28th Edition Of Shadow Dancing With Mind and Celebrating 250K Hits..

Celebrating 250,000 hits and more on my blog with 390 followers with my 28^th Editions of Shadow Dancing With Mind. I am grateful for the loyal friends and critics who made my blogging journey all the more worthwhile. Their thoughts and encouragement that kept me going on and on…

In this edition, you will find many interesting thoughts, stories and poetry but there is something that touched me to the core… The 10 Bomb Blasts in Bodh Gaya which shattered the peace of the most serene temples of Buddhism, the place where Buddha himself attained peace…

Anyhow, here you go with topics in this 28^th Edition, if you like something, please click to read more, I am sure you will not be disappointed…

THOUGHTS THIS WEEK:

Commenting Is dead?

Recently I have been wondering why there are not many comments on my blog post. Started having doubts on my writing capabilities and content that I am sharing with my followers. After digging a little deeper I found that though there are not many comments but my hit rate on the posts are going up steadily. From 100 per day to 1000’s (An average of 500 per day, and recently crossed 250,000 hits), its been going upwards…  so what do you think is happening?

Click here to read more…

“The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga” By Carl Jung

As early as 1912, in Transformation and Symbols of the Libido, Jung provided psychological interpretations of passages in the Upanishads and the Rig Veda.

"Indian philosophy is namely the interpretation given to the precise condition of the non-ego, which affects our personal psychology, however independent from us it remains. It sees the aim of human development as bringing about an approach to and connection between the specific nature of the non- ego and the conscious ego. Tantra yoga then gives a representation of the condition and the developmental phases of this impersonality, as it itself in its own way produces the light of a higher  supra-personal consciousness."

Click here to read more…

TALKING POINT: Einstein and Tagore - 19th August1930

Bertrand Russel said once for Tagore, “I regret I cannot agree with Tagore. His talk about the infinite is vague nonsense. The sort of language that is admired by many Indians unfortunately does not, in fact, mean anything at all.” And I believe … Scientists and logicians are handicapped by the limitations of sense perception. I am happy that someone like Einstein has the humility to accept it and some like Stephen Hawking (He went on to famously proclaim, “God Does Not Exist”)feel that what they know, is absolute truth.

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THE READER:

Don't Kill Him (OSHO) - by Ma Ananda Sheila

A book by Ma Anand Sheela (Sheela Ambalal Patel) Secretary of Osho (He was called Bhagwan Rajneesh by his disciples) from 1981-85, about her life and experiences with Osho, and account of, as she said in the book, “building an entire commune in Oregon and how in fit of rage, Osho destroyed it, after I resigned from his services in the year 1985.” Personally I feel that "Don't Kill Him" is about her side of the story after being accused of bio-terror etc even by OSHO himself…

Click here to read more…

Family Happiness - Leo Tolstoy

An interesting story (Novella) that I recently read about life. A girl's desires and feelings, before and after marriage to a much older person so beautifully envisaged by Tolstoy. His amazing description of young girls emotions, his take on the feelings of young and then matured person in the ways of the world of Russian Social life, before and after marriage, is great and to me, looks quite truthful.Though never married, it seems Tolstoy wrote ‘Family Happiness’ – which is about marriage, to prove to himself that their marriage would not have been successful…

Click here to read more… 

Testament Betrayed by Milan Kundera

Testament Betrayed is a book which brings out the times that we live in and how we become what we are. A collection of essays which brings out arrays of ideas in a coherent narrative. For the writer’s its kind of challenge that Milan Kundera throws to come out of the set thought pattern and travel out of one’s comfort zone to explore spaces that sometimes are dark, filled with unknown doubts but sometimes brings out the light as at the end of tunnel. If you are a serious aspiring author, then you must read this book.

Click here to read more…

STILL LIFE: In Shadows of Bomb Blast, rememberingserenity of Bodh Gaya

Woke up to the sounds of Bomb blast’s this Sunday morning  and looked up images from my last visit to Bodh Gaya. The images took on the shadows of darkness as the Peaceful serene atmosphere of Buddha’s place of enlightenment lay shattered…

Click here to walk with me to Bodh Gaya and more…

WHISPERS: Burning Bridges....

She wanders alone

(You know any path will take you,

if you don’t know where you are going)

And moves in and out of my thoughts

Like waves upon waves

That crash on the bounded beach

Weaving a cosmic design

With her foot prints

In my heart.

