Why You Can Be a Non-Believer, but Still Need to Be Religious (Or Rather Spiritual)

Life is not only black and white. Neither is it just grey nor colorful rainbow. It consists of wider spectrum. There are various wavelengths that may not be perceptible by our senses, but do exist through different approach of observation. Within our perception, we may favor certain colors more than others, and it's perfectly fine as based on freedom of choice. Just because we prefer apple to grape, doesn't mean we can impose our taste to others as well.

It is no more secret that some of us find religions today as mere political instrument, or delusional idea of afterlife insurance promising divine redemption and security. Moreover, the technology today has eased us accessing information from various fields of study that can enlighten us about pagan and Sumerian traditions and myths that are generally adopted by major religions, specifically the Abrahamic ones (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).

The development of science discovery has also expanded our horizons of how this universe actually works, and obviously not by miracle. The white flower we believe as white, turns out to have violet stripes we cannot see. The vast universe we believe real, turns out to be just a holographic object formed by gravity that is leaked out from the one dimensional strings. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle within quantum mechanics also portrays that this universe's existence depends on our observation, meaning reality does not exist if we are not looking at it.

The Life Battle of Our Own, and Mine Especially

I've seen many of my friends or sheer acquaintances put up a fight against nonsensical injustice that has been oppressing them or something important to them. Be it those who voice out the rights of homosexuals, or those who advocate about women's rights and feminism, or those who campaign about how important it is to be vegetarian respecting animals as fellow living beings, or who bravely speak up in public spaces against the unjust government, or who struggle for interracial and interfaith marriage, etc. Each of them rumbles against society, against nearly the whole world that has been imposing unfair values to our life.

Reflecting on those astounding and amazing individuals, I wonder if there is also anything that I've been struggling, trying to stand up for because it's worth the fight. I inquire myself if there is anything I may accomplish in life, not just mundane achievements or fame, but something useful and worth the life I've spent.

I realize that there is one thing that I've been trying to rebel, to smash or break since I was a child. It is the wall of religion. Religion that has been confining me and condescending my humanity.

I remember how I was taught that people with different religion will be sent to hell, no matter how good of people they are. I remember how I was very close to my Christian cousins and I loved them but my heart ached because in Islamic teaching I was taught they were sinners.

A Question to Indonesian Academic Culture: With or Without Skripsi?

On January 27th, 2012, the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) through Directorate General of High Education (DITJEN DIKTI) under the tenure of Mr. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a regulation in Letter of DITJEN DIKTI No. 152/E/T/2012 that undergraduate students had to have paper publication in scientific journal. This regulation was proposed and thus constituted because the scientific paper publication in and from Indonesia was very few in number.

Compared to other countries in South East Asia like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, Indonesia is left behind. According to SCImago Journal and Country Rank (www.scimagojr.com) Indonesia is now ranked 57 out of 239 countries; meanwhile Singapore is 32, Malaysia 36, and Thailand 43. This rank is determined by the number of documents published and the citable documents from 1996-2014. Indonesia has the total number of 32.355 documents and 30.770 citable documents.

How Movie’s Message Shapes Our Children Today

In spite of its cute animated appearance and the fact that most of the audiences are children, some of my friends argue that Inside Out is not movie rated for children. One of them has told me that the movie may even “slap” children waking them up to realize that life is full of sadness, not only wonderful days.

In the movie, Joy keeps trying to make Riley happy everyday, allowing her to only have good memories and cheerful personality. The experiences Riley gets through everyday are represented in memory balls. Little Riley mostly has yellow, the color of Joy, memory balls everyday because Joy rarely lets other emotions take control over Riley.

It is until Riley is 11 and her family must move to San Francisco due to her father’s job, everything changes. No matter how much Joy tries to bring up good past memories to her, one way or another keeps leading Riley to other emotions like Disgust, Fear, and Anger. The unexpected peak of this tragedy is when Sadness keeps touching various memory balls and the core of memory when Riley is at new school for the first time, and she eventually cries in the middle of her introduction as she misses her good times in Minnesota.

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"If time could be turned back, I would have stayed and never left."

Religiosity Before The Eyes of Cosmic Era

For a couple of centuries humankind used to be wondering what might lay beyond the skies. It was mysteries to them for what stars and moon truly were and what might hide behind them. On July 14, 2015, though, humanity has successfully reached the nearest distance ever to Pluto using New Horizons spacecraft. It’s no longer a secret that stars are burning plasma and moon is satellite. To make it easier, Google has been created to find such common knowledge.

