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)

Do you practice Love? July 30, 2009

Piousness and the path of love
are two different roads.
Love is the fire that burns both belief
and non-belief.
Those who practice Love have neither
religion nor caste.

by a Sufi poet

     Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir

 “Nobody, Son of Nobody” – Vraje Abramian

(image by me)

Do you know your mission? (Poll) July 27, 2009

What is “a mission”? Not sure about the correct English term (in German I would call it Berufung, in Russian – призвание). In my understanding a mission is an occupation in which one can apply his/her talents at the most and thus serve the humanity.

Some people say it makes life so much easier if you know your mission.

I know people who know their mission but suffer from limited possibilities to fulfil it.

I know people with plenty of possibilities and no clue about their mission…

Where is the truth?

Let’s try to figure it out:

Agriculture enlightened: a modern Japanese sage brings “do-nothing farming” July 25, 2009

Another beautiful encounter with an enlightened soul of modern times: Masanobu Fukuoka (1914-2008) was a Japanese farmer who developed what many consider a revolutionary method of sustainable agriculture. The fascination about this method is that it is not only practical and efficient, but also very spiritual.

Fukuoka started as a microbiologist and worked for the Japanese customs until his transformation following an illness and an ecstatic illuminating self-realisation experience. His central insight was: “There is nothing, really nothing at all whether this be the mundane world or God’s world.” After that he gave up science and come back to his father’s farm where he developed his unusual method. In 1975, distressed by the effects of Japan’s post-war modernization, Fukuoka wrote The One-Straw Revolution. In his later years, Fukuoka was involved with several projects to reduce desertification throughout the world. He remained an active farmer until well into his eighties, and continued to give lectures until only a few years before his death at the age of ninety-five.

Today I’ve read The One-straw Revolution  -an extraordinary book that distills the deepest of philosophical and spiritual truths into a practical approach to farming that was called natural or do-nothing farming. Since its publication in 1978 in English, the book has shot up to cult status, mandatory reading among advocates of alternative living. I literally “swallowed ” the book, as it was so fresh and meditative…ultimately, it is about quieting our cleverness in a way that allows us to see how we really can do more with less.

I especially enjoyed the way Fukouka came to his conclusions on farming:

“The usual way to go about developing a method is to ask “How about trying this?” or “How about trying that?” bringing in a variety of techniques one upon the other. This is modern agriculture and it only results in making the farmer busier.

My way was opposite. I was aiming at a pleasant, natural way of farming [Farming as simply as possible within and in cooperation with the natural environment, rather than the modern approach of applying increasingly complex techniques to remake nature entirely for the benefit of human beings] which results in making the work easier instead of harder. “How about not doing this? How about not doing that?”- that was my way of thinking. I ultimately reached the conclusion that there was no need to plow, no need to apply fertilizer, no need to make compost, no need to use insecticide. When you get right down to it, there are few agricultural practices that are really necessary.”

(I wonder if this could be the brilliant hint for a modern man in general, in other spheres of of life? 🙂

So what is that special about his natural farming? What makes it that revolutionary?

Freedom (slideshow) July 24, 2009

I made a slideshow of my photos that I think give a feeling of freedom – for you to get thoughtless and to enjoy:

LOVE,

axinia

Things in life I can never understand July 22, 2009

There are certain things in life my brain just strikes to understand.

Among the vast spectrum of human knowledge these things stay for me apart – as a clear invention of sophisticated brains, and not something natural.

These things are not representing the beautify of human nature, in fact they make life complicated.

These things are normally explained in an overblown, twisted manner for only a few to understand.

These things for me are:

My 3 most beautiful dreams July 21, 2009

Dreams are special and very personal. Despite the private nature of this phenomenon, dreambanks where people can upload, search and analyze dreams are becoming a trend. I once posted a highly interesting dream study here. 

I like remembering my dreams. The first thing I do when I wake up, I try to recall details of my dreams, for they are mostly of predictive nature. My dreams are colourful, beautiful and adventurous. I think I had only a couple of nightmares in my whole life. Sometimes I think my dreams are the reason why I do not feel like watching films – the films just can not compete 🙂

Today I thought of sharing with you my 3 most beautiful dreams, for I hope they are enjoyable. Welcome to the world of my dreams!

Who wants money? July 18, 2009

“Me!” would be probably the first reaction of all most of the people.

Do you really want money? – if even now the answer is ” yes” then you are already a millionaire.

The truth is, only a tiny percent of mankind  really wants money and these are the same people who own great material riches. I talked to some people who know personally the so-called Russian oligarchs (people who became incredibly rich and influential  in a short time) – they say that it is the love for money as object that has driven them all to becoming so rich.

The truth is that an average citizen of any country is not really interested in money. Sure, no one would mind comforts and other benefits that money brings with. However it is a very seldom case that someone is interested in possessing huge sums of money as such. And the one who is obsessed with the idea usually gets it!

Why this?

How to fall asleep and wake up easily July 14, 2009

This is an intruduction of an easy method to fall asleep in case of insomnia or to wake up fully when the body is still asleep and the alarm clock is ringing mad. I found it out experimentally, but apparently the method is known since ages in India as Pranayama exercise.

How did this idea came up? Usually after a meditation, when my body (physical and subtle) get balanced, I can feel that my nose becomes very clear, even if it was not blocked at all. This is a very pleasant feeling, as if I would get the second breath. This happens automatically without me doing any special yogic exercise for it. As far as I can explain it, the Kundalini does it while rising. Actually this is also a good check up for a quality mediation : )

How is it related to the title of the post? In fact, I use this knowledge of the “pure nose” for regulating my body activity! – and I am sure everyone, either a yoga practitioner or not, can use it same way.

Let me tell you why and how. Basically we have our left side and right side (please read the detailed explanation here and here). If we are active (mentally or physically) our right side is at work. You can notice that at that state your right nostril is more clear. If you feel moody or weak, most probably your right nostril is blocked. Same for the morning wake up.

What can we learn from it?

POLL: how much does your life depend on the outside factors? July 11, 2009

Our life is full of unpredictable happenings and people who make impact on it. There are certain decisions which we can take on our own, then there are family/friends/colleagues who daily influence our life.  Then there are ecological, economical and political factors…

I am curious what you think about the percentage of that impact on your own life – how much is it?90, 70, 50 oder may be only 5%? To put it in other words: is the influence of diverse outside factors bigger than the one of your own being (attitude, philosophy, habits, etc.)?

Let me see what many of you, my dearest readers will choose and then… let me quote someone I respect a lot with a very interesting note on this topic!

Here is my poll (the first one since I blog!):

Thanks for voting 🙂

LOVE, axinia

—————

P.S: after two days 30 people voted and I think that is a good number to show the results.

We can see that the clear majority of the people voted ( 48%) believe their life to depend on the outside factors up to 50%.

Both 70 and 90 percent voters have scored 12%, 30% voters  – 20% and 5% voters scored 8% (which is not surprising :).

And now, my contirubution: