"And all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act." Joseph Campbell

And then will come the morning. It always does. Not a pretend morning, those come plenty as well. Those mere wanna-be's, shameless con-artists half-filling your consciousness with fake light, those heart-of-darkness-mornings when you wake with eyes full of tears, when you wake to a wish to just sleep, sleep and keep on sleeping. No. A real morning. How shocking is a real morning after a real bout of the real night.

It was a long night. Yet not nearly as drawn-out as it might have been. I know that the reason for that is the pact I made with the night-time and with suffering long ago. When the nights do come, as they do, as they will, I offer them no war, I greet them with an understanding of non-resistance. And they in turn burn in me and as me with a fast powerful transforming flame. Everything in life has its place and reason. When it's time to grieve then who are you to argue. Resistance is not only futile, it is ignorant. So when the demons come, why not face them head on with no fear. No. I'll go further than that- why not dance with them! Their bared-up teeth to you can either be a terrifying growl or a grin.

A well-groomed girl wearing a red silk dress trying out all the porches in the slums for size and deciding to take a nap on the rat-filled street in the end. Sad? No- she enjoyed the experience. Her suitor for the night, finally frustrated by her friendly, sardonic, easy-going, happy, sad, approachable, unapproachable, funny, obstinate behavior, tearing up the roses that he bought her and sprinkling the torn-up petals and thorns on her smiling tear-filled face on the pavement. Ridiculously beautiful- at least thats how she saw it.

The truth is never ugly. Feeling buried under the earth of sadness will unavoidably lead one back up to the stars and the sun and the beauty and the joy. And from my experience- it is perfectly alright when offered no resistance. There is the right time and a reason for everything. For grieving, for coming out of grievance, for the night and for the morning.

Sunlight creeping in through the dusty old granny-curtains of my rented room in down-town Phnom Penh, with roses and the words "Love forever" printed on them. I stretch my whole body like a cat, and for a moment have the strange feeling that I actually am a cat, purring to the pleasure of the wonderful warm rays of sun on my naked body and to the thought of a whole new exciting day in front of me with nothing to do but run around looking for adventure. Lying there under the sun and feeling it shaking up my heart slowly, surely, savoring each waking shiver of a newly strung chord. It is the stretch of a good rest. No- it wasn't a bad dream. It was merely the night.

The good-bye

The slum-like streets of downtown Phnom Penh. Smoking a cigarette at a streetside cafe and watching life unfold and miraculously keep on moving while my own heart has stopped dead on the tracks. How many people do I myself pass on the street every day without knowing that their hearts are weeping black holes longing to be blasted into oblivion?? YOU. Eyes that don't see, ears that only hear the genuine madness, beauty, truth and love of life turned into conventional greetings and arbitrary words. YOUR EYES. YOUR PLAYFUL FLIRTY EYES, TENDER LOVING EYES, RED-RIMMED EYES READY TO BURST INTO TEARS, COLD AVOIDING EYES. And yet why is it that when there is suffering in my own small existence then I feel so strongly the connection to all those strange and apparently distant faces and voices. I know that they suffer too. DID YOU SUFFER? A plump local hooker crossing the street, dressed up to the nines in the afternoon, throwing one shimmering high heel in front of the other in a cocky careless desperate way. We are all on the same boat. Am I not blocking the sound of an argument between a couple in the next table at the moment because I want to be alone with the struggle of words and emotions in my own head. So we all must find our own salvation and pretend to be alone and separate. Life never ceases to pierce and amuse me with its unrelenting contradictions and hilarious wicked irony. The Garden of Eden is once again filled with only dead roses. My instinct is to harrow my friends for sympathy but when it comes down to it then I know that the only sympathy that I need is the one for myself. For we are our own wrathful Gods of Vengeance, judging, always judging our actions and their concequences as mistakes, instead of forgiving and recognizing the true gift of any painful situation- that of a possibility for personal growth. YOU. ALWAYS YOU. IN EVERY SIMILAR SHAPE OF A BODY, FAMILIAR MOVEMENT, SLANT OF THE EYES, CURVING OF MOUTH. I hear a ringing in my ears, a tolling for mercy and for death. I put out my cigarette in an old beer-can torn in half, dispensed to me by the ever-smiling waitress and cool my alcohol-filled stomach with a tasty coconut shake. Yes- it is tasty, there is still an ounce of flavour left in the world and this simple joy amazes me for a while. But this passes quickly and once again I am THERE. THERE IN THE LONG HALL-WAY. YOU FAR AWAY IN THE OTHER END WATCHING ME WITH MY PACKED UP SUIT-CASES, BOTH OF OUR FEET AS IF GLUED TO THE FLOOR. STARING IN AN ETERNAL MOMENT AT EACH OTHER AND THE UNCROSSABLE DISTANCE BETWEEN US. WAS IT NOT ONLY A FEW DAYS AGO WHEN I RAN INTO YOUR ARMS AND COVERED YOU WITH KISSES? I AM LONGING, LONGING TO BE RELEASED FROM THE CHAIN THAT HOLDS ME ON THIS SPOT. I FEEL YOUR CALL WITH EVERY FIBRE OF MY BEING, THOUGH I KNOW THAT YOUR FACE SHOWS NO EMOTION AT ALL RIGHT NOW, YOUR FACE, THERE IN THE DISTANCE, THERE RIGHT INSIDE MY SWIRLING CAROUSEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS. YOU TURN. AND I WATCH YOU LEAVE. SO YOU WERE THE FIRST TO BREAK FREE. AS FOR ME... Yes- love is pain. And pain is also love though we may not see it at the time. Now that another obsession with immortality and illusion of permanence has run its normal course into being torn apart, I am once again in the peace and wholeness that is the Void. And even though I am there most of the times with your ghost following me everywhere, I let it be. I let you be there and the pain, and the pain- I let that be there too. It will pass, as everything else does. Suddenly I feel nothing but gratitude for all the love and pain that I have been blessed with in my life and I smile. Somewhere a bird is singing.

Hille and Lii's Travel Page

http://lilleke80.blogspot.com/

My travel blog from S-E Asia

Over-coming fear

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Dogfish - Mary Oliver

Dogfish

Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing
kept flickering in with the tide
and looking around.
Black as a fisherman's boot,
with a white belly.

If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile
under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin,
which was rough
as a thousand sharpened nails.

And you know
what a smile means,
don't you?

*

I wanted the past to go away, I wanted
to leave it, like another country; I wanted
my life to close, and open
like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song
where it falls
down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;
I wanted
to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know,

whoever I was, I was

alive
for a little while.

*

It was evening, and no longer summer.
Three small fish, I don't know what they were,
huddled in the highest ripples
as it came swimming in again, effortless, the whole body
one gesture, one black sleeve
that could fit easily around
the bodies of three small fish.