Using Hubble Telescope launched since 1990 to observe the characteristic of our Universe, and using Kepler spacecraft launched since 2003 to find extrasolar habitable planet in Milky Way, we’ve developed more understanding about the world where we live than our ancestors.

Chronicle of Human Rights in Tibet

On July 6, 2015, His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama had his 80th birthday. It was celebrated for 3 days in California, billed as a Global Compassion Summit.

H.H. Dalai Lama has been living in Dharamsala, India, his exile from Tibet due to the China’s claim over Tibet and accusation towards H.H. Dalai Lama for trying to split Tibet from the rest of China. This conflict has been ongoing since 1949/50, recorded as the first time of invasion by People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Originally, there were two spiritual leaders of Tibetan Buddhism, Dalai Lama (reckoned as the manifestation of Avalokitesvara Boddhisatva) and Panchen Lama (reckoned as the manifestation of Amithaba Buddha). Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, a kid who was born in 1989 and then was divinely recognized as the 11th Panchen Lama by Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders, however, has been kidnapped and hidden by China’s government since May 17, 1995 when he was 6 years old.

Objektivitas dan Independensi

Dalam dunia finansial, menjadi objektif dan bias sangat diperlukan dalam membuat suatu laporan riset yang akhirnya akan dibaca oleh investor-investor yang menggunakan laporan tersebut sebagai salah satu sumber untuk pengambilan keputusan investasinya. Laporan riset yang disiapkan oleh analis berupa dokumen sebagai bagian dari tim riset investasi didalam broker saham atau bank investasi.

Pada umumnya, ketika investor sudah menanam kepercayaan kepada suatu perusahaan penulis laporan riset ― atau bahkan individu analis tertentu ― mereka dapat terkesan lengah dan cenderung menaruh kepercayaan berlebihan kepada apa yang ditulis di dalam laporan riset tersebut. Namun pada praktiknya, tidak sedikit laporan yang ditulis oleh analis yang mungkin tidak sepenuhnya objektif atau bahkan menjadi menyimpang dari tujuan laporan yang seharusnya mempresentasikan objektivitas.

Integritas dalam Pasar Modal

Pasar modal sebagai bagian dari dunia keuangan memiliki kode-kode etika tersendiri yang mengatur tingkah laku individu-individu yang berkecimpung di dunia pasar modal sebagai trader (orang yang melakukan jual beli saham berdasarkan informasi-informasi yang ada). Standar yang mengatur tentang etika di dunia pasar modal ini terdiri dari 2 bagian: Standar II A, yang membahas mengenai informasi non-publik yang bersifat material dan Standar II B, yang membahas mengenai manipulasi pasar berdasarkan Certified Financial Analyst (CFA). 

Artificial Intelligence, When Fiction Comes True

After many years, Skynet was successfully defeated a couple of weeks ago. It was a long struggle for humanity to finally be set free from fear of terror and threat of extinction. If only not because of the post-credits scene that Genysis was still alive, it might have ended our story of Terminator that was started in 1984.

Fortunately for us, Terminator is just a fiction. Instead of being chased after by the humanoid slaves belong to Skynet, we enjoy the war as an entertainment. I never watch the TV Series, but the 5 movies have always got me curious about the possible existence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and what outcome it would possibly cause in reality.

Gender Equality in Spirituality; The Revival of Female Monks in Indonesian Theravada Buddhism

In many aspects of life, the division between men and women occurs not only in social role, but also in spirituality. Certain paradigm of what women should be and do that they cannot be in equal position with men deters women to participate in religious attainment.

Since more than two thousand years ago, the tradition of having Bhikkhuni (Female Monk) in Theravada sect has disappeared. After the death of King Ashoka, many monks were chased after and then killed because Buddhism no longer was protected by the King in charge.

While the Monks escaped to jungle, the nuns stayed in the city due to the Vinaya (Buddhist Monastic rules) that mentioned Bhikkhuni could not stay in jungle. This Vinaya was imposed by Buddha Gautama because of the raping cases towards Bhikkhuni living in jungle. In the city, however, the Bhikkhuni could not escape the massacre.

Lebaran and Reconciliation

Originally Published in: Jakarta Post July 14, 2015, Opinion Column Page 7

Author: Liswindio Apendicaesar

Ramadhan is about to end, which means Idul Fitri (Eid Mubarak) or Lebaran is coming to town. People will be celebrating by eating various dishes like ketupat, rendang (beef curry) and opor (coconut milk beef or chicken gravy), in addition to many cookies and snacks. Apart from risking high cholesterol and blood sugar, we exchange apologies and forgiveness. We embrace or shake hands with husband or wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, employers and employees, old and new friends and even sometimes with strangers.

