The ego is like a rose May 28, 2009

 (image by me)

The ego is like the rose and also like the thorns which surround the rose. It takes the place of the thorns when it is not
cultivated, and it becomes a rose when it is refined.

When the ego remains in the condition of a thorn, more thorns come; and more and more, till it increases its thorns to such an
extent that everyone who touches that person is dissatisfied. We all have friends to whom we should be most grateful if they
would keep away from us. We love them, we like them, but we would be very glad if they would keep away. What is it? It is
the thorns that hurt.

In what way do these thorns manifest? They manifest in the form of words, of actions, of desires, in the form of manner. Why
does one feel annoyed with certain people in life, even before they have uttered one word? Because the thorn is pricking.
Perhaps that person will say, ‘But I have not said anything, I have not done anything,’ but he does not know that he has thorns;
there are perhaps so many that even before he utters one word, before he moves, his presence pricks us. It is a natural
outcome of the ego. Either the ego develops thorns, or it develops into a rose; and when it develops into a rose, then everyone
is attracted to it because of its beautiful petals, its delicacy, its fragrance, its color, its softness, its structure. Everything about it
is attractive, appealing, and healing.

For every soul there are four stages to pass through in order to come to the culmination of the ego, which means to reach the
stage of the rose.

The first stage is that a person is rough, thoughtless and inconsiderate. He is interested in what he wants and
in what he likes; as such he is naturally blind to the needs and wants of others.

Your Thought and Mine May 27, 2009

 (image by me, this is ONE rose, half white/halth pink)

Your thought is a tree rooted deep in the soil of tradition and whose branches grow in the power of continuity.

My thought is a cloud moving in the space. It turns into drops which, as they fall, form a brook that sings its way into the sea. Then it rises as vapour into the sky.

Your thought is a fortress that neither gale nor the lightning can shake.

My thought is a tender leaf that sways in every direction and finds pleasure in its swaying.

Your thought is an ancient dogma that cannot change you nor can you change it.

My thought is new, and it tests me and I test it morn and eve.

You have your thought and I have mine.

Your thought allows you to believe in the unequal contest of the strong against the weak, and in the tricking of the simple by the subtle ones.

My thought creates in me the desire to till the earth with my hoe, and harvest the crops with my sickle, and build my home with stones and mortar, and weave my raiment with woollen and linen threads.

Your thought urges you to marry wealth and notability.

Mine commends self-reliance.

Your thought advocates fame and show.

Mine counsels me and implores me to cast aside notoriety and treat it like a grain of sand cast upon the shore of eternity.

Your thought instils in your heart arrogance and superiority.

Mine plants within me love for peace and the desire for independence.

Your thought begets dreams of palaces with furniture of sandalwood studded with jewels, and beds made of twisted silk threads.

My thought speaks softly in my ears, “Be clean in body and spirit even if you have nowhere to lay your head.”

Your thought makes you aspire to titles and offices.

Mine exhorts me to humble service.

Does talking about trauma really help? – Surprising study results May 25, 2009

 image by me)

Holding myself a certificate in psychology I am rather sceptical to many methods and ideas of psychological treatments. May be because I have found a more efficient way to deal with problems…may be. And even though my close and distant friends often want my psychological help, I never use any “techniques” because I believe that the heart knows better what to say.

Anyway, one of the things I find somewhat wrong is the popular treatment in trauma psychology as well as in conventional wisdom  –to make the victim talk about the happening. News reports after school shootings and other such tragedies tell how specially trained trauma psychologists flood into the affected area to encourage people to talk through their feeling and fears of what has happened. But does it actually help?

I came across a very interesting study concerning responses to the terror attacks of 9/11, with results that may surprise you. Researchers at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, invited 2,138 people, most of whom were not directly exposed to the event, to express their thoughts and feelings on the day of the attack and for several days afterward. Over the next two years the research team did follow-up online inquiries to investigate the correspondents’ mental and physical health. They found that on average, those who chose to say little or nothing about their thoughts and feelings concerning the attack were actually better off than the people who talked about it. The measures of their well-being included physician-diagnosed ailments and levels of distress, including feeling helpless and symptoms of nervousness.

