Memorable Quotes

Memorable quotes from The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho. Who is no longer my favorite author after this book! I picked it up at the bookstore after a quick glance at the back cover, not realizing it is an awful thriller about a serial killer and I cannot stand any horror movies or reading about anything of the sort. I just don't fill my consciousness which such thoughts. Anyway, there were a few memorable quotes:

"Jasmine is sitting staring out at the sea while she thinks of nothing. At such moments, she feels a deep connection with the infinite, as if it were not she who was there, but something more powerful, something capable of extraordinary things."
I often feel this way at the beach. This quote further strengthens my resolve that the next place I move to call home, I will have to live on the beach.

"At the first sign of indifference or lack of enthusiasm, take note! The only preventive against this disease is the realization that the soul suffers, suffers greatly, when we force it to live superficially. The soul loves all things beautiful and deep."

State of coherence

Quotes from The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, a book I just finished on the plane back to SF, highly recommended humorous and captivating novel about the current state in India.

"May I just say that an hour of deep breathing, yoga, and meditation in the morning constitutes the perfect start to the entrepreneur's day. How I would handle the stresses of this fucking business without yoga, I have no idea."

"Actually my background as a business journalist made me realize that most of what's written about in business magazines is bullshit--and I don't take business or corporate literature seriously at all."

The Exclusion Principle

An excerpt from Pauli and Jung: The Meeting of Two Great Minds

The exclusion principle was certainly not a swindle. Of far-reaching consequence, it accounts for the periodic system of elements, as found in the periodic table. By analyzing the atomic line spectra of the various elements, Pauli was able to arrive at the principle that accounts for the unique shell structure of the electrons surrounding the atomic nucleus of each of the chemical elements. A key to this scientific achievement was his recognition that the electrons must satisfy four quantum numbers rather than three, as had previously assumed. The fourth quantum number was identified with what has been called an electron spin.
In alchemy as well as in Jung's psychology, moving from three to four symbolizes a completion, or a movement toward the center. In association with modern dreams, Jung saw movement from three to four as symbolizing a stage of inner development known as the individuation process. Pauli saw his discovery of the exclusion principle in that light. Pauli's exclusion principle confirmed Bohr's proposed shell structure of the atom.

Meditation is the medicine of the mind

A few touristy pictures from SF so far. I am here looking at apartments to sublease for January and also looking for a job :) I met with my Ayurvedic teacher, Pratichi Mathur, whom I will start school with in January. It was an incredible meeting and I feel truly grateful and blessed to embark on my Ayurvedic journey and studies with her, and become part of an Ayurvedic lineage. Much of what she said was very synchronistic with what I have been feeling, and with what I learned at the ashram. I got the chance to visit her home and it was just so wonderful; she truly lives for others, selflessly.

The other pictures are from my walk down Market street. I walked through Union Square and the Financial District to the bay, it was beautiful. I like a city with tall buildings :) I love you DC but I love a cityscape too. The first picture was taken in my hotel room, the saying "be good" is painted on the wall. It reminds me of the sign in Sivananda Hall at the ashram, "Be good, do good." I love Guru Dev and all of his sayings. I'm looking forward to maybe returning to the ashram for a day or two in December. Seeing the "be good" reminder every day makes me happy, and also my hotel, even though in a sketchy part of town, is still pretty awesome. There's an alarm clock with an ipod doc, reclaimed wood used for the beds designed by a local designer, light fixtures constructed with reused glass bottles, and soaps in wall-mounted dispensers (no packaging waste).

I checked out a place in the Mission district yesterday afternoon as a potential room to rent, what a colorful eclectic neighborhood. Its similar in some ways to Columbia Heights. I enjoyed seeing all of the mosaics and murals on Valencia St., herbal apothecaries and healing centers. I wish I had taken more pictures but I wasn't in a "touristy" mood at the time. Although I enjoyed the neighborhood I don't think I'd want to live there, I will try to live closer to downtown...