*

Also I wanted
to be able to love. And we all know
how that one goes,
don't we?

Slowly

*

the dogfish tore open the soft basins of water.

*

You don't want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don't want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it's the same old story - - -
a few people just trying,
one way or another,
to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind.
And nobody, of course, is kind,
or mean,
for a simple reason.

And nobody gets out of it, having to
swim through the fires to stay in
this world.

*

And look! look! look! I think those little fish
better wake up and dash themselves away
from the hopeless future that is
bulging toward them.

*

And probably,
if they don't waste time
looking for an easier world,

they can do it.

Zen reflections

"Second Lesson Of Reflection" by Navitrolla

The mind is like a reflection in a mirror:
Though it is insubstantial, it is not nonexistent.
What is, we have no control over;
And what isn't, is ephemeral
Aren't the esteemed sages
Just regular people who've resolved the matter?

There are changes upon changes.
Once the five components are clearly seen,
The diverse things in the world are joined into one.
How can there be two formless dharma bodies?
Once compulsive desires are eliminated and insight comes,
There are no thoughts about where the promised land may lie.

The will to survive must be killed off.
Once it is killed off, there will be peace of mind.
When the mind integrates this,
An iron ship has been made to float.

-P'ang Yun

Mirror Pond On Mount Taibo In Shanxi

The water and my mind have both settled down
Into perfect stillness.
Sun and moon shine bright in it.
At night I see in the surface
The enormous face of my old familiar moon.
I don't think you've ever met the source of this reflection.
All shrillness fades into the sound of silence.
But now and then a puff of mist floats across the mirror.
It confuses me a little
But not enough to make me forget to forget my cares.

- Hsu Yun

The mind-mirror is clear, so there are no obstacles.
Its brilliance illuminates the universe
To the depths and in every grain of sand.
Multitudinous things of the cosmos
Are all reflected in the mind,
And this full clarity is beyond inner and outer.

- Yoka Genkaku

Actually there isn't a thing
much less any dust to wipe away
who can master this
doesn't need to sit there stiff

- Feng-kan

Looking For Each Other

I have been looking for you, World Honored One,
since I was a little child.
With my first breath, I heard your call,
and began to look for you, Blessed One.
I've walked so many perilous paths,
confronted so many dangers,
endured despair, fear, hopes, and memories.
I've trekked to the farthest regions, immense and wild,
sailed the vast oceans,
traversed the highest summits, lost among the clouds.
I've lain dead, utterly alone,
on the sands of ancient deserts.
I've held in my heart so many tears of stone.

Blessed One, I've dreamed of drinking dewdrops
that sparkle with the light of far-off galaxies.
I've left footprints on celestial mountains
and screamed from the depths of Avici Hell, exhausted, crazed with despair
because I was so hungry, so thirsty.
For millions of lifetimes,
I've longed to see you,
but didn't know where to look.
Yet, I've always felt your presence with a mysterious certainty.

I know that for thousands of lifetimes,
you and I have been one,
and the distance between us is only a flash of thought.
Just yesterday while walking alone,
I saw the old path strewn with Autumn leaves,
and the brilliant moon, hanging over the gate,
suddenly appeared like the image of an old friend.
And all the stars confirmed that you were there!
All night, the rain of compassion continued to fall,
while lightning flashed through my window
and a great storm arose,
as if Earth and Sky were in battle.
Finally in me the rain stopped, the clouds parted.
The moon returned,
shining peacefully, calming Earth and Sky.
Looking into the mirror of the moon, suddenly
I saw myself,
and I saw you smiling, Blessed One.
How strange!

The moon of freedom has returned to me,
everything I thought I had lost.
From that moment on,
and in each moment that followed,
I saw that nothing had gone.
There is nothing that should be restored.
Every flower, every stone, and every leaf recognize me.
Wherever I turn, I see you smiling
the smile of no-birth and no-death.
The smile I received while looking at the mirror of the moon.
I see you sitting there, solid as Mount Meru,
calm as my own breath,
sitting as though no raging fire storm ever occurred,
sitting in complete peace and freedom.
At last I have found you, Blessed One,
and I have found myself.
There I sit.

The deep blue sky,
the snow-capped mountains painted against the horizon,
and the shining red sun sing with joy.
You, Blessed One, are my first love.
The love that is always present, always pure, and freshly new.
And I shall never need a love that will be called “last.”
You are the source of well-being flowing through numberless troubled lives,
the water from your spiritual stream always pure, as it was in the beginning.
You are the source of peace,
solidity, and inner freedom.
You are the Buddha, the Tathagata.
With my one-pointed mind
I vow to nourish your solidity and freedom in myself
so I can offer solidity and freedom to countless others,
now and forever.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Sufi reflections

"First Lesson Of Reflection" by Navitrolla 

Looking For Your Own Face

Your face is neither infinite nor ephemeral.
You can never see your own face,
only a reflection, not the face itself.

So you sigh in front of mirrors
and cloud the surface.

It's better to keep your breath cold.
Hold it, like a diver does in the ocean.
One slight movement, the mirror-image goes.

Don't be dead or asleep or awake.
Don't be anything.

What you most want,
what you travel around wishing to find,
lose yourself as lovers lose themselves,
and you'll be that.

- Attar

We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute
of eternity. We are pain
and what cures pain, both. We are
the sweet, cold water and the jar that pours.

- Rumi

The Mirror

Your eye has not strength enough
to gaze at the burning sun,
but you can see its burning light
by watching its reflection
mirrored in the water.

So the reflection of Absolute Being
can be viewed in the mirror of Not-Being,
for nonexistence, being opposite Reality,
instantly catches its reflection.

Know the world from end to end is a mirror;
in each atom a hundred suns are concealed.
If you pierce the heart of a single drop of water,
from it will flow a hundred clear oceans;
if you look intently at each speck of dust,
in it you will see a thousand beings.
A gnat in its limbs is like an elephant;
in name a drop of water resembles the Nile.
In the heart of a barleycorn is stored a hundred harvests.
Within a millet-seed a world exists.
In an insects wing is an ocean of life.
A heaven is concealed in the pupil of an eye.
The core at the center of the heart is small,
yet the Lord of both worlds will enter there.

- Mahmud Shabistari

I Was Nothing

When my mind was cleansed of impurities,
like a mirror of its dust and dirt,
I recognized the Self in me:
When I saw Him dwelling in me,
I realized that He was the Everything
and I was nothing.

- Lalla

How we could bridge the gap

The mind creates division

And division is another name

For devastating pain.

The heart creates oneness,

And oneness is another name

For spontaneous joy.

