Some Estonian songs and memories from our Singing Revolution

Just a little tribute to Estonian music. We are a tiny singing nation, music and singing is part of our culture so much that when other nations had revolutions, we had a Singing Revolution, starting 1988 to when we got our independence in 1991. I was 8 years old at the time, when my family took me to the secret nightly song sessions on our song festival ground. We didn't really know how to fight against the monstrous width and power of the Soviet Union. So we gathered in the shadows, holding hands, lighting candles, singing national songs in our language which had been forbidden for almost almost half a century. In my life I have yet to feel again the power of emotion that ran through us then, the unity in our voice, heart and longing. We embodied one wish, one will and one dream.

Estonian music is mainly lyrical and poetic hence only a few songs have been translated, its not an easy task to capture the simple yet mystical nature of the Estonian song. The same way as our family names have all to do with nature, my own means tulip for example, the songs mainly talk about the wind and mountains, silence, forests and flowers, the mystic, life, death and of course love.

So here's a couple of songs I found with translation and a clip from the movie singing revolution.

My lesson from that time was this-
No matter how dark the times.
No matter how small and seemingly powerless.
We have each other.
We can find our common voice.
And heart.
The Universe will do the rest. :) 

A musical interlude- Elgar and du Pre

“My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us, the world is full of it and you simply take as much as you require.”
― Edward Elgar, Edward Elgar: Letters Of A Lifetime



"I love the physical thing of being on the earth that bore you, I have the same feeling when I walk in a very beautiful place that I have when I play and it goes right. Playing lifts you out of yourself into a delirious place . . ."
― Jacqueline du Pre

Two poems by Doris Kareva

Two poems by Doris Kareva

(translated by Tiina Aleman)

That Which Is Can Be Expressed

I don't know if all roads lead to truth,

but every truth is a road.

The sea is salty from the glad tears

of the rivers, when they meet.

Into that apocalyptic water

I throw all my delusions,

into the clean water dregs of the times,

black pepper into the golden honey.

Suddenly there's lightness. Suddenly it's clear.

Everything is still and separate.

Idleness Is Often Empowering...

Idleness is often empowering,

recreating oneself—

just as the moon gradually

grows full once again,

a battery surely and

steadily recharges,

so everything, everyone

must have time for the self—

for mirth and laziness

time to be human.

"The vagabond is rapping at your door"- Love IS

Love comes and love goes. Well that's not exactly right. Attachment comes and goes. At least in my case. Love comes and love stays. But lasting physical togetherness has never been necessary in my case, so all through my life I have been a serial monogamist, and at this moment I am at the end-stage of another beautiful lesson through a perfect mirror.
I have been blessed with many loves in my life, and I will continue to love each of my temporary companions for a life-time. I've often wondered how one measly heart can hold so many different loves and even feared that maybe one day this capacity will run out, how many rooms does one heart have to rent out to all the travelers of love?! What a tireless builder is love to have so much energy to keep on building relationships... It is born. It dies. It is BORN! It DIES!!
And then it is born again. And it is perfect for that time again. It seems there is no limit to how many times our heart can love.
Many won't understand. Aren't we taught, wasn't I taught- to find a life-time companion, that one and only?
But then I never followed anything.
Perhaps I was born a rolling stone.
Perhaps I have sold my soul to freedom. No- that is for sure.
I have never minded that, I have rather felt the luckiest person to have experienced so much love and loss and growing and withering, and passion- that too.
In my experience there is never a more painful experience than that of true passion being torn away from you, its a violent ripping apart that has no equivalent. But with each of these experiences of unbelievable passion I have known from hindsight that the ripping apart was the best thing that could have happened- passion comes without lessons other than that of impermanence, it isn't a contract of souls to enlighten each other in specific moments in our path, there is only one goal to passion- and its the purification through its death.
And then there are those partings, like this one- which are more peaceful and more loving than the time you spent together. When two people have actually come to a realisation about their mutual influence, when the message has been shared and understood and both sides are grateful and are simply moving on.
Its strange, but I have come to love ALL parts of love, the coming together and the falling apart. The yin and the yang, the ever-turning wheel and the multitude of teachers on the way..
Love is an endless rainbow.
Love is an ever-filling spring.
Love is.

Alex Grey- CoSM. A mind-blowingly beautiful sacred journey.

CoSM The Movie is a magical new kind of documentary experience, leading audiences on an enriching and sense-heightening journey into the visionary art cosmos of world-renowned painter Alex Grey.

Grey is our guide on a cinematic pilgrimage through the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors gallery in New York City, where his vividly rendered depictions of human anatomy and transcendental imagery reflect the universal human experience with birth, death, family, love, and enlightenment as the unfolding iconic narrative.

Fusing the power of music with stunning cinematography, director Nick Krasnic channels the raw power of Grey’s art into a potent film odyssey that captures the essence of this unique sacred space, and offers rare, personal insight from one of the most significant artists of our time.

The desert tales

I was very moved by a concert I saw recently by Tinariwen- a band of Tuareg-Berber musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. 

It reminded me of the few encounters I had with people from the Sahara when I was in Morocco. I remember their piercing cunning eyes which were clear and full of both sorrow and humour, in an equal measure, their movements flowing and gentle, yet doing every action in an optimum precise way. These people had a presence which has left me till this day dreaming about the Sahara.

It reminded me of my own brief 2 day trip to the desert in the western part of India- Rajastan.

It was probably the most magical, fairy-tale experience I've ever had. My camel was a bit older so I stayed behind the rest of the group, really making me feel it was just me and her, the sand and the sun. Being in awe of the never-changing landscape as far as the eye can see, respecting the scrubs, every little insect and the miracle of life- growing out of the most inhospitable ground. Falling under the spell of the gentle sound of bells when a herd of goats or sheep were passing by, the tune of the shepard whistling along. You're in another world. A simple, natural, enchanting world you don't want to leave. Life is hard in the desert. I guess we are all living in it in a way. Trying hard to survive and at the same time trying to live without effort and to remember life's magical tune.

Terry Pratchett wrote, “Night poured over the desert. It came suddenly, in purple. In the clear air, the stars drilled out of the sky, reminding any thoughtful watcher that it is in the deserts and high places that religions are generated. When men see nothing but bottomless infinity over their heads the have always had a driving and desperate urge to find someone to put in the way.” 

Yet there is another way the soul of the desert emerges, it is through music and through stories..

Here's two wonderful desert stories I found online.

"Friends in the desert" 

(author unknown)

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:

"Today my best friend slapped me in the face."

They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

"Today my best friend saved my life."

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?"

The friend replied, when someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

The Tale of the Sands - A Spiritual Sufi Story

By Awad Afifi

A stream, from its source in far-off mountains, passing through every kind and description of countryside, at last reached the sands of the desert. Just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream tried to cross this one, but it found that as fast as it ran into the sand, its waters disappeared.

It was convinced, however, that its destiny was to cross this desert, and yet there was no way. Now a hidden voice, coming from the desert itself, whispered: "The Wind crosses the desert, and so can the stream."

The stream objected that it was dashing itself against the sand, and only getting absorbed: that the wind could fly, and this was why it could cross a desert.

"By hurtling in your own accustomed way you cannot get across. You will either disappear or become a marsh. You must allow the wind to carry you over, to your destination."

"But how could this happen?"

"By allowing yourself to be absorbed in the wind."

This idea was not acceptable to the stream. After all, it had never been absorbed before. It did not want to lose its individuality. And, once having lost it, how was one to know that it could ever be regained?

"The wind," said the sand, "performs this function. It takes up water, carries it over the desert, and then lets it fall again. Falling as rain, the water again becomes a river."

"How can I know that this is true?"

"It is so, and if you do not believe it, you cannot become more than a quagmire, and even that could take many, many years; and it certainly is not the same as a stream."

"But can I not remain the same stream that I am today?"

"You cannot in either case remain so," the whisper said. "Your essential part is carried away and forms a stream again. You are called what you are even today because you do not know which part of you is the essential one."

“The desert and the ocean are realms of desolation on the surface. 

