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The Silent Paradise

March 20, 2009 — mahesha

I found this “Silent Paradise” the Bodhinyana Buddhist Monastery, standing among the hills of the Darling Range, near the rural village like town of Serpentine, Western Australia. This is a silent paradise where once visited will be visiting again.

As soon as you enter the gates of the monastery, all the hogwash in your mind will turn into a silent peacefulness that one cannot be described by words.
Venerable Ajhan Brahmawamso is the abbot of the Bodhinyana monastry and the spiritual director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. Ajhan Brahm’s kindness and selfless dedication in serving others inspired me. I am very grateful to him for helping me and my husband overcome various stressful situations showing us the correct way to think openly. I started listening to his Friday night talks. Each talk gave me inspiration and at least one small tip to overcome difficult situations.

The monastery has separate monk’s huts which do not have any modern facility at all and yet, very happy monks who are satisfied with the frugal living.

This silent paradise has six huts for lay people who want to experience the peacefulness of the monastery. I was fortunate enough to get a chance of staying in one of these huts. Separated from the outside world, I was able to feel the peace and tranquillity of the environment surrounded by trees and wildlife. Kangaroos and Kookaburras were my constant visitors.

It was wonderful to realise that one meal eaten mindfully will not make you feel hungry for a long time. It was enough for a whole day. I sat on the bench outside my hut sipping my tea and feeling the untainted atmosphere. It was training for me to be in the present moment feeling the surrounding atmosphere. Everything is forgotten and you are by yourself feeling the present moment. Everything is impermanent, so was my happiness. My stay ended and I was back in the real world.

Ajhan Brahm is building a new retreat centre for people to come and stay on retreats. I saw Ajhan Brahmali coming from the building site covered with cement. He is overseeing the building site. I felt the selfless dedication of him and all the other monks in the monastery. The retreat centre is almost finished and will be opened on the 10th of April.

We are looking forward Ajhan Brahm, to come on retreats as much as possible after the opening of the retreat centre.

©2009 Mahesha Iddagoda

Posted in Uncategorized. No Comments »

Alternative Investments

May 20, 2008 — mahesha

BERJAYAAn Average investor would think about shares and funds when it comes to the word “investing” but Investing has lot of other options as well. According to research, it shows that lot of people world wide, now think about alternative investment methods. Trend started with the booming of these other options of investment and the falling prizes of shares.

Thinking about other investment options with low risk margins, Real estate, exporting, Work from home, Freelancing, Social networking sites and many other alternative options come into mind. You have to think of investing your money in an industry that has the lowest risk margin.
 

Real Estate 

Real estate sector is booming all around the world, especially in Europe and Australia. Recent researches done in Australia shows that, people prefer to invest in real estate more than they do in the mining sector, which is unpredictable. Land prices have started increasing at a rate never recorded in history before. There is a risk margin again, because you have to think relatively with the average income of the majority. There is a point, that an average person will not be able to afford even a small apartment or unit. First, second and may be the third owner might make a profit by selling a house or land. You have to research the prizes of apartments and houses before you buy. The latest researches show those people, who invested in real estate sector targeting a short term profit, have the difficulty in selling their investment property. Prizes will go up eventually, but there is a threshold. Average person, usually the first home buyers will be unable to afford a home of their own. Investors should consult a financial advisor or think about the time frame they are planning to get a return from their investment.

Exporting 

Exporting opportunities have increased with the decreasing Dollar value. Manufacturing businesses are rare to profit from exporting, because still China is the largest supplier. Most manufacturers are outsourcing to China because of the low labour costs. Primary industries keep on thriving in the export market. I am not going to talk about exporting very much. Let’s see what other opportunities of alternative investing we have.

Work from home

Many people tend to start their own work from home businesses. Many women today, are work from home moms. Work from home is becoming popular rapidly. Many men also tend to work from home due to increasing pressure in their workplaces. We find lot of couples working from home these days. Government assistance to work from home businesses has increased recently. Small Business Corporation offers seminars on tendering and other business issues with advisers ever ready to give assistance. Lot of big businesses has started outsourcing work to these home businesses because they will have less problems in employing people, and also they can get the work for a cheaper prize. These home based businesses work as independent contractors. They are the starting point of outsourcing.
 

Outsourcing
 
Outsourcing to Freelancers has become very popular with the work from home moms. Now it has expanded overseas.  India has become the major freelancing market place with its highly English literate people. Many Indian IT companies are freelancers. It is very hard to beat the competitive prizes of the Indian freelancing market place. Many businesses tend to outsource to India. Many American companies have invested in the Indian freelancing market. With the sprouting network places and increased communication methods, you can do the whole accounting function of a business from overseas.
 

Social Networking places
 
Social networking places have become very popular with the increasing freelance workforce. We see that many small Social networking sites mature in to mass communication and meeting places of business people all round the globe and then sold to other companies for millions of Dollars.  

