I found a writing from the great Mahatma Gandhi tucked away in a drawer I hadn't opened in years. I spent several months in India many, many years ago working on my dissertation and I remember reading this piece over and over and as I read it again after all these years it still makes me think deeply. Recall the face of the poorest and the most helpless man whom you may have seen and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him, will he be able to gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his life and destiny? Will it lead to self rule for the hungry and also spiritually starved millions of our country men? Then you will find your doubts and yourself melting away.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

The greatest of those in history revered and loved
Were simple people who during their lives
Worked, spoke and acted quietly.
the quality of their actions influenced many.

This is the potential and power of all beings
Who are honest about the depth of their abilities
And become the best of what they can be.

Our Media Life

Our Media Life

I attended a conference last weekend and one of the speakers talked about how much of the meaningless absorbs our media life. As if this were a coincidence shortly thereafter I read this statement and thought how true!

“In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion.  In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle.”  

Your Body

It was in that pamphlet I mentioned in my last post...At The Feet of the Master. Another sentence that sparked my thinking was: TREAT YOUR BODY WELL FOR IT IS THE HORSE YOU RIDE THROUGH LIFE. Does he mean I should think of my body like that of a horse...a wild mare that needs to be tamed? Hmmm. Enter: self-discipline?

I recently picked up a pamphlet on a trip to Ojai, CA. It is called AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER and the author is said to have been J. Krishanmurti when he was a young teenager. I was deeply affected with one of his ideas.  He said, “There are two kinds of people in this world: THOSE WHO KNOW AND THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW.  Those who do not know strive for wealth and power.   Those who know understand evolution. Two words popped into my mind as I read those sentences…karma and rebirth.  I wonder if those two words would affect the thinking of those who do not know.

PROFOUND BOOKS:


Is there a book that has had a profound effect upon your life? More than likely there is and one of these days I will write about that one book I read some thirty years ago that still resonates in my mind. But today I want to write about Supreme Court Justice Steven Breyer and the book that affected him so deeply, a novel, THE PLAGUE, by the French writer, Albert Camus. In an interview a long time ago with Charlie Rose, Justice Breyer talked about a doctor in the novel who behaved better than most when a plague invaded a city in Algeria and he said that the germ of the plague is in each of us and never dies, goes into remission but when it is sent forth to invade and the rats come out, we judges in a small way set up a dyke to stop it. That statement had a profound effect upon me and I thought about a story I had recently heard about an old and wise Native American Indian and his conversation with his grandson. This is the essence of that story: "My son, there are two wolves inside us all and they are continually battling one another. One is self pity, anger, lies, sorrow, regret, greed, guilt, false pride, envy, inferiority, superiority, arrogance, and resentment. The other is truth, love, faith, peace, humility, compassion, generosity, and joy."
The grandson thought for a moment and asked, "Grandfather, which wolf wins?"
"The one you feed."

I recently returned from the Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto. My documentary, MY MOTHER'S VOICE, a story about my mother's tragic life in Turkey and how she found her way to America to marry a man she knew only from a photograph was awarded Honorable Mention for best documentary, the Michael J. Hagopian Award. This link will take you to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kad0VzWzxgA&list=PLB3AE4DB9BA5CC93B&feature=player_detailpage

Last Friday evening October 5, I was blown away with the depth of Ambassador Edward Djerjian's remarks. He spoke at the Western AGBU center in Pasadena,California and I was captivated by this man. As the former U.S. Ambassador to both Syria and Israel during his tenure at the State department, he understands the history of why things are happening in the Arab Spring...and much of it has to do with the partitions from World War I. Also, he told this predominately Armenian audience of maybe 500 that his hero is Nelson Mandela and how he wants to see a reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey. Interestingly, his father was deported from Hadjin,Turkey as was my own mother. Both our parents survived the Armenian Genocide, immigrated to America and gave us, their future children the great opportunities that America avails to all its citizens

Just read this and decided to post it:

Every act of unkindness chips away the beauty of the soul.

YOUR THOUGHT LIFE
I've heard some say they are not comfortable in their skin. Could the solution to that conundrum be in not understanding what thought is? After all who in our educational system has taught us how to understand our thought life?

The Buddhists say the happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. Do you have any idea what thoughts fill your mind...daily? And which ones are junk thoughts?

Do you have any idea what thought is and where it comes from? Have you ever considered investigating your own mind...to find out if those junk thoughts plague your life?

That investigation is the way to understanding who you really are. Then you will be comfortable in your own skin.

I heard this today and felt it worth passing along.

Those who can never get enough and are motivated by greed find they have entered into another phase of poverty.

My Teacher said:

When you make your universe yourself,

No one can take anything from you.

When you are fearful
Many things will hurt you.

When you are bitter
The taste of experience is bitter.

The bitterness of the cup
Is in the taste
Not in the experience.

It is not bitter and it is not sweet.

ACUPUNCTURE AND THE HEART:

Acupuncture has been one of my keen interests and one of the fascinating things I've learned is that acupuncture states that the HEART RULES THE MIND and that your heart is the center of your life energy as well as the center of your mental and intuitive energy.

How often have you heard people say"It was heartfelt", "My heart is broken",  "I learned it by heart"?  People say, "I love with all my heart." They never say, "I love with all my brain."You may think you think with your brain. But you do not.

You think with your heart! 

SUFFERING:

I recently got an email from an old friend who lives in Germany. Her daughter somehow found a copy of my novel, A GIFT IN THE SUNLIGHT: An Armenian Story and gave it to her mother. My German friend read my book, in spite of her macular degeneration, emailed me immediately to say this one line in the story affected her deeply. It was said to my mother by an American teacher, a missionary who loved my mother.

GOD DOES NOT CREATE SUFFERING. MAN DOES.

KINDNESS

Recently a powerful thought keeps running through my mind and I keep telling myself I need to post it...and finally here it is

A LIFE DEVOID OF KINDNESS LEADS TO A LIFE FILLED WITH MISERY.

April 24:

April 24 is the day Armenians worldwide honor those who perished in the Armenian genocide. President Obama promised in his presidential campaign to recognize the Armenian catastrophe as genocide and still refuses to use the G word as President. But we Armenian Americans will not relent from our demand for the dignity of truth. My mother was a survivor, I am her voice and her spirit won’t release me until Turkey admits its intent in expelling its Turkish Armenian population from its historic homeland during WWI was none other than genocide.

Because the world forgot about those Starving Armenians at the onset of WWII, Hitler may have use the Armenian genocide as a template when he spoke those famous words in 1939, “Who today still talks about the extermination of the Armenians.”

Yes indeed, for every apparent injustice there has been a previous injustice in the past.

WAR

There are many who say that J. Krishnamurti was the spiritual teacher of the 20th century.  He was a dynamic speaker and I was fortunate to hear one of his talks in Ojai, California. The Vietnam war was raging at the time and I was stunned to hear him say that all of us were responsible for that war.  My immediate thought was... "Me? I have nothing to do with that war," but I did not realize at the time what he meant. Then somewhere I read this about war and began to understand the significance of what he said on that eventful day.

The Roots of War Arise From
Fear
Greed
Unkindness
And
Love of Power

When we let these roots grow
In our Spirit
We contribute to a terrible WAR.

It's been a while since I posted a new thought on my blog, but one of my projects, a potential documentary, has consumed my energy for the past several weeks. Now that I have a breather and am energized from a week of skiing in Colorado, I want to write just one sentence....an powerful insight I either heard or read recently and can't get out of my mind.

Those whose hearts are void of kindness end up living lives filled with misery.

Acupunture:

During one of my teaching sabbaticals I studied with a medical doctor who specialized in acupuncture. One of his patients told him I was a yoga aficionado who had studied in India and my interest in maintaining a healthy body triggered an interest in acupuncture. When he learned I was auditing classes at one of the local acupuncture colleges in Los Angeles, he contacted me and asked if I could create a series of exercises to trigger “chi” through the acupuncture meridian channels. He said I could work with some of his patients to see if the exercises increased their healing time. I was delighted with the offer, but I soon discovered that most of his patients were not comfortable in their bodies and did not have a good sense of their body, especially when their eyes were closed. It was difficult for them to merely stretch their toes and far more difficult to exercise the meridian stretch positions. Only one of the six patients was successful. She had been a ballet student in her youth, was totally in touch with her body and was able to stretch each of the twelve major meridians properly. Suffering with intense back pain, she feared she’d have to cancel a planned trip to Europe. I suggested she practice the twelve stretches five times a day, and a month later I received a card from her thanking me. The card was postmarked from Switzerland.

My keen interest in acupuncture led me to apply to the Academy of Chinese Medicine in Beijing, and when I was accepted I applied for another teaching sabbatical. It was approved, but at the time my elderly mother became seriously ill and I had to cancel that learning experience. I never did get to China because I transferred that energy from acupuncture to researching and writing a story about my mother’s survival from the Armenian Genocide, which took many more years than I had envisioned.

I still find acupuncture fascinating. There are such interesting aspects of how acupuncture relates to our physical and emotional bodies. For example, the organs of the body are compared to a society. The lungs are likened to that of a population’s prime minister, the liver to a General and the heart is referred to as the Emperor. The human heart is protected by a membrane and in acupuncture that membrane is referred to as the jester whose job is to keep the emperor happy. Why? Because when the emperor is happy, the population will be happy. How does this relate to the human being? Does it mean that if the heart is free from stress the rest of the body will function harmoniously? Chinese medicine says the heart rules the mind. If that is true, and it most likely is, I immediately know what is meant when someone says, “He has a big heart.” A wise and great soul once said to me:

Your heart is the center of your life energy
And the center of your mental and intuitive energy
How often have you heard people say
"It was heartfelt"
"My heart is broken"
"I learned it by heart"?
People say, "I love with all my heart."
They never say, "I love with all my brain"
You may think you think with your brain.
But you do not.
You think with your heart.

The previous blog triggered my memory of a poem I wrote about my mother who was deported from her home in Turkey in 1915.  Maybe that's why I feel so strongly about the amount of weaponry in the hands of those who set in motion the suffering that war and violence cause.
 
     AT THEIR MERCY

My mother had hopes and dreams
But men in power did not know
Or care. Their hearts were set
On entering the Great War.

Would these mighty men
Think about the innocent
Who'd suffer or lose their lives
Or the greatness of their warrior name?

Mom’s future and even her life
Depended upon their choices
Why is it powerful men
See only the Romance in War?