Click here to read more…

HAIKU TEA: SESSION IV-V - 'Before it all ends'& 'Journey of life'

Read the collaborative efforts of dozes of poets from across the world. And if you write, love collaborative writing, enthusiast of poetry and enjoy writing short verse like Haiku, Tanka, Renga, Renshi etc, then Haiku Tea sessions are for you...  Click here to join in for the Session VII (which will start from 15^th July…)

Click here to read more…

Hope you will enjoy this edition... look forward to your comments and visit to the next Edition... please click on the “Join this Site” button on the right hand side top corner to follow my posts on this blog... I will be grateful.

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Shashi
ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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27^th Edition                                                                  28th Edition

THE READER: Family Happiness - Leo Tolstoy

An interesting story (Novella) that I recently read about life. A girl's desires and feelings, before and after marriage to a much older person so beautifully envisaged by Tolstoy. 

Interestingly, this is the first time Tolstoy narrated the story through the main character of the heroine (Masha), which apart from being very difficult for a male, as at the time, he was an young unmarried writer; goes on to show his uncanny ability to get under the skin of his characters.

His amazing description of young girls emotions, his take on the feelings of young and then matured person in the ways of the world of Russian Social life, before and after marriage, is great and to me, looks quite truthful.}

FamilyHappiness, published first time in 1859, like almost all the novels of Tolstoy has an autobiographical connection. Tolstoy (then 31 years old) met 20 year old Valerya Vladimirnova Arsenyeva in 1856, and fell in love. And as told to his biographer, he almost got engaged to her. Later as recollected by Valerya’s daughter in 1926, told to Mr. P Pavlov, that they actually parted company because Valerya refused to accept the conditions which Tolstoy attached to his proposal of marriage: 20 years’ quiet seclusion in the country. 

Though never married, it seems Tolstoy wrote ‘Family Happiness’ – which is about marriage, to prove to himself that their marriage would not have been successful. While he was writing it, he was most enthusiastic about it and described it as a poem, but when he had finished it, he was reluctant to have it published as he disliked it intensely.

Brief Note About The Author
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Since Leo Tolstoy is quite well known, I will skip the usual biodata of the author (Toread it at Wikipedia, click here) but will reproduce something that caught my eyes…

Countess Tolstoy writes about Leo Tolstoy

In 1909, writing of “Who are the murderers?” Countess Tolstoy wrote, “…it could be interesting. But the same old reproach – descriptions of peasant life. His relish at a woman’s full bosom and a girl’s sun burnt legs, all that once so strongly tempted him; … “

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BACK TO THE BOOK...
Now here are some of the thoughts I enjoyed reading from the book…

He (Sergy) was right when he said that there was only one happiness in life – to live for others. (Masha)

“A man can say that he is in love, but a woman cannot.” She (Katya) said. “But I don’t think a man should say he loves someone, either; nor can he,” he (Sergy) said. “Why not,” I (Masha) asked. “Because it always be a lie. Is there really anything, new in the fact that a man loves someone? As if, as soon as he says it, something clicks, bang – he is in love. It is as if, as soon as he pronounces this word, something extraordinary must happen, there should be some omen, all the trumpets should sound at once. It seems to me, “he continued, “that people who solemnly pronounce the words: ‘I love you’ either deceive themselves or, even worse, deceive others.”

It was as if I was in a happy dream in which it seemed that everything in the future had already happened, and that I had known about it for a long time, and yet I felt that it would happen again, and I knew that it would happen. (Masha)

A quiet, secluded life in our country back water, with the possibility of doing good to people whom it is easy to do good to because they are not used to it; then work – work which one thinks is useful, then rest, nature, books, music, love for the person who is close to you – that’s my idea of happiness. (That is) For me, whose youth is over, that is, but not for you,” he went on. “You haven’t lived yet. You may want to look for happiness elsewhere perhaps, and perhaps it is elsewhere that you will find it…” (Sergy)

Can one really feel annoyed about anything, when one is as happy as I am? It is easier to yield than to impose one’s will… (Sergy)

Once I had experienced the happiness of falling in love with him, I could not rest content with affection. I wanted movement, not the calm flow of life. (Masha)

Worst of all, I felt that , with each day, the habits of live were moulding our life into a definite pattern, that our feeling was ceasing to be free and was being subjected to the even, passionless flow of time. (Masha)

I want to move forward, and every day, every hour I want something new, but he wants to stay still and to hold me back with him. (Masha)

My former religious ecstasy and the love I had once felt for him, the old fullness of life, now seemed so distant and impossible. I would not now have understood what had before seemed to me so obvious and right – the happiness of living for someone else. Why live for some else when there is no desire to live for oneself? (Masha)

Why did you let me have my freedom, which I did not know how to use? (Masha)

“There is season for every love…. When I first got to know you I spent sleepless nights thinking of you, and created my own love, and that love grew and grew in my heart, so, in Petersburg and abroad, I spent dreadful nights awake destroying, breaking up that love which tormented me.” (Sergy)

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Shashi

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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How to write a book - Milan Kundera

26th Edition of Shadow Dancing With Mind - Celebrating Two Hundred Thousand hits...