I've also been reading the Celestine Prophecy. I'm so glad to be reading this book on this trip, I feel as if its very synchronistic. (I've been noticing a lot of these things lately!) Usually when I fly somewhere I always remember a book being associated with the trip that I read on the plane/in the hotel. This paring is an auspicious one. Some of my favorite quotes so far from the book:

"Years ago, when we had both lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, we had spent regular evenings together, talking. Most of our discussions were about academic theories and psychological growth. We had both been fascinated by the conversations and by each other."

"Working to establish a more comfortable style of survival has grown to feel completely in and of itself as a reason to live, and we've gradually forgotten our original question...We've forgotten that we still don't know what we're surviving for."

"Much has been written over the past several decades about the revolution in physics, but the changes really stem from two major findings, those of quantum mechanics and those of Albert Einstein.
The whole of Einstein's life's work was to show that what we perceive as hard matter is mostly empty space with a pattern of energy running through it. This includes ourselves. And what quantum physics has shown is that when we look at these patterns of energy at smaller and smaller levels, startling results can be seen. Experiments have revealed that when you break apart small aspects of this energy, and try to observe how they operate, the act of observation itself alters the results. This is true even if the particles must appear in places they couldn't possibly go, given the laws of the universe as we know them: two places at the same moment, forward or backward in time. The basic stuff of the universe, at its core, is looking like a kind of pure energy that is malleable to human intention."

Quote of the day:
Smile
Feel love
Consider the environment
Always do your best
Speak impeccably
Don't take things personally

Oneness is achieved by recognizing yourself

Image: Ganesha at Chidambaram, Sri Gurudev's Mahasamadhi shrine at Yogaville, which is open for prayer and meditation.

Interesting articles I've read recently:

Jung at Heart The Red Book is a volume Jung composed during a state of "active imagination" --that is, of reverie or waking dream. As he said, he wanted to see what would happen when he "switched off consciousness." The result recalls an allegorical-mythological amalgam of Nietzsche's "Also Sprach Zarathustra", Blake's illuminated poems, Renaissance Neoplatonic dialogue, Eastern scriptre, Dante's "Inferno,", Yeats's "A Vision", and even the biblical book of Revelation. According to the editor, Sonu Shamdasani, "The overall theme of the book is how Jung regains his soul and overcomes the contemporary malaise of spiritual alienation. This is ultimately achieved through enabling the rebirth of a new image of God in his soul and developing a new worldview in the form of a psychological and theological cosmogony."
When Jung emerged from this period of midlife crisis, he brought with him the first inklings of his most important contribution to psychology -- positing the existence of a collective unconsciousness common to all human beings. This primordial ocean within us affects our lives through various universal "archetypes." In Jung's view a successful life was all about balance, wholeness. If our lives erred too much in one direction, our unconscious would compensate for the inequality.
The now famous mythic pattern Jung introduced was later elaborated by such Jung-inspired scholars as Otto Rank, Lord Raglan, and Joseph Campbell (The Hero With a Thousand Faces). (paraphrased from the article linked above)

Protests at Sidwell Friends

Potomac Conservancy blames chemical runoff for intersex fish in the Potomac

When I was drinking coffee with my good friend Seungwon a few months ago he told me that this year was the 10th anniversary of when he started studying with his Zen master. I asked him what he had learned after 10 years, and, after a thoughtful silence he responded, "I have learned to have more confidence in my own decisions and trust my own self." I thought this was a great answer. With divine listening, you develop intuition and your connection to the source is strengthened. One has more self confidence in one's decisions. That you are making the decision the divine intended for you, becoming a transmitter of the divine light with confidence.

Peace is your nature. Do not disturb it.

Went to Charlottesville this weekend, had so much fun :)

Currently reading The Joy of Pi :)

Wiki of the day: Nirvikalpa. Click the link for more definitions, here is one:

In Hinduism, when used as a technical term in Raja Yoga, the phrase nirvikalpa samādhi refers to a particular type of samādhi that Heinrich Zimmer distinguises from other states as follows:

Nirvikalpa samādhi, on the other hand, absorption without self-consciousness, is a mergence of the mental activity (cittavṛtti) in the Self, to such a degree, or in such a way, that the distinction (vikalpa) of knower, act of knowing, and object known becomes dissolved — as waves vanish in water, and as foam vanishes into the sea.^[3] The difference to the other samadhis is that there is no return from this samadhi into lower states of consciousness. Therefore this is the only true final Enlightenment.

Basic Principles from The Artist's Way

via Masuda's Radiance Yoga Newsletter :)

1. Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.

2. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life--including ourselves.

3. When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator's creativity within us and our lives.

4. We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.

5. Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.

6. The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.

7. When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.

8. As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.

9. It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.

10. Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward divinity.

Quotes

Quotes I have written and collected in my daily planner, the Ecological Calendar, so far this year..

"When you try it doesn't look good, but when you don't try, it's perfect"

"The force is already setting things up, if you need to do something it will tell you, wait in uncertainty until the choice becomes clear." (Calm-perfect, or urgency? Still seeking this balance..in effortless effort..)

"A lot of it is unnecessary, be realistic, no assumptions, no pretending, a person of truth."

"Meditate daily on how I will change the world."

"Smile and laugh more."

"Inner confidence and strength
Don't worry
Don't fight the forces, use them
Spiritually resonate
Interconnectedness of all things
Keep it simple
Discipline and self control"

Above quotes from one of my spiritual advisors.

"Stay straight on the path."

"Love, compassion, and kindness are the anchors of all life."

"Spiritually resonate."

"Love your soul."

"We are all one, not only with beings on this earth, but all planets and galaxies." - Alan Watts

"Calm down. You will find your way."

"We are in the flow of it...we are in the flow of time"

"The things you love you will be destined to hate and the things you hate you may love." -idea originally from The Garden, by Michael Roach

"What is doing, thinking, motion, action, awareness, movement, connection, soul, spirituality? Acceptance of the state of complete and utter confusion or the state of empty mind, knowldgeless leads to all knowledge. Is there a possible balance between the two extremes. Am I completely lost, or not lost at all? When you look at reality realistically, you see the truth, and there is nothing else. Everything else is just manifestations of the truth that somehow are here and this is it, this is what life is, or is it. How could it be different? Present moment awareness." -me

"The passageway into the world of shamans opens up after the warrior has learned to shut off his/her internal dialogue."

"Stress happens when your mind resists what is..the only problem in your life is your mind's resistance to it as it unfolds."

"Remaining detached from the outcome creates enough space for a solution to inherently unfold."

"Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, therein lies your vocation." Aristotle

"In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves." Buddha

"Your fantasies can show you places you don't normally go, and they can also lead you to the right path for your future."

"Real justice is for God to help us through his grace to rectify that which truly wronged us. And what is that? Our estrangement from our divine nature. At that point, when we have returned to our divine nature, justice will be experienced and function not as commonly understood but as total, absolute, and unconditional divine love."

"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook."

"You can't be everything you want to be before your time."

"Every teacher tells us how important it is to control your mind. Something powerful happens when we lock our minds on an idea."

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." Coelho

"Let it go. Quit trying to live with your past and explaining every action you take. BE YOU. Fully. In this moment."

"What is it you want. WHY do you want that? What deep reason compels you to strive for it? Get clear. Very clear." Nietzsche

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Follow the calmness, by means of meditation, we can teach our minds to be calm and balanced."

Word of the day:

velleity \veh-LEE-uh-tee; vuh-\, noun:

1. The lowest degree of desire; imperfect or incomplete volition.
2. A slight wish or inclination.

Book of the day: Interpretation of Dreams, Freud (link to read online)

Wiki of the day: Dancing Mania and Ergot -thanks Issamu

No its not a mystery, its everything

We are experiencing a mass extinction, click to read/learn more. The current loss of species is overwhelming. Here's another video from Species Alliance, which is working to raise awareness of the extreme loss of biodiversity our planet is facing.
And, an Inspiring Obama Film -thanks Katherine

Check out the Art Whino Blog!

