On giving it all away and being someone else’s synchronicity

Posted on November 7, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

First there was the money plant that my sister gave me. Right after that a sum of money equivalent to my ex monthly income manifested itself. It did not magically fall from the sky, it was a result of previous hard work, but nevertheless.

In this space that I am in, not having had a job for more than a year, a logical, mind thing to do would have been to squirrel this money away and buy myself another couple of months of mini-retirement/ soul-searching. This however just did not feel right this time. 

Give it all away, kept saying Ram Dass. Give it all away and when you want to give less, give more instead, reassured Wayne Dyer. Money is energy, said one of my enlightened friends. Energy needs to be circulating, can’t keep it, can’t hold onto it. Dyer nodded. In this life you do not own anything. Pass it on. You are not crazy, says ever practical Mr Money Mustache, giving money away makes you happier. Inspirational folks like Allan Saldanha who give away more than half of their salary to charities seem to agree. 

Feed people, said Maharaj-ji. And I’ve recently realised that he did not mean just food. Feed people with food, money, light, energy, kindness, whatever. Help out. Don’t expect anything in return. Give for the sake of it. Be someone else’s synchronicity.  Continue reading →

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Awake. The Life of Yogananda

Posted on October 24, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

I heard about Yogananda and his book “Autobiography of a Yogi” before. But it is only this year that I’ve watched the documentary about him and finally got to learn more. I had goosebumps several times watching it. This quote really stayed with me. Life is but light and shadows. We are but light and shadows. On our paths to get to the source… 

This earth is nothing but movies to me. Just like a beam of a motion picture. Everything is made of shadows & light. That’s what we are. Light and shadows of the Lord… There is one purpose. To get to the beam.  

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“Losing is satori. Winning is illusion.” — Kodo Sawaki Roshi

Posted on October 10, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

Western values based culture teaches us that winning, climbing the ladder, reaching the peak is the ultimate goal. “The winner takes it all”. Losers are pitied and no one wants to be one. At the same time those who actually reach the proverbial peak know that winning is not the answer. The ladder never ends and it does not lead to freedom.

What a perspective shifter then when a realised being, a Zen monk known as “Homeless Kodo” tells us otherwise – actually, losing is satori, enlightenment. Winning, victory is just an illusion. Meditate on that! 🙂  These days I prefer to hang out with homeless monks and other realised beings rather than neurotic type A achievers. It took years to get my priorities straight…

Below is excerpt #21, I suggest you read all of them. You can find them here:  Continue reading →

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White privilege has a double standard. Amazon and Prime Video, stop release of the racist “Borat 2” film #cancelborat

Posted on October 3, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

As you may know, I am British but also Kazakh. This week with the news of “Borat 2” forthcoming release saturating my newsfeed, I was vividly reminded of mental torment I, my family and my Kazakh friends were put through with the release of the first “Borat”. The racist jokes, the daily abuse we were getting from white friends, acquaintances and strangers alike. Always with a chuckle, as in we should find it funny that our ancestral traditions and rich culture get appropriated and dragged through mud.

This time I decided enough is enough. Kazakhs are very soft charactered people by nature and never rebel but it is time to take a stand. If Sacha Baron Cohen, a white wealthy celebrity, created a, say, blackface character, he would have already been outcast and condemned. Yet somehow using a Kazakh, an Asian person, for crude cheap racist laughs, berating my nation, belittling our Central Asian race and racially abusing us so publicly and for significant money is ok. There is truly a double white privilege standard. This is a perfect example of how ingrained racism is.

I never post anything political here but I am strongly called to raise awareness of “Borat 2” being a highly racist film. And I hope that this message reaches Amazon so they can stop the release. Please help me. Read and sign this petition that I created, take further action as outlined in the petition and help the humankind take one further step towards racial justice.

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Face everything and rise #fear

Posted on September 26, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

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Source: here.

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Be serene in the oneness of things

Posted on September 19, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

I heard many times about the Third Chinese Patriarch and his (although it is being debated whether he is the author) poem that sums up the teachings of Buddhism. I finally decided to investigate who he was and what this poem was all about.

