Nama Tempatan: Gaharu/depu
Nama Saintifik: Aquilaria malaccensis
Nama Lain: Karas, Engkaras, agar wood, aquilaria, krasna, agaloca,aloeswood, eaglewood, jinkoh. Famili: Thymelaeaceae
Lokasi dijumpai: Hutan hujan tropika

Fakta keterangan:

Kayu Gaharu terkenal di seluruh dunia dengan pelbagai panggilan, Chen Xiang bagi masyarakat Cina, Jin-Ko (Jepun) dan Oud atau Oode di kalangan bangsa Arab.

Ia juga digunakan oleh masyarakat secara meluas sejak turun-temurun, malah ada yang mengatakan kayu gaharu dari pokok gaharu telah digunakan sejak zaman Firaun sama ada untuk upacara keagamaan atau bahan untuk membuat minyak wangi.

Pokok gaharu atau dikenali juga di Malaysia dengan nama lain seperti depu, karas atau engkaras merupakan pokok besar yang boleh mencapai ketinggian sehingga 40 meter tingginya. Diameter batangnya pula boleh mencapai sekitar 60 cm. Gaharu merupakan sejenis tumbuhan yang tumbuh di kawasan hutan hujan tropika, terutamanya di tanah rendah sehingga ke kawasan yang ketinggiannya sehingga 270 meter daripada paras laut. Taburan pertumbuhan pokok gaharu /depu secara geografinya meliputi kawasan Asia tenggara, India dan China. Gaharu boleh hidup di semua jenis tanah kecuali kawasan paya dan berair.


Secara keseluruhan terdapat lapan jenis pokok gaharu di dunia tetapi di Malaysia hanya ada empat jenis iaitu, Karas, Candan Gajah, Candan Gunung dan Cendana. Bagi masyarakat Malaysia, pokok gaharu atau nama saintifiknya Aquilaria Malaccensis hanya boleh didapati di dalam hutan belantara dan jumlahnya pula dilaporkan semakin sedikit atau hampir pupus. Kegiatan mencari kayu gaharu secara haram menjadikan tumbuhan itu kini semakin pupus kerana harganya, sama ada kayu (heartwood) atau minyak (damar) yang dihasilkan pokok itu adalah amat bernilai tinggi, lebih mahal dari harga emas.

Tarikan kayu gaharu Malaysia dan nilainya yang amat tinggi merupakan magnet kepada pencari-pencari haram kayu gaharu terutamanya dari Thailand untuk menceroboh hutan-hutan negara ini sehingga ke Sarawak untuk mendapatkan tumbuhan berharga itu.

Sekilogram kayu gaharu jenis karas dianggarkan bernilai di antara RM5 ribu hingga RM60 ribu, Candan Gajah (RM180 ribu hingga RM200 ribu) dan Candan Gunung (RM1 juta) manakala harga seliter minyaknya pula bernilai 10 kali ganda dari kayunya.

Pokok gaharu boleh tumbuh di dalam hampir semua keadaan dengan penjagaan yang minimum, dan boleh mencecah ketinggian sehingga 40 meter manakala jejari batang pokoknya boleh membesar sehingga 60 cm.

Bagaimanapun bagi pokok gaharu jenis Candan Gunung, ia hanya boleh tumbuh di kawasan yang mempunyai ketinggian 1,500 kaki dari aras laut, menjadikan ia lebih sukar ditemui dan dibiak.



kegunaan:

Resin yang terhasil di bahagian teras batang pokok gaharu merupakan bahan yang mempunyai nilai komersial yang amat di tinggi di pasaran seluruh dunia.Resin

ini telah digunakan sejak zaman berzaman sebagai setanggi atau kemenyan, digunakan dalam perubatan, kosmetik mahupun bahan untuk upacara keagamaan. Cara

tradisonal untuk mendapatkan resin ini ialah dengan menebang pokok ini untuk mendapatkan resinnya. Malangnya tidak semua pokok yang telah matang akan

menghasilkan resin, menyebabkan ada pokok yang ditebang secara sia-sia sahaja. Ini menyebabkan pokok gaharu mula diancam kepupusan di habitat asalnya. Tetapi

kini ada kaedah yang lebih efektif digunakan tanpa perlu menebang dan memusnahkan pokok yang telah matang.

Kini gaharu merupakan spesis tumbuhan yang di lindungi di negara kita.Pengambilan gaharu daripada habitat semulajadi merupakan satu kesalahan di negara kita.

