The title of the book on the left first caught my eye.
I found a quiet spot and then opened it.

I never left the library until 4 hours later.

Partly because it started to pour and I found a reason to just stay in the library.

By 7pm, I had already read half the book and I must say... the book was arresting. I had never been so absorbed in a book in my entire life.

I could relate to SO MUCH of what the book was saying. To have a Religion of One's Own.

It is a book for everyone - religious, agnostic, atheist, you name it. It talks about how you can subscribe yourself to a traditional religion, that's perfectly fine - the author himself is a catholic and was in fact a monk for 12 years. But in the secular world of today, you should also be open to the teachings of other religions and create a religion of your own.

One part of the book, which was the eighth page of the book, just summed this up so nicely for me:

"The new kind of religion asks that you move away from being a follower to being a creator. I foresee a new kind of spiritual activity, in which we no longer decide whether to believe in a given creed and follow a certain tradition blindly. Now we allow ourselves a healthy and even pious skepticism. Most important, we no longer feel pressure to choose one tradition over another. This new religion is a blend of individual inspiration and inspiring tradition."

The last sentence: word.

It's not that we forget about the current religions of the world, but use it as a way of guidance. At the same time, one cannot blindly follow traditional and institutionalised religions. The world is always changing and we cannot merely believe in ancient scriptures forever. I reckon that's why fundamentalists are still around in the world today causing major upheavals. Cue: IS militants sigh.

It's just like how people stop binding women's feet in Chinese tradition and slicing female genitalia in African tradition (this one still controversial). Yes, it's tradition but if you look at these traditions with a skeptical eye, damn, it is so wrong. And we have to move on....... To crocs shoes and high heels hahahaha. But I mean seriously, sometimes we cannot always blindly believe and follow.


Another part of the book also rang true to me:

"Religion begins in the sensation that your life makes sense within a larger one.... You may even realise ultimately that your soul participates in the world's soul."

I've always felt that way... I'm part of this bigger thing and whenever I feel like I stop thinking about myself and picture myself looking down on this world in a bigger scale, life just seems so much bigger than it is compared to the little things we bother about day to day.

And whenever I do this, I feel like I can empathise with people better coz I'm not thinking about myself. I remove myself from my self and feel like I can properly be in another person's shoes and position.

We can never live in this world without a religion because one always has to be in touch with our souls. We're always seeking for deeper meaning in our lives and I think this is when we must find a spiritual connection with ourselves. For me, I believe I will remain a free thinker but am always seeking out teachings of religions everywhere. I must say however, one particular religion seems to be screaming out to me and I still am confused though. It will always be a constant search within myself.

Back to the book. Perhaps, I was drawn to this book because I was ACTUALLY looking for it. Like, I already knew that this was what I wanted as answers. I wasn't blindly looking for answers but actually looking for answers that resided best within me. Maybe I actually want to be told about this.

I was of course skeptical about other things in the book like Guardian Angels and Mystics, but on the whole, the book really summed up everything that I was looking for so nicely.


The other book "Why is God laughing" was, unlike the other, read within ONE DAY. I took a number of days/weeks of procrastination to finish the other but this one... ONE DAY AND I COMPLETED IT. Remember, I'm a slow reader. So... I got really engrossed in this one.

It's a narrative, instead of self-help so it proved to be easy.

I actually only started reading it last week and I must say... I feel like there was so much of a coincidence for me when I opened this book.

I remember asking a friend, "What is your greatest weakness?". When she asked what mine was, I couldn't reply and was slightly embarrassed because I couldn't answer a question that I posed to her. But after more than a month of soul-searching, I told her last week, I know the answer to it. And that would be.... my ego. I don't necessarily see myself as an egoist but I feel like I still have quite an ego that I would rather not have too much of.

And guess what? The day that I announced my biggest weakness, was also the day when I learnt how to let go of that weakness. It was all in this book.

I can't describe to you what the story is about because it would be such a big spoiler. But I must also say it is a deeply personal and moving story to me, so I can't really pen it down in words. You just gotta read it for yourself.


With that, my due date for the return of the books is 27th January. That's tomorrow. I'm gonna drop it at White Sands library where I first found them. So if you wanna grabbit, they are there for the taking fwahahaha.

On a side note, my FYP seems to be moving in a positive direction. I am looking forward to what the coming weeks will bring~  Am staying positive.

Also, I'm really getting used to staying in hall. More life in hall posts to come haha.

Also also also, I just watched "The Imitation Game". So good. so so good. Better than Theory of Everything for me. That one, overrated. But Benedict Cumberbatch? Nah, this one is never overrated hahahaha oh don't you just love Brit boys?




At 1:50, check out that lip bite... ovaries exploded ya.