Why I LOVE Vienna May 23, 2009

 (image by vova)

I came to Vienna 12 years ago and it has become the City of my Love in every sense of it.  Over these years I worked and lived in different parts of this admirable Austrian capital and that does not make Vienna less attractive to me, just the opposite.

What fascinates me about Vienna:

– I stroll around it and I believe to know every building and tree on my way already so well… and yet every time I discover a new enchanting detail! Sometimes I suddenly come across a tiny unknown to me street in the middle of a district which I seem to know well for years…Vienna is like the life itself – I keep exploring it every day and it gets more and more interesting!

– Vienna loves me too! – I have always received any help I ever needed here and have never expeirenced any kind of the xenophobia which is being reported by many foreigners. I have amazing experiences with Austirans being heartfelt caring and understanding, and really nice… And no negative experiences at all.

I can give lectures and write poems about it…but somehow I feel that my recent pictures can express my attitude much better:

———

The News you will never read/hear/see May 22, 2009

 (my hands by vova)

Today no political overturn happened in 193 countries.

Today 6,634,9090,512 have not died.

Today 6,634, 236,502 people have not been infected with the  Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 (pork fue).

Today 192 cities have not been afflicted by hail.

and so on…

Why will we never get this news reported to us?

Because it is considered to be not captivating enough to deliver good news, to show that huge part of the world is doing actually well, leads a peaceful and good life…

NO, We don’t need to know all that. We have to know how much trouble is everywhere and we have to feel scared and depressed. All the time. Because it is the best way to control us.

 

LOVE; axinia

The nectar of wisdom: my favourite quotes of a Sufi saint May 20, 2009

 (image by me)

There comes a stage in the evolution of an illuminated
soul, when it begins to see the law hidden behind nature. To it the whole of life reveals its secret.

——–

Is law predominant, or love? Law is the habit; love is the being. Law is made; love was, is, and always will be.

——-

The soul covers its own truth with a thousand veils from its own eyes.

——-

The prophetic soul is like a fruit that is on the ground but still connected with the branch. The branch has bent and the fruit has touched the earth, but it has not lost connection with the stem

——-

The further we advance, the more difficult and more important our part in the symphony of life becomes; and the more conscious we become of this responsibility, the more efficient we become in accomplishing our task.

——-

By self-realization a man becomes larger than the universe. The world in which he lives becomes as a drop in the ocean of his heart.

——

A person, however learned and qualified in his life’s work, in whom gratitude is absent, is devoid of that beauty of character which makes personality fragrant.

How does it feel like to live “in the flow” May 19, 2009

 (image by me)

Wikipedia: “Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields – in the West. Interestingly, for millennia, practitioners of Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism have honed the discipline of overcoming the duality of self and object as a central feature of spiritual development. Eastern spiritual practitioners have developed a very thorough and holistic set of theories around overcoming duality of self and object, tested and refined through spiritual practice instead of the systematic rigor and controls of modern science.

The term “Flow” seems to represent well the state I want to post about now, however the describition of the flow I found in Wikipedia does not appeal to me at all – I found it rather confusing and too complicated.

I never trained on purpose to get into the “flow” but my present life is am amazing example how this can work, actually without you even thinking of it, even knowing of all these theories and science!

Let me give you some examples how it feels like:

-when I want to check my phone for an sms I am waiting for – the sms comes this very moment I touch the phone…

-when I am working I do nto feel I am working…

-when i look for a tel. number of somebody in my emails, at this very moment the email comes where this very person out of the blue suddenly sends me the number…

-when I realise I need some  information I suddenly get it this very moment from a complete irrelevant source…

-when I listen to the music in the bus and watch the crowd passing by, my attention gets automatically attracted to a person who walks in the same rythm with this music, while none of other pedestrians walk in the same rhythm…

Fragrance May 17, 2009

 (image by me)

You have seen how a flower shakes off all that is not needed, blooms out, pierces its head outwards, opens out just to give fragrance to others.

If you want to give fragrance to others, how far is there fragrance within you?  Is there fragrance within you that you are going to give fragrance to others?

