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Fleeting moments, where you can dream and touch your life, ponder and gather strength.
This is dedicated to a young man who is recovering from a serious stabbing in London. He is someone I have known since he was very young. A very talented, kind and gifted young man. The power of positive energy and healing is something I believe in. For those who believe in this kind of energy, please remember him in your prayers and thoughts. 'Thank You'.
for Flickriver - Sophie Shapiro
The memory still dances in my head like a song
A new kingdom called from above the clouds
The thunderous sound of hooves took you away
When finally my eyes lowered to explore about me
Everything had tumbled and fallen
Everything needed rebuilding
But I felt no strength for the task
Emptied and swollen had no heart to reconstruct
Now many years later in this same place of ruins
A new image emerges:
Flowers bloom on every torn down wall
Now each broken stone entices me over and over
That I may keep focused on the renewing sky
That it may show me how this dream continues
In everything I AM
This Immortal love song aches to continue
© Ganga Fondan, 2011
“Isn’t it madness to live in a conditioned world while you know that your Consciousness is always in the Absolute and in the Unconditioned?” – Tulshi Sen
What have I accomplished here these few years?
What kingdoms have I conquered?
What innovations have I added to the betterment of humanity?
What women and children have taken shelter with me?
What goods have I given away?
What great ideals have I held on to and passed on?
What aspirations lead me to reach higher?
How many hours have I spent dreaming?
Sat upon the rocks?
Delighted in the fragrance of flowers?
Wandered under the majestic sky?
Romanced with brooks and trees?
Danced with the celestial music of the great Heart?
Laughed at my own foolishness?
Here are my treasures
The songs of my soul:
The mighty rock that pulsates,
The gentle flowers that love and blossom.
These echo the Joy of Creation
I AM That I AM.
©Ganga Fondan, 2015
Listen to Creation. It calls to us. People say "What is my calling?" It is inside of us. It sings day and night. We have forged an artificial path which pains us and we have lost harmony with life. What is this calling we seek? Every part of nature returns us to our Truth. This path is the greatest undertaking of all. Only listen and reclaim the song. Hold it in the palm of your hand and know that we don't own anything. How could we own anything we already are?
The child fears:
My crying will empty me out
The young girl hesitates:
My weeping will betray me
The young woman despairs:
I’m all dried up…
Until one day
Love pours out of those eyes:
The ecstasy and joy of Love
The wonder and the hope of Love
Which now like a river
In the grief of loss
Pours nourishment
From the inner life
To the outer garden
Through that green piece of earth
Which forms around her essence
A new world flourishes
Refreshed and exalted
© Ganga Fondan, 2012
The love between a man and a woman can bring two people so close. They feel they cannot breathe without each other. After separation, what is left? Now I begin to understand there is another kind of rapture….
****Ad Note***28December....Be back on Internet Soon...Happy Holidays!!!
***Ad Note*** January 2... All the best for 2013!!!
I look into your eyes
Feel myself
Reflected
Exactly to the extent
I know myself
No more
No less
Your life offers
Another chance
To make the love bond
To console
To understand
To Be That
Emptied
Fulfilled
©Ganga Fondan, 2013
This project started out as an inspired fusion-piece of the St.Francis prayer (which I often recite while on my walks) with an illuminating quote I found today by Rudolph Valentino:
St. Francis said:
“O Master grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console.
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul”…
Valentino said:
“Women are not in love with me but the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas on which women paint their dreams.”
Who is this “me” and this “I”? Reality is a projection or a mirroring…of the ideal.
She looked at me in a way as if something pofound was going to pass through her and I waited as she sighed as if to indicate the fact everybody already knows. She explained that unless we experience Truth for ourselves with every fibre of our own Being, we cannot know the freedom of existence. Accepting the experience of someone else without that is being sold a can of goods. She touched my arm and whispered: “and we know that a can of goods always has an expiry date”. We “rolled up the rim” together and laughed. As she left the coffee shop my heart began to stir…
Artpiece: Ganga Fondan “Canned Consciousness” (2016)
Before you call, I answer
Before you fall, I am here and rise
Before you ache, the soothing comes
Before you sink, I soar in flight
Before you doubt, I believe
Before you fail, I succeed
Before you cry, I hold you
Before you are lost, I am found in you
Before you wander off, I lead you
Before you gasp, I catch your breath
Before your illness, I am your wellness
Before your separation, I am whole
Before you call, I answer
Before your death, I am born again
For in you
With you,
Always –
I Am
I Am
I Am
© Ganga Fondan, 2011
Wrote these words after my dad's cremation last year. Working on this image tonight brings back the feeling that we are never separate and have our unity in One. We get so attached to the physical world, we forget that we are made of "starstuff". We forget just what it might mean to be One with All.
