Does the Universe not exist in constant battle between contradictory forces of Harmony and Disharmony ? Like the sunspots of the Sun, the Universe too tends to explode out of itself and then is pulled back by a contradictory force ?

Would the Universe and everything that existed in it not be completely dead and non creative if there was a continuous stable non moving state of Harmony ? And the same would go for us, in any form you may decide to see ourselves. Our consciousness, our soul, or our 'five senses self'. The one law of creativity, of existence, of consciousness, of life itself, all that exists, or potentially exists, does so between extreme contradictions.

After all, Good can only be described in the context of Evil and vice versa. So what is that state that is one of complete acceptance (oops - here we go again in that word) which is neither good nor evil, nor moral or immoral, nor active or inactive, that is neither violent nor non- violent ? That has form but no recognizable form ? A state that defies all adjectives, nouns or verbs we can think of , a state that exists without context with anything else, that is complete within it self yet completely infinite and incomplete ?

For those that claim to have found that state which is often described as 'nirvana (Hinduism) , or 'shunyata' (Buddhism) , or the eternal life (Islam and Christianity), I assume have encompassed the forces of contradiction and disharmony within themselves, battling neither, so experience themselves as the Universe and Eternity themselves. They are neither one nor the other, but part of a stillness that allows the battle to rage within. Knowing it to be an eternal battle, but able to smile upon it.

For me, I am still part of the battle, but learning that being buffeted by contradiction and giving into the contradictory forces is just the first step - the step that gives into the unknown without resistance. Or atleast active resistance, for the mind and the ego still rebels. The first step is to accept Chaos as the natural order of things, before reaching and yearning for that which is called 'enlightenment' or inner stillness, or whatever word and religion or philosophy chooses to use.

So forgive me if I question those that seem to emphatically KNOW. I don't. I yearn to experience, and wonder at people that say they know. Is it mere knowledge ? Or is it experience ? Is it intellectual or is it emotional ? The only people I meet that seem to be completely comfortable with contradiction (or duality as it is commonly called) are children , who have not yet been taught to separate completely that which is imagined and that which sensed.

I see everything I write here as huge question mark. A search and questioning, and sharing that yearning with others.

“The Michael Jackson cacophony is fascinating in that it is not about Jackson at all. I hope he has the good sense to know it and the good fortune to snatch his life out of the jaws of a carnivorous success. He will not swiftly be forgiven for having turned so many tables, for he damn sure grabbed the brass ring, and the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo has nothing on Michael.”And he goes on to say, “Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated—in the main, abominably—because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires.”

Without the energy of his spirit, it could not be possible that every human being on this planet knew his music, his dance. It did not matter that you were in innner Mangolia, or a potential suicide bomber in the Gaza Strip, or an Israeli soldier, or an kid from the most remote rural India. Everyone knew MJ, every one knew his song, and everyone knew his dance.

In judging the show "India's Got Talent" I was amazed at the amount of young people from small town and rural India that did Micheal Jackson impersonations and called him their Guru. In fact the most brilliant one was an 11 year old adivasi boy, who claimed that Micheal Jackson's spirit entered him when he danced.

The few times I met MJ through my friend Deepak Chopra (they were good friends), I met an extremely humble man. One who made me feel like he was my fan rather than the other way round. He reminded me of a few others that I met, who's spirits were obviously uncomfortable with the limitations of their bodies, the spirits were dying to soar and to be Universal. Heath Ledger and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan were like that. Spirits not wanting to be limited by the body. All died young. Like Angels.

And what is it about us that we cannot handle strong spirits. Do we have to crucify them ? I saw the agony the Micheal Jackson had to endure in last years accused of crimes against children based not on proof but on flawed accusations.

When Angels appear amongst us, we are compelled to crucify them.

Your statement " Acceptance is truly beautiful if you understand it" is so beautifully stated. It is what I am trying to do. Understand what acceptance means and strive towards it. Acceptance cannot just mean cowardice or inaction. Acceptance must lead to purity of action. Where action is separated from the result of that action. And how do I separate myself from the result of my action ?

That was what I was trying to come to terms with in my last post. That what we call 'result' of our actions is often independent of our action. It has an individuality of it's own. It has it's own life and often the relationship is the other way round. We are caught up in the Karma of the event (the result s we call it), and assume ourselves as one of the cause.

In fact the Universe in it's true nature has no place for words like 'cause' and "result'. The result and the cause are intertwined in an eternal bond, which is part of a universal matrix of the play of the universe.

So what does "Acceptance is beautiful when you truly understand it" mean unless you experience the the idea that time has a linear value only if you desire it. Or your Ego does, for it needs to see a distance between cause and result. The Ego needs to contextualize it's actions by the result (or imagined result) of it's action to know that it exists..

Yet this duality was what Buddha meditated over - trying to come to vision of Shunyata, of a vast emptying of the mind off our Ego and experiencing ourselves as in Unity with existence, where time and space have only imagined existences.

Yes, you are right 'P', 'Acceptance is beautiful when you truly understand it' ..... but I have a long way to go before I can truly get there. The journey began as a little boy reaching out to the idea of forever, and still goes on. You sound like you are much further ahead than I am, so I would love for you to share your experiences with our community,

shekhar

Nor are we separate from the event. The event and us, inseparable part of the same play being imagined by the Universe in all eternity. The event itself part of a ripple caused by another. And so on, but circling right back, the ripples being the eternal cause and effect of each other. Enclosed in nothing but timelessness.

Part of discussions that came up as I opened my installation at the Swarovski museum in Austria

Thank you manav, for sharing this. It's beautifully put by a person who's brain is under constant study by scientists all over the world. But maybe Einstein accessed his equations from a source much higher then his own individuality, his own brain ? Is creativity the ability to access a source of universal consciousness ?

