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reflectionsofneptune · 4 years ago

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The Moon Transit the Signs

My thoughts on the Moon in Astrology through the 12 Zodiac signs. I've mentioned things to be mindful of during the transit, as well as how to work best with the energy.

Moon transiting Aries

When the Moon transits Aries, collectively we feel more confident in ourselves and are more inclined to put ourselves out there in life in the hopes of propelling us forward. The world is viewed with childlike wonder and inner faith is our guiding star. We feel more passionate and encouraged to go after our goals. During this transit, we are more apt to be assertive and say what we feel; sometimes with a directness that lacks tact. You are the creator of your life, and during Aries Moon transits, use the cardinal energy to get things going.

What to be mindful of:

- Impatience

Aries energy is very dynamic, full of energy with a preference to be on the go. Aries wants what it wants, and it wanted it yesterday. During this transit, you will have incredible force behind your actions but might find yourself getting frustrated if things don’t come to fruition as fast as you like. This impatience could veer off into a domineering attitude to those around you. Breathe. Inhale, exhale, repeat. Let things run their natural course.

- Acting selfish

Aries is the baby of the zodiac and concerned with the self. Nothing bad about a lil self-awareness but make sure the actions and decisions you carry out don’t have negative repercussions for those around you. Try to be aware of other people around you. Think things through. Its no good furthering your place in life if you’re stepping on other’s people toes unnecessarily to do so. When faced with decisions, try and look for one that can be made which benefits everyone.

How to work with this energy:

- Be your own hype man

The Fire element in Astrology is connected with our life force. The very fibre of our being. One thing you can’t deny about Aries energy is the unwavering confidence. During an Aries Moon Transit, find a mantra or create a mantra, and repeat it to yourself throughout the day. Cultivate an inner faith in yourself. Big yourself up.

- Say yes more

Aries energy is pretty much up for anything. Let’s use this daring energy to apply it to situations in our life that we feel uncertain about it. Tune in to the gut. During this transit can you take a risk in your life somehow? It can be big or small. What area of your life can you be brave in? I bet you’re still be breathing after you do it.

Moon transiting Taurus

As the Moon passes through Taurus, our feelings become more grounded and stable. We’re more conscious of what makes us feel emotionally secure. Collectively, we’re more inclined to see beauty or the lack of it, around us; taking stock of the material things in our life. Taurus energy is all connecting deeply with the self and its comforts. Emotions take on a practical and more steady approach. That being said, there is also danger of uncomfortable emotions being pushed down or past hurts being ruminated over incessantly. Let whatever comes up flow freely through you. During a Taurus Moon transit, make sure to smell the roses and appreciate the simple but essential things you have in your life.

What to be mindful of:

- Indulging too much in the wrong things

Taurus rules pleasure - especially connecting to the body - so during this transit, your relationship to food, sex, money and your possession may be highlighted. Be mindful of your consumption of these things and whether or not they are used as a tool to fill a hole in your life. Take a moment to tune in the body and its needs. Are the habits you have have with these things hindering or helping you to affirm yourself and your self worth?

- Stubbornness

Taurus energy can be very stubborn and clinging tightly to their views. During this Moon transit, be mindful of ways in which you tightly cling to a narrative or a belief system. It doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong. Do you take into account other people’s viewpoints? Or do you shut people down before giving them a change? The great thing about life is that we have the freedom of expression. Be open to change in your life.

How to work with this energy:

- Come back home to self

The Moon is exalted in fixed earth sign Taurus, meaning that the highest vibration of nurturing and care can be expressed here. Show your body some TLC. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Go on Pinterest for DIY beauty treatments; some of the ingredients needed may be in your kitchen cupboard. Connect with your body. If issues surrounding your body come up, try and dig deeper into where they stem from. Think about your body’s ability to get you where are today.

- See abundance

Gratitude is a powerful tool in improving one’s life and during this transit, it is a good time to take stock of what you have to be grateful for you in your life. Write down 3 things you can be grateful, big or small, detailed or not, and remind yourself of these things when you feel a sense of lack. Taurus is a very fertile energy and by noticing the good in your life, you are sure to attract more of it.

Moon Transiting Gemini

When the Moon transits Gemini, collectively we may feel more light-hearted about life as feelings become more curious and playful. We feel mischievous and delight in pushing people’s buttons. Socially inclined, we gain emotional stability by connecting with people or exploring our immediate environment. There is a possibility that we find ourselves doing multiple things at once so be mindful to try and finish things as you go. Gemini energy can be quite restless so there is a danger of spreading yourself too thin. During this mutable airy transit, try and approach things from an inquisitive manner and not taking this too seriously.

What to be mindful of:

- How you spend your energy

Be careful of just engaging in pointless things. Gemini energy needs constant stimulation and movement which may lead you to giving out your energy carelessly, in hope of finding a release. You may find yourself in conversations that really add no value to your life but in order to feel accepted by your peers, you keep yourself plugged in. There could be a possibility that the mind can go off on a reoccuring ramble so it’s important to catch yourself if you fall into that pattern.

- How you’re using your voice

Gemini energy is connected to the throat chakra so it’s rightly so, during this transit we feel more talkative and want to connect with people. Gemini energy is all about connecting with people. However, Gemini is not adverse stir the pot to spice things up. Be mindful of the words coming out from your mouth. Are you bitching about people? Maybe you’re complaining a lot. When the Moon transits this mutable air sign, it is a good time to take stock of your communication style. How you use your words and how you think dictates how you life looks around you.

How to work with this energy:

- Communicate

Got an idea racing around the walls of your mind? Spit it out! When the Moon transits Gemini we may feel mentally overstimulated so it’s best to find a method of transferring all that energy outside our mental dome. Write it down, paint it, express it one way or another. Gemini energy is highly creative as the mental plane runs a million miles a second. Allow yourself to discuss what’s on your mind!

- Connect with people

Gemini energy is all about sharing information and ideas with people around them. When the Moon visits the social air sign, connecting with like-minded individuals will make you feel good.. It can be through conversation, text, email, letters, video call, the list is endless. Practice active listening so you can really engage with the people you care about. If you’re feeling daring, use this Moon Transit to flow in a flirty comment here and there.

Moon in Cancer

When the Moon transits cardinal water sign Cancer, you can bet your bottom dollar we’ll all be in our feels. On the bright side, this placement is where the Moon is in its rulership, so this transit offers us an advantage to really connect with our feelings if we’re willing to see the opportunity for what it is. Emotions can be highly nostalgic at this time and we may find ourselves reminiscing over the past or over our family. Collectively we may want to stay close to ‘home’, feeling tentative about putting ourselves out there. We may be more sensitive to criticism.. We need to be mindful over not letting our emotions dictate our actions and thoughts so strongly. When the Moon transits Cancer, our true feelings can be articulated more clearly as we feel them intensely at a core level.

What to be mindful of:

- Your feelings

Feelings are felt quite strongly during this transit and so we have the opportunity to tune in to them deeply. However, with this transit, we may feel more protective over our emotions. There could be a tendency to act out in an emotional manner that we hope the people around us, can identify our reasons for doing so. Not everyone is a mind-reader. Be mindful of any triggers that present themselves and the way in which you deal with them. Just because you’re feeling sorry for yourself, it doesn’t mean everybody wants to be invited to your pity party.

- Emotional manipulation

During this transit, be mindful of the people/places/things that you may be holding on to with a vicious grip, too scared to let go. Don’t turn to using emotional manipulation to get people to stick around. If that’s the method you take, you’ve already lost them. Change can be a scary thing but its inevitable in life. If all else fails, you will have always have yourself to count on.

How to work with this energy:

- Revisit your childhood

Give your inner child some love and attention. What did you do as a child that made you feel good? Was it making necklaces out of Pasta shapes? Or maybe it was watching that one film you had on video. Look back into bringing that into your present life. Home is where the heart is and you can always recreate that feeling of safety in your life.

- Connect with your family

It doesn’t have to be your biological family. It could be your soul family. Maybe a friendship group that feels like it’s your inherited family. Maybe online you’re part of a community that feels like home. Whoever it is, make an effort to reach and solidify your bonds. Cancer energy is all about connecting to your tribe.

Moon transiting Leo

When the moon transits this dramatic and eye-catching fixed fire sign, our emotions desire to be released creatively and in a dramatic fashion. Collectively, we aspire to be centre of attention and revel in praise from those around us. Romance is a driving force for us emotionally and we gain pleasure from flirting and connecting with love interests. We can be a little pouty when things don’t go our way. I die a little everyday when I realise the world doesn’t revolved around me. When the Moon transits Leo, take up space proudly knowing how amazing it is to be the unique individual that is yourself.

What to be mindful of:

- Your ego

Take some time to be mindful of being too self-centred and focused solely on yourself. Everything in life works on give and take. Are there areas of your life when you’ve been hogging up all the attention? Or thinking about only how things can benefit yourself? Praise someone else’s achievements. It’s great to be successful but isn’t even better when you have people around you to share that with?

- Dramatics

Be mindful not to act up in a way to to stir up attention from people around you. During this transit, we may be inclined to extravagance in our behaviour which can have the effect of repelling people away from you. We may feel slighted or take a hit to our self-worth when we don’t receive the adoration we think we deserve. What we crave from others, we can give to ourselves.

How to work with this energy:

Get creative

What talent of yours deserves to see the light? Leo energy is all about creative expression coming from the heart. Take this time to get stuck in to something you enjoy - being a fixed sign it will give you staying power - and just allow yourself to have pleasure. Try not to get swept into comparing your art with other people’s. Just accept it for what is. A beautiful creative piece of work, coming from you.

Work on your confidence

What have you accomplished in your life that looking back on you weren’t so sure you would make it? Fire energy is all about the self, and Leo is its own biggest fan. Use this Moon transit to tap into your inner confidence. What qualities about yourself do you need to give recognition? What makes you shine?

Moon transiting Virgo

Collectively, our feelings become more concerned with the details of our every day life, as our emotions are filtered through this analytical mutable earth sign. We have more discernment over what is working and what is not. We are more willing to make changes to improve the quality of our life. Virgo energy is all about refinement, so when the Moon transits this sign, we are more emotionally inclined to make changes in our lifestyle. We should be conscious of being too critical of ourselves and other people. When the Moon transits Virgo, remember that what you see in others, you see in yourself; the good, the bad and the ugly.

What to be mindful of:

- Being too hard on yourself

Virgo is notorious for being too damn hard on themselves. Perfection is the enemy of good. Not everything can be perfect. Sometimes, just showing up is more than enough. Under this transit, if you find yourself feeling hyper-sensitive to faults in your life, in your body, whatever the case may be, try and commend yourself for getting this far. Life is full of problems, so try and change your mindset into a solution focused mindset as opposed to a problem focused mindset.

- Worrying

Worries may be heightened under this transit, as does a feeling of rigidness and a desire to control the outcome. Worrying about something you cannot control is pointless and does no good for the mind, body or soul. Lean into not knowing everything or being able to account for everything. It’s okay to just flow with life and not know what’s around the corner. Sometimes you just have to let go and let God, Universe, whoever/whatever you believe in, take the wheel.

How to work with this energy

- Get back on your habits

Do you have some some goals in your life that you want to achieve? This Moon transit is a perfect time to outline necessary steps that will get you there. Anything you want in life is possible, you just need to prepare for its accordingly. Feel free to mix it up with spreadsheets, vision boards, or just write our the steps you need to take. Virgo energy favours diligence and organising your life, to be the best version of yourself possible.

- Declutter

This Moon transit will have you looking at your current lifestyle with a magnifying glass with things that are not working, standing out loud and clear. Virgo is all about efficiency so this transit is a good time to ‘Marie-Kondo’ your life. Holding on to excess mental, physical and emotional baggage can slow you down in life. Use this energy to get back on track.

