Final Entry :(

What will I take out of this class? Well besides everything, nothing. Besides the warrior poises, the novels and the ability to connect with myself, I learned how to breathe. I have learned that finding serenity and breath in anything I do will feel like a healing remedy mixed with the poisons I have been trying to create for 17 years, and although these remedies are not yet perfected, this course helped in the creation. When i'm in the hustle and bustle of deciding what my major is, which parent I will celebrate the holidays with and which color would look best as a drop back to my photo journal, I will remember to breath until I find serenity in my soul. So thank you for teaching me the most obvious, yet underrated skill and human being has to learn, breath.

Final Project

With nine 6x6 canvases, I am going to try to portray how I have transformed from a timid, frazzled and less flexible student, yogi and thinker, into a inspired, light, and more flexible one. I am using paper to show my favorite pose I have learned this term (warrior 2). Around the pose I am using colors, shaded tones and matalics to illustrate how I began this corse and how I am ending it. I am using darker colors at the bottom and shading to lighter tones at the top of the piece. To express the closing of my thoughts and how I have learned to control my mind and body, I am placing buttons in significant spots on the piece. I am not sure exactly where I want to place them, but at some point, I hope I will see a place where they fit perfectly. I'm focusing on purple, my absolute favorite color, to express tranquility. I painted the "dark" sides of the painting in purple too to express how even in my darkest sights, I can still find a place of inspiration. I want this painting to explain how I have changed, and as I know that I may be the only one who really understands the significance of the colors, buttons, and movements, I want to portray inspiration to others, while still being content with my own.

On Death

When the soul departs, don't let it determine it's own state and don't sorrow in it's absence for with an open and honest eye, you will soon meet again. And let the death not determine where the soul may go, but let the life once lived direct it. In the day and embodiment of life, love it and when the leaves fall in the autumn, save them for you will become one too and with this acceptance comes complete liberation in the reality of life and in the reality of death. Don't let the death of another scare you from the death of yourself, for then you will be living in a bubble of protection from the world we must embrace. But to die is not to leave but rather to melt into the sun and blend with the sky. So, only when you embrace the moments of tranquillity will you become able to sing the song of life, silence the song of death, and live the song of yourself.

On Prayer

Pray when you are in deep sorrow as well as complete delight and when you are both desperate and indulged for whomever you are speaking to will not only help the needy, but the consistant. Let not your lips be the jurisdiction of your own words, but let the spirits inside you enlighten the prayer. Let the shadows of society undress the real identity of your self and let the the one you are speaking to be also the one who speak to you. You must listen in prayer. Listen to your soul and your goals. Then listen to the response. Invisible and silent it may be but with honest ears, it becomes completely present. And if no body responds, don't let it be the judge of your being but the reminder to humble your soul into the beckoning prayer. There is no way to describe the act of prayer for it must come from within the voices psyche, but when you have reached the point of return, you may continue to feel liberated in prayer and in yourself. The one you speak to cannot give you exactly what you want, but rather exactly what you need; hope and guidance from a earshot because he will listen to you..if you will listen to him.  

On Time

Time is indescribable but we try and try to force our selves into thinking the opposite and that all in good time, we will be where we desire. But when does that stop, when does time stop? If we all knew exactly when our time would end, we would recreate our morals to be more desirable to ourselves and the people around us. We would take care in arranging where things fit and when things could go right, and where things could go wrong. But ignoring the idiosyncrasy of defining time, what would be be without it? If no deadlines were set, no dynasties excited and no months were apparent, what would be the excitement of living and the thrill of never knowing when our time may come. We must use every second to our advantage, take each breath with full appreciation of breathing it, and become one with our own measures of the immeasurable. It would be easier if I knew that on December 21st 2041, my time would become instinct, but that would take the ecstasy out of life and turn it into useless pages of agenda. Life is short, so live it up or count it down.

On Friendship

Let friendship receive the best of yourself. Let her swallow your laughter, poise, your intellect and struggles.  Let her be the one who takes the time to nurture you back, and the one to make you listen, the one to make you live and the one to make you see what you might not have before. Don't let her be the shadow of your existence or let her become your shadow of your existence, but let her fall in the center, and become saturated to your being, as well as hers. Let her experience the worst, so she knows to cherish the best. Sometimes, let the silence of desire overcome you both, then let the joy of friendship absorb you once again. When you part from her, and then return, the bond becomes a stronger one for the lack of vision results in a better understanding of where your love lies. But that being said, don't let her define you...let her illuminate you.

On Self-Knowledge

The batter of the soul is like the whipping cream that tops it and the oven that bakes it. Without each ingredient of our selves, we are useless and unworthy of self appreciation. However, with all of our ingredients and all of our knowledge, our dish can be created. Without knowing who we are, our best selves can not be shared with the world for we would not know how to share them. We must embrace our negative and strive off our positive. In order to overcome complete ignorance of our minds and bodies, we must grow our intellects larger than before, we must spread wide our accomplishments and must be able to stand up with our shoulders broad and our stomachs stretched, and must, must, must, love each bone, each hair, each organ and eye, each characteristic and each soul that has been embedded in us from the start. However if you are a normal individual who is also embedded with millions of miniscule and quite frankly, personally exaggerated imperfections and insecurities, take the minutes in the day and turn them into hours of appreciation, and hours of self awareness and utter moments of erasing instinctual ideologies of yourself. It is your turn to turn off those moments of doubt and shape the person which you would like to become...all by noticing and loving your thoughts, and being absorbed by the knowledge of yourself. This is your universe. Shape it now, or someone else will.

On Reasons and Passion

Our reason and our passion are what keep us alive. And since they fall hand in hand, it is easy to forget one or the other. What we all do in life, from a giver to a receiver, must be with full awareness of the reason of doing it and the passion behind it. But as they lay hand in hand, they also contradict. For sometimes, the reason of it overpowers the passion we feel about it, and visa versa. Sometimes, our decisions become battle fields with the opponents of passion and reason where motive and judgment wages war against cravings and hunger. In order to make decisions flow with melody, the two elements must put down their weapons and mend with peace. But even without knowledge we use the two behind each thing we do, so dig inside yourself to find a remedy to create tranquility. If you cannot grab both, but only one, the decisions made will not be true to yourself for reason, by itself, becomes artificial desires, and passion, ruling alone, is an uncontrolled fire, and your soul is its oil. But if you are lucky and enlightened, you can grab both reasons and passion and nurse them together to create the out most result. Do not weigh reason over passion or passion over reason, for that will create the armed battle once again. Treat them as equals as they treat you the same. Live for passion and the reasons that surround it.






http://dragon-kiss.deviantart.com/art/Passion-Rules-Reason-92764677
     

On Pain

You must know and  love pain to teach your self to love the feeling of when it disperses. Your pain is the breaking of your own happiness and your well being. As the sun must go down and the light must die, the delight of no pain must as well. But we would not know what light is unless we experience darkness, and we would not know day if we did not know night. After you have reached your deepest internal pain, weather a broken heart or a broken bone, the only way is up. If you know this, that pain causes wellness and wellness causes pain, than your pain will not seem less desirable than your joy. This knowledge of self results in total serenity. The contrast in your darkest moments and your lightest ones is what keeps you among the normal, but to know that you can achieve both, is what keeps you yourself. Pain is self-chosen. Most of the time, the pain is not as severe as you may believe, so listen to those who can heal, and those who can remedy, for you are one yourself. Next time you feel pain, remember this: you can reach the highest of yourself, you can overcome the bitterness of your internal state, and you can choose to control the remedy of the heal and the remedy of yourself. And next time you feel no pain, remember to cherish it, for you never know when the sensation of freedom can relapse to the opposite.



Photo From: Me

Active Yoga

Thursdays yoga experience was surprisingly enjoyable. I was able to focus on myself instead of the people in the room, and for the first time in the practice, I was able to stay in difficult poses while still absorbed in my own thoughts. I felt much stronger this time, and not just in my body, but in the control I had over my own thoughts. When my mind would drift to the person next to me, I was able to quickly return to myself, and when my mind would shift to how much it bothered me to stay in down dog for X amount of seconds, I was able to quickly remember why I was doing it. The first few times we did active yoga, my focus was on the clock and the faces that surrounded me, but this time, it was about me, my thoughts, and my body. Afterwards, I felt like a new person. I felt like I was replenished and motivated to to whatever I needed to do. And although I did sweat a little bit, I almost felted cleaner then I did when we began.



http://thecollegeskinny.wordpress.com/2008/03/

On Joy and Sorrow

In order to be joyous, you must experience sorrow, for without it, there is nothing in comparison. The deeper the cut, the greater the heal, the longer the trip, the greater the time and the deeper the sorrow, the greater the joy. They are the co existence of the each other. One can not happen without the other, and one may not spout without the pester of the other. It takes some dust to have it polished, so when you are sorrow, take a step back and absorb yourself in the joy you have once encountered in order to know your state and remember the polish that is embedded in side you, then heal. When you are joyous, take that same step back, maybe even further, and express the gratitude you have to know what sorrow is, so you can be the opposite. It takes some good to make it hurt, and some bad for satisfaction, so treat them the same, for they explode from the other, and heal one another. Some will say that Joy is better, yet others would say that Sorrow is better, for one may never understand joy, until they overcome sorrow. Take the time to worship both, but never be too caught up in the spell of existence....well because life is wonderful, so let it last.

