F.U.C.G.

(Warning : Please read further only if you have a sense of humour and a high tolerance to irreverence. :P)

In the long distant past (possibly when the Ages were Dark and dismal to boot) in the empire where the sun allegedly never set (but has, luckily for its colonies, since set) it is rumoured that a consent had to be procured from the monarch in order to pursue the activity of making babies. Once said consent had been obtained, a sign had to then be put up on the front door proclaiming ‘F0rnication Under the Consent of the King’ (F.U.C.K.). It is hard to tell why this extreme amount of control by the state was imposed. Maybe the king was a control freak and got his kicks by looking at the ledgers and saying ‘Oh! 350 people want to f0rnicate, let me give consent to 50 and let the others stew in their juices. Ha Ha Ha!’ And then giving himself the royal consent, off he would go to tickle his fourth queen. Or maybe, it was a means to control the population, just in case they multiplied too much and thought about revolting against the revolting conditions they lived in, in which case, a revolting peasant would find the royal neck and give it a not-so-royal slit and the kick-desiring royal would be forced to kick the bucket. Quite smart they were, eh, the ‘mai-baap’ of yore.

Well, actually that got me thinking … what if such a policy could be put to work in India as an anti-proliferation measure. That train of thought got me quite excited, I mean, in the mental sense. And I started to think of its consequences. For starters, even if such a policy was formulated, since we have managed to kick out all our raja-log, both desi and videsi, and now have a apunich chunela sarkar firmly entrenched, it would have to be called ‘F0rnication Under the Consent of the Government’ or F.U.C.G. Ughhh! I must say, just introducing the word ‘government’ just made the hitherto highly pleasure-inciting activity suddenly lose all its desirability and become almost as dull and unexciting as a bureaucratic babu. Imagine you and your significant other lying in bed and saying, ‘let’s get this thingamajig from the government.’ ‘Hmmmm…?’ ‘Ummm, let’s get the latest plasma installed in the bedroom instead’. See, that would straight away put off a lot of people from even thinking of trying to make babies. Part of our pesky proliferation problem solved there itself.

Well, let’s say some people refuse to get sidetracked by trashy TV shows even if they are in HD and 3D and are still wanting to steam up a sweat between the sheets. The next step, then would be to register all the applications from these testosterone-junkies. Out of the total of 1.2 billion (and rising) people, let’s say, there are 20 million eagerly waiting couples, and as luck would have it, you are one of those in whose chart Shani was casting a malevolent eye at the house of kiddos, then your application would be lost in the corridors of babudom for the next 30 years by which time your baby-making hormones would have gone into retirement, packed its bags and left, last heard of holidaying in Hawaii, leaving you, shall we say, cold in the extremities and, errr, hot in the middle. Hmmm … halat kharab, upar se kismet bhi kharaab, magar kya karen, such is life, just belt up and bear it, man. And look at the bright side, you complaining fella. So what if you couldn’t save your lineage from dying out, you have just saved the world from the population bomb. Come here and line up for the Bharat Ratna behind all these other nice senior citizens. And wipe that grimace off your face and smile for the camera please …

But what about all those people who after making trips to various holy places, fasting on Saturdays and feasting the holy men, manage to chum up with Shani and get him to move their applications to the front of the line, you ask? Well, you really are having an anxiety-attack, aren’t you? Let me assure you that you can safely put your worries together with all the other ill-fated applications down there in the dungeons, for the Indian babu will always remain a fly-swatting, file-pushing, long lunch-taking, personal errand-running flag-bearer of absentee incompetence. And no amount of Shani-appeasement is going to change that. But what is beginning to worry me is the thought that they might be able to side-step the babu-road-block if they took the help of the lissome Laxmi and shared some of their bootlegged bounty with the babu. Some of the missus’ ill-gotten diamonds packed into a mithai dabba and pressed upon the drooling babu or a creaking peti full of crinkly crores left at the bureaucratic door and the babu might give them the consent even before you finish saying ‘take off your clothes’.

In which case Darwin will rise from the ashes and kick up a big ruckus because we will have changed his theory to ‘survival of the filthiest richest’ and Amnesty International are not going to be too tickled either with the ensuing demographic disaster of proliferating smugglers, extortionists and liquor kings. But Darwin does not need a F.U.C.G. and neither does AI. In their lands it is consent-free, or rather, it’s a free-for-all, so they should count themselves lucky and go and proliferate in their own countries and not try to be the ‘foreign hand’ who is always trying to halt India’s progress. These firangs, I tell you, always interfering.

I know, I know, it’s not fair to the aam janta, who cannot afford to part with mildewed millions. The milling middle class, who is forever trying to add zeros to their paltry savings, trying hard from being hazarpatis, to become lakhpatis to crorepatis. When have they ever allowed boiled and pasty babus get in the way of accomplishing their ends, let me ask? To them what are babus anyway? Mere law-makers! Cogs in the wheel of the great lumbering, slumbering bureaucracy. Who is going to enforce the law? Not these stuffed shirts, with their starched collars and starchier smiles. Bah! The MCs are street smart. Whenever the hormones hit them below the belt, all they will do is pass a few Gandhijis to the hawaldars, the low on salary but high on self-importance law-enforcers and all will be happy. The babu, happy that he is not disturbed in reducing the number of flies in the over-populated fly kingdom, the hawaldar who can now go and buy that silk sari to keep his wife happy in anticipation of you-know-what, and the MC who can now indulge in the most pleasurable exercise ever known. Such a wonderful invention it is - this happiness-circulation device called corruption. I wonder why Anna Hazare was making such a big fuss over it, even trying to kick the bucket in protest, maybe his hormones were on vacation. Or did a Wall Street on him, you know, took a high-dive into nothingness.

But I hate to think of all that matrimonial ads that will surface. Like - ‘Boy: 10th fail, but with F.U.C.G. degree. Of no known employment other than putting degree to good, far and wide use. Seeks beautiful, fair pativrata girl with light eyes, expert in cooking and house management, willing to bring in at least 100 tolas of gold and 10 crores in cash ’. Or ‘Girl : 5th fail, getting close to 40, has rudimentary cooking skills, and most importantly F.U.C.G. Please reply only if you are a doctor, Air Force pilot or CEO or earning a seven figure salary and willing to employ a cook and housemaid. All other applications will be rejected.’ This is not looking too good, is it? And the fellow who was quite happy printing fake 1000 rupee notes will now be able to move from lakhpati to crorepati in a jiffy just by changing the typeface on his printing machine. This is looking downright depressing.

Ok, ok, ok, I know when I’m beaten. I know this idea of mine has as much chance of surviving as a rain-drop in the Saharan desert doing the belly-dance and surviving. So, I guess I’ll have to give it a fair and fitting funeral right here. But I do and most unabashedly hope that it does NOT RIP. I hope its seething, unfulfilled ghost rises to haunt the Indian psyche until they buy enough ‘What an IDEA Sirji’s and indulge in their orgasmic adventures only in virtual 3D. In which case Abhishek Bachan will get all the credit for having stopped India’s monumental baby production activities.