All of us have had such experiences, and most of us deny ourselves those experiences. By calling it a play of imagination. But in my experience, these moments have been of extreme simplicity and clarity. The sensing is of the unity of all things beyond analysis and understanding, in the realm of experiencing. These are meditative moments that force you into the clarity of 'now'. Not always in meditation - but events that can lead to that which meditation is hoping to achieve.

In one such moment I actually decide to write at random, without imposing my intellect upon the writing, even without imposing my imagination. Just write. And I wrote something I have shared before :

I search for that which I see
and when the searching stops
the seeing begins

The last time he and his wonderful wife Asha met me, Rajeev insisted that I come to the Silicon Valley and stay with them for a few months, to discuss new ventures we could do together. He even wanted me to come and teach for a few months at Stanford.

Rajeev was died in his home two days ago in a swimming accident. In the pool by which we would sit and dream of new worlds. He left behind two daughters and a very very brave and wonderful wife, Asha. And memories......

Meet Wendy Chin, who's great passion is to protect the ancient mangrove forests on the coast of Langkawi in Malaysia. A business graduate with a hugely promising career in finance, Wendy found her true calling in protection of the environment. She moved to the Island of Langkawi and works ceaselessly to protect the incredible amount of species that live in the eco systems of the mangroves - and the mangroves themselves. And we all know that Mangroves provide the protection against erosion of our coast lines and against high tides and Tsumani like waves.

I was attending a Standard Chartered Bank conference at the beautiful Four Seasons Resort in Langkawi where Wendy was taking us out in boats to teach us about her beloved mangroves. From a one inch red crab scurrying into the mud to a poisonous viper that hung unseen a metre away from my head, Wendy brought the wealth of the mangroves alive for all of us, as we listened and watched with such rapt attention, feeling the very pulse of the ecosystem and becoming one with it.

The world needs more Wendy Chin's to help save our ecosystems.

Does that mean that slow death is much more acceptable than sudden death ? Or do we live in a word that cannot pay attention to anything unless it is high drama and melodramatic ? And is it really over ?

Seeds of resentment and memories of horror over twenty five years do not go away easily. The Sri Lankan government will have to embrace its Tamil people with compassion and resolve. Or the call for a separate Tamil nation will not go away easily.

And the LTTTE is still a force. I have come across fierce support for the LTTE amongst Tamilians in suburbs Paris and in the US, where a lot of the people came as refugees from the conflict. There is also support in Tamil Nadu itself. There is danger of the fight for a separate Tamil Nation now being nurtured in India in Tamil Nadu itself and expect the politics of Tamil Nadu to turn a blind eye to it, or even covertly support it.

With the Talibanization of Pakistan, the conflicts on our eastern borders, India can ill afford another separatist movement on it's southern borders.

till they become passions and obsessions,
and develop an identity of their own,
no longer in your control

are you willing to watch your dreams
grow into demons that do not belong to you ?

a passion and obsession that takes charge of you ?

wrings out your soul
and leaves you breathless, almost lifeless
when it is done with you ?

beware of your dreams,
those subtle, benign thoughts
that saw you through hours of boredom
and took you through wonderful journeys
when your maths professor droned on
about numbers that made no emotional sense

If I had not seen clouds before
would this not have been the most magical sight ever ?
it was,

at the moment that the picture was clicked, randomly
was the first time I ever saw clouds
and was overwhelmed,

Our Mythology, our Mythic selves are much more than the idea of the stories that are/were told to us. We are the very stories that we tell ourselves. And always have been. From the time we were born. From the time that Human beings started to imagine.

The first art was the art of story telling.

From the time that Man tried to express lightning and thunder as the anger of the Gods and developed moral stories around it, to the postulations of Einstein's theory's of relativity, the beginings have been in a story told to oneself, and then shared. Stories which comes from a deep seated mythology embedded in our consciousness.

Stories are moral contradictions, re interpreted again and again. The Universe itself exists in contradictions, and the contradictions are never ending. When you solve one contradiction, another emerges. And so the Universe goes on. If the contradictions went away - the Universe would cease to exist. As would we, as would all imagination. We would cease to exist, and yes, the ultimate contradiction that we exist and do not exist at the same time is the most tantalizing contradiction of all.

So if you cannot do away with contradictions, how do you come to terms with them ? By finding Harmony in them. By being the contradiction itself. By becoming 'one with the duality' as Buddha and all the great spiritualists say. And so the great poet finds Harmony in the contradiction of words, the mathematician finds harmony in the contradiction of numbers ( with the concept of a non number of nothingness, the zero, being the ultimate contradiction without which modern maths could not exist). The great Musicians find Harmony in the contradiction of notes, the painters in conflicting colours, and spiritualist in the duality of existence. And Einstien searched for Harmony through his equations in the contradictions of Space and Time.

Einstien too was looking for a story to explain mythic concepts like Space and Time. He called them equations but hey ! - he was indulging in his own story telling - his own Mythology.

The above was a part of a discussion I led on 'Mythology and Story telling' at a Screenwriting workshop at the IIT campus in Chennai, which was a lot of fun,

And Einstein.

for the ego
can exist only
in finite possibilities
needing to enclose itself
in a part of the universe
walled off
from the rest of creation
and from within that prison
to show itself off
yearning to be recognized,
to be individualized
to be admired
and from within that prison
to be loved !
imagining
that everything around itself
has confined itself too
imprisoned itself too
sensing the universe
surrounded by
imagined bits of similar prisons

Imagine

a love you could embrace
the whole universe with

if only you came out of
the solitary confinement
your ego has imprisoned you in

do the intentions come naturally or are they already prefixed and they just enter us at moments of aligned frequency?how do we do what we do? where does the prayer get processed...does it need processing?

what is a prayer?