Welcome to 26^th Edition of “Shadow Dancing With Mind” and celebrating 200K Plus hits at my blog...

Its been a pleasurable journey of blogging, from the days of 2004, when I used to write only for myself to this day, when friends and bloggers visiting my blog, give me immense satisfaction. This is a journey of my thoughts, poetry, spiritual and creative pursuits, which not only made me more aware about me and the universal nature but also connected me to 1000+ Google Plussers and more the 350 followers... All amazing personalities and from each one of them I learned a lot. Thank you all for making this journey a hugely successful one and greatly satisfying.

In this edition, you will find some of the amazing books by Rilke and Tolstoy; A unique design installation, A very interesting contest on writing poetry (Haiku) to WIN ALL EXPENSE PAID WEEK LONG RETREAT in India as well as some of my Haiku and Poetry, as listed below...

THE READER – The books that I have read...

An amazing "Confession" by Leo Tolstoy

“Faith is the strength of life. If a man lives he believes in something.”

Reading a beautiful book “Confession” first published in Russia (1882), which was removed by Orthodox Church censorship and later published in Geneva (1884). In his “Confession”, Leo Tolstoy confronted his own reflections about the will to live, when in the end, it’s all about nothing.  Every moment is a step closer to dying, then why this whole life’s attempt to gain fame, family, friends and power.

Letters To A Young Poet - Amazing Voice Of Solitude, RILKE

“When a truly great and unique spirit speaks, the lesser ones must be silent”

The “Letters To A Young Poet” is a deceptively simple book. The letters were originally written to Franz Kappus, a 19-year-old officer cadet at the Vienna Military Academy, of which Rainer Maria Rilke was an alumnus. Discouraged by the prospect of life in the Austro-Hungarian Army, Kappus began to send his poetry to the 27-year-old Rilke, seeking both literary criticism and career advice. Their correspondence lasted from 1902 to 1908. In 1929, three years after Rilke's death, Kappus assembled and published the ten letters.

DESIGN STREET – A collection on design

First Chennai Urban Art Installation – commemorating the Child in You

During my travels, whenever I saw the creative of use of public space, like 'The Morning Line' below in Vienna, I used to wonder, why such activity does not happen in our own city. Yes there are installations… permanent political and religious Statues or in some small corner an Art Installation like the one at the corner of Harrington road, which sadly no one notices anymore.

ITC Grand Chola Hotel – A Sustainable Design and Hospitality with Smile

Last Saturday, I was invited by the Indiblogger team to preview The ITC Grand Chola Hotel. This is one of the latest Grand additions to the hospitality sector of fast developing Chennai, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu few months ago. Being in the profession of Interior Designs and Projects, It was a pleasure to spend a day in this beautifully crafted hotel, with exquisite artefacts and accessories highlighting the vast expanse of its interiors.

UP, CLOSE & PERSONAL – Some personal insights and experiences

Felix Dennis – A live tapestry of Pills, Publishing & Poetry

A very interesting and, in my opinion, quite truthful verse about poets by Felix Dennis which caught my attention, few days back. I started to do a little research about the poet and it turned out to be quite an epic story in itself. As I got to know more about the Poet Felix Dennis, who is in fact a publishing Giant with flagship brand like THE WEEK, got me thinking more and more about how writing poetry affects people from different fields and class... but before that, here is the verse...

Winter Spiritual Retreat by an unique Community Paras Dharma Ashram

The bi-annual Winter and Summer Spiritual Retreats is organized, for a limited group of only 25 ‘preselected’ participants, by a unique community and Non-Profit Organization and Trust “Paras Dharma Ashram” which is based out of Kushinagar.

WHISPERS – The poetry Section

Write a Haiku and WIN

Write a Haiku on "Spirituality" on or before 31st March 2013, and win a chance to be one of the 7 WRITERS who will be offered an all expense paid week long stay in spiritual retreats in Rishikesh, Himalaya and in Kushinagar (A place where Buddha attained nirvana)

Love, Destiny and Death

A lot of pent-up emotions are here to explode and now all those thoughts and feelings are rushing back to surface... hope you could relate to it all.