What the @#$%^, a woman’s brain is grossly under-rated, I tell you ...

~~~

Break free

It's like you're a fabulously complicated jigsaw puzzle piece, with stunning colors, wildly serrated edges, oceans of emotion, mountains of possibilities, worlds of talent, and complex energies, but for as long as you see yourself as just human, you'll never quite know where you fit in.

You're just another part of me, and knowing this, all else starts to make sense.

~ The Universe by Mike Dooley

Relationships

I’ve been pondering over a talk by Sadguru in which he says that we depend too much on relationships to make us happy.

After thinking about it for some days, I think I’ve got to the wisdom of that. Best to be independent of all outside attachments. Love is so subtle, it can be expressed in spirit, from soul to soul, why seek physical connection? It’s the mind that seeks entanglement of the physical kind. Relationships. How we seek fulfillment in these. I’m glad that God sent me a few unfulfilling ones, some disappointing ones. It made me stop and look at myself closely, at what I was seeking, what I was giving. At where all the fulfillment and disappointment were being enacted. How desires were arising and clamouring to be met. How the fulfillment of each desire even though bringing a brief moment of pleasure, brought a more lasting void and how the mind seeks to fill that void by fabricating another desire. And so, the endless cycle continues. If all my desires were getting fulfilled, I guess, I would not have stopped to consider this. But some of them were not fulfilled and that forced me to look for answers. ‘Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you do not want to experience pain, do not go to sleep.’ Nisargadutta said it so well and succinctly. So, yes, pain has caused me to start looking inwards for answers and like the wise say, ‘all answers are within you.’

This is not to say that I’m going to ditch all my relationships. Not at all. Just that my dependence on them to give me happiness should be zero. Just as my dependence on anything external to me for my happiness should be zero. In reality, there is nothing external to me. The outside world that I see as outside me is merely a projection of my interpretation of it in my own mind. So, really, I should be saying, my dependence of anything that my mind conjures up should be zero. Which is really a smart thing to do. Because what the mind is conjuring up is merely a flickering movie the plot of which keeps changing every moment because the mind does not what it wants. Best to go beyond the mind, to the eternal reality, where no fickle happiness dependent on the mind is to be sought, but peaceful eternal bliss exists. Where joy is one undisturbed constant.

We tend to think that relationships are meant to bring us happiness, but actually they are meant to teach us lessons. And unless you are in a toxic relationship, in which case the lesson itself is to guard your dignity and walk out, I think one must stay and learn the lesson. Do the inner work, like removing all barriers to loving, respecting, accepting and forgiving oneself. That is of foremost importance. For unless we do that we cannot expect anyone else to do it to us. And once we do that, we stop expecting others to do it to us.

Freedom Unbound

“From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines.”

― Walt Whitman

The Wandering Soul

This is the last song John Denver wrote before his untimely death. Though he did sing it at one event, he never had the chance to record The Wandering Soul.

"The Wandering Soul"
by John Denver

"In this magic hour of softening light
The moments in between the day and the night
The instant when all shadows disappear
The distance in between the love and the fear

There's a longing deep within the wandering soul
It's like the half that understands it once was whole
Like the two who only dream of being one
Like the moon whose only light is in the sun

There's a danger in forever looking outside
You start to believe that all your prayers have been denied
And you forget the sound of your own name
And thus begins the suffering and the pain

I wanted an answer, I wanted a way
I wanted to know just what to do and what to say
I wanted a reason, I want(ed) to know why
Can there never be heaven right here on Earth and peace inside

Inside my heart
Deep in my soul
Within each part
And in the whole

There's a promise in the journeys of the mind
You begin to believe that there are miracles you will find
And that someday you'll remember who you are
The seed within a bright and shining star

That's like the flame that lives within a hungering heart
That only awaits a gift of love for it to spark
Into a fire that burns forever, endlessly
Like the river that can't help but meet the sea

In this magic hour between the dark and the dawn
In the space between the silence and the song
Suddenly the mystery is clear
That love is only letting go of fear

Love is the answer and love is the way
Love is in knowing just what to do and what to say
And love is the reason, love is the why
And love is in heaven right here on Earth and peace inside

Inside your heart
Deep in your soul
Within each part
And in the whole

Love is the answer and love is the way
Love is in knowing just what to do and what to say
Love is the reason, love is the why
And love is in heaven right here on Earth and peace inside."

Song performed by James Twyman

In remembrance

Today, quite unexpectedly, I met you

around a sudden bed in my mind.

Your laughing Buddha face - crinkled,

kindness shining out of twinkly eyes.

You must forgive me the hot tearing of eyes,

the sharp, jagged desire, for a glimpse, a smile,

a warm, glowing conversation around a meal.

And memories flooding, tumbling, unstoppable,

that blindsided me and pinned me down

with hidden talons of longing, for a smile

now erased, for affection, not quite expressed

but arching from heart to heart.

“Surely,” you seemed to say, laughingly,

“you knew of life’s transience, its proclivity to end.

The Siddhartha I Flipkarted to you

would surely have shown you that.”

“Yes, but what about goodbyes, leave-taking?

your kind nature does not befit this abrupt,

sudden departure. You should have

sent a book on coping with loss instead,

with gaping voids that will not be filled.”

But no answer came, only the wind blew

a sad, melancholy tune and the treetops

nodded comfortingly. And, yes,

your smiling, sonorous, silence said,

‘there are no goodbyes for those who live inside.’

Remembering Amitji, a dear friend who passed away a few months ago.

Memorable scene

Brilliant acting!!! Makes me cry everytime ... the words so true ...

Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting

Amazing talent

Of Sukesh Kuttan, the autistic singer.

Performance 1

Performance 2

Performance 3

Simply, too good

Hilarious and so true ...

:D

Awesome

A video that touches you to the core and makes you believe in miracles ...

Watch Carly's journey here

God bless Carly and her family.

Mind-blowing

The world is a feedback. No more.

Observe without blaming.

~ Rinon Hoxha

Weather lesson :)

Today was a strange day. I woke up to rain - pouring, driving rain. And wind. Buffeting, roaring, wind. The wind was a constant throughout the day. The rain came and went, interspersed by periods of sunshine. Clouds raced across the sky and the raindrops raced each other to pelt down on everything. When I went for a walk, the wind beat against my body and tossed the tops of trees into a mad dance. At home, the house shook sometimes to sudden extra-gusty winds and windows creaked in complaint. At times like these, in spite of all our technological advances, we begin to feel like marionettes. Mere stick-like figures that nature can break in an instant. And wipe off its path for good measure. It seems to say to us "Bah! who do you think you are? You infant on this planet ... strutting about, broad-chested... take this tsunami, this hurricane, this earthquake ... " And, of course, we never learn. Our ego never lets us. We continue to strut and preen and pretend we are the lords of all we see, until one day we manage to wipe ourselves off this planet. And nature, of course, goes on happily without us. Hah! And has the last laugh to boot :)

I am

I start to think, and I lose myself,
I stop thinking and I find myself.

The Joy of Quiet

By PICO IYER

Published: December 29, 2011 in the New York Times | Sunday Review

ABOUT a year ago, I flew to Singapore to join the writer Malcolm Gladwell, the fashion designer Marc Ecko and the graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister in addressing a group of advertising people on “Marketing to the Child of Tomorrow.” Soon after I arrived, the chief executive of the agency that had invited us took me aside. What he was most interested in, he began — I braced myself for mention of some next-generation stealth campaign — was stillness.

