Mira Prabhu's Blog, page 17
July 26, 2017
The Nature of Joy
Joy is simply the glow of contentment devoid of longing.
Thanks, Harsh Luthar!
I have left all my practices,
and words of the wise
now sound like noises
in the city at lunch time.
On entering the heart of awareness,
I saw that
joy is simply the glow of contentment
devoid of longing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bee Stings, Bullies and Where Blame Really Belongs
As long as we have a body and mind and are mired in duality, we must use our discrimination to protect our fragile relative selves…be sweetness and light when it is appropriate, and roar like a tiger when you are bullied or harassed – keeping quiet does not serve anyone, either the victim nor the abuser. Thanks, Janni!
While I have heard you can catch more bees with honey than vinegar, I have to wonder about the life of the person who stated this because it is not always wise to be sweet as I have learned time and time again in trying to tolerate, maintain or repair relationships. Not all ships are created equal and not all relations are deserving of our loving kindness. This does not mean cruelty is in order either, simply that setting healthy boundaries or walking away is often the best choice to save ourselves. Staying in a situation that is unhealthy for us is the worst kind of punishment we could exact on our own psyche and well being but sometimes we find ourselves trapped in situations we could never have foreseen.
While I could include and discuss many relationships today I am going to talk about bullies. Where do they belong…
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July 22, 2017
Van Morrison – Bright Side of the Road
I used to love blasting Van Morrison on my car radio when I lived in south India….early one morning I was driving back from a party with my music blasting in my car when I saw a faint white blur before me – fortunately I veered just in time and missed a huge bullock! So this song, which was playing at the time, has some real significant for me…thank you for sharing, Jim!
Random Writings on the Bathroom Wall
I want to write about the air we breathe – Arundhati Roy QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
I read The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy) on a long plane flight from Bangalore to New York. I loved it. But recently I picked it up again and found I was uninterested. What happened? Well, for one thing I am no longer dazzled by good writing alone – I read to grow, and I enjoy spiritual messages that I can digest and keep. Perhaps this is the answer…however, many might consider AR’s work spiritual, for certainly she is (to me, and I am aware that many disagree) a Spiritual Warrior. It is the rare Indian woman who dares to take on the patriarchy; she could easily have lived out her life peacefully, considering the money she made from her book, but here she is, always fighting her beautiful battles, despite fierce male opposition…..bravo, Arundhati, and may your tribe (esp. in India) increase!!!
Of course, as a novelist, I never want to write about “issues” like “the Indian family.” What I want to write about is the air we breathe. These days, I feel that novels, I don’t know for what reason—maybe because of the speed and the way that books have to be sold—these days, novels are becoming kind of domesticated, you know? They have a title, and a team, and they are branded just like NGOs: you writing on gender, you writing on caste, you writing on whatever. But for me, the fact is that these are not “issues”—this is the air we breathe.
Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things July 17 2017 interview in The Nation
The Silent Shame of Suicide
In my first novel in the Moksha Trilogy, my protagonist’s guru warns her that shame and guilt are the weapons of the ego – hard to understand until you delve into the nature of the ego. Read Janni Styles’ excellent post on the shame of suicide….
Shame is a terrible thing. When you feel too ashamed to share how you are really feeling with anyone, it is a terrible dilemma to be in. Some of this shame I know too well myself from having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder since a physical assault in 2012 and being too ashamed since then to say so as if I had created the condition myself. People shame us with their love of all things sunny and funny as if being “real” and “depressed” or otherwise hurting is a sin. It is not.
Just today in the bank I was so proud of myself for speaking out. The line was 40 deep and I began to overwhelm and panic, started visibly shaking which prompted a staffer to come out from her desk and ask me if I was alright. No, I told her, I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and all…
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July 21, 2017
Sacred Or Profane
Sacred or Profane…check out Atul Ranchod’s marvelous poem here….
When patriarchy crystallized about five thousand years ago, the sacred women became “harlots,” “whores,” today’s “sluts.”
The patriarchal mind-set split the female archetype in two.
The “Madonna/whore” syndrome was invented by the patriarchal mind-set. It is a false splitting of the female. The “virgin/priestess,” which meant a woman who belonged to herself, was perverted into “prostitute” which means someone, a woman bought.
The chaste woman was turned into a drudge. She is someone who is owned. All women suffer I believe from this split. Inside ourselves we intuit the sacred sexual woman self. It’s here within our form.
– Starhawk
SACRED OR PROFANE
by Atul Ranchod
Sexual
Sensual
Sinuous
Righteous
Rebel
Wronged
Wheathered many a storm.
Judgements
Pedistles
Harlots
Priestesses.
Temptress
Godess
Intuitive creatures.
Feminism
Hatred
Such a wide selection.
Evolution continues
Regardless of misintepretations.
Human.
Human?
Human!
When will the human
See past man or woman?
Each caught in…
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July 20, 2017
ADVAITA IS NOT TWO
[image error]I am no scholar and tend to reduce the most sophisticated philosophy into easily digestible truths I can use in my daily life. Complication and complexity only keep me from going deep, I have discovered, and when ideas become simple, they also become fuel for the blissful enlightenment I seek.
If this ancient teaching is true, I often used to wonder, how then did such fierce individuality spring up, driven by insidious notions of ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘mine,’ along with the concomitant evils of competition, jealousy, demeaning others so we can shine as the sole jewels in any given scenario, etcetera? How are some humans capable of the worst crimes when they employ their special status or belief in their class, caste, intelligence or privilege as weapons of justification?
The usual answer, of course, is the ego. A friend in Manhattan once defined it as a nasty piece of work in its negative form, and even gave me an anagram for it: that which Eases God Out. But how does the ego itself get a chance to grow to such monstrous proportions, so that royal lineages spring into being from it, and dynasties flourish, billionaires are a dime a dozen, and we routinely rate people according to their physical and financial assets rather than on their open hearts, kindness, empathy and compassion for all beings?
Ah, well, that answer is embedded in the Advaitic teaching of the I AM, an impersonal principle so powerful that it forms the very base and foundation of the egoic system. Sages say that at some point in our early life, the I AM, a sense of being different and special from others, springs into action and the individual begins his or her trajectory, determined to make a special mark on the world or even to die in the process. (And many do die, of heart attacks born of the constant stress of being better than everyone else, for one thing, or of intense negative emotions that inexorably destroy body and mind).
The wannabe jnani has a tough job: first to understand and then to isolate this I AM, and then to dwell in it until the I AM realizes that it its nature is so well known that there is no further point in playing its dangerous games.
[image error]To clarify my understanding when I sit down to investigate the subtle and the invisible, I use synonyms. For the I AM when it is playing its destructive role of strengthening the egoic edifice, I use the Sanskrit words “Lila” and “Maya” the former which means “the play of the Gods” and Maya simply meaning “illusion” or “delusion.” But when we begin the awesome adventure of befriending the I AM, it turns into the personal Divine itself, Brahman, Turiya or Bindu.
Now imagine that you are the CEO of a large company and are aware that someone powerful in your employ is secretly stealing major funds from you. You rack your brain and consult others but simply cannot discover the identity of the thief; perhaps she is even your right hand employee, so well disguised and clever that no one even suspects her of undercover activities. Then one day a seer comes to visit you and sees you in great suffering; out of great compassion, he uses his clairvoyant powers and spills the beans, telling you who she is. You are shocked, stunned, hurt, wounded, betrayed—can this woman whom you have considered your friend and collaborator really have been cheating and deceiving you all these years? But the seer is unassailable in his honesty and the facts are staring you in the face, so you have no choice but accept what he says as the truth.
[image error]Bizarrely enough, you have grown to love this woman; my god, you realize with further shock, she is so close to me and I rely on her so greatly that I could never bring myself to fire her! So you decide to speak to her, to tell her you know what she is up to, and why she has done what she has done all these decades. So instead you reveal your admiration for her covert brilliance and beg her to stop. Don’t hurt me anymore, you suggest, become my ally. She listens, for her hidden facet is wisdom and besides she knows the game is up. Smiling, she agrees to share her secrets with you and to help you do what you have always wanted to do—to be the most secure, rich and satisfied CEO in the whole friggin’ world. And because she is truly wily and unbelievably clever, her talk matches her walk, and both of you grow together.
