Mira Prabhu's Blog, page 15
September 10, 2017
What’s Mother Earth up to?
Some of us are so absorbed in the endless saga of mini-me that we don’t take into account the fact that we are connected to the Cosmos…thanks for a great post!
What’s Mother Earth Up to?
The mind boggles with recent disasters. Hurricane Harvey drenching parts of Texas, Irma not to be outdone in the Caribbean and Florida. Fires in California. Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. At least two beautiful natural areas, Yosemite in California, and the gorge containing Multinomah Falls in Oregon, and an 8.0 earthquake in the ocean near Mexico and Guatemala with a threat of tsunami. The only thing left is a volcanic eruption.
Houston is probably not alone in its construction of a concrete floor allowing water no place to go but into buildings. An area, which Hurricane Andrew hit over 20 years ago has been populated with domino-arranged high rise buildings. The potential for damage and loss of life much worse.
I wonder if our divided country is up to the challenge of long term planning.
On the lighter side, did you know?
An elderly…
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September 7, 2017
SEX, DEATH AND SIGMUND FREUD
[image error]Freud opened the minds of millions of Westerners to the hidden codes that determine our behavior. I read his work from time to time as a young woman, and one particular novel I plunged into as a teenager particularly fascinated me since it reduced his teachings to the primal urges of sex and death.
Now, in the Eastern view, these powerful drives stem from the lowest chakra in the human system, known as the root chakra or mooladhara. Yes, it is critically important to understand the root chakra, because our mooladhara drives us to create a life based solely on surviving and thriving in the relative world. If we do not realize this, we are condemned to spin senselessly around in the vicious cycle of samsara for eons, never realizing we are far more than our material body, mind, emotions or possessions.
Eastern mystics and sages authoritatively inform us that our true and immortal nature is existence-awareness and bliss (sat-chit-ananda). The way to knowing this can be beyond arduous and can encompass striving for eons. But once this sinks in, then we are definitely on the inner road to peace and bliss.
The yogis saw reality in deep meditation, and thereby transcended the mind, which is, as Ramana Maharshi stated so simply, only a bundle of thoughts. And yet it is more powerful and creative than we can even imagine. Remember that the hydrogen bomb, for instance, the most powerful weapon of destruction (I don’t keep up with modern weapons of mass destruction, so perhaps I am behind the times in this matter) began with a simple thought, an idea in someone’s mind. Nevertheless, compared to the grandeur of who we really are, the Self, which includes both manifest and unmanifest, the mind is a mewling puking self-absorbed infant and should, ideally, be used only as an instrument to help us care for ourselves in relative life. The first major and often fatal mistake we make is in worshiping it as a god, and forgetting that it is only the servant of spirit.
[image error]It is not advisable to fight with the mind; instead, the wise seeker simply steps back and watches its antics, like an indulgent grandfather watching his little grandson building a sand castle on the beach. The old man knows that the tide will soon come in and wash away that beautiful piece of art, he understands that the nature of samsara is ephemeral, but he also knows that his grandson is enjoying himself for the moment, and so he allows him to play. (Grandfather = Self; child = Egoic Mind). But the time comes when we must stop playing the game of Lila and begin to transcend the mind, for, being a creature of duality, and while it can provide us with immense pleasure as it frolics in the world, it can also cause us such intense misery and suffering that it even drives some unfortunate humans to commit suicide. Best to treat it like a valuable servant and employ its incredible resources to help us turn inward and discover the true source of happiness and peace that is our birthright.
Greetings from Arunachala, Shiva the Destroyer in the form of a hill of fire and light, who vows to help us in this awesome task of taming the drunken wild elephant of the mind, so we can bask in the glorious ecstatic peace 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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September 5, 2017
“A writer is a world trapped in a person.” #writing #amwriting #writerslife
I agree – when I was a kid I would gaze at my father’s crammed bookshelves and see countless worlds….thanks for sharing a great post, Chris Graham…
There is no better curse than to be a writer.
Why constrain yourself to one world and one life, when you can build thousands for yourself?
