Uncategorized – Page 3

Friends & Enemies

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The ego, or individual self-sense, is both your best friend and your worst enemy. It is your best friend and your worst enemy. It is your best friend because, in the most positive sense, it represents your capacity to individuate — to see yourself as a unique, autonomous entity and to bear witness to your own experience with some measure of objectivity. Individuation is what makes it possible for you to be a conscious agent of evolution, a vessel for Spirit in action. The more profound our individuation, the more powerfully Spirit can shine through us. However, ego is also our worst enemy. And this is because, for too many of us, over-identification with our seperate individuality obscures the deeper and higher spiritual dimensions of our being. It is very important to understand this paradoxical nature of the ego if you, as an individual, want to take responsibility for creating the future, as yourself.
–Andrew Cohen
The Speaking Tree, Page: 02, 3, April, 2011
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Winning And Losing

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Winning and losing are a part of life. The are two sides of the same coin. Winning and losing come in cycles; neither is permanent. Today’s victor is tomorrow’s or yesterday’s loser. And today’s loser might well be the champion next year or the next. While we are fully aware of this, we continue to crave for victory and live in dread of losing, although we know in our heart of hearts that one is invariably followed, with the passage of time, by the other.

The feeling of happiness and joy that any victory brings is basically felt and enjoyed by our ego. Our true Self knows neither victory nor loss. The atman or soul is beyond the duality of good an bad, right and wrong, winning and losing. But the human mind and ego exult when it can do something better than the other person or other team. And sometimes it becomes difficult to conclude whether our win or their loss causes greater satisfaction.
Just as victory brings extreme emotions, so does defeat. How often we have seen that today’s heroes become tomorrow’s non-heroes or villains? Today’s idols are smashed tomorrow, when they fail to perform. Such is the price of celebrity status; such is the price of victory.

What about the loser? We owe a great deal to the loser, for withuot a loser, there cannot be a winner. Imagine if all other teams from other parts of the world stopped playing cricket, then where would we be? There would be no contests and no victories to celebrate or defeats to ponder over. A good performance is inspired by competition and from learning from the experience of others.

Swami Vivekananda used to say “Let not the giver feel proud, for he can give only when there is someone to receive. Let the giver kneel down and let the receiver stand erect, during the act of giving and receiving. For the giver is blessed to find a receiver”. In the same vein, let the winner have respect for the loser, for without the loser, the winner too disappears.

When someone loses, there are enough people to ridicule, criticise and berate the losing team members. It is ironical that the seeds of defeat are actually sown during the act of winning, whether it is a sporting encounter or a personal feud, because the losers are already getting together and planning their next move, their come-back, so that they can regain their lost glory. It is only a matter of time before the tables are turned, before the tide is reversed, and the winner is on the losing side.

While giving full credit to the winners, one question that comes up is: “Is it possible to play, enjoy the game, have fun, but not have losers and winners?” This is true for all examinations and competitions. That would really be something to look forward to . Because if we are going to win at someone else’e cost, it is only a partial victory.

For a total or abslute victory, everyone should be a winner, something that is of course not routinely possible, but something we can think about for the future, where encounters are not only winners, no loser. And ther is still the possibility of feeling excited and elated.

The Speaking Tree, Page: 20, 2, April, 2010

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It’s All About Feeling

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Is it possible to increase your happiness or success by pushing your “energypendulum” in the direction you want it to go – towards more possessions, greater fame, and more intense pleasure? Doesn’t the pendulum always swing back in the opposite directioin?

There are times in this ceaseless cycle of hope and disappointment when we feel repelled by the sheer monotony of it all. Finding ourselves no longer attracted by the excitement of a meaningless chase, we long for rest. But only if rest is sought within can lasting peace be really ours. Any rest we find outwardly – in retirement, let us say, to a quit cottage by the sea – is as temporary as our emotional joys and sorrows. That “peace” ends when we come to experience it as boredom. When this happens, we set out once again on our former quest for excitement. And so – interminably – it goes on.

Everything in existence is balanced by its polar opposite. Heat is balanced by cold, light by darkness, and positive by negative. In humankind, duality is found in the opposites of male and female, joy and sorrow, love and hatred. Wherever one quality exists, its complementary opposite will also be found.

The overall level of an ocean is not altered by the height of the waves at its surface. The higher the wave, the deeper is its trough. Our essential consciousness, similarly, remains unaffected by our emotional ups and downs. Pleasure and pain, success and failure, fulfilment and disappointment – these are but waves on the surface of calm, intutive feeling.

The Law of Duality is present in our lives, too. Because our emotions are tied to the post of egoconsciousness, every joy that we experience emotionally must be balanced in our own emotions by an equal and opposite sorrow. Every personal success must be balanced by an equally personal failure; every personal fulfilment must be balanced by a corresponding personal disappointmet.

The only state in which joy and other positive feelings are not balanced by opposites is in the state of superconsciousness. There, waves of emotion subside in calm, intuitive feeling. Joy, love and peace are realised, then, as absolutes, not as relativities, for they are attributes of Pure Consciousness.

Calm feeling is intution. When that calm feeling is disturbed, it becomes emotion. Until clarity of feeling is achieved, the one who meditates will be forever vacillating in purpose. Without devotion, indeed, in the form of deep yearning for the truth, you will not feel the incentive even to try to meditate deeply. Wisdom without devotion is like knowing that there is a good restaurant next door, and even committing its entire menu to memory, but not being hungry enough to go there and eat. The feeling quality is what makes it possible to commit oneself to the spiritual search.

When people think of the pure consciousness of God, they usually visualise an abstract mental state. Feeling is absent. Yet there is nothing inspiring, surely, about such abstractions. For, without love, how can we identify the fog with God? Feeling is as intrinsic to awareness as heat is to fire.

The Speaking Tree, Page: 16, 1, April, 2011

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YOUR MIND YOUR BODY

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As we move deeper and deeper to the straight in the meditatioin, we will pass through our inner bodies i.e. physical body, subtle body, causal body and the super causal body.

Swami Vivekananda rightly says in his lecture. “There is the soul, and inside this soul is all powers will be unfold. all knowledge in the soul, to lessen the misery…. all unhappines is caused by our not having mastery over the body…”

Swami Vivekananda, Sanfrancisco, April 5, 1900

The world of the mind seems very different from the one inhabited by our bodies. The psychic space inside our heads in infinite and ethereal; it seems obvious that it must be made of different stuff than all the other organs. Cut into the body, and blood pours forth. But slice into the brain, and thoughts and emotions don’t spill out onto the operating table. Love and anger can’t be collected in a test tube to be weighed and measured.

The brain is just another organ, albeit more intricate than the rest. The thoughts and emotions that seem to color our reality are the result of complex electro chemical interactions within and between nerve cells. The disembodi voices of schizophrenia and the feelings of worthlessness and self hatered that accompany depression, although they seem to be based on reality, are no more than distortions in brain electrochemistry. Researchers are learning how these distortions arise, how to lessen their severity and , in some cases, how to correct them.

Scientists are also learning something else. Not only is the mind like the rest of the body, but the well-being of one is intimately interwined with that of the other. This makes sense because they share the same systems-nervous circulatory, endocrine and immune. What happens in the pancreas or liver can directly affect brain function. Disorders of the brain, conversely, can send out biochemical shock waves that disturb the rest of the body.

MEDITATION MEANS

~ Becoming detached from the Mind

~ Becoming a witness of the Mind

~ Looking at the Mind as separate from you

~ That’s what actually it is

~ You can see through passing by

~ You can see the whole traffic that goes on in the mind

~ The memories, the fantasies, the past, the future all kinds of things are passing

~ You can just stand by the side of the road.

The Story of Life, Page: 44, Jan-March 2011

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What’s Up, Watson?

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Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal, they lay down for the night and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes woke up and nudged his faithful friend. “Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.” Watson replied, “I see

millions and millions of stars.” “What does that tell you?” enquired Holmes. Watson pondered for a minute: “Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful clear day tomorrow. What does it tell YOU?” Holmes was silent for a minute then spoke. “Watson, you idiot, some fellow has stolen our tent.”

