Mira Prabhu's Blog, page 30
December 12, 2016
Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore Christmas Update – N.A. Granger, Mira Prabhu and Patricia Salamone
This is from Sally Cronin, a wonderful writer herself and a great supporter of many Indie authors…please check out her post and also her terrific blog. Thank you, dear Sally, for your unstinting support!!!
Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life
Welcome to the first of the cafe and bookstore updates this week. Throughout the year over 120 authors have been promoted weekly on the blog and their books now reside in the virtual bookstore along with their buy links and websites. In the run up to Christmas I will be visiting all the authors in the store and checking for updates and new reviews on their most recent books. If you are in the bookstore and have recently published a new book, received a rave review then please let me know.. Sally.cronin@moyhill.com
My first update is for author N. A Granger – Noelle Granger who published another murder mystery in 2016.. Death by Pumpkin with one of its most recent reviews and a great gift for murder mystery lovers.
About the book.
At the annual Pumpkin Festival in the coastal town of Pequod, Maine, Rhe Brewster, an ER nurse…
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December 11, 2016
Amazing Digital Emotional Portraits
Poignant, touching, please take a look at these amazing emotional portraits….and thanks, Alk3R!
Ivana Besevic is a talented Paris-based digital artist from Belgrade. She creates lively emotional portraits of her friends, celebrities and strangers.
December 9, 2016
Beautiful Illustrations of Young Ladies in Flowers
Women adorned with masses of flowers….thanks for sharing this beauty, Alk3r!
Pedro Tapa is a talented Spanish artist who creates beautiful illustrative portraits in black & white and in colors of young ladies in flowers.
December 7, 2016
The Crying Forest
French street artist and photographer Philippe Echaroux is bringing to light the impact of deforestation on the Amazonian Paiter Surui tribe. In a project, entitled ‘The Crying Forest’, Philippe Echaroux captured portraits of the indigenous tribe of western Brazil and projected them on to trees in their native land. Thanks for this wonderful share, Adele Ulnais!
The Crying Forest exhibition puts Amazon deforestation under the spotlight
French street artist and photographer Philippe Echaroux is bringing to light the impact of deforestation on the Amazonian Paiter Surui tribe.
In a project, entitled ‘The Crying Forest’, Philippe Echaroux captured portraits of the indigenous tribe of western Brazil and projected them on to trees in their native land.
Photographs from ‘The Crying Forest’ are currently on display at the Galerie Taglialatella in Paris, until 15 December.
Philippe Echaroux visited the Paiter Surui tribe earlier this year, where he photographed the indigenous natives for his project. The artist and photographer then created an installation by enlarging and projecting the images over Amazonian trees in the Surui area.
The Paiter Surui tribe currently numbers around 1,300 people. Through his art, Echaroux is raising awareness of the dangers of deforestation and the impact on the tribe and their lives.
Almir Narayamoga Surui, the…
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December 5, 2016
Grief at Christmas: How about just being Human?
Being human…sometimes hard to cry when we are pressured into putting on those great smiles and joining others in celebrating major holidays. I’m weird in that I never ever enjoyed these holidays…perhaps as a child, for the special treats and gifts,..but not as an adult. I prefer to feel the way I’m feeling regardless of an event. And Jannie Styles points us that we should allow ourselves to feel all our feelings no matter what the occasion…and I second her! That said, happy happy end of year to you all!
Every time a special occasion is pending, a certain birthday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or another Christmas, I get a feeling in the pit of my stomach about how I will handle it without those loved ones who have already passed on. Christmas is one of the toughest times of year for many of us living with invisible illnesses whether they be mental, emotional or physical.
One of the first feelings to follow that awful “boot to the stomach sensation” is a sense of, well, I guess it is called “shame.” Shame that I can’t just buck up and join in, shame that I need to take time out to have a little cry in the bathroom, shame that while everyone is toasting and cheering and jollying along I fight back the tears and an urge to flee all things overwhelmingly festive.
Why should we be ashamed of having any…
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December 2, 2016
Whip of the Wild God (A Novel of Tantra in Ancient India) by Mira Prabhu
The whip, which the wild God of the ancient Indus civilization sometimes snaps to redirect regressing spiritual practitioners, is the body of painful consequences born from our intents and actions …
Source: Whip of the Wild God (A Novel of Tantra in Ancient India) by Mira Prabhu
Faith and Grace
This is so beautiful….and true…I have come to realize how much we are helped – both by visible and invisible forces – once we surrender to our own Highest Self. Faith the size of a mustard seed is enough…it grows, yes, it grows, and can carry us all the way. Thanks, Harsh Luthar!
Photo art from Eden Kailash Facebook Page
Without faith one can never jump into the arms of the Divine Beloved.
We do not have enough personal strength to go into the unknown.
The personal identity cannot step into the unknown without faith.
To allow that final surrender to the Divine to take place is called Grace.
It Is Just You!
Yes, the Self or Grace is always with us; this morning I used this teaching to buck myself up…and move forward. Thanks, Harsh!
Sri Ramana used to say that the Eternal Divine nature cannot be present at one time and absent at another.
So we must become aware of our Self in this present moment. I
t is only in the present that the Self is Realized.
That is because the very nature of the Self is Pure Presence.
It is Pure Being.
December 1, 2016
Do Not Be Serious About Anything!
During my stay at a beautiful Ashram in America long years ago, I was consumed with worry about my future. You see, I had jumped out of the mainstream by quitting a great job in Manhattan, sold my lovely apartment, left good friends behind, and landed in the Himalayas without a parachute in the middle of a grueling winter. From there, still restless and seeking, I had moved around in both East and West, on a quest for that perfect refuge where I could focus on my creative and spiritual goals. But nothing seemed to work out and by now I was truly sunk in misery.
A friend saw my sad face; impulsively, she tore a page out of the book she was reading and handed it to me. The title said: Do Not Be Serious About Anything: it was a message from the guru of that Ashram, who advised his students not to take mundane life too seriously, but instead to dive beneath the surface and find the constant peace and joy that is our true nature.
The message begins like this: “We cannot really save the world. We cannot even destroy the world. It is not in our hands. If that Supreme Power wanted to save the world, it wouldn’t even take a second. All of us could be saints and sages overnight. Instead the Divine is allowing us to be a little ignorant. That is His fun. But we forget this and take life too seriously.”
That tattered yellowing page now sits on my computer desk and continues to remind me to make peace my priority. Since then I have returned to my original practice of Advaita. Ramana Maharshi’s definition of the ‘unreal’ is simple: that which comes and goes is not real. What does he mean by real? That which is permanent and lasting. And so again and again I return to what is real within me, to pure consciousness and bliss—and because I persist, the process works fabulously.
Those who have not plunged into the nuances of eastern philosophy might have problems with this message—but to someone steeped in these ancient truths, it becomes clear that nothing happens by accident—which is no reason to ignore the intense suffering of the millions surrounding us. This wisdom should actually lead us to being more and more compassionate, and to do whatever we can, without destroying our own equanimity and personal practice, to bring light and joy into as many lives as we can.
Getting back to the present with a bang, this morning I got a call from my downstairs guest who said we had a plumbing problem—this after having the plumbers here yesterday! Damn! I calmed down and did what I had to do, and right now it looks like everything is settling down again.
Later I sat down at my computer and my eyes fell on this message and an even deeper calm descended upon me. When I first read these simple words in that Ashram so long ago, peace was a dream, a flickering fantasy that came in flashes. Today it is a living current that keeps growing in sweetness and intensity—this despite external appearances! I owe this progress to Ramana’s brilliant Direct Path, and also to all the gurus (negative and positive) who have guided me along the often thorny road that leads to bliss.
Greetings from Arunachala, considered to be the living emanation of the Great God Shiva, Destroyer in the Indian pantheon, who reduces our egoic selves to ashes—so we can know ourselves as the blissful and immortal Self!
Life in Mongolia’s Impoverished Suburbs (Red Hero 3)
Life in Mongolia….so important to widen our view of the world…thanks for sharing, Alk3r!
Paul Cox is an professional photographer who was born in Zimbabwe in 1968, moved to the UK in 1988, and currently lives and works in Hong Kong.
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