Friday, March 05, 2010

Conscious Breathing

I have been reading "Many Voices" by Elieen J. Garrett. Elineen was a really developed and accurate "sensitive". The most remarkable thing about her however was that she wanted to scientifically study her ability and was ever looking forward to ways her psychic abilities could be tested and measured. Below I quote some interesting parts from the book.

"When we breathe deeply, for the sake of breathing into our inner self, we will become assured of the self as an individual form moving in freedom within an ocean of observation. It is the simple unification of the self with this external ocean of life which frees one to receive and perceive.
I am often asked from whence comes my energy. It comes on the breath - the conscious use of breath. "

One pushes away the burned-out experience of every breath with the next one. In this way, the past does not crowd upon us. We have shaped and ordered it as a temporary screen than cannot mask us from the route we have to travel when sleep overtakes us.

Thus no matter how abstract an idea maybe, if we take it in our conscious breath and relate it to ourselves it will be accepted and broken into symbol and imagery, to be "arranged" and coordinated through our senses "

Conscious breath seems to be the key here ...

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Aakashat patitam toyam sagaram pratigachchati

Recently I watched the Adi Shankaracharya movie in Samskritam after a long long time .. The last time I watched it was on a Sunday afternoon when DD used to broadcast a national movie on Sunday afternoon's. They probably still do it .. but I haven't seen one in more than 10 years.
As a funny aside, Naren was watching Mackenna's Gold at the same time. So for a while there it was Old turkey buzzard meets Purnamadah purnamidam before I got my pizza and went to the other room :)
There is a one line verse that keeps coming throughout the entire movie - "Aakashat patitam toyam sagaram pratigachchati ( Having fallen from the sky water makes it way toward the ocean ) "
At all the critical junctures of his life, Shankara pauses and we hear this in the background, when his dad passes away , when he sees and injured man being killed by superstitious tribal people, when he sees a sick man being thrown out of the village ..
The beauty of cinematography ( and of course philosophy ) is such that this simple line is so profound, so moving .. it's impossible to capture in words all the emotions it evokes ( well maybe if you are Hemingway it's a different matter ... )
At this time, to me, it symbolized the inevitability of things .. something not to be too happy or too sad about .. something that hints at deep Vairagya .. Perhaps what it means to us will also be partly influenced by where we are in life at that time ...
All in all an excellent movie to watch once every few years and like a true classic, always fresh, always inspiring and always holding the secret to eternity.