"There are many ways to calm negative energy without suppressing or fighting it. You recognize it, you smile to it, and you invite something nicer to come up and replace it; you go somewhere in nature, or you do some walking meditation.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
"Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream" ~ Tomorrow never knows by John Lennon
I hurl into the moment like I'm standing at the edge / I know / That no one's gonna turn me 'round / Just one more step, I could let go / I hear the voices and they're calling for me now / I know / And nothing's gonna wake me now / Cause I'm a slave to the sound / So keep calling
“Ghosts appear most often where ignorance and falsehood reside.” ~ from Hindu Puranas written between 3000 BC and 1500 BC
A Swami at the Vedanta Temple helps us interpret this sutra. He tells us: “If you translate ‘ghost’ to mean ‘past life’ ..you get Ghosts appear where there is difficulty letting go of the past. When this occurs, memories come back to haunt ..and the struggle blocks the appreciation of present and possible futures. You see, blockage (clinging to the past) is ignorance.”
Oh Lord Ganesha!
You are the Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa.
You are Indra. You are fire and air. You are the sun and the moon.
You are Brahman. You are the three worlds earth, space, and heaven.
You are Om. Without color, expression, or form, nor attributes to divide
Let me out / Let me in / I'm giving up / not giving in / I gave you everything I could give / But if you go so easily / Go on, get out, set me free
Classical conditioning, the power of connection between unrelated stimuli, like the sound of a bell and the smell of food ..can activate the salivary glands. Images of celebrities can activate areas of the brain responsible for receptivity and delight ..boosting the value of the products they endorse. While working at a foundation, awarding grants to research on developmental disorders, I was tasked to determine if there was any merit to the claim that Scientology can cure dyslexia. Turns out Tom Cruise was endorsing them and diverting funds, donated by the Hollywood movie industry, away from the Foundation and toward Scientology.
Psychologists say we often blame things on the most sensational events in recent memory. Vivid as they may be ..they are often suspect. Many people believe that the police framed OJ Simpson for the murder of his wife. After he was acquitted, jury members said things like “..reminded me of how the cops pulled-over and harassed my cousin Charlie.” A high school student shoots and kills his teacher and another student ..and people say “..have you seen the computer games kids play these days?” Our neighbor’s teenage daughter is committed to a mental institution and my sister goes “..no wonder, you should have seen how OCD her mother was.” I have to agree with Psychologists ..real life is not so easy to explain. Violent computer games don’t necessarily escalate into high school shootings. A brutal cop at a traffic stop is not the same as a police conspiracy. And I don’t think there’s any evidence that strict child rearing practices cause insanity ..although my sister says the neighbor drove her crazy as well.
See I'm not afraid no more / I'm not afraid no more / To turn you away no more / Turn you away no more / To turn you away, to turn you away
Buddha teaches that the nature of life is change and that the cause of suffering is clinging to the past and not accepting change.
Joe clings to the image of the good sonThe father clings to the image of his grown daughter when she was just nineThe mother clings to the illusion that the daughter is still alive ..unable to grasp the reality of her death.The lover clings to the illusion that her boyfriend, missing in action for 3 years, will walk through the door.
Each one, unable to acknowledge change ..keeps the others stuck ..until Joe publicly drops the ‘good son’ illusion ..allowing the others to let go of theirs.
Tantra yoga has the power to enhance and sustain well being. It releases a hormone called ‘oxytocin’ ..often referred to as the “bonding hormone”. Oxytocin plays a role in the development of intimacy. Over time it serves to deepen the commitment felt between practitioners [ Tantra Yoga ]
On the Road (1947) Jack Kerouac chronicles his brief love affair with a young Chicana migrant worker, ‘Bea Franco,’ in California’s Central Valley. It was a true story and part of the book with the most heart ..I felt (♡)
With the first kiss people usually invent a story about falling in love “..Eva couldn’t help inventing a story about falling out of love. She considered herself talented at leaving people and places. The first smile of a love affair was mostly fiction and blind hope, but you knew where you were with good-bye. You knew that mistakes would dissolve, doors would open, and then everything would be possible again. It was the ending, Eva maintained, that gave meaning to the story.”
”The secret to getting away with shit is to switch off your personality and go undetected: .. most of the million ghosts walking mindlessly from A to B in every city of the world are inconspicuous because they aren’t noticing themselves, but an arrogant person or an anxious person is noticeable because they are so aware of existence.” ‘The Pink Hotel’
Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin plan to film ‘The Pink Hotel’. The narrative follows a seventeen-year old London girl who flies to Los Angeles for the funeral of Lilly, a mother she’d barely known. While there, she uncovers a suitcase full of photographs, letters and clothes in the attic of the eponymous hotel and, led by these clues, sets out to unravel her mothers’ secrets. Stothard is hoping that, as locals, Paquin and Moyer film on location at the real pink hotel (also known as The Cadillac) in Venice Beach.
Waking in L.A. with Anna Stothard: "I lived in Thai Town and Little Armenia, in this apartment block full of just all different sorts of people. And I found that, not driving — I have never driven — I just found that I walked this version of Los Angeles that none of my friends seemed to know anything about. And I’d walk out of my apartment and there would be a huge Armenian wedding going on, and then you’d pass through the crowds of these Armenians and you’d get Thai children peeling oranges on a street corner for a Thai altarpiece. And the Armenians never seemed to talk to the Thai people. There were all these different layers of the city that nobody seemed to cross over. Everyone says that LA is all these suburbs looking for a city. But actually in every little bit of Los Angeles there are so many different layers. You just have to look beyond the cliche of Los Angeles."
Voyage of a swell: "At ten, I completed a 5,000-mile, 6-month cruise in Mexico on my family’s sailboat, The Endless Summer, experiencing a different culture, the freedom and beauty of sea travel, and opening my mind to horizons beyond my hometown reality. At 23 I spontaneously came upon the chance to become the captain of my own sailboat. Swell. October of 2005, I pointed Swell’s bow south from the Santa Barbara harbor. I’ve sailed over 18,000 nautical miles of ocean since. I’ve discovered that the most important sort of exploration happens within.” [link]
An interpretation: The film shows what can happen when economic class differences are enforced by the Government. They become structured rather than fluid. The possibility for advancement is eliminated ..except by winning the hunger games ..inspiring a false sense of hope.
Attack of the jabberjays
Scarlett Johansson plays an alien predator. She wears a black wig and is not immediately recognizable as she cruises through Glasgow and the surrounding countryside picking up hitchhikers in a van equipped with hidden video cameras. Like candid camera, their reactions are real and authentic. Their stories offer a glimpse of society from the point of view of the ultimate outsider. Muwahahaha
