The Monsoons are here

It monsoons here in India. I love this time of the year. The literal meaning of monsoon is seasonal which comes from Arabic (mausim). The Arabs were the first to discover and study the phenomenon of monsoon in the Indian Ocean. Monsoon is the seasonal reversal of the direction of wind. It is so much like life where with time and changing seasons there is a change in the state that we may find ourselves in. There are the happy times and then there the the sad times but nothing lasts forever. With time happiness gives way to sadness, tears give way to smiles, and loneliness gives way to companionship and love and the hope and faith to carry on the path of life expecting times and situations to change.

Today I went out for dinner with a friend and the hotel had this interesting display using umbrellas to celebrate the season. I loved the way it looked and hence clicked a picture to share with you all.

Also spoke (on the phone) at length to a friend  -Gil- from Israel who is visiting India for work and whom I am planning to see sometime in September if possible. I didn't tell him about my predicament but we talked about a lot of other stuff. He quoted a line by Osho which I really liked -

"Life is a mystery to be lived

not a problem to be solved"

Simple but powerful. It gives me hope and direction in this time when I need it. I don't know much about Osho - an Indian spiritual teacher - so I wouldn't comment but he was notoriously famous for his liberal views on sexuality. There is a meditation resort devoted to him in Pune, Maharashtra, India which is very famous with Westerners and the rich and famous in India. Osho was also criticized for his display of opulence (he had a fleet a Rolls Royce- about 90!!) to which he replied that he did not believe that material poverty was a spiritual value.

While I was writing this blog entry I decided to look for some excerpts from Osho's discourses and came upon one on making love-

Don't take the sex act as going anywhere. Don't take it as a means - it is the end in itself. There is no end to it; it is not a means. Secondly, don't think of the future; remain with the present. And if you cannot remain in the present in the beginning part of a sexual act, then you can never remain in the present - because the very nature of the act is such that you are thrown to the present.
Remain in the present. Enjoy the meeting of two bodies, two souls, and merge into each other - melt into each other. Forget that you are going anywhere. Remain in the moment going nowhere, and melt. Warmth, love, should be made a situation to melt into each other.
That's why, if there is no love, the sex act is a hurried act. You are using the other; the other is just a means. And the other is using you. You are exploiting each other, not merging into each other. With love you can merge. This merging, in the beginning, will give many new insights.
If you are not in a hurry to finish the act, the act by and by becomes less and less sexual and more and more spiritual. Sex organs also melt into each other. A deep, silent communion happens between two body energies, and then you can remain for hours together. This togetherness moves deeper and deeper as time passes. But don't think. Remain with the moment, deeply merged. It becomes an ecstasy, a samadhi. And if you can know this, if you can feel and realize this, your sexual mind will become non-sexual.

Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, Vol. I

Photo Credit: Mragrimm, Oscarinho