iamDrukpa

Writing Can Be Prayerful

2012-01-24T21:49:00.000+06:00

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-Janina Gomes
The information explosion and popularity of debates and talks in electronic media has perhaps reduced the art of writing to just another has-been activity. And yet, the more information we are exposed to, the more we are prone to introspection and reflection which find sensitive expression in writing. We mull over things, integrate the lessons we have learnt from them, see the context in which they happened and finally use them to form a framework within which we operate. Writing then becomes a kind of prayer, in which we come to understand ourselves better, learning, in the process, to change our attitudes and look for a deeper reality. Writing, as prayer, helps us know more about ourselves and progress on the spiritual path; its a prayer that reaches outwards in ever-growing concentric circles, becoming a way of relating our reality to God and to those around us.

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Many seekers maintain a personal diary in which they sort themselves out by recording their daily experiences. The pace of life gathers momentum when these personal reflections lead us forward on the path to divine realization. When we write, the writing turns into a dialogue with God.
All writing is expression of life. Great literature, poetry, art and science are not ends in themselves. When they continue to make a social impact, it is because they have touched a deeper chord in our existence.

Francis Thompson's poem The Hound of Heaven begins thus: "I fled him down the nights and down the days. I fled him down the arches of the years. I fled him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind."

The poet seems to be wrestling with God. He transmits the experience of struggle and deeper longings of the heart to readers through verse.
One could argue that every human activity is prayer. But, in writing, we are plumbing the depths of human existence and at some point, whilst doing so, we inevitably meet with God. Writing can help make the mundane and the sacred meet. In writing we interpret our own experiences, dreams, successes and failings and by so doing we create a common language and a common ground, where sharing becomes possible.

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Prayer on the Bridge (mikromission.wordpress.com)
Silent 'Artist,' Scorsese's 'Hugo' lead Oscar nominations - USA TODAY (usatoday.com)

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TATHANG: THE RIGHT ANGLE

2012-01-24T20:22:00.001+06:00

(a Turtle Tree Creations Concept)- TATHANG: THE RIGHT ANGLE PRESENTS A CHARITY PHOTO XHIBITION... COMING SOON TO THRILL YOUR CHILLS... AND WARM YOUR INNER CON=NUMB+DRUMS....

***THERE ARE NO BAD PHOTOGRAPHS...JUST BAD PHOTOGRAPHERS... AND IN BHUTAN BOTH ARE ANNU;LED.. 'COS; THERE AIN'T NO SUCH THING AS A BAD PHOTO IN THIS KINGDOM. HAVING SAID THAT... THE FEEL IS THE KEEL THAT LEADS TO THE HUMB;LING KNEEL... AND EVENTUALLY THE BILL THAT WILL HELP PAY FOR SOME THRILL... SO CHIP IN... GWET STARTLED.. TITILLATING YOUR SENSES...!
PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

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*** GAKLERING SOON IN A FRAME NEAR YOU ;D

Burma in 2012: A Political Report Card

2012-01-24T19:30:00.001+06:00

-Emma Varvaloucas

This guest blog post is from Deborah Weinberg, who is currently traveling in Burma (Myanmar). The post originated as an email to the author's friends and was forwarded to Tricycle—it is being published with her permission. In it, she tells us of Burma's new year political report card: A fresh wind of freedom is in the air, she says. Burma recently gained political attention when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the country in late November, ending a fifty-year estrangement between the U.S. and Burma. Despite this and though the government has been promising to continue reforms, Weinberg writes, "The generals are still holding the cards."

Mingalaba and Happy New Year! Our ten days in Burma was an exhilarating mix of walking the streets and neighborhoods of Yangon, seeing old friends and meeting remarkable new people. It was an opportunity to see for ourselves what was happening on the “inside,” as the activists on the Thai border say, and to see for ourselves evidence of meaningful change. The Burmese report card is a hopeful one. However, in the same breath things could teeter and plunge back into darkness in a Rangoon second, but that seems unlikely. 

We saw scenes that could not have happened six months ago. Images of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her father General Aung San are now displayed in all parts of the city without fear. They are plastered on the covers of every paper and journal sold at stalls on every corner in the city. The image of Hillary Clinton smiling broadly with Daw Suu, embracing like sisters, is displayed publicly and fearlessly. In past years, even hanging a photo of Aung San Suu Kyi in your shop could put you in prison for a lengthy stay. Even the mention of her name was not allowed by the military regime. 

The busy teashops are the political barometer in Burma and now show much evidence of change. Before people would sit for hours drinking their green tea, nibbling on the snacks offered: spicy noodles, tea-leaf salads and crisp samosas, but their political discontent was only whispered for fear of arrest. The teashops were the places for receiving smuggled news from the free world, the latest report of the newest political prisoner and the voice of the struggle for democracy. News, gossip and jokes mocking the military junta and their misdeeds would swiftly pass from one tea sipper to the next, from shop to shop and block to block until the entire city eventually heard the unfiltered truth. The real news never made the press, only propaganda.

Now, there is an undeniably positive and vibrant wind blowing in the hearts and minds of the people. We had numerous conversations on the street regarding the recent pro-democratic changes. People can now actually utter that word—“democracy”— without fear of imprisonment. We shared animated discussions with our poet friend, Aung. As we sat and drank tea he said that if the secret police were watching him now he would not be the least bit worried. "How can you arrest 55 million people?" he asks with a big grin on his face. I asked him if I could now email him news reports regarding Burma, democracy, and the freedom struggles from around the world without fear of reprisal and he laughed loudly saying that we could send him anything we wanted. Censorship of the Internet now seems to be a dead issue whereas before it was monitored severely. Really quite remarkable since only a year ago, BBC, Voice of America, Democratic Voice of Burma and all sites critical of the regime were dangerously off limits to Burmese citizens. Is this the beginning of the end of fear? It seems for the locals that there is no going back. We were told that if the changes were rolled back the reactions could be highly volatile and would generate a great deal of bad press which is the last thing the new administration wants. There is a strong mixture of hope and caution in the wind.

We are all now watching how the dramatic events in Burma impact the minority ethnic communities, refugees and political dissidents who have suffered so much abuse at the hands of the government. The promised release of political prisoners on January 4th disappointed all of us who are lovers of the Burmese people. Only a few prisoners—no more than 30—instead of the more than one thousand still suffering in the prisons were released. Strong pressure is on the government to release more in the coming weeks and months, but the generals are still holding the cards. We’ll find out in the coming months if the progress is real and a genuine road to freedom.

*Daytime in the Shwedagon Pagoda (Burma) by Randy Getty, a friend of Weinberg's who also travels to Burma annually. For other photos from Burma and his travels in Asia, visit http://www.rgetty.com/.

**From www.guardian.co.uk. Hillary Clinton and Aung San Suu Kyi.

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

HappyLosers & RhineStone CowBoys

2012-01-23T21:33:00.001+06:00

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I dunno where that Rhinestone Cowboy header came from but it just sprang- literally from the keyboards and jumped onto the screen!
I know- it’s my ever-white Kenny Rogers and that Blonde Busty what’s her name??? Jolly Dolly Golly Hangover Pardon subconsciountiously inconsequential attachment from days of hormonal yonder… Spent day lodged in clothes that might give even the crossworded hyena a definite indigestion- the perils and joys of the non-existence of Central Heating.
Watching the Auzzie Open Down Under and wondering at the obnoxiousness and the sheer audacity of the Sun in going below leaving us at the Tropic of Cancer pretty much as if in a boat called the Freezelatic Tittilatic. Spot Justine Henin doing an interview and man I miss that li’l Lioness Belgian and her glorious backhands. She seems happy… looks happy… that makes me happy! Saw Oprah on NDTV 24/7 doing the literal fest in Rajasthan, the land of colorful-coil-turbans and beautiful garments; esp. the women’s’ wear and the women wearing them. What a woman! She should clone a gazillion Oprah's with the same Genes… not gonna happen but you get the drift. R.E.S.P.E.C.T thy name is O.P.R.A.H and women thy name is O>P>R>A>H. May you live as you do… now and forever more… inspiring billions…. God bless ya.

Whatelse? saw The Last of the Mohicans. Daniel Day-Lewis at that age could have OWNED everything… as he still does with films such as “There Will Be Blood”. What Dedication! What Craft! Such Art! Boy this man is smart with a big big HEART.
And Madeleine Stowe has gotta be one of the most graceful… dignified… beautiful… ageless women ever to grace the Silver Screen.

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What else? The cold’s been well balanced by the generous sunshine during the days: clear blue skies and snow-capped mountains… I’ve never seen the horizons and silhouettes of Thimphu's mountains as snow-laden as they been this abundant winter. Indeed the day today was such a warm wintry day we couldn’t resist going on a motorcycle ride… rode with a couple of hommies nowhere in particular and everywhere in general…. But now that its dusk and the Sun’s gone; foggedaboudid!
Gotta shack up back in my rutty shack in Semtokha… Love the roughness and the edginess and ofcourse- the ubiquitous cold… (Just do the Dump) before hitting the nightly hump is the one regulation all my mates and I follow: (try taking a crap at minus 4-7 midnight outdoors with the wind-chill factor included). Checked the mandatory Gmails and found a note that elates me: the ex-wife says my son is doing an act in a commercial to raise awareness… advocacy… and protest against the deportation of kids in Holland back to their native lands where they have nothing but nothing; some bitter memories they do not wanna recall, at best and at worst, a life of uncertainty… which, as a kid…. Has to hurt. Recently he’d done an ad for a clothing line called SALTY DOG and I was mighty proud as any parent would be… but this little information really does make me smile. Keep on keeping son is all I can think about and really; words are mere letters to the feeling in the gut that knows what I know and feel about him and I hope and pray and am sure… he does and will do too… though young in age (he’s 10), he knows… just as instinctively as any creature in the wilderness does… about the unbreakable bond. My prayers swoosh toward him and the kids in question who could be deported 'cos now the government’s cutting down on the budget and they don’t wanna have step-kids.
Some things in life never change and one of them is INJUSTICE. But for every action there is an opposite and enlightened reaction and that is to STAND UP, like the Marley song, and that is to FIGHT such institutionalized behavior that disposes of some at the comfort of others.
Whatelse? Yup… got a message from a mate wishing me a HAPPY NEW YEAR… now before you lose your marbles; know that in Bhutan there are umpteen new years. We call them LOSERS. And tomorrow is one more NEW YEAR going by the local shamanistic bred into Buddhism bred into animism that is bred into lunar astrology and bingo! Its HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D so happy New Year… sounds much better and might I add; tongue firmly in side-cheek. HAPPY LOSER!!!
This marks the 4th time we have had NEW YEARS since the MAYANs went, “Oh Fug Yourself: What apocalypse? Our calendar can’t handle too many numbers hence we are starting a new one”- and this is where White People take the cake: remember Y2K? I thought that was something like the FBI, the CIA, NASA… y’know…Yankees and their love for… what you call them? Abbreviations? Well… whaddayaknow… the same folks went nuts went Mr Cameroon said Pandora was a movie and the Nabi a figment of his very fertile imagination.

Gesus!

And meanwhile I’ve tuned out of the Tobacco Act… they went back to the way it used to be: the spin doctor tells us. What he didn’t and what we all know is that there are folks still imprisoned because the majority of those monkees thought they could lay out our Destinies for Us. So here’s a prediction- those 40+odd innocents will walk free before the ballot boxes open in 2013; so I’m thinking it will be circa- fall-winter-2012… Some things never change: one of them is politicians.
It’s like what the Pacino character tells the young Reeves lawyer in “The Devil’s Advocate” – “Vanity – my favorite sin” with that BIG PACINO GRIN & TWINKLING EYES! Ciao and Happy Loser!

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Mipham Models Salty Dog

2012-01-23T11:43:00.000+06:00

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PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

Tarmac Calls ( Hit The Road J...)

2012-01-22T02:25:00.003+06:00

Its six minutes to midnight. I got out of Mojo Park. Before you jump to presumptions, its a rock & roll platform located at the basement (how apt) in this swanky new escalated mall called Sheare Square which I had going on awhile as The Shearer Sq. till a quick wit quipped "Shitty Square?"

The band was nice... as nice as bands can be and for a pack of youngsters from neighboring Kurseong in Northeast India, they did some rollicking Pinkus Floydus numbers. So here I am, back where I feel the coziest under the circumstances of having to type into a laptop minus a battery and minus 4-7 degrees below Celsius depending on your insulation. I see that my little private confessions of a heartfelt mind on the twists and turns of one man's romance is a boredom to another man's philandering ways. Or did a couple of female species read about what I feel and straight away tabbed the button that says "Bore"!!!

I dunno and I couldn't careless... for one must write what is right and that piece gave me peace; a commodity in rare form and sparsely populated wherever you happen to be in any time and any place. Let's rewind a bit over here and go through the nuts and bolts: I've not blogged proper in more than four months- due to reasons as varied and as inconsequential as the conversations over the goddamn weather, that's freezing all the prolonged ends of my limbs and as deeply shallow and casually nappy as the honorable MPs housing the chairs in Parliament. I haven't taken a J.O.B with any of the media firms due to my moralistic, existential and other assorted hang ups. I've a thing with the S.Y.S.T.E.M... you see... I thought I'd do a paper; a sort of weekly interbred of The Onion and the Columbia Review Journal and bring some of the laughter so inherent in the Bhutanese to the papers; man they are getting so bloody serious. But the authorizing agency chucks that proposition of mine back to me with demands such as five-eared-professionals, a well decked financial plan that makes mandatory that you be rich; that you have a swell account in the balance... and I've never quite understood the need for banks. Besides that, there were other wants in my proposition such as a pyramid of workers with experience none possess in the medium.