With imagination you can climb impossible mountains, fly dragons, and win wars.
You can die, and be reborn.
You can solve great mysteries, or create them.
Make people, and then make them hate one another or fall in love.
Send them out on perilous quests that they might, at your whim, win or lose.
You can go with them, or decide to watch them from afar.
Yes, there really is no better curse than to be a writer.
September 4, 2017
August 31, 2017
A SOUPED-UP FERRARI WITH THE BRAKES ON!!!
[image error]“You know what?” he said as he studied my astrological chart. “You’re like a souped-up Ferrari with the brakes on.” He laughed at my puzzled expression. “Well, I say that because you’ve got some great planets on your side, but equally tough ones countering their beneficial effects. The trick to beating all of this negativity is to accept that your suffering emanates from your own past karma. YOU have created this scenario—so don’t waste precious time blaming others. Instead focus on melting down all that blocks you from evolving into the powerful woman you were meant to be.”
“What are these brakes?” I asked nervously.
“You know what they are,” he said. “You’ve even admitted them to me. But don’t worry, I rarely see such potential for transformation. You’re going to make it.” I took his words seriously—because a friend had assured me that this man was the best vedic astrologer then working in America. This brilliant man told me other stuff that blew me away too—and a couple of years later, one of his predictions literally saved my life.
The brakes he mentioned were self-destructive habits I’d picked up to shield myself from the suffering I saw all around me. Being hyper-empathetic and hypersensitive, not just to my own pain but to that of every human and animal I encountered, living could be so unbearable that over time I’d found many ways to bury my head in the sand. But, as we all must realize at some point or another, one can assume the ostrich pose only for so long—eventually the pain gets so bad that we are forced to change. Especially if one seeks peace, one has no option but to face reality head-on, learn ways to transcend our perceptions, and merge with the substratum of our being, which sages inform us authoritatively is nothing less than existence-awareness and bliss.
[image error]Simply knowing what my brakes were, however, was not enough—I had to suffer a lot more before I put an end to the cycles of self-destructive behavior I’d manifested as a shaky teenager. What helped me out of the rut was a willingness to digest what I was learning from many great gurus; yes, it was the ancient teachings of the East that finally imbued me with an unshakable self-confidence in who I was beyond ephemeral body and mind, and which also gave me a goal—“moksha” or permanent liberation from suffering.
I’m writing this today because a dear friend has been telling me about her inability to let go of her own difficult past. Her mother was a narcissist; for the first nine years of her life, since her father was in the US Army at the time and posted all over, my friend, an only child, was raised by this messed-up and angry mother—a mother who had no compunction in insisting that she was nothing but rubbish and that she wished she’d never given birth to her.
My friend is now in her 70s and despite constant inner work, the demon of low-self-esteem still haunts her. She asked for advice on how to be permanently rid of her pain. “You have to take off the brakes,” I said. “You have to digest all that you are studying and make it a living inner truth. Then you will know that who you are is far more than that frightened little girl who believed her mother’s damaging lies.”
[image error]Most of us who have suffered greatly have these invisible brakes. If we really want to be happy, which is our true nature, we must begin by acknowledging that we are blocked. Then we figure out the best way to take off those brakes and so we learn to fly, fabulously free, down the highway that leads to higher consciousness.
Greetings from Arunachala, Shiva in the form of a hill of fire and light who promises to help us to destroy all that blocks us from knowing that we are in truth nothing less than the immortal and blissful 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.
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August 27, 2017
Solitude is in the Mind
Wherever you go, there you are!!! Yes, if we are truly committed to evolution, we can do the work anywhere – thanks for this great post, Harsh!
Ramana Maharshi often spoke about the true nature of solitude. He has explained a number of times that silence, peace, and solitude are not a function of our environment but our mental state. Indeed solitude is in the mind and not to be found somewhere outside.
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August 25, 2017
Graceful Dance
Atul Ranchod is a friend and a great poet…. please check him out – he just put out his first book of poetry…
GRACEFUL DANCE
by Atul Ranchod
Each leaf falling,
My heart aching,
Accepting trunk, branch and root.