Sri Chinmoy

Go to the truth beyond the mind. Love is the bridge.

Stephen Levine

Art by Navitrolla : "How We Could Bridge the Gap"

Failure of Multiculturalism in Europe

Muslim teenagers in the UK are much more assimilated with the nation than their counterparts growing up in other European countries, new research claims.

For the study, young second generation Pakistanis and Indians who were also Muslims living in Blackburn and Rochdale were compared with Moroccan and Algerian youngsters in France and Turks and former Yugoslavs in Germany.

The British "multicultural" approach of accommodating immigrants actually works better than the French or German approaches, it is claimed.

In France, where head coverings have been banned in schools, there is no allowance for ethnic and religious differences by the state. And the widespread ethnic tensions seen between North Africans and the police in France in 2007 were repeated this summer.

In Germany, unless you have a German ancestor you cannot legally become a German citizen no matter how long your family have settled in the country. Citizenship relies on a German blood line.

The research is to be published in a new book out tomorrow, titled Children of International Migrants in Europe. Professor Roger Penn, from Lancaster University, who co-authored the book said:

"Perceptions of discrimination were lowest in Britain and highest in Germany, reflecting the failure of the German model of exclusive 'ethnic nationalism'. Britain's model of multiculturalism is proving far more effective for the incorporation of ethnic minority groups than the French 'assimilation' or German 'ethnic nationalist' ones. There is simply a moral panic going on about young Muslims because of 7/7."

Daily Mail, 20 August 2009

Here is one of the most deeply moving clips I have seen on the subject from the film Code Inconnu (2000) where M.Haneke again depicts failure of multiculturalism in modern society. Two young Arab men in a tube begin taunting Anne (Juliette Binoche), teasing her for being beautiful and trying in vain to seduce her.

Friendship

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."

Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

-  Khalil Gibran

Shadow self

"To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light. Once one has experienced a few times what it is like to stand judgingly between the opposites, one begins to understand what is meant by the self. Anyone who perceives his shadow and his light simultaneously sees himself from two sides and thus gets in the middle."


— DR. CARL GUSTAV JUNG



“The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves.” - C.G.Jung

The Shadow, is a psychological term introduced by the late Swiss psychiatrist, Dr. Carl G. Jung. It is everything in us that is unconscious, repressed, undeveloped and denied. These are dark rejected aspects of our being as well as light, so there is positive undeveloped potential in the Shadow that we don’t know about because anything that is unconscious, we don’t know about.

The Shadow is an archetype. And what an archetype simply means is that it is typical in consciousness for everyone. Everyone has a Shadow. This is not something that one or two people have. We all have a Shadow and a confrontation with the Shadow is essential for self awareness. We cannot learn about ourselves if we do not learn about our Shadow so therefore we are going to attract it through the mirrors of other people.

- From article "The Shadow Dance-Understanding Repetitive Patterns in Relationships"

*

The unconscious mind is a powerful tool, a guide, a helping hand to let us see what it is that we are missing from our wholeness, what haven't we accepted as parts of ourselves, what is holding us back. The stronger our shadow aspect is, the stronger are the connecting fears.
I realised today, doing shamanic meditations, that my shadow totem animal is the snake.

When I was young I fell seriously ill. This was straight after a traumatizing experience of running away from a snake in the living room of our country house. For about a week I was raving with high fever and hallucinating. I remember only the snakes- snakes covering the floors, the walls, hanging down from a ceiling. My grandfather, who I had a profound link with, was having nightmares at the same time, he was walking in the shadow lands of death with me, as he later said. On leaving me behind as he woke, he was afraid that I would remain in those shadows forever.

Whenever I have nightmares now, the subject has never changed, I am still haunted by snakes. What has changed though is a realisation that maybe there is something within me in my subconscious mind that is desperately trying to connect with me. As if little chippings of self are separated from us during traumas and then look so alien to us that we don't recognise our own spirit fragments anymore. Now I see that perhaps I have been trying to avoid and to run away from an important part of myself.


As Jung says, "Filling the conscious mind with ideal conceptions is a characteristic of Western theosophy, but not the confrontation with the shadow and the world of darkness. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."


And from shamanism: "As the Shadow Totem walks, flies or swims beside us, we may come to understand, and ultimately integrate, the darker reflection of our Personality. By understanding the Contrary Medicine that this Animal Spirit brings to us and absorbing the Lessons and Wisdom he/she has to impart, we transmute the Medicine from something to be feared or repressed, to an integrated and cohesive Center.

When the pain of past traumas have been embraced, healed and resolved, then we may look upon our Shadow Totem in a new light, understanding that all along, he/she is merely a reflection cast from our own unresolved issues, lessons and pain.  With understanding, healing and integration, the Shadow is no longer a separate and dark entity that relentlessly pursues us, and we come to see that where our footsteps fall, no fractured Shadow is cast, for there is only the light of the Integrated Self. "


Also an interesting article from the Buddhist view on facing the shadow self - "Inviting the demon".

Magic of the Drum

From my own native teachers, I have learned that the drum is coming into power again to awaken our hearts, for we must now learn to live from the heart. The heart is the place of balancing and awakening to our wholeness; the heartbeat is one of the reasons people so naturally and strongly connect to the drum. After all, each of us comes into the world having spent nine months listening to a heart drum in the womb. We are imprinted with rhythm from the very start and rhythm is the heartbeat of life. ~ Michael Drake




Estimated to be between 20,000 and 30,000 years old, shamanic drumming is considered one of the oldest methods for healing. Practiced in diverse cultures around the planet, this technique is strikingly similar the world over. Shamanic drumming uses a single, repetitive rhythm played at a tempo of three to four beats per second. Although sounding quite simple and redundant, the unique connection between the drum and the shaman gives this drumming great power, richness, and depth.

The sound of the drum is very important. It is the subtle variations in timbre and ever-changing overtones of the drum that allow the shaman to communicate with the spiritual realm. Part of the shaman's training involves learning to hear and interpret a larger range of frequencies than the normal person can. The shaman listens and finds the right tone, the right sound to which the spirits will respond. Through the many tones, pitches, and harmonics of the drum, the shaman communes with the subtle and normally unseen energies of the spirit world.

The primary cross-cultural function of shamanic drumming is to induce altered states of consciousness for both journey and embodiment trances. Shamanism is the intentional effort to acquire and nurture ongoing relationships with personal helping spirits by journeying into realms where the spirits dwell. The reason for developing personal relationships with spirit helpers is to gain wisdom, healing techniques, and other vital information that can benefit the community.

When a spirit is invoked, there is often an accompanying rhythm that evolves. Shamans frequently use specific rhythms to summon their helping spirits for the work at hand. Shamans may have a repertory of established healing rhythms to treat a variety of conditions, or improvise a new rhythm, uniquely indicated for the situation.

