Are we puzzled at the behavior of our adolescent children, do we treat them like babies? Mebbe not but we have never tried to enter their bizarre world, do we understand their lingo? We think their modified language is full of jingoism/slang which we thing is idiolect. Are we living under a rock wanting them to say thank you when the say “cheers”, “ta”, “cool”, or “nice one”. Do you wince when you hear the song Kolaveri Kolaveri Di, which got more than 7,59,385 views ----- on the net. Then you are moving away from them instead of saying “fab” and gracias”. Are they treading on your sacred cows “holy cow u” when they say “Yo boyz sing the soul song”.
Teenagers are always attracted to forbidden fruits like Adam, love and the darker side of the moon especially, not the innocent love between boy and girl that you experienced in youth. Harry Potter, Vampire loves, are like metaphors for the plight of today’s teenagers, some of them display anger, resentment and unpredictability that as adolescents they experienced from their parents and elders. They are trying to make sense of this tumultuous adult world and it becomes curiouser and curiouser. For them it is not about loving a single person in particular, they too follow their group herd instincts.The culture that surrounds and absorbs teenagers play a huge role in their lives. It is about loving the very person that their friends love the Archetype that they identify with a specific character who creates a security stereotype to validate their own experience.
It is a sort of “viral” thing like the song on u tube “white skin u girl” a shared fixation. Nonsensical words becomes trendy. All young girls and boys want to be part of a group any group.Together in the anonymity of the group the teens come to confronting situations / social issues that have pushed them to be edgy, morbidity or wickedness which becomes cool.
The themes that revolve around the groups include identity, sexuality, depression, drug abuse peer pressure,family problems, grades, love, friendship and authority. Their free creativity is actually governed or curbed by a rigid parental or societal system, imposed from without. It is more about connecting with people who like the same stuff. It is reminiscent of the old pop culture, where the group’s turns its back on the conventional aesthete judgment of elders.
All teenagers are after all intellectuals, insatiably curious and they puzzle over some of the things that bewilder us. Elders or parents and adults often cross the thin redline of the complex dawn of the teenagers, without grasping their issues which are not black and white but contain myriads shades of grey, which are baffling them. They want some empathetic dude who understands the psyche and spirit, not an old fogy who shatters their dreams in the hubris of the fading sunlight of his life. So clasp their hands take the physical and emotional journey through the conflicts of their pain and suffering to bring real meaning to their lives.
As a wise old parent we must protect our teenagers in facing their challenges for their spirits to survive.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Is enlightenment a true reflection of religions?
You don’t need religion to know know who are - our ultimate motive is to achieve our goal! Do we actually know what our goal is? Our sense of purpose - our reason for existence , all profound quests and words, but nevertheless empty rhetoric with which at the end of the day we are all left with a feeling of deprivation.
The concept of a benevolent bearded old man up above the clouds so high, who grants wishes as a reward for sub-servience is downright absurd. It seems like a leaf taken from the Harry Potter book. Does it sound logical? And then God in turn appoints, Guru’s, Bishop’s, Mullah’s and Lama’s to teach enlightenment to humanity And all the great teachers, preachers, true healers, can only point the way, they themselves have not attained Nirvana or Satori! Everybody becomes a healer, the moment he forgets himself.
Do prayers get answered, the answer is “not all the time” or mebbe sometimes a prayer is answered. What is salvation - escape from divine retribution; can we identify this as our reason for existence? To sum up succinctly was it not, that all this suffering is due to the pre-conceived notion of a so called supernatural power, the idea of a creator? And we carry the heavy burden of guilt for not believing and praying for this creator - who is the outcome of undefined incidents of some one’s bizarre imagination. Despite all the religions available and the material wealth around us, there is a lack of fulfillment in everyone’s lives.
I am deeply sad and touched at the fate of these believers. For me this resonates with my own struggles with the forces of traditionalism - and the stiff resistance of new ideas by these obdurate priests, Lama, Rabbis, Mullahs and theologians and other deluded beings. None of them are willing to understand the simple austerity of life, nor the majesty of the intelligent independent thinker. Like an albatross around their necks they will carry their religious swans also into their dark abyss.