With all these businesses sprouting up over the Internet, alternative investment methods have become the most popular market place of the world. In future, AIM will be the most popular around the globe.

 

Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved

Posted in Internet for small business, Investing. 3 Comments »

Proper timing on eBay maximizes your bids

May 13, 2008 — mahesha

Proper timing of a listing is very important to profit from your e-bay bidding.

 

Why?

 

Sellers spend lot of time preparing their listings with correct key words and proper descriptions. Most of them do not understand that they need to consider about timing and traffic flow. EBay traffic is not continues as expected. It differs from time to time, day by day and also by season to season. If you list your items for auction, and if the auction closes before a peak visitor time, you are not going to profit as you expected.

 

Understand when to list.

 

Items listed for seven days on a Friday, will close on next Friday closing time. Your items listed on Monday for three days, will close on Thursday.

 

List your Auction to end during a peak time or in a more constructive time. You are likely to get more visitors if your listing time is lengthier. Most eBay visitors search several times a weak. They do not buy at one go, instead they bid at the last moment of the auction ending time. Most bids are placed during the last thirty minutes. Your listing will also appear under “closing soon” section so you are likely to get more bids.

 

Peak time daily, is between 8.00PM and 10.00PM.  Speaking of peak visitor time weakly is during Saturday and Sunday. Most buyers by during Sundays between the times mentioned above.

 

Listing your item on Saturday to end on Sunday between 8.00PM and 10.00PM will reduce your long listing fee.

 

Why 8.00PM and 10.00PM?

 

According to research, most visitors from Eastern Time frame, brows auction sites during 8.00PM and if considering Pacific Time, it will be during 10.00PM. So if you list geographically, this will help you to decide the ending of your auction time.

 

 

                             BERJAYA     

Posted in E-commerce, Internet for small business, Managing your business, Marketing, Online. No Comments »

Wrong address

May 7, 2008 — mahesha

I thought to give you a different post today for a break. My uncle sent me this funny story Just have fun reading it.  

   

A man checked into a hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an e-mail to his wife.
However, he accidentally typed a wrong e-mail address, and without realizing his error, he sent the email.   

 

                                                           
                                                                         
Meanwhile… .Somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned from her husband’s funeral.                                                  
The widow decided to check her e-mail, expecting condolence messages from relatives and friends.                                              
After reading the first message, she fainted.



                         
The widow’s son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read:                    
                                                                   
To: My Loving Wife                                                      
                                                                     
Subject: I’ve Reached                                                    
                                                                     
Date: 20 July                                                        
                                                                     
I know you’re surprised to hear from me. They have computers here, and we are allowed to send e-mails to loved ones.                                                                            
I’ve just reached and have been checked in. I see that everything  has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow.

     

 

 

 

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Catalogue interoperability

May 2, 2008 — mahesha

BERJAYA

This post relates to my previous post about “why you should have a catalogue”. 

 

Supplier Hubs is a supplier managed hosted catalogue interoperability service. They aggregate mass data from supplier catalogues, clean and decode those data into standard of other catalogues. After decoding, resellers can access supplier catalogues in a standard format.

 

Some resellers have complicated procurement systems that can access supplier data. Catalogue item master file will be automatically picked up and data will be arranged according to the reseller’s system instantly.

 

As a supplier, you can host your own catalogue and let your buyers access it online. This can also be automated.

 

 

 

 

Posted in E-commerce, Internet for small business, Managing your business, Online, Websites. Tags: . No Comments »

Why should you have a catalogue?

May 1, 2008 — mahesha

A supplier’s catalogue is the central location for numerous other business activities inside an establishment. If you are a business selling computer accessories, without a catalogue it will be impossible to operate. Data of all the accessories and stocks you have is in the catalogue. You also need a catalogue to access the list of suppliers and their prices.

 

The problem of catalogues

If your business is a small supplier, creating and selling a specific variety of products in which you have specialised and take pride of, and you have two main customers who buy from you in bulk. They are your biggest customers. Your business relies on their buying your products.

 

Your biggest customer decides to put into practice, an electronic trading system. They send a letter to all of their suppliers, telling that, within a given time frame, all of their suppliers must be system compatible with their new proven practise. That means, you must provide your catalogue data in accordance with the customers given format.

 

You are now afraid of loosing your largest customer; and you invest several thousands of your capital designing an e-catalogue that complies with the customer. You still communicate with the other customer via fax and phone.

 

Meanwhile the second customer decides to create a new e-buying plan and you will be informed that they too will be requiring you to create your e-catalogue compatible to their system. Their system is different and cannot comply with the system you have with the first one. Now you are shattered and will have to make a very difficult choice. 

   

If you say no, you will loose an important percentage of your sales. You are not able to say ‘yes’ either. Now you will have to invest a significant portion of your capital to make a catalogue matching to the second buyer.