Like the colors of the rainbow, each culture has its own hue or identity, yet each is a part of the whole. Although the function or intent may differ from culture to culture, rhythmic drumming invariably has the same power and therapeutic effects in all traditions. The resonant qualities and attributes of these rhythmic phenomena are universal and come into play whenever we drum. The sound waves produced by the drum impart their energy to the resonating systems of the body, mind, and spirit, making them vibrate in sympathy. When we drum, our living flesh, brainwaves, and spiritual energy patterns begin to vibrate in response.

Science is now verifying the therapeutic effects of drumming. Recent medical research studies indicate that drumming boosts the immune system and produces natural pleasurable experiences, enhanced awareness of preconscious dynamics, a release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self. Other studies have demonstrated the calming, focusing, and healing effects of drumming on Alzheimer's patients, autistic children, emotionally disturbed teens, substance abusers, trauma patients, and prison and homeless populations. Study results demonstrate that drumming is a valuable treatment for stress, fatigue, anxiety, hypertension, headaches, asthma, chronic pain, arthritis, and sleep and emotional disorders.

 Source

Lifepaths Animal Totems Index, Native American Philosophy and Earth Medicine

http://wolfs_moon.tripod.com/contentsindex.html

My beloved owl

"In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is said to be mad"

The Owl is recognized by Siberian Shamans as one of the great animal familiars, indeed Shamans with an owl spirit guide typically have powers of second sight and great sensitivity.

Universal Owl Shaman Symbolism

While different species of owl each have their own unique shamanic symbolism, there are also universal characteristics common to all owl spirit guides:

• The owl as power animal perceives truths that are veiled to many, thanks to its silent flight at night.
• An owl spirit guide is skilled in detecting untruths, thanks to its acute hearing which detects what others do not.
• The legendary intelligence of the owl is indeed a characteristic of the totem owl. A shaman with an owl spirit guide is an old soul with much wisdom thanks to this maturity.
• Thanks to its silent flight the owl power animal knows when to speak and when to keep its peace.
• The owl is a skilled hunter thanks to its great local knowledge. On a shamanic journey the owl spirit guide serves the Shaman with its detailed knowledge of the spiritual realms.

Continue reading this article : here

Owls In Lore and Culture


How to find your own animal spirit guide

REMEMBER- YOU DO NOT CHOOSE YOUR ANIMAL TOTEM, THEY CHOOSE YOU!

List of all the possible animal spirit guides and their characteristics here

Free-falling

The most profound quote that I have ever read has to be Joseph Campbell's "We're in a free-fall into future. We don't know where we're going. Things are changing so fast, and always when you're going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along. And all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It's a very interesting shift of perspective and that's all it is... joyful participation in the sorrows and everything changes."
The first time I read it I felt a shock of electricity go through my body, I read it again and again and I knew- yes, these are the words that I have been waiting for all my life.

Years have passed and now it seems that this quote has been living a life of its own within me.

Not only do I find myself freely falling into my own feelings, emotions, hardships, and sorrows, but also I find much has started to fall away from within me and from my life. Nothing is planned, but everything seems to be fluid. I seem to need less and less and the surplus just slides down my sides and disappears as if I was on a strange type of a diet.

Today I went for the ultimate free-fall. Something that I have wanted to do for a long time- a bungee jump.
Standing high up, blood rushing, I knew this was the perfect moment to live the truth- let it go. Let go of everything. All your fears, all the tomorrows and yesterdays, yourself, the ground, the all. Nothing remains but the moment. The moment alone half way up in the sky. All you can do is raise your arms in surrender and let go. It was the most beautiful moment in my life. I have never felt a feeling of pure, undiluted freedom, like I did in those moments.

We do not have to wait for experiences of extreme sport to fall freely and turn our hell into a heaven. We can do it every single moment, in every single Now. Let it all go. Life, death, yourself. And heaven will be there within you.

Falling stars

Falling Stars

Do you remember still the falling stars
that like swift horses through the heavens raced
and suddenly leaped across the hurdles
of our wishes--do you recall? And we
did make so many! For there were countless numbers
of stars: each time we looked above we were
astounded by the swiftness of their daring play,
while in our hearts we felt safe and secure
watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate,
knowing somehow we had survived their fall.

~Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Albert Ernest Flemming

Caught quite a few falling stars in the past few nights, so this is just a little tribute to the wonderful month of August, the month of the meteor showers in the Perseus constellation, as well as just a great warm time to escape to the countryside like I did, and lie under the open eternity of the sky, travelling, travelling, travelling.... till you are completely in the unknown, in the space without borders, till there is no time, no you... nothing but the vast blinking eyes of the Universe looking back at you, looking from within you to the face of the Divine.

Creativity

"To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it." Osho

Poetry Arrived...

And it was at that age...Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating plantations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
I felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke free on the open sky.

 

-Pablo Neruda

 

"Creativity has nothing to do with any activity in particular -- with painting, poetry, dancing, singing -- it has nothing to do with anything in particular. Anything can be creative; it is you who brings that quality to the activity. Activity itself is neither creative nor uncreative. You can paint in an uncreative way, you can sing in an uncreative way. You can clean the floor in a creative way, you can cook in a creative way.

Creativity is the quality that you bring to the activity you are doing. It is an attitude, an inner approach -- how you look at things.

So the first thing to be remembered is, don't confine creativity to anything in particular. It is the person who is creative -- and if a man is creative then whatsoever he does, even if he walks, you can see in his walking there is creativity. Even if he sits silently and does nothing -- even non-doing will be a creative act. Buddha sitting under the Bodhi Tree doing nothing is the greatest creator the world has ever known.

Once you understand it -- that it is you, the person, who is creative or uncreative -- then the problem of feeling like you are uncreative disappears.

Not everybody can be a painter -- and there is no need also. If everybody is a painter the world will be very ugly; it will be difficult to live! Not everybody can be a dancer, and there is no need. But everybody can be creative.

Whatsoever you do, if you do it joyfully, if you do it lovingly, if your act of doing it is not purely economic, then it is creative. If you have something growing out of it within you, if it gives you growth, it is spiritual, it is creative, it is divine.Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it -- whatsoever it is! irrelevant of the fact of what it is. Then you will know that even cleaning can become creative. With what love! Almost singing and dancing inside. If you clean the floor with such love, you have done an invisible painting. You lived that moment in such delight that it has given you some inner growth. You cannot be the same after a creative act.

Creativity means loving whatsoever you do -- enjoying, celebrating it! Maybe nobody comes to know about it -- who is going to praise you for cleaning the floor? History will not take any account of it; newspapers will not publish your name and picture -- but that is irrelevant. You enjoyed it. The value is intrinsic.

