Mira Prabhu's Blog, page 10
January 3, 2018
The Magic Of Palm Reading
On my palm, as a couple of Vedic Astologers have told me, I have the Trident of Shani (Saturn) – which accounts for my magnificent obsession with the inner path – now please read this great post by Harsh Luthar…
My father was a professor of mathematics.
Ever since I was a child, I remember my father reading palms for fun and entertainment. He read palms on demand and instantaneously!
No was ever refused. Someone could come to him off the street and ask to have their palm read. My father would stop immediately, hold the persons hands and look at all the lines on both palms and give his reading.
My father was always positive about what he said and was careful to couch anything negative by emphasizing the power of prayer and the role of will power. His readings were optimistic and he was very enthusiastic about communicating how destiny could be overcome by hard work and sincerely praying to God for help.
My father motivated people. He told them to not focus on their weaknesses and worry, but to enhance their strengths through mantra meditation and prayer.
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January 1, 2018
The Melodramas That Surround US
” US
JANUARY 29, 2017
JWMCDONOUGH2014
AWAKENING, BUDDHISM, KIRTAN, SWAMI AJAYA, ZEN MASTER SEUNG SAHN
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Giant Buddha statue outside the Japanese Temple, Bodh Gaya, India
“To become awakened, one must give up his identification with the melodramas that surround him.” Swami Ajaya
Giant Buddha statue outside the Japanese Temple, Bodh Gaya, India
“To become awakened, one must give up his identification with the melodramas that surround him.” Swami Ajaya
This one-liner of wisdom came across my path via the spiritual-quote-a-day tear-off calendar near the coffee pot at work. This calendar, which appears year after year at this gathering spot, gleans wisdom from across traditions; sometimes I find them helpful, often times not. As a Zen practitioner, I tend to find many of the quotes either too wordy or too esoteric, but this one struck me like an arrow, as any good teaching should. Definitely a keeper, it went on the bulletin board next to my work station after its designated time had expired. That’s a great place for it because, like all good teachings, I forget it every single day. Spiritual practice is a process of continual remembering.
Friday night was a very…
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December 30, 2017
“You just have got to be brave enough to start…” Tom Stoppard QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
You just have got to be brave enough to start without knowing where you are going.
Tom Stoppard
I feel that when I began writing, I had a need to know more about the play before I got into it. I think that’s the way I was thinking. But my actual experience is that the best way to find out what the structure is, is by writing the play out laterally. You just have got to be brave enough to start without knowing where you are going.
Tom Stoppard
December 28, 2017
A LEGEND IN HER OWN MIND
[image error]Last night I had one of my long dreams—often they are complete stories and quite fascinating in their twists and turns. The star of this one was a woman I know who, by dint of hard work and her husband’s ability to take enormous financial risks, has moved up from a lower economic status to become a multi-millionaire. Unfortunately, although she maintains a simple façade, she is blown away by her own rise; although she continues to be miserly and harsh in her treatment of the poor and the sick, she will not fail to let you know that she and her family have been specially favored by the material gods.
In this dream, she was a great dancer and the members of her family were her greatest fans. I too was mightily impressed by the performance she put on for us at her opulent home, simply because I did not see her as an artiste. After the show, I mentioned that I would have to practice hard for the show I was planning to give, whereupon her husband admonished me sternly, warning me that I should not aspire to greatness, since talent like his wife’s was rare. His children seconded his warning with somber nods.
I woke up and pondered this dream; I have been doing some intense work to burn down my own ego and, as a result lots of stuff is being stirred up from the subconscious, so it can be cleared away. Long dreams are now part of my routine and I enjoy them because they teach me so much; but I never hang on to them—I quickly extract the message and dump the dream so I can move on.
[image error]This one, I realized, was all about the ego and its stranglehold on those humans who simply will not realize that all their conditioning, attachments, beliefs about themselves are due to egoic projection. This woman, I sense, has a low opinion of herself beneath the puffed-up exterior—and so she has an extra need to show off. And her family colludes in this illusion—which is why genuine seekers are urged to move away from those who support the false matrix in order to protect their own interests. Only in solitude do we have the time to deeply consider the nature of reality, and the inconceivably powerful grip the ego has over our mind and senses. I have come to believe that giving ourselves this gift of peace and solitude, away from the madding crowd, is the sweetest thing we can do for our own evolution.
Greetings from Arunachala, Shiva the Destroyer in the form of a hill of fire and light, who vows to destroy all that is illusory so we can experience the wisdom and bliss of our true nature!
NEW!!! My latest book – COPPER MOON OVER PATALIPUTRA – just went live on Jun 30th. Read all about it and on how to get your own copy here.
If you’ve enjoyed reading my posts, please also check out my BOOKS and LINKS.
