Sea and Me

We had a vacation last week at Pismo Beach, California. It was really nice, calm, and clean beach. The best part was that the beach was almost empty, as if divinity had planned it this for us.

We could see the birds and pelicans playing with the sea, dancing, floating, gliding and chasing the waves. It was as if they became a part of the sea. We wanted to capture in the camera and fortunately, we forgot our camera in the hotel. It was amazing how unique nature is. Somethings are not supposed to be captured in the camera. How can we? The moment will pass by, fly away. That enjoyment and Aananda of being in that moment vanishes. It escapes us.

That's what they say,"Best moments are never captured, they are lived."

That moment became absolute for us. It was the sea, it's waves, the birds and their oneness with the sea. We heard the sea. It was speaking. The voice of it's deep can seem like a roar, but nothing can be more calming and soothing than that. It is the most gentle of all sounds that mankind may imagine it to be. Imagine mankind producing such a sound, with such precision and quality, roar yet soothing... A man cannot.

For one more time we felt we were listening to the nature so intently and passionately, that time flew by. Every moment was the moment we were in. No tension or any other thought, just sea and us. The uniqueness of this experience was that we became as vast as the sea and sea shrinked in our persona. That was the oneness. that was the moment of truth and enlightenment.

Is Sugar Vegetarian/ Vegan?

While going through the vegan recipes on about.com, I found this very interesting article. This was an explaination of how sugar cannot be counted as vegetarian. Do read about this. Is Sugar vegan/ vegetarian?

What is meditation?

Here is an intersting link on what is meditation. This site is in spanish, italian, english, french, russian, german and chinese. they will have it in Hindi soon.

synchronicity

Science and Spirituality are 2 aspects of the same coin. Spirituality doens't give logical evidences to prove something like synchronicity, it simply emphasises on the understanding and Living in Now. Whereas, science looks at it a different perspective, the logical way.

Here is this very interesting article on the science of synchronicity. Christian de Quincey, an eminent professor of philosophy at John F. Kennedy University, where he teaches Philosophy and Consciousness Studies, writes a detailed paper to make a layman understand the meaning.
enjoy reading.

http://www.deepspirit.com/sys-tmpl/challengeofsynchronicity/

Science and Spirituality

Determinism -- Indeterminism -- Each present moment is open to new opportunity

Newtonian physics was totally based on the idea that everything in the physical universe (the soul was non-physical) is determined: we can predict precisely what will happen.
Indeterminism is the most obvious aspect of both quantum theory and dynamical systems theory. Almost every experiment in quantum theory is based on events that are unpredictable - observing the decay of an atomic nucleus, observing which way a photon goes through a polarising filter, observing electrons going through the slits in a two-slit experiment...

Here is an interesting article on science and spirituality.

http://www.scispirit.com/scispirit.htm

NO Respect for Vegetarians in USA and UK

I have been to UK only last month and been in USA for almost 4 months. What I found is really amazing. USA is a country where Vegan and vegetarian movement is at the strongest in the world, unlike India, where vegetarianism is a way of life. UK is another country habitated with people of Indian Origin. Yet, there is no respect for vegetarians in these countries. It is unbelieveable because both the countries have quite a percentage of vegetarian lovers.

A search for decent vegetraian food starts with enthusiasm and ends with sigh. As vegetraian only place you an find such food is in an Indian Restaurant. Apart from that, there are hardly any restaurants which serve that kind of food. So called big food chains like Mc Donalds, CHILLIES, WENDYS, SAVEMART etc. I must also mention that the highways joints called 'Services' in UK and and Don't know what in USA, doesn't even have a decent veg sandwich. Well, what does it really take to make a decent veg sandwich??? Not Much. Few slices of cucumber, tomatoes, some lettuce, dash of salt and pepper on a lightly buttered bread. That's all! And they don't even have that.

The serving they have is having egg contents in all their products. Even cheese is not vegetarian. The processing of cheese involves some sort of non-veg substance. Infact, we went to this 'Services' on our way to Scotland. The chain operating there was Simply Food by Marks and Spencer. The only veg dish i could grab there was Tomatoo soup. Must have had it trice in 3 days journey. Later on I came to know that it was not really vegetarian. It was to my shock, made with Chiken Stock. The Burger King out there in UK doesn't have a single Veg Burger to say. Same goes with MacDonalds in USA. In the name of Vegetarian food, they have only fruit and walnut salad.

Hey! I thought these countries were quite emotionally in-tune with their people. But Nah! All, they think is how to satisfy the cheese and the meat Industry. For they are the ones who cash on to the people's health and feed these power hungry politicians.
Dont know how to end this...

It's funny that most of the world renowned Vegetarians are from USA. Richard Gere, Toby Mcguire of Spiderman, Alicia Silverstone, Frances Fisher, Charlotte Ross (NYPD BLUE), Loretta Swit, Pamelyn Ferden, Alicia Silverstone (Clueless, Batman & Robin, Blast from the Past), Dennis Weaver (McCloud), Tracy Bingham (Baywatch) .... the list goes on...
is someone reading and taking action to add vegetraian options in their restaurant/ food chain menu???

