Shamanic Wisdom

'In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions. When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?' ~ Gabrielle Roth


This sums it up, doesn't it? Sometimes in planning for life and all that we think will come to pass  - we forget to live.

Eat - Breathe - Live Positivity

One look at the morning papers, and you know the world's lost it. I actually quit reading the papers first thing in the morning for a very long time, because news of graft by stupid politicians, more rapes, more war, more unclaimed dead bodies is NOT the way one should start one's morning. Today, I happened to glance at it and regretted it instantaneously. Our PM - who has long been a puppet in the hands of the Gandhi family who, along with an entire troupe of corrupt politicians - are literally stripping bare the country and its population - claimed that Rahul Gandhi - the most ridiculous of all Gandhis - who has never done a day's worth of work in his life - will make a great PM. And that our current PM - who has a doctorate in Economics and brought the country out of the BOP crisis in 1991 - would happily work under Rahul. Needless to say, I saw all hope going out of me. (If I go to jail for this "blasphemy", you know who to blame." :P )

But then better sense prevailed. When sheer insanity can tip the balance of the world, why can't spiritual awakening reverse those effects? This is the story that holds the key to the ultimate change:

"The Japanese monkey, Macaca Fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.

In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant. An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too. This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes -- the exact number is not known. Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!But notice: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea...Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes. Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind. Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people. But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!" - By Ken Keyes Jr.


This is it! Violence can't kill violence. And intelligence is bowing down to stupidity everywhere. But there is something that all the hopeless leaders of the world and even more hopeless rebels cannot go against. That's the power of positivity. We need spiritual awakening in just enough people in the population to tilt the balance of the world towards awesomeness. We cannot be swayed by the sorrows of the world or of our own lives. There's a much much bigger aspect at play right now. Negativity has pervaded all aspects of our life. Look at yourself and the people around you. If it's raining, they want sunshine. If the sun comes out, they want winter. If they have long days at office, they want to be free from it all. If they don't have work, they have so many insecurities that you want to give them your work and hope that it plays the role a pacifier plays for an irritable baby. In short, people are never happy. And they have a big, fat problem if you refuse to be drawn into their self created dramas. We need to rise above this. If you can't live with your immediate colleague in peace, or worse, if you aren't at peace with yourself, there is little chance of attaining peace in the world in general.

So wage a war - against your low impulses and just once, try to live to your highest capacity. Each moment. Each day. Meditate. Be at peace - only then will you listen to the voices that stopped talking to you so long ago - the only voices that want the best for you and the world that you live in.

Wage a war against negativity of all sorts - including that which is rooted deep within you. If you can't win a battle against your worst nature - how can you expect the world to do that on such a large scale? Try it - it will be a long term win-win situation for all.

Dreams and their interpretations

So I fell sick owing to a total lack of excercise in my life, crazy, hazy weather here, and probably the extreme air conditioning that our office loves to indulge in. Result: No surprises there - I slept as though there were no tomorrow. 18 hours. 15 hours. It tapered down as I got better. The result of all that sleeping was some very interesting dreams that I can't remember because they were interspersed with reality.

However, there was one last night that was distinct. In my dream - I just sat there and washed dozens of clothes. They were mostly mine - not my family's - including my favourite dresses that are only dry-cleaned. So I sat there, and washed away, and then weirdly, didn't hang them out to dry. Instead, I dragged the hindolium in, and hung all my washing in the bathroom itself.

I got up with my fever gone, and after a long time, the desire to do something productive with my life. So of course, google was called upon and was commanded to reveal the meaning of this dream. It went something like this:

"Washing may represent inner cleansing. You are getting rid of old attitudes, habits and emotional reactions. If you wash clothes, this may symbolise an improvement in the way you present yourself to the world."

Sounds positive enough. And my feelings are totally in sync with the optimism that I woke up with. Now I just have to figure out how not to be drawn into the negativity of all and sundry at work tomorrow, and it'll all be perfect :) 

Reminiscing the good old days

Sometimes when you go after a spell to a place that you've grown up in, you get a bit of a jolt. Even if you've changed completely, you somehow expected that place to remain the same - stuck in time and space - your own little haven.

That is what happened during my long overdue visit to Nainital last week. The places were essentially the same - but the people! They had changed so much! And a place essentially gets its feel from the people in it.

The crowds on the streets have become more uncouth. The people I used to know and talk to during my multiple trips up and down hills in that 1 mile area, in every shop/ every other restaurant, have either crossed over to the other side, or become so old and feeble that it made my heart lurch.

There are some things in life that you don't want to change. But change is inevitable. And death, even more so. May the old souls who make Nainital "home" live long and healthy. The lake is the only thing that seems to maintain its age-old charm :)

The land of the sea and the home of the waves

Lame title for an oh-so-amazing experience. I know I know. But I was in Bermuda and beyond caring about titles really. One word : Gorgeous. Alright another - Dreamy. Last one - Friendly. A little too much at times though.

So after a 15 hour flight and a 9 hour stop over in New York I finally took my final flight to Bermuda. I deprived a really nice old couple of the window seat (well, they offered half heartedly and I jumped at the opportunity) and then slept through the trip. I heard them whisper to each other sometime between dreaming of a pizza and waves -  "Why did she take the window seat if she wanted to sleep right through". Well, I didn't want to sleep right through - but when you've stayed up for so very long, you fall asleep whether you like it or not.

But I wasn't asleep all through - I opened my eyes to see thick layers of cloud symmetrically dissected over the blue expanse. The next time I opened them - the clouds had transformed into gorgeous tufts of cotton candy - teasing the waves below. And the third and final time - and this made me actually wake up - the sky was aflame as the sun was going down, burning like coal embers in the distance. And then out of nowhere, sparkling pieces of land began to appear. My first view of Bermuda will stay with me forever. It was overwhelming to the point that I wanted to hug every bit of the island.

Having had my 10 hours of sleep, Sunday dawned a beautiful spring morning. The sun was just right in its intensity, the sky was blue enough and the clouds were gorgeous as ever entertaining me all through the trip by taking on different shapes in the blink of an eye. There was a dragon breathing fire during the sunset, a boy peacefully asleep with his stuffed toys, a mermaid and places that I couldn't have imagined. The sky in the distant horizon actually felt like a whole other world that could be travelled to. It was surreal to say the least.

Just walking by the dockyard, staring at the endless expanse of blue water was the most satisfying experience in ways I couldn't have dreamt of before. Of course, a girl standing alone staring at water like she can't believe her luck does attract a fair share of weird people (and really old ones at that), wanting to have a drink. But managed to keep them at a distance. So it was all good.

The weekend saw me travel far and wide in Bermuda; explore the various quaint little nooks and corners

that give the island its charm. Whether it was the breathtaking beauty of the Crystal and Fantasy caves with their intriguing stalactites and stalacmites, or the quiet little town of St. George's with its aura of ancient history and seafaring stories. The beaches were wondrous feasts of pink sand and blue-green waters that seemed to slant at the oddest of angles while being approached from the mini-hills in a bus. The sand felt like velvet under my feet! I saw people do magic with glass at the glassworks spot in the Dockyard and literally witnessed the "high" life that I'd always wondered about while watching programs about the Hamptons. And .. and .. I climbed a lighthouse for the very first time in my life and the experience can't be described in mere words!

I love Bermuda (understatement of the year!). To think I'd heard such terrible reviews about the place from my colleagues at work is a shame. "There's nothing to do," they said. When the sky's changing colours every minute and the waves are hypnotising you like never before - what else is left to be done?

Destiny's Child (P.S: I'm so not talking about the band)

So I have finally figured out the whole "free will" concept. At least, in my head. It may be utter nonsense - but I think I can live in peace now. I used to think that free will is about getting everything in life to go your way as long as you worked hard enough for it. Now I have accepted one thing - if something has to come to pass - it will. However, if it's not meant to be, then you can hang yourself upside down for days at end willing it to happen - but it won't. The only choice that you have is the way you react to the good and bad that you may have to deal with from time to time. And experience has it - there's always something good, or at least something funny in every occurance in your life.

Attitude is everything. I have seen people cry about random "first world" problems and go into absolute depression because one small thing in life wasn't going their way (embarrassed to admit I was like that most of last year). I have been to lunch with people to expensive places just to be hear them whine all through about how terrible it all was - while observing poor workers having a ball with their meagre food rations on the way back.

You can have everything and be poor as hell - and have nothing and yet be rich -  as long as you are content. Again, being content does not mean sitting on your butt and not wanting anything ever again. It means enjoying where you are at the moment - while you may be working towards a distant dream - but you are happy where you are.

Doesn't it scare you that while you are cursing a gem of a life right now - which is perfect in itself (and I don't mean the crap we are sold on TV in the name of perfection) - in the hope of finding happiness somewhere somehow in the future - that these times are never to return and will be some of your best memories when you look back 10 years from now?

So why ruin the present? Live it up and make the moments count! You are free to be happy in all circumstances - you are free to create amazing memories right now - THAT is your free will. Stop trying to control the world - as long as you can control that mischievous mind of yours, you are set for life!

Explorations of the Runic kind

It all began in a small picturesque town called Solvang, lost in time and space - somewhere between LA and Salinas on the west coast of America. Even while I was visiting it, I was overcome by the strong feeling that it would disappear the moment I left it - as if it were something straight out of a fairy tale - like Alice's Wonderland - or maybe even Hogwarts!

It was a sleepy little town, with Windmills inspired by Netherlands and a museum dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen. Mesmerising to say the least.

My tryst with runes happened first in the basement of that museum that had a bunch of books to choose from. It was a small emerald green book on Runes that immediately caught my fancy. And like all things that immediately catch one's fancy, it lay among my collection of "precious" things in a corner of my cupboard.

I got re-interested in it sometime during a spring cleaning session in 2011 when it emerged out of the depths of my paraphernalia and I was hooked. For about a year, on and off, I meditated on those runes and made notes in my diary of any weird dreams that I had. I really didn't know to what extent my always fabulous and entertaining dreams were influenced by the runic meditations, and how much was a figment of my imagination. So eventually, I dropped the practice.

This year, on my birthday, I went back to my diary entry from my birthday last year. It was the last one connected to the runes and I had noted how puzzled I was about some of my dreams. A year from then, I realise that those things had happened even though I had totally forgotten about those particular dreams! And it wasn't a comfortable phase at all - but turned out for my good. And it tied back to the type of runes I had been meditating on - it was the EXACT effect that they are supposed to have in a person's life.

So it goes without saying I am back to Runic meditations. Excited about the adventures I am about to embark on :)

The Hunger Games ..& Subsequent Reflections

The title says it all. I just finished the second book in the Hunger Games series, and am seriously taken with Peeta Meelark - his ability to be a decent human being in the worst of times is a beautiful and admirable quality - something so lacking on the world today.

The book takes you through a whirl wind of emotions. It thrills you, makes you emotional, makes you yearn for love, makes you re-think all that yearning - one helluva rollercoaster to say the least!

But that's true for all amazing books. What really got me thinking in this particular one was the painful and honest realisation that I don't really have a life skill. I'd have been skewered in the Hunger Games in the first 61st second! (For the uninitiated - nobody could make a move in the first 60 seconds).

I have always had dreams to learn about the stars, and herbs! I ignored the entire Astronomy class that I was enrolled in at Coursera because I just didn't have the energy on weekdays - and was a lazy bum on weekends. After reading this book, I solemnly swear I am going to work on some real skills rather than ones that are of no use to man or beast. I was born with so many talents - I am a classically trained singer and dancer, I draw well (and I don't mean my doodles), I can write without making English teachers cringe, I am good with languages, and as mentioned before - I have the gift of the gab... And what do I do with all of this? Well .. not much.

Here's to an exciting weekend spent in Panem with the Hunger Games!

:)

This quote by Bruce Williamson makes me immensely happy for some reason!

The ever elusive goal

Happiness. It's supposed to be a choice, isn't it? Then why does one helplessly every now and then get sucked into other people's unhappy little black holes?! It was my resolution this year to not crib, not be unhappy for the heck of it, to count my blessings .. so on and so forth. I am a MUCH better person as far as this aspect of my life is concerned - but I'm still not quite there yet. Negativity - I know what it looks and feels like, and I try to build a wall between it and my soul - but it somehow manages to sneak in. You can't avoid negative people entirely - especially at work - especially in my office, but there's got to be a way of not letting it impact you. I need to be positive enough to change the atmosphere there, rather than letting it change me. I really do!

Maybe it's because I let my meditation sessions slip every now and then. Discipline discipline discipline! Whatever it is, I need to exercise my happiness choice far more that before. The world is too beautiful, and my life is too awesome to be unnecessarily sad about stupid things that don't matter within hours, forget years.

Anyhow, that's all for today's sermon. I had to get it out somewhere.

P.S. Random Fact: Shakespeare was swinging both ways - just found out today thanks to a biography of the great playwright that I'm in the midst of. Maybe it was because of the regressive tradition of the Brits to only allow men on stage that people in that era never really knew their orientation. God knows. Apparently the Earl of Sounthampton was a very effeminate and pretty young man. UK has come a long way from killing men found to be gay to legalising gay rights. More power to love in this world!

Resolutions!

We've almost been brought up to believe that resolutions are bound to be broken. And that it's alright when it happens. Whatever happened to personal accountability and promises!

So I decided that this time around I was not going to break my own promises. I know it's early in the year - and all seems doable right now. But I'm done with denegerating as an individual as the days go by in a year and then making unattainable resolutions all over again. Here goes the list of promises made by yours truly to her esteemed self :

1) Workout: If it's 3 degress celsius in the morning and office starts early - then find a way to move while at work. I've decided to pretty much shun the elevators this year. I work on the 4th floor - if an exercise regima cannot be followed 10 trips up and down the stairs should take care of some part of my health. But everyday has to be an exercising day!

2) Read: 2012 slipped past without my mind and soul having explored other worlds. Movies are great - but reading has its own charm. The crazy amount of office work last year - very little of which was actually put into use - klled my appetite for reading. When the eyes are red and swollen from having stared non-stop for hours at end into the laptop - reading stops becoming a priority. Made up for some of that loss during my 15 days of core leaves in December - where I polished off the LOTR trilogy, The Hobbit, and Ashwin Sanghi's Chanakya's Chants and The Krishna Key. I am a much better person for having done this I feel.

On to the Romanovs at last, gifted by my best friend on my last birthday! It's one of the most intriguing pieces of historical fiction I've ever read - and will probably make me want to overcome my lack of knowledge on Russian history soon!

3) Meditate: The world and more importantly, going to work each day, tends to take a toll on the human mind and spirit. Sometimes, you get so lost in the pettiness of the situation, that you forget to look at things in perspective. That's where meditation helps. I have realised I am a much better person when I'm quieter deep down - agitation gets me no where. Besides, in sync with my belief that each human being needs to become in sync with the universe in order to make this world a truly survivable place, I need to be the change I want to see in others.

4) Write: Writing, in my view, gives a window to a person's soul. Things becomes so much clearer when you put them down on paper. Whether it's in the form of a journal (which I've started yet again this year - and intend to fill ~90% of) or blogging - writing is something that puts me in  a flow - and I intend to do more such things this year.

5) Travel: I start feeling restless if I don't travel. It's not that I'm not content with my life, it's just that I yearn to see other places, experience other cultures, every now and then. Last year, a trip to Ukraine went awry - but this year - a trip to France and maybe Spain seems likely as ever, thanks to someone moving base to a beautiful city for sometime :)

6) Cook: My Pinterest page has too many untried cooking pins that I swore I'd try last year! This year I plan to evolve into a Master Chef. And unlike other years - the resolve is stronger!

7) Stop Cribbing: Alright so I'm not really clear of my life's direction. I am doing well at work, but given a choice I'd rather do something else. But that does not mean that I turn into a full blown cribber and crib the ears off my poor family and some friends! The job isn't bad, my work is always recognised and rewarded, and not all people I work with are loons. If I don't know what I want to do with my life - I shouldn't take it out on others really. There is simply no justification. So 2013 will be a no-crib-zone as far as I'm concerned. And I intend to keep a distance from the negativity filled being that sometimes surround me - I'll pray for them and send them some light - but I WILL NOT CRIB!

8) Volunteer: I think I'm blessed to have a great family, awesome friends, a job and no debilitating illnesses. And I am multi talented - it's time to put all that to use and actually help people out. Each human being deserves dignity in life - I solemnly swear I will do something to help bring that into some lives this year.

9) Stop taking the environment for granted: Whether it's water running as I brush my teeth or lights on in another room - one tries to be careful as far as natural resources are concerned. However, I think there's a lot more scope as far as being more conscious about all of this is concerned. I will henceforth live life with greater deliberation and do my bit to not take more out of earth than I already have. And maybe take up gardening.
That's about it as far as resolutions are concerned. Laziness is in for a pounding this year - already I feel better for having taken the first steps towards my various resoultions (umm, except cooking - but that will change soon).

Looking forward to a spiritual, happy and exciting 2013!