The Living Room

They shouldn’t be like that …

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Michaela

by Abitiki

People should be different than they are. Is that true?

Can I absolutely know that people should be different than they are?
Check it with reality – does it happen? Is it even possible for anyone to be other than they are in this moment?

No. Nobody is ever different than they are, in this moment.
People, right now, simply are as they are.
This moment, and all that appears in it, is exactly as it is.
There’s no escaping it.
This is it.

How does it feel, how do I live my life, when I believe the mind-created story, ‘people should be different than they are’?

I judge them and find them wanting. I feel such prrrresssure to tell them all about that.
Then I do the same thing to myself.

Non-judgement goes out the window. Suddenly the world is full of ‘good’ & ‘bad’.
Acceptance goes out the window. Suddenly everything about ‘those others’ gets irritating.
Non-resistance goes out the window…I’m resisting the truth of the way people appear in front of me in this moment.

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Posted in Seeing myself in you, The Armchair | Tagged accepting what is, enquiry, mind, Reality, Thought | 4 Comments

Up there

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Michaela

Interesting plot in terms of finding oneself….

3 quotes for artists

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Michaela

Every great architect is — necessarily — a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.

Space is the breath of art.

The truth is more important than facts.

Frank Lloyd Wright

The Moon

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Michaela

THE MOON

by Justme

As ancients seen, so do I
A throbbing light, a painted globe
Upon a pinpricked sparkled sky
Suspended in the nothingness of black.
Always there, poetic universal rhyme
Dangling upon an invisible track
Of time

No man has more monument or shrine
Still, you do not speak, or smirk, for thine,
calmly, gently, slip thy turn
Though you speed at thousands
No mass thou burn.
To me.

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Posted in Just Poems, Original Poetry | 2 Comments

Up close

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Michaela

Today, March 19 2011, the Moon will come closer to the Earth than ist has in the last 18 years, exerting it’s gravitational pull from only 221,557 miles away. This is called a “super-moon”. In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth. On top of that, the moon will be full.

For anyone interested in more details:

SuperMoon
What is is, What it means

Posted in The world we live in Now | Tagged Moon | Leave a comment

The illusion of crescendo

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Michaela

Daniel Barenboim on the difference between sound and music. A spiritual teaching

Posted in Classical Music, Teacher & Teachings | Tagged Beethoven, Daniel Barenboim, Spirituality | Leave a comment

Bach Chaconne

Posted on March 19, 2011 by aralannow

To these ears and heart this is a haunting rendition of a sublime piece of music by the Russian violin virtuoso Maxim Vengerov.

I thought it would be interesting to pair the music with an article/experiment from the Washington Post by Gene Weingarten that came out several years ago. The Chaconne is referenced in the article. The music and the article feel timeless.

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1 Comment

Caught in a Rip Tide

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Michaela

78

Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.

Therefore the Master remains
serene in the midst of sorrow.
Evil cannot enter his heart.
Because he has given up helping,
he is people’s greatest help.

True words seem paradoxical.

This verse from The Tao Te Ching seems to have an eerie relevance for these days, when we are witnessing an unfolding global crisis, that is currently wrecking havoc in Japan.

…for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it.

The Earth moved and the solid faltered. Then the tsunami hit and the unmovable collapsed. It was the softest and most yielding substance that brought the walls down, that protected the fueling rods and set the events in motion, that are forever changing the face of the earth.

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Posted in Doing not-doing, The Window Seat, The world we live in Now | Tagged Rip current, tao te ching | 2 Comments

Isn’t it rich ?

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Michaela

Patricia Petibon sings Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns”

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Posted in Classical Music | Leave a comment

The Beauty of Form

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Michaela

A neglected eighty-eight butterfly (Diaethria neglecta) in Brazil’s Pantanal displays the design of lines and dots that gave it its unusual common name.