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 :)