synergizing abilities.....

hi guys, am helping organize a seminar on creative employment opportunities for the differently abled on the occasion of International Day of the Disabled(dec 3) at NASEOH. Our panelists include senior professionals from The BPO space as well from the food processing industry.we are looking for ideas..any random shares are welcome...

if u r in mumbai and would like to join us please let me know so that I can organize an invite...

knowing....

some of us "believe" in God;

some of us don't;

the vast majority of us are indifferent;

most of us do not "know"......

is not such a fundamental ignorance a critical "need" to be addressed?

i wonder..............

before it is too late.....

Around the corner

I have a friend,

in this great city that has no end,

Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,

And before I know it, a year is gone.

And I never see my old friends face,

For life is a swift and terrible race,

He knows I like him just as well,

As in the days when I rang his bell.

And he rang mine if, we were younger then,

And now we are busy, tired men.

Tired of playing a foolish game,

Tired of trying to make a name.

"Tomorrow" I say! "I will call on Jim"

"Just to show that I'm thinking of him."

But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,

And distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner!

yet miles away,

"Here's a telegram sir"

"Jim died today."

And that's what we get

and deserve in the end.

Around the corner,

a vanished friend.

Remember to always say

what you mean.

If you love or like someone,

tell them.

Don't be afraid to express yourself.

Reach out and tell someone

what they mean to you.

Because when you decide

that it is the right time

it might be too late.

Seize the day.

Never have regrets.

And most importantly,

stay close to your friends and family,

for they have helped make you

the person that you are today.

conflicts....

we often or rather perenially face situations of being "unable" to decide between options.Even after taking a decision, the conflict afflicts us residually...we are always unsure...

i have found conflict to be an "intrinsic" quality of the mind, given the fact that it "judges" based on comparative nuances.Judgement is always contextual to a frame of reference, a given set of perspectives, which are in no way "absolute".

Can we move a step backwards and observe/witness this....we normally focus on the "content" of conflicts and are unable to resolve/dissolve it...

can we see it differently?

rather than focus on the "content" of conflict, can we focus on the "process" of conflict...

i have done the latter and the results have been awesome....we cannot resolve/dissolve conflicts while operating from realms of the mind, for we are a "part" of the conflict there.Resolution/dissolution naturally emerges when we step back and observe....from beyond the realms of the mind....the "witness" consciousness...

the "witness" consciousness operates from the realms of the "heart"....which is intrinsically "incapable" of conflict....to move there, one has to keep observing until one just "sees" that there is "conflict"...non-judgementally....not it's content.....

reposted from "The World of Crazy Nutt"

We convince ourselves that life will be better once we are married, have a baby, then another.Then we get frustrated because our children are not old enough, and that it will all be well when they are older.Then we are frustrated because they reach adolescence and we must deal with them.Surely we will be happier when they grow out of their teen years.We tell ourselves our life will be better when our spouse gets his/her act together, when we have a nicer car, when we can take a vacation, when we finally retire.The truth is that there is no better time to be happy than right now.If not, then when?You life will always be full of challenges. It is better to admit as much and decide to be happy in spite of it all.

For the longest time, it seemed that life was about to start. Real life.But there was always some obstacle along the way, an ordeal to get through, some work to be finished, some time to be given, a bill to be paid. Then life would start.

I finally came to understand that those obstacles were life.

That point of view helped me see that there isn’t any road to happiness.

Happiness IS the road.So, enjoy every moment.

Stop waiting for school to end, a return to school, to loose ten pounds, to gain ten pounds, for work to begin, to get married, for Friday evening, for Sunday morning, waiting for a new car, for your mortgage to be paid off, for spring, for summer, for fall, for winter, for the first or the fifteenth of the month, for your song to be played on the radio, to die, to be reborn…before deciding to be happy.

“Happiness is a voyage, not a destination.There is no better time to behappy than…NOW!Live and enjoy the moment.”

Now, think and try to answer these questions:

1 – Name the 5 richest people in the world.

2 – Name the 5 Miss Universe winners.

3 – Name the last 10 Nobel Prize winners.

4 – Name the last 10 winners of the Best Actor Oscar.

Can’t do it? Rather difficult, isn’t it?Don’t worry, nobody remembers that. Applause dies away! Trophies gather dust! Winners are soon forgotten.

Now, answer these questions:

1 – Name 3 teachers who contributed to your education.

2 – Name 3 friends who helped you in your hour of need.

3 – Think of a few people who made you feel special.

4 – Name 5 people that you like to spend time with.

More manageable? It’s easier, isn’t it?The people who mean something to your life are not rated “the best”, don’t have the most money, haven’t won the greatest prizes…They are the ones who care about you, take care of you, those who, no matter what, stay close by.

Think about it for a moment.Life is short!

And you, in which list are you? Don’t know?Let me give you a hand.

