever progress they have achieved over the years being pushed back.”"… to ensure the well-being and to safeguard the future of Malaysia is with the voters, election candidates and political parties.”- it’s a fairly tall order Christopher but I think you have covered all bases!!
But all indications are that the UMNOPutras and their division the EC will use all means at their disposal to steal the results of GE13 from right under the noses of the rakyat!!
Ambiga has alluded to the need for the rakyat to turn out in full force to negate the cheating by the UMNOputras, so your call above just adds to the urgency and importance of it!!
But all indications are that the UMNOPutras and their division the EC will use all means at their disposal to steal the results of GE13 from right under the noses of the rakyat!!
Ambiga has alluded to the need for the rakyat to turn out in full force to negate the cheating by the UMNOputras, so your call above just adds to the urgency and importance of it!!
Not quite, especially not in the Malaysian case: Put the blame entirely on the politicians. It is the people on both sides of the divide, sorry to say, who are to be blamed. Because these people have, from a short-sighted perspective and out of a purely selfish interest, supported those politicians for the breadcrumbs (mostly Malays) as well as big money (cronies from all ethnicities). Wait for GE 13 and we’ll see that this goes on. It is called ‘The Devil you know …’. Will the Jala fellow go and talk to the million of middle working class in the country and check what has change for them? Don’t just play around with statistic and rhetorics. Let’s face the reality of life in malaysia. With all the talk about the greatness of the ETP by this jala fellow, the average income of millions of working never increase much over the last few years. Affordable housing in urban areas whcih is paramount to support this middle working class is non existence, and please don’t talk crap in saying that they can buy affordable housing far away from the urban areas. Do you want to travel 100km everyday to go to work? Do you expect hundreds of thousands of this middle working class drive all the way from the far outskirt for 100km to work? Is this reality? Is it real that we have to pay so much for a car in this country? Is it all because of the cost of production of the car? Or is it because of the blow up cost due to ridiculous taxes and a piece of paper called AP which can be sold for tens of thousands of ringgit? This is such a ridiculous country. Low salary for the middle working class. High price of housing which is depriving the middle working class to stay sufficiently close to their urban working places. High car prices and lousy public transport putting a huge hole in the pocket of the middle working class needing the transport to go to work places which will be at a distant from their affordable housing area. So Jala fellow. please answer simple question and don’t play god with figures to syiok sendiri.This is where the proverbial deer gets crushed to death and where Malaysians should be prepared to face an uncertain and a difficult future whereby corruption and injustice would then become a way of life in this country..
This rings not only true but too cheap for them where the price is always higher that the people has to endure and the lists of abuse is endless with the future of Malaysians have been robbed away of the scholarships that would otherwise the country resources easily have helped generations of education that bring multitude orders of fields to a developed nation that we can rely upon to become one of the best in the region. But we are so ignorant and gullible with the politics of division that we have incurred own own loss and lost to the culprit of one bunch of smart dirty political party!there are thieves, damned thieves and plunderers..
Two old men, friends of many years standing, would meet in each other’s house every day. They would sit in perfect silence for a couple of hours, then the visitor would get up and leave, without a word of farewell.
The inevitable happened and, in the natural course of things, one of the old men died. “You must miss him a lot, ” said a condoler to the survivor. ”I do,” replied the bereaved friend. “What I particularly miss are the long conversations we used to enjoy with each other.”
The story suggests that there are forms of communication which don’t need the use of words. But more than that, it conveys a suitably wordless message that silence has its own subtle yet resonant vocabulary, if only we choose to learn its language.
Silence is not an absence of sound; it is the presence of meaning. When Swami Vivekananda during his visit to the western world was introduced to the actress, Sarah Bernhardt, known for her beauty and her seductive laugh, someone asked him if he had heard the actress’s famous laughter. “No,” said Vivekananda. “But she heard my silence.” It is said that Bernhardt was profoundly influenced by her meeting with the eastern sage.
Learning to hear silence takes patience. A music composer who was congratulated on the elegant way in which he arranged the notes in his compositions replied, “The notes more or less take care of themselves; the difficulty lies in getting the silent bits right.”
In an age of increasing electronic chatter – 24×7 television, mobile phones, Twitter, SMSs – ”getting the silent bits right” is becoming more and more difficult. And, for that reason, more and more necessary.
We don’t have to go become hermits in the Himalayas, or seek the solitude of desert wastes, to find silence. In fact, the trick is in finding silence in the midst of our everyday, workaday lives, in the middle of conversations with each other.
Is this business of finding silence just another way of saying that we should turn a deaf ear to what others are saying to us? Quite the contrary. The true meaning of the language of silence lies not in exclusion but in inclusion; not in cutting oneself off from people or from what is around us, but in finding a different, deeper level of communication.
In legal terms, silence means consent. If, for example, you saw someone about to commit a criminal act and didn’t warn the victim or raise an alarm, a law court could take your silence to mean that you gave your consent to the act and as such were an accomplice to it. This is a negative interpretation of the consenting nature of silence.
A positive interpretation of silence would be that it affirms a unity of consciousness as distinct from a duality. A seeker asked a spiritual master: “How can I transcend into the All?” The master made no reply. Every day, the seeker would ask the same question, and every day the master would maintain his silence.
Exasperated, the seeker finally asked the master, “What’s the matter? Why don’t you reply to my question that I’ve been asking every day?” The master said, “I have been replying to your question every day. But you talk so much that you don’t hear my reply.”
The seeker understood that the master’s reply to his question was silence. Because silence provided the bridge across the chasm of duality caused by the use of two words: ‘I’ and ‘All’. By seeking to become one with the cosmos, the spoken ‘I’ was separating itself from a wordless union which already existed, and which could only be realised when words like ‘I’ and ‘All’ were surrendered into silence.
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent,” said Wittgenstein. This silence beyond words that the Austrian philosopher referred to has been given different names on different signposts set up by spiritual masters to guide seekers. One of these synonyms for silence is meditation, another is prayer.
You don’t need to go to an ashram or a cave in the wilderness to meditate. You don’t have to go to a shrine to pray. You can do either in your home, or your place of work during a spare moment. Perhaps, best of all, like the two friends in the story, you can do either of them when deep in silent conversation with someone else who is you by another name, just as you are the someone else by another name. And both are one in silence.
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