Going by their diktats, I did a quick math and figured there would be two papers running legitimately on those regulations.

So as we speak, my dream of providing an Atsara's Right View challenging conventionalities of seeing the nature and order of things remains just that- a clownish affair with just me and the Atsara laughing. You could call it a laughing matter, washed down with a chuckle, a giggle or whatever-else tickles your funny bones.

Here's another idea that's got me gripped: I been asking "can one mix money and morality?" Those with the cash say its a competitive dash; and those without say the world's gotten brash with that rash. the ones in between are all into hash... Looks like a stalemate gridlocked since money made man civilized.

Now that none of my ideas seem feasible, I been asking the next obvious question. Is it me or is it me? Turns out it is me and has always been me. If I played the conventional guy, the rumor mills will go "He's changed. He's become a nice guy." The price one pays is heavy for being who we are... I doubly admire the 9-5 dudes... I wonder how they do it day in and day out. The answers have been less adorable than the image in my mind. "No choice" "Duty calls" "The Kids" "The family" and so on do the rounds. Then came my next query: "But in the end, what does it entail?" "What does it all boil and trickle down to?"

Nobody has answered that. They tell you, "Do what makes you happy or do what you wanna do." very encouraging coming from folks who have obviously sacrificed a lot... to what end is unique to every individual...

But if that be the case, I'm hitting the road. I'm hitting the road 'cos the road beckons and I hear the call. That call that tells me "What else are you gonna do in a soiled go-around of skeptical wheel-borrowing?"

If life is a journey, the road must be walked. If the beauty of life is in its uncertainties; one must tred the path. If that be the scenario, one must walk into it expecting nothing. When you have got nothing, you've got nothing to lose; and if you've got nothing to lose, the smallest gain is still a bargain you din't foresee. Now hit the road Jack... And don't you come back no more....

Journey Well My Friends…..Journey Well!

I love this saying and find it offers me great hope. I am not needing to end up any given place at the end of the day….I just need to keep moving.

I love the saying because it is a long-term vision. This is not just about a new years resolution or even a theme for my 20′s or 30′s or even now in my 40′s….

This is about life….as long as I have breath, my commitment is to journey…..

But I have learned the importance of mile markers on my journey. I am being very intentional in this coming year to know their location and be able to look forward to the rest areas.
I am learning that for me to stay focused on the journey, I need to have specific goals to meet which also give me reason to celebrate. I am learning I look for places to stop and rest along the way. I am guarding against setting my goals to be about a destination…I don’t want to be a certain weight (even though I really kind of do), I am celebrating if I have established routines that will promote daily healthy living.

I am sure I will write more about my mile markers, rest areas and celebrations. I want to end by inviting you to establish your mile markers, rest area’s and celebration points on your journey. It makes the journey quite fun and definitely worth living….

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

When Scorpions Merge & Become Butterflies

2012-01-21T18:57:00.000+06:00

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I'm back in my shack... an attic actually, run by an amoral landlord with an amoral tenant- somethings are just meant to be. Destiny, pre-destiny and the company of such premonitions do take root in faceless nobodies that meet somehow and just as a rainbow, disappears into the vast edgless skies...

Yes. I'm back in my shack of an attic and mesmerized, nay, bewildered, by the speed of time and how it passes. It seems, like all past tense things tend to seem, just like yesterday that a struggling scorpion, beset by the cold winter chill, went about an accepted routine life and on such a night as yesterday, stopped by a tavern for the cold was turning him into one of Jack London's characters set in the Yukon and all he'd wanted was a lift to his shack. He did have an automobile... somewhat as weathered and battered as he himself was... but had to be garaged as his vital signs required replacements.

Hence he stopped by the tavern... and it was called the Twilight Tavern- a curious name now that he recalls suggesting it to one of the many owners that have passed the torch on to more optimistic beings of entrepreneurial callings.

That's where he saw the other scorpion, although in truth he'd sighted her earlier... albeit in a crowded bistro called Benez. But that fleeting memory aside, here he actually sighted her... and perhaps she sighted him too. Though referred to as a scorpion, she was more of a butterfly... one of those magical creatures that actually live life in a literally metamorphical manner... they change and they adapt... And they E.V.O.L.V.E... Now if you anagram that... You get L.O.V.E!

The First Stage: The Egg:
A butterfly starts life as a very small, round, oval or cylindrical egg. The coolest thing about butterfly eggs, is that if you look close enough you can actually see the tiny caterpillar growing inside of it. Some butterfly eggs may be round, some oval and some may be ribbed while others may have other features. The egg shape depends on the type of butterfly that laid the egg, nutrition stacked reminding you of all the lovely summers gone by.

The Second Stage: The Larva (Caterpillar):
When the egg finally hatches, most of you would expect for a butterfly to emerge, right? Well, not exactly. In the butterfly’s life cycle, there are four stages and this is only the second stage. Butterfly larvae are actually what we call caterpillars. Caterpillars do not stay in this stage for very long and mostly, in this stage all they do is hang around camouflaged eating green leaves... more summer memries!

The Third Stage: Pupa (Chrysalis):
The pupa stage is one of the coolest stages of a butterfly’s life. As soon as a caterpillar is done growing and they have reached their full length/weight, they form themselves into a pupa, also known as a chrysalis. From the outside of the pupa, it looks as if the caterpillar may just be resting, but the inside is where all of the action is. Inside of the pupa, the caterpillar is rapidly changing. Within the chrysalis the old body parts of the caterpillar are undergoing a remarkable transformation called ‘metamorphosis,’ to become the beautiful parts that make up the butterfly that will emerge. Tissue, limbs and organs of a caterpillar have all been changed by the time the pupa is finished, and is now ready for the final stage.

The Fourth Stage: The Butterfly!
Finally, when the caterpillar has done all of its forming and changing inside the pupa, if you are lucky, you will get to see an adult butterfly emerge. When the butterfly first emerges from the chrysalis, both of the wings are going to be soft and folded against its body. This is because the butterfly had to fit all its new parts inside of the pupa. As soon as the butterfly has rested after coming out of the chrysalis, it will pump blood into the wings in order to get them working and flapping – then they get to fly. Usually within a three or four-hour period, the butterfly will master flying and will search for a mate. And when its over, it begins anew.

Some sights in life just make you smile: a rainbow... an Atsara, and of course, a butterfly. But this butterfly had more than the butter and the flight and the light in her design. She was that rare scorpion who'd managed to become the majestic eagle... the Metamorphosing Butterfly arising from the Sphinx every time she was pulled down. In that tavern, in that cold chill... swayed this warm being attracting eyes as easily as a bright bulb does those mysterious moths.

The two scorpions locked eyes, and something predestined happened: they liked each other. People say if love is blind why'd you need sight... but the flip-side to that coin is that there are people with sight but no vision...I guess its one of those things one cannot explain... so you go with that natural flow... and lemme tell you; such a flow comes alight with a lot of glow, which again explains why I'm writing what i'm writing. The timing is perfect. The setting is a mirror-reflection... the only hitch here is that I'm reminiscing, and when one being does that, its also because he is grateful and sad, alone and lonely, yet alive enough to recall the times he had... for in the end what are we but stories?

This story lives in him as much as the poison at the end of its tail. The most beautiful stories are those that are yet to be completed... Once upon a time may sound like an apt beginning but really, once upon a time comes bang in the middle of a story that hath begun lifetimes ago...
And "they lived happily ever after" is another misguided misnomer, for the future is yet to be ascertained, the past hath begun like a dream you enter into, never knowing the plot and the cast and the twist and the turns till you wake up either exhilarated or totally gobsmacked!

The two scorpions made a home in that shack of an attic and turned it into a garden of butterflies; They enjoyed the most banal of subjects and watched the most cliched of shows- whether that was broadcast on cable TV or in the pajama and drama surrounding the inhabitants of the capital city of a country that was a kingdom located in the cold beautiful balm of the great Himalayas. Here was another paradox- she came from the New Land, and he was a native of the Old Kingdom. She came of the desert and he was bred in the mountains. She came of a country that could be a continent unto itself and he was a citizen of one of the smallest unknown kingdoms in the world.

But time and tide comes a knocking and all things that are, wither or burn away... not necessarily to end things but rather incongruously, to start things anew. And as we speak, one scorpion makes plans to hit the road with a hope, no matter how fleeting, that the other will always be happy and content, and forever bonded and loved in his heart; as she must do and feel and think and act upon three continents, two oceans and dozens of time zones away.

If physical matter was an obstacle, this expression would never have found its voice... and its that mystical bond of a love begun long ago, of a bond made eons past, that when all is said and done, they will always be able to smile and wish upon a star, that each is happy wherever the other is.

Thus continueth the tale of the two scorpions- tho' one manifests more like a butterfly, and the other, as the gentle hurricane behind its beautifully patterned wings. Such is Karmic Love, and therein lies the Yin and the Yang... And if this tale began long long ago; we might yet still have a tale to tell... about this Mariposa... This Papillon! XoXo

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

When Butterflies Melt

2012-01-21T12:58:00.002+06:00

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Its another routine flash in the pan as I exit with a head full of suffocated memories from the dark dungeons of the subconscious mind... and that obligatory sleep. What were those dreams? Were they even dreams? Am I awake this moment? Who was it? What was it? Lao Tzu had the same conundrum some thousands of years ago, so I know its not an ordinary dilemma. "Was it a butterfly dreaming it was me or was it me dreaming I was a butterfly?" He asked and pondered.

The good old sage simply worded what has been the state of things, as it were. I've been thinking, who really cares and what really is the point? Whether it was a shitfly hovering over a fresh dump or a fresh hot dump steaming and thinking vice versa what really doth it matter? Another day of gravitas will keep me grounded no matter how levitational I feel. Another day of wagging tongues and gossiping gupshup will keep my ears titillated no matter how detached I dain to be. Another day of money and the mullah and god and the allah will keep me material no matter how immaterial I hope to be. Another day of revolt and revolution; suckers and sychophanths will keep me righteous no matter how deranged I've become.

And that's that. A walnut can't pretend to be a rose, and I'm no walnut either. What feels right must be left; the ego must stay and be dealt with. The country must be detached, together with conventional wisdom that binds and ties you to family and the like... to dissolve into the ocean of suffering and death like eons and eons of souls that were sold out to that fear and paid the ultimate price- of living a negotiated life.

Call everything by their true names and should you not know their names, ask them. Should they be out of earshot, give them a wave... but know not knowing their names is not a crime. A rose by any other name is still a rose but knowing that fact, you possibly could not call it an ass.

Buddhas still walk among us... just as contended beggars still lie drunk asleep at the doors of the miserable rich men. Everything is fvckin relative... and should that be the case, question everything your gut is not content with. Nobody has a monopoly on love, theft or life... the interpretations are open. Its in the way we go about our insanity that makes us sane... for in the end, as this bard said, "We are all trying to kill time in some way or another, but when all is said and done, time ends up killing us."

Now go ahead and wake up and for this day, for just this moment in time, like another comedian accentuated, "Be a Man! Do the Right Thing"... Whatever That Is...

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

A Mustard Muses

2012-01-20T21:16:00.000+06:00

I dunno how I came to be. All I know is I'm here and I'm haunted by the then and the there; the if's and the but's... and the usual SOS packages. On my right bar there's this app called Zemanta and it says it needs about 140 letters to do its magic... looks like I've yet to reach that magical mark 'cos I'm glancing there and ain't nothing happening. Its a fvcked up world if you ask me... magic or magi its still an uneven steven world filled by those with morals without the money and those with money minus the moral. And the question is; is one better than the other? Personally I'm done with morals and ethics, just as I'm done with that bloody necessity called the M.O.N.E.Y... which monkee in a suit invented that shit? All its ever done is bring more harm than warmth to the human race that already comes begotten with suffering, attachment, desire, aversion and the like in singing "We are the Champions' followed by a pulsating rendition of the same Queenie's "We will rock you".

Here are a few lessons I've mugged up the existential way: Money and Morals don't mix. Its either one or the other- take your pick. Life's a bitch and the sooner you embrace that the easier it gets. Attachments are gone come along whether you like it or not, together with umpteen viruses. My solution has been embrace the pain and the hurt; for that probably;y is your karma, and get on with whatever it is that your gut is telling you to do all along, together with conventional fears whispering in your ears "No! No! No!" Third: Wherever you go; there your are... together with all your hang ups and miscalls. The sooner you recognize these hangers on the better equipped you'll become.

Fourth: Love is a four letter word as is Hope. Kill these longings. Cut off those cords. Your bread can't be buttered both sides; just as you can't have the cake and eat it too. Make your move- make your choice and be prepared to pay the consequences. If its good put on a smile and spread the love. If its bad lap it all up and get on with life. If you do the crime; you gotta do the time too... and Crime's twin brother is Punishment... just as War and Peace are also alter-egos... of essentially the same thing... the same person and the actions thereof. Be prepared to die anytime anyplace and know this in your gut and in your scheme of things, keep this thought constant... for the more you dwell on death; the purer your life becomes, and know that we are all dying... constantly... momenta to moment.... all things composite must decay and go... Never regret a bloody thing: you did what you were supposed to at any given time; and that is your karma. Don't run from your karma.. its fruitless... pointless... And have the Heart to take that Leap of Faith... Listen to Your Gut... Its Seldom Wrong!

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

Some Of The Good Doc's Prescriptions...

2012-01-20T17:09:00.000+06:00

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

43 Years of ... Easy Rider (1969)

2012-01-20T16:59:00.000+06:00

For me, this is one of the best films ever. Jim Gourley has very kindly done some clips of the movie here. What follows is a tribute to this great movie, presented as a short essay, followed by a "click"-able index of each stage of the film, and last but not least the guided tour itself presented as individual pages describing each major scene using stills taken from the film.

A Short Essay

Although much intellectual critique has been directed at this film, for me, quite simply, Easy Rider is inspiring, beautiful, disturbing, humorous, provocative, thoughtful ... something I liked to get lost in. Throughout much of the beginning we are entranced in a world of dreamy scenes, as the two heroes Wyatt and Billy, (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper), cruise it down the road to 60's rock'n'roll hits. * Hopper As we travel with them we encounter all manner of people ranging from actors, farmers, young families, and young people. The mood turns scary when a turn of events unfolds with the murder of a new found friend and passanger about half way along the film. The scenes that follow this event reveal much of the underlying social tension. I now believe that at least seven distinct themes occur in the film... (I've watched the film quite a few times.) • The Definitive Youth Odyssey of the 1960's • A Search for Oneself • An Inquiry into Morals, and Values • Sex, Drugs, and Rock'n'Roll • Male bonding • The Meaning of Life; in particular God, Spirituality, and Death • The Hippie Ideal • The Clash of Society's values with those of our riders The motorcycle is a focal point in each case. Each "theme" could constitute a complete interpretation of the film, like a point of view. These are just seven I've come with having reflected on it. Have a surf through these pages and see what YOU think. Or even better, watch the film, then surf through these pages, then you can really compare.

Music in Easy Rider I've compiled a little list of the music in Easy Rider, taken from the rolling credits at the end, here it is ... • SteppenWolf, "The Pusher", Hoyt Axton • SteppenWolf, "Born to be Wild", Mars Bornfire • The Byrds, "I Wasn't Born to Follow", Gerry Goffin & Carole King • The Band, "The Weight", Jaime Robbie Robertson • The Holy Modal Rounders, "If You Want to be a Bird", Antonia Duren • Fraternity of Man, "Don't Bogart Me", lead vocals by Larry Wagner • The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "If Six Was Nine", Jimi Hendrix • Little Eva, "Let's Turkey Trot", Gerry Goffin & Jack Keller • The Electric Prunes, "Kyrie Eleison", David Axelrod • The Electric Flag an American Music Band, "Flash, Bam, Pow", Mike Bloomfield • Roger McGuinn, "It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding.)", Bob Dylan • Roger McGuinn, "Ballad of Easy Rider", Roger McGuinn About the Walkthrough I've split the film into eleven parts, (sixteen now that I've added background RealAudio) to make it easier for me. (Otherwise I wouldn't know where to start.) You can click on each of these headings to jump straight to the relevant bit of the film. From the story pages, you can navigate back and forth using the signpost icons. Don't forget to visit my friend's Easy Rider sites; you can do this from the Links page. • Insights from People Contributing to EZrider • Books on Easy Rider 1. Introduction 2. The Farmer and his Family 3. The Hitchhiker I 4. The Hitchhiker II 5. Hippie Commune I 6. Hippie Commune II 7. Hippie Commune III 8. Parading Without a License I 9. Parading Without a License II 10. Free at Last 11. George Smokes a Joint 12. The Redneck Cafe 13. Attack in the Night 14. The House of Blue Lights 15. Mardi Gras 16. The Trip 17. End of the Film 18. Links on Easy Rider

Happy Riding! PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

Salty Dog Clothing Line- Kids Wear

2012-01-17T19:18:00.001+06:00

https://www.facebook.com/wehkampnl

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

The 13th Ride: Aggie Rider's Final Cut

2012-01-16T17:38:00.001+06:00

Brr...It’s cold; it’s freezing cold. It is 6:00am. I am still debating whether I should participate in this motorcycle ride to Sibsoo. I am at the clubhouse by 7:00 am. The motorcycle ride is scheduled to start at 7:30 am. Pale Rider, our club president, has been waiting for the past half-hour along with X-Rider. I am the first member to show up. Shit! Shit!it is going to start like all our past rides – LATE. Think all our riders need to get watches and rename our club to “Never on time Dragon”.The members start showing up eventually; we hear all the excuses in book. “All right, gather around” says Pale Rider. We get the usual pep talk and then somebody notices Bap Rider, our Sergeant-at-Arms, is missing. We are already an hour late and decide to start the ride sans Bap Rider.We are late but the sun is going to be out and that is good; that is really good. The temperature should be bearable now.

We start our ride to Sibsoo. Everything about motorcycling is going through my head. I am thinking of all the clichés; Freedom, Rebels, One with the Machine. It actually felt quite good imaging me, a rebel with tattoos wearing a half leather jacket taking it to the man. Well, it felt quite good until around 10 minutes into the ride. Fuck, fuck, fuck..a slight change; a rebel wearing winter gear with a running nose under the motorcycle helmet. Forget taking it to the man, I need to wipe my nose. Wish these motorcycles came along with heaters. Bloody motorcycle designers, do I need to think of everything?

Riding on the road felt pretty good. Accelerating, slowing down, and taking the twists and turns felt exhilarating. I was glad for the windy Bhutanese roads that prevented us from riding any faster. The sub-zero wind would have frozen my testiclesinto popsicle sticks. We stop to eat about 2 hours into the ride. Like always, we stop over at the dirtiest and shadiest place we come across. Hey, we are bikers now; it is expected. Terrible food, drinks that could have removed the rust out of steel but we gulp it down somehow; again, hey our biker’s stomach is expected to handle it.Dirty shady place; Check. Terrible food and drinks; Check. The only thing missing; wild bikini clad women dancing on table tops. Another 4 hours and we are almost down south in Phuentsholing. We remove our winter gear on one of our pit stops. I am now in my half leather jacket. Getting close to looking like a real biker. All I need now is a tattoo of a naked woman on my left arm and the words “Ride Fast, Die Hard” on my other arm. More twists and turns; more accelerating and slowing down. Shortly after, we are in Phuentsholing. Cool Rider, Steel Rider and Jigs Rider have been waiting over half a day. “You guys are fucking late” they say, “but that is alright, we are Dragons and we are always late”. We stop over at an even dirtier place and head on to Sibsoo... RIDE TO LOVE, LOVE TO RIDE! PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

Spacing Out

2012-01-16T11:35:00.002+06:00

***Handle invasion of privacy, let go of the desire to control and overcome grief.

I am a loving mother and a busy professional with two grown-up children who are successful professionals, too. I have a peculiar problem of invasion of privacy. My daughter, who is 38, reads all the letters, emails and phone messages, diary jottings and any other communication I have with my friends. Both my children are single and live with me and my husband. I have no dark secrets, but I find this terribly annoying. Despite repeatedly telling her that this does not behoove a lady, she continues this disgusting habit. Do you think she is insecure about something? How do I deal with this? My husband cannot help in this as he, too, does the same — reads all communication I have with my friends! Please help. — Mahalakshmi, Tamil Nadu This is strange behavior, but the root isn’t insecurity — it’s hostility. Your daughter is showing aggression against you. In so doing, she is siding with her father, so the problem is a tangled family matter. Families often end up doing strange things behind the walls of their house, because when no one from the outside is there for a reality check, all kinds of unsocial and antisocial behaviors flourish. To end this intrusion into your private life requires several things: Stand up for yourself and stop being the victim. Examine why you feel a need to let two people walk all over you. Stop making excuses. Your privacy is a right, not a suggestion that others can reject at will. Confront the power struggle that is going on inside your house. Your husband and daughter have seized all the power, making you the outsider. In a psychologically healthy household, your husband would recognize that you are his primary relationship, not his daughter. Put a time limit on change. If your daughter doesn’t stop within a week, tell her she must find a new place to live. Seek an outside ally to help you if you feel too weak or insecure to carry out the above-mentioned steps. Find someone with a strong, reliable moral sense. Stand back and see if you can find resources to bring normality back to three troubled relationships. My 30-year-old son is dating a girl with a poor reputation. She is known to have ‘flings’ with rich boys. I am shocked to learn that he is doing so just to have a ‘good time’. He said so himself. My pleadings to him to stop seeing her are falling on deaf ears. I am distraught. How can I ignore something that I know is not doing my son any good? —Mary Patrick, Kolkata Two psychological factors are at work here, and I’m sorry to say that neither works on your behalf. The first factor is that people are goaded to do things when someone else tells them not to, especially a parent. The second factor is over-mothering. Your son is 30. If he wants to take up jet skiing, attend burlesque shows, and collect poisonous snails, it’s entirely his business, not yours. Try to find a more appropriate outlet for your motherly concerns. Helping a poor child or working at a social charity would be a good step. Your good intentions are misplaced right now.

I am a happy person and love my family and friends. I have not harmed anyone as far as I know. Yet I have experienced great tragedies in life including losing a teenaged child to illness and another to the tsunami. Why is God being so unkind? I know you will say it is previous karma but I don’t buy that. —Vimala Sengupta, Pune If a divine messenger told you that it was past karma (not the answer I would give) or that God simply wanted to show disfavor, would you actually feel better? Your sense of being cursed is real. It’s a way of holding on to grief rather than moving on. You will be healed when the questioning stops, not when you get an answer. Let me express my deep sympathy for your loss. I’m sure every reader feels the same. The grieving process isn’t simple or short. It does you no good to hear words like ‘move on.’ When grief is present, it dominates the mind and emotions. But it would help you to engage in the process if you are able to. Otherwise, grief gets stuck in the heart and becomes a wound. I would hate to see this happen to you. Get in touch with others who have lost family in the tsunami. Find a trusted confidante who has been through grief and knows that it can be healed. I realize that you feel isolated. This is not the road to healing. Only by letting other people in and confronting your pain can you find a way out. I hope these words have helped, or will help in the near future.

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

SIBSOO RIDE – The UnCut Version By Aggie Rider

2012-01-16T10:37:00.000+06:00

Brr... It’s cold; it’s fucking cold. It is 6:00 am and I am still debating whether I should participate in this motorcycle ride to Sibsoo. I am at the clubhouse by 7:00 am and the motorcycle ride is scheduled to start at 7:30 am. Pale Rider, our club president, has been waiting for the past half-hour along with X-Rider and I am the first member to show up. Shit! Shit! it is going to start like all our past rides – LATE. Think all our riders need to get watches. The members start showing up eventually; and we hear all the excuses in book. “All right, gather around” says Pale Rider. We get the usual pep talk and then somebody notices, Bap Rider, our Sergeant-at-Arms, is missing. We are already an hour late and decide to start the ride sans Bap Rider. We are late but the sun is going to be out and that is good; that is really good. The temperature should be bearable now.

We start our ride to Sibsoo. Everything about motorcycling is going through my head. I am thinking of all the clichés; Freedom, Rebels, One with the Machine. It actually felt quite good imaging me, a rebel with tattoos wearing a half leather jacket taking it to the man. Well, it felt quite good until around 10 minutes into the ride. Fuck, fuck, fuck.. a slight change; a rebel wearing winter gear with a running nose under the motorcycle helmet. Forget taking it to the man, I need to wipe my nose. Wish these motorcycles came along with heaters. Bloody motorcycle designers, do I need to think of everything?

Riding on the road felt pretty good. Accelerating, slowing down, and taking the twists and turns felt exhilarating. And thank you for the windy Bhutanese roads, it does not allow you to ride any faster; riding any faster would have frozen my testicles. We stop to eat about 2 hours into the ride. Like always, we stop over at the dirtiest and shadiest place we come across. Hey, we are bikers now and it is expected. Terrible food, terrible drinks but we gulp it down somehow; again, hey, our biker’s stomach is expected to handle it. Dirty shady place; tick. Terrible food and drinks; tick. The only thing missing; wild bikini cladded women dancing on table tops. Another 4 hours and we are almost down south in Phuentsholing. We remove our winter gear on one of our pit stops. I am now in my half leather jacket. Getting close to looking like a real biker. All I need now is a tattoo of a naked woman on my left arm and the words “Ride Fast, Die Hard” on my other arm. More twists and turns; more accelerating and slowing down; and before I know it we are in Phuentsholing. Cool Rider, Steel Rider and Jigs Rider have been waiting over half a day. We stop over at an even dirtier place and head on to Sibsoo... RIDE TO LOVE, LOVE TO RIDE.

PS: DEAR A RIDER- PLZ. DO CONTINUE! LOVED THE START-UP… NOW BRING IN THE REST AND KEEP WRITING! GRINNINGLY, TOXIC… PPS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

Its Money That Causes Poverty: a TZM NYear's Address...

2012-01-14T13:53:00.000+06:00

Dear Mates Near and Afar: In the wake of the old year turning into the new, we find ourselves with a World unchanged. Or has it? The tremendous effort put out by individuals Yourselves alike has had an impact and here is why! Continued Financial crisis, Occupy & entering the Mainstream media and debates: 2011 was the year that opened the eyes to many, that the financial crisis was not a temporary event but an ongoing process that is not self-resolving but needs to be looked at thoroughly in order to be solved. Denial of crisis has been made impossible by many including the Occupy movement late 2011 by demanding change in the form of protest. Consequently a lot of discussion has been raised about the functioning of our social and economic systems, hence allowing us to put forward information about and arguments in favor of a Resource Based Economic Model.

