Peace at Home, Peace in the World

Believing as always, and more than ever, in what the Founder of The Republic of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk said in 1931:

Peace at Home, Peace in the World.

Energy of the New Year, December 17th, Thoughts of the Day

Those of you interested in Astrology or Numerology may be familiar with the concept that every day has a unique energy.  A unique set of possibilities, surprises, gifts and difficulties or issues rather.

As each day and each year have their unique energies, so does our own years as well.  What do we mean? Well, according to numerology, starting on the day of our birthday every year of our lives offer a different energy to live and deal with. Some say that this is how our destiny is set and revealed. Some believe that a child is born at a time that has been predetermined and that date and time identify that child’s destiny. So, every year, his or her year up until his or her birthday and after the birthday offer different possibilities for the child, for the person. These two time fragments have different energies and will affect the person differently.  In short, the numerological year starts and ends with our birthdays.

Let’s look at what number 2016 is in Numerology. 2016 adds up number 9. 2+1+6=9.  What does the number 9 say to us in general?

Well, 9 is usually told to be about introspection.  It’s considered to be about going inward, maybe learning to connect or connecting with our inner voice, with the inner voice of our spirit, the real voice of the universe as some may call.

9 is usually told to be about searching for internal fulfillment and about finding it.  In 9, there is a connection with the real truth.  How can I describe this state better? You know, there are times when regardless of what is happening outside, at work, with friends, with the World, regardless of how bad everything might seem and be, regardless of the cloudy greyness and darkness in life, internally we may still feel complete, safe, light and delightful.  That feeling of feeling complete without needing anything or anyone or at least needed less from outside is considered to be about the energy of number 9 in a year or day or a person.  9 is taken to be about searching, experimenting and sometimes reaching that state.  This may involve spending more time alone and being aware that we can always choose not to be alone.

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There is an important date for many Turks , Muslims and Sufis in December.  December 17^th. 

December 17^th is the death anniversary of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi. That date is considered to be a date of a wedding since according to Rumi and his disciples that is the date he returns to God.

 Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi lived in the 13^th century, spent most of his life in Anatolia and passed away in the city of Konya on December 17^th, 1273. 

Rumi - that is the name most of the World know him and call him by, although we Turks use the word Mevlana - was a scholar, teacher, religious and spiritual master, a master of words and poetry.  For many he is a true example of showing how one learns to surrender to God completely and with utter love.

This year let’s look into what this December 17^th might be telling us through its interpretation in Numerology. To be able to look that up for this year, we need to make a calculation to find its number in Numerology.  We need to reduce it to a number including or less than 22.  17.12.2015 can be reduced to the 22 possible numbers of Numerology by adding up the numbers of the date and month first.  17+12. 29. Then, we add 2015 and 29. That is 2044. And now we need to add up the individual numbers is 2044. 2+ 0+ 4+ 4. The result comes out as the number 10.

Some believe that the Universe is based on a mathematical system and that life and destiny is designed and may be revealed through math. Through numbers. Sufis and Kabalists are known to look into the number values of name, prayers and the holly texts and look for answers in the numbers that come up and appear.  Numerology tries to do it in its own simpler way. Let’s look into what the energy December 17^th offers might be telling us this year.

10 is told to be about expansion. It is believed to contain an energy of break-throughs. Unexpected goodness and positive personal self-realizations may appear.  How that date will actually live out in our lives is of course for us to discover.  If we choose to listen to Rumi, we might need to let go of all our expectations and just surrender to what is or surrender to God.  And maybe that will involve doing what we can with what we see and discover.

And let’s leave the last words to RUMI. 

From the book The Glance (A translation of RUMI by Coleman Barks):

The Self We Share

Thirst is angry at water. Hunger, bitter

with bread. The cave wants nothing to do

with the sun. This is dumb, the self-

defeating way we’ve been. A gold mine is

calling us into its temple. Instead, we

bend and keep picking up rocks from the

ground. Every thing has a shine like gold,

but we should turn to the source! The

origin is what we truly are. I add a little

vinegar to the honey I give. The bite of

scolding makes ecstasy more familiar. But

look, fish, you’re already in the ocean:

just swimming there makes you friends with

glory. What are these grudges about? You

are Benjamin. Joseph has put a gold cup

in your grain sack and accused you of being

a thief.  Now he draws you aside and says,

“You are my brother. I am a prayer. You’re

the amen.”  We move in eternal regions, yet

worry about property here. This is the

prayer of each:  You are the source of my

life. You separate essence from mud. You

honor my soul. You bring rivers from the

mountain springs. You brighten my eyes. The

wine you offer takes me out of myself into

the self we share. Doing that is religion.

