Tunes for Your heart.

Music Video of the Band I will be listening to on March 28th. Band - Sunrise and Good people.  Rock for Tibet Event. Im excited!

While visiting the little town of McLeod Ganj, where Tibetan refugees now live, a small museum, next to the Buddhist temple of His Holiness the Dalaï Lama caught the attention of members of the Montreal, Canada-based band Sunrise and Good People.

The museum tour started with a huge picture and text relating the atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese Army in the 1950's within the homeland of the Tibetans. Sorrow and disbelief take hold of the band's members.

A few moments later, a Tibetan monk named Ven. Bagdro reaches out and starts talking about his life. With a deep and penetrating look, he explains how he managed to survive a four-year sentence before fleeing to exile to India, where he continues his long and difficult mission to educate people about the situation in Tibet today.

Then, the members of the band shared their idea of making a music video with one of their songs: I won't fall down (Album: Rise Up).

Spirituality, freedom and liberty are the song's main theme. The story is about a soul being confronted to many obstacles and difficulties and still manages to keep faith, to pursue his goal: to free oneself.

The next day, he gave the band the opportunity to shoot some images while he meditated, prayed and chanted. On the same visit, Sunrise and Good People asked other Tibetans living in McLeod Ganj to join in the music video.

The truth stands, freedom is vital and for an individual or a nation.

The music video is a tribute to the courage and compassion of the Tibetan people.

I am awake...

.....And so the next chapter starts for my life. Actually, I would really like to think its a whole new book. Lets just throw the old book on the shelf and pick up a new one. What does the cover look like you may ask? It looks like a rising sun in a vivid blue sky.... warm.... bright.... caressing...comforting and calm. And when you look down at the bottom of the book... you can see the ocean... but it's no longer that dark blue green that i had grown accustomed to, that murky colour that you just cant see through but now it was crystal clear blue, the kind of water you see only in a tropical setting. The first chapter of the book reads like this.... simply.... I am now awake..... 

I treat every day now like a new discovery. What can i learn today? What will i experience? How can i bring myself to a higher plane of completeness? Basically, how can i be a better me? It seems strange that only a short amount of time ago I was living in the dark. I could not see past my nose. Now the lights are turned on and everything seems focused and sharp. Though i must give credit where credit is due. My spiritual crush on the Dalai Lama made a great impact of course. I devoured the wisdom like someone who had been starving for so long and now had a table full of food in front of them. I began reading everything i could get my eyes, ears and hands on that might somehow quench my everlasting need to feel whole again.  Questioning my own mind. Hours i spent laying on my bed, contemplating my life and the path i was stumbling over. But what path was it really... at the time i was on no real path... Only a path to my own unhappiness.....End of Chapter and old book.

I have been working now on my new path... This path has many things going on......For instance... Tonight I went to a poetry reading. Joined by a couple of fellow poetry lovers we sat down to hear poetry read by its own creators. Always a treat! For me, its delicious pleasure to have the words spoken by its artist. That way you can really grasp the understanding of the poem because it is read out loud in the most authentic way. After, I purchased one of the books that was read from. The Poets name is E.D. Blodgett aka Ted. His style of poetry was for me the best fit. The Title of the book is called Sleep , You , a Tree. Here is one of the poems written in this beautiful book.... and hopefully it will make you FEEL....

Smile

You raised your hand in sudden recognition toward the stillness of

the sky and not a sound escaped your lips,the mere ghost of a smile

taking shape upon them. No one saw what you were able to see--

someone you had known when you were young who passed in such a light

so familiar the way it glided was enough to know it, or

the ending of a sentence that had risen in your mind before

the weight of sentences had fallen over you, a sentence so

full of the light of its beginning it had lifted off into

another evening to reside among the stars, an aura that

precedes their coming, not forgotten but unable to call back,

and so it comes of its accord, yet not as you had murmured it

but as a light unburdened, its sense unclear, falling on your face

as rain that falls that is not felt as rain, only its falling known,

the meaning of it beyond sense--the only way to greet it is

with the ghost of a smile that knows the coming of the stars and dark.

Be our own hope.

Sometimes we face challenges in our lives that we do not always want to face. I guess though it is through these challenges that life can really define us. One thing that can keep us going is the concept of HOPE. Hope can really be a blind thing. We can never truly know if things will work out in our best interests or If one day we wake up and suddenly things are perfect. But if we wait around to see if something will go in a better direction, we might be waiting a long time. Time is never a good thing to waste.  

Two important things i have been learning the last month is that one, I am in charge of my life. I am also the cause of much of my suffering. Yes things do just happen but its how i deal with them that is the most important part. So far in my life i would say i have been living blindly. I think sometimes you have to come to a "Breaking Point" to wake yourself up. It is human to want to put all your suffering on other things and people so that you do not have to take responsibility. 

I am learning now to take responsibility. If i want to have a good life it is up to me. Not to say that the whole world does not support you in some way, shape or form. Food supports your body. Oxygen Supports your breathing. The chair supports your ass as you read this. But you alone support your own happiness. You are the one in control of your feelings and behavior. This is a big lesson. Sometimes while you are caught up in life and in the midst of your own suffering you do not see this. It is now time to question things.

The other thing i have learned is that it is actually important to have that blind hope. Hope is a positive feeling that in our darkest moments can shed light onto those shadows and feel us with a warmth that we all need.  It speaks to our hearts and pushes us on. Hope is believing in the good of the world and also believing in ourselves. But we can not let Hope stand alone, be the only thing that propels us to our own happiness. We need to step up and be our own hope.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2DJp-rM09g