Mira Prabhu's Blog, page 68
May 24, 2015
The Rules of Life – According to MAXINE…
MAXINE’S RULES FOR LIFE…thank you Chris Graham! What would we do without Maxine’s critical tips for making it through this crazy world?
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog:
The writer’s most natural style…Kurt Vonnegut Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes)
As Kurt Vonnegut says, “The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard when a child…
All these varieties of speech are beautiful, just as the varieties of butterflies are beautiful. No matter what your first language, you should treasure it all your life. If it happens to not be standard English, and if it shows itself when your write standard English, the result is usually delightful, like a very pretty girl with one eye that is green and one that is blue.”
As I write and re-write my own second novel, beta-readers point out that I am using an Elizabethan phrase here or there…what they may not realize is that I picked up those phrases in childhood, in post-colonial India…and they are authentic to me. Thank you Kurt Vonnegut, and Bridget Whelan, for reminding me that authenticity is more vital to good writing than “being right” in the critical eyes of the mainstream.
Originally posted on BRIDGET WHELAN writer:
The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard when a child. English was Conrad’s third language, and much that seems piquant in his use of English was no doubt colored by his first language, which was Polish. And lucky indeed is the writer who has grown up in Ireland, for the English spoken there is so amusing and musical. I myself grew up in Indianapolis, where common speech sounds like a band saw cutting galvanized tin, and employs a vocabulary as unornamental as a monkey wrench.In some of the more remote hollows of Appalachia, children still grow up hearing songs and locutions of Elizabethan times. Yes, and many Americans grow up hearing a language other than English, or an English dialect a majority of Americans cannot understand.
All these varieties of speech are beautiful, just as the varieties of butterflies…
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May 23, 2015
4 Things Publishers and Agents Want in a Writer
Think its easy being a writer today? Frankly, I believe that while so much is easier (in terms of technology, the internet, et cetera ) it was probably easier for a good writer to get his/her work out in older times…now here’s Veronica Bala’s excellent post on what a modern writer faces…being a writer is only the beginning of the process…there’s lot more to it if you want others to read your precious work…
Originally posted on Veronica Bale's Blog:
If you’re a new author, finding a publisher or literary agent to represent your writing is a frustrating, thankless, and even heartbreaking exercise. I know, I’ve been through it. The dreaded “Thanks, but no thanks,” … I’m not sure if its better or worse than the classic no-response.
There is a ton of advice out there on how we, as writers, can entice that coveted representation. In case you haven’t exhausted all of your e-resources, here is a short collection of my less-obvious favourites, in no particular order
1. Be professional 100% of the time
That means emails, phone calls, and on-line interactions. For me, that last forum is particularly important, with all the talk about BBA (badly behaving authors). Too often we’ve seen authors (especially, it pains me to admit, self-published authors), who take offense at a negative review or comment, and lash out on-line. This is the biggest no-no you could…
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May 14, 2015
The Struggle to Find the God Within: Breaking Free From The Habitual Mind
Richard Oldale is a freelance writer and researcher living in Naples, Italy. He is currently working on a travel book with the theme title “Journeys to Ancient Worlds: What Modern Man Can Learn From Ancient Civilizations.” The collection will include a series of eBooks, the first of which details Latin American cultures and was published in April 2015. For more information check out Richard’s website: http://richardjoldale.com.
Here Richard presents his personal views on the quest for merging into the inner spirit…
I am not religious. I would not even describe myself as spiritual; and yet I am aware that we are all spirits by nature. But I meditate daily, practice yoga and read tarot so am given a “spiritual” label by others.
But this label is merely perception. I don’t feel any more spiritual now than I did before I was “spiritual.” The only difference now is, I am consciously aware of the God Within. And that is what is important.
We all have an inner power. Buddha said, “in each of us is a God.” The Greek poet Euripides passed more meaning over this when he commented, “the mind of each of us is a God.”
This is where we get the idea of God-Consciousness, except the meaning of what God is differs from one person to the next. It all depends on where you look.
