Acting and directing performance of the year for me... "Shame"

Had to make a tribute to one of the most memorable movies I've seen this year, "Shame". 

This movie is for those who applaud a bit of provocation from the artists, who are open to go on a journey with the characters, even if the journey is dark and bleak, those who see movies not be merely entertained, but to be moved, to feel, to find beauty where there is none. 

As I was watching this film I kept changing my thinking and feeling toward the character and the film in general, it was only after I had sunk into it when I understood that the director Steve McQueen was creating this movie as a pure channeling of art. My feeling of the piece was that it was visual and free of moralizing, there wasn't any message the film tried to give (though most critics and viewers of course are ready to find it) other than being a portrait of a soul in a time (but then hasn't it always been relevant) and the pure notion of addiction, familiar to many. I commend this movie for so much but mainly for the fearless and flawless acting, and for the respect that the director and writer has for the viewer. 

"'Midnight Cowboy." "Carnal Knowledge." "Eyes Wide Shut." "Black Swan." To the canon of indelible New York sex melodramas, let us welcome "Shame." This transfixing new entry follows a wolf through his urban terrain with the dispassionate gaze of an NC-17 wildlife documentary. Brandon (Michael Fassbender) sniffs out his quarry's pheromones on the subway, at bars, even in the glassy office suite where he is a star player doing something vague and lucrative. His approach is sure and feral, climaxing in kinetic, desensitized copulation and release without satisfaction.

"Shame" is emotionally grueling, but the performances are riveting, the visuals are stunning and bruised humanity oozes from every scene.

Fassbender is a magnetic camera subject, dapper, knee-bucklingly handsome, with the flawless physique of a health-club devotee. It's what he hides, though, that makes him fascinating. His powerhouse performance is a combo platter of raw, emotionally naked moments and secrecy. You watch him in an ecstasy of hypothesis, scanning for clues. Brandon's apartment is as clean and functional as an Apple store. When you glimpse what's hiding in his closet, it's like a slap in the face.

The poetic film, written and directed by English visual artist Steve McQueen, appreciates Manhattan's polarities of antiseptic sheen and grime. The camera shuttles between chic conference rooms, hotels and restaurants and skeevy Chelsea street corners and docks. Beneath the glamorous "creative class" setting with its fetishized interior design and wardrobe, ugly things are wriggling in the dirt.

We follow Brandon for an unspecified period, which is appropriate; to an addict weekends and months look alike. We see him playing wingman to his clumsy, chattering boss David, a would-be player (James Badge Dale), caring for his sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), who needs a couch to crash on after a breakup, and circling his co-worker Marianne (Nicole Beharie). Between these relationships, Brandon has sex on an industrial scale with prostitutes and strangers.

There's something deeply destructive about Brandon's drive. He tells Marianne that his longest relationship lasted four months, and the prospect of commitment demolishes him. When she introduces a note of tenderness into their relationship, Brandon's libido short-circuits. His only real smile comes when he's taunting a bruiser to deck him for groping the jealous man's girl.

"Shame" explores Brandon's loveless compulsion with graphic explicitness and understated insight. There's a radioactive erotic tension between Fassbender and Mulligan, who plays his cabaret singer sister with ripe-lipped sensuality. When this cuddly/carnal gamine shows up on his doorstep, he's alternately protective, resentful and guilt-stricken. We note the old scars on her wrists, her hospital bracelet, her casual nudity around Brandon and sexual acting-out with David, and write our own back story.

"We're not bad people," she tells her brother, "we just come from a bad place." It's a great line that could indicate anything from a pathological childhood to Original Sin.

In one of the film's many bravura passages, Sissy croons "New York, New York" in a glittering cabaret. As Brandon listens, his carefully defended composure cracks and he sheds a tear. It might be for himself, or for Sissy's soon-to-be-broken dreams. As the camera holds on Fassbender's infinitely expressive face, you know you are witnessing the implosion of a soul."