*

With love and light.

Zeynep

November, Istanbul, Books, Questions and Answers

The month of November is a month of art and literature in Istanbul.  Every year in November a couple of important international fairs take place. The most attractive one for me is the International Istanbul Book Fair organized by TUYAP.  Contemporary Istanbul and ArtIst International Istanbul Art Fair are the two other important annual events.  And I was in Istanbul for the two weeks this November to enjoy and attend these important fairs.

I must admit my favorite event is the Istanbul Book Fair.  Has been since I was a child.  This year I had the pleasure and honor to attend the Book Fair as a writer. Although my books have been out starting from the year 2009, this year I attended the Book Fair as a writer for the first time.  During my childhood years, the Istanbul Book Fair has been one of the big attractions in Istanbul every year. 

This year the Fair is in its 34^th year and it is continuously expanding.  I have been told that this year 750 publishing houses attended the Book Fair.  In a very tough year for Turkey and the World, the theme for this year’s Fair was “Humor: Looking at life with a smile.”

Looking at the drastic events taking place in Turkey, in the World and with the latest Paris events sometimes it is indeed almost impossible to smile.  However, to be able to cope with all that is happening, maybe humor and laughter are the most important tools that we need to survive. The tools that we desperately need to find the power and courage to live, to keep on going.

The Book Fair was packed with visitors from Day 1. The first of my book signing days was on the first day of the Fair, on November 7^th, 2015.  The second was on November 13^th, 2015 which was the last Friday of the Book Fair.   During the Book Fair, I had the chance to meet some of the organizers of the Fair through common friends.  I learned that even though about 750 thousand people visit the Fair, only about 20 thousand pay an entrance fee.  Watching the entrance gates is enough to see that it is very true.  All students and teachers enter for free as well as many other groups.  The representatives of TUYAP emphasized that for them this Book Fair is a social responsibility event and has been since the beginning 33 years ago.

*

Being among thousands and thousands of books for many days during the Istanbul Book Fair, I must admit that I felt strangely peaceful.  They seemed to offer the possibility of finding all the answers that we are and have been looking for.  They always seem to do that. Then again with my last fifteen-sixteen years of working with energy techniques like Reiki and Jyorei, following the path of listening to our heart and soul, I know that the true answers that we are so desperately seeking come from within.  Or rather from a connection with the whole, a connection with the Source that resonates within.  The answers are not exactly in the books. Yet, the words of many authors whether in fiction or non-fiction, through the stories that they tell, help us identify that which we find in our knowingness.

I do not know the exact number of books that I have.  Probably around five thousand or maybe more. I have never counted. They are scattered in my different libraries in about four different locations.  Many that do not fit in the shelves are in boxes.

I feel good around books. I feel at home around books, wherever I am.  I love the possibility of being carried away and also the possibility of being carried into different moods, emotions, thoughts and the different possible worlds of the real and the imaginary.  I loved reading. Well, I still do. I spent years reading non-stop. 

For years, the books that I had were never enough.  To be honest, until quite recently.  Every new topic of interest brought the desire and the need of reading about it.  I felt best in book fairs and libraries.  The amazing libraries of Cornell University in Ithaca New York still amaze me as they used to do during my college years.  I remember feeling sad for studying engineering because there was not enough time from school to explore the unlimited world of books at Cornell. 

And to study engineering was my choice since I just adored math since I was five or six years old.

As the years progressed, even though I could not resist the temptation to buy new books, I found myself re-reading a selection of less than a hundred instead of continuing to read on as I used to do.  There have been times when I read books continuously one after the other. Sometimes a book a day. 

I also discovered that I am able to read fast, not using a known reading technique, but I seemed to be able to do it. Reading fast made it possible to keep the pace of reading. However, it started to slow down.  My interest turned into returning to read a favorite selection.  And introducing a more carefully selected new ones rather slowly.  The desire and the actual act of buying books unfortunately have not diminished as much.

*

My pace and my choices of reading books seem to follow a strange correlation with my questions in and about life.  As my questions diminish and/or as the answers to my questions emerge more naturally or easily from within or from sources that seem to appear and find me, I seem to read less. I read more slowly.  I wait between books. I take my time.

I do not judge the various phases of my own story with books during these last 35 years. It was in fourth grade that I realized their importance for me. The importance of having a book, reading a book, getting lost and found in a book.  It was like breathing and without books I usually felt as if I could not.

