Some thought provoking Short Stories and Images from Nicholas D’Amario

I had some time today, was browsing internet on art, painting and the likes. In the mean time, I stumbled upon a website, not that appealing and some what bland (compared to the usual standards) and my first impression was to bounce back. But I stayed and lucky me, most of the posts were just outstanding, if not stunning views. 

The website was owned by a guy called Nicholas D’Amario. He has presented his digital artworks and some designer jewelry too, but what is worth are his short stories. Presenting two stories I liked most, well, I doubt whether they can be called stories, never mind, they are thought provoking.

1.  Affixed

  " I wish I could have replied to the man in kind as he attempted to pull what was thought to be a simple mask from off my face. Nothing drove him but shear unblinking interest to see from whence my muffled reverberating voice truly emitted from, for he believed no voice could possibly issue forth from unmoving lips; and as the man approached with hands raised towards me I backed away swiftly in retreat. Still again he advanced without pause, my obvious gesture of avoidance dissuading him not.

      With a terrifying thoughtless expression of curiosity on his face, the man tucked the fingers of each his hands under my chin and exerted only a small amount of force making my head and neck unwillingly follow. Again, harder this time he jerked back with his arms peeling away a slight and sudden dark opening.

      It took him more then a moment to notice the thick black oil which began flowing down onto my neck, his hands, and the ground below us as he continued to pry away beneath the cold steel which made up my visage. With fierce determination he pulled, his grip slipping on the smooth now oily metallic surface of what he still believed was but a mask to hide the truth behind. Higher and higher it rose as without acceptance, rather un-surrendering intensity, the man continued tearing, not understanding that the face he saw was the only face I had". (Nicholas D’Amario, sketchy-stories.)

I liked the ending, isn't this story beautifully painful?

 2. Dreaming beneath the dead tree

 "I sleep in wonder of this lost and forgotten place where few have come and fewer still remember. None search for its sanctuary and no path tempt any to find it. This clearing of unremembered dreams exists for no one, and here at the heart of its surrounding and consuming forest without depth, I try to remember why I came. 

      It was once testament to meaning and memory and something deeper then both, but now all has faded, blending with the eternal backdrop of the trees beyond. Despite the calm that is induced by its soundless beauty and the urge it brings to simply overlook all things past, my purpose here I now recall… Is to remember.

      There should be something more to this place, I realize in unjust worry. Something which the depthless forest all about has choked off and buried within its horrible splendor. The golden leaves and vibrant rays of sunlight that break through lofty branches seem to exist only to cover what all have forgotten, and if only I could bring to mind the vast grandeur this hiding place of now dying dreams once inspired, then maybe those ever consuming trees would not be here at all". (Nicholas D’Amario, sketchy-stories.)

 There are more stories in his website. All are this post-modern type short stories which are worth checking out. So read all, it will take only few minutes, but will give fodder for thought.

 His artworks are also petty good, check out them too,

Seeking the empty dreamers

False Mother

For more, Check out his deviant art profile as well.

Om mani padme hum - Buddhist mantra sung by Tibetan Singer Yungchen Lhamo

Buddhist mantras are very good for calming down your mind. One of the famous mantras is Om mani padme hum. As his holiness Dalai lama puts it,

The first, "Om" symbolizes the practitioner's impure body, speech, and mind; it also symbolizes the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.

"The path is indicated by the next four syllables. Mani, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factors of method: (the) altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love.

The two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom

Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility.

Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha "

Another suggestion of the meaning of mantra is,

Om purifies bliss and pride (realm of the gods); Ma purifies jealousy and need for entertainment (realm of the jealous gods); Ni purifies passion and desire (human realm); Pad purifies ignorance and prejudice (animal realm); Me purifies greed and possessiveness (realm of the hungry ghosts); Hum purifies aggression and hatred (hell realm) (Wikipedia).

Hear the mantra sung by the Tibetan nightingale Yungchen Lhamo

This was her comment on 9/11 incident; "We all were living in a dream. We often do. Nobody thought something like this would happen to New York City. That day, no matter how powerful you were, the sight of people falling from those buildings made everyone numb. I remember that feeling of helplessness. I think we all felt that. Then, of course, we all cried, no matter what country you were from. I moved to New York City with my son at the end of 2000, and America seemed like a monument or a flag to look up at. Now I travel the world, and when I see a city that looks like New York, it reminds me of that day. This song begins and ends with chants reminiscent of a puja for the people who died, with prayers to ease their passage to another world.... In order for this tragedy not to happen again, what are we going to do about it? We can only hope the experience has made all of us more human."

