The magic of Materialism November 6, 2009

Materialism is our glittering Reality. Especially now, then the Christmas time is coming, the amount of that glitter increases, as if accumulating material riches was the message of Christ. The magic of Matter is powerful. The human/physical part of our being is longing for comfort and beauty, sensual satisfaction and delight…We dive into the fascination of matter and its hypnotizing charm.

But the Matter is not all we consist of. Another powerful part of us is the Spirit (I don’t mean the soul here though)

For a spiritual person is not easy to find the balance between the two.  While in a mediation I dwell in the Realm of a Spirit and realize the tremendous power and beauty of it, it is the magic of materialism that wants to take over in my daily life, for instance in a form of the pretty Vienna City with its imperial style and flavour of coffee…

Is it possible to have both, to enjoy the Materialism and Spirituality?

Since several years I am trying to play a game and make these two happily coexist. When you meet me first, you might say I am quite successful in that (I keep up a glamour look  and spend much time in restaurants and cafes). An yet it feels like a game, because all the time I am aware of the silent completion between the two. The famous dualism is always there…

Honestly, I am in owe of the black magical power of Materialism. Since last 2 decades I have been watching  Materialism taking over in two greatest spiritual nations like Indian and Russian. Within no time (historically seen) the value system crashed down and many people had to undergo a wired transformation of their attitudes to life and themselves. 

It`s fascianting to have same experience as saints did! October 22, 2009

We live in fascinating times. Unbelievable but fact – being an ordinary householder, one can still  have extraordinary spiritual experiences like the saints of all times did.

I came across a stunning quote of a great South Indian saint Ramana Maharshi, (1879-1950) who describes his spiritual experiences exactly the way I have been experiencing it thanks to my meditation practice:

“…the samadhi I speak to you about is different. It is sahaja samadhi. In this state you remain calm and composed during activity. You realise that you are moved by the deeper self within and are unaffected by what you do or say or think. You have no worries, anxieties or cares, for you realise that there is nothing that belongs to you as ego and that everything is being done by something with which you are conscious union.”

Or this one: ” Your own Self-Realisation is the greatest service you can render the world”.  How true is this, incredible!

And that one is reflecting my own daily experience:  ”Nearly all mankind is more or less unhappy because nearly all do not know the true Self. Real happiness abides in Self-knowledge alone. All else is fleeting. To know one’s Self is to be blissful always.”

 This beautiful saint is only one example. Reading of or about saintly people of all times I realise that they all had basically same experiences.

Get your hands read by Nita! September 22, 2009

My longterm blog friend Nita, an excellent journalist and a great person, has started a new blog sharing her fascinating hobby – palmistry. Plamistry is the correct name for what is commonly known as “handreading”.

Judging by the number of hands painted in prehistoric caves it would seem that palmistry held a interest for humans since the stone age.Archaeological discoveries have discovered hands made of stone, wood and ivory by ancient civilizations. The emperor of China used his thumbprint when sealing documents in 3000 bc. Information on the laws and practise of hand reading have been found in Vedic scripts, the bible and early semitic writings. Aristotle (384-322 bc) discovered a treatise on palmistry on an altar to the god Hermes. The greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen (ad 130-200) were both knowledgeable about the use of palmistry as a clinical aid. Julius Caesar (102-44bc) judged his men by palmistry. Notable people such as Paracelsus (1493-1541) and Fludd (1574-1637) brought respectability to palmistry through their writings. Later Dr Carl Carus, physician to the king of Saxony in the 19th century matched palms to personality. Advances in genetics, psychology and forensics have propeled palmistry into the modern age. In 1901 scotland yard adopted the technique of fingerprinting in criminal investigation and identification.Medical researchers studying skin patterns (dermatoglyphics), have discovered a correspondence between genetic abnormalities and unusual markings in the hand. Research has confirmed a link between specific fingerprint patterns and heart disease. These days palmistry is well accepted throughout the world. Proffesional palmists can be found reading palms in every country in the world.

Nita is a palmistry master with 30 years of practice and with her blog she offers not only an insight into this fascinating sphere of human knowledge, but also a possibility to order your own palmstry report! Here is what Nita claims:

The Greatest Guru September 8, 2009

The greatest guru that we have is Love… It is the guru within us which teaches us, which somehow or other leads us.
 
We are led into that great line of understanding, for which we don’t have to go to any college, to any school for education. It is something so much within that it works and expresses itself, expresses like a light. 
Such people we can make out because they are fully enlightened. They have light and through that light they see the whole world, which is very innocent and simple for them. 

This love, which cannot be described in words, has to be felt within… If you have this love, you enjoy. You enjoy yourself and enjoy everybody else because it is sahaj. You don’t have to make any efforts, don’t have to try anything. Just it is there and it works.

Tukaram September 4, 2009

Tukaram is one of my favourite poet-saints about whom I had one of the strongest spiritual experiences ever. I once visited the place where he lived and was totally smashed into the bliss for hours…. This is the place of his samadhi  (feel the vibrations!!):

 

Tukaram was born in 1608, in the small village of Dehu in the West Indian state of Maharashtra. Tukaram continuously sang the praises of the Lord, he sang it in the form of abhangs which he wrote. These were in his mother tongue Marathi. The abhangs express his feelings and philosophical outlook. During his 41 years, Tukaram composed over 5,000 abhangs. Many of them speak of events in his life, which make them somewhat autobiographical. Yet, they are focused on God, and not Tukaram. His abhangs became very popular with the masses of common people. It was this very popularity that caused the religious establishment (the high caste Brahmins) to hate and persecute Tukaram. as, he was causing them to lose their power over the people.
There are many miracles attributed to Tukaram.

Here is a small poem of him:

How spirituality awakens in a human being July 31, 2009

Spirituality is like the water hidden in the depth of the earth: hidden in the heart of man, this water which is spirituality must be, so to speak, dug out. This digging is done when one takes pains in awakening ones sympathy towards others, in harmonizing with others and in understanding others.  -says my beloved Sufi saint Hazrat Inayath Khan (1882-1927).

I find it a beautiful explanation of how the spirituality is generally born in a human being. The next step is when one starts seeking the Spirit everywhere – in oneself, in others, in nature. One starts seeking for the very depth, for the very essence and beauty of everything and… one day finds it!

LOVE; axinia

(image by me)

The field of life July 9, 2009

Kabir, the great poet of India says, ‘Life is a field and you are born to cultivate it. And if you know how to cultivate this field you can produce anything you like. All the need of your life can I be produced in this field. All that your soul yearns after and all you need is to be got from the field, if you know how to cultivate it and how to reap the fruit.’

But if this opportunity is only studied in order to make the best of life by taking all that one can take and by being more comfortable, that is not satisfying.

We must enrich ourselves with thought, with that happiness which is spiritual happiness, with that peace which belongs to our soul, with that liberty, that freedom, for which our soul longs; and attain to that higher knowledge which breaks all the fetters of life and raises our consciousness to look at life from a different point of view.

Self-control July 3, 2009

In everyday life it is most necessary to have control over speech and action, for one may automatically give way to a word, prompted by an inner impulse; afterwards one finds that one should not have said it, or perhaps one should have said it differently. It is the same with action. One feels, ‘I should not have done so’, after having done something; or one thinks, ‘I should have done differently’; but once it is done it is too late to do it otherwise. In human nature there is an inner urge to express oneself; and that urge pushes a word out of one, so to speak, before one has really thought of it; and all this shows lack of control over oneself.

It is also a sign of nervousness. Very often a person tries to answer somebody who has not yet finished speaking; before a sentence is completed the answer is given. Such an answer given to an incomplete idea is often wrong. What generally happens in such cases is that one takes all that comes from outside in life too much to heart, and allows these outer things and influences to penetrate one more deeply than they should. In this way one becomes sensitive, and out of this arises nervousness.

I should have everything that is good, genuine and beautiful! June 23, 2009

“I should have everything that is good, genuine and beautiful!”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Those who are familiar with Mozart life story and character will immediately recognize him in these words. He was not only a genius but something much more… The vibrations of his death place are tremendous like of a swaymbhu… Very special! Apparently they say that his horoscope at the death point was even more impressive than of the birthday. That may mean that he could not only fulfill his life mission but had given us something much more…the eternal character of the music.

I would claim that of all western classical composers Mozart is the only one whose music does not awaken emotions and does not make one think (normally the Western classical music is conceptual, full of thoughts and emotions).

I believe his music has almost the same impact as the classical Indian music - it awakens the happy spirit, washes thoughts away and makes one feel light and joyful.

But that is not all! You must have heard of “Mozart effect” :

The concept of the “Mozart effect” was described by French researcher, Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis in his 1991 book Pourquoi Mozart?. He used the music of Mozart in his efforts to “retrain” the ear, and believed that listening to the music presented at differing frequencies helped the ear, and promoted healing and the development of the brain.

The nature of impressions we get from things is nothig else but vibrations June 19, 2009

I came across this text of my favorite saint Hazrat Inayat Khan and was stunned how accurate he was describing something what the practitioners of Sahaja meditation know from their daily experiences – but he was describing it before 1927!

Isn’t it great that something that has been known and accessible only to the few in the earlier times, now is easily available to everyone?!..

Enjoy the saint’s experiences:

“There are many ancient places where one finds stones engraved, woods carved with some artistic designs. Sometimes there are letters engraved on the rock of a mountain, on a stone; letters which today no one can read. Yet one endowed with the gift of intuition can read them from the vibrations, from the atmosphere, from the feeling that comes from them. Outwardly, they are engravings, inwardly they are a continual record, a talking record which is always expressing what is written upon it. No traveller with intuitive faculties open will deny the fact that in the lands of ancient traditions he will have seen numberless places which, so to speak, sing aloud the legend of their past.

    One sees the same in the atmosphere of the trees in the forests, in the gardens, which also express the past – the impressions that have been given to them by those who sat under them. Often people have superstitions about a tree being haunted, and this one finds much more in the East. Actually a vibration has been created, consciously or unconsciously, by someone who has lived there, who has taken shelter under the tree and pondered upon a certain thought, upon a certain feeling which the tree has taken up, and which the tree is expressing. Perhaps the person has forgotten about it, but the tree is still repeating the thought that has been given to it; for the tree can express the voice that was put into it more clearly than a rock.

(image of Brahmapuri, by me)

    In tropical countries where in ancient times people used to travel on foot through the forests and woods, and take shelter under a certain tree, all that they thought and felt has been taken up by the tree. Those with intuitive faculties open have heard it more clearly than if they had heard it from a living person.

    One finds the same thing among animals, the pet animals which live and partake thought and feeling through their contact with man. There especially exists a superstition about horses. Those who know horses are very particular in buying one which has good vibrations, apart from considering its health and breed. Often a horse of a very good breed and perfectly sound may prove to be unlucky. The reason is that the disappointment of someone who has been riding upon this horse has been left there, recorded upon the heart of the horse. Perhaps the condition of the person has changed, but that which the horse has kept is still continuing.