You are not among the most “famous”…

Some time ago, at the Seattle Olympics, nine athltes, all mentally or physically challenged, were standing on the start line for the 100m race.The gun fired and the race began. Not everyone was running, but everyone wanted to participate and win.They ran in threes, a boy tripped and fell, did a few somersaults and started crying.The other eight heard him crying.They slowed down and looked behind them.They stopped and came back…all of them…A girl with Down’s Syndrome sat down next to him, hugged him and asked, “Feeling better now?”Then, all nine walked shoulder to shoulder to the finish line.The whole crowd stood up and applauded. And the applause lasted a very long time…People who witnessed this still talk about it. Why?Because deep down inside us, we all know that the most important thing in life is much more than winning for ourselves.The most important thing in life, is to help others to win. Even if that means slowing down and changing our own race.…

“A candle loses nothing if it is used to light another one”

centering....

it is very critical to be in touch with ourselves; our cores.....else , our lives tend to get merely reactionary....peer influences and pressures run our lives rather than our fundamental needs space....we are caught up in a struggle to conform, in a struggle to impress....sometimes we waste a lot of time and effort in things that may really not mean a lot to us.....just because it is a peer group perspective.....

centering also makes us realize that we are not "know-alls".....our knowledge is very limited in its perspectives..every moment makes us learn fresh aspects of life and living...it makes us humble..we don't have to "try" being humble....when we see things as they are, humbleness automatically emerges....in intelligence.it makes us better "learners"...we are constantly on guard against the emergence of egoistic positionalities in our lives.....

spending time with ourselves rather than being outward directed all the time is the key.....

Once, we travelled by horse and cart. Letters took days to arrive. Now we hurtle along... and e-mails cross the globe in an instant. Are our lives any the richer? Do we feel happier, wiser, or more fulfilled? It's not an easy question to answer fairly of course - for we weren't alive in those olden days. But even in the time we can recall, technology has altered radically. And are there fewer depressed or unhappy folk in this world?

- jonathan cainer

recently, a friend of mine and myself had an explosive argument regarding this aspect. we differed in our viewpoints.i do feel man is constantly improvising on things he can live with; the technologies surrounding him and it does add value to his lifestyle.no deniance there.but, in terms of things to live for.....we have to pause and do a double take....personally, i do not see any significant developments in this regard.....joy, love etc....do not fall into category of metrics and evaluation as we know them to be.....but then they are significant impact parameters...when we look at quality ofd life....

courage...

The seed cannot know what is going to happen, the seed has never known the flower. And the seed cannot even believe that he has the potentiality to become a beautiful flower.

Long is the journey, and it is always safer not to go on that journey because unknown is the path, nothing is guaranteed. Nothing can be guaranteed. Thousand and one are the hazards of the journey, many are the pitfalls - and the seed is secure, hidden inside a hard core

But the seed tries, it makes an effort; it drops the hard shell which is its security, it starts moving. Immediately, the fight starts: the struggle with the soil, with the stones, with the rocks.

And the seed was very hard and the sprout will be very, very soft and dangers will be many. There was no danger for the seed, the seed could have survived for millennia, but for the sprout many are the dangers.

Yet, the sprout starts towards the unknown, towards the sun, towards the source of light, not knowing where, not knowing why. Great is the cross to be carried, but a dream possesses the seed and the seed moves.

The same is the path for man. It is arduous. Much courage will be needed. This small wildflower has met the challenge of the rocks and stones in its path to emerge into the light of day. Surrounded by an aura of bright golden light, it exposes the majesty of its tiny self. Unashamed, it is equal to the brightest sun.

When we are faced with a very difficult situation we have a choice: we can either be resentful, and try to find somebody or something to blame for the hardships, or we can face the challenge and grow. The flower shows us the way, as its passion for life leads it out of the darkness and into the light.

There is no point fighting against the challenges of life, or trying to avoid or deny them. They are there, and if the seed is to become the flower we must go through them. Be courageous enough to grow into the flower you are meant to be.

~Osho

freedom...

freedom is not merely about shifting across "concepts".....freedom is seeing everything as a "concept" and flowing through life from beyond them....

song of the bird....

The Master was never impressed

by diplomas or degrees.

He scrutinized the person,

not the certificate.
He was once heard to say,

"When you have ears to hear a bird in song,

you don't need to look at its credentials."

-anthony de mello

colloquial relationships....

man does not know "love".........man knows to use and to be used.....love is beyond realms of the mind....beyond transactional spaces...a defn of colloquial relationships in the words of my master goes thus, "He needs her need of him; she needs his need of her".....nothing wrong in that if we see it for what it is....we like to cloak it in declarations of love.....fooling ourselves......manipulations,mistrust,suspicion deceit, dominations, subtle abuses, cosmetic moralities.....everything emerging purely in aspects of conveniences....so many people expressing moral indignation over the presence of dance bars recently....an enforced closure....to me morality is conspicuous by its absence in the way human beings who function as bar girls and whores have been treated..every human being is in a market place today where emotions are traded for security.......what are we talking about....people fall in love , rarely with other humans, more often with bank balances and other security nuances...it is a quality which permeates every aspect of our lives today and we express indignation at social manifests of it.....judge harshly when we ourselves are an intrinsic part of it.....are we any different from those we tend to judge....

and not to mention the horrors that abound in "institutionalised" spaces....institutions don't sanctify human interface; the attitudes people bring in, do. so much rape one hears of in marriage spaces and so much abuse.....subtle games of control.....can things be more immoral?