A few months later, I read an interview with the perennially cutting-edge designer Philippe Starck. What allowed him to remain so consistently ahead of the curve? “I never read any magazines or watch TV,” he said, perhaps a little hyperbolically. “Nor do I go to cocktail parties, dinners or anything like that.” He lived outside conventional ideas, he implied, because “I live alone mostly, in the middle of nowhere.”

Around the same time, I noticed that those who part with $2,285 a night to stay in a cliff-top room at the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur pay partly for the privilege of not having a TV in their rooms; the future of travel, I’m reliably told, lies in “black-hole resorts,” which charge high prices precisely because you can’t get online in their rooms.

Has it really come to this?

In barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them — often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug. Like teenagers, we appear to have gone from knowing nothing about the world to knowing too much all but overnight.

Internet rescue camps in South Korea and China try to save kids addicted to the screen.

Writer friends of mine pay good money to get the Freedom software that enables them to disable (for up to eight hours) the very Internet connections that seemed so emancipating not long ago. Even Intel (of all companies) experimented in 2007 with conferring four uninterrupted hours of quiet time every Tuesday morning on 300 engineers and managers. (The average office worker today, researchers have found, enjoys no more than three minutes at a time at his or her desk without interruption.) During this period the workers were not allowed to use the phone or send e-mail, but simply had the chance to clear their heads and to hear themselves think. A majority of Intel’s trial group recommended that the policy be extended to others.

THE average American spends at least eight and a half hours a day in front of a screen, Nicholas Carr notes in his eye-opening book “The Shallows,” in part because the number of hours American adults spent online doubled between 2005 and 2009 (and the number of hours spent in front of a TV screen, often simultaneously, is also steadily increasing).

The average American teenager sends or receives 75 text messages a day, though one girl in Sacramento managed to handle an average of 10,000 every 24 hours for a month. Since luxury, as any economist will tell you, is a function of scarcity, the children of tomorrow, I heard myself tell the marketers in Singapore, will crave nothing more than freedom, if only for a short while, from all the blinking machines, streaming videos and scrolling headlines that leave them feeling empty and too full all at once.

The urgency of slowing down — to find the time and space to think — is nothing new, of course, and wiser souls have always reminded us that the more attention we pay to the moment, the less time and energy we have to place it in some larger context. “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries,” the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in the 17th century, “and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.” He also famously remarked that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

When telegraphs and trains brought in the idea that convenience was more important than content — and speedier means could make up for unimproved ends — Henry David Thoreau reminded us that “the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages.” Even half a century ago, Marshall McLuhan, who came closer than most to seeing what was coming, warned, “When things come at you very fast, naturally you lose touch with yourself.” Thomas Merton struck a chord with millions, by not just noting that “Man was made for the highest activity, which is, in fact, his rest,” but by also acting on it, and stepping out of the rat race and into a Cistercian cloister.

Yet few of those voices can be heard these days, precisely because “breaking news” is coming through (perpetually) on CNN and Debbie is just posting images of her summer vacation and the phone is ringing. We barely have enough time to see how little time we have (most Web pages, researchers find, are visited for 10 seconds or less). And the more that floods in on us (the Kardashians, Obamacare, “Dancing with the Stars”), the less of ourselves we have to give to every snippet. All we notice is that the distinctions that used to guide and steady us — between Sunday and Monday, public and private, here and there — are gone.

We have more and more ways to communicate, as Thoreau noted, but less and less to say. Partly because we’re so busy communicating. And — as he might also have said — we’re rushing to meet so many deadlines that we hardly register that what we need most are lifelines.

So what to do? The central paradox of the machines that have made our lives so much brighter, quicker, longer and healthier is that they cannot teach us how to make the best use of them; the information revolution came without an instruction manual. All the data in the world cannot teach us how to sift through data; images don’t show us how to process images. The only way to do justice to our onscreen lives is by summoning exactly the emotional and moral clarity that can’t be found on any screen.

MAYBE that’s why more and more people I know, even if they have no religious commitment, seem to be turning to yoga or meditation, or tai chi; these aren’t New Age fads so much as ways to connect with what could be called the wisdom of old age. Two journalist friends of mine observe an “Internet sabbath” every week, turning off their online connections from Friday night to Monday morning, so as to try to revive those ancient customs known as family meals and conversation. Finding myself at breakfast with a group of lawyers in Oxford four months ago, I noticed that all their talk was of sailing — or riding or bridge: anything that would allow them to get out of radio contact for a few hours.

Other friends try to go on long walks every Sunday, or to “forget” their cellphones at home. A series of tests in recent years has shown, Mr. Carr points out, that after spending time in quiet rural settings, subjects “exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory and generally improved cognition. Their brains become both calmer and sharper.” More than that, empathy, as well as deep thought, depends (as neuroscientists like Antonio Damasio have found) on neural processes that are “inherently slow.” The very ones our high-speed lives have little time for.

In my own case, I turn to eccentric and often extreme measures to try to keep my sanity and ensure that I have time to do nothing at all (which is the only time when I can see what I should be doing the rest of the time). I’ve yet to use a cellphone and I’ve never Tweeted or entered Facebook. I try not to go online till my day’s writing is finished, and I moved from Manhattan to rural Japan in part so I could more easily survive for long stretches entirely on foot, and every trip to the movies would be an event.

None of this is a matter of principle or asceticism; it’s just pure selfishness. Nothing makes me feel better — calmer, clearer and happier — than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music. It’s actually something deeper than mere happiness: it’s joy, which the monk David Steindl-Rast describes as “that kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.”

It’s vital, of course, to stay in touch with the world, and to know what’s going on; I took pains this past year to make separate trips to Jerusalem and Hyderabad and Oman and St. Petersburg, to rural Arkansas and Thailand and the stricken nuclear plant in Fukushima and Dubai. But it’s only by having some distance from the world that you can see it whole, and understand what you should be doing with it.

For more than 20 years, therefore, I’ve been going several times a year — often for no longer than three days — to a Benedictine hermitage, 40 minutes down the road, as it happens, from the Post Ranch Inn. I don’t attend services when I’m there, and I’ve never meditated, there or anywhere; I just take walks and read and lose myself in the stillness, recalling that it’s only by stepping briefly away from my wife and bosses and friends that I’ll have anything useful to bring to them. The last time I was in the hermitage, three months ago, I happened to pass, on the monastery road, a youngish-looking man with a 3-year-old around his shoulders.

“You’re Pico, aren’t you?” the man said, and introduced himself as Larry; we’d met, I gathered, 19 years before, when he’d been living in the cloister as an assistant to one of the monks.

“What are you doing now?” I asked.

“I work for MTV. Down in L.A.”

We smiled. No words were necessary.

“I try to bring my kids here as often as I can,” he went on, as he looked out at the great blue expanse of the Pacific on one side of us, the high, brown hills of the Central Coast on the other. “My oldest son” — he pointed at a 7-year-old running along the deserted, radiant mountain road in front of his mother — “this is his third time.”

The child of tomorrow, I realized, may actually be ahead of us, in terms of sensing not what’s new, but what’s essential.

~~~

Read the article here

Slain by beauty

I was slain by Beauty.

She grabbed my heart and

Shook me with unceasing and unflinching Love

Until the delusional mirror created from

My tendencies and protections

To see the world and self as

Broken, sinful and devoid of the sacred

Burst into a million shattered shards of dust.

I was slain by Beauty and then…

I became Her.

~ Julie Daley

The beauty of wabi-sabi

Wabi-sabi, the Japanese aesthetic whereby greatness exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked details, and beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness. Wabi-sabi is central to the idea Japanese beauty and has the same importance to Japanese aesthetic values as the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection do in Western thought:

"Truth comes from the observation of nature. The Japanese have tried to control nature where they could, as best they could, within the limits of available technology. But there was little they could do about the weather - hot and humid summers, cold and dry winters, and rain on the average of one out of every three days throughout the year, except during the rainy season in early summer when every­thing is engulfed in a fine wet mist for six to eight weeks. And there was little they could do about the earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, floods, fires, and tidal waves that periodically and unpredictably visited their land. The Japanese didn't particularly trust nature, but they learned from it. Three of the most obvious lessons gleaned from millennia of contact with nature (and leavened with Taoist thought) were incorporated into the wisdom of wabi-sabi.

1. All things are impermanent. The inclination toward nothingness is unrelenting and univer­sal. Even things that have all the earmarks of substance - things that are hard, inert, solid present noing more than the illusion of permanence. We may wear blinders, use ruses to forget, ignore, or pretend otherwise - but all comes to nothing in the end. Everything wears down. The planets and stars, and even intan­gible things like reputation, family heritage, historical memory, scientific theorems, mathematical proofs, great art and literature (even in digital form) - all eventually fade into oblivion and nonexistence.

2. All things are imperfect. Nothing that exists is without imperfections. When we look really closely at things we see the flaws. The sharp edge of a razor blade, when magnified, reveals microscopic pits, chips, and variegations. Every craftsman knows the limits of perfection: the imperfections glare back. And as things begin to break down and approach the primor­dial state, they become even less perfect, more irregular.

3. All things are incomplete. All things, includ­ing the universe itself, are in a constant, never-ending state of becoming or dissolving. Often we arbitrarily designate moments, points along the way, as 'finished' or 'complete.' But when does something's destiny finally come to fruition? Is the plant complete when it flowers? When it goes to seed? When the seeds sprout? When everything turns into compost? The notion of completion has no basis in wabi-sabi.

" 'Greatness' exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked details. Wabi-sabi represents the exact opposite of the Western ideal of great beauty as something monumental, spectacular, and enduring. Wabi-sabi is not found in nature at moments of bloom and lushness, but at moments of inception or subsiding. Wabi-sabi is not about gorgeous flowers, majestic trees, or bold landscapes. Wabi-sabi is about the minor and the hidden, the tentative and the ephemeral: things so subtle and evanescent they are invisible to vulgar eyes. ...

"The essence of wabi-sabi is apportioned in small doses. As the dose decreases, the effect becomes more potent, more profound. The closer things get to nonexistence, the more exquisite and evocative they become. Consequently to experience wabi-sabi means you have to slow way down, be patient, and look very closely.

"Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness. Wabi-sabi is ambivalent about separating beauty from non-beauty or ugliness. The beauty of wabi-sabi is, in one respect, the condition of coming to terms with what you consider ugly. Wabi-sabi suggests that beauty is a dynamic event that occurs between you and something else. Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view. Beauty is thus an altered state of conscious­ness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace."

----- article as posted by delanceyplace ----------

Did I?

Points to ponder on the year gone by -

Did I express love this year, real love? The kind of love that doesn't announce itself in flashy circumstances or structured conditions - but an authentic, quiet, internal love? The kind of love that bubbles to the surface when I gaze at another with understanding, a love that places me in their shoes, granting freedom from judgment and deepening my compassion? A philanthropic love that expresses because it simply feels compelled to, because it knows there is more than enough and everyone can benefit. If not, then I resolve to be and do better in my authentic loving.

Did I forgive this year, really forgive? The kind of forgiveness that cracks open my heart, peeling away one more layer of righteous indignation, thus allowing my soul to breathe? The kind of forgiveness that loosens my clinched fists held high at a situation so that I don't enter into the next one with guarded mistrust? The kind of forgiveness that comprehends there is a difference between understanding a behavioral choice and condoning it? If not, then I resolve to be and do better in my forgiving.

Did I stop this year, really stop? The kind of stopping that can't help but make me vulnerable by becoming more familiar with who I am without distraction, smoke screens, excuses or self-imposed numbing? The kind of stopping that turns me, naked, towards my feelings, giving them permission to express? No right or wrong - a stopping that simply lets me hear what I need to hear so that I can live more effectively? If not, then I resolve to be and do better in allowing myself to stop.

Did I seek adventure this year, real adventure? The kind of adventure that requires me to not only take a leap of faith off my cliff of familiarity but actually sends me back to get a running start? The kind of adventure that shakes the dust off my capable but underused wings and gives them an opportunity to catch the gorgeous wind of change? The kind of adventure that knows there is no outside safety net in this physical world, only an internal one? The kind of adventure that shouts, "I choose to live fully!" If not, then I resolve to be and do better in seeking adventure.

Did I seek wellness this year, real wellness? The kind of wellness that requires me to be fully conscious of what I put in my body - the kind of wellness that requires me to practice what I preach when it comes to self-love while understanding that the power to dissolve poor habits starts by simply choosing to change? Wellness that says, "This is the only body you've got. Treat me with respect, praise me daily and honor me as the holy temple that I am?" If not, then I resolve to be and do better in allowing wellness in my life.

Did I play this year, really play? The kind of play that gives value to the heavenly activity of fun - knowing that fun is sacred, that play is the equivalent of work and that during play - renewal and relaxation usher in the newest ideas and the clearest choices for better manifestations? Did I view play as a necessary life function and not a debatable luxury? If not, then I resolve to be and do better in my relationship to playing.

Did I set a goal and see it to completion this year, really complete it? The kind of completion that lets the vibration of satisfaction and confidence in my abilities heal any opposing ideas of not being good enough? Did I honor my life and its sacred purpose by utilizing my time with forward thinking and letting my mistakes be motivators not antagonists? Did I dissolve my insecurities and procrastination by understanding that my untapped genius has but one mode of expression and that is through idea, thought, word and action? If not, then I resolve to be and do better in setting and completing my goals.

Did I open myself up to learn this year, really learn? The kind of learning that entices me to enroll in being a student of life with thirst and enthusiasm? Did I set an intention for uncovering more of my potential, letting divine intellect eat from my plate and stepping deeper into the waters of wisdom? Did I open a book, take a class, study a language, learn an instrument, write a poem, visit another culture? Did I learn to surprise and thrill myself with the infinite capacity I have to master more than I thought I could? If not, then I resolve to be and do better on my personal path of learning.

Did I clean up my relationships this year, really clean them up? The kind of cleaning that requires me to break open the lock, pull back the curtain, throw open the window and start removing the dust of harsh words, grudges, false accusations and misguided choices that have layered my heart? Did I make amends for the fearful ways that disheartened another, for neglecting to honor their point of view? With careful examination, did I communicate my truth, understanding that sometimes all we may be able to do is agree to disagree and to do so without judgement or malice? If not, then I resolve to be and do better on cleaning up my relationships.

Did I share my good this year, really share? The kind of sharing that comes from the pure joy of seeing another succeed, not from what I think they can or will do for me in return? Did I tithe back to where I was spiritually fed, transformed and inspired? Did I practice random acts of kindness and give of my time, talent, and treasure realizing that my good is a part of a never-ending wellspring that cannot run dry - whose source is and always will be the infinite wellspring of the Divine? Did I commit to walking the altruistic path, remembering that every step brings healing and enlightenment to the world? If not, then I resolve to be and do better in my sharing.

Did I pray this year, really pray? The kind of prayer that is spoken not to God but AS God - prayers that affirm rather than beseech, are pregnant with knowing rather than bloated with doubt? Did I make my every day activities a prayer - realizing that every thought I think carries with it the responsibility of an effect on the world? Did I remember how truly powerful my own prayer actually is and that by simply devoting myself to the practice of it, I become the change? Did I remember that my prayer takes what I seek and introduces it to me, the seeker? If not,
then I resolve to be and do better with praying.

Did I do all these things because deep down inside I fully understand how precious I am and that these activities will help me to see that I am held in the light as a perfect idea? Did I remember that I have been perfectly conceived and am always held in the perfect mind of God as perfect being? Did I know that there is nothing that I can ever say, nothing I can ever do that will separate me from the love of God? If for any reason, I forgot my divinity this year, then I resolve to be and do better in my knowing of it, to fully understand and embody the truth that it is done unto me as I believe. And I believe in the power of Good, for me, for you, for all.

(c) Rev. David Ault

New Conciousness

Humankind is being led along an evolving course,
Through this migration of intelligences,
And though we seem to be sleeping,
There is an inner wakefulness
That directs the dream,
And that will eventually startle us back
To the truth of who we are.

RUMI, The Dream That Must Be Interpreted

SOULMATE

“The feeling of connection that people are looking for, the exhilaration of being with someone with their hearts soaring, really is not a function of the person you are with, but instead it is a function of your own Connection with You.

We would prefer to think of Soul Mate as you mating, or consciously connecting, with your own Soul or Source or Inner Being or Self. When you in your physical moment and time, are offering a similar vibration to your Inner Being, you have indeed found your Soul Mate. And if you consistently do that, the people who will gravitate to you will be enormously satisfying in nature.”

~ Abraham

please pause to ponder

Zara gaur farmaiye ...

Christmas is almost here, and contrary to popular belief, Xmas is not about Santa Claus or Xmas trees or plum puddings :) Xmas is about a cool dude called Christ who was so cool he asked us to follow only one rule and that is that we must love and only love, no matter who (friend/foe, black/white/brown/yellow, same/diff caste /community/country ....

So maybe we would be doing the good ole heart a big favour this Christmas by finding some time between the Jingling Bells and the opening of presents to look within and find all those things that prevent us from loving (our emotional heart-blocks) and maybe letting go of them, so that our hearts can do what it is meant to be doing - going dhak-dhak over everyone :))))

Like the other cool dude Rumi said "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it".

Cool season this, of loving and letting go ...

Rumi

Don't be fooled by my beauty - the light of

my face comes from the candle of my spirit. 

~ Rumi

Love :)

Love sometimes wants to do us a great favor: hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out. 

- Hafiz of Persia

The Dance of Mind and Spirit

I've discovered that an essential part of our spiritual growth is the interplay between mind and spirit. This relationship is shifting and evolving all the time.

Some spiritual traditions speak in very hostile terms about the mind, as if the mind must be annihilated so that spirit can blossom.  I don't see it that way.  As long as we are in human form, we need our mind to live and function in the world.  There is no point in trying to kill the mind or to treat it as an enemy.

On the other hand, we do need to keep the mind on a short leash - or else it can cause quite a bit of mischief.  In today's world, most people are overly enamored with the mind.

It is the mind that judges, compares and criticizes. Spirit does none of those things.

When the mind is very active and full of judgment, spirit is pushed into the background.

How can we know the right mix for us between mind and spirit?  I sense that the key is to let spirit lead the dance.  How do we know whether mind or spirit is leading the dance?  Here are a few of my observations, which may or may not resonate with you.

Mind is leading the dance when we are thinking of past and future.  
Spirit is leading the dance when we are present.

Mind is leading the dance when thoughts are raging.  
Spirit is leading the dance when mind is quiet (although not necessarily silent).

Mind is leading the dance whenever you feel troubled.  
Spirit is leading the dance when you feel calm...even in the midst of turmoil.

Mind is leading when we're judging and feeling any constriction in the body, emotionally and physically.  
Spirit is leading when we are open, non-judgmental and loving.

Mind is leading when we're searching and obsessing about something or someone.  
Spirit is leading when we are quiet enough to allow wisdom to speak to us and guide us.

Mind is leading when our prayers amount to begging for conditions WE want.  
Spirit is leading when our prayer is to surrender to God's Will and when we have gratitude for whatever unfolds.

Mind is leading when we resist.  
Spirit is leading when we allow.

Mind is leading when we are afraid of change.  
Spirit is leading when we are willing to flow with change and embrace whatever comes.

Mind is leading when we think we know what is best for the world and everyone in it.  
Spirit is leading when we put our arrogance aside and acknowledge that God is in control.

Mind is leading when we think we know all about God or how this mysterious universe operates.  
Spirit is leading when we realize how little we know and how limited our human understanding is.

Mind is leading when the majority of our focus is on the physical body and our material objectives.  
Spirit is leading when we are in touch with our eternal divine essence and see that essence in everything and everyone.

Mind is leading when we feel love for a reason - such as being in the presence of a person we find pleasing, or when circumstances are to our liking.  
Spirit is leading when we feel love for no reason at all, when we need no stimulation to experience love because we ARE love.

Mind is leading when we want to be right.  
Spirit is leading when we are content to just BE.

I recognize that each of you may have a different idea of what Mind or Spirit means. Regardless of your definitions, I invite  you to take a moment to observe how the dance of mind and spirit is operating in YOUR life.  Each person's experience of mind and spirit will vary, and I welcome your insights.

-- Jeff Keller   2009

Fly

You were born with potential.

You were born with goodness and trust.

You were born with ideals and dreams.

You were born with greatness.

You were born with wings.

You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly. 

~ Rumi

Only Love

A very powerful message in 30 seconds in the inimitable style of Johnny Depp ...

Only Love

Myths about introverts

Some Myths about Introverts. Super Interesting ! and Super True !

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.

Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.

Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.
Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.

Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.

Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.
Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.

Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.

Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.
A world without Introverts would be a world with few scientists, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, doctors, mathematicians, writers, and philosophers. That being said, there are still plenty of techniques an Extrovert can learn in order to interact with Introverts. (Yes, I reversed these two terms on purpose to show you how biased our society is.) Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.

Original article at http://www.carlkingdom.com/10-myths-about-introverts

-------------------------------------- end of excerpt ------------------------------------------------------

Am sharing this because I've been accused of all of the above :( but stopped being bothered about it long ago :) but it's nice that someone took the trouble to figure it all out :D

Letting go

In a time long past, Maitreya was in his incarnation as a laughing, big-bellied monk with a sack perpetually on his back.

He used to travel about the countryside seeking alms and sharing them with whomever happened to be nearby.

He would customarily sit under a tree, surrounded by young children, to whom he would tell stories to illustrate Buddhist teachings.

Seeing this, an elder monk became annoyed at what he perceived as untoward conduct on the part of Maitreya.

One day, he cornered Maitreya and tried to test him with the following question: "Old monk, pray tell me, just what do you think is the essence of the Buddha's teachings?"

Maitreya stopped for a moment, looked him in the eye, and just let his sack fall to the ground.

As the puzzled monk wondered what to make of this singular action, Maitreya bent down, picked up his sack and walked away.

Dropping the sack, "letting go", forgive and forget -- that is the teaching of Maitreya, the Buddha of the future.

Source : internet.

Khamoshi

aaj yuunhi anjaane mein
hum ek baar phir bichade

kehne ko bahut tha lekin
pankh kate the alfaaz ke

na udh paye, na gaa paye
bas laut aaye kuch khamosh se

dafn kiya jab saari baatein
tab jaana badi der se

awaaz-e-dil bayan hoti hai
iss gehri khamoshi mein

~~~

Our very first goal-post

I learned something new today, that there is something called the breast-crawl. It happens naturally in the animal world. Mammals in the wild, unlike humans, have unassisted births. So after the baby is born, it not only has to find its feet and stand up, it also has to find its way to the mother's nipple, all by itself. Else, it would just starve and die then and there. So, nature has hardwired into all mammal babies the know-how to crawl towards its food supply.

So this is how it happens in the human world. After the baby is born, the placenta severed and the baby cleaned of all adhering fluids, it is placed face down on the mother's tummy. And left there with a little support on its back by the mother to ensure that it does not fall off. The baby at this point is quiet and fully alert. The best state of mind for learning. It is fast and furiously picking up cues from the environment and before long it starts moving. It blinks, moves its head and hands and even starts kicking. This gentle kicking motion on the mother's tummy stimulates the uterus to contract and dispel the placenta. Once it has got the hang of the kicking motion, it starts to crawl upwards. It is said that the nipples emanate a scent that is close to that of the amniotic fluid, so that must be a strong attraction for the baby and maybe it crawls towards this smell. This smell perhaps also sets off some trigger in the baby's body because it starts to salivate. Slowly, inch by inch, it crawls on its mother's body until its mouth finds the nipple. Somehow it knows that the food supply has been reached because it then starts suckling. 

Amazing, isn't it, how nature has provided the baby with all the information to do this, like some pre-loaded software. :) This little crawl that the little one does also creates a bond between mother and baby, supports and comforts the newborn one and familiarises it with the mother's (and if present, the father's) voice. Sadly, medicated births where the mother has taken or has been injected with painkillers dulls the baby's senses and it fails to do the crawl and has to be directly led to the breast.

Babies are not always ready for feeding as soon as they are born. Sometimes, when it is taken directly to the nipple, if it is not ready, it does not feed. Then the latching-on at a later stage becomes difficult. On the other hand, if the baby is left to crawl, by the time it crawls and reaches the nipple, it is ready for feeding. This whole process is deeply instinctive. Unfortunately, modern practices are so invasive and anti-instinct, that this beautiful mechanism that has been provided by nature is largely overlooked.

So that was it, our first little sprint to the goal-post - in the shape of a sweet-smelling nipple, crawled over the softest, smoothest turf in the world, supported by loving hands, all done on our own, on infant hands and legs. And didn't we deserve the prize :)))

Watch the amazing event here

And do share this, so that more babies can crawl and bond and be healthy.

Nostalgia

I had to post this because it's so well-written and reminded me of some old times ...

DIL PUKARE, AAREY AAREY AAREY by Paromita Vohra

Now, when the weather turns hot and still, making the wisp that is the Bombay winter a faint memory and the decision to buy a top floor house feel like a mistake, I head for Aarey.

I have robust friends, hardy hearties who said they walked in Aarey everyday. This I put down to wholesome extremism. As far as I knew Aarey Milk Colony (what was it anyway? A toy town made of bulging milk packets?) was somewhere in the wilds. Old people used to go there for that arcane entertainment – picnics. Going so far to take a walk? Why not pool in for a community treadmill?

Then I discovered the word pagdandi – the mud path near Fantasy Land which led to a broken wall – when you slipped through it you were…where were you? What was this place where the temperature dropped by a couple degrees and there was nothing but creepers, trees and the odd lazy dog (no, not me, a real dog)?

I approached Aarey gingerly, walking along the edges, keeping the distant line of buildings always in sight, unlike my friends who “walked till New Zealand”, which I assumed was some esoteric walkers metaphor. The roads sloped up and down, lined by prehistorically dense thickets, a moist and mysterious green. There were carpets of yellow summer flowers on the path, orange rashes of gulmohars in the sky. Supposedly, there was a lake somewhere, a café on the hill to the right but I was ok not adventuring that far in.

Soon the silence and the beauty seduced me. The criss-cross lanes, the abandoned buildings, the regular walkers with their fractional nods of acknowledgment became familiar, reassured me into going deeper till I reached New Zealand – the New Zealand Hostel for students of something dairy. It marked a sort of mid-point. Past that you were heading to Goregaon.

Aarey was a huge pool at the heart of the pavementless suburbs, us on one bank, our Sai Baba complex friends on the other. A big apple you could take chunky bites of at will, roaming randomly on a different route each day.

For a while the less intrepid stopped going, because we were scared of panthers. But perhaps the panthers and us need to fear the same people.

Now Aarey has a busy arterial road and a film studio so we have to enjoy it in sections like an orange. Febrile developers nibble illegally at its edges. Some ministers would like to make a meal of it – sell the whole lot off to solve the city’s fiscal problems.

While we can, we trudge through this secret wonderland, this enchanted wood which softens the city summer, quiets the troubled city heart.

The link is at - http://www.parodevi.com/?p=119

Despair

I oscillate between

hope and hopelessness,

I wish the pendulum would fall

and be a guillotine.

Do you have an 'I' infection?

Symptoms are similar to narcissism; obsessively talking about oneself, ignoring other people when they talk with you, thinking about what you are going to say next instead of actively hearing what the other person is saying, failing to ask meaningful questions, verbal vomiting on your friends, sending people emails asking them to join your business or like your fan page without asking them about their life or interests.

Treatment involves being Interested vs. Interesting. Try getting to know your friends and prospects first! Then if they ask about what you do - share a little...

We've all met them, some simply do not recognize them because they are so lost to themselves they have chosen to live vicariously through those others. Look for a dominance of "I" words and a lack of "we" or "you" words...

~ Jack Ricci

Elections 2011

It’s election time here and this weekend the country will go to the pools to elect a new government. In the run-up to that, TV channels have been telecasting debates and today I happened to watch the debate between the two leaders - the incumbent Prime Minister and the leader of the major opposition party. First off, what impressed me was the manner of the interviewer / mediator. No fuss, no bum-kissing, no sucking up. In true journalistic style, he introduced the participants and left them to do the talking and interjected only to cut short rambling speeches, ask pertinent questions, and call for breaks.

The two contestants were perfectly gentlemanly in their behavior. Each of them, with obvious pleasure, proceeded to point out the defects of the other party’s policies, shred to pieces their track records, and even pinpoint and highlight the gaffes and muddles the other has delivered in the past. And all this without raising their voice. For me, who grew up on the theatrics of that spectacle - the Indian Parliament, it was amazing. I sat there paying only scant attention as they discussed matters of national importance, just waiting for the drama to begin.

In the Indian equivalent, in a similar situation, the contestants would have been shouting down each other, papers, mikes, maybe even shoes would have been flying, and expletives would have to be silenced by the TV crew. It was such a great relief to have witnessed a debate with tempers kept in check, no drama worth reporting and matters conducted in the most civilised manner. It was a relief and an education.

Gratitude

The visuals are stunning and the words are simply divine.....

Watch the video here

And please take the time to ponder ....

A different way of seeing

Sitting here in my lounge on a balmy late spring afternoon, listening to my favourite music and watching the roses outside nodding their heads in the breeze, I cannot help think how simple are the things that make life beautiful. And almost free. The sun pouring down on the trees, grass, leaves and making the flowers light up with an incandescence does not demand a fee. Neither does the breeze, though not visible, indicates its movement by leafing its fingers through everything that comes in its way. And yet, how easy it would be to miss all this, the simple, yet profound beauty of it. If the TV had been switched on, or if my mind had been pre-occupied with the mundane details of life, all this would have been passed over as if they didn’t exist at all. I guess, that’s what happens with every moment, if we see things merely with the physical eye, just recording and then going over to the next experience, we miss the beauty which is inherent in every moment.

Every moment that we are given is perfect as it is, it is our minds that interprets it as being good or bad. If the expectation is met of how the moment should turn out to be, we are pleased, if not, then we react with disappointment. But if we do not meet any moment with expectation but meet it with just a open-hearted welcome, then events will lose their power to disappoint us. Each moment will be fresh and new to our experience. And if we begin to see with the eye of the soul rather than just with the mental eye, then the hidden beauty in all is revealed.

Insult

"Each situation has to become an opportunity to meditate. What is meditation? Becoming aware of what you are doing, becoming aware of what is happening to you.

Somebody insults you: become aware. What is happening to you when the insult reaches you? Meditate over it; this is changing the whole gestalt. When somebody insults you, you concentrate on the person— "Why is he insulting me? Who does he think he is? How can I take revenge?" If he is very powerful you surrender, you start wagging your tail. If he is not very powerful and you see that he is weak, you pounce on him. But you forget yourself completely in all this; the other becomes the focus.

This is missing an opportunity for meditation. When somebody insults you, meditate.

Gurdjieff has said, "When my father was dying, I was only nine. He called me close to his bed and whispered in my ear, 'My son, I am not leaving much to you, not in worldly things, but I have one thing to tell you that was told to me by my father on his deathbed. It has helped me tremendously; it has been my treasure. You are not very grown up yet, you may not understand what I am saying, but keep it, remember it. One day you will be grown up and then you may understand. This is a key: it unlocks the doors of great treasures.'"

Of course Gurdjieff could not understand it at that moment, but it was the thing that changed his whole life. And his father said a very simple thing. He said, "Whenever somebody insults you, my son, tell him you will meditate over it for twenty-four hours and then you will come and answer him."

Gurdjieff could not believe that this was such a great key. He could not believe that "This is something so valuable that I have to remember it." And we can forgive a young child of nine years old. But because this was something said by his dying father who had loved him tremendously, and immediately after saying it he breathed his last, it became imprinted on him; he could not forget it.
Whenever he remembered his father, he would remember the saying.

Without truly understanding, he started practicing it. If somebody insulted him he would say, "Sir, for twenty-four hours I have to meditate over it — that's what my father told me. And he is here no more, and I cannot disobey a dead old man. He loved me tremendously, and I loved him tremendously, and now there is no way to disobey him. You can disobey your father when he is alive, but when your father is dead how can you disobey him? So please forgive me, I will come after twenty-four hours and answer you."

And he says, "Meditating on it for twenty-four hours has given me the greatest insights into my being. Sometimes I found that the insult was right, that that's how I am. So I would go to the person and say, 'Sir, thank you, you were right. It was not an insult, it was simply a statement of fact. You called me stupid; I am.'

"Or sometimes it happened that meditating for twenty-four hours, I would come to know that it was an absolute lie. But when something is a lie, why be offended by it? So I would not even go to tell him that it was a lie. A lie is a lie, why be bothered by it?"

But watching, meditating, slowly slowly he became more and more aware of his reactions, rather than the actions of others."

— OSHO, The Book of Wisdom Chapter #5



"Once Buddha was very much insulted by a few people. They abused him badly. He listened silently and then he said, "Have you anything more to say? — because I have to reach the other village in time. People must be waiting there. If you still have something else to say, when I come back I will be coming by the same route and I will inform you and I will keep a special time for you, so you can come and say whatsoever you like."

Those people were very much puzzled. They said, "We are not saying something, we are insulting you!"

Buddha laughed. He said, "For that you have come a little late. You should have come at least ten years ago. Now I am not so foolish. You can insult, that is your freedom, but whether to take it or not that is my freedom. I am not taking it."

And he said to them, "In the other village which I just passed before yours, people came with sweets to offer me. I thanked them. I said, 'I don't need sweets and I don't eat sweets.' What do you think they must have done with the sweets?"

Somebody from the crowd said, "They must have taken them back home."

Buddha said, "Now what will you do? You will have to take your insults back home. I don't take your insults — there is no other way, you have to take them back."

When you feel insulted you have participated with the person. But you are not conscious, so anybody can push your buttons. You function like a machine: push the button and you are on; push the button and you are off. Anybody can enrage you, anybody can make you smile and laugh, anybody can make you cry and weep. Anybody, any stupid fellow can do that! One just needs to know where the buttons are — and almost always they are in the same places.  It is very rare to find a person whose buttons are in different places.

Once it happened in Baroda: I was talking to a big crowd. Somebody sitting just in the front row became so disturbed by what I was saying, he became so disturbed by it he went out of control, he lost his senses. He threw one of his shoes at me. At that moment I remembered that I used to play volleyball when I was a student, so I caught hold of his shoe in the middle and asked him for the other one. He was at a loss.

I said, "You throw the other one too! What am I going to do with one? If you want to present something...." He waited. I said, "Why are you waiting? Throw the other one too, because this way neither will I be able to use the shoe nor will you be able to use it. And I am not going to return it, because evil should not be returned for evil! So you please give the other one too."

But he was so shocked because he could not believe it... first, what he had done he could not believe — he was a very good man, a scholar, a well-known Sanskrit scholar, a pundit. He was not expected to behave like that, but it had happened — people are so unconscious. If I had acted the way he was unconsciously expecting, then everything would have been okay. But I asked for the other shoe, and that shocked him very much. He was dazed.

I told somebody who was sitting by his side, "You pull off his other shoe. I am not letting him off, I want both the shoes. In fact, I was thinking of purchasing some shoes, and this man seems to be so generous!" And the shoe was really new.

The man came in the night, fell at my feet, and asked to be forgiven. I said, "You forget all about it, there is no question... I was not angry, so why should I forgive you? To forgive, one first has to be angry. I was not angry, I enjoyed the scene. In fact, it was something so beautiful that many people who had fallen asleep were suddenly awakened! I was thinking on the way that it is a good idea, that I should plant a few of my followers, so once in a while they can throw a shoe so all the sleepers wake up. At least for a few moments they will remain alert because something is happening! I am thankful to you."

For years he went on writing to me, "Please forgive me! Unless you forgive me I will go on writing."

But I told him, "First I have to be angry. Forgiving you simply means that I accept that I was angry. How can I forgive you? You forgive me, because I am unable to be angry with you, unable to forgive you — you forgive me!"

I don't know whether he has forgiven me or not, but he has forgotten me. Now he writes no more."

— OSHO, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 11 Chapter #9

Being and experience

I am a spiritual being having a human experience.

When the human experience is done with I will still remain a spiritual being.

sunday special :)

looking out of my lounge on this bright Sunday afternoon ...

I am pride

My name is Pride. I am a cheater.
I cheat you of your God-given destiny... because you demand your own way.
I cheat you of contentment... because you "deserve better than this."
I cheat you of knowledge ... because you already know it all.
I cheat you of healing ... Because you're too full of me to forgive.
I cheat you of holiness... because you refuse to admit when you're wrong.
I cheat you of vision... because you'd rather look in the mirror than out a window. 
I cheat you of genuine friendship ... because nobody's going to know the real you. 
I cheat you of love... because real romance demands sacrifice. 
I cheat you of greatness in heaven... because you refuse to wash another's feet on earth. 
I cheat you of God's glory... because I convince you to seek your own. 
My name is Pride. I am a cheater. You like me because you think I'm always looking out for you. Untrue. I'm looking to make a fool of you. 
God has so much for you, I admit, but don't worry... If you stick with me, You'll never know.

Source : Facebook

Dilemma, revisited

buried land mines

in my heartscape.

how do I reach you?

love knows the way,

takes my hand.

old wounds throb.

my steps, petrified,

our meeting, doomed.

I smile, wintery.

How to photograph lampposts :)

Evening. I am out on my walk. Bright sunlight. After a while I realise that the nature of the light has changed, has become filtered, surreal, like as if God had turned on the special-effects button. I look up at the sky. The sun was inching slowly towards the horizon but was hidden behind huge masses of clouds which looked like a cotton mattress had burst its seams and floated up into the sky. Out comes my mobile. No, I don’t have a hotline to the sun and neither to the clouds. But I do have a rather good camera on it. Point and click. Unfortunately, the sun was too much in my eyes and the viewfinder was in total shadow for me to see what I was clicking. The result is the picture seen above. Not a bad picture really, the glory of the light and the clouds has all been captured, except for the lamppost sticking out, like a sore thumb, into the celestial scene.

Looking at it one would think that the lamppost was the celebrity being photographed.  But no, I have made a photographical blooper here. Even though the viewfinder was in shadow, the real live scene was right in front of me, then how come I didn’t see the lamppost. Because I was too focused on the scene being played far in the distance to see what was in the near vicinity. I took it too much for granted. This happens all the time in life. We look high and low, far and wide for something and all the time it is right there, under our nose, staring up at us. All it takes is a slight shift in our perception to see that which we fail to notice.

Awareness is all about focus. We become aware of what we turn our attention towards. That is like stating the obvious. But have you noticed that our very lives consists of what is filling our awareness. The quality of our lives is entirely dependent on what we are focussing on. Let’s look at another scene. My garden. This is one place that is an endless source of joy, wonderment and peace for me. I experience the sight, touch, sounds, smells of the plants, trees, flowers, weeds, birds, insects and get transported into raptures of delight. But once in a while, I enter this same garden wearing a gardener’s hat. Hardy-gloved and armed with sundry gardening equipment, I potter around, digging and weeding and pruning, casting a critical eye at the health and well-being of its inhabitants. At such times, my focus is of an entirely different nature. And even though it can be argued that it is for the welfare of the flora, the practicality of my focus renders me almost entirely incapable of seeing the beauty of the scene and reveling in it.

So, I guess, it stands to reason, that we can change the quality of our lives by changing our attention. By changing, as it were, the nature of the seer.

Mirror

by Sylvia Plath

I am silver and exact.

I have no preconceptions.

Whatever I see I swallow immediately

Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.

I am not cruel, only truthful-

The eye of the little god, four cornered.

Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.

It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long

I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.

Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,

Searching my reaches for what she really is.

Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.

I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.

She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.

I am important to her. She comes and goes.

Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.

In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman

Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

Sylvia Plath

The flash of understanding

I do not know if you have noticed that there is understanding when the mind is very quiet, even for a second; there is the flash of understanding when the verbalization of thought is not.
Just experiment with it and you will see for yourself that you have the flash of understanding, that extraordinary rapidity of insight, when the mind is very still, when thought is absent, when the mind is not burdened with its own noise.
So, the understanding of anything -of a modern picture, of a child, of your wife, of your neighbor, or the understanding of truth, which is in all things- can only come when the mind is very still.
But such stillness cannot be cultivated because if you cultivate a still mind, it is not a still mind, it is a dead mind.

The more you are interested in something, the more your intention to understand, the more simple, clear, free the mind is. Then verbalization ceases.
After all, thought is word, and it is the word that interferes.
It is the screen of words, which is memory, that intervenes between the challenge and the response.
It is the word that is responding to the challenge, which we call intellection.
So, the mind that is chattering, that is verbalizing, cannot understand truth -truth in relationship, not an abstract truth.
There is no abstract truth. But truth is very subtle.
Like a thief in the night, it comes darkly, not when you are prepared to receive it.

J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

Joy rising

I am sitting here quietly in a quiet room. The only sounds that are perceptible are those of the birds twittering outside, the wind that occasionally raises its voice to howl and the staccato tick-tock of the clock. I wonder if this is how Thoreau felt as he sat next to the Walden Pond and thought up his writings. But he must have also felt the sun warm on his cheek, the breeze leafing through his hair and the moist earth under him pulsating with the growth of a million things.

At times like these, when the moment seems full, with nothing lacking, and oddly enough, utterly empty, devoid of anything, when the past has lost its hold over you and the future its ability to evoke fear or anticipation, when the moment is all there is, startlingly clear in its simplicity, its infiniteness, one feels a joy rising. Like a single note, it rises from deep within, sonorous and crystal clear. In wave upon wave. Then, like an exquisite fragrance it spreads in all directions until the whole being is filled and trilling with joy. The world, with its pretty or miserable images, falls away and you are left with being, just being. 

Painting : 'In Contemplation' by Ravi Varma
Source : Internet

Desires

Desires are just waves in the mind.

A desire is just a thing among many.

I feel no urge to satisfy it, no action needs be taken on it.

Freedom from desire means this: the compulsion to satisfy is absent.

- Sri Nisargadatta

Mindblowing quotes

Your experiences cannot tell you who you are; they do not define you in any way. You are not that which you experience. 
You are not a victim of your experiences. 
There is an essential essence, a core within you that is not touchable by any experience. 
This is why happiness cannot be affected by exterior circumstances; happiness is a fragrance rising from this core essence. 
This is who you really are. 


- Jac O'keeffe

Lose the hope for affirmation of being and you will find the peace and release of the void. 
Emptiness is the natural state of reality, it can only be felt/known. 
Reality is not intellectual, it is mindless. 
You must feel/know it. 
Once you feel/know it then you will be finally free.

-Steven Norquist

Happiness cannot be given or taken away by anything that life throws at you. 
It is internal, unchanging, and constant. It is still, it is calm, and it is complete. 
It searches for nothing, it does not seek anything, it is absolute, and it is. 


- Jac O'keeffe

Real happiness can never be found outside you simply because everything outside you is constantly changing. 
Instead, turn within and notice what does not change. 
Stay with this. 
Meditate on this. 
Rest in this. 
Upon doing so, surprise, surprise, you just might experience a joy and happiness that has been there all along, but was never noticed because the mind was too busy looking outside you!
- Giles Chamboraire

Before thinking about making any unverified assumptions, passing judgement, choosing sides or burning bridges, keep in mind that there are always at least 3 sides to see any story… Through the eyes of Love, the victim or the perpetrator…
- Hal Tipper

You and I have spoken all these words, 
But for the way we have to go words are no preparation. 
I have one small drop of knowing in my soul. 
Let it dissolve in your ocean!
- Rumi