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...