October 5, 2006

.: My Technorati Profile

.: midsummer 2006

July 10, 2006

Reclamation year…

The City Changes Overnight

April 2, 2006

 

You sleep when you can, braving the waking-up and forgetting the comfort of darkness. In the past I feared sleeping, closing my eyes to the world around me. Now I cannot seem to face the day, opening my eyes to the strangeness of light.

Opening my eyes, the city has changed overnight. The same people, asleep, walk the the streets - thinking its the same, “It looks the same,” they say but, fail to notice how cul-de-sacs has given way to a dead-end, graveyard of secrets. More than anything, the buildings take turn, playing tag, swallowing people and changing them before they could get out.

I peer into windows where lovers, with abandon, make love in a carnival of positions, not knowing the buildings, its digestive, elevator shafts will eat a dreamer’s longing for eternity - whole. Who is to say how lobbies and walkways take our freedoms away; noticing once a lovely young lady, virginal, enter a lobby, only to leave a few moments after, having aged and wilted before my very eyes.

You can leave the city any time. Go away for weeks, months, years or even a lifetime but the city never leaves you. You wake-up laughing, crying, even smelling the city - its fingers slowly caressing your hair, whispering, “Be patient child, I’ll fetch you soon enough.“

The City Changes Overnight

You sleep when you can, braving the waking-up and forgetting the comfort of darkness. In the past I feared sleeping, closing my eyes to the world around me. Now I cannot seem to face the day, opening my eyes to the strangeness of light.

Opening my eyes, the city has changed overnight. The same people, asleep, walk the the streets - thinking its the same, “It looks the same,” they say but, fail to notice how cul-de-sacs has given way to a dead-end, graveyard of secrets. More than anything, the buildings take turn, playing tag, swallowing people and changing them before they could get out.

I peer into windows where lovers, with abandon, make love in a carnival of positions, not knowing the buildings, its digestive, elevator shafts will eat a dreamer’s longing for eternity - whole. Who is to say how lobbies and walkways take our freedoms away; noticing once a lovely young lady, virginal, enter a lobby, only to leave a few moments after, having aged and wilted before my very eyes.

You can leave the city any time. Go away for weeks, months, years or even a lifetime but the city never leaves you. You wake-up laughing, crying, even smelling the city - its fingers slowly caressing your hair, whispering, “Be patient child, I’ll fetch you soon enough.“

Here We Go

January 19, 2006

Planet midsummer

‘I mean all of these sightings of midsummer must be down to bad water or a brain defect or something. I couldn’t believe in Him even if I tried.’ (Elton Proud)

Religion In midsummer’s World

 

• Midsummerist 38%
  (416,733,534 believers)
• Couchedist 19%
  (208,366,767 believers)
• Puttedism 3%
  (32,900,015 believers)
• Shikariity 17%
  (186,433,423 believers)
• Spokedity 18%
  (197,400,095 believers)
• Twinjetism 5%
  (54,833,359 believers)

 

Population : 1,096,667,197
World Ends : 7th Jun 2016
Nuclear Capable : Armenia, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brunei, Germany, Kenya, Kiribati, Nepal, Solomon Islands, United States
Nuked Countries : Brunei, Kenya, Solomon Islands

midsummer’s Wrath!!

 

• In order to punish those who did not believe in Him, midsummer decided to release an army of mutant-seals onto the shores of Central African Republic. There would have been more casualties if it were not for the seal’s lousy teeth. In fact the only person to die was Cain Augustine. And that was only because they were frail as high hell.
• ‘Who is it amongst your World Leaders that keeps farting so offensively? Let it be known that until we find the culprit I will be pouring masses and vinegar and spolit beef into the water supply of Eritrea.

•  

The Anti-midsummer

The Anti-midsummer was Eubanks Leeche a 34-year-old man from Chad.

The Saviour

midsummer’s son Mitchell Avery appeared above the clouds and proclaimed ‘You had all better believe in me otherwise my dear Father midsummer will come and spank your damn ass raw!’.

This is the End

Out of absolutely nowhere Planet X returned and smashed into the Earth causing the End for everything on our planet.

Powered by I Hate God

Guess What?

December 21, 2005

Despite everything that has happened this year, December 21 is still a very, very special day. We have been through two evictions and lock-outs, six lovers, two abortions (err?) and many career changes for his year alone. I am hoping for better days, nights were we can sleep in peace, where smiles don’t need to be expensive and friends don’t need to be closely guarded. We often ask ourselves how many more cities will we live in, how many more beds or the lack of it will we explore and behind each understanding gaze - we ask ourselves the basic question we often deny our hearts: how many more flesh/souls will we embrace, only to leave us behind.

 
It’s really not so great right now, eh? Nearly shirtless, definitely homeless and exceptionally dreamless for someone who used to inspire dreams. I apologize for all the days I needed to leave you behind, in a friend’s house (but you got a free bath there!), a net cafe (more often than not) or just a freaky cubby-hole for the night. We faced our fears, from birds to freaky elevators falling, from dusty buildings to dark crevices, - we got by, didn’t we? I am as scared as you are, never been as scared before…

Well our year is ending without any notice of accomplishment or shame, I guess karmically (play with words: karmic - ally, us?) that’s alright - the lesser we make movements, the lesser we stir things. I just hope we are right this time, whatever we are into we have managed to see the next day anyhow - just forgive me when I have become numb and often times very silent. Forgive me also for not being able to make your wish-list nor being able to set the yearly birthday party we used to have, I was just caught off-guard - just moving too fast, trying to gain ground from the years I have lost.