The desert is a place of bones, where the innards are turned out, to desiccate into dust. 

The ocean is a place of skin, rich outer membranes hiding thick juicy insides, laden with the soup of being. 

Inside out and outside in. These are worlds of things that implode or explode, and the only catalyst that determines the direction of eco-movement is the balance of water. 

Both worlds are deceptive, dangerous. Both, seething with hidden life. 

The only veil that stands between perception of what is underneath the desolate surface is your courage. 

Dare to breach the surface and sink.” 

― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“Paradise is not a garden of bliss and changeless perfection where the lions lie down like lambs (what would they eat?) and the angels and cherubim and seraphim rotate in endless idiotic circles, like clockwork, about an equally inane and ludicrous -- however roseate -- unmoved mover. That particular painted fantasy of a realm beyond time and space which Aristotle and the church fathers tried to palm off on us has met, in modern times, only neglect and indifference passing on into oblivion it so richly deserved, while the paradise of which I write and wish to praise is with us yet, the the here and now, the actual, tangible, dogmatically real earth on which we stand.” 

― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

“most of my wandering in the desert i've done alone. not so much from choice as from necessity - i generally prefer to go into places where no one else wants to go. i find that in contemplating the natural world my pleasure is greater if there are not too many others contemplating it with me, at the same time.” 

― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

Ozymandias- Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away". 

Visionary art

A small slide show that I made of some of my favourite visionary artists and paintings.

Symbols, intuition and a personal symbol analysis

Symbols and the analysis of those symbols which keep coming up for us, whether in our dreams, or in our waking hours, whether through the emotions of love or fear, can be a wonderful way of self-analysis and a deepening of understanding about ourselves, our paths and our challenges. This is a personal example.

I have been on a deep intuitive journey in recent days (and mainly nights- why is it that the night-time is more open for intuition? Is it simply that we are undisturbed or does the putting out of one light bring forth the lighting of the other?). 

Where I have been lead is a single symbol, an image, which exploded in me and has left me in a state of wonder.

It is the image of the Tree of Life and more precisely "arbor inversum"- inverted tree. 

"Alchemical treatises speak of the arbor philosophica that grows upside down. The alchemist, Canon George Ripley describes this arbor inversum  as having "the root of its minerals in the air and its head in the earth.".. The Qabalistic Tree of Life is the same as the World Tree of the Shamanic, Hindu, Egyptian, Sumerian, Toltec, and Norse traditions, also described in the Upanishads as a "tree eternally existing, its roots aloft, its branches spreading below. The pure root of the tree is Brahman (the Absolute) the Immortal, in Whom the three worlds have their being. Whom none can transcend, Who is verily the Self..." The spiritual rebirth of the world starts in human consciousness- in the mind of the alchemist. The tree of Life grows out of the alchemist's own heart, the center of his or her world. Spreading into ever-new infinities, into ever-higher and purer realms, it becomes the Tree of Enlightenment."

~David Goddard "The Tower of Alchemy- and advanced guide to the Great Work" 

"This tree and its gifts of immortality are not easy to discover. It is historically difficult to find, and almost invariably guarded. The tree of Life in the Jewish bible is guarded by a Seraph (an angel in the form of a fiery serpent) bearing a flaming sword."

"To steal the apples of knowledge, the Greek hero Hercules had to slay a many-headed dragon Ladon. In Mayan legends, it is a serpent in the roots that must be contended with. Similarly, the Naga, or divine serpent guards the Hindu Tree. The Serpent Nidhog lives under Ygdrassil, and gnaws at the roots..."  Src

All of these symbols were always meaningful for me, and I could not even imagine them coming together before they did.

I always saw myself as an upside-down growing being, always un-grounded, cause all of the higher chakras were open yet the lower chakras were not. It isn't better or worse to grow upwards or downwards, both ways of growing bring the same result and it is through the joining of the heaven and earth that we become whole. 

I have to wonder now if the image of the arbum inversum always existed in my subconscious, through the medium of our collective memory...

Second- my name Hille is derived from an old German name- Hildebrand. Its literal translation is the flaming sword. 

Snakes... Well where do I start about the snakes. With a phobia about snakes since youth and suffering re-occurent night-mares about them till recently, the snake image has followed me around since I remember. It has always been dubbed with the emotion of utter fear. 

"In Eastern Indian myth the Sanskrit word for snake is naga and these are associated with the element of water. Picking up water's symbolism of emotion, love and motion, nagas in this light are considered a feminine aspect and embody nurturing, benevolent, wise qualities. To wit, the practice of nagayuna in Eastern Indian alchemy seeks to achieve loving harmony between the physical and ethereal. Simply put, all of us striving to better ourselves by calmly easing into places of personal balance within the cosmic balance of the whole are practicing this ancient technique."   Src

The dice have rolled, the symbols are in place, now all there is to do is to understand, which is something that I can only try in simplistic terms right now.

The flaming sword was gifted to me by my mother. She had an uncanny intuition to give me my name and she gave birth to me in the Sun of Aries and ascendant of Scorpio, there is nothing more necessary to embody a flaming sword. :) (Of course perhaps our birth time is chosen by ourselves but for my name I can only give thanks to my mother). 

But the innate qualities, the external self and knowing that part of oneself simply means another road of growth and it is by no means an easy one. It is a path of its own- to fully let these qualities shine in the best way possible, and also to accept oneself as one is. For example I have always struggled with my instant way of jumping into battle, and I have used my sharp insight into others in negative ways when I have been hurt for example. Be who you have chosen to be, and be the best you can be. 

The inverted tree is my spiritual path towards the eternal self. I knew this was my only ambition in life since very young.

The snake figure symbolises the one true obstacle- which is fear. To get to the tree of knowledge we must dissolve fear into its counter-part which is love. But the message is clearer yet- to unify and find balance between opposites. To find balance in the feminine and the masculine. It is the serpent who is said to have caused the fall of Man. It is merely a symbol of man falling into the life of duality, in order to, on his own, discover who he is, and to directly know his unity with all that there is. By becoming both the snake and the flaming sword it is possible to unite the opposites- fire and water, masculine and feminine. 

So. To take that all together I am left with these feelings and thoughts most of all. Follow your own intuition, all the answers are there, both waking and dreaming life is continuously full of symbols and keys. The things in life which frighten us the most, like it was with snakes for me- are so powerful for us for a reason, they have come in peace and are actually the very things we have to approach and understand. Everything is connected and on our search of self-knowledge everything can be of assistance. All the ancient traditions, astrology, numerology, working with dreams, working with archetypes, yoga, ayurveda, shamanism, alchemy, all the ancient wisdoms of the world are all a piece of the picture because there are uncanny correlations between all of these when one begins to look. Life is a simply marvelous master-piece of synchronicity and inter-connectedness. 

"The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have been current in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is provided by Plato in his Timaeus in which it states..." behold we are not an earthly but a heavenly plant." ~ Carl Jung

Saved from hopelessness and lies... or the new paradigm in medicine- Meta medicine

My faith in modern medicine has seen countless and countless heavy hurtful hits. Coming from a background of studying and in fact being passionate about mainstream science, namely genetics, for the purpose of healing, I have since then gone through a long journey of ups and downs, ending up on the one side free of opinions of the mainstream medicinal "facts" we were taught which actually ended up being only theories of the time, but also sometimes quite upset about the possible/probable lies that are being not only propagated, but sustained long after there is wide-spread scientific disagreement. For example for about 25 years much of the scientific world and many brilliant respectable figures have been in doubt or in outright refusal over the issue of HIV causing AIDS and in fact over such a virus existing in the first place as it has never been shown, separated or proven. The same lack of proof goes for the existence of rabies, questions like whether blood transfusions are actually harmful and causing death, the adverse effects of vaccines etc etc. The repercussions of the adversaries being right, even as a possibility only- is criminal, the death toll huge, suicides tragic. 