Colin Covert "Star Tribune" 

"Only one koan matters. You." ~ Ikkyu

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” ~ Albert Camus

The time for masks to wear, and masks to fall

"There will be time to put on a face to meet the faces that you meet." T.S.Eliot

Halloween- a night with profound meaning and importance in my book, and of course just plain fun as well, always a bonus. :) 

A night when age becomes meshed together- grown-ups become children and children practise looking at the darkness of the world yet to be experienced.

A sort of Jungian night to forget who we're supposed to be and play out the archetypes. The night of exploring that very fascinating land of shadows and boundaries people normally tend to avoid. No wonder its my favourite holiday.

Its a night for realizing together that we are dreaming, whether on a conscious or subconscious level.

Its a night to realize we are active creators of our lives, in fact free to choose to play any role and any character at all. 

Its a night that feels more real for me than any other night of the year. When I am OPENLY a fictional character and another looks me in the face as a fictional character- what an experiential, real, shared sense of liberation, even for a moment. Its a night with just enough more carefree, just enough more egoless, just enough more playful interaction to make me always look forward to it. To look forward to see the masks put on and the masks of our ego somewhat falling.

Its a night to play in the dark. For so many to allow themselves to face fear in some manner, no matter how frivolous the outer level. How refreshing, be it once a year.

Maybe if we wear enough masks then we will discover our true identity? Why oh why does the celebration of masks make me feel such utter optimism, paradox is thy name- Life!

What your Halloween costume says about you

By NANCY CHURNIN / The Dallas Morning News 

Usually, most of us try to be on our best behavior. We dress appropriately, speak politely and try to fit in with others where we work, where we socialize and where we go to school. Then comes Halloween, where despite the economy, 64.5 percent of consumers plan to spend a total of $5.77 billion on the holiday this year, according to the National Retail Federation's recent survey.

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It's an opportunity for a shy musician to transform into a scary witch and for children to don fairy wings and imagine themselves in flight.
And that's great, says Ron Schenk, a Jungian analyst with private practices in Dallas and Houston.
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"Halloween gives a place for those parts of our psyche that don't fit in," Dr. Schenk says. "You can dress up as a princess and feel you are the center of the universe. If you're scared, you can deal with your fear by dressing up as something dark and powerful. You can give your inner yearnings a place at the table, to acknowledge that that they are part of you."
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Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, the founder of analytic psychology, identified archetypes, such as that of the hero, as universal patterns that exist in our subconscious and emerge in a variety of forms. He also described what he calls the "shadow," such as the monster, as the part of ourselves that we deny and sometimes project onto others.

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An essential component of Jungian therapy is to accept our desires and fears and integrate them into our lives. Dr. Schenk believes Halloween can provide a great release, especially in tough times like these where many may be too tense to fully express our hopes and fears. And that makes it all the more important not to worry about what others think, but to be guided by your own inner voice telling you who you need to be.

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We talked with local Halloween fans who are doing just that. Here are their thoughts and Dr. Schenk's on what they chose to wear.

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HERO.
Richmond Punch, 28, artistic director of the Dallas Uptown Youth Orchestra, has been dressing up for years as the star of Undercover Brother, a 2002 film starring Eddie Griffin about a man who goes undercover to fight an evil establishment. At first glance, the mild-mannered Juilliard-trained musician seems as if he's going for his opposite when portraying this smart-talking, gold necklace-wearing toughie with the big Afro. But on closer inspection, Undercover Brother is a hero who saves the day. And a hero is very much how one can view Mr. Punch, who has devoted himself to the challenge of bringing music into the lives of underprivileged kids by persuading their parents to give them the opportunity to be in an orchestra for the first time.
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Why Mr. Punch likes it: "He rescues people. I feel strong when I wear this costume. I feel that I can change things in this world as he did."

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Dr. Schenk says this seems like a good fit for Mr. Punch, noting that the hero wears many faces, from Superman to the Lone Ranger to Harry Potter. "The hero figure is born in an unnoticed place, raised in obscurity, and emerges to try on a role that is larger than life. The hero often is an alter ego, wearing a mask or taking on a mysterious identity. He or she goes over the line, in an epic battle or quest to get the hard-to-attain treasure and bring it to the right place."
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FAIRY PRINCESS.. .
Jessica Shen, 7, and her sister, Crystal, 3, love Halloween. And Jessica says that this year, she will be trick or treating in her favorite costume ever. Two years ago she was a bumblebee, but the costume was a little hot. Last year, she was Sleeping Beauty, but the dress was a little loose on her shoulders. This year she thinks she has it just right as a fairy princess who can fly. It's even more fun that her sister likes to wear a costume just like it. 
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Why Jessica likes it: "I like when people say my sister and I are so pretty and so cute," says Jessica. "And I like the way the wings make me feel that I'm flying in the wind."

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Dr. Schenk finds this a very positive choice, especially for younger children. "Girls need to have the feeling of being the center of the universe, a quality which is at the core of positive self-esteem. You can't build a healthy personality if you don't feel worthiness at your core."
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WITCH 
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Erin Hannigan, 36, principal oboe of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, usually crafts her own funny costume, like a moose, or a slice of pizza or a candy bar, to make kids laugh when she performs at the DSO's annual Halloween family concert. But when she goes to a Halloween party for adults, she prefers dressing up as something scary like a witch. 
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Why Ms. Hannigan likes it: "I'm a pretty shy person. It's empowering when I dress up as a witch because they're aggressive, and that's not who I am. Also, every day I try to get myself to look as good as I can. So it's fun to go out there and look as hideous as possible, which is completely different than I do the other 364 days of the year. It feels like an adventure." Dr. Schenk describes the witch as a figure that would appeal to someone who is creative. "

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Witches are powerful. They have a connection with supernatural forces. The image of the boiling cauldron transforms even the mundane act of cooking into something magical."
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MUMMY
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Humberto Gallego Montes, 5, has been obsessed with mummies ever since he started hearing about them at his preschool at the Museum of Nature & Science. His mother, Maria, says he talks about how he wants to live forever and take all his treasures with him. He also tells her he doesn't want to scare anyone. Humberto wants to be a "funny mummy" that makes people laugh. During the phone interview, Ms. Montes says he made a mummy out of aluminum foil and wrapped it with toilet paper.
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Why Humberto likes it: "I want to feel how it is to be wrapped around. I like the idea of preserving my body forever so they can remember me."
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Dr. Schenk notes that this choice touches on the desire for eternal life and a hunger to learn. "In a culture like ours that denies death, mummies suggest that chemical treatments and special concoctions can help you live forever. Also, there's a sense that wisdom will come if you can live through the ages."

VAMPIRE 
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Stephanie Kozlovsky, 16, has wanted to be a vampire ever since reading Stephenie Meyer's best-selling Twilight series. She brought her friend and fellow Twilight fan, Audrey Hodson, 16, to get their pictures taken as what she calls "newborn" vampires. She is drawn to the idea of eternal life, of the romance of the story and the allure of being different.

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Why Stephanie likes it: "I like the sense of power that vampires have and that they have such a hard choice between good and evil. I like the way Edward [the vampire in the book] has to overcome his thirst for blood not to hurt Bella. And I like the way that for one night I can look so wild and crazy. It helps me get all that out of my system so I don't mind going back to school the next day in my uniform."
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Dr. Schenk speculates that the growing interest in vampires in popular culture may be a reaction to cultural repression. "The popularity of vampires might be attributed to a thirst for soul or life in its raw, pristine form, not homogenized, not sterilized or white-washed, but with all the passion and instinct, grit and guts, which are associated with the 'dark side.' Blood is the flow right at the core of life. It signifies essential experience which is often painful, yet makes life real.

Slander, gossip, bullies and the dilemmas with poisonous environments

Office-gossip, meanness, slander, back-stabbing- how many of us have had to deal with such an environment? 

It is a difficult environment for sure. If it is the prevalent energy of one's work-place, as it unfortunately is for me at the moment, to a truly unbelievable degree in fact, then one always finds oneself on the outside, by choice of course. And even if one is used to be on the outside, and has no problem with that, there is still a huge energy expenditure involved with constantly struggling to keep ones own peace and love. 