Morality is a dynamic born in respect....

morality aspects, today, are mere conveniences to mask our lack of integrity and fundamental immoralities .....

these have nothing to do with love as i have known it..unconditional, accepting, nourishing, enriching, not transactional.......i have experienced such spaces with my master....just a state of being.....not a set of activities.....transacted in exchange for security......

love is a river in flow flooding all in its wake....

the thirst....

tap rahe te hum
huott pyaase te
akela hi tha tere khoj mein..

batke te hum har mod par
pyaase te hum tere pyaar ke...

maiya mori, maiya mori,
pyaasa hi ta...

chalta raha, girta raha...
jalta raha , bujhta raha..

takte kadam, lamha safar
takte kadam, takte kadam..

dhoonda kiya us naav ko
le jaye jo us paar jo...

maiya mori, maiya mori...
pyaasa hi tha....

friendship-john walker.....

with the falling of leaves ,
the masks of green are stripped off the hillsides;
revealing the uniqueness and diversity of each ridge and valley;
rock and stream , hitherto unseen......
It is in the winter,
when the hills bare their innermost selves ,
we can look at the hills as old friends,
few others can understand....

So it is, with people;
Most of the time we wear our masks.
But during the difficult times, during the winters of our lives;
we shed our facades and reveal all the intricacies of the unique beings we are.

It is in such moments that friendships are formed and people experience each other as few others ever will in such spaces.


to me, friendship is the most beautiful of concepts in relationships.....fundamental to the whole aspect of relating...... unconditional and accepting....

authenticate for urself....

The whole world seeks happiness as a "collective".Efforts abound in trying to make it happen.Each one of us has our understanding of the causes and solutions towards it.But our attempts only seem to add to the chaos and confusion.Thus, we crave for peace, but endlessly create wars and conflicts; we yearn for joy but end up being disappointed;all our projected ideals remain just that - projections of our aspirations.The reality remains familiar, yet there is a disconnect.

Can we see it differently?

We seem to be addressing the symptoms rather than the root causes.While components of the system remain as they are, we seek a change in the summation.Rearranging the parts can create a cosmetic illusion, nothing beyond.Thus, we play around with perceptions, strategies etc while the fundamentals remain the same.

And what are the fundamentals?

Man as an individual is ridden with conflicts.He is a 100 different parts himself; conflicts and confusions reign supreme within him; joy and spontaineity are distinctly lacking.Hurts,rejection and pain qualify the core of his being.
Given such a situation, is he capable of contributing to healing processes of the collective, is the moot question?
Insights that occured in my life indicate otherwise.When the micro processes get healed, the macro has to respond.The seeds of change lie in the micro.And a morphogenetic quantum of micro level changes can enable a paradigm shift in the macro.Yes, the responsibility lies with each one of us.To address our conflicts, pain and hurts within...just see our states integrally, without condemnation, judgement or guilt.It is just the way we are.No justifications, no explanations.

Helpless....

Seeing ourselves as we are unfolds a miracle in creation.It is a "happening" , not a matter of effort.A flood of creative energies flow through us re-aligning our erroneous perceptions.

Awareness is not the means to an end, it is an end by itself.

This is not intellectual masturbation.Try it out for yourself.Authenticate it personally.Do not try to love; it is pathetic; instead become aware of the absence of love; the death of feeling within, the unabashed abuse of people in our lives, cloaked elaborately in declarations of love and caring.But a word of caution; it is not easy to accept ourselves as we are when we see ourselves as manipulators and abusers; insensitive to the core.This is the greatest challenge; not escaping into guilt trips,not condemning ourselves, just seeing things as they are.Then watch the miracle of life unfold, just as it is, pristine pure and unadulterated by conditioning.

to relate....

to relate is to respond.....
to respond emerges from knowing oneself...
knowing oneself as one is, is enlightenment...
relationships are schools for enlightenment....

- adapted from Anthony De Mello

international holiday...

today, the 13th of november, happens to be an international holiday..celebration all around...

it is my birthday!!!!!!!!

mere coincidence that it is a sunday...

perceptions...

One day a wealthy man took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live.They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son."So, tell me, what you learned from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.We buy our food, but they grow theirs.We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are."

humbleness-an attribute of genius...

Man's evolution into higher realms of consciousness is a direct factor of the extent of his awareness on his own levels of ignorance of the basics of life....

- inspirations from albert einstein

"logical" pitfalls....

This story is pilfered from a friend's blog....

Two builders are seated either side of a table in a rough pub when a well-dressed man enters, orders a beer and sits on a stool at the bar. The two builders start to speculate about the occupation of the suit.

Chris: ‘I reckon he’s an accountant.’

James: ‘No way – he’s a stockbroker.’

Chris: ‘He’s no stockbroker. A stockbroker wouldn’t come in here.’

The argument repeats itself for some time until the volume of beer gets the better of Chris and he makes for the toilet. On entering the toilet, he sees that the suit is standing at a urinal. Curiosity and the several beers get the better of the builder.

Chris: ‘Scuse me…no offence meant, but me and my mate were wondering what you do for a living.’

Suit: ‘No offence taken. I’m a logical scientist by profession.’

Chris: ‘Yeah, so what’s that then.’

Suit: ‘I’ll try to explain by example. Do you have a goldfish at home?’

Chris: ‘Er…mmm…well yeah, I do as it happens.’

Suit: ‘Well, it’s logical to assume that you keep it in a bowl or in a pond. Which is it?’

Chris: ‘It’s in a pond.’Suit: ‘Well then, it’s logical to suppose you have a large garden then?’

Chris: ‘As it happens, yes I have got a big garden.’

Suit: ‘Well then, it’s logical to assume that in this town if you have a large garden then you have a large house?’

Chris: ‘As it happens I’ve got a five-bedroom house…built it myself.’

Suit: ‘Well, given that you’ve built a five-bedroom house it is logical to assume that you haven’t built it just for yourself and that you’re probably married?’

Chris: ‘Yes, I am married. I live with my wife and three children.’

Suit: ‘Well then, it’s logical to assume that you are sexually active with your wife on a regular basis.’

Chris: ‘Yep! Four nights a week.’

Suit: ‘Well then, it is logical to suggest that you do not masturbate very often?’

Chris: ‘Me? Never!’

Suit: ‘Well, there you are, that’s logical science at work.’

Chris: ‘How’s that then?’

Suit: ‘Well, from finding out that you had a goldfish, I’ve told you about the size of your garden you have, the size of house, your family and your sex life.’

Chris: ‘I see. That’s pretty impressive…thanks mate.’

Both leave the toilet and Chris returns to his mate.

James: ‘I see the suit was in there. Did you ask him what he does?’

Chris: ‘Yep! He’s a logical scientist.’James: ‘What’s that then?’Chris: ‘I’ll try to explain. Do you have a goldfish?’

James: ‘Nope.’

Chris: ‘Well then, you’re a wanker.’

Ramayana - the US version...

Laughed my guts out at this article I received on e-mail..…

A young second generation Indian in the US was asked by his mother to explain the significance of "Diwali" to his younger brother, this is how he went about it...

"So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him. But, like, his step-mom, or something, was kind of a bitch, and she forced her husband to, like, send this cool-dude, he was Ram, to some national forest or something... Since he was going, for like, something like more than 10 years or so.. he decided to get his wife and his bro along... you know... so that they could all chill out together. But dude, the forest was reeeeal scary shit... really man... they had monkeys and devils and shit like that.

But this dude, Ram, kicked ass with darts and bows and arrows... so it was fine.

But then some bad gangsta boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his babe (Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, was our man, and also his bro, Laxman, pissed... And you don't piss this son-of-a-gun cuz, he just kicks ass and like... all the gods were with him... So anyways, you don't mess with gods. So, Ram, and his bro get an army of monkeys... Dude, don't ask me how they trained the damn monkeys... just go along with me, ok... So, Ram, Lax and their monkeys whip this gangsta's ass in his own hood. Anyways, by this time, their time's up in the forest... and anyways... it gets kinda boring, you know... no TV or malls or shit like that. So,they decided to hitch a ride back home... and when the people realize that our dude, his bro and the wife are back home... they thought, well, you know, at least they deserve something nice... and they didn't have any bars or clubs in those days... so they couldn't take them out for a drink, so they, like, decided to smoke and shit... and since they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps also... so it was pretty cooool... you know with all those fireworks... Really, they even had some local band play along with the fireworks... and you know, what, dude, that was the very first, no kidding..., that was the very first music-synchronized fireworks... you know, like the 4th of July stuff, but just, more cooler and stuff, you know.

And, so dude, that was how, like, this festival started."

subtle abuses....

a family i know has been contemplating a shift abroad for better prospects...or should i say, the man in the family has been.....

his wife is also employed....

but then it has been taken for granted that she will be interested in the shift too....her resistances are ignored...there is a distinct lack of sensitivity in the addressal of the situation...

a child wants to take up "arts" in college..his mom is insistent that it should be "science"....

the child's pleas are of no avail....

a husband plans a surprise family outing.....the wife "sulks"....habitually....

my mom asks me where I am going as I leave the house...as a routine response, i resent her asking me....feel she is intrusive...bark at her saying that I am carrying my handphone should she feel the need to get in touch....

everyday violences we inflict on each other?sensitivity is sometimes conspicuous by its absence in shared spaces....

we find it much easier to behave nicely to total strangers....

dignity...

the only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the disrespect of others.

You dont diminish the majesty of The Niagara Falls by spitting in it.

- anthony de mello

events, the cause of misery or misery, the cause of events...

happiness and unhappiness are rooted in the way we meet events, not in the events by themselves....

response...

a friend was conversing with me....the conversation was not as i would have liked it to be....saw resentment and anger well up inside of me...

my expectation is born in my own image creation of the person....

i had a choice..to focus outside and spell venom or to look within....and see the cyclone emerge...and then act....

case 1: reactive

case 2: responsive....

learning through relating....

but my choices manifest only if i am aware....not otherwise...awareness is freedom...

a sufi lyric...

aawaz de rahi hai
meri zindagi mujhe...
jaoon main ya na jaaoon
tujhe dekhne ke baad.
ab kya ghazal sunaaoon
tujhe dekhne ke baad...

life-the artform....

i like reading about mystics....a certain song and dance to the most mundane of activities....a kinda spring in their step....krishna.....playful, heroic, rebel, spiritual leader, warrior, romantic, friend, lover..ahhh..the hues....has been such an inspiration for indian cultural expresses....

so also the sufi masters...

so many hues life has to offer....melodies, colours....

if we were able to only experience it...the joy of connecting to things and people around us....so much mystery, so much adventure...and so aesthetic....beautiful....

what then makes such a lovely experience so mundane and boring at times...our tendencies to judge, to compare....as different from merely experiencing...

we never connect....from our cores....to anyone or anything...that could make all the difference...we connect through the filters of our mind...

life can be an artform...to be celebrated , if we so chose it..else it can be a mundane chore, a dead habit...

celebrate life, celebrate existence....moment by moment...to me, it is very spiritual....

shoes....

A great and foolish king complained that the rough ground hurt his feet, so he ordered the whole country to be carpetted with cowhide.

The court jester laughed when the king told him of this order."What an absolutely crazy idea, your Majesty," he cried."Why all the needless expense? Just cut out two small pads of cowhide to protect your feet!"

That is what the king did. And that is how the idea of shoes was born.

The enlightened know that to make the world a painless place you need to change your heart - not the world.

- Anthony De Mello

ego.....

Ego is the thinking mind. The thinking mind, the ego, the "me" are all the same. They are different names for the same thing, which is an illusion. It is the nature of the monkey-mind to jump about and chatter. Mind is merely a collection of thoughts, or a collection of impressions which makes up this "me", this self image. The ego is the identified consciousness. When the impersonal Consciousness identifies itself with the personal organism, the ego arises.

-unknown author

personally, i feel the ego is a beautiful tool for facilitating interconnect...it has to be used rather than the other way round...it uses us and that creates misery...

losing centredness....

yet another childhood friend is landing at a detox centre...so many biting the dust...relationships collapsing, drug, alcohol and sexual escapades going berserk and outta control.....people paying prices they had never imagined they would have to pay....

the key to succumbing is in "escaping" unconsciously.....not daring to face what life has to offer and making choices as a "response"...not being able to relate to what life has to offer...and choosing to escape by numbing ourselves....somewhere shirking responsibility....for our own joy and happiness...cribbing about the world and the people there....quick to ascribe our failures and shortcomings to everything around and about...

the unhappiness within spreads as an epidemic outside...chronic , crippling....we try to battle the situations outside..without candidly exploring ourselves.....

i am not condemning and judging.....but it is painful to watch....

religion has been as much of an escapade....as different from a authenticated , personal self-authenticed process of discovering and living from our centres....

keeping up images....to "fit in".....very rarely being ourselves....afraid of our loneliness, which may have the answers....but we chose not to stay with it..accept it.....

we have to light our own candles from within....and walk in that illumination....groping in the dark can be very miserable....

from here and there...

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dream for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...

I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain mine or your own without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy mine or your own if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful be realistic remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day.

And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure yours and mine and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains y ou from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
Unknown author

positionality - the root of bondage...

is freedom about repositioning of our conceptual perceptions alone or is it about seeing everything as a concept and responding in our own comfort zones without limiting positionalities...

it is positionalities which make us miserable....

we are unable to accept people with contrarian positions....and life seems like a battle ground....

a father is comfortable with the "arranged marriage " mechanism, while his daughter is not...she is comfortable with a different mechanism....a different concept of relating platforms...

perfectly fine, as long as they are responsible for their own adherances and do not try thrusting their viewpoint on the other....

and can share a beautiful friendship in their relating space inspite of differing perspectives...

but that hardly happens....

and thats where misery lies.....in trying to convert the other to one's own point of view....or incases where domination is possible, enforcing behaviour modes....domination is violent....

"positionality" ( an ego-centric location in consciousness) is normally "reactive"......never responsive....and limits our abilities to relate, for we are constantly judging others by empirical standards we have set ourselves....judging is always contextual....

when we are able to see and be aware of our own "positionalities" in life, whatever they may be....we see them for what they are..contextual emergences in our space....based on our conditionings, our experiences....and we respect emergences in other's spaces too....in an acceptance born in understanding of the underlying processes....

then , we don't judge...we are able to relate....from a domain that is beyond concepts....from a deeper core of our beings...

in process...

we go after things as we desire them....we win some, we lose some....but underlying everywhere is the fact that we can learn..sometimes, we learn more in our losing....

being centred is to be aware.....to be a learner even as we experience....

we are always winners when we are learners....

integrity....

we are so many things to so many people....sometimes, we behave in ways that are expected of us in certain spaces....

in few spaces, if we are lucky, we are ourselves....rare moments...with our fears, our insecurities, our candidness without fear of rebuke, condemnation or judgement...we are not afraid of being our real selves...the relationship, if we are sharing space, is not at stake if we be ourselves....

there is a lot we would like to be, but we are something....when we are in touch with ourselves....

that is the real "we" ...

to me, such moments, if they happen are moments of life, moments of integrity, moments of rare friendship...unconditional acceptance....we may be with our selves or in a space share...with a fellow human...or with a spiritual master-friend.....

these are spaces for evolution....for growth, spiritually..

real, intrinsic change cannot be created through effort...it is a "happening" in realms of unconditionality....in realms of love....

it is a process of healing....in creation....

a rose does not have to struggle, to try to spread its fragrance....it is just a happening when it is itself.....

domestic violence....

domestic violence issues discussed in a few blog spaces...

behind closed doors, horrors abound...in so called civilized, educated society...subtle dominances, mind games, manipulations, suspicion, mistrust....the list is endless...violence is not just physical...and either sex is capable of it...

a recent article talks about an editor of a british tabloid booked for violence against her hubby..ironically, she carries on a very vociferous campaign in the media against domestic violence...

in india, i have come across couples who have hardly interacted with each other in life...even after 30 years of marriage, the wife is afraid of expressing an opinion...recently, i was shocked to observe at an acquaintance's houses, ladies were dissuaded from participating in critical decision making processes of the household..and the person in q is a freq global traveller, an mba...he has to have the final word...

i have seen senior citizens absolutely ignored....marginalised in families....decimated to a vegetative existence...i have seen senior citizens dominate with an iron hand too...

violence will manifest when we are unable to accept people as they are, with the choices they have made... violence happens when we thrust our choices on to others...

converting people to "our" point of view...an endless pursuit for a lot of us...winning a point is more important...and in this war too, as in all wars,there are no winners...everyone is a loser...relationships get bruised...underlying tensions qualify our interactions...one is on alert every moment....to protect oneself...to judge lest we be judged...

discussions and interactions can still be very nourishing with different points of view...when it is not the "positionality" which is more important...positionality makes us poor listeners, poor learners; closed people...to me, that is again an escape, we dont want to feel threatened...

can't people with differing viewpoints still be friends...i think it is possible when relationships happen from the domain of the unchangeable, from our cores....not "images" relating to each other....images will keep changing....perspectives would keep evolving....and one has to relate from beyond domains of such emergence....the mind can transact under a set of conditionalities.....it is incapable of relating...not condemning the mind, it is just not the faculty.... for unconditional relates....

we carry so many conflicts within us...there is so much violence within....and it manifests unconsciously through our actions...

and all of us crave for peace...peace within can manifest outside....we cannot have micro pockets of conflicts create a macro manifest of peace....it will only be cosmetic...

i experience moments when positionality takes over...every now and then...and those moments are capable of immense violence, harshness....in expression...as awareness levels increase, one minimises such events....but makes me realize that each one of us is capable of the same.....it is a quality of "positionality".... and to me, positionality is an emergence in "fear".

hazaar examples in the ngo sector....of people from oppressed communities turn oppressors...we often become what we hate...

each one of us is "capable" of hate, abuse and all that we dislike conceptually..very thin dividing line....if we desire a change, the key is in integrity and awareness...and in acceptance..of ourselves as well as others....the seeds of any change lies in acceptance, not in rejection....

and while all efforts at alleviating such situations need to socially go on, it should be accompanied by each one of us discovering wellsprings of joy and love within us....we can only share what we have....only happy people can spread happiness...

fear is the key........

fear seems to be the key for so much of the horror stories that abound..when securities are threatened, people can react strangely and abnormally....the meekest of us are capable of killing under the influence of this emotional energy...when deep-seated positionalities are challenged, when our fundamental platforms of complacent securities are threatened...