[image error]It is the same with the I AM: Once you convince her that you are familiar with every nuance of her awesome game (I have the feeling she is female in this role of saboteur, a real Mata Hari), she agrees lovingly to help you to return to your original home, the Absolute or the Divine substratum of your being, sat-chit-ananda or pure existence-awareness and bliss. And now that you have won your most deadly enemy over, the game of eons (samsara) is finally over and moksha becomes a distinct and reachable goal.
Greetings from Arunachala, Shiva the Destroyer in the form of a hill of fire and light, who vows to be your beloved immortal friend as you take on the might of the I AM, so that you can dissolve forever into his fiery embrace!
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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July 15, 2017
Where music comes from – Franz Kafka QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Everything that lives is in flux. Everything that lives emits sound. But we only perceive a part of it. We do not hear the circulation of the blood, the growth and decay of our bodily tissue, the sound of our chemical processes. But our delicate organic cells, the fibres of brain and nerves and skin are impregnated with these inaudible sounds. They vibrate in response to their environment. This is the foundation of the power of music.Franz Kafka
July 14, 2017
Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Author Update – Mira Prabhu, C.S. Boyack and Darlene Foster
Sally Cronin’s plug for Copper Moon and other books – as usual, despite her own hectic schedule, Sally does a crack job. Thank you, Sally!
Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life
Welcome to the Friday edition of the Cafe and Bookstore and another packed post today with new books and a FREE offer of a book for review. First author to feature is Mira Prabhu with Copper Moon Over Pataliputra, the third book in her Moksha Trilogy.
About Copper Moon Over Pataliputra
Against the dazzling epochal backdrop of the Mauryan Empire in ancient India, celebrated for its liberal, humanist and free-thinking traditions, a gripping saga of love, betrayal, hatred and magical transformation sinuously weaves itself. Copper Moon relates the fascinating tale of Odati, daughter of Emperor Ashoka by stunning Urvashi, a Kalingan devadasi.
When a great horror strikes, and Odati’s tender young life hangs in the balance, it is the Egyptian Kahotep, Grand Eunuch of Maurya, who risks his own life to spirit her to safety. Within his protective embrace, Odati disguises herself as Amunet and gradually grows into…
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July 13, 2017
A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW
[image error]I just finished reading a beautifully crafted novel set in Greece where one of the protagonists is a billionaire who adores his only son. And so does his gorgeous mistress. It’s a bizarre situation, because the man’s wife knows he loves his mistress, who has free rein to enter and leave his home as she pleases, and even to openly entertain important guests in his house. This man is so wealthy that his wife has her own plush apartment attached to the main house, and so the two rivals never have to meet and be embarrassed.
Well, the boy enters the lavish room where his father and mistress are enjoying their martinis and chats with both of them in his charming way. When he leaves, the man says to his mistress: I know you love my son dearly, and I can see why, he is special, but I often wonder whether I’ve done right by him.
What do you mean? she asks, puzzled.
Oh, he says, you know I grew up very poor in the local hills. I had to herd goats after my father died in order to bring some money to the table, and I had to pretty much educate myself. No time for fripperies like school! Now some might feel sorry for the hardships I endured, but in truth it was deprivation that forced me to transform. In fact I can honestly say that I owe my present circumstances to hard times, because they taught me so much about life. As for my son, he’s been born into wealth and privilege and everyone treats him like a young god. Never once have I seen anyone scolding or correcting him, although he does get up to all sorts of pranks and has moments when he can be sulky, ungrateful, malicious and arrogant. Worst of all, since my wife and I don’t get along, we compete with each other to indulge his every whim. Thank god he is innately a loving and considerate little fellow, or he’d be spoiled rotten by now, and I bet you wouldn’t be able to stand him.