Turns out his name was Seng T’san or Sengcan. And the poem in all its beauty is below as translated by Richard B. Clarke. It packs a lot in. I plan to return to it again and again and meditate on each bit. “Be serene in the oneness of things”, “the unity of emptiness” and “not two” are particularly blowing my mind at the moment, as well as the paragraph about emptiness. Source: here.

Hsin Hsin Ming
verses on the faith mind / inscribed on the believing mind 

The Great Way is not difficult 

for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent

everything becomes clear and undisguised. 

Make the smallest distinction, however,

and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. 

  Continue reading →

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A galaxy of smiling hippos dances around me :) Sacred poetry workshop with Highest Good Wellbeing

Posted on September 12, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

This week I have been to a sacred poetry workshop by Sarit Gafan of @highestgoodwellbeing. Sarit is an intuitive well-being practitioner and a beautiful soul. She took us on a journey inside ourselves. We did some soul-digging to uncover our values – the gems, the words that are important to us.

We learned fun ways to play with the words. For example, for me, the word “gate” has two meanings – a gate, a door and a word from a sanskrit mantra “gate gate paragate parasamgate bodi svaha” (“Gone, gone beyond, gone beyond the Beyond, hail the goer!”).  We loosened up, “lost our mind” to become more playful, less bound by the rules. It was lots of fun! My resulting poem that sums up the essence of who I am and which I can go back to when I feel lost or stuck is below.

I am ordered beauty.

Smiling serene emptiness.

A disruptor, a creator,

A loser, a finder.

I make peace and mischief.

I am a naughty cosmic giggle.

A gate to grace of God.

A star wolf.

A white light.

Not two.

One.

Ram Ram.

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How to trust the Universe by Alan Watts

Posted on September 5, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

“The way to become one with the Universe is to trust it.”

One day I had an urge to search for “how to trust the Universe” and this video came up. In it, among other things, Watts talks about achieving the state of desirelessness when one wants nothing. Watts says that the next stage is reflection, soul searching and trying out activities that one believes would bring them joy. This leads to the third stage – realisation that even what you thought your soul wanted is not that (neti, neti).

This is a bleak prognosis for the seekers (including me) who think they have achieved desirelessness and it will lead them to the next stage on their journey. We have worked to quieten our minds, to still ourselves, we practiced soul led decision making in the hope that the truth will reveal itself. Or at least we will see the next step on our path. Watts says there is no path and no next steps, just a loop of coming back to not that. He says it is impossible to know what one wants because it is impossible to know what one is. It is also possible that we already have what we seek, we just don’t realise it yet.

When one arrives at the state of desirelessness and non-doing, when one works to quieten their mind, “ceases to cling to themselves”, the extensive energy used for ego defences is released into the Universe. Instead of waiting to see what outcome this energy will lead to for ourselves, Alan Watts is suggesting to give up on the outcome and cease any seeking altogether because there is nothing to find (gasp). Instead he suggests that we live our lives the best we can and enjoy ourselves: “It is your sole duty to learn how to enjoy yourself.”

But what about the Truth! – screams the Seeker in me. Being the seeker is an ego play. You are nobody. And, says Watts, your ego is “seeking the truth” to be able to control the process, to figure out the uncertainty. Wanting to know is trying to control. Instead, surrender the seeking. Let go of knowing. Be the “I don’t know” sort of person.

Uncomfortable with not knowing? Me too. Well, it sounds like this is the recommended practice. Not knowing, yet trusting, and hence living happily in the unknown. Don’t seek anything. Have fun. Enjoy your life as much as possible. “It is only complicated if you start thinking about it.” Well. What do you think?

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When you find a star with a smiley face on a tomato…

Posted on August 29, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

The freer I get, the higher I go.

The higher I go, the more I see.

The more I see, the less I know.

The less I know, the more I am free.

Ram Dass
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“When you arrive at non-action, nothing will be left undone. Mastery of the world is achieved by letting things take their natural course.”

Posted on August 22, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

It is the poem month here on Nomad of the Universe 😂  I have recently found this verse from Tao Te Ching and I froze. It is describing precisely where I am in my life now. “When you arrive at non-action, nothing will be left undone. Mastery of the world is achieved by letting things take their natural course.” Wow. No comment, as they say… By the way, Stephen Reid has recently published all Tao Te Ching verses with his amazing photos if you want to check them out.  

