Mira Prabhu's Blog, page 32
November 8, 2016
The Feuerle Collection
Stunning!!! Thanks for this, alk3r!
The Feuerle Collection opened on October 14, 2016. The new Berlin museum is dedicated to Désiré Feuerle’s unique collection and juxtaposes international contemporary artists with Imperial Chinese furniture and ancient Southeast Asian art.
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Suicide: why won’t people talk about it?!
“Talking about suicide is the only thing that can keep people alive. Shunning them will not. Ignoring them will not. Ridiculing them will not. Abandoning them will not. Shaming them will not. Blaming them will not. Talking in a safe and understanding way is the only thing that can avert or prevent a suicide.” Please read and share Janni Style’s revealing post about a situation few humans care to dwell on – the extreme act of taking one’s life. Adults do it all the time, yes, but when kids/teens resort to suicide, it stuns us all. A while back a psychiatrist in Wash. DC told me that in his professional opinion, almost every human has this urge to extinguish their lives at some point or another…life is hard!!! For all of us!!! And the only way out is to express all those strong toxic emotions that led to this terrible decision…so please, if anyone you know is experiencing this primal urge, encourage them to share deeply…the only way out is through….and then, when old demons and ghosts have been outed and dismissed, the future can become friendly again.
Trigger Warning!
Why does an eleven year old child attempt suicide? Nobody wanted me to talk about it then and I am sure nobody wants me to talk about it now. Talking about it is something I never should have stopped doing. If we kept talking about suicide instead of trying to shame blame people into silence about the very real threat, I believe many would not be so successful at achieving it.
Think about this: An eleven year old child attempts suicide. What must have been happening to that little girl to drive her to such dire measures? What was she going through that nobody would even try to understand or help fix for her?
Two things were happening that this girl can now share. She had more responsibilities heaped on her than most adults have to cope with and she was being hurt by her parent’s drunken party…
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Just Below the Margin
Wow…Tina Frisco’s candid share on her deeper feelings…of growing up and feeling less than….despite being admired by many….I myself speak a lot about the critical importance of what I call “relative investigation” – meaning, our relentless investigation into the codes that form our ongoing persona – first we become aware that there is work to do; then we accept the results of our honest investigation; and only then can we dissolve all the codes that no longer serve us (bad stuff like low-self-esteem) – why? So that we can begin the investigation into who we are beyond body and mind and emotions….into the REAL. My own happiness accelerated when I committed to an unflinching examination of my past and my present – and then I encountered a brilliant path that can lead anyone who is truly committed to happiness to the goal, which is the investigation into the immortal and blissful Self. Thank you, Tina, for your beautiful share, and I hope it inspires many to chart their own forward path.
Everything has a beginning. Everything has an end. Or so it seems. At least that’s how it is in the relative world of a mortal life.
Image is courtesy of Lucie Stastkova LuSt4ART
I have always strived to be the best I could be. I have always pushed everyone around me to be and do their best. I guess I just can’t stand to see anything good go to waste or be marginalized.
I wonder now why I feel I’m looking up to tie my shoe laces. What lies deep within that causes me to feel I’ve accomplished nothing in life? What is it that has me feeling I’m hanging on just below the margin?
As a child, I excelled academically. I also bombed out socially. I was the first to be nominated for class president and the last to be invited to a party – that is, if I…
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November 7, 2016
Harry Potter and the American election
I’m reblogging this post because it resonates strongly with my own view – that fiction can be a powerful force for good…thanks for this, Bridget Whelan!
A high-level study has come to the conclusion that Harry Potter fans won’t be voting for Donald Trump today.
The Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics (a non-partisan research institute at the University of Pennsylvania) have noted that almost from the beginning of the campaign there have been Potteresque overtones. Some Democrats have compared Trump to Lord Voldemort, an idea also embraced by some Republicans. There have been posters featuring Trump in front of an American flag with a quote from the Dark Lord: There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it. Chilling in a children’s book, absolutely horrifying on an election poster.
There’s little firm evidence to suggest that fiction can influence politics, especially if the book is not about a political issue, but the Institute argue that the Harry Potter series is in a class of its…
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November 6, 2016
Monday Funnies…
ha ha ha…your Monday laughs, courtesy Chris Graham!!!
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog
Source: Tundra Comics
November 3, 2016
Is Social Media making us “meaner”?
Janni Styles makes important points here…there’s something cowardly about those who will hit you with a nasty comment on social media only because they know they won’t have to deal with your response face-to-face…I had some odd experiences with trolls in the early days of blogging, but, cross my fingers, they seem to stay away these days…oh, and I did some research and all the experts said we should simply ignore them. Hard advice sometimes, because the urge to react defensively is strong, but its best to leave these sick critters to their own destructive devices. As for those who are not trolls, but are still nasty, I wonder why they don’t realize that what’s goes around comes around, sooner or later. Thanks for a necessary post, Janni!