Various Chapters have reported priceless opportunities to appear and Comment on national/commercial television in their countries and to speak On behalf of The Zeitgeist Movement trying to communicate our shared “Train of thought”. Many chapters have had great success on the streets And hosting various events such as Zday’s, Media Festivals and of course Moving Forward screenings. While an immediate “skyrocketing” growth did Not occur, seeds for thought were planted amongst many individuals whom may at some point reach the conclusion as have you and i; that we are in serious shit and if we do not drastically change how we operate our society, we will be in even more. The Movement and Moving Forward: This past year has been tremendously turbulent on all levels of participation. It can be said with certainty that a young organized movement as ours has been put to the test in various ways such as: - Inhibition of participation of individuals due to a lack of financial resources - Public mockery by various parties or media - Organizational differences and consequential split with The Venus Project - Various administrative, technical and organizational challenges However, we are still here and more solid and determined than ever. Soon to be published in some form an overview of Chapters will show how far our message is spreading. And we should continue to spread this information and engage our community on all levels possible. Some things to look forward to this year: - Regular/Monthly Updates (Audio&Video) on what our worldwide chapters are doing and coverage of events & media appearances - TZM Blog interlinked with various global & chapter sites in order to spread news and announcements fast and effective - More Global Campaigns executed by all or groups of Chapters - More and bigger Global event days - New people standing up to communicate the movement to the public on a “Speakers” level (could be you?) - Improved and additional guides for various target audiences (Chapters, Newcomers etc) - Further solidifying of our organization and daily operation as to have it Operate in the background. Hopefully we will get through to even more people and groups of people. We will have to do it together. Respectfully not everyone can participate with the same time and energy, but if we all do our part we are undeniable. Being one of the few working on the Global Administration i can safely say that we are not 500.000 strong, its more than that. And if we assume the “Train of thought” to be the core reason of this movement’s Existence, we are even bigger.

Motion implies the movement of something in particular and in this specific Case requires the participation of individuals like us communicating this “train of thought” to others in order to arrive at a desired Destination. Therefore i ask of yourselves a continuation of participation and of those of you that are new or not currently in a Chapter to join or start your local chapter and lend a hand if you are in the liberty to do so. I know I will keep doing my best to move this movement forward this year and hopefully many to come

provided a RBEM has not been adopted in the meantime ha.ha.ha) and i hope you will do the same. It is our world after all, and natural or out of world threats on the side, we are the only One’s that can change it. Gilbert Ismail Global Chapters Administration (Team Head) The Zeitgeist Movement ~We can build an economy that does not destroy its natural support systems, a global community where the basic needs

of all the Earth’s people are satisfied, and a world that will allow us to think of ourselves as civilized. This is entirely doable. -- Lester Brown~

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

Lesson From the Tiger

2012-01-12T18:45:00.002+06:00

By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

Jim Corbett, after whom a famous national park in India has been named, was an expert on the nature of tigers. He once wrote: “No tiger attacks a human being unless provoked.” People who live in jungle areas where tigers roam will confirm the truth of Jim Corbett’s words. There is usually no cause for concern when one comes face to face with a tiger. Unless it is provoked—or harbours deep-rooted suspicion of human beings—the beast will ignore one and continue on its way.

And how does this suspicion form in some tigers? Tigers are by nature not ill-disposed towards human beings. Only very few of them can be called man-eaters, and even they were not born as such. They became man-eaters, not through any fault of their own, but through the folly of human beings. Usually it is inexperienced hunters who do the damage. They shoot at a beast, wounding but not killing it. A tiger injured in this manner becomes man’s enemy. Wherever it sees a human being, it attacks and kills. The same is true of most beasts of prey. They only attack man when they have already been wounded by him.

This information from the world of nature holds deep significance for man. It shows that one should not think of anyone—not even the most savage people—as one’s enemy in advance. One will only be treated as an enemy if that is how one sees others. If one does not view them with animosity, they are more likely to be amicable in return. The second lesson is that one should not take measures against anyone without sufficient preparation. If the measures that one takes are indecisive, they are sure to be counter-productive. The other party will only become further provoked, and tension between the two will deepen further.

Everyone has certain needs and desires in this world, which they remain busy fulfilling. The secret of life is not to stand in a person’s way. If one does not make oneself a target for another’s vengeance, but lets everyone continue pursuing his own goal in life, then one is not going to find one’s own path blocked by others. One will find everyone so absorbed in minding their own business that they have no time to interfere with that of others.

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

The End Is The Beginning

2011-12-31T18:56:00.002+06:00

What is The Secret? What is Rhonda Byrne’s philosophy? What is the Law of Attraction?

It’s defined many times, in many different ways, by many different people in the book. Here are a few of the more concise descriptions: “Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And it’s attracted to you by virtue of the images you’re holding in your mind. It’s what you’re thinking. Whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you. Every thought if yours is a real thing – a force.” “Thoughts become things!” “Thoughts are magnetic, and thoughts have a frequency. As you think thoughts, they are sent out into the Universe, and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency. Everything sent out returns to the source – you.”

Got it? If you think about something, that something will be attracted to your life. Whatever is in your life is there because you caused it to be there. All the good and bad things surrounding you – your friends or loneliness, your loving or abusive relationships, your success or failure, your health or illness, your life and death – all are there because you caused them to be there. This is the “Law of Attraction”. And that’s it. The rest of the book is details. To be fair, these details are fairly important to The Secret itself. But the core of The Secret’s philosophy is described above, and the rest of the book is issues like: how to use The Secret more efficiently, how all the great minds of our time succeeded by knowing The Secret, how to use The Secret to lose weight, gain money and find love. There are glowing personal proofs by those who’ve benefited from The Secret, and that The Secret works because all of existence is connected at the quantum level. Quantum relationships and “thought frequencies”. Rhonda Byrne says much in The Secret about quantum relationships and “thought frequencies”. Indeed The Secret requires these things to work as Byrne describes. So let’s examine that aspect first. Here is “How The Secret works”, taken from key points Byrne claims in The Secret:

Every thought that you have in your mind has a measurable frequency. Your thoughts are “magnetic”: The “frequency” of one thought will “magnetically” attract things to you, those things will match the “frequency” of your original thought. When you think that thought, it’s instantly broadcast to the Universe. A sensible person might respond, okay, you’ve given a nice overview of how The Secret works, but what about the detail? How is your brain frequency sent to the Universe? Can this be measured? Why are thoughts “magnetic”? How does a thought – with little or no measurable mass, generate any kind of magnetic force? The Secret and Rhonda Byrne answer these kinds of questions in two different ways:

1) Quantum mechanics. Or perhaps that should be “quantum mechanics”, since Byrne makes a few claims about quantum states that are wrong: This is a bad comparison: many people DO know how television works. And those who don’t can find out. Television technology is based on provable, testable, repeatable methods in physics and electronics, and can conclusively be demonstrated to work. The Secret is not based on such methods, and can not be conclusively demonstrated to work. Your thoughts can affect quantum states. No, thoughts do not affect quantum states. The Secret uses an example of television: Most people don’t understand that it works, only that it does work. Therefore, we don’t need to know how The Secret works, only that it does. Your brain “frequencies” communicate at a quantum level with the Universe. No, there is no known way to communicate using a quantum state. Information can not be passed using quantum states.

2) We don’t know how The Secret works, and don’t need to know.Trust on faith that it works. More problems with The Secret and Rhonda Byrne’s philosophy Now we know all about The Secret and how it works. It’s a poorly-designed philosophy, because it also has internal conflicts and inconsistencies, none of which are addressed properly or at all in the book. Here’s a list of several problems with The Secret: What if one person’s desires conflict with another’s?Whose thoughts will “win”? Religion and politics are great examples showing one person’s good is another person’s evil. What about accidents? The Secret holds that there are no accidents: anything that happens to us – good or bad – is something we brought upon ourselves because we were thinking about it. Look at the bigger picture, and this is just glorified predestination: If I use The Secret to make the world the way I want it, then I’m changing the fate of hundreds, thousands or millions of people. But what if those people are also using The Secret? There is an unavoidable conflict here.

The Secret is a subjective reality. Indeed, several parts of the book describe this very clearly, from explicitly saying as much, to insisting that you should ignore problems in order to fix them. The Secret recommends dangerous treatment of health issues. Why take medicine? According to Rhonda Byrne and The Secret, you don’t need it. We get quotes like this: “In fact, parts of our body are literally replaced every day. Other parts take a few months, other parts a couple of years. But within a few years we each have a brand new physical body.” Have these “experts” ever taken a biology course or opened a textbook? It seems not. A brand new physical body every couple years would be great. But it doesn’t explain away heart disease, cholesterol build-up, neuron loss and senility, cartilage growth, and plenty of other evidence that our bodies are not magically renewed every few years. “The placebo effect is an example of the law of attraction in action. When a patient truly believes the tablet is a cure, he receives what he believes and is cured.”

This is not the placebo effect. The placebo effect is not meant to illustrate a cure, but a lessening of often subjective symptoms, like a headache. The whole concept here is that you can “think” your way out of a disease by positive thinking and using The Secret. When I was younger, a childhood friend of mine died of complications of leukemia. He was constantly thinking and saying “I’m going to beat this”. He was (and still has been) the most optimistic, positively-thinking person I’ve ever known. If that kind of attitude doesn’t work to prevent disease, then according to The Secret, there’s another reason for his death: Someone else must have been using The Secret against him, and caused his death. Ridiculous. Disease attacks a body. We know how it works and have some methods to prevent it. Knowledge of modern medicine makes far more sense than thinking thoughts cause disease. One might as well start reverting to working with “humors” or voodoo or similar medical guesswork. The Secret can’t be objectively tested, and due to the nature of the human brain can always be defended by “faith” or retrofitting. We’ve got an unprovable system established with no honest scientific foundation: There is no difference between The Secret and any other religion.

Changing your attitude, perspective, thoughts and self-confidence doesn’t physically change the world around you. This is supposedly measurable and physical, but Rhonda Byrne in The Secret says nothing about detection or explanation. She only gives vague, non-specific quotes about quantum mechanics, and asks that even if we don’t understand something, we should just assume it works. A science book – a book describing reality – would not do this. And, unlike The Secret, it certainly wouldn’t have so many exclamation points. Thinking the world and your fate can be changed by thoughts alone is childish. Reality is not a subjective movie like “The Matrix“, or a game like “Mage: The Ascension“. We should leave this concept to the entertainment business.

Many of the famous minds and personal stories quoted in The Secret were taken out of context or retrofitted to fit the core concepts of The Secret. Those that are supposedly personal proofs are given with no references, links to more detail, corroborating evidence, or by their nature can’t be proven. We’ve also got quotes from “ancient thinkers” like Buddha, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung and Henry Ford shuffled in with various modern-day New Age proponents. The Secret gives bios of all the New Age proponents quoted in the book, including website links for all those still alive. These are hardly unbiased reviews. The book gives no further information on any of the “ancient thinkers”.

Does The Secret stand up to the most basic analysis?Take the basic claim of The Secret and apply Occam’s Razor: Your thoughts affect the world around you – if you’re always thinking about a certain thing, that thing will happen to you. What’s more likely: 1) If you’re constantly focused on one thing, you’re more likely to accomplish that thing. 2) Your focused thoughts are interacting with a Universal consciousness, and the Universe changes reality to suit your thoughts.

Can The Secret be used by non-humans? According to how Rhonda Byrne describes The Secret, yes. Remember, The Secret is supposedly in action 100% of the time, whether or not we realize it, and since everything in the Universe is made up of the same energy, thought “frequencies” from one animal (like me), shouldn’t take any priority from another (like my neighbor’s dog). This creates more inconsistencies and paradoxes within The Secret’s philosophy. What about dreams? Dreams are thoughts. When we sleep at night, how are these dreams affecting the world around us? Roughly one-fourth of my time is spent dreaming, thinking of some really goofy stuff, and these “frequencies” are supposedly broadcast to the Universe. How do my zany dreams affect my waking thoughts and The Secret? Why don’t I see evidence for them?

What about mental illness? The Secret is supposedly in use all the time by all people, even if they don’t realize it. How then does this jibe with people diagnosed with obsessions, schizophrenia or dementia? Say a man is schizophrenic, and is convinced that the government is out to get him. This feeling consumes his every waking moment. Why then, is the government not to get him? The man is clearly using The Secret properly. This should have an effect, yet everyone who knows the man (as well as the government) would say the man needs counseling. Conclusion of the review of “The Secret”, by Rhonda Byrne The standard thing to do in a skeptical review of a book called “The Secret” would be to make a snooty, faux-witty connection between the title of the book and there being a lack of any actual secret. I’ll move away from that temptation and focus instead on the book’s success: The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, is titled more for marketing purposes than any other reason.

Sadly, there is some helpful information in The Secret: The placebo effect is known to work in certain situations. Positive thinking does improve recovery in certain types of illnesses. Thinking positively and loving everyone in the world is arguably a way to prevent conflict and increase the chances of world peace. But there is far too much pseudoscience and dangerous advice to take The Secret seriously.