My body falls hard onto the ground
Again and again
Trying to understand this love that wells and wells
Trying to understand the emptiness
Which expands
Making small all that I thought you were
Yet all that I thought I had lost
Arches toward me now
Smiles through faces
Sings through birdsongs
Trickles and dances in water
And ever softly
Ever slowly
You show me
Who I AM
When my thoughts race
To reach you
My body falls again
Yet Nature is patient
Stillness whispers
“I AM That”
© Ganga Fondan, 2012
Last night while lying on my bed I looked up at the shadows on my ceiling. The wind was blowing the branches of the trees outside and the movement was like waves on water. It made me smile as I listened to the joyous song being played for me in the stillness of the night. As I let go more and more, I felt I became that song itself. How many times I worry if life is passing me by and then I see the garden again …whole, perfect…dancing on my ceiling…everything blossoming and I know it cannot pass me by because …I AM That.
Having a bit of fun with digital painting today and losing my head in it all!!! Happy week to everyone and may your creations all bring you happiness and may this feeling spill onto all the other Flickr lives you connect with:
"Let there be nothing within thee that is not very beautiful and very gentle, and there will be nothing without thee that is not beautiful and softened by the spell of thy presence." - James Allen
Dark and emptied and deathlike
Full of fear and shadows
I went to the Sun King for help
He was too bright for me to look at
His radiance shone upon my iniquity
So in my shadow fright I stuttered a plea
That I might be soaked in everlasting Light
His laughter made me tremble
Echoing around the Universe
His sound almost shattered me
Finally he leaned my way
He explained that even he is a shadow
Though a very bright one
We play at being kings and children of kings
That we may lose and find ourselves in variations
That we may detach and witness every story
In every lump of coal a diamond waits
In every dark and spinning moon such radiance
In every black and brooding hour a promise lingers
This Light is ever with us
Regardless if we feel it or not
So now I can proclaim that I AM a child of the Sun
and shadows are not real
© Ganga Fondan, 2011
*Sometimes after long periods of silence and brooding, a new light shines. A new understanding emerges. We cannot explain it but it is there. After such excruciating heaviness and self-judgement ,we realize the inevitability of this change. Again and again, the letting go to this process reveals the mystery and the sublime joy of life. The brooding moon is overwhelmed with light again. The sun finds its joy in this. Both are subject to a greater love.
Ad Note (October 2015):
One day the sun admitted
I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
the Infinite Incandescence
that has cast my brilliant image.
I wish I could show you
when you are lonely or in darkness
the astonishing Light
of your own Being.
~ Hafiz
And though there are moments of fear,
Sometimes there is loneliness,
And though I wonder if my life is on track,
I know Narayan thrives in a Mystery
Yet too deep for me to touch easily
And I know with all my heart
That this song
That keeps this place alive
Leads me always onwards
Home.
If I leave all the tension
There inside of me
My body will burst
Into a million pieces
Deaf and dumb
Blind and frustrated
Life waits to express
An outpouring
Not from flesh and blood
But from beyond
Where grander Life is realized
Time dissolves
Through desperate tears
Joy continues
To experience the Truth:
We are the deliverers
Of beauty in art and song
Immersed in the knowing
These lead us back
To who we are…
Where we come from
© Ganga Fondan, 2012
Every time I really make the effort to express from the heart, a feeling lifts me into a state of such Joy, it makes me want to connect again and again. The challenges of digesting the outer world fade away and I feel the enormity of all that is possible. I keep the outpouring close to my heart because they are reminders of my Oneness with the Creator.