How True the words are, we are all humans and we are not immortals, there is no place for pride !!!

Maze of Life and the Prevailing Uncertainty

Life is an enigma. Everything that surrounds us are not what we think as, not what we see and not what we feel about. Our minds are getting fooled. In Hinduism, we use a term called " Maya", we are all surrounded and illusioned by "maya" - a concept well popularized by the Keanu Reeves starrer - The "Matrix". Disillusioning from this omnipresent "maya" is the core principle of most of the Oriental philosophies especially Hindu philosophy.  We have to cross the  maze  of life, whether we like it or not.

 

Uncertainty is the hard and fast rule of this maze. Just imagine the birth of a human baby - the element of uncertainty at its best. Millions and millions of sperms are released (why, just because it is so uncertain) in a split second, then they  "compete" lashing their microscopic tails, venture in a "single minded journey", cross the dark alleys of a super-convoluted structure - the "oviduct" (no other "tunnel of love" will be this competitive and dark), most of our candidates fail during that treacherous journey and somehow some lucky ones reach the destination, the chosen "one" among the lucky will eventually merge with the counter part  - "the ovum or egg"; love blossoms and "he" loses his "head" (yup, sperm will literally lose its head while sucked into the female cell). The uncertainty doesn't end there. The fertilized egg soon transforms to a ball of cells dividing rapidly. That floating ball of cells come down to uterus and get implanted and grow. Unprecedented events can occur at any time. A problem with hormones, hemorrhages etc., can lead to totally unprecedented and dire circumstances. Abnormalities can result when baby is inside the womb or when it emerges. That is why the first breath and the first cry provide huge relief for the mother. Besides the pain involved in the process is enormous. Just go through a wonderful video about the development of a human child (the best I have seen so far), the creator of the video is spot-on, even scientifically.

The uncertainty of every life on this planet makes life challenging and worthy. That makes us live. Everyday, when the first rays of sun trickling through near by trees fall on you crossing your window pane, you wake up completely blank and disoriented. Then you start your day as usual, perform the chores like a robot and the rush starts. You cross the sprawling streets, subways, bus-stations and railway stations, swearing and loosing your cool during traffic jams and finally reach your temple of work and there starts another stream of thoughts, you are anxious about the things to befall upon you as day progresses, the pressures of work assignments, yelling from the boss and managing several tasks simultaneously. Again uncertainty is there in every moment of your life. Your company can collapse at any time, you can become jobless, you can get hit by a bus, can even lose your life or something can happen to your near and dear ones. What a difference a day can make, what a difference a second can make!! When we see a butterfly, a beautiful butterfly, we enjoy the sheer beauty. Next day, we see the same butterfly dead and wilted, its beauty transformed into the grimace of death. We will think about the transience of insect life, how easy they get dead. We may be larger and intellectually superior, but our fates are no different. Just imagine any natural calamity, an earthquake, a tsunami, an air plane accident, a train accident, anything can happen any time. Remember the film, "Final destination", well, it used to send chills down my spine. The fear of death is there is in all of us.

You may be thinking that I am turning into a preacher, I am not going to attribute all this to "god". I believe, the god concept is carefully crafted by our forefathers to relieve this inherent fear of uncertainty in our minds. We can resort to god for everything, prey to protect us, to give us everything, wealth and happiness. Fair enough. We give "bribes" to god in temples, churches and mosques in order to take control of our life. That is not logical at all. But religious extremists have twisted the god concept to a degree that people will kill each other for religions and in their mind, they are doing it for god. They are forgetting this element of uncertainty of human life. To preserve God's ideals, to bring out "his country", wars are being fought. When somebody deviates from the ideals described in the "god's scriptures", we become intolerant and persecute that fellow. There lies the difference between spirituality and religiosity. Being spiritual is a search to find the way out of this maze. We should realize the fact that whether god is there or not, human life is a trifle. We are mere mortals and can perish at any time. There is no room for any "pride". So thank to your god or just be thankful to mother nature for each day you get, for each day you live. Be thankful and humbled.  There is no place for ego. Help others as far as possible and live a life of peace. Love all living things, let it be a small helpless butterfly, be it a  large and mighty elephant. Life is something worth preserving.