Organised religions teach us to look on the outside, yet the Truth is, you will only discover ‘God-Consciousness from the inside’. It’s all in the mind, but most haven’t realized that yet.
Spiritual Confusion
It’s typical for someone breaking out the matrix to seek help. Many look for spiritual guidance. Others follow the heart. I did both. I traveled and researched ancient scripts and myths.
Spiritual guides speak in riddles. Much of it does not make sense. But once I learned what the meanings of symbols in ancient art and architecture means, the pieces began slotting into place. After that God-Consciousness came fairly quickly. Except, I do not have God-Consciousness, I have Christ-Consciousness, the creation of God in Man on Earth. Find the God within is an entirely other mind game.
What I have come to understand is that we all create our own reality by acting on the thoughts we most want to manifest in life. Just as God created Heaven and Hell, if you imagine heaven and hell is an analogy of your life, your surroundings, your circumstances – where are you?
Eastern philosophers explain the Parabrahman, the Absolute, comes from source consciousness and is the start of creation. The Para emerges in the mind of man as Pashyanti. This is when we become aware of Brahman (God.) As a thought.
So God is within us. It is the ideas you have in your head every day, except these thoughts become lost and forgotten among the other 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts we have a day. They come from your other personalities, your angels and fallen angels.
But what would happen if you became conscious of these God sent thoughts?
Nigargadatta Maharaj says, “The one who understands this vital breath, the life force, is beyond all mental concepts. The one who has not understood it is a slave to his thoughts.”
You need a goal, an intention. With this focus, God-Conscious thoughts will come to you. When you become aware of these thoughts you have more control over the choices you make. Put these thoughts into action and you become the Creator God we associate with Heaven.
The problem is we have ego, the voice of the habitual mind. And if ego does not serve you like a God, he is your enemy.
What is the habitual mind?
What we are taught as children becomes ingrained into our minds. We then develop mind-habits and carry on doing what we have always done. Even though it might be the wrong thing to do.
Although some break free from this prison of illusion, it is possible to go a lifetime and never discover the truth. Our minds are programmed to understand this is the way the world works. And we fall out with anyone that does not agree. The ego is bruised.
The habitual mind only has one perception. Your experiences become your program, your mind’s way of telling your body what to do. From there it is easy to go into autopilot and act on impulse. As a result, body, mind and soul can stay in base conscious (666).
So this is how we live. We do what “gets us by.” We keep repeating the same patterns and experiencing the same failures. Develop conscious awareness and you will discover the creator God, or Christ-Consciousness is within you.
All it requires is to trust your intuition and break free from the habitual mind prison. You need will-power to sacrifice things you are accustomed to. This is the battle you face to destroy Ego and find your True Absolute God – mind over matter!
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May 10, 2015
Monday Funnies with AUNTY ACID…
Aunty Acid strikes again! Want a good laugh to brighten up the start of your week? Don’t forget — laughter is great medicine. Thank you Chris Graham!
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog:
DON’T BE A MUG?
Opposite Habits of Famous Writers Infographic
Opposite Habits of Famous Writers Infographic…fascinating stuff for a writer especially….we are all so different in our habits, and yet we do the same thing: which is to pour our hearts out in endless streams of words….thank you, Chris Graham!
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog:
May 6, 2015
Truth, Lies & Social Media
“In life,” says Kristen Lamb, “there are consequences for being a jerk. Same on social media. Be passionate, care, change the world! I hope you do. But in the meantime? I hope to carry the torch of critical thinking, common sense and basic kindness. Someone has to set the example, might as well be the writers.” Read on…as for me, I am pretty new at social media and I can assure you I’ve made tons of mistakes…while I can believe there are groups intent on spreading disinformation et cetera, it’s hard for a sort-of recluse who does not keep up with the daily world news to easily sift fact from bs….