My tiny contribution
Is falling into the currents
Of this magical wind,
For the time I’m still breathing,
The universe is caring.
I surrender to a wisdom
Beyond my tiny nature.
For I have felt
The unending breeze
Of the most elegant wind.
Grateful,
Heartful,
Graceful.
Forever entwined
In this dance sublime.
KILL YOUR DARLINGS
[image error]This is serious advice for serious writers—to kill our darlings. Sounds brutal, no? Well, actually, what it means is that sometimes we come up with great material, but, in the context of the whole piece of work, say a short story or novel, this terrific piece of writing does not work to create a vivid continuous dream that the reader can resonate with. It hurts to do this, yes, that particular piece may have been celestially inspired, but sorry, it ruins the whole and therefore, once we have stepped from our opus and decided that it sticks out like a sore thumb or ruins the thread of the plot, we must be willing to commit word murder. A sacrifice of the brilliant part to the cosmic whole.
Fortunately today we have computers—I often marvel at what great writers in the past did. Imagine writing War & Peace with ink and paper and then trying to kill or rework sections of it—my god, how lucky we are today! We can cut our darling out of the current piece and store it safely in another file so we can use her later, in a place where she does work. And it strikes me that this advice is valuable anywhere, even as we begin the intense and often lonesome journey into the spiritual heart. We must kill our darlings, all those ideas, habits, dreams, concepts and conditioning that no longer mesh with our present map of reality. And we must make sure they stay dead, by burning their very roots, so that they do not rise up again with a vengeance to ruin our perfect plan for blissful liberation.
[image error]Those of us on the path of jnana have heard Ramana Maharshi say that the mind is just a bundle of thoughts. Ah, such a relief to reduce that monster that caused us both great suffering and joy to an instrument we can comprehend and therefore handle. But in the realm of thought too we have our darlings, habits that we may have started in a previous lifetime, or early in the current one. For instance, even as a girl I realized that my rebellion against the conservative world I was raised in would exact a great price—that I would also have to make do without the usual supports that women who toe the party line have access to. As a result, my mind must have decided to take charge in its own eccentric way and as soon as I awoke, it would list all the worries and problems I would have to confront that day. Which is why the seeker of peace is urged to give up being busy all the time so that we have less reason to think.
[image error]Last night I woke up at 3 am and found my mind dwelling on a vexing issue…of course it went on and on, spinning its usual nonsensical scenarios. And I wondered briefly – what the hell? What is the use of all the inner work I do? And then I realized something: that as a result of all I do, I could watch the mind clearly and laugh at its antics – what’s more, I know how to stop it, and how cool is that? Ramana advises us to just kill an unnecessary thought and its not that difficult; and Nisargadatta says that because all thought comes from a false (unreal) base, it is false too. Both these gurus are brilliant especially when you use them in tandem. Its never the teacher for me, except initially, but the teaching. Teachers will come and go and many, if they have not fully burned down the ego, have feet of clay. I accept this completely, but I cleave to the gold of the teachings.
Greeting from Arunachala, Shiva in the form of a hill of fire and light, who vows to help us let go of all our vices and attachments so that we can realize that we are no less than 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.
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August 18, 2017
DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?
[image error]My father taught me a powerful lesson growing up; I watched many a time as he out-intimidated the legion of official and governmental bullies that routinely harass all Indians and make millions of lives miserable. “Do you know who I am” he would roar, and the would-be bully would literally quake with fear and trepidation. And he did this with genuine anger, because this kind of official misbehavior personally offended him. He stood up not just for himself—in his prime, he was a wealthy, powerful, articulate and educated man with immense influence—but for those with lesser resources, and even for the illiterate poor who had no option but to bow down to these horrible apologies for man so that they could get their work done. Since survival was a burning issue for many of these people, and the bullies knew they held the winning card, most often there was no competition.
