I love my Gurus, man.
'Drop the idea that attachment and love are one thing.
They are enemies. It is attachment that destroys all love.
If you feed, if you nourish attachment, love will be destroyed;
if you feed and nourish love, attachment will fall away by itself.
They are not one; they are two separate entities, and antagonistic to each other.' -OSHO
'Create more and more understanding. That's what lovers miss: love they have enough, but understanding none, not at all. That's why on the rocks of misunderstanding their love dies. Love cannot live alone without understanding. Alone, love is very foolish; with understanding, love can live a long life, a great life -- of many joys shared, of many beautiful moments shared, of great poetic experiences. But that happens only through understanding.' - OSHO
'Plain intellectual thinking is the peak of ignorance because
all that you will know is to play with a few aspects and make
others look like fools.' - Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
'When a love relationship ends and that person you love tries to rip you apart, it's so important and so beautiful to realize that yeah, you do love them more than anything... except yourself.' - Moi
I'm also my own Guru ;) Everyone can be.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Etsy!
I just started an Etsy account! It's called IndividuCulture. :)
Come check it out and buy stuff!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Shy girls.
Beware of shy girls. From what I've observed lately, when given half the chance, they get completely carried away with their egos. Who knew?
I would have never even thought this could happen with shy girls until I experienced it and then processed previous encounters firsthand. It's just so unexpected. At least with outgoing people, their ego is apparent. Shy girls seem so harmless, and then BAM! Give 'em an inch, and they make it a really atrocious mile.
Then, then then then, as I've been processing this lately (like over the past weekish), I saw this shift in ego in two prominent formally shy characters (Jenny and Adele) on Season 5 of one my favorite shows tonight, the L Word. And their egos wrecked havoc once they came out of their shell.
I don't think every shy girl coming out of her shell is going to be negative, but just beware. Look for hints of what's hiding. It's either talent and beauty or just plain ugliness.
So! It's always true, but now I can knowingly say that there can be something lurking under the reserved surface of a shy girl... which oozes out like monstrous goop once the ego gets inflated. Great imagery, right? ;)
It's fascinating really.
I should have elaborated in the first place. Hope I didn't offend anyone :)
I would have never even thought this could happen with shy girls until I experienced it and then processed previous encounters firsthand. It's just so unexpected. At least with outgoing people, their ego is apparent. Shy girls seem so harmless, and then BAM! Give 'em an inch, and they make it a really atrocious mile.
Then, then then then, as I've been processing this lately (like over the past weekish), I saw this shift in ego in two prominent formally shy characters (Jenny and Adele) on Season 5 of one my favorite shows tonight, the L Word. And their egos wrecked havoc once they came out of their shell.
I don't think every shy girl coming out of her shell is going to be negative, but just beware. Look for hints of what's hiding. It's either talent and beauty or just plain ugliness.
So! It's always true, but now I can knowingly say that there can be something lurking under the reserved surface of a shy girl... which oozes out like monstrous goop once the ego gets inflated. Great imagery, right? ;)
It's fascinating really.
I should have elaborated in the first place. Hope I didn't offend anyone :)
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Love.
The phrase 'falling in love' is so poignant. When you fall in love, really fall in love, you can't stop it. It's like this force that takes over. Once you've started falling, you're gunna keep on falling. So treat this beautiful gift with care, because it's the best thing that's ever happened to you whether or not you understand it.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Marriage.
For the first part of my pre-adult/adult life, I just knew I would never get married. There'd always be those relationships that'd make me think, 'This is it!', but when they didn't work out, my original affirmation got confirmation. It was almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Or maybe I just hadn't met the right person yet.
I moved around quite often when I was little (I've been to 11 schools not including college) and I can't think of one instance where I saw my parents happy and in love. Then, as I started to come into my own as a teen, my first real boyfriend chewed me up and spat me out. I mean... I was incapacitated. I had to be resuscitated. My best guy friend was the resuscitator, who later became my longest romantic relationship. A whopping year and a half. And a tumultuous one at that. Then, the first relationship I had with a man who I not only was deeply, madly, harshly in love with but who also reciprocated feelings of marriage broke my heart, and out of a combination of isolation, desperation and vindication, I broke his in return. Then I sold all my shit, fit my life in a backpack and moved across the world to India.
So, needless to say, I've been terrified of commitment. I wasn't raised that way, and my first experiences in commitments either killed me or scared the shit outta me.
(These accounts are not necessarily blaming anyone, so if any of you read this, know that I am aware of my faults as well, and putting my truth out there is how I live my life as an artist.)
After many more failed relationships, I had resolved to be a serial dater, and later in life, a single career woman and mother of an adopted child. Yet, in every relationship (I use this term loosely), I was searching for a free fall into love. Love is the greatest experience of life, and I find it most beautiful and all-encompassing in a committed relationship.
I took another short trip to India early last year, and while there, I was forced to challenge my views on marriage. I was living in a commune-type situation run by an Indian retired divorce attorney who was completely against marriage. He believed that marriage always ended sour. But one night, only one instance, I found him in awe of an Indian marriage on TV, expressing in words and in his gaze how beautiful it was.
I took a Pranic Healing program while there, and my teacher, an older gentleman who reminded me of a wise Native American, was married. We would have these deep conversations about all aspects of life interspersed between the teaching sessions. One day, marriage came up. He mentioned how the fleeting marriages in the West baffled him. I asked, 'If one person's spiritual path is in one place/one situation, and the other's is in another, and their spiritual growth isn't together anymore, isn't that an acceptable reason to divorce?' He seemed very offended and told me that when you get married, you've made a commitment, and you need to stick with that commitment. That commitment is your spiritual path. That blew my mind.