Bucket List

Write a novel
Travel the world with no agenda
Take a road trip across the country
Paint a mural
Fall in love
Skydive
Make a difference, big or small.
Get a tattoo
Learn to Surf
Sing to a crowd
Grow a garden

On Giving

The only way to give is to give yourself in the most selfless manner ever achievable. To give is to reflect in yourself the meaning of the gift and the meaning of the purpose. One who gives may never get, and one who gets may never give, but that is not alway true. One who gives may get and one who gets may give. This can be interoperated in any single way possible and it is nearly impossible to even write or comprehend, but I will try to explain the art of giving. I believe a gift is not the gift its self, but the intention behind it. The most spectacular gifts are those of anonymous givers, those who feel no need for recognition of their deed. They are the givers we cherish. To give exposure of their identity is a gift to their self within itself, but that becomes a selfish act, opposed of a selfless one. A gift is not a want, but a need. The greatest gifts are the gifts of the needed, not of the desired. It may seem the opposite, but which do you need more, the things you need, or the ones you want? Giving must be selfless with full intention of bettering another soul. If it is anything besides this, one would do better not giving at all.

On Children

Children are the essence of existence and the electricity in our bones that charge the spirits within. They breath their own breath and drum to their own beat. Children come from us, however, do not become us. We become ourselves through growing out of the children we once were. Our mother and fathers are not our mothers and fathers and we are not their children. For those are just labels. Those people, they are the embedded psyche that we have secure in our skin, they are the soul and the balance that is needed in each spirit and the constant reminder of nature and nurture. If they do not exist on this earth any more, it does not mean that the implanted essence is not still apparent, because it is forever evident in the embodiment of their children, for they are children too. Each is a child, and each is a being, perhaps never a mother or father, but always a child. Children are always there, no matter the age of the bone. So...let your child shine, whatever that may mean to you or the child in you.

On Marriage

I believe that two who are married should be forever unified, without feeling attached in every move made and step taken. I think the way "The Prophet" explains marriage perfectly exemplifies how a successful relationship becomes one. There is something special in two people spending the rest of their lives together and to me, at this moment in my life it seems nearly impossible to wake up to the same face every morning. But with the bond that is found between two souls, it can sore. For some this is magnificent, but for others, is seems like a binding potion they regret ever drinking. The key to marriage, or any relationship, or anything in life for that matter, is balance. Two must breath the same air, yet breath separately. This goes without saying that each marriage that fails is not due to lack of balance or lack of love, for that is not always the case. but it's the successful ones that strive off of being together honored as a pair, as well as valued as individuals. 

On Love

Love is almost impossible, so once you catch it, you must be willing to let it go. Perhaps you can't let it go all the way and perhaps you feel the passionate need to hold it forever, and perhaps you may be able to throw if far, but in most cases remember that perhaps, it will tear your insides, or in others, completely mend them back together. In complete suffrage, maybe love is the only way to build back strength and hope, but in complete happiness, love will tear the newly built walls back down to the core of existence. Love will be the reasons for every sense. When you see you love, a love not in your self, not in another, but in somebody else, you feel it. When you touch love, perhaps the person you are loving, you get feelings of the darkness you never want to return too, and the feelings of the light that you never want to fade. When you taste love, the sensations of passion and the sensations of desire overwhelm the emotions of power and the emotions of strength, for weakness fulfills your bones. When you hear love, perhaps the literal word or a whisper of imagination, is seems as a facade that burst the bubble of reality and forces itself upon your heart, and upon your soul. When you feel love, in what ever sense, you know. You know how you melt into the tender pain and the worshiped desires, the willingness to flee and the willingness to bleed the emotions felt, the need to give thanks and the need to be welcomed, the need to be needed and utterly absorbed with gratitude; while sparked in the reality of separation and prayer, the reality of ecstasy, and reality of whats real. 

    

Prompt #18

It is better to do your own duty 

badly, then to perfectly do 

another's; you are safe from harm 

when you do what you should be doing. 

I believe that each person is destined to do what they must. Each soul is responsible for doing what they feel the need to do in order to unveil what they feel is needed. In order to achieve greatness, in what ever sense that may mean to the individual, one must do their own duty. The out come of the action is not important, because only the intention of the deed, the process of the deed and the personal accomplishment of the deed is relevant to the actual greatness achieved. As the Gita says, it is better to do your own duty badly, and to do another's with no flaws. The process of following the rules or your own morals is forever more powerful than doing another being's, even if your actions are an outcome of poor results.