all or almost all of our actions emerge from domains of insecurities and fear....deep down , they are reactionary in content, not pro-active...so called choices we make of breaking the mould hence remain cosmetic....while the underlying violence and conflict remains, a contextual change in its manifestation is sought; just replacement of one concept with another with no fundamental changes....

we change events causing the misery, the misery continues to exist....

vulnerabilities...

deep down , man seems so vulnerable...appearances can be so deceptive as I have observed time and again....my work has given me the opportunity to interact with "pre-defined" vulnerable cross-sections of society as well as iconic cross-sections such as bollywood, the world of musicians and artistes and so on....confident gestures and postures more often than not were very superficial and elaborate masks for the cyclones of insecurities and vulnerabilities within.

i remember an incident when a well known cine star was upset with a hoarding that had been put up at juhu....adjacent to a hoarding featuring a soon to be introduced debutante....the age difference was obviously there...add to that , in this age of technology, a wrinkle had managed to find its way on the vinyl of the star's forehead...

it was catastrophic for the star...the release of the picture was stalled until the hoarding was "rectified" with an elaborate enrichment with a show of biceps and the like...

dont blame them, we like to keep up our images and feel secure in them...

we also find people taking security in various positionalities, for and against...scratch a bit and you would find no depth...merely a cosmetic replacement of conceptual adherences, nothing more... deep down, the same vulnerabilities, the same insecurities; infact , very often more pronounced as the additional burden of elaborate masking is involved...

man may fight superstition outside, but continues to be superstitious; only the format of expression changes....

changing activities we indulge in does not make a difference; if we are seeking change, it has to be in our attitudes....

we hate a movie....changing a screen would not help.....the dvd needs to be changed...or shut off...else, we may keep changing the screens and the same script continues....very often the story of our lives.....underlying vulnerabilities and insecurities remain through paradoxically diametric events...

the seeds of our liberation do not depend on the presence or absence of certain activities...they are independent and can flow through activities , whatever they may be...

as an eg.....i have interacted with tribals who are natural in their scanty clothing....i have also seen icons and models seem so awkward in their attempt to live upto their "images" of glamour.....for me , it is not a matter of clothing; that is an aspect of their personal choices..it is rather a q of their comfort in naturalness....artificiality can be so burdensome and self-inhibitive...

some may chose that.....which is fine, if it is in awareness....

connects....

normally, one connects through perceived realities...images of persons as we visualize them within, inspire us to explore their spaces....

there is also a spontaneous connect one feels...beyond domains of mind formations as in images...just a connect ; being to being, a live space of our cores....the domain of the unchangeable...

to me, that is the domain of relating; no strangers in this space, the web of life links us....in an experience of abiding oneness....beyond conceptual barriers...

the world demands explanations and reasons, but are some of our events explicable within our "knowledge domains"...they just happen...or don't...

wisdom about angels...

The warmth of an angel's light can comfort and illuminate the whole world. There are no strangers to an angel.

mind filters hide reality...

rahul, all of 6 years, was excited about the new friend he had made at the beach...."was it a boy or a a girl?" , his mom asked.

"how would i know?", he/she was wearing no clothes."

sometimes , the filters of our mind, prevent us from seeing the obvious!!!!!!!!!

to be in the present...

the mind is always either in the past or projecting into the future....it is absent in the "present".we keep ruminating on past events or projecting into futuristic solutions...when we are able to watch our mind, we are in the present....a state of awareness...

the mind is a gr8 tool; but, we have to be able to use the mind, and not the other way round as it seems to have happened...

sometimes, the mind travels so fast .....we then experience "depression"...we are totally out of tune, out of sync with the present.

in my opinion, india's greatest contribution to the world is the discovery that "mind" cannot be controlled.it is interlinked to breath and breath can be regulated...that is the basis of the science of pranayam.when our breath is rhythmic, we are relaxed.when we are agitated , a glance at our breath for a few minutes can help relax us.spending extended time with various breathing exercises, pranayams, can help us slow the mind down, come closer to the present....

we are at our best efficiencies when the mind is silent.....when it is incessantly at chatter, we are restless, irritable, unstable.....and when we are able to "see" the mind, we are liberated of it....

being aware that we are not "present" in the moment can work wonders....just watch that and see life unfold....am suggesting it since it worked for me.....and it does not come with any conditional attachments...

totally experimentable within our space....

when the mind slows down, we are relaxed....we can respond to life...when the mind is fast, we are reactive....and the mind tends to get off-centred.....it can get swayed and influenced....in the absence of awareness...as always, awareness is the key...

one can chose to do whatever( they fall in the realm of concepts), but, in my opinion, awareness is an essential.....a basic need of existence...

sacredness: awareness in integrity...