No more, I guess part of me has sort of given up or just realized that the two years that I have been trying to run after dreams they just simply vanished before my eyes. It was better when we just kept on dreaming, kept on surviving a fantasy adventure that we put ourselves into - it wasn’t about survival then, but it was all about following our hearts. Just give me three days of sleep, a little time to breathe and be able to walk again - then let FLY!

Well to you my most adorable companion of many years, the best of birthdays even if its just a thought form floating around right now.

Happy Birthday Mr. Beawr! 

And to all the Stranger’s friends, wishing everyone (if you celebrate Christmas at least) the merriest Christmas, wherever and however it finds you this year. Wishing you also the best New Year you will ever have - dreaming that it just keeps getting better every year after that, too!

Until the next post…

Nighty - night! 

 

“It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

Reminiscing Via Ancient Texts

December 17, 2005

Years ago, a friend of mine and I worked on ancient texts and somehow summarized some common philosophies involved in Yoga for the benefit of anyone who was interested (most texts still available via her website http://www.yogafound.com). That friend moved on to establish a foundation for practitioners in the Philippines and have since then evolved into one of the mainstays of the said practice. Anyhow, reminiscing by the pool area and sandboxkid intently focused on learning tidbits of the different spiritual paths, I could not help but come up with a condensed write-up on the Eight Limbs in Raja Pantanjali’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali) Yoga Sutras (See Footnote¹: in Sanskrit is derived from the verb siv-, meaning to sew (these words, including English to sew and Latinate suture, all derive from PIE *syū-). It literally means a rope or thread, and more metaphorically refers to an aphorism (or line, rule, formula), or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. In Hinduism the ‘sutras‘ form a school of Vedic study, related to and somewhat later than the Upanishads. They served and continue to act as grand treatises on various schools of Hindu Philosophy. They elaborate in succinct verse, sometimes esoteric, Hindu views of metaphysics, cosmogony, the human condition, moksha (liberation), and how to maintain a blissful, dharmic life, in a cosmic spin of karma, reincarnation and desire.

In Buddhism, the term “sutra” refers generally to canonical scriptures that are regarded as records of the oral teachings of Gautama Buddha. These teachings are assembled in the second part of the Tripitaka which is called Sutra Pitaka. There are also some Buddhist texts, such as the Platform Sutra, that are called sutras despite being attributed to much later authors.

The Pali form of the word sutra is sutta, and is used exclusively to refer to Buddhist scriptures, particularly those of the Pali Canon. [Wikipedia.org]).

Having said this, the post is more concerned on the style of Yoga known as Ashtanga Yoga (Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga), as taught by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois of Mysore, India. Ashtanga means eight limbs and this particular style tries to access all of the traditional eight limbs of Yoga as expounded in the teachings of Raja Pantajali.

THE EIGHT LIMBS OF YOGA
(Quoted from: Master E.K., The Yoga of Patanjali Kulapathi Book Trust ISBN 81-85943-05-2 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali#The_Eight_Limbs_of_Raja_Yoga])

[Begin Quote] As defined The eight “limbs” or steps are: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. A number of commentators break these eight steps into two categories. Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, and Pratyahara comprise the first category. The second category, called Samyama is comprised of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. The division between the two categories exists because in latter three mentioned steps there is no cognizance whereas in the first five steps cognizance exists.

“Since there is no cognizance to these three stages (ed. Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi), they are not bound by time or succession. The result is that they exist independently and also exist simultaneously. Any one, two or three can exist at the same time. When the three stages exist simultaneously then it is called (ed. Samyamah) the simultaneous existence.”

Taken from the commentary on Patanjali Sutra III.4 by Master E.K.

Patanjali divided his Yoga Sutras into 4 chapters or books (Sanskrit pada), containing in all 195 aphorisms, divided as follows:

Samadhi Pada (51 sutras)

Samadhi refers to a blissful state where the yogi is absorbed into the One. The author describes yoga and then the means to attaining samadhi. This chapter contains the most famous verses: “Atha yoga anusasanam” (”Yoga begins with discipline”) and “Yogas citta vritti nirodha” (”Yoga is control of citta vrittis” - i.e., thoughts and feelings).

Sadhana Pada (55 sutras)

Sadhana is the Sanskrit word for “practice”. Here the author outlines two forms of Yoga: kriya yoga (action yoga) and ashtanga yoga (eightfold yoga). Kriya yoga, sometimes called karma yoga, is reflected in the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, where Arjuna is encouraged to act without attachment to the results of action. It is the yoga of selfless action or as some have observed, of service. Ashtanga yoga consists of the following levels:

Yama = abstentions (These are 5 in number)

ahimsa = abstention from violence = non-violence to all beings

satya = abstention from lying = truth

asteya = abstention from theft

brahma charya = abstention from sexual activity = continence

aparigraha = abstention from possessions

Niyama = observances

These also are 5 in number:

Saucha = purity

Santosha = contentment

Tapas = austerities

Svadhyaya = study

Ishvarapranidhana = surrender to God

Asana - Postures of the body.This is also a title applied as; One made gracious by God as in Asana Bodhitharta

Pranayama - Control of prana or vital breath

Pratyahara - Abstraction; “is that by which the senses do not come into contact with their objects and, as it were, follow the nature of the mind.” - Vyasa

Dharana - Fixing the attention on a single object; concentration

Dhyana - Meditation

Samadhi - Super-conscious state or trance

Vibhuti Pada (55 sutras)

Vibhuti is the Sanskrit word for “power” or “manifestation”. This book describes the “higher” states of awareness and the techniques of yoga to attain them.