And today in Fethiye, I feel thankful.  For having had the chance to meet with the worlds of  many through books. Thankful for having had the chance to quench that thirst. Thankful for knowing that what we need to know seems to have a magical way of reaching us.

I now use my personal libraries more to lend books to friends, students and clients that for myself.  

What the next step in my connection with my books will be, for now I need to wait and see.

With love and light.

Zeynep

Affirmation of the Week:

From Louise L. Hay

“It is my Divine right to take my own direction in life.  I am safe. I am free.”

Quotes of the Week:

“Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.”

Anna Freud

*

“Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece.”

Nadia Boulanger

To Be a 'Karate Kid' at the Age of 45

The movie “The Karate Kid” that came out in 1984 was the reason many kids like me got interested in Karate.  One of my cousins, Erdogan had started to learn, but learning Karate as a 14 year old girl was not so common and easy. And for that reason, my desire to learn Karate was dormant for over 30 years.

In 2010, this time Will Smith and a couple of other producers made the new version of “The Karate Kid.”  This time with Jackie Chan as the unusual karate teacher and with additional touch of Chinese Kung Fu.

I had been so busy with work and also with NGO activities with Lions Clubs International, with Down Syndrome Association and many more that, although I had never totally forgotten, learning Karate was a dream which would always stay a dream I had thought.

Well, maybe life had other plans for me.

It was a few months ago, after over 30 years, when the topic of Karate came up again and I found myself talking with my cousin Erdogan, telling  him that I wanted to learn Karate.  He immediately had an answer for me. He told me to find, to go to and talk to Mr. Omer Habes in Habes Sports Centre, in Calis, Fethiye. 

I had not known that there was indeed a World and European Champion Karate Instructor in Fethiye.  In turns out, Mr. Omer Habes, who is 7^th Dan in black belt, had won countless National Championships in Turkey in both Kata and Kumite braches of Karate.  He had been the captain of our Turkish National Team for many years, who is also known as one of the best technical Turkish sportsman in Karate. And had become World and European Champion.

One Monday evening I found myself sitting at the corner of Mr. Omer Habes’ Karate training place * his Dojo. The word Dojo in Japanese literally means the “place of the way.”  Watching his class for adults that Monday, I decided to put my fears aside and do something that I wanted to do since I was a young girl.

After my first day of training on that Wednesday, I had become sure that I had made a very good decision. Having wanted to learn Karate for many years, of course I was motivated. I was scared and motivated.  And as some you might know, I have a favor for things Japanese. I am a Reiki instructor and have to Japan many times and I have worked with Japanese NGOs and Foundations.  However, what I found in Karate from day one is beyond what I expected.

The way of Karate is a path. It is told to be a life-long process of self-discovery. However, again from day one I found myself in a wave of energy that energies the body and the soul. I was also amazed, and still am, how Shihan (Master Instructor) Omer Habes follows his students in training.  How he knows the limits and the potential of his students.  Kids and adults alike. In a training, at an unexpected moment you may find him call your name from a distant corner of the Dojo telling you to not give up and do your best at a punch or a kick, just to realize that you were indeed about to give up and wonder how he realized it before you yourself did.

Apart from the classes for adults, I had the chance to watch some of the classes for kids as well.  Tiny kids who are four, five, six years old in yellow, orange and green belts practice Karate in such beauty and discipline, you may find yourself just wanting to keep watching them. I also am very proud to see that there are many young girls of all ages learning and practicing Karate in Mr. Habes’ Dojo. 

Shihan Mr. Omer Habes practices and teaches the “Shotokan” style of Karate, developed by Master Gichin Funakoshi from Okinawa, Japan.  Master Funakoshi was born in 1868 and has passed away in 1957.  Although Karate has very ancient roots, Master Funakoshi was the person who brought Karate from Okinawa to main island Japan, to Tokyo.

On the evening that I visited Mr. Omer Habes’ Dojo in Calis, I ordered some of the books of Gichin Funakoshi online.  I usually feel the need to connect through reading and for Karate I felt the same need.  Of course until the books arrived, I continued to attend the three-nights-a-week classes for adults.

When the books arrived, I started to read “The Twenty Guiding Principles of KARATE” first.  My first impression was that, although the words were not uttered, these 20 principles were very alive and present in our Dojo and in our classes.

One of my other interesting discoveries was that Karate is, when taught honest to its roots, is very “nonviolent.” It is not easy to explain how.  We probably expect Karate to be about power, using power and we expect it to be even dangerous.  I probably did.  The power used in Karate might be dangerous when used with a negative intention, however, the real lesson behind it all seems to be about discovering our inner strength and discovering our weaknesses that we hide even from ourselves and making peace with them, as well as turning them into strengths.