My Teacher used to call us "Dream Machines" and tonight's Art Journey revealed this once again through a progression of images (Four Meditations):
1. Starting with a "pipe dream", a sincere fantasy or the bare bones of a cherished ideal...(Bottom Image)
2. We revel in the joy of it and celebrate its existence in our awareness and create our own ceremony of safekeeping and trust ...
3. Bringing us to a meeting point with Higher Conscious experience...
4. Where all of nature joins in our song and ...
5. Celebrates this manifestation in the Great Ceremony of Life ...(Top Image)
"Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know." - James Allen
Without your Light shining
What would these hollow eyes see?
Without your Voice sounding
Would these ears be of use to me?
Without your Hand guiding
I don’t know where I’d be…
Without your Love flowing
Endlessly
Without your Words of courage
This passion would be gone
Without your Songs of comfort
This ache would linger on
Without your Joy and Wonder
There’s no desire to be be free
Or pass on this Flame
Burning within me…
©Ganga Fondan, 2003
I've been following many of the news stories of the frustration and unrest in so many countries...people standing up for a better world for all of us. Until we all realize who we are and live from the center of Knowing, our journey must continue as it is. I used to sing this song to conquer so many hard moments and now it gives me so much joy because I realize that without deep sustaining connection to our true Power, we must struggle the hard way with our illusions of security through possessiveness and entitlement. Now is the time to stay connected and solidly remind each other while many others run blindly after profit and selfish motives. Deep within, beyond personality of identification, beyond the body, we are all One.
"We live and move and have our Being
In the Great One Song
Each of us resonate a beautiful note
In a symphony we did not write
In wholeness we cannot understand
And yet in this discovering
In this sounding
We find our truth
We find our frequency
Filled with such harmony and healing
We feel awakened and rejuvenated
Activating liquid dreams
Into molds of delight
Which eagerly spring to life
Liberating our desires
In this One Song
Everything is offered back
To all glorious abundance
The place of Rest and Pause
Which holds fast
The Curtain of No-thing
Pregnant with Immortal compositions
Pulsating in the Great One Song"
© Ganga Fondan, 2011
***Post Note (July 27th): Originally the above poem was written for the image but I chose not to post and posted Shania Twain's song :Today is the Day. Then I read a fascinating book by Hazrat Inayat Khan entitled, "The Mysticism of Sound and Music" in which was rekindled the faith in the idea that it matters not how we do a thing but the heart which we do it with. Nurturing and tuning the heart to play this song of our life within the Great Song is what we've come here to do. Out of that... everything will harmonize and bring forth joy. This poem was created out of this vibrant image so they should be posted together. Love and Peace to all.
“The world cannot show us who we are
That masterpiece is crafted from within
Colors and shapes swirl around form and fancy
Attempting to pattern themselves around thoughts
Beyond genetic preprogramming
Beyond tireless changing environments
The masterpiece eagerly waits to be splattered
In a grand and profound sweep across the inner canvas
Like none other the ache to be original
Urges the Artist back and back
Where the root of Nothingness awakens ideas
Where desire emerges fresh and dripping from the brush
Where the impulse of authenticity entices new life
Where the minutest details of a magnificent personality
Sustain a lifetime of self-composure
Give birth in a realm beyond any known before
Where the Artist at once is Creator and Masterpiece”
Ganga Fondan, 2009
Inspired by the following webinar and quote from one of the most beautiful biblical passages I know that emphasizes this feeling of unity:
"All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." - John 1:3
Your Song releases me.
Waves and splashes of music gush forth.
My fear washes away.
What is there to lose?
In the end there is only Love.
We return to that Holy state
which was never a physical place.
Love offers everything.
Sacrifices everything.
Endures everything.
Returns everything.
Creates everything.
Celebrates everything.
Dissolves everything.
Embraces everything.
Releases everything.
Redeems everything.
Love never fails.
I Am Love’s creation.
In Love’s Grace
my freedom is made perfect.
In Your Song this Joy overflows.