The Secret and Rhonda Byrne are successful because they promise a quick and easy fix to all problems anyone could possibly have. That this is done dishonestly is, at best, well-meaning ignorance. At worst, it’s a scam. Unfortunately, those scammed by this campaign won’t realize till it’s too late, or may never realize it. They may waste their money and their lives in blind acceptance of an unverifiable claim. Or they’ll retrofit past events as “proof of The Secret”, and ignore or rationalize away times when The Secret failed completely. The biggest problems with The Secret and Rhonda Byrne are the many falsely-presented aspects required for it to work. At its core,The Secret is nothing more than a feel-good, scientifically illiterate description of another New Age religion.

Happy 2012 Hunting!! PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse.....

2011-12-30T12:52:00.000+06:00

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse..... "Thank you for your sympathy and best wishes at this time. We live in a world of our own making, a world built by our own unique perceptions which we believe in fully, every year, every day, every hour and every moment of our lives. Even though in reality this life is fleeting and lasts no longer than the time it takes for a spark of fire to shoot out, it is experienced by some as dragging on interminably for aeons and aeons. Yet for others, although in reality the span of this world’s existence is infinite, their experience of it lasts no longer than the blink of an eye.

For some, this world is no bigger than a worm hole, yet they feel insignificant and isolated, lost in a vast and infinite void. Others perceive the world to be small—as small as an entire universe—and to them it feels uncomfortably confined and claustrophobic. Most of us, myself included, have been conditioned to live and die in a world created by our own perceptions, and continue to create conditions that will ensure we repeat this same game over and over again. Amongst myriad possible perceptions, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche is seen variously as an ordinary person, a father, a teacher and a perfect being—a diversity of perception that is the result of each perceiver’s individual merit, or lack of it. For people like me, whose limitations lead me to see him merely as my father, your condolences will be accepted as emotional support. For those of you with ‘superior qualities’—or who aspire to develop such qualities—and are able to see Thinley Norbu as a perfect being, this is yet another opportunity to shrug off impure perception and generate pure perception, so that eventually you will go beyond perception altogether. ‘Awareness’ is the quintessential teaching of the Buddha—from the awareness of cool air as you breath in and then out, to the profound awareness of natural perfection.

And with boundless compassion and courage, the sole purpose and activity of all the buddhas it is to ring the alarm bell that brings us to this awareness. With enough merit, the passing of this great being can be interpreted as the ringing of that alarm bell, and a timely reminder of all the teachings, from the simple truth of impermanence, all the way up to the realization of unobstructed compassion. In this way, as much as this deluded mind of ours appreciated and valued his appearance in this world, it should also appreciate and value his disappearance. Touching as it is to hear from those who are offering various prayers, recitations, butter lamps and many other wholesome activities at this time, allow me to remind myself and all those who are interested, that none of the practices we are currently engaging in are for him, but for ourselves. However brilliantly the moon appears in the sky, if the pond is muddy, the moon will not be reflected in its waters. In the same way, it is through the purification of defilements and accumulation of merit within our own minds that will enable us, in time, to perceive a reflection of the Buddha, fully intact and never to depart. So, rather than congratulating ourselves with the thought that we have accomplished all these practices during this special time, bear in mind that we should already have been doing them—and for that matter, we should continue doing them throughout this and all our future lives.

But to imagine that our practise is something like providing this great being with the ‘last rites’ is definitely not the best way to go. I have also been asked which specific practices should be done. Again, I will repeat that mindfulness, in other words ‘awareness’, is our practice. We are ignorant beings, and as such require constant reminders about the importance of making the effort to land in this awareness. Therefore all our guru’s activities—from when he yawns or coughs, to when he appears or disappears—are his way of reminding us to come back, again and again, to mindfulness. And as long as we are mindful and aware, no one practice is better than another. Written and dedicated to the enlightenment of all sentient beings in the presence of the rupakaya of Thinley Norbu." New York City

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

WORDS FOR THE WEST

2011-12-28T15:35:00.000+06:00

by Thinley Norbu "Rinpoche"

Thinley Norbu Rinpoche on Nihilism, Spiritual Surrender, and the Importance of Lineage and the Guru Thinley Norbu Rinpoche is a preeminent teacher of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. His books include The Small Golden Key, Magic Dance (which Shambhala is reissuing this fall), and White Sail, published by Shambhala in 1992. He presently spends part of each year in the United States and Nepal. This material evolved from an interview conducted by Tricycle with Thinley Norbu Rinpoche in the Fall of 1995. The term nihilism figures prominently in your book White Sail. What do you mean by it? According to my understanding, nihilism means not believing in any spiritual point of view. Nihilists only believe in what they can see, what they can hear, and what they can think, or the substantial reality of whatever temporarily exists in front of them. For example, they believe only in this life and not in previous lives or future lives, because they don't believe in continuous mind, although it is inevitable that mind is continuous. Nihilists don't accept Buddhist beliefs such as the interdependence of reality, or that relative truth, whose essence is delusion, only exists according to beings' reality habits. When something happens through previous karma, if nihilists cannot find any explanation to prove why it has happened, they think it is just coincidence. From a Buddhist point of view, nihilism is just a habit of mind. Even though nihilists have the potential of Buddha-nature, from their lack of belief they have no capacity or method to change their fragmented phenomena toward the continuity of a sublime level. Even though they are born with a precious human body, they have the great self-deception of keeping a nihilist outlook. Therefore they don't consider karmic consequences and rely instead on opportunistic habit, taking advantage of circumstances for momentary benefit instead of creating good karma that leads temporarily to long-term positive energy and ultimately to the attainment of fully enlightened Buddhahood.

Padmasambhava (eighth century C.E.): historical founder of Tibetan Buddhism and of the Nyingma School; also known as Guru Rinpoche. Thangka, late sixteenth to first half of the seventeenth century. Gouache on cotton Is this what you call materialist-mind? The mind that just trusts in one's own limited senses? Yes. But as long as beings have dualistic mind, it is necessary to believe in cause and effect in order to create positive causes and effects. So temporarily, as long as karma exists-whether it is bad karma or good karma-it exists within the material realm, and therefore beings must rely on the material. But this is different from the nihilist idea of materialism, which is to reject spiritual ideas such as Buddha-nature, the continuity of the mind beyond the life of the body, and karma, and just to believe in what can be known by one's own limited senses. Nihilists only believe in material answers, and not in immaterial ideas from which positive material and immaterial spiritual qualities can be created. WE HAVE TO BELIEVE in the Buddha, and that each kind of sentient being, even an animal, has mind. Even though mind is not touchable, even though you cannot see mind, even though you cannot show what it is, it is obvious that if there were no mind, there could be no phenomena even in this life. What is the role of the guru in the process of transformation from nihilism to the recognition of spiritual virtue? The guru introduces us to our own Buddha-nature. Believing with faith and devotion in one's own guru or sublime teacher can introduce our own mind to its own Buddha-nature. Then that seed can blossom through prayers and practice. Prayer to what or to whom? To the Triple Gems, or to one's own guide to enlightenment who is the representative of the Triple Gems, in order for one's own Buddha nature to open. You have to have objective faith in order for subjective Buddha-nature to be uncovered. Even though a root circumstance such as a seed exists, in order for its potential to become enlivened, it is necessary to depend on the contributing circumstances of fertilizer, warmth, water, and light. By depending on positive contributing circumstances such as listening to the Buddha's teachings and praying to the Triple Gems, the root circumstance of Buddha-nature is revealed. Because mind is continuous, it is better to choose good habits that create positive contributing circumstances rather than to choose bad habits. That's what practicing means. Can you give up the belief in your own limited mind without the help of the guru? If dualistic mind exists, how can it be given up? Unless one practices and meditates with a guide to enlightenment in a proper way, there is no method to give it up. How can one give up one's limited mind by oneself? Giving up dualistic mind is not like throwing away garbage, or as easy as just saying it from your lips. Even if you say it from your lips, since it is there, your grasping mind is not going to give it up. Since dualistic mind has existed for countless lives, beings obviously have not had any power to give it up. That is why grasping mind exists, which continuously causes suffering. If the guru is given up as a positive object, one cannot be liberated because one creates countless negative phenomena, which one then has no way to change toward positive phenomena. Logically, without being introduced to one's Buddha-nature by sublime teachers and depending on their guidance, Buddha nature cannot blossom. Many Westerners ask why it is necessary to depend on a guide to enlightenment and to accumulate merit, since one's own mind already has Buddha nature. They think that they can recognize their Buddha-nature themselves and do not need to depend on a guru or teacher, but this is a misinterpretation. They don't recognize that they are continuously remaining in ignorance, and that this idea will keep them closed in the dullness of darkness rather than let them open to light.

Is this resistance to surrender particular to our modern and scientific times? SOME MODERN PEOPLE have this reluctance and resistance. Even though they don't surrender in a spiritual way, they continuously surrender to their own wrong points of view, which prevents their enlightenment and interferes with even this life's positive energy. As everyone knows, science is not always positive. How many lives were lost from nuclear weapons, and how much energy was lost that could have gone toward the development of countries instead of their destruction? It is unnecessary to believe in developing only in a scientific way. It is also unnecessary to be against the idea of a spiritual path, because those who follow a spiritual path and develop spiritual qualities can help to create peace in the world. Spiritual surrender is beneficial both materially and immaterially, at temporary and ultimate levels. There is a very big difference between the benefit of surrendering only to a reverse point of view and surrendering to sublime beings. It is a mistake to think, as some people do, that there is more freedom if they surrender only to a non-spiritual point of view for their entire lives. This only makes them more and more bound, because there is no method to reach actual freedom. If one surrenders at a spiritual level as in ancient times, it always releases one from being bound. In the West these days, though they have good intentions, parents' main advice to children is "you must be strong. You must have self-esteem. You must not lose your hold on yourself. You must stand on your own feet. Don't depend on others." Even at a worldly level, people naturally surrender to others, although they may think of themselves as self-sufficient. If someone thinks he doesn't depend on others, he is like a sick person who thinks he doesn't have to go to a doctor because he can cure himself with poison, or like a poor person who says he doesn't have to depend on richer people even though he has an empty wallet. Schoolteachers teach that being strong means not relying on others and being independent. These are nihilist teachings that create the habit of being afraid of spiritual surrender to the Buddha or to the teacher because of being afraid of losing one's self to God, or the Buddha, or the teacher, or any sublime being-but what self? Modern people are afraid of losing their own ordinary egos. What else do they have to lose but that? WHEN THEY REFER to books and say, "See, we have our own Buddha-nature so we don't have to depend on anyone else," this is not proof of their realization. It is nihilist fear. Relying on someone else makes them think they are losing their identity, which is just their ordinary ego. But the problem with preserving ordinary ego is that it makes people feel more and more fear and frustration. Because they don't believe in anything, they do not have any method to purify this fear and frustration. That's why it is so dangerous to make the misinterpretation that nothing needs to be done to recognize Buddha-nature, since it keeps people in the position of not knowing how to release themselves from suffering through developing the skillful means of spiritual methods that encourage its recognition. Many people in the West now advocate depending on the collective wisdom of the sangha more, and diminishing the role of the teacher. Westerners always like to create something new, whether or not it is beneficial. Doubt and cynicism are deep nihilist habits. Some people are hastily attracted to this kind of idea from their habit to revolt. These people have a distorted idea of freedom, just as some people do who always think the government is suppressing them. They feel more comfortable being with normal, casual friends, girlfriends or boyfriends, instead of having to respect and worship a teacher. But this does not have anything to do with a pure spiritual level, including the intention to give up the ego in order to attain enlightenment. Actually, whoever has this resistance habit or power-struggle habit is forgetting that a girl- friend can revolt against her boyfriend or a boyfriend can revolt against his girlfriend. Even members of a sangha who try to depend on their collective non- wisdom can be uncomfortable with each other directly or indirectly because of their own habit of negative reactions to others and being against others. If they react negatively to teachers through reading and hearing that they should always respect them, it is sure that they will have collective negativity among themselves over the same issues of power, ego, and rebellion. Although they turn to a sangha, it does not mean their negative reactions to others are finished. As everyone knows from the news, sometimes a girlfriend or wife has killed her boyfriend or husband, or a boyfriend or husband has killed his girlfriend or wife. Whoever has the habit of negative reaction, opposition, paranoia, and fear will not be able to release it by turning against teachers, even if they talk about the collective wisdom of the sangha. Because of their self-righteous egos, these people don't want to respect teachers and gurus. This attitude is endorsed by a society that has taught them not to respect others above themselves, but they must know that this is a sign of their fear. Their fear of losing themselves through respecting and worshiping a teacher means they don't have a strong spiritual level of awareness.

