Here’s a lovely story from Gautama Buddha about a rich father and his poor son, it reminds me a little about the prodigal son, a parable by Jesus.
Once there was a very rich man, but due to his wealth his son was lazy and did not know how to earn money. This used to trouble his father a lot, and he lost his sleep wondering what his son would do when he died.
As the father grew older, he was more worried as his son didn’t seem to change. He had a feeling that after he passes away, his son would end up spending all his inheritance and even end up selling the house.
The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773) by Pompeo Batoni
The father filled with worry decided to do something about it, he made a black warm jacket for himself and wore it every day until it was old and lost its shine. He told his son, my son, when I die and if you end up selling everything, only promise me that you will not sell this jacket that you will inherit.
His son agreed, soon his father passed away and as his father expected he quickly ended up spending all his inheritance without the ability to earn. After a while he sold the house and ended up spending all the money.
All he was left with was the jacket and the clothes he wore, when his money was over his friends had left too. Homeless, he walked the streets and begged for his survival. One day while lying down, he felt something poking into him, causing discomfort.
He thought it was something on the ground, but it wasn’t, he checked the pocket of his jacket, there wasn’t anything there. But he realized that it was something in the jacket, so he looked carefully and after opening the lining of the jacket he found a gem that his father had kept for him.
He was thrilled that his father had given him a second chance, and he didn’t end up spending all of it and used it to buy a house, start a business and share his wealth.
Buddha said, all of us are like the destitute son, we too have inherited great wealth but aren’t aware of it. Like the son, we are wandering around like the homeless, thinking we are poor. We have treasures of enlightenment, joy, understanding and love inside us.
All we have to do is look within, rediscover our hidden gems and allow them to manifest for us to be happy.
Interesting, isn’t it? From this beautiful teaching by Buddha, I reflected on it and learned three lessons.
1) When you are aware of how a person is, put yourself in the father’s shoes and be patient. Plan ahead, so you don’t lose your cool and always give a second chance.
2) Like the son, make the most of what you have been given when someone gives you a second chance, especially when it comes to a loved one, do better to never let them down again.
3) The lesson Buddha imparts, it’s very easy to forget that all the love, peace and joy within us. Don’t lose track of our gifts.
The parable has been adapted from, “A Pebble in Your Pocket” a book by Thich Nhat Hanh where he stated being mindful is the key to remembering these gifts, always remember to breathe consciously to stay in the moment.
The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest. ~ Buddha
“I’m not sure what is worse, a closed mind or a closed book.” ~ Anthony Liccione
Reading is the ultimate therapy, the predominant catharsis – a meta-catharsis, if you will. It informs even as it reforms. It plunges us into worlds that are not our own. Reading, more than any other act, reconditions our preconditioning.
It launches us out of ourselves, out of our heads, and out of our own way. It blazes trails through impossible labyrinths even as it lays down maps through life’s many thresholds.
Like Eric March wittily punned, “Reading doesn’t just make you smarter and give you more fancy big words to break out at fancy wine parties with your fancy friends. It’s a badass, empathy-exploding, sickness-curing cruise ship time machine.”
Indeed it is. And in the spirit of hopping into precisely such a badass time machine, here are seven more reasons why reading is awesome.
1) Reading is revolutionary
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” ~ Ray Bradbury
Reading is daring. It’s adventure in our pocket. And as long as we’re able to read more than just a few books in our lifetime, then reading can be a radical act in an otherwise conventional world. The fact that there are banned books showcases the insurgent value of reading.
The powers that be shift uncomfortably in their thrones when books like 1984, The Satanic Verses, or Fight Club are written. But even bad press can be good press. And, as Victor Hugo said, “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
If reading is a revolutionary act, then it begins at home. Read enough and you might earn the right to write something revolutionary.
Like Lisa See said, “Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.”
Couple reading with travel and life experience, and there will be nothing out of reach of your imagination.
Like Benjamin Franklin urged, “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
Either way, the words written will have the potential to be a revolutionary act.