The power of dogma in science is preposterous, it seems as soon as a claim is made and an opinion propagated- scientists are ashamed to go back on it regardless even of their own better judgement. Not even that but contrary to the premise (and promise) of science- anything contradictory is never even heard, discussed or tested. (I always have an image of an ostrich with its head buried under the sand with this, praying heartfully- it's not there, it doesn't exist, if I can't see it, it must mean I'm safe.) 

"Errors of this kind occur whenever technology makes available for general use a new experimental procedure, which propels a whole army of researchers into mass producing experimental data, heedless of what the biological significance, if any, of their work might be. Even worse, is the habit of making countless ad hoc adjustments to the original theory, which completely distort the original hypothesis. Correct science demands that there should be a radical re-think when this happens. If there isn't, as in this case, a fundamentally flawed concept goes haywire ending in disaster."

S. Lanka "Rethinking HIV"

Perfect fitting quote also by Goethe,

"It is a dire example of how a distinguished scholar who has contributed much to the advancement of science, now impedes further progress by his stubborn adherence to a dogma of his own creation. If he did not feel himself obliged to repeat things, that are untrue just because they were once said, they would have become quite different people."

Any of the scientists resisting the old dogma and advocating new facts are instantly completely discredited, usually lose their jobs and have to work in another hostile world of holistic/alternative science, which is full of charlatans as much as truth-seekers, some of those genuine aware scientists who have simply been ostracized, who spit out jewels; and some of that other breed dealing with greedy lies cause they care just for profit. No wonder the alternative side is not respected. 

The same sad fate befell a german scientist Ryke Geerd Hamer. He was ridiculed, his livelihood was taken away, he was thrown in jail, he ended up in exile. Yet his theories were never discredited, only proven. His only fault- the utter dogmatism of traditional medicine, afraid for their lives and livelihoods. Read bio here.

"I finally had to ask myself whether our understanding and our concept of disease had not

been entirely wrong because of our ignorance of the biological

purpose of disease."

Yet thanks to his wonderful work there's a whole new paradigm in medicine emerging now in Europe, called German New Medicine in Germany, Sacred Medicine (la Medicina Sagrada) in Spain and Meta Medicine everywhere else and my faith in the future of medicine has been restored. This is not new knowledge. The ancients knew that everything was inter-connected, that the source of "illness" was first in the psyche and only later in the body, and if we want to know the cause of any disease, to understand it and heal it truly- we have to go back to the psyche. What dr. Hamer did was actually prove through scientific methods, through scanning the middle-man between the mind and the body ie the brain that this connection exists.

Meta medicine gives not only the power of healing but also the responsibility of healing to one person and one person only- YOU. But it is an entirely positive consciousness and wisdom, cause we also understand that the body is a self-healing mechanism and the earth itself, including the so-far-considered-harmful organisms such as bacteria are actually there to help us, we have all the support system we will ever need. 

A simply wonderful source of information on meta medicine here 

http://learninggnm.com/documents/gnm_paradigm_opening_page.html 

I thoroughly recommend this video for self-education on the question- what is actually disease

"Virus Mania"

Balance of the right and the left or understanding the mundane while throwing anchors into groundlessness

I recently heard a very simple and concise advice about living in a balanced way which nourishes your mind and growth the most.

Spend 1/3 of every day thinking with your rational mind. Perhaps we can call this the left-hemisphere thinking and living, when we function in a cause and effect aspect of the universe, in time, in sowing and reaping. We need this of course to perform our daily duties, in our work, which normally takes 8 hours anyway- perfect. Doing things for a purpose, supplying for the basic needs of ourselves and our family. We can also call this a quantitative way of living.

Spend the other 1/3 of the day on your intuitive mind or a qualitative way of living. Here we do not think about what we can gain by doing certain actions. Here the questions are- where am I coming from and mostly the very famous question- who am I? It is the time for self, but it doesn't mean selfishness for the third of your day, it means doing things in a way to access your true self so that even if you are with others and doing things for others, you are doing it from your essence. You cannot do anything good for others or have real relationships anyway, before you know how to be yourself and to be good to yourself.