A traditional Nyingma lineage chart: Guru Rinpoche (center) surrounded by the Great Bodhisattvas of the Mahayana, his consort Yeshe Tsogyal (to his right), and the historical lineage holders Is this an absence of faith? Westerners prefer compassion to faith. Western compassion sounds very nice, but actually, it has a negative taste if you check carefully and deeply. For Westerners, compassion is not authentic because it is connected to pride. It is from up to down, because it comes from those who are in some way considered better or higher, and goes toward those who are in some way considered lower. That is why it is comfortable for them. It is also because of pride that faith is not possible for them, since faith is surrendering to what is higher. In actual Buddhist tradition, faith in Buddha is always connected with compassion for sentient beings and compassion is always connected to faith, because where there is actual faith, compassion comes automatically for all suffering sentient beings who do not have faith in Buddha and are therefore suffering. Many people want to know about Buddhism, but they are not interested in faith because they don't want to surrender anything. Since they think the sangha is like a group of friends so it is not necessary to respect them, this makes them feel safe. This conception originally comes from some kind of modern superficial democratic idea of equal rights, based on a nihilist point of view and not on wisdom. Spiritual ideas are totally different from worldly political ideas, but they try to put these worldly political ideas into spiritual ideas without considering pure dharma. These democratic ideas are supposed to be kept as worldly political ideas, and not misused as if they were spiritual. It is fine to believe in democratic ideas, but why bother Buddhist ideas, including the right to be a teacher and the right to believe in teachers? Why are these people trying to prevent belief in teachers? Actually, democracy has the idea of individual rights, so what is wrong with Buddhists having rights? Religious belief is a choice made by the individual, and not a decision to be made by people who call themselves a sangha. These people have no right to diminish the role of the teacher, and they cannot diminish it, because the quality of spirituality the teacher embodies is inconceivable and not like the materializations thought up by those in a nihilist sangha. Their ideas are actually not democratic ideas, but could be just the tradition of some weird other realm. If the purpose of politics is to deal with the needs of people, why are they trying to exclude Buddhism from what people need?

Actual Buddhist tradition is to benefit beings. These people can't benefit others because they do not have a pure positive dharma lineage due to trying to adjust spiritual ideas to accommodate these ideas of worldly freedom with a nihilist point of view. Although they may try to make their ideas sound enticing to nonreligious people, to lure them for the promotion of their own group or to prevent respect for teachers, this kind of view will cause disgrace for Westerners. The traditions of Buddhism are based on having faith and reverence, but this new idea of depending on the collective wisdom of the sangha encourages the opposite. By lineage, I do not mean a skin lineage that belongs to a particular race, but a wisdom lineage that is transmitted from the teacher to the student and from students to their students over many generations, in order for them to become teachers and to. teach beings. It is impossible for anyone to have a sublime wisdom lineage if they cut off their guides to enlightenment through diminishing the role of the teacher, because teachers are representatives of the Buddha, to teach. Whatever they seem to be according to the phenomena of the student, teachers are teaching the path of enlightenment, and whatever students learn must be learned from teachers. It is important that people not be confused by the misuse of Buddhist terms, which are always connected with wisdom. Wisdom is the opposite of ordinary conception. It is sublime mind. There are many meanings of sangha, but simply put, it is the mind's intention that virtue prosper through the two accumulations of merit and wisdom. Merit is created by virtue, and wisdom flourishes from realization. These two accumulations come from dharma. Dharma comes from the speech of Buddha. The representative of the Buddha is the teacher. So to say that the role of the teacher should be diminished, lessening it and making it smaller, is appalling. All religions try to increase wisdom blessings, not diminish them. Without faith and belief in the Triple Gems, following Buddha's speech, praying to the Buddhas, or listening to teachings from teachers who are representatives of the Buddha, how can one realize wisdom? As Buddha Shakyamuni said, "For men who have no faith, it is impossible to have pure dharma, like planting a burned seed in a field and expecting a green shoot to come. " With a nihilist mind and a sangha face, instead of benefiting all beings through following the teachings of Buddha, these people are harmfully blocking the path of enlightenment for new generations through their tricky words. Of course, according to American ideas of freedom, everything is allowed, including religious freedom, but they can invent something themselves not connected with Buddhist tradition. Why is it necessary to borrow the name of the sangha from Buddhism's words? There have been negative experiences with teachers of all the Buddhist traditions, which have created doubt and cynicism. Doubt and cynicism are deep nihilist habits. They are not wonderful signs. Of course, I have heard stories many times about Westerners who have turned against and discarded their teachers, even though they have already taken refuge in them until they attain enlightenment, just as though they were squeezing out some toothpaste and then were throwing away the tube. They are foolish to think they have finished using the teacher and so can recant what they said they believed, because the spiritual qualities of a wisdom teacher are not like toothpaste and are not going to finish. IT IS TRUE THAT there is doubt and cynicism due to negative experiences, but that does not mean that these negative experiences come from a teacher or that a teacher is a false teacher. Whoever sees a wisdom teacher with doubt and cynicism through the distortion of his own personal negativity is a nihilist and does not have a spiritual view. According to Buddhist tradition, one must introspect about whatever one sees in order to purify negative conception and increase positive phenomena to attain enlightenment. Whatever arises within one's own mind, one has to look at one's own mind and practice to diminish one's own negativity rather than trying to diminish the role of the teacher. That is spiritual. Whatever seems to be caused from outside of themselves is just a reflection of their own minds. These Westerners think that all that is negative or positive is only caused from outside of themselves. They materialize and externalize their experiences, never understanding the connection between outer and inner phenomena or interdependent phenomena, looking for explanations only from objects through extreme nihilist habit instead of from the subjective experience of their own minds. That is why there is a problem for Westerners following actual Buddhist tradition. Because Westerners are often occupied with the habit of extroversion, they think spiritual qualities are supposed to be shown obviously and can only appear in particular aspects that fit their preconceptions. Therefore everything is misjudged through lack of introspection and meditation, and they do not see the teacher as pure or dharma as pure due to projections of their own impure habit. This self- distorted perspective makes it difficult for them to increase spiritual qualities through the development of pure phenomena that can connect to actual wisdom. Some people have suggested that the impulse to create a Western Buddhism is inspired by a sense that things in the world are falling apart so quickly that Buddhism in any form is better than none at all. This is just an excuse. If there is no respect for Buddha or for teachers, even if people call themselves Buddhists, they are non-Buddhists. Instead of misusing Buddhism, it would be much simpler for them to just work on improving the world, the environment, or society if they want to do something about them. They don't need to label their own ideas as Western Buddhism or to blame Buddhism. Again, there is racism. Racism? Yes, because Westerners think Buddhism comes from the East, and they do not want to have to depend on the East for Buddhism. But the idea that we don't need the East is racist and patronizing. Since these Westerners are eager to invent a special Western Buddhism, they must think it is particularly for the benefit of Western sentient beings, but Buddhism is for all sentient beings. You're using racism as a kind of cultural imperialism? The West will not have a pure Buddhist lineage if Westerners do not respect sublime beings or believe in teachers. Some Westerners who have not understood Buddhism deeply or have not made a connection with the profound spiritual energy of the blessings of lineage have rejected it out of frustration. Then they have said that Buddhism does not deliver, making this negative point of view sound complimentary to nihilist people so they can be influenced by it, which creates the problem of how pure Buddhist teachers can flourish in the West in future generations. If the lineage is broken, it is a false sangha, and there is no lineage that can be transmitted. If Americans create something new called American Buddhism, without considering other sentient beings, then that means American Buddhism is not Mahayana Buddhism because it has not considered all other sentient beings. Also, it is not in the Hinayana tradition, which is to discipline one's own ego, because it has the taste of building more self-righteous samsaric ego by emphasizing oneself and those who are similar to oneself, meaning that there is something wrong with others. That means there are no pure phenomena toward others, which means there is not even the whiff of Vajrayana. HOW CAN THEY try to teach others and teach all beings impartially if they have already used this name? Actually, I can't understand the idea of American Buddhism at all. Sometimes it looks like communism, sometimes like democracy, sometimes like socialism, and sometimes like nothing, only circling between worldly systems, never cutting from them but only circling between negative phenomena. If the beings of another country where there is no Buddhism need to find Buddhism's ideas, and if those beings think in a naive way that Americans have American Buddhism and try to study with them, the worst thing will be that they will have no Buddhist lineage. You speak of faith and devotion and the trust in the sublime teachers, but when we read the texts about the sublime teachers, very few of the teachers appear to match the description of sublime teachers. I cannot say either they are not or they are sublime teachers, because I am not a sublime teacher. Another problem is that almost all Western teachers of Buddhism are either nihilists or eternalists, and not actual Buddhist lineage holders. Even if those previous sublime Buddhist teachers are not appearing in front of you now, because they appeared in the past, you can read and understand their speech, although you did not see them through the lack of your good karma. But if those previous sublime teachers appeared in front of you today, you would see them in the same way as you see the teachers of these days, which is negatively. Also, you can't say previous sublime teachers are different from today's teachers. When previous sublime teachers manifested in the past, are you sure that you were with them so that you can remember all of their qualities? You cannot judge a teacher's spiritual intangible qualities by materializing them, including the qualities of sublime beings from the past. If so many teachers in the West are teaching from a nihilist point of view, and if we are to evolve a pure dharma, as you describe it, should we continue to treat these nihilist teachers as if they were sublime beings so that the lineage of devotion and faith are maintained? If you do this with the right point of view, then those nihilist teachers are transformed into sublime beings, so there will not be any nihilist teachers. Sometimes good students treat their own teachers as if they were sublime, even though their sublime qualities are not obvious to ordinary objective judgment. This happens when the student has faith and belief. But the best thing is not to materialize about teachers and to use one's own insight and introspection to create pure phenomena. I hope each teacher's students, remembering what they learned from their own teachers, and keeping their kindness in mind, have unshakable faith and are not affected by the uncivilized malice of these people with a reverse point of view. Then when they become teachers on day, as a consequence of good karma and compassion, they can have loyalty, nobility, deep devotion and faith, and pure students, to attain fully enlightened Buddhahood.

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

HH Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

2011-12-28T15:21:00.000+06:00

Thinley Norbu Rinpoche (1931-2011) (Wylie: gdung sras ’phrin las nor bu), a major modern teacher in the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism was the eldest son of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, former head of the Nyingma lineages. He was considered to be an emanation of Longchen Rabjam, the great Nyingma Scholar and Siddha. He was a pre-eminent teacher of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and he was patron of the Vajrayana Foundation. His association with the Dudjom Lineage is a long one. He is the incarnation of Tulku Drime Oser, who was one of seven sons of Dudjom Lingpa (sGas-gter bDud-‘joms Gling-pa Khrag-‘thung Nus-ldan rDorje 1835-1904) and is considered to be an emanation of Longchenpa, the 14th century Nyingma lama and writer of Seven Treasures. He was the eldest son of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche. In his youth in Tibet he studied for 9 years at Mindroling Monastery. He is a pre-eminent teacher of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and he is patron of the Vajrayana Foundation. Biography In his youth in Tibet he studied for 9 years at Mindrolling Monastery, one of the six major monasteries of the Nyingma school in Tibet. Works

During his exile in the West he wrote a number of books including: *The Small Golden Key *Magic Dance – the Display of the Self-nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis *White Sail – Crossing the Waves of Ocean Mind to the Serene Continent of the Triple Gems *Practice of the Essence of the Sublime Heart Jewel, the Propitious Speech from the Beginning, Middle and End by *Patrul Rinpoche (Translation) *Welcoming Flowers From Across The Cleansed Threshold Of Hope *Cascading Waterfall of Nectar

HH Dungse Rinpoche Passed On Yesterday, Tuesday, 27 December, 2011. PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

Smeagol's Delusion Redux

2011-12-26T23:50:00.000+06:00

You know what the establishment does to you? Makes you feel small - like them Hobbits inthe Lord of the Rings or better yet, Gollum, or Smeagol as he was known. But we all know who finally got rid of the ring, don't we? But still the establishment, I tell you man, the establishment will shrink you, like a dry cleaner, it'll belittle the man in you, for that's how the establishment establishes itself. And that's also how the establishment lures, corners and hustles men into dwarfs of delusions.

But just what is the establishment? Notions of big government comes to mind; but is that it? Is government all there is when you talk about an establishment or “the” establishment? No. The government is but one facade. One facet of a multitude of facets where everything is institutionalized. Your life, work, family, community, country and the whole goddamn thing is institutionalized. You are born into slavery. Salvation is an army and the army will not deliver you unto freedom. It might keep you in battle but battles tend to kill rather than rescue. Reality bites and you are already institutionalized before you can crawl on your baby limbs. Nothing is scarier than being caught in that wrath of false freedom. Freedom? What do you know of it? What do you know of liberty? What do you know of being fearless? You who are so caught up in that voluptuous sensual pleasure of globalization that one peeping glance you’re ever gonna have, and if that, is should you die a peaceful death. Got money in the banks? Stocks in the market, a house of your own, land aplenty and prep schools and junk food abroad? Swanky hotels and branded cars? Real leather made of exotic animals? Got yourself immersed and drowning in poverty? Can’t pay the rent and the utilities and the grocery bills? Well, welcome to the Institution.

The lure and reality of plastic freedom is all you are ever gonna have and that's exactly what the establishment and the institution wants you to feel. You are being duped! Wake up and awaken! This is not the fuckin' matrix but they'll make sure it becomes one and that you live in it with an I.D. tag on your chest that reads: Mr Dorji, Conventionally Successful, Living in Marital Bliss, Cannot tell a Snake's Hiss from his Own Piss, Comfortably Numb & Invariably Dumb.

That's how they'll manufacture freedom for you and in your fuckin' greedy ignorance and selfish search for temporary salvation, that's how you'll lap it all up; tail wagging and tongue out in saliva drippin’ expectation. And in the end when that date of expiry comes to a stale and stank- flat explosion, you'll have realized how they sold you a product and you lived as such - born and bred in a factory production assembly line all the while suckered in the belief that you were the "successful model." But here's a cookie from the jar. Y’know what makes it all so fuckin' ironically beautiful? The kicker from Mr KARMA that says even the establishment and the institutions are so neck and arse deep in it that they DO NOT KNOW and like ripples in a pond from an invisible source, even they are lost and trapped in that whole façade called FREEDOM. And remember, what Mr KARMA tells me is neither verified either. Then he tempts to reveal to me the source of his information. It’s a guy called the BUDDHA. So for further enquiries, contact him.