2) Reading is highly meditative
“I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Consciousness is gripped by patterns. It’s overwhelmed by the need to make order out of chaos and sense out of senselessness. Our brains are obsessed with connecting the dots while also having the need to be awestruck.
Reading helps us get out of our old stagnant patterns and into new updated constructs, while also helping us to absorb our old patterns as building blocks for the new patterns we read in literature.
It does this by bridging the gap between the mundane and the extraordinary, by placing us into an absorbed, introspective state of impermanent awe that changes, ever so slightly, the way we engage reality.
Reading is meditative precisely because it uses our imagination as a tool which leverages focus. Time stands still. Time speeds up. Time becomes subsumed by the meditative process of reading another person’s thoughts.
We become fully engrossed, fully present, and in the moment. To the extent that our imagination, like with meditation, can defy the laws of physics.
Take these words by William Blake for example: “To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.” Wow!
3) Reading is fuel for creative fire
“I pity the writer who writes more than he reads.” ~ Mark Twain
If writing is the fire, then reading is the kindling. We read so that we can fuel up on something other than our own thoughts. Reading is the cornerstone of art, the foundation upon which all poetry is built.
When we read, we stimulate aspects of our imagination we didn’t even know existed, while at the same time we feed the aspects that are still growing.
Books are like stepping stones toward our higher self. The more we read, the higher we will get. Indeed, the more we read, the more we capitalize on the human condition itself. The more we read, the more shoulders of giants we are capable of standing upon.
From these shoulders we get a bird’s-eye view of the human condition. This is both an interpersonal and intrapersonal perspective that we could not have achieved had we not dared to crack open more than just a few books.
4) Reading is a superpower
“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” ~ Mark Twain
Reading can indeed be a superpower. Not only do we gain knowledge from reading, we also gain introspection, wisdom, and providence. We learn how to become heroes in our own lives through the heroes in our books.
We learn about our own darkness through the villains we read about. Most of all, we learn empathy. We learn how the human condition is mostly a washed out middle gray of commingling and co-creating black and white energy that is constantly in flux.
If knowledge is power, then reading is the conduit through which such power gets channeled.
Like Doctor Who said, “You want weapons? Go to a library. Books are the best weapons in the world.”
And in a world where weaponry has trumped livingry, reading is perhaps the most powerful way to turn the tables. Reading gives us the power, the psychosocial toolkit, to trump violence with love, apathy with empathy, and indifference with compassion.
Reading, as a superpower, manifests the building blocks upon which our power can become superb.
5) Reading is profoundly nostalgic
“There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.” ~ Marcel Proust
Reading is the ultimate nostalgia, a profound reminiscence. It’s even more powerful than our sense of smell for transporting us to a particular time and place. I pity anybody, child or adult, who has not experienced the profound pleasure of losing themselves in a good book. Think Sebastian in The Never-ending Story.
Reading, and especially rereading, puts the “art” into the “art of reminiscence.” It helps us to quantum-entangle with permanence, even as it teaches us the nature of impermanence.
It helps us to think outside of our current box by thinking within an older box, while also giving us an entirely different perspective on the content of the box in context with our overall life.
6) Reading is a bridge between worlds
“Perhaps the greatest reading pleasure has an element of self-annihilation. To be so engrossed that you barely know you exist.” ~ Ian McEwan
From nescience to knowledge, from the known to the unknown, reading is the ultimate bridge. As readers, we stand upon that bridge like a flag of humors waiving in an existential wind. We are sentinels guarding the open-ended entries (exits).
We are periphery keepers par excellence, daring to go from ordinary to extraordinary, from merely human to superhuman. With the hope that maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to bring some of that magic back to the “real world.”
If, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “fiction reveals truth that reality obscures,” then perhaps reading has the power to mend the split between the truth-functions of fiction and the fiction-functions of truth.
Even as it bridges gaps, reading bridges truths. Indeed, profound literature can reveal how, as Niels Bohr said, “The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement, but the opposite of a profound truth may very well be another profound truth.” And suddenly, being between worlds isn’t such a split after all.