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Ride your horse along the edge of the sword… #zen #happiness #awakening

Posted on August 15, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

Ride your horse along the edge of the sword
Hide yourself in the middle of the flames
Blossoms of the fruit tree will bloom in the fire
The sun rises in the evening.
– Zen Koan.

Isn’t this poem beautiful? How do you understand it? I was chatting to someone in the comments section of one of the Tricycle articles and they mentioned it in the context of the emptiness practice being a step on the awakening journey. And indeed to me, this koan describes perfectly how I feel and see the world now.

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Art therapy – Three magic words #poetry #poem

Posted on August 8, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

“Beauty evolves from emptiness into form.”
— Christopher Alexander

I am emptiness. I am form. I am beauty.
I create form out of emptiness and beauty out of form.
Or rather emptiness makes form beautiful.
Is it form that gives emptiness beauty?
Or is the process of creation inherently beautiful?
Beautiful empty form,
Empty form beauty,
Form beauty emptiness.
Emptiness is form.
Form is empty.
Beauty is emptiness in form,
Form in emptiness.
Emptiness into form,
Form into emptiness –
Ultimate alchemy.
Big. Bang.
Beauty of form,
Beauty of emptiness,
Beauty as the outset,
Beauty as an outcome,
Beauty in the process,
Beauty of the process.
Beautiful emptiness of form.
Beautiful form of emptiness.
Empty beauty of form.
Form emptiness of beauty.
Creation for the sake of creation.

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Bliss (I am the light of my soul)

Posted on August 1, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

I’ve discovered this beautiful song (chant? affirmation?) through my friend, Sarit. It sings like a mantra or prayer. Wayne Dyer talks about how in the Bible the God is called “I am”. I am indeed. 

I am the light of my soul. I am beautiful I am. Bountiful I am bliss. I am I am.

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“Dance In The Fire” practice to manage emotions

Posted on July 25, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

Dawa Tarchin Phillips What To Do When You Don’t Know What’s Next

I am going to lead you through a short exercise with your emotions. The first emotion that I would like you to connect with is the emotion of sadness. Think of a time when something hurt or disappointed you; when someone or something broke your heart. Let that emotion arise and experience it. Maybe you lost something or someone special. How does your body experience sadness?

How does your posture express sadness? Now change that feeling by remembering a moment when something went your way. You experienced a success, a real personal triumph. Remember how proud everyone was of you? You knocked it out of the park! Let that emotion come in. Feel the success, the exhilaration and satisfaction of that moment. Let it show in your posture.

Now switch back to sadness again. Reconnect to that emotion from before.

And now change your state of mind again. This time, remember the first time that you fell in love—maybe the first time you held that person in your arms. Let this experience of love fill you. Feel the love of that extraordinary moment. Maybe the moment that comes to mind is when you had your first child, or you got engaged, or you fell head over heels for a dog at the animal shelter. Let the feeling of love arise in you and let it transpire in your attitude.

Now, change your state of mind again, and this time tune into joy. Let pure joy arise within you. What does it feel like? What does joy want to do through you? What is the message joy has for you? Open up to it, let it come in, let it express.

All of these feelings and emotions carry great intensity. That brings us to the sixth principle: dance in the fire. We’re talking about awareness of a mind that is constantly liberating emotions and experiences. In the midst of it all, you can realize that you’re actually not trapped. You’ve just illustrated through the exercise above that you can switch emotions quickly if you give yourself permission to do so. All it takes is a shift in your thoughts, a shift in your attitude, a shift in your focus, and your experience changes. You’re free to make that shift at any time. The question then becomes: What will you do with that freedom? How will you use it, and to what aim?

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It is the small things #happiness

Posted on July 18, 2020 by nomadoftheuniverse

As I learn to listen to and live according to my intuition, my soul, I learn to notice signs from the Universe. The latest one is this chap that I found tucked behind the gas pipe on the side of our house next to the rubbish bins. I’ve taken rubbish out so many times, yet I have never noticed him there. He looks weathered but I like his imperfections. I guess it’s a thumbs up from the Universe? 😊 Ram Ram.

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