Kaivalya Pada (34 sutras)

Kaivalya literally means “isolation”, but like most Sanskrit words, used technically, this translation is misleading. In this sense it means emancipation, liberation, used interchangeably with moksha (liberation), which is the goal of Yoga.[End Quote]

Now focusing on the practice (Sadhana) of Yoga we have the following:

• YAMA – ethics

• NIYAMA - religious observances

• ASANA - physical exercises, postures, bandhas or locks, and mudras or gestures to gain mastery over life energies, and the body.

• PRANAYAMA - breathing exercises to gain control of the vital breath.

• PRATYAHARA - withdrawal of senses from objects; stilling the modification and fluctuations of the mind.

• DHARANA - progression in concentration, mental control.

• DHAYANA - meditation, working with various nerve centers, steadying the mind.

• SAMADHI - continued practice at achieving and maintaining superconsciousness.

 

————————————-

YAMAS AND NIYAMAS:

The application of the Yamas and Niyamas are multidimensional. Our behavior affects our internal environment: the mind, and the body, while our behavior affects our external environment: people, society, and the physical world. Here are the principles and a few examples of the broad spectrum of their application:

• Ahimsa - non violence:

  • applies to self - not taking drugs

  • not wishing ill or getting angry

  • applies to environment - not creating garbage.

• Satya - truth - peacefulness in thought and action:

  • avoiding hurtful speech- abuse, obscenity, falsehood, ridiculing the sacred

  • applies to others- not causing disturbance.

• Asteya – non-covetousness:

  • avoiding misuse, greed, misappropriation in thought and deed

  • avoiding breaches of trust, mismanagement

  • austerity in needs, freedom from craving

• Brahmacharya - self restraint, celibacy, non-attachment to social association, saving and directing personal energy.

• Aparagriha - non-hoarding / collecting of unnecessary things, not accepting things without working for them.

  • applies to self- keeping mind free from unnecessary thoughts

• Saucha - purity of the self, the intellect, the emotions, the body, the diet, the environment, towards a state of self-study (svadhyaya), benevolence (saumanasya), lucidity (ekagrata) and mastery of the senses (indriya- jaya).

• Sentosa - cultivation of contentment. Equilibrium towards concentration.

• Tapas - goal oriented self-discipline and austerity: Applies to body and mind. Illumination of life by higher aims.

• Svadhyaya - self-education. Responsibility of self- betterment through study, particularly one’s heritage and religion.

• Isvara Pranidhana - Mind to the Divine. God centered goal orientation towards illumination (tejas) of purpose.

 

————————————-

ASANAS:

[From Wikipedia.org:

Asana is Sanskrit for “seat”. It is no accident that this word be chosen to describe the “posture” of Yoga. The idea of the “seat” in this context refers not only to the physical position of the body, but to the position of the spirit in relation to Divinity. This idea is often referred to as the “One Seat”, by Yogis and Buddhists alike.

Modern usage of the word asana in reference to the practice of Yoga generally intends the lesser definition; a physical posture or pose. Patanjali, in the Yoga Sutra describes asana as sitting meditation, where meditation is the path to a realization of the Self. Looking at these two ideas in contrast, we see the idea of asana as both simple posture and a path to the unity of spirit.]

Asanas are an integral part of Yoga. They are physical postures with a distinct form and shape that involve the application of exact stretches, counter stretches and resistances. There are cycles of postures that give a variety of different effects on the body: energizing, stimulating and calming. Asanas are connected by Vinyasa which is a form linking movements that help maintain a high body heat. This constant controlled movement creates a heightened energy level, toning the body into a high level of fitness, and producing remarkable strength with regular practice.

Asanas have a profound effect on the body. The body is oxygenated, decongested, and rested. Circulation, respiration, heart performance, and muscle tone can be improved. Specific areas on the body can be worked on like the joints, liver, kidneys, or the heart.

Practice brings benefits: good balance, agility, and stamina. Many ailments and chronic disorders can be improved with regular Asana practice. Regular Asana practice is a training regimen that creates a vigorous body, well functioning organs, and an alert mind.

 

————————————-

PRANAYAMA:

[From: “The Philosophy, Psychology, and Practice of Yoga”; Sri Swami Chidananda (1984):

“Pranayama is a way of expanding the Sukshma Prana within to which you have no direct access. Prana is a subtle invisible force. It is the life-force that pervades the body. It is the factor that connects the body and the mind, because it is connected on one side with the body and on the other side with the mind. It is the connecting link between the body and the mind. The body and the mind have no direct connection. They are connected through Prana only and this Prana is different from the breathing you have in your physical body. Prana is not Svasa. The respiratory breath that moves within your nostrils is not Prana. It is called Svasa Vayu. Svasa-Prasvasa, inhalation and exhalation, is of air. But then, why is the regulation of the inner breath and the outer breath of the nostrils given the name of Pranayama, when they do not constitute Prana, when they constitute only Svasa Vayu? The process of regulation of breath is given the name Pranayama, because this is the way to ultimately gain control over the subtle life-force that is present within as Prana.”]

Pranayama or the observance or control of prana through the breath, is meant to clear and strengthen the nadis and chakras. The object is to bring the physical body under the conscious control of the mind.

 

————————————-

PRATYAHARA:

[From Wikipedia.org:

Pratyahara is the fifth among the Eight steps of Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga. In it, the consciousness, or more specifically, the neural currents, are internalized, so that sensations from the Indriyas, or the five senses of taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell don’t reach their respective centres in the brain, so that the Saadhaka, or disciple, is free to meditate without distractions. The electrical currents in the nerves of even the involuntary muscles are turned off by advanced practitioners through superior willpower and breath-control, or Pranayama. Apart from Pranayama, one device to aid Pratyahara is to concentrate on the point between the eyebrows, or the third-eye, the Agya or Ajna Chakra.]

 

————————————-

DHARANA:

[From Wikipedia.org:

Dharana is the sixth of the eight steps of Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga.

Dharana can be translated as “holding steady”, and it is the initial step of deep meditation, where the object being meditated upon is held in the mind without consciousness wavering from it. The difference between Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi is that in the former, the object of meditation, the meditator, and the act of meditation itself remain separate. That is, the meditator is conscious that he or she is meditating (that is, is conscious of the act of meditation) on an object, and of his or her own self, which is concentrating on the object. In the subsequent stage, as the meditator becomes more advanced, consciousness of the act of meditation disappears, and only the consciousness of being/existing and the object of concentration exist (in the mind).

In the final stage of Samadhi, the self also dissolves, and the meditator becomes one with the object. Generally, the object of concentration is God, or the Self, which is seen as God itself, though a minority of Yogis perform atheistic meditation on Self alone.]

 

————————————-

DHYANA:

[From Wikipedia.org:

Dhyāna in Hinduism

According to the Hindu Yoga Sutra dhyana is one of the eight methods of Yoga, (the other seven methods are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, and Samadhi).

In the Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali, the stage of meditation preceding dhyāna is called dharana. In Dhyana, the meditator is not conscious of the act of meditation (i.e. is not aware that s/he is meditating) but is only aware that s/he exists (consciousness of being), and aware of the object of meditation. Dhyana is distinct from Dharana in that the meditator becomes one with the object of meditation and is able to maintain this oneness for 144 inhalations and expirations.

The Dhyana Yoga system is specifically described by Sri Krishna in chapter 6 of the famous Bhagavad Gita, wherein He explains the many different Yoga systems to His friend and disciple, Arjuna.]

————————————-

SAMADHI:

[From Wikipedia.org:

The Hindu tradition

Samadhi (pronounced some-ah-dhi /or “same-ad-dhee”/) is Sanskrit term for the practice which produces complete meditation (among “normal” one). According to Vyasa, “yoga is samadhi” deciphered as complete control (samadhana) over the functions of consciousness (better is it so Higher control, that it it Release…). The exact meaning and usage of the term varies among the Indian religious traditions (such as Hinduism and Buddhism) but its meaning is from ’sam’, with (into), together + ‘a’ towards + ‘dha’ to bring (to get, to hold). The result is various degrees of veridical coalescent acquisition of truth (samapatti).

Samadhi is the state of being aware of one’s Existence without thinking, in a state of undifferentiated “Beingness”. Three intensities( depths) of Samadhi Are usually understood 1. Laja Samadhi, 2. Savi(SAN)kalpa Samadhi, and 3. Nir-vikalpa Samadhi. (or Sahaja Samadhi)

Laja Samadhi is latent (”laja”), potential level of samadhi. It begins in deep meditation or Trance - even with movement such as dancing, etc. It is state of joy, deep and general well feeling (Wellness:), peaceful meditative state (also with income from source known as alpha level of brain´s work frequency)…

Savikalpa Samadhi refers to the initial (beginning) state of full valued Samadhi. The mind is still present with work(ing), which is reason for word KALPA (sanKALPA) - which means imagination (sankalpa means wish, which is defined in this example as imagination with will to get it). VIKALPA means “against imagination”, because this level of samadhi goes to quiet and open mind by overcoming work of mind - as imaginations are (more than) result of that work). So that level of Sankalpa leeds to the Truth among any binds of mind (which are mostly imaginations). SA means “with” by that way. So SAvikalpa SAMADHI means “Samadhi (upper meditation) with (tendency to) against or better AMONG imaginations…

Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the end result. There is no more KALPAs (imaginations, wishes or other products from work of the mind, because the mind is finally under control and in this case is quiet…).

In Savikalpa Samadhi we get the taste of Bliss and Beingness but are still attached fast to our erroneous identification with the body as well as to our numerous worldly attractions. There is the Truth to touch it, among all illusions, false meanings and opinions - among all imaginations…

Entering Samadhi in the beginning takes effort. Holding on to a state of Samadhi takes even more effort. The beginning stages of Samadhi are only temporary. But that “effort” does not mean that mind has to work more (as in concentration or so), but it means work to control the mind, to release self I. Note, that normal levels of meditation (mostly the lower levels) can be hold near “automaticaly”, as “being in the state of meditation” rather than “doing meditation”. But that ability giving many positive results (including materially practical) is quit hard to obtain. It is recommended to find some (spiritual) Master, teach about “alpha level” (and higer levels of frequency of brain´s work) and so on…

Upon entering Nirvikalpa Samadhi the differences we saw before have faded and only one and the same Substance is seen with which we then gladly identify. In this condition nothing but pure Awareness remains and nothing is missing to take away from Wholeness and Perfection.