Originally posted on Kristen Lamb's Blog:
We live in a wonderful world. We are connected more than ever. Through Facebook, I���ve connected with friends and family that I couldn���t even FIND before 2005 without hiring a P.I. Through this blog, I am able to help authors all over the world and that is wonderful. I���m able to keep up with all kinds of news and world events and be a better citizen.
But all this technology has a steep price and we are wise to remain vigilant. Lately some things have me really overwhelmed (verklempt) so let���s chat.
Tawk amongst yuhselves. Just do what Barbara does���.
Social media sites like Facebook now keep us abreast of all the horrible happenings in the world. In a way this is good. In the ���old days��� news and opinions were filtered through media gatekeepers. And sure, news is supposed to be unbiased, but so long as humans are relaying���
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April 30, 2015
Dying Every Single Day for Months in Manhattan…
A brilliant monk held a motley crew of us dharma students in thrall for many years in the Big Apple. All right, he���d drawl as his eyes lazily scanned the room. So you���re all so cool with your stylish black wardrobes and your sophisticated friends. You live in the hippest city in the world and you think you���re doing great. And in the eyes of the material world, that���s true���fat paychecks, nice apartments, great social life, lookin��� good, lookin��� good.
He���d pause for effect then continue into rapt silence. But tell me: what���s the one thing your bosses can never recompense you for? Ah! You got it, smart people���it���s precious human time! Some of you are doing wonderful things for the sake of humanity. Yes, there are literally thousands of good things you can do with your lives���but, if you listen��to��the great mystics, the highest goal of human life is permanent liberation from suffering���which is why everyone in this room has chosen to take the Bodhisattva Vow: to seek enlightenment for the sake of all beings.
To enter the Spiritual Olympics you need not just a clear mind but a strong body and perfect commitment���and if you believe that before you begin this inner journey you must first amass money and tie up all your relationships and assets into neat packages that look oh so pretty, there���s a good chance you won���t have those assets when you���re free to discover who you really are���which also means that day of liberation might never come. So, folks, if you really do want to start the greatest journey of all, start it NOW!
This teacher gave us incredible tools, many of which I still use. Among them was a Death Meditation so simple and profound that over the next few years it infused me with enough courage to exit Manhattan and leap into the unknown.
Far from being morbid, death meditation taught me how to live properly���because when I considered that I could die at any time,��it became a matter of urgency that I do what I had always been drawn to do NOW���and not wait until I was aged, jaded and weak.
Now the meditation he taught us can be combined with visualization for more impact, and it has several branches; but in essence it boils down to three unarguable points: 1) that death is certain 2) that the time of death is uncertain and 3) that when we die, there is nothing any of us can take with us except the current state of our consciousness. Years later, I still use this meditation (and share it with as many friends as possible) because it never fails to bring home to me the truth of our ephemeral existence; time after time it seduces me with its truth so I can return to my highest priority.
Recently I��read��an article written by a specialist in palliative care who had served those who chose to die in their own homes��and��found it to be yet��another form of Death Meditation. I���m reproducing/ paraphrasing bits and pieces of what she said here. (I wish I could give her credit, but the email to which this article was attached has been inadvertently deleted.)
���People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality.��� this wise woman remarked. ���Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.���
When these dying people were asked whether they had any regrets about the life they were about to exit, or things they would do differently, she discovered five common themes that surfaced repeatedly.
I wish I���d had the courage to live a life true to myself and not the life others expected of me.�� Looking back on a life that is almost done, it���s easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honored even a portion of their dreams and had to die knowing it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few appreciate or exploit fully���until, tragically, they no longer have it.
I wish I hadn���t worked so hard. The truth is that by simplifying our lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it���s possible to live a happy and comfortable life with much less income than we think we need. By creating more space in our lives, we also open the doors to more peace and happiness.