In this state there is liberty for any type of action but the source and the manner of action is completely different and there is even no difference between action and non-action (being). Most people ignore their intuitive side of mind completely. Or even if they have the interest and inner need to search for the question who am I and to touch their own core and borders, thus being a true creator in life- they still do it with the same habitual process of looking for gain ie doing meditation to gain enlightenment or praying to receive favourable after-death state or painting to sell the picture or singing in the manner that pleases the crowd etc etc. This will not bring results cause you cannot expect a right-brain result from a left-brain action even if this is simplifying. Its just easier to understand that as sensing timelessness is a right brain ability, it is the left hemisphere which moves in time and doing an action for a result. 

Knowledge is also useless to us at this time of day. The belief in the usefulness of knowledge is so inbred into us that this causes difficulties for most people. What do you mean knowledge is useless? Intelligence and IQ useless.. But then how can I know? How can I understand.. It takes time to know that wisdom has nothing to do with anything from the outside world. It takes practice to realise that our intellect, pure intellect, which needs not have huge amounts of stored information, but simply sparks of intuitive understanding/knowing/feeling (very hard to find the right word here), is actually beyond cleverness and learnedness. And how much practice it requires to do the one thing really necessary- to simply let go of all of that. 

And the rest of the day is spent of course on sleep.

For me personally its been quite difficult to find the "middle way", the balance. Either I was at work in a groundless state and wishing to continue the timeless feeling, treating the ground as a hateful place, which needless to say resulted in frustration.  

Or in fact getting too grounded to the day-to-day existence and losing the link to the Divine, mostly by simple forgetfulness. Feeling numb and subconsciously alienated cause the link has been lost to myself, the true self- peace, freedom, openness, the sky-mind. 

Of course one can only be grateful for that feeling of dissatisfaction, frustration and numbness- that helps you back to yourself!

Two recipes for the two imbalances have helped me.

In the first case- understanding. Understanding that we are human beings, made for the material ground of learning, able to move forward fast BECAUSE of the quick and forceful lessons of earthly matters, let it be an illusion but what an illuminating illusion it is! How we learn and grow through love and loss, through myriads of emotions, and also by the feeling of time and how all things change. How blessed we are to be frail little humans! I used to only wish to fly, fly, fly and be joined with the eternal always. I later understood that I wasn't really living anymore cause I was constantly living in a sort of death-state. I was living an extreme life where my time in solitude was a bliss and my every-day dealings pure hell and there was no middle ground. It takes time to produce something timeless, a conundrum as it may sound- duality takes us to the understanding of non-duality and the separateness to the unity of different polarities. It is always a combination and balance of the mundane and the divine that show us the necessities of both the shallow and the deep, the heaven and earth, the feminine and masculine sides, in other words yin and yang.

In short- knowing through experience and intellect that falling is just as good as rising up and suffering is not a curse, something to find escape from, but in fact the only thing that truly makes us grow.

And second I've found it very useful to know myself and to recognise my anchors to the groundless state, which remind me and let me fall back into my real self most often and with ease. These anchors are personal for us all. We can all think back and determine- which sights, experiences, actions, places etc have made us feel most that we are at peace, happy, without worries, free, and make these anchors our daily friends. The following are mine just as an example. What are yours?

Personal anchors for me to getting to sense the divine-

Travel. I often think of myself as a rolling stone and familiarity and staying still grows on me as a moss of un-clarity and unidentified frustrations. But the very minute I am rolling again, every one of those falls off as if by magic. Physical freedom and meeting the unknown are intensely purifying experiences if you are thus inclined.

Watching the sky. Mainly the nightly sky and stars- I can imagine that if sky had always been covered by clouds we would have perhaps never progressed to the state of wonder and feeling of eternity. 

Watching the birds fly is my definite anchor- how amazing to have those inspiring creatures always remind you that freedom is right here and right now.

Of course breath. Following the breath from very start to finish can be all we need to enter the core of yourself.

Silence. 

Nature. Especially the open planned vistas of the wide seas, deserts and mountains.

Like-minded souls, in a direct or indirect medium of books, videos, lectures. (I am thoroughly grateful for a place like multiply and BT among those! :))

There can never be a real recipe for happiness but its good to find some guide-lines for sustaining the balance. :)