I've had a dilemma for a while- is it better to remove oneself from a poisonous environment, or to see it as a perfect place to over-come ones own judgements? After all- is this not a perfect challenge, a perfect ground for learning to be always compassionate, always equanimous towards all people, no matter how we disagree with their speech and actions? If there's anything that is keeping me in my job its this thought, and this alone.

I have decided it is my own lack that causes me stress. My own lack of compassion. Not for the underdogs, oh no- if there will come a moment in life when I will have no underdogs to defend then life will probably cease holding any interest for me haha. But the lack of compassion for the bullies, the lost souls who are somehow so down that the only way they can feel "up" at all is by putting everyone else around them down. It is my lack to judge them. It is my lack not to focus on their pain but concentrate on the pain they inflict on others.

And me, with my reactions against these bullies, do I not strengthen their pain? 

But as for the right action in such an instance, a seemingly never-ending continuous instance it seems to me already, I am still unsure. My reaction so far- close down in a total non-participation, or defend, or say I don't like talking badly of others. Mostly I feel out of sorts.

But then again- isn't it in the harshest of conditions when the enduring lessons are won?

It is surely risky and I'm still in a dilemma over staying/not-staying. I guess when one still feels the situation can be learned from then the poisons haven't polluted one yet. :)

‎"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain

A defence of individuality, be it extremism (RIP Amy Winehouse)

Is it better to fade away or to burn out? This is the question on many minds after another early death in the tumultuous calling of being a talented rock star. 

Would you rather soar and fall magnificently, or roll along peacefully for a long time, perhaps never touching neither heaven nor hell? Is it a choice?

I feel its not a choice.

I feel we are each born with our own energy signature and our own limits and that they vary greatly. I also feel that we need to touch our personal limits to know where they are. Is it scary? Of course. Is it dangerous? Doubly so but what about the danger of not self-actualizing and never being the best we can be, if we want to know that border we can very easily feel its counter-part. 

I am not judgemental against drugs but of course the danger of drugs does lie in the loss of the innate knowledge of our limits and in crossing over and yet I cannot for the life of me see the "bad" in that either, life and death, hell and heaven, its a chaotic merry-go-round of course, but "bad" has sort of lost meaning for me, especially after all the experiences of the brightest light peeking out namely of the blackest of nights.

My personal answer is- I prefer to soar and to fall, because that's how I am and always have been. And were it not for my need to find the light as the anti-dote to the most dark states of my youth and were it not for the utter saving grace that fell on me in the form of mystical experiences years ago, I would not still be here, and in fact I still struggle with the thought of the easy ticket back "home" in now rare but inevitable occasions, though its not an option for me anymore, nor has it apparently ever truly been, I'm here aren't I. :) At the same time I am grateful for my hells cause I know they were my gateway to the heavens, and this seems to be a common experience. How can we judge those who make that oh-so-brave effort!

You have to have a little bit of extremity (your personal kind) to reach certain heights and that state IS groundless, shaky, unsafe, but we have to have the open mind to see that our borders might not be the same as the borders of others and thus the level of unsafety varies also. To judge those who are truly in the fires, while drifting on a raft in clear and peaceful waters- it seems unfair. And yes- sometimes its immeasurably hard to keep on going if you're going like that, sometimes it feels impossible. I do understand those who choose peace early on. On the positive note- the hells are inseparable from the heavens, but one CAN learn to get friendly with them. To all my fellow extreme beings I say- it gets better as the years go by, the most dangerous years are the late teens and early 20s, after that the worst is over and one has experiential knowledge of- I have survived once, twice, many times- I can survive this too and much easier. The heaven lengthens immeasurably, the hells get almost minuscule and its probable that one will feel very grateful for being exactly the person one is for all the blessings. 

