Procrastination

Another treat, another creative idea. Animated.

http://www.ingredientx.com/watch/tales/procrastination.htm

Life is a musical

The link below takes you to a moment of sweet magic! Not everyone might share the fantasy that life is a musical, but those who do will thoroughly enjoy this clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYZ6rbPU2M

In a different way, the Grand Central happening is quite impressive too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo&NR=1

Horror out of the everyday life

'The Orphanage' by the Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona brings Horror and Fantastic elements where they truly belong, making them work strongly on the audience: they are totally embedded in the most banal aspects of the everyday life. Contrary to the slash and gory movies (which can also have a certain appeal sometimes), in which effects come from gruesome serial killers or spectacular scenes of violence, 'The Orphanage' manages to entice the audience in a universe so close from banality that any abnormal details trigger an extraordinary tension: the disappearance of the son during the Orphanage opening day celebration, the scene when Laura find the bags in the wall and of course the sheer horror when Laura realises what has happened. Kafka in 'The Metamorphosis' threw only one fantastic element in the first sentence among a perfectly ordinary environment to make the story so powerful: ' As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin'; Edgar Allan Poe made it an art in most of his short stories like The Black cat, The Tell-tale Heart, The Oval Portrait, just to name a few.
This kind of story telling is what makes these stories delectable and really scary. Through his own stylistic vision, Bayona managed to enhance even more the story with amazing pictures. 'The Orphanage' is unmissable.

Public torture

No later than a few hundreds years ago, public executions of Vilains attracted crowds of people that would hysterically cheer at the accusation read by the prosecutor and enjoy watching the torture and death of the guilty ones.

Two days ago, a morning reality TV show's headline was about drunk parents: a teenager comes on stage claiming that she never had seen her father sober. Audience gasps. The guilty one is now exposed to the cameras, not clearly understanding where he is, nor why. Under the loud attacks and accusations of the demagogic presenter, the father hardly manages to defend himself. The crowd in the studio is hostile. The daughter tries to talk to him, the presenter adds more accusations; he brings the son on stage, the father repeats the same unintelligible words, both the son and the daughters speak, the TV presenter screams louder; some kind of expert joins them on stage, accusing the man as abruptly as the TV host. The father cannot remember what his daughter said a few seconds before, the TV presenter uses this incident to scream even more at him. The public approves and exults.

TV is switched off. The poor man was just a crowd-pleaser, a human sacrifice to the audience. Unendurable.

The impotent citizen

In a world dominated by the rethoric of the country leaders and the pollution of most media, it is very hard for the average citizen to make real sense of what is really going on. It seems that most give up and choose to focus on their own life (one winner of a reality show confessed this week in an interview that she had never heard of Obama or Hillary Clinton); some, perhaps more intellectual ot better educated tend to go on with their own rethoric; a minority chooses to act upon their convictions. And there are those who can witness the absurdity of the country leaders, however struggle to accept it any longer. Getting a better understanding appears quite complicated; as to find a way to contribute to a healthy change, where to start from?

The situation in Thibet is intolerable. Dramatic. People get killed for their ideas. The Chinese government accuses the Dalai Lama to encourage and spark the troubles. They hide facts on the real number of deaths. The Western leaders shyly protest, everyone is judging China and putting the Olympic Games in the middle of this situation. Economic stakes mix with political ones. Democracies versus Communist dictatorship, all tied up in economic interests. Perspectives opposed themselves, depending on where we stand, however using the same rethoric. After all, the Chinese government use the same arguments as the US and UK when justifying invading Irak or Afghanistan to justify their own action in Thibet. Facts are blurry, rethoric prevails. Supreme rethoric: Western countries act in the name of democracy, which allow them to criticize any model which is not democratic. But economic stakes will prevent them to act.

What is left to do for us average impotent citizens?

Can London be really conducive to Meditation?

In oversimplified terms (source: Wikipedia), Yoga Nidra is a practice that has become synonymous with yogic relaxation and guided visualisation techniques. It is a way to redistribute the energy in the body and also to connect a conscious resolve to our Unconscious , driving consequently our whole energy towards the realisation of this resolve (Shankalpa).

Part of the practice is to increase our awareness of the sounds around us, going from one to another without trying to understand them. Everyday for a week, practising Yoga Nidra in a remote part of Kanataka, allowed to hear many different birds, insects, the sea in the background, a bell...The refreshing natural surroundings created a pleasant, calming and relaxing experience, conducive to spiritual instruction and meditation.

Back to London, the vibrant voice of the Swami was replaced by a CD, which was bearable. Getting to the part of the Yoga Nidra practice focusing on sounds, there was no natural sounds to be found. The mind was wandering between an overwhelming road drill in the street, car engines accelerating, ambulance sirens, a door banged in the building, more car noises, more sirens, more drilling...

Can we just simply replace the natural sounds by the industrial ones - after all, the awareness of the sound is what matters in the practice, not what triggered them - and just adapt ourselves to our urban environment? Can this really be as conducive to Meditation than a natural surrounding? Most importantly, shall we just accept that, meditation or not, the sound of a bird is no longer a natural thing?

Life in itself has no meaning

'Life in itself has no meaning. Life is an opportunity to create a meaning. You will find meaning only if you create it. It is a poem to be composed, it is a song to be sung, it is a dance to be danced.

Buddha finds meaning because he creates it. God is not a thing but a creation. And only those who create find. Each individual has to give birth to God, to meaning, to truth; each man has to become pregnant with it and pass through the pains of birth. Each one has to carry it in one's womb, feed it by one's own blood, and only then does one discover.

The inquiry has to be pure, without any conclusion. If you are looking for a certain meaning, you will not find it - because from the very beginning your inquiry is polluted, it is impure. You have already decided.

For example, if a man comes into my garden and thinks he can find a diamond there, then to him this garden is beautiful. He cannot find the diamond and he says there is no meaning in the garden...And there are so many beautiful flowers, and so many birds singing, and so many colours, and the wind blowing through the pines, and the moss on the rocks. But he cannot see any meaning because he has a certain idea: he has to find the diamond, only then there will be a meaning.

He is missing meaning because of his idea. Let your inquiry be pure. Don't move with any fixed idea. Go naked. Go open and empty. And you will find not only one meaning - you will find a thousand and one meanings. Then each thing will become meaningful.'

Extract from The Silence of the Heart: talks on Sufi stories (The Times of India, Bangalore, 15.03.08)