Before Social Media it seems to me that people were far more polite. There was no such thing as dropping an acerbic comment and fleeing into the night as though you never did it. Being accountable was far more prevalent before the internet. In many exchanges I see things happening that normally would not even hit the real world radar because, if speaking in person to another person, much of what goes out online would simply just stay in.
This happened to me last year when a relative lectured me on how to use Facebook after I posted a “funny” about how we would never walk up to strangers with pictures of our dinner, etc, yet we do it on the internet. My relative talked all about herself and why she is on Facebook and how she uses it while telling me “the internet is not about us” even though…
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Samsara is a Fickle Beast!
‘Samsara’ is a Sanskrit word that approximates to ‘relative reality.’ When Buddha gave us his first noble truth: life is suffering, it was this level of reality he was referring to, simply, the ups and downs of a life lived in duality. It is his fourth truth that points the way out of suffering, and thank Ultimate Consciousness, I say, that there is indeed a highway that can lead us permanently out of this mess!
I’m writing this because I’ve been hit by a series of minor calamities (that’s probably an oxymoron, but never mind.) One dog who refuses since to eat and won’t tell me why, ha ha ha, my other dog who is totally nutso and terrified of most humans, and, out of the blue, a sciatica attack from hell, most likely due to the fact that I’ve been working way too long on the computer. It flared up last night, and this morning I could barely get out of bed. Thank god for my Ayurvedic doc, who came over right away and did some wonderful healing work.
I’m writing this also to remind myself that samsara is a fickle beast; whatever comes and goes, to use Ramana’s simple teaching, is not real (permanent or lasting). Just a couple of days ago I was raving to friends that things have never been better for me. And then, boom, whack, right on the batootie, all of this happens, as if some higher power is reminding me never to get complacent.
For those of us who want to break free of our matrix, it is essential to study the nature of relative reality. At least it was for me. I am utterly grateful to one particular guru who grilled me in the basics. He taught me Mahamudra, the Flavors of Relative Reality, and when the crud really hits the fan, I sit myself down, pull up the dark situation, and apply these steps. Never fails to bring me back to equanimity. If you’d like to try this analytical meditation yourself, check out: https://miraprabhu.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/freedom-from-the-matrix-samsaras-seven-flavors-12/. This is the 12th of a series of short posts, but one of the posts has all the flavors contained within it.
If you want to know how I came to understand and value the two great truths of eastern philosophy, the brilliant teaching on Absolute and Relative Reality (samsara), please do take a look at: https://miraprabhu.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/two-great-truths-absolute-and-relative-reality-real-and-unreal/
Greetings from Arunachala, the Wild God, who whips us towards the blazing light!
November 2, 2016
Vibrant Beauty and Portrait Photography
Vibrant beauty…I’d like to see this photographer take shots of other races too…so much beauty everywhere. Thank you for sharing. alk3r!
Nina Masic is a talented 26-year-old photographer, retoucher and filmmaker, who was born in Bihać, Bosnia & Herzegovina and currently based in Sarajevo. Nina graduated at Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, and although her major was graphic design, Masic quickly realized that photography is her true passion.
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November 1, 2016
Laughter the best medicine – Hippies, Beethoven and Natural Born Citizens!
ha ha ha…these are great, please enjoy! Courtesy the wonderful Sally Cronin!!!!
Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life
My online friend with a wonderful collection of humour has kindly donated some more to my buffer… She wishes to remain incognito… but I am very grateful.
A man is looking through a cemetery when he hears some music. He looks around to see who is playing it but can’t see anyone. Searching for the source, he finally finds it coming from a grave with a headstone that reads:
Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827
Then he realizes the music is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and is being played backward.
Puzzled, he leaves the graveyard and persuades a friend to return with him.By the time they arrive back at the grave, the Seventh Symphony is playing, also backward.
Curious, the men agree to consult a music scholar.When they return, the Fifth Symphony is playing, again backward.The expert notices the symphonies are being played in the reverse order in which they were composed. By…
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October 31, 2016
The Hero’s Journey For Writers
Writing seriously is a hero’s journey all right…in my case, writing helped me find peace via self-expression…but I, who dislike reading straight information, love the concept of weaving gems into fascinating tales that grip the imagination of the reader and leave her with a sense of having grown through the story you have spun out of a million experiences and feelings and lessons learnt, sometimes in the most excruciating way. KRISHNA’S COUNSEL, the second novel in my Moksha Trilogy, was an act of courage…while it is not autobiographical, it expresses all the terror and joy of my own childhood in south India…it is the hero’s journey of Pia, who fights almost insurmountable odds to know that she herself is her own Light, although many angels, some disguised, fly to her aid in the darkest of times…watch this brief video especially if you fear the inner journey….thanks Mathew Winkler!
Remember the Hero’s Journey? Here is another explanation or reminder in visual form.