If you believe in me, I am the holy Ganges (river), otherwise I am just a flowing dirty river.-Vinay-
The concept of a benevolent bearded old man up above the clouds so high, who grants wishes as a reward for sub-servience is downright absurd. It seems like a leaf taken from the Harry Potter book. Does it sound logical? And then God in turn appoints, Guru’s, Bishop’s, Mullah’s and Lama’s to teach enlightenment to humanity And all the great teachers, preachers, true healers, can only point the way, they themselves have not attained Nirvana or Satori! Everybody becomes a healer, the moment he forgets himself.
Do prayers get answered, the answer is “not all the time” or mebbe sometimes a prayer is answered. What is salvation - escape from divine retribution; can we identify this as our reason for existence? To sum up succinctly was it not, that all this suffering is due to the pre-conceived notion of a so called supernatural power, the idea of a creator? And we carry the heavy burden of guilt for not believing and praying for this creator - who is the outcome of undefined incidents of some one’s bizarre imagination. Despite all the religions available and the material wealth around us, there is a lack of fulfillment in everyone’s lives.
I am deeply sad and touched at the fate of these believers. For me this resonates with my own struggles with the forces of traditionalism - and the stiff resistance of new ideas by these obdurate priests, Lama, Rabbis, Mullahs and theologians and other deluded beings. None of them are willing to understand the simple austerity of life, nor the majesty of the intelligent independent thinker. Like an albatross around their necks they will carry their religious swans also into their dark abyss.
If you believe in me, I am the holy Ganges (river), otherwise I am just a flowing dirty river.-Vinay-
Spirituality is not about faith.
It is a mistaken notion to think that spirituality is in any way connected to religion, it is just an inner compass followed by human beings to discover themselves. It is a sort of reflection on the interiors of oneself to discover the consciousness that merges with the universe. In the Veda’s there is no creator for the Universe, the logic is that it evolved or the basis is that it “became” and the invisible aspect is the spirit.
A spiritual life has nothing to do with religion or leading an ascetic life; in fact one can wine, dine, womanize, smoke, be an atheist and yet be spiritual. A person who attains a broad outlook, tolerance, patience, compassion, and is an aesthete, is able to find peace within and reach the equipoise to accept life in its myriad hues.
Spirituality is not the preserve of a select few and it also does not mean one should give up worldly activity. There is no separate compartment for worldly and spiritual life, desires and ambitions are also part of the reality in life. People also think spirituality is for old and retired people who have no other work. This is a paradox because it is during our active working life that we need spirituality to complement our hectic social life, and thereby increase our confidence & self esteem that acts as a support system.
Reality as constructed by our senses is sometimes referred to as an illusion because it excludes the invisible. The world may be a temporal reality, but while it evolves it is not unreal. It comprises of layers of matter and spirit and as such illusion is a process through the senses with a beginning and an end in constant flux. Illusion and reality are part of the whole. Spirituality embodies pain, pleasure, sickness, and convalescence, all ages, all the youth of our tumultuous and tortured lives. There is no shortcut for a tranquil life the footpath has to encompass desires, ambition & life affirming view of spirituality, to evolve into the next step of collaborating with the Universe.
You may conquer the world around you but if you are not aware of the world within you, you will shrink I drown in your own hubris. Spirituality helps you to cope with joy, sorrow, hard ship and stimulate our brains to get total satisfaction in life.
A spiritual life has nothing to do with religion or leading an ascetic life; in fact one can wine, dine, womanize, smoke, be an atheist and yet be spiritual. A person who attains a broad outlook, tolerance, patience, compassion, and is an aesthete, is able to find peace within and reach the equipoise to accept life in its myriad hues.
Spirituality is not the preserve of a select few and it also does not mean one should give up worldly activity. There is no separate compartment for worldly and spiritual life, desires and ambitions are also part of the reality in life. People also think spirituality is for old and retired people who have no other work. This is a paradox because it is during our active working life that we need spirituality to complement our hectic social life, and thereby increase our confidence & self esteem that acts as a support system.