To me, awareness in integrity at any given moment is sacred space....we have to be in touch with ourselves.It is not an activity or a set of activities which construe sacredness.One can be anywhere, in a brothel,in a church, in a dance bar or in a satsang.....one can be a tarannum or a billy graham...hardly matters....

the key is awareness and integrity...to lose our awareness is a lack of sacredness....and it can happen while one is singing bhajans or at the temple, too....

activities dont bring in "sacredness"; attitude does...

i cherish sacred space..anywhere....a cetain fullness to it...no conflicts, no guilt, no half-presences...just there....savouring the moment life has gifted us....

does not imply that we won't have preferences of activities; that is personal choice and situational realities...

very often, we participate in activities because it is the "done" thing...in our peer circles...we ourselves may feel bored and suffocated...but find security in the group perspective...

again can be anything....satsangs, bar/pub crawls, sexual adventures, pilgrimages etc.....anything done without awareness , to me, is an escape....an attempt to lose ourselves because of an inherent fear of facing our real selves....and the lack of awareness could also surprise us in realms of the repurcussions...

matter of choices though.......

jokes etc...

A kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's artwork. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."

The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."

Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the little girl replied, "They will, in a minute."

have u heard of the dyslexic cow who attained nirvana....

it was constantly muttering..Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Teacher: why should you remain quite at the Church, Sabrina?

Sabrina: shhhhhhh.......because everyone is asleep.....

a zen monk's favourite pick-up line: can we share some moments of oneness, honey?

What did the zen monk say at the pizza parlour?

Make me one with everything.....

the zen monk asks the waiter for the change after paying off his bill.

The waiter nonchalantly replies, "with due respect , sir, I cannot give you change,,Change has to happen from within......"

kuch khaas hai hum sabi mein....

was listening to "har gadi badal rahi hai roop zindagi"...the song from kal ho na ho..amazing...lyrics, composition....and singing..

being connected to events/artistes management; have had the privilege to have a few of these guys as close friends..shankar, a friend of many years....both as a local chemburite and as a college mate..and later lot of projects together...feel very proud to see the work emerging from him and his pals....

the list of privileges life has granted me has been endless...amazing creators....each one of them...in music, theatre, artworld, sound engineering....direction, production...the process of "creativity" holds an endless fascination for me....and so do creators....

kuch khaas hai hum sabi mein, kuch baat hai hum sabi mein.....the cadbury jingle immortalised by shankar....can never tire of listening to it....just 2 lines, but conveys so much and so aesthetically....

creativity in all its myriad forms of expression....manifestations of a dynamic spirituality...

The Rose....

John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn't, the girl with the rose. His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind. In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner's name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II. During the next year and one month the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn't matter what she looked like. When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting - 7:00 PM at the Grand Central Station in New York. "You'll recognize me," she wrote, "by the red rose I'll be wearing on my lapel." So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he'd never seen. I'll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened: A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. I started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As I moved, a small, provocative smile curved her lips. "Going my way, sailor?" sh e murmured. Almost uncontrollably I made one step closer to her, and then I saw Hollis Maynell. She was standing almost directly behind the girl. A woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own. And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My fingers gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her. This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful. I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman , even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment. "I'm Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?" The woman's face broadened into a tolerant smile. "I don't know what this is about, son," she answered, "but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should go and tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!" It's not difficult to understand and admire Miss Maynell's wisdom. The true nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive.
-Unknown author

diwali musings...

diwali morning....my mom keeps the oil ready for the traditional bath....applies it on the crown of my head...she has bought a shirt for me....not exactly suiting my taste..a few years back i would have frowned....today, the giver is more important than the gift....thankfully....

crippling patterns...

triggered by sharings in fellow blogspace....where a person is experiencing repeat manifests of hurt from different people in inter-personal spaces....

very routine occurance....infact, i feel, we if closely observe, all of us are a prisoner of our "blueprints"..and while we may tend to focus externally, i view them as mere media of manifests from deep within ourselves...

"karma", laws of cause and effect have been the subject of many explores....as also for me, primarily, an emergence from a personal need...i have seen that there are more than 70 such postulates....not all of them very well known....i discover some as events happen for me....

Yad Bhavam , Tad Bhavati...what we feel. so it happens...

i have seen the infalliability of this mechanism more often than not...

innumerable instances....

what we desire deep down manifests; what we fear deep within manifests; what we resent, manifests....the sheer power/creative energy of thoughts...

have come across people who have feared getting "cancer" right from their childhood..have seen it manifest...

have seen innumerable "oppressed" people themselves turn into "oppressors"...

as i have seen innumerable people being very vulnerable in their relationship spaces...emerging from their fear and insecurities, deep within....repetitive patterns occuring time and again...our external show of confidence is just that, a mask....deep down, we are very vulnerable....and need to address that, for external manifests to be joyous....

made me infer that it is not events or people who are the "cause" of suffering.they may be "immediate" causes..but one has to explore the roots of such patterns within, which repeatedly cause such events to "manifest" from a variety of sources...