Mira Prabhu's Blog, page 20
June 3, 2017
Stephen King on timid writers and timid lovers QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Timid writers produce timid work…read on, and thank you, Bridget Whelan…
Timid writers like passive verbs for the same reason that timid lovers like passive partners. The passive voice is safe. The timid fellow writes “The meeting will be held at seven o’clock” because that somehow says to him, ‘Put it this way and people will believe you really know.’Purge this quisling thought! Don’t be a muggle! Throw back your shoulders, stick out your chin, and put that meeting in charge! Write ‘The meeting’s at seven.’ There, by God! Don’t you feel better?
Stephen King
June 2, 2017
ONLY AS SICK AS WE ARE SECRET
[image error]Anyone who has grown up in a traditional community knows that one is strongly urged to never speak about the skeletons rattling around in both individual and community closets. As for me, I was so open with strangers right from the get go that my conformist mother would warn me to hush. “Your big mouth will get you into trouble,” she’d say sternly. “There’s no need to tell everyone how you think or feel. If you continue like this, no one will marry you.” I would snigger, thrilled at the thought that this innate habit of frank communication would repel prospective partners who didn’t appreciate honesty. Life had thrown enough chains on me already—why on earth would I want one more?
My mother was wrong. My wildness drew people to me. But I had seen too much already to be dazzled by the usual courtship rituals and already horrified by what I saw happen to women who were outspoken and bold—the patriarchy crushed them, and the matriarchy colluded in this, for often it was mothers-and sisters-in-law who did their worst to make sure that any new woman who entered the fold was made to suffer dire consequences if she dared to rebel. Yes, I knew quite well that if I fell into that age-old trap of marrying into the community, driven by the twin needs of security and approval, sooner or later I would be in for 50 shades of hell. This is how I viewed the scenario anyway and it led me to marry out of my community and move to Manhattan; now that marriage did not survive either, because we were driven by different value systems—in simple terms, he loved money more than honesty and for me honesty always came first— but that is a story for another day.
As I grew older, it became clear to me why secrecy was so enjoined upon us—in two words, Arranged Marriage, tan ta ra. Yes, this complex system honored in India for countless generations was behind the societal mandate to zip the lip. And marriage not just to another Indian, not just to a mate of the same community, but also, in many cases, within the sub-caste into which one was born.
[image error]Now, if something was off within the family—say the father had a vicious temper or drank heavily or beat his wife and kids or couldn’t pay the bills because he was gambling on the sly…or the mother had a depressive streak, muttered nonstop to herself, or couldn’t cook and clean for nuts…or a sibling was mentally or physically challenged or a kleptomaniac or whatever…or, in worse cases, if incest or sexual abuse of one kind or another had occurred within the family unit—then, to let the world know this dirty secret was to ruin the kids’ chances of getting a fine mate. No, you did not just bring shame to yourself when you opened your big mouth—you brought shame to the entire family/clan and ruined its reputation—because in most trad societies the individual does not count and can be sacrificed to the common good.
I moved to Manhattan in my twenties and was amazed at how open my friends were about their family’s worst secrets. Most came from broken families. Some had several stepfathers and stepmothers and many half-siblings. And these wonderful humans, free of the constraints of outdated institutions, spoke unabashedly about why things had gone wrong between their parents, about their own tumultuous lives that often involved drugs and wild affairs and whatnot—and the beauty of it all was that their honesty was lauded and appreciated within their circle.
It was at a spiritual gathering in Manhattan that I first heard the words: You are only as sick as you are secret. Wow! I thought, someone should teach this to Indians! Yes, to those familiar with the body-mind-emotional nexus (how the health of each affects the other and therefore the entire system), when we suppress harsh memories and feelings, the body grows sick and our entire life is negatively affected.
Now we live in a crazy world where predators (sociopaths and psychopaths) prowl, so naturally we have to exercise discretion in whom we choose to share our inner stuff. Long ago I read a poem about taking personal responsibility for all aspects of our lives and it impacted me deeply; yes again, if we are reckless or dim-witted in revealing our vulnerability to those who wish to harm us, then it is we who are to blame. If you can’t find someone trustworthy and intelligent enough to share your depths with, then write about them and keep your journal private. (Check out this post if you want some good ideas)
[image error]In eastern terms, our relative lives are considered to be ‘unreal’ – meaning that nothing about the body-mind-emotional egoic system lasts forever. (Check out this post). What does last is our consciousness, which the soul carries into future incarnations until it permanently fuses back into the Absolute. So, when we choose to fiercely protect and defend who we are in the world, when we choose to lie and deceive in order to present a false facade that we believe serves us, what we are really doing is building even thicker and higher walls around the ego instead of focusing on breaking them down altogether, so we can experience our true nature, which is unbounded, vast, blissful and immortal.
Indeed it is when we become so ruthlessly honest about who we are in terms of body and mind and emotions that we can laugh at our past mistakes and freely admit our present flaws that we allow ourselves to move on, to grow, to evolve into the sunlight of the Spirit. And we realize a powerful mystical truth—that beneath all the stories of our lives, there is a common thread, a Oneness that binds us in cords of gold, and this is when the journey into the infinite takes off with a bang.
Greetings from Arunachala, Shiva in the form of a sacred hill of fire and light, who vows to help us destroy all that keeps us from knowing that we are the immortal and blissful Self![image error]
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Whimsical
Art has its place.