Recently I was reminded of how the Indian poor in particular are hounded, harassed and cheated when my maid came crying to me to inform me that the local police had extracted a huge bribe from her laborer brother. Her brother had beaten up his wife’s lover and brought her back home after a sensational elopement. I told my maid I would go with her to the Collector’s office and help her to make an official complaint against these men—something I would hate to do since I dislike offices in general, and the men who run them even more; but I felt so awful at the thought of this poor man being bullied and robbed that I felt I had to do my bit. And what did she say? Gave me a shrug and said it wouldn’t work, that everyone was corrupt and all the family could do in such a situation was to suck up this huge crime and carry on. I yelled at her and said it was because of this passive attitude of the voiceless masses that things have gotten to this ghastly state, but of course she did not understand where I was coming from and did not accept my offer.
[image error]Now yesterday I had a situation that I had to confront. A man I had hired to do some important work was playing his usual passive-aggressive role and harassing me by demanding that I go to his office a hundred times to keep tabs on the status of my work, and by not keeping his word, which is a major crime in my book. Nor was he picking up the phone or responding to emails. Since I had dealt with this same tedious scenario for a couple of years, I decided enough was enough. So once again I went to his office but this time I blasted him in front of his employees. And guess what I said in addition to many other things? Do you know who I AM? Only this time I wasn’t referring to who I was in the relative world but to who I AM in the Absolute sense—pure existence, awareness of bliss, free of desire and fear in my ultimate being and beyond all human machinations. Of course he did not know this, but he was cowed, begged my pardon, and promised to finish the job promptly and efficiently. You see, local men do not encounter women like me who are capable of standing up for their rights; I honestly feel more women should be encouraged to do this.
Yes, this is what happens when one is willing to stand up to bullies—they back down and are reduced to a quivering mass of fear themselves. Call it Instant Karma. Of course sometimes things backfire, and we should be careful and choose our battles carefully, but we are always the winner in the sense that we are choosing to be a spiritual warrior. By doing what we believe is the right thing to do, regardless of the consequences, we grow enormously.
In my personal life, I refuse to deal with bullies and passive-aggressive crooks and conmen who think that because you are a woman and, in this case, someone they consider a clueless foreigner, they can get away with murder. When I returned home, I realized I did not have a shred of regret for having stood up so fiercely to him; instead I realized I had done the best thing for all concerned, which is the eastern definition of a good act. I had stood up for my right to be treated with courtesy and respect, and I had forced him to look at his own bad behavior, and I hope, as a result, he will be more loving to those who rely on him for help.
[image error]Over the decades, in East and West, I have encountered many, men, women and children, who sink down passively when they are mistreated. My plea to these people is to stop doing this immediately, no matter what happens. The consequences of cowardly submission are varied and many, of course, but mainly, you lose respect for yourself and joy begins to drain out of you. The Bhagavad Gita is a great teacher for me—especially when Lord Krishna urges his kinsman, the glorious Pandava Prince Arjuna, to fight the good fight, regardless of the consequences. It is a teaching I received many years ago from a beautiful yoga guru who turned me into a teacher myself (I mean hatha yoga); his teaching was so pure and authentic that it awakened my passion for Indian wisdom (which is really perennial wisdom that belongs to all humanity) and it set me on a path that has led me to where I AM today, in the capable and loving hands of great gurus who prove to me on an ongoing basis that my essence is nothing less than pure fearless bliss.
Greetings from Arunachala, Shiva the Destroyer in the form of a hill of fire and light, whose sacred vow is to destroy all the fear-bound shackles that block us from knowing that we are the eternal and glorious 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.
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August 13, 2017
Monday Funnies…
Humor – what would we do without it? In the worst situations, it is laughing about our precarious life as humans that can make us lighten up and fast – thanks for sharing, Chris Graham!
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog
My thanks to the Tasmanian Devil for these:
.
AND REMEMBER:
.
Good friends are like stars.
You don’t always see them but you always know they are there
.
BLESSED ARE THE CRACKED FOR THEY ARE
THE ONES WHO LET IN THE LIGHT!
.
And remember: life is like a roll of toilet paper.
The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
