Mira Prabhu's Blog, page 84
August 18, 2014
Let Your Words Encourage Not Tear Down
I can’t say I’m always sweet with my words…I do believe in getting a point across (tough love). In turn I appreciate those who speak their truth…karma is 99% intention – if we come from a space of love, that will come through…
Originally posted on Princess of the Light: Shining the Light For All:
Words can be deadly.
Don’t believe me? On Twitter last week, words sent to Robin Williams’ daughter caused such distress that she quit Twitter and notified the authorities. She’s not the only one. I see it all the time on social media. Online bullying with words can kill and it happens more than with guns.
Spreading the Light doesn’t mean you can use your words like bullets, hurting and injuring people. Spreading the Light is all about inspiring and encouraging others. Read the quote again.
Always be generous with your encouraging words, you may find they will inspire others to be the best they can be.
Today (and everyday), let’s use our words to uplift each other instead of tearing each other down!
Keep spreading the Light!
MRS N, Champion of Encouraging Words
August 17, 2014
The Sunday Show – Jennifer Anderson-Bounds – Flowers in the Snow – Don’t ever Tell.
Flowers in the Snow – Don’t ever Tell…child bullies and so much more…reblog from Smorgasbord…Om!
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
You cannot switch on the television, check the latest updates online or pick up a newspaper without seeing some senseless act of violence being played out somewhere around the world. Recently we have seen our own teenagers being drawn into conflicts thousands of miles away as they answer the calls by violent men and women to join a devastating crusade.
We often ask the question ‘When does all this end’? But perhaps the question we really need to resolve is ‘Where did it all begin’?
Of course there is little new in history and you only have to go back a century to see that conflicts involving opposing ideologies and territorial disputes cause death, destruction and massive changes in national boundaries and displaced populations.
Within our own generations it is clear to see that there has been a shift in the age groups involved in anti-social behaviour with children and…
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Monday Funnies in B&W
Abbott & Costello – Two Tens For A Five…suckered over and over again…start your week right…thanks to Chris The Story Reading Ape!
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog..... An Author Promotions Enterprise!:
This week it’s Abbott & Costello :D
August 15, 2014
Zen Master Tova Tarantino Toshiba by Gabriel Constans
Lady GaGaGa
Zen Master Tova Tarantino Toshiba by Gabriel Constans
Available at: Fountain Blue Publishing and Amazon
Born on August 1, 2014
This fictional short-story collection challenges our perceptions and illusions about religious masters, spiritual teachers, gurus, charlatans and holy men and women of all persuasions, while simultaneously tickling our funny bone and exercising the muscles our faces rely on for laughter. Zen Master Tova Tarantino Toshiba takes liberty with questionable material from the living sea, near Egypt; tofu paper, in Okinawa; a tomb, in Italy; a shaman, in Ethiopia; and a half-sister, in India. The words, quotes, koans and stories, of this soon to be classical work, include the timeless insights of Let the Worm’s Go, Dead Food, Reality Bites, Stealing the Buddha, Drip After Drip, Sound of One Eye, Catching Wind, Looking Good, My Cat’s Enlightened, Chocolate Box, and Sex, Drugs and Sushi Rolls.
Terms of endearment for Zen Master Tova Tarantino Toshiba: The Illustrious and Delusional Abbess of Satire.
“Enlightenment or laughs? With Gabriel Constans’ book you don’t have to choose. Zen masters usually have a sense of humor, or need one. Gabriel’s got it, and he gives us a world of illusions to laugh about.”
– Bob Fenster, author of Duh: The Stupid History of the Human Race
“This is a blessed book that can be read during the rapture or while burning in hell.”
– Rev. Paat Robertson
“World leaders and politicians could learn a thing or two from the teachings of Master Tova Tarantino Toshiba. She understood and transformed the inspiring, Yes. No. Maybe, into Yes, we can, long before its use in politics.”
– President Ohlama
“Zen Master Tova Tarantiono Toshiba is a splendid collection of wit, women and wine. It reminds me of a night on the town with Mohammad Ali in drag.”
– Lady GaGaGa
“There are no teachings that are outside of you, except the ones inside this book. Unless, of course, you’ve eaten this book.”
- Bob Tzu, guru, avatar, wisdumb teacher at duhism.com “An incredible onslaught of insight and universal truth – like Yoda on estrogen.”
– George Lucus“An endearing and soul searching work that reveals hidden treasures of this infamous master and hysterically questionable abbess. My brother loves it.”
– Llama KanChew, Sister of the Dalai Lama
“Gabriel Constans’ divine book about the humble Abbess can be used as a book of prayer, inspiration or before communing with the poor or the filthy rich.”
