INTERPRETING ANEW THE RADICAL 15th CENTURY PHILOSOPHER-POET
Let us boldly face the mistake of slut shaming. It’s about freedom for everyone.
One of the benefits of my participating in a free love commune is the recognition that any woman’s sexuality might surpass that of any man. When women feel safe and respected, their sexuality can grow wings. Read More…
Todd Talk’s – March 2016 Talk at Lamakaan, India
Hello Friends,
I haven’t posted for a while but I’ve been busy. Thanks to the Vivriti Foundation, a seed that sprouted in the mind of my friend Chandra Kotaru, I’ve been giving talks on The Relevance of Kabir and created 20 short topical videos in India. The foundation itself exists to share the self inquiry that I’ve written about since 1998 by sponsoring talks and creating content.
Check out Vivriti.org and let me know what you think.
I’m giving a talk tomorrow about spiritual experience in the light of Kabir. My thanks to Lamakaan for hosting and The Vivriti Foundation for sponsoring the talk.
Kabir honers the person who goes into the house of eye-shadow, if they can also leave. If we cannot get out, we will drown. We all go in but we don’t all come out. Quieting the mind (meditation) is a way out.
“[Kabir’s]… advice is to move both in and out of the illusions we create. Our thoughts offer more temptations than the most ornate bordello. If we fear to go into the mind, then we become ineffective to others and ourselves. We must remember that the fire that warms the hearth on a cold night can burn down the house and even the neighborhood.”
Excerpt: The Relevance of Kabir
The mind is a marvelous tool shed. Do not let it become a prison. The mind exists to serve life, not the other way around.
“…Kabir says: “listen to me, brother!
The nest of fear is broken.
Not for a moment have you come face
To face with the world:
You are weaving your bondage of
falsehood, your words are full of
deception:
With a load of desires which you hold
on your head, how can you be
light?
Kabir says: “keep within you truth,
detachment, and love.”
Thanks to Wikimedia Commons for the image
The first talks at Amara Jyothi, in Hyderabad were a joy for me.
The topics considered the limits of who we think we are, the pain we create without any gain, questioning spiritual beliefs, authority and concluded with a discussion about meditation. I also brought into the room the place of honor for the skeptics whose contribution of doubt cannot be underestimated, especially involving subjectivity. I ran over time, of course.
The conversation continued with participants long after the talks. There will be video. Stay tuned!
The next city will be Kakinada in Coastal Andhra and will be live translated into Telugu. A whole new discovery is on the horizon!
My Pilot Ashwini
We are on our way to Amara Jyothi, Hyderabad to prepare for the book tour talks on The Relevance of Kabir starting next week.
“When our dream is love, we feel passions like sexual desire. When our dreams become nightmares, the fear engulfs us. We may forget the same mind that dreams at night is active while awake in a different way. While awake, our consciousness includes the sensations of the world and the affective power of our mind to induce feelings just as in dreams. We can experience the same intensity of emotion anytime as we do while dreaming, but, when awake, we would be wise to discern between publicly observable facts, and the interpretations, distortions and falsehoods that can be found only in our minds. Such clarity is less common than we might think.
We jump like frogs flicking their tongues at flies [or worms] on a… video; the poor creatures mistake the screen… for their dinner. We spend much time struggling with reflections in our minds. These cerebral enchantments lay hidden in our habits of thinking.”
Book Excerpt – The Relevance of Kabir
Todd is in India now. Stay tuned for a calendar of talks on the book tour
The free download promotion of The Relevance of Kabir ended today. Thanks to those who downloaded the book. Please leave reviews at Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords or wherever you feel like.
I look forward to meeting some of you on the India book tour this January.
Warm Regards
Todd
Regularly a $6.99
Download NOW for FREE before the January 2016 talks in India. Please leave honest reviews at your favourite book sites .
Excerpt from The Relevance of Kabir
“Belief, right or wrong, affects our behaviours.
For example, my father returned late from work after being gone for several days. It was hot despite being quite late. My mother slept why my father disrobed and prepared for bed. He thought to open the sliding glass door opposite the bed to let in some air. As he slid the door open, he heard the faintest noise, in spite of the fact that he was hard of hearing. Being familiar with the sound of a hammer being pulled back on a 357 magnum, he said, “Honey, it’s me.” Then, my mother, who had been silent until this point, and had almost shot her husband, commenced to give him a piece of her mind in a rant that he did not contest. Take my word for it, my father was as close to dying as one can be and still live. You see, my mom mistook him for an intruder, and a naked one at that. All she saw was the silhouette of a naked man. What we believe matters a lot, especially when it is wrong.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have access to facts that controvert flawed beliefs. Still, when events threaten our viewpoints, we may excuse contrary facts as an exception to the rule and the beliefs stand as strong as before. The more serious the disillusionment, the more difficult it becomes to explain away contradictions. When events of our lives surpass our capacities to rationalize, then our confidence will shatter, particularly regarding beliefs about ourselves. Kabir’s poems take the place of disillusioning events to quicken our understanding about life. When we let go of prejudices, we gain access to alternative ways of responding.”
There is nothing but water at the
holy bathing places; and I know
that they are useless, for I have
bathed in them.
The images [gods] are all lifeless, they cannot
speak; I know, for I have cried
aloud to them.
The Purana and the Koran are mere
words; lifting up the curtain, I
have seen.
Kabîr gives utterance to the words of
experience; and he knows very
well that all other things are un-true.
Kabir,
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
© 2024 The Relevance of Kabir
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