I wish I���d had the courage to express my feelings. In order to keep the peace, many of us suppress our feelings. As a result, we settle for a mediocre existence and never reach full potential. Many develop illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carry as a result of constant repression.��While folks may react badly when we��first begin to speak our truth, in the end honesty can raise the relationship bar to a whole new level���or release the unhealthy relationship from our lives���and either way, we��win.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Many dying people yearned to track down good friends they had lost touch with; but during their last days, this was not always possible. When faced with approaching death, it is not money or status that seems to hold the most importance but love and relationships.
I wish that I had let myself be happier. Until death is literally breathing down their necks, many do not realize that happiness is a choice. As we begin the process of dying, what others think of us recedes into unimportance. And yet, stuck with crazy glue to comfort zones, the fear of change has��us pretending that we��are content.
Those who believe in karma and reincarnation view human life as exceedingly precious. Why? Because the human alone is gifted with the power of discrimination. (A lion cannot decide overnight that he will become a pacifist vegetarian, say, while an intelligent man or woman can change even the most ingrained habits in order to evolve.)
And yet, among those who��follow the eastern path to freedom, are many who believe that���since they have an infinite number of lives���they are free to slip into spiritual inertia. But��lifetimes do not flow in a sequence: I can learn A, B and C in this lifetime, but it does not necessarily follow that the circumstances of my next life will permit me to proceed with D, E and F. In other words, I could go from being a brilliant scientist in one life to a brain-damaged paraplegic in the next���based on what is known as ���the throwing of karma������so it���s best not to view evolution as an upward curve and to instead focus on using our time and energy well in this one that we have.
When I came to Tiruvannamalai six��years ago, I was enraptured by the amazing story of the boy Venkatraman, today known as Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and revered as one of the planet���s greatest jnanis (knowers of ultimate truth).
Venkatraman had an unusual awakening: one afternoon in his late teens a terrible fear of death came over him. Whereupon the lad lay himself down on his narrow cot and surrendered completely to the inevitability of physical death. At that moment, something streaked through him like living truth and never left him���and this was the mind-shattering gnosis that the spirit of Self inhabiting his body was deathless.
Here��I am reminded of the words of Nisargadatta Maharaj: Please understand, this��sage said��in his direct fashion, that there is only one thing to be understood���and that is that you are the formless, timeless unborn.
No matter who or where we are in the path to our heart, digesting and then regularly practicing a simple Death Meditation can work wonders in leading us��to liberation. It also gets rid of the endless crud clogging our spiritual arteries���so we can focus on our greatest passions instead of a��thousand-and-one paltry affairs that won’t matter a whit as we approach the final curtain on this lifetime.
Photo Credit: Berndt Kalidas Flory
Greetings from Arunachala, the sacred hill whose promise to the committed seeker is to destroy the ego so we can know ourselves as deathless spirit!
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April 25, 2015
All Good Books are Alike…Ernest Hemingway Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes)
All good books are alike in some respects, said the great Ernest Hemingway…check out Bridget Whelan’s brief post here….
Originally posted on BRIDGET WHELAN writer:
All good books are alike��in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.
Ernest Hemingway
photo credit: Girl w/ book and purple sweater via photopin(license)
April 22, 2015
Meet Sally Cronin – The Black Sheep.
Meet an especially interesting Black Sheep….Sally Cronin, interviewed here by Sue Vincent. Just so you know, Sally, via her blog Smorgasbord, “generously hosts writers, musicians and artists of all kinds, as well as sharing her own knowledge and humour..” Now read on please….
Originally posted on Daily Echo:
With great pleasure I welcome Sally Cronin as my guest today. Many will already know Sally through Smorgasbord as one of the most supportive of bloggers, where she generously hosts writers, musicians and artists of all kinds, as well as sharing her own knowledge and humour.
Like many, I imagine, I had done little more than read her blog and glance at her bio before I first clicked the ���follow��� button. It was initially the variety of the content that had attracted my attention, after all. Some few facts registered and stuck, but it was only in reading the blog itself that these facts took on a three dimensional quality and Sally herself became a person rather than just an avatar on a screen.
Even then, it was not until Sally invited me to be a guest on Smorgasbord that I actually took the time to look her up��� and���
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