[image error]This passage reminded me of one of Carlos Castaneda’s earliest books, where he and Don Juan are sitting outside a small restaurant. A waiter comes out to dump some waste food into a bin, and a horde of hungry urchins flies across the narrow street to devour it. Carlos shakes his head in pity and his mentor demands: oh, so you think these kids are worse off than your pampered and overfed kids in America? No, no, no, these children who know life in all its richness and have a shot at growing up to be real humans. They are grateful when their stomachs are full and they don’t view having a decent roof or clothes as their due. Also, look how alert, quick, and intelligent they are! And some even share their pickings with the smaller ones, who can’t fight their way through. (I read the book ages ago and these are just recollections).
Now of course it is not just rich parents who overindulge their kids. The local people here are notorious for never correcting their kids, from what I and other “foreign” friends have seen, and there is, oddly enough, a good side to this: for the children grow up confident in their love and don’t seem to be as messed up as those who have never known love at all. I know one wonderful poor mother whose husband works in the main temple here. She is quite sick, with serious diabetes and a weight problem, but she will work 14 hours a day (she runs a roadside food stall) just so she can educate and feed her kids well. Sadly, her kids really are spoiled and rarely help her out, even in their spare time. I once asked her why she drives herself ragged when they could easily pitch in, and she shrugged and said that they were kids, what else could she expect? Actually two of them are male teens and are quite capable of helping her with the rougher work, but she refuses to see this, and so she continues to work herself to the bone. Is she really doing them any favors by spoiling them like this? I don’t think so.
As for me, I have experienced both prosperous and hard times, and I can honestly say that it was my painful times (once I was bitten by a deadly spider and was dying alone in a guestroom in Rishikesh—the pain was so excruciating that I have blanked it out) that made me the strong woman I believe I am today. As a result, I don’t take anyone or anything for granted. I am also infinitely grateful to the woman who forced me, years ago when I lived in Eugene, Oregon, to begin a formal gratitude practice. Because I stayed firm in my resolve to find something to be grateful for in every situation, however dark or ugly, this practice has become easy and spontaneous and I find myself thanking the Divine every single day for all my blessings.
[image error]I can well empathize with parents who have had hard times themselves wanting to pamper their kids. But are they doing the right thing? In a world where we see the artificial scarcity created by unjust systems literally starving millions of children, is it good for some privileged kids to dine regularly at 5-star hotels, or to have any material gizmo they want, and have their parents willingly foot the bill? I believe this sort of cloying over-attention actually stunts their growth and blocks the cultivation of qualities this world is starving for—such as compassion and empathy, and not just for the stray animal or project, but for all beings. This can only come through knowing what it is to suffer ourselves; those who have it easy never really grow up. Consider the Devas in the ancient Wheel of Life – they live lives of unimaginable luxury and pleasure and then, one day, the good karma burns off and they are plunged into deep suffering. The only way out of the whole mess of samsara is to enter the Spiritual Heart and to dive permanently into the blissful and immortal substratum of our being, or at least this is what the jnanis teach us, and I for one believe them heart and soul.
Life throws us many challenges and there are critical questions (such as the proper upbringing of our children, who will one day rule our planet) that each of us must consider for ourselves. No point in borrowing another’s point of view, because the mind will change as soon as it is left to its own devices, and fall back into old grooves of behavior. To really contemplate life, we must give ourselves the time to do so, and make this (not salting away assets or seeking the admiration of our peers) a first priority.
I once asked a friend who blindly adores his kids and honestly believes they are god’s gift to this sorry earth if he would be just as slavishly attentive to them if they were someone else’s children. He was offended by my question and did not answer me. If not, I went on ruthlessly, then clearly it is your own ego you are loving, and not them. If you loved them no matter whose children they were, then that would be true love. (You can use this test on any area of your life. Say you are thrilled because you won an award for spreading peace in the Middle East. Would you be just as thrilled if someone else had won it? If not, then it is your ego that is being massaged and not your Self.)
[image error]Once we begin to analyze the nature of the ego, our own vision becomes clear and we will automatically do the right thing by our children—and guess what? One day they might genuinely thank us for being so truly loving to them that we insisted on instilling in them values that would stand them in good stead, no matter what life later threw at them.
Greetings from Arunachala, Shiva the Destroyer in the form of a hill of fire and light, who forces us to really examine the rules we live by and then to dissolve all that do not serve us as seekers of lasting peace and joy!
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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