Annually, I always wonder why we do this and what difference in life it will bring just by simply saying “Please forgive me” and then replying “Yes, please forgive me too” to each other, without even knowing what your mistake exactly is.

Not All Parents Are Good, Neither Are Mine

You may have nice family, kindhearted parents, lovely childhood, and all environment that has shaped your mental and personality into the healthy person. Everything in your life is so perfect when it comes to family, and you truly love your parents. You idolize them, you miss them, and you want to be like them.

You know what? Not everyone is like you. Not everyone is lucky enough to have such lovely family and great parents.

I don’t know how it feels to have such beautiful family, but I know what you may not know.

Menyambut ASEAN Economic Community

Originally Published in: BUSINESSLOUNGE, Member of Vibiz Media Network, Essay on Global Section, June 29, 2015

Author: Liswindio Apendicaesar

Sebagaimana yang telah disepakati pada ASEAN summit di Bali pada Oktober 2003, akhir tahun 2015 ini program ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) akan mulai dilaksanakan. Ada banyak situasi baru dalam hal perekonomian yang ditawarkan melalui AEC, misalnya perdagangan bebas barang-barang antar negara di ASEAN, jasa pelayanan, dan tenaga kerja.

Marriage Matters, and Thus We Need Equality

Originally published in: Jakarta Post July 4, 2015, Opinion Column Page 7
Author: Liswindio Apendicaesar

The United States of America recently followed Mexico to become the 22nd country to legalize same-sex marriage, on June 3, 2015.

As the world’s most influential country, the American judicial decision to legalize gay marriage has attracted a good deal of attention.

The decision represents significant progress in how people perceive and respond to differences in society. It is proof of acceptance and respect for humanity.

Threat for Religion: Communality + Ignorance

 Either in ancient times or modern age like today, the presence of religion has always played a pivotal role in people’s lives. Aside than its purpose to provide personal security by superstitious salvation against incertitude of life and death, and to give temporary negligent answers upon sophisticated life questions, religion constitutes societal order by regulating social norms and ethics; it is a role of which positions religion not only as a private instrument for individuals’ divine journey, but also communal instrument that promises communal safety in both life and afterlife.

A Guy Who Reads and Writes, and Who Is Also A Poet

Not everyone is good to convey feelings and thoughts through verbal and loud voices. Some of us may be pianists who can only speak by the music score played on a stage, every key pushed, pianissimo or fortissimo or somewhere in between, and every melody hovered symbolize the heart of mankind, an age, a trip to someone's soul. Some of us may be physicists and mathematicians, who can only express heart by romanticizing logic and by speaking of world puzzles, something freak and nerd but genuine.

And some of us can only stay silent; we freeze and no voice by us can be made, as we're reading various books and diverse stories, and only with a pen we finally talk in quiet. Through the stare of eyes, and the movements of fingers, the only sound heard is the scratch on the paper, or the typing on the keyboard or typewriter. Solemnly, the brainwave is embodied beautifully and arranged carefully.

A guy who reads and writes, and who is also a poet.

The Gay Friend, The Religion, and The Acceptance

It’s not about bragging how I’ve been meeting various people and they happen to give me tons of life questions to which “42” cannot be the answer (if you’ve ever seen ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy,’ you’ll get the reference).

But it’s still true after all, that most of stories begin when people meet and make a life out of it.

They deliver statements, ultimatums; pose questions and push each other until eventually, a new journey springs forth. And you’ll never know what kind of people you’ve just passed on a road or bridge; what stories lie at the soles of those worn shoes; what hides behind that glimpse of a smile.

The Chance of Happiness

“But who can say what's best? That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.”

—Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami

Oft times, we complaint for the unhappiness we have in life, for the misfortune we believe keep being bestowed upon us. Life at that rate seems unfair and annoying. We of course wish to have joy and beauteous smiles like everyone else we aspire to be like. We just can't understand why it seemingly is our fate to be the unlucky ones overtime.

Happiness, might be something very expensive to have. It's like a wild rare flower that is hunted by everyone but available in a very limited stock. You don't know where and when it may bloom and sprout, and how long of time you have so that you can grasp it. Before you know it, the flower has withered and turned rot already, and you lose your moment of lifetime.