:I Been Haiku-Sing, If there Be Such A Damn thing; Frock The Romantics! PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

Relapsing Senti-Mentality

2011-12-26T18:00:00.000+06:00

Dear M,
Forgive me my weariness and laziness for not being prompt in our correspondence. I was too scared to get into the intimate details or rather I chickened out of what I thought would be situations I might not be able to handle.
It’s nice to see you growing up to be a real boy (even if a part of me wishes you wouldn’t because really, I think the childhood part is probably the best memory any adult would carry). But there are forces other than our dillydallying at work and they change the rules for no one. There is a lot of stuff I could get into if I now got carried away, so forgive me once again for killing whatever spontaneity attempts to spring up. I’m so aware of the importance of physical time spent together that I’m scared, really, that you might see me differently, rely on me lesser and lesser, until there is no need for me to be a part of your life.
Forgive me again for saying that, I think I’m telling you the worst case scenarios I’ve thought about and been scared about. Let’s switch the subject.

Dear Mipham,
Jesus! Time does fly is an expression adults (SO CALLED) often use to illustrate the bewilderment of life and its assorted vicissitudes….I was thinking the same thing for a pretty long time…and today it seems that much more in context and in its urgency. But I go through this every September the 18th, ‘cos that was the day you chose to make your entrance onto this stage we call life.

Imagine! The inception of the whole conception! During my Dharma Bum days I’d read and had my share of the wisdom memorabilia that is the unsaid pre-requisite to becoming a wholly and fully fledged Dharma Bum. It brought me no Nirvana and neither do I understand what Samsara is (I know it’s a good film made by an Indian with Tibetan/Ladaki actors) but beyond that wrapper? I’ll confess I’m clueless…
But the point was the passage of time and how time just flies even though you don’t see it…although paradoxically we do see it all around us; the changing days and nights to the changing seasons and transformers. For me, you are probably the best example of the passage of time, as I’m to my mother.
There used to be this idea in my head and its till there…on occasion I’d tell you this little fictional anecdote about how you, among a billion other probable Miphams, managed to out-fox and out-swim them all to get to where you now stand today – a lovely boy who’ll soon be a teen, do the school and the college and find your own warm spot on god’s beautiful earth.
“The boy is the father of man” is another expression that I find absolutely confounding! But its life’s ways and means of taunting and teasing us I guess…irony being its punchiest sense of humor!

I’m sitting in my office…haven’t had a bite and did a couple of flashes of whisky last night…you see, it was the first day of Thimphu Tsechu (those colorful festivals held in honor of the Guru’s teachings and to further the fruition of the practice of the Dharma practitioners). It was also Vishwa Karma Puja, another festival held in honor of one of the Hindu Gods. I got up this morning knowing you were still asleep (Bhutan is +5hrs ahead). The devotees of the Hindu Gods today take to the streams and rivers to immerse the idol, concluding the worship and the ceremony…and as they go about the immersion procedure, they get into big open trucks holding the idols and singing in the lord’s glory … It was almost a chant of “Happy Birthday to you Mipham” to my ears….
The tsechu goes on for another three days…today’s day two and the dances of the Dharma are in full swing. People dress in their best and still I associate that with your birthday; a celebration of sorts…and to any other person that shares your birthday today, this day of joyous contemplation and rejuvenation.
Birthdays were not a big deal with me and my generation…but I can see and sense rebirth and reincarnation, and perhaps that’s what birthdays actually do or should do…

Look at me! IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY and I’m already reincarnating into a lovable-loathsome-philosopher-dad and that’s because you have made me remember many things I’d forgotten…
But there’s one thing I’ll never forget, and that’s you making your entrance on this day, the 18th of September and as long as I’m alive, you’ll have given me so much just because you are here…and I pray that may every birthday bring you closer to a positive avatar, pausing and rejoicing and reincarnating unto higher realms of consciousness so that it looks and feels like the whole world is celebrating with you…may gods bless you and keep you…
all my love…

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

A Prisoner’s Christmas

2011-12-24T17:24:00.000+06:00

By Yuliya Tymoshenko

LUKYANIVSKA PRISON, KYIV – It has been said that there are no atheists in a foxhole. Here, after my show trial and four and a half months in a cell, I have discovered that there are no atheists in prison, either.

When, despite unbearable pain, you are interrogated – including in your cell – for dozens of hours without a break, and an authoritarian regime’s entire system of coercion, including its media, is trying to discredit and destroy you once and for all, prayer becomes the only intimate, trusting, and reassuring conversation that one can have. God, one realizes, is one’s only friend and only available family, because – deprived even of access to a trusted priest – there is no one else in whom to confide one’s worries and hopes.

In this season of love and family, the loneliness of a prison cell is almost unbearable. The gray, dead silence of night (guards peer in voyeuristically through a slot in the door), the sudden, disembodied shrieks of prisoners, shrieks of distress and rage, the distant rattles and clangs of prison bolts: all make sleep impossible, or so restless as to be a torment.

But what is strange is that your senses are not dulled by this dead and dreadful world. On the contrary, they are ignited by it: your mind is set free from mundane concerns to ponder the inestimable and your place within it – a freedom of spirit that is a truly unexpected gift this Christmas season. In the cell’s darkness, I gather strength and hope from the fact that God somehow seems so near to me here. For where else would Christ be but with those who suffer and are persecuted?

Indeed, I have recently been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s sublime and challenging Letters from Prison, in which he yearns for a Christ capable of offering mercy to a world, our world, then in the process of being martyred for a single man. Written in a cramped, dank, and putrid cell, where hope was meant to die before the body, Bonhoeffer crafted a book rich in faith, openness, possibility, and, yes, hope – even in humanity’s darkest hour.

One particular passage resonates with me as I contemplate Ukraine’s plight. As he awaited his approaching execution by the Nazis, Bonhoeffer wrote that, in prison, “the godlessness of the world is not...concealed but, rather, revealed, and is thus exposed to an unexpected light.”

So I take some comfort this Christmas in knowing that the godlessness, inhumanity, and criminality of the regime that is now ruling in Kyiv is, at long last, being exposed to the world in a clear light. Its democratic posturing has been unmasked as cynical political theater, its claim to desire a European future for Ukraine’s people revealed to be a lie, and the rapaciousness of its kleptocrats has been laid bare. The regime’s contempt for the constitution and the rule of law is now undeniable, and that clarity is empowering.

More importantly, the suffering of Ukraine’s people has also become more widely known, and we are no longer so alone in our plight. Alleviating it has been embraced as a just cause across Europe and around the world. The everyday oppression, stifled media, and shakedowns and extortion of businesses for bribes all point to a mafia state on Europe’s border. Now our European friends can no longer deny the smug vileness of the regime with which they are forced to deal. And I am thankful this Christmas for being able to believe that democratic Europe will not tolerate this state of affairs. Ukrainians will be strong knowing that they are not alone in their fight.

I do not pretend to be an expert on religious faith and spiritual values. I am only a believer who cannot accept that our existence is the result of some freak cosmic accident. We are, I believe, part of a mysterious yet integral act, whose source, direction, and purpose, though difficult to grasp at times, does have meaning and purpose – even when one is confined behind prison bars.

It is only faith in the idea that our lives matter, and that our decisions must be judged by their moral content, that we in Ukraine, and elsewhere, will be able to find our way out of the misery, unhappiness, and despair that has consumed us over the last two years. It is within our power to recover or reinvigorate our freedoms and our societies, not by individual efforts, but by joining forces with likeminded people all over the world. I know that we will manage this.

This Christmas, I ask my family and friends everywhere not to worry about me. As Anna Akhmatova, the great poetic chronicler of Stalin’s terror, said, “I am alive in this grave.” Indeed, I am more alive, I know, than the men who have imprisoned me here.

Christmas is meant to mark the possibility of a new beginning for all men and women.
As Bonhoeffer affirmed with his last words: “This is for me...the beginning of life.”

*Yuliya Tymoshenko, twice Prime Minister of Ukraine, is the leader of Ukraine’s political opposition.

**Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2011. www.project-syndicate.org

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

ATSARA - The Right View

2011-12-23T20:33:00.000+06:00

By Jurmi Chhowing

ATSARA will be a weekly newsmagazine that approaches the news of the day, and of the week, in a manner reflecting featurism with a lot of emphasis on satire.
The weekly newsmagazine is an idea borne of the necessity of the times. With all due respect, most of the print media, whether dailies or weeklies, have become so saturated in terms of their contents and design that instead of encouraging and increasing readership, the opposite is the norm, unfortunately.
I’ve worked as editor, journalist and in the capacity of a consultant for or with most of the newspapers currently in the market. In all my dealings, I’ve found the one fundamental weakness common among most of the publishing houses is the misperceived role of a newspaper as such; and the others, amongst many, is the non-importance, and in many cases, the blatant disregard and the ignorance of the newspaper’s medium. The role of artists such as a cartoonist, illustrator, photographer, designer and the like are unfortunately misplaced.
This idea was born, after one two many sour experiences and dissatisfaction with the publishers I was working for or with. The lack of a proper forum suitable in being a platform to air the stories and highlight the situation and circumstance thereabouts, of all sections of our society, and to tell those stories with the full justice and credibility deserving of the subject, and the reader was another motivating factor.
Professional want such as established printing facilities, effective circulation, the reach of the paper, the readership, along with more professional wants such as designers well versed in the art of presenting stories, trained photographers who understand the fundamental role and aspect of photography and others of the ilk such as the lack of artists were all measured to give birth to this venture.

The scenario as it stands is telling one story the same way from as many as ten different people, so to speak. As an avid reader, I keep myself abreast of developments by reading all the dailies and weeklies. It has now reached a point where the heart pushes the head to buy a copy.
The answer is very simple – there is nothing the papers can present with some panache. If anything, the opposite is the reality. Devoid of imagination, fundamental elements such as professional analysis, the usage of irony, sarcasm, and satire via either the letter or the image is gravely absent. Hence what is left is a sense of sheer agony and dullness written with an equal amount of mediocrity bordering on the gibberish, and at times, totally nonsensical and comic.
Laughing at a newspaper is good if you are looking at the funny pages; a pity and a tragedy if you are reading the headliners or the editorial.
A fundamental shift in the way news is approached and covered is the call of the day, with nobody heeding the call. If one asked the editorial team to point out the shortcomings in the papers, the blame game begins. The editorial room blames the management chair and vice versa. The truth is rather simple insofar as the paper is concerned.
Managements are divorced with what is their fundamental product, the paper, and with that perception comes the utter ignorance of seeing the needs of the public, the reader, and being attuned to their needs and sensibilities; quite an important aspect of the reporting business. In some other cases, grave trends are being set whereby the newspaper is almost a fronting face that has a degree of respectability being abused to usher in other works that have no connection whatsoever with journalism.
This is fundamentally cheating the public, the readers and cheating them off their taxes and the government, as the largest advertisement revenues still pour in from government coffers. It is a disturbing trend that must be curbed. In that respect, ATSARA neither seeks profits nor influence. The aim of this weekly is to simply provide what is glaringly missing and more importantly, to provide a publication that interviews, engages and tells stories in as many different ways and means as is necessary to tell that particular story but does so in a way that is at once appealing to the intellect, discerning to the educated and understandable and engaging to the layman as well.

The idea is to generate an ever growing and increasing sense of participation and identification. At first, ATSARA will aim to appeal to the readers’ heads, and should that fail, to their hearts and should that also succumb, to their humor.
In any case, ATSARA believes that after a brief passage of time, readers would be interested enough to subscribe. Subscription is thus the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. ATSARA will aspire to become something inspirational, like the rainbow and the quiet drizzle of rainfall that enables the manifestation of that rainbow. In this particular setting, the readers are the blessed showers giving rise to a magnificent presentation.
In a nutshell, this is the sole inspiration for ATSARA - a newspaper imbibing the look, feel and touch of a newsmagazine that covers issues with a refreshing approach and attitude and then presents it in an artistic form. As in life, so too in journalism, with art, craft and the human imagination playing the central roles of creators. ATSARA will be anything but clichéd.

THE DRUKPA EDITIONS:

In 2010 I had a dream come true when I was able to realize a long cherished dream: of publishing a monthly magazine that embodies many of the facets mentioned earlier. I was able to bring out a dozen editions of what was turning out to be quite a well-liked magazine.
The feedbacks and the reviews were mostly favorable, what was not, at the end of one year, was the persistently meddlesome role or the absolute refusal to be interested in manners pertaining to the publication from the publisher. That uncompromising and conflicted stand gradually drove the magazine to its zenith, with the Managing Editor (myself) having to voluntarily resign on account of conflict of interests. That was the only honorable exit left, and rather than see the magazine wax and wane in a humiliating fashion, I made the painful decision to submit my resignation.
But the better times are remembered, and to that end, I’m proud of the fact that we decided to cover issues in a thematic fashion. Our first edition was focused on “Youth” where we covered all kinds of issues related to the youth. Education, Unemployment, Alcohol and Substance Abuse, the Rural-Urban Drift, Loss of Innocence, the Changing Face of the Bhutanese Youth were some of the topics.

Thereon, DRUKPA successfully tackled themes such as the Economy in its second edition. The third edition was about homage and a tribute to some selected Bhutanese who had made a difference to the country in celebration of His Majesty the King’s 30th birthday. The fourth edition focused on global warming and its effects on Bhutan in a theme called “Fragile Environment.”
The sixth edition picked up where the fourth one left off, hammering the environmental message coinciding with the SAARC Summit with its theme aptly titled, “Talking Climate Change.”
We covered the precious yet fragile development of the need to develop and preserve the local arts and crafts industry and its talents in the last edition titled “Art, Craft and Entertainment.” The July issue dealt with His Majesty the King’s Kidu initiative and land distribution – of such a paramount importance to the Bhutanese people.

WHY ATSARA?
Quite simply put, the idea is to be wholesome without being crude. ATSARA will stay on a course that is non-controversial, minus conflict yet relevant, informational, educative, entertaining for the average reader. It’s my personal and those of my team members’ philosophy that the weekly does not, in any way, shape or form, becomes embroiled in tabloid journalism, sensationalism or biased. The weekly’s first and only rule is to become the “People’s Platform” - in that we want to write and report about the consequences of the day on the common citizenry rather than planning and pushing an agenda or speculative agendas.

SALEABILITY:
ATSARA will, because of the nature of its content and presentation, carve a unique niche for itself that is made up of credibility, consistency and class. The intention is to become a quality magazine associated with engaged journalism, inasmuch as the contents are concerned and without a doubt, of credible source; prompt and tempt the reader to subscribe, together with unsolicited advertisements that has no influence whatsoever with the editorial room.
Seeing the local markets saturated with the dailies and the weeklies was another reason why I feel the weekly is ripe for the plucking. The need for such a weekly periodical is paramount in terms of steering the media to a sensible direction and yet is able to sustain itself for that very reason. In that sense, I wanted to bring about a newsmagazine that not only abridged gaps and provided a platform but also offered a newspaper that could become a collectible, with a longer shelf life and a longer life span.

THE MASTHEAD:

The old adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” was probably the key to the name, or the masthead – the most important aspect of its personality, or any publication’s for that matter. My team and I also believe in the other adage of first impressions casting lasting footprints. “In Buddhism, the Pali variant ATSARA is literally "The Teacher". It is associated with one of the two teachers of a novice monk, the other being the Upādhyāya. In Mahayana traditions the epithet ATSARA is widely used as an honorific indicating great scholastic renown; somewhat more general and essentially, the ATSARA is the DUPTOB/SIDDHA that challenges conventional trappings using CRAZY WISDOM, so aptly practiced, taught and propagated by Lam DRUKPA KINLEY; hence the name.
The importance of print media in Bhutan cannot be understated and the weekly’s sustenance and growth will be the primal target. I chose upon the name to best reflect what the weekly will represent.

I believe that “good reading” enriches a reader’s life – and thereon the person’s approach to temporal issues and even life itself. With this in mind, ATSARA will develop and market a wide range of themes, all founded on the same basic philosophy of informing and entertaining – through reading. The other important facet next to the masthead is the publication’s slogan. True to its motto of “PROUD TO BE ONE”– the monthly magazine DRUKPA emphasized the importance of the written word, ensuring that readers return and stay loyal to the magazine time and again. With “RIGHT VIEW” as the moral compass and slogan, derived from the Eight-Fold Noble Path.

I believe the same can be achieved, if not bettered. The more issues you read, the more informed and aware you can become. Information is an ever-changing world, and therefore, the ATSARA team will work systematically with a variation of themes and flavors that will continually change and transform - based on research among the most happening or forgotten news and events of the day.

THE TEAM:

With an albeit small but a team of highly motivated individuals with impeccable backgrounds as far as the growth of media in Bhutan is concerned, we are confident that we will proffer the best deal possible in terms of news content, presentation, even as far as ad design, layout, branding and marketability.
We invite you to become a part of “ATSARA” to ensure that we can sustain it as a weekly newspaper all Bhutanese can be proud of and in that process, also help steer the other face of a working, vibrant and transparent democracy, without underscoring the need to imbibe a reading culture among the youth.

THE SCENARIO:
The strategy is one of a “Shared Vision” with aims to build a brand new publication company and capitalize on the paper’s strengths, work on its flaws, and eventually brand it as a synonym for creativity, credible information and entertaining literature that encourages the reading habits of the youth and those disenfranchised with the media.

THE ATSARA PLAN:
• Lead the media fraternity in adopting “Reportage and Coverage with a Conscience”

• Inform, Educate and to Entertain the reader

• Refocus on issues that go way beyond government policies and implementations

• Increase readership via Content, Quality, Presentation and Credibility

The strategy for the years up to 2012 and beyond underlines the continued importance of focusing on building a sustainable business platform for the paper’s future development.

The situation facing all media houses is that consumers, customers and competitors pressure them from many quarters, apart from the conflicts in-house. ATSARA will also counter such challenges but with a difference; a steely determination to bind the average reader, potential readers, general consumers, and retailers even closer to the organization. It will continue to be this organization’s primary purpose of supplying wholesome content and artistic design – developing today’s students and helping them to face the challenges of tomorrow through sensible material.

At the same time ATSARA will continue to improve its range so that its latest issue will always be ready to face the competition. As far as consumers are concerned, the most visible changes have taken place in increasing readership. At the same time, the paper will be continuously revitalized in the virtual world via its online activities.

COVERAGE & CONTENT THEMES:

Given the six days a weekly paper typically receives before printing an issue, I believe the time is ample enough to bring out a quality befitting a newsmagazine. During the time I was running the monthly DRUKPA, editorial meetings would take place once an edition was out. The team gets together to brainstorm what appropriate theme should be adopted and covered for the next issue. The same methodology will be at play here with pretty much the same team.

Typically, the themes are chosen on account of the “effective, affective and recurring impact” it has on the lives of the common man. Then strategies and angles are worked out to get the best out of the situation as far as information is concerned. Stories, contacts and other vital information are delegated and assigned to the reporters to best cover the stories.

METHOD, NETWORK & CONTRIBUTORS:
I am mostly responsible for the Concept and Content. After a consensus is arrived at and tasks delegated accordingly, stalwart media-back grounded-contributors-at-large in Los Angeles, California, New York, London and other non-Bhutanese who are Bhutan-aficionados pitch in with creative ideas and written contributions. Off late, respected and syndicated electronic mediums such as Project-Syndicate has written to me allowing exclusive rights to use their contents, penned mostly by senior people such as Prime Ministers, Presidents, former government cabinet ranked ministers, CEOs, Scientists, Philosophers and other well known luminaries. Sometimes they submit photography or do specifically requested articles. The team’s creative core is made up of the Chief Editor, the Deputy Editor, and Reporters, a team of Designers, Artists and Photographers. All are experienced media-related professionals associated with a number of assorted national publications. The marketing team comprises of a young and dynamic team of individuals. What they lack in relative experience is more than compensated by their passion and enthusiasm in the art of marketing and branding. However, we do not formally stipulate that our team members must have formal trainings; selection is based on hands-on work and face-to-face interviews.

PERSONNEL:

The team comprises an eclectic group of media professionals that run an ad hoc Ad/Media Firm called Turtle Tree Creations. The team has vast experience and is thoroughly professional delving in media related fields such as writing, designing, artistry with a wide network of established contributors and photographers who bring in invaluable material.
The Team are teamsters. They are experienced guerillas well versed in the art and craft of working in unpredictable environments with firm deadlines delivered.

PUBLICATIONS:

We publish the biannual travelogue formerly known as DISCOVER BHUTAN. The travelogue was launched in 2008 as a comprehensive travel-magazine reflecting the tourism industry and enhancing the tourism potentials of the kingdom. However, the magazine failed to entice the local as well as the international traveler. Bereft of ideas and in need of a fresh start, the magazine ran two issues in 2008 and went idle. Upon ABTO’s proposal, we took up the offer and the challenge, which we saw as a good business proposition as well as a challenging creative outlet. The revamped edition of DISCOVER BHUTAN is now called “THE PILGRIM.” The first issue is already out in the bookstores, as well as the international market. Furthermore, we execute government and private sector consultancy works, design and layout, including brochures, web write-ups and design and audio and video ads, infomercials and advertorials.

*For Visual Backgrounds on some of the works we have executed, please visit: -
(www.turtletreecreations.blogspot.com)
Or
(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Turtle-Tree-Creations/143935712349389).
**For a sampling of assorted writings, please check out: -
(www.iamdrukpa.blogspot.com) (The number one blog in Bhutan at the moment.)

***SOME OF OUR OTHER CREATIONS:

• Write-Ups for Tashi Delek, Drukair’s bimonthly in-flight magazine
• Launch & Publication of a monthly magazine called DRUKPA
• Revamped Bhutan Today
• Created our own logo in tribute and in celebration of the wedding of Their Majesties
• Created the Bhutan Media Foundation logo
• The MADE-IN-BHUTAN merchandizes in honor of and to celebrate the Auspicious Wedding of His Majesty the King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck to Her Majesty Jetsun Pema
• Published a coffee table book called The Royal Wedding Felicitations on behalf of the Bhutan Media Foundation
• Inaugural publication, print, design, layout and content of ABTO’s biannual travelogue called THE PILGRIM
• Revamped Bhutan Observer with its new layout, look and content
• Concept, content, design, layout, copywriting, editing and launching the Bhutan Observer biannual magazine Faces of Bhutan
• Running Bhutan Times when its Editorial Team walked out leaving the weekly in a quandary
• Design, layout and content of numerous other publications.

YET MORE SPECIALITIES:

• Storytelling (Scripts, Screenplays)
• Logo Concepts & Design
• Multimedia Consultancy
• Media Start Up/Up Starts
• Conceptualization & Design
• Copywriting, Editing. Proofreading
• Volunteering (Social/Community Works)
• Social Awareness /Advocacy
• Event Management Consultants
• Media & Multi Media Management

(Jurmi Chhowing)
Chief Editor/Creator,
DO-NAMO PUBLICATIONS/TURTLE TREE CREATIONS/ATSARA
PO Box 321, GPO, Thimphu.
Mobile* +975-1775-2294

Kadrinche!

PS: YourLustForLifeStartsRightNow!

The Transcendental Clown (From DRUKPA)
By Tashi Phuntsho Jr.

The first thing that strikes you about the Atsara is literally the nose. It’s huge and it’s bloody red. Then comes the exaggerated facial features, and as if to mock you to submission, there is this perpetual grin, amok and in your face, to the point where you feel slighted. But it’s all in good nature, and so is the feeling once you have survived the initial scare. Then the attire gets you, somewhere between a sixties hippie and a gypsy doing an Arabian dance. Meet the Atsara, the Bhutanese nemesis to Batman’s Joker.

But don’t let the careless appearance and random antics fool you. They are meant to but there is more to the character than meets the eye. Atsaras are Dupthobs, enlightened beings who have realized the Samsaric truths – defying contemporary norms and defining socially accepted human behavior. They rise above feelings of shame, remorse, desire, anger and the like. At their level, they realize that emptiness and the futility of emotional bonds. They feel no shame in begging, no humility in being obstinate, or remorse in what we’d term “unethical”. They neither crave nor do they want. And that is because Atsaras were amongst the Dupthob Gyabchu, the 80 disciples of the Buddha and it is from amongst them that the founders of Drukpa Kagyu emanated, of which the likes of Naropa and Tilopa flowered. Therefore, the importance and significance of Atsaras are in a way down played in our minds as we tend to look upon them more as jesters these days.

The name Atsara is derived from the Sanskrit word Acharya meaning holy teacher. The term Acharyas slowly transformed to Atsara as a result of travel and tongue. According to Lopen Pem Dendup, Tsaezin of Trongsa Dratshang, the tradition of holding Tshechus starring Atsaras were popular only in Trongsa and a handful of other places. It was only during the reign of the 2nd king that the tradition of Tshechus gained momentum in other Dzongkhags and Atsaras were introduced. Atsaras are our version of the Sutradas, a storyteller who gives the information and background of the mask dances as they are performed.

In the Buddhists context there are three main functions of the Atsara, namely Pchi- external, Nang – internal, and Sang – hidden.
The external act of the Atsara is in assisting the mask dancers in cases of mistakes and mishaps made, either with their costumes, gears or the dance steps. Common people are not allowed to help them, only the Atsaras have the privilege of doing so.

On the inner level not all people watching can understand the essence of the Chams. For the ones who do not understand, the Atsaras provide comic relief, thereby, making sure that they are also entertained.

On the secret level the Atsaras have attained such levels of understanding the perpetual adventure in pursuit of eternal salvation that they are totally above worldly attachments, feelings and other desires. They are in their own ways trying to pass down the message. In the past they even went to the extent of adopting nudism, somewhat like the Hindu Sadhus.

iamDrukpa

Writing Can Be Prayerful

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Tarmac Calls ( Hit The Road J...)

When Scorpions Merge & Become Butterflies

When Butterflies Melt

A Mustard Muses

Some Of The Good Doc's Prescriptions...

43 Years of ... Easy Rider (1969)

Salty Dog Clothing Line- Kids Wear

The 13th Ride: Aggie Rider's Final Cut

Spacing Out

SIBSOO RIDE – The UnCut Version By Aggie Rider

Its Money That Causes Poverty: a TZM NYear's Address...

Lesson From the Tiger

The End Is The Beginning

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse.....

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Smeagol's Delusion Redux

Relapsing Senti-Mentality

A Prisoner’s Christmas

ATSARA - The Right View