The Speaking Tree, Page No: 06, 27, March, 2011

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Courtesy: The Third Revolution by Paul Harrison

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Every European leaves lifetime’s waste one thousand times his or her body weight. For every person in the Third World, two thousand square meters of rainforest are destroyed each year. Our habits, and our numbers, are wrecking the planet.
Crisis spurred the agricultural and industrial revolutions. It may now speed the third revolution – the transition to sustainable development. There reace is on between our power to damage, and our power to achieve balance with the environment.
Can we act before circumstances force our hand? Hamlet had less than half an hour to live when he finally killed Claudius. Can we break the Hamlet syndrome?

The Story of Life, BackPage, Vol. 5 Jan-March-2011

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Spread Ripples Of Love

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Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu once visited Vrindavan, where he observed the Holi festival. After his return to bengal, he pondered deeply and decided to introduce the festival but in a different form. It came to be known as Dolyatra.
What is the significance of Dolyatra? Winter is over, and people are active once again. They plan to do so many things for the benefit of society. Similarly, when they think of Krishna, their minds are filled with joy. The very thought of Krishna produces ripples of joy in people’s minds, and these vibrations of joy also produce a corresponding vibration in Krishna’s mind. They think, “Oh Krishna, i love you – but you also loveme, that i know.” In this way the ripples of joy in their own minds also create vibrations of joy in His mind.
Shri Chaitanya said to his followers, “Go to the Krishna temple on that day, and apply red powder and red colour to Krishna. Then you should play with the red powder and colour amongst yourselves.” And those who gave red powder and colour to others would also feed them with malpoa, the delectable sweet. So it is neither Holi festival nor Phaguya – it is the Dolyatra of Shri Krishna.
In the days of Mahaprabhu, the prevailing rule was to seek the prior permission of the person to whom you were going to give the red powder. If that person gave permission, then only could you smear him with coloured powder, and then treat them to malpoa.
In Sanskrit there are two similar words: varna and raga. Though the meanings are approximately the same, they are not completely synonymous. Varna means colour, what is called rang in Bengali. But the word varna does not indicate the colour which will colour other objects as well; an object has its own colour but its colour may not necessarily dye other objects. But the word raga menas that particular colour which can dye other objects also. So the inner spirit of the science of colour in Vaishnavi Tantra is this – that each and every expression of this universe has its own rhythm, its own vibration, its own sound, and its own colour, and thus it has its own form as well. And as it has its own sound, it has a particular sweetness of its own.
When Tantra was first formulated, there was only one science of tantra; but later various cults emerged according to their respective philosophical viewpoints. Each had a different name although their inner spirit was the same: for instance, Buddha tantra, Jaina tantra and, in later times, Shaiva tantra, Shakta tantra, Ganapatiya tantra and Vaishnaviya tantra. The inner idea of Vaishnaviya tantra is that there is form and colour – both raga and varna – in the rhythmic expressioins of Param Purusha, and those cosmic rhythms also have a sweet sonic vibration.
The sonic vibration is instrmental in giving expression to various other forms in this universe as well. To find the answer to questions of “why”, just as the devotees run towards His sonic expression which the Vaishnavas call His flute sound, they also run towards the expressions of His colour. They thin, i will colour my mind with the same colour in which He manifests Himself before me, and move towards Him. If i can colour my mind in His colour, i will be very close to Him.

The Speaking Tree, Page: 18, 19, March, 2011
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Colour Everything With Love

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The purpose of meditation is to look inword, to reach a state of inner spirisoul’s connectedness with God and all life. We are strengthened by the fearlessness that comes with identifying with soul. e live in the knowledge that we are immortal. By looking inword, we go to the source of wisdom from which all outer knowledge is derived. Through meditation we can go beyond the door of death to meet the bliss and beauty that await us beyond. We no longer live in fear of death.
Saints who have seen past this world say that death is not something to fear, but something to embrace. Kabir said, “The death of which other people are afraid is a surce of happiness for me. It is only with death that I attain everlasting bliss.” St Teresa of Avila has said of death, “I do not die. I enter into life.”
For enlightened beings, life as we know it on earth is sleep. Death and entry into the kingdom of God is waking up. St Paul said, “Oh death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
Behind many fears is the fear of loss, pain and death. Having experienced our immortality, our fears begin to dissolve. The soul, in its state of oneness with the Lord, fears nothing. It only fears ignorance of that oneness. In reality, sin is merely ignorance of truth. Sin means being unaware of God and the lows of truth and love that govern all the universes. It is a simple formula: virtue is what brings us closer to God, sin or evil takes us away from God.
If we walk on the path of righteousness, observing the laws of non-violence, truthfulness, chastity, humility and selfless service and spending time in our spiritual practices of meditation, then we have nothing to fear in this world or in the beyond.
When we see the same Light that is within our soul in all other soulds, we experience connectedness with all forms of life. With such a bond of unity, we realise that all beings are members of our family and life becomes one joyous reunion with everyone we meet.
The joy of family gatherings extends to the whole of humanity. Love permetes all our dealings because we are among our universal familty and friends. By journeying within, we can reach this state and consider all creation our familty and all places our home.
Unending bliss is ours when we look inward. Sufi saint Shamas-iTabrez offers a glimpse into this state of bliss: “Please do not ask me about my inner state of being. My senses, intellect and sould are intoxicated, and they have achieved a permanent bliss of intoxication. The roots of these trees are drinking the secret wine of love. Have patience, because one day you too will wake up into this state of intoxication. In my mind, there is a festival of intoxication. Feel the effect of the wine of Divine Love, so that even the walls and door are intoxicated.”
When we are in love with an earthly beloved, the whole world takes on the colour of love. We see things as rosy and blissful. Similarly, when in a state of bliss from within, it colours the whole world in bliss. We then see ecstasy wherever we look.

The Speaking Tree, Page: 18, 18, March, 2011
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Fix `ereg is deprecated` errors in PHP 5.3

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If you upgraded to PHP 5.3, chances are high you’re going to run into a few warnings or deprecated function messages.
An example is the ereg family of functions, which are gone for good, as they were slower and felt less familiar than the alternative Perl-compatible preg family.

To migrate ereg():

1. ereg(‘.([^.]*$)’, $this->file_src_name, $extension);

becomes

1. preg_match(‘/.([^.]*$)/’, $this->file_src_name, $extension);

Notice that I wrapped the pattern (.([^.]*$)) around / /, which are RegExp delimiters. If you find yourself escaping / too much (for an URL for example), you might want to use the # delimiter instead.

To migrate ereg_replace():

1. $this->file_dst_name_body = ereg_replace(‘[^A-Za-z0-9_]’, ”, $this->file_dst_name_body);

becomes

1. $this->file_dst_name_body = preg_replace(‘/[^A-Za-z0-9_]/’, ”, $this->file_dst_name_body);

Again, I just added delimiters to the pattern.
If you are using eregi functions (which are the case-insensitive version of ereg), you’ll notice there’re no equivalent pregi functions. This is because this functionality is handled by RegExp modifiers.

Basically, to make the pattern match characters in a case-insensitive way, append i after the delimiter:

1. eregi(‘.([^.]*$)’, $this->file_src_name, $extension);

becomes

1. preg_match(‘/.([^.]*$)/i’, $this->file_src_name, $extension);

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Download YouTube Videos From Command Line In Ubuntu Linux

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Try YouTube-Dl. It downloads YouTube videos from the command line and works on Linux, Unix, and Mac OS.

Lets see how we can install and use it in Ubuntu, first of all open the terminal and run the following command to install it.

sudo apt-get install youtube-dl

Once the installation is completed, you are ready to download YouTube videos. Now use the following general syntax of the command to download YouTube vide.

youtube-dl –o filename.flv URL

where filename.flv should be the name with which you wish to save the downloaded video and URL is the address of the YouTube video. For e.g, see code below,

youtube-dl –o filename.flv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut3HAdCGHxs

The following screenshot illustrates the download process of the video in Ubuntu terminal:

Enjoy!

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