SQ Quiz

I found this Sq Quiz online. It's fine. But don't really rely on one test. They are nothing but the state of mind u are in. You can be Spiritual but the SQ may vary dpending on circumstances, time, plcae etc...
Spiritual Quotient Quiz

new Magazine

Well, I am back again. Hmm, so there is this great internet magazine about spirituality. Read the articles on Innerself.

Enlightenment, Us and Family

You know Thich Nhat Hanh? He is a well known Buddhist monk and the author to various best selling books. He is a Vietnamese and talks about various subjects related to our life and spirituality.

I just started reading his book 'No Death, No Fear'. Though he was talking about death he touched the subject of body, ancestors and parents. And whew! There come the knowing, the fact of our relationship with us and family. Yes, life brings a series of relationships. The most important relationship we have is with ourselves. Not family, not friends, not spouses but us and only us.

Yet, our relationship with us is so heavily based on our notions, beliefs, emotions and feelings towards our immediate and closest members, who are none other than our family and ancestors. I say heavily because we carry our beliefs, notions et. All with us till we die. Who knows, even after death!!! Anyways, I was reading about how you may see your own body as the temple and home to all the ancestors and parents, body as Buddha himself. That is outside is inside. Something to ponder upon. If you really get to understand this, better still are aware of this light of truth, believe me, you won't need to know anything else. You will be Enlightened, The Buddha yourself.

Coming back to the point. We were talking of our bodies as the home to our ancestors, parents , Buddha, everyone in this world whom we know and we don't know ... Here is the catch. We are on our spiritual journey doing various things for our progress, to know our essential nature. We have done a lot of affirmation and cleaning up work, telling ourselves, 'I accept myself as I am. I love myself wholly and completely'. We reach to the point where we feel Buddha and world in me, as me, outside me. But! Yes, but we really cannot feel this for few selected people (our parents, siblings, grandparents, ancestors, people who did something bad to us ... Most of us our parents and siblings ...), then our purpose is beaten. We have failed to acknowledge our relationship with them as that of prime importance to us.

The essence of knowing the oneness is Unconditional Divine Love.

So, our purpose is beaten. We stand in front of the truth that we are yet to reach the bottonline, I mean our true essential nature. If the acceptance of the parents and siblings doesn't come through, it simply means that we are in denial of ourselves. Simple reason is that we are constituted of them. Scientifically and spirituality, not just our DNA, blood, body cells but also the shared memories, experiences and spiritual journey of our parents and their ancestors. The moment we feel that this body is one with whole universe except family members that very moment we start pretending. We create the utopia of the knowing, awareness and enlightenment. Whereas the truth is that we are still standing at the same place from where we started. All we have done is created an imagination to satisfy our ego.

It is easy to pretend, to create knowing, but actual knowledge come only through acceptance of all pervasive including us. It's difficult but not impossible!!!

Love, light and Aananda

Mansy

Happiness

Hey!

A small voice within me is asking something. It asks,
"Are you happy?"

Well, what should I say? I want to give the same old answer. Yes, of course, I am Happy as can be! But really! Am I truly happy?

So let me list down all the things that I am Happy about. And here it goes:
I am happy about myself
I am happy about life
I am happy about friends
I am happy with my marriage
I am happy that I am now ....


Hey, but isn't that a very vague list? And just 4 things to it? Ok let me think and I will write some more.

....

As I think, there are numerous things that are coming to my mind. And they start like this:

I am happy about my life but
I am happy with work but this client isn't paying the money promised for website designed.
I am happy about my food habits but I really put on weight whenever I eat a Lilttle more
I am happy about people here but they don't interact much ...
So it goes on ...

Whew! Man! I didn't know that on the back of my happy face, there was quite a bit of unhappiness.

Goodness! Isn't this that we all are going thru'? We are pretending to be happy. Underneath swirls the waves of disturbances, unhappiness, disappointment, sadness, grieve ...

We have a heart big enough to make a list of disappointments, unhappy moments, we can fill pages and pages!
Huh! Big Deal!
So can we make list over the list of happy moments every now and then? For every moment? Nah! How can we?
We are supposed to be the most miserable people in the world. Most fearful people. We are in the constant fear of unknown things that might happen to us.

Don't u see here that we are creating our own reality by being fearful? A reality of unhappiness?
I know one thing. We have the power to change it. Power to be happy no matter what may happen. Because I know that I'm not just a physical body. Underneath this body is a spark. A spark of Life, ocean of happiness and Aananda. I am going to spread happiness wherever I am. Happiness brings natural smile on the face.
You see a smile goes the longest mile! One longest mile can bring back forgotten laughter in life.

So I am gonna make a list of all the things I was and am happy about. Even though I think I was unhappy but still I felt some happiness, I am going to note it down. If I don't find one I am going to create one.

:))

Hey, let me give u one reason to be happy. Click here and know the riot it creates. I bets you must be laughing by now.

love, light and aananda

Mansy

Living in Now

What a promising day. Today I created a blog of my own after weeks of thinking. Ah! Finally, I can write down my thought and share the views. What can be better than this.