Samadhi is the only stable unchanging Reality. All else is ever changing and does not bring everlasting peace or happiness.

Staying in Nirvikalpa Samadhi is effortless but even from this condition one must eventually return to ego-consciousness. Otherwise, this highest level of Samadhi leads to NIRVANA, what means total Unity with logical end of individual form (end of personal soul and also death or dematerialization of the body). However, it is entirely possible to stay in Nirvikalpa Samadhi and yet be fully functional in this world. This condition is known as Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Note that SAHAJA means “spontaneous”. Although, only true Enlighted (spiritual Masters and so on) can be so Spontaneously Free…

Nirvikalpa Samadhi is achieved through the advanced and prolonged practice of Kriya Yoga or other forms of Yoga (or even nonYoga spiritual teaching - see christians “Holy spirit”) and is the state of oneness with the Atman - the true Soul (as entirely consciousness part of the God).

In Nirvikalpa Samadhi, all attachment to the material world and all karma is dissolved. All awareness is withdrawn step by step from the physical, astral and causal bodies until self-realization or oneness with the soul is achieved. During this process, breathing ceases, the heart stops beating. Aware and fully conscious oneness with soul is then achieved in a most loving way and all cells of physical body are flooded with the Ocean of Divine Love and Divine Bliss for any period of duration - hours, days, weeks until the individual shifts his awareness from the soul back to the physical body. For being full functional in this word, he awareness stay in Connection with the Divine, but stay (back) in the body, which is than normally functional. But some “strange” conditions will be there - better health (near invulnerable), better feelings (even for other person who touches the body with soul atached to the Divine) and “miracles” only by presence, speech (wishes!) and gestures )doings) of the Divine person (also called the Enlighted).

Nirvikalpa Samadhi is a preparatory step to Maha Samadhi and serves as extreme uplifting of all body vibration (see above) and leads to complete healing of karmic wounds to the open doors to God and divine love for further progress on your way to God.

Samadhi is the main subject of the first part of Yoga Sutras called Samadhi-pada.

Maha Samadhi (literally great samadhi) is the Hindi word for a realized yogi’s conscious departure from the physical body at death. Which is also known as Nirvana (see above).

Maha Samadhi is the final conscious abandoning of the physical body. Every infinitesimal piece of attachment or karma is completely surrendered unto God and dissolved into the Divine Ocean of Love. The individual transcends to worlds beyond karma and returns to God to merge into God. = Nirvana

“In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna speaks about Samadhi and about principal stages of Nirvana: Nirvana in Brahman (the Holy Spirit) and Nirvana in Ishvara (the Creator).

But in India the term “Nirvana” became widely used by Buddhists at some point in time and later on this term along with Buddhism, was “forced out” from India by Hindus. Instead of using the term “Nirvana” Hindu schools started to expand the meaning of the term “Samadhi” by adding to it various prefixes. Various schools used these composite words and because of this the term “Samadhi” got “diffused” and lost its unambiguity. This is why it makes sense to get back to accurate terminology that God introduced into spiritual culture through Krishna.”

Samadhi in Bhakti The Vaishnava Bhakti Schools of Yoga define Samadhi as ‘complete absorption in the object of one’s love (Krishna)’. Rather than thinking of ‘nothing’, true samadhi is said to be achieved only when one has pure, unmotivated love of God. Thus even while performing daily activities a practitioner can strive for full samadhi within their heart. The Yogui is in MahaSamadhi before the dead and after the separation of the material body, he returns to a perfect state of trascendental bliss and eternal personal love with god… Which is in true “only” Nirvikalpa Samadhi, because the individual personality still exists (even so purified, that has ethereal relationship with God as with a being at the same level…

Samadhi is also the Hindi word for a structure commemorating the dead (akin to a tomb, but without remains).]

————————————-

Going through this, at least the reminiscing brought about a resurgence of being able to look forward into a renewed sense of practice and life. The spiritual journey is often a very lonely path. It entails a lot of study, daringness, constant practice and of course the silence that magnifies the Soul/Spirit’s growth. Every time I see a new student pick the pieces up, be taken and inspired into accessing more of the many spiritual practice available to us, I cannot help but feel the joy that once has taken hold of me. A joy of something about to start, a beginner’s glimpse to a journey that will slowly reveal the true (hidden?) Self.

Note 1Most definitions are taken from Wikipedia.org (http://www.wikipedia.org), a multi-lingual Web-based free-content encyclopedia. It is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing articles to be changed by anyone with an Internet connection. Most other definitions are taken from http://www.yogafound.com’s About Yoga page.

DUH Moment

December 11, 2005

DUH moment for the bored in the wee hours of the morning… 

 

Your new nickname is Road Kill. Your not at all sure what happens around you and you always seem to be right in the middle of that situation. Strange, but it happens…well, to you at least. So technicly your hole life+birth=blond moment!.

What Is Your Weird New Nickname? brought to you by Quizilla

Which Tarot Card (Just for Fun)

You are the Moon card. Entering the Moon we enter
the intuitive and psychic realms. This is the
stuff dreams are made on. And like dreams the
imagery we find here may inspire us or torment
us. Understanding the moon requires looking
within. Our own bodily rhythms are echoed in
this luminary that circles the earth every
month and reflects the sun in its progress.
Listening to those rhythms may produce visions
and lead you towards insight. The Moon is a
force that has legends attached to it. It
carries with it both romance and insanity.
Moonlight reveals itself as an illusion and it
is only those willing to work with the force of
dreams that are able to withstand this
reflective light. Image from: Stevee Postman.
http://www.stevee.com/

Which Tarot Card Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Kind of Soul?

December 3, 2005

Interesting:

You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you awy from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all… But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Weird Articles After a Weird Night

The Stranger was just browsing around the World Wide Web this morning and found several interesting articles. A friend was just commenting how it seems that most of the headlines for the season to be jolly seems to be focused on executions and/or deaths. Sad but true, anyhow the articles I cam across had the following headlines:

• If you wear jeans to work every day, you could lose as much as two pounds a year. Find out the science! [click]
• Is your job on the “sexiest job” list? It isn’t money that makes your job sexy in the eyes of others. It’s something far more powerful and awe-inspiring. Click to find out what it is and the top 10 most sexy jobs. [click]
• Sexsomnia [click]
• Lawsuit over ape’s ‘nipple fetish’ settled [click]

So I guess, in the most basic sense of it, the human race still has laughter or strangeness as it best medicine. Or will it just boil down to some sarcasm of the human soul rebelling against the stagnation of having nothing more interesting than a repetitive cycle of learning and relearning. After-all, a buddhic reply from Ms. Weather states that, “We keep continuing this cycle up until we have fully learned the lesson.”

So Ms. Weather, is it time to break the cycle? Take flight then?

Sandbox

December 2, 2005

To my sandbox playmate, I miss you and I still love you. Russia had it all the last time, but then there’s still this funny feeling that this lifetime hasn’t been quite fulfilled yet.

As a child I loved the sandbox, it meant a certain comfort - a nation of my own, sovereign. It included enough dreams and enough space to create and recreate reality(ies). It had enough sand to make castles and enough space to be free. The sandbox had all the elements alchemists talked about: earth, fire, air, water, dreams, passion and love - where you say? Well it all begins in a little child play that forms the mind into a fortress of ideas, all encompassing. When one steps into the sandbox, everything around stops making sense, from a child to a buddha, a doubting thomas to a zealous paul - the sandbox (can’t help repeating this) just had it all. There is also a certain comfort in the sandbox’s limitation. How the litte, how reality seemed to only extend up till where the sandpile runs out. How this little boundary makes sense but does not bother is into a frenzy of limitations. A sandbox if you have never been in one, is your tiny little universes where you can be yourself, honest, bare and naked. What you did and what you brought was accepted, a bucket, a shovel and few action figures. A shovel, flip flops and flags. I cannot help but remember how you sat on steps thinking, when age took us away - we still had heaven in a glass, tiny umbrellas covering. Did you keep those tiny umbrellas by the way? You kept my soul.

By A. Pushkin

If I walk the noisy streets,
Or enter a many thronged church,
Or sit among the wild young generation,
I give way to my thoughts.

I say to myself: the years are fleeting,
And however many there seem to be,
We must all go under the eternal vault,
And someone’s hour is already at hand.

When I look at a solitary oak
I think: the patriarch of the woods.
It will outlive my forgotten age
As it outlived that of my grandfathers’.

If I caress a young child,
Immediately I think: farewell!
I will yield my place to you,
For I must fade while your flower blooms.

Each day, every hour
I habitually follow in my thoughts,
Trying to guess from their number
The year which brings my death.

And where will fate send death to me?
In battle, in my travels, or on the seas?
Or will the neighbouring valley
Receive my chilled ashes?

And although to the senseless body
It is indifferent wherever it rots,
Yet close to my beloved countryside
I still would prefer to rest.

And let it be, beside the grave’s vault
That young life forever will be playing,
And impartial, indifferent nature
Eternally be shining in beauty.

– Views of St. Petersburg in the 19th Century

No longer under cover of darkness, we stepped out of the sandbox, afraid and hoping we made responsible choices. Responsibility is a funny word, its etymology ultimately relates to Latin respondere (to reply). Funny in the sense that it also pantomimes in direct proportion: Free Will (see article on: Moral Responisbilty [link]) - hence ex nihilo nihil fit. Nothing comes from nothing, a dogmatic conundrum especially when argued that creation was from a nothing, but then are we to argue this in a metaphysical context of syntax? Bordering on the sacred AUM sound and the sandbox rant may even lead to quantum physics, when all we wanted to tackle was the intentions of being in the moment, fully conscious and alive. And during the sandbox days as a child, I maintained in my journals a quote by Alan Watts:

“No work for love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
And the entire statement may be taken as a good practice of Faith or what A. Watts called the Wisdom of Insecurity:

There is no formula for generating the authentic warmth of love. It cannot be copied. You cannot talk yourself into it or rouse it by straining at the emotions or by dedicating yourself solemnly to the service of mankind. Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself. This conviction will not come through condemnations, through hating oneself, through calling self love bad names in the universe. It comes only in the awareness that one has no self to love.

Since in this sense, a presupposition is somehow taken in as a form of Faith, of having come from something - and I don’t believe in conversion and arguments in the realm of the intangible. Hence let us just be comfortable in knowing:

“The self is a contrived collection of attachments, beliefs, and expectations. To exist, the self requires our full attention, like a movie requires the light inside the projector. When the light is turned off, the movie ceases. Stop the show and move into the moment.” “The power of memories and expectations is such that for most human beings, the past and the future are not as real, but rather more real than the present.”

July 15, 2004 - Watts

Like the Chants of Metta (Pali Buddhists Texts): May our decisions then in the now take us to places where are minds and hearts are truly alive and happy. Laughter, tears, smiles and whispers are all part of the moment fully expressed. May we never be questioned, never be thrown behind bars for expressing our passion. May our flights and dreams be one, in this way we may always be together. Blessed BE!

Om Mani Pädme Hum
*note: Gen Rinpoche, in his commentary on the Meaning of said: “The mantra Om Mani Pädme Hum is easy to say yet quite powerful, because it contains the essence of the entire teaching. When you say the first syllable Om it is blessed to help you achieve perfection in the practice of generosity, Ma helps perfect the practice of pure ethics, and Ni helps achieve perfection in the practice of tolerance and patience. Päd, the fourth syllable, helps to achieve perfection of perseverance, Me helps achieve perfection in the practice of concentration, and the final sixth syllable Hum helps achieve perfection in the practice of wisdom…”

Amused at This:

November 27, 2005

Your Birthdate: June 21

With side comments in parenthesis… You’re a restless rebel with an unpredictable nature. Bright but unbridled, you tend to seek out wild experiences over new ideas. People are frustrated by your great potential, but you love your unconventional life (i do!). You’re a heartbreaker. People get attached to you, and then you’re gone. (what the F#$^%!) Your strength: Your thirst for adventure Your weakness: Not taking time for slow pleasures (i do!) Your power color: Hot pink (uhm really?) Your power symbol: Figure eight (whoa!) Your power month: March

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

No Pictures Please

Litle did we know that the exploration of getting to know ourselves involved a little of each and every little pain imaginable. A pandora’s box of all the vile and dreary - yet when you are just about to give up, at the very moment the pain is really unbearable you find a little bit of hope.

“I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”
-William Faulkner, speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1950

The day started innocently with a short but sweet delivery of a song quote: “Do you like watchin’ puddles gather rain?” (from the Blind Melons). Followed by a series of disconnected but shareworthy life experiences. The friend who received that quote suddenly lost a home, a daughter and a previous life. She was left with a shirt on her back and couple of insignificant change to be able to get her one busride anywhere within the metro. Dropped in with a stick of fag but without a lighter she said shee needed to talk. The stranger then proceeds to hear her out and even introduce her to a couple of friends, a toast and a couple of bottles after - conversation mellowed to a glass stain reminder of the infinite, the realm of Morpheus the king. A hug and a few observers, quick glances of wiping tears away was broken by the proud and the brave cops of the city. Jumping forward with a verdict that we were in the middle of an act, a scandalous intimation that credited a short ride to the barangay hall and later the police precinct. Totally unbelievable but the Stranger with Ms. Weather just sat it out with the best of smiles and the humblest sales pitch ever in our lives. The four or more hours of ’slammer’ scene finally ended with the cops begging us to help them out with their image, the best price for a calling card, a new design for their business cards even and of course a web site for their ‘uhm’ purposes - at which Randy comments, “That site will be difficult! It involves a lot of commerce and of course e-commerce.“

Anyhow, my favorite Russian writer has this to say about prison and society:

“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering the prisons.” -Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The House of the Dead

My apologies for those who waited, those who had to carry my things back without knowing where I have gone off to. It was a weird meditation on freedom, sitting by allowing your spirit to be manhandled while staring at the season’s decors. A motif of ‘Separate Realities‘ (”A warrior lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting.” - Carlos Castaneda) with the Christian God’s silver fleece - Christmas twinkle in the not so silent night. Sitting, waiting, smiling we realized the Christmas was around the bend and we were none the better for the magic it still supposed to cast.

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”~ Confucius

A Song for No One

November 24, 2005

The stranger was stuck on this song for awhile: last post (A Song for No One). It moved the air with a strange sadness, a strange melancholy - yet was very hopeful. Let me correct my previous post first:

Song for No One By: Ian Broudie

From night sky’s dressed in cloud Morning came your taste in my mouth I like the way that your hair falls down in your eyes

And you blush when you smile, when sleep becomes your sign and far away fly I love the way that you stare when the sleep fills your eyes

So yesterday has gone, who knows tomorrow may bring all we’ll desire Tomorrow, bring the sun

Kiss the world with fingers crossed I kiss the world with fingers crossed

I’ve been praised, I’ve been cursed, I’ve been blamed and I’ve won and I’ve lost

On ways to thaw your heart the future glides I hope the serpents in the tide are all gone What’s done is done

A song for no one’s in my hand A song they’ll never understand ’til I have gone And tomorrow brings the sun

Should I simply be listening to Rivermaya’s ‘Balisong’?