Perjanjian antarabangsa seperti CITES(Satu konvensioan yang membincangkan urusniaga antarabangsa yang dilakukan ke atas spesis-spesis terkawal)telah diperakui dan dipersetujui oleh 169 buah negara. Persetujuan ini adalah untuk memastikan urusniaga gaharu tidak akan mengancam kepupusan pokok gaharu di habitat semulajadinya.

Mind machines, mind power, the mind matter phenomenon, the law of attraction, the field, the matrix, the force, the power of intention, the quantum mind, brain plasticity, whole brain integration, hemispheric synchronization, the subconscious, the collective unconscious, the third eye, altered states, meditation, prayer, paranormal, mystical experiences, PSI....


A query into any of the above subjects will provide reams of data, opinions, and public debate intended to shed light on a subject that by its very nature thus defies public revelation. I have studied all of these subjects over the years in a bid to understand the full potential of my own nature and with every new understanding I have continually refined my efforts towards achieving what I've crudely been describing as mastery over my mind, or mind power.

With every process aimed at mastering a skill, there are stages of development followed by plateaus where it seems no progress is being made. And then, usually when you least expect it, another shift occurs and your commitment to the process is reinvigorated pushing you on to progress further. This pattern continues for as long as you keep with the process, until eventually something different happens. Your understanding reaches a critical mass, you experience a seismic shift, developmentally, you experience a quantum leap, placing you at the threshold of your desired mastery.

So far for me the stages that have played a part in developing my own mind's power look roughly like this:

* As a child I had an awareness that there was more to me than what my sensory systems could reveal
* I acquired a faith in an organised religion
* Experienced spontaneous mystical, transcendental experiences
* Entered a dark night of the soul, existential angst
* Lost my faith
* Experimented with drugs
* Explored various world religions
* Became and 'accidental' practitioner of self designed occult practices
* Inadvertently practiced 'dark magic' bringing me to literally death's door
* Realised the 'dark magic' was a misuse of my mind and that my mind had far more power than I ever realised
* Being fearful of the power I had realised I 'shut down'
* Entered another dark night of the soul
* Woke up to the realisation that I had to make my mind's power work for me - because my life wasn't, but how?
* Conducted research on how to harness my mind's potential
* A flow of synchronicities led me to various materials and mind machine systems
* Attempted to establish myself in self designed technique of meditative practice
* Used technologies to change my brainwave states
* Practised sending out love to 'the universe' while endeavouring to stop all judgement
* Learnt a proper meditation technique: Vipassana, and developed a daily practice
* Experienced an increase in synchronicities, psychic phenomenon, manifestations, mystical experiences (this is ongoing)
* Realised increased mind control: more calm, peace, happiness
* Continued to utilise mind systems: binaural beats, rapid data transfer, Solfreggio frequencies ...
* Shared my gained knowledge with those interested in aim of being of service and help
* Began serving at a Vipassana meditation centre to help others learn the technique
* Experienced a seismic mind shift

With hindsight, it is easy to see that I have always been travelling down a path towards enlightenment. A path, I believe we are all in fact destined to journey at some point.

In my own case, I have been quite caught up in what perhaps the sagacious would describe as 'mind playing', a realised ability to experience increased synchronicities, paranormal, mystical experiences, manifestations, prophetic dreams and so forth. Believing at times, they were the goal. They continue to be pleasant and they serve as indicators of my ability to attune my mental powers in certain ways, but the goal has, changed.

By developing my mind's power I have realised a more important goal, understanding that the development of this power is only a step along the way towards something far more important: the purification of my mind.

Only now through direct experience do I understand that by purifying my mind not only am I elevating my vibration, allowing me to be one with higher frequencies of 'the field', causing all manner of good to manifest, but I am, most importantly, developing my ability to experience, at will, my divine being.

We are all divine, we can believe we are, have faith that we are, but to experientially know it is something entirely different. Our minds can be likened to a lens that our consciousness focuses itself through. When our minds are impure, they are out of focus, and we do not see ourselves as we really are. Truth, our true nature is obscured. We are in the dark, which makes us afraid and we act out of this fear, causing all manner of pain and suffering. Rather than masters, we become slaves to our minds and we are blind with it.

As a consequence of striving to develop my mind's power, the fantastic irony is that while realising evermore of it, I have simultaneously surpassed my desire for it. Understanding that what I really want is to purify it, to be without any wanting, to be liberated from thought, to resonate as joy, harmony, peace, love. To be conscious beyond words.

So to you, who are sincerely endeavouring to develop your true mind's power, know this, if you don't already: it is but a step, a quantum step, towards the experiential revelation of your true nature, that you are a divine being.

May all beings in their own right time, know real love, peace and harmony.


By Christine G. Flynn