To fly like a bird :)

In the list of things I would like to do in this lifetime, parachuting has always been right up there near the top :) To be almost weightless, to glide like a bird, to defy gravity, to feel the wind on my face, to be suspended in thin air high above the earth, it has an almost dream-like quality. Well, I finally got my chance :) Sky-diving. Or to be more precise, tandem sky-diving where you are hooked onto an experienced skilled diver who operates the lines and other stuff and you are left to just enjoy the experience. So as soon as I arrive I sign up for the sky-dive.

Their bus comes and picks me up and drops us all at the airport which is quite tiny really. There we are fitted with overalls and strapped up and given instructions. Then a tall bald guy comes and introduces himself “I’m Freddy” he says, “I’m going to be your best friend for the next hour or so.” Grin, grin, grin :) I feel safe already. The aircraft arrives which looks nothing bigger than a model plane really and looks almost as flimsy but I’m not put off by such minor details. We all get aboard this model plane which has no seats but just a twin row of benches. Each instructor for our batch of six gets behind each ‘adventurous’ person and the fellows who are going to video shoot us get into the front of the plane. The plane takes off and climbs steadily. Freddy turns out to be quite a character. He tells me he’s been doing this for 27 years, has done 17000 jumps, 15000 with other people. So he’s an old pro. I ask him why the life jacket is inside a pouch all zipped up, how are we going to retrieve it in a hurry? He replies not to worry, we’re not going to need it. Such confidence :)))

The landscape from up there is mindblowing. A little river snakes its way to the lake, fields appear as checkered patterns and the highway with its gleaming metal appears tiny and far far away. Freddy gets philosophical, he comes up with such gems as “this will not give you an adrenalin rush like bungee-jumping does, this will give you a serotonin high.” “This will open doors into your soul, doors that have not opened before.”

At 12,000 feet, the first couple of people jump off. Before they jump, he tells them, you’re going to heaven, we are going to space because we’re going to jump from 15,000 feet. It gives you about 90 secs of free-fall before the parachute opens.

Then suddenly it’s my turn. Freddy inches me closer to the door. Strangely enough, I feel no fear, only excitement to really experience what I’ve dreamt about and a great curiosity to find out what it’s like. I had always imagined myself being stricken with fear and chickening out of the jump but now I find myself actually looking forward to jumping. He had told me to kneel at the door and not jump but that he would slowly ease me out. So I kneel at the door and look down. In awe... and perfect calmness ...

The videographer jumps first, then Freddy eases me out and we are out of the door and in thin air. It was just like walking out of any ordinary door. We gets turned upside down at first but a little chute opens and we are face down again. Freddy signals me to spread my arms and I am flying like a bird.

What follows thereafter cannot be described. It doesn’t feel like falling, just a glide at great velocity, the wind whipping against my face and clothes. The lake is spread out below in all its splendour, gleaming in the sunlight. We pass clouds like one would pass trees on the road and Freddy says poetically, “now you know why birds sing...” I have to say, I agree. My happiness is so huge and overwhelming that a huge smile spreads across my face and sits there. The video guy tries to get me to look at the camera but I’m so intent in what lies spread out below me that I ignore him and his camera, even though I’m paying extra to get him in the air too :))) It is such an other-worldly experience that I don’t even have memories maybe because my mind had shut down and was not recording anything.



Finally, Freddie gives his parachute a tug and we go from vertical to horizontal with a big tug. The fall is arrested somewhat and we are now gliding serenely above Lake Taupo. The sun glints off clouds and sparkles on the waters and the world looks so much at peace. I wonder if this is the view that God gets. After all his universe is perfect in all respects, it’s only our mind that messes it up. Freddy does some swings with his parachute, so we veer to the left and right in graceful arches like two huge birds. Finally, it’s time to get down to earth and we land on the grassy landing area.

To fly like a bird, that dream of mine has finally come true ........

:)))

P.S. The rest of the photos and the video I shall post later ......

An afternoon snapshot

stretched out on the bed
rain tapping on the roof in waves
melody of troughs and crests
my mind stops to listen

cake baking in the oven
filling the house with aroma
sweet spicy maternal
like loving mother hands

stretched out on the bed
‘tween spaces in the rainsong
in the warm embrace of smells
my body stops to unwind

little vignettes of life
captured by memory
stored away somewhere
for another rainy day

in the wonb of this poem
suspended in time, i float
on the edges of reality
stretched out on the bed

My love, can you?

My love, my love, can you hear
the call of my heart
the stirrings of my soul?
When the wind runs its fingers
through the leaves of the trembling trees,
and the rain caresses the tree-trunks
then becomes one with the earth.
When through the night my soul
fights off the demons of the dark.
and the morning sun comes to kiss
my face, in repose at last.

My love, my love, can you feel
the love that bursts forth and spills
and makes me melt and flow.
A love gentle, yet relentless
that brings out all my fears
and destroys them one by one.
That humbles and purifies me
by destroying the dross and the vile,
even as it lifts me up and exalts me
and reveals to me my divinity
and makes me a worthy child of God.

Haiku

Do I write,
or does God write
using my hand?

Arcs of lightening,
claps of thunder,
God's pleased with Herself.

I take your hand,
you touch my soul,
instantly I'm free.

Labels and names
I seem to forget,
can I call you Soul?

Rich man in mansion,
poor man in hovel,
both prisoners of the mind.

Once you're free,
mansion or hovel,
it doesn't really matter.

A moment of grace

I have come home early today and after walking the 4km from the station, I’m a bit hungry. So I make myself a fried egg and a cup of tea and eat it in solitude and silence, savouring every bite. Outside the sky is blue with white cottony clouds floating by languidly. The sun peeps in and out of clouds and when it is out, the light falls full upon everything, the garage roof next door, the leaves, the petals of flowers, the grass, brightening them up to a golden sparkle. It falls through the french windows and lace curtains onto the floor in filigreed patterns. A light breeze caresses the tree-tops making the leaves scatter the sunlight here and there in a merry dance. As I sit there doing nothing but taking in the scene, I think ‘This is it! This is just it!’. A moment of grace. When nothing is done and nothing accomplished and yet is full of beauty and peace and strangely enough, eternity.

Accomplishment. It seems only man is capable of such a thing. But, our intellect, our achievements, are to what avail, I wonder.When I look at all the non-human living beings on this planet I somehow get the feeling that they are living close to their core or source. Man is the only animal who even though endowed with great intellect has moved away from his core. We have accomplished so much, built cities, warheads, machines, yet we struggle to build relationships. We have amassed hordes and hordes of knowledge in our brains, computers, storage systems but know so little about our own selves, let alone the next person. We have split the atom and found quasars but have still not found a way to live without war and in peace. We have sent man to the moon and space craft into inter galactic space, but cannot seem able to take a small step towards our inner self.

It is twilight now and that magical time of the day when light retreats and shadows take its place. The air is hushed and full of mystery as night walks in following the footsteps of the departing day. Our activities, our bodies, our minds wind down. Nature has so cleverly built into us the rhythms of day and night, of activity and rest. A time to work and a time to put our tools down, including our mind. Especially our mind. Time to turn off the lights and listen to the music of the stars, the soft breathing of beings asleep, the stirrings of the soul and realise that we all interconnected. That beyond the veil of illusion of the material world, we are all one.

Relationship

--------- excerpt from The Mandala of Being ----------

A relationship is an energetic alchemy that two or more people create together which has the potential to accentuate the closeness or distance of each from his or her true self. How close to, or how far from, our true selves we live determines the quality of the relationships we create.

- Richard Moss

On Being

“There are moments when one feels free from one’s own identification with human limitation. At such moments one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet gazing in amazement at the cold and yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable. Life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny, only Being.”

- Albert Einstein

The day was crystal clear and sparkling .....

Today when I got out of the house in the morning the sun was shining, but it must have rained during the night because everything outside was wet. There were tiny droplets of water on the leaves, the flowers and the tiny droplets on each blade of grass shining in the sunlight made it look like the grass was wearing sequins :)) The light has a different quality when the sun shines again after the rain. The air is crystal clear and sparkling and the trees, houses, roads look spanking clean. Sitting on the train I look out as we pass the river. The water is almost still and the trees look like they are looking at their own reflection in the water. A group of gulls sitting on a sand bar is perfectly reflected on the still water. Watching the scene, it occurs to me that this is how witnessing comes about.

Your thoughts, actions, reactions, no matter how turbulent are reflected on the stillness of your inner silence. There no thoughts emerge, no reactions occur, there is just silent witnessing. Thoughts come and go, reactions rage and pass away, concepts are formed and changed, opinions rise and fall, but the witness only witnesses these temporary phenomena. It remains unchanged, unaffected, serene and calm. In this witnessing lies all wisdom. It is the link to the realm of the infinite wherein lies only innocence and pure love.

When I got home in the evening, the trees were alive with the sound of birdsong. The little ones were calling, talking, scolding but in such a musical manner it makes the heart swell with joy. I go for a walk and the sunshine is warm and invigorating. It feels as if summer has finally arrived here after much hemming and hawing and delay :) The light falls dazzling on everything, lighting up the grass to an emerald brilliance, the tender young leaves blushing rose and the leaves silhouetted against the light a translucent shade of green.

Back home while I'm writing this on my laptop I have an unusual visitor. I've left the front door open to let in some fresh air. I see a slight movement near the bedroom door and I turn my head slowly to see a jet black cat with green eyes walk into the room. I am sitting absolutely still so it doesn't notice me. It sniffs at the various objects on the floor and is walking towards my feet when it looks up and sees a pair of eyes looking into its eyes. Its instinctive reflex is to flee, it stiffens and almost turns away but after the initial fear response, it relaxes and looks into my eyes for a few seconds more and realising I'm no threat it turns and leaves, slowly and with dignity.

This is the thing I love about animals other than humans, they are living from the core, true to themselves. In innocence and in being-ness.

Childe Harold

from Childe Harold, Canto iv, Verse 178

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more,

From these our interviews, in which I steal

From all I may be, or have been before,

To mingle with the Universe, and feel

What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Lord Byron, (George Gordon)

Dance to change the world

A truly eye-opening, inspiring video........ Watch and change your world-view -

Dance to change the world

Notes to myself

There is no such thing as a bad decision or a wrong choice. We call it bad because the outcome was not what we expected. We made that choice sub-consciously because of the lessons that choice would bring that we were supposed to learn. In such a situation it helps to step back and ask oneself “what am I supposed to learn here?” If we don’t learn the lesson we tend to make the same choices and attract the same kind of situation again and again. Until we have learnt the lesson.

In a social gathering, you’ll find that almost all those present wear masks, including yourself. So the interaction is really between masks, seemingly friendly, happy and enjoyable. Saying things that sound pleasant, smiling to hide the pain or anger or dislike. How can such a situation be anything but false, disconcerting and dishonest?

Competition springs from the ego. Recognition from peers, glory, acknowledgement from society, my true self has no need of these. There is no need for comparing, competing or proving myself. If I am the source AND the manifestation, of what need is praise? Who is praising whom? If I am all and one, with whom do I compete? My true self knows only union, only the ego seeks to separate, compare and compete.

To be free of the need to talk, to communicate, to be sociable is for me a very liberating experience. Contact with civilisation can sometimes be a corrupting influence wherein while donning the mask of civilisation we lose touch with the purity of our true self. Doing this for too long brings about a disconnect with who we really are while we play the roles of who society wants us to be.

Nowadays I feel happy when I hear that someone has passed away. For the soul the earthly existence is a very binding one, bound by body, limited by time and space. It has taken on a earthly form for some reason, maybe for an experience or a lesson. Maybe it seeks realisation. It longs for escape from the trap of illusion, it longs to be free again. Death of the body and mind gives it that freedom, to merge with limitlessness once again. Why would it want to be trapped in ignorance, in darkness, when it can be the light it truly is and be one with infinite effulgence.

Life's most vital discovery

----- excerpt from www.superwisdom.com -----

Several people were on a walk with author and spiritual teacher Vernon Howard. While crossing a large paved parking lot, he called everyone’s attention to a little flower that had broken through. He pointed out its perfect relevance to our inner task. The seed’s yearning to express itself was so strong that a thick layer of concrete could not stop it.

People possess many different fears, but perhaps the largest one is unseen. It’s the fear that we’ll not be able to handle or contain the tremendous power of the awakened Heart. Therefore, we hold ourselves back. We live a life of reluctance. In this reduced state of energy all our problems “miraculously” appear.

Our inner difficulties are not what they appear to be. Worry, regret, fear, anger and loneliness are symptoms, not the cause. What is the real problem? It is a dormant Central Power Source. What is our purpose? To awaken this source and shatter the concrete of false beliefs and shallow thinking.

It is fascinating to discover that the location of the Central Power Source has been known for thousands of years. Throughout the Bible the power of the Heart is referenced more than 800 times. The dictionary defines Heart as: “The vital center and source of one’s being, emotions, and sensibilities, the central or innermost part of a place or region.” People often point to their physical heart as their spiritual heart, but ancient wisdom places this source in the region of our breath.

Different cultures have highlighted the Heart’s supreme value in life and spirituality, even health and well-being. The Japanese have long referred to this domain as Hara. The Chinese have named it Dan Tien. One of the Bible’s most interesting statements is in Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Shakespeare chimes in, “Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.” Buddha declares, “The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.”

At the turn of the century Russell Conwell wrote a great little book that illustrates this thought entitled Acres of Diamonds. The book opens with a story about a wealthy man who sold his farm and journeyed to foreign lands in search of diamonds. Some time later the richest diamond mine in history was discovered, and it was found right on the land he once owned! The good news for us is this domain is still entirely our own. We can rediscover the rich life we have in fact never lost.

Sufi mystic Al-Ghazzali declares the glowing Heart wisdom:

“The first step to self-knowledge is to know that thou art composed of an outward shape, called the body, and an inward entity called the heart, or soul. By “heart” I do not mean the piece of flesh situated in the left of our bodies, but that which uses all the other faculties as its instruments and servants. In truth it does not belong to the visible world, but to the invisible, and has come into this world as a traveler visits a foreign country for the sake of merchandise, and will presently return to its native land. It is the knowledge of this entity and its attributes which is the key to the knowledge of God.”

Excerpt from the site -

http://www.superwisdom.com/2009/05/superwisdom-seven-vital-secrets-for-a-rich-and-purpose-filled-life-the-books-introduction/#more-1086

the surprising science of motivation

Watch an interesting talk presenting surprising new ideas on the science of motivation.

Dan Pink on motivation

Intellect

Albert Einstein once said, 'We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles but no personality. It cannot lead; it can only serve.'

Come, let’s be free

Would that your silence
lap against the shores of my silence,
how beautiful would that be.
Would that in that silence
our true selves be revealed,
how liberating would that be.
Would that we lose ourselves in that silence
and find the Source,
how divine would that be.

Words are so limiting, so inadequate
to convey our abundance,
why seek comfort in their confines.
Like cages that imprison birds
and arrest their flight,
they force us into little packets of meaning.
Let’s free ourselves of words,
even the cages of our bodies
and be the limitless beings that we are.

A different way of looking

Look at yourself as a tree would see you, or as a rock would or the sea would. They would not see your gender, your colour, your race, your medals, your achievements, your talents, your wealth, your status. They would only see your Beingness. Everything else has been put on, layer upon layer upon your true being. Even your personality, your traits, your character, your values. Observe how they change over time, according to circumstances, how we alter them to suit ourselves. How can our true self be anything so mercurial, temporary, illusionary?

Look at the earth as the earth would see itself. It would see no boundaries, no fences, no countries, no divisions. It would only see bountiful plenty. It would see the richness and the amazing diversity of life and the inevitability of death. And below it all, the hidden intelligence that pulsates in all. Even though we fancy ourselves to be God’s greatest creation for the earth man is just another form of life. It makes not concessions for us, gives us no special treatment. For most of the animal kingdom, man remains their greatest enemy. Maybe we need to go outside of our mind, set aside our ego and look at ourselves as nature would see us.

The eagle

The other day I heard a story which was in every way applicable to me.

Once an eagle’s egg somehow fell off its nest. A boy found it and now knowing which bird’s it was, took it and kept it among the incubating eggs of the prairie chicken. After hatching, the eaglet not knowing what it was roamed among the chicken, pecking the dirt like them, walking around like them, etc.

One day it saw a bird flying high above and asked another chicken what it was. The chicken said it was an eagle, one of the strongest and noblest of birds. Then it added, “don’t you go around thinking you are one, you are just a prairie chicken, just like us”. And the eaglet believed.

In spite of the fact that it could soar far above into the sky, it thought it was bound to the earth. So many of us are like that. In spite of our talents, potential and innate greatness we believe ourselves to be chickens, with our eyes forever on the ground, simply because we don’t have the courage to spread our wings and soar.

The dirt is the world of the senses, the illusion of temporary worldly things, in which I'm still lost. The sky in which I'm meant to soar is the boundlessness of spirit, the freedom of my true self, the bliss of being one with divinity.

I am ...

I am the Soul, having a mind-body experience.

The Seven Principles of Huna

Ancient Hawaiian Healing Wisdom

In ancient times the pre-warrior Hawaiian tribes lived according to fundamental laws and moral rule. The principles that were these laws are as follows:

1. IKE: We Make Our Reality. The World is What We Think It is. All knowledge Is Not Taught in the Same School. Be Aware.

Here the individual accepts responsibility for his/her life. The wonderful challenge that is the gift of co-creation is embraced and thoughts, words and actions are the tools with which we sculpt our experience from the magical substance of Life. Thoughts, words and actions have a vibratory impact upon the sensitive ethers of the space that surrounds us and permeates everything. Thoughts, words and actions leave a residual affect that we experience as our feelings. It is our feeling experience with which we are constantly engaged that constantly magnetizes our reality. How do you feel now? How do you usually feel? This feeling experience defines your reality.

2. MAKIA: Energy Flows Where Attention Goes. Be Focused.

A fundamental quality of a true master is the ability to control ones thoughts and to direct those thoughts to the highest and purest considerations. Thought forms and accumulates with other thoughts forms of a similar vibratory nature. Be mindful of what you think, what you create, what you tune into and attract. Be aware.

3. MANA: All My Power Comes From Within. Be Confident. Let The Singer Select The Song.

The most potent natural resource is the Eternal Ocean of Divine Light and Love which laps against the shores of the soul. The simple challenge of life is: will I go to the shore and commune in the Holy Instant with the Infinite Power within me. Everything we are looking for in life is born in this holy relationship, in this Holy Communion with the Greater part of I. It is accessed in stillness, it is accessed in love. Through this sacred relationship the wonderful being I am may emerge to express itself wholly upon the playing fields of manifest creation. According to your faith so shall it be.

4. MANAWA: Now is The Moment of Power. Be Here. Strike While The Iron is Hot.

Enjoy the holy instant in the power of now. Strike the metal when it is hot. Be fully, deeply present. Access through the feeling experience the power of now. The door to eternity swings open in the here and now. Gather your scattered spirit, focus, commit and in the depth of your intuitive knowing accept all you truly are.

5. KALA: All Change Is Possible. There Are No Limits.

The only thing that limits the wonder of life flowing into our world are the fear mechanisms we cling to. Let go of the rocks. Cease your clinging, trust in The Great Ocean of Life and open your heart to the infinite possibilities of existence. The time is now and the need is great. Say Yes to Kala.

6. PONO: Harmony/Effectiveness is a measure of Truth. An Expert is Recognized by the Altar he builds.

Are you in tune with Life’s song of peace filled magical love? Are you living your destiny, your Life purpose, your mission? Is there disharmony in your life, if so why?

Harmony is a measure of Truth. Truth is a living presence in Life. To the degree we are in harmony with Truth is the experience of magic in our lives.

7. ALOHA: To Love Is To Share The Happiness of The Breath of Life, with. Joy is In The Voice of Love.

The call of the times is to unify and share. Aloha is the spirit of giving. The most important thing is to give the spirit of love. By bathing in the Ocean of Love, we become that which we eternally are. By maintaining a conscious contact with that ocean, through the Holy Breath, we can bring it into our world and share it with each other. Aloha is the spirit of togetherness in Love.
Wa hou makou, ka mana hila la. E ia I ka lani, Papa he ‘e nalu la He ‘e maluna

We emanated from Supreme Grace from the powerful ocean that descended from the sun. We came from heaven. Distributed in waves we surfed here from the sun, In flight from above.

(from the site http://successultranow.com/inspiration/articles/the-seven-principles-of-huna-ancient-hawaiian-healing-wisdom/)

Vasant aayi re!

It’s spring season here in NZ. Glorious vasant ritu. And my garden is suddenly abloom with flowers. It seems that almost overnight bulbs that were in hibernation through winter have worked their way up through the earth and burst into leaf and flower. Since this is my first spring in this house, it has all taken me by surprise, for now there are flowers where I didn’t expect flowers to bloom. Flowers of the kind I’ve never even seen before. Flowers that look they are wearing dainty designer skirts with petals that go upwards and through the gaps petals that go downwards. God must be one heck of a flower designer :))) The roses are not out yet, but the bushes are full of tender leaves and tiny buds, the promise of flowering clasped tight in their delicate petals.

The kowhai is in full bloom everywhere and when the yellow flowers drop they form a lovely yellow carpet on the grass beneath the tree. My ex-neighbour told me that the kowhais around her house bloom one after another. So the tuis when they have finished feasting on the flowers of one, their beaks tucked deep into the flowers, they go on to the next and then the next. Wow! What wonderful synchronisation! How God takes care of all His creations :)))

The birds are having a busy time, feasting on berries, collecting twigs for nests. They are all atwitter among the branches, calling out to one another, exchanging notes, I like to believe, on food gathering and nest building :))) My neighbour has a brood of 4-5 hens and when they cluck-cluck, it instantly transports me to Kerala :))) Bright flowers everywhere nodding in the breeze, the sun warm on the grass, the birds busy among the trees, the sky blue and clouds white, the day long and languorous, the night soft and gentle, yes, Spring has claimed my heart and soothed my soul.


The trees are covered with young leaves fluttering merrily in the breeze. Just a few weeks ago they had been bare, raising their bare limbs to the winter sky. In summer their green will darken and when autumn comes, turn golden, yellow and orange and then drop off. The leaf doesn’t cling to the tree, the tree doesn’t grieve the leaf’s falling. When spring comes new leaves are born. And so the cycle of birth and death continues in perfect harmony. It reminds me that I must drop the old and the dead so that life continues to be renewed and refreshed everyday.

Yes, vasant ritu is a great teacher :)))

Your state of peace and joy is the quality of your life

A very concise, logical explanation about the body, mind and spirit by Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev.

Watch the video here

The art of being still

I have made it a point in recent times, if possible, to spend a large part of Saturday doing nothing. Five days a week is spent in earning the daily bread, and Sunday is spent in myriad chores, so I say to myself, surely there must be some time for rest and recreation. In the Bible it is said that God spent six days making the world, then on the seventh day he rested. Jews even now observe the Sabbath as a day of rest. But I have noticed that the malaise of modernity is such that most people do not know how to rest anymore. Rest for most people means plonking themselves in front of the TV and watching mindless stuff that producers churn out in the name of entertainment. It seems we have a great need to be entertained but no ability to rest.

So come Saturday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, I sit on the sofa and do nothing. The view outside is very pretty, trees, grass, flowers, sky, clouds. Nature brings me into a state of stillness, maybe because nature itself is so still. In the beginning thoughts come, crowding together in my mind, kicking and jostling for the spotlight. After a while of breath-watching, I am able to detach myself from the thoughts and view them as I would watch a movie being played out on the screen of my mind. The trick is not to get involved in the movie. Thoughts have this great capacity to evoke emotion and this thought-emotion dance gets us further and further entrenched in the mental-emotional process.

So if I just sit and watch this movie, slowly it flickers and fades and I am left only with silence. Of course, thoughts keep gate-crashing, but the very act of observing them makes them go away because the mind cannot be in control in the presence of awareness. It is like the mist that disappears when the sun of awareness blazes. This silence is very liberating, it makes me light and joyous, calm and still, insights become clear in this stillness, like as if Wisdom itself is talking to me, sharing its secrets.

If we can access this stillness at least once everyday, we can carry it on throughout the day. We need the mind only to carry out mental tasks, logical reasoning, vocabulary, etc, but we need our innate intelligence that lies beyond the mind to do just about everything else. Living only in the mind most people live just mechanical lives, doing what is expected of them, by family, by society. They cannot see the sublime, the ethereal, the wondrous, in everyday life. They have lost touch with the magic in life that exists everywhere around us, with the magic that lies within themselves. Having lived their entire life in the mind and the material world, they are entrapped, unknowingly looking for that elusive something, but not knowing what or where to look, continuing with the rat race until deliverance comes in the form of death. They are like prisoners trapped by the bars of the world, gold-plated maybe, but bars nevertheless. Like Jesus said, “Of what use is it to a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul”.

I am reposting a story I had posted up a couple of years ago, which I had originally read in an old issue of The Readers Digest -

Some time ago (maybe 19th century) when the African jungles were still largely unexplored, an English explorer went to Africa for study and exploration work. He hired some locals to do the navigation and carry his gear and together they set out into the jungles. They would stay in tents during the nights and get up at dawn, cut through the bush, clear a path, do exploration, tent down for the night, next day clear some more bush, go forward etc. This went on for a few days until one morning the Englishman discovered that all his guides had gone on strike and had decided not to move from there for a few days. When he asked them the reason, they said "We have been working and moving and rushing on so fast that we feel that we have left our spirits behind. We need to stay in one place and get back into the rhythm of things so that our spirits can catch up with us".

So I spend some part of Saturdays doing nothing, catching up with my spirit, learning to be still, to just Be, from the trees, birds, grass...... This is my natural state, my authentic self, my true nature. In this stillness I lack nothing, desire nothing and yet have everything.

Experience and maya

We live in the world of experience, don’t we? Our daily life is almost entirely experiential. The information that is collected by our senses and our responses to these, the thoughts / imaginations we have and the emotions that follow, these are the building blocks of our experience. It seems that our entire lives are lived in these experiences.

Experience is not what happens, but the responses to these external events that take place in our minds. It can be said that we carry our world with us, in our minds. Take an example of two people traveling in a train. One is looking around, taking in his surroundings through his senses and a flow of thoughts then stream through his mind. That is his personal experience and that is his world. Another is sitting next to him, but is reading a newspaper, totally engrossed in it. For him, his surroundings are a blur, but his mind is actively involved in absorbing the news, imagining the events, understanding the implications, digesting the information. His personal experience is totally different and he lives in a different world than the one his neighbour inhabits even though they are physically seated next to each other.

All of us live in our own world which shifts and changes according to inputs to our minds and our responses to them. Even our personal responses to the same input would be different and would be based on past experience and memory. If we are all living in our own worlds, is there any such thing as a single, common world? If so, how can that be assessed? Is it even possible to access it? I think not. If no such world exists, what world are we living in? The only world there is exists in our minds. And that one constantly shifts and changes, has no permanence. Then the question arises: is this world even real? After all it exists only in our minds and is mercurial, dies down when we go to sleep, spring up when we wake up. Vanishes completely when we die. Surely there must be a world beyond the world of experience. If it exists, how to access it?

By realising that the world we carry around in our heads is not the real thing. That the mind is a master illusionist, tricking us into believing things that catches its whim and fancy, by constantly serving up a stream of thoughts that keeps our attention so engaged that we do not have the opportunity to look any deeper and find its deception. By strong intention and steady practice of mindful awareness, we’ll be able to see glimpses of a different kind of reality, one that does not rely on an inconstant mind. By going beyond the mind into a state of stillness a whole new world opens up, seamless, constant, eternal, full of love and bliss. It is our birthright to be in this world always, this is our natural habitat, our natural state of being. This is what we are born for, this is the purpose of our life. Not to seek wealth, fame, security and all those temporary crutches, but to seek and find, or rather, to cast away the veil of illusion and to dwell in the bliss of the Self.

Music that moves

A moving, powerful, beautifully rendered Thatvam by Dr.Balamurali Krishna

Thathvam by Dr.Balamurali Krishna

And a brilliant alapana -

Kunthalavarali Alapana by Dr.Balamurali Krishna

An evening with a legend

I am just back from a music recital by Dr.Balamurali Krishna and it’s only slowly sinking in that I had really been in the presence of a legend. Dr. Balamurali has long been one of my most favourite classical singers and I had not even dreamt that I would one day go for a live recital of his and then stand just a few feet away from him.

Sitting there in the darkened auditorium listening to the legend sing was an indescribable experience. Most of the time our emotions are the body’s responses to thoughts but there are some things that impinge on our senses and go straight to the heart, bypassing the mind completely. Music is one such. I sat there enthralled, my heart melted and quivering, and I felt that I had reached the feet of the Lord. Dr. Balamurali is a human, but surely it must be the divine in him singing and the divine in me responding.

The compere informed us that Dr. Balamurali can sing in many languages and can play many instruments. He was a child prodigy and gave his first public performance at the age of six and his first full-fledged performance age at the age of eight at the Thyagaraja music festival. He then went on to give more than 25000 performances, compose ragas, make great innovations in Carnatic music, compose and direct music for films and act in films singing his own songs.

I found it interesting that he only sang songs in praise of the Lord. And I thought how apt! After all God is the only truth there is. And love. But then the two are the same. Why sing of pain and suffering? After all they are illusionary and passing. And so as the notes climb and fall and the music flows out of him so effortlessly, I know I am in the presence of the divine. Where else would such purity, such wealth of spirit, such genius come from?

After the singing he took a break and came back to the stage and signed autographs and posed with people even though he’s almost eighty and had just given a long recital. There were no airs about him, no pompousness, no show of superiority. He posed obligingly with whoever came close and smiled warmly at all as though he was just one of us, not a living legend. There was an elderly lady who couldn’t climb the steps to the stage, so he very kindly got off his chair and sat on the stage so that he could be on the same level with her. Only the truly great can be this humble.

I went and stood close to the stage and took some photographs. I wanted to touch his feet but I was so overwhelmed by his greatness that I couldn’t bring myself to do even that. I was content just standing a few feet away and being in his presence. Driving back home, I was so overcome with emotion, I wept tears of joy. It was an undreamt dream come true. To be in the presence of a genius, to get a glimpse of divinity, to be transported and transformed by greatness. Surely it was a once in a lifetime experience.

Dear God

I am writing this to you even though I know you are everywhere. In the paper and pencil when I write, in the computer where it will be posted, in all the screens where this letter will be displayed. You are in all these places and everywhere else, so why write.? Because I like writing to you. :)

You were right when you told Arjuna that he must think of you always. Whenever I think of you, all my sadness, misery, tensions, even happiness vanish. I am filled with the most exquisite peace, bliss and love. The world flickers and becomes indistinct and then there is only this vast silence where there is no desire, no thought, no emotion, just ineffable bliss.

When I think of you all my thoughts, words and deeds are right ones. There is no question that it will be otherwise. I wish to remain in this always. I do not understand the reason why I came into this world because its illusions make me forget my true nature. I’m sure my soul that is you, had a good enough reason. But now that I am in it, I would like you to show me how to remain aware of my divine self always. How to remember always that I am you when the world intervenes and tells me otherwise. That is all I ask of you, dear God.

There are a lot of things I would like to talk about. Maybe some other time. I’m sure you don’t mind waiting. After all you are beyond time.

Love
from love to love for all is love

Abundance

It is indeed a blessing to realise that we are whole and complete in ourselves. That there is a whole universe within us. That we lack in nothing. That we are luminosity itself. We are love. But sometimes it so happens that we lose touch with our inner light, our inner source of love. And craving for it we go outside, among things and people, looking for that spark to light up the apparent darkness, to fill up the imagined emptiness. But no matter how much love we receive from outside, or the amount of food we fill our insides with, or the tons of money we spend on ourselves, unless we reconnect with our own inner light, we are going to wallow in darkness and craving and misery.

The whole consumer / fast food industry thrives on this imagined inner darkness. People consume because it the only way they know to fill the inner void. They try to fill it up with things, or casual affairs, or alcohol, mindless TV watching, mindless activity, endless empty conversation and so on. Of course, with no success. When all it requires is a journey inward to find the source of abundance and love. That which no one can take away from us except our own mistaken belief that we are poor and unloved.

Look! Look closely!

--------- this one is dedicated to you Ushasam ----------

Look at a leaf. Any leaf. Small, big, round, spiked, shiny, matte... Look at how it just sits there at the end of a branch, nodding slightly at the wind. Feel its aliveness. Feel its vibrancy. See how it quietly, without any sound, gently giving and receiving, in quiet symbiosis. It does not think about its own greatness. It does not think how much it is giving to the world, how much worth it has or does not have. No, not even fruits think that. Look beyond, its shape, its colour, its texture. Look beyond its physicality. Drop your mind and look beyond the apparent. Even though it has a boundary and is attached to a stem, feel it open to the universe, a part of it and one with it. Feel its silence. Feel its joy. Feel it’s Beingness.

Look at yourself. Body, thoughts, emotions. Where are these felt and experienced? In the mind. It is the mind that registers the existence of the body, that knows itself to be thinking, the thoughts of which give rise to reactions in the body that are felt as emotions. But look at the mind itself, always moving, always changing, never constant. Can anything as inconstant as that be true? Happiness, misery, moods come and go, even your own self-image changes according to the nature of your thoughts. Can anything eternal come from the mind? Look beyond the mind. There is something that never changes, that was not young when you were a baby, is not an adult, will not be old when the body grows old. Is constant, unmoving yet vibrant. Is not confined to the body. Is beneath and beyond your every thought and feeling. Is eternal. Is unbound. Is free. Feel the silence. Feel the Beingness. Feel the bliss.

What opens us to someone else?

(article from the Dominion Post dated 24th Sept ‘09)

by Neil Rosenthal

Let’s say you were looking to love someone – or to love someone more fully. What would you do to achieve that goal? Pamper her with jewellery? Compliment him? Romance her more? Spend more time together? Bring her flowers? Seduce him?

Well, not exactly. Not that those behaviours wouldn’t be appreciated, but rather they are only partial answers to the question of what it takes for us to be more loving. The real answer is that we require the five As: attention, acceptance/approval, appreciation, affection and allowing. Those behaviours taken together opens us up and make us feel safe, secure, loved, valued and cherished.

Attention. Attunement. Noticing what someone is doing, how they’re doing, how they’re feeling, what they sound like, what they need and want. When we feel someone’s genuine and friendly attention, we feel more deeply known for who we are, and it creates greater degrees of connection, trust and safety. Attention is about bringing someone into our focus, so we no longer see that person with as much blurred vision. To desire attention is to desire a listener who focuses on you with kindness and respect, who takes you seriously and who values how you feel.

Acceptance / Approval. When you feel accepted, you feel worthy. Trusted. Approved of as you are. Supported. The more secure you feel regarding how accepted you are, the more you will be able to open up and love more freely. So how do we accept traits and behaviours in our partner (and in ourselves) which are self-destructive, self-centred, morally wrong, foolish and risky? The answer lies in seeing beyond someone’s weaknesses to his or her inner being, where we can see his/her inner beauty and potential. It is only then that we can speak against a behaviour without speaking against the person.

Appreciation. To feel greater levels of self-confidence and self-worth, we need to feel recognised, appreciated, respected and valued for what we are, what we give, what we do and how we are unique and special. We thrive when we are encouraged, and appreciation is encouragement. It also fosters greater closeness.

Affection. Touch is essential for opening up and remaining intimate. From holding hands to making love, expressing ourselves physically helps us stay connected and secure in each other’s presence. But affection can be more than physical. It is also about feeling and communicating that you genuinely like someone else, and like being in his / her presence. You are also being affectionate when you are kind, considerate, playful, romantic, compassionate, thoughtful and empathetic.

Allowing. In a relationship, when I am allowed to be my authentic self, to express my deepest needs and longings, to trust in my own judgement, to go after creating my life’s goals and ambitions and to explore my own unique path and interests, you are allowing me the ability to create my best self. My best self is the self I would be if I weren’t devoting so much of my time and energy to meeting everyone else’s needs, expectations and demands. So if you want me, you cannot be controlling of me, or put so many nasty demands on me that I wind up losing myself in order to take care of you.

The five As are eloquently articulated and described by David Richo in his book How to be an adult in Relationships (Shambala). They are the essential ingredients of love, respect, security and support. All of them make us more loving both when we give and when we receive them.

Neil Rosenthal is a marriage and family therapist specialising in intimate relationships.

Just in passing

I remember a train journey I once undertook from Kerala to Mumbai where for the most part I did nothing but tree-gazing. I was in the ladies compartment with other ladies for company but travelling alone and just sitting at the window looking at the trees outside. Which were densely packed and verdant in Kerala but grew sparser as we travelled through Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. I remember I got through the whole journey without feeling the need to lie down except at night when it was dark outside and the trees invisible, and with no mental tedium that is usually associated with such long journeys. It was somehow more fascinating than talking to my co-passengers, engaging in small-talk and exchanging pleasantries. It was during that journey that I realised that trees have a character of their own, no matter how deformed, broken or dwarfed they might be. They in their wooden silence communicated far more than humans do in their animated talk. Maybe it’s because trees can’t be anything else but themselves. While humans beings are role-playing most of the time. It must have been a truly memorable journey because that’s the only one that stands out in my memory all these years and so many other train journeys later.

Two ways to look at a tree

Let’s say we are engaged in the joyful occupation of looking at a tree. I’ve noticed that there are at least two ways in which we can look at a tree.

The first way would be to look at the tree critically. As soon as we begin, the minds starts a running commentary comprising of statements, observations and questions. Something like – “The tree looks so beautiful / green / bare / wilted. I wonder how old it is. But I can find out only by cutting it down and counting the rings. But it certainly looks old. I wonder if there are any birds’ nests in it. What kinds of birds would be nesting in it? Does it produce flowers? Or fruits? How does one tell if a tree’s fruit is edible and not poisonous? Maybe in the old days people tried eating all the fruits and when they found it tasty and no one died, they pronounced it edible.” And on and on. At the end of half an hour, our brain would have worked out a number of things about the tree and worked itself up trying to get a cerebral understanding of the tree.

The other way would be to simply watch the tree. If any thoughts come up to watch those as well. Eventually the thoughts would all die down and there would be only the tree in all its Beingness. After a while the barriers that separate you and the tree might begin to dissolve and you may begin to feel that your being is one with that of the tree’s. It wouldn’t even matter that you are one kind of living being and the tree is another. And that you communicate using different means. Because you would have reached a state where it can be said that you are in communion with the tree, that the tree and you are one. After that there could be a realisation that you and the tree are both pure consciousness of which you and the tree are manifestations. That can be said to be a state of pure love. This state, of course, can be reached with anything, whether living or non-living.

Unfortunately, most of us live in a world where we don’t get a chance to look within ourselves, let alone watch a tree. We mostly only look at CVs, bank balances, health test reports, other people's successes, and of course the mirror. Our lives are almost entirely lived in the external, in the world. Outside events and experiences determine all our joys and miseries. We fail to notice that there is an inner world that is vastly more powerful, more magnificent, more blissful and which encompasses the whole universe, not just the world of the senses. That the joy present in this world is totally independent of the outside world and can be accessed anytime, regardless of the circumstances.

Sometimes we need to watch a tree / a cloud / raindrops / sunset / cats. Or just observe silence.

Footnote : Most societies, even the most materially prosperous ones, are still living in ‘survival’ mode. The poorer ones are just trying to survive in the physical plane, ie trying to keep body and soul together. But once this need has been met we construct more and more elaborate models to keep what we have acquired and acquire more and more. Then it has more to do with the ‘survival’ of the status quo. And as more success is achieved the subtle shift in the status quo ensures that more prosperous societies struggle and stress out as much as poorer societies do, trying to keep themselves in the ‘income bracket’ / comfort zone and to move further up. Thereby condemning themselves to perpetually being in ‘survival’ mode.

Dignity of labour

On the first day as President Abraham Lincoln entered to give his inaugural address, just in the middle one man stood up. He was a rich aristocrat. He said, "Mr.Lincoln, you must not forget that your father used to make shoes for our family." And the whole Senate laughed, they thought they had made a fool of Abraham Lincoln.

But Lincoln, and that type of people are made of an entirely different mettle. Lincoln looked at the man and said, "Sir, I know that my father used to make shoes in your house for your family, and there will be many others here ... because the way he made shoes, nobody else can. He was a creator. His shoes were not just shoes, he poured his whole soul in it. I want to ask you, have you any complaint? Because I know how to make shoes myself, if you have any complaint, I can make another pair of shoes. But as far as I know, no one has ever complained about my father's shoes. He was a genius, a great creator and I am proud of my father."

The whole Senate was struk dumb. They could not understand what kind of man Abraham Lincoln was. He had made shoe-making an art, a creativity. And he was proud because his father did the job so well that not even a single complaint had ever been heard.

It does not matter what you do. It matters how you do it - of your own accord, with your own vision, with your own love. Then whatever you touch becomes gold.

I am That

That which throbs in my every heartbeat,

that which lies awake while I sleep,

that which rests in the gap between my thoughts,

that which negates me, destroys my ego,

that which transforms me into nothingness and everythingness,

I am That, I am That, I am the Brahmah.

Soulmates

Soulmates come into our life to teach us lessons.

When the teaching is done they leave.

That is inevitable.

Wisdom lies in letting them go.

Joy lies in being grateful that they came into our lives.

P.S. The laws of the soul are implacable and wise.

Haiku

Sometimes it is enough

to just be there

and just be yourself.

My need, a wound,

bleeds into the night,

bleeds me of joy.

Long dark night of rain,

long night of the soul,

brilliant, glorious morning.

Attention

Anything you nurture and pay attention to flourishes,
anything you neglect dies,
this is a law of nature.

P.S. this also applies to relationships.

Feelings and Emotions

---- a lovely poem by the Vietnamese poet Xuan Dieu ----

To be a poet is to hum with winds,
to ride the moon and dream, to roam with clouds,
to have one’s soul involved in myriad ties
and share one’s heart among a hundred loves.

Here is home where all the world may lodge,
a vase that gathers minds of every hue,
a garden birds will sow with every seed,
where honey flowers jostle poison fruits.

His eyes, two wells, contain the skies above;
his ears erect no barrier , stop no sound:
he can perceive each whisper out of space
and of the blue can catch the faintest hint.

With hand on breast, he feels the tide of blood
and tears for all men’s hearts within one heart.
He penetrate the murmur of a brook,
birdcalls, the howl of storms, a sunbeam’s cheer.

Born wingless, he takes off and roams the sky;
walking on earth, he visits heaven’s heights.
His minute can enfold a thousand years;
he sees all nature in one blade of grass.

I am just a little pin- a million things
are all a million magnets drawing me.
Night scents, entrancing, rise with the full moon-
why blame the poet for his throes of love?

- Xuan Dieu

Astonishing the Gods

----- excerpt from Astonishing the Gods by Ben Okri -----

And as he breathed deeply the changing colours of the air, he noticed that the glow that was his guide seemed to be floating.

"What is the first law of this place?" he asked his floating guide.

"The first law of our city", the guide said, with that almost ironic smile in the voice. "is that what you think is what becomes real."

He pondered this as he walked past fountains and alongside the fields of dancing colours that he had already passed before.

"Does that mean if I think I have passed the same place twice it too becomes real?"

"Yes."

"But what if I pass it twice before I think it?"

"That means you are not aware of it the first time. Anything you are not aware of you have to experience again."

"Why?"

"Because if you aren't aware of it, you didn't pass it. You didn't experience it."

"But what if I am aware of the second time?"

"Then you experienced it once. The law is simple. Every experience is repeated or suffered till you experience it properly and fully the first time."

"Why is this so?"

"It is one of the foundations of our civilisation. At the beginning of our history there was great suffering. Our sages learnt that we tend to repeat our suffering if we have not learnt fully all that can be learnt from it. And so we had to experience our suffering completely while it happened so it would be so deeply lodged in our memory and in our desire for a higher life that we would never want to experience the suffering again, in any form. Hence the law. Anyone wo sleeps through their experiences would have to undergo them for as many times as it takes to wake them up and make them feel the uniqueness or the horror of their experiences for the first time. This law is the basis of our civilisation, a permanent sense of wonder at the stillness of time."

"Is time still?"

"Does time move?"

"Yes."

"Where to?"

"I don't know."

"Have you seen it move?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"On a sundial."

"That is a measurement of a motion. Time itself is invisible. It is not a river. While you are in time all time is still. As in a painting."

"But day turns into night."

"Yes."

"So times moves."

"No. The planet moves. Time is still."

"I don't understand."

"That's because you move your mind too much."

"What then is the second law of this place?"

"When you need to know it you will find out."

"You are a difficult guide."

"Wait till you meet the others."

With this remark the guide fell silent again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Strength Song

------ Powerful yet tender, another gem by Attila Jozsef -------

I toss spring over my shoulder
and feed it to my heart
I bear the yoke of my defiant age.
I groan but my knees refuse to bend.
I hoard the flaming dragon of my rages,
the tongue that wrings the page’s sorrows
Pyramid worlds crumble under my feet,
I stagger the heavens. The sun crowns my head.
Worlds of pain drain from my clenched fist
Nothing, but nothing brings me to my knees
but my mother’s grave overgrown with weeds

-Attila Jozsef

I wait for You

--- an amazing poem by the poet Attila Jozsef -----

I wait for you
There’s dew on the rough grass
Sprawling branches wait for you
With open arms

I am cold. The leaves are wet
And shiver at night.