©Ganga Fondan, 2013
When we are afraid to love we protect ourselves and our possessions. When we let go to love, we feel a giddy Joy and Connection with the deepest parts of ourselves. This week has shown me this lesson in countless ways. Want a taste of transcendental joy and giddiness? Float through the paintings of Wang Yi Guang with Tibetan chanting music by Phil Thornton:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3_9N8rSSeM
Here's to love and feeling free to soar and transcend our limitations!!!! Happy Valentine's 2013!!!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ All your misery and unhappiness are in your head, not in your life. They are in this illusory and separatist mind; in this mind and its beliefs. Without this, there is no conflict, there is no fear and no suffering. The fear is only possible when the sense of separation is present... You are beyond the senses, beyond the experience "mind, body and world". ~Master Gualberto ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Toda a sua miséria e infelicidade estão em sua própria cabeça, não em sua vida. Estão nessa mente ilusória, separatista; nessa mente e suas crenças. Sem isso, não há conflito, não há medo e não há sofrimento. O medo só é possível quando o sentido de separação está presente... Você está além dos sentidos, além da experiência “mente, corpo e mundo”. ~M. Gualberto ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Foto: Ramanashram Gualberto, Campos do Jordão/SP, outubro de 2016. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #ramanashramgualberto #mestregualberto #satsang #ramana #ramanamaharshi #yogi #gratidão #namaste #god #zen #love #awareness #quoteoftheday #paradigmshift #wellness #Graça #loveandlight #omshanti #meditacao #osho #freedom #awakening #om #meditation #enlightenment #buddha #papaji #iamthat #nisargadattamaharaj ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Beyond
Income
Education
Skin color
Language
Heritage
Religion...
True Lovers
Meet unashamed
Worshipping
Every unique difference
Between them
While
Countless
Countries struggle
To find
A way
To live together
Peacefully
Powerfully
Equally
Morally
Joyfully
Abundantly
© Ganga Fondan, 2011
*It's 5:00am in the morning. This one took all night. Falling exhilarated into bed for a few hours!!!
Look within and you will find that the point of light is the reflection of the immensity of light in the body, as the sense 'I am'...
You never leave home, although you are busy all the time, involved with the outside world. Listen to what I'm telling you here. I am talking about this art of dealing with the outside world, of dealing with the external life, but always being present in this silence, in this stillness, in this undisturbed state of Being, that is you. ~Master Gualberto ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Você jamais sai de casa, embora esteja o tempo todo ocupado, envolvido com o mundo externo. Escutem isso que estou dizendo pra vocês aqui. Estou falando dessa arte de lidar com o mundo exterior, de lidar com a vida externa, mas estar sempre presente nesse silêncio, nessa quietude, nesse imperturbável estado de Ser, que é Você. ~Mestre Gualberto⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Foto: pôr do sol no Ramanashram Gualberto. Campos do Jordão/SP. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #ramanashramgualberto #mestregualberto #satsang #ramana #ramanamaharshi #byronkatie #awakes #spiritualgrowth #lightworker #ubuntu #lifequotes #arunachala #iamthat #nisargadattamaharaj #wuhsin #advaitavedanta #jnani #amma #adyashanti #sadhguru #gurdjieff #jiddukrishnamurti #darshan #alanwatts #rebirthing #abrahamhicks #matrix #innerjourney ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I have no illusions about death
Two caskets burned in the sacred fire
One was my Lover in the height of his youth
The other was my dad not yet an old man
Both of their voices whispered in my heart:
“You do not need to leave the body to be free”.
Both of their bodies dissolved to soft ashes
My Lover’s were more silvery than my dad’s
Felt more fine and my dad’s felt courser
We released them gently into sunlight sparkles
Autumn winds whistling over the caressing waters:
“You do not need to leave this body to be free.”
I keep thinking I come from up there somewhere
I keep thinking that I like the seeing exercise
When you stand in front of a mirror with a candle
No light except that single flame unmasking your face
In that far away gaze a mystery sings:
“You do not need to leave your body to be free.”
Sometimes I sit on the ground and cry
Feeling wretched disconnection
But then inside I hear my Teacher’s words:
“All the Power that ever was or will be
Connects to me from every point in space
I do not need to leave my body to be free.”