An Apology To The Delhi Gang Rape Victim

Today, a sad day indeed for the common people, who are feeling helpless and were looking forward to a bigger fight along with the brave heart girl, who fought and fought... Shame on all of us, if we let her fighting spirit die. Let’s all fight to bring back the dignity that India has within, which it lost in a senseless act of lust and drunken criminality of psychopaths...

STILL LIFE – A journey through images

A South Indian Marriage in North Indian Style

It was one of the most beautiful five days of ceremony and fun. I enjoyed it thoroughly as guests from across the world gathered and graced the occasion. So here is a small journey of still life for your pleasure....

Falling In Love with 'Namma' Chennai.... A North Indian affair

Living in a place, lovingly called 'Namma Chennai'...

It was a different world from Delhi, when I came to Chennai in 1994 - different culture, outlook and life style. But over the year Chennai’s beautiful sensibility and style seeped into me and now it’s ‘Namma Chennai”. Here is ‘what makes me, love Chennai’ through the lens of my camera...

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Hope you will enjoy this edition... look forward to your comments and visit to the next Edition... please click on the “Join this Site” button on the right hand side top corner to follow my posts on this blog... I will be grateful.

__________________
Shashi
ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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25^th Edition

THE READER: An amazing "Confession" by Leo Tolstoy

“Faith is the strength of life. If a man lives he believes in something.”

Reading a beautiful book “Confession” first published in Russia (1882), which was removed by Orthodox Church censorship and later published in Geneva (1884). In his “Confession”, Leo Tolstoy confronted his own reflections about the will to live, when in the end, it’s all about nothing.  Every moment is a step closer to dying, then why this whole life’s attempt to gain fame, family, friends and power.

This Buddhist influenced treatise on living Christianity through each moment was Tolstoy’s attempt to explain his own rationalist religious feeling. Although the “Confession” led to his excommunication, it also resulted in a large following of Tolstoyan Christians springing up throughout Russia and Europe.

“Whatever the faith may be, and whatever answers it may give, and to whomsoever it gives them, very such answer gives to the finite existence of man an infinite meaning, a meaning not destroyed by sufferings, deprivations, or death. This means that only in faith can we find for life a meaning and a possibility... Faith is the strength of life. If a man lives, he believes in something”. – Leo Tolstoy 1882

Now, some of the most important thoughts from the book that made me think about life differently and more purposefully.

"Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?"
MY NOTES FROM THE BOOK

________________________

From the time I was sixteen I ceased to say my prayers and ceased to go to church or to fast of my own volition. I did not believe what had been taught me in childhood but I believed in something. What it was I believed in I could not at all have said. I believed in a God, or rather I did not deny God – but I could not have said what sort of God. Looking back on that time, I now see clearly that my faith – my only real faith – that which apart from my animal instincts gave impulse to my life – was a belief in perfecting myself... the beginning of it all was of course moral perfection, but that was soon replaced by perfection in general: by the desire to be better not in my own eyes or those of God but in the eyes of other people. And very soon this effort again changed into a desire to be stronger than others: to be more famous, more important and richer than others.

(At twenty-six years of age) I returned to Petersburg after the war, and met the writers. ... The view of life of these people, my comrades in authorship, consisted in this: that life in general goes on developing, and in this development we – men of thought – have the chief part; and among men of thought it is we – artists and poets – who have the greatest influence. Our vocation is to teach mankind.

Tolstoy photographed at his Yasnaya Polyana
estate in May 1908 by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky.
The only known color photograph of the writer.

I naively imagined that I was a poet and artist and could teach everybody without myself knowing what I was teaching, and I acted accordingly.

The truth was that life is meaningless. I had as it were lived, lived, and I walked, walked, till I had come to a precipice and saw clearly that there was nothing ahead of me but destruction...

One can only live while one is intoxicated with life; as soon as one is sober it is impossible not to see that it is all a mere fraud and a stupid fraud!

"Art, poetry?". . .Under the influence of success and the praise of men, I had long assured myself that this was a thing one could do though death was drawing near – death which destroys all things, including my work and its remembrance; but soon I saw that that too was a fraud. It was plain to me that art is an adornment of life, an allurement to life.

It was pleasant to look at life in the mirror of art. But when I began to seek the meaning of life and felt the necessity of living my own life, that mirror became for me unnecessary, superfluous, ridiculous, or painful.