Moon transiting Libra

When the Moon transits Libra, collectively we aspire to implement more harmony in our life, through our ability to relate to others. We are more apt to compromise for the sake of others. We gain great emotional satisfaction in our one-to-one relationships. Sometimes things just feel better when you have someone to share it with. There is a danger though, of conceding too much for the other party in hope of keeping the balance. Libran energy is very good at social etiquette but there’s no point in acting like everything is okay in front of people, only to feel the stark opposite when alone. When the Moon moves through the sign of Libra, balance must be sought out within, not just in external situations.

What to be mindful of:

- passive aggressiveness

Libran energy is very much tied up in their relationships with other people and sometimes this becomes a safety blanket. When the Moon is in Libra, we are very driven to maintain harmony in our life and so may not bring up issues that we feel like are unfair. This creates resentment in ourselves which isn’t healthy for us or in maintaining healthy relationships. Do yourself a favour and speak up about any imbalances in a relationship you may feel. There is a tendency to avoid confrontations of fear of losing approval in someone’s else eyes.

- Idealising people/situations

Libran energy is very attuned to seeing beauty in things. Be mindful of only allowing yourself to see what you deem is beautiful and acceptable. See the good but also see the ugly, in all its entirety. Use this insightful energy to weigh up situations for what they truly are. Not just for what you imagine or hope them to be. Give yourself the reality check.

How to work with this energy:

- Bring balance into your life

Where can you take back your power? Where you can honour your own needs and say no? There is a danger of being a pushover during this transit.Use the cardinal energy of air sign Libra to assert yourself. As a result, you will gain respect and attract the right people around you. Libran energy is good at playing the mediator so under this transit, you will be more inclined to see relationships from a detached point of view.

- Extend the olive branch

During this transit, the energy is diplomatic and favours seeing situations from someone else shoes. I’m not saying that you have to be beg for someone else’s forgiveness during this transit, but rather, use this Libran moon to your advantage and reach out to another. You don’t lose anything when you admit you were in the wrong. Try and mend any relationships in your life that you hold dear to your heart.

Moon transiting Scorpio

When the Moon in in Scorpio, it is said to be in fall. Vulnerability and emotional expression do not come as easily in this sign. Collectively we may feel more deep, intense, intuitive but also paranoid and suspicious. Unconscious childhood behaviour pattens may come up to resurface. We’re more inclined to want to appease our sexual desires or desires for power. Feelings of jealously or possessiveness may run strong and we may be more stubborn. When the Moon transits Scorpio, it’s a good time to get real with yourself and the nitty gritty of a situation.

What to be mindful of:

- Your shadow:

During a Scorpio moon transit, things that you have buried down within you are apt to say hello. Try not to ignore them. They’re coming up for a reason. Use this transit to be a A1 detective on yourself. Why do you behave the way that you do in situations like this? Why does that one thing trigger you so much? Opportunity is being presented for you to to heal yourself on a soul level. It may feel very uncomfortable but the rewards on the other side are priceless.

- Your bite

This fixed water sign can be quite ruthless when scorned so be mindful that you don’t act out on people around you in a way that you might regret lately. Try not feed into negative thought patterns. You can run yourself wild seeing everyone as a suspect or an enemy. Just because you’re feeling a type of way, doesn’t mean other people deserve to be treated in a horrible way.

How to work with this energy:

- Purge your feelings

Be honest with yourself. Be honest with someone else. Scorpio energy is all about the raw truth. Use this Moon transit to do just that and release any emotional turmoil within. This is a good time for releasing your frustrations out in a journal entry. Scorpio energy is linked to a phoenix rising from the ashes to be reborn. What’s weighing you down?

- Research

This Moon transit gives you the drive to dig a lil deeper. Find a topic that interests the hell out of your and go to town. Whatever it is, during this transit you have the motivation and drive to really get to the bottom of whatever you set your mind to. You more likely to understand and see the intentions behind other people’s motives too.

Moon transiting Sagittarius

When the Moon transits the fiery mutable sign of Sagittarius, collectively we feel optimistic and inspired about our place in life. Feelings are expansive and desires are juuuuust over the horizon. We feel restless, wanting to explore all that life has to offer. But be careful, you may over do yourself. There is a tendency to overdo things. This energy is all about grandeur and doing things bigger and better than what’s been done before, so be mindful that your actions aren’t unnecessarily aren’t over the top. When the Moon transits Sagittarius, you’re more likely to see the bigger picture in life, with an innate knowing that everything is interconnected. Everything happens for a reason.

What to be mindful of:

- Your risks

Sagittarius is in general a very lucky sign but sometimes their risks don’t pan out they way they had envisioned. Be careful not to put your foot in your mouth by overestimating a situation on your abilities. For what it’s worth, you had good intentions right? Be humble. Passion is essential in life, but sometimes you need to temper that fire with some realism.

- Running away

Sagittarius energy can be known for just running away to escape situations they would rather not deal with. Not dealign with something is not dealing with something. When the Moon sign transits Sagittarius, be mindful of just tapping out to daydream in order to avoid the harsh realities of life. Life has its various ups and downs. It’s all in your perspective. Feel confident in your ability to handle whatever life throws at you.

How to work with this energy:

- Immerse yourself in something different

Sagittarian energy is far reaching, with a connection to foreign places, spirituality and higher learning. When the Moon is in Sagittarius, try to connect with something different that what you already know. Perhaps you try your hand at learning a new language. Maybe it’s a new recipe. Perhaps you watch a film in a different language. Open your eyes to the beauty that exists outside your own culture and in this thing called life.

- Get inspired

This Moon transit is a good time to spend some time watching or listen to someone motivating. Dare to dream big. Look at the bright side of things. A lot of the luck linked with Sagittarius is really down to their ability to take risks and go for opportunities that other may pass up. What can you do to create space for abundance in your life?

Moon transiting Capricorn

When the Moon transits Capricorn, our feelings turn to our achievements and long-term goals in life. Our emotions are linked to our productivity. Collectively, we’re more inclined to want to get things in order and create structure in our life. Be mindful not to be so pessimistic about your current position in life or in our society. Moreover, pay attention to any tendencies to be dismissive of your own feelings and that of others around you. You may feel as if time is of the essence, and don’t want to be bogged down by people, places or things you don’t place significance on. The Moon is in detriment when it is in the sign of Capricorn, so extra care needs to put into actually feeling our feelings and not busying ourselves with work. You are enough.

What to be mindful of:

- Being too hard on yourself.

You may find yourself comparing to other people and feeling frustrated at where you are compared to them. Use this energy to motivate you instead of making you feel sad. Get clear on your long term goals that are crucial for your success in life and work towards them. What you want in life you can achieve, dedication and work is all that required to go the distance.

- Focusing too much on work

Ambition is heightened during this transit. Be mindful of focusing too much on work that you neglect the key relationships around you. Try and cultivate balance in priorities in your life. When the Moon transits Capricorn, there is a higher likelihood of feeling lonely so its crucial to have solid relationships to fall back on.

How to work with this energy:

- Network

Who can you email or reach out to to help get you where you want to be in life? Reach out to someone you admire. This transit can deliver some reality checks on your long-term vision. Revisit and revise your plans. A this cardinal earth sign will give you the steady confidence and practical vision to cement your way in the world. Capricorn energy is good at seeing the potential in things, so look for opportunity around you to strengthen your position in life.

- Respect your duties

Take some time to look over other areas of your life which require responsibility such as your bills, your savings, food shopping and any other obligations that may be present. Capricorn is often linked to being the breadwinner in a family and that is because this sign often has their ducks in order. Find a sense of peace in dealign with the little things that set up to be great.

Moon transiting Aquarius

When the Moon transits Aquarius, collectively we may feel emotionally detached as our focus turns towards society and our involvement in the wider world. We may be thinking of ways to improve the planet and the lives of those around us. in addition, during this fixed air sign transit, we may feel more connected to organisations or groups that share our common goals. The internet may be a ground upon which we connect with like-minded individuals. There is a danger though of feeling alienated or taking a stance of my way is right for all, though. When the Moon transits Aquarius, emotionally we feel secure in thinking of ways to advance humanity somehow.

What to be mindful of:

- Feeling close-minded

During this transit, you may be struck with sudden ideas on how to improve society but find that other people are not as open minded to it as you had hoped. Or perhaps, you yourself are resistant to others ideas. Be mindful not to be too attached to your ideals. There is no one size fits all. Not all opinions are gospel. Be open to other people’s points of views.

- Losing yourself in the group

It's great to be apart of something bigger but make sure that you are not losing your sense of individuality in the process. Take a moment to look at your motivations for aligning with a particular group. Make sure it truly reflects your values and there isn’t fear or shame behind your involvement. Be conscious of your ability to firmly identify with yourself in and out of a group.

How to work with this energy:

- Shake things up!

This Moon transit is the perfect time to deviate from your normal routine and try something new. Be rebellious and test boundaries (where applicable). Aquarius energy is all about the unexpected so who knows how great the results could be if you dare to be different. It could be something simple as switching the hand that you brush your teeth with, in your fashion choices or perhaps something quirky in your appearance. Whatever it is, try something bold!

- Think of your mark in the world

When the Moon transits Aquarius we may be subject to sudden insight about contribution to society. How are you fitting into the wider world? What can you do today that guarantees a better tomorrow? Perhaps you think about investing in more eco-friendly brands or donating to a cause that resonates with you. Aquarius energy is altruistic in nature, forgoing one’s individual needs for the betterment of society

Moon transiting Pisces

When the Moon transits mutable water sign Pisces, collectively we feel more liable to go with the flow, prone to daydreaming and engaging in our fantasies. We cringe away from the harsh realities of life by secluding into the comforts of our minds. Emotionally however, we may not be all that present. Emotions can feel confusing and subject to disillusionment. Profound insights about our life can be gained if we’re open to the subtle guidances. When the Moon transits Pisces, it is a time to be mindful of the level of your vibrations as you are more impressionable during this time.

What to be mindful of:

- Your secret vices

Everything in moderation, yes? When the moon is in Pisces, any addictive behaviours we have may rear their head. Addictive behaviours in all forms, be it through food, sex and people. Addictions are usually created to mask a feeling that we don’t want to feel. Use this transit to really dig deep into your feelings. There is a danger to wallow in self-pity during this transit but that approach won’t help solve your problems. Be real with yourself.

- Accountability

Pisces energy can be very much in the clouds, not wanting to deal with reality. Be mindful of telling little white lies or stretching the truth so that it fits in the with the version of reality in your head. Take ownership over your mistakes and where you have played a part in the demise of situations. Transparency is key in life. Not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings is not valid reason to not tell the truth.

How to work with this energy:

- Meditate

When the Moon transits Pisces, our intuition is heightened. However, we may find it difficult to separate fact from fiction. Pisces energy is great for getting silent and letting your higher guidance speak to you. You can start off small with just 5 minute guided mediations or practice being mindful in simple things such as having a cup of tea. Open up space for your intuitive wisdom to speak with you.

- Protect your energy

When the Moon transits Pisces, collectively we all are a little more in tune with each other. Boundaries could get blurred and what’s mine vs what’s yours could get a little confusing. Take some time to remove yourself from people, places or things that just don’t sit right with you. You’re more impressionable at this time so why spend it around low-vibrational people/places/things? Energy levels are subject to being low during this transit so its crucial that you surround yourself with what makes you feel good and nourishes your soul.

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/pt 1 - cancer placements sun - saturn

/pt 2 - thoughts on the moon in astrology

/pt 3 - twelve questions for cancer placements

/pt 4 - thoughts on cancer decans

/pt 6 - more thoughts on cancer placements

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vajranam · 4 years ago

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Drifting Yogi

DRIFTING YOGI– A rare modern day story of a spiritual adventure

PART -- 1 LEAVING HOME

"On December 13th 2004, I gave up my class 12th board exams and fled to India to become a monk.

I was brought up by a single mother along with three sisters. Growing up through dire poverty, my early childhood years were unforgettably sad and painful.

Having been a dreamy boy, i took comfort from reading poetry and spiritual books at school. I was a lazy, dull-witted student and did not perform well in exams.

Since i couldn't figure out an ambition

for my future, i remember studying the academic subjects only to get through the exams; so that i don't disappoint my guardians who were spending for my schooling.

To distract my attention from the troublesome situations of a boarding school life those years, where resources were scanty... and the constant bullying by elders, i drove my emotions deeper into spirituality and consoled myself through writing poems.

Sometimes gazing at the serene images of Lord Buddha.... i started dreaming of studying and practicing meditation to achieve that amazingly peaceful and hypnotic composure of a sitting Buddha.

And i didn't care about achieving anything otherwise.

So in December 2004 in Zhemgang higher sec. School, aged nineteen i gave up my bio-science exams and embarked on an extremely uncertain, risky and adventurous journey to India without a penny in my pocket.

Making the long story short.......

I arrived in india somehow and with much jubilation got admitted in a renowned Tibetan buddhist monastery in north India.

But soon i was disappointed to learn that the monasteries are just another institutions to study ethics, philosophy and rituals in their respective traditions. And no monastery offered direct meditation instructions to the monks/students to realise for themselves.

After just about one year in the Shedra, i quit the monastic life and started wandering in search of a master or a 'Tsa wai Lama'.

Which happened to be yet another crazy decision.

PART -- 2 MEETING WITH MASTER

AND PRACTICE

After a couple months of leaving the monastery i happened to travel in Lahoul valley near Ladakh.

There i met a wandering Tibetan Yogi building an old-style rock Stupa on the mountain.

Our meeting sparked in me a curious sense of emotions that was mixed with joy and tears when ever he talked to me.

Tired of wandering and pilgrimage, the desperate me requested him to take me to where ever he was based, so that i can serve him and learn more from him and about him.

Living with him, my life became more difficult and uneasy.

Since his nature was extremely harsh and extremely loving sometimes. But at the end of each passing day i found out that my emotions were being tested to the limit and he was teaching me a lot in disguise.

So considering his arrogance to me as a rare blessing i made a firm resolution to never leave him in no matter what situation.

After much waiting, i received instructions and his protection to pursue solitary retreats. Constantly wandering from one mountain cave to another, from deep forests to deserts,

From sea shores to solitary islands, sleeping on the roadsides, under the trees and cemeteries, i wandered like a fallen leaf carried by the wind.

Once i walked about 700 miles and bicycled 2000 miles under the heavy rains and scorching sun of tropical India. They were all a part of my yogic practice of drifting without a particular aim.

For more than twelve years, being so lost and carried away in retreats and wandering... i have almost forgotten my home country Bhutan.

PART -- 3 A VISION

During my retreats in the forests of central India, my provisions were taken cared by the innocent villagers, who were newly converted buddhists due to caste issues in indian social system.

Villagers were more than happy to have me, a buddhist practitioner from a foreign land in their remote villages.

So moved by their innocent reverence i started teaching them meditation, the essence of all the teachings of the buddha.... Although i struggled to interpret my thoughts to them through my extremely poor spoken Hindi.

Later in early 2017 i travelled to south east asian countries invited by some friends.

There i was surprised to discover a vibrant culture of education and youth who were equally enthusiastic to practice meditation to enhance their quality of lives through spiritual values and understanding.

We can all agree to one inevitable challenge, that our pursuit of modern lifestyle and it's glamour, is costing a serious toll on mental health to everyone.

And simultaneously dragging our beautiful home planet into a disaster of pollution and over-exploitation.

It was highly nourishing for me to meet amazing young people in those countries, who were raising concerns about the future of humanity and giving their commitments to spiritual lives through the practice of meditation in their daily lives.

In late 2018 i came back to Bhutan to visit my mother.

And started travelling and teaching meditation in Bhutan without the pre-requirements of arduous ngondro practices.

To my surprise many students young or elderly, literate or illiterate, started giving me amazing feedbacks through their own experiences just after a few months of practice. And were thoroughly inspired to follow the path of meditation in order to understand the dharma deeper for further enlightenment.

Some students have stopped drinking and smoking as a natural effect of meditation. And a few more have recovered from depression and migraine.

But at the same time, some people seemed still confused and quite suspicious regarding my initiatives.

While i welcomed their doubts and criticism, i was also scanning the psychological landscape of people influenced by their own belief systems.

So my dear elders, youngers, friends and relatives in Bhutan.

Let me take some space to share my humble opinions of what meditation is all about.

In other countries buddhist meditation is taught in school systems to enhance the performance of students.

i have seen buddhist meditations practiced in christian churches to generate faith and devotion in christ.

Buddhist meditations are practiced by psychologist and psychiatrists and implemented on their patients to recover from their mental disorientation.

Buddhist meditations are taught in high profile leadership and business management courses to enhance their productivity.

Buddhist meditation is practiced in the military of some countries for better focus and precision in their training.

Buddhist meditation is practiced by hard-core criminals in prisons to recover from their corrupted state of minds.

One friend in Philipines, a school teacher is teaching meditation in a catholic school, and the school administration approves her initiative.

In Burma, Sri lanka and thailand politicians practice meditation to render their political service more effectively.

So my dear friends in Bhutan,

those people in other countries may never have heard of arduous ngondro practices but they are still practicing meditation as the heart of all teachings of buddha and getting benefited immensely.

Now.... one can definitely argue my statements that those meditations are from different origins, like the Theravada from Burma or Srilanka,

Zen from Japan and ours is secret Dzogchen from the path of vajrayana.

To this possible argument, i can simply answer that even if the meditation practices originate from different, different countries and traditions....... ALL THOSE MEDITATION MANUALS EXIST IN THE VAST COMPILATION OF KANJUR AND TENJUR, TO WHICH WE ALL PROSTRATE UN-KNOWINGLY

WHEN WE VISIT THE TEMPLES AND MONASTERIES.

Ngondro, a set of mandatory preliminary practices that require five to 6 months to complete is an amazing tool to enter the Vajrayana buddhist path.

But at the same time...... Buddhas meditation teachings, being the answer to all human quests....sadly remain inaccessible to a large section of devout buddhists in our country. Simply because most aspiring meditation practitioners cannot fulfill the obligation to complete the long and arduous ngondro which is the standard practice required by tradition, as the gateway to the path of meditation.

But dear friends.... I speak with conviction through what little experience and observations i have gathered, that ngondro can be also practiced after meditation.

in fact NGONDRO BECOMES MUCH MORE AUTHENTIC AND JOYFUL IF PRACTICED WITH A PRIOR EXPERIENCE OF MEDITATION.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine sent me the Royal Kasho granted by our beloved His majesty the king, regarding the reformation of educational system.

As a humble citizen, I was deeply moved by the concerns made by His majesty the King, regarding the future of our youth and education in comparison to the extremely fast changing environment we live in.

My heart was throbbing.... and while i was holding my breath, i realised that even as a humble and a nameless citizen, living lonely as the road, i have fondly entertained many dreams.... if my independent research in the field of meditation therapies from the deep buddhist wisdom, can contribute an additional facility to our existing model of education.

So on this beautiful social networking platform i drifting yogi would like to share my deep prayers and aspirations

To teach meditation further in Bhutan,

Purely as a science of self discovery under secular setting.... and also as the essence of our Vajrayana path.

I have a dream to teach meditation to our budding youth to empower themselves to pursue their passion in life and achieve their goals to live a life of contentment.

And recovering from any kind of addictions from substance abuses through mental strength cultivated from meditation.

In 2019 when i was still in India, i heard some horrifying news from Bhutan about a series of rapes of minors in Paro, Dagana and somewhere.

My senses went numb.... and my mind was in dilemma out of sheer terror.

Because deep down.... i felt, if our youth can be educated in the practice of meditation, then such horrors can be totally prevented, by transforming the emotions of the practitioner into a naturally joyful and liberated state of being.

Finally, before i end this story,

I will drop a wish, that this story reach as many readers as possible.

And I deeply apologise if reading this story was a waste of time to some readers.

If any reader like this story, then i thank you for ur gesture of support.

And if any reader find flaws in my statements,

I welcome your valued criticism, so that i can learn a little from you.

MAY ALL BEINGS BE HAPPY!"

– By Drifting Yogi (Aka Sherab Dorji, 35)

Written on the bank of River Gamri, Lungten Zampa, Trashigang, Eastern Bhutan on 17 Feb.2021.

#wisdom #spirituality #mindfulness #meditation #religion #buddhism #self care #zen #visualization #tibet

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xaviersystem · 5 years ago

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7 Day Prayer Miracle Review Amanda Ross (2020)

7 Day Prayer Miracle by Amanda Ross

Does it Work?

Almost everyone is familiar with the word Prayer, as well as the concept of Prayer. So when we come across someone offering a 7 Day Prayer Miracle, it is possible to have some questions popping up in the minds of people. Does it work? Is it effective? Why it is so popular? So I thought of bringing this blog 7 Day Prayer Miracle Review — Does it work?

So before we proceed, here is a synopsis about the product:·

Product: 7 Day Prayer Miracle Review·

Author: Amanda Ross·

Bonus: Yes·

Official Website: 7dayprayermiracle

What Will You Get From 7 Day Prayer Miracle?

Here in 7 Day Prayer Miracle coaching, you get a shocking tragedy that manifests itself in a great blessing.

It contains a prayer composed of four sentences. This helps approximately many ordinary people to highlight the miracles of health, finances, and relationships.

This miracle program gets related to the secrets of Archangel Michael. Hence, you get a blazing stream of miracles.

You get heavenly wisdom to show the fairy tale. This helps to choose the best pair of dreams.

It helps to boost your life. And you can spread your wings and move on to the next level.

You experience good, irreversible changes in your life by this guidance. There is no place for negativity in your life.

>>> Learn More About 7 Day Prayer Miracle <<<

Manifesting Miracles by Using Prayer

When The Secret first came out, it renewed hope in millions of people for manifesting the things that would make their lives more livable. A few years on, most of those millions have lost hope, again. The “Law of Attraction” seemed to be missing something.

More than 2,500 years ago, the Prophet Daniel discovered a method of prayer that worked miracles and gave him prophetic visions of the future. Not only was he able to save his own life and that of all the wise men of Babylon, he told the king what he had dreamed and then told him what the dream meant.

We now know why the Law of Attraction works when it does. We also know why the prayers of most people don’t work. This knowledge is power — the power to manifest miracles at will. The 7 Day Prayer Miracle program contains distilled wisdom that details the differences between the two halves of reality so you can know where you stand in relationship to heaven.

Never before have we had such clarity in understanding about how prayer and miracles work. Yes, this is exciting stuff.

Imagine taking the guesswork out of your life. Imagine setting a path and having it appear right in front of your eyes. Prayer done the right way is the most powerful tool we could ever imagine.

>>> Tap or Click Here to Start the 7 Day Prayer Miracle <<<

How the Course Can Help You

Well, the course has:

1. Verified Techniques:

The big problem we’ve had with programs like “positive thinking” or “law of attraction” is that they remained vague on how to get to the desired state of mind. There was too much “pie-in-the-sky,” feel-good stuff that didn’t have a sufficient connection to the real world.

The 7 Day Prayer Miracle requires that you develop and exercise the ability to achieve the proper feelings for delivering prayers that match your conscious thoughts. The course shows you exactly how to do this with several, step-by-step exercises. This has been the area of disconnect in so many other programs

The exercises in this course raise your critical awareness of your environment and your own internal feelings so you can know when you’re aiming your prayer correctly.

2. Establishes Within You the Proper Skills:

The reason why the 7 Day Prayer Miracle works and has so many enthusiastic testimonials is because of the deep, spiritual understanding behind it — an understanding grounded in science and critical thinking.

No matter what your starting point, you will find yourself moving further from “lack” all the way to “abundance” — not merely physical abundance, but spiritual abundance of unconditional love, utter humility, perfect responsibility and fearless confidence. The map has been laid out. All you have to do is to walk the path.

The 7 Day Prayer Miracle is not only about wealth, health and relationships. It repairs the basic issues in your thinking and attitudes that would otherwise prevent effective prayer and, all too often, result in self-sabotaging behavior that spoils any gains you may make. All of these pitfalls have been handled.

Needless to say, the spiritual half of reality has its own rules and quite often doesn’t work at all like the physical half. This program is the manual for understanding what’s different and how to use those differences to your own benefit.

Because we each have our own set of bad habits, the course book covers a broad range of exercises to strengthen your awareness of your own thoughts, attitudes, intentions and — most importantly — your subconscious “feeling” attention. The 7 Day Prayer Miracle does these things far better than any book or program we’ve seen before.

Are you a Book Lover?

5+1 Stories That Prove Miracles Actually Happen:

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3. Proper Preparation:

No amount of thinking will ever accomplish anything truly worthwhile. Thought is a useful tool, but it’s only the starting point. And you can’t fix a great dinner in a dirty kitchen.

Bad habits and bad attitudes can cloud your spiritual vision and prevent your message from reaching heaven.

It’s a bit like 50 very loud people shouting while you’re trying to talk to someone on your cell phone. Sometimes, you can’t even hear yourself think.

The 7 Day Prayer Miracle helps you clear out not only bad habits, but also the daily garbage of stuck attention on little crimes we all commit from time to time — like being late for work, not taking out the garbage, forgetting about a commitment we’ve made, and more.

Becoming more aware of our stuck attention points, we can actively clean them up and ensure that our prayers make a direct, clear connection to heaven.

4. Reliability and Dependability:

By having you acquaint yourself more thoroughly with your own mind, ego and spirit, you will find yourself capable of using every part of each prayer with precision skill and powerful, spiritual effect.

Like a ship finally allowed to leave sight of land, you will enter spiritual territory you never knew existed. You will come to think of your body as merely your current vessel. And the control switches of physical reality will seem as real and natural as any physical device you’ve ever mastered.

>>> Tap or Click Here to Discover the Magical 4 Sentence Prayer That Instantly Grants Your Heart’s Fiercest Desires <<<

The Course Contents of 7 Day Miracle

Learn how to Grabbing The Attention of Heaven ( The ebook that gives you a crash course on your relationship to the spiritual world, to God and to His angels, and how to exercise your ability to connect directly to heaven).

· A Prayer Journal (a PDF journal that includes 7 prayers for 7 days, designed to give you miracle results).·

· Divine Hearing — How to Recognize Crucial Messages from Your Angels (The ebook that helps you recognize messages from your angels).

· Divine Numbers — How to Interpret Angelic Sequences and Unleash Their Blessings (ebook that helps you interpret sequences of numbers and individual numbers like 11:11, 555, etc).

· The Prayer of Daniel (a handy, 1-page reprint of the biblical prayer that Prophet Daniel was using to achieve his miraculous results. This is the template upon which all effective prayer is based).

· A Song of Shifts (MP3 file, angelic music, using the “miracle frequency.” If you like, this can be played while you are performing your own prayers to help enter the theta wave band of meditative thought — the prayerful state of mind)

· Chances are you would be quite amazed to have so much content included for such a reasonable price.

>>> Tap or Click Here to Start the 7 Day Prayer Miracle <<<

Features of the 7 Day Prayer Miracle Course·

When you have the power of prayer, you never have to be worried again.

· Once you learn how to pray, prosperity flows in to you from an infinite source

· The 7 Day Prayer Miracle shows you how to choose the right option

· You learn to cultivate the right feelings all the time. When you learn to have the right feeling, things seem to go very right.

· Life suddenly becomes perfect, almost all the time.

· With prayer you can invite better health and healing for your body

· Boost Your Love Life With Prayer

>>> Tap or Click Here to Discover the Magical 4 Sentence Prayer That Instantly Grants Your Heart’s Fiercest Desires <<<

7 Day Prayer Miracle Testimonials

From the website of 7 Day Prayer Miracle, here is a reproduction of the testimonials of some of the individuals:

“I was only 5 days away from being declared a bankrupt. Almost all my savings gone. I then stumbled on to Amanda’s teaching. Just 2 prayers later, the bank actually cancelled my debt. Holy smokes, this works!” — Leanne R.

“I had terrible, terrible fights with my husband and I was on the verge of leaving him… Then one day I stumbled on to Amanda’s writings. I consumed it, prayed the prayers and now not only has my marriage been restored — the relationship sizzles in a way not seen since the honeymoon.” — Jane A.

“I’d always wanted to connect to the divine and talk to angels, but I never could. After the 7 Day Prayer Miracle, it was almost a suffocating blanket was removed. I can even now feel the breath of God and delve into the secrets of the universe.” — May R.

“I was left destitute by my cheating husband. He left me with my 2 young kids and moved in with his mistress half his age. After going through the 7 Day Prosperity Miracle, cheques suddenly came in the mail. There was sudden mysterious deposits in my bank account. Now, I have more than enough for me and my children to live a good life.” — Miranda A.

>>>Get Instant Access to 7 Day Prayer Miracle <<<

Conclusion

The 7 Day Prayer Miracle is a complete system that’s more comprehensive than virtually every other book in this genre… Of course, the number of pieces alone is not enough. Each piece needs to be valuable and worth your time.

7 Day Prayer Miracle takes control of your life to improve. It has already helped approximately 100,000 women and men to fulfill the purpose of their lives.

You have a great opportunity to take the first step of a new movement. It comes with a 100 percent money back guarantee.

If for some reason, you are not satisfied with this program, the money will be refunded immediately. This is the claim of the seller organization. You have nothing to lose except for problems.

So go ahead and place your order 7-day Prayer Miracle. Do not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the wonderful wonders of your life.

>>>Get Instant Access to 7 Day Prayer Miracle <<<

7-day Prayer Miracle

SOURCE: https://youtu.be/iHEUgA_4eSA

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031cinephile · 3 years ago

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The 42nd Durban International Film Festival - Framing the Future, Cinema Unleashed

Durban International Film Festival has selected films with the theme “Framing the Future, Cinema Unleashed”. The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts will host the Durban International Festival (DIFF) from 22 July to 1 August 2021. This year, for its 42nd edition, the festival curated a film programme that focuses on narratives that will speak hope for tomorrow.

The programming team received over 3000 films, and after an intense selection process, the festival has curated a film programme consisting of over 120 shorts, documentaries and feature films.

With the theme “Framing the Future, Cinema Unleashed”, the plots in the selected films, through different lenses, provide meaningful solutions on how to adapt to our dynamic and ever-changing environment. The programme includes several films that offer solutions to questions that haven’t been asked yet, broadening our viewpoints and allowing for robust critical discourse.

"The Durban International Film Festival has been a platform that celebrates a legacy of supporting South African and African filmmakers as well as our partnership with a global film industry. Programming DIFF 2021 was fascinating, given the challenges faced in 2020 globally across the different industries that contribute to the film landscape. The diversity in the narratives in the submissions is a testament to the resilience shown by filmmakers who continued to work their craft. As is every year, the selection is a daunting task, which the programming team took to diligently and as it is for me, yearly, the heartbreak that comes with not being able to screen more films than allotted. We hope that the selections, a culmination of months of hard work, will speak to our audiences as much as they have moved us.” says Head of Programming Chipo Zhou.

At the heart of the Durban International Film Festival is a mission to enable partnerships that aim to strengthen the film industry and create opportunities for African, and newer voices.

Encounters Documentary Film Festival will co-premiere four African documentaries in partnership with DIFF. Murder in Paris, directed by Enver Samuels, a political crime-thriller that traces the motives for the assassination of anti-Apartheid activist Dulcie September. I Am Here, where we meet the phenomenal 98-year old Ella Blumenthal through the eyes of the director Jordy Sank. The Colonel’s Stray Dogs, a profile of political activist Ashur Shamis, who lives with a million-dollar bounty on his head after a lifetime in Muammar Gadaffi’s crosshairs, directed by Ashurs father, Khalid Shamis. The Last Shelter, by Malian director Ousmane Samassekoou, in which we journey to the Malian city of Goa on the edge of the breathtaking Sabel Dester, where audiences get an inside look into the infamous House of Migrants. Zinder, directed by Aicha Macky, is a town in Niger, where in the impoverished area of Kara-Kara, which used to be the lepers’ district, a culture of gang violence reigns. In I am Samuel, directed by Pete Murimi, we are given a window into the life of Kenya’s LGBQTI community where Samuel, a gay Kenyan man, has to balance his duty to his family with the care of his partner.

The missions to create inclusion in the film industry is emphasised through a robust community engagement programme titled isiPhethu. This year, the programme will host various online workshops and seminars. Additionally, through valuable partnerships, some films by up and coming filmmakers will be screened as part of the DIFF programme. One of these partnerships is the one with Social Transformation and Empowerment Projects (STEPS). This non-profit media company works with documentary film to connect filmmakers, audiences, and organisations, giving marginalised and disadvantaged communities a voice to inspire social change. The recent Mzansi in the time of Covid-19 project, a collection of four documentary short films on Covid-19 that engages diverse audiences in open discussions about the impact of the virus on South African individuals and communities, will screen at DIFF. These films are Lindela under Lockdown, directed by Sihle Hlophe, Schools Shut Down, directed by Kastarine Kgola, Jeanette Makes Masks, directed by Nadine Cloete and Lefu – The Funeral, directed by Omelga Mthiyane.

The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts (CCA), will host the Durban International Festival (DIFF) from 22 July to 1 August 2021. This year, for its 42nd edition, the festival presents a programme of close to 140 feature films, documentaries and short films alongside an exciting industry programme: Isiphethu.

On 22 July, DIFF 2021 opens with a virtual screening of the action-thriller, The Eagle’s Nest, by Cameroon Born British director Olivier Assoua. From 23 July all other films will be available to watch for free online. Documentary ‘Threshold’ by the Brasilian Coraci Ruiz is the closing film and will be screening on 1 August just after the annual DIFF Award Ceremony. The DIFF jury is consisting of an international team of industry specialists including South African producer Cait Pansegrouw, filmmaker Sam Soko from Kenya and Dutch producer Raymond Van Der Kaaij.

The DIFF Awards Head of programming, Chipo Zhou is proud to announce the films in competition, that are diverse but have a common thread. “The DIFF deliberately cultivates indigenous talent development and grants access to audiences and aspirant filmmakers particularly women, children, LGBTQI+ communities in highly conservative regions of the world. Ultimately, all the narratives in competition speak to this vision and are an illustration of the challenges of overcoming adversity and adapting to an altered world — one where, sadly, not everyone has fared so well. These are the kinds of stories that DIFF sought out this year, stories of hope, stories that show the light at the end of the tunnel, even if for now, it seems like just a flicker. “ says Zhou.

Documentaries in the 2021 Competition:

Areum Married, in which director Areum Parkkang tries juggling her film and her marriage in this autobiographical documentary. The Republic of Korea, 2021

As I Want, directed by an emerging voice in Arabic documentary film making, Samaher Alqadi, who picks up her camera as a form of protection and begins documenting the growing women’s rebellion. Egypt, 2021

Downstream to Kinshasa, in which director Dieudo Hamadi shares the forgotten tragedy of the victims of the six-day war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2021

Hard Livings, a film about a city, a country and a continent plagued by ills stemming from inequality, directed by Solomon Staggie, South Africa, 2021

I Am Here, in which we meet the phenomenal 98-year old Ella Blumenthal through the eyes of the director Jordy Sank. South Africa, 2021

I, Mary, in which director Aliki Saragas Georgiou shares a lyrical telling of Regina Mary Ndlovu’s story who is a survivor of a lifetime of sexual abuse, and a fiercely determined woman with Albinism. South Africa, 2021

Mein Vietnam, about a Vietnamese couple that has been living in Germany for the past 30 years by director Thi Hien Mai. Germany/Vietnam, 2020

Murder in Paris, a political crime thriller doccie that traces the motives for the assassination of anti-Apartheid activist, Dulcie September by director Enver Samuel. South Africa, 2021

Postcard, Finding an old picture postcard of a mountain village marks the start of an existential journey for director Asmae El Moudir. She explores life in Zawia, Morocco, where her mother was born. Morocco, Qatar, 2020

The Colonel’s Stray Dogs, a profile of political activist Ashur Shamis, who lives with a million-dollar bounty on his head after a lifetime in Muammar Gadaffi’s crosshairs, directed by Ashurs father, Khalid Shamis. South Africa, 2021

The Last Shelter, by Malian director Ousmane Samassekoou, in which we journey to the Malian city of Goa on the edge of the breath-taking Sabel Dester, where audiences get an inside look into the infamous House of Migrants. South Africa, 2021

The Sit-In, Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show, in which director Yoruba Richen examines the importance of this lost broadcast history through vibrant interviews. USA, 2021

Zinder, directed by Aicha Macky, is a town in Niger, where in the impoverished area of Kara-Kara, which used to be the lepers’ district, a culture of gang violence reigns. Niger, 2021

Features in the 2021 Competition:

Coming of age story, A Little Bird Reminds Me, directed by Shi Xin, follows the joys, sorrow and struggle of a Chinese boy and his family during the last decade of the 20th century. China, 2020

Granada Nights, directed by Abid Khan, in which a British-Pakistani tourist must mend his broken heart before he can restart his life in the transient city of Granada in Spain. UK, 2021

Psychological thriller Lost directed by Driss Roukhe in which a young woman finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy. Morocco, 2021

My Son, directed by Equan Choe, in which a father, taking care of his 18-year old, handicapped son, can’t turn his son down as he declares his independence, Republic of Korea, 2020

Nandi, directed by Khalid EL-Jelailati, follows the spiralling journey of Nandi in the underbelly of the criminal world. South Africa, 2021

Pusha Pressa Phanda, directed by Dick d’vLz Reubïn, follows the story of street youth Mandisa as she struggles to obtain medication and sanitary pads for her sister who is under her care, South Africa, 2021

Rickshaw Girl, a personal story, directed by Amitabh Reza Chowdhury in which a daring and artistic Bangladeshi teenaged girl disguises herself as a boy and braves the dangers of the big city. Bangladesh, 2021

Sons of the Sea, directed by John Gutierez, in which a gifted reclusive teenager from a poor South African fishing community, is pressured by his older brother to steal two bags of ocean treasure – abalone, from a dead man. South Africa, 2020

Valentina, directed by Cássio Pereira dos Santos in which trans girl and her mother move to a new town in order to start fresh, but quickly face dilemmas when the local high school needs a second parental signature for enrolment. Brasil, 2020

The opening film, action-thriller The Eagle’s Nest, directed by Olivier Assoua, a story set in Africa on migration and poverty.UK/Cameroon, 2021

The full programme of shorts, consisting of a selection of 52 powerful short films that were thoughtfully curated for DIFF2021, are in competition.

Programme and details The full programme, alongside all the films that will be screening, is accessible through www.durbanfilmfest.com. Tickets for the virtual screenings are only available from South Africa for free, and are only accessible through a booking system, which opened on 21 July.

The 42nd edition of the festival is organised by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, in partnership and with the support of the KZN Film Commission, the National Film and Video Foundation, Department of Arts & Culture, the Film and Publications Board and other valued funders and partners.

#The Durban International Film Festival #DIFF2021 #feature films #documentary films #short films #Durban #KZN #Films in Competition #Centre for Creative Arts #Isiphethu Hub #Online Virtual Edition #stay home #UKZN #Free Tickets #Awards #Streaming #freefilm

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saleem2404 · 4 years ago

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Executive Presence Page content - 3

7 Step Master Framework to boost Executive Presence We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal –Bhagavad Gita. Finding fulfillment in life and career is a worthwhile goal. There are many leaders in the world in different fields who are successful but not necessarily fulfilled. So what is the difference between being successful and being fulfilled? While success comes from outside as position, money, and recognition, fulfillment comes from within. Fulfillment comes when we use our intelligence and talent to serve a cause that is meaningful for us. And that’s the beginning of us rediscovering our innate greatness.

All of us have an innate greatness within us and as we rediscover it, our body and mind start to work in alignment with our spirit. We start creating a massive positive impact on our immediate environment or ecosystem. It is at this juncture, we develop a powerful Executive Presence. The Three critical Dimensions of Self Growth Lest explore what is holistic self-growth and how the three critical dimensions of our being, viz. Body, Mind and Spirit needs focused nurturing to build a powerful Executive Presence.

Body Research in the field of neuroscience reveals that chemicals secreted in our cells and neurotransmitters impact our behavior. A leader’s vitality, health, and energy level have a direct impact on her/his charisma and confidence. Following the best health practices like good sleep, nutrition, exercise, and deep breathing to oxygenate the brain help to improves self-confidence and results in higher success. Focused nurturing of these aspect can lay the foundation of a powerful executive presence. Mind Having a calm mind is a significant dimension of executive presence.

The more a leader can stay in a state of calm during pressure, the more positively she/he impacts the immediate ecosystem. Whereas, a leader with a disturbed mind ends up creating more disturbance in the team and organization. A leader with a calm mind is a keen listener, always focused on solutions in the face of challenges, and has a 360-degree grasp over the situation. Such a leader has a powerful executive presence, and she/he can influence his team with his emotional intelligence. According to Shirzad Chamine (The Author of New York Times’ best seller, Positive Intelligence), if leaders can focus on enhancing their positive intelligence , they not only become mentally stronger but they end up achieving greater success in life. Such a leader can create an environment where all team members feel inspired to give their best. Executive presence coaching helps one develop emotional intelligence and Positive Intelligence. Spirit Living from one’s spirit means living from your deeper values and doing things that are more meaningful for you. When we make choices that are in alignment with the purpose of our spirit, we feel fulfilled. Not only that, it makes us serve causes that are bigger than ourselves.

It impacts the world in a very profound and positive way. When you live from your spirit, you get clear about your life purpose and vision. You develop heart leadership as you lead not because of your position of authority but because you feel connected to everyone and everything around you, genuinely care for it and therefore want to contribute towards its welfare. 7 Step Master Framework After thorough research and two decades of dedicated study in the field of personal development, Kshitij Sharma has formulated a 7-step master framework to help senior leaders boost their executive presence. Here is a detailed description of the 7-step Master Framework:

Step – 1 Know your presence: If you want to take the journey from good to being great, it starts from becoming aware of where you are. So to take your executive presence to the next level, you need to know where you are. What impact are you creating on your environment? What your stakeholders are thinking about you? What do you need to change concerning your presence to achieve the desired results?

Step – 2 Nurture your charisma The second most important thing is your charisma. You can nurture your charisma. According to “The charisma Myths,” written by Olivia Fox Cabane, charisma has three main components. One is focus charisma, in which a person having this charisma is a keen listener and makes people feel respected and heard.

Example- Oprah Winfrey. The second component of charisma is power. People who display power are the ones who have a conviction in their ideas, they are a visionary, and they reflect some degree of authority as well. Example – Barak Obama. The third component of charisma is warmth. These are the leaders who display warmth and connection with everyone. Example - Dalai Lama. Any person can nurture their charisma by being more mindful of their presence and also by being clear about the vision and purpose.

This can be achieved by staying centered in one’s heart rather than in the head. Though it requires practice and discipline, one can develop it with the help of executive presence coaching. Step -3 Master your public speaking Another very significant area where executive presence coaching helps is mastering the art of public speaking. As a leader, you get many opportunities to present your ideas to your team and the various stakeholders. This an opportunity to create a great visibility for yourself by speaking in a succinct and impactful way. By doing this you come across as a confident and influential leader and present your ideas positively and effectively. You can establish yourself as a thought leader if you have a way with words

Step – 4 Articulate your life purpose When you articulate your life purpose, you become clear about the most important values of your life. You get to know what the most meaningful thing in life is for you. When you become clear about your purpose, you make choices according to it, and that keeps you motivated to take action. If your life is full of activities that you do not feel motivated to perform, then it means those activities are not in alignment with your life purpose. To navigate through the choices that we feel compelled to make rather than motivated to make is where executive presence coaching tremendously helps senior leaders and entrepreneurs.

Step – 5 Be a master Influencer. As Kenneth Blanchard puts it,” The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.” As a visionary leader, you are required to steer the team members towards the organizational vision. An ability to influence and inspire is needed so that the team work with enthusiasm to achieve this vision. Through focused executive presence coaching journey for a period of 4 to 6 months, you sharpen your influencing skills and eventually become a master influencer.

Step – 6 Enhance your Emotional Intelligence/Positive Intelligence According to David Goleman, an American psychologist, Emotional Intelligence is our ability to recognize and understand emotions, and our skill at using this awareness to manage our self and our relationships with others In our overall success and growth a high emotional intelligence plays a very critical role. Anyone who has a well-developed emotional intelligence can influence others. Therefore identifying what can derail you from your calm and peaceful state and working on it is critical to your long-term success. Having emotional intelligence can help you sail through any adverse situation successfully. This is a critical component of a powerful Executive presence. It is where executive presence coaching can help you tremendously.

Step – 7 Cultivate heart leadership Heart leadership is all about your ability to connect with people of different races, religions, cultures, nationalities, and color. A heart-centered leader is someone who transcends beyond judgment, dislike, or discomfort towards people who are different than him/her. Those leaders who value people based on their human potential rather than the classification of gender, religion, or color win the hearts of people around them and win their trust and support. The more you grow towards respecting the differences, the more you grow in your executive presence and can impact the world around you. Coach Kshitij is a successful CXO coach and is well-known in the field of executive presence coaching. He has worked in multinational organizations at the senior level and then as a founder of a successful training and coaching company.

It is his passion to help senior corporate executives to experience career fulfillment and achieve their most cherished goals like a promotion to the next level or starting their venture. To discuss Kshitij’s executive coaching services for yourself or the individuals in your organization, Contact Coach Kshitij for Executive Coaching in Bangalore.

#executive presence #leadership coaching

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khalilhumam · 4 years ago

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The Best of 2020: What We Read While the World Burned Around Us (Research Edition)

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/the-best-of-2020-what-we-read-while-the-world-burned-around-us-research-edition/

The Best of 2020: What We Read While the World Burned Around Us (Research Edition)

Even Dr. Pangloss would struggle to put a positive spin on 2020, a historic dumpster fire of a year in which a global pandemic, the deaths of a whole string of superheroes (Chadwick Boseman, Diana Rigg, Diego Maradona, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg start the list), and [*deep breath*] Beirut ammonium nitrate explosions, the costliest cyclone ever (Amphan), the Tehran plane crash, and California and Australia burning down. Kobe’s gone too. And Gerard Houillier. It’s been tough, and that’s without the ever-constant “I think you’re on mute” Zoom meetings. But Candide’s alternative to Pangloss’s mindless optimism (after an even worse turn of events, if you can imagine that) serves as an inspiration: we must cultivate our garden. In that spirit, we’ve picked our favourite papers and articles about development of the year, picking pieces that help us understand the problems we’re working on better and how best to fix them.

Not the same storm, nor the same boats.

It’s inevitable that our first picks relate to COVID-19. Sifting through the avalanche of research in response to the coronavirus pandemic drove better minds than ours to distraction. Avinash Dixit estimated that the famous R rate for the pace of reproduction of COVID-19 research was as high as 34, though we had one advantage in fighting this pandemic of overconfident prognostication: there were no asymptomatic carriers of armchair epidemiology. Looking back at this wave of content, a few pieces stand out. Our colleague Justin Sandefur and his co-authors—in CGD’s most-read paper of the year—took on the task of estimating the infection-fatality rate from Covid across countries and came to the conclusion that sub-Saharan Africa faced substantially lower death rates from the disease—and the data (tentatively) suggest it may have been even lower than anyone predicted. Our current lived experience of coronavirus ranges from total normality in Taiwan to everyday dysfunction in the US and tears over tiers in the UK, but in February many thought every country in the world would and should lock down completely to suppress the virus. Another of our favourite pieces of the year - Mushfiq Mobarak and Zachary Barnett-Howell writing in Foreign Policy made the case that the policy response in poor countries needed to be completely different to that in rich countries - the costs of lockdown were much greater, and the benefits fewer. Policy making during COVID-19 was incredibly hard—but pieces like this helped, as did this early note from Stefan Dercon suggesting where effort could be directed without regret, despite the uncertainty governments faced.

The sudden death of the Doing Business Index

We don’t gloat at CGD (that’s one of our few institutional positions). Yet news that the Doing Business Index was being suspended after allegations of data manipulation presumably raised a few eyebrows in this parish. The Index has long been a punching bag for researchers keen to understand how laws, implementation, and economic activity interact—partly because its construction varies over time, and partly because it doesn’t seem to shed much light on how business is actually done. Though few tears were shed outside the Bank over its demise, the Index will likely be resurrected. Whether it will ever recover credibility is much less likely, especially after what appears to an incredibly damning internal review, apparently confirming that data were manipulated under management pressures—requiring critically urgent reform. Part of the process of getting better is abandoning what doesn’t work. Expect this one to keep running.

Rebranding the bureaucrat

Dan Honig has been waging a battle on twitter to rebrand the bureaucrat, suggesting that . bureaucratic culture can drive better performance, and that it can be ‘created’ with relatively simple interventions. Two great new papers showcase this: in Ghana, Azulai et. al. implement a large scale training intervention aimed at cultural change in the civil service and find it improved division-level performance where the trainees were placed. And Muhammad Yasir Khan’s study in Pakistan shows that emphasising the mission-driven aspect of health work improves not only performance of health workers (and does so on more dimensions of their work than a simple incentive), it also improves downstream health outcomes in the community. These are some of the most optimistic and hopeful findings of the year—all praise the bureaucrats. If large-scale change is going to happen, it will generally not be down to the efforts of a small but brilliant NGO, but because the full machinery of government bureaucracy is capable of action and can improve its performance.

A history of economics in 20 and ½ pages (and the future in 3)

One of the best long reads of the year was the three-way discussion between Amartya Sen, Angus Deaton and Tim Besley in the Annual Review of Economics, dominated by Amartya’s stories of his life as an economist and the people he interacted with. His story is almost a history of economic thought—arguing with Joan Robinson, talking about the environment with Arthur Pigou, being encouraged to folly by Nicholas Kaldor and reminding us of near-forgotten names like Piero Sraffa and Maurice Dobbs. This choice sticks out a little here because it doesn’t highlight a single finding or approach, but rather reminds us of much of the good the discipline has already produced—something economists, a species with a shorter memory than most, tend to forget. In a similar vein was this superb profile by John McDermott of Leonard Wantchekon: not about a specific paper or finding, but something that should give us hope about the capacity of economics to make the world better. Leonard has had an extraordinary life—from political prisoner to political economist - and his work to create an African School of Economics can only be a good thing for the generation of home-grown solutions and ideas, and for asking the right questions.

The world is still divided, but perhaps we’re redeemable

Back in May the world was rocked by the brutal killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by police in Minnesota. A wave of protests over the way police treat Black people spread from Minneapolis to Manchester to Monrovia, highlighting racism and inequality in society. Floyd’s death was one of many hundreds of police-involved killings that happen each year in the United States alone, and this paper by Desmond Ang shows how proximity to police violence has devastating and long-term effects for teenagers. He found persistent decreases in GPA, increased incidence of emotional disturbance and lower rates of high school completion and college enrollment, with the effects driven entirely by black and Hispanic students in response to police killings of other minorities. Ang notes that police killings are hyper-local and nearly 80 percent went unmentioned in local newspapers. But it’s not just the media that’s uninterested in violence against Black people. The story of economist Lisa Cook’s struggle to publish her paper on how violence against African-Americans depressed entrepreneurship among that community reveals deep troubles within the economics profession that we have barely started to address. But, perhaps we should not give up on humans yet. We also read some papers this year that provide more encouraging signs about people’s ability to become more tolerant. Salma Mousa, following her superb paper in 2019 on the effect of Mo Salah on Islamophobia in Liverpool, assigned Iraqi Christians to play football either on teams with other Iraqi Christians, or on mixed teams with Muslim players. Their behaviour changed, but only in the context of the football league - players on mixed teams were more likely to nominate Muslim peers for awards, for example. These behavioural changes didn’t extend to other settings, however. But in every cricket fan’s favourite paper, Matt Lowe finds that contact can reduce prejudice beyond the sports field. He assigned men from various castes in Uttar Pradesh, India, to cricket teams and measured whether contact reduced caste divisions. It did - cross caste friendships increased by 45 percent, driven almost entirely by collaborative contact (same team) rather than adversarial (opposing team) contact. In a world where divisions sometimes seem as deep as ever, these papers offer a ray of hope. Perhaps more effort to integrate schools, workplaces, and communities could reduce discrimination in society. And, just like the rollout of vaccinations ends 2020 on a hopeful note, we will stop there. Thanks to Aisha Ali, Lee Crawfurd, and Dan Honig for contributions.

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rationalsanskar · 5 years ago

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Why is mindfulness beneficial for your health? | MNN – Mother Nature Network

Focus on your breath. Listen to your body. Notice your emotions, but don’t judge them.

These are a few of the cues routinely used to induce mindfulness, a meditative state of self-awareness and detached acceptance that promises practitioners a sense of peace and presence of mind.

By putting equanimity within arm’s reach, if even for a moment, mindfulness programs are quickly gaining steam throughout the country. And it’s perhaps no surprise. At a time when America’s huddled masses seem more wound up, stressed out and distracted than ever before, the call to calm down is a compelling one.

At issue is not only relief from stress but also the innumerable ailments related to it. And like yoga, mindfulness programs are proving to be powerful antidotes. From depression and anxiety to weight control and pain management, there’s a mindfulness treatment out there for what ails you. Fortune 100 companies are using mindfulness as part of leadership training, and the military is incorporating such techniques to reduce stress before deployment and to help ease post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It’s cultivating a general skill that can be applicable in lots of different circumstances,” says Vermont-based psychotherapist Arnie Kozak, who’s been using mindfulness in his clinical practice for nearly 20 years. “I think the place where it pays the biggest benefit is helping people to reduce reactivity,” he says. As Kozak explains, mindfulness won’t change someone’s condition, but it can change someone’s response to it and, in doing so, alleviate suffering.

How and why mindfulness works

Calming environments can help you accept and observe the chaos without judging it, part of the mindfulness approach. (Photo: Tejvan Pettinger [CC by 2.0]/Flickr)

In dealing with a difficulty — say, a crisis at work or a chronic disease — people often get mired in the narrative they create about the situation, perhaps chastising themselves about their feelings or behavior, envisioning catastrophic consequences or rehashing the incident ad nauseam. Mindfulness, however, teaches a healthy skepticism about the stories we tell ourselves, say Kozak, who likes to repeat a mantra: “Don’t believe everything you think.”

Fundamental to the practice is acceptance, rather than avoidance of a stressful situation. In a sense, it’s the opposite of the “Calgon, take-me-away” approach of yesteryear (commercials for the bath products featured a harried Mom pleading with Calgon to “take me away” from the cacophony of domestic life). Mindfulness, alternatively, would ask you to accept and observe the chaos, without liking or disliking what’s happening around you.

If that sounds challenging, it is — but the rewards can be profound. And they don’t require some sort of monastic discipline.

After an eight-week course of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness, participants changed their brain structure, according to a study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital. Brain scans of the subjects, who meditated an average of 27 minutes a day, found a thickening of regions associated with learning, memory, self-awareness and compassion and a thinning of the region connected to stress and anxiety.

According to Psychologist Lindsay Sauers, there are two parts of the stress-response cycle, and though everyone knows the first part — the rush that comes when you system is flushed with adrenaline and cortisol — the second part doesn’t get as much notice, but it’s important. There must be an emotional and physical release in response or the cycle is “incomplete.”

“We often wait until the ‘breaking point,’ when addressing the impact of stress becomes an absolute necessity,” she told Dave Bellomo of NorthCentralPA.com. “The challenge is that in waiting, we often feel so guilty about the consequences of the breaking point that once the immediate distress has leveled off, we go right back to pushing aside stress until it grows to that ‘breaking point’ again. It becomes a ‘rinse and repeat’ situation. While the rinse and repeat might be tolerable if we know it’s going to happen … this all-or-nothing process has a cumulative, detrimental impact on the body.”

Bringing mindfulness mainstream

University of Massachusetts’ Center for Mindfulness is where MBSR — and much of the mindfulness movement in this country — got its start. That’s thanks to Jon Kabat-Zinn, an MIT-trained biologist who founded the center in 1979 and developed the MBSR program, helping to bring meditation mainstream.

Today, there are some 520 MBSR programs across the country and about 740 worldwide, according to the center’s executive director, Saki Santorelli. The center has seen more than 20,000 people complete its eight-week course, with many of them referred by conventional medical centers.

Mindfulness programs have also become a fixture of many integrative health care centers at universities across the country such as the dozens of members that comprise the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine.

Santorelli attributes the interest in mindfulness primarily to research and access. “From the very beginning, research has been a critical part of this process,” he says, adding that “society, in many ways, trusts science.” The growing body of literature on mindfulness fuels further interest.

Also, mindfulness work has a low bar to entry, Santorelli says. It doesn’t require renouncing one’s faith. It doesn’t necessarily cost anything. And it enables people to take an active role in their own healing.

He argues that the optimal approach for health care incorporates both the Western discipline, in which practitioners do something “to” or “for” a patient, with the self-care inherent in mindfulness.

While the former is critical if a patient requires surgery, the latter can bring about a sustained approach to well-being, Santorelli says. How so? He explains that through mindfulness, observation gives way to self-awareness — the point at which it becomes possible to change habits and behaviors.

That’s especially important, he adds, since so many of today’s maladies are related to lifestyle — from obesity to smoking.

Practical applications

Eating slowly and thinking about every bite may help you make healthier eating choices. (Photo: KPG Ivary/Shutterstock)

As director of research at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, Frederick Hecht is using mindfulness techniques to disrupt the automatic eating behavior that so often derails efforts to lose and maintain weight.

“The idea is to chew our food a little more carefully, to really savor both the texture and the taste of the food, to be aware of all the sensations you’re feeling as you eat,” with the goal of getting greater satisfaction from less food, he says. By paying close attention to how they feel before and after eating, participants may be more likely to make healthier choices.

“There’s promising data for things like mindful eating, but it’s preliminary data,” says Hecht, who is training in internal medicine and clinical epidemiology. “More research and better research is really key, and its particularly key for health professionals when we’re called on to really recommend this, and we need a stronger evidence base.”

At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, pulmonologist Roberto Benzo is using mindfulness techniques to help patients manage conditions such as lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). “Health is far beyond fixing an organ, having a transplant, getting a coronary fixed — that is just a piece of the story,” Benzo says, referencing his yet-to-be-published research showing that quality of life and self-care hinge on one’s emotional state.

The many benefits of mindfulness training

Gratitude and an appreciation of nature can help a stressed person tune into the moment. (Photo: vvvita/Shutterstock)

With that in mind, Benzos work as founding director of Mayo’s Mindful Breathing Lab is to help patients see past their disease and appreciate life.

“To embrace life, we always embrace what we like … It’s difficult to embrace that sometimes we’re sad, sometimes things are not going in the direction we want,” he says. “Mindfulness is the ability to be here and now even when one has a condition like a lung disease or a heart disease or something like that.”

Using techniques like breathing, moving and gratitude, Benzo has found that patients tune in to the moment and feel better. “They start to look at the good that is in front of them,” he says.

But getting to that stage requires switching gears.

To that end, Los Angeles-based psychologist Elisha Goldstein and author of “The Now Effect” reminds his patients to simply “STOP.” The acronym stands for: Stop, take a few breaths, observe your experience and proceed. As Goldstein puts it, the exercise “pops them out of autopilot” and into a position to ask “what really matters in life” at that moment. From that place of calm, we are better poised to make the best choice and the most of the moment.

As those moments build up, they may amount to a lifetime of living in the midst of them.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated since it was first published in September 2014.

Related on MNN:

Why is mindfulness beneficial for your health?

Practicing focus and acceptance can help with everything from stress relief to healthy eating.

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breakingasia-blog · 5 years ago

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Power Over Mekong: The Mighty River Linking Five Countries and China

China has long wanted to dredge the riverbed in northern Thailand to open passage for massive cargo ships -- and potentially military vessels. Ultimately a link could be carved from Yunnan province thousands of kilometers south through the Mekong countries -- Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. There, the river emerges into the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and the centerpiece of Beijing's trade and security strategy for its Asian neighborhood. Under the tagline "Shared River, Shared Future" China insists it seeks only the sustainable development of the river and to split the spoils of a trade and energy boom with its Mekong neighbors and their market of 240 million people. But squeezed for value by the dams lacing China's portion of the river -- and further downstream -- the Mekong is already changing. Fish stocks have collapsed say Thai fisherman, and nutrient-rich land in the Vietnamese delta is sinking as the sediment flow shrinks. The river is rivaled only by the Amazon for its biodiversity, environmentalists say, but now endemic species like the giant Mekong catfish and river dolphins are facing extinction. Environment versus big business. Geopolitics throttling a lifeline to 60 million people -- big themes are playing out on a slow-moving river. The Mekong nations -- China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam -- are struggling to ensure sustainable development, jeopardising hundreds of millions of lives The Golden Triangle Sop Ruak village, Kilometre 1: Zhang Jingjin's tour group run through a catalogue of selfie poses in front of the "Welcome to The Golden Triangle" gate. Below swirls a few hundred muddy metres of the Mekong. It is the 'Golden Triangle', the intersection of northern Thailand with Myanmar and Laos, notorious for conflict and drugs -- but now getting plump on Chinese investment. "If more boats can pass there will be more visitors, more trade and more business," Zhang, a jovial elevator salesman from Beijing, says. "Business is good for everyone." First the shoal at the Golden Triangle will have to go -- one of 15 sets of rocks, rapids and sandbars impeding ships' progress along the river. Once removed and dredged, deep-hulled boats carrying 500-plus tonnes of cargo could make the 600 kilometers (370 miles) journey from Yunnan to the Laotian colonial-era jewel of Luang Prabang. The vision is to festoon both banks of the waterway with Special Economic Zones (SEZs) replete with condos, ports, rail and road links. From Laos much of the river has already been opened south towards Cambodia, two key -- and poor -- allies readily softened up by Beijing's investment billions. But for now proposals by a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), the world's second-largest dredging firm, have stalled after sustained resistance by activists in northern Thailand. But campaigners say Beijing's grand ambitions rarely run aground on local opposition. "It's resource politics... eventually they want to turn the Mekong into a 'superhighway' for cargo," Pianporn Deetes of International Rivers told AFP. The Bend in the River Chiang Sean, Kilometre 10: A short drift downstream, Kome Wilai and his friends putter out midstream on long boats, returning to polish off beers and measure the river's changes in their nets. The catch has been pitiful for a fortnight, says the 38-year-old Kome, after a sudden drop in water level in the middle of the monsoon season. "I've laid my nets twice today and got nothing. It's the Chinese dam.... there is no water for the fish to swim or lay their eggs," he explains. The dam -- the Jinghong -- is one of 11 in China's portion of the river, established as part of a hydro-electric power drive to help wean the country off coal. Laos, through which a third of Mekong flows, plans many more across key tributaries. A thicket of agreements encourage upstream countries to announce when they plan to store or discharge large amounts of water from their dams. Still, in Chiang Saen the water often drops by 1.5-3 meters without warning. "When they close the gate at the dam it affects everyone along the river," says Prasong La-on, Chiang Sean district chief. "We have to accept it." The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok insists it does not hold back water for its farmers or turbines and "pays great attention" to the needs of its neighbors. Meanwhile other analysts say the finger is pointing in the wrong direction. "The reality is that China only accounts for 12 percent of the Mekong’s surface water," says China Water Risk, a Hong Kong-based consultancy. The "Western press has a pre-determined view of China which has spilled into how it approaches transboundary water," it says, arguing downstream dams including in Laos, where the Thai-owned Xayaburi has just come online, cause the biggest impacts. Whoever is behind the fluctuations, river communities fear the worst as each year brings unwanted records... the lowest monsoon water levels, the highest unseasonal floods. "When the river is gone, it will be gone forever," warns Grandpa Nart, a toothless 72-year-old boat driver, who has mapped the waters over a lifetime. The 'Golden Triangle', the intersection of northern Thailand with Myanmar and Laos was notorious for conflict and drugs but it is now boosted by Chinese investment The Rapids Khon Pi Long, Kilometer 45: If anyone has reasons for optimism about the river's future it should be Niwat Roikaew. The ponytailed conservationist leads 'Love Chiang Khong Group' which fought an unlikely 20-year rearguard defense against the blasting of the rapids. In March, 2019, the Chinese government formally shelved its plans after his campaign led the argument that both the unique ecology of the river and Thailand's sovereignty will be hollowed out by China’s dredgers. "This is the egg-laying area for fish and birds," Niwat says, gesturing to the boulders at Khon Pi Long, where water rushes as the river tightens up. "This key ecosystem used to be seasonal. But now the river levels depend on the opening of the dam gates and the ecosystem can't function," he says. "And they want to blast the rapids too? You'd kill the Mekong." Fish are confused by the shallow waters at spawning season, while nutrient packed algae -- favored food of the critically endangered giant Mekong catfish -– grows later and less prolifically. The risks sharpen as the river flows downstream. Cambodia's vast Mekong-fed Tonle Sap Lake produces half a million tonnes of fish each year, the main supply of protein for the country, says Bryan Eyler author of "Last Days of the Mekong." Further along the lifeline Vietnamese delta is on the retreat as sediment gets clogged behind upstream dams causing anemic embankments to collapse into the water. "Without that sediment distribution, the Mekong Delta will slip into the ocean faster than predicted," he adds. China disputes the gloomy scenarios while denying it has ever crafted firm engineering plans to blast the contested Thai stretch of water. There are fears for the Mekong's biodiversity as development spirals The Final Holdout Chiang Khong, Kilometer 67: It's festival time and elders with big smiles and elegant hand-woven skirts sit in front of the Golden Phaya Naga -- fire-breathing serpents of river lore -- presiding over the entrance to a Buddhist temple decorated with frescos of Mekong life. "Our culture and history are linked to the water," says Samai Rinnasak after kneeling for blessings from the assembly of monks. Economic growth and environmental change have long been reshaping that relationship. Eventually, China is "going to do what it wants," according to Thitinan Pongsudhirak, of the Institute of Security and International Studies, Chulalongkorn University, citing the build-up of dams, SEZs and cultivation of allies Laos and Cambodia. "This is China's way of power," he adds. An hour downstream in Huai Luek (kilometer 90-97) where pomelo plantations roll down to the riverbank, the final kilometers of rocks block Beijing's decades-old aspiration. Only ten fishermen remain in Thongsuk Inthavong's village, a trade withered by the decreasing bounty of the Mekong. The decay started in 2008, the former village chief says, when the Mekong turned brown overnight. "Older people said it was the Phaya Naga churning up the river bed to build a nest," he says. "But it was the same year the Chinese (Jinghong) dam opened." From his stilted wooden house he has also had a ringside seat to the transformation of the Laos’ bank from small-holdings into vast banana plantations –- all Chinese-owned. The same investors have tried to entice Thai farmers to sell up - as small river communities fear checkmate is edging closer. "China plays with us like a toy," Thongsuk says. "It makes me angry but we'll defend our river." PICTURES BY LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/afp Read the full article

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mdela-blog · 7 years ago

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Hello friends and family!

This is the first update along my living-the-dharma adventure. It' been a wild ride into what I'm deeming the "31 flavours of dharma" - I'm really happy to offer you a window into my current life. It's hard to believe its been just a little over one month. I've visited/lived in five dharma centres, bathed in the rich forests of northern California with Ms. Alexa Nash, and witnessed the growing yearnings for community while visiting a kindred soul in Chico, California. It's been both painfully and deliciously rich and I am here to share with you all of the flavours I've picked up along the way. As well as my hummus recipe and some pictures! It's a long message, but I've poured my heart into it so I hope you will sit back, grab yourself a glass and enjoy the ride.

I would like to lay down some of my intentions with these updates:

My plan is to update you all once a month (give or take). I plan on sharing experiences, learnings, and updates of my current whereabouts. One aim I have is to educate you of the meditation communities I have visited in order to equip you with some knowledge if you so decide to seek out the wisdom path. Moreover, I am experimenting with how to share these experiences and am curious how these will unfold and develop. I also want to make it clear also that I hope these updates will provoke you, my dear friend, for feedback and more importantly how the journey is treating you.

An exchange. Also, if you want me to remove you from this list just ask!

On my mind is the 10-day Vipassana retreat in Kelseyville, California I left yesterday. Currently, I am staked out at a coffee shop, Lulu Carpenter, in the surf city of Santa Cruz for two days before my adventure (next stop: Vadjrapani Institute, a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center in a redwood grove north of Santa Cruz) I had the opportunity of serving nearly 100 meditators at a Goenka Tradition Vipassana retreat. I was thrown in with ten wonderful vagabonds and over 10 days created Metta imbued breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the hungry retreatants. We worked our booty-chittas off. I found little free time, little solitude amongst the craziness. I found this intimate environment very intimidating and hard to adapt to. Yet, over time I found an inner strength that I could find in our scheduled one hour three times a day sits.

The kitchen crew. "Mettaaa!"

We cooked tofu steaks, chilli, curry, baked banana bread and "metta balls", botched a Thai coconut curry, ate sweet potatoes till we exploded and was fortunate to be called the mad scientist of hummus. They all insisted on the recipe, hehe. I'll include it in the attachment below. It was stressful. It was hard. The intimacy brought out a lot of my fears, my self-judgments, my criticisms. It was a mirror wrought with my own demons. I even met my own mirror: The manager of the kitchen. This was the hardest test yet. Yet, within all of the collective insanity, I developed deep bond I developed for my dharma brothers and sisters and worked through my fears.

Dhamma Manda

Now, I'd like to open up about a recurring experience I hinted upon above: The experience of fear.

Fear is a deeply rooted emotion that can provide us useful information about a dangerous situation or person. Although this emotion protected our ancestors from natural threats, it has become a widespread hinderance for many individuals in western society. The emotion hijacks body and mind in both subtle overt ways causing unnecessary suffering such as worry, doubt and uncertainty. You might know this experience as anxiety or an anxiety attack. What I am describing has been my constant companion for a number of years and slowly I have learned about how to transmute the emotion into a powerful motivator and decision maker to show us where we can grow.

I left Columbia early September in a whirlwind of emotion. I had just finished a 20-day meditation retreat and had just made a radical life decision. I wrote a few weeks later in my travel journal about this experience:

Connecting with Chico (California) has allowed me to connect with my fears, connect with my hopes, connect with my frustrations, connect with friends, connect with community. I see a stronger, more detached, emotionally resilient Louie. I should tell you though: Detachment does not mean numbing or passive, in fact, it is quite the opposite. Detachment is letting yourself fully feel, fully be in the moment and allow yourself to surrender to whatever comes up. Even if it means to stare at loneliness or fear in the face and from the bottom of the heart and say " I don't know." To weep deeply to a friend and admit how every breath is breathing in fear, every direction feels a primordial fear. To let oneself fully be there, and say, "hey, fear, I love you, but I don't need you right now." What I needed at that time was to find the courage and strength to move from the place which has spoken to me in the deepest of silences. California is the manifestation of that inner strength, inner resilience.

I am here today to tell you, that no matter what fear says, it does not define you. That fear is valid but it is not truth. It is a voice that speaks the language of a previous conditioning that no longer serves you. To say thank you to your fears, but, as my father puts, do not let the drive the fear, the fear does not drive you. I see it as a passenger of a bus that I am in control of. I may not be in control of when fear arises, but I can shift my relationship with it. "Sure fear, you can take the front row, but take note! I am driving the bus."

This is one of the most important lessons I have learned from meditation.

Thoughts, emotions, these are just passing experiences we can either run away from (aversion) or want to hold (cling) to. If we can learn not to react but to just be aware of these experiences, slowly we can bring the fear from the driver's seat to the passenger seat. This passenger is a part of you, a part of me, but they serve a self that does not have your best interests in mind.

This is the essence of mindfulness: relating to our experiences from a place of awareness instead of a place of reaction and judgement.

As I developed the practice of coming from a place of awareness I learned how to quiet the mind and let silence speak. I learned to trust and listen to this place of stillness and see fear, excitement, boredom as just the passing show. This, to me, is the place of god, the place of the mystic, the space of no space, hehe. (had to get a little mystical, ya know).

Mahasi Sayadaw Vipassana 20-day meditation retreat, Springfield Illinois. The retreat that catalyzed my trip to California.

You may ask "okay Louie, I hear you and that all sounds good and fun, but how can I put this into practice." Well, as I spoke before: mindfulness meditation is key. Heres another one that stands out to me:

Dhutanga: The practices which are hard to do

I had the great opportunity of visiting Abhayagiri Thai Forest Monastery in Ukai, California in which I stumbled on the words of Ajahn Chah, a highly influential teacher of the Thai Forest tradition. He spoke of the practice of Dhutanga as "the practices which are hard to do." Ajahn describes the practice in his dhamma talk In the Dead of Night which he describes his practices of meditating in cemeteries near dead-bodies to see the truth within this fear of death.

''If it's time for it to die then let it die. If my mind is going to be so stubborn and stupid then let it die''... that's how I thought to myself. Actually in my heart I didn't really want to go but I forced myself to. When it comes to things like this, if you wait till everything's just right you'll end up never going. When would you ever train yourself? So I just went."

Ajahn Chah

Was it the

right

time to go to California? Who knows. Was I looking forward to serving 10 hours a day in a kitchen with a bunch of strangers? Hell no. I was freaking out, man. Yet, I knew that this fear was a signpost, a signpost telling me to lean in and listen to what I fear the most. I am so grateful for these inner tools of meditation and yoga. Practices that can cultivate an inner fountain of stability and strength no matter how intense the storm. Even beyond formal meditation, we can lean closer and reside in what scares us. This is the juice, the nectar, the good stuff. Slowly those fears turn into our signposts that can help point us towards what we really want in life. This is the transmutation.

This to me is why I left for California. Because although fear clouds the heart, the mind, it is not me.

That inner calling, no matter how quiet or how much its pushed down, is your calling, screaming for freedom, screaming for peace, screaming for you to find you. Even if that means facing the darkest, scariest parts of you. It is there waiting.Pick up the phone and find your California, love.

So, my dear friend, I challenge you to develop your Dhutangha.. Listen closely and remember the words of the wise little Thai man: "Wherever you are afraid you should go."

Aaannndd I digress. Whew!

If you have made it this far:

YOU ARE A WONDERFUL HUMAN BEING!

If any of this resonated with you please let me know. If you have any feedback, whether it be my writing style or content, or if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask =) And because this is an exchange,

let me know how you are doing!

I miss all of you and hold all of you close in my heart.

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fitnesshealthyoga-blog · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://fitnesshealthyoga.com/what-is-qi-gong-your-guide-to-this-asian-yoga-practice/

What is Qi Gong? Your Guide to This Asian Yoga Practice

The goal of qi gong isn’t an addition process; it is more a subtraction process.

The literal translation of qi gong is “energy work.” It is an Asian form of yoga that has been around for thousands of years. Much of it is performed while standing, though there are a number of seated sets as well. There are hundreds of systems of qi gong that have come from various lineages, and many of them focus on different fields.Many are health oriented, while a separate group comes through the martial arts lineages.

These systems act to harness willpower, to focus, and to help practitioners channel their energy through their palms. There are also a number of systems from the temples and monasteries that are more focused on spiritual cultivation and depth of meditation. Some involve moving, and others are visualization based. Almost all of them involve specialized breathing, which is coordinated with the activity at hand. The guiding principle of all these practices, however, is the coordination of the eyes with the body movements, the focus of the mind, and the breath, especially for the moving practices. For the more passive, non- movement exercises, we focus the vision inward and explore the inner realms as we guide the breath to various inner chambers.

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Let’s take a moment to look at this formula again to see if we can dissect it a bit more. We are looking for the coordination of all (not just a couple) of the following to take place in order for our qi gong to be effective:

The Eyes in Qi Gong

In the West, the eyes are considered the gateway to the soul and, in Taoist theory, are believed to guide the shen, or the spirit. It is said that the qi (energy) follows the shen (spirit), and the blood and body fluids, in turn, then follow the qi.

Therefore, the eyes become the “command center” for the spirit to control and guide the movement of the energy in the body. Later on, we will use the same system to direct energies outside of our body to effectuate healing and exert our influence on the environment around us.

Body Movements in Qi Gong

These are the actual sequenced movements of the qi gong exercises. Many of these follow the pathways of the energy meridians that run through the body. They also often trace the outer edges of our energy fields, smoothing and caressing the potency of the energy flow in our Light Body. These movements often involve various degrees of exertion, and depending on the system you are training in, they can actually be quite rigorous.

Recall the story of Bodhidharma and the Shaolin temple. He created a routine (called the Famous Tamo’s Eighteen Hands of the Lohan) that fully mixed kung fu with qi gong with relatively high levels of exertion. This aspect is very much like the physical yoga systems in the Indian traditions. Some hold static postures, while others emphasize more dynamic flow and continuity of motion.

Mental Focus in Qi Gong

This is a critical aspect of the practice and is the one that students most often overlook. Paying attention is a critical component to any energy work, as it engages the fire energy of the heart and ties the spirit in with the actions at hand. The ancients say the linking of attention and intention creates mastery in life. Here, we are asked to focus on the action at hand and to stay engaged in the body movements, tracking them with the eyes. Doing so demands our mental focus and presence, and the reward is immense. This aspect also draws on the yi, or shen, of the earth element.

Breath in Qi Gong

It is the vital breath that is said to circulate through the various meridians, and it is the energy from the air, if you recall, that mixes with the food qi to create the functional energy of our body. The coordination of breath with body movements and attention drives energy through the designated pathways and opens blockages. We use breath not only to open these pathways but also to gather and store the breath and energy in specific reservoirs (called dantiens) in the body. An adept student learns to extract vital energy from the air through breathwork.

See also Yin Yoga 101: 3 Poses That Build Strong, Healthy Qi

As simple as it seems, it is this framework that sets the precedent for all the magic to occur in qi gong. Now, there is much to be said about the specific movements and the deep understanding of the energy path- ways and how they affect us, but even if we were just to take this level of focus and coordinated thought and breathing into our day-to-day lives, we’d be far ahead of the game.

The good news is that we are about to learn about these pathways, and we are going to unlock and understand the mechanisms of action here. We will engage the intellect (yi) and the attention (shen) with the intention (zhi). Once this “vertical axis” of fire-earth-water has been activated, we’ll have finally unlocked the first hints of our tremendous potential, and a number of powerful changes will start to happen.

This vertical axis gives us the mental and spiritual alignment we need in order to connect all aspects of our being into our body while in our practice. The connection of all the various aspects of ourselves through the practice really begins to snap us out of our trances. Once we correct the flow of energy and divert it away from all the wasteful patterns of our past, we can start to gather and accumulate power in our reservoir and use this as a buffer against disease, fatigue, or simply falling back into a sleepy trance. When we speak of accumulating power or storing energy, we are speaking of creating places where we condense and refine the quality of the energy that is moving through us. We condense it to nourish our essence, and we refine it to illuminate our spirit.

However, we want to be careful to not think of it in capitalistic terms. This is critical in our understanding of qi gong—or life, for that matter. There is actually no need for more energy at all because there is an infinite amount of energy available to us right here and right now. In fact, all the power that ever was or ever will be is here and now.

So, it is important to not get into the “acquisition” game of energy and to instead realize where it comes from. There is no outside source from which we draw energy, like water from a well. The entire force of the universe is flowing through us at all times and in all places. Therefore, it is the impedance or the blockages we create to the free flow of this energy that makes us feel a sense of lack. We channel much of this energy subconsciously to our shadow, and we simply close our minds to the limitless flow of it because it would simply break our ego’s definition of ourselves. We keep our foot on the brake and then wonder why we’re exhausted all the time.

See also Do You Seek Others’ Approval More Than Your Own? 10 Questions to Test Your Integrity

What is the goal of Qi Gong?

The goal of qi gong isn’t an addition process; it is more a subtraction process. The more we can get out of our own way, the more we can let the universal flow of energy move through us. We become an agent of its goodwill, and we take our rightful place in eternity. This is not in some far-off heaven but here and now. Qi gong helps us wake up to the living, breathing moment in which we can finally take part. An important aspect in “getting out of the way” is reconciling the stuck energies in the “horizontal axis” of grief, anger, and frustration. This horizontal soul axis of emotions is intimately involved in the rising and falling trends of our mental and emotional upheavals. It is simultaneously tied to the cycle of life and all the trials and tribulations of the soul. It is important to not be deferential about this and to be engaged in the process of reconciling imbalances on this axis.

It is at this point in the process that most people get stuck because this is where they store the majority of the repressed charge in their shadows. Our desires for addition (wood) and our reluctance to let go (metal) lead to a great deal of clinging and suffering. In playing this game, we get out of balance and unconsciously pour more and more energy into creating “monsters” here.

In Chinese medicine, the lungs represent the metal element, which descends energy naturally, while the liver represents the wood energy, which naturally rises. The lungs sit above the liver in our body, and it is the dynamic tension of trying to maintain this inverted energetic flow that is the essence of life. One pushes up from underneath as the other pushes down. Upon death, the shen of the liver, the hun, ascends to heaven, and the shen of the lungs, the po, descends into the earth. We need them to check each other in dynamic tension; otherwise, they will separate, and we will perish.

Bringing harmony to the proper flow of the horizontal axis is what keeps our lives running smoothly and plugs us into the power of the vertical axis. The proper alignment of attention and intention requires a healthy understanding of the human condition; far from running from it, we are to be engaged, aware, and awake moment by moment.