7) Reading adds depth and meaning to life
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” ~ George R.R. Martin
Reading can be a form of psychological longevity. It actually adds value (time) to our lives. It can actually aid us in living multiple lives within a single lifetime. When we read, we traverse dimensions.
We navigate magnitudes. We crisscross crossroads. We pilot everything from platitudes to plenitudes. We negotiate with profound, sometimes overpowering, characters. This all adds priceless value to our life that cannot be taken away.
We open a book. We go on adventures. We sail shiny seas and trek jagged mountains. We surf cosmic waves and drag ourselves through sandpaper deserts. We slide down rabbit holes and widen cracks into canyons.
We do this not only because we want to, but because we need to. We need to feel something new, something outside of ourselves so that we can feel more real, more surreal, more super-real, and more human. We need to satiate the “wonder-junky” within.
And what could be more wonderful, more mirror-perfect, more human, than to live multiple lives through the words of another human soul?
Our sleeping position reveals a great deal about us – how we perceive things, deal with situations in our life and our thought process. It has been said that after three months of age, infants start to develop a sleeping position and by the age of seven, a definitive sleeping position is established.
Although our initial sleep position reflects our defense mechanism that we exercise in our waking life, as we gradually progress into deeper sleep levels, we are bound to display position showing greater security.
A study on habitual sleep position stated, “This position then becomes the preferred one throughout the night and is the one in which the person will wake.“
Our sleep patterns are affected by multiple reasons like illness if any, stress, dosage of alcohol or caffeine in the body, kind of food consumed, bedding, dreams, person sleeping on the side and so on. Here are some of the general sleeping patterns and its link to particular personality traits.
Here are the 6 sleeping positions and the common personality traits linked with it
Fetal
Curled up towards one side of the body, the fetal position is the most common form of sleeping position. A fairly comfortable style of sleeping for many, as the name suggests, it resembles the position of a child in a mother’s womb.
De-stressing and relaxing the body, the higher the knees and lower the head, the more comfortable sleepers are in this position. Those who sleep in this position are tough on the outside but sensitive inside. They might seem shy initially when they meet someone, but soon relax.
The same study spoke about the traits of people sleeping in fetal position, “It has been reported that people who sleep in the full-fetal position score significantly lower in sociability and sense of well-being. Those who sleep in this position shun involvement and appear to have diminished vitality and self-sufficiency.”
Yearner
People who lie on one side of the body with hands outstretched as if they are chasing their dreams or being chased. They are open-minded, positive people, but can be cynical and unable to trust anyone else but themselves.
People sleeping in this position are considered to be rational yet over thinkers, slow decision makers but once a decision is taken, they stick to it. They can be their own worst critics, expecting great results in everything they do and giving up quickly when things don’t go their way.
Log
Loggers extend their head, neck, arms, legs and hands all stretched out in one line. Such people are considered to think in the box, inflexible in nature and very rigid in their thinking.
But they are also social and friendly in nature and may be trustworthy and gullible. Sleeping in this position can also lead to inflexibility and stiffness in the body. Exercising more and having an open approach towards things is a good idea for log sleepers.
Soldier
Lying straight on their back with arms extended by the side and legs stretched straight, soldier position is one of the least preferred position of all, as most people like to sleep in fetal or semi-fetal position.
As the name suggests, soldier sleepers are disciplined and structured, just like a military personnel. They have serious attitude towards life, and are always looking for perfection in everything they do. They have high expectations from themselves and others around them as well.
Freefall
The sleeper in this position is lying on their stomach with hands holding the pillow, and face turned to one side. Free fall sleepers can be considered as free in nature and enjoy life to the fullest.
But underneath they can be nervous and wake up feeling anxious. They do not take criticism well and might be offended very easily. Also, some free fall sleepers might feel that they are losing control in life, which is why they feel the need to clutch their pillow.
Starfish
Lying down in supine position with hands folded in 90-degree angle by the side of the head and the legs stretched out, starfish sleeping position is the least preferred style. People who prefer this unconventional style are considered to be loyal and honest with no secrets and worries.
This position is opted by very few today as almost all of us have stress, tension or something to hide. Great listening skills and an empathetic mindset, these people are blessed with a sensitive heart. People love to discuss their problems with them and they are often seen helping people by going out of their way.
Healthy sleeping positions
A research showing the association between sleep position, age, gender, and physical symptoms, mentioned, “It is clinically accepted that a change in sleeping position may benefit the systematic health of individuals. Sleep apnea patients are advised to avoid supine position while asthma sufferers have been advised to adopt a right side of sleeping position. Patients with respiratory disorders, heartburn, or chronic indigestion, can gain nocturnal relief, by sleeping in more upright position.”
Pick one which suits your situation or medical condition. However, do not stick to it. Keep altering your position during the night or else it will restrict your blood circulation and cause pressure on particular joints. Like those who snore can opt for supine positions than prone position for sleeping.
A recent conversation on a facebook meme that featured this Alan Watts quote, “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance,” brought about a conversation on the game Bioshock, where one injects cancer cells into them to gain super powers.
Of course gaining super powers with cancer is not a reality but in this particular case it would seem to be leaning on the possibility. Shawn Thornton, an artist who suffered from Pineal Gland Cancer, yes, one doesn’t really hear of this often, transformed his battle with cancer to something unimaginable.
The Worm That Crawled into The Solar Disc of The Sun
The pineal gland as we know is what some call is the seat of the soul or the third eye, claimed to produce DMT which aids in spiritual and esoteric visions.
Thornton suffered for over a decade with headaches, tiredness, blackouts and perception warps, until he was correctly diagnosed. After years of dealing with ticking sounds in his head and spams, his tumor was removed, but it transformed his life.
Thornton stated on a Reddit thread, “I’ve had a lot of truly mystical and otherworldly experiences as a result of my history and battle with brain cancer and I’m really drawn to things that resonate with a certain powerful energy, and I’m always honing in on that more and more. whether consciously or subconsciously.”
Much like the human brain, Thornton’s paintings show such complexities that is not easily understood, but when you see how he channeled the pain of that experience into something bigger, it is bound to leave you speechless.
Electricity Osmosis and Terrarium of Archetypes
There is a lot of symbolism that goes into the art and Thornton is heavily influenced by Eastern art, Flemish painting, modern and contemporary art and sculptures etc., and not to forget the effect of having an undiagnosed brain tumor in his pineal gland.
Spirit Animals, Shamans, Rowers & Oars
Its interesting to note that all these paintings are done by hand with small, cheap, sable brushes, without the use of rulers or measuring devices.
Solar Dragon Mast – God’s Head – Center: Ouroboros Six Winged Seraphine; Acending Chakras & Kane Toads; Eyes Looking Inwards thru Archangels
Some of the paintings took two years to complete, apart from the time the paintings required large amounts of oil paint that Thornton would mix and store in mounds on his palette for that entire duration.
If some of the paint would dry and form a skin on top, he knocked it off and continued to use it to ensure the colours stayed uniform throughout the piece.
When asked which is his favorite painting and why, Thornton added, “I’d say I’m very partial to Black Pyramid Meditation, 2002, 2004-08. I think it just resonates with me and after all these years I still get entranced and excited when I look at it – and I look at it everyday, just about. My paintings, when you see them in person, they’re much more like objects than paintings.”
Wormhole, Astrolabe, Pineal Gland, Talismans of The Solar FamilyBlack Pyramid Meditation
“You know, the experience of viewing one is much more like looking at an artifact then looking at an illumination. I think they really work on the viewer once you’ve gotten into the work – the problem there though, is i don’t think the average person spends enough time with a work art to really began to get a sense of the power and concentration that comes out in a good work of art. This happens pretty much through osmosis, I think, if you’re open to it and the piece is powerful enough,” he added.
To add a cherry on top of the cake, Thornton’s paintings are free flowing, he never has a plan when he starts painting, nor does he sketch anything out before hand. Everything falls into place as he paints his masterpieces.