Should you come, they would quiet.
And there would be great silence.
We would listen only to our hearts,
Feel only the sweetness of our lips.
Nothing else would matter

Our skins would burn
Red and infinite
And our souls melt
Into the dawn’s scented altar

-Attila Jozsef

The incredible lightness of being ...

The incredible lightness of being
without fear.

The incredible lightness of being
without desire.

The incredible lightness of being
my true self.

The incredible lightness of being
in God.

Beguilement

Between my body’s great desire to live
and my soul’s implacable will to be free,
I am caught, like a moth enthralled by the flame,
circles it in hypnotised flight.

Weighed down by the world and its ways,
my soul ever ready to take flight, waits.
While remembered glimpses of freedom
beguile, tantalise, but out of reach…

Whales

----- the latest from Tia's creative pen -----

Whales are creatures that live in the sea
They have feelings and moods
Just like you and just like me

They are beautiful animals
that should not be left out
they have tails and wonders with a water spout

So you see that these whales are important to me
in the ocean they live from Antarctica to Greece
we should just let them live in peace.

The flaming moth

My soul afire
at Your touch,
all else turned to ashes
at Your feet.

This flaming moth
this luminous soul,
resplendently caught
in the flame of Your candle.

Freed of bondage
light with bliss.
Only You and I
and ecstasy.

Emergence...

It took me three decades to finally realise that the purpose of my life is NOT to bear children or raise a family. To realise that I don’t have to be a mother to feel complete. That I don’t even need a home and hearth to be at home. It took me this long to find out that the only reason why I was born is to find myself. And what a perilous thing that seems, so fraught with adventure, danger, fear and failure. And yet when I look back, I see that I have come a long way from being a lost, confused, misguided youth to being a woman who is finally beginning to see glimpses of her true worth, to see that her womanliness is intact even without kids, her soul is divine under all circumstances, even when she is down in the dust. I have come to realise that I don’t need a man, a career, relationships, looks, wealth, roots, country or even the identity of a name to feel complete. I am finally beginning to see the wisdom of the words that ‘all treasures lie within’. So now I have finally dropped my search for them without.

At first it seemed strange because when you take away all external things there is nothing left. Our mind is so occupied with the externals, with the superficial things that we seek our happiness in. The lack of which causes pain, the presence of which gives happiness, but which is so temporary that it is foolish to base one’s happiness on something so inconstant. But when you drop your dependence on the mind, drop the mind itself, then a vast silence comes into being which instead of being desolate, is alive and pulsating. In which dwells peace that passes understanding, bliss that is out of the world and whose very nature is love.

I have realised that all the experiences I’ve gone through in life have been there for my learning, even the horrible ones. The ones I have railed against and shaken my fist at God against. That at that time felt like I was being made to swallow the bitterest, foulest medicine ever made. They were His form of tough love. It was as if He was saying to me, ‘Why are you all curled up and sitting in a bud? Bloom, my child, bloom to be the magnificent blossom you were meant to be.’ When someone trusts you so much you cannot let them down, can you? I guess the ugly chrysalis has to emerge to be a beautiful butterfly one day.

We are like waves in the huge ocean of existence, we rise briefly and fall back again into the source. The mistake we make is to think ourselves separate from the ocean, to lose our sense of connection with the whole. The knowledge of oneness is our only anchor, without it we toss anchorless, drifting aimlessly, buffeted by the storms of circumstance, bruised and broken on the rocks of misfortune.

So now I’m in a state of peace, a state of grace and this grace is hard-won. It did not come easily. It came after defeating persistent demons, crossing tumultuous rivers and braving devastating storms. It’s like the well-earned peace that comes after a particularly destructive storm, when all is swept away and the only thing standing is yourself. And you realise that that’s all you need to build again.

I have come to realise that my magnum opus is the book of my life. The masterpiece that is me is not in the making, it has already been created, already written. Harmonious, complete, joyful, in tune with the universe. After all, God writes only bestsellers :) I only have to read it and savour it, everyday, every moment.

Haiku

Seeking nothing for itself
but finding itself everywhere
my soul rolls in ecstasy.

The caged bird

Though wings have I
yet I cannot fly
the sky is just a dream.

~~~

The soul held captive
by the bars of the mind
yet knowing itself free.

Gabriela Mistral

Some beautiful poems by Gabriela Mistral, great Chilean Poet and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

ROCKING

Holy Oceans rocks its millions
of waves in the sun.
Listening to loving seas
I rock my little one

Wandering in the night the wind
rocks the wheat.
Listening to the loving winds
I rock my sweet.

The Father rocks his thousand worlds
Silent, mild.
Feeling his hand in the darkness
I rock my child.


THE SAD MOTHER

Sleep, sleep, my beloved,
without worry, without fear,
although my soul does not sleep,
although I do not rest.

Sleep, sleep, and in the night
may your whispers be softer
than a leaf of grass,
or the silken fleece of lambs.

May my flesh slumber in you,
my worry, my trembling.
In you, may my eyes close
and my heart sleep.


I AM NOT ALONE

The night, it is deserted
from the mountains to the sea.
But I, the one who rocks you,
I am not alone!

The sky, it is deserted
for the moon falls to the sea.
But I, the one who holds you,
I am not alone !

The world, it is deserted.
All flesh is sad you see.
But I, the one who hugs you,
I am not alone!


LITTLE FEET

Children’s little feet,
blue with cold how can you be
seen and not protected
dear Lord!!

Little feet bruised
by every stone
abused by the snow,
the mud:

Blind eyes don’t see that
where you pass
You leave a living flower
of light,

that where you set
your bleeding sole
the sweet herb grows
more sweet.

Since you walk
the straight streets,
be heroic, as you are
complete

Children’s little feet,
jewels of suffering,
how can those who pass you
not see!!


GIVE ME YOUR HAND

Give me your hand and give me your love,
give me your hand and dance with me.
A single flower, and nothing more,
a single flower is all we'll be.

Keeping time in the dance together,
you'll be singing the song with me.
Grass in the wind, and nothing more,
grass in the wind is all we'll be.

I'm called Hope and you're called Rose:
but losing our names we'll both go free,
a dance on the hills, and nothing more,
a dance on the hills is all we'll be.

Haiku

My soul unfolds
in widening circles
of love.

seeking ......

Most people think that the purpose in life is to find happiness
and they search for love, wealth, peace ...
But little do they know that if one finds the Self,
one would have found everything ....

One

Peel away these layers of ignorance, oh Lord,
so that my soul shall stand revealed.

Then I shall offer it to You, oh Lord,
with inexpressible gratitude and joy.

Then there shall be no division, oh Lord,
then we shall forever be One.

I already Am

There is no growth
I already Am.
There is only a revealment
of who I already Am.

the Self

If you love the Self,
you will have loved the world.