I AM not the body
I AM That I AM
I AM
© Ganga Fondan, 2013
Journal Entry about this posting (Oct 7, 2013) :
gangasunshine.blogspot.ca/2013/10/listen-to-voice-of-univ...
There is something present in this room, greater than the speech, which is the very power of the Grace. It is this that makes the work be possible, beyond your efforts, your willpower, your determination. In this contact with a living Master, it becomes possible. In this contact with the power of this Presence, it becomes possible. But that is very subtle, it is a very thin line: how far can you go by making it possible, and to what extent are you the very impediment... ~Master Gualberto ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Há algo presente nesta sala, maior do que o discurso, que é o próprio poder da Graça. É isso que torna o trabalho possível, além de seus esforços, sua força de vontade, sua determinação. Neste contato com um Mestre vivo, isso torna-se possível. Neste contato com o poder desta Presença, isso torna-se possível. Mas isso é muito sutil, é uma linha muito fina: até onde você pode ir, tornando possível, e até que ponto você é o próprio impedimento ... ~Mestre Gualberto ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #ramanashramgualberto #mestregualberto #satsang #ramana #ramanamaharshi #byronkatie #awakes #spiritualgrowth #lightworker #ubuntu #lifequotes #arunachala #iamthat #nisargadattamaharaj #wuhsin #advaitavedanta #jnani #amma #adyashanti #sadhguru #gurdjieff #jiddukrishnamurti #darshan #alanwatts #rebirthing #abrahamhicks #matrix
he who, being nothing is everything
Sadashiva was a nirkaya, he had no sense of the body. And because he had no sense of the body, he did not think about wearing clothes, he just walked naked. He happened to walk into the king's garden while the king was relaxing with his queens. The king became angry, "Who is this fool walking naked in front of my wives?" He sent his soldiers to find out who he was. The soldiers called Sadashiva Brahmendra from behind, but he didn't turn back, he just kept on walking. The soldiers became angry and took out a sword and chopped off his right arm, but he still kept walking. He did not even break a stride. Now the soldiers were terrified, "This is not an ordinary man. We chopped off his arm and he keeps walking." So the king, soldiers and everyone else went and fell at his feet, and brought him back to the garden. Sadashiva Brahmendra lived there for the rest of his life. Even today, this place is preserved in a certain way.
Soul is permanent and no one has created it. Phases of Soul are temporary. Humans, animals, deities are phases of Soul. They are temporary, but Soul is permanent. Initially, Soul is under development, dormant stage i.e. no vision, no knowledge. Then it enters into this world and gets developed with one sense, two senses and so on till five senses. Once, it gets Self-Realization it becomes free from worldly bondages and then lastly it attains ultimate liberation.
To know more please click on the link below:-
To know more please click on:
English: www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/w...
Gujarati: www.dadabhagwan.in/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/wh...
Hindi:https://hindi.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/who-am-i-realize-your-true-self/
Accepting the (independent) existence of the world you want to attain God - it is not possible. What will happen ? God will come, but you will say that my wife is unwell, let her become well. Do you want to attain God or do you want a healthy wife ? Think
If there is no time and no space
Then we unravel into each other
If the sun and moon are but a dream
Then you and I play a game
Of hide and seek within ourselves
God crashing into earth…You
God crashing into earth… Me
Out of and into One
We merge in Heaven and flesh
Only to run in opposite directions
In that moment the illusion begins
Grasping at bits of freedom
We ache to find power and strength
We reach for Unity beyond distances
Then another crashing comes
A giant faith flows through us
The same glorious feeling elates us
The same urge for freedom grips us
Then we know why we are
Mother- Daughter- Sister- Friend
Then we see why perhaps
The Seed of Life germinates
In an old familiar womb
We feel ourselves moving closer
Out of earth
Out of flesh
Back Home
In Love
© Ganga Fondan, 2011
…”I finally really see her”. She’s more beautiful than my eyes ever knew before or my ears would hear. We have given each other so much freedom to grow over the years; We now have so much to give each other. I love her with all my heart. I feel grateful to feel this. It is a great, great gift.
(*This image is a layering of a recent photo shoot we did where she reveals her former modeling days and I the love for taking pictures and then playing with them.)