Crystal Couture in Crystal City, February 13-28, 2008, going on now!

Masala Bhangara, a dance/fitness activity that's been gaining recent popularity.

Washington Post's Going out Guide

Music I've been checking out lately:
Royksopp Happy Up Here
Kid Cudi
Flying Lotus
Acid crunk genre

David Wolfe's Beauty through Mineralization I haven't gotten any emails back after I signed up, and I haven't had time to look into it further yet, but: "You’ll learn the exact minerals your body needs, PLUS the exact sources you can get these minerals from. We even give you checklists to ensure you get the mineralization you need to achieve the results you desire. Minerals are the foundation of our body’s health and longevity. And unfortunately, you won’t get all the minerals you need just by consuming a raw or superfood diet."

IMEEM: what's on your playlist?

Melissa Harris will be coming to Sacred Circle on Sunday May 3. In her own words, here is what she will be offering:

Have you ever wondered what aspects of your being would reveal themselves to a psychic or "intuitive" and what these qualities would look like in a painting?

I am now happy to combine my background as a clairvoyant with my artistic abilities to create your own spirit essence portrait. I will tune into you and do a 7" x 10" watercolor painting of your unique essence as it appears to me in a semi-trance state. I combine the elements of what I find into your painting in a way that will be helpful for you in your path of development. For example, this might include reminders of issues you are working on, aspects of yourself that you may want to honor, patterns of behavior that you are working on changing, etc. I never know. These are just some examples. The session takes 60 minutes and you receive the double benefit of learning what I "see" as well as owning a Melissa Harris original painting.

9am Sunday Morning: Yoga for Athletes at Radiance Yoga in Old Town. A little tidbit about Radiance Yoga from this month's email:

Some of you may have noticed a wooden box on top of the fridge with a sign above it that reads, "God Box," and you might be wondering what it is and why we have it.

I learned about the God Box from Julia Cameron's book, "The Artist's Way." She describes the God Box as a place to put your fears, your resentments, your hopes, your dreams, and your worries. The God Box is a reminder that "God's got it," so you can stop worrying.

I use a God Box at home because I feel lighter and more relaxed after I write down my worries and drop them in the box. This simple ritual reinforces my belief that I'm supported by a greater energy and allows me to focus on happy thoughts.

I wanted to share this tool with all of you and welcome you to use our God Box at the studio. Next time you're in for a class, take a few minutes to write down your worries, drop them in the box, and give yourself permission to release and relax. When the box is full I'll take it home, say a few prayers, and burn the contents to release the energy.

Quotes of the day:
"Enjoy the trip!!! And remember, there is no such thing as a wrong decision..." -Melissa Harris

"Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight." - Lao Tzu

"I honor the place in you - where the whole universe resides. I honor the place in you of love, light, peace and truth. I honor the place in you - where if you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us."

Book of the day: The Tree of Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar

Question of the day: What images lead you to parallel realities?

February

An excerpt from local yoga studio's monthly email:

Yogic texts remind us that our life circumstances are partly karmic and partly up to our own will. The choice is yours to engage this energy that’s moving us forward. times are changing and shifting to greater horizons and as with any shift, it’s time to let your fears go and have faith. know that you can co-create your reality no matter what the external environment is like and flow with the momentum of change for the better.

Also from the pure prana email, MC Yogi.

Yoga with Rodney Yee, a sample. Recommended by a lovely soul, thanks Jen.

DC This Week, a blog I came across...the "Everyday Reads" list is pretty intense.

EPA and the U.S. Botanic Garden produced an on-line video, “Reduce Runoff: Slow It Down, Spread It Out, Soak It In,” that highlights green techniques such as rain gardens, green roofs and rain barrels to help manage stormwater runoff. The video highlights green techniques on display in 2008 at the U.S. Botanic Garden’s “One Planet – Ours!” Exhibit" and at the EPA in Washington, D.C., including recently completed cisterns.

To watch the video click here, and then click on the link on the right hand side of the page.

Chill out to this (excellent music)
and
Bay to LA :D so excited about moving to Cali. Just waiting on a start date from the office out there, and if it doesn't work, I'm going to set a date to move and job search when I arrive.

Books on my list to read:
Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan
Ultra Prevention, Mark Hyman
Release your Brilliance, Simon T. Bradley

Also I think that some of my earliest posts were some of my best for links and info..I would recommend checking out some of the earlier months of this blog too if you're a new reader.

More to come on this post..

Ishmael Quotes

"Say, didn't we make for the garden a certain tree whose fruit is the knowledge of good and evil?"

"But it's not going to be this easy for the Takers. It's going to be hard as hell for them to give it up, because what they're doing is right, and they have to go on doing it even if it means destroying the world and mankind with it...It would mean spitting out the fruit of that tree and giving the rule of the world back to the gods."

"When Adam accepted the fruit of that tree, he succumbed to the temptation to live without limit...Whenever a Taker couple talk about how wonderful it would be to have a big family...why stop at four kids or six? we can have fifteen if we like. All we have to do is plow under another few hundred acres of rain forest--and who cares if a dozen other species disappear as a result?"

"Man was innocent until he discovered the difference between good and evil. When he was no longer innocent of that knowledge, he became a fallen creature."

"People can't just give up a story. That's what the kids tried to do in the sixties and seventies. They tried to stop living like Takers, but there was no other way for them to live. They failed because you can't just stop being in a story, you have to have another story to be in."
"And what do you suppose this story is about?"
"Well, you should at least know that it's about the meaning of the world, about divine intentions in the world, and about the destiny of man."

"They need a vision of the world and of themselves that inspires them."
"Yes. Definitely. Stopping pollution is not inspiring. Sorting your trash is not inspiring. Cutting down on fluorocarbons is not inspiring. But this...thinking of ourselves in a new way, thinking of the world in a new way...This..." I let it go. What the hell, he knew what I was trying to say.

"What I've been at pains to give you is a new paradigm of human history. The Leaver life is not an antiquated thing that is 'back there' somewhere. Your task is not to reach back but to reach forward."
"But to what?"
"You're an inventive people, aren't you? You pride yourselves on that, don't you?"
"Yes."
"Then invent."

"White or black, male or female, what the people of this culture want is to have as much wealth and power in the Taker prison as they can get. They don't give a damn that it's a prison and they don't give a damn that it's destroying the world."

"In my experience, you never really know how you're going to handle a problem until you actually have it."


Link of the day: The Eight Extraordinary Meridians

Currently reading:
Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond, by Ajahn Brahm
The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity by Daniel Reid
Traditional Foods are your Best Medicine, by Ronald Schmid
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Deepak Chopra
and catching up on my Scientific American issues:)

What I've been listening to:

Wale, a rapper from DC
Duffy, a singer from the U.K.
Lady Gaga, acoustic version of Poker Face.
Amorphous androgynous, I especially love their website's design.
The Best Hip Hop albums of 2008 - thanks Bloom

This link is a great resource for lots of excellent books on various topics, especially spiritually minded topics, the Gaia "Our Favorite Books" page. My favorite book is also the favorite of the Gaia community, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

What I'm currently working on, becoming LEED Accredited.

Secrets of Super-Healthy People, from WebMD.

Astronomical update: The winter sky has some of the brightest stars visible from Earth. Of the twelve brightest stars, seven shine in winter: Sirius, Capella, Rigel, Procyon, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, and Pollux.

Quote for the new year:
"The koan can do a miracle, although it is just a device. The question is with what urgency, with what totality you make your whole mind concerned with only the koan, twenty-four hours. It is not something you do for one hour and forget about it." ~Osho

Strengthening the Heart Chakra

Astronomical Updates:
The Geminid meteor shower is expected to peak on December 13 at 18:00 UT. The bright moon will interfere with viewing.

