Power of Fasting

There are a few practices that are a constant across spiritual practices across religions, and that is, an emphasis on meditation, prayer, fasting, silence.

That there are stories built around these practices to allow the mind to hang its hat onto is another matter. But all these methods have been repeatedly found as exercises that help create

• Space
• Stillness
• Presence

Also, these practices create a break in your everyday routine of life, and suddenly wake you up to the presence of life, to your immediate surroundings, to the wonder that you are and the wonder of all that is around you.

Incorporating these into your annual life will make you more fully aware of yourself as That which is the source of all.

Siezed by Stillness

I sit here, typing again, when no words are needed.

With stillness and awareness, I have travelled to the moon and the stars, and felt them closer than ever. Had never realized that it is not thought, but awareness that can move so quickly and give you the feeling of touching something so closely, as if I belong with it.

The edges of the universe are exceeded by life itself, which creates it.

I am only expressing what I felt.

The re-experiencing of childhood games in its full force had already removed the element of time; the travel to stars now removes space.

The exploration of the divine has just begun.

May I invite you to join me?

Philosopher's Stone - Paaras Mani

What is a true Philosopher's stone (paaras mani in the East?) - by the touch of which everything turns to Gold?

It is the strain of Truth that flows through us all and everything. Until we touch it, everything is an illusion, looks fake and false - but once touched, everything lights up, filled with the power of Truth & Love.

Music is one such doorway - it slowly, step by step, takes you closer and closer to that Truth. And suddenly, you touch it, and it thrills like little else can - and in that moment you just Know.

Unconsciously, we know this, and to varying degrees, we resonate to music - music of all kinds from all over the world, through all history and for all time to come. Like life itself, music cannot be contained.

At various times, it has been demonized, associated with poor moral character, or otherwise cast aside - and yet it comes back, again and again, like a global compass - leading us to the Truth - the only Philospher's Stone.

Hold on to that divine melodic strain, it will never lead you astray.

The anchor

The anchor of Stillness is something worth experiencing.

While everything around bobs and weaves, stillness within anchors us, keeps us grounded and rooted. Far too often, we seek an anchor in the without, in a world whose essence is to change, to uncoil and then to curl up repeatedly. And in that process, owing to the feeling of a lack of anchor, one stops enjoying the grand play and stops participating in the grandeur of life itself.

But if the anchor is found within, and when the realization sweeps over that nothing of value is ever lost or can be lost, then the vast game - the leela - comes into full view, and one can now partake of it in full enthusiasm and joy - taking in everything to its last drop.

Seek out that which is but you.

The tender forces of creation

I was watching a picture of the Taj Mahal again today.

A monument to the love between Shah Jahaan and Mumtaz, and a creation that would not have been if not for their union.

It was a union that allowed the most tender, and the most subtle and beautiful colors of love to be, to blossom and flourish. No demands, no expectations, no stories - just love - being as it is.

Finding an equal expression in material terms is almost impossible - and yet the Taj Mahal captures that elegance - what a labor of love its creation is, with what spirit did the architects design it, and how did they infuse it with the tenderness that characterized that relationship?

Finding your voice

Stephen Covey, in his book on the 8th habit, talks about "Finding your Voice" as the key element in having a fulfilling life.

Covey has been a person who, even in his book - "7 Habits..." showed tremendous insight into the human condition. His identification of the space between event and response as the point of choice, and the place from where one can completely change one's world is a case in point.

He further mentions that the larger such a space, the more powerful is one's ability to actuate changes.

Larger the space, greater the stillness. If a large space can effect powerful change, then what can perfect stillness engender? Perhaps creation itself?