Your face lights up the sky on the highway. Someday, you’ll share your world with me someday. You mesmerize me with diamond eyes; I try to fool myself to think I’ll be alright. But I am losing all control - My mind, my heart, my body and my soul

Never in my life have I been more sure, So come on up to me and close the door. Nobody’s made me feel this way before; You’re everything I wanted and more.

Unlike the bravery and courage of in her friendster blog: Sweet Syncopation. I have to agree with her, to catch the dillema before it creates too much ripple. I’d want to tell you dear friend how you have kept me alive - and for that alone I am eternally grateful. I have been non-existant as a friend, I know that and I will have yet to come out of my shell. Give me courage… let me entertain the uncertainty and cover it with fairytales, recover and dream. No I have not yet commited to staying in another reality, another person’s life - not just yet, wait till I tell you what happened after the weather changed.

To speak or not to; where to begin. The way dilemmas I’m finding myself in. For all I know you only see me as a friend. I try to tell myself wake up fool; this fairy tale’s got to end.

Still I have to kiss the world with fingers crossed, a thin line of sanity escaping the insanity that I choose. This time around something’s got to give. The tiny dance of rain falling covers what I wish to convey, I still speak in rhymes, in painful allegories of the abstract - to maintain the uncertain certainties? A suspension of disbelief? A mask for the pain? For whatever reason there is simply no rhyme in the Stranger’s life…
but then a glimpse of hope. A flicker of light - for the first time since I last met that soul.

Now…

on to the maddening and ever lovable Global Warming:

You, who is most dedicated, I owe you one
I know I am all about the flying
all about the dreaming
but, I know I can watch the sunsets
listen to the fall of rain
stop and pause - in parks
some beautiful and other not
there is so much more in this story
we have found ourselves in…

midsummer spelled

November 21, 2005

from: http://metaatem.net/words/

True Love Recycled

November 15, 2005

I try never to retain the same persona in my different blogs, but then I often find myself in a crossroad - a temptation which my friend Sandy calls, mental masturbation. Let me then recycle a mindset often thrown awry, depressed yet pregnant with the promise of a future yet to be discovered. A wise man often knows his boundaries, in this boundaries he creates realities, expands within limitations and from there break on through the other side.

So here it is again, from a poet who won the Noble prize:

TRUE LOVE
By: Wislawa Szymborska

True love. Is it normal
is it serious, is it practical?
What does the world get from two people
who exist in a world of their own?

Placed on the same pedestal for no good reason,
drawn randomly from millions but convinced
it had to happen this way - in reward for what?
   For nothing.
The light descends from nowhere.
Why on these two and not on others?
Doesn’t this outrage justice? Yes it does.
Doesn’t it disrupt our painstakingly erected principles,
and cast the moral from the peak? Yes on both accounts.

Look at the happy couple.
Couldn’t they at least try to hide it,
fake a little depression for their friends’ sake?
Listen to them laughing - its an insult.
The language they use - deceptively clear.
And their little celebrations, rituals,
the elaborate mutual routines -
it’s obviously a plot behind the human race’s back!

It’s hard even to guess how far things might go
if people start to follow their example.
What could religion and poetry count on?
What would be remembered? What renounced?
Who’d want to stay within bounds?

True love. Is it really necessary?
Tact and common sense tell us to pass over it in silence,
like a scandal in Life’s highest circles.
Perfectly good children are born without its help.
It couldn’t populate the planet in a million years,
it comes along so rarely.

Let the people who never find true love
keep saying that there’s no such thing.

Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.

Fox Hole Kid

November 13, 2005

Fox Hole Kid
Originally uploaded by midsummer. How does one even think of revenge when you are so near the finish line. I often wonder how it feels to have the enemy on site during times of war. How the hesitation should feel before the trigger is pulled.

Jim Morrison recited in an American Prayer:

…
Strangers in the mud

These mutants, blood-meal
for the plant that’s plowed
they are waiting to take us into
the severed garden

Do you know how pale & wanton thrillful
comes death on a stranger hour
unannounced, unplanned for

like a scaring over-friendly guest you’ve brought to bed

Death makes angels of us all
& gives us wings
where we had shoulders
smooth as raven’s claws

And smooth as raven’s claws, here a poem from Grantland Rice:

Two Sides of War (All Wars)

“All wars are planned by older men
In council rooms apart,
Who call for greater armament
And map the battle chart.

But out along the shattered field
Where golden dreams turn gray,
How very young the faces were
Where all the dead men lay.

Portly and solemn in their pride,
The elders cast their vote
For this or that, or something else,
That sounds the martial note.

But where their sightless eyes stare out
Beyond life’s vanished toys,
I’ve noticed nearly all the dead
Were hardly more than boys.”

Why war? The Stranger doesn’t know just yet…
…birds of prey, birds of prey, flying high…

Downtime?

November 12, 2005

Is something wrong with the servers of i.ph? I can’t seeem to publish new settings for my chosen template. Darned - its goin to be said if it’s like this for a really really great blogging site. Reminds me how bad blogger used to be years ago, oh well nothing to do but wait.

patience please

[midsummer.i.ph] is about to make use of this for insane rants… if my mind will only slow down for a bit. Do visit me at: puresubstance.com or fullview: postcards from a stranger.

See you around!

Come back soon to see a great i.ph blog, and some cool pictures. Better yet, go to www.i.ph and get one for yourself.