This Full Moon will be one of the brightest of the year, since it coincides with the annual perigee (the Moon's closest point to Earth for the year) on December 12.

I would like to include a "Yoga Pose of the Day" on this site, but I'm still learning the ins and outs of the most basic poses so I think I need to practice and learn more before I can add this info. :)

Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy - In Nature's Beloved Son John Muir's botanic samples are brought to life with compelling historical accounts and expert photography. This link includes a slideshow of images of restored botanical samples.

Links to a few interesting kinds of tea I was previously unaware of: Yiwu Green Beencha Pu-erh Tea and Matcha Tea. -thanks Marcus

Wine wands by Philip Stein. I'm not sure about the validity of these but I thought it was an interesting concept to possibly look into further. The wine wand claims to give more flavor to red wine by using natural energy to aerate the wine in minutes rather than hours. I came across this because I am considering getting a Philip Stein watch because the watches use frequency-based technologies which claim to "restore and improve the natural flow of evergy in our bodies which is disrupted by many of the pressures, stresses and disturbances present in our modern society and environment. By including technologies in the watches that replicate the Earth's natural frequency, as well as other natural beneficial frequencies, many wearers report positive benefits and an overall improvement in their well-being." I am curious about the actual effects of wearing the watch.

I love documentaries, and I am interested in seeing this one: Flow: For the Love of Water, which was recommended to me by Maya. The documentary investigates the world water crisis. Also, I came across this link which I thought was great, a "Geoscientists Without Borders" project by Clemson students working to solve the water crisis in rural India.


Quote of the day (to put all the other quotes in perspective) from "Real Advice Hurts":

A tip is like…what? A little scrap of a map. Not only is it not the actual destination, but the part you can hold in your hand will only make sense when you understand its place in a much bigger picture.

So, sure, you might get a kick out of gazing at the pretty colors and reading the funny names to your cat, and, heck, once you’ve collected enough little maps, you may even start fancying yourself a gifted cartographer.

But, never for a minute start fantasizing that being a map collector means you’ve visited all the locations on those pieces of paper. If you ever decided to attempt them, your actual travels would very much benefit from a competent (and whole) map of where you’re heading, but it necessarily requires movement, change, and enduring potentially long stretches in which you’ll have to find your own bearings in three tip-free dimensions.

At their best, “tips” are a fine way to incrementally improve a process that you’re already dedicated to practicing on a regular basis. And, in that context, tips work.

Photo: The Pleiades Star Cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters and M45.

Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

I recently just finished reading this book by my favorite author, Paulo Coelho. Here are a few of my favorite quotes, relating to the subject matter of not living out your dreams:

"She looked around her. People were walking along, heads down, hurrying off to work, to school, to the employment agency, telling themselves: "I can wait a little longer. I have a dream, but there's no need to realize it today, besides, I need to earn some money." It was all a question of selling her time, like everyone else. Doing things she didn't want to to, like everyone else. Putting up with horrible people, like everyone else. Handing over her precious soul in the name of a future that never arrived, like everyone else. Saying that she still didn't have enough...waiting just a little bit longer...so that she could earn just a little bit more, postponing the realization of her dreams, she was too busy right now..."

"Life is too short, or too long, to allow myself the luxury of living it so badly."

Cookbook

I love this cookbook! Thank you Jen for recommending it.

Teddy

One of my favorite short stories, Teddy, by J.D. Salinger

"You know what was in that apple? Logic. Logic and intellectual stuff. That was all that was in it. So--this is my point--what you have to do is vomit it up if you want to see things as they really are. I mean if you vomit it up, then you won't have any more trouble with blocks of wood and stuff. You won't see everything stopping off all the time. And you'll know what your arm really is, if you're interested. Do you know what I mean? Do you follow me?"

In Defense of Food

The book I most recently read, an excellent response to the "supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy."