#book meditation

[dying4urlove]

(this “review” was originally posted on goodreads)

i wasn’t gonna write a review because i feel so much pressure to defend my point of view with evidence from the book, but then i remembered that i don’t have to do that actually and i can just talk about how i feel about the book. how freeing to reframe my writing about this book from review to meditation (the act of focusing one’s mind). that’s exactly what i did as i wrote this. it’s not a review as much as it is a stream of consciousness. i think that i will write these meditations for every book that moves me to do so. (in contrast to writing a review for every book i read. i think if i were to do that, i would quickly tire of writing about books and i never want to experience that. or i should say, i don’t wanna experience that so soon. i don’t wanna experience that EVER, but life and human nature are funny and unexpected.) so, my book meditations begin with healing through the dark emotions by miriam greenspan.

anyways, this book was a gift granted to me by the Divine when i most needed it. i believe that i’m currently in a state of transformation and this book played major parts in that. while reading this, i was constantly reaffirmed that everything i’m witnessing and experiencing is not new or individual. that the really intense feelings of disconnect and despair (because of the disconnect) i’m feeling are valid. although the version of the book that i read probably predated the influence of current social media on our lives, the relationship between humans and media (tv shows, movies, and video games) can be further applied to social media. i don’t think i’m gonna expand on what i mean by that because i want you to read the book and understand what i mean for yourself. however, i think reading this book at this point in my life was necessary because i saw the cyclical nature of life (and of human nature).

this book also gave me the tools i need to take the dark emotions i didn’t realize i was experiencing (because they were lying silently underneath the surface of my skin) and transform them into action. throughout the book, miriam greenspan not only acknowledges that the dark emotions are difficult to come to terms with, but also actively calls you to act based those emotions. to not just sit with them, but to figure out the best way to move with them. to carry the seeds of fear, despair, and grief and plant them somewhere they can grow and alchemize into something much more powerful and meaningful for yourself and others. being told to do this gently and repeatedly over several days moved me emotionally and psychologically and i’m, in turn, moving myself physically.

there was probably more that this book did for me that’s hard for me to put into words, but i’m learning that it’s okay if things are ineffable at times. all i can say is my rating of this book is just that - mine. what this book does or does not do for you depends on you. on your needs. on your desires. on your feelings. on your current state of being. take from it what you will! i know i will be carrying the words and impact of this book for years to come. i read this book as an e-book, but i’m gonna order a hard copy because it’s one of those books you have to refer back to constantly. you have to make notes in it and re-read it and annotate it because you read something at a different part of your life and something the author said makes so much more sense now. “healing through the dark emotions” is a book I believe we need now more than ever, but it is also a book that is timeless. happy reading should you choose to embark on reading this trove of wisdom!

[cinematic-literature]

The Holdovers (2023) by Alexander Payne

Book title: Meditations (Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν in Ancient Greek; 180 A.D.) by Marcus Aurelius

[joytri]

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

[the-joy-of-knowledge]

5 articles that will awaken the creative giant in you

Here are articles I have read that will alter your thoughts and perception of life

The Daily Routines of Famous Creative People

Kurt Vonnegut Urges Young People to Make Art and “Make Your Soul Grow”

Steve Jobs on Creativity

The Key to Creativity

Warren Berger’s Three-Part Method for More Creativity

[zlatokryletz]

Excerpt from an illustration to Susanna Clarke's "Piranesi" 💙

[wandoffire]

Hey :)

A quick link for everything.

Law of attraction 🧲

Raising your vibration

Simple spiritual practices

Spell Jars: 🫙

Positivity

Protection

Self-love

Good luck

Clarity

Career / money

Herbs: ���

For energy

For sleep

For digestive health

Essential oils: use ideas and types

Crystals: 💎

Colour meanings

Crystals for...

Care tips

Meditation

Moon phase journaling 🌙

Energy cleanse mist

Peaceful sleep spell bag

Lucid Dreaming

Love 🫶

[cosmicportal]

“The universe is not merely a place where consciousness exists. It is a product of consciousness”

~Jacobo Grinberg

[faronmckenzie]

People may not tell you how they feel about you, but their actions will speak for themselves. Pay attention.

[girllblogging777]

i know happiness exists because one day i’ll be in my twenties, living in new york and sipping on overpriced matcha while writing an article for my job about something i’m passionate about. i can’t wait.

[wi1dshxpe]

gortash sets up a lending library at his estate after seeing durge’s in the bhaal temple. they both know they’re the only people who use them so it turns into a sort of game. durge loves music, so after enver’s last visit a book about viola has appeared in the temple library. enver fancy’s himself a jeweler so it’s only natural a scroll about gem welding would end up in his library. books relating to their schemes, hobbies, pasts, futures, inside jokes and aspirations get passed back in forth. the only extended pause is when a novel about star crossed lovers gets dropped in the bhaal library. it’s weeks before the favor is returned and enver receives a scroll about bhaalist marriage ceremonies. he doesn’t know whether to take it as an advance or a threat, so he accepts it as both.

[ed-recoverry]

List of free audiobooks on YouTube for anyone interested

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Alice in Wonderland

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H P Lovecraft

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Village by Caroline Mitchell

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (fuck JKR)

Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Upside Down by Danielle Steel

The Fiancée by Kate White

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Theif

Accidentally Married by Victoria E. Lieske

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

The Collector (book one) by Nora Roberts

The Lies I Told by Mary Burton

Dead Man’s Mirror by Agatha Christie

The Hobbit

The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey

The Good Neighbour by R J Parker

The Island House by Elana Johnson

Desperation by Stephan King

The Healing Summer by Heather B. Moore

The Last Affair by Margot Hunt

To Be Claimed by Willow Winter

Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Inn by James Patterson

Wonder by R J Palacio

Faking It With The Billionaire by Willow Fox

The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum

The Catcher in the Rye

The Lottery Winner by Mary Higgins Clark

Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean

Death of a Nurse by M C Beaton

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Frozen Betrayal by Clive Cussler

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Line of Fire by R J Patterson

Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen

The Remnant by Tim LaHaye

The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

Payment in Kind by J A Jance

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A Marriage of Anything but Convenience by Victorine E. Lieske

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Inheritance Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The Kama Sutra by Mallanaga Vatsyayana

The Wisdom of Father Brown by G K Chesterton

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Robin Hood by J Walker McSpadden

The Poor Traveller by Charles Dickens

Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865 by Sarah Raymond Herndon

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Atomic Habits by James Clear

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Man After Man

Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Charlotte’s Web

Midsummer Mysteries by Agatha Christie

Out of Silent Planet by C S Lewis

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

The Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harai

Hamlet by Shakespeare

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

(Art: Photograph of by Eric Mulet)

* * * *

Meditation is not what you think.

You sit in absolute silence and your mind starts going over all your movies. During that process, you become so familiar with the scripts you keep in your life that you end up getting sick of them. Then you realize that the person you think you are is nothing but a complicated script you spend most of your energy on.

After a more thorough examination, you discover your personality disgusts you, and that’s because it's not really you. If you feel terrified enough about that personality, you spontaneously allow it to fade away. Then, if you're lucky, you can experience yourself without the distortion of that personality.

There's so much talk about the mechanics of happiness - psychiatry and pills, positive thinking and ideology - but I really think the mechanism is there. All you have to do is get quiet for a moment.

~Leonard Cohen

(Source: Unclear/Consider one of Cohen’s most celebrated books: Book of Longing)

(Philo Thoughts)

[dk-thrive]

Peaceful easy, Sunday morning. 7:18 am. 51° F. October 6, 2024. Cove Island Park. Stamford, CT (@dkct25)

[thejournallo]

Explain the basic: Offerings

Desclaimer: Everything I will talk about is information that I got from books and sites online and even videos on YouTube. In my years of practice, I learned as much as I could out of curiosity and what works best for me. I suggest you do the same by learning as much as you can on your own (I will be here making posts teaching this kind of stuff) from multiple sources.

Offering to deities and entities in general is a practice found in many cultures and religions around the world. Every deity or entity that you make an offering for has its own symbol. For example, Apollo is the god of the sun; music, art, and poetry; writing something or singing for him can be offerings. 

There are many religions that take on the act of offering as a sign of respect and devotion to that specific religion. Here are some examples:

Hinduism: Offerings (puja) often include fruits, flowers, incense, and food, placed before images of deities in temples or home altars.

Buddhism: Offerings may include candles, incense, flowers, and food, placed before statues of the Buddha and bodhisattvas.

Christianity: Candles, bread, and wine are common offerings, especially in the context of the Eucharist.

Shinto: Offerings of rice, sake, and other food items are made at shrines to honor kami (spirits or gods).

Paganism and Wicca: Offerings might include seasonal fruits, flowers, wine, and personal tokens, placed on altars dedicated to specific deities or nature spirits.

All these religions have common practices that we can see and see over time; all of those are not rules but more something you can do or not do. (Especially because no one has the same opportunities.)

Altars: A dedicated space where offerings are made. This can be a simple shelf at home or an elaborate structure in a temple.

Purity: Many traditions emphasize the importance of purity in the offerings, meaning they should be clean and handled with respect.

Timing: Offerings are often made at specific times, such as during festivals, holy days, or particular phases of the moon.

Intention: The mindset and intention behind the offering are crucial. It should be given with respect, devotion, and a pure heart.

These offerings can take various forms, each carrying its own significance and purpose. Here's an overview of the different types of offerings and the common practices associated with them:

Types of Offerings

Food and Drink:

Fruits, grains, and vegetables: Often used in offerings to symbolize abundance and gratitude.

Cooked meals: Specific dishes that are favored by the deity or entity.

Drinks: This can include water, wine, milk, or other beverages. In some traditions, alcoholic drinks like mead or sake are common.

Sweets and desserts: Cakes, candies, or other sweet treats, especially those that are traditional or culturally significant.

Flowers and Plants:

Fresh flowers: Often chosen for their beauty and fragrance. Certain flowers are associated with specific deities.

Herbs:: Sacred or medicinal herbs may be offered for their symbolic properties.

Incense and Aromatics:

incense: Burned to create a fragrant smoke that is believed to please the deities.

Essential oils: Used for anointing or in diffusers to create a sacred atmosphere.

Candles and Lights:

Candles: Lit to symbolize light, purity, and the presence of the divine.

Oil lamps: Used in many traditions, often with ghee or olive oil.

Objects and Symbols:

Statues or images: Placed on altars as representations of the deity or entity.

Jewelry or precious items: Offered as a sign of respect and devotion.

Money and Valuables:

Coins or currency: Offered in temples or shrines, sometimes used to support the upkeep of the place of worship.

Jewelry or precious items: Given as a form of sacrifice or in seeking favor.

Actions and Devotions:

Prayers and chants: Recited to honor the deity or entity.

Songs and music: Played or sung as a form of praise.

Dance: Performed in some cultures as an offering of movement and energy.

Conclusion

Offering to deities and entities is a deeply personal and culturally rich practice. It serves as a way to connect with the divine, show gratitude, seek blessings, and maintain a reciprocal relationship with the spiritual world. The specific items and practices may vary, but the underlying principles of respect, devotion, and intention remain consistent across different traditions.

[wordswithloveee]

[girlthatgotawaysdiary]

mind over matter. 🧘🏻‍♀️