– Pope Fransis, Bishop of Romen
“For those who are old enough to remember, the original Golden Girls sitcom was based on the real life teachings of that zany grand lady of Zen, Master Tova Tarantino Toshiba.”
– Bettie Whyte, Actress and Comedienne
August 14, 2014
Book Review – Whip of the Wild God by Mira Prabhu
Sally Cronin’s review of Whip of the Wild God (Mira Prabhu)! Take a look at her excellent blog…truly a Smorgasbord of delights…thank you Sally, for being such a terrific support to all of us indie writers – Om!
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
I love books and will often write a review on Amazon or other book site when possible. I don’t see myself as a book reviewer as such as I have my taste in both fiction and non-fiction and I only tend to read books that I know I am going to enjoy.
However, here is a review of a book by a future guest as a prequel if you like. I hope that I do it justice.
Unless you are living in an isolated island without the benefit of outside communication you will be quite aware of the frantic pace of modern life and the violence against man and nature that seems to be unrelenting. However, as they say ‘there is nothing new in history!’
Mira Prabhu takes us back to ancient India where life and times are both turbulent and harsh where we meet a young girl called Ishvari…
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August 11, 2014
Free Spirits: Yoga Therapy and Girls
Yoga Therapy and Girls…Danielle Olson dives into the topic and reminds me how complicated everything can get in the west…in her own words: “…to teach yoga as a method of spiritual development is to head into dangerous waters. This means if I choose to offer my class within educational or health care settings, I will most likely be free to explore physiological calming techniques for my students body and mind, but if I mention her immortal soul, well, it starts to get dicey. I’m now in danger of impinging upon her religious freedoms.” Read on! And if you want to get a somewhat related Indian viewpoint, check out “Shiva’s Spectacular Gender Divide” on my own blog….Namasthe!
Originally posted on body divine yoga:
“Girls are largely raised without a sense of their own divinity…their worth in the world is tied to their looks, grades, and gifts – not the amazing miracle of mere existence“…Courtney E. Martin, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body
It’s no secret that rates of body image disorders, anxiety and depression are epidemic, or that parents and healthcare professionals are scrambling for solutions, usually pharmaceutical. But what does seem to be secret (or at least ignored) are the nearly three decades of research demonstrating that when it comes to teens at risk – a dose of “spirituality” may be really good medicine.
That’s why for my upcoming yoga therapy practicum I’ve decided to create a class with one focus – enhancing the spiritual well-being of teen girls. Because after reviewing countless studies suggesting girls with some sort of spiritual focus in their life (no…
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August 10, 2014
The Tale of Two Personalities
“Allopathic medicine is good for trauma care but fraught with dangers”….terrific point and great blog post…thank you!
Originally posted on kook2014:
Last week I went in for a minor surgical procedure. I’ll spare you the details. As I was being discharged I received a prescription for Oxycodone, which my husband dutifully filled. I was instructed to take the pain medication and lie low for the next several days.
Arriving home, I obediently took a pill and nestled carefully into bed. An hour or so later I awoke with the most surprising sensation; no pain. And not just the surgical site, that was completely numb, but also my year-long bout with chronic back pain–gone. My achy feet from too many hours on the EFX–no pain, my sore hands and wrists from too much time on the computer–no pain. I felt like I was twenty. Totally pain free–a miracle! I hopped out of bed marveling at my body’s ability to heal.
The first thing I did was call my mother. We had a…
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Monday Funnies with MAXINE
Maxine says stuff I bet we’d all like to express from time to time…the bitter but hilarious truth — enjoy the dark side!!! Thank you Story Reading Ape!
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog..... An Author Promotions Enterprise!:
August 8, 2014
Me & Bobby McGee…Live!
That spooky stage….
This post fits bang into the “mundane” aspect of our blog title…but it also deals with the greatest foe we each must duel on the long and winding road to freedom — voila, Monsieur EGO!
I made my debut as diva at the age of four. Garbed in virginal white, I stood brave as a soldier on the auditorium stage of our lovely school in Bangalore, run by British, Scottish and Indian nuns. I resisted the urge to flee backstage as the curtains rose and the spotlight focused on my terrified little face—and, according to my mother, burst into a faultless rendition of an old hymn known as Immaculate Mary.
Other kids followed my opening act with a variety of performances—for an audience comprising a vast throng of parents who clapped and cheered decorously at the end of each piece. This was Parents Day, and obedient kids that we were at the time (I changed radically), our chief desire was to impress our anxious elders.
I was also the top athlete in my class: high jump, long jump and the hundred meters sprint. Never a team player, I did not succeed at playing basketball or any sport requiring cooperative effort; today I suspect my debut on that dark stage spoiled me—after that, nothing would do but to shine as the lone star in my own constellation.