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

The traveller’s wisdom: hitchhiking science as a great human experience May 14, 2009

 (Anton Krotov with the map showing his and his wisemen’ and miles)

I got hooked on the topic since I learned about The Free Travel – not because I want to travel by hitchhiking but because the wisdom which people gain out of such experiences is so beautiful and true… One of the Gurus of of the subject in Russia is Anton Krotov, a founder of The Academy of Free Travel. He is not only a passionate traveller, but a wise man and an exellent writer of handbooks. A short biographical note: Anton is born 1976, not married, a Muslim.

In a free from travelling time Anton writes books (there are already over 30 books in Russian) and gives lectures. People often ask him same questions and these are his answers to the most common ones:

WHY TRAVEL?

The outside world is very big, but having enough persistence you can eventually reach every corner of it.f you want to travel, don’t put off your intention. Don’t wait till you get much money, take up an important post or retire on a pension and have a lot of spare time. In ten years you won’t have so much spare time as you have today, and in twenty years it’ll become very scarce. Though in future you may earn more money than you do now, the value of your worktime will also increase and you won’t be able to afford a half-year vacation (because of increased cost of one working hour). Besides, you may eventually get children, grand- and grand-grandchildren, needing to be looked after.

 HOW MUCH MONEY DOES ONE HAVE TO TAKE FOR A TRAVEL?

Normally a person starts travelling with a certain amount of money. While travelling he/she spends the money and finally keeps travelling without it. One should not be afraid of that and wait for the “X-hour”, one need not keep some money for “just in case”. When all your money will is being spent for the sake of supporting the surrounding economy (you will spend it or it will be stolen) and you will have nothing left – you will suddenly find yourself in a situation of Communism! All that you have been buying before – you will get all that for free, and complete strangers will offer you money and food even without you aksing for that. And you will not loose your weight and your cloth size will remain the same.

A Professor of hitchhiking – “the world is kind, people are compassionate and hospitable everywhere” May 13, 2009

 (image by me)

I always felt that the drive to travel has something to do with the seeking of Truth (see my earlier post about it here). The phenomenon of hitchhiking seems to be the extreme expression of this kind.  Hitchhikings one of the most fascinated forms of travelling, and it reminds me of wise men wandering  in the past.

Hitchhiking s popular in many countries. It is a favorite pastime in Europe and a common way of travel for many people in Asia and Africa. A few decades ago, it was also popular in North America. But only in Russia it became a competitive sport, a science, an art, and a way of life for many people (very typical for a Russian mindset to lay a profound theoretical base under any practical thing )…

The Academy of Free Travel was founded in 1995 in Russia by Anton Krotov,who has covered about 400,000 km hitchhiking in Eurasia and Africa, and published 17 books about free travel. Krotov is well-known in Russia for his hitchhiking to unusual destinations like Magadan, Afganistan, Iran and China… The Academy of Free Travel  is however one of many hitchhiking clubs in Russia.

Here are some Academy guidelines, which I found very interesting and wise.:

“We do not do any fund raising. All our expeditions are financed by participants, who rely on hospitality and friendliness of local people. We know that the success of a trip depends not on the amount of money available, but on your preparedness and attitude.

Normally we don’t use hotels, commercial campgrounds, airlines, and travel agencies, and don’t try to arrange our own transportation. But anyone who is going in the same direction and agrees to give us a lift is welcome to do so. We usually spend nights outdoors or in the homes of people willing to invite us.

Hitchhiking trips tend to be many times cheaper than regular ones. But saving money is not our goal. We don’t mind spending if we wish to do so, and never mind losing money:the world is plentiful, and we’ll always find what we need on the road. We try to avoid touristic areas. Instead, we live, eat, travel, and communicate with local people, trying to experience their life as it is, not as it can be seen through specially arranged tours or politically correct guidebooks.

In our trips we found that the world is kind, that people are compassionate and hospitable everywhere, that our planet is open for everyone and belongs to us all. Life is wonderful; coming back from remote lands, we better understand people around us and try to be worthy of being a part of humanity.