It is the saving grace.
Expressions connecting
Our human race.
Check out this fine poem by my friend Atul Ranchod…
WHIMSICAL
by Atul Ranchod
Whimsical capricious fun!
Levity and laughter
Sitting at the altar.
Complete we came.
Discover the hidden fame.
Frolic and play
Offsets the heaviness
Which weighs us down.
Color and form
Imagine beyond the norm.
Free to create
No restrictions made.
Art has its place.
It is the saving grace.
Expressions connecting
Our human race.
We are but for a short while.
Why not enjoy the lightness
More than once in awhile?
May 30, 2017
Bhagavad Gita and Karma Yoga
Although I was born in India, I had a more or less Western upbringing and only studied the Bhagavad Gita in Manhattan, during a hatha yoga teacher training course, believe it or not! It made such a huge impression on me that much later I wrote a novel about being a spiritual warrior, titled KRISHNA’S COUNSEL. Thanks for a great post, Harsh Luthar!
No one who is born in this world can remain inactive. Bhagavad-Gita teaches that each person should follow their dharma (sacred duty) and take actions accordingly.
For example, the dharma of a teacher is to share knowledge. Dharma of a business person is to engage in commerce. Dharma of a warrior is to protect the innocent and fight for justice.
In the Bhagavad-Gita, Sri Krishna says to Arjuna that as a warrior, he has the duty to fight against injustice and lead others who look up to him.
However, Sri Krishna adds that even when one takes actions, it should be done without ego attachments as a matter of dharma that fulfills a higher purpose.
This approach to life is known as karma yoga and is taught by Bhagavan Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita.
According to karma yoga, one should act carefully according to dharma with respect for all life.
After…
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May 29, 2017
May 28, 2017
Monday Funnies…
ha ha ha….Maxine strikes again to cheer up your Monday…thanks, Chris!
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog
May 27, 2017
What storytellers can do – Erin Morgenstern QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Write a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, ah, a worthy objective. Thank you, Bridget Whelan.
You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.Erin Morgenstern
May 25, 2017
An Open Letter to Rev. Franklin Graham from a “Small Church” Pastor
I admire this “small town pastor” – he is my idea of a true man of god: “I am struggling, too, with your claim that Donald Trump is a champion (albeit an unlikely one) for religious freedom. What freedoms are we talking about here, Frank? The freedom to lie with impunity? The freedom to grab young girls by the genitals? The freedom to discriminate against people of color in the sale and rental of real estate? The freedom to refer to women as “dogs,” “fat pigs,” and “ugly”? The freedom to call your opponents “idiots,” “losers,” “liars” and “frauds”? The freedom to slander people with accusations of criminal conduct based on absolutely no evidence? By my count, the above violate at least four of the Ten Commandments (you will find those in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy-both in the Bible). If Donald Trump is the champion of American Christianity, God save it from its enemies!”
Dear Frank
Can I call you Frank? This is just pastor to pastor. Feel free to call me Peter. Anyway, I have to say I was flattered when I learned that your Decision America Tour took a detour off the beaten path to call upon us “small community churches.” We are nothing if not small. We seat 30-40 on a good Sunday. And we are a century old fixture of our small community. Most often we are overlooked and overshadowed by mega-churches and politically influential religious voices like your own. We don’t hold a candle to an auditorium filled with the music of a one hundred voice choir led by professional musicians. We probably will never be recognized in any nationally syndicated media. After all, we don’t do anything really “newsworthy.” We just preach the good news of Jesus Christ; love one another the best we can (which sometimes isn’t…
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May 19, 2017
Some times you tell a story through the things you leave out…ART FOR WRITERS
“History books can tell us what happened at the storming of the Bastille or the court of Queen Elizabeth, but only fiction can tell us what it felt like to be there. And leaving things out may be a way of capturing the emotional life of the past. ” Thanks, Bridget Whelan!
This painting is called Race You to the Bottom and was created sometime in the late 1990s I imagine, or even more recently, because the artist was born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 1979. I’ve read that Leigh Lambert’s primary inspiration is his own memories of growing up in North East England, but he draws on things other than memory for a painting like this. Conciously or not, he must have been influenced by earlier generations of artists who depicted working class life. And even by William Blake’s dark, satanic mills because surely clean air legislation would have shut down those smoke-gushing stacks by the time Leigh was playing in the streets. I sincerely hope so.
But the reason I feel certain that the artist didn’t rely on memory alone is the things he didn’t paint. There are no cars, moving or parked, no street furniture or signage, no markings on the…
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Why Playing It Safe Is Riskier than You Think
How high are you willing to fly? Even the sky is not the limit – in my case, its flying into the burning core of the Spiritual Heart…. thanks, Josiah Harry!
Before you delve into the heart of this post, for the next few minutes, I’d like you to reflect on your life and the many times you avoided risks and opted for the path of least resistance—the path that was comfortable and predictable.
Looking back, what did you see?
Here’s what you likely saw. The things that seemed so scary and risky at the time now seem like missed opportunities—many of which you can never regain. But that’s the past, which has been etched in history. Let’s look at the present through the lenses of the next question.
How high are you willing to fly?
For many of you, your natural instinct is to think deeply and weigh every factor very carefully before arriving at a definitive conclusion. Although the question is a fairly simple one, you are hesitant to offer a direct response because at…
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