What do you think of Thornton’s art? Let us know in a comment below 🙂
“The only permission, the only validation, and the only opinions that matters in our quest for greatness is our own.” ~ Dr Steve Maraboli
There is nothing more tragic than a person that feels they need to wait for permission to be happy, live their life or be their most authentic self. When our minds are plagued by fear, guilt or unworthiness we begin to believe that we don’t deserve to be truly happy until the other people in our lives are as well.
Or perhaps we do the opposite. We feel as though we have no right to be angry, sad, depressed or unhappy because we still see so many in the world that have so little compared to us.
Either way, when we feel guilty about being our most authentic self and start operating from the notion that we need to wait for the world outside of us to give us the green light to start feeling however we feel, we are wasting precious time.
In reality, permission will never come from any source outside of our own hearts. We are the only ones who can liberate our own selves by giving our selves the validation, acceptance and permission we often wait for others to give us. As children, many of us were told that who we were wasn’t ‘enough’.
We were told how we ‘should’ feel about certain things, and when we had an emotion that was out of alignment with what our parents or caretakers thought was appropriate, we were scolded into feeling a way about something that we didn’t truly feel.
Thus started our journey further and further away from our authentic selves. Genuine emotions were replaced by things like social “niceties”, manners, politeness, obligatory conversation and at a certain point we begin to be a societal robot of sorts.
We begin to act “appropriate” at all times and we begin to operate off how we “should” be instead of going inward and visiting how we truly felt about a particular circumstance. Unfortunately, taking this path away from our true self only leads to one place… dissatisfaction with our lives.
We can never be truly fulfilled and content with our lives until we stop waiting for our family, or society, or our friends to give us the permission to be who we truly are. In order to come back to the universal truth that happiness is our birthright we must begin to rewire our subconscious minds to start believing we are worthy of love and happiness.
“The moment you learn to separate guilt from pleasure is the moment you stop doing what you’re ‘supposed to do’ and start living the life that’s in your heart.”
The association of guilt with things that give us pleasure is one subconscious belief that is hard-wired in too many of our minds. It may come from having a background in organized religion (where we were told we were ‘bad’ or a ‘sinner’ because of our natural tendencies), or even a history of addictive behaviors (where we begin to associate something we wanted to do with something that we would feel guilty or remorseful for later).
Either way, when guilt has been matched up with our natural urge for pleasure seeking we begin to feel bad about feeling good. In order to unravel the guilt and fear that may be blocking us from being our most sincere self, we must become hyper aware of what situations trigger those emotions.
Then we must ask our self, what belief about life am I holding on to that gives me the impression that I need to feel fear or guilt in this circumstance.
When a belief in something that is out of alignment with a universal truth is brought up in to our awareness, it is actually unraveled automatically. We are the light that illuminates the darkness of a fear based belief.
As mentioned above, another way guilt can creep into our psyche is feeling guilty about being sad or angry. The fact of the matter is we have every right to feel emotions, and the more we feel “bad” about feeling an authentic emotion we actually ensure that we will stay stuck in that said emotion.
What we resist persists, so anytime we are trying NOT to feel something, we energetically feed it with our resistance to it. The spiritual quest shows that everything is ok. Fear is ok, guilt is ok, sadness is ok, and it is only in our acceptance and unconditional love of these particular emotions that they will begin to dissipate from our subconscious programming that is keeping us stuck on unworthiness or unhappiness.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ~ Marianne Williamson
The journey of our lives is actually coming back to our most authentic self. Perfection is how we start (and it’s actually how we stay, except we begin to believe that we are not), and recognition of our perfection is what we travel back to as we evolve and mature as a person.
A miraculous thing begins to occur the moment we realize we don’t require permission to be joyful, inspired, excited or in love with life… we not only free our selves and our own hearts, but our light liberates others to do the same.
Reading can be a form of psychological longevity. It actually adds value (time) to our lives. It can actually aid us in living multiple lives within a single lifetime. When we read, we traverse dimensions.
