Namaste and hope everybody is taking care of themselves and their loved ones.
When I read the passage, immediately I remembered this photo that I took three months ago of a Chrysalis in Costa Rica.
Stay safe and spread Karuna
What I summarised out of the passage was that I have an enemy as long as I live in a world with polarity.
The black and white colours represent polarities and when they are merged together, polarities are dissolved to enter that third field of awareness which is shown as a flame.
This week, I have been reflecting on the listening deeply.
I thought it might be interesting to tell a story with two photos. The B & W photo is taken in a retirement community in Bangalore last year. During a festival day, the local resident wanted to decorate the front of the dining hall and she was doing it her way. There was a guest visiting from Boston who is a professional artist wanted to help. You can see the resident deeply engaged with the artist doing the background design. I was captivated by the deep listening, attention and willingness to surrender her pride to learn from this visitor. By the way, I intentionally darkened the faces so that their privacy is protected. In the second photo, you will the output of their collaboration and deep listening.
When I read the passage, I thought of this photo. It is a wonderful sunset that I experienced last month in Costa Rica. I love sunsets but also know that there is nothing to hold onto.
I don’t have any control and choice about holding onto them. So we develop a detached engagement attitude that still has a lot of love connected to it but no attachment.
If I can look at my family, my children as sunset that we can only watch and celebrate but not 'cling to’ then their life and mine would be lot more fun and there will be more love and less resentment or upsets!
thanks for the wonderful passage. Now I have to see how to practice treating the loved ones as sunrises and sunsets!
When I read Silence passage by Jean Klein, image of womb came to my mind. It is the doorway to life. Womb represents life itself and it is the ground on which another life comes into the world. Then came the image of sky. Then the Sanskrit word for sky — Akasa. It is the primordial first element out of five elements that create life. Interestingly Akasa is only acknowledged in India as the fifth element (or the first). The West acknowledges only four elements — Air, Water, Fire and Earth. Even Chinese do not acknowledge sky.
Sky represents silence. It is the ground on which all other elements come to life. silence and sound are sensory perceptions associated with sky. sensory perception associated with air is touch or feeling. For fire, it is vision or image. For water, it is taste and for earth, it is smell. So the creation of universe begins with sound and the origin seems to be silence.
When I look at this image taken early in the morning — the mist, the trees, the ground, the doorway and the pathway with nobody or no animal in sight, I experience the silence. The silence that is the ground of everything.
This picture represented anatomy of falling for me. To give a contrast, a second photo is attached…
This flower lets go but not give up.
By letting go, they multiply!
Last year when I was in Bali, I was in awe of its natural beauty. Especially when I went to a rice farm, I had a chance to see multiple rainbows and the trees were radiating energy. It felt like beauty was growing out of the earth and merging with the sky. I was really grateful for the beauty and the opportunity for me to experience it. On reflection, I also felt that it made me kinder, gentler, more generous and patient during the time I was in Bali and I am sure experience the magnificence was the reason for softening of my behavior.
When I read this poem, it brought me warm memories of reading it the first time several years ago and having a meaningful discussion about consciousness and nature. When I felt that oneness, a generous wholeness where there are no distinctions, no separation and no names, I felt just happy — not happy about something or because I got something. I was just happy — was filled with unending joy and there was no center or identity to connect with that happiness. I felt as if I have no beginning or ending. No past or future. I was rock, chair, flower, tree, bird and the person whom I used to really dislike. Everything and everybody is me and I am everybody. I stayed in that state for about 6 hours and the fragrance of that experience remained with me for a month. When I am with people like Viral, Jayesh Bhai and Harshada didi, I feel that vastness of experience. This is a photo of Malleswaram (Bangalore) flower market. What I saw was an abundance of joy in the form of flowers, garlands and people. So many colors, names, fragrances and forms. Underneath all of them I saw beauty, elegance and joy. The poem and the photo reminded me of a statement from Taitriya Upanishad — Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma. It means the consciousness is truth, perspective and joy as Anantam is also understood as Anandam in Vedanta.
When I read this poem, it brought me warm memories of reading it the first time several years ago and having a meaningful discussion about consciousness and nature. When I felt that oneness, a generous wholeness where there are no distinctions, no separation and no names, I felt just happy — not happy about something or because I got something. I was just happy — was filled with unending joy and there was no center or identity to connect with that happiness. I felt as if I have no beginning or ending. No past or future. I was rock, chair, flower, tree, bird and the person whom I used to really dislike. Everything and everybody is me and I am everybody. I stayed in that state for about 6 hours and the fragrance of that experience remained with me for a month.
When I am with people like Viral, Jayesh Bhai and Harshada didi, I feel that vastness of experience.
This is a photo of Malleswaram (Bangalore) flower market. What I saw was an abundance of joy in the form of flowers, garlands and people. So many colors, names, fragrances and forms. Underneath all of them I saw beauty, elegance and joy.
The poem and the photo reminded me of a statement from Taitriya Upanishad — Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma. It means the consciousness is truth, perspective and joy as Anantam is also understood as Anandam in Vedanta.
When I read the passage for this week, I was thinking about a person being filled with his/her own vibrations and experiencing them as originating primarily from oneself and reverberating in the people around that person and in the environment. That way, the resonance occurs and original frequency amplifies. While I was visualizing what it means to remember ones song, reconnecting with it and merging with the original vibration in the end, this is the picture that connected me to the passage.
This picture was taken two months ago in Mt. Madonna Center in Watsonville. Baba Haridoss had created a small Hanuman temple that has been slowly becoming more famous for its simplicity, beauty and serenity. When I went there in September, somebody had created a flower decoration in water container and that is what I captured in this picture. The rose in the center is the person. Various flowers represent different people and animals and the environment. Being in the center means, the person is being reminded of their original song and the resonance represents the beauty in the flower decorations that we see.
When we connect with our own beauty resonating everywhere we see and everything that we see, our feeling of oneness and connectedness allows us to merge with the One while surrendering to the vibrations of the universe.
Dear friends,
This is a photo that I took from a plane window recently of a mountain top. It offers a different perspective where you are not looking down from mountain top but at it from above it. The clouds, left over light rom the sunset create an interesting balance.
I was thinking of this part of the passage "There is a calmness and a serenity and unhurriedness – no more striving or straining about anything. Life is full and life is good, but life is nevermore overcrowded."
On Apr 6, 2020 Prasad Kaipa wrote on Into The Chrysalis, by Chris Corrigan:
Click on the image for higher-res photo.