So if you are looking for fame and then you think you are creative -- if you become famous like Picasso, then you are creative -- then you will miss. Then you are, in fact, not creative at all; you are a politician, ambitious. If fame happens, good. If it doesn't happen, good. It should not be the consideration. The consideration should be that you are enjoying whatsoever you are doing. It is your love affair.

If your act is your love affair, then it becomes creative. Small things become great by the touch of love and delight.

But if you believe you are uncreative, you will become uncreative -- because belief is not just belief. It opens doors; it closes doors. If you have a wrong belief, then that will hang around you as a closed door. If you believe that you are uncreative, you will become uncreative because that belief will obstruct, continuously negate, all possibilities of flowing. It will not allow your energy to flow because you will continually be saying, "I am uncreative."

This has been taught to everybody. Very few people are accepted as creative -- a few painters, a few poets, one in a million. This is foolish! Every human being is a born creator. Watch children and you will see: all children are creative. By and by, we destroy their creativity. By and by, we force wrong beliefs on them. By and by, we distract them. By and by, we make them more and more economical and political and ambitious.

When ambition enters, creativity disappears -- because an ambitious man cannot be creative, an ambitious man cannot love any activity for its own sake. While he is painting he is looking ahead; he is thinking, 'When am I going to get a Nobel Prize?' When he is writing a novel he is looking ahead, he is always in the future -- and a creative person is always in the present.

We destroy creativity. Nobody is born uncreative, but we make ninety-nine percent of people uncreative. But just throwing the responsibility on the society is not going to help. You have to take your life in your own hands. You have to drop wrong conditionings. You have to drop wrong, hypnotic auto-suggestions that have been given to you in your childhood. Drop them! Purify yourself of all conditionings... and suddenly you will see you are creative.

To be, and to be creative, are synonymous. It is impossible to be and not to be creative. But that impossible thing has happened, that ugly phenomenon has happened, because all your creative sources have been plugged, blocked, destroyed, and your whole energy has been forced into some activity that the society thinks is going to pay.

Our whole attitude about life is money-oriented. And money is one of the most uncreative things one can become interested in. Our whole approach is power-oriented and power is destructive, not creative. A man who is after money will become destructive, because money has to be robbed, exploited; it has to be taken away from many people, only then can you have it. Power simply means you have to make many people impotent, you have to destroy them -- only then will you be powerful, can you be powerful.

Remember: these are destructive acts. A creative act enhances the beauty of the world; it gives something to the world, it never takes anything from it. A creative person comes into the world, enhances the beauty of the world -- a song here, a painting there. He makes the world dance better, enjoy better, love better, meditate better. When he leaves this world, he leaves a better world behind him. Nobody may know him, somebody may know him, that is not the point --but he leaves the world a better world, tremendously fulfilled because his life has been of some intrinsic value.

Money, power, prestige, are uncreative -- not only uncreative but destructive activities. Beware of them! And if you beware of them, you can become creative very easily. I am not saying that your creativity is going to give you power, prestige, money. No, I cannot promise you any rose gardens. It may give you trouble. It may force you to live a poor man's life. All that I can promise you is that deep inside you will be the richest man possible; deep inside you will be fulfilled; deep inside you will be full of joy and celebration. You will be continuously receiving more and more blessings. Your life will be a life of benediction.

It is possible that outwardly you may not be famous, you may not have money, you may not succeed in the so-called world. But to succeed in this so-called world is to fail deeply, is to fail in the inside world. And what are you going to do with the whole world at your feet if you have lost your own self? What will you do if you possess the whole world and you don't possess yourself? A creative person possesses his own being; he is a master. "

- From "Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within" by Osho

Estonia

The flower that blooms from the soil of despair

Sometimes we have to wait for a very long time to face our monsters. A hurt can set a wheel of becoming into motion and then disappear from view, because perhaps all that was needed was one shocking dose of deep pain to carve the heart bare, empty, vulnerable. A rigid heart which is sure of itself cannot receive, grow, or learn- pain is always needed. The false strengths we were made to believe when we built up our egos needed to be exposed and we now need to start the search for the true strength.

The heart contracts into a tiny little wounded muscle, then develops its own defence mechanisms, usually builds a shell around for protection. Time goes by and new hurts grow out of the initial hurt. This time the hurts consist of the rigid boundaries we ourselves have made in defence of the monsters that are not even there anymore. It is our own reaction that begins to hurt us.

So we go through another contraction, we may find a new enemy- ourselves. But time pushes the wheel on and on, there is no pause in the procedure going on within our own operating room.

We were walking in darkness ever since the loss of the first battle, but because pain will not give up on us and forces us to come to a conclusion, to a dissolution of itself, we now  begin to see a light, a small glimmer at first, then similar to a torch, at last blazing clear and bright. The light of truth. And the rocky road is smoothed out, slowly but surely.

It is ourselves that choose our experiences in this world. We tend to think that if anything bad happens to a child, it is never a child's fault. This is true but when we think this way then we leave a presumption within that it must have been somebody else's fault. This attitude is like trying to learn the book of the language of ourselves in the dark. We do not consider that on a much deeper level it might have been a choice of the spirit of the human being. When the light has been turned on then we see the truth- spirit is born pure, wise, and already from the first moments always CHOOSING his or her experiences. It may be difficult to believe, but it can be known.

Never give up. You may be tested and put face to face with the monsters and you may fail to see them as the angels that they are. But a time will come, when you will be ready. A time will come when the monsters will stand in front of you, and you will feel only love and forgiveness, you will feel your trampled on spirit rising up and facing those who have hurt you the most, with nothing but love within your heart and with a throat full of "Thank you." And they may be just the same as they were, still lost, still desperately fumbling around in the dark, without even realising that their darkness has served as a light on somebody else's path. They may know nothing of the magnitude of the process that they started and which helped you find the first truth of Life- we must and are able to love everyone and everything in this Universe and this is all that matters, our greatest power, from which all else will unfold. They may not even remember you. But when that moment comes and your spirit rises to meet theirs, they will suddenly turn around and walk away from you, forgetting why it was they were trying to approach you again. Their job is complete. And you...

You will follow their disappearing figure with your grateful eyes and truly know that there is no wrong, or bad in this world, there is no evil. The dam of "the unforgivable" is swept down by the real force of your openly given forgiveness-  this is your true strength. And the black soil of Pain has grown a pure white petaled flower of Love.

 

Glen Hansard "Say it to me now"

Scratching at the surface now

And I'm trying hard to work it out

And so much has gone misunderstood

And this mystery only leads to doubt

And I didn't understand

when you reached down to take my hand

And if you have something to say

You better say it now



Cause this is what you've waited for

Your chance to even up the score

And as these shadows fall on me now

I'll win somehow, yeah

Cause I'm picking up a message lord

And I'm closer than I've ever been before

So if you have something to say

Say it to me now

Just say it to me now, now, oh

*

Doveglion

he isn't looking at anything
he isn't looking for something
he isn't looking
he is seeing

what

not something outside himself
not anything inside himself
but himself

himself how

not as some anyone
not as any someone

only as a noone(who is everyone)

E.E.Cummings

Michael Tiernan "You hide"

“You Hide”

I feel your presence everywhere.
It jumps out at me when I'm aware.
You're beauty is so manifold
everywhere I go.

It's been said before, it'll be said again
through different throats and languages.
Throught the heroes and the saviors bold
the same thing is known

Chorus:
That you're as near
As this heart is here.
Just behind the differences
You hide.

And in the fire on the mountaintops,
In the sacrifice to all the gods.
Even in the poison in the junkies veins,
that need cries out  your name.

But we can't afford to disagree
cause we're all talking about the same damn things.
Words are fingers pointing at the moon,
Notes mistaken for the tune.

Chorus

Bridge:
In the hero, savior, and the sage
they denied the world so they could embrace it
Then loving from that empty space
where truth could come reside.

Some might ask why you're so damn hard to find.
We can get all angry that our hearts are blind.
But if the truth was found so easily
would we not cast it aside?

*

Togetherness is the same as being separate. What separates us is our mind and its many thoughts, what unites us is our mind and its many thoughts. One gave birth to the many, and separateness will give birth to Unity. Walk down the very end of the most lonely road, only then you will see that you were never alone, but always conencted to all living beings on the very same plight.

YouTube - The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav

"Why do you want to read others´ books when there is the book of yourself?" "The little book on LIVING: J.Krishnamurti."

Power sites

Within and around the earth,
Within and around the hills,
Within and around the mountains,
Your power returns to you.

A Tewa Prayer

Yesterday, while on a short trip to the Estonian countryside, I visited a place known for the locals as a "power site". People from around the country visit this small little circle on the ground in the middle of nowhere, some continue on a little pilgrimage to also similar circles in the neighbourhood, in the belief to improve their physical and mental well-being, it is thought that on these sites there are powerful good energies emanating from the earth. Some people say that these places are very similar to the power sites in Tibet, only on a smaller scale. When I asked my relatives how they felt there, they replied that they always like to go there when their mood is down, and that they always return happy and feeling balanced.
Having always felt energies and having a keen interest in this theme, it is needless to say that I could not pass up an opportunity to see what its all about- these so-called power places.
A small circle in the grass, that's all that it was. In fact the only sign that this was the right place was that all the grass had been bent down from people walking around on it. Yet the instant that I stepped in I started to feel my fingers pulsating with energy. Wow- so it is true, I thought. My fingertips felt like I had been touching a live-wire by the end of it, when I took off my shoes and walked barefoot on the grass the same feeling crept up my toes as well. A kind neighbour who did this tour almost every day was explaining to us to find the most beneficial spot on the circle for each of us personally by simply walking around and stopping where it feels right to stop. My brother noticed a pain in his stomach in a particular spot, and I a sensitivity in an area that was most recently sick. I was wondering whether, like in Reiki, the energy enters the places in your body where they are most needed. And yes- we all bounced away in a good mood, there was no doubt in that.

"I have recognized twenty factors that contribute to the mysterious power of sacred sites. I believe these various factors function, independently and together, to create, perpetuate and amplify a presence or field of energy that surrounds and saturates the sacred sites. This energy field, or power of place, may be defined as a nonmaterial region of influence extending in space and continuing in time. To conceptualize this idea of sacred sites having spatially defined energy fields, it is useful to consider the phenomenon of magnetism. As any school child knows, if you place a magnet beneath a plate of glass having iron filings on top, the filings will be influenced by the power of the magnet. While science is not able to fully explain the dynamics of this power, the phenomenon is real. It is called a field.

     Similar to the power of a magnet, the power of a sacred site is an invisible field of energy permeating the area of the sacred site. Myths and legends of the sacred places tell of certain sites that have the miraculous ability to heal the body, enlighten the mind, increase creativity, develop psychic abilities and awaken the soul to a knowing of its true purpose in life. I believe that the energy fields of the sacred sites are responsible for these extraordinary phenomena.

     Evidence indicating the existence of such energy fields may be found by studying the discovery, development and continuing use of sacred sites. In other words, how were the sacred site locations initially discovered or chosen? What are the ethos and the esoteric wisdom that went into the construction of the structures and artifacts at the sites? Why do human beings continue to visit the sites over long periods of time? Considering these questions will allow us to build a convincing argument for the existence of subtle energy fields at the sacred sites.

     Although this information is intellectually fascinating, my primary purpose in discussing it is to introduce the idea of a power of place existing at the sacred sites, and to assist people in experiencing that power when they visit the sites. Simply by walking into the immediate area of a sacred site a pilgrim enters into the energy field of the place whether they know of the presence of energy fields or is unaware of them. Our experience of the energy fields, however, may be amplified by consciously connecting with them through knowledge, intention and meditation. By knowing of the existence of the fields, by mentally intending to connect with them and by practicing meditation when we are at the sacred sites, we can actually establish a psychic linkup with the power of place. Such a linkup with the fields will assist us in more fully benefiting from the power of the sacred sites.
 
     Paul Devereux, an authority on the geophysical aspects of sacred sites, comments that:    

When a person visits a ceremonial monument, is it their intellect, their five senses, their intuition, or the electromagnetic fields around their bodies that perceive the place?....One may individually respond in a limited set of ways to a site, but it is crucial to know that one's preferred reactions are only part of a network of knowing that is involved in a more complete description of the place. (1)

     I believe that the nature of a person's experience of a sacred site may be influenced by them having what Devereux calls a "multi-mode" approach to the sites, that is, by experiencing the sites from the vantage points of both knowing and feeling, both mind and heart. Knowing means having an understanding of such matters as the mythology, archaeology, history, geology and (possible) celestial orientation of a site. Feeling means the ability to sense and tune into the presence of power at a site.

     The ancient people who discovered the power places and erected structures at them quite probably related with the sites through both feeling and knowing. If contemporary people wish to access the energy fields of the sacred sites they should likewise use both knowing and feeling. "

Source, including a list of sacred sites from around the world.


"[...]Thus far I have recognized twenty different factors that may contribute to the localized energy fields at the sacred sites.
I classify and analyze those twenty factors according to the following four categories:

1. The influences of the Earth.
2. The influences of celestial objects.
3. The influences of the structures and artifacts at the sacred sites.
4. The influences of the accumulated concentration of a charged field of psychic power deriving from the focused intention, prayers and meditations of millions of pilgrims over long periods of time.

In the category of the influences of the Earth, there are the geophysical characteristics of the sacred sites, including localized magnetism, gravitational anomalies, geothermal activity, the presence of underground water, ionization, ultrasound and radioactivity. Paul Devereux and the Dragon Project, having conducted more than two decades of exhaustive studies of the geophysical anomalies at sacred sites, present striking evidence that ancient people recognized the powers of specific sites and utilized them for a variety of therapeutic, spiritual, shamanic and oracular purposes. How archaic humans discovered these power places was by an intimate exposure to the feel of the land and its subtle energies. With this sense they felt those particular places on the living earth that expressed a more highly charged vitality. These pagan ritual sites became the locations of the first shrines and temples. Over hundreds or thousands of years and the process of continuing construction at the sites, these places became the most visited and venerated sites on the planet: the great pilgrimage centers of Jerusalem, Compostela, Lourdes, Guadalupe, Bodh Gaya, Banaras and Mecca.

The second category of factors contributing to the power of place regards the influence of celestial objects on the local energy fields of the sacred sites. For reasons only little understood, certain power places demonstrate regular periods of increase in their emanations of geophysical energies that seemingly correspond to cyclical movements of the sun, moon, planets and stars. Many ancient peoples were concerned with the movements of the heavenly sphere and this evidence is particularly abundant at the oldest holy places. Over the ages of people living at or near certain power places, it was observed that there were cycles of increase and decrease in the power of place and that those periods were linked to the movements of specific celestial bodies. These periods of energetic increase, for example the solstices, equinoxes and various lunar dates, became the first festival times of prehistoric peoples (I am speaking here of regularly occurring events as opposed to irregular celebrations of the hunt). These festivals were earth-spirit ceremonies that actually predate agriculture (and correspondingly predate the less ancient agricultural myths that would later be associated with the earth-spirit festival dates).

The young science of archaeoastronomy (astronomy itself being vastly older) has brought to light remarkable evidence that a large proportion of the pilgrimage sites of deep antiquity are topographically situated to be in precise alignment relative to the position and movements of particular astronomical objects visible from each site. The most ancient science of our species, only recently being rediscovered, was the interweaving of terrestrial astrology and sacred geography. There is a great galactic symphony of subtle forces playing upon our planet by virtue of the cyclical orbits and particular positions of numerous different celestial bodies relative to the earth. The power places, because of their profound energetic resonance with different celestial frequencies, are ideal portals where humans may access those forces. The times most suited to interdimensional access at these holy places are the particular dates encoded in each of their founding myths.

The third category of factors contributing to the power of the sacred sites concerns the design, construction and ornamentation of the structures that humans have placed at the sacred sites. A particularly fascinating example is the Sacred Geometry used in the construction of the pyramids, temples, mosques and cathedrals at the sacred sites. Sacred Geometry is the formulating geometry evident in many facets of the natural world, such as sea shells, crystal structure and musical intervals. Numerous early cultures, observant of the mathematically repeating patterns of nature, sought to encode those same patterns and proportions in the architecture they created at the sacred sites. Similar to how the mathematically precise shapes of musical instruments create and enable specific sounds, the purposeful shapes of some (not all) sacred structures assist in the generation of specific fields of energy and influence. Contributing to and amplifying these fields of influence, shrine builders also made use of sound, light, aromatic substances, jewel-encrusted icons and gold/silver-plated sculpture. The German philosopher, Goethe, once remarked that sacred architecture is frozen music; this is a palpable reality for many visitors to the great pilgrimage shrines.

The fourth factor contributing to the power of the sacred sites is the most mysterious, the least understood. This is the accumulated and concentrated power of human intention. As photographic film (a small piece of earth) can record the energy of light, and as audio tape (another small piece of earth) can record the energy of sound, so also can a sacred site (a larger piece of earth) record, remember or somehow contain the energy and intention of the millions of humans who have performed ceremony at the holy place. Within the shrines and sanctuaries, countless priests, priestesses and pilgrims have gathered for hundreds or thousands of years. Dancing and chanting, praying and meditating, they have continuously charged and amplified the etheric fields of love and peace, healing and wisdom. The megalithic stone rings, Celtic healing springs, Taoist sacred mountains, Mayan temples, Gothic cathedrals, Shiite Islamic ziyarats, Hindu Jyotir Lingas, Buddhist stupas and Egyptian pyramids are repositories of the concentrated spiritual aspirations and attainments of all humanity. Here, too, are the places where Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Zoroaster, Guru Nanak, Mahavira and other sages and shamans awakened to the deepest realizations of spiritual wisdom.

The vast numbers of pilgrims visiting the sacred sites, both historically and in contemporary times, are not conceptually familiar with the different factors contributing to the power of the sites. They are not visiting for such reasons. They come because it is the momentum of their religious tradition that draws people to the holy places. Buddhists go to the four major places of Buddha’s life; Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Saranath and Kushinagar. Hindus visit sites sacred to gods and goddesses such as Shiva, Vishnu, Krishna, Saraswati, Shakti and Kali. Christians visit Lourdes, Rome, Jerusalem, Compostela and a host of sites associated with saints and the apparitions of angels. Taoists climb the sacred mountains of China; Muslims visit Mecca, Medina and the shrines of the Shi’te Imans; and Jews go to the Western Wall and the shrines of great Rabbis."

From "The Power of Place. Pilgrimage and the lure of sacred sites" by Michael Gray

