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The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (documentary) Posted in: Films, Seeing the Divine

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix documentary)

When Norwegian gamer Mats Steen died at age 25, his parents mourned what they thought was an isolated life. It was only once they had access to his blog that they discovered the deep friendships he created virtually before passing away from a degenerative muscular disease. They were unaware that Mats had long been leading a vibrant digital life that had left a profound impact on a community of fellow gamers.

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Faith Posted in: Faith

Regardless of how spiritually aware my guru might be, their reality is not my reality. Therefore, for me to accept what they tell me of their reality in place of my own is necessarily a faith thing. There may be a variety of reasons I have that faith … gut feeling, philosophical resonance, reasoning, the experience of being in the presence of such a person etc, etc. …

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Lost in translation – English and the material world vs the concept of anādi Posted in: Divinity, What are we doing here?

Within the Vaishnava tradition, the conditioning of the souls in the material world is said to be anādi – beginningless. If English speakers wish to understand the finer points of the Sanskrit word anādi, there are probably a number of English words they should steer clear of, for example …

  • forget – because the word infers previously known
  • when – because the word infers something happened at some point in time, and before that point it had not happened
  • manifest – because the word infers previously unmanifest
  • fallen – because the word infers previously not fallen

Why might clear understanding of anādi be important? …

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Trouble is, if everything comes from God … Posted in: Perfection in Seeming Imperfection, Suffering and an all-powerful benevolent God, What are we doing here?

To tell someone who strongly feels they are suffering, and/or this world is very much a place of misery, that they are not in fact suffering at all, and not a fallen soul being punished for their sins, but a divine part of God eternally engaged in the beautiful divine lila (pastimes) of God is unlikely to resonate positively. Reality of suffering is so proven and real that such a idea is more likely lead to negative judgement about God. …

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God With Blinkers On Posted in: One And Different, The Self Divine

PET THEORY: Notwithstanding our difference, by dint of our simultaneous oneness we are God/Krishna (albeit with a small g/k) exploring/experiencing/expressing self with blinkers on. In so doing we all contribute our focused fascinations to the ever expanding completeness of God’s self-knowing. Consciously or unconsciously, believer or atheist, no matter. Being conscious, however, opens the door for love. In the Bhagavad-gita (9:27) Krishna encourages ‘everything you do, do as an offering to me’ as the means to awaken ones deeper self-awareness. …

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Siddhartha (novel) Posted in: Books

Siddhartha: An Indian novel is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha.

Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha follows the spiritual journey of Siddhartha, a young man seeking enlightenment. Rejecting wealth, status, and rigid teachings, he explores various paths, ultimately finding wisdom in life’s experiences and the unity of all things.

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The Parades (movie) Posted in: Films

The Parades

Minako waking up on a rubble-strewn beach. As she searches for her son, Ryo, she stumbles upon an assorted group, including a young man named Akira, former yakuza Shori, and ex-film producer Michael. She soon realizes the shocking truth that she has died. Her new companions are also stuck between worlds, unable to move on due to unfinished business with the living.

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Yesterday’s Children (movie) Posted in: Films

Yesterday’s Children

Jenny Cole lives with her husband and son in middle America. She is pregnant and starts to have very vivid dreams about a small city that has a big church. She starts talking to her mother about it and her mother shows her some drawings she made when she was a child. To her amazement they are identical to the drawings from the dreams Jenny is now having.

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All Hallows’ Eve (novel) Posted in: Books

All Hallows’ Eve is the last of the seven novels of the supernatural written by Charles Williams.

Charles Williams had a genius for choosing strange and exciting themes for his novels and making them believable and profoundly suggestive of spiritual truths. All Hallows’ Eve is the story of a man and woman whose love was so great it could bridge the gap of death; of evil so terrible as to be unmentionable, of a vision so beautiful it must be true.

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