 

Sometimes they will again require you to keep an additional list of your product records on their own systems through a hosted solution. This is not possible, with you constantly updating and re – keying your product details. It will be a nightmare and lot of errors are bound to happen.

 

So for this, comes a solution. ‘Catalogues must be able to interoperate’.

 BERJAYA

 

 

 

Posted in E-commerce, Internet for small business, Managing your business. 2 Comments »

Join the E-marketplace

April 24, 2008 — mahesha

Small businesses that plan to sell their products or services online, must consider a range of issues before they start their E-commerce plan.

Some businesses according to their requirements minimize their involvement by joining the e-market place, where another business will purchase their products and sell it for them.  That means, if you have services or products to offer, another business will purchase them from you and sell it for you.

You do not have to worry about your marketing campaign. More buyers you connect to, more business you make. What you have to do is, send your product to the buyer’s destination or provide your service according to the buyer’s requirements.

There are many e-market places having various business strategies. They might act as arbitrators. E-marketplaces offer services such as business directory listings and Electronic catalogues.

Top market places to join are those that tender low cost financial accounting systems and connect with other market places.

 

Happy blogging.

 

Independent e-marketplace

Buyer-oriented e-marketplace

Supplier-oriented e-marketplace

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in E-commerce, Internet for small business, Networking, Online, Websites. 1 Comment »

Freewebs

April 17, 2008 — mahesha

BERJAYA

Many businesses want to express their online presence in a professional manner to their clients. Free web hosting platforms are ideal for beginners. My best platforms are wordpress and Blogger. Disadvantage of wordpress is that they do not allow you to display banners and affiliate links if you are not having a paid version. Blogger is different, you can display many banner ads and you feel free. My blog with Blogger disappeared after ranking very high in search engines and later appeared after many appeals and talks with forums with its url changed. Is Blogger safe? Paid version will not have that effect, I agree.

 

Freewebs offer many pages and blogs as you like. Later you can upgrade to a paid version. I do not recommend this site for beginners to start with. Blogger is the best place for a beginner. Freewebs is a good place for professionals to express themselves and their portfolios. Freelancing professionals can use this site. This provider offers lot of templates that are very attractive and there is a “widget bank” to add what ever you like to your site. You can add and edit contents as you want and you do not need to know HTML.  

 

Disadvantage is that until you change to a paid version, Freewebs have the right to display their ads and delete any page or your website if you do not abide by their policies of publishing. This is only one platform from many. I am doing research on webhosts. There are many more.

 

I prefer Blogger or wordpress at any time. They are flexible. The exiting thing about freewebs is that they have a huge variety of templates to choose from.

 

Compared with Blogger and wordpress, they have very few widgets but you can upgrade your site to a Paid version or a paid e-commerce website. I created an account in freewebs just to check. I think it is ideal for Freelancing professionals to host their websites.   

Posted in Websites. 2 Comments »

Tribute to Jhāna Grove

April 15, 2008 — mahesha

Secluded from the hustle and bustle of the city, on top of a mountain in Serpentine Western Australia, stands the beautiful and the most peaceful place I have ever been. Bodhinyana Monastery. One who has visited this place feels like staying there forever. Venerable Ajhan Brahmawamso, the much loved abbot and the spiritual director of the Buddhist Society of WA, has taken the step to build a meditation retreat centre near the monastery to help the lay people to experience the bliss of peace and solitude to get a relief from the stress of working to earn a living. Anyone near the sangha feels the peace and calmness of the environment. I have experienced it and I hope others will too.  May this project be able to finish quickly. There are lot of people waiting to go on a ten day retreat but cannot afford the price of accommodation. This retreat centre will be free for the stay, but kind donations will be valued. Please read the following article about Jhāna Groove; meditation retreat centre and its pictures.

Posted in General. Tags: . No Comments »

How to use and eCheck with PayPal

August 8, 2007 — mahesha

You can use an eCheck with PayPal to make payments over Internet. The only disadvantage is the recipient will see your order as unclaimed for about three days.  In order to do a transaction via this method, PayPal will need to verify your bank account. For this you have to sign in for a PayPal account.  

Log in to your PayPal account and click the Send Money option. You will be directed to the form below. 

paypal.jpg

Enter the recipient’s e-mail address or phone number. Be specific and use the area code. 

Put the amount in the Amount box.

Use the preferred currency

Then click the option for: What you are paying for. 

Click the continue button 

Enter and check your order number and message.  

You will have the options to pay with your PayPal account or eCheck.

Select eCheck option. 

Complete the transaction.  

Your Recipient will be notified by e-mail and if they do not have a PayPal account, they will be prompted to create one and your money will be deposited automatically in their account. 

Happy blogging.  

Posted in Alternative Online Payment Methods, E-Check, E-commerce. 1 Comment »
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