Now in the experimental sphere I said to myself: "Everything develops and differentiates itself, moving towards complexity and perfection, and there are laws directing this movement. You are a part of the whole. Having learnt as far as possible the whole, and having learnt the law of evolution, you will understand also your place in the whole and will know yourself." Ashamed as I am to confess it, there was a time when I seemed satisfied with that.

And I understood that those sciences are very interesting and attractive, but that they are exact and clear in inverse proportion to their applicability to the question of life: the less their applicability to the question of life, the more exact and clear they are, while the more they try to reply to the question of life, the more obscure and unattractive they become.

These are the direct replies that human wisdom gives when it replies to life's question.

"The life of the body is an evil and a lie. Therefore the destruction of the life of the body is a blessing, and we should desire it," says Socrates.

"Life is that which should not be – an evil; and the passage into Nothingness is the only good in life," says Schopenhauer.

"All that is in the world – folly and wisdom and riches and poverty and mirth and grief – is vanity and emptiness. Man dies and nothing is left of him. And that is stupid," says Solomon.

"To life in the consciousness of the inevitability of suffering, of becoming enfeebled, of old age and of death, is impossible – we must free ourselves from life, from all possible life," says Buddha.

I found that for people of my circle there were four ways out of the terrible position in which we are all placed.

1)    The first was that of ignorance. It consists in not knowing, not understanding, that life is an evil and an absurdity.

2)    The second way out is Epicureanism. It consists, while knowing the hopelessness of life, in making use meanwhile of the advantages one has...

3)    The third escape is that of strength and energy. It consists in destroying life, when one has understood that it is an evil and an absurdity.

4)    The fourth way out is that of weakness. It consists in seeing the truth of the situation and yet clinging to life, knowing in advance that nothing can come of it. People of this kind know that death is better than life, but not having the strength to act rationally – to end the deception quickly and kill themselves – they seem to wait for something. This is the escape of weakness, for if I know what is best and it is within my power, why not yield to what is best? . . . I found myself in that category.

Tolstoy dressed
in peasant clothing by Ilya Repin (1901)

My position was terrible. I knew I could find nothing along the path of reasonable knowledge except a denial of life; and there – in faith – was nothing but a denial of reason, which was yet more impossible for me than a denial of life.

Whatever the faith may be, and whatever answers it may give, and to whomsoever it gives them, every such answer gives to the finite existence of man an infinite meaning, a meaning not destroyed by sufferings, deprivations, or death. This means that only in faith can we find for life a meaning and a possibility. ...but faith is a knowledge of the meaning of human life in consequence of which man does not destroy himself but lives. Faith is the strength of life. If a man lives he believes in something.

I began to understand that in the replies given by faith is stored up the deepest human wisdom and that I had no right to deny them on the ground of reason, and that those answers are the only ones which reply to life's question.

I understood that my question as to what my life is, and the answer – an absurdity and evil – was quite correct. The only mistake was that the answer referred only to my life, while I had referred it to life in general. "Life is evil and an absurdity", referred only to my life, but not to human life in general.

A goat, a hare, and a wolf are so made that they must feed themselves, and must breed and feed their family, and when they do so I feel firmly assured that they are happy and that their life is a reasonable one. Then what should a man do? He too should produce his living as the animals do, but with this difference, that he will perish if he does it alone; he must obtain it not for himself but for all. And when he does that, I have a firm assurance that he is happy and that his life is reasonable.

If I exist, there must be some cause for it, and a cause of causes. And that first cause of all is what men have called "God". And I paused on that thought, and tried with all my being to recognize the presence of that cause. And as soon as I acknowledged that there is a force in whose power I am, I at once felt that I could live.

"He exists," said I to myself. And I had only for an instant to admit that, and at once life rose within me, and I felt the possibility and joy of being.

I need only be aware of God to live; I need only forget Him, or disbelieve Him, and I died.

I live, really live, only when I feel Him and seek Him.

I returned to a belief in God, in moral perfection, and in a tradition transmitting the meaning of life. There was only this difference, that then all this was accepted unconsciously, while now I knew that without it I could not live.

That shore was God; that direction was tradition; the oars were the freedom given me to pull for the shore and unite with God. And so the force of life was renewed in me and I again began to live.

... the essence of every faith consists in its giving life a meaning which death does not destroy.

Mohandas K. Gandhi and other residents of Tolstoy Farm, South Africa, 1910
The Tolstoy Farm was created by Gandhi ji, In part, influenced by these ideas..

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Hope you have liked reading this book with me, for more info on the book, click here to go to the Wikipedia...

Image curtsy : Wikipedia

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ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Understanding Haiku - A beginner's Guide                          One Week Winter Spiritual Retreat