I have been active at different forums, where Thais exchange their ideas in different fields, particularly about education, politics, social problems, peace & spirituality, and technology. Through these dialogs, I have had ample opportunities to reflect on life in different lights and have often become philosophical!



In one recent posting, I gave advice to a young high scholler who seems frustrated with his present situation. He seems to want to be up there somewhere in his academic career, but he's struggling to finish his high school. He is active at a webboard in which people studying or working overseas share their experiences. I advised him in Thai with the following philosophical notes:


"ไม่มีทางลัดสู่ความสำเร็จที่ยิ่งใหญ่
ไม่มีความสะดวกสบายได้มาโดยปราศจากสติ
ไม่มีความสมหวังได้มาโดยความมักง่าย
และไม่มีน้ำตาใดมีค่าต่อความสำเร็จ หากไร้การกระทำเชิงสร้างสรรค์"

There are no shortcuts to a great success;
There is no comfort or convenience stemmed from the absence of mindfulness;
There's no rewarding achievement out of a poor effort;
And there's no tears contributing to success unless there are constructive deeds.

Thais love communicating their complicated ideas through thoughtful sayings or poetic expressions. Sometimes we are regarded as less critical in the way we look at things and as weak in justifying our ideas. On the contrary to these perceived weaknesses, I feel that sometimes too many words are worth less than some short, thought-provoking expression. A phrase full of wisdom may encourage the audience to think more and more deeply than a complete lecture!

Freire's notion of reflecting and acting, or praxis, seems to work well in transforming. Reflecting on issues around me has helped me become a more skilled thinker to see the hidden agendas and subtlety of the world. Then, acting (verbally, physically) will help to refine the thoughts and distill them into wisdom. Wisdom that is achieved by passionate and profound reflections and by acting in the real world of problems is philosophical and yet very practically useful as a walking stick at least for a wandering soul, or work in progress, like me.