I've been very into spiritual teachings from different religions, lecturers, Gurus, books... And more times than one, the teacher has mentioned that marriage is a sacred bond, that this is a commitment you've made in homage to God, whichever or whomever you choose to worship.
I believe that marriage is access to God, because God is Love. Love is union. Yoga is Union. Relationship is Union. These are all interchangeable.
I had a beautiful discussion about marriage with my lover the other night. I brought these things up, but then I still had a few apprehensions... How can you say you're going to feel the same way about someone forever? What happens if someone else comes along that you fall in love with? I told him that I knew I couldn't bounce back, because past relationships have killed me.
I don't know if he said it or I said it (I'm a little drunk off Chardonnay), but a mutual understanding came about that the trust which develops with time cannot be matched by an outside person, because it has been nurtured and fed for all that time by your spouse. No one person can come in and match that trust without that time and effort.
This reminds me of one of my favorite Gurus, Osho. In one of his lectures, he mentioned that if you continue to nourish your relationship, you communicate and remain conscious, there's no reason why you shouldn't remain in love.
I think that the reason people fail in marriage is that they either give into their animal urges or they fall into an unconscious, lazy state of being in the relationship where it's not nourished.
I just thought of a good analogy. How do you expect a plant to grow without fertilizer and water, without continued fertilizer and water? If you stop feeding it, of course it's going to die.
Conscious action, determination and trust are key, and of course, being with someone who matches you. Being with a person who's easy to love. Who you know deeply, who you know enhances your life. That's how a marriage works. That's how you keep it going.
I moved around quite often when I was little (I've been to 11 schools not including college) and I can't think of one instance where I saw my parents happy and in love. Then, as I started to come into my own as a teen, my first real boyfriend chewed me up and spat me out. I mean... I was incapacitated. I had to be resuscitated. My best guy friend was the resuscitator, who later became my longest romantic relationship. A whopping year and a half. And a tumultuous one at that. Then, the first relationship I had with a man who I not only was deeply, madly, harshly in love with but who also reciprocated feelings of marriage broke my heart, and out of a combination of isolation, desperation and vindication, I broke his in return. Then I sold all my shit, fit my life in a backpack and moved across the world to India.
So, needless to say, I've been terrified of commitment. I wasn't raised that way, and my first experiences in commitments either killed me or scared the shit outta me.
(These accounts are not necessarily blaming anyone, so if any of you read this, know that I am aware of my faults as well, and putting my truth out there is how I live my life as an artist.)
After many more failed relationships, I had resolved to be a serial dater, and later in life, a single career woman and mother of an adopted child. Yet, in every relationship (I use this term loosely), I was searching for a free fall into love. Love is the greatest experience of life, and I find it most beautiful and all-encompassing in a committed relationship.
I took another short trip to India early last year, and while there, I was forced to challenge my views on marriage. I was living in a commune-type situation run by an Indian retired divorce attorney who was completely against marriage. He believed that marriage always ended sour. But one night, only one instance, I found him in awe of an Indian marriage on TV, expressing in words and in his gaze how beautiful it was.
I took a Pranic Healing program while there, and my teacher, an older gentleman who reminded me of a wise Native American, was married. We would have these deep conversations about all aspects of life interspersed between the teaching sessions. One day, marriage came up. He mentioned how the fleeting marriages in the West baffled him. I asked, 'If one person's spiritual path is in one place/one situation, and the other's is in another, and their spiritual growth isn't together anymore, isn't that an acceptable reason to divorce?' He seemed very offended and told me that when you get married, you've made a commitment, and you need to stick with that commitment. That commitment is your spiritual path. That blew my mind.
I've been very into spiritual teachings from different religions, lecturers, Gurus, books... And more times than one, the teacher has mentioned that marriage is a sacred bond, that this is a commitment you've made in homage to God, whichever or whomever you choose to worship.
I believe that marriage is access to God, because God is Love. Love is union. Yoga is Union. Relationship is Union. These are all interchangeable.
I had a beautiful discussion about marriage with my lover the other night. I brought these things up, but then I still had a few apprehensions... How can you say you're going to feel the same way about someone forever? What happens if someone else comes along that you fall in love with? I told him that I knew I couldn't bounce back, because past relationships have killed me.
I don't know if he said it or I said it (I'm a little drunk off Chardonnay), but a mutual understanding came about that the trust which develops with time cannot be matched by an outside person, because it has been nurtured and fed for all that time by your spouse. No one person can come in and match that trust without that time and effort.
This reminds me of one of my favorite Gurus, Osho. In one of his lectures, he mentioned that if you continue to nourish your relationship, you communicate and remain conscious, there's no reason why you shouldn't remain in love.
I think that the reason people fail in marriage is that they either give into their animal urges or they fall into an unconscious, lazy state of being in the relationship where it's not nourished.
I just thought of a good analogy. How do you expect a plant to grow without fertilizer and water, without continued fertilizer and water? If you stop feeding it, of course it's going to die.
Conscious action, determination and trust are key, and of course, being with someone who matches you. Being with a person who's easy to love. Who you know deeply, who you know enhances your life. That's how a marriage works. That's how you keep it going.
Art.
Anytime you give yourself over to your painting or your poem or your song (or any other medium)... you are truly an artist. Letting go of the fear and living in love.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Food for the Hungry.
His kisses, like air
Breathe sustenance
Into my life
His eyes, so intense
I'm locked in suspense
Through the ecstasy
And the strife
Oh, the glory to come
Oh, the work to be done
'To change the world,' he said
'Undefeated,'
'Is a life we know we've both needed.'
'This partnership,' she said
'Will ignite Ascension,'
'For Us and for All,'
'In this dimension.'
Photo Credits: Travis Owen ~ Lover and Artist
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