Our personal limits are simply too varied to make judgements in the lines of- what a shame, what a waste of a talent, what a stupidity to get into that kind of life-style, most people who make judgements like that are living well within safe limits, and dub the people whose borders extend to the actual borders of experience, mentally ill. I disagree, with respect. Its so easy to put people on medication cause they don't fit in and are feeling so much more acutely, but if they know how to deal with it (and definitely at least it takes a long time to see if they are not innately able to learn how to cope with it), perhaps in fact soar as individuals namely because of these peculiarities- then leave them as they are, offer only love, a sympathetic ear and understanding. How can one living within safe borders truly know the minds and fates of such who are made to travel the full length of the human experience? And then again if some of those acutely feeling types choose to end this particular existence- by free will- then for me this is the true human right of every single person. What is this idea that everybody SHOULD live until they are old and sick, why do we judge people who are free of such ideas?

As a dweller of the borders my whole life- it is an existence that is full of life and death at the same time, in fact as much unbearably full of life as of death, no matter the duality and whats more- going beyond duality namely because of the extremes. Thankfully I personally had the faith in the light at the end of the tunnel even at those self-harming desperate times. I would not have wanted to dull myself down, to become someone not myself artificially, and by this- robbing myself of the gifts that were to come. It was a wisdom to trust myself. It is a wisdom of ourselves to be born exactly as we are. Self-awareness is the only drug we need.

So RIP Amy Winehouse, my full understanding for your struggles, and only my gratitude- for all the songs and talent!

The perfect day, the Red Book and the personal joys of each... a sort of a ramble...

And then comes the perfect day.

After months of dulled-down senses, dissatisfaction- that silent beast who refuses to reveal its reasons at times, social anxiety and longing for solitude, for total silence, for a return to myself- here I am.

I am here in the northern wilderness of Ireland, a county called Donegal- a meandering landscape of cliffs, hills, lakes, hills and cliffs. I have a few days off only so I am determined in the first half to be as alone as I possibly can, with a sort of desperation I hide myself away from social contact, when I'm at the dining places I carry the "Red Book" with me everywhere and I bury my nose into it from the start as a signal- I am alone cause I want to, I am busy, do not disturb. A needy solitude, there is nothing wholesome or joyful in such a state. 

Even though finishing this book was indeed important for me, I knew that I had for a long time battled with the same experiences, same divine madness if you want to use Jung's words- the same obstacles, Hells and Heavens and for some years the stand-still that comes from a unification of those Hells and Heavens. One would think that after such a feat and struggle all would be bright as diamonds, when good becomes the same as evil that there would be lasting peace but life is not static, or it wouldn't be life and any expectation along these lines brings misery as most of the worlds wise ones keep teaching. The experience of non-duality of life does bring peace but in a way its like a dead peace in the beginning. When life and death have become one, it does not feel in fact that necessary to live, or to die for that matter. Either of them is fine. This is not enough- much more is needed. Jung went to learn magic in the "Red Book" at such a phase, I do concur- this is the time to find one's personal magic, its different for each and every one of us, the recipe that keeps the spark going.

And then the desperation for solitude dissolved into a free and open solitude which holds back from nothing and nowhere and I have the 100 % perfect day. A day in the beauty of nature, in awe of every sight, every meadow, every stunning cliff and pristine beach, friendly villagers, playing with a pair of the most affectionate village dogs- totally happy, totally free, totally alone in the being one with everything- that's the wholesome joy of "solitude". Finishing off with a perfect dinner at an italian restaurant, all the needs met, and more, and now reading the easy going wonderful book called "Eat Pray Love" (not in opposition with my serious work on the Red Book whatsoever). The secret of life in three words. My perfect day in nature was at once the love and prayer part and the pleasure part I am coincidentally finding in a perfect tiramisu at the same time as the main fictional character is eating just the same in Rome- what a great sign that I am on the same wave as the Universe. I have in my bag the Red Book with the most brilliant to-depth analysis and movingly sincere description of ones true struggle of the soul and all its depths, and on my table open a popular easy-to-read author who asks me in the words of Rumi- what are the 3 most important things that you want to have in your life? And I see I am flowing along just as necessary, half in seriousness, half in jest, there is no oppositions in these totally different teachers at this very moment.

I have entered the part of magic, this is what is needed after the dissolution of opposites. There is nothing necessary anymore, now it is about your heart and your hearts desire. 

(What are your soul's three essential desires?)

For me I would perhaps say- travel, beauty, and freedom.