Reality as constructed by our senses is sometimes referred to as an illusion because it excludes the invisible. The world may be a temporal reality, but while it evolves it is not unreal. It comprises of layers of matter and spirit and as such illusion is a process through the senses with a beginning and an end in constant flux. Illusion and reality are part of the whole. Spirituality embodies pain, pleasure, sickness, and convalescence, all ages, all the youth of our tumultuous and tortured lives. There is no shortcut for a tranquil life the footpath has to encompass desires, ambition & life affirming view of spirituality, to evolve into the next step of collaborating with the Universe.
You may conquer the world around you but if you are not aware of the world within you, you will shrink I drown in your own hubris. Spirituality helps you to cope with joy, sorrow, hard ship and stimulate our brains to get total satisfaction in life.
Cell-fish! Texting the Death of conversation. Cataclysmic changes are taking place all around us and it effects children, marriage and our homes. We t
Cell-fish! Texting the Death of conversation.
Cataclysmic changes are taking place all around us and it effects children, marriage and our homes. We text when we should be talking and are forever hooked on to the network 24/7. Control and convenience, enables you to unfriend when you want in the cozy comfort of the internet. Our behavior is changing and becoming maddeningly intractable and cell-fish. The convenience of blocking or going offline etc has changed the way we deal with relationships in our real life. Like life’s illusion, the internet world with its many virtual friends, with whom we exchange intimate details, makes us think we have an active social life. But this a fallacy as it is devoid of depth and real bonds and in the process, real family time disappears. We don’t read or discuss anymore, conversations don’t happen, sports and games are neglected and even memories of good old days fade out.Have we pondered on the impact of technology in our lives?
We are growing up in a culture of distraction and we don’t look up from our face book screen when parent’s friends or relatives walk into our homes. On the positive side connectivity helps you deal with the difficulties of separation and you are not cut off as the generations before us. You can now message, text, speak or Skype, from anywhere in the world. People are confused of intimacy and solitude. We are in a tenuous complicity with strangers as we assiduously build up a following yet not knowing to what degree our followers are our real friends. We spend hours befriending strangers on face book, but are too busy for our kith and kin who are there in the real world.
Those who are insecure in life, find it great when they get so much attention in their little lives. Changes can be hard while some are easy, , but to change our behavior we have to change the situation. Today we measure our success by the number of mobile communication gizmos,Face-book friends, group’s, emails and posts, contacts and texts replied.
People are worried of being cut out off from the grid and loss of a cell phone is like someone has died. We need instantaneous response and gratification. Herein lies the greatest paradox in our complex world, instant communications has reduced our time to sit and think uninterrupted about life’s problems.
We are trying to customize our wants like a smoker who keeps smoking away but find it difficult to switch or change the situations, not just the environment but in our hearts and minds. Like drug addicts in rehab afterwards we are hooked on to the network and tethered like cows.
Cataclysmic changes are taking place all around us and it effects children, marriage and our homes. We text when we should be talking and are forever hooked on to the network 24/7. Control and convenience, enables you to unfriend when you want in the cozy comfort of the internet. Our behavior is changing and becoming maddeningly intractable and cell-fish. The convenience of blocking or going offline etc has changed the way we deal with relationships in our real life. Like life’s illusion, the internet world with its many virtual friends, with whom we exchange intimate details, makes us think we have an active social life. But this a fallacy as it is devoid of depth and real bonds and in the process, real family time disappears. We don’t read or discuss anymore, conversations don’t happen, sports and games are neglected and even memories of good old days fade out.Have we pondered on the impact of technology in our lives?
We are growing up in a culture of distraction and we don’t look up from our face book screen when parent’s friends or relatives walk into our homes. On the positive side connectivity helps you deal with the difficulties of separation and you are not cut off as the generations before us. You can now message, text, speak or Skype, from anywhere in the world. People are confused of intimacy and solitude. We are in a tenuous complicity with strangers as we assiduously build up a following yet not knowing to what degree our followers are our real friends. We spend hours befriending strangers on face book, but are too busy for our kith and kin who are there in the real world.
Those who are insecure in life, find it great when they get so much attention in their little lives. Changes can be hard while some are easy, , but to change our behavior we have to change the situation. Today we measure our success by the number of mobile communication gizmos,Face-book friends, group’s, emails and posts, contacts and texts replied.
People are worried of being cut out off from the grid and loss of a cell phone is like someone has died. We need instantaneous response and gratification. Herein lies the greatest paradox in our complex world, instant communications has reduced our time to sit and think uninterrupted about life’s problems.
We are trying to customize our wants like a smoker who keeps smoking away but find it difficult to switch or change the situations, not just the environment but in our hearts and minds. Like drug addicts in rehab afterwards we are hooked on to the network and tethered like cows.
RIP… No Computer, Laptop, Tablet, I-pad or Face book account, no excuse for living!
Throughout the world, the mushrooming of population growth, that too at an accelerated pace, during the 1970’s brought in its wake myriad problems. Old order was trampled upon, new values sprouted, all this led to a sort of sinister telekinesis, which brought Cyclones, Droughts, Tsunami’s, Hurricanes ethnic violence, global wars and terrorism all types tragedies, which paradoxically attempted to curb growth.
Forty years, is a long time, especially, when the world order is changing at a frenetic pace. Memories begin to flood through me as inexorable as a tide, they caress me, and I melt inside. I can’t help it, fragments half remembered, takes me back into the past, flashes of images and times interweave themselves across my mind. In the flickering twilight of my life, I can visualize my father, and the ghost of his smell, lingers in the empty room. Sadness, unlike sensation remains for a long time, the life and death struggle in this material world becomes real, and I wonder what it does, besides inflicting pain and sorrow. Nothing I learnt or was trained, prepared me for this man eat man, 21st century.
Honor, values, empathy, compassion, love and content, are in short supply, appearances are important, affectation personified, content nil. It’s really pointless of course, instances of the stolen glances in the bus- or brushing shoulders in the teeming train terminals do not exist, there is no hope for intimacy anymore. We expect the wrong values from today’s generation, whose innocence has been compromised, to be replaced with impatience, intolerance and arrogance. Earlier we had a moral obligation to be intelligent and wise; today the internet is connected with intelligence.
What does it matter if they think ‘Keats’ is the villain in Robot Cop, they are still very clever and have access to artificial intelligence. They might fail at reading, writing longhand and math’s but it’s the internet age, where websites, blogging, virtual reality, tablets and E- books are the new tools and skill sets required. They know how to operate a computer, even dropouts are adept, at texting, e-mails, remote controlling, digital streaming videos, scanning, hi-speed dubbing, morphing , creating virtual content, and they can fast forward themselves through modern life. There are few people who want to join me on my journey, as I try to flee this cyber life to wander in the winter landscape with only a solitary seagull and crow as my companions. Everyone is online on Face-book and twitter communities. What is the use of living if you cant use a computer?
Forty years, is a long time, especially, when the world order is changing at a frenetic pace. Memories begin to flood through me as inexorable as a tide, they caress me, and I melt inside. I can’t help it, fragments half remembered, takes me back into the past, flashes of images and times interweave themselves across my mind. In the flickering twilight of my life, I can visualize my father, and the ghost of his smell, lingers in the empty room. Sadness, unlike sensation remains for a long time, the life and death struggle in this material world becomes real, and I wonder what it does, besides inflicting pain and sorrow. Nothing I learnt or was trained, prepared me for this man eat man, 21st century.
Honor, values, empathy, compassion, love and content, are in short supply, appearances are important, affectation personified, content nil. It’s really pointless of course, instances of the stolen glances in the bus- or brushing shoulders in the teeming train terminals do not exist, there is no hope for intimacy anymore. We expect the wrong values from today’s generation, whose innocence has been compromised, to be replaced with impatience, intolerance and arrogance. Earlier we had a moral obligation to be intelligent and wise; today the internet is connected with intelligence.
What does it matter if they think ‘Keats’ is the villain in Robot Cop, they are still very clever and have access to artificial intelligence. They might fail at reading, writing longhand and math’s but it’s the internet age, where websites, blogging, virtual reality, tablets and E- books are the new tools and skill sets required. They know how to operate a computer, even dropouts are adept, at texting, e-mails, remote controlling, digital streaming videos, scanning, hi-speed dubbing, morphing , creating virtual content, and they can fast forward themselves through modern life. There are few people who want to join me on my journey, as I try to flee this cyber life to wander in the winter landscape with only a solitary seagull and crow as my companions. Everyone is online on Face-book and twitter communities. What is the use of living if you cant use a computer?
Stretch your dreams till it breaks into a flip flop.
Way back in 1960, an unknown athlete called Dick Fosbury virtually “inverted” the traditional technique of high jumping. He created a revolution in athletics by clearing the bar with his back to it, as opposed to the conventional straddle method of lead arm and leg followed by stomach.
But most athletes who had practiced and were conditioned over the years did not change their technique for more than a decade even after this stupendous feat. It was only when the next crop of new kids who had nothing to lose started copying this style that it became popular and has become a standard method in the sport now.
Similarly the creative idea of Face book has overnight become the biggest business entity in just 3 years. Steve Jobs also likewise changed the face of the cell phone and laptop industry. It means we have to stretch our dreams and imaginations to explore new horizons while ignoring the obvious.
An adolescent day dream can have earth shattering implications and become utterly beautiful transforming our whole lives. We inhabit a strange world where disruption is the new mantra. Turn all conventions and traditions upside down, question all logic and theories, aspire to be different, do not follow the herd, believe no one, create your own path that is true liberation. – Vinay-
But most athletes who had practiced and were conditioned over the years did not change their technique for more than a decade even after this stupendous feat. It was only when the next crop of new kids who had nothing to lose started copying this style that it became popular and has become a standard method in the sport now.
Similarly the creative idea of Face book has overnight become the biggest business entity in just 3 years. Steve Jobs also likewise changed the face of the cell phone and laptop industry. It means we have to stretch our dreams and imaginations to explore new horizons while ignoring the obvious.
An adolescent day dream can have earth shattering implications and become utterly beautiful transforming our whole lives. We inhabit a strange world where disruption is the new mantra. Turn all conventions and traditions upside down, question all logic and theories, aspire to be different, do not follow the herd, believe no one, create your own path that is true liberation. – Vinay-
Yoga the New Satanic Poses ?
The 86 year old Father Gabriele Amorth who has been cloaked in anonymity for years has suddenly emerged from the shadows of the Vatican’s dubious designation as “chief exorcist”. In his endeavor to earn his 5 minutes of fame before the Lord summons him to Headquarters’ has deemed the practice of yoga as satanic and evil. In his profound ignorance he has claimed that yoga is worship of Hindu religion; after 86 years on this planet the poor soul and theologist has not even comprehended that “Hinduism” is not a religion but a way of life.
What he perhaps will never understand with his conditioned duck brain is that neither Yoga nor Hinduism are religions. In feet it is more popular in the west where it has proliferated like wild fire. The fallout of such popularity is that there has been massive monetization of yoga as a discipline. Sinister yogi’s have moved in, and like a product tried to take it to the next business level, which has caused the externalization of yoga in the west.
Yoga simply means union or junction; it is more or less a physical, mental and spiritual discipline. A technique to still the mind from the outer and increase concentration and thereby consciousness in an attempt to integrate and strengthen the inner & outer compartments and reduce turmoil.
However the Vedic view is not introspective but rather extrovert tilting towards the predatory! Stilling the mind requires years of practice and the west with its love of instant gratification is trying to project yoga like a product or Nike shoe. Just don your yoga outfit and “Stop it”. (Mind), which is easier, said than done. But father Gabriel should try yoga as he seems to have developed arteriosclerosis of the mind.
What he perhaps will never understand with his conditioned duck brain is that neither Yoga nor Hinduism are religions. In feet it is more popular in the west where it has proliferated like wild fire. The fallout of such popularity is that there has been massive monetization of yoga as a discipline. Sinister yogi’s have moved in, and like a product tried to take it to the next business level, which has caused the externalization of yoga in the west.
Yoga simply means union or junction; it is more or less a physical, mental and spiritual discipline. A technique to still the mind from the outer and increase concentration and thereby consciousness in an attempt to integrate and strengthen the inner & outer compartments and reduce turmoil.
However the Vedic view is not introspective but rather extrovert tilting towards the predatory! Stilling the mind requires years of practice and the west with its love of instant gratification is trying to project yoga like a product or Nike shoe. Just don your yoga outfit and “Stop it”. (Mind), which is easier, said than done. But father Gabriel should try yoga as he seems to have developed arteriosclerosis of the mind.
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