I am lucky because I had the chance to unexpectedly find a world class instructor in Fethiye.  I felt even more lucky when a few trainings later I found myself training in Fethiye with World Champion Scottish Sensei Alistair Mitchell from Great Britain.  We may call Fethiye a small town in Turkey, however Fethiye seems to be able to offer the World to many.  Well, as for Karate, it turns out many World Champions, teachers and masters visit Shihan Mr. Omer Habes, and students like me find the amazing chance to meet these other Karate Masters in his Dojo in Fethiye.

My dream of starting to learn Karate came true after 31 years. 

May your dreams and desires come alive as well.

With love and light.

Zeynep

Contact for Master Ömer Habeş:

Mr. Faruk Habeş / Mrs. Elif Habeş

Fethiye Karate Habes Sports Centre

Habeş Spor Merkezi

Yerguzlar Caddesi No.73-1, Fethiye, Turkey

+90 (543)357 48 00

December

December is the month of Rumi for me.  The great Sufi master Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi passed away on December 17^th, 1273 in the city of Konya in Turkey.  He is known as a poet, a theologian, a sufi mystic.  He is the best selling poet in the US.   He is even better known abroad and I believe that his energy, his soul belongs to the highest truth and therefore is valuable to people of very different beliefs and traditions. 

December 17^th is celebrated in remembrance of his reunion with his Creator. 

And every December I like connecting with his writings a little more, in order to connect with his wisdom.  Kabbalistic teachings say that we are able to connect with the energy, the soul, the wisdom of a person on the yearly anniversary of their death.  Kabbalist say that to increase our awareness, we can connect to the energy of a Tzadik on their death anniversary, which in the Jewish tradition means a righteous person or spiritual master.   I would like to write more on Kabbalistic traditions in the future articles.

In the Turkish Islamic tradition it is also customary to pray for loved ones who have passed away on the anniversary of their passing.  It is considered important to make sure that we pray for them, for their soul on those dates.

I believe that it is possible to connect with those who have passed away.  That it is possible to communicate. The important thing is, why do you want to connect?  If there is a need, a real need, it is possible, it will happen.  It can happen anytime, anywhere. However, I have also seen that it is possible to connect with some souls on their death anniversary, and/or near their graves.  Sometimes it is easier and more possible to connect with hem in places that they like or find important, or used to find peaceful and serene. 

And sometimes out of nowhere, we will feel their presence.  We will hear their voice or just know that they have given us an answer or a message. 

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One of the personal development tools that I love is the Transformation Game of Joy Drake and Kathy Tyler.   This spiritual game is an amazing tool that helps us to connect with our inner wisdom as well as what we might call Universal Wisdom. 

The creators of the Transformation Game sent me an e-mail at the beginning of this December, they do at the beginning of every month, inviting me to connect with the Angel of Wisdom this December.  Wisdom really seemed like the perfect angel to connect to this month.  In the Transformation Game, concepts like Wisdom are defined as angels, or rather that some concepts are also strong energy frequencies that we might invite and experience and communicate with, that we might also call Angels.

As always, intention is the key.

The Universe provides us with information, with power to know, with strength, with power to heal ourselves and others. However, the ability to use or have any of these depends on our intentions.  Are we respectful to free will?  Are we respectful of others’ choices even if we do not agree with them?  Of course, we have the full right to protect ourselves if others violate our rights.  You know what I mean,  are we manipulating others to make our wishes, our ideas to come true, or are we working to allow what is meant to happen to come alive? The information is always there. The power is always there.  Whether we will be able to see it or use it depends on choices and intentions.

*

And RUMI has said most of it so well so long before…

Two Kinds of Intelligence

There are two kinds of intelligence: One acquired,
as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts
from books and from what the teacher says,
collecting information from the traditional sciences
as well as from the new sciences.

With such intelligence you rise in the world.
You get ranked ahead or behind others
in regard to your competence in retaining
information. You stroll with this intelligence
in and out of fields of knowledge, getting always more
marks on your preserving tablets.

There is another kind of tablet, one
already completed and preserved inside you.
A spring overflowing its springbox. A freshness
in the center of the chest. This other intelligence
does not turn yellow or stagnate. It’s fluid,
and it doesn’t move from outside to inside
through the conduits of plumbing-learning.

This second knowing is a fountainhead
from within you, moving out.

*

With best wishes,

Zeynep