I won't say love cause love is not something to ask for I feel, or to get or to have. Love is what comes naturally from living your life as you are made to live it, according to your own path and your own heart. Love is the gift that follows your being true to yourself. If you don't abandon yourself, neither will love leave your side.

Gilbert writes that Rumi said- if one of those three things are in contradiction with another, you will never have an easy joyful experience.

I can stress also- bravery is needed. Sometimes dissatisfaction creeps up the heart. For me it comes when I am too long in one place, when I am confusing my need for insecurity for the life of security, it is easy to do so. The world revolves around family, security, and it is easy to begin to think the thoughts of others cause aren't our minds all inter-twined? 

Dissolve the polarities, visit gladly the depths of Hell and dissolve the illusion of the concept of Heaven as well as all concepts. But that is not enough- know what you need personally and what you can't be happy without and have courage to never compromise. It really does only harm to be unselfish in this way- to give up your ideals and desires, to adjust and conform for the sake of others, our magic is personal and yes it may be selfish at times to follow, but perhaps that's why the magician in the Red Book says- you must give up solace if you want to learn the way of Magic. 

My perfect day ends with the perfect ending to the perfect book. The final lines of the Red Book say- "This is the way". Go, fly AND fall totally, have world-altering adventures in dreams and in life, let them be as blissful and as excruciating as they come, be not afraid of anything, go divinely mad to your very limits of experience, follow totally everything that comes up in your consciousness- and that will be the way, and the only way.

Meditation on death

"All of Man's problems stem from his inability to sit quietly with himself"~ Pascal

I would go one step further. Man's problems in continuous true living stem from his inability to die once in a while to himself. 

"The unwillingess to think of death is itself a kind of death, for the poignancy of life is inseparable from the knowledge of its decay." Philip Kapleau

Even at times when all seems to be fine, life is beautiful, though the mind of course still feels all the atrocities and sees the all the madness of this age, but somehow there is an underlying peace in knowing that everything is a process of energy, we are in the way of evolving, darkness is as necessary as light, merely a downward curve of the whole circle-there is positivism, there is love.... yet day after day the peace slowly loses a certain energy, the middle way dulls the blissful feeling of life slowly but surely. Unless we are fully enlightened then slowly but surely the mundane, the adversities with some aspects of the mirror that this society is- start to erode the joy and start to seed in habitual feelings of reaction, of unease. The peace slowly erodes into chaos, the largeness of our body shrinks into ego in difficult moments, the mountain once again becomes the idea of a mountain. This is the time to reaffirm life, to rejuvenate that feeling of joy from it, that feeling of utter being in the moment with all of ones soul. It is much said that we need the opposite to get back to life, we need to feel death, cause the feeling of life is connected to the feeling of death. You cannot really know one side without knowing both. Death meditations are wonderful tools, here's what Osho said about it-

[A sannyasin, who is leaving, says: Would you say something about dying? I’m very much engaged with that. I awoke last night and suddenly I saw how absolute it was. I’ve never seen it before like that – I could hardly get any air. In response to Osho’s query she says she likes Kundalini meditation best.]

Osho - So continue Kundalini in the morning, and in the night before going to sleep, start a death meditation. 

Just lie down, put the light off, and start feeling that you are dying. Relax the body and feel that you are dying, so you cannot even move the body – even if you want to move the hand, you cannot. Just go on feeling that you are dying – a four or five-minute feeling that you are dying, dying, and that the body is dead. And through this five-minute experience of dying you will feel a totally different quality of life. The body is almost dead – it is a corpse – but you are more alive than ever! And when the body is dead, the mind by and by stops thinking – because all thinking is associated with life. When you are dying, the mind starts dropping. After two or three months you will be able to die within five minutes. The body will be dead and you will have just a pure awareness, a luminous awareness. Just something like a blue light, that’s all. You will feel a blue light just near the third-eye centre, just a small blue flame. That is the purest form of life. And when that blue flame starts being felt there, just fall asleep.

So your whole night will be transformed into a death meditation, and in the morning you will feel so alive, more than you have ever felt – so young, so fresh, and so full of juice that you can give to the whole world. You will feel so blessed that you can bless the whole world.

And this death meditation will make you aware that death is an illusion. It does not really happen – nobody has ever died and nobody can really die. Because we are too much attached to the body, it seems like death; because we think the body is our life, we think it is terrible. And this is one of the greatest preparations for death. One day death will come: before it comes, you will be ready, you will be ready to die!

When buddha was dying, he asked permission from his disciples. He said, ’Now I am ready to die. Within a few minutes I will disappear into myself. If you have to ask something, you can ask it.’ They had nothing to ask, because for the whole life he had been talking to them. And this was no time to ask anything – even if they had many questions, this was no time to ask them. They started crying and weeping. He said, ’Don’t cry and weep – because my whole message for the whole of my life has been this, that nothing dies. I’m simply going home... I am turning in.’

Then he sat in his posture, closed his eyes, and it is said that people could see that his body started dying. They could see that the body was becoming a corpse – and he was alive! The body turns into a corpse: that is the first phase, buddhists say, of death. In the second phase, his thoughts started disappearing. Those who were very very aware, those disciples who were real meditators, could see his thoughts disappearing, falling from his head just like old leaves falling from a tree. They could see that the thoughts had been renounced: the second stage was fulfilled.Then the third stage: his heart, his feelings, started disappearing. They could see the smoke arising and the cloud arising, and everything was gone. And then the fourth stage: he disappeared into the unknown. Those who were enlightened amongst his disciples could see even that, that his drop had fallen into the ocean. 

These four stages: first start a simple meditation of five minutes of dying. Then just watching for the blue light to appear at the third eye. Then go to sleep. By and by, you will be able to see all these four stages. Slowly, slowly, you will become aware – and that will be the greatest preparation. And then you can really die!

Source: " For Madmen Only (Price of Admission: Your Mind) " -  Osho

Huxley, freedom and the dodo-bird

I got quite a shock today when viewing a really excellent interview of Aldous Huxley and hearing the interviewer, Mike Wallace put this question to him-

"Mr. Huxley, let me ask you this, quite seriously, is freedom necessary?"

Huxley, "As far as I'm concerned it is."

Wallace, "Why? Is it necessary for a productive society?"

Huxley, "Yes, I should say it is, I mean a genuinely productive society. I mean you could produce plenty of goods without much freedom, but I think the whole sort of creative life of man is ultimately impossible without a considerable measure of individual freedom, of initiative, creation, all these things which we value, and I think value properly are impossible without a large measure of freedom."

This sort of left me flabbergasted for a few minutes. What kind of a mind asks this question? And asks it "quite seriously". This was in 1958, how important is freedom to us in this era when more and more freedoms are taken away from us daily? From one side the internet has rushed in on a white horse and provided a freedom of information we have never experienced before. From the other we hear stories of bio-engineered superbugs, many of us are in a state of medicated stupor, new "diseases" are invented every day to sell us even more drugs, herbal medicine is under serious threat, companies are claiming water supplies as their own property to sell to those who can afford, mainstream media is reduced to a propaganda machine everywhere etc etc. I can only hope that people today are not wondering- is freedom really necessary.

Huxley devoted his life to writing countless prophetic and brilliant warnings about us losing our freedoms, and with a new version of "The Brave New World" being released this year in movies, here is an elaboration of the theme from "Brave New World Revisited"-

"In spite of all this preaching and this exemplary practice, the disease grows steadily worse. We know that it is unsafe to allow power to be concentrated in the hands of a ruling oligarchy; nevertheless power is in fact being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. We know that, for most people, life in a huge modern city is anonymous, atomic, less than fully human; nevertheless the huge cities grow steadily huger and the pat­tern of urban-industrial living remains unchanged. We know that, in a very large and complex society, democ­racy is almost meaningless except in relation to autonomous groups of manageable size; nevertheless more and more of every nation's affairs are managed by the bureaucrats of Big Government and Big Business. It is only too evident that, in practice, the problem of over-organization is almost as hard to solve as the problem of over-population. In both cases we know what ought to be done; but in neither case have we been able, as yet, to act effectively upon our knowl­edge.