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December 21, 2017
A RADICAL POINT OF VIEW
[image error]There’s a middle-aged sadhu here in Tiruvannamalai whom I often give a ride to on my way to and from the Ashram. He’s skinny, bespectacled and a speed walker; he foots it everywhere, from morning to night, getting his free food at the various Ashrams, and then finding a quiet place to do his meditation and study. He tells me he practices yoga everyday too, and most passionately. In his frayed shoulder bag he carries cheap packets of biscuits and feeds the stray dogs he encounters on his daily travels. I’ve known him now for close to eight years now and he tells me he prays for me every single day, which makes me inordinately happy.
Recently he mentioned that he felt enormously blessed to be able to do what he does. Penniless and dependent on the largesse of local Ashrams for his sustenance and clothes (he wears only an ochre lungi), he is always happy and grateful. Laughing like a child, he told me why: because he knows that eventually his road will lead him to moksha, while the rich folks who pass him by on the Girivalam Road in their fancy automobiles are still lost in the relative dream. Who knows how much suffering they will have to endure before it dawns upon them that their present way of living, with its focus on accumulating assets they cannot take with them when their body dies, finally takes root?
[image error]He sighed at this point, with genuine compassion. Then they will have to turn back, he added sadly, and begin their journey on the path that leads to the Spiritual Heart. And this is why he smiles when these “rich” humans stop their cars and hand him a few rupees, believing they are being oh so generous to a homeless wanderer.
Greetings from Arunachala, Shiva the Destroyer, who vows to destroy the intricate web of illusion that Maya, Cosmic Enchantress, spins around us, – so that we may finally know that we are the blissful and immortal Self!
NEW!!! My latest book – COPPER MOON OVER PATALIPUTRA – just went live on Jun 30th. Read all about it and on how to get your own copy here.
If you’ve enjoyed reading my posts, please also check out my BOOKS and LINKS.
Follow Blog via Email
Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Click the buttons below to SHARE if you liked this post.
Note: The REBLOG option is available only when viewing the post in full. Click on the post-title above if don’t see the REBLOG button below.
December 18, 2017
15 Things You’ll Understand If You Love Reading in Bed
I LOVE reading in bed – and have done so since I could read…
When we say there’s no place like home, what we really mean is there’s no place to read like your bed. Whether it’s a lazy weekend or a late night turning pages, the coziest place to read is underneath the covers. Check out these hilarious images you’ll understand if your bed is your ideal reading spot.
1. You know what this word means.
9. You look forward to bedtime reading all day.
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December 17, 2017
13 Book Dedications Guaranteed to Make You Laugh Out Loud
ha ha ha…i play it safe – i always dedicate my books to my gurus. If you don’t like the book, you can blame them!
Maybe you skip over them and dive right into the meat of a book, but if you take the time to look, there are some pretty amazing book dedications. While most are sweet, sincere, or inspiring, the dedications we’ve rounded up below are laugh-out-loud funny.
1. Psychos by Babe Walker
8. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
December 16, 2017
…how to choose the form your story will take…Doris Lessing QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
“I see every book as a problem that you have to solve. ” For me this is true – all the 3 novels in my Moksha Trilogy represented big issues that had confounded me and which I needed to solve. Thanks, Bridget Whelan.
I see every book as a problem that you have to solve. That is what dictates the form you use. It’s not that you say, ‘I want to write a science fiction book.’ You start from the other end, and what you have to say dictates the form of it.
Doris Lessing
December 9, 2017
…be your most powerful self…Laini Taylor QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
“Write with an imaginary machete strapped to your thigh!” Wow!!! I try to do that – by daring to speak openly about subjects that are either dismissed or ignored by most humans who are too scared to rock the boat, to shake up the status quo – and I encourage others to be just as direct and forceful – because we tend to waste so much precious time and energy ignoring the dinosaur curled up on the living room couch out of fear of what it might do when it awakens…thank you, Bridget Whelan, for sharing this…
Be an unstoppable force. Write with an imaginary machete strapped to your thigh. This is not wishy-washy, polite, drinking-tea-with-your-pinkie-sticking-out stuff. It’s who you want to be, your most powerful self. Write your books. Finish them, then make them better. Find the way. No one will make this dream come true for you but you.
Laini Taylor
December 7, 2017
Cezanne and the creative arts…ART FOR WRITERS
“…Cezanne wanted to get to the point where “sight” was also “touch”. He would take hours sometimes to put down a single stroke because each stroke needed to contain “the air, the light, the object, the composition, the character, the outline, and the style”. Read on…
I’m not going to write about what Paul Cezanne did with paint or his enormous influence on art because I know a lot of people reading this will have much greater appreciation of the contribution he made than I have, but I thought I’d share a few of his ideas.A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.
This is pretty similar to how the American poet Robert Frost saw a writer’s relationship to his or her work
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.
I’m indebted to Wikipedia (I admit it!!) for the following:
…(Cezanne) wanted to get to the point where “sight” was also “touch”. He would take hours sometimes to put down a single stroke because each stroke needed to contain “the air, the light, the object, the composition…
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