Cheryl Snell's Blog, page 25
September 7, 2011
Red Room Rocks
Thanks to the folks at Red Room for mentioning my sister's and my new ebook of art and poetry, That Feel, in their newsletter today.
While looking around the site, I was glad to see that Shiva's Arms is still holding steady at the top of their "popular books" list, Too! Amma would be pleased.
While looking around the site, I was glad to see that Shiva's Arms is still holding steady at the top of their "popular books" list, Too! Amma would be pleased.
September 6, 2011
September 4, 2011
September 2, 2011
Mindfulness
A definition of memory from http://www.mindandlife.org/pdfs/ml_18_brochure.pdf
"...sustained voluntary attention (samadhi) is closely related to memory,
because in order to deliberately sustain one's attention upon a chosen object, one
must continue to remember to do so from moment to moment, faithfully returning
back to refocus on that object whenever the mind wanders away from it. Likewise, in
Buddhism, the faculty of "mindfulness" (smrti) refers not only to moment-to-moment
awareness of present events. Instead, the primary connotation of this
Sanskrit term (and its corresponding Pali term sati) is recollection. This includes
long-term, short-term, and working memory, non-forgetful, present-centered
awareness, and also prospective memory, i.e., remembering to be aware of something
or to do something at a designated time in the future. In these ways, from a contemplative
perspective, memory is critically linked to attention, and both of these mental
faculties have important ramifications for the experiential and phenomenological
study of the mind, its training, and potential optimization."
"...sustained voluntary attention (samadhi) is closely related to memory,
because in order to deliberately sustain one's attention upon a chosen object, one
must continue to remember to do so from moment to moment, faithfully returning
back to refocus on that object whenever the mind wanders away from it. Likewise, in
Buddhism, the faculty of "mindfulness" (smrti) refers not only to moment-to-moment
awareness of present events. Instead, the primary connotation of this
Sanskrit term (and its corresponding Pali term sati) is recollection. This includes
long-term, short-term, and working memory, non-forgetful, present-centered
awareness, and also prospective memory, i.e., remembering to be aware of something
or to do something at a designated time in the future. In these ways, from a contemplative
perspective, memory is critically linked to attention, and both of these mental
faculties have important ramifications for the experiential and phenomenological
study of the mind, its training, and potential optimization."
September 1, 2011
Relax Relate Read Book Bundle Giveaway
Enter WLB's Book Bundle Giveaway on the Back to the Books Giveaway Hop and win a hardcover copy of Shiva's Arms amomg other goodies. Good luck!
August 31, 2011
Ganesh Chaturthi
It's Ganesh Chaturthi, Ganesha's birthday celebration,the time when members of a household worship a clay likeness of him, and then submerge it at an immersion site. Neighborhoods compete with each other in building the biggest murti. There are pujas and other rituals, and delicious kozhakottai, a dumpling made from rice flour with a stuffing of coconut and jaggery, is offered at the temple.
I make use of these details in Rescuing Ranu, when I say about Nela, the ostracized daughter, that "The closest she had ever come to believing was during the Ganesh Chaturthi when she had fallen into a line of devotees with prayers written out on scraps of paper to give to the priests. She had written one, too, a wish more than a prayer. Let Amma live." One of the scenes in Shiva's Arms also incorporates this celebration. Nela has just sacrificed her hair to gods she no longer believes in. Her mother is ill, and she will try anything to help her recover. "On her way back to her room,... Nela spotted a small earthen version of Ganesh... She picked it up and ...waded out waist-deep into the river, the murti in her elbow's crook. A flotilla of figurines streamed by, with their streaked features half- erased, and their trunks of clay dissolving. She released her icon like a bad debt, like a broken promise."
At the intersection of my fictional world and real life, I keep a soft spot for Lord Ganesh. I like the idea that a gentle elephant god should be Remover of Obstacles. He's a good problem-solver, too: when charged with circling the universe, he walked around his parents, saying they were all his worlds. One morning, he paid me a visit.
I was opening the first gift my mother-in-law had ever given me. It had been fifteen years since I married her son, and I tore into the package - hope over experience, I guess. I drew out the long gold chain from a carved teak box, and uttered a sound like speech, but wasn't. My husband said, "Mother melted down her marriage bangles to have this necklace made for you." Her blessing, hard won but fully given.
For years I had been considered an interloper, taking what did not belong to me. Family members not yet born at the time of the family shame absorbed it, and confronted my husband and me with it years later. "Amma will never accept!" a niece only recently informed me. Memes perpetuate.
My head was suddenly filled with the noise of cultures clashing, and the gold links weighted with family history began to slide from my hand. It was then that I saw the tiny vermilion Ganesh emerge from the metal. A mantra moved through my brain: Vakrathunda Mahaakaaya Suryakoti Samaprabha Nirvignam Gurumaydeva Sarvakaryeshu Sarvada.
Obstacles removed, I slipped the necklace over my head and kissed it like a Catholic.
I make use of these details in Rescuing Ranu, when I say about Nela, the ostracized daughter, that "The closest she had ever come to believing was during the Ganesh Chaturthi when she had fallen into a line of devotees with prayers written out on scraps of paper to give to the priests. She had written one, too, a wish more than a prayer. Let Amma live." One of the scenes in Shiva's Arms also incorporates this celebration. Nela has just sacrificed her hair to gods she no longer believes in. Her mother is ill, and she will try anything to help her recover. "On her way back to her room,... Nela spotted a small earthen version of Ganesh... She picked it up and ...waded out waist-deep into the river, the murti in her elbow's crook. A flotilla of figurines streamed by, with their streaked features half- erased, and their trunks of clay dissolving. She released her icon like a bad debt, like a broken promise."
At the intersection of my fictional world and real life, I keep a soft spot for Lord Ganesh. I like the idea that a gentle elephant god should be Remover of Obstacles. He's a good problem-solver, too: when charged with circling the universe, he walked around his parents, saying they were all his worlds. One morning, he paid me a visit.
I was opening the first gift my mother-in-law had ever given me. It had been fifteen years since I married her son, and I tore into the package - hope over experience, I guess. I drew out the long gold chain from a carved teak box, and uttered a sound like speech, but wasn't. My husband said, "Mother melted down her marriage bangles to have this necklace made for you." Her blessing, hard won but fully given.
For years I had been considered an interloper, taking what did not belong to me. Family members not yet born at the time of the family shame absorbed it, and confronted my husband and me with it years later. "Amma will never accept!" a niece only recently informed me. Memes perpetuate.
My head was suddenly filled with the noise of cultures clashing, and the gold links weighted with family history began to slide from my hand. It was then that I saw the tiny vermilion Ganesh emerge from the metal. A mantra moved through my brain: Vakrathunda Mahaakaaya Suryakoti Samaprabha Nirvignam Gurumaydeva Sarvakaryeshu Sarvada.
Obstacles removed, I slipped the necklace over my head and kissed it like a Catholic.