        At this point we find ourselves confronted by a very disquieting question: Do we really wish to act upon our knowledge? Does a majority of the population think it worth while to take a good deal of trouble, in order to halt and, if possible, reverse the current drift toward totalitarian control of everything? In the United States and America is the prophetic image of the rest of the urban-industrial world as it will be a few years from now -- recent public opinion polls have revealed that an actual majority of young people in their teens, the voters of tomorrow, have no faith in democratic institutions, see no objection to the censor­ship of unpopular ideas, do not believe that govern­ment of the people by the people is possible and would be perfectly content, if they can continue to live in the style to which the boom has accustomed them, to be ruled, from above, by an oligarchy of assorted experts. That so many of the well-fed young television-watchers in the world's most powerful democracy should be so completely indifferent to the idea of self-government, so blankly uninterested in freedom of thought and the right to dissent, is distressing, but not too surprising. "Free as a bird," we say, and envy the winged creatures for their power of unrestricted movement in all the three dimensions. But, alas, we forget the dodo. Any bird that has learned how to grub up a good living without being compelled to use its wings will soon renounce the privilege of flight and remain forever grounded.

Something analogous is true of human beings. If the bread is supplied regularly and copiously three times a day, many of them will be perfectly content to live by bread alone -- or at least by bread and circuses alone. "In the end," says the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky's parable, "in the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, 'make us your slaves, but feed us.' " And when Alyosha Karamazov asks his brother, the teller of the story, if the Grand Inquisitor is speaking ironically, Ivan answers, "Not a bit of it! He claims it as a merit for himself and his Church that they have vanquished freedom and done so to make men happy." Yes, to make men happy; "for nothing," the Inquisitor insists, "has ever been more insupportable for a man or a human society than freedom." Nothing, except the absence of free­dom; for when things go badly, and the rations are reduced, the grounded dodos will clamor again for their wings -- only to renounce them, yet once more, when times grow better and the dodo-farmers become more lenient and generous. The young people who now think so poorly of democracy may grow up to become fighters for freedom. The cry of "Give me television and hamburgers, but don't bother me with the re­sponsibilities of liberty," may give place, under altered circumstances, to the cry of "Give me liberty or give me death." If such a revolution takes place, it will be due in part to the operation of forces over which even the most powerful rulers have very little control, in part to the incompetence of those rulers, their inability to make effective use of the mind-manipulating instru­ments with which science and technology have sup­plied, and will go on supplying, the would-be tyrant. Considering how little they knew and how poorly they were equipped, the Grand Inquisitors of earlier times did remarkably well. But their successors, the well-in­formed, thoroughly scientific dictators of the future will undoubtedly be able to do a great deal better. The Grand Inquisitor reproaches Christ with having called upon men to be free and tells Him that "we have cor­rected Thy work and founded it upon miracle, mystery and authority." But miracle, mystery and authority are not enough to guarantee the indefinite survival of a dictatorship. In my fable of Brave New World, the dictators had added science to the list and thus were able to enforce their authority by manipulating the bodies of embryos, the reflexes of infants and the minds of children and adults. And, instead of merely talking about miracles and hinting symbolically at mysteries, they were able, by means of drugs, to give their subjects the direct experience of mysteries and miracles -- to transform mere faith into ecstatic knowl­edge. The older dictators fell because they could never supply their subjects with enough bread, enough cir­cuses, enough miracles and mysteries. Nor did they possess a really effective system of mind-manipulation. In the past, free-thinkers and revolutionaries were often the products of the most piously orthodox educa­tion. This is not surprising. The methods employed by orthodox educators were and still are extremely inefficient. Under a scientific dictator education will really work -- with the result that most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution. There seems to be no good reason why a thoroughly scientific dictatorship should ever be overthrown.

Meanwhile there is still some freedom left in the world. Many young people, it is true, do not seem to value freedom. But some of us still believe that, with­out freedom, human beings cannot become fully hu­man and that freedom is therefore supremely valuable. Perhaps the forces that now menace freedom are too strong to be resisted for very long. It is still our duty to do whatever we can to resist them."