Tibetan medicine

Tibetan Medicine is the oldest integrative medicine system in the world having been successfully used for over 1000 years. The system was started in the eight century by King Tritson Detsen when he ordered the first international conference on medicine in the history ever. The meeting of Greek, Indian, Nepalese, Persian and Chinese minds lasted for fifty years. Even the Chinese, who invaded Tibet in the 1950’s have actively tried to preserve the medical system whilst destroying monasteries and temples. Like the traditional Indian and Chinese medical systems, Tibetan Medicine views health as a question of balance. Circumstances such as diet, lifestyle, seasonal and mental conditions can disturb this natural balance which gives rise to different kinds of disorders. A Tibetan Doctor employs his open senses to examine the individual's general balance of health. Treatment involves dietary and behavioural advice and medications derived from natural sources such as herbs, minerals, and organic products. As this system is imbued throughout with Buddhism it is perhaps the greatest medical healing system in the world with its capacity to address not just the body but also the mind and spirit. According to The Buddha all sickness begins from a false assumption that an independent autonomous self exists and by not having an understanding of emptiness, devoid of self or shunyata. This belief in a self is called marigpa. This wrong view ultimately produces 84, 000 afflictive emotions. All diseases according to this system arise from the three mind poisons arising from this ignorance, desire (wishes, passions, and attachments), anger (irritation, rage and hatred) and stupidity (closed mindedness or apathy). Basically wrong thinking and beliefs make you sick. These three mind poisons are regulated by three energies in the body called Lung (wind), Tripa (bile) and Bekan (phlegm). If a person has too much of any of the mind poisons, diseases from an imbalance in the energies occurs. Tibetan Medicine is based on maintaining these energies to be in harmony with one another. Every one has one of these constitutions more predominant that the other and sometimes a mixture of two of them. The Lung type person is very mentally active, all psychosomatic diseases are Lung, these people generally have a cold constitution, physically they are slim build, problems with sleep affects them, they can be very talkative. When they are out of balance their digestion is first hit often with a feeling of no appetite which causes sleeping problems. They are cured by anything that earths them makes them heavier and warms. Tripa types tend to be more rounded often hungry and thirsty with a healthy appetite. They sweat easily and have strong body odours. Their week points are liver gall bladder and small intestine. They are quick on the uptake and very convincing with anger and jealousy surfacing. Generally the suffer from hot diseases. Bekan is very strong build with and cool body and thick skin. They can endure hunger and thirst and love their sleep. In fact sleep is the answer to all their ills. Their digestion is sluggish which creates their susceptibility to mucus diseases. They tend to be shy. Full article by Ralph Quinlan Forde here * The teachings on the five elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether - constitute the heart of Tibetan medicine. The human microcosm, just as the macrocosm, is made of these five fundamental energies which monitor the vitality of the mind and the body. The whole world, the human body, but also illnesses and medicaments are in communication with one another. The five elements are represented in us by the three body energies: Lung (the principle of motion), Tripa (the principle of warmth) and Beken (the stabilizing and cooling principle). In a healthy body these three principles are balanced. This balance - and, therefore, health -depends on the mind as on the mental level disharmony leads to an imbalance of these energies which then manifest as illness in the physical body. Ignorance is the cause of illness. Ignorance provokes the illusion of being separated from the environment. The perception of “I” and “Mine” creates the Three Interior Poisons: Hatred, Ignorance and Desire which lead to an imbalance in the three body energies Lung, Tripa and Beken. Furthermore, health depends on the individual behaviour and habits, especially also on the diet, the environment and the climatic conditions. Thus the Lung energy increases in cold, dry and windy places; Tripa energy in dry and hot places, whereas Beken energy increases in humid, sultry or cold regions or periods. Source * The Blue Buddha - Lost Secrets of Tibetan Medicine Nature of Things *

Excellent book on Tibetan medicine by Ralph Quinlan Forde  

"The Book of Tibetan Medicine: How to Use Tibetan Healing for Personal Wellbeing "

On the beach at night alone- Walt Whitman

On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef
of the universes and of the future.

A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, or in
different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the
brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any
globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.

Seizing my life in your hands, you thrashed me clean- Rumi

Seizing my life in your hands, you thrashed me clean
On savage rocks of eternal mind.
How its colors bled, until they grew white!
You smile and sit back: I dry in your sun.

The Sea boils with passion for you,
The clouds pour pearls at your feet
A lightning from your love has pierced the earth
This smoke curling to heaven is its child.

We were green: we ripened and grew golden.
The Sea terrified us: we learned how to drown.
Squat and earthbound, we unfolded huge wings.
We started sober: are love's startled drunkards.

You hide me in your cloak of nothingness
Reflect my ghost in your glass of being
I am nothing, yet appear: transparent dream
Where your eternity briefly trembles.

This love sacrifices all souls, however wise, however "awakened"
Cuts off their heads without a sword, hangs them without a scaffold.
We are the guests of the one who devours his guests
The friends of the one who slaughters his friends....
Although by his gaze he brings death to so many lovers
Let yourself be killed by him: is he not the water of life?
Never, ever, grow bitter: he is the friend and kills gently.
Keep your heart noble, for this most noble love
Kills only kings near God and men free from passion.
We are like the night, earth's shadow.
He is the Sun: He splits open the night with a sword soaked in dawn....

The man to whom is unveiled the mystery of Love
Exists no longer, but vanishes into love.
Place before the Sun a burning candle
And watch its brilliance disappear before that blaze,
The candle exists no longer, it is transformed into Light,
There are no more signs of it, it itself becomes sign....

You are my soul, my universe: what do I have to do with the soul and the universe?
For me you are ever-flowing treasure: what do I have to do with profit and loss?
One minute, I am the friend of the wine, another the friend of him who burns me.
I have come to this age of ruins, so what do I have to do with time's melodrama?
I am terrified by the whole world, I am sprung free of the whole world,
I am neither "hidden" no "apparent." What do I have to do with existence or space?
I am drunk on union with you, I need and want and care about no one else.
Since I am your prey, what do I care about fate's bow and its arrows?
I live at the bottom of the stream, why would I go looking for water?
What could or would I say about this stream that flows and flows?
I have given up existence, why go on staggering under the burden of this mountain?
Since the wolf is my shepherd, why put up with the pretensions of the shepherd?
What abandon! What drunkenness! You hold the cup in you hand
Blessed is the place you are, and glorious to the eye of the heart.
Each atom, by your grace, is a universe, each drop of water a soul.
No one who has ever had a sign from you need worry again about "name" or "sign."
To find the place of splendor, at the bottom of the Sea of truths
You have to dive, dive head first: what do I have to do with feet that scurry?
With the sword of the One God you have hacked a Path for us:
You have stolen all my clothes: What will I give to the toll-man?
From your beauty ablaze like the sun, from the curls of your hair,
My heart has become ecstatic: O my soul, hand me this brimming cup,
Do not weigh pain and misery, contemplate love, contemplate friendship:
Do not mull over tyranny and neglect: think of all those who have their eyes fixed on you.
Surname all grief 'grace': transmute pain and anguish into joy
And ask from joy all happiness, all security, all peace.
Demand that security, that peace, demand them,
Choose the company of those withdrawn in love
Listen to those who open a path to you: listen, and don't say a word.

Glorious is the moment we sit in the palace, you and I
Two forms, two faces, but a single soul, you and I
The flowers will blaze and bird cries shower us with immortality
The moment we enter the garden, you and I
All the stars of heaven will run out to gaze at us
As we burn as the full moon itself, you and I
The fire winged birds of heaven will rage with envy
In that place we laugh ecstatically, you and I
What a miracle, you and I, entwined in the same nest
While I am here in Konya, and you are in Khorassan
What a miracle, you and I, one love, one lover, one Fire
In this world and the next, in an ecstasy without end.


Rumi