I met my sports nemesis in high school—a pleasant non-intellectual girl with massive calves and a most determined mother, who just happened to be our Games Teacher. Together they decided to topple me from the 1st place I believed was my right—and succeeded. (Decades later, my “nemesis” died in an accident on her way home from a wild party in Bangalore’s burbs; I cried when I heard she’d been on the verge of divorce and had left behind a child; I had really liked her.)
This humiliating sports defeat was only the start of multiple ego-bashings. No one warned me that humans with humongous egos suffer the most—or I might have lain myself down on the nearby railway tracks and sacrificed myself to a huffing puffing mechanical monster on its thunderous way towards Delhi or Bombay. Teenage angst is a terrible thing.
At the time we owned a gorgeous Steinbeck piano that none of us bothered to play. One day our maid grimly announced that evil spirits had taken possession of this instrument—for delicate rustlings, she claimed, emanated from its mysterious interior.
Mice, said practical Mum, and promptly summoned the lanky piano tuner to confirm her diagnosis. He cleaned up the insides and warned that the mice would be back if we did not regularly use the instrument—evidently these vermin dislike the pounding of ebony and ivory. Mum gave us an ultimatum: the piano would go if one of us did not play it every day. We did not, and one day came home to an empty space where the piano had stood. That’s when we freaked out and said we wanted it back. Mum tried to buy it back, but the new owners would not part with it, thrilled to get a Steinbeck so cheap.
A contrite Mum offered to buy us any musical instrument we fancied. I chose a guitar from the shop of Goan guitar-maker Lewis. Guided by a cool neighbor who played in an up-and-coming local rock band, I learned the simple chords to Have You Ever Seen The Rain (Credence Clearwater Revival). I picked up whatever I could from whomever I could. Much later I met a brilliant young quantum scientist-in-training who taught me some great songs on the guitar. (My heart broke when I later heard he’d committed suicide in America—for the love of his life had deserted him.) One of the songs he taught me was Janis Joplin’s Bobby McGee.
Janis Joplin
I was a dark and twisted teen with equally dark and twisted heroes:Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison—each a rock star who had OD’d before hitting 30. I too wanted to crash and burn before I was “old”—which meant over 30. Anyway, I fell instantly in love with the lyrics of Bobby McGee…two runaways chasing that elusive rainbow that leads to happiness…and, over the following decades, must have sung it a thousand times—in India, America, Europe and even in the Far East.
By the time I hit 30, I was married in Manhattan and disliking mainstream life. I listed all the things I would rather be doing (than working for corporate lawyers). Two things stood out—singing and writing. Since I lacked the training, skill, and thick skin required to make it as a musician in the Big Apple, I chose to write seriously. Strange how that seed has taken root: today I write seriously and play music purely for fun.
Cut to Christmas Eve 2009, Tiruvannamalai, in south India: friends invite me to sing at a local restaurant…and guess what I end up belting out to a happy crowd of revelers…Me & Bobby McGee! Click on this link for a look…twenty pounds over my ideal weight, tanned to a crisp, but still a shameless wannabe diva, hey?
(If you want to hear our Tiru musicians having a real blast, go to the youtube link.)
Note: Perceptions of family stories (such as my piano tale) generally differ. Amy, my talk therapist in Manhattan, explained it this way: Every sibling has a different set of parents—meaning that in large families, each child—depending on their own entry into the family—has divergent views of circumstances, character, etc; the important point to remember is that each view is valid.
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August 6, 2014
Book #72: The Lord Of The Rings
The rain, however, did not last long. Slowly the sky above grew lighter, and then suddenly the clouds broke, and their draggled fringes trailed away northward up the River. The fogs and mists were gone. Before the travellers lay a wide ravine, with great rocky sides to which clung, upon shelves and in narrow crevices, a few thrawn trees. The channel grew narrower and the River swifter. Now they were speeding along with little hope of stopping or turning, whatever they might meet ahead. Over them was a lane of pale-blue sky, around them the dark overshadowed River, and before them black, shutting out the sun, the hills of Emyn Muil, in which no opening could be seen. (J.R.R. Tolkein)
Originally posted on 101 Books:
Wow. It “only” took me about two months, but I’ve finally completed the epic known as The Lord of the Rings.
As I’ve said before, I had only read about half the novel before inexplicably putting it down many years ago without finishing. What was I thinking?
The Lord of the Rings is, quite possibly, the best novel ever written.
I don’t say that ironically, and I’m not saying that to troll. I really mean it. But, of course, as is everything on this